__________________QUICK SUMMARYName: Arkh'an
Pronounced: arr - CAN
Age: ??
Gender: Male
Species: Heartless Demon
Ethnicity: ??
Height: 6' 11"
Occupation: King of the Heartless
Residence: Beneath the Seraj Isa
__________________IN-DEPTH Physical DescriptionThe King of the Heartless, like all others of his race, appear formless and faceless, a shadowy conflagration punctuated by two fiery red eyes. His apparition is particularly malevolent, the blackness of it seemingly sucking away all nearby light. The shadows seemingly change shape shapes at random, perhaps imitating the general outline of a human anatomy. Where the shadows would have a 'head' its hard to pinpoint one exact face, as that too constantly changes to suit the King's needs.
His human form is decidedly more easily described. Skin of ash grey, hair of the purest white, and those same fiery red orbs that his shadowy form possesses, sunken deep into his gaunt facade. His face still changes often, making it hard to nail down one specific look that absolutely defines him. However, despite the constant changes to his face, several prominent features always remain: a long nose with very foreign qualities to it, wide cheekbones, a strong chin. It never looks quite handsome, and sometimes can be considered especially grotesque -- but one thing is for sure, his face certainly commands attention.
Another very distinct feature of his human form is his height. He towers over the other Heartless, and indeed over most humans of average height as well. His shoulders are broad but the rest of his body is unnaturally slender, making him look incredibly disproportionate. His arms and slim fingers seem too long to be human. His clothing, if one could call it that, seem as though they're made from the same shadows that he is.
PersonalityConniving, manipulative, coercive, sweet-talking, persuasive. The King of the Heartless is all of these things and more. He can be arrogant in his power, and malevolent toward those on whom his people prey, with occasional outbursts of violence. But most often he is calculating an deceitful.
Since his fateful involvement with a captured princess of the purest heart, his persona has taken on more human qualities, embodying brooding reflection and an overabundance of morality. He loves this human woman, but hates her at the same time. He wants nothing more than to consume her heart, the purest heart of them all, but fears the consequences it will have on his demonic self. He wants her to suffer and die, but wishes for her to live. And all the while, this injection of human decency into his empty demonic husk eats away at him from the inside.
AbilitiesThe King of the Heartless, like all of his demonic kin, has the ability to change his form almost on command, taking whatever persona and body that he needs to accomplish his goals. Like the shadows, he appears where he wants, whispers what he wants, and just as quickly disappears into nothingness. And while consumption of human hearts has given him a mostly human form, unlike other Heartless he still retains the ability to revert to his former shadowy self at will.
Further, as the King of the Heartless, he possesses demonic powers and magics that can be quite destructive. He can drain life at a touch, make walls crumble with his arcane manipulation, vanish on a whim, meld with shadows, even appear to be flying. Most importantly, he can detect the purest of human hearts.
RelationshipsComing soon!
HistoryThe Heartless have existed beneath the sands of Seraj Isa for time immemorial, a sprawling ruin long forgotten from human memory. And for countless eons these demonic shadows that feed and thrive off the hearts of the mortals, have been under the thrall of their King. He is the one that directs them, from his shadowy throne of power, to wage war on nearby human civilizations, with the goal of tearing out their still beating hearts, consuming them, and perpetuating their own race. Many kingdoms have fallen to the Heartless, and many yet may fall. The Kingdoms that persist in the face of the Heartless, the Kingdoms of the Pure-Hearted, continue to be sieged by these heart-stealing demons.
While many kingdoms fall to the onslaught of demons, many more fall because of the treacherous nature of the Heartless, who promise amnesty in exchange for their young daughters. In every instance, the kingdoms that give up their princesses are destroyed nonetheless.
One Kingdom, however, had a princess of the purest heart, a beacon of moral light in a world of darkness. She offered herself up to the Heartless King in exchange for the safety of her people. The King had never experienced a heart as pure as hers before, and in his intrigue, rather than consume her heart immediately he kept her prisoner. Against all odds and in the face of impossibility, she was able to break through his demonic coldness and -somehow- the Heartless King fell in love with her, and her with him. She bore him a son, half-Heartless and half-human, born with a strong beating heart. At once aware that his own kind would devour the child's heart, and having learned the very human emotion of fear, the King exiled this child to the land of the living.
Having no other alternative as King, and finally succumbing to his desire to consume his human love's pure heart, he had her brought before him. But instead of having to rip her heart from her chest, he was absolutely stunned when the princess willingly offered it to him. In his haste he consumed the heart, only to realize belatedly that the absolute purity of it threatened to turn him completely human, and also strip the princess of her humanity, everything that he loved. Panicked, he tore the new heart from his chest and gave it back to her, but it was too late. The new heart he gave her was tainted by his demonic essence; slowly and surely, it would kill her.
And so to preserve her, the King had her encased in glass somewhere in the vast sea of glass that is the Seraj Isa, hoping one day to be able to give her back a pure human heart so that she may live. He steals other princesses' hearts now, hoping to find one pure enough to save her. And he secretly languishes in limbo, neither fully Heartless nor fully human now, consumption of the purest heart having made him both and none at the same time. Perhaps there is some way that he can truly regain his fully demonic form again, and he searches for it now.
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