Acantha [Ready]

[Elderflower]

Name: Acantha

 

Gender: Female

 

Age: Mare.

 

Species: Unicorn

 

Eye colour: Rich mauve #E285FF

 

Character colour: Russian violet #32174D.

 

Mane/Tail/Other: Bright white laced with thin streaks of periwinkle(#CCCCFF), pale lilac(#DCD0FF), and lavender blush(#FFF0F5). She sports a sidebang and her mane is cut in an angled, asymmetrical style with that’s short on the right side of her face and gets longer towards the left. The length of her mane on the left side of her face reaches past her chin. Her tail is long, but she keeps it tightly braided - coming from a land of conflict, it’s habit for her to keep her mane and tail suited for combat. Her hair is naturally thick, soft, and wavy, and she keeps it well-conditioned so that the inevitable static that comes from practicing lightning magic doesn’t mar her appearance in the slightest.

 

Physique: Tall and toned. She has curves, but overall maintains an athletic figure. Her coat is silky smooth and as well-conditioned as her mane and tail.

 

Residence: The castle of House Erinys in Kastrot is her home, though she’s taken on the life of a vagabond in recent years.

 

Occupation: Coming from one of the ruling houses of Kastrot, Acantha lacks a true occupation. With no talent for politics, she left home after her family had been restored to its former glory in order to consume every last scrap of aetheric knowledge in this world by witnessing it first-hand and passing any valuable information she finds to her brothers, who have assumed leadership in her household.

 

Every bit of truly impressive magic she comes across in her travels she analyzes and deconstructs, committing the information to memory so that she may relay everything to her brothers, the twins Phobos and Deimos. Nothing is recorded, nothing sent by mail - all valuable information is passed to her brothers by Acantha directly, just in case any of her mail is being intercepted by scheming nobles in their fair city.

 

Cutie Mark: A burst of lightning streaks that highlight soft impressions of clouds that fade into the dark tones of her coat. The colour and design of her mark make it appear as though her body is a single, looming stormcloud with lightning flashing across her flank.

 

One of these days I’ll become a goodly writer and I will be able to explain things better. This is what her mark would look like, though:

 

 

Most young fillies wonder what sort of cutie mark they will proudly wear on their flanks as adults: Acantha of House Erinys was not one of those fillies. She was born into one of  Kastrot’s great bloodlines, a unicorn family that has been known since its inception (as far as they know, anyhow) as having a strong presence elemental mastery. Wind, water, fire, lightning, earth, plants, metal, ice: countless ponies in her family tree have mastered one or more of these elements, many of which have made it into Maretonia’s historical records.

 

Acantha was raised bearing this knowledge, and a hunger to live up to her family’s former reputation was planted in her heart and mind at a very young age. She and her older twin brothers, Phobos and Deimos, grew up with the weight of restoring their house to its former glory upon their backs. It was what they were groomed for by their grandmother and their parents, so from the moment they could summon any sort of magical energy through their horns their lives were transformed into a never-ending magical bootcamp.

Their lessons began with attempting spells from each of the elemental practices. From the moment Acantha first cast her first lightning spell, she knew what she was destined for: the thrill of electricity racing through her and crackling out from her horn for the first time has remained the most joyous memory of her life. There was great power in the magic she cast, and she wanted more. It was little surprise to her, then, that her cutie mark sprung to life upon her flank the moment the spell was cast. Acantha was born confident and sure of herself; she never second-guessed herself and never had to wonder at what life held for her. She knew what she wanted, and she would make her dreams a reality. That part of her personality is exactly why, despite her young age, she knew what life had in store for her the moment she summoned her first bolt of lightning to existence.

 

Unique Traits: Acantha has training in hoof-to-hoof combat, throwing knives, and the use of short bows. She is quite good with these forms of combat, but her true talent is found in magic.

 

She is a lightning mage, a unicorn who wields the elemental force of electricity for combat. Though she is more than the average mage - she is a master of the art. She can cast bolts of lightning, chain lightning, and can even summon lightning storms down upon a battlefield temporarily. Her signature move, however, is to summon up a snake-like charge of lightning that she uses as a whip and lasso. It’s a double-edged sword, however. A magic as destructive as lightning, when wielded improperly, can cause damage to its caster as much as its intended target. If Acantha loses her focus, she’s the one who ends up in tatters.

 

History: House Erinys is one of Kastrot’s great families, and every head of house in their history has been a member of the Assembly of Heads, at least until her great grandfather came into power. Once he claimed rule of their island, his thirst for power grew out of control. He wished for House Erinys to hold power over every respected bloodline of elemental mages in Kastrot and aspired to overtake the ruling families that boasted such bloodlines. With the help of his closest friend, a stallion whose power was second only to his own, Acantha’s great grandfather laid claim to a minor family with a long line of wind mages. His second target was one of Kastrot’s great families, and on the night of his attack he was abandoned. His friend and ally betrayed him, abandoning him on the battlefield, leaving him to defeat and disgrace. The head of House Erinys was forced to become Unattached, leaving his family to live as low-class citizens on their own island (thanks to the “benevolence” of the traitor who abandoned them) while that very same traitor claimed their castle and assumed rule over their home.

 

Acantha had always known that she and her brothers would restore House Erinys to a position of power where their parents had failed. It was a command given to them by their family from the moment they were born, and it was a goal they had always lived for. Once she had obtained her cutie mark, she knew  that her prowess as a lightning mage combined with Phobos’ cunning and Deimos’ charisma would be an unstoppable force in Kastrot.

 

Written theory, runic penmanship, the study of symbols and history, and of course practical applications consumed the siblings’ every waking moment in their foalhood. Breaks from magic lessons involved learning politics and physical combat. Acantha mastered hoof-to-hoof combat and the use of short bows and throwing knives, though she struggled to grasp politics at all. Her personality was much too straight-forward for the intricacies of politics, and so she instead focused her efforts to mastering lightning magic.

 

All of their lessons were held in secret, to keep the current head of Castle Erinys ignorant to their plans. From fillyhood to marehood, Acantha worked alongside her brothers to win the favour of the lower-class ponies on their island. Thanks to the tyrannical rule of the mare named Kleio, those who struggled on the bottom rungs of their society were eager to join the effort to overthrow her. They plotted in secret alongside the Erinys siblings until eventually their makeshift army rose up and overtook the island.

Their power was restored. Phobos, the eldest sibling, began to rule over their island as the head of House Erinys once more. Thanks to Acantha’s friendship with Daedalus of House Sardonyx, his father spoke in favour of Phobos when they appealed to the Assembly of Heads to come back into full power. The Assembly allowed Phobos to join them after being convinced that keeping him near meant they could keep close watch over the upstart twins and their sister. The Erinys siblings were troublemakers: putting together an army of low class ponies? Unthinkable. They were not to be trusted.

Trusted or not, they were home. Their status, wealth, and power had been restored, and they were able to bring their grandmother back into her foalhood home to live out the rest of her days in relative peace.

With her brothers ruling over House Erinys and their prosperous island home, Acantha was soon infected with wanderlust. She had achieved her greatest goal in life, and with her island at peace (her brothers’ rule was much kinder to their subjects than Kleio’s had been) there was little left for Acantha in Kastrot. Her friend and former lover, Daedalus, had long since left Kastrot, and that was just one more reason to leave. The straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. So she left, her love of magic driving her to pursue further knowledge of the arcane in every corner of the earth. She would seek out knowledge and artifacts, bringing them back to her brothers so they could make use of them to further restore the power and reputation of their House. It would allow her to further hone her skills as a lightning mage, expand her mind, and satisfy a hunger to see the world - so that is exactly how she is now living her life.

 

Character Summary: Acantha is a creature bred for purpose. She didn’t have the luxury of a laid-back foalhood, and as such her personality is far from warm and squishy. She is cold, determined, and proud, a Kastroti noblemare through-and-through despite her serious lack of cunning and political knowhow. Unlike most Kastroti nobles, she has a blunt and straight-forward personality, preferring brutal honesty and frankness to playing mindgames. That’s not to say she’s thick-headed. She’s just not so silver-tongued or tricky as the average Kastroti noble. It’s why her brothers are more than happy to let her travel around the world, far from the political games of Kastrot: her personality is a liability.

 

Magic is her only passion, the one thing that can melt her icy exterior (somewhat, anyways) and call to life an almost geeky degree of enthusiasm. Her abilities as a lightning mage are remarkable, tempered over years of rigorous practice. She embodies her magic so well that her very presence holds a feeling similar to the faint pressure of standing beneath a storm about to break, making her quite the intimidating mare.

That intimidation factor is only punctuated by her tendency for cold words and a knack for speaking the truth in the most hurtful ways. Sensitive about a blemish? She’s likely to comment on it. Fail miserably at something? Count on Acantha to coldly tell you where you went wrong, how spectacularly you failed, and how you probably just disappointed your entire family. Hurtful truths - an innate talent second only to her prowess as a lightning mage. It doesn’t help that she is pretty keen at sensing a pony’s feelings with even the slightest tells: if she senses somepony is distressed, say, about love, she’ll tell them love is pointless and they’re better off marrying for some sort of advantage in life or just staying alone. It keeps other ponies at a distance, and while normally she’s quite happy about that, when she is interested in getting to know somepony better her habit of running her mouth scares them off. If her looming presence doesn’t accomplish that right off the bat, anyhow.

 

And if somepony sees her angry? Well, that’s basically guaranteed to run them off. When she’s angry she’s as wild and unpredictable as the lightning she wields, likely to throw a punch or a zap of electricity at whoever it is that ticked her off. And if nopony ticked her off? She’ll still crackle with lightning, causing anypony who gets too close to get caught in the splash zone, so to speak.

Luckily for Acantha, she isn’t exactly one for seeking out new friends. She prefers keeping her distance from other ponies where she can, remaining cold and unfriendly unless somepony really catches her eye. That normally means she keeps her distance unless she meets somepony who can teach her something new about the arcane, which isn’t easy - she is a Kastroti mare, after all.

Still, as her family and the few ponies close to her know, once Acantha’s friendship and loyalty have been won she is an invaluable friend. She knows how to apologize if she says something hurtful, she would sacrifice everything precious to her if it would help them. Besies, a skilled elemental mage is always a useful ally to have in your back pocket!

[SteelEagle]

[Elderflower]

I can see why you'd reject it. It's really hard to make something good when the lore it's inspired by is so awful. :C

SNAAAAAAAAAAARK.

[Dio]

Her friend and former lover, Daedalus, had long since left Kastro, and that was just one more reason to leave.

 

 

I approve of this ship.

[SteelEagle]