Unicorn Acantha [Ready]

[Elderflower]

Roleplay Type: World of Equestria

 

Name: Acantha

 

Sex: Female

 

Age: Mare

 

Species: Unicorn.

 

Eye colour: Rich mauve #E285FF

 

Coat: Russian violet #32174D. Her coat is silky smooth and well-conditioned so that the inevitable static that comes from practicing lightning magic doesn’t mar her appearance in the slightest.

 

Mane/Tail: 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 as well-conditioned as her coat.

 

Physique: Tall, slim, and toned. She has curves, but overall maintains an athletic figure.

 

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-hoof 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 because it’s an easy way to make sure she gets some alone time with her busy brothers whenever she returns home!

 

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 having a strong presence of 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 an endless lesson in magic and Kastrot’s unique politics and lifestyles.

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. Lightning was her calling in many ways: she revelled in the joy the magic brought her, and the idea of being that flash of light that came crashing out from the stormclouds held a great deal of meaning for her. Acantha’s family has always been precious to her, and living with the knowledge that they had fallen from grace compelled her to bring them back to power and glory in Kastrot.

In her mind as a filly, living life at the bottom rungs of society on an island her family had ruled when her grandmother was a filly was much like living inside of a storm cloud. She would be the bolt of lightning that lit up the earth and sky, guiding House Erinys to glory once more.

 

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 came into power, he became a despot, his actions eventually leading to the disgrace of his entire family. His actions drew the attention of the Assembly of Heads and he became Unattached, leaving his family to live in shame. Eventually, an opportunist who was once a dear friend of his convinced the Assembly of Heads that House Erinys was no longer worthy of rule, and they were driven from their home to live as lower-class citizens on their own island while a usurper took control of 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. They knew that it would bring light into their beloved grandmother’s heart and into the lives of the citizens of their island. It was a goal they had always lived for. Once she had obtained her cutie mark, she knew that her advanced skills in magic (a highly lauded quality in Kastrot) 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 in aetheric studies. She was always an enthusiastic academic, hungry for books and lectures that would broaden her knowledge in areas like magic, theory, and literature.

 

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 a mare named Kleio, those who struggled on the bottom rungs of their society were eager for change. Deimos, with his charisma, won their affections while Phobos won their confidence with his sharp wit and mind for politics. It was Acantha, with her vast knowledge of magic and her practical skills who won their respect and admiration. Between the three siblings, their citizens fully removed their support from Kleio’s rule and rallied to have the Erinys family restored to its full power.

Thanks to the many voices of the ponies of Island Erinys, the siblings accomplished their goal. 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: rallying low class ponies to kick up a big enough stink to depose Kleio? 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 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 in magic, 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. Her foalhood days were mostly spent diving into books and lessons, her every action designed to drive her towards her goals. She had never been the warm and squishy type, even as a filly. Sunshine and smiles were a waste of time - a carefree life was an empty life to her. Why play outside getting dirty and scraping your knees when you could spend your days becoming something, somepony better?

 

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, though - that couldn’t be further from the truth. 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 to them.

 

Magic, magical theory, history, and poetry are her greatest loves. They are the only things beside her family that can melt her icy exterior 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 mage and academic. 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. Getting her that angry it hard to accomplish, though, as working with such a dangerous form of magic has taught her to be a very patient and relaxed individual. She understands that losing her temper isn’t good for anypony.

Luckily for Acantha, she isn’t exactly one for seeking out new friends so her poor attitude never really gets in the way of her happiness. She prefers keeping her distance from other ponies when 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. Besides, a skilled elemental mage is always a useful ally to have in your back pocket!

[Mojo]

Another impressive app!

 

Well written, well described!

 

Recommending this app for further SRPH review!

 

   

[Dio]