Izunia Lucis Caelum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
founderinglight) wrote2018-01-04 06:13 pm
founderinglight) wrote2018-01-04 06:13 pm
PHANRIFT APP + INVO
IC Information
Character name: Izunia Lucis Caelum
Character canon: Final Fantasy XV [NOTE: Due to uh, the state of the canon, may become AU at any time thanks Episode Ardyn]
Canon point: Post-game, via Shenanigans
Physical Description: He looks like his brother but dresses better, what more needs to be said? (Oh yeah he's a fucking 6'5 beanpole.)
About the Character: Okay so here's the thing: Izunia existing in the first place was only even confirmed in Episode Ignis, and we have approximately fuck to go on besides lines from a pair of very unreliable narrators. Bahamut is slightly more reliable in painting a picture of Ardyn and Izunia's mutual backstory, meanwhile Ardyn himself has quite a few comments about his brother - a supposedly jealous king, who stole not only the throne but Ardyn's entire identity and place in history as the Founder King.
This would seem to create a rather unsympathetic character, but as Ardyn's been cooking as a literal incarnation of a hateplague for two thousand years and FFXV is at its heart a tragedy, I've gone full hog on headcanon that there was a Horrible Fucking Miscommunication there and Izunia is, you know, not such a shitty guy.
So, for our purposes, a rough timeline of events in Izunia's actual life;
-> Born twins (FITE ME IN THE PIT TABATA), Ardyn the elder, near the end of the Astral War
-> Father was a hero of the war granted the power of the gods, specifically the Lucian magic/Armiger, which carried unexpectedly to his children
-> The two grew up close and were likely going to end up in research positions rebuilding their world before Ardyn was unexpectedly pointed at by the gods
-> Who declared that he would be a healer of the Starscourge (evilnasty magic plague) and that the Chosen King would relieve the world of it
-> Ardyn, believing himself to be said Chosen King, sets out to heal the world, picks up a Shield named Gilgamesh somewhere along the way
-> Eventually Ardyn realizes, but never lets on to anyone else, that he's not so much healing the plague as collecting it into his body
-> This state of things continues from ~20 to ~35, with Ardyn occasionally coming home and Izunia taking up most of the work of establishing the kingdom
-> Izunia caught the scourge, was barely hanging on when Ardyn arrived home in a panic and healed him
-> Izunia wakes up from the fever/delusions, sees the fuckface
-> Stabs first, asks questions never
-> Ardyn "dies"/discorporates for the first time
-> Izunia, distraught, goes to the crystal/Bahamut for "what the fuck do I do now"
-> Bahamut is like "lol your brother's a daemon now, there's nothing left of him but the accursed, good job, go be king in his stead"
-> Izunia proceeds to go full fucking yandere on the "daemon" that is Ardyn in a stunning series of executions, ending in Ardyn getting thrown in Angelgard
-> Afterwards, Izunia takes up Ardyn's name out of the belief that Ardyn is the one who deserves to be remembered as the Founder King
-> Gilgamesh grudgingly helps for a while but eventually, when Izunia can handle the deception on his own, fucks off to Taelpar Crag
-> Izunia has two children (a daughter who inherited the crown and a son who researched the Armiger) and dies in his mid-70s
From there we have two thousand years of chilling in a ring passed down through the generations until Kingsglaive, at which point Ardyn walks into the throne room in the Citadel like he owns the place,because he should. That was just a little bit of a wakeup call. Then Regis bites it and various people outside the family put on the ring with varying degrees of success due to their extremely varying degrees of worthiness.
After Kingsglaive and the fall of Insomnia, the ring passes into the keeping of Oracle Lunafreya, and nobody puts it on until Ignis in Altissia. [Salt and Pepper Diner voice] And that's when Izunia's mental state went from 'bad' to 'utterly destroyed' [/voice], because when faced with this punk-ass advisor with the power of kings, Ardyn's reaction is to warp straight into his face.
Because what's the only thing worse than turning your brother into the Ultimate Daemon? Realizing that the Accursed is still your brother, because daemons can't warp.
(and then later Noctis puts on the ring properly and follows the prophecy to actually put Ardyn down, which is why he's the favorite of all Izunia's descendants.)
End result: One Founder King with some seriously collapsing sanity due to guilt issues on top of the fact that he has played the role of his brother since he was 35, roughly 2000 years ago. There are also some identity issues, in the sense that Izunia consciously remember that he was the (relatively) straight-laced one to his brother's ridiculous habits, but he doesn't really remember which personality traits are from the original Izunia and which are from 'Ardyn.'
On top of this, Izunia doesn't relate to others particularly well, and is honestly quite a coward when it comes to social consequences. He's almost too loyal, but never had many friends in the first place, and the problems connecting with others only grew with so long keeping his entire identity a secret. While he can wear the authority of the Founder King, his usual outward act is more similar to Ardyn's - casual, affable - with a blending in of Izunia's own more serious, academic-leaning traits. He's friendly and curious and obviously has some deeper issues, but exactly how deep they go is left a mystery by keeping people at arm's length.
Underneath that, it's a trainwreck waiting to happen. The only reason Izunia doesn't blame himself utterly for destroying his brother's life was the revelation at Altissia that he'd been every bit as lied to and manipulated by the gods as Ardyn. He's a mess who doesn't believe he deserves forgiveness or redemption, but continues to wish for the impossible anyway: a world where his relationship with his brother isn't a tattered, blackened thread.
For right now, though, he'll start with trying to live as himself for the first time in two millennia, because that won't be hard at all.
Character abilities: LET'S TAKE IT IN SECTIONS. Being a king of the Lucis Caelum line, Izunia's got a lot of the goddamn broken shit associated with his bloodline.
WARPING/PHASING: Short-range teleportation type abilities. Warping is teleportation by moving to a thrown weapon or object, and does not seem to have a distance limit except via one's ability to hurl shit for any given distance. Phasing is a defensive ability, much shorter in range, that allows one to sidestep attacks by briefly being Not There. Both leave trails in the color of the user's Armiger (blue, in Izunia's case) and a skilled user can choose to leave afterimages to distract enemies. The energy of warping isn't infinite, but is much easier to manage by jumping in and out of combat.
THE ARMIGER, PART ONE: Personal royal hammerspace. Primarily used for weapons, but there's no observed limit to what can be stuffed in there (beyond a typical JRPG 99 item cap). For sanity's sake I'm saving that no single object larger than the owner can lift, but otherwise there's no real limit. Objects in the Armiger are kept in stasis - that is, time doesn't pass for them, a cold drink will remain cold and perishables will not spoil. Live animals cannot be put in the Armiger. Items summoned from or dismissed to the Armiger appear in a flash of light and crystal shards (again, Izunia's is blue).
ROYAL ARMS: The personal magical arms of each of the Lucian Kings, the Royal Arms have the unique quality of being able to exist in multiple places at once (as they're bound to the Armigers of those who wield them rather than being purely physical items). They are extremely powerful, but cost some of the wielder's strength to manifest (represented as an HP cost in game). Izunia currently possesses only two due to his position so early in the line, but could obtain others in the future.
THE ARMIGER, PART TWO: Those with more than four Royal Arms to call upon can enter the Armiger state, which is their personal Super Mode. All of the user's Royal Arms are summoned at once, formed out of light in the user's Armiger color, and can be used freely for a dizzyingly varied combat style. (HP cost doesn't apply in Armiger state.) Normally the Armiger state only lasts a brief time, but under certain circumstances there's a further super mode (possibly Ardyn and Noctis exclusive? What the fuck who cares anymore) that summons the Armiger without a time limit and also... enables a levitating flight and infinite warping energy.
ELEMANCY: Aka the royal family's form of black magic. Works primarily by drawing energy from the surroundings and/or enemies and/or energy deposits and/or etc etc users can store a limited amount of energy in their own bodies, but normally have to transfer that energy into containers of some sort to cast spells. Works with fire, lightning, or ice elements.
RETAINERS: And except for the Royal Arms and by extension the Armiger State, he can potentially share all of this with other people, including a single common Armiger space.
ILLUSIONS: We have no idea how they work but apparently full sensory illusions are a thing that can be done in this universe because tabata explains n o t h i n g. But let's go with "minor alterations to own appearance, can't fully turn into another person, that's Ardyn's trick after two thousand years of practice" to be on the safe side.
RING MEMORIES: Although most of it was like a dream, Izunia retains a decent sense of what transpired while anyone was wearing the Ring of the Lucii (and only those times), due to having been inside it. This means that he's significantly less mystified by modern technology and so on than people would probably expect of a two-thousand-year-old dead king. Also, it means he's hax at royal arms and can use just about any weapon you hand him, hypothetically, because at least one of his descendants has probably used it at some point.
RING MAGIC: Technically can't do this without the actual Ring of the Lucii, yet, but this is a set of three spells - Holy (light element counter attack nuke), Death (drainy type... draining spell), and Alterna (more commonly known as warp, warps all enemies in range FUCKING ELSEWHERE, GOODBYE).
LIGHT MAGIC: Izunia's personal specialty because I had to give him something. Conjures blades of light and nyooms them at the target (as the XIV red mage abilities Fleche and Contra Sixte).
EVERYTHING FUCKING ELSE: Career politician. Successfully fooled everyone into thinking he was Ardyn for two thousand years = fucking incredible actor. Good head for numbers and theory, especially theoretical magic. Full kit of royal manners and skills, including a decent hand at sketching and killing it on violin. Local liar with great hair, basically.
Character name: Izunia Lucis Caelum
Character canon: Final Fantasy XV [NOTE: Due to uh, the state of the canon, may become AU at any time thanks Episode Ardyn]
Canon point: Post-game, via Shenanigans
Physical Description: He looks like his brother but dresses better, what more needs to be said? (Oh yeah he's a fucking 6'5 beanpole.)
About the Character: Okay so here's the thing: Izunia existing in the first place was only even confirmed in Episode Ignis, and we have approximately fuck to go on besides lines from a pair of very unreliable narrators. Bahamut is slightly more reliable in painting a picture of Ardyn and Izunia's mutual backstory, meanwhile Ardyn himself has quite a few comments about his brother - a supposedly jealous king, who stole not only the throne but Ardyn's entire identity and place in history as the Founder King.
This would seem to create a rather unsympathetic character, but as Ardyn's been cooking as a literal incarnation of a hateplague for two thousand years and FFXV is at its heart a tragedy, I've gone full hog on headcanon that there was a Horrible Fucking Miscommunication there and Izunia is, you know, not such a shitty guy.
So, for our purposes, a rough timeline of events in Izunia's actual life;
-> Born twins (FITE ME IN THE PIT TABATA), Ardyn the elder, near the end of the Astral War
-> Father was a hero of the war granted the power of the gods, specifically the Lucian magic/Armiger, which carried unexpectedly to his children
-> The two grew up close and were likely going to end up in research positions rebuilding their world before Ardyn was unexpectedly pointed at by the gods
-> Who declared that he would be a healer of the Starscourge (evilnasty magic plague) and that the Chosen King would relieve the world of it
-> Ardyn, believing himself to be said Chosen King, sets out to heal the world, picks up a Shield named Gilgamesh somewhere along the way
-> Eventually Ardyn realizes, but never lets on to anyone else, that he's not so much healing the plague as collecting it into his body
-> This state of things continues from ~20 to ~35, with Ardyn occasionally coming home and Izunia taking up most of the work of establishing the kingdom
-> Izunia caught the scourge, was barely hanging on when Ardyn arrived home in a panic and healed him
-> Izunia wakes up from the fever/delusions, sees the fuckface
-> Stabs first, asks questions never
-> Ardyn "dies"/discorporates for the first time
-> Izunia, distraught, goes to the crystal/Bahamut for "what the fuck do I do now"
-> Bahamut is like "lol your brother's a daemon now, there's nothing left of him but the accursed, good job, go be king in his stead"
-> Izunia proceeds to go full fucking yandere on the "daemon" that is Ardyn in a stunning series of executions, ending in Ardyn getting thrown in Angelgard
-> Afterwards, Izunia takes up Ardyn's name out of the belief that Ardyn is the one who deserves to be remembered as the Founder King
-> Gilgamesh grudgingly helps for a while but eventually, when Izunia can handle the deception on his own, fucks off to Taelpar Crag
-> Izunia has two children (a daughter who inherited the crown and a son who researched the Armiger) and dies in his mid-70s
From there we have two thousand years of chilling in a ring passed down through the generations until Kingsglaive, at which point Ardyn walks into the throne room in the Citadel like he owns the place,
After Kingsglaive and the fall of Insomnia, the ring passes into the keeping of Oracle Lunafreya, and nobody puts it on until Ignis in Altissia. [Salt and Pepper Diner voice] And that's when Izunia's mental state went from 'bad' to 'utterly destroyed' [/voice], because when faced with this punk-ass advisor with the power of kings, Ardyn's reaction is to warp straight into his face.
Because what's the only thing worse than turning your brother into the Ultimate Daemon? Realizing that the Accursed is still your brother, because daemons can't warp.
(and then later Noctis puts on the ring properly and follows the prophecy to actually put Ardyn down, which is why he's the favorite of all Izunia's descendants.)
End result: One Founder King with some seriously collapsing sanity due to guilt issues on top of the fact that he has played the role of his brother since he was 35, roughly 2000 years ago. There are also some identity issues, in the sense that Izunia consciously remember that he was the (relatively) straight-laced one to his brother's ridiculous habits, but he doesn't really remember which personality traits are from the original Izunia and which are from 'Ardyn.'
On top of this, Izunia doesn't relate to others particularly well, and is honestly quite a coward when it comes to social consequences. He's almost too loyal, but never had many friends in the first place, and the problems connecting with others only grew with so long keeping his entire identity a secret. While he can wear the authority of the Founder King, his usual outward act is more similar to Ardyn's - casual, affable - with a blending in of Izunia's own more serious, academic-leaning traits. He's friendly and curious and obviously has some deeper issues, but exactly how deep they go is left a mystery by keeping people at arm's length.
Underneath that, it's a trainwreck waiting to happen. The only reason Izunia doesn't blame himself utterly for destroying his brother's life was the revelation at Altissia that he'd been every bit as lied to and manipulated by the gods as Ardyn. He's a mess who doesn't believe he deserves forgiveness or redemption, but continues to wish for the impossible anyway: a world where his relationship with his brother isn't a tattered, blackened thread.
For right now, though, he'll start with trying to live as himself for the first time in two millennia, because that won't be hard at all.
Character abilities: LET'S TAKE IT IN SECTIONS. Being a king of the Lucis Caelum line, Izunia's got a lot of the goddamn broken shit associated with his bloodline.
WARPING/PHASING: Short-range teleportation type abilities. Warping is teleportation by moving to a thrown weapon or object, and does not seem to have a distance limit except via one's ability to hurl shit for any given distance. Phasing is a defensive ability, much shorter in range, that allows one to sidestep attacks by briefly being Not There. Both leave trails in the color of the user's Armiger (blue, in Izunia's case) and a skilled user can choose to leave afterimages to distract enemies. The energy of warping isn't infinite, but is much easier to manage by jumping in and out of combat.
THE ARMIGER, PART ONE: Personal royal hammerspace. Primarily used for weapons, but there's no observed limit to what can be stuffed in there (beyond a typical JRPG 99 item cap). For sanity's sake I'm saving that no single object larger than the owner can lift, but otherwise there's no real limit. Objects in the Armiger are kept in stasis - that is, time doesn't pass for them, a cold drink will remain cold and perishables will not spoil. Live animals cannot be put in the Armiger. Items summoned from or dismissed to the Armiger appear in a flash of light and crystal shards (again, Izunia's is blue).
ROYAL ARMS: The personal magical arms of each of the Lucian Kings, the Royal Arms have the unique quality of being able to exist in multiple places at once (as they're bound to the Armigers of those who wield them rather than being purely physical items). They are extremely powerful, but cost some of the wielder's strength to manifest (represented as an HP cost in game). Izunia currently possesses only two due to his position so early in the line, but could obtain others in the future.
THE ARMIGER, PART TWO: Those with more than four Royal Arms to call upon can enter the Armiger state, which is their personal Super Mode. All of the user's Royal Arms are summoned at once, formed out of light in the user's Armiger color, and can be used freely for a dizzyingly varied combat style. (HP cost doesn't apply in Armiger state.) Normally the Armiger state only lasts a brief time, but under certain circumstances there's a further super mode (possibly Ardyn and Noctis exclusive? What the fuck who cares anymore) that summons the Armiger without a time limit and also... enables a levitating flight and infinite warping energy.
ELEMANCY: Aka the royal family's form of black magic. Works primarily by drawing energy from the surroundings and/or enemies and/or energy deposits and/or etc etc users can store a limited amount of energy in their own bodies, but normally have to transfer that energy into containers of some sort to cast spells. Works with fire, lightning, or ice elements.
RETAINERS: And except for the Royal Arms and by extension the Armiger State, he can potentially share all of this with other people, including a single common Armiger space.
ILLUSIONS: We have no idea how they work but apparently full sensory illusions are a thing that can be done in this universe because tabata explains n o t h i n g. But let's go with "minor alterations to own appearance, can't fully turn into another person, that's Ardyn's trick after two thousand years of practice" to be on the safe side.
RING MEMORIES: Although most of it was like a dream, Izunia retains a decent sense of what transpired while anyone was wearing the Ring of the Lucii (and only those times), due to having been inside it. This means that he's significantly less mystified by modern technology and so on than people would probably expect of a two-thousand-year-old dead king. Also, it means he's hax at royal arms and can use just about any weapon you hand him, hypothetically, because at least one of his descendants has probably used it at some point.
RING MAGIC: Technically can't do this without the actual Ring of the Lucii, yet, but this is a set of three spells - Holy (light element counter attack nuke), Death (drainy type... draining spell), and Alterna (more commonly known as warp, warps all enemies in range FUCKING ELSEWHERE, GOODBYE).
LIGHT MAGIC: Izunia's personal specialty because I had to give him something. Conjures blades of light and nyooms them at the target (as the XIV red mage abilities Fleche and Contra Sixte).
EVERYTHING FUCKING ELSE: Career politician. Successfully fooled everyone into thinking he was Ardyn for two thousand years = fucking incredible actor. Good head for numbers and theory, especially theoretical magic. Full kit of royal manners and skills, including a decent hand at sketching and killing it on violin. Local liar with great hair, basically.