Drake Ignis

Drake Ignis is Orion's oldest original character, his first conception have been as early as 2005, and over the course of six years, has changed and improved in countless small and significant ways since his inception. Drake's earliest form was strongly inspired by the character Jak, particularly his appearance and persona.

Details
Aliases and Titles 'Blaze' - Operational callsign

Age
Twenty-eight native planetary years.

Roughly thirty three in Earth years.

Gender
Male

Species
Vanguard Pyro Sprite

Background
Most people encounter Drake at roughly the same point in his own timeline, and so his history is equally relevant to pretty much whoever he meets. That being said, because Drake encounters most foes outside of his traditional realm of living, his background ultimately matters little to them, and so such details outside of the most basic will be spared.

Drake's world is a sometimes-dizzying combination of gods, ancient magic and advanced technology, with most of the world at a dual tipping point: The end of the 'old world' traditional democracies, and so close to becoming a post-scarcity society thanks to the efforts of the world's final traditional - and very ambitious - political leader. After the disappearance of Drake's brother from the royal nation of the Cinderlands, Drake departs to find him as part of a rite of ascension to the throne. While away, an assassination attempt is made on the royal family, leaving only his father alive but crippled. Thrust into a world of technology and intrigue utterly unknown to natives of the fire nations, Drake becomes deeply involved in matters soon to shape the world - initially as a bounty hunter and later as full-blown hero of the people - as it enters the most difficult period of its history, culminating in facing the vengeful wrath of an old god, wronged long ago.

Personality
For all but the very closest friends, Drake comes across as selfish and apathetic - both of which are accurate descriptons. His whole life has been focussed around honing his own skills for survival, so his top priority at all times is, of course, himself. His rare and genuine efforts to bond with others are usually complicated by this, though when both participants in the interaction open up, a strong loyalty and respect is usually formed within hours. Though very capable when working on his own, Drake will not deny help given unless it provides extra unnecessary baggage, in which case he might twist the currently-offered help into a later-owed favour or item.

Though Drake strives to achieve his goals as effectively and efficiently, he typically winds up completing it wholly and with great speed, though usually wears himself down in the process. He always works to get most things over and done with quickly - thought he does love a good battle to be prolonged - but will slow himself down if he risks failing the task or falling outside of a missions restrictions and parameters. Because he jumps into many things with great initial force, he has a bad habit of breaking fragile and/or insignificant items, such as jars.

Conversely, when not occupied by a task, Drake tries to remain calm and patient, though the inherently active and intense nature of pyro sprites makes such times of inactivity relatively unbearable. He loathes waiting for things to happen, and so usually finds himself something to do, even if it is mundane as cleaning the dishes. When totally deprived of any material tasks to pick up, he will perform various excercies and magical practices to keep himself occupied. Even when sleeping, Drake's mind is still active outside of REM sleep, running through past battles or events, or constructing simulations and possible spells and summons.

Appearance
Drake stands slightly taller than an average male of the Vanguard species, at seven feet and three inches; though tall by human standards, he by no means appears lanky or bulky, instead appropriately proportioned. His skin is naturally moderate brown, and has tanned little despite his years growing up on the volcanic desert nation of the Cinderlands, with special forms of melanin preventing his skin from ever being burnt by over-exposure to sunlight. The colour of his hair is reflective of his status as a pyro sprite, being maroon at the base and lightening slightly to dark orange at the tips, the assemblage of his head hair being short and in small spikes; looking as though wind-blown away from his face, they taper to point in line with the back of his head and slightly above his crown. The other facial hair Drake bears is a maroon goatee, triangular and wide, with a dulll tip. Other than that Drake has exceedingly little bodily hair - lacking any on his torso, or appendages - having supressed that part of his genes, not requiring any of the insulative or protective functions of body hair. His irises are deep red.

Drake's particular facial features are thus: A small, vertical scar midway up his jawline, gained in his first life-or-death battle, that he keeps unhealed; the only difference it has to the rest of Drake's face it in it's shape and slight protrusion, otherwise it is indistinguishable. His stong and sharp nose is pointed slightly downward, and bears a gently protruding brow, and the skeletal composition of his face is very angular and precise. His ears, in line with the rest of his species, though slightly shorter, are pointed about two inches longer than a human's. Being of the royal line of the Cinderlands, Drake has grown scales on his head in a shape roughly representative of a crown: Mirrored lines of bronze scales beginning near the middle of the face where the eyebrow start, and moving in a smooth flow to the sides of his head and over the top of his pointed ears. The scales are dextrous, able to lift up and allow a tough, translucent-red membrane to extend down to cover his eyes completely, functioning as natural sunlight and debris protection for his eyes.

Physiology
The highly-adaptable triple-helix genetic structure of the Alpha Vanguard - as well as their conscious control over their own genetic properties - allows the species to physically vary itself to a great degree. The capability for changes are so great that different races are more akin to seperate species, and two individuals could be genetically alien to each other.

The physical signs of genetic changes manifesting are gradual but noticeable, typically occurring over a few years, and during the decade long 'puberty' phase, the Alpha Vanguard is able to alter themselves at a fantastic rate, year-long changes instead taking months. In the tradition of keeping the Rex Elementae 'pure', Drake's own body is close to the default for dwellers of the desert continent.

General
The shape and proportions in Drake's body are - on the surface - almost identical to those of a human in peak physical condition, though scaled up - Drake stands at slightly above his species' average height, at 2.18 metres (7' 2") tall. His muscles - lithe and toned - are in perfect proportion to the rest of his body, giving the (correct) impression of a man possessed of both great strength and speed, with no detractors to his appearance in terms of musculature; not stringy, nor needlessly bulky.

Legs
The most striking and obvious physical difference between Drake (and much of his entire species) and a normal human are his triple-jointed, digitigrade legs - similar to the hind legs of felines and canines. Were one to use walking on the balls of their feet as an example, greatly extending the length of one's foot (the tarsus region) results in what could be considered the third portion of this type of digitigrade leg.

Drake's feet are a hybrid of the standard variety and talons, with hard claws at the tips and semi-dextrous toes Both feet are symmetrical down their middle, with two central claws being the largest, two outer 'toes', and a fifth at the rear of the foot, with the longest and sharpest claw of the foot, which typically remains raised up and out of the way. Between each of the toes spans a tough, retractable membrane, particularly useful for desert walking - or swimming, not that Drake gets up to much of that in his homeland.

Composition
Drake's entire skeleton is formed from a super-dense, naturally-occurring parallel to carbon fibre, grown in three different varieites depending on the type of bone. Lengthy bones, such as those in limbs, ribcage and around the neck, are made from 'strings' of bone, wrapped together like in a bridge's cables. This augments the bones' great strength with a high degree of elasticity before breaking, and makes them wholly shatter-proof.

Flat surfaces of bone - those in the skull, pelvis and shoulder blades - are made by a layering process that alernates flat sheets of bone with an perpendicula interweave of aforementioned 'bone strings'. As before, the very material of the bone is strong and able to take much punishment before it shows any sign of breaking, the gaps provided by the bone weave, again, allow the bone to flex to some degree, but to a lesser extent than in the limbs.

Small or stubby shapes of bone - fingers, toes, vertebrae and joints - are more similar to the overall human skeleton, though triple-layered. An external layer of multiple bone sheets like in flat shapes, with an internal structure of pourous bone. It is in the centre of these structures, and the 'empty' bubbles around it (likewise for the 'empty' spaces between bone-strings and bone-interweave) that the spongy marrow of the bone is present.

Structure
As with his appearance, Drake's skeleton is similar in shape to a human's, but with alterations small and large across it. The head is almost identical to a human skull, save for an expanded occipital bone at the bottom rear to allow for an expanded cerebellum that makes the species' brain essentially tri-lobed, the expanded portion of the brain used to handle extrasensory and supranatural interactions.

Drake's throat, akin to any Alpha Vanguard living in environments with large predators, is surrounded by several rings of bone akin to a small spine, slightly reducing the flexibility of the neck in return for making it more difficult to break or stab into.

Drake's ribcage doesn't end where a normal human's might. Aside from a gap from the bottom of the sternum around to the the sides of the body - which is itself covered by dense muscle - the ribcage extends all the way down to the pelvis, partially enclosing organs that would otherwise be left virtually unprotected. Like the 'neck-spine', some flexibility is lost, but protection increased.

The Alpha Vanguard pelvis is the most wildly different structure to humanity's. Because the Alpha Vanguard do not make use of a birth canal, the pelvic cavity is virtually non-existent, save for a frontal gap (for the external genital and/or urination) and a bottom gap (for defecation). Because of these significantly smaller gaps, the integrity of the alarmingly fragile standard pelvis is greatly increased. The hip bone is shorter in length and lower down. A moving joint in the pelvis, seperate from the femur, forms a maneouverable second hip bone, that rises further up, out and back than a human hip bone would.

The thigh of the leg is composed of three bones, as opposed to the standard single femur in humans. The primary two together - sharing weight and strain - are stronger than a single femur, and sit inward of the thigh, the top settling into the lower of the hip bones. The secondary, longer femur sits in the upper, moveable hip bone, and the three bone at their base settle into a fairly standard - though widened - knee. The middle segment of the leg has its tibia and fibula oriented one in front of the other. Unlike most tarsal regions, which have as many bones as their are toes on each foot, there are only two bones in Drake's tarsus sub-limb.

Musculature
Speaking macroscopically, the size and shape of most of Drake's muscles are very close to a standard human's, with obvious additions and alterations in the legs in particular - giving strength and flexibility to the double hip joints and knees. When compared to human physiology, Drake has extra muscles in his shoulders, upper arms and chest, greatly increasing the physical strength in his upper body and arms.

All of Drakes skeletal muscles - those that may be voluntarily controlled - are formed from similar cells as in human muscles, but with different organisation. Rather than the standard striated form, muscle cells in Drake's body connect in helical 'springs', which then serve to form long fibres stretching the length of the muscle. Because of this organisation, they are able to store and exert much greater mechanical energy, resulting in faster and more powerful movements of muscles. Corollary to this is the phenomena where the same energy input for a human muscles would result in nearly triple output for Drake's.

Clothing
Drake's clothing, in spite of the science-fantasy world he lives in, is fairly basic, though worn with functionality in mind. He typically wears a white cotton t-shirt tucked into tan cargo pants, and over the shirt wears a thin, grey cotton hoodie.

Drake's most identifying garment is his dragonhide jacket, formed of a single piece of leather that is technically still alive, kept so by enchanted gunmetal-grey rings embedded in the clothing. Spaced roughly three inches apart, they settle in lines up the outer arms, sides of the torso, shoulders/collarbones, and in a 'Y' shape beginning at the rings on either shoulder and running down the back to the bottom of the garment. The healing magic imbued into the rings allows the jacket to self-repair and helps it maintain its entirely fireproof properties, and the rings themselves filter any air flowing through them and contain it within the jacket, giving Drake an ever-ready source of pure oxygen to ignite for spontaneous flare attacks.

Fingerless gloves are worn over Drake's hands, while something resembling reinforced sandals are worn on his feet. Straps across Drake's torso, shoulders and thighs carry various bandoliers, satchels, holsters and so forth, though all attached to elastics that cause all them to retreat to behind Drake, thus causing virtually no restriction of movement. Should he wish to withdraw an item, Drake need reach for the pocket, pull it around, pull out the item, and its container would slip back behind him. A segmented rib-cage like artificial shell sits around the various pouches on his back, hardening upon impact to leave the contents unharmed.

Wyvern Scales
The name given to the morphing artefact of Drake's when functioning as armour, dully-reflective bronze in constitution, it is made of around one hundred and twenty small pieces that overlap and hold themselves together without any fixative or straps. The chest piece is shaped similarly to Drake's own muscle structure in that region, with the upmost plates being the largest. The next layer is of two slightly smaller pieces underneath the pectoral plates. The same again happens, until two plates become a single one on top of the other, culminating in a groin plate, the same articulate section extending around the rear to cover Drake's buttocks and hips. Extending from the pectoral plates, underneath and above them, extend both slightly down the back, and over the shoulders. A similar set-up of small plates as those on the abdomen covers Drake's spine, and 'ribs' extend out from it down his sides. Around the neck are complete rings, and around the collarbones, shoulders and back of the neck are various plates that are stored there while not being used in Drake's helmet. The helmet itself bears an orange-tinted visor, and has 'antennae-ears', which are a signature of some anime and manga power armours.

Armour on the shins and lower arms are composed of four overlapping plates covering the frontal edge of the semi-limb. On the rear portion, singular plates are present. Strips of armour act similarly to chain mail, which cover the upper arms and legs. As gloves, the armour leaves the palms unprotected, though the palm from the motorbike gloves remain for this. Each fingertip is clawed, however the tip may be retracted and rounded, or removed altogether for direct touch. Drake's footwear easily accomodates his seemingly unusual foot form, also possessing an extension some might label as being similar to a high-heel. However, this protrusion actually supports Drake's feet better, and puts greater force behind his steps and jumps through retraction and extension.

Dragon's Tongue
Drake's primary bladed weapon, formed from his initial sword upon gaining his Draco-Morphing ability. The handle and hilt of the sword resemble the head, scales, horns and crest of a dragon, with most of it blood-maroon in colour, though the handle is the brown of leather, and the hilt amber. The intertwining blade is mostly silver, though the tapering edges are bronze and reflect unusually in the light, as though mimicking the flickering of flames. When sheathed, the 'tail' handle of the weapon grows shorter, and the 'mouth' of it closes, bringing the blade inside it; in this process, the weapon becomes both lighter and smaller, and attaches without the requirement of any special technique to Drake's thigh. When he wishes to use it, all he must do is grip the pommel of the Dragon's Tongue and draw it from his hip. The handle will extend as it does so, and the mouth will open, out of which the two blades will grow and intertwine. The process of the intertwining is not limited to a specific length, but can extend no further than about four feet in length, and Drake will at times use the intertwining blades to grab objects, or extend a single blade to the length of both combined. The handle can extend further than the length of a single-handed hold, to twice the length of the blade itself, resulting in the lance form of the Dragon's Tongue. In the lance form, the Dragon's Tail can wind it's chain up the length of the shaft, producing a double-ended lance.

Upon Drake willing it, the blade can ignite itself with normal of light-infused fire, the latter enabling it more effective use against the undead, necromancers, and other beings directly associated with darkness. Furthermore, the temperature will usually enable it easy cutting through many thermally-insulative materials, and to further boost such abilities, Drake can 'pump' more fire or effects into the blade through his own magic. Any pyro magic or effects created outside of the blade, but channelled through it, will be greatly enhanced.

Dragon's Fang
A darkness-associated equivalent to the Dragon's Tongue, obtained upon the death of Drake's brother Lucian, when the necromancer passed his own weapon onto Drake. Unlike the Dragon's Tongue, this weapon is most colourless, primarily dark grey. The blade, instead of the Dragon Tongue's symmetrical shape, is of similar length but curved to one side, the tip of which angles back sharply in the shape of a formidable hook, The side opposite to it's cutting edge is serrated, and a point exists on the cutting edge itself, giving the Dragon's Tooth an axe-like effect when striking a foe in certain ways. The hilt is again in the shape of a dragon's head, though with the open jaw acting as the handguard and the blade extending from a row of teeth. The handle of this weapon is also a dragon's tail, though the pommel is in the form of two intertwining tail-tips. Said tips of the tail can extend and intertwine to form a chain-like connection some four metres long. Again, this blade contracts, drawing in the teeth and tail, though isn't as flexible in it's form-shifting as the Dragon's Tongue.

The hook at the tip of the blade is usually used in association with the chain as a grappling hook. Without the assistance of magic, this weapon does ignite in normal fire, or pitch-black flames, usually being used to cancel restorative effects of whatever it strikes. Similarly to the Dragon's Tongue, pyro spells directed through this will be empowered.

'Salamander' Sidearm
A weapon whose default incarnation is a large handgun - part-revolver, part-machine-pistol - made of similar metal to the TRADE system, though appropriately gunmetal-grey in colour. The cartridge for the machine-pistol 'half' of the gun is a half an annulus that curves from the base of the handle to above the rear of the stock, allowing a hole to pass Drake's finger through. The cartridge feeds to the barrel for the machine pistol, around which the cylinder of the revolver rotates, which possesses eight chambers. The ammunition fed into the machine pistol may be standard solid ammunition, but is also capable of holding plasma batteries for energy weapons fire. The revolver, however, only takes solid ammunition, usually also of a harder-hitting nature, such as firing gas-expansion rounds, or miniature rockets and grenades. Drake's special way of holding the Salamander is to have his middle finger over the trigger, and hold his index finger along the length of the barrel, allowing him to fire off magical or elemental shots from his extended finger alongside the rounds from the gun.

Extreme physical performance
Aside from the Vanguard species being naturally superior to various mortal humanoid races, Drake has undergone training that places him, physically, ahead of many of the Vanguard who enhance themselves later on in life with both magic and technology. With purely his own strength, it is not unusual to see Drake throwing about large cars and other vehicles, though he can be witnessed struggling when he must lift something in excess in roughly two tonnes - when pumped with nanites, enchanted with magic, and Draco-Morphed with all three layers of his armour and integration of the TRADE system, however, his strength does increase exponentially. Drake's actually running speed is slower than he might ideally want it to be, though his ability to react and move about quickly make up for this, and his less-than-perfect speed does have the advantage of making him an excellent long-distance runner. Detailed studies of his neural activity patterns and bodily reactionary functions means that at most times, when able to concentrate, Drake can selectively wire his brain differently temporarily, such as to enhance logical thinking at the expense of reaction times, or put into actions certain glands of his body, like driving his kidnies into overdrive to purify his blood, or pumping up the adrenal gland so that Drake may act with the enhancements of adrenaline. As a Pyro Sprite, his skin is fireproof.

Regenerative and interactive nanotechnology
Within Drake's body exist billions of infintesimal machines, constructed of precise organisations of atoms that are programmed and can 'learn' through the manipulations of virtual strings of those component particles. They act continuously on his body to remove dead and disadvantageously malformed tissue, and keep his healthy cells acting more efficiently and living longer. Through these processes, Drake has not only accelerated healing, but is also immune to virtually all organic-induced diseases, and has an extended lifespan. The nanomachines are self-replicating, and 'feed' on the waste and dead tissues of Drake's body by altering the subatomic configurations of atoms into the sort required by the nanomachine. Aside from existing within and around Drake's body, the nanomachines can also leave it through pores and other orifices to infiltrate other organic and synthetic bodies to either hijack direct control from them, or sensory input to augment Drake's own. Drake makes use of the machines to selectively manipulate his neural configurations and genetic structure to maximise their effectiveness and temporarily bring out certain traits Drake wishes to possess.

Thermal vision
A third set of visual perception microcomponents in Drake's eyes allows him to see in the infrared electromagnetic radiation range. While not directly seeing things based on their heat, objects of greater temperatures will emit more infrared radiation, and it is this property that allows Drake to see objects even in pitch-blackness. The flicking of a 'perception switch' of sorts in Drake's visual cortex changes his sight between infrared, visual, and a combination of the two. The former is seen in monochromatic black-and-white, but overlaid with the colour of standard vision, Drake possesses potent night-vision skills, but can also use them to single-out objects and inviduals based on their temperatures, such as a man in a blizzard, or the battery of a car. His perceptiveness in the infrared range, however, leaves him less able to differentiate the deeper tones of violet.

Pyromancy
A power of natural control over the element of Pyro, which primarily relates to fire, smoke and magma, as well as other fire- and heat-related substances. His control over them does not stem from specialised applications of various magicks and technologies, instead, the process appears to be controlled in a process similar to psychokinesis, and over-use of these powers tires Drake out in much the same way he would become tired through extreme physical exertion. Drake's ability to create the sub-elements is rarely exhibited, typically requiring strong emotional stimulus, but most of the time, Drake manipulates parts of his environment to give him sub-elements to work with. Heat always exist in an area, and Drake merely concentrates that to ignite oxygen or other substances. Many objects, when burnt, will produce smoke, and most meallic and some non-metallic materials will melt down to become an effective tool when in molten form. Once Drake has brought about the existence of a sub-element, he can typically maintain it with little effort. His own fire will burn on nearly all matter in all of it's classical forms, his smoke will not dissipate unless directed to do so, and magma controlled by him will not cool unless he allows it to. It is virtually impossible for Drake to be hurt by anything of the Pyro element that he controls, slightly easier for him to be injured by un-controlled elements like wildfires or magma flows, and another Pyromancer attempting to hurt him will find it the easiest of the three, though that in itself would still be a mean feat to pull off.

Spellcasting
Magic in Drake's world is unlike most other magic: It is not limitless, but is never truly spent or used up. Fragments and wisps of matter and energy orbit around Drake in the ethereal plane of magic, being brought into the physical plane to manifest as objects and phenomena according to their structure. Thus, Drake is limited to magical effects that he has transmuted from their formerly-physical equivalents. Currently, Drake's magical menagerie includes steel shards, gusts of wind, patches of skin, pieces of flesh and blood.

Draco-morphing
An augment to Drake's physical attributes and abilities, and an extension of his Pyre Sprite powers, Drake is able to transform into an anthropic dragon, the embodiment of the Pyro element. Rather than turning fully into a four-legged dragon, or a snake like one, Drake remains humanoid in form, and the only notable change to his physical structure is the addition of wings and his legs turning to reverse joints in the transformation. The morphing happens as a kind of transmutation, where Drake's current clothing becomes his new armour, skin and scales. Things like cloth and leather become simple, smooth scales, like the belly of a snake, though much tougher. Armour and hard object become thick and sharp scales, thus, Drake is usually clad in his armour to use this power to its greatest effect. In this form, only Drake's face is unaltered, visible within the the open maw of a dragon's head, which can close to provide greater protection to Drake's head. Specific incorporations of clothing and equipment include his scarf flattening against his back and becoming a tail, and his greatcoat becoming a pair of wings.

Character Theme:
Halo: Reach - The Package

Battle Theme:
Bleach Move 3 - Fade to Black, I call your name - Track 20 'B13a'

Draco-Morphed Theme:
God of War III - 'Poseidon's Wrath' extended