Xanric Geodegazer-Shadowbane
Basic Information
Bloodline Ability
Xanric's blood remembers everyone he touches. The moment he touches another person, his bloodline quietly registers a copy of theirs and keeps it, the way a pressed flower keeps the shape of the bloom. That copy never fades. It stays in his blood permanently, alongside every other bloodline he has ever captured, a collection that only grows with each new hand he shakes, and from then on he can let any one of those borrowed bloodlines rise in place of his own and use its ability whenever he chooses. Each copy is a snapshot, frozen at the grade the bloodline had reached at the moment of that touch. It does not grow alongside its owner: if someone's bloodline is E-grade when he touches them and later climbs to D-grade, Xanric still carries the E-grade version, and only touching them again will give him the stronger copy. His bloodline revealed itself on his tenth birthday, and the first thing he did with it was read the bloodlines of the children around him. Those copies told him far more than anyone expected, sometimes more than the children's own families knew.
Every bloodline Xanric captures is kept permanently. Switching to a different one from his collection takes him a standard action.
Physical Description
Xanric stands five feet nine inches tall, a towering figure for a ten-year-old and unmistakably his father's son. Where once a compact catfolk stood, there is now a young half-giant with a broad, stocky frame and the thick limbs of someone built to carry weight and deliver force. His skin is fair and sun-warmed, and his most striking feature is a mane of golden curly hair that falls past his shoulders, framing a youthful face set with a jaw and brow that echo Xaneborr's own. His eyes are calm and steady, carrying a seriousness well beyond his years. He favors a suit of dark etched plate armor with subtle geometric patterns worked into the metal, fitted with heavy pauldrons, layered bracers, and reinforced greaves. A long black cape hangs from his shoulders, and a thick leather belt cinches his waist. Standing with his hands on his hips in front of the Geodegazer Estate steps, he looks less like a child playing dress-up and more like a young knight who has already earned the right to wear what he is wearing. The sheer physical presence of him is startling. He was already the strongest child in Goodberry before the change. Now he looks the part in a way that makes strangers step aside without being asked.
His hands are large for his age, thick-knuckled and calloused from both smithwork and daily sword training. The golden hair is impossible to miss and marks him immediately in a crowd; it catches the light like hammered coin and gives him an almost leonine quality that suits his temperament. His armor is not decorative. It is working plate, dark-finished steel with etched scrollwork that suggests it was forged at Thunderbuddies under Karthos's supervision and possibly with Xanric's own hand on the bellows. The transformation did not erase his history; faint, pale scars from his torture at the hands of Taxin's assassins still trace across his skin beneath the armor, carried over from his old body like a record he cannot and would not shed. He is currently the strongest person in his age bracket in all of Goodberry, a distinction that covers anyone from nine to nineteen, and he carries that fact in his posture rather than his words. When he moves with a blade it is not elegant yet, but it is purposeful and heavy, each swing backed by a frame that was made to hit like a landslide.
Notable Equipment & Companions
Personality & Temperament
- Running the Pocket Dungeon as often as possible
- Training with two-handed swords
- Working at Thunderbuddies blacksmith shop with Karthos
- Training alongside Madrov and Attritti
- Spending time with his sisters
- Believes in being fair, Values Justice
- Refuses to physically compete against female family members
- Carries guilt from accidentally injuring Eden in tournament
- Sometimes pushes himself too hard in training
- Struggles with nightmares about his death experience
- Can be overly serious for someone his age
- Has difficulty accepting help when he feels responsible
Some things you just have to do, even when they're hard. That's what family means.
I died protecting my family. My sister brought me back. Now every strike of my weapon honors that second chance.
I hurt Eden in that tournament. Never again. I will protect my sisters, not fight them, no matter what anyone says.
- Working at Thunderbuddies blacksmith shop
- Training with Madrov and Attritti
- Spending time with all his sisters
- The satisfaction of perfectly forged metal
- Spikeface his Bloodfin Raptor companion
- Being treated like a helpless child
- Watching family members get hurt
- Discussing the tournament incident with Eden
- People who give up when things get difficult
- Having nightmares about his death
Background & History
Before the final event, the prince of Torheim issued a personal challenge. He was sixteen years old, large for his age, and had been watching Tingle all week. The fight was close. It was ugly in stretches. The Torheim boy was good and strong and had every physical advantage that seven extra years of growth could offer. What he did not have was Tingle's rage, which arrived at exactly the right moment, shrugging off a blow that should have ended it and turning the tide in a single exchange. People are still talking about it. Tingle appreciates that, and then goes back to the Pocket Dungeon, because medals are nice but the dungeon is where he actually gets better. He wants to be the best. Not in Goodberry. Not in his age range. The best. He is ten years old and he means it completely.