True Sylvani

Sylvani is a 135-year-old chimaera, created by a dark sorcerer from Italy. He used to be a faun before he was fused together with six other creatures. Now he travels the world with one purpose: to become more powerful than anyone has ever been. As he goes, he will present himself as a friendly man only there to help, hiding his true purpose in an elaborate web of lies. By the time anyone realises the truth, he has moved on.

Backstory
You can find "The Hunt", a story from Sylvani's backstory, here! Sylvani used to be a faun born in Greece, travelling along the forests and mountains of the Mediterranean Sea until he ended up in the Italian Alps. He spent his day like many of his brethren: frolicking in the wilderness and enjoying every moment.

One day while out wandering, he came across the ruins of a fortress, Cly castle. Curious as always, he looked closer into it, only for him to pass through an illusion barrier and the true fortress to appear. Cly castle had been taken over by a powerful sorcerer and his following. Upon discovering the faun, they took Sylvani, and, concluding that he knew too much, used him as a test subject.

Through powerful magicks that mixed alchemy and dark magic, they turned him into a chimaera, mixing him with the body, mind, and soul of a rakshasa and a peryton, the limbs and soul of a kitsune and a bakeneko, and the blood of a jackal and Anansi. The process was long and painful, and against all the odds, he survived, becoming something entirely new.

Now split between the instincts, desires, and behaviours of seven different creatures in one body, the faun that used to be was gone. His personality and identity were unstable for a long time as the sorcerer and his people performed experiments on him.

Soon, they discovered he could absorb the power of the creatures he ate. Over time, they fed him all sorts of creatures. Sylvani bided his time, downplaying his growing strength and magical abilities, until one day, it was time. He slaughtered every single person in Cly castle in cold blood, leaving the sorcerer as last, who he killed slowly and deliberately for the pain and suffering he'd caused.

In the 135 years since then, Sylvani has travelled the world in search of power. He travels from region to region, posing as a friendly young man with a wild heart, and offering to be a survival guide to explore new or dangerous areas. If they find any magical beasts during the expedition, he tells his companions to leave it untouched, then returns on his own shortly thereafter to consume it.

After hearing rumours about the wild and magical island called Isla de Oro, he set sail for it, determined to gain even more power. He soon took them on various expeditions to the Dead Forest, the Siren Caves, and the Badlands. During these expeditions, he heavily downplayed his own power, instead letting the pirates feel like heroes and allowing them to take all the treasure found.

On top of that, he offered his services as magic teacher, teaching people such as Bruford the Revenant, William Kingsley, Stray, Marauder, Corvus, Everett Seymour Brown, and Croco. During the final battle against Sarathiel and the Order of the Cleansing Sun, he tried to keep the volcano from erupting. He managed to hold it back for long enough for the pirates to escape, after which it violently erupted. Although he barely survived, it was a calculated risk, and his seemingly selfless act got him a great reputation. He also revived and healed various people to cement his place as a good person on the island.

He also became involved with the Evangelist, who was wary of him and his power as well as his relationship to the little ghost, Anna Smidt. When Evan later came to him for the revival of his late lover only to destroy the work that Sylvani created for him, the demon invoked the wrath of the chimaera, who showed his true colours for the first time. Sylvani's twisted account of this can be read in the story Fighting the Demon.

However, not all was well. Davy Jones himself approached the chimaera and told him to stop devouring the creatures of the Isla but still take the pirates on expeditions. He was to continue serving the island for however long Davy deemed necessary. Yet as more and more of his true nature became known, Sylvani's position on the island became unsteady, and he began to get trapped in his own extensive lies. It was a question how long he could keep up his act.



Appearance & Gear
Consisting of over half a dozen different shape-shifting creatures, Sylvani is able to change his appearance at will. He usually settles on a charming and small faun-like humanoid, with a deer's legs and antlers. His real appearance is lost in time; even he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to look like anymore. The only thing that gives away his identity is his shadow, which changes into that of the last thing he ate. When in the presence of others, he hides it with illusion magic so as to not give himself away.

Sylvani can always be found with his backpack, which is filled with a plethora of supplies: runestones, journals, magical materials like chalk, minerals, metals, and herbs, as well as food and a waterskin. He's carried the backpack with him all over the world, and it's quite dear to him.

After the battle with Sarathiel, he found her bow and kept it. A celestial weapon made by an angel Weaponsmaster was too powerful to pass up. The elegant silver and purple bow shoots arrows of celestial energy.

Personality
Sylvani is a cold and calculated killer. The face he shows to the outside world is an intricately crafted mask he wears like a veteran actor. This mask is often friendly, easy-going, and companionable, someone people would want to be around and put their trust in. Yet inside, a fire rages, fueled by hatred for the world and those who wronged him. All he desires is to gather more power, and he will do so with any means necessary. Remorse and guilt are not in his dictionary, nor are morals. Other people are useless tools at best and annoying hindrances to be destroyed at worst.

Normally, he avoids a fight, having discovered it’s easier if no one’s hunting him. If his true nature is discovered, he will drop his mask and give the people in question two options: to let him do his thing or to be annihilated. If they choose to fight him, he will have no hesitation.

Lying has become a true compulsion for him, and there is little he detests as much as speaking the full, unaltered truth. Even for little matters, his first instinct is to lie. Due to his many years of experience, he often keeps excellent track of which lies he's told and to who, and any slip-ups are easily covered with other easy but false explanations.

Abilities & Skills

 * Necromancer He is capable of bringing the dead back to life and heal the injuries that killed them. He can either restore their souls and return them to normal, or turn them into thralls that do his bidding.
 * Master Illusionist He can conjure illusions so powerful they are indiscernible from reality. The way they look, taste, smell, and feel seems real. He uses this ability to make his shadow look like whatever appearance he currently has. Often, for his own protection, he uses an illusion double to act in his stead from a few metres away, a delicate skill that took decades to perfect.
 * Runemaster Sylvani has spent years mastering the craft of runes. It's his main go-to for any magic, defensive, offensive, and utility, due to one being able to prepare it in advance for later use.
 * Shapechangers He has the ability to change his shape at will. He can transform into anything he thinks of, as long as it is alive. He usually takes the shape of a humanoid, but if he fights, he changes into a Rakshasa, peryton, or a mix of these.
 * Impenetrable His skin is impenetrable due to his peryton body. Blades shatter while bullets ricochet off. His only weak spot is the nape of his neck, which he carefully protects.
 * Devourer of Beasts If he eats a magical being, he consumes its magical power, making it his own. His shadow changes to look like that of the creature he ate.
 * Internal Compass Due to his faun blood, he is always able to find his way in the wilderness. He also has the uncanny ability to survive out in the wild, no matter what nature throws at him.
 * Fae Charms He is able to charm those around him, giving them thoughts that aren’t their own, or making them think what he wants them to think. He can affect feelings in a similar way.
 * Spirit Nature He can create spirit fire, a strange kind of gray flame that only burns what he wants it to burn. Its temperature depends entirely on what he wants it to be.
 * Healer He can heal those who are injured, as well as cure diseases and poisons. If he chooses, he can even regenerate entire body parts.
 * Multilingual He can read, speak, and write a great many languages, both dead and alive, and from various realms. For magic, he uses these scripts: Celestial, Infernal, Elder Futhark, Kanji, Chaotic, Greek, latin, Ancient Egyptian, and I Ching.
 * Power level 9 He has the ability to utterly mess anyone up who dares fight him.
 * Devourer of the Dead Forest Guardian He can turn his skin into thick metal.
 * Devourer of Sirens He can sing with an enchanting voice.
 * Devourer of Sarathiel He is able to smite people and use divine magic.
 * Devourer of Grim Reapers He is able to create hellfire (along with spirit fire).
 * Devourer of Hellhounds He is able to track souls familiar to him.
 * Devourer of Sea Serpents He is able to create lightning.
 * Devourer of Pixies He… can’t do anything special.

Other Information

 * Back when Typhon was around, he tried and failed to garner the attention of the titan, whom he revered.
 * His rakshasa was named Kir'gon Zikorach. The powerful infernal warlord was tricked into a duel to the death by the sorcerer, who then used his followers to capture him when he was weakened.
 * His peryton, from which he gets his antlers, was named Cyrille the devourer.
 * His kitsune was named Ryota Akiru. She was lured into a trap and caught.
 * Also trapped and caught is his bakeneko, Tsukiko. She was captured back in Japan and later sold to the sorcerer.
 * Sylvani actually detests cold, and it can severely weaken him. Due to this, he only seeks out hot locations and refuses to go anywhere if it's winter there.
 * Despite all his strength, iron and tin can take him out just as easily as any other magic user and supernatural creature. In fact, iron is incredibly effective against him. Due to this weakness, he often puts an illusion in his place, staying a few metres away himself.
 * Due to how he was 'created', Sylvani detests alchemy and those who practice it. He doesn't shy away from dark magicks, though.