Black, Roiben

Name: Roiben Black (A name he created, as he never uses his real one)
Nickname: only goes by Roiben
Age: appears to be 19
Birth date: currently unknown. Birth records were not kept back when he was born.
Grade: freshman in college

Hair: midnight blue
Eyes: change frequently, he Glamours them to appear different colors.
Height: 6’2
Build: thin with underlying hints of muscularity.

Cold. Roiben is a coward, he keeps himself distanced from others to avoid the pain of loosing something he loves. He has lost two loves already and refused to let anyone get that close again for fear of going through it again.

Antisocial. He never participates in group discussions or activities. It’s better to keep people away at all times than risk getting too close.

Before he loosing the two he loved, and while basking in their love he was passionate and kind. He has an unending desire to please those he deemed worthy and took pleasure in their happiness and the wantonness of the life he lived with them. Yet now, in an effort to distance himself from other’s he’s taken to wearing long sleeves and pants as well as leather gloves to avoid any unfortunate brushes of the skin.

Midsummer Eve

With bonfires lit on every hill in honor of St. John, the faeries came prowling. Lighthearted and gay, the played many a tricks and games, dancing the night away. But a few happened upon beautiful mortals, and they stole them away to be their brides. Some caught sight of cherub little babies left unguarded in their beds and they whisked them away, leaving their own young children instead.

One such baby was stolen, a cherry cheeked little boy so ethereal in his soft blankets, it was simply too tempting for one faerie to pass by. But with no child of his own to leave behind he devised a sinister plot. Snatching a faerie child from another he swapped the Sidhe infant for the mortal babe and disappeared into the night.

The Following Years

Unbeknownst to the swap the next morning a mortal woman by the name of Aoife awoke to feed her little boy. As soon as she took the baby into her arms a change came upon her. Clutching him to her bosom she stared down at the innocent face and realized at once that this was not her child. Yet instead of tossing him aside or crying out, she held him closer and let out a breathy sigh. All day long she held him, tending to his every need, refusing to set him down or let any other hold him. For days this continued, no matter how much other’s tried to coax him from her arms she refused to let him go.

All about the small town gossip spread of the mother who refused to part with her child. Rumors ran wild, and the general conspicuous soon became that she was bewitched and that the baby was no innocent mortal. A group of them gathered together and in the dead of night they stormed her home. She screamed like a banshee when the baby was ripped from her arms. Careful not to touch the baby one man swaddled him in blankets and protected him from the wrath of the mob.

Shouts ran out for the death of the child, but the man knew better. The death of a faerie child would no doubt bring about the wrath of the parents. So instead of letting the baby die he locked him away in the cellar of his home. Only coming to feed and change the baby when need be, all the while never letting his skin come in contact with that of the baby’s.

The years passed, and the Sidhe child grew. The man kept him locked away in the cellar, never seeing the light of day expect when the thick wooden doors were wretched open to bring him food and water.

The child grew to hate the man who kept him prisoner. As soon as he could walk he attacked the hated door that kept him trapped. Tiny fists beat upon the wood till they bled and bruised. But the door held strong and he was still locked away in the dark cellar. Time passed slowly and he was soon no longer a child but a young boy, just shy of puberty. He had never given up trying to escape, and for years he had chipped away at the door each day growing closer to escape.

November Eve

The first night of winter, the man old and grey now lay sleeping upstairs in his bed. While the boy in the basement struck the final blow to the door and he gained his first look upon the world outside. The moon high over head he stole away, his warm breath fogging up the chilly air as he ran.

The wind howled at his back as he darted through the dark forests. The ground icy and froze, yet he wasn’t cold. His body radiated an unnatural warmth and he ran on and on. Refusing to stop till he was away from that hell, his body never tiring. All night he ran and well into the next day, till he finally stopped. Deep in the woods, far away from any whisper of mortal villages.

He dropped into his knees near the bank of a swamp all alone. Or so he thought. From the depths of the murky water a figure rose. A horse with skin so deep of an emerald it shone black in the sunlight. Eyes a pearly white with no pupils or iris. A kelpie. An evil Sidhe horse who tricked unsuspecting mortals to ride upon its back before it drowned them in the depths of his watery lair.

“Boy-child,” it called out in a soft and deep voice that resonated through the air. “So far from home, come here, come closer,” it’s voice was irresistible and the boy found himself walking into the frigid water, his hand reaching to stroke the dark mane. The black tresses were slick to his finger tips, wet and cold from the lake water. His fingers knotted in the hair, pulling himself up so he could mount the terrible beast. But suddenly the kelpie lunged back, ripping itself from his grasp. “Gancanagh!” The Sidhe horse roared, nostrils flaring.

From the Kelpie the boy learned that he was no mortal, that he was a faerie, one of the Sidhe, a Gancanagh. A creature who’s skin was toxic to all mortals who touched it. But instead of killing them right away, his touch acted like a drug, leaving them wanting more and more unable to resist it’s pull. Countless mortals died pining away for a Gancanagh’s touch, slowly wasting away unable to go on without it. But there was more to it than that, there was the power that flowed through all Sidhe, the power to bend disguise reality and bend it to their will. The boy was fascinated. He wanted to know more, to learn everything, to learn how to harness this power, this power of Glamour. The Kelpie offered to teach him all he wished to know, but for a price. Everyday he must go to the human village and lure a mortal here to his lake. So few, it said, had wandered upon this place. But, with the help of a Gancanagh, the Kelpie would be able to exercise it’s darkest pleasures to it’s fullest delight.

The boy accepted, the mortals had done nothing for him. They had kept him locked away, ignored his screams and cries for freedom. Leading them here would only be what they deserved.

The Next Few Years

For every mortal brought the Kelpie divulged another secret about the ways of the Sidhe. How to Glamour a leaf into a precious gem, bark into gold, and his own features into the things of fantasies and nightmares. The boy took this all in with the utmost care, not a single fact or detail could be lost. He learned of the faeries inability to lie, and that iron was poisonous to their kind. That there were various courts to which faeries belonged. The courts determined how the faerie lived their life. There was the warmth and glow of the Seelie, the court that basked in the summer sun. And it’s counterpart the Unseelie which hid in the shadows of the winter nights. Along with countless other courts that ruled the realm of the fey.

But, there was more. Another dark secret that every faerie must guard with his life. It’s name. The full true name of a faerie held a mysterious power that gave the wielder of the name the power to control him. Any order given with the use of the name had to be obeyed. There was no resisting.

The years passed and from a boy he became a man, only appearing sixteen to the mortal eyes. He left the Kelpie then, once he had learned all there was to learn. A restlessness was building inside him, a restlessness to move on, to find something else in this world.

May Eve

In this spring time, years after departing the Kelpie, the man found himself far away from that village from his childhood, far away from the Kelpie’s lake. A different home of mortals, here there were few whispers of Sidhe kind, so few believed here. It was easy to blend in, to assimilate himself into their culture here. Glamouring rocks into gold coins he bought an extravagant home, and an acre of land. He kept mostly to himself, practicing his skills and powers. Yet he did not go unnoticed by the villagers themselves, especially by the young girls. They watched him with innocent eyes filled with longing. The young handsome rich man who lived just outside of town. He noticed them too, yet kept his distance. Getting too close would be disastrous. Till he saw her.

Hair as golden as the sun, and eyes a stormy blue, like thunder clouds on the horizon. A soft voice that captivated all who listened. Not even the Sidhe man was immune to her allure. He found himself seeking her out, making her laugh just so he could see that heavenly smile of her’s. She too sought him out, and always tried to get closer, yet he always seemed to keep her at an arm’s length. It was maddening to her, to have him so close yet so far away. Unable to stand it any longer she confronted him, demanded to know his true feelings for her. She took his face in her slender hands and pulled him to her in a passionate kiss. Surprised, he had no time to pull away before it was too late. Her skin came in contact with his and that was all it took.

He loved her just as much as she craved him. He took advantage of her desire for him, spoiled himself with her and her delicious body. Never before had he been with someone like this, in such passionate embraces. She was just as much a drug to him as he was to her. His desire blinded him to the truth, that she was slowly withering away. The warm glow that was there when he first saw her was fading. She was dying. The love of a Gancanagh was too much for her mortal soul to bear. He was an incubus slowly draining her of life, and he couldn’t stop before it was too late.

He mourned her death like no other. Gone was his first and only love, and all because he had loved too much. His immortal heart was never the same.

Later On

He left the village, unable to bear being there without her light there to give it that warm glow it had once before. Across vast oceans and deserts he wandered for countless centuries, now appearing as a man of eighteen. Till he came to a land that was unlike any other he’d seen before. Brilliant colors all around decorated the sensuous bodies of humans with caramel colored skin. The sun here was bright, always shining, bringing back that feeling of warmth that had long since left his body.

It would be different here, the man told himself. Here the warmth would stay and never fade away. Not like before. He would be careful. And he was, at first. Everyone stayed an arm’s length away. All except for one. A young teen, his skin a rich honey with smoldering amber eyes. It was too much for the man to resist. Maybe this time would be different, this boy was different, stronger than she had been. He could last, withstand the terrible curse.

It was just like before, the young man loved the teen with all he had. He worshiped the sweet golden body with his own and all was well. The teen lasted long than she had, much longer, yet even he could not last forever. The light within him faded and flickered away leaving the Sidhe man all alone again. The warmth was gone and a frigid winter replaced it inside his soul. From that moment on he scorned all forms of love. No one could be allowed to get that close again. They would only die and leave him all alone again. His heart grew bitter and a frozen hate grew inside him. A hate for the weakness of mortals. A hate for the cruelty they could possess. A hate for what he was.

He detached himself from the world. Hid himself away before he killed another beautiful thing he loved. Time passed in a blur then. Images flashed before his eyes all easily forgotten just as soon as they were saw. It was meaningless. He was an empty shell, a husk of the person he once was. At one point he returned to the Kelpie’s lake, only to discover that the faerie creature was gone without a trace. After that he made no more attempts to connect with his own kind. They after all had sentenced him to a life among mortals and made no move to contact him so why should he even bother?

He wandered the earth with no rhyme or reason. Only allowing himself one pleasure, the search of knowledge. It was the only thing that brought him some semblance of joy that could never be destroyed by his own hands. It was this quest for a higher education that brought him to Alculard Academy. A place where he could study in solitude without fear of being discovered as a Sidhe. With minimal effort he was able to arrange for schooling here and enrolled as a freshman in the college.

-The Irish word for Faerie is Daoine Sidhe pronounced deenee shee or simple Sidhe.
-A changeling is a faerie who is swapped at birth with a mortal baby.
-A Gancanagh is an Irish male faerie who’s skin holds a toxin that acts as an irresistible drug to humans.
-A Kelpie is a dark water spirit that takes the form of a horse and tricks humans into riding upon it’s back so it can drown them.