ROLE

High Lord of the Day Court

NAME

Akal Sidran Crux

akal- his first name was given to him by his eldest brother, Sikaan, who became High Lord when his father passed, while their mother was pregnant with Akal. As the man of the house in a more traditional time, Sikaan had the power to decide what to do with his baby brother- whether to name him or dispose of a future competitor. It was a testament to Sikaan's love and loyalty to his family that he chose not only to allow Akal to live, but to give him a powerful name that meant immortal and timeless, in the hopes that he live a long and full life. Akal silently credits his long and prosperous life to the brother who chose to breath strength into him rather than cast him aside.

sidran- Sikaan honoured his mother, Sidra, by carrying on her name through her third child. Though tradition gifted him the fate of his brother, he would never take a child from the mother he loved and respected, and naming him for her was his way of telling Sidra that Akal belonged to her. Before developing a mature gratefulness and respect for his mother, Akal had hated his middle name, as he was teased for how feminine it was in a culture that underappreciated and devalued its women. He treasures it now, however, as a way to carry her forward with him throughout the years. He may one day forget the name of his brothers, as he already did his father, but he would forever have his mothers, as it remained a part of him. It means of the stars or Goddess of the stars, and that is how Akal will remember her.

crux- his last name traces an ancient bloodline named after the stars from which his parents had fallen from- the crux constellation that the humans had once made myths and stories about, now long forgotten. The Crux name stood for power and fairness, but most of all, it stood for the power in blood and its alliance. There is little more important than family and the loyalty to blood in the Crux line, a value far too overlooked in the modern day where trust and honour run low. 

NICKNAMES

Sikaan called him Kalli when he was a child.

His other older brother, Jiran, used to call him little Siddy, a nickname which he detested. He was very glad that Jiran spent most of his time at the Dawn Court with his bride.

His mother had a nickname for him too, but Akal has forgotten it over the long years since the last time he'd heard- it as her last exhale on her deathbed. It had meant something like dreamer, he thinks, but the warmth he had felt when Sidra smiled and called him her pet name was lost with her.

TITLES

The Eternal King

Lord of Illusion

High Lord of the Day Court

Master of the Sun and its Domain

and many others that have been lost over the years

AGE

3825

GENDER

Male

COURT

The Day Court

SPECIES

High Fae

POWERS

Light Manipulation/Invisibility/Illusion- Akal has had many centuries to cultivate his gift, slowly perfecting his manipulation of light to create visual illusions vibrant and detailed enough to be far too believable. He can shield an entire army in his illusions, making them invisible until bodies begin to fall. Akal can enact someone's worst nightmare in front of them, can fool even the most observant and shrewd eyes into questioning where reality began and illusion ended.

Weather manipulation- wind came easily to Akal as a child, in powerful bursts and hurricanes that burst from him when his mother tried to make him eat mashed peas. Raw strength was all well and good, Sikaan had told him, but control was where real power lay. So Akal had practiced shrinking and shrinking his wind, until he could burst a target's eardrums with a blink or sneak a vacuum into a victim's lungs with barely a thought- slowly suffocating them.

Winnowing- a basic skill for fae, though he is powerful enough to winnow both himself and another anywhere in the seven courts.

Flying- he can create wings made of light and wind, though because of his control over the weather, he doesn't need them to propel himself in the air and ride the current. This ability to create a slipstream is also useful in limiting another fae's flight, or directing exactly where they can fly.

Mind Resistance- it is important for any member of the High Family to remain impervious to attempts of mind reading or breaking (especially with their tumultuous relationship with the Night Court), so his mother had taught him how to build his walls since he was a young boy. He added a brick each day, and continued to do so every time he woke up- the resulting barrier was immense and near infinite, with the strength to stand against even the current High Lord of the Night Court's best efforts.

SEXUALITY

Asexual

APPEARANCE

Alton Mason

His boyish features were what had once earned him the moniker of 'the boy king,' even though he'd been fully grown at the time he ascended the throne. To appear so young when he was the oldest creature on Earth was the first deception he used to his advantage. But none could argue the depth of his age when they looked into his ancient eyes, far too deep for the young face they were set in.

PERSONALITY

Though many modern fae choose to throw away honour and loyalty to meet their own ends, Akal finds the power in honesty and keeping his word, and it is well known that any promise the Lord of Day makes is carried through. Many think his honour is a vulnerability, but it is a testament to his very very long life that this is not the case.

He's somewhat dramatic, fond of speaking in riddles to irritate other's impatience and of intimidating other fae with his heavy presence and impressive power. He enjoys being terrifying and unknowable, his age surrounding him in a certain level of mystery. How could he live for so long among a race that was so self-destructive that their number one cause of death was murder by one another? He also enjoys being irritating.

He's known for being very particular and somewhat difficult to deal with- he wants agreements done with his conditions, or not at all. He will push meetings back to another day if he considers himself busy with something else, and takes a prolonged period of consideration to come to a decision. Those who are frustrated by this, who lose their temper when he stands and leaves a war meeting without warning, are the ones who find themselves with a new job. Akal has proven himself long ago- he surrounds himself with councilmembers who have the patience of saints, who never complain about his odd, wandering nature because they trust him to keep their best interests in mind and follow through with promises- which he always does.

Though he is loyal and honourable, he is not very compassionate. People exist as chess pieces to him, easily removed for a greater cause. He is less cruel than he is apathetic, having seen so many lives that their values have diminished in the scheme of things. Some lives are necessary to lose, but Akal does not believe in wasting them, in merciless slaughter in the name of hate or volatile emotions. He believes in grand plans and a forever adapting society- though the rate of that adaptation is likely far too slow than what those calling for change desire.

BACKGROUND

It would be too much to recall all that happened in his lifetime, but the most important is his beginnings.

His parents were a part of the banished generation, his father a leader in the rebellion, his mother not much more than a child when her parents dragged her down from the stars with them and their greed. It was already more than a thousand years since their fall when he was born, but most of the fae around him still had memories of their paradise, with faces kept turned to the sky as they tried to fill that empty place that existed in them since their banishment.

His mother used to tell him stories of Pyrtan, a land of dreams and magic, filled with creatures he could only close his eyes and imagine as she described all she had lost. Akal knew it had pained her and her entire generation, was reminded every day that this new life they made themselves on Earth paled in comparison to what they'd once had. They didn't belong her. And as the years went by, that was one thing he'd never forgotten.

He was never supposed to rule- he was taught to be the support, how to best serve his older brother. And back when blood was the only thing that mattered, this meant he was trained to be general, Sikaan's right hand man. Because Akal loved his brother, this was fine by him- he never craved that power, for he was already whole without it. It gave him more time to indulge his curiosities of the world anyway, to travel and read.

But Sikaan only had 300 years of rule before he was murdered in his bed- him and his mate, their infant son kidnapped. It was a human rebellion, a plan to use Akal's nephew as both a hostage and hope for their future- to raise over multiple generations, to create a fae compassionate to humans and willing to free them from servitude, with claim and power to the Day court throne. Akal was furious and grief stricken and young, and tore through innocent humans as a message- a body for every day that he couldn't find his nephew. A year passed in an enraged haze, scouring every court for him- it ended when he found the torn apart remains of Sikaan's son in a hidden cave in the winter court, the humans who kidnapped him having decided to cut their losses.

It was a dark and bloody century that followed in the Day Court- the only time in a fae court where there were no human slaves, as they were all killed. Akal was declared as the new High Lord, as Jiran had recently become High Lord of the Dawn Court (his bride's older brother conveniently disappearing years prior), and was only 210 at the time. If he and his mother did not have each other during that time, Akal would have never been able to continue through everyday, to eventually become his own ruler. In time, he let go of his hatred towards humans and worked through his grief, learning how to focus on other things to distract him as the centuries marched on and he lost more and more people.

It was not a lack of love in his youth or frightened upbringing that had struck from him his compassion and value of an individual's life. It was time. There was another reason why many fae didn't live past their third millennia- even an immortal creature should not see so many sunrises. Even the strongest fae cower in the face of the never-ending march of time, tired of watching generations grow, wither, die, then begin again like a fresh crop every season, driven insane with the mundanity of going through the motions of daily live with nothing more to do or achieve.

But Akel did have a goal, one ignited in his youth from the fairytales of his mother- for the fae to once more ascend back to their rightful place among the stars. He had always been curious, with the type of thirst for knowledge that even thousands of years could not satiate. The well curated libraries that stood on nearly every corner of the day court was a testament to that, and more than a few of those books Akal had written himself. He has always loved to learn, and with the new direction of his goals, had sought out and found the most rare and ancient tomes speaking of Prytan and their fall written before even his time- so important and rare that his study had a false wall and multiple locks to get to them. It has been his goal for a millennia now to find a way back to Prytan, to return himself and his kind back to the haven where they belonged.

This goal is a well kept secret, and very few know that he cares less for his borders than returning them all as brothers and sisters to their ancestral home- he knows that the fae children that were thirtieth generation Earth-born could not understand that Earth was not their true home. To be anything less then obsessed with his goal would have him questioning his existence, so the rise and fall of generations, the petty squabbles he has heard a million times before, all fade into his periphery- he cares little for courtly arguments and grudges, and typically remains uninvolved unless it directly affects his court.

SKILLS

He has a gift in observation and tuning into other's emotions, in finding out a person's motivations and weaknesses and using them to his advantage- in other words, his strategy usually involves deals and emotional manipulation to meet his ends, and he is very good at it. He's had a long time to observe fae- and human-nature, and knows well how they work.

Although he has not physically fought or sparred with anyone in generations, the knowledge of how exactly to break a man's nose or tear an Achilles heel has not left him- his body has not forgotten how to fight, and if it came down to it, he could be deadly.

His powers are also very strong, and he uses often uses them in creative and unexpected ways that can throw people off. Daylight itself doesn't seem that dangerous, but the way Akal wields it is.

AESTHETICS

QUOTES

"Waiting is its own action plan, child."

"The meeting can be postponed, but not my enjoyment of this novel. You should try it sometime Councilwoman, it is far too engaging a read." (he wrote it)

"If he will not bow, then he will inspire a rebellion. Hundreds of his people will die against dozens of ours. It is a simple calculation- cut him off at the knees."

TRIVIA

- enjoys annoying other older high fae by calling them 'child'- especially the high lord of the night court, who has lived for many years, but not quite as many as him

- has a soft spot for the High Lady of the Dawn Court and her sisters, as they are descendants of his brother Jarin

- has been challenged directly for the throne more than four hundred times (not including assassination attempts) and has won his court over or directly defeated the challenger with his power every time.