#ghavalek

Starting the year, I think I’ll give new cards and some associated summaries for the few of my fanwalkers that I got art for, the next in alphabetical order is Arnoss! His art was commissioned a bit ago to @land-ofthebooty​.

Arnoss Beldrun is Naya-aligned and a Ghavalek. A gharial-inspired species from his plane of origin, albeit a relatively rare one.He's part of the Family, a nomadic group of allied amphibian species travelling air and mostly water in the underwater plane of Ocaelum.

He was bought as an egg, and raised as a protector for his caravan. His innate magic wasn't that strong to begin with, but he was enchanted to harness it by his family's elders. As such, he's a little stronger and tougher than he looks, but it becomes stronger as more people want and need his help around him, bolstering strength, speed and resistance to both regular and magical attacks.

However, it was of no help when the Beldruns (his caravan) was ambushed while he was sleeping by a group of merfolks. They captured him before he could intervene, intending to use him as a slave, and made him watch them kill his family. He probably would have remained in their hold if his spark hadn't ignited. Since then, Arnoss mourns his family and protects others in need of it, whether they hire him as a bodyguard or not. His "services" is mostly ensuring he's around to help. He's very gentle generally but can be very violent when fighting against something that threatens other. He's very big, think crocodile (I think about 9'6" standing on his hind legs) and much faster than his bulk would indicate when fighting in the air as he's used to fight underwater.

Name: Arnoss Beldrun

Pronouns: He/Him

Species: Ghavalek (Gharial-inspired Amphibians)

Age: 32

Plane of Origin: Ocaleum (sub-oceanic fan plane)

First Planeswalk: Icalia’s Haven (fan plane)

Colors: White, Red, Green

Appearance and Art:

(art by @land-ofthebooty)

For scale, Arnoss is currently 9'5" when standing on his feet.

Backstory: His species is a rare one among an ensemble of them traveling together as part of nomad underwater caravans. He only met a handful of others of his species growing up, and never knew his biological parents, his egg being sold as is customary. He grew up in the love of his caravan, and trained to defend it of anything that would threaten it physically. As a trained ghavalek warrior, he’s already strong and dangerous to begin with, capable of handling terrible weapons at “normal” speeds underwater, and even faster on land despite his size. His back scales are thick enough to resist most non-piercing weapons, particularly underwater. On top of his physiology, he’s also enchanted to be stronger, faster and somewhat protected, and that enchantments strengthens with people around him needing help (see details below in Magic section).

His sparking… Wasn’t a joyous one. For a reason or another (he suspects it’s because of one of the caravan’s finds), Merfolks decided their caravan shouldn’t reach their next destination, and assaulted the people, killing them before they realized what happened to them, and before they could call for Arnoss’s help, not at first at least. They kept him for last to play with him once he awoke, and showed him the dead bodies of his caravan. He sparked as a result, finding refuge in Icalia’s Haven and feeling responsible for the death of his family. He didn’t stay long, and traveled the planes a little, until he found somewhere else where he wasn’t attacked on sight. He sometimes try to find jobs as bodyguard, but he doesn’t value himself too much after what happened to his caravan and the people he was supposed to protect.

Magic, gear and/or abilities: He carries around a large jagged sword (well, less large for him). Other noticeable elements include his pendant he keeps around his neck, enchanted to regulate his body temperature, since he’s cold-blooded.

Regarding his skills, he’s a dangerous warrior, especially underwater but he can fight on land as well. He’s scarily fast for his size (he’s used to fight underwater). He can breathe underwater in most normal conditions, prefers saltwater but can handle fresh water just fine.

His magic is very simple, he knows how to do a few cantrips but nothing impressive, his main magic is rooted in enchantments that were applied to him. They make him slightly faster, stronger and protect him more than he’d otherwise be, but it isn’t the core of it. He can feel around him people needing help, and his help in specific, and that needs strengthens his enchantments, even more so when the people needing help wants his in specific. In return, these enchantments shunt all magic he could have the potential to gather, and his only way to perform the simple spells he knows or to planeswalk is to use the magic that fuels the enchantment, making him weaker and more vulnerable when he does use magic, and significantly so after a planeswalk.

Card:

3. Ask them to describe their love interest.

He doesn't currently have one. Not in the present at least.

6. Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is.

He'll take advice from quite a few people. Advice will be strongly considered from his sister Oprena, from the Elders of his extended Family, from his little cousin Pipa, from Dr. Bilkardy,... Most people he's close to, including his... Islandmate ? Ganara. Also, and probably the most improbable to happen, but if one of the nature spirits he's devoted to were to advise him directly, he probably wouldn't turn that away.

As far as not taking advice, he won't listen to anything Lady Seric has to say, of course. He's very reluctant to listen to anything a Vhigg'ithu (the Merfolks of his home plane) has to say. He generally ignores his "friend" Shaw because he thinks Shaw has a very different view of the world than he does.

13. Name one thing their parents taught them.

Another one without biological parents... But his Elders taught him, with a lot of care, how to craft a heat pendant out of lifewood should his own be lost or damaged, and to always keep a spare piece of lifewood with him for that purpose. He, like other Ghavaleks, is cold-blooded, and outside of the volcanic waters their native villages are built around, he needs one of those to function properly for more than a few hours and avoid losing all of his body heat.

15. What would they consider a waste of time– other than school or work?

Administrative formalities. It doesn't help that until very recently, he didn't know how to read or write and that he's still currently learning how all of that works. He comes from a way of living without any of that, and it seems unnecessarily tedious, boring and pointless.

18. Kissing: tongue or no tongue?

No tongue. Biologically, his tongue doesn't leave his jaws and most people he's with don't reach very far there even when they try to find a way to kiss him.

20. What do they like that nobody else does?

Not everyone, but there's very few people in the Multiverse that like sunbathing quite as much as he does. Even other Ghavaleks don't get the full experience, since Ocaelum has no sun. The closest they get is Lifetrees, and as Arnoss noticed, it's not exactly the same.

29. What recurring dreams do they have?

You might have seen him already, and @land-ofthebooty‘s great art of him, my most recent fanwalker, Arnoss Beldrun!

First of all, you might not recognize the species, he’s a Ghavalek, a gharial-inspired, fully amphibious species from @land-ofthebooty‘s fan-plane, Ocaleum. For a quick rundown, the plane is majoritarily sub-oceanic, with some small pockets of air. Arnoss’s bio and characteristics under the cut.