William Listakian

== Personality ==
William's personality is a bit convoluted, in the sense that he is not particularly sure what he wants, or what he is looking for. This usually leads to extreme mood swings, and a general lack of care for anything not involving money. The way he sees it, everyone is going to die eventually, and since we all have it coming, might as well enjoy the ride on the way there. He isn't an entirely cold person, but he does not have too many weak spots, not even for children. While he has never actually been hired to kill a child before, he is pretty sure he could go through with it if the price was right enough. He puts money above anything else.
Initially inclined to do nothing more than ruthless assassinations, William realized that this was not the way to go. He also does different jobs now, including kidnapping and sometimes even helping city guards catch criminals, for a price of course, since he has skills most of them could never hope to gain if they continue to remain in that, as he sees it, redundant line of work.
He enjoys the company of humans more than he does that of any other race, as he finds the other races to be far too arrogant to be around for too long. Particularly Elves. Despite the fact that most Drow hate his kind, he does not really have too much of a problem with them, because he sees that they have the right idea in life. Take what you can take while you can take it, so he does not even mind the racism. In fact, he sort of respects it, even though he does not see any reason to discriminate to any particular race. He wanted to hate all elves, but he has met a few decent elves and decided they weren't all bad. Just the ones who were in charge and had let the power get to their head.
William has a nonchalant attitude to most things. He is not a cruel person, but he is not particularly benevolent. He will not kill you for no reason, but he will not save your life either. The way he sees it, it's a matter of every man for himself and the survival of the fittest. That is why he is particularly good at his job, because he is capable of detaching himself from his emotions and performing the task exactly how he was instructed to. It is this same thing that stops him from seeing any particular deity as being worthy of even worshiping. The way he sees it, the gods won't stop him from dying when his time comes, so why waste your life worshiping them when you can waste it making money and enjoying your riches?
Against his will, William sometimes does experience compassion for others, though he would much rather not. Most of his soft spots lay with people who have no hope of defending themselves, and though he has never defended an innocent, he sometimes finds himself having the urges to do something. Particularly at the times when city guards bully the citizens, though he never does actually act upon it. He believes if he gives into his compassion and mercy, he will become weak, and that is something he cannot afford to have happening. Rumor must never go round that William was merciful, or his reputation in the criminal underworld will be all but destroyed, and he may never get work again. After all, he is known for being ruthless.
== Combat Style ==
William's entire focus is based on pure physical confrontations, as he has absolutely no magical skills whatsoever. While he is not too marvelous at fighting in the manner of say, a warrior or even a bladesinger, he does have remarkable fighting prowess gained from long years of training and almost as many years of botching jobs and having to fix them with a deathmatch.
Because of the fact that he cannot go absolutely face to face with a pure fighter, he will generally, as his job so often demands, resort to sneakier methods such as stabbing an opponent in the back, slitting a throat, poisoning, or his personal favourite, killing someone in their sleep.
== Abilities ==
As a Shade and an Incubus, he has a number of abilities that aid him in completing his objectives and defeating his opponents. The abilities granted to him as a shade include being able to create shadow duplicates of himself, travelling through the shadows, the ability to summon pure darkness, instanteanously see perfectly in the darkest of lights, create a shield formed from shadows, and create a shadow double.
The abilities granted to him as an incubus, geared more towards seduction more than anything else, also have their good points when it comes to violent confrontations.
He is able to grow leathery bat-like wings from his back and retract them at will. He is equipped with natural claws that look like fingernails until the time calls for it. He has the natural ability to use his appeal as an incubus to charm and befriend monsters. He is able to detect those of good alignment, detect thoughts, and make his body ethereal. He can make mild suggestions others are inclined to carry out, and teleport long distances. He is naturally immune to all forms of electrical damage and poison, and is gifted with Telepathy, as well as a resistance to acid, cold, and fire. He is able to shapeshift into any humanoid within his general size range. As an incubus, he was naturally supposed to be more attractive to members of the opposite sex, however his nonexistent manners and his occasionally flashing yellow eyes usually render this ability more or less useless.
== Equipment ==
William's notable equipment consists of his two favored blades, Ebony and Ivory.
Ebony is a long, pitch black knife with a bejewelled hilt that has been enchanted and given magical properties. When the temperature is below freezing, the blade glows like a torch. It makes it's wielder a bit more resistant to all forms of fire damage, and extinguishes any kind of fire it is thrust into, whether it be nonmagical or magical, such as the spell 'Wall of Fire'.
Ivory is a shorter, pure white knife with a bejewelled hilt, also sometimes called the Sword of the planes. While it remains ever sharp and lethal to mortal creatures, it has been enchanted to do even more hurt to creatures who o not belong on that plane, dealing out more pain and damage when coming in contact with Elementals, natives of the Astral plane, and outsiders.
He wields a variety of other magical items which he uses to keep himself alive against the powerful spellcasters he runs into quite often, the most notable of which are the Gauntlet of Shadows and the Iron Gauntlet of War.
== History ==
William was born in the Dalelands, never having knew his parents, and was abandoned as a baby. He was picked up by a drow, who took him in and made him his own child, at least in the eyes of the people around. This drow took William back to his stronghold, giving others the impression that he was taking the boy in out of the goodness of his heart. In truth, he took William in to turn him into his own personal lapdog, and it worked out pretty well for him, for a while anyway.
He had William trained once the boy could walk, and for over ten years the only room that William had ever seen was his cell where he did everything, and almost went insane inside the walls of this place. He was kept there by this drow, until the drow was sure that William was an excellent warrior and could go out and do his bidding. William was given the tools to use to forge his own weapons, which he did, thus Ebony and Ivory were born, and he has kept them with him ever since then, because they were the only things that he had ever had that were truly his.
While he was about to be sent on a mission to kill someone, he had a sudden change of heart. Or rather, had a sudden burst of anger, now that he could see the one who had kept him hidden underground for over a decade, and he hurled the knife straight and true, imbeding it into the skull of his captor. Naturally, all the guards went ballistic, ready to send him to his grave, but he ran up to the man's throne, took the knife from his head, and wielded both his weapons. These, combined with his fierce determination and ridiculous levels of anger enabled him to slaughter his way through the guards and make his way out of the stronghold. He set the stronghold on fire and brought it down around their ears.
This was his first time seeing the sun, and it almost blinded him, but he was able to keep moving. There was a wide world for him to explore, and he wanted to know everything about it. He underestimated of course, the harshness of the world, and soon learnt that things were possibly even worse outside than they were cooped up in that underground chamber. He witnessed atrocities, and for every single thing he saw, his heart hardened more and more. Over time, the William who had come out of captivity, friendly and ready to mingle with good people in the world, became a harsh creature who could feel little for anyone but himself.
His dreams of noble living and chivalry vanished underfoot, and he became a ruthless assassin, killing people for his own personal gain. Originally a bit merciful, he learnt that even his victims did not show the same compassion he sometimes did, and it only made him even more heartless than he already was at the time. He was ready to kill, and it was all he could think about sometimes. An individual's life for large sums of money. That was a fair trade as far as he was concerned. There was not too much left in way of complications when he started this business, and he has been at it ever since, getting richer every day. He does not know what the point of living is, but he has decided he will make the best of it while he is here.
===Adventures===
====Masters of Deception====
William went to the tavern known as the Laughing Titan, looking for the son of the Famed Crime Lord Blake Shadowsong, Roland Shadowsong. The assassin attempted to kill the boy by poisoning his drink, but unfortunately was foiled by some of the inhabitants of the tavern at that time, and he was forced to leave before things got out of hand, as he was beginning to fall under suspicion. He left the bar after making a pathetic attempt to frame Agatha Mallowburne, then under the guise of 'Roger', for his actions, that being his first failed assassination in a very long time. He would later be hired to kill two diplomats quickly and silently, but while on this assignment he only managed to kill one, as the entire thing was a set up orchestrated by the Shadowsong Family as a ploy to get him into their midst, so they could kill him. After getting into a battle with the waiting fighters and barely escaping in one piece, he went down on a path of bloody revenge, seeking to kill every existing member of the Shadowsong family and anyone connected with them. He broke into their house, killing the eldest brother as well as a number of it's inhabitants, but the building was collapsed by the Mage Cherub Vassago, William being one of the few who made it out. He chased down Blake Shadowsong's bodyguards, eventually slaughtering them all, but letting the man slip through his fingers. The assassin tracked down Blake Shadowsong and Cherub Vassago, killing the man quite quickly, and entering into a very humiliating fight with the latter. William was decimated by the Mage, who had powers the assassin had never even seen, summoning Twelve Lions from the Celestial plane as well as transforming himself into a Drake, and needless to say, it was over before it started, the assassin went down like a log.
====The White Caster====
William woke up the next morning, barely alive, but was nursed back to health by Davros Moonshadow, whom the assassin told he was a priest attacked by bandits in order to gain the help he needed. Thus began the assassin's long search for Cherub, whose name he does not know till date, referring to him as 'the White Caster', as the mage has only ever been seen in the assassin's eyes while in white robes. William searched through all his connections, doing the best he could to find the mage, but the man had gone into hiding and did quite the job of it. William used all the connections he could muster to find the mage, and eventually succeeded in doing so, getting into a fight with the caster near the gates of the city of Warerdeep. The fight was one of the worst William had ever experienced, as the caster went so far as to transform himself into a Balor, but unbeknowst to the assassin, the caster had some sort of internal problem, and the combination of William's attacks with whatever ailed the man managed to bring down the mage, ending his life as far as the assassin knew.
====Immortal====
William was later contacted by the Shade known as Rapha Tanthul, the Shadow Prince, in order to kill off an Elven commander called Ares Enyalios. The Elf Commander, who wielded one of the legendary Elfblades, was too powerful for the assassin to kill, and so the Shadow Prince transformed the Half Elf into the Shade/Demon hybrid he is right now. Rapha also gave William the Gauntlet of Shadows he now wields, and sent him on his way. William attacked the elf in an inn in Evereska, which as it turns out was even worse for the assassin than the second fight with the white caster. After being stabbed in the back with the Warblade and sustaining quite a few injuries, the assassin was able to gain the upper hand, and the Elf fled the scene, but not before calling down a Meteor swarm and summoning an Elder fire elemental in an effort to kill William. William survived the attack and enslaved the elemental, but his target had gotten away. William fled the scene, as the meteor swarm had done quite a bit of damage to the headquaters of the order of the swords of Evereska, and that would only serve to draw attention to him.
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