Damyn Black

“*Nature is neither cruel nor loving. She is one of the truly neutral forces in all the world.*”
―Damyn Black

## Political Information

### Profession

Supernatural Conservationist, Exorcist, Therianologist

### Alias(es)

Damyn of Lod, The Supernaturalist, Firework

## Relationships

### Lover(s)

Bernadette Donadieu

**Damyn Black of Lod**, known by his peers in the magical community as **The Supernaturalist**, is a renowned scholar and supernatural conservationist, with a specialization in therianology and monster studies. He was the first and only known apprentice of Master Dorregary of Vole, and personally aided in the study and publication of many acclaimed thesis regarding the relationship between the monsters of the Continent and the races of men.

He eventually struck out on his own as an independent sorcerer, successfully coming into some modest fame after the publication of his own work *Lycanthropy; A Study of the Impossible Physiological*.

## Personality

Damyn serves no ambition but his own, believing that knowledge is the bridge between ignorance and understanding, and that he is among the few true masons left. He travels the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaardian Empire, studying monsters and their effect on the ecological systems of the world. Unlike Dorregaray, Damyn does not consider humans to be a disease that will eventually eradicate itself, and the world with it, through arrogance, fear, and superstition. He instead believes that the key to humanity's future lies in understanding the monsters, and by extension, the other races they must share the world with.

He's been noted as being rather scatterbrained and socially challenged when enraptured in the throes of his latest discovery. His insatiable hunger for learning and discovery often supersedes all else, to the point of jeopardizing his personal relations.

## Biography

### The Urchin of Lod (1071 - 1084)

Damyn Black grew up an orphan on the streets of Lod and by the age of 12 had joined in with a gang of fellow urchins, having never known or met his parents. He’d never been given a name, and so was often referred to by various descriptors, some kinder than others. What began as schemes of petty theft eventually grew into something of an operation, with a bit of help from a local cabal of thieves who used the urchins as informants. On the eve of his thirteenth summer, during what should have been a simple robbery with his gang, Damyn used magic for the first time, revealing that he was a source. As with most sources his first magical expression was entirely on accident and entirely destructive. When guardsmen arrived to arrest the boys, one proved to be a bit too rough and accidentally killed one of the youngest. Overcome by rage, Damyn reacted entirely on instinct, raised his hand, and the guardsman combusted from the inside out. Had Damyn been able to control his power, he might have stopped before doing anything more than giving the man severe heat stroke, but as he commanded the living flames inside him, he heard whispers; voices which promised to unveil the fates of those around him, promising him power, and compelled him to give in to the essence of fire, to burn everything. By the time he broke from the trance and realized what had happened all of the guards had fallen dead, roasted alive.

Damyn managed to slip away before more guardsmen appeared, stunned by this new revelation. His friends weren’t the only ones who had witnessed the event, and as Damyn’s gang sought to profit from this discovery, word spread to those who had other plans for the young would be mage. For the next few months, Damyn attempted to explore this new power in the hopes to perhaps use it again, with little success. He was both fascinated and absolutely terrified. The voices began to whisper to him whenever he looked into fire, and sometimes whenever he became angered or afeared, yet it was only during such times of emotional duress that the young mage found he could willingly compel the magic to come forth. It was near to six months later that Damyn’s actions against the guardsmen finally caught up to him. He was sold out by his own gang, who had grown suspicious and paranoid about having an insane ‘witch-man’ among them. The penalty for killing a guardsmen was death, but first there was a trial, during which Damyn tried and miserably failed to defend himself. He was given a week to make peace before he was to be burned at the stake. Fate, however, had other plans.

On the morning of his execution Damyn was met in his cell by an old man who introduced him as Archmaster Mardin of Rakverelin, Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs at the Academy of Ban Ard. The man asked the young source questions for what felt to him like hours, before finally beckoning the jail guard to unlock the cell. He was then told to gather his things and that he was, from that day forward, a student of Ban Ard.

### Apprenticeship in Ban Ard (1084 - 1096)

His first few years attending Ban Ard Academy were uneasy. Damyn was not accustomed to any sort of structure, much less being beholden to a rigid schedule, or adhering to the expectations of authoritative figures, but he saw the academy as a chance to make something of himself. It was difficult, nearly resulting in expulsion on more than one occasion, but eventually he adapted. Damyn began to bond with his fellow apprentices, namely a fellow street urchin named Bartholomew, and he quickly became popular among others of his year, even if some of his high born peers sought to make it very apparently that they did not appreciate their prestigious lessons being attended by lowly street rabble. This was exacerbated because as a young apprentice Damyn quickly discovered he possessed an affinity for one of the most destructive forms of magic; fire. Where simple fire spells were considered rudimentary magical study, to channel ones magic purely from the fire element was considered a rare and exceptionally dangerous skill, incredibly difficult to master and highly likely to drive even a practiced caster completely mad. Damyn was given extensive and specialized studies in order to allow him a measure of mastery over his power, and in the meanwhile learned to channel his magic with other elements. His mental and emotional health were also very carefully monitored as he mastered himself and his gift.

What he came to love most about his time in Ban Ard, aside from all the mischief he and his fellow students would get into, was the gardens. Ban Ard’s gardens were ancient and pristine, naturally melding into the countryside with such ease he would often wander deep into the Kaedwenian forest without realizing he’d left the academy grounds. It was this love of nature and the splendors thence which eventually lead him to his future specialization. As his lessons grew more frequent and more intensive, he began to excel where other students of similar backgrounds, his friends, slowly found themselves expelled from the academy. Those of prestigious families in turn began to warm to him and took a keen interest in his ‘specialized training’ and rumors of his ever growing and exceptional talent. Though his professors felt he would be better suited for a future as a court mage, particularly as a military advisor, and were pushing him to consider a term of service with the Kaedwini Special Forces, Damyn poured his focus into mastering pyrokinisis for his own means. He did not believe that a talent for fire magic should inherently lead him to a life of violent ambition, that such a passion could, if properly focused, serve a higher and far better purpose than self-grandeur.

It was during his 6th year that he attended a lecture by one Dorregaray of Vole, a monster conservationist and ecologist, and it was while listening to this lecture that he decided he would dedicate his life’s work to furthering understanding between man and monster. He wrote Dorregaray a letter to thank him for his lecture and formally requested to be personally tutored by him, then put in a request to be admitted singular apprenticeship. Dorregaray didn’t agree right away, but did write back and ask to meet with Damyn to discuss his options and they did, from sun up to sun down. After then conferring with Damyn’s professors and speaking with then Rector Gerhart of Aelle, Dorregaray agreed to take him on as an apprentice on one condition; that Damyn had to finish his formal education at Ban Ard first.

### Traveling with Master Dorregaray (1096 - 1129)

Damyn Black graduated Ban Ard with high accolades on September 14th in the year 1096, having published his first thesis by his 10th year, and then a book just before his 12th. Neither received wider recognition beyond the walls of Ban Ard Academy, but were widely considered to be the best academic papers ever written by an apprentice, contending with even the highest level graduates of Aretuza. Dorregaray attended the ceremony and the two left to begin their journey together shortly after its conclusion.

Dorregaray was a stern but fair teacher. He tolerated little in the way of foolish humanitarian pursuits and preferred a wholly naturalist approach to his research into the various species of the Continent. His goal was not to unify the races, or foster understanding between mankind and the supernatural, but instead to prove that humanity was merely yet another cog in the grand scheme of the universe. Damyn was, at first, rather inclined toward believing in this perspective and hungrily devoured every bit of Dorregaray’s teachings. He learned to and helped collect samples, edit and revise scholarly articles, and even hand copied several of Dorregaray’s works for distribution.

In the summer of 1112 Damyn returned to Ban Ard with several other alumni to undergo the final ritual and receive the elixir that would grant him longevity. Like the many sorcerers before him, Damyn had waited to undergo this process because the ideal magician, in the eyes of the magical world and the common folk alike, was the dignified sorcerer. He would later come to regret this, citing that he’d have liked to better preserve himself in the prime of his physical youth for the sake of better being able to endure the physical demands of his profession.

He and Dorregaray then continued their travels together for some time, though their differing opinions and a growing ambition to make a name for himself eventually drove Damyn to seek out his own path.

### The Supernaturalist (1129 - 1262)

For the next forty years Damyn pursued his own ambitions, ignited by a desire to uncover the means to unite the world of men and monsters, to foster a lasting peace through deeper understanding. He came to believe that monsters, at least the sentient ones, were capable of offering humanity the means to progress where magic had yet to. Further, Damyn disliked the nepotism and elitism of magical organizations such as the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, which more often than not sought political and personal gain, alongside implementing arbitrary restrictions on magical study which served only to preserve the exclusivity of the trade.

He began his work by implementing the practical skills he’d learned under Dorregaray; capturing and studying live specimens. During an excursion to the far north, Damyn met with and was conscripted by the Prince of Kovir to rid a local village of an infestation thought to be brought about by a curse. Damyn obliged and rooted out the source of the curse, which turned out to be an infestation of archespore illegally smuggled in from Toussaint. Damyn was able to isolate the specimens and neutralize them for further study, earning him the good graces of King Esterad Thyssen, who granted him access to a modest estate set in the middle of a frozen lake at the foot of the Dragon Mountains. The lake, dubbed by locals as Loc Ddraig-Súil, became his primary residence and would remain so for decades to come, during which time he would continue to serve the nobility of Kovir and Poviss, who would in turn fund many of his future endeavors.

### Lycanthropy: A Study (1262-1273)

It was during the summer of 1262 and in the Nilfgaardian city of Loredo where Damyn first heard rumors of a pit fighter in known as The Bitch of Nazair. Descriptions of her lead Damyn to conclude that she was some form of supernatural and though he’d originally traveled south to study the effects of long-term warfare on local ghoul populations in an effort to prove they were an essential species, he quickly abandoned the idea when he discovered he was right about her. Ishtalíareian de Salvat, formerly the leader of a company of mercenaries called The Band of the Red Chimera, was a werewolf. More importantly, she was not only female, but was born with the affliction, a rarity among rarities.

Using a bit of his old skill-set as a street urchin, and then a hefty portion of his own funding, Damyn secured an audience with the Pit King and made him an offer to pay off the remainder of her debt and then some, which officially turned her over to his possession. He offered her a choice, to be given clothes and coin and sent on her way, or to be provided all of that in addition to permanent lodging, and in exchange, she would become a live-in subject for his research. She accepted and the pair made their way to Kovir and Poviss, back to Damyn's estate, and his intense study of her would become the basis of his magnum opus: *Lycanthropy; A Study of the Impossible Physiological*.

On July 1st in the year 1267, Damyn refused the summons to Thanedd Isle at the behest of his old master, a thing he would later come to deeply regret. After having heard of his old master's troubles, he left his new ward in charge of the estate and traveled to be by Doregarray's side while he recovered. The two caught up, and it was during one of their many conversations that Damyn let slip his current fascination with lycantropy. Doregarryay then told Damyn of Eberhartt of Rivia, a student who had become infected by lycanthropy about ten years prior and who had miraculously retained his ability to perform magic. Though he'd been a promising student, the young mage had been kept from his courses and instead used for experimentation. Dorregarray had been among the few who had petitioned against Eberhartt being kept in Ban Ard for such purposes, and when the young mage escaped, he'd tracked him down to Redania and sent a letter of support. The reply indicated that he'd found the means to support himself, but not how. Doregarray urged Damyn to seek Eberhartt out if he wanted to expand his knowledge, which Damyn heartily agreed and once the old sorcerer was recovered, they parted ways.

Eager to pursue this lead, Damyn returned to his estate to fetch Ishtalí, and the pair set out to track down Eberhartt. They found him working as a healer in Novigrad and while initially reluctant, Eberhartt eventually agreed to be part of Damyn's study, on the condition that none of the experiments were invasive and that he would remain an anonymous contributor. Eberhartt gave Damyn access to his old journals which detailed the experiments he and the recently deceased Doctor Bertrand Wirtz performed on other lycanthropes. The information, as well as the records he'd been able to secure through Doregarray of Ban Ard's experiments on Eberhartt, proved immeasurably valuable to Damyn's study. Though he observed the pair grow curious of one and other Damyn recognized quickly that Ishtalí did not approve of Eberhartt, nor of his experiments. In fact, one of their first arguments since meeting occurred when Damyn proposed that she assist them in the capture of another lycan so as to recreate one of the procedures originally designed by Doctor Wirtz. Through Eberhartt, Damyn also found Otto Dussart, who likewise hesitantly agreed to be part of the study, alongside his wife.

Lycanthropy; A Study in the Impossible Physiological was officially published in 1270.

## Contributions

Over the many long years of this life and travels, Damyn has written numerous books, essays, and studies on various subjects. Most of his works center around the exploration of the many vast and unique monsters of the Continent. A full list of his known works, in order of publication, is as follows;

### Essays and Studies

* A Guide to Archespores
* Folk Curses and Cures
* Magical Physiognomy
* Wyverns, Cockatrices, and Basilisks
* Why Trolls Love Bridges

### Books

* The Book of Curses
* The Hounds of Hell: A Study of Barghests
* The Anatomy of Arachnids
* Lycanthropy; A Study in the Impossible Physiological
* The Encyclopedia Vampirica
* Monstra Femina: A Discourse of the Female Monster
* Therianthropy; An Expansion of the Impossible Physiological
* The Complete Bestiary of Zerrikania
* Dragons; Majesty and Ruin
* Spirits and Their Callers
* Monstrous Blood: A Study of Impossible Hybrids

## Relationships

* Bartholomew
* Master Dorregaray of Vole
* Ishtalíareian of Zerrikania
* Bernadette Donadieu

## Abilities and Skills

* **Magical Ability:** As a formally trained mage and born source, Damyn possesses the ability to harness the power of Chaos. This power manifests in different ways according to his means and ends. As a student he showed great promise, as well as a marked affinity for fire magic, which he honed over decades of study and practice. His skills are better suited as a scholar than as an active combatant, but his mastery of the fire element still makes him quite a dangerous foe.
* **Polymorhism:** Damyn is among the few mages capable of polymorphing, an ability he only recently developed after several decades of concerted effort to master. His chosen form is that of a golden eagle which he has taken to using for travel. He is unable to cast magic while in this form, but he can utilize telepathy and telempathy to communicate.
* **Pyrokinesis:** As a practiced user of the element of fire, Damyn can manipulate the energies of people and things around him to cause them to become enflamed and can conjure and project flames from his own hands. Notably, the flames Damyn produces are blue and only began to change color half-way through his term at Ban Ard. There are several theories for why this is, but none that can be fully proven. That aside, Damyn dedicated a good portion of his time in Ban Ard toward mastering himself and his talent for fire magic, so much so that he can use it relatively free of concern, though never without caution.
* **Pyromancy:** Using a person's hair, nails, or other physical item, Damyn can utilize his mastery of the fire element to glean information about a person's current fate. This is not a skill Damyn uses often, as the risk involved carries with it a price he is reluctant to pay. Fire is deceitful and though he has mastered it, he knows that absorbing its energy unprepared can trigger unwanted pyromantic visions that could show false events and/or worst-case scenarios.
* **Teleportation:** Like other formally trained mages, Damyn is capable of basic teleportation, that is; the magical displacement of beings or objects from one place to another. Through the usage of portals Damyn can travel (by himself) up to a distance of five kilometers. Any more than that, or if he attempts the same distance with more than one person, he risks grave injury.
* **Telepathy:** As with most mages and naturally gifted psionics Damyn possesses the ability to transmit and receive information without recourse to speech, even in his eagle form. This ability is viable over great distances but can be limited by exposure to metals such as dimeritium impede this ability.
* **Telempathy:** An ability which many consider to be an extension of telepathy, telempathy is a psionic ability to read minds and share emotions. Very few are able to resist his attempts, but the few who have been able to have left him with bloodied noses.
* **Longevity:** Like all mages, Damyn partook of the potion that preserved his age. However, like other sorcerers were inclined to do Damyn waited until he was in his later years and as such, he is indefinitely frozen in his early forties, a choice he would later regret.
* **Monster Studies:**
* **Singing:**

## Trivia

* Damyn is based on a combination of Steve Irwin, Nigel Thornberry, and Abraham van Helsing.
* The theories surrounding the color of Damyn's flame are thus;
	+ One theory is that with natural fire, a blue-colored flame only emerges when oxygen and airflow increases, the amount of airborne soot decreases, and blue emissions from excited molecular radicals become dominant. In essence, it is free of outwards impurities and therefore burns hotter than other flames.
	+ The other, more accepted theory, is that while the actual chemical composition of magical fire is similar to natural flame; all magical fire is born of a source free of outward impurities and are, rather, affected by inward pollutants such as heightened emotion, ego, and malice.