Cer

## **Cer, The Shadowdancer**

An impulsive punk from Anrain suburbs, Cer is pale short man with long, spiky dark blue hair and multiple tattoos on his arms, neck and chest. Most often he wears baggy clothes but chooses to display his weapons openly – namely his iconic giant kraken bone halberd. He’s proficient with his halberd and many other bladed and blunt weapons, such as daggers, short swords or staffs. This, combined with his chaotic and brutal fighting style and unimposing posture often catches his opponents off guard. In addition, Cer can use (although he’s FAR from mastering it) and ancient and forgotten shadow magic. He uses it in combat to control his own shadow as a separate entity able to wield weapons and mimic his movement. While focused enough, he can control the shadow directly instead of making it mimic him, but he seldom uses this ability consciously. More often the shadow is controlled by his second personality.

Cer is clinically insane, suffering from split personality disorder. His “main” personality is an ungovernable and thrill-seeking anarchist, but his second one is an unhinged psychopath who wants nothing but bloodshed. After learning the shadow magic, his second personality most often occupies his shadow, rarely taking control of his actual body.

## **Story**

From a petty criminal to a Guard officer, everyone familiar with the shady alleys of Anrain suburbs will tell you to not cross the man who talks to his shadow.

When he was a child, other kids made fun of Cer for talking to “the voice in his head”. The voice, in response, told him to kill the other kids, but at the time Cer had no guts to actually kill them. Worst he ever did at the time was to beat them up, but most often he would ended up being beaten. His mother was too busy with the bottle and a new man-of-her-life every week to see that her son had some problems, and even if she did, she could not afford to do anything about these, so he was left alone with the voice who told him to kill and destroy.

He dropped off the school and found a job in the local warehouse, from where he quickly got fired for beating up one of his co-workers who made fun of him. The story was similar with his subsequent job in a weapon store, and a construction site. After failing to keep any job for longer, Cer shrugged and just moved to stealing. Then, to robbing lost tourists he came across. Then, to robbing other petty criminals from the outskirts. And then, he ended up in jail for a year. Ironically, it was not for the crimes he indulged in commonly, but for beating up his mother’s newest boyfriend who underestimated Cer’s ability to fight back.

When he was released however, he did not worried about having no home to go back to. While imprisoned, he got two things he could not get on the Anrain streets, at least not without proper contacts – a diagnosis, and a proper training. The psychologist from Anrain Penitentiary provided the first, while his cellmates, former adventurers who ended up in this place for crimes far worse, were glad to teach their new pal how to hurt other people properly. When Cer was being released, as a parting gift he received directions to the stash of weapons hidden in an abandoned village. He fully expected some rusty daggers and old swords, but was greatly surprised when he fond a halberd made out of kraken bone under the rotting planks of dilapidated house. With a weapon of this tier, he choose the only life path that remained for him – adventuring.

The Anrain Adventurning Association who would previously never give a job to someone with a criminal record like his had a change of leadership while Cer was behind the bars, and the new guildmaster Fekhah was more than happy to have someone like him working for her. With his skill and the high-end weapon he wielded, the beasts from the mountains, the undead, and even the outlaws who would cross his path stood no chance. The blood thirst of the voice in his head was temporarily satisfied, and the profit he brought back made his new boss very happy. In return, she got him exactly what he wanted: more chances to bring pain and chaos. In time, she even approved on his idea for the Association to offer some questionably legal services for the people who wanted someone to be removed from equastion, and were willing to pay for it. Slowly, he was getting more and more recognition, and more shady people wanting his services. One particular day Cer got a mission from an old Satran mage called Marim, interested in his mental condition. The mage claimed he knows a way to silence Cer’s cruel side, but first Cer would have to retrieve research papers from a lost laboratory in the tundra, which supposedly took years to be tracked down.

The old mage and the mad assassin travelled to the lost laboratory, and during their rite Cer had to endure many long expositions about how the absence of light can be given form, how human souls can be split, and how golems are made. When after three weeks of travel trough the snow he could plunge his halberd into the frozen flesh of the undead ones wandering the ruins Cer could not be happier. While Marim was studying what he came here for, Cer indulged in the casual decimation of the now undead staff of the desolate establishment.

When the sun started setting, Marim’s true intentions were revealed. The mage never intended to actually help Cer, but to use his divergent soul as a guinea pig for his research into the forgotten shadow magic, but in his hubris forgot that his would-be test subject was an experienced killer. Just to spite the foolish traitor, Cer followed the instructions detailed in the papers himself.

What happened later that night remained between him and his shadow forever.

## **In-game**

Cer forces his enemies to watch out for their positioning, as each of his attacks, while dangerous at it's own, is followed by an even stronger echo of his Umbra.

Abilities
Enemies hit by Umbra are additionally blinded for 3 seconds.
When repeating Shrouded Step umbra can dash through terrain.
 Adumbrate
 Shrouded Step

## **Trivia**

* Originally Umbra was supposed to be visible and follow Cer all the time, but this was scrapped because of potential performance issues it could cause.
* Cer's Umbra repeating his attacks was inspired by Umbra of Providence from Risk of Rain.
* Cer is the second character using a weapon made of kraken bone, first being Cane.