Jem

## Jem Gallagher

*"..." - Jem*

## Personality

Jem is a very curious beast with a friendly face and is mostly always optimistic, although the fact he cannot speak makes it difficult for him to communicate and he easily gets frustrated when others do not understand he's trying to tell them something. He's intelligent when it comes to figuring out how things work, but is usually oblivious to any kind of "subtle" messaging, especially with a romantic or sexual nature. He knows how to survive in the Deepwoods, mostly by running, but can put up a fight if he needs to. He forages for a living and usually, if not always, carries a pouch of various berries, roots and leaves with him. He's a light-hearted fellow and extremely naïve. If a sentient creature tells him something he will gladly listen to this, unless another, more trusted creature had told him something else before. Jem is extremely afraid of the dark or otherwise being unable to see.

## Appearance

Jem is a anthropomorphic fennec fox- that is to say, a human with a fox' head, beige fur, oversized fox ears, paws, claws and a tail swaying behind him. He usually wears a crude leather skirt and a shoulder guard sporting the gladiator look in combat, foraging or otherwise putting himself in danger; but within the walls of Earnwold he can usually be seen wearing nothing but ragged burlap pants. He isn't particularly muscular or fat; in fact, he's extremely slender. He doesn't appear intimidating in the least- he smiles constantly and his icy blue eyes always have this happy twinkle about them. There are some ivory accents on his body- on the same spots a normal fennec fox would have them, for instance his belly and chin.

## Anthro Form - Abilities

### Physical

Jem has an extreme lack of "raw power" in terms of physical strength; he can carry 60 lbs (25 kg) at most if using both of his arms, and even this takes alot of effort for him. He relies on piercing and slashing attacks to take out his opponents if he chooses to fight, as his blunt attacks have little to no effect due to his sheer absence of strength.

He uses a crude obsidian blade to battle. Even if it is a primitive weapon, it serves him well in combat. The sharp and serrated edges cause opponents to bleed and the weapon is very light, allowing Jem to use it to its maximum potential.

He makes up for his lack of strength in agility and evasion, however. His long legs allow him to cross distance swiftly and his slender body lets him dodge attacks with ease. He relies on skillful swordplay when engaging in physical combat, striking his opponents as he dashes to the left or the right. Fighting opponents with bulky and slow weapons like maces and clubs is his forte, but enemies with daggers and the like are almost certain to win a fight against Jem, assuming they have superior strength.

The reason he is "mute" is, in fact, when he tries to speak an eardrum-piercing screech emerges instead. This is harmful to Jem aswell as anyone nearby, but it does have some utility in combat- Jem knows when it's coming and can prepare appropriately. He might unintentionally screech out of combat if he is unpleasantly surprised or otherwise scared to death.

He has very little in terms of physical bulk and getting hit even once is usually enough to force him back into his soul stone. Good thing it`s extremely difficult to hit the little bugger! One of the privileges of being a spectral projection from a soul stone is immunity to most forms of disease and poison.

### Prismancy

Jem is a prismancer, which is a hybrid of geomancy and luxmancy, (respectively rock magic and light magic). He has the ability to control crystal formations and cast a wide array of illusion spells. These diciplines are mostly defensive and supportive. The prismancer likes to unearth walls of quartz from the ground to protect himself from danger or to temporarily blind their opponents with extremely bright light so he can get away. Jem isn't very keen on using magic and he needs to feel certain emotions to use certain types of magic; being hopeful is a must for his luxmancy. As a very light-hearded and positive individual, he'll usually be able to cast these spells at any time, yet this combined with his fear of the dark makes it possible for him to cast a illuminating spell before entering a cave, but if the orb of light dispels at any time he'll be unable to cast another until he's taken away from the darkness again. His geomancy relies on feelings of determination; if Jem has a goal in mind, he can unearth various types of crystals and gems to do his bidding and aid him in what he wants to do; if this little geomancer is hellbent on doing something, he may even make gigantic crystal arms erupt from the ground to seize or smash his opponents. If Jem feels genuine anger, he is capable of focusing his energy into a single beam of scorching light, damaging anything it touches aswell as Jem's own paws.

Jem's simple mind renders him immune to most mind-twisting spells and his understanding of illusions allows him to see past them most of the time, too. He is capable of taking a few more hits when it comes to magical damage, but is still extremely prone to damage.

### Soul Stone

Jem has a unique manner of dying; he doesn't. If he is significantly damaged, he'll retreat into his "soul stone"- a heart-shaped diamond, which lies at his core. It'll fall to the ground if Jem is killed. If it is smashed, Jem will be destroyed forever and his soul will be released into the sky; but, instead, if it comes in contact with harsh light or salt water, the diamond will grow and Jem will reform. A bright flash of light will temporarly daze anyone nearby if he meets his end, but after this he'll be completely incapable of self-defense; just a little gemstone.

## Golem Form - Abilities

Jem is able to regrow differently after being killed. One of the "alternative" ways to regrow is into his Golem Form. At first, his soul stone will grow out into a crystal skeleton, during which it still is very much vulnerable. When complete, a lighter, transparent crystal will emerge from the fox and cover him all over. He'll be a crystal fox-golem, very tanky and powerful but slower, dumber and magic is restricted to geomancy. He's able to eat crystals to add onto his form and increase in size, and while he might appear as a small fox cub (on the right) shortly after 'respawning', he's able to grow into fearsome, more powerful crystal beasts. His initial skeleton will remain the same, at the core of his crystal being.

## History

### Feral

Jem was birthed as a normal fennec fox within the Deepwoods. After three months of what would be considered normal life for a feral animal, he was taken from his tribe by a golemancer living in solitude. The golemancer had practiced many spells on him, among which was the soul stone's incantation, before letting him out into the wild another month later. He attempted to continue living his life normally, but the heavily experimental spells had proven to make him more humanoid as time passed, and in the end he simply outlived his brothers and sisters, living alone in the Deepwoods. He has taught himself basic survival in the years he spent in the forest, living off berries and roots, creating and using primitive tools in combat and gathering and learning to cope with the weather. That is, up until he travelled a little too far on a foraging trip and witnessed two people walking on a strange road. Curious, he followed them to what later turned out to be Earnwold. Over the next half year he had simply observed, fleeing when people tried to interact with him, but remembering how to behave, what certain things meant and everything he needed to know to function as a proper member of society. He found an abandoned basement in the lower commons and settled there, selling his foraged goods for a living.

### Civilized

After having done this for some time, he ran into Faiden Ahvatari, another fennec fox. Fascinated because he ran into someone that looked like him, he followed Faiden around until he confronted him. He soon understood Jem was mute and was willing to function as Jem's mentor, teaching him how to use his abilities regarding prismancy over the course of a year. Faiden's home was a beautiful meadow far from Earnwold. Jem stayed here during his training. Ultimately, the meadow was abandoned and Faiden had passed away after an intense battle near the meadow, costing the lives of many people involved. Jem headed back to his basement, surprised to find it untouched. He continued his life normally, occasionally using his spells to aid him when avoiding predators.

That was, until he ran into another mentor- Zane, a shark skilled in the art of the sword. Jem used to be under Zane's tutorship and lived inside Zane's home, becoming a more skilled swordfighter everyday by honing his skills. But Zane left for bounties and Jem left to hunt. Contact slowly deteriorated until they no longer saw eachother.

After clearing out the basement of vermin, he settled back down.