Vandes

**Vandes** is one of the knights of Bismuth, part of the Order of Celebrant. He is a vampire of some reknown, due to his immensely great archery skill, and combat prowess. Despite his normally great distance from combat, he's easily identifiable due to his bow having nothing comparable to it and the rain of swords as arrows that follows his arrival.

## Characteristics

The Archer of the Knights of Celebrant, Vandes himself is an individual that keeps away from the battlefield, destroying far targets with his weaponry and magic. He's noted to be a competent mage as well as assassin, yet his prowess as a knight is not compromised.

Vandes, like the other names commonly attributed to the Knights of Celebrant, is probably not his true name. It serves to only make the mysterious archer - knight more mysterious.

Vandes is normally a very introverted man who prefers to stay away from most people, leading to mostly neutral interactions with most of the knights. He is known to be very good friends with Gilder, for whatever reason. He is known to be quite lecherous at times, though not without self restraint, and he keeps this part of him well hidden.

Vandes is also known to admire Ordecius, and thus has a very cultured and gentlemanly outlook on things, making him very polite to Corelia and Velaren.

Vandes is known to dislike Loraech and Emirion for a lack of finesse and taste. He exceptionally hates brutes, and doesn't have any respect for those with no skill. Vandes also thinks Khorre leaves a very bad taste in his mouth, due to how disgusting the man can be when he deals with the dead.

## Background

Vandes only ever appears when Odyss begins her attempts to conquer the whole of the known world, supporting his allies from afar with withering firepower using his bow, as well as many special magic abilities meant to complement his skills

Vandes is extremely skilled in the use of weapons, and knows the magic needed to replicate the exterior shells and even powers of weapons, allowing him to make inferior copies of almost every known weapon. He is also known for his unerring accuracy, be it on foot, mounted or even when he's flying with wings. He is talented at dual wielding and single wielding swords, maces and axes.

Due to a trap intended to snare him, Vandes was unmasked by the Near-Humans, and it is remembered that he has reddish hair, along with light amber eyes that hold a certain soft iridescence to them. He has fair skin, and is noted to be quite good looking. This is also how people know he has the weather controlling sword Eleision under his control.

## Powers and Abilities

* Master swordsmanship
* Master Archery
* Master unarmed combat
* Vampiric Strength, Speed and Endurance
* High Tier Reinforcement magic
* Wind Crest - ability to cast all low tier wind spells for no mana, including some plasma magic.
* 7 Vitakinetic Channels - advanced vitakinesis.
* Flight - via vampire's wings
* Expert in Soul Magic
* "Soul Sight" - a power that allows Vandes to see extremely far via a sixth sense, which enables his unrealistically powerful archery. He is able to see magic and souls using this.
* Weapon Projection - Vandes can use alteration spells to make a copy of any weapon he has seen before, retaining all its enchantments. Soul magic awakens copied spirit weapons easily and reduces the backlash. However the copies are always degraded, making them only 80% as strong as the original at best.
* Weapon Alteration - Vandes can forcefully reconfigure weapons into arrows with some effort. This allows him to fire the weapons effectively from his bow. However, this drastically shortens the lifespan of the weapon.
* Weapon Overload - Vandes can overload his projected weapon/non spirit weapons, causing them to explode violently on hit. It is used in tandem with weapon alteration, allowing Vandes to push weapons to about 95% of their original output by sacrificing them and employ conceptual weapons over long ranges.
* Telekinesis - normally used to fire his projected weapons over shorter ranges.
* Master level wind magic
* Mist Form
* Ability to summon a phantasmal black horse that emits black mists for transport if he is lazy to walk or fly. It can charge into enemy ranks and explode.

## Equipment

Vandes' most famous piece of equipment is his spirit bow *Fallinaut, the Shining Star of Destiny*. This is an incredibly powerful kinetic energy aligned weapon which is capable of applying direction and speed to its arrows. It can also project arrows for use and locks onto targets that Vandes sees. Thus, Vandes is not just able to fire massless energy arrows, he can fire them at high speed or even fire up to seven arrows with one draw. Fallinaut is also able to fire projected weapons as arrows. Vandes can even adjust the trajectory of arrows if needed.

Fallinaught has the following abilities:

* **Shooting Star** - the basic arrow, a high speed spear like arrow that strikes with no fail due to the automatic guidance of the projectiles on locked targets. It deals good damage and can be fired very quickly, giving Fallinaught a rapid fire property. It can also be free fired to strafe enemies.
* **Radiant Point** - Fallinaught is used to fire seven energy arrows in one draw, causing them to spiral out chaotically as they lock on a target and all converge to hit the target with no fail. The arrows can target up to seven people from long ranges. Requires a lock.
* **Celestial Dart** - Vandes' most accurate shots. This is a massless beam of energy that travels at the speed of light, piercing all it hits with extreme damage. Very long range. It is what allows Vandes to hit targets even from a mile away when used with his. Free fired only.
* **Meteor Transfer** - Vandes uses Fallinaut to fire a projectile not originating from the spirit bow, such as his projections. This allows him to give his projectiles the properties of the bow's Shooting Star attack, thus allowing him to guide his projectiles after they are fired, and rendering them practically massless until they hit the enemy. Projectiles can be free fired, locked on or guided after shooting.

Vandes also has the spirit sword *Eleision, Eyrie of Fate*. This is another incredible weapon that is wielded by him. It is a silvery sword that is aligned with the element of water and air. The sword can generate lightning to fling as ranged attacks, and is very capable of manipulation of weather.

Eleision has the following abilities:

* **Thunderstrike** - Eleision releases a bolt of lightning at a selected target, causing a powerful explosion of electrical energy that chains rapidly through multiple people near the selected targets. The targeting can be controlled by the wielder.
* **Winds of Change** - Eleision is able to control winds, and releases a directional blast of winds with a swing or stab. The wind effects can be changed in terms of power and width of the wind field, allowing for precision blasts or wide area sweeps.
* **Eyrie of Fate** - Eleision's trump card, it gives the sword total and complete control over weather via atmosphere magic, allowing it to be used almost like another set of magic abilities. This can summon hailstorms, call lightning, make tornadoes, perform windblasts etc. Cannot be used indoors unless roof is destroyed.
* **Shattered Eyrie** - Eleision can dispel all weather effects with one slash. It can cut apart wind and water magic as well. It can be used to reflect electrical magic if well timed but this is risky due to the travelling speed of electrical magic.

Vandes wears a set of silvery - grey armor that seems to self repair. It doesn't seem to have any real special properties and simply protects him from damage by improving his resilience.