lazius Taladas Falconar

Odain alias: Glazius

Played by: Glazius Falconar (GlaziusFalconar@peoplepc.com)

Homeworld: Avis Prime, original continuity

Physical Description:

Glazius appears to be a peregrine falcon that was somehow scaled up to human size; six feet tall, with about a ten-foot wingspan, fully extended. He wears an odd exoskeletal armor composed of lengths of a bamboo-like material, about one foot long each, that cover his body in a triangular matrix. Under it all is a silver neckband, an iridescent grey belt pouch, and a coating of mottled brown plumage that is greying in some places and fraying in others. Glazius's eyes are a dull amber, and his beak is pocked and scratched from wear.

Powers:

Glazius is capable of flight. Lots and lots of flight. Days at a time, with his exoskeleton enabled. He can perform aerial acrobatics, hampered somewhat by the armor, and can generally maneuver like a military helicopter, if not better.

Glazius can convert the organic compounds in anything into metal by means of a ray; at the moment, the only thing he converts is his armor for distance flights, as the ray itself only operates at a very short range and on immobile targets. Normally, only a two-inch hemisphere from the initial point of contact is affected; Glazius constructed the armor so that the ray would be refracted through it and convert it all at once. It should be noted that organic creatures feel some small amount of pain from the initial operation of the ray, but that metallic tissue is incapable of feeling pain at all.

Glazius can also speak human language and has excellent sensory abilities; these are a function of his computer and are detailed further in the Equipment section.

Weaknesses:

Out of the air, Glazius is slow and usually incapable of dodging much, if anything, that's directed at him, thanks both to his natural ineptitude on the ground and the extra bulk of the armor, which he seldom if ever removes. He is thus nearly helpless underground, unless the cavern is large enough for him to take wing in, and even then his maneuvering options are very limited.

Also, he has no hands, only chopstick-like assemblies at the ends of his wings, and he can't manipulate anything other than light objects (say, under five pounds) with them.

Skills:

Glazius was trained as a scientist, and that knowledge has had time to trickle into a lot of applications in his brain. He's got a fair amount of skill with anything scientific or technological, able to act as a capable field surgeon, though hampered somewhat by his inexpert knowledge of anything but his own species' anatomy. That will extend to most applied sciences; he has the theoretical knowledge but very little knowledge of anyone's application of it.

He can also put up a credible fight, having practiced for such an occasion for several years. A foot-long metal pole driven by his wings makes a very powerful bludgeon, though he needs enough space to swing back for a truly effective blow... and, of course, he needs to be in the air to begin with.

Equipment:

The armor Glazius wears is fairly tough even when not metallic, and will not part under most ordinary bladed weapons, though exceptional strength can cleave through it easily. When it _is_ metallic, the armor is almost impenetrable by any physical means, though the fact that there are one-foot gaps in the armor make it easy to bypass it with a gun, laser, or similar tightly-focused beam, and it is no barrier to field attacks like magical fire, shadow, water, what have you. It will conduct electricity and keep it away from Glazius's body, however.

Glazius's computer has two major functions: first, it will allow him to speak in a language other than his own, though he must have heard a significant portion of it to do anything other than guess at a translation. Further, since the translation is realtime, there will be occasional breaks in Glazius's speech.

The second major function of the computer is to act as a sensor suite. It processes visual data that could normally reach Glazius's eyes; seeing through walls or through rock is more or less out of the question. However, the computer can detect objects that would normally be considered cloaked, and possesses a primitive form of aura reading (examining ambient emanations for a few characteristics) that will let Glazius know if something is magical, enchanted, or otherwise different from normal matter. It's also capable of considerable magnification (from 2x to 1000x) and can enhance Glazius's long-range vision to cover several thousand miles, though this is obviously only practically useful on the surface.

Personality:

Glazius is perhaps a bit paranoid; anyone who is visibly armed will bring the armor into metallic form and Glazius will be wary of them until the weapon is put away or until he is convinced they mean no harm. This will never come to the point of attacking, as Glazius will try to flee if he feels too threatened.

Glazius also has a burning desire to talk with something sentient besides his computer. This will generally override everything except the raw survival instinct, and anyone new will grab his attention immediately unless they are obviously dangerous.

In addition to this is an honest... need to be needed. Until he adjusts to being in the company of others again, Glazius is likely to be helpful to a fault, unless what he's doing is obviously dangerous. The help will most likely take forms other than physical fetch-and-carry, unless there's an obvious physical need such as a broken leg. Hashing out a thorny engineering problem is likely to be more Glazius's speed, and he will pursue most intellectual or technical dillemas to the best of his abilities, even if they're only hinted at by, or do not in fact exist for, the one posing them.

Connections:

Nobody. Though some people may remember someone _like_ Glazius from the original Nexus, these two are patently different, and Glazius does not share his counterpart's memories of the Nexus at all.

Backstory:

Glazius was involved in a dimensional transport that punched a seventh-dimensional hole in space; as a result, quantum copies of himself were scattered throughout the cosmos, prevented from breaching dimensional barriers on pain of encountering an analogue and letting reality feed back on itself with catastrophic results. This particular copy has been wandering the surface world for several decades, and has not, in all that time, seen any sign of civilization, or of any sentient beings other than himself. 

Theme: "The Vultures Fly High", Renaissance