Pesmios Arlent [APPROVED, 4-1+]

» Name: Pesmios Ardent
» Titles: Sky Slayer
» Age: 200 (c.1500)
» Gender: Male
» Affiliation/Rank: 1st Division, Gotei United

» Association: Macto Clan



Introverted: Regarded as an isolationist, Pesmios has an independent persona and detaches himself from others when it's not mandated. A bit of a social misfit, he doesn't necessarily march to a different drum, but the cadence he follows isn't exactly the same as other shinigami. Instead self-motivated and pursuant of interests outside of the Gotei's missions, and what should be his own by extension, Pesmios can often seem downright odd to others, though its really just that whatever most people keep below the surface, he has trouble mimicking, expressing himself pretty honestly unbeknownst to him.

Integrity: This leads into another governing trait, that being Pesmios's values of integrity. Not just being outwardly honest, but personal integrity, the capacity to be honest with oneself and address things how you truly feel without holding back. His personal struggle with this in the past life has therefore transformed into a vital characteristic held dear, and something which reflects the truth in a person: if a person is honest with themselves and acts true to their heart? Maybe they don't have life figured out, but they're certainly going to be more well-composed, as they have a better understanding of themselves and how to conduct themselves as such.

Competent: Not necessarily in reference to some sort of intellectualism, but rather showing what others would regard in the moment as a degree of competency, Pesmios is through and through a pragmatic person. Ideals occupy his mind like any other person, but what comes outward is actions and words founded in realism and practicality. Anything otherwise seems questionable to him, though he has a degree of faith in people that there's some reason to what they're doing.

Trust: Old and wise enough to not be completely naiive, Pesmios still places a degree of trust in people akin to offering a person the benefit of the doubt at first impression. Of course, he won't put all eggs in one basket, but neither will he discount a person without reason to do so. It can be a tad optimistic of him, but his self-deprecating perception offers to put most people above himself on the moral scale, and therefore put more faith in them than sometimes warranted.

Perfectionist: Bred by his actions of cowardice and reinforced by his ideals of bravery, Pesmios suffers several layers of self-hate and deprecation. He's come to terms with this struggle and has decided to face it head-on, but it still effects much of his personality, causing him to be distant to others and incredibly reckless. Pesmios uses this trait positively, reinforcing it to force himself to train harder, be stronger, and run the path of eventual redemption faster, a lot of times faster than his body can handle. Though he's definitely seeing positive results, continuing to do so has placed him on a path to self-ruin that he will very well eventually reach without some external help. As much as he favours practicality and independence, forsaking advice and outreach from others will inevitably be his downfall.

Valour: Achievement is the only acceptable appropriation of self-worth. That in mind, with examples of bravery and just action as his motivator, any exemplary shows of justice is more than favourably seen by Pesmios--stressing "shows". It can't just be actions or intents of goodwill, but successful performances, as nothing really matters if the end-results can't be reached. A bit of an ends-justify-the-means ideology isn't off-putting for the Sky Slayer, though there are of course limitations.



Background: The Macto Clan was a power that surpassed the "growing" phase and entered the "stabilising" phase. While they had sway and influence in many spheres, they never established as an official power globally recognised, largely due to their tenets and values inspiring desires that weren't inclusive to politics or otherwise. But, as with any and every group, even ones holding camaraderie and importance on relationships as the foremost characteristic to endear, a rise of power and establishment of numbers would never hold perfect forever.

The Macto Clan didn't include stressing political powers, but political powers certainly took notice of the family, and aims at interference or inclusion in their influence and resources was impossible to avoid. As the family grew, so did attention on it, and before the peak of the civil war already at hand, a politician decided to take advantage of the turmoil to find gains for himself. Funny thing is, this politician was originally a full-blooded Macto clansman.

As one of the descendants of the four-sages, though by now the distinction of which one for minor members is unknown considering his later path in life, separated ties to the clan to pursue intellectual power. He too valued family, but couldn't bear to put it before his personal ambitions, so instead of stooping to using his family to pursue his own path, the man took official leave. In this moment, he was still considered righteous in their eyes, as he foresaw his own heart and took action to do what felt right to him, and the Macto Clan fully supported this, especially since they put value on personal beliefs and journeys as well. They told him that, regardless of how he considers himself cut off from the family, he may always return when in a time of need.

And in the years preceding the peak of the civil war, he took those words to heart. After entering the political sphere, the man's heart and values grew weak and he bent to the will of corruption that persevered in Greece, as this century was a tumultuous one, riddled with threats to their nation from rivaling powers at their borders. Thus, the politician decided to re-enter the sphere of the Macto Clan, and after reintegration, he was called to arms to fight Aesop's forces on behalf of the family. Greece's own soldiers also partook in accordance with the politicians machinations, fighting on behalf of the three brothers. In exchange, after the completion of the civil war, the Macto Clan would also come to arms in the face of threats to the nation.

During the war, the politician's heart began to heal, and the tenets held up by the clan were reinstated in his set of values. He never exposed his true intentions to use the Macto Clan, but the pain within for trying to use them, and by extension a sort of betrayal, tore at him, and he continued on to fight with the intent of dying for the clan, as a way to pay back his sins with blood--and that he did. But, his death wasn't heralded as one of a martyr to everyone; not everyone wept for the passing of their brethren.

The politician's son, Pesmios, was a perceptive child, and whenever his father returned from combat, a great pain painted his body's expressiveness, rather lack thereof. Seeing this, to Pesmios war became the object of his fear. He never knew what truly made his father look tired, depressed, and lost. While in truth it was the fact that his salvation known as death did not come to allow his repentance to be rewarded, Pesmios understood the cause to be the death of those around him.

As his father never came home after his final battle, this misconception was never addressed, and when Pesmios finally came of age, he only understood that war was something to despise and fear. Unfortunately, all those around him addressed combat with a sense of fervor, fighting and slaying those that barred their path to be the utmost honourable thing. That said, his true perception of war could never be appropriately addressed, and the fear within him was burrowed deep.

The day it came out and ruled his actions was his first deployment to the front-lines. Until then, Pesmios had never faced a real enemy. When his unit progressed too far behind enemy lines without taking appropriate cautions, an ambush took place. Everyone around Pesmios met the enemy with passion and rage, but he only cowered. His brother to the side, caught up facing two enemy soldiers, called Pesmios for aid to take one on, and in response the boy fled.

Never turning back, Pesmios was unaware of the fate of his unit, but several days alone with this uncertainty teared at him similarly to his father. A feeling of disgust, shame, profound self-hatred that they could not do what they knew was right because of the pressures of the world around them eventually consuming them. Enough that, like his father before him, Pesmios sought redemption by death. But for true repentance, Pesmios had to regain at least a smidgen of honour, and die in combat against his enemies.

A lone wolf, the boy ran through the battlefield fighting one enemy unit after the other, suriviving each encounter and coming out victorious. On occasion he would meet a struggling friendly force and come to their aid, and after ensuring they had won out, journey once more to join the next engagement. This roaming style quickly spread throughout the Macto Clan, and tales of heroism and valour painted his reputation, but the family would never know his true motive.

Pesmios's truest desire in these times at the absolute peak of the war was to only die, and take as many bodies down with him for fear that his cowardice would continue to lead him weak and astray, and eventually the gods would reward his wishes. But as his spirit separated from his physical form, the sense of regret for never returning to fight alongside his blood brother--that being the truest honourable and just death--did not fade. Pesmios became a hollow, driven to feast by the pains in his heart.

Centuries went by, and Pesmios never evolved. The creature only ate as necessary, hunts often being spaced out for several decades at a time, and as a mundane and infrequently feasting hollow, he was easily slain by a shinigami. He was thus sent to Soul Society as a plus soul, much memory of his human and hollow life lost. He only knew some unidentifiable pain and distaste for cowardice, and the desire to prove that he wasn't a coward.

Of course, proving he wasn't a coward was mostly easily done by becoming a shinigami. Given his experience as a soldier, and a competent one at that, entering the ranks was easily done. Conforming to the structure of the shinigami order was not. Despite being a soldier and fighting in war for the last several years of his life, Pesmios did so as a maverick. Though he could tolerate the academy, especially considering it was a place of training and very quick for him given his prior experience, progressing as a member of a unit was incredibly unfamiliar to him instinctively.

As a result, Pesmios seceded from the Gotei after serving what he considered an appripriate amount of time to pay back their investment into training him, and instead sought Earth, where he felt an instinctive attachment. That in mind, the man subsequently joined the Vanguard in order to still have a fall-back point of structure to support him, whilst maintaining a degree of freedom that ensured he could mobilise more frequently of his own volition, as well as be very hands-on in regards to the affairs of the living realm.



Intuitive Combatant: Pesmios has been formally trained in both lives, but the bulk of his combat experience is as a lone-wolf, and this is strongly reflected in his combat style. Even in his youth, Pesmios was a perceptive individual. Though not incredibly talented or intellectual, he has a knack for seeing through things, honing in on small details both in what he sees around him and within himself. Thus, contrary to his actual manner of fighting, Pesmios's style focuses on lethal targeting, and despite his weapon of choice, minimal movement.

While structure and training has definitely done well to develop his fundamentals of combat, he's still most reliant on personal style, and more specifically 1-vs-Many strategies. Pesmios relies on wide-movements for fending off multiple opponents, but performs them with as little commitment to the action as possible in case a change of strategy is necessary due to an incoming threat from some other direction. This definitely ensures room for adaptability, something the shinigami puts great value on not just in combat, but in life.

Spiritual Energy: As a Macto clansman, even in his human life Pesmios had well developed spiritual banks to rely on, only further strengthened by constant battle, doubly reinforced by his lone ranger style. With his human life providing a strong base, his long-lived life as a hollow further enhanced Pesmios's reiryoku. Training to become a shinigami served to hone and refine his spiritual energy to now be sufficiently under his control, though it has its limitations.

Pesmios can perform the fundamentals to an extraordinary degree, as he believes establishing a good base leads into raising the ceiling of personal ability considerably. With his hard-worker mentality and the sensation of self-disgust imposing on him as some sort of perfectionist ideology, the shinigami exemplifies dedication in his lifestyle and spiritual energy. His energy is well reserved and suppressed appropriately, though those more skilled than him can see the hidden strength within.

Whenever Pesmios releases his reigns, he can accurately control to what extent it reaches out, and within that sphere of control, the density and stability of his energy can pressure down lesser opponents with ease. At full power without any sort of control, Pesmios's energy has the tendency to rise to the sky, often causing a pillar of light that reaches to the heavens. The biggest reason he prefers to keep his energy under control is due to this tendency eluding to the nature of his abilities, something the Macto Clan would consider as "The Sky Slayer".

Strength: Easily his strongest physical trait and a point of reliance, Pesmios boasts overwhelming strength amongst his peers. The shinigami uses this overwhelming strength as a way to control himself, especially with his powerful swings. Given the size of his zanpakuto, it's incredibly difficult for the average swordsman to ever make uncommitted swings and still have enough power in them to deal damage.

For Pesmios, this isn't much of an issue. If necessary, he's capable of swinging his blade full-force, and at the last minute stopping the momentum of his blade from the handle completely through sheer strength. Of course doing so, especially repetitively, is an easy way to tire yourself out, but he manages nonetheless, leading into his next trait of expertise.

Endurance: Limitless stamina isn't literal, but very accurately attributed. Pesmios's strength is explosive but metred well by nature of his endurance. Able to dish out blows like a bull and tank on similarly powerful strikes, it takes an impressive amount of power to have Pesmios kneel, and this isn't just out of body hardiness--though his exterior is certainly tough, taking a bit more than just one strike from an equal adversary to pierce flesh--but sheer force of will.

Expert Swordsman: One of his two foremost subjects, Pesmios is most adjusted to fighting through use of the blade, a trait mostly carried over from his human life, but also something he put more focus into during training. Pesmios's zanpakuto, as a reflection of his spiritual energy, is obnoxiously large, and having to train with it the shinigami has naturally grown most adept at handling large swords. That said, he didn't always have the sizable weapon, instead adjusting to the size and shape of his current zanpakuto. Prior to, he trained with weapons of various forms, and can therefore adequately wield most of them.

While he can't be called masterful, he easily holds his weight against most people, and thanks to his inclination to perform uncommitted movements, he can easily adjust to an opponent's personal style, accordingly switching his own and adapt new techniques. At least as far as the sword goes, Pesmios has the natural talent of a quick learner when compounding this trait and his intuition.

Hand-to-Hand: Trained up only to a level you could consider "proficient", Pesmios can certainly hold his own without his sword, and beat down any untrained opponent, and event he weaker but refined enemies, but by no means is this a subject of focus. Pesmios has built up a reliance on his sword, enough that while his unarmed fighting style is sufficient for self-defense purpose, it can even be labeled a weakness.



Zanjutsu: As aforementioned, swordplay is Pesmios's one of two areas of expertise, and his training as a shinigami well reflects this. Beyond just natural talent and result of intuition, the work Pesmios has put into his zanjutsu is well reflected in the techniques he's developed and the power in them that speaks for itself.

Ouranus Schizo (Sky Cleave): A simplistic, vertical blow, Pesmios puts his whole body, from the rotation of his torso to the shoulder slant downward, to properly put in an overwhelming strength that generates devastating consequences for those caught up in his technique. The full-body rotation brings out a large amount of spiritual energy to fully encompass the blade, extending forward with similar strength. This technique allows for total severance against larger targets with little wasted force, as the strike and subsequent wave of spiritual energy follows the point of focus along the blade's path.

Ouranísko (Heavensrend): A technique with similar design to Sky Cleave, the same concept is applied, in that it's a full-body slash to generate as much power as possible. That said, the flow of spiritual energy is instead embodied within the conduit (zanpakuto) instead of forming around it and outward. The intent is to hold all the power as condensed as possible, specifically to break any defenses that come into direct contact with the blade, or most preferably with the opponent's tool for engagement. With "rend" in its name for good reason, the intent is to disarm the opponent and preferably destroy their means of combat. Though this technique is more suited towards dueling combat, against weaker opponents it's more than sufficient for multiple targets, so long as the technique isn't stopped in its tracks and continues to drive through whichever target is in its way.

Na Kateveíte Tous Ouranoús (Sunder the Heavens): His trademark technique, which happens to channel external sources in conjunction with his personal energy, Pesmios raises his blade and points it to the sky. From it, wind is powerfully generated forwards from his position, some of it generally moving forward but the bulk coalescing around his blade. If his stance is held for an extended duration, more power is generated, but typically this can be done in the span of seconds, and the results are still powerful.

Though the wind seems like a tornado circulating around his blade, the root of Kateveite's power doesn't lie in the wind itself but the force that generates it. As Pesmios swings his blade down to smite whatever opponent he targets, the tornado is released, and on contact it has a fair bit of strength to it, weaker opponents torn as a result. But as the wind dissipates, a ball that seems to suck in the elements around it is revealed, still moving forward after the cover is gone. The ball has immense sucking force that, on contact, shreds at the opponent and crushing whatever is sucked into it.

Se Aftoús Anaskolopismós (Unto Them, Impalement): Well paired with almost any technique, Pesmios's blade swings, slashes, or stabs in any manner. In conjunction, the tip of his blade glows a hint of cyan, and from it a sucking force that pulls whatever object is its path, subsequently impaling anything unfortunate to be caught up in its power. Though more powerful opponents can resist the pull, all the momentum pushing the object towards its tip is generated up until the tip is reached. Once there, the only thing continuing to push the object into Pesmios's blade is the inertia, thus full impalement isn't always successful.

Kidou: Pesmios's second subject that is effectively on par with his Zanjutsu, especially given its pre-established system that makes it easy to adopt, with room to adopt personal techniques if found necessary. For now, Pesmios hasn't taken it upon himself to have any personal creations, though dedicated study and continuous practice has made him strong enough at Kidou to be recognised for it above his other traits, easily on-par with his Zanjutsu.

Pesmios is capable of using spells from all three subjects, though he specialises in Hadō. The other subjects by no means suffer, though the strength in his offensive arts are admirable at his level, enough to make lower-seated members of the Second Division (Kidou Specialists) his peers.



General Skills: