[Spirit Class 4] Day Akserah

○ Name: Day Akserah ○ Alias: The White Lion of Avignon_____________ ○ Age: 33 ○ Gender: Male ○ Race: High-Spec Human ○ Affiliation: Iron Banner of Vastime (Formerly) ○ Alignment: Chaotic Good ○ Nationality: Egyptian-Vastimian ○ Marital Status: Single ○ Sexual Orientation: Bisexual ○ Ideal Mate: A Desert Rose ○ Special Skill: Human Sundial ○ Height: 6’3" ○ Build: Brawny and bubbly ○ Hair Colour: Ivory White ○ Eye Colour: Gold

Bellicose: A warrior through and through, Day is hardly a complex individual when it comes to determining his next course of action. He will leap into action first and deal with the consequences later, meeting any challenge or threat head-on in an attempt to overcome it with physical prowess and brawn. One might be forgiven for thinking of Day as bloodthirsty, though he takes no pleasure in unnecessary bloodshed and believes that violence need not be excessive once an outcome has been established. This sense of honour is what motivates him to keep pushing forward toward the next bout, a whirlwind of duty and courage.

Mirthful: There is an unmistakable passion to Day that shines through even in the darkest night, like a ray of sunlight that basks those around him in his glow. His laugh alone could carry a conversation, often possessing a booming quality, with an infectious energy mixed with a subtle dose of noble arrogance. He takes great joy in being the one that his allies might turn to when their spirits need raising and will gleefully regale them with tales of his exploits or the heroic deeds he has witnessed.

Egotistic: The darker underbelly to Day, if it could be called that, would certainly be his pride. He is confrontational because he believes that he will triumph over his opponents, he is charismatic because he believes that his words are what people want to hear. It would not be a lie to suggest that he enjoys the sound of his own voice, or that he would bet on himself in a contest if ever given the opportunity. He is not quite foolish enough not to know his place and has been humbled still on several occasions when he has acted too rashly, but he will always be slow to doubt himself. Second-guessing is often the difference between victory and defeat, and fortune favours the bold.


○ Former Vastime Officer: Though the Iron Banner has fallen, its capital reduced to little more than a crater overnight and most of the command structure taken with it, Day was once one of the nation's favoured sons. He knew the King-Militant before he truly rose to prominence, joining him on that initial cleanse of Somalia and was a founding member of its military. Many of these connections may now have dried up, and Day has no grand machinations of restoring a dead man's vision, but there are still people across Africa who know him or know of him given his service record.


The Akserah were a nomadic tribe that primarily roamed along the Nile Delta and throughout Lower Egypt. As they settled near the former city of Kafr Al Muqdam, they welcomed its newest member, the second of what would be three siblings, as Day Akserah was brought into the world. With a shock of brilliant white hair atop his head and a pair of brilliant golden eyes, they named him so in the hopes that he might become the brightest of them.

From how Day understood it as a youth, it was quite a miserable world to be brought into. His family were always travelling, which need not have been a bad thing, but they were trapped in a vicious cycle trying to outrun the monsters that had plagued the continent for decades. They could have headed further north to the sanctuary of the sea and the few towns and cities that still persisted upon the coast, but the journey would be arduous to make with the children and there was no guarantee of sanctuary upon arrival. So the Akserah kept to themselves and looked to none else for salvation.

The desert forced Day to grow up fast, robbing him of much of the childhood that another boy might have had. He was trained by his parents to fend for himself, as they knew that they would not be around to protect him forever, but it was his uncle that first encouraged him to take up a weapon to protect himself. They taught him that there were dangers beyond mundane beasts out there, evil creatures from other realms that would come to eat your soul or worse, and those were the real monsters. It was fortunate at least that Day was blessed with a physique that others envied. He was bigger and stronger than the other children, faster too, which gave him the stamina to train longer and harder than his peers. But practice could only make things so perfect.

In place of any formal education, Day spent much of his time hunting and scavenging alongside his family. They survived on what the desert provided for them, and it was not always a kind mistress. He knew what it was like to live on the cusp of starvation and yet be unable to rest or relinquish his duties, to come back empty-handed knowing that it would mean that his family would suffer for it. Many became dour and serious folk in response to these hardships, unwilling to let the sands break them and pushing on with dry purpose, but Day was again blessed. He struggled just the same as everyone else, but he persevered with a smile plastered on his face. They had the joy of each other's company, the merriment of their songs shared when huddled around dimly lit campfires, so he would not let them spend every day in bitter sadness. If they would not smile, then he would do so for them.

It was on one of these hunts that Day first earned his moniker. A monster of a creature with a form similar to a lion but somehow even more terrifying with the augmentations that came from feasting on the souls of countless other hunters. His family told him to run, to flee and live to fight another day, but Day would not be turned away from this challenge. He would face the beast and triumph, meeting it head-on in a contest of physical brawn and willpower. Every strike with his axe rent fur and bone, whilst the beast returned the favour in kind and carved chunks of flesh from his body in turn. A brutal clash that might have cost Day more than a little blood, but he could not be turned from his charge and it was his axe that eventually dealt the final blow, splitting the beast's maw apart as he ripped the top half of the creature's skull from its body.

His tribe called him 'the Maahes' after that because of the leonine qualities of the creature, whose head Day had brought back as a trophy, and he grew to like the taste of renown that it brought. That first flame stoked what would eventually become the burning flame of ego, so he set out to collect more accolades and marks of pride and victory. That dream eventually grew too big for the other Akserah, who could not keep up with his antics as he continued to grow at a lightning pace, and so Day made the defining choice to head out on his own rather than put his family at greater risk by dragging them along in his shadow.

It was on the shores of the Red Sea that Day's life would take another turn. After breaking off from the Akserah and charting his own course, he saw the approach of a shooting star and found himself standing in its path. Desmond Hayden came to Africa along with the Macto Clan and therein Day found an opportunity to continue his growth. He fought alongside Hayden and his associates when they cleaned up Somalia's Hollow infestation and that led to his involvement in the rebuilding of the country and a plan to revitalise the whole continent.

From that conflict came the Iron Banner of Vastime, a union of mercenaries and scattered tribes into an empire that began to sprawl across Africa. Day was swept up in the movement, he enlisted in one of the Knightly Orders that had been founded to embody the spirits of the Vastimian movement and was indoctrinated into the Vastimian Gene using Hayden's druidic magic. From his position within the Knights, Day was appointed as an officer in the military and participated in many of the expeditions to expand Vastime and to protect it from the Hollows and Demons that sought to tear it apart.

He had served in the Vastimian military for several years before the start of the Fourth World War and followed King Hayden to war in Europe. They made landfall in southern France, where the Vastimian army fragmented and began to sweep across the country in a wave akin to when they had swept clean the sands of Somalia. Decorated and having proven his capability, Day was assigned a company of knights and soldiers to lead the charge along the bank of the Rhône River and liberate any town or city they found along the way. It was an arduous task given the resources at their disposal, but Day would not be deterred by something so menial as logistics.

Arles was the first city to fall, the Demonic defenders putting up a spirited fight before eventually breaking under the tenacious perseverance of the Vastimian soldiers. The cost of their victory was great, though, as less than a quarter of the knights that had embarked under Day's leadership were still able to fight by the battle's end, but their leader was insatiable. He pressed on with those who could still follow him, carving a path through the countryside like a righteous sword until they reached the next major city, Avignon.

Taking the same approach as they had done to take Arles would be impossible, given the manpower now at his disposal, so Day took a different but equally direct strategy. Marching up to the city's perimeter alone, he raised the banner high and bellowed out his challenge, to face the strongest of demons that continued to terrorise the city in single combat. If he won, the demons would be given the chance to leave peacefully, but if he lost, he and his men would surrender themselves without a fight. It was a daring offer, equal parts foolish and foolhardy, but it might bring them victory whilst also sparing the citizens from the destruction that the prospective siege and assault might bring.

To his surprise, eventually, a Demon came forth to accept his challenge rather than blasting him off the face of the Earth. Perhaps they had been angered that Day had threatened their pride, or perhaps it was an understanding that even if they held Day off today then a greater army would come on the morrow and sweep them away, but their reason mattered little. They were a great monster more fit for the desert wastes than a city, akin to the beasts from his homeland though certainly far more deadly, so they began their duel in earnest. For all the Demon's rage and bluster, though, it was a short-lived affair. The white-haired human darted past his guard with a tempered skill, his axe singing as it crushed his opponent's chest inward and then, with a flash of lightning and a second telling blow, split that demonic skull open. It would never have been that easy, though, for no sooner had the first Demon hit the dirt had a second stepped up to take their place.

They had a perverse sense of honour, happy to abide by the duel rather than simply swarm him but unwilling to accept that their champion had been beaten so easily. As had the first, so fell the second, the third, and the fourth. It was when the fifth announced their acceptance that Day's body had begun to tire, but he refused to show such weakness. Standing tall, the Human and the Demon traded a series of blows that left the ground cracked and sundered beneath their feet. Day's weapon shattered as it glanced off the monster's hide, prompting the Demon to strike at the defenceless human, but his body was as deadly as any axe. Absorbing the full force of the attack with his silver pelt, he stood still for but a moment before levelling his foe with a flurry of furious punches. Only then did Avignon fall quiet, the city holding its collective breath for a moment as it waited to see if another would step forth to contest Day again only to find that none did.

The Demons were gone by sunset, fleeing northward as the citizens welcomed their saviours. Though his body was spent, weeping from the wounds that he had suffered to win them their freedom, Day did what he could to celebrate with the people. They called him their White Lion, a title he was all too quick to take in his stride and brandish as a badge of honour and pride. He laughed and drank, regaling many with tales of his travels across Africa and beyond, until the dawn came and he gathered up his surviving comrades to continue the push along the Rhône.

Reinforcements eventually joined Day's company from other Vastimian divisions, along with local militia that were rising up against their demonic masters, and they continued to drive into the heartland of France for the remainder of the war. He fought in several more battles, the Lion as ferocious now as ever before and emboldened by his triumph, until they were forced into a bitter stalemate at the outskirts of Lyon. That logistical issue he had paid little heed to eventually came around to bite him, and Day spent the last months of the conflict locked in a battle that neither side could make headway on.

After the war, Day returned to Vastime as a contentious figure. He was thought of fondly for his early victories, capturing Avignon almost singlehandedly at the forefront, but his folly in the latter days had also won him little renown. He spent much of his time looking for new fights or reliving his old ones, at a military base on the northern coast of the continent. Working with research branches of the Duvalier Group, he and his outfit served as a mercenary contractor when required and approved by the Vastimian high command.

Then, as suddenly as it had all begun, in the space of a single day there was no longer a Vastime. Hayden, along with the capital city and any semblance of order and infrastructure, collapsed into a vast sinkhole. The African Catastrophe, as it would go on to be called, threw the entire continent back into the dark age. Marching back across the desert, Day finds himself in search of a new adventure once again.


○ White Sun's Zenith: Ever since he was a child, it was said that Day had been blessed with an envious physique. Tall and thick-set, physical activities simply came easier to him than they did to others. But he has never been content to simply sit upon his laurels and coast by as 'above-average'. His body has been pushed to the brink more times than most, only to be broken and built back up to be harder and stronger whilst leaving behind the scars to match. Day strives to reach the absolute pinnacle of human performance in every aspect, and will not turn his back on any challenge on the belief that he will either triumph or grow from the experience.

○ Seize the Day: Just as his body may have been honed into a weapon, Day has had years of warfare and struggle to hone his mind against those that might lead him astray. But the basis of this mental resilience has been forged atop his singleminded desire to make the most of every day because it might be his last. He will bite down on any opportunity if he can see a favourable outcome and meet every adversity with a smile and a laugh. Both for his own sake and that of his companions and allies, he will simply meet everything with a wave of positivity that can bowl through a problem without even batting an eye.

○ Slayer of Monsters: Though he is more than capable in a fight against humanoid enemies, due to his upbringing and the life he chose to lead Day is specifically talented in the art of slaying those bestial monsters that might put the fear of death in a lesser man. When others might consider themselves at a disadvantage and hesitate, Day will leap into action without pause and meet these creatures blow for blow. His impressive tenacity and endurance allow him to strike at weak points that he can pick out after a brief exchange of strikes, which can turn the tables on foes who might think themselves stronger.

○ Under the Unrelenting Sun: The desert is a harsh and unforgiving mistress, it has claimed even the most resilient of souls because they have failed to respect it. Having lived in such conditions as a wandering nomad for years before the coming of Vastime, Day's survival skills are second to none. He has an instinctual grasp of what is required to survive in these hostile environments, from building shelters to finding water, hunting and gathering supplies, and making the most of what can be scavenged. Even when it might seem that he has nothing, Day can manage to find the means to continue pushing forward.

○ Scion of a Dead Empire: Having once been inducted into the lineage of Vastime, Day has been spiritually enhanced to create the perfect blend of skills for a modern and traditional soldier. Though he has avoided being cybernetically augmented as many members of the Vastime military were, his soul itself was modified with the Vastimian Gene to the point that he can perform feats well beyond the limit of human capability. He can seamlessly channel this power into boosting any of his physical aspects, allowing him to exceed the boundaries placed on his body momentarily. From dodging a hail of bullets, crossing great distances in the blink of an eye, punching through an impenetrable barrier, or absorbing great damage without suffering an immediate injury. Day can utilise two of these enhancements at once, but multiple can never affect the same body part within the same post as the strain would be too great. So he could amplify his sight to provide heightened perception whilst also boosting his legs to move fast, but if he attempted to deliver an enhanced kick at the same time then his body would falter.

This capability has not yet faded away, unlike the knowledge upon which it was based. However, much like working a muscle, without constant exertion, Day will likely find his limits shrinking. Currently, it would take a considerable period of lethargy to prompt this degradation, but as he grows older, this will likely grow shorter until he is unable to maintain it.

○ Sand's Aegis: Before the coming of Vastime, Africa was a generally unfortunate place to be born and raised in. It was overrun by Demons and Hollows, who terrorised the scattered tribes and made life almost as hard as it was in the Wastes to the east. Day had to grow resistant to their influence from a young age, or else they would most assuredly have conquered his soul and devoured him. This constant need to protect himself created a barrier that could absorb or mitigate the most dangerous of spiritual attacks provided that it was given time to adjust to an opponent's energy signature. The greatest challenge was always the initial moments of battle before that innate resistance could begin to dampen his opponent's abilities, but also his reliance on adapting to each opponent puts him at a greater disadvantage when facing multiple enemies compared to another whose resistance to any effect increases based on proximity alone.




○ Aspect Embodiment Appearance: By focusing on his physical and ethereal spirit, Day can manifest his divine aspect in the ultimate release of his primal wrath. In a blinding flash of light, his body becomes wrapped in a mantle of white fur representing the fabled lion that Day slew as a youth and started his path forward. More than a simple outfit change, though, his body is pushed to the very apex of augmentation as it bulks out and begins to crackle with power. The tattoos that run along the length of his arms and legs also come alive, the patterns and markings forming into beasts that shift beneath the surface of his skin as if it is a canvas to another world within his body.

○ Release Phrase: A roar that cracks the heavens, Maahes' pride awakens.

○ Aspect Embodiment Abilities: Whilst in his Aspect Embodiment, Day's power and energy levels are amplified based on his Power Control skill. This is mechanically comparable to the scale of an Arrancar’s Resurreccion, and shares several attributes with this type of release state, though the energy signature would be noticeably different and lacking any Hollow qualities. Though his appearance does become somewhat more animalistic, this is merely a coincidence and instead represents his conquest of the beast rather than giving in to it.

Skysplitter Roar: By focusing for an instant upon his own body, Day can propel himself across short distances in a burst of sparks that leaves him form briefly coated in lightning. This high-speed movement technique can be used both offensively and defensively, to catch his opponents off guard or evade incoming attacks before replying with a burst of electric-infused energy. There is a distinct tell, of sorts, in that this movement is paired with the sudden clap of deafening thunder.

Steelskin Pelt: In this form, more so than before, Day has an aura of primal resilience and unyielding strength as if cloaked in the spirit of the great lion, Maahes. Akin to a Quincy's Blut Vene in function, Day can utilise his leonine aspect to briefly harden that fur mantle that now encases him to guard against incoming attacks. When this activates, the white fur shines with a silver light, significantly boosting his physical resistance and durability to the point that weaker blows would have little to no effect. However, the tradeoff for this is that it also restricts his movement whilst active which leaves him vulnerable to receiving damage from unexpected angles or several different attacks in swift succession that he lacks the speed to adapt to.

A Pride of One: Though he might appear to be but a single person, Day is never without support in this released embodiment. The tattoos that decorate his body and now move inside it can briefly manifest themselves outside of it to aid him in many different ways, as befitting their forms. Though they are limited by having to remain connected to Day's body, a claw could reach out to swat at an incoming attack or a maw could stretch out to bite a nearby threat. Though neither as fast nor as strong as a direct action from Day, these helpful spirits can amplify his abilities whilst also providing him with extra protection and utility in a pinch.

General Skills

• Durability: C
  
• Speed: B
  
• Strength: B
  
• Soul: C
  

Human Skills

• Power Control: Advanced
  
• Physical Augmentation: Elite
  
• Spiritual Adaptation: Advanced
  
• Mediumship: Beginner
  

Will Skills

• Willpower: Adept
  
• Deduction: Beginner
  
• Focus: Advanced
  

With Africa still in disarray after the collapse of Vastime, the continent's future will fall to those with the will to shape it. Day is among many who were once in the upper echelons and have suddenly been thrust upon a new path or rather a return to how it once was. Perhaps it is time for a new banner to rise up and carve out a kingdom from the depths of all this chaos, whether that is by Day's own hand or by another winning him to their cause is all that remains to be seen. He is intended to be a factor in African politics given his prior standing and resources, as outlined in his history and relationships, though will only take to the fore in the absence of others who might earn his aid.