Walden [Retired] | StickPage Forums

Walden is, as of now, retired.

Name
Walden

Abilities
Walden's chief ability is the ability to summon a pack of spectral wolves, drawing their souls out of a portal leading to the spirit world. Each of the dozen wolves summoned appears as if at the peak of their health as living beasts. They are able to phase into and out of the material world at will, and each one is bound to Walden, made to obey his commands. They move as quickly as they did in life, but the motions they make are done out of habit. Though they are no longer bound to the ground, they prefer to move along it, as if they were alive, still. The wolves will be detailed further in their own section.

Walden is able to bind weak spirits to his will, and he is able to perceive spirits with all of his senses. He is unable to detect other forms of supernatural influence, however, most notably being the natural aura that strong magicians release.

Walden is able to take the spectral wolves he summons and destroy their form (temporarily), allowing him to use their essence to bolster his own strength.

Walden's second ability occurs when his mood deteriorates to the point of fury. Once he reaches said point, Walden undergoes a transformation, merging his body with the spirits he controls. The result of concentrating the combined spiritual power of the entire pack into his own body is a form akin to the “Wolf-Man”, more powerful than man, yet less than him. All of Walden's senses and physical capabilities are enhanced. The most notable changes from the transformation include an increase in size, fur growing to cover the body, a dramatic increase in physical strength, and a powerful regenerative property. The last allows him to a terrifyingly great amount of punishment and continue clawing throughout it, wounds healing before an opponent's very eyes.

Walden is a fair shot with the modernized antique pistol he carries. It still retains only a single shot, and the lengthy reload time, but the rest has been refitted to improve its accuracy, and to reduce to the point of nonexistent the fault of preemptive discharges.

Walden's pride, however, is his ability as a duelist with the blade that he keeps within his cane. Walden is a skilled fighter with said blade.

Both Walden's blade and the twelve bullets he keeps for his pistol are plated with silver.

The Wolves
Walden's pack of twelve spectral wounds is his most versatile asset. Each one has a base similarity to an ordinary wolf. The same shape, the same general appearance, but Walden's wolves have, for the most part, lost their color. Instead, their bodies are similar to gray smoke in what they appear to be made of, wisps of it eternally rising to the sky, though they themselves never seem diminished for it. The most notable movement from the aforementioned smokey bodies is the glowing red eyes. The eyes emit trails of light, which follow for a short distance, when the wolves are charging for the kill. The wolves' appearances are a result of Walden's own designs, as he causes them to manifest in such a form when he summons them.

The wolves are bound near-fully to Walden, and as such they will follow his commands without fail. Any force that can cause them to disobey Walden's commands is likely to be possessed by an opponent that already outclasses Walden. The only thing Walden does not have control over is the emotional state of the wolves. This is of little importance, however, until Walden's fury resonates with that of the wolves. At that point the wolves are drawn to him as if he were one of their own, and bond with his body and soul.

The wolves can have their forms destroyed, and Walden draws their essence in, then, to bolster his own body. Having one's body destroyed, understandably, is rather excruciating. The decades of it happening, with increasing frequency as Walden's natural body has grown weaker and weaker, have pushed the wolves into dangerous territory, mentally speaking, and their growing madness is largely responsible for breaking down Walden's will and causing his transformation.

Wolfpack

If anyone should happen to be reading Walden's mind during his transformation, one will find that it refers to itself not as one man and twelve crazy wolves, but as a single entity "Wolfpack." Wolfpack cannot be reasoned with, it is a too far gone into madness to be affected by such trivial things as diplomacy checks. The only reason Wolfpack's conscious mind is able to focus even on the task of killing everything in sight is from the structured core that the sane Walden's mind offers to the mashup. Each of the thirteen beings, melded together, are sheltered from the events occurring, so Wolfpack neither helps nor hurts the minds of any of the above. At least not directly. Walden is affected by the aftermath of the Pack's rampages.

Weaknesses
Silver is a major vulnerability for Walden, being the only substance that will completely nullify his ability to regenerate a wound that it makes contact with.

Walden has a romanticized view of combat, and a somewhat naïve perception of humanity. To him, integrity is the single greatest piece of a human being. Walden is, consequently, willing to put his personal honor before anything. Additionally, Walden expects everyone he meets to follow the same doctrine of honor before reason, and he is willing to trust someone implicitly should they give him their word.

When transformed, Walden also inherits the pack's hatred of their bondage to him, and as a result Walden will usually give in to the collective fury he is overwhelmed with and simply attack everyone until all are dead, or until Walden is calmed enough to return to his natural form.
Since the transformation is dependent on Walden's fury, anything that puts him into a different state of mind (unconsciousness, drunkenness, the destruction of what caused his fury, etc.) will cause him to return to his natural state.

The transformation is not a natural process, but rather it is similar to wrapping the spirits about Walden and shaping them into beast form.

Exorcisms, as an example of a countermeasure, are a particularly effective means of returning Walden to his normal state. As are attacks that go directly to the spirits themselves. It should be noted, however, that anything besides the effective incapacitation or banishment of the wolves will result in a temporary break in the transformation, however, if Walden is still in fury.

About/Story

Walden was once an ordinary man. An ordinary man with a particularly sensitive nose, but not quite in the way that he nor any ordinary human being would expect. What Walden imagined was the smell of a neighbor's rotting fruits that needed to be disposed of turned out to be a pair of spirits haunting the room of man living across the hall from him in the apartment building he called home. The stunning revelation that Walden could sense the spirits that wandered his world was coupled with the equally stunning revelation that he could exert his presence over the spirit world, just as those spirits he could sense would exert theirs over his.

Walden experimented with this, coming dangerously close to losing his life or control of his own body enough times for him to determine that the spirit world was a dangerous place which ought to remain as separated from the material world as possible. Through his studies, Walden came upon silver as a purifying element that could aid him in turning back the “monsters” that plagued his world. He used this knowledge to attempt to banish the spirits that inhabited his building, but it was ineffective. Wrong kind of turning, he found.

So Walden found another way: binding the spirits to his will and forcing them through his command to return to the spirit world. It was a similar thing to what had happened to himself several times, being forced back to the material world by powerful and sentient spirits during his initial experiments in influencing the spirit world. It worked with his apartment, and the one across the street, but the third attempt was met with fierce resistance that Walden could not overcome.

Growing increasingly dedicated to his self-endowed quest, Walden decided that the best way to defeat the spirits wandering the world was with spirits. Walden had made some friends during his growth to what he was, and he called in a few favors. The result of those favors was Walden's own personal pack of wolves, each one carefully selected, and then killed. While the spirit was still weak and struggling to become used to its new reality, Walden swooped in and bound them to his will.

For decades on, Walden hunted spirits, using their power and his own efforts to keep himself in good shape and form. He has recently chosen to retire from it, and come to perform as a Gladiator.

Personality

Walden, when he has his full presence of mind, is an honorable man. Faithful to his word. He has an unyielding moral code, which he believes should be the one used by all who live. The most important part of said code, Walden believes, is to fight on the same level as one's opponent. Consequently, he will use his spirits to whatever degree he believes will put him as close to his opponent's level as he can. Walden has a certain flair for the dramatic, as well.

When transformed, Walden's personality is a desire to kill, to lash out at the material world that he has forced the spirits into.

Appearances

Walden is a Caucasian male, with a tall and agile build, despite his advancing age. His still full head of hair is graying, and it is apparent that he uses a cane to support himself when he moves. Still, his faded blue eyes hold a fanatic's determination in them. His wardrobe consists of attire that suggest a humble, though refined, taste. Some sort of a jacket or cloak is usually on his person.

Demo

Walden stood over his defeated opponent, a benevolent hand outstretched to aid in pulling the man he had called foe a moment earlier to his feet. There to Walden's left was the sword that Ahrim, his opponent, had earlier used with such proficiency that Walden had had to readjust how much aid he drew upon the spiritual world for to fight on his level. It was not often that Walden miscalculated, and to have underestimated was a pleasant morsel in the feast of combat he had been sampling from in recent days.

Ahrim, however, had kept an ace up his sleeve. A wave of his hand, and a previously unrevealed psychic power was used to take the sword from the ground and hurl it into Walden's ribcage. The sword pierced flesh, broke bones, and knocked Walden over sideways. For a moment, Walden couldn't speak. He could only watch in shocked surprise as Ahrim managed to struggle up and walk over to Walden. Standing over Walden, Ahrim extended his own hand, in a mocking imitation of Walden earlier, before he pulled the sword from his side. Pain once dulled suddenly shot through Walden's being, pain mixed with something else.

“Sorry, old man. You shouldn't have let your guard down.” Ahrim taunted. “I told you at the start, didn't I? I wasn't going to hold anything back just because you could barely keep yourself on your feet. You almost had me, but the victory is to the one who strikes last.”

Walden struggled to turn over, his face flushed with growing rage, to face the man who had surprised him with such a power, but he found he struggled to see anything over a red haze that was beginning to fall over his vision. All he could make out was the sword, poised to plunge into his chest. Walden raised a hand, as he watched the blade begin to descend, and he was rewarded with the sensation of the cold steel driving through it, and continuing into his chest.

Ahrim smirked once, as he felt the ground beneath Walden's body, and began to withdraw his blade, but he stopped like a deer before the headlights of an oncoming truck when he saw the twisted look of fury on Walden's face. Then he saw what looked like fur beginning to grow in patches from his body. The teeth seemed to lengthen and sharpen, as well, and Ahrim could only release his blade in fear and take a step back, to witness Walden's transformation.

There was a pricking in Walden's chest, and he looked down to find its source. A sword. Steel, and embedded in him. A sharp tug at it, and it came free, blood with it, but even as it dried on his matted fur, the wound from which it came was closing up. Walden withdrew his hand, if the clawed appendage that now existed could be called a hand, from the edge of the blade, and he turned it over, examining it as if with a newcomer's curiosity.

Walden looked down at Ahrim, then, he looked so much shorter, suddenly. There was an odd scent about him, as well. Walden didn't recognize it as anything in particular, just as a sign that now was the time to make an attack, to go for the kill. For a moment, his rational mind struggled to remain in control, to say something, to remind himself that he was, indeed, himself, a sane man who indulged in the art of combat from time to time, but not a crazed killer. What came out instead was a blood-chilling howl to the sky above, as the rage took over and Walden looked down to where Ahrim had been transformed from a man to a creature that had broken the agreed-on rules of engagement, and should be punished harshly for it. Walden no longer saw a man, there. Only prey.

Battles

N/A

Points

W/D/L

1/0/1