Azure Banneret

"No matter how dark the night may seem, the sky is never black, but is merely a dark blue just waiting to burn brightly once more."

- Azure "It's time to end them rightly!"

- Azure, about to throw his explosive pommel at a large group of Grimm "Perhaps if you swing enough, one of them will actually hit me!"

- Azure, to a creature of Grimm that has missed every strike on him. "Apparently, Grimm are NOT made out of straw."

- Azure, to a particularly resilient Grimm

Azure is the son of the Ogden Banneret and Isabelline Saggita. Nearly everyone in his family is/was a huntsman at one point and he is the leader of Team ANVL.

[If text is in italics, it indicates something that Azure doesn't know]

Appearance
Azure may be a young man of 17 years, but he looks somewhat older than that, as he has a muscular physique, a goatee, and a chiseled face. He has a shallow facial scar on the right side of his face from the cheek to his lower right jawline. His skin is rather light in color, but it is apparent that it has seen some sun. Also, he is pretty tall.

Azure wears a sky blue celtic-style gambeson with no sleeves, black shoulder wings, white sections on the sides, and gold accents. This gambeson has a chevron-like pattern on it. Under this, he wears a thin white and black tunic and over the former, he wears metal armor: a gorget, pauldrons, gauntlets, tasset belt (black detailing), greaves, and sabatons. He also wears a star pendant with a black string and a gold charm.

Politeness
The first thing one may notice about Azure is that he is very polite to others and has a refined way of speaking that reflects this.

Amicability
Azure is quite spirited and friendly, which makes people gravitate toward him and accept him as a friend despite his weird mannerisms while speaking. However, after being with his team for a while, his speaking patterns have become a bit more normal.

Sarcasm/Snark
Azure sometimes banters with others in a friendly sarcastic way. In battle, Azure has been known to formally taunt the Grimm as well as commend human challengers.

Temperance
Azure doesn't like to "overuse" his semblance because he thinks it might dull his other skills and make him careless or lazy, which is one of the causes of his underdeveloped semblance.

Courage
Azure rarely shows fear and prefers to fight on the front-lines than to sit back and let others do the heavy-lifting.

Honor
If competing against or fighting other humans, he always wants a fair match. As such, he refuses to use his Spectrum Dispersion power on humans unless they are malevolently trying to kill him or someone he cares about. However, he does not believe this applies to Grimm because they "don't even have a shred of honor within their being".

Humility
Unlike many hunters-in-training, Azure understands the sheer gap between him and fully-realized hunters. This is because he knows the extent of his family members' abilities.

Ambition
However, Azure is determined to reach and surpass his ancestors even though he knows the road seems long and difficult. He wants to be the absolute best he can be. As he is now, this is his main drive to become a huntsman.

Duty
All in all, he knows he chose to be a hunter and that his job is to protect the people. But, he wonders in the back of his mind if he's really doing it because it's the right thing to do, or if he's doing it merely to better himself.

Other
-Because of events in the past, Azure really dislikes snake-like creatures and will likely target a King Taijitu if he sees one.

-Azure hates when it rains.

-Azure sometimes has nightmares about a dark version of himself killing other people.

Abilities and Powers
Summary

Weapon
Azure's melee offensive weapon is a sword called Caelus Schismaticus, or Skysplitter, which uses wind dust (Wind Gale Arming Sword; WGAS). It also has his emblem on the pommel (which also happens to be a throwable mini-nuke in tight situations, as he was able to combine several types of dust in such a tight space with Vulcan's help), a pearl-white blade, a black hand-grip, and blue double waveline engravings on the blade itself. Azure's main defensive weapon is a shield called Starheart Aegis. These two weapons can be combined and transformed to create a massive Multi-Barreled Assault Shotgun (MBAS) called the Firmament's Devastation.

Semblance
Azure's semblance is Celestial Absorption, which allows him, while concentrating on doing so, to absorb energy in the form of light waves from the sun, the stars, and the moon. He can use this power in a large variety of ways, not that he knows all of them yet.

Tier One

 * Flarebeam-Fires a thin beam of concentrated light.
 * Solar Edge-Imbues Skysplitter with some solar energy
 * Pulsar Shot-Allows the shells of the Firmament's Devastation to take in solar energy and send out energy pulses through solid objects, even if the projectiles themselves are stopped.

Tier Two

 * Coronal Strike-Arcs a beam of solar energy into the sky and back down to strike a target. Particularly effective on aerial targets.
 * Stellar Wave-Creates a tsunami of concentrated solar energy in a particular direction.
 * Solar Prominence-Forms a cleansing ring projecting outward from the user. Azure has barely discovered this ability and is the strongest one that Azure currently possesses.

Tier Three

 * Coronal Volley-Arcs waves of solar energy into the sky and back down for a wide area of effect. Stronger version of Coronal Strike.
 * Nova-Creates a powerful explosive wave outward.

Tier Four/Ultimate Attack

 * Splendeo Deorsum (Literally "Shine Down")-Creates a massive solar energy pillar up into the sky that calls down cleansing light from the heavens--the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and larger celestial bodies--to destroy Azure's enemies. Azure has not developed this ability yet and would not have a high enough solar energy capacity in order to use it anyway. To put this in perspective, Azure is a 2.5 and would need to be a 10.0 in order to be strong enough to use this ability.

Support Powers

 * Thermal Conduction-Transfers the energy from the light waves into internal energy that the muscles can use, restoring stamina, increasing strength, and increasing speed (without increasing reaction time). The level of enhancement is relative to the amount of solar energy used up/provided. Can be used on others.
 * Optical Refocus-Refocuses light in the eyes, allowing a person's vision to become sharper and see better in the dark. Can be used on others.
 * Spectrum Dispersion-Can split the visible light spectrum in someone or something else's eyes upon eye contact in order to confuse them momentarily.
 * Light Refraction-Bends light around Azure to make it seem like he is a few feet away from where he actually is. Takes A LOT of solar energy to maintain for more than a few seconds at a time.
 * Solar Wings-Makes usable wings out of solar energy. It can only work on himself.

Semblance Strengths

 * (Potential to be) very powerful.
 * Extremely versatile.

Weaknesses & Semblance Drawbacks/Restrictions

 * Azure has a lot of courage, but this sometimes crosses the line into a recklessness, although it is uncommon. For example, when winning a battle, he may be so amped up that he'll chase the enemy down in order to finish them off even if this would cause a tactical disadvantage in the long run. Luckily, if someone tells him that it is a bad idea, he still has the sense to listen and regain his composure. This recklessness is in part due to his love of battle and spirited nature, but is amplified by the dark energy he unintentionally and unknowingly absorbs after he overuses his semblance.
 * Azure doesn't use his semblance's more powerful abilities that often because of his desire to maintain and improve his "normal" fighting skills as well as the headaches the more powerful attacks give him. He most often uses Flarebeam, Solar Edge, Pulsar Shot, and his support powers. Thus, he has not truly begun developing his semblance's offensive abilities.


 * Azure can only absorb solar energy while remaining stationary (or nearly so) concentrating on letting the energy into his body, as if he is holding open a gate into himself while doing so. This process at the fastest rate would take about a minute to complete, but would require it to be summer/spring, noon, and a clear day. Any other conditions would increase that amount of time. This generally prohibits him from being able to "charge up" during battle, although it is possible that he could do so. As a result, he spends a few minutes every morning, weather permitting, to absorb solar energy. If he fails to do this, he will likely not be able to use his semblance at all.
 * There is a finite amount of solar energy that Azure can hold in his body. While this amount increases as he becomes a better huntsman/huntsman-in-training, Azure at this time can only use his most powerful ability, Solar Prominence, if he has nearly a full charge remaining. Also, the solar energy Azure has previously absorbed dissipates as time proceeds and completely drains from him after roughly 24 hours. However, aura decreases do not decrease his capacity to store solar energy and does not siphon away solar energy he already absorbed.
 * Absorption is not truly hampered by cumulus or cirrus clouds momentarily "blocking" the sun, but is prevented by stratus clouds that cover the sky completely, like during storms. Basically, Azure can only absorb solar energy (albeit at different rates) when there is fair weather/he can see sunlight/he can see blue sky (or what would be blue sky during the day). Since Mistral has many swampy and cloudy areas, Azure's semblance could be rendered completely useless quite easily, which is another reason why he has honed his more conventional fighting skills rather than actively developing his semblance's offensive abilities that require more solar energy than he can absorb on a constant/day-to-day basis.
 * In a similar way, the ability is less effective at night when only the light from the moon (reflected sunlight) and distant stars can be absorbed.
 * If Azure depletes his solar energy reserves quickly with more powerful offensive abilities such as Solar Prominence, the fast and large expulsion of solar energy from his body causes fatigue and headaches in the moment and increasing levels of aggression and rashness in the long term. This is because he absorbs dark matter/energy involuntarily because of the void he creates within himself when he uses too much solar energy too quickly. The dark energy rushes in to fill that void, which causes the aforementioned symptoms. Azure's dark energy level does not lower the amount of solar energy he can absorb, but Azure cannot expel it from his body (at least not yet) since he doesn't know of its existence and only has control over solar energy. The dark energy is actually slowly corrupting his nature the longer it stays inside of him, and Azure constantly has to push aside evil thoughts from his mind. This phenomenon is also the reason why Azure is sometimes quite rash or foolhardy, especially in battle, since he can't control himself as well under the stress like he can under normal circumstances.
 * His Thermal Conduction power can only be transferred through direct physical contact, and he cannot give the other more solar energy than he has himself as it works by way of facilitated diffusion.

Leadership
Azure is confident, able to inspire others, make them feel as he does, and resolve interpersonal conflicts using empathy, which are strong reasons why he was selected as team leader instead of a certain smarter member of the team (Linus). Another reason why Azure was chosen as leader is his ability to correctly assess a situation, acknowledge his lack of expertise in certain areas, ask for advice on decisions/delegate authority to those who have needed assets, and make a tough call based on what he's given. He most likely developed his adept leadership skills by being the oldest of five children, while the other members of Team ANVL are either only children or are the youngest of their siblings.

History
The Banneret family has owned, lived on, and protected land located right outside the city of Mistral's southern walls for generations. They used to be farmers, but eventually rose in status to become bodyguards/mercenaries for hire, similar to the modern day huntsman. During the Great War, Azure's great-grandfather, William Banneret (alongside his brother Arthur) fought on the side of individualism and expression, and after the war had ended, William came back home and vowed to protect humanity from future evils by teaching his children how to fight. Since then, the Bannerets have nearly always become huntsman, with only a few exceptions.

The Banneret family eventually moved slightly farther away from the city to an estate in the forests next to Mistral's walls, which would be easily within eyesight if it was not for trees. Azure was born to Ogden Banneret and Isabelline Saggita. Azure is the oldest of five children--he has two brothers and two sisters. The children's parents are both huntsmen who were often on missions, so the former were mostly taken care of by their paternal grandparents. Two of Azure's siblings, Montague and Maris, are twins, who are the closest to Azure in age. The younger two, Sable and Hayden, are separated from each other in age by about 3 years. So, the order of births as well as the children's current ages goes as follows: Azure (17 years-old), Montague/Maris (15 years-old), Sable (11 years-old), Hayden (8 years-old)

Since Azure is the oldest, he is and was constantly reminded of his responsibility for the rest of his siblings and that the family would be counting on him. Often hearing such things from their parents about Azure, the twins didn't see this as an issue of responsibility, but rather an issue of recognition: they felt as though Azure was getting special treatment and praise from their parents because he was the oldest, and they began to resent him for it. This response is due to their young age at the time and the importance they put on their parent's attention as a result of their frequent absence while on missions. Resulting from this and a plethora of other events, the twins decided that they did not wish to become huntsmen. However, Azure's two younger siblings greatly admired him and his abilities. Therefore, it came to pass that the two older siblings decided to try and pursue occupations that did not involve fighting Grimm, even though they were starting to become rather promising hunters-in-training, while the two younger siblings were determined to be like Azure and their parents.

Azure spent a lot of time training in his early years, usually alone or with his siblings since his parents were rarely home and his grandparents were usually busy running things. But his grandfather, Agmund Banneret, made it a point to train the children--escecially Azure--to ensure they could protect themselves as they lived outside the walls where Grimm could invade, although their home was very close to the city.

One rainy day, their grandmother, NAME PENDING, died from disease, which Azure remembers with sorrow. In contrast, the two youngest Banneret children weren't old enough to form memories of her. Because of her death, Isabelline went on missions less often and started taking care of the children more. Agmund, with the loss of his wife, focused on making the children the best they could be and redoubled his efforts to train them. Also, since his wife was usually the one to go into the city to pick up needed items, Agmund permanently assigned the task to Azure, both to fulfill the need and to let Azure familiarize himself more with the city (Azure had been volunteering to do this ever since his grandmother first fell ill). Azure did so dutifully and met a few people along the way, eventually making friends with children in the area despite being called a "farm boy" at first.

Agmund soon suggested that Azure develop his skills by sparring with the other would-be-huntsmen in the area, which he did. As for rules, they usually did so with training weapons under supervision. However, Azure was friends with two different cliques who didn't quite like each other, one human, and one faunus. While many of the human children were not racist against faunus, one of the older human children who was prejudiced was beaten in a practice fight against one of the faunus children, and the former did not take it well. The boy then claimed that the faunus fought dirty and that he would teach the faunus a lesson. At this point, Azure was too young to activate his aura and was one of the youngest kids present. So, when the shamed human child tried to strike the faunus child with a real weapon, Azure charged in and took the hit to the cheek, although it wasn't full force since the attacker pulled back at the last second (this is how Azure got his scar), The young Azure exclaimed that humans and faunus were equal, how the other child's acts were dishonorable, and that everyone has the same goal: to eventually become fully fledged hunters and protect the people--together. The children did not get along immediately after that, but eventually did so after thinking about Azure's actions.

Agmund noticed Azure's scar and asked Azure what happened, who obliged. Agmund decided that it was time that he teach Azure about aura and unlock it as soon as possible despite his young age. After Azure activated it, he started sparring with Azure personally in addition to practices with other children. However, Agmund was holding back quite substantially. When he was thirteen, Azure was beating all of the other children in the area and wanted more of a challenge. Agmund noticed this and decided that he would up the difficulty on Azure. So, the next time they sparred, Azure was losing horribly (''even though Agmund still wasn't nearly giving it his all). ''Azure didn't give up and tried focusing himself in the middle of the fight while Agmund stood there, waiting. Azure had discovered his semblance and fired several Flarebeams at his grandfather, who dodged some and deflected the others with his blade. Azure then used Thermal Conduction to increase his speed in conjunction with Solar Edge, but he was still too fast for Azure and the shockwaves created by Solar Edge did not affect him. All out of solar energy, Azure suddenly became weak and would have fallen to the ground if Agmund hadn't quickly caught him. After a minute or so, Azure was fine again, but he was still dumbfounded by how strong his grandfather actually was and asked him if he was still holding back some of his power. Agmund replied that he was ("Didn't I ever tell you the old saying? 'Beware an old man in a profession where men usually die young.'") and then revealed his semblance to Azure. The latter was humbled and realized how far he had left to go on the path to becoming a true hunter.

Azure then attended Sanctum Academy a learned how to use his semblance more effectively, developing his tier two semblance offensive abilities, Spectrum Dispersion, and Optical Refocus. At Sanctum, Azure forged all of his weapons, as he was previously using an old sword and shield that his dad gave him. He did quite well and furthered his swordsmanship skills, but had to work hard at learning how to use his Firmament's Devastation shotgun. Azure applied to Haven Academy and was accepted...

Trivia

 * Azure is the color of the sky.
 * A banneret is a "a knight who commanded his own troops in battle under his own banner."
 * His name could thus translate to "Sky Blue Knight" or "Azure Knight," the latter of which is an alias of the Soulcalibur character, Nightmare.
 * Azure Banneret alludes to Sir James Douglas, a Scottish knight and feudal lord. The colors of Azure and Douglas's battle gear are the same: blue, white, and black.
 * The name of Azure's shield, Starheart Aegis, is based on the Douglas family crest after Sir James Douglas, which consists of a white field with a red heart in the middle and a blue stripe at the top with three white stars.
 * Azure's ultimate attack, the Splendeo Deorsum, is named after the band Shinedown, who also provided the inspiration for Azure's semblance in the form of the song "Fly From the Inside."