Darian Nightshade

Appearance
Darian is a young man with fair skin, black hair, and bright green eyes. He usually wears dark colors(blacks, blues, and dark greys) and long clothes. He usually wears baggy blue pants, black combat boots, and a dark grey 1/4 zip sweater with holes cut in the sleeves for him to place his thumbs trough, leaving his palms covered and his fingers exposed, and a zipper down the neck, which he usually wears half closed. He also wears black knee pads, lightweight mechanic gloves, a tac-scroll on his left wrist, and a black long coat with tattered tails. He carries his weapon, a large sword called the Nocturne, using a magnetic backpack.

Physically Darian is a very memorable person with a large set of cat ears on the top of his head and a scar running over his mouth. In addition to the scar on his face he has several scars on his body; a large laceration scar on his right collar bone, an impalement scar on his lower right abdomen, a stitched laceration over his heart, and a large stitched laceration on his left side.

For pajamas Darian usually wears a pair of sweat pants or running shorts, depending on the season, and a pair of socks.

Personality
Darian is a rough around the edges sort of person, preferring solitude with Alice over interaction with other people. He generally keeps people at a distance and when he does interact with others he's straight forward and blunt with them, often leading to them thinking of him as a jerk. He also blames himself for his sister's death. This self condemnation compels him to protect and educate those that are weaker or younger than him, hoping to prevent more deaths like his sister's.

The students that take Darian up on his tutoring usually end up seeing a different side to him, realizing that behind all the gruffness and anger he genuinely cares for the people around him. He also feels a strong need to protect those around him and will often jump in the way of his allies to take a hit for them.

At Darian's core he's a very heroic person, always wanting to help those in worse states than himself, and generally believes in the best of people. This often comes as a surprise to people because his gruff personality makes it seem as though he is a pessimist.

Darian also has, as he has referred to it, a 'more enlightened view on the academic concept of good and evil'; believing that there is no such thing as good and evil. He instead believes that each person, no matter how deplorable their actions or intents, believes themselves to be good; thus making everyone opposing them evil. Thus at the same time a person can be considered good, by the people following them, and evil, by the people opposing them. Darian doesn't even believe the creatures of Grimm to be evil, instead thinking of them as dangerous wild animals that are following their instincts and must be killed to protect the weak. Despite his views on good and evil Darain still accepts that some people are bigger monsters than the creatures of Grimm, no matter whether they be viewed as good or evil.

In his free time Darian often works on rebuilding an totaled muscle car that he purchased after entering beacon academy, feeling that the act of repairing and creating the vehicle is a stark and needed change from combat. He also spends as much time as possible with his girlfriend Alice, who he is deeply in love with. Darian feels that Alice is the one bright point in his life, keeping him from falling into a darkness in his soul threatening to make him into a monster himself.

Darian despises the White Fang, feeling that they do nothing but bring pain and suffering to the world around them. He's blames them for the death of his mother and sister; swearing a vow to dismantle the organization because of this.

Abilities
Being a faunus, Darian has near perfect night vision as. He's also got a good amount of physical strength that he's developed over the years from swinging around his massive sword. He also has a remarkable sense of balance and a knack for being light on his feet, allowing Darian to perform many acrobatic acts both in and out of combat.

Mentally Darian has a significantly above average IQ and a very analytical thought process. In daily life this allows him to be able to come to a beneficial decision quickly; in combat Darian uses his mental prowess to quickly analyze his opponents strengths and weaknesses and attempt to exploit them.

Darian has trained extensively in both swordsmanship and hand to hand combat allowing him to stand toe to toe with most everyone in close quarters combat. His sword skills are based around a combination of continuous circular strikes to whittle down an enemy's defenses and devastating strikes to break them. His hand to hand combative form is a combination of several styles Darian learned growing up, combining them into a lethal technique that focuses on rapidly disabling, crippling, and killing an enemy.

His skills with fire arms and other ranged weapons are limited but enough to allow him to be proficient with their use. His knowledge of dust is limited to it being used as a power supply or as an explosive.

Semblance:
Darian's semblance is known as the Disappearing Act. Disappearing Act allows Darian to perform an nearly-instantaneous dash up to 10 meters away. The dash is so fast that Darian can scale vertical surfaces without trouble and he can use the dash up to five times in rapid succession before having to stop briefly to regain his energy. However, the Disappearing Act is not without its draw backs. Each dash requires Darian to plant his footing, leaving him vulnerable for a second in between the dashes. The Disappearing Act also leaves a trail of Darian's black aura behind him, allowing a keen enemy to follow which direction he went. A side effect of using the Disappearing Act is that Darian's eyes begin to glow, often leaving a pair of eyes floating in the air after his first dash.

Combat Stats:
Swordsmanship: 9/10

Hand to Hand: 8/10

Speed: 6/10

Dust Usage: 2/10

Ranged Weapons: 5/10

Semblance Usage: 7/10

Agility: 9/10

Nocturne
Darian's weapon is a large sword known as the Nocturne. The blade measures 54 inches from tip to pommel and is roughly 5.125 inches wide with a 1 inch thick blade. The Nocturne's alternate form is that of a rail gun; the blade splits down the middle to open a gap, creating a four sided magnetic field to accelerate the .5 inch wide steel rods that are used as it's ammunition. When the blade opens up the shoulder guard slides back, bridging the gap in the area for the hilt and a hologram sight is deployed out of the side of the weapon. The rods are loaded in from the blunt edge of the weapon in a slot that is covered in sword form by the shoulder guard. The magnetic acceleration is powered by powdered lightning dust that is installed behind the slot for the steel rods.

Tac-scroll
The tac-scroll is a smaller version of the standard scroll that is issued to students at beacon academy. The tac-scroll takes the form of a single touch screen device that is attacked to a wrist strap so it may be worn. The device is hardened to withstand light impacts and allows Darian to monitor the condition of his team mates as well as communicate with them via headsets that connect to the scrolls.

Magnetic Backpack
The magnetic backpack is Darian's primary way of carrying the Nocturne while not in combat. The backpack uses a large electromagnet powered by containers of powdered lightning dust to keep the sword attached.

Backstory
Darian Nightshade was born Chester Del la Sol to Elizabeth Del la Sol and Rufous Del la Sol in a town that was populated exclusively by faunus; most of them being members of the White Fang. Darian's mother was an expert huntress and his father was a mid-level bureaucrat within the White Fang. Together they had planned to use their combined strengths to usher in a new era for faunus kind. However that changed when Darian was six. On their way back from a diplomatic meeting with human leaders the Del la Sol family was caught in a massive car crash that grievously injured Belial, killed Elizabeth, and forced Darian to awaken his semblance in order to protect his sister Angela. At the time the crash appeared to be an accident, but members of the White Fang believed it to be an assassination attempt on the Del la Sol family.

This event was a major turning point in Darian's life. Rufous used the assault on his family and the death of his wife in order to gain political favor and move up in the ranks of the White Fang, pushing for the organization to become more militaristic. As Darian's father become more wrapped up in the politics of the White Fang he drew away from his family more and more, leaving Darian to raise his sister. Rufous' actions began to make Darian loath the White Fang, him believing at the time that the organization was corrupting his father.

Six years after his mother's death a human group of assailants attacked their house. In the assault Darian's sister was killed, launching the boy into a fit of rage that managed to get him impaled on a spear and while killing most of the would be assassins killed. It was while Darian was recovering from his injuries that he discovered that his father had been using Angela's death in an attempt to garner him more support and political favor to send him farther up the political ladder of the White Fang.

So at the age of twelve Darian threw away his previous identity and chose his new name; taking up his mother's maiden name for his surname as he began a new life. The boy spent two years on the streets learning to fight, steal, doing what it took to survive. It was during this time period that he decided he would become a hunter in order to protect the weak from the monsters of the world, both the creatures of Grimm and the people.

When Darian was fourteen he met a strange girl by the docks. She had dark skin, blonde hair, was dressed in rags and identified herself as "Subject Alpha-One-Charlie-Three". When he asked what she was doing he the girl explained that she was from a foreign country and had stowed away on a ship to run away from men who had been conducting some sort of experiment on her for several years. The fact that someone had been experimenting on this girl greatly upset Draian and he swore to himself to protect her and invited her to join him in going to a combat academy. She agreed and he named her Alice after the identifying tattoo she had on her left arm.

After a few weeks of living with Alice, she and Darian applied to Refuge Academy and after a rigorous application process, both were accepted into the academy. During their time at Refuge the two became very close, eventually falling in love and becoming a couple. Both Darian and Alice excelled at the academy, scoring high in academic classes as well as combat classes from the events in their past.

After graduating Refuge Academy, Darian and Alice were both accepted into Beacon Academy where they were teamed up with a hare faunus named Kane and a bear faunus named Penelope. The four have begrudgingly worked together on the team for the past two years, doing their best to stay out of each others way.

Darian's Name:
Dairan's name has several color meanings, Darian's team name SPAD (pronounced spade) is a reference to the spade suit in playing cards.
 * Can mean 'Upholder of good' which would make the color name White (traditional meaning of the name)
 * Can mean 'Wealth and affluent' which would make the color name Gold (Persian meaning)
 * Is derived from the name Daren which can mean 'Born at night' which would make the color name Black (African meaning)
 * Is derived from the name Darren which can mean 'Burnt land or hill' making the color name Grey (Gaelic)

Darian's birth name Chester is an allusion to Cestnuts and the Chesshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.