character info.

[freely]

on the man known as
 daniel riordan.

verse info — in a world where one in four people have the innate ability to create magic (and just about everybody has the skill to use magic), there is a coven named amyranth. — while traditional methods of harnessing magical ability come through 'ambient' rituals (i.e., drawing power from natural, everyday tasks, such as using a spool to symbolically 'knit' spells into creation or using different oils to strengthen protective runes), the wayward coven of amyranth believes in one rule: knowledge is power, and power is everything. the members of amyranth practice not only 'leeching' magics that drain whole towns dry and create earthquakes that fissure the earth, they also break one of the key elements of witchcraft: to never disrupt the balance of nature. — each amyranth coven member is given, upon initiation, a coven name and the ability to shapeshift into an animal of their choosing with the understanding that they will serve without question. in exchange for this animal freedom, the members of amyranth work towards harvesting power — and, yes, leeching it from not only the soil but also other people. temperament — an odd duck in a pond full of various carnivorous fish, daniel is an amyranth member who hides the well of his own power by taking care of others'. rare in his ability, he uses traditional ambient methods to funnel the magic of others and amplify it through taking close and systematic care of each bonsai tree shaped into a coven member's personal rune. the patience of each plant strengthens the magic, coiling it tighter until the 'reserve' is tapped as a ready to use well; the system of fragile roots knits the magic together to resist hostility or trap prey. — not much of a believer in amyranth's philosophy, daniel only sticks around because there have been cases where he's been able to discourage leeching whole towns and villages (or at the very least spare the children). a pacifist at his core, he calls himself more gardener than witch and rarely ever spends time in the form that amyranth has given him. — having long had a connection towards 'green' energy and flora, daniel presents as a tall, lanky, unassuming guy. he has a light accent and radiates a patient energy; he always seems to be doing things in his own time, and his relaxed body language reflects this. his general air of pleasantness can come across as unnerving to some and calming to others. he is almost always in conversation with the plantlife around him in a form of botanical communication, which manifests in an unfortunate tendency to seem to be talking aloud to himself. — daniel is incapable of healing through magical means that are not poultices or herbal medicine, and rarely uses offensive magic. though he's capable of a lot, his ability to use offensive magic comes by requesting forms of intercession from the greenery around him, and they have the ability to say yes or no. — tl;dr tree man somehow ends up in sociopathic powerhungry coven. man too busy acting like a tree to care too much about that state of affairs, or remember to do human things half the time.

[ A man saw a bird and found him beautiful. The bird had a song inside him, and feathers. Sometimes the man felt like the bird and sometimes the man felt like a stone—solid, inevitable—but mostly he felt like a bird, or that there was a bird inside him, or that something inside him was like a bird fluttering. This went on for a long time. ]