[Sphinx] 白思 || Bái Sī {Checkmate}

General Information

Full Name:
白思 (Bái Sī)

Codename or Alias:
生肖 (Shēngxiào), Zodiac

Anonymity
Public

Gender:
Male

Race:
Human

Age:
25

Place Of Birth:
Hong Kong, China

Occupation/Status:
Vigilante, Sorcerer

Alignment:
Hero

Factions:
None

Canon Or Original?:
OC

Powers/Abilities:

Sorcery: As a child of two sorcerers and a natural adept at the mystic arts, Bai can tap the universe's infinite store of ambient magical energy and manipulate this to a variety of effects. He has specialized into three distinct schools of magic: Necromancy, Divination, and Energy Projection. 

    Necromancy: Bai uses Necromancy to revive the spirits of long-dead individuals and bind them to object or people. Aside from summoning the dead and manipulating their souls, Bai can also speak to the dead and animate corpses to create undead servants. It was through Necromantic rituals that Bai returned the spirits of the 12 Zodiac animals to the land of the living, before binding them and their powers to his own soul.

    Divination: Bai uses Divination magic to discern the locations of objects and people, being able to scry on them from far away once he finds their location. Bai also uses Divination for limited sight into the future, though this power is not reliable as Bai isn't a master of Divination, and the future can still be changed.

    Energy Projection/Evocation: Bai can have arcane energy have physical form, forming magical energy bolts and arcane fire with a high degree of potency and control. He can erect energy shields or screens with a high degree of invulnerability to both physical and magical damage, and conjure magical energy weapons that can bypass said shields.

Spirits of the Zodiac: Bai has summoned and bound the spirits of the original 12 Zodiac animals to his own soul, granting him their abilities in exchange for his body being possessed by their souls.

    Rat Runs Through Shadows: The Rat allows Bai's body to melt into shadow, and move through it, enabling him to slip by many defenses by travelling in the shadow to wherever the shadow touches. The Rat spirit, unfortunately, also gives Bai a severe sensitivity to light, enough to blunt and inhibit his sorcery.

    Ox Shoulders the Mountain: The Ox grants Bai super strength, making him strong enough to lift hundreds of thousands of tonnes and fight off multiple members of the Great Ten at once. At his most powerful, Bai is able to bench press a fully loaded container ship, and topple a skyscraper on his own.

    Tiger Stalks the Jungle: The Tiger spirit puts Bai in a hyper-predatory state, enhancing his senses and reflexes to a superhuman degree, as well as granting him night-vision, infrared vision, and echolocation. The Tiger spirit is obsessed with the thrill of the hunt, and Bai finds it harder than most others to keep this spirit's bloodlust in check.

    Rabbit Races the Dawn: The Rabbit makes Bai capable of running at speeds of 175 miles per hour. He has sufficient energy reserves that enables him to run at this average speed for roughly four hours before reducing his speed to replenish his body's store of energy. Bai has used his powers of acceleration for various feats, such as plucking an arrow out of the air from a standing start, dodging machine gun fire, and has creating cyclone-like gusts of wind, which are able to knock a man off his feet. He is able to run across the Pacific Ocean and to oversea continents without having to stop, and run up the sides of buildings effortlessly.

    Dragon Commands the Heavens: According to Chinese mythology, dragons are also capable of controlling the weather. Bai uses this power from the Dragon spirit to control all forms of weather. He has been able to control both Earthly and extraterrestrial ecosystems on several occasions. He can modify the temperature of the environment, control all forms of precipitation, humidity, and moisture (at a molecular level), generate lightning and other electromagnetic atmospheric phenomena, and has demonstrated excellent control over atmospheric pressure. He can incite all forms of meteorological tempests, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, and hurricanes as well as mist. He can dissipate such weather to form clear skies as well. Another difficult spirit, the Dragon often demands to be the only spirit in use, effectively locking Bai into weather manipulation whenever the Dragon is invoked.

    Snake Sheds Her Skin: The Snake spirit grants Bai an immunity to disease and toxins, and rapid regeneration, allowing him to heal from grievous injuries in seconds. Bai's body naturally regenerates most (if not all) damaged or destroyed tissues and organs at a rate which exceeds that of any normal human. The rate of regeneration is proportional to the damage caused. This process is automatic, and Bai seems to have no control over it. His healing factor, however, does not seem to stop Bai from feeling the pain of his wounds nor the pain of his body regenerating itself.

    Horse Runs Across Asia: The Horse grants Bai superhuman endurance and stamina, allowing him to exert himself at peak performance for literal days before requiring rest. In exchange, the Horse demands a greater slice of time for those days, which he uses to typically avoid combat instead of fight.

    Goat Endures the Winter: The Goat spirit grants Bai superhuman durability, allowing him to survive and endure the harshest conditions and phenomena on the planet, such as extreme heat, extreme cold, hurricane winds, and rockslides. The Goat is also a reluctant spirit, often taking Bai several attempts to invoke his abilities.

    Monkey Attains Enlightenment: The Monkey spirit grants a boost to Bai's intellect and processing ability, making him as smart as a natural born genius. He uses this ability to maintain an encyclopedic knowledge of spells from the Hong Kong Sanctum. The Monkey is another obsessive spirit, preferring to lock Bai away in the Sanctum for study instead of being used for combat applications.

    Rooster Walks on Clouds: The Rooster grants Bai the ability of flight, allowing him to fly as fast as the Rabbit spirit can run. 

    Dog Predicts the Master: The Dog spirit gives Bai the ability of supernatural empathy and telepathy, making him able to sense and experience the emotions of others, as well as read the surface thoughts of people around him. Bai has little control over this ability, having people's thoughts and feelings constantly wash over him, making it difficult for him to focus in crowds.

    Pig Eats Earth's Bounty: The Pig spirit greatly expands what's edible for Bai, including sea water, grants him greater healing and medicinal benefits from food, and makes him immune to any adverse effects that may come from eating food. It also greatly extends the time needed for him to starve or die of thirst.

Expert Martial Artist: Bai augments his abilities by studying martial arts, practicing Taijiquan, White Crane Style, Northern Praying Mantis, Choy Li Fut, and Zui Quan (Drunken Fist).

Multilingual: Bai can speak and read Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. 


Weapons/Items:

Sling Ring: a small two-finger ring imbued with the power to open and sustain dimensional portals between any two points within the universe. They are used by the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and their apprentices, to facilitate long-distance travel where a temporary portal is desired.


Weaknesses: 

Crowded Body: The nature of Bai's primary powers mean that his body is possessed by 12 spirits other than his own, spirits that often aren't very cooperative and that Bai must often beg to help him. To accommodate everyone, Bai has divided his life into intervals of control, where each animal has control of 5 percent of his time, and Bai as control of the remaining 40 percent (9.6 hours out of the day), which he uses to mostly sleep. Because of this, anyone interacting with Bai is most likely not interacting with him, but one of the animal spirits that inhabit his body. His animal spirits have perfect control over their own respective abilities but very shaky control over the others', including Bai's non-zodiac based abilities. In case of emergencies where Bai isn't initially in control, it takes a few moments for Bai to "wake up" and return as the primary identity in charge of his body, creating a great moment of weakness during the delay.

Limited Cycling: In most cases, Bai can only access one spirit's power at a time (see Trines below). To access another power simultaneously, the spirit being invoked must be in the same Trine as the first spirit invoked. If Bai attempts to use a power a spirit outside of the established Trine, the spirit that he's switching to will take over his body for an hour, locking him into the abilities Bai has already selected but no more, forcing Bai (or rather, the animal spirit) to rely on his sorcery to get by. For example, Bai often uses the Second Trine in its entirety, able to use super strength, flight, and rapid regeneration all at once, but to add another power to that set, such as Monkey's, would A) force Monkey to be in control of Bai's body, and B) lock Bai out of using the remaining 8 animal spirits for an hour. Another example, Bai can use Rat and Dragon's powers simultaneously, but not Rat and Tiger's without Tiger taking over. Furthermore, using 3 or more spirit abilities at once greatly drains Bai's energy reserves unless he's also tapped into the Horse spirit, causing him to have severe fatigue after extensive engagements.

    First: The first Trine consists of the Rat, Dragon, and Monkey. These three signs are considered intense and powerful individuals capable of great good, who make great leaders but are rather unpredictable.

    Second: The second Trine consists of the Ox, Snake, and Rooster. These three signs are said to possess endurance and application, with slow accumulation of energy, meticulous at planning but tending to hold fixed opinions.

    Third: The third Trine consists of the Tiger, Horse, and Dog. These three signs are said to seek true love, to pursue humanitarian causes, to be idealistic and independent but tending to be impulsive.

    Fourth: The fourth Trine consists of the Rabbit, Goat, and Pig. These three signs are said to have a calm nature and somewhat reasonable approach; they seek aesthetic beauty and are artistic, well-mannered and compassionate, yet detached and resigned to their condition.

Silence: Bai must be able to recite the spirits' incantations to use their abilities, although Bai has mastered silent casting for his standard sorcery. If Bai is rendered silenced some way, or an area is unable to have sound, Bai will be unable to invoke a spirit until he is able to speak aloud again, though silence has no affect to powers already active.


Appearance

Image:


Physical Appearance:
Bai is a handsome Chinese male standing at 5'10". He has short black hair, dark brown eyes, a sharp smile, and a youthful complexion. Years of martial arts practice, hero work, and general physical conditioning have given Bai an athletic build, his body covered in lean muscle.

Clothing and Armor:
Bai is gifted with a keen fashion sense, preferring to wear stylish fitted suits or trendy athletic wear. He eschews the mystic storied robes of other sorcerers, and the body armor of mercenaries, needing neither for protection, instead favoring a completely modern look for the urban landscape.


Personality

Sexual Orientation:
Heterosexual

General Personality:

Bai is a cheerful, upbeat, free-spirited individual. He may seem dopey or careless at times, but his friendly demeanor hides a keenly observant nature. Bai is a natural student, finding himself at ease with books and in areas of study. He enjoys maintaining an encyclopedic amount of knowledge of magic in his head. While he doesn't share his parents' ambitions of him becoming an (even more) powerful sorcerer, he shares their adoration for the mystic arts. Bai also has a heroic streak in him, unable to look away from injustice or trouble. He hates bureaucracy and red tape, preferring the exact opposite, to charge headfirst into the thick of a problem. Bai makes friends easily, but because of his transient nature, finds it difficult to hold onto them.


Face/Voice:
Dylan Wang


Character's History

History:

Bai was born to two sorcerers of the Hong Kong Sanctum who wanted their son to follow in the mystic traditions. As soon as he was able to utter a word, Bai was taught, drilled, and groomed to be a powerful sorcerer, his parents choosing to home school him until his 14th year, primarily instructing him in the ways of magic and the arcane. When he was 14, Bai's parents sent him to Kamar-Taj, to receive instruction and mentoring from the Ancient One personally. It was in Kamar-Taj that Bai found he excelled in three schools of magic: Energy Projection, Divination, and most of all, Necromancy.

Under the Ancient One's watchful eye, he was permitted to pursue his studies independently at Kamar-Taj for 10 years, with the sorcerer eventually finding a ritual that could give him all the benefits of consuming someone's soul without actually consuming it, merely binding the soul to their own instead. As Bai studied, he entertained himself with stories of ancient sorcerers and feats of magic recorded in Kamar-Taj, finding himself particularly intrigued by stories of the Jade Emperor and the Zodiac animals.

"According to legend, the Jade Emperor held a contest to decide which animals would be lucky enough to be included in the calendar. The winner of the race – the rat – received the first year of the 12-year cycle, and so on."

Wanting to recover some of the magic of that bygone age, Bai used Divination to track down the sites of the original zodiac animals' graves, and used the ritual he had learned to draw those spirits back from the afterlife and bind them to his own soul, the entire search and process taking over a year. Bai, however, did not anticipate that the possession effects from the ritual would grow stronger each time, the sorcerer eventually losing control of his body for a whole month after completing the twelfth and final ritual.

After a month of battling the Zodiac animals spirits inside his own soul for dominance, he established a time-sharing accord with the spirits concerning his own body, the sorcerer now stuck with the twelve animals possessing him, not knowing how to undo the rituals. Not that Bai wants to. Bai currently enjoys the extent of his powers to the utmost, deciding to serve humanity with his powers and openly operating independently from the Great Ten as a vigilante.


Role Play Sample:


The public would not know that a mistake during transportation was what allowed Solomon Grundy to exploit a security flaw and cause a major security breach at a clandestine Ministry of Science and Technology research facility. The promise of working with less legal and ethical restrictions and oversight was what led American scientist Professor Ivo (and by extension, his creation, Amazo) to work with the C.C.P. in China, far away from the prying and meddling of A.R.G.U.S., which allowed him to bring in and experiment on such rare specimens like Solomon Grundy.

None of that mattered now, however, with Amazo having finished beating down Grundy in the streets of Beijing, right at the seat of government. Amazo had not held back while fighting in the city center, causing hundreds of millions in property damage, and had not been ordered to be careful with regards to civilian casualties, already leading to a handful of deaths of those caught in the carnage. The Great Ten was still being briefed on the situation, and as such, did not complete the requisite paperwork to intervene on what were technically considered government assets.

A visiting Bai, however, was not held back by such restraints, and knowing that detaining Amazo would take priority, felt safe with intervening even with the close proximity of the Great Ten. "兔子赛跑黎明。山羊能过冬。"

Bai became a sudden blur as he raced towards the downtown brawl, kicking off the ground and and launching himself at the android. As Bai closed in on Amazo, the rampaging android turned around, reacting faster than anticipated, and grabbed Bai's head, slamming him downward into the ground. Bai's head slammed sideways into the concrete, his body upside-down like a tree planted, his eyes wide in pain as his vision swam and his bones cracked. "牛肩扛山!" Bai seized Amazo's arm and twisted as hard as he could, breaking and contorting the limb, forcing the android to let go of his head and leap back, gaining some distance from the sorcerer. The android simply stared at the man after jumping back, lines of data running through his eyes as he attempted to analyze and replicate the man's magic.

Groaning and panting, Bai slammed his fist into the ground and stood up, casting a glare at the android. "我不知道你是谁，但你可以停下来了。现在。" said Bai in a deeper, different voice: the voice of the Ox. Amazo simply stood up straighter, and fired twin lasers from his eyes directly at Bai. Bai conjured an energy shield from his palms and kicked up a cloud of dust, muttering an incantation, forcing the cloud of dust to swell in size and harden into a wall of concrete. Amazo simply punched his way through the conjured wall of concrete, walking forward steadily towards Bai. Bai sighed aloud. "So, you're choosing the hard way, huh? Do you even understand Chinese?" Amazo fired his lasers at Bai again, and the sorcerer became a blur once more, appearing right beneath the android's chin, throwing his fist upward. The uppercut landed with a resounding crack, lifting Amazo off the ground, but Bai grabbed the android's ankle once he rose high enough and pulled downward hard, sending Amazo crashing back down, the sorcerer whistling as he found his groove. "I'm telling you: Run. Before the Great Ten get here. I'm actually the gentle option here." Amazo responded with another laser burst from his prone position, making a hard swing with his left fist as he rose towards Bai. But the lasers only met an energy barrier conjured around Bai's face as Bai caught Amazo's fist, grabbing it by the wrist with both hands and stomping into Amazo's chest, pulling as hard as he could before ripping the android's fist off. 

Amazo didn't react to his hand being torn off, sparks flying from the crackling wires coming out of the stump. Amazo's right arm contorted and reformed, healing from the broken bones, before he threw an uppercut into Bai's abdomen. Bai's eye's widened, dropping Amazo's fist as the force of the punch knocked him back several feet. The sorcerer didn't land on the ground, however, levitating after the punch, before performing a rapid series of mudras with his hands, unleashing a torrent of eldritch lightning at the android. Amazo staggered backward from the cascading impacts from the lightning bolts, but responded by firing another twin beams from his eyes, the lasers meeting the lightning, causing a large explosion between them.

Bai panted to catch his breath after the explosion, watching the maimed android emerge fearlessly from the smoke, walking towards the sorcerer. Bai sighed aloud once more before stretching upwards, his palms raised towards the sky as he cracked his neck. This was gonna be a long one.