Old Nick Blackthorne
Earl Nicholas Blackthorn, the Younger (a.k.a. Old Nick, Nickey)
Nicholas Blackthorn the Younger, known as Old Nick, is the ruler of the Naefergrene Forest, which separates Rhudd from Ghealas. He is a central figure in the mythology of the Gannwyll Gwydd as well as their neighbours, where he is viewed as everything from a divine ancestor, to a baneful monster depending on the locale.
In the Larch geneologies, he is often cited as a patriarch for the Wisterwood and Kingfinch branches who rule the Queendom of Ghealas.
The House of Larix
Divine Domains
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Apparel & Accessories
Specialized Equipment
Mental characteristics
Personal history
A portrait Nickolas by one of his grandchildren.
Nicholas was born into the recently disinherited Blackthorne family with a tenuous tie to the Wisterwoods through his mother. When he was six, his mother fled with twin sister Ninua into the Naefergrene. He would later lose his sister Herleiba at the age of fourteen, from which he never fully recovered.
He married the Earlen of Deornet Valley Wulfrun Wisterwood in adulthood. They had three children. Nicholas would spend his time working on inventions and studying the natural sciences.
After Wolfrun developed an aggressive form of Silicon Sickness, Nicholas would try to have a Double Walker of her constructed and go deep into debt. She would eventually find out about the double and have it destroyed. Sometime during the Midsummer festival, Nicholas cornered Wolfrun in the Naefergrene and bludgeoned her to death with a shovel.
Gender Identity
Sexuality
Education
Old Nick retained the basic electrical training Nickolas had learnt in waking life. The forest at the time was all but an anarchy of mismatched double walkers who had been converted and left or pieced themselves together with the help of mischevious Belanos magicians. He was mentored by Lambseare for some time, who educated him in the art of Resurrection. Through imparting this on future Kelhruna and humans who join Sheena’s cause, Old Nick became a cult personality among sympathizers and more liberal Belanos aristocrats.
Old Nick with Lambseare
After Lambseare’s death in the Ralhaz Clockmakers Revolt, Old Nick steals her head from the spike and buries it in front of Ralhaz as a cursing ward to all who oppose her.
He is soon taken up with the The Ghealan Wars and it is during this time he meets and bonds with Lambseare’s master, Sheena.
Personality Characteristics
Vices & Personality flaws
Social
Family Ties
Old Nick is both revered and feared by the Belanos clan, East and West. It becomes a general and unspoken rule that descendants of Old Nick have the destiny of ruling Gheal Valley. It is considered sort of a divine right.
As a result of their worship Old Nick will go easy on members of his clan, giving them proper burials if they enter and die in the Naefergrene. There is forever the warning however, that they are only guaranteed safety on hunting days and festivals (where he has agreed to not interefere with humans for an alloted time).
Old Nick with Olwen and Olfric
In 811, Old Nick takes in two Phoneutria adolescents who fled Hol Gheal after their father was unjustly killed, and makes them into double walkers after they both succumb to the Naefergrene. The youngest Olfric is turned first, and agrees to work for him if he will safely revive his dead sister. This prompts Old Nick to seek out a Clockmaker and leads to his capture of Ashur. Old Nick adopts them as his children, allowing them free reign over the Naefergrene.
Speech
Relationships
History
Ashur is abducted by Old Nick when he illegally enters the Naefergrene. Determined to learn more about what happened to Sigrid, Ashur decides to play along with Nick's demands until he can find safe passage out. As he struggles to maintain the ethics he cultivated in Beltane, Ashur finds himself compelled by Old Nick's arcane, unfettered energy. Old Nick senses that Ashur's beauty and grace is only skin deep, which intrigues him, and this is further explored when Ashur syncs their heartbeats to revive Nick from a fatal injury.
A mutual attraction forms between them from there which is eventually consummated after Ashur resurrects Olwen and effectively creates a Double Walker. The resulting energy leads to a night of banal, sacrilegious passion, a union which results in them both undergoing a sort of Ego Death and blurring the lines between man and monster.
Their brief but intense communion ends as Old Nick offers Ashur's body as a vessel for his descendant Sigrid. Though a violent death wrought with anger and confusion, Old Nick believes that Ashur's body will be more than suitable to house Sigrid's capricious and morbid sensibilities. As an acquaintance of Mehrdad, Old Nick figures out the details of Ashur's past as a Moth-killer rather quickly. In the end, he places a curse on Ashur to forever live as a kin of the Gannwyll Gwydd.
The survival of Ashur's mind after becoming a vessel for Sigrid was unexpected, but as Old Nick had always found Ashur interesting and affable, there remains some unaddressed affection between them.
Ashur with Old Nick
Nicknames & Petnames
Old Nick refers to Ashur as 'patrico' (priest), or ‘yammer of stiff uns’ (corpse eater) until Ashur saves his life. He also uses it as a term of endearment for Henbane later on.
Ashur typically refers to Old Nick as his species, 'double walker', in an effort to dehumanize him. Though due to Ashur's obvious attraction to double walkers this could be considered endearment.
Relationship Reasoning
Ashur represents everything Old Nick misses about being a man, namely the sentimentality and capriciousness of mortal life and sex. Old Nick represents everything Ashur misses about being a monster, a state of being when he felt control over his circumstances.
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