Aras Nox

Faction: Nocturne Age: 36 Origin: Refugee (arrived Year 88) Role: Hunter and anti-mage specialist

Overview

Aras came to Elarion as a private investigator hired to find someone who’d disappeared into the city. He found them-half-mutated, addicted to Aether, beyond saving. The client refused to pay for bad news. Aras was stranded with no funds to leave.

He adapted. His investigative skills translated well to hunting, and Nocturne needed someone who could track high-value targets. Now he’s developed a reputation for finding people who don’t want to be found and eliminating Aether-enhanced threats.

His specialty is countering supernatural abilities. When Aras focuses on someone using Aether, it simply… stops.

Twelve years ago, Aras was a respected private investigator in a city beyond Elarion. He specialized in missing persons-finding people who’d run away, been kidnapped, or disappeared into legal gray areas. He was good at it. Thorough, ethical, successful.

When a wealthy client’s son vanished into Elarion, they hired Aras. He accepted, despite knowing Elarion’s reputation. The money was good, and he’d never failed a case.

It took him three weeks to find the target. The young man had fallen in with a Wildborn pack and undergone severe mutations. He was alive but unrecognizable-more animal than human, addicted to raw Aether, and unwilling to leave. Aras documented everything, took photographs, and returned to collect payment.

The client refused to pay. “I hired you to bring my son back, not take pictures of a monster.” They had Aras thrown out. With no funds to leave and no connections, he was trapped.

Nocturne found him trying to work odd jobs in the Median. Kade Moros offered a deal: use his tracking skills for Nocturne operations, earn enough to eventually leave. Aras accepted. That was eleven years ago. He’s still here.

Not because he can’t leave-because he’s found purpose. Hunting Aether-enhanced threats, protecting people from supernatural predators, and tracking down those who abuse power. It’s investigation with higher stakes, and he’s very good at it.

Personality

Professional: Aras treats hunting as a job rather than a personal vendetta, maintaining emotional distance that allows him to make clear decisions under pressure.
Methodical: He plans every operation carefully and executes with precision, leaving nothing to chance and always having backup contingencies in place.
Moral: Despite his profession, Aras maintains a strict ethical code and will not accept contracts against innocents or those who don’t deserve his particular attention.
Determined: Once he accepts a hunt, he pursues it to completion no matter the obstacles, displaying relentless persistence that has become his trademark.
Protective: He extends fierce protection to his bonded partner Gloom Shade, treating their partnership as sacred and fighting for the creature as he would for himself.

Aras is quiet, focused, and absolutely reliable. He’s not flashy-he’s effective. Colleagues describe him as “the guy who gets it done without drama.”

Abilities & Aether Use

Aras represents an anomaly among Nocturne operatives-his relationship with Aether is fundamentally disruptive rather than consumptive. He doesn’t channel Aether in the traditional sense; instead, his presence creates interference patterns that destabilize magical effects around him. This natural counter-resonance makes him invaluable against Aether-enhanced threats, though the source of this ability remains unknown even to him.

Unique Ability: Supernatural Nullification

When Aras focuses on someone using Aether-based abilities, they fail
Not complete nullification-disruption and weakening
Effective range: roughly 50 feet with concentration
Doesn’t know how he does it (possibly natural counter-resonance)
Works on: Veilwalker magic, Aether-enhanced strength, channeling abilities
Less effective on: Permanent mutations, constructs, environmental Aether

Combat Style:

Tracks targets relentlessly
Disrupts their powers at critical moments
Finishes with conventional weapons (prefers crossbow and blade)
Often works with Gloom Shade for coordination

Specializations:

Killed Veilwalkers mid-cast
Cornered Wildborn shape-shifters
Taken down Fleshbound abominations
Tracked targets across entire city

Limitations: His nullification ability requires focus and concentration, making it difficult to use while engaged in direct combat. The ability also has no effect on permanent physical mutations or Aether already integrated into constructs.

Relationships

Gloom Shade (Nocturne)

Bonded partner and hunting companion. Aras found the creature injured in the Median depths and treated its wounds without expecting anything in return. The Shade chose to follow him, and they’ve hunted together as equals ever since. Their partnership represents one of the rare true bonds between human and shadow creature-built on mutual respect rather than domination.

Umbra 77 (Silvertongue)

Currently hunting. Umbra executed an unsanctioned kill that violated Night Market protocol and burned Aras’s carefully cultivated investigation into Silvertongue operations. Aras intends to capture Umbra alive rather than eliminate them-he needs the assassin to trace back to their handlers and expose the faction’s breach of neutral ground protocols.

Kade Moros (Nocturne)

Employer and the person who gave Aras a chance when he was stranded in Elarion. Aras respects Kade’s professionalism and unwavering honor regarding neutral ground agreements. Their relationship is built on mutual respect for competence and shared understanding of the underworld’s necessary codes.

Edda Brann (Ironheart)

Professional respect forged through joint Nocturne-Ironheart operations. Aras admires Edda’s integrity and straightforward approach-qualities rare in Elarion’s murky political landscape. They work well together when faction interests align.

Silvertongue (Faction)

Aras was hired by them once for a tracking job. He walked away after learning their true nature and the extent of their manipulation. Silvertongue doesn’t take rejection well, and this history contributes to the tension surrounding his hunt for Umbra 77.

Pistonbreaker (Ironheart)

Fellow anti-mage specialist. They share tactical knowledge about countering Aether-enhanced threats and have cooperated on operations where their skills complemented each other. Mutual professional respect between two very different approaches to the same problem.

Rook Ashwell (Nocturne)

Professional acquaintance within Nocturne. Both work intelligence operations but use different methods-Aras hunts targets physically, while Rook extracts memories psychically. They maintain mutual respect for each other’s effectiveness despite their contrasting approaches.

Cinder Voss (Ironheart)

Has tracked Cinder during arson investigations for various clients. Aras respects her controlled approach to destruction even while opposing her methods when their objectives conflict. Professional adversaries who understand each other’s capabilities.

The Umbra 77 Hunt

Three years ago, Aras had an embedded asset inside Silvertongue-a Nocturne lieutenant feeding him intelligence on their operations. The investigation was going well until someone inside Silvertongue commissioned Umbra 77 to eliminate the asset.

The hit was executed just outside Night Market neutral perimeter-technically legal but ethically questionable. It burned Aras’s investigation, violated Market protocol (killing Nocturne members near neutral ground), and covered Silvertongue’s involvement.

Since then, Aras has been hunting Umbra. Not for revenge-for accountability. He wants Umbra alive to trace back to their handlers and expose Silvertongue’s breach of protocol. It’s the most dangerous hunt of his career.