Octavio

Mate - Virtue
Breed - Wildclaw
Gender - Male
Element - Water
Talent - Immortality
Faction - Scholars
Role – The study and preservation of historical artefacts.
Dark Secret – His haughty accent originally began as an affectation - an attempt to cultivate a refined image - but became increasingly natural over time.
Traits – Gentlemanly and charming, old-fashioned mannerisms, speaks eloquently and haughtily, highly knowledgeable in his area of study, possessive, does not require sleep, incorrigible perfectionist, secretive (regarding past), views mates as possessions.
Appearance – His wings are draped with cobwebs that have accumulated over the course of his unnaturally long life – it is unknown why he does not attempt to remove them.
Sins – Forcible confinement, pride, deception, greed (for knowledge).
Likes – Demure and delicate females, making new discoveries, noontime tea, admiring his collection.
Dislikes – Combat (except duelling), remarks about his age, interruptions to his work, poorly-prepared meals.
Theme Music – Whispers in the Dark (Skillet)

Octavio was hatched at the inception of the Third Age, quite literally millennia ago. He speaks little of his youth, embarrassed by his drunken, hedonistic carousing, and general impropriety.

To be fair, such activities were not uncommon among the youth of wealthy clans at the time. However, Octavio has a reputation that he seeks to uphold, cultivated over the centuries. A reputation that has no place for such an unsavoury past.

As far as the Wildclaw is concerned, his life began when he discovered his true calling - archeology. At the time, the relics that he unearthed were of the Second Age - historical relics which he sought to restore and preserve.

As centuries of painstaking excavation and restoration passed, Octavio discovered that he was immortal – as generations of his clanmates aged and died around him, his mind and body both remained youthful and unchanged. He postulated that this was caused by one of the many magical artefacts that he had unearthed early in his career - but the cause was ultimately unimportant.

One of the perils of immortality is the ignorance of the passage of time. Octavio painstakingly explored dig site after dig site, barely noticing as the millennia slipped by. The majority of the relics he unearthed were no longer from the Second Age - rather, they were from the early centuries of his own life.

All that grounded him in reality was the numerous mates that he took. Every few centuries, he would charm another suitor, winning their affections with his refined and charmingly antiquated mannerisms. Then, he would preserve them.

Yes, preserve them. The Wildclaw's mind had become alarmingly twisted, his inherent perfectionism greatly exacerbated by his prolonged dedication to such precise work.

Octavio would adorn his mates in finery, then take them as his prisoners. Kept healthy and clean, fed and pampered, they were nonetheless bound in chains both literal and metaphorical - unable to make decisions for themselves, unable to leave their gilded cages within the Wildclaw's lair.

Physically, they were never harmed. Mentally, they were destroyed, overwhelmed by their isolation.

Kept carefully preserved, much like the artefacts he studied, each of these mates ultimately succumbed to old age - and their bejewelled bones became merely another part of the archeologist's collection.

It was not Octavio who found the Unrepentant Clan. Rather, it was the Unrepentant Clan that found Octavio. He had taken a short break from his current excavation - to him a span of perhaps fifteen minutes, to a mortal dragon perhaps a single decade - and returned to find his dig site occupied.

His work had shaped the site into a deep circular depression, ringed by dozens upon dozens of caves arranged in many precise tiers. In short, Octavio had excavated an amphitheater.

Silverslash happened upon the structure while seeking a new lair for his Unrepentant Clan - he refused to remain in the unstable and contested territory where the clan had been founded.

The shape of the structure had spoken to the former gladiator on a deeply personal level. It had also offered defensible terrain, solid construction, and the potential for considerable expansion. It was perfect, and in the decade that Octavio was gone, the Clan of Second Chances swiftly repurposed the dig site into their new lair.

When the Wildclaw returned, he was shocked to discover that a clan of ruffians had appropriated the site. Thankfully, his collection of artefacts had been moved into a storage vault, rather than being destroyed or discarded.

Satisfied that his life's work was unharmed, Octavio attempted to regain control of his excavation site, politely demanding that the Unrepentant dragons vacate the premises. It was fortunate that he had designed to be so polite. Rather than being angered, Silverslash was merely amused by the Wildclaw’s insolence.

The gladiator maintained that his clan would be going nowhere, but if the archeologist desired to continue his work, there were considerable portions of the site that remained unoccupied - after all, Silverslash was not an unreasonable dragon, well aware that he owed his clan's newfound home entirely to Octavio's efforts.

Not truly satisfied, but painfully aware that it would be futile to argue, the Wildclaw accepted the terms of the arrangement. Though he personally does not require sleep, his excavation has been restricted to the daylight hours, on pain of mutilation.

Between that, and the manner in which the expanding clan encroaches ever further onto his dig site, Octavio has found himself becoming increasingly exasperated. So exasperated, in fact, that he has acquired a terrible habit of cursing – colorfully and vulgarly, in the name of every known deity. Of course, he blames this habit entirely on the ruffians with whom he is forced to associate.

Exasperation notwithstanding, Octavio knows he is incredibly fortunate that it was the Unrepentant Clan that stumbled upon his work - they accept him despite of the morbid nature of his collection, aware that he is a monster much like themselves.

A monster who has recently been presented with a new potential mate. A naïve and delicate Fae by the name of Virtue, she is utterly enamoured with the Wildclaw, and he does not intend to let the opportunity pass him by.

Virtue will be perfectly preserved, her bones becoming merely another artefact in Octavio's vast collection.