Name: Lance Donovan, Lance of Goldnight, Herald of War, Fist of Avacyn, Stranger
Gender: Male
Age: Between 29 and 100, depending on who's asking.
Description: As a quantum anomaly, Lance exists in several states at several different times. He inhabits several different multiverses simultaneously, most notably those in which he is a pilot of the advanced Armored Core war machine known as the White Glint and the one in which he is an extremely powerful being known as a planeswalker. The Winter Ball, taking place in the Omniversal Nexas (belonging to no single Multiverse and yet encompassing all of them), allows his several iterations to inhabit the same existence simultaneously and as such, his appearance and history merges the two accordingly.
Lance is rather tall, standing over six and-a-half feet. He's well built, with broad shoulders and well-defined muscles. Like most angels of Innistrad, his body is powerful but lean, emphasizing muscle tone over muscle size, with his superhuman strength negating the need for huge muscles. Indeed, Lance's body looks and feels almost like it was chiseled out of stone or forged from steel. His combined angelic/vampiric nature means that his body is more resilient, and more resistant to injury and fatigue than a human of similar size and build. Lance also has a great pair of angelic wings that he's learned to withdraw into his body and make less conspicuous. His wings, once pure, glowing, ethereal white, have been diminished by his hybrid nature, and a tinge of blood-red highlights color the edges of his wings.
Lance's facial features are strong and defined; he owes his good looks to both his vampire-angel hybrid nature, both of which are renowned for their aesthetic appeal. Since becoming a vampire, however, his features have sharpened and taken on a more predatory glean. He has dark brown hair that reaches just past his shoulders, and dark brown eyes that have been described as "soul melting" (oh, if they only knew!) His long vampiric canine teeth are usually easy to hide and conceal, and appear normal unless Lance loses control.
He's well built, from years of demanding physical labor and a disciplined training regimen, but carries many various-sized scars from combat and training injuries. The smaller and older scars, however, are barely visible--due it part to size and fading over time--but also because of Lance's well-tanned skin.
When Lance loses control or allows himself to change, his vampiric nature manifests different physical characteristics. First and foremost, his hair changes color, turning a blinding platinum, white-gold color. His eyes turn entirely black, while his irises glow a hellish fiery orange-red. His canine teeth on his upper and lower jaw elongate into fangs, and he is able to elongate his fingernails into razor-sharp claws. Most stunningly, however, is the change to his wings. While they might otherwise be white, his transformed nature turns his feathers black (though they still keep the blood-red highlights).
During his off-duty time, Lance's wardrobe is rather relaxed; he takes to wearing simple, tight-fitting t-shirts or plain-colored long-sleeved shirts that hint at his impressive physique. His usual attire also consists of a pair of black pants or faded, torn, blue-jeans and a pair of black or brown combat boots. He also has a well-worn brown leather jacket. He does, however, also own a rather well-stocked supply of fancier clothes for gala events he's required to attend.
When piloting his Armored Core, Lance wears a standard Irregular's form-fitting flight-suit. Like all Irregular suits, there are specially designed exo-neurotransmitters placed throughout it, which then connect to the AC's Allegorical Manipulation System. Lance's suit is mostly white with some yellow-gold trim. The sleeves and most of the torso are black, while its shoulders and protruding collar are white. He also wears a pair of white gloves. Like all suits, it also contains padded sections to protect his shoulders, arms, chest, and legs from getting battered during high-speed combat.
As a Planeswalker, Lance abandoned the garments he wore during his service the typical white-and-black-robes-and-leather under armor look that all angels of the Church of Avacyn wear. He has kept the basic black leather, with its high gold-trimmed collared shirt, and the flexible armor chest-plate, but his abandoned the white robes for a black, armor-reinforced, leather trench-coat, with metal plating on the shoulders and forearms. Slits in the lower half of the coat are there to not hinder his flexibility, while two slits in the back are placed specifically for his wings to emerge from. He wears a pair of leather sword-belts on his waist and always carries a Mask of Avacyn with him, though he rarely (if ever) wears it.
Personality: Lance is cunning, calculating, and deadly. His devotion to an ideal has become devotion to himself, and he often exemplifies the self-indulgent nature of vampirism. He's self-serving and selfish. He has dedicated his existence to following his whims, and this easy life of pleasure has brought him detachment and easy confidence. He has become a sort of bon vivant, seeking novelty and new diversions. But despite his fundamentally hedonistic nature, Lance does feel the pull of more lasting concerns, and over his long life this tendency has resulted in an arcane schedule of engagements and forays to far-flung planes. As a result Lance is a busy man, planeswalking frequently to pursue concerns known only to him. Lance always seems to have business elsewhere.
He's become a charmer and a smooth-talker in this time, he has a vicious way with words and a critical eye that combine to make him extremely competent at picking someone apart and deducing what makes them tick. His ability to analyze and dissect people and situations mentally, combined with his physical nature and sangromancy has made him an incredibly deadly individual.
Lance relates to others as his playthings, as he's found few beings capable or worthy of gaining his respect. He's found immense pleasure in traveling the multiverse. Essentially, he's a narcissist, with an "I come first" sort of attitude. This is most apparent in his pursuit of women. He's the ultimate lady-killer and seducer, using his good looks, charisma, and powers to charm and steal (and subsequently break) the hearts of women everywhere. He's a connoisseur of the one-night-stand and is prone to seducing women of nobility, "just for the challenge." But Lance's eye isn't for power; he appreciates beauty no matter what social class it's found in. Unfortunately for those women, he often leaves them in rather deplorable states...if they're lucky.
Upon going into battle, however, Lance changes completely. He becomes like a machine, unceasing, unflinching, and his unrelenting drive to kill. He is no longer either stoic or laid-back, but determined and focused. He becomes something else entirely, and it is in this "dark other" that his separation from humanity becomes most evident. In the blink of an eye Lance can turn from womanizer to a serious, hyper-lethal warrior. Lance becomes vicious, ferociously efficient and brutal. He shows no remorse or hesitation and has no pity for weakness and stupidity. In this mindset, it's clear that he's no longer an angel, that he is indeed something terrifying, and it takes him some time to pull himself back from this state of hyper-awareness and hyper-lethality once his hunger is sated.
"Hyper-lethal" is the most appropriate way of describing Lance. His true nature is that of a killer: he combines the worst and most deadly aspects of an angel's unflinching determination with a vampire's sadism and hedonism. Within him lurks his "Dark Passenger," a pseudo-aware aspect of his personality that resulted from the mix of powers, energies, and magic that came with his fall and the subsequent ignition of his Planeswalkers spark. The Passenger drives him to fulfill the Hunger and the Need, the primal urges of his hybrid nature.
His narcissistic attitude and playboy lifestyle seem rather contrary to the attitude needed to be a warrior and pilot of supreme ability and quality, until one realizes that it's just a cover and a way for Lance to distract and distance himself from his killer nature. In the blink of an eye Lance can turn from womanizer to a serious, hyper-lethal warrior. In battle he's absolutely ruthless and unforgiving, dispatching enemies with a quick stroke of his weapons. He isn't cruel or sadistic, but he shows no remorse or hesitation and has no pity for weakness and stupidity. Lance refers to this side of his personality as his "dark passenger."
It's likely that Lance developed his public playboy persona as a way to mask his "dark passenger" from both the world and himself. He fears his darkness and worries that it will overtake him and turn him into a monster. So he carries himself with a sort of cool, laid-back, nonchalant attitude and engages in and meaningless romantic trysts, hoping that it will stave off his dark passenger and ignite a better part of him. He's had little luck, however, and his continued use of his "mask" has only served to make him more aware of how deep his darkness goes. He's perfectly willing to follow the rhetoric of fighting for "love and glory" but inside he feels nothing. Many of his relationships remain superficial because he finds it hard to connect with other people beyond that superficial level. Even so, Lance has a deeply-rooted sense of loyalty to those he's come to trust and care for, though they're few and far between. In fact, he feels closer to his Armored Core than he does with most people, and claims that it actually understands him. Lance's operator is one of the few who he has a genuine connection with.
Costume: Lance will attend the ball in a combination of his Armored Core pilot suit and his choice armor and cloak from Innistrad. The first layer is his standard Irregular's form-fitting flight-suit. Like all Irregular suits, there are specially designed exo-neurotransmitters placed throughout it, which then connect to the AC's Allegorical Manipulation System. Lance's suit is mostly white with some yellow-gold trim. The sleeves and most of the torso are black, while its shoulders and protruding collar are white. He also wears a pair of white gloves. On top of that he wears a flexible armor chest-plate, and a black, armor-reinforced, leather trench-coat, with metal plating on the shoulders and forearms. Slits in the lower half of the coat are there to not hinder his flexibility, while two slits in the back are placed specifically for his wings to emerge from. He wears a pair of leather sword-belts on his waist and always carries a Mask of Avacyn with him, though he rarely (if ever) wears it.
Abilities: Like all angels, Lance is adept in white magic, especially with regards to battling evil. Spells of banishing, cleansing light, and devastating waves of purifying energy. Upon receiving the vampiric curse, however, Lance was able to harness red and black magic as well, the colors of Innistrad's elder vampires. Aside from access to the standard spells of fire and lightning typical of a red mage, he also manifested a rare and powerful type of black magic. Sangromancy, the magic of blood, a dark corner of black mana specialization. With this blood magic he can drain the lifeforce of other beings, place curses on enemies, and even possess the minds and bodies of others. One of his favorite methods of attack, however, is to create a "blood shadow", a deep-red shadow that forms around him, and with it, tear his enemies to pieces.
Psychic Power: the edges and specifications of Lance's psychic power are poorly defined. It's difficult to define as it's a rather low-grade ability, possibly an effect or extension of his Dark Passenger's existence within him. It can best be described as "Alpha-Presence" or "Dominance", where he can disrupt or withstand the abilities of other Irregulars when they are directed at him, and dominate the wills of other people. Lance can control the level of his "presence", either heightening it or making it appear demure. This way he can draw attention to himself or divert attention from himself in a crowd of people, using it to charm, disarm, or intimidate. Because this "ability" is so closely related to the work he did as a covert operative, it is difficult to determine whether or not it is a true ability, an adaptation of his ability, an effect of the Passenger, or just his skill as a spy. Regardless, to those (Irregulars) more insightful into the minds and intents of people, Lance must work much harder to deceive and charm them. Conversely, however, those with a greater insight can be suddenly overwhelmed if they peer too deeply or if Lance subjects them to the full force of the Passenger's presence.
Equipment: The Black Blade - A greatsword that once belonged to the ancient Planeswalker Dakkon. After each heating of the weapon during its creation, Dakkon plunged it into a powerful slave to steal his or her life-force. The sword was a soul-drinker, a blade capable of stealing the energy of those it killed. The long-since deceased Planeswalker had abandoned his fabled weapons in the wastes of Dominaria, and Lance found himself drawn to the blade from across the multiverse. The blade called out to him and his Passenger, and he claimed it as his own.
Elbrus, the Binding Blade - The dagger used to slay and bind the demon Withengar. It still carries the demon's spirit and essence, which was one of the contributing forces that combined and resulted in the ignition of Lance's Planeswalker spark.
Mask of Avacyn & Silver-Inlaid Dagger - Two pieces of equipment given to all angels and soldiers of the Avacynian Church, though Lance rarely (if ever) uses them anymore. The mask is a tool of defense, protecting its bearer against dark forces. The dagger is a weapon especially effective against werewolves, vampires, and other monsters.
Other: Lance is a superb fighter and warrior, possessing a rating with every weapon that fires a bullet or holds an edge. He is also one of the very few individuals documented as "hyper-lethal," a designation given to those with the skills and mental fortitude to overcome massive enemy numbers and impossible situations. His "Dark Passenger" is a contributing factor though, as his emotional detachment allows him to act on pure logic and instinct, drawing out the limits of his mental and physical ability, which is considerable.
