NAME. Tristan Alighiero AGE & BIRTH DATE. 30 & August 5th, 1993 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Male & He/Him. SPECIES. Witch COVEN. Amaranthus OCCUPATION. Supervisor at Fates' FACE CLAIM. Cody Fern
biography
( tw blood sacrifice, murder ) Once upon a time, Heracles had completed 12 trials and Jason and the Argonauts brought back the Golden Fleece. Once upon a time, Psyche completed what was thought impossible and was rewarded with godhood. Once upon a time, a cambion named Dante Alighiero traveled down into the Inferno for his lover, the only mortal to ever do it, and documented his adventures for the world to know. Pathos, the Greeks had called these sorts of adventures. They were the experiences of virtuous struggle and suffering which would lead to fame and, in some cases, power.
Tristan grew up on the stories of mythical heroes overcoming a world of impossibilities to obtain rewards, but these stories were no thanks to his mother. Soleil was a busy and quiet woman who spent more time outside the coven walls than within, often leaving Tristan in the care of other parents and adults within the walls of Amaranthus. Soleil Alighiero was his mother's name, not a descendent of childless Dante himself but of the famed cambion's human half-brother, Francesco Alighiero. Obsessed with the mysteries of the world that Dante had begun to uncover, Francesco's children had long ago vowed to keep and protect the secrets of their cambion uncle. Greedily holding on to the notes and books that Dante left behind, they passed down the relics on from eldest child to eldest child along with their last name. Only Soleil remained from that vow taken over 700 years ago, only she remained with the name and the priceless treasures of her ancestor. Her power-hungry bloodline had long since co-mingled with supernatural species and just as Soleil had been born a witch, so was her son, Tristan. They were covenless and nomadic witches seeking to keep their family's treasures only to themselves.
Months after Tristan's birth, Soleil returned to the secret place that she had hid her ancestor's treasures only to find that they had been stolen. Soleil didn't speak of their family's history since the loss of Dante's treasures, she did not speak of what had been lost. Instead she took the name Ardisson and hid the truth away from her son and everyone else. She found a coven, an old one that only asked her to prove her power and her promise. Soleil did so, as well as offered what few priceless knowledge she had kept from Dante's books. Fate put different books in Tristan Ardisson's hands as soon as he was old enough to read within the coven's walls.
Ignored and pushed to one side by the suddenly brooding and mysterious Soleil, Tristan took to stories of mythical heroes with vigor and learned of all that could happen if you just believed that the impossible was possible. Nothing was impossible, he would say. Some things were just improbable. If you completed what others thought couldn’t be completed, you would be heralded and you would be loved. Failure rarely rewarded you with power and prestige so Tristan decided that failure was something that he wouldn’t ever let stop him from the victories that he sought out. His mother told him that ambition and greed only led to loss. But Tristan was no mere mortal; he was a witch of the Amaranthus, a human with power at his fingertips and ambition running through his blood. He didn't know his family's story but he was proud and strong so he would turn away from the other children’s laughter and the frowns of his mother and show them all. No one had to push him, no one had to believe in him if he just believed in himself.
At an extremely young ago, Tristan studied like there weren’t enough words to read in a day. And there wasn’t, not when study came so easy to him. In truth, the eidetic memory that he was born with made learning far easier for Tristan than it did for other witches but his magic was no more potent than the rest of them and his intellect no more advanced. So he would have to learn to cultivate both things. Tristan memorized books upon books and worked enough to devour everything that he thought he needed to know about the school of destruction, alteration and illusion until he believed himself ready to take on the world outside. Amaranthus’ trial of slaying a hellhound was child’s play; he volunteered to take it on as soon as possible. His victory inflated his ego and the witch took studying more monsters. His power and reputation had grown and he was told that when he was older he would likely be awarded the rank of Watcher.
From there finally came the decision to take on ancient beings and magic with the hope that Fate, the Gods and all other Aspects out there in the realms would find Tristan worthy of their praise and perhaps their powerful gifts. It was only a shame that the Amaranthus’ ban on blood magic limited his power so significantly. Still, Tristan made due. His early adulthood compromised of studying magic and beasts alike, traveling once more to the Otherworld with maps for the search of creatures. He learned to slay a few uncommon beasts but it was not enough. Even when an Arae of the Otherworld left the witch with a curse that made it impossible for him to have skin-to-skin contact with any another without harming them, Tristan still had no desire to stop risking his life and limb. There were rare and powerful beings and places out there even immortals themselves feared, and Tristan was not nearly powerful enough to overcome them just yet. The curse on his skin proved that. Still so young, he had to learn quicker and grow quicker and the best way to do that would be through blood magic. His determination and curiousity was only bolstered by the fact that he believed if anything could stop the blood curse the Arae had given him, Tristan figured it would be the power of blood magic.
His attention caught on to the strange behavior of a man who had been a boy he'd grown up with, a fellow coven member who he trusted above most. He eventually figured out that he was on the verge of succeeding in something that would give Tristan himself the freedom that he sorely needed to practice forbidden magic but still be connected to the coven. So Tristan approached Grayson and, when their marks were finally altered by the younger, the older took to the edge of Rome with giddy excitement and nervous apprehension. His mother had always been a brooding woman, someone secretive and always angry. Why? He had heard her dismissals whenever he asked of her past but also the whispers of other coven members and he had eventually learned of the people that had somehow wronged his family long ago. False information that Soleil had given coven members of her past so none would know of her ancestry and the lost treasures. Unaware of the inaccuracy of his mother's pain, Tristan believed these villains of her story would make perfect sacrifices; a little bit of blood on his hands had to be a worthy price to pay for real justice.
Armed with a forbidden ritual, Tristan sought out an innocent cambion for a death that would make their strength his own. The old cambion's blood was still cooling on his hands when the Amaranthus descended upon him. Too young, too foolish and too over-confident, Tristan was overcome, stripped of his magic and locked away where he could never hurt another creature again with blood magic. In all her shame and grief, Soleil left the coven and disappeared as her son rotted away beneath the Senate. A friend to his mother, the only one to have known Soleil's truth, told Tristan his family's history as their final goodbye, leaving him nothing else in his cell but an earth-shattering truth to digest. It wasn’t until his magic and freedom was promised again years later that Tristan rose from behind imprisonment and promised himself once more to the good grace of the Amaranthus.
He'd been ignorant to the true cost of taking a life. He'd been ignorant to a lot of things. Much of his more blood-thirsty ambition had died beneath the dirt of Rome, smothered through the nightmares of screaming and warm blood of a cambion on his young hands. But not all of his ambition had perished. And what was growth if not the overcoming of trials? Heracles had committed a grave crime by killing his family and, still, he had rose above it through the trials set upon him. Dante Alighiero, his own family, had done the seemingly impossible when the world had taken something from him.
Tristan decided he would follow in the footsteps of mythical heroes, fixing everything with a little bit of audacity. He still had room to grow, he still had monsters to slay. But no matter the remorse at the blood staining the witch's hands it did not compare to the desire down deep in his soul to make his mark on history and rise beyond what was expected of him, whatever the cost. If lines needed to be drawn, it was the time now to learn where to draw them. But Tristan would become the witch that he was always meant to be and grow from the youthful immaturity and naivety that he had once known. Ambition ran through his blood. Tristan Alighiero would one day be a name remembered by more than just his coven. Nothing was ever impossible, sometimes it just seemed improbable to those who weren't bold enough. The young witch was nothing if he wasn't bold.
personality
+ Eidetic, Dedicated, Resourceful – Awkward, Brazen, Detached
played by dany. est. she/her.