A former boneborn soldier, now one of, if not the only demon to be granted true life by the Stone of Life & Time. Now the caretaker of a group of orphans.
Description
Skellington is a unique boneborn entity who survived the demon purge following the Chaos Times 400 years ago. Unlike his mindless brethren who merely mimicked life, he was granted true life, autonomous sentience, and a genuine soul.
He lives in a hidden, floorless log cabin in the woods of East Ocula, acting as the protective caretaker and parent to three human orphans he rescued from Kaligo raiders.
To avoid being destroyed by humans that (rightfully so) fear his form, he isolates himself entirely. If forced to travel near humans, he moves almost exclusively in the dead of night, wearing heavy layers, pants, iron-plated boots, scaled gauntlets, and a large, tattered dark robe, to completely obscure his skeletal frame.
Backstory
Created via purple creation magic as a nameless boneborn foot soldier, he was one of millions of skeletal grunts serving as the Allfather Demon’s cannon fodder. He spent his first 100 years executing endless, grueling combat drills in the toxic, misty caverns of Etheria.
During the initial Etherian invasion of Andaril, his legion deployed to Ocula, staging a brutal slaughter at a settlement that would later become the fortress city of Ironrock. Commanded to eliminate all life, he relentlessly pursued a mother and her young child into the deep forest. The mother sacrificed herself to push her daughter through a palisade wall crevice. Skellington killed the mother, before getting past the wall and chasing the girl deep into the woods until she tripped.
Before he could execute the child, a massive Giant ambushed him. A single thunderous blow shattered two dozen of his bones, obliterated his armor, and launched his fragmented remains into a nearby lake, where he sank to the sandy bottom and his purple eyes faded into hollow, broken sockets.
For years, his broken frame lied there in the sediment while small fish nested in his ribs. When the world shook during the final global cataclysm where the Kaligo and Lumare, as well as Eira Everfrost (with the Stone of Destruction) closed the Etherian gates, the lakebed pulsed with a brilliant green light (the Stone of Life & Time resonated in response to the activation of the Stone of Destruction), seamlessly healing his fractures. His body was wound back to how it was before being shattered, and his mind was now infused with true life, the purple glow replaced by a vibrant teal.
Realizing he was entirely different from the biosphere, neither eating, sleeping, nor tiring, he spent centuries studying the forest and tracking human behavior from afar. He migrated east from Belua to East Ocula by walking completely submerged across a stone bridge riverbed under the cover of night.
He eventually found a clearing in the heart of the calmer, younger woods near the village of Ossaan. There, he spent a literal century using a salvaged, bent saw, as well as an axe, constructing a house through brutal trial and error. He endured repeated collapsing roofs and walls before successfully building his cabin.
Four centuries after his awakening, Ossaan was raided by the Kaligo Empire. It wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time he was close enough to run into people. Three human children, Greta (6 summers old), Noah, and Nilo (both 4 summers old), fled Ossaan and collapsed at his feet. As three Kaligo raiders neared, something flickered inside of him. He drew his blade by pure instinct and cut down the three invading soldiers, completely unfazed when they ran two swords clean through his chest and stomach.
The traumatized children followed him to his cabin like small chicks bonding to the mother bird, eventually naming him “Mister Skellington”.
The next year was pure survival, the winter being particularly tough, and forcing Skellington to adapt to their needs. He needed to construct a makeshift hearth so they wouldn’t freeze to death, and figure out how to find food for them so they wouldn’t starve. He even had to learn how to forage for wild herbs to make the food palatable for the picky kids. He had to learn how to carve toys, how to set up game snares, and much, much more. Through the same trial and error that erected his house, the children made it through the grueling winter.
The side story, “Skellington”, ends on Skellington reflecting on who he is, realizing he is now a parent, and that his name, is Skellington. The last scene is that of a midnight moth fluttering by the windowsill of his shack, a subtle harbringer of doom.
Special attributes, items
Skellington has the same strong, reinforced bones as any Boneborn, although slightly worn down through the centuries. He naturally has a complete immunity to physical and thermal pain, and has no need to breathe, eat, or sleep.
He speaks in a raspy, stone-grinding monotone voice.
Lacking organic organs (like all boneborn), he relies entirely on the pea-sized magilite core inside his skull, although unlike his brethren, his pulses with true, real life.
Having trained a century in Etheria, his martial skills remain at a high level, making him ever so slightly deadlier than the average human soldier.
Old Steel Sword: His original weapon from when he was a warrior of Etheria, kept strapped to his hip in a tattered leather loop.
Adamantite-steel Lumberjack Axe: A weathered, blue-shimmering axe salvaged from a human skeleton pinned beneath a fallen ironwood tree.
Scavenged Rucksack: A heavy leather bag acquired from a human logger, used by Skellington to expand his inventory of collected oddities (e.g., a silver ring he found from Night Prowler poop, a clam shell, a purse with a silver and three copper coins from the kingdom before the Lumare Empire, a whetstone, and a bone needle)
Sniffy: A discarded, one-eyed stuffed teddy bear found in the forest, which Greta heavily fixates on as a core psychological comfort item.
Misc information
Skellington is the only demon of Etheria to ever gain genuine life and autonomy. Standard creation magic merely mimics life to create functional pawns, as true consciousness can only be bestowed by the Stone of Life & Time.
To comfort the boys, Skellington meticulously hand-carved a set of wooden figurines (a deer, a bear, a man, and a woman) after Nilo spent two days crying over a lack of birthday gifts.
Age: 505 years
Height: 175cm
The World Stones 