---

Name: Seach Taraign
Alias: The Shadow That Is
Age: True age unknown
Age of Appearance: Varies
Gender: Originally Male, now varies
Race/Species: Arrancar
Character Alignment: Neutral Evil

Intended Role: The Founder and Master of Nox Xorik.  Seach is a being of unknown and yet tremendous power that has spent centuries out of sight, ruling Nox Xorik but taking only a slight interest in the affairs of the world on the whole...until now.  

Appearance: There are two parts to the appearance of Seach Taraign - the figure that sits upon the Throne of Dust under the sands of Imhuvlt, and the figure that souls outside Imhuvlt see.  Seach does not allow others to see his [Only admins are allowed to see this link] idly.

But the Seach that roams the sands of the Hueco Mundo...that is a Seach that can take many forms.  Young or old, male or female, it matters not.  Seach is a presence now more than anything else and that presence can take hold of the bodies of the dead, provided their bodies are whole, and use them for his own designs.  However, any body that Seach is currently within will never last long, for no body - least of all his original form - can contain his being for very long.  His forms thus have deathly pale skin, his one-time yellow eyes, dull grey hair and as they reach their expiration their blood vessels turn black with darkness.

Personality: Myth and legend swirl around the figure known as Seach Taraign, cloaking his intentions and nature as surely as the shadow he wields and is cloaks his form. The name of the one who sits upon the Throne of Dust, the one who dwells in the lightless necropolis deep under Imhuvlt is not known to many for it is held in secret, but his title is a whisper of madness that some have heard from madmen.  It is a title that befits the terror of the one who holds it dear, a truth more absolute than the setting of the mortal sun. The Shadow That Is embodies the nightmares that lurk in the shadows, be they real or products of a frenzied mind – a hunter in the dark, a corruption of dreams, and a force tied to the light, for the greater any light, the darker any shadow.

The dark is patient, for it knows it can simply wait for the end, yet Seach can often make it look skittish. Years pass in a blink to the ancient, and so it is with Seach Taraign – he cares more for the journey than any destination and is unlikely to veer from his intentions. The wills of others, weak or strong, cannot afflict the will of Seach with as much as a moment of hesitation. When Seach makes a decision, it is written – beyond even the figurative stone. You cannot make him question. You cannot change his mind. And so, as with all, you must pray that his decisions are benign, for the more malignant of Seach’s choices have left men and women screaming and cities praising the fire that consumed them to end what came before. The screams and cries are background noise at best to Seach (when they are but a natural product of his desires), and a fine tune at worst (when they are his desires).

And as the dark can hide oneself, so too does Seach play the game of concealment, the eternal lie of a man behind a mask. Oh, few deceive themselves fully – Seach does not hide his true nature, and one should never expect good from the Lord of Nox Xorik, for any generous act hides something far more sinister. But he can sound and act interested, even pleasant, when he is not, and he frequently does both. More than one arrancar have thought a deal struck only to find themselves in absolute darkness.  More than one soul has thought to stand immortal, only to fall forever in the abyss of the Shadow.

The light is desperate, for it knows it knows every candle large and small can hold off the dark for only so long, and so it is that Seach delights in the struggles of creation in it's fruitless effort to continue on. He can give eternity to others and he can give them life to go with it - who else can say the same?  Seach looks down upon the cycle of life and death and all those who think they can accomplish true greatness whilst bound to it.  There is no denying that Seach is a cruel being, but he does not step out of his way like some might. Yet there are those that think that bringing joy to others, bringing hope into the world, can somehow last and be meaningful. Seach will never tire of teaching them the truth, and that truth is the Hueco Mundo.

His world. Just as the light seeks to cover the land, so too do Seach's desires reach out, and like the rays of a pitiless sun, all things can wilt and die before them if they do not protect themselves. The wise bend the knee before they are broken, and the parade of the shattered is fair warning to the brave. Nox Xorik is, after all, equal parts those who sought out immortality and those forced into servitude out of the most primal of fears.  Seach does not know mercy, and his kindness is a warped, twisted thing more frightening than his anger. And he does know anger – though few can rouse it. He cares little if forced to fight, and wounds less than a death are less relevant than his choice of breakfast. What Seach dislikes is losing what he has claimed – for light to take back what dark has demanded. Those who would take anything from Seach...they are the ones who incur his true wrath, unfettered.

Seach does not plan or scheme like many arrancar, like many beings – he decides, he chooses, and he takes and leaves the greater scheming to those more suited to it in Nox Xorik. Do not think for a moment this makes Seach Taraign unintelligent, or a fool – he he merely cares more for action than deliberation, which is truly ironic for a soul found most often sitting on a throne. His ideas can be small – the ruination of a simple being for the sport of it – or grand, in times gone by when cities fall. His motives are hard to understand to an outsider for they seem varied yet they are most simple – Seach lives life for his own amusement and his own eternity. He feasts on life and light to sustain himself, to watch others fall into the shadows, to join in near the dark.

In the kingdom of Seach, the ruined rally under a ravenous star, knees forever bent to the Shadow That Is.

Personal Abilities:

Seach is unique amongst arrancar in that the standard abilities - cero, pesquisa and the like - do not apply to him.  Instead, his powers are derived through his core ability of ‘The Shadow That Is’.  The sole exception to this is hierro, if the body he uses as his avatar is an arrancar.

General Techniques:

Technique Name: The Shadow That Is
Technique Description: Some souls claim a measure of control over the darkness of the world, but Seach goes a step further.  He is a deeper darkness, one with the Shadow and the Shadow one with he.  The Lord of Nox Xorik does not carry a Zanpakuto, for that blade and Seach’s own soul now occupy a swirling, amorphous darkness that surrounds and envelops Seach wherever he goes, always writhing and churning.  The Shadow can be withdrawn or spread out as Seach wills, to a degree - it can never be fully hidden, perhaps coating the ground of a small room at it’s most suppressed and sprawling out for a mile at it’s greatest.

The powers of the Shadow That Is are numerous and as such have their own separate descriptions.  The most basic applications of the Shadow are stand-ins for Seach’s former arrancar powers.  The Shadow can see as if with Seach’s own eyes, and any who walk within the Shadow can have their presence felt and power sensed - thus the power of pesquisa.  The Shadow is mostly like smoke, but Seach can make it twist and change as he needs to and he can also gather it and hold it, keeping it in physical contact - he often forms his clothing out of the Shadow - and when he does the latter, it takes solid form.  Blades formed in this manner are durable enough to trade blows with Zanpakuto.  Seach cannot repair any damage done to a Shadow construct - he must let it return to the greater Shadow and make new ones.

Finally, although he cannot use the power of cero, he can project streams of reiatsu through the shadow to mimic the power (and effect) of cero.

Technique Name: Night Eternal
Technique Description: The Shadow binds and never lets go.  Nox Xorik was founded upon the power of Night Eternal, for it is a simple and deadly ability that allows for wonders.  Any soul that dies upon the Shadow, their blood splattering the dark, are cut off from the cycle of death and rebirth.  Instead, their soul is bound to the Shadow as if by shackles, and the souls that exist within the Shadow are trapped in sightless, endless darkness.

Those shackles exist even beyond the depths of the Shadow.  Any souls that are released and bound to new bodies will be able to live lives as normal, but on the death of those bodies, their souls will be forcibly pulled back to the Shadow.

Technique Name: Whispers in the Dark
Technique Description: This can be considered a required secondary power to Night Eternal, but it is more than that.  When other arrancar consume souls, those souls are gone, part of a greater whole.  The same is not true of Seach.  Through Whispers in the Dark, he can isolate the individual souls within his own, within the Shadow, and if he listens he can hear their cries, begging for salvation.

And salvation can come through this very power.  Once Seach has isolated one of the souls within his being, he can mark them, and either he or one of his chosen can pull that soul free from the Shadow for rebirth.  Through this power there are Seven Eternals...but Ten is the true limit to the souls that Seach can allow free - potential Eternals, former Eternals, and failed Eternals have found themselves trapped within the Shadow over the years as others walk free, never knowing that there was truly nothing stopping Seach from letting them go free again...

Technique Name: Formless Erebus
Technique Description: When Seach created the Shadow, placing his power and soul into it, he created a force that his body could not contain.  It began to break under the strain, forcing Seach to take measures.  He created the Prime Vessel Akahnest, his armour that sits upon the Throne of Dust and the only form that could hold his essence.  He was able to transfer his form to the new vessel before his first body died.

Seach is therefore bound to the armour of Akahnest and would die if it was destroyed.  However, via Formless Erebus, he can move around the majority of his power and being through the dead, no matter what form they took in life, so long as whatever killed them is no longer present and the bodies are whole.  This allows him to roam the world without being at risk of not only dying himself, but also condemning all the souls under his command and protection to death.

However, this bears its own risks.  The body that Seach takes will still contain the bulk of his essence, and if it died it would leave Seach weak and crippled, like a normal individual with terrible, terrible wounds - this is, in fact, the same for anything that dies if Seach invests too much in it.  When one Eternal was met with true death, it left Seach treading the line between unconsciousness and consciousness for years.

The exception is if the body simply breaks down over time - this is natural, and Seach’s essence will simply return to his true form.  Average timeframes for different bodies would be:

Human: 1 day
Shinigami: 2-3 days
Arrancar: ~1 week

The actual break-down is quick, yet messy.  The body ceases function, flesh sloughs from the bone, and the Shadow-rotted bones crumble to dust.

Technique Name: Nyx Calamity
Technique Description: If Seach could be described to have a 'signature' attack, the Nyx Calamity would be it. Seach summons an orb of shadowy darkness, so dark that it seems to consume the light itself, and launches it at his target, travelling around the speed of a cero. Once, this technique targeted the very bonds that held a being together, breaking them down and destroying a body in one fell swoop, but through the work of En'dis Almas, this technique was transformed into something somehow even more horrifying.

Rather than the flesh, this now targets the fundamental essence of a being on impact, seeking to shatter it so thoroughly one might think it erased. On striking a foe, Nyx Calamity ignores flesh and blood and bone, and strikes instead reiatsu, reiryoku and the nature of the target. An arm caught by the attack would have all spiritual presence damaged and possibly erased from it, reducing it to a useless lump of flesh. A direct hit to the body could utterly destroy the essence of a being, leaving an empty husk behind. Through Nyx Calamity, Seach most easily creates the vessels that will serve as his new bodies.

This technique has no notable charge time but can only be used every other post.

Technique Effect Chart:

Opponent is Two+ Tiers Lower: Under most circumstances, getting struck by a Nyx Calamity is incredibly dangerous. A direct hit usually results in spiritual annihilation, and limbs caught by the blast would feel as if they were no more, no longer operational. Those who survive a glancing strike to a limb might need days to recover functionality - survivors struck directly, if there were any, could take much, much longer to piece themselves back together.
Opponent is One Tier Lower: A single strike would not result in destruction. It would, however, vastly weaken the flow of reiatsu through a body or limb - those struck would feel weak, disoriented and vaguely 'stretched', as if there soul was being pulled apart. Another strike would, however, surely result in ruin.
Opponent is Equal Tier: These individuals can take a few hits, but would still feel the effects one weaker than Seach might, to a lesser degree.
Opponent is One Tier Higher: Destroying the essence of such a foe would be akin to destroying them using regular cero - possible, but it would take many hits.
Opponent is Two+ Tiers Higher: The technique is largely ineffective, unless they are significantly weakened.

---

---

Zanpakutou Type: N/A
Zanpakutou Appearance: N/A
Ressurrecion Name: The name of Seach's Zanpakuto, before the creation of the Shadow That Is, was Malix Duss.  The Eternals of Nox Xorik have always wondered if Seach could still call upon that power and release - none have ever seen him do it and thus it remains a mystery.

---

Seach Taraign founded Nox Xorik alongside Larypt Kalaldas and En'dis Almas.

The colour of Seach's reiatsu is pale grey.

Seach's bodies influence his personality slightly, depending on their traits when they were alive.