𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵
 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭

❦ 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒

𝖋𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊

dante p'yyre demidis  

𝖓𝖎𝖈𝖐𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊

the iridessian inferno
dante the destroyer

𝖆𝖌𝖊

twenty-five

𝖙𝖎𝖙𝖑𝖊

the red knight

𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗

male

𝖘𝖊𝖝𝖚𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞

unknown

𝖋𝖆𝖈𝖊 𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖒

alex høgh andersen

→  dante's appearance is hardened and fierce, exuding a remarkable cruelty that invokes fear even in his allies. a long, pinkish scar bisects his left cheek, stretching from a corner of his mouth to his ear. an intimidating, robust goliath of a man, the knight is a staggering six foot six. his expression remains fixed in a perpetual scowl that seldom grants any indication of his emotions, aside from anger. and his eyes, though a baby blue, brim with malice; he certainly could make his glance fall on one with the unforgiving heaviness of an axe.

𝖚𝖓𝖜𝖆 𝖉𝖔𝖔'𝖓 𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙

middle of forehead

𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞

tl;dr | dante p'yyre demidis is vicious, headstrong, and mildly sadistic. his seemingly natural expertise in all relating to wartime affairs is well-known and highly esteemed. he can't stand diplomacy, genuinely craves violence, and is preoccupied by the notion of fiery destruction.  

→ war, in and unto itself, is a spectacle. the generals of old appear to many as over the top, grander-than-life characters, and dante tirelessly pursues this ideal. indeed, he's bloodthirsty, ruthless, and refuses to let anything get between him and his goal of obeying the queen. the knight expresses himself almost exclusively through grunts, growls, and acts of wanton destruction. crass and ungentlemanly, he occupies himself with strategizing and training; many are left to wonder if he leaves time for personal endeavor (it's not as if anyone is willing to ask, though, lest they come face-to-face with the human manifestation of uninhibited, unhinged rage.) although the iridessian court regards him as an excellent knight, dante is largely a stranger to his own people. he lives only for fighting, following the queen's orders, and determining how to overwhelm the enemy. the battlefield is the only place where he feels any degree of exhilaration, and any other experience has yet to compare. after all, nothing is as beautiful as watching his adversaries drown in flames.

that being said, his passionate love affair with war is part of a greater ideal he holds dear: being the best knight, no matter the cost. as far as he's concerned, no one is as willing to pursue risks as he is. no one is as willing to make tough calls. no one will protect the queen as fiercely as he, even if it requires burning down a village or sacrificing an innocent as a last resort. only the cowardly types engage in silly affairs like "treaties" and peace "summits" with other kingdoms—diplomacy is much too complicated and high-brow for dante. he staunchly believes that the only way to get what he wants it to twist some arms until his enemies relent. anything more is dismissed as useless. 

there's only one redeemable quality to dante that one would know of: he's protective of the court and all those who inhabit it. his fighting skills are unparalleled, and though he tries to occupy every free moment with something of or related to destroying, he does his best to govern his fellow knights in a manner that keeps them as safe as possible. to most, he's prompt, consistent, and vigilant, though horribly reckless when it comes to his own safety.

❦ 𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒

𝖇𝖆𝖈𝖐𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞

→ who can tell the tale of dante the destroyer, whose unwa doo'n glowed a scarlet red on the day the one-month-old burst into flames, burning down the home of his parents? who can speak of an infant who represented not the beauty of mother nature, but her ruthless indifference? swaddled in a scanty cloth and left on the doorstep of a neighbor, he was never regarded with the reverential treatment of a future rainbow knight. he was traded off between families the moment his power brought havoc—many a mother had he rendered disfigured, many a father had he scalded and left screaming. regardless of the circumstances of his reincarnation, dante was a nomad for thousands of years, hundreds of lives. fire travels without mercy, leaving ash and embers in its wake. so does he. 

once he was five, it was time for iridessia to treat him as a warrior, not a son. one general demidis took pity on the boy and raised him to become a formidable warrior, for his path as a rainbow knight was evident. from then on, his life was defined by training to fulfill his eventual destiny. beaten, mocked, and treated with unforgiving strictness, he was shaped into a powerful fighter with a fatal flaw: dante was fueled by aggression instead of self-defense. he failed to prioritize the queen's tenets of harmonious morality and honor, instead burning his enemies to horrid deaths and enveloping entire battlefields in flames. as a result, most came to fear his wrath instead of respecting his position. his reputation became that of a terrible monster among the ranks of the rainbow knights—bearing an almost mythological status—and false stories were conceived of him snatching disobedient children in the night or eating seared enemy generals or other equally heinous acts. from the fantastical to the rumored to the downright grotesque, it wasn't long before these tales granted him a unique status. dante became all he'd ever strove to. and yet he was all the less human. fire eats and eats and cannot be satiated. neither can he. 

the violence inflicted onto him was inevitably spewed back toward the world around him. it only cast further shame upon his reputation and dignity, but dante's unapproachability became just as famous as his battle prowess. even as a rainbow knight, he behaved as a brute devoid of etiquette, acting civil only in the presence of the royals or under the watchful eye of the nobility. despite his demeanor, his care for the iridessian royal family knows no bounds, and he follows every one of their orders diligently. such is his purpose: enacting justice, however blind it is to those he slaughters.

𝖌𝖎𝖋𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖚𝖘

gifted

𝖕𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗𝖘

fire and lava manipulation (pyrokinesis), including the ability to set himself alight without severe injury. his skin may take on the outward appearance of volcanic stone as his body becomes combustible, while his eyes remain fiery pits. 

immortality via reincarnation

𝖜𝖊𝖆𝖕𝖔𝖓

instead of a sword, dante wears specialized gauntlets that attach to his wrists and siphon his powers in a manner akin to a flamethrower. they do not burn when he combusts and pack a hefty punch if he engages in melee combat. recently, he affixed a blade to them to slash at his enemies; it curves downward from the back of his hand. his sword is locked away and does not contain his gem. 

𝖘𝖐𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖘

• crushing his enemies
• seeing them driven before him
• hearing the lamentation of their women 
• that's it. 

𝖌𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖓𝖌𝖙𝖍

his strategist mentality. to become a master at strategy, one must be able to quickly assess a situation and multiple opponents, understand their psychology, wants, and needs; their strengths and weaknesses, their physical, emotional, and resource limitations, and how to use every bit of knowledge available to maneuver or manipulate them into producing the best possible outcome at the most appropriate time. this is dante's single greatest advantage. he creates opportunity where there is none. he understands that things never go according to plan, anticipates that, and achieves optimal results despite internal politics, the fog of war, unintended consequences, skilled opposition, and a unexpectedly hostile environment. in short, he tries to be one step ahead.

𝖌𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖜𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖘

his single-mindedness. there is nothing else that dante is good at other than screaming, scheming, and breaking things. he neither concerned himself with math nor science, nor history (besides that pertaining to ancient militaries) or literature as he was growing up. all of that is beyond him at this point. he has no conceptualization of reality beyond his unequivocally warped perception of it. he looks at everything through the lens of his anger. he doesn't understand intimacy or joy and only concerns himself with the things he can destroy. although he is a formidable fighter, he is hopeless when it comes to anything else the world has to offer.

𝖌𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖋𝖊𝖆𝖗

water. water cools and smothers fire, and it has the same effect on the knight. his powers become useless when up against any adversary who wields a water-related power. if there's more water coming at him than he can produce fire, the odds are squarely against him. he can't swim, either, and has never set foot in an ocean willingly out of fear of getting swept into its murky depths. he deeply fears drowning; being anywhere near a body of water is enough to set him on edge. rain also hinders his ability to use his powers.

 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖒𝖊 𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖌

https://youtu.be/-G0u13COALA

𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗

→ dante has a soft spot for animals. he would never hunt or hurt the nonhuman unless he has no other choice. 

→ he wears his garnet gem as a bracelet.  

→ he can neither read nor write properly, as he never bothered to learn how. instead, dante conveys his strategies orally or purely through illustration. what he lacks in literacy, he makes up for in artistic skill. 

𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴
𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴

for of secrets and crowns!