Name:
Zanestan Askara (ZAHN-eh-stahn, often shortened to "Zan").

Rank:
Dynast (Askara).

Actual Age/Apparent Age:
28/20

Gender:
Trending strongly male, but fluid dependent on form. Able to change physical sex, among other things.

Race:
Doppelganger (half-blooded, but true-bred in terms of ability).

Description:
Zan's true form is that of a gaunt, sex-less humanoid being with no hair or facial features, and skin like a mirror. He hasn't actually been in his true form for decades, however. Though he has at least a few dozen mirrored shapes in his repertoire, his by far most frequently worn visage is that of a slender, elfin-looking male; androgynously beautiful with dark skin, silvery-pale eyes and hair the color of spun gold. He has several alternate versions of this basic look, even, including one with black, feathered wings, one with gills and one which is similar in appearance, but physically female.

Abilities/Skills:
Zan is able to change his physical shape to mirror that of someone else. The "stolen" shape is an exact copy of the physical shape held by the one it was copied from, at the time it was copied - remaining the same even though the original "owner" of the visage has changed or aged. Zan does have the ability to mix and blend his shapes somewhat, drawing different traits from each, but no more than three different ones at a time - and holding three at once requires active concentration to maintain. Instead of mixing shapes, he prefers to alter the original specimen, and copy several variants of the same general look. Learning a new shape involves the ingestion of a piece of the copied specimen's body, or a product of it - usually a bodily fluid of some kind.

Zan's shapes are limited to those that are roughly humanoid and human-sized. He could copy the shape of a dwarf, maybe a small ogre, but not a giant. Forms with extra limbs like wings or tails are possible, as are gills and digitigrade legs, but something as different as a centaur, naga or full merfolk body shape is beyond his ability to mimic. Full animal shapes are likewise not something he can change into (except for apes, perhaps). Any abilities a copied creature would get from its physical shape are also available for Zan's use while in that shape - a shape with functional gills would let him breathe underwater, and a shape with functional wings would allow him to fly. If the copied creature was able to magically fly or to cast spells, though, Zan would not be able to replicate those abilities. There is no hard-and-fast limit to the number of shapes Zan can learn, but they need to be "practiced" with some regularity, or they'll gradually slip away from him. Usually he'll maintain a couple dozen shapes as part of his routine at a time.

In addition to his own inherent abilities of self-transformation, Zan has also become highly skilled in the art of transforming others. This skill is the product of years spent studying the alchemical arts, and the transmutational aspects of them in particular. Using fluids drawn from people or creatures possessing desirable traits as an active incredient and fluids from himself as a shapechange-inducing catalyst, mixed together with other exotic substances to narrow trait selection and cement the change, he is able to transform other people piece by piece, potion by potion (sometimes injection by injection), gradually sculpting them into a carefully designed, permanent new appearance and shape. It can be a time-consuming process, but unlike some flesh-crafting magics it's a deep-working one, allowing the resculpted people to pass on their new traits through normal breeding.

Zan is proud of his abilities in this regard, and considers it an art more than a skill. When he is particularly pleased with one of his "artworks", he'll sometimes add their shape to his own repertoire. During his studies and travels over the past several years, he has gathered quite an extensive library of samples from a multitude of people and creatures, giving him a lot of room to experiment.

As far as more mundane skills go, Zan has received an extensive general education, is excellent at drawing, and is a capable violinist.

History:
Zan is Dynasty born and bred - the child of a powerful noble and their doppelganger lover. He is plantation raised, with all the inherent privilege thereof. Growing up in the lap of luxury, he learned to take everything - and nearly everyone - for granted. He was taught by the best tutors, and doted upon by house slaves fearful of displeasing him. It's no wonder, then, that he grew up to be selfish and vain, with entitlement seeping out of every pore. Casual cruelty in the form of sadistic little games came as second nature to him - though very rarely spilling over into direct physical brutality, which is something he still finds crude and distasteful. Like his own appearance, he is able to cloak and camouflage his true personality when he wishes, hiding it behind a curtain of perfect politeness and courtesy. Still, he only truly respects his peers and superiors - of which there are preciously few, in his own mind.

Shortly after Zan's seventeenth birthday, one of his manipulative little games ended up driving one of the house slaves to suicide. If this had been a more menial slave, he'd probably have gotten away with a slap on the wrist, and maybe a docking of his personal allowance for a time. The slave in question was a particularly valuable one, however - one held in some regard by the head of the Dynasty. A family meeting was held, and it was decided that Zan would be sent away for a time, to study - and, it was hoped, to mature.

While the instituton they chose to entrust the young doppelganger's education to was indeed a bit of a step down from the rampant opulence of the family estate, it was still very much a place of and for the rich and the elite. Zan was given a whole suite of his own to live in - couldn't have the highborns slumming it with the common rabble, after all. He did apply himself to his studies, however, excelling in the subject of Alchemy in particular and quickly rising to the very top of that class. Upon his graduation, he decided to remain for further, post-graduate studies. He threw himself into research, gaining a professorate and publishing several highly acclaimed papers - and a couple of books - on his field of expertise.

That was fun, for a while...but he has grown bored with teaching students. Research is still interesting, but will be even easier to do back in Leera. He's found himself increasingly missing his life back at the plantation, lately. The untimely death of his older brother Adym has given him the last bit of incentive he needed to end his by now entirely self-imposed exile and return to his roots, to reconnect with his family and continue to hone his art from the comfort of his own native, picturesque home.

Culture:
Zan is a local, but returning for the first time in over a decade. He has matured some, no longer a thoughtless teenager, though his basic personality remains the same. He is highly intelligent in an academic sense, but his arrogance sometimes blinds him to the capabilities and schemes of those he considers beneath him.

Sexual Orientation:
Pansexual, with some preference toward androgynous beauty and/or exotic (often monstrous) traits. He draws a line at undead beings, however, whom he privately considers repulsive.