The Dark Arts
History:
The Dark Arts wasn't always around. It was created from pure energy that the comet left behind. It was one of many new elements to be discovered however it's not something science can find. How The Great Swan harnessed this power is unknown but something about training to be an assassin triggers it. The Five have a theory that somewhere in the training a certain action triggers your body and mind opening up to it. The Dark Arts was everything it was physical, spiritual, a martial art, a survival technique, and a weapon. The Great Swan is known to have created all the techniques and passed it on to The Five. Every technique is taught a specific rank it’s something you earn if you can learn it.
The Tier System
Each tier has special techniques they can learn. On each tier you can perform any of the techniques below your tier. 4th tier assassins are capable of 3rd, 2nd, and 1st tier techniques.
5th Tier- The Five
4th Tier- Guild masters
3rd Tier- S-rank Assassins (Certain Exceptions)
2nd Tier- City Assassins and Runners
1st Tier- Pledges
The Bond
The comet changed some of the animals but some of the birds were huge. Even big enough to ride. The dark arts allow you to bond with the bird of your tier. Those funny nicknames you receive aren’t all just for fun and games
Tier 1- The Sparrow
Tier 2- The Swifts (Runners) and The Falcon (City Assassins)
Tier 3- The Hawk
Tier 4- The Harpy Eagle
Tier 5- The Bald Eagle
1st Tier Techniques
Masking- Being a killer you naturally give off a certain aura. Subconsciously anyone not trained in sensing auras will naturally be scared of you. To prevent yourself from scaring off your prey you can mask it with your aura before you were an assassin.
Aura sensing- Being able sense auras without even looking. This is a technique all assassins must know in order to find their target. You'll be able to feel it. A corrupted aura is yellow. An innocent is blue. An evil/malevolent aura is red. Anything in between is the mix of the two colors.
I.e. Red+Blue= Purple
2nd Tier Techniques
*Note* Muscle enhancements such as speed and strength resulted in one being more dominant than the other. Either your really fast and can enhance your strength slightly or the reverse. You cannot run across water and lift a truck. No OPs.
Enhanced Speed- Tapping into the Dark Arts your legs are filled with pure energy making you much faster. Speeds range from person to person. One case reported a woman being able to run across water. Another reported a man running up to 18 mph.
Enhanced Strength- Tapping into the Dark Arts any muscle used in the moment of a fight, picking up something, or throwing something is enhanced. It only works one section at a time (Arms, legs, etc) and has a cool down period of an hour before switching to different muscles. One case reported a man lifting up a truck. Another reported a man lifting a small car.
3rd Tier Techniques
Aura Projection- You’ve learned how to mask your deadly aura now what would happen if you made it larger and pushed it onto somebody. Or even if you used it to tempt someone else’s aura into making them attack you. Your aura is a tool to manipulate other people. However it doesn’t always work nor can you use it to control somebody just tempt them and hope that they do what you want.
Agility- Moving like a ninja is easy when you have the Dark Arts. Scaling buildings with your bare hands. Jumping 2 stories at a standstill and 2 ½ with a running start. Gravity doesn’t have as much of a hold on you now. Gliding has even been reported in rare cases.
4th Tier Techniques
Invisibility- Not so much exactly but you can make yourself unnoticeable to a certain point. Tapping into the dark arts you can turn attention away from yourself. Just don’t do anything to draw attention or its useless.
Silent- Your body produces no sound no matter how much you move or anything on your body. But if you knock over a glass you’re as good as caught.
5thTier Techniques
Ethereal- Tapping into the dark arts your body begins to lose substance. You become ghostly and can easily walk through solid objects. However it’s limited to living things.
Minor teleportation- You can jump small distances. I.e. Teleporting onto a one story roof. It has to be within eye distance. Unless you know what’s around the corner otherwise you very much could end up in the ground or in a wall dead upon teleportation.
The force- Apparently there was some movie called Star Wars way back when, The Great Swan named this technique off of some weird power. He just said it is what the name says it is… mysterious.