Name: Keenan Lane, Nach'lih Kallah-vahh (which can be translated into 'the Embodiment of the Mystery', the Spirit's Path Through Shrouded Flesh, Skinwalker, and finally Seeker of Mysteries), Vahh (The Mystery),Nachos California (... just don't ask), the Vorts have less kindly words about his past in the form of other names: Raa'vahh-chackt (the dealer of lies), Ha-keh Nach Vahh (the broken path), Harrah-leh (the weight of debt), and Raa'harrah-chakt (slavemaker) - none of these are in use any longer, which is a tremendous relief to him

Gender: Male, hetero

Age/DOB: let's not talk about how old Vahh is. He has been Human for around 300 years (total on a variety of worlds), and has had numerous other forms but spent 85%+ of his existence without a body, and his form on Zekira has nearly a thousand years of life.

Origin: Convocation; Repurposed Earth, Carramba, Paragon City

Family: Numerous offspring with several Human women:
Raven Lane (1958/2026) raised by the Rookery version of Rhea Mercer, and (much) later son Kendrick (RY3);
Ksaala Vahh (aka Ruby, 2014/2026ish) daughter, and much later son Kellogg (RY-1) with Melissa;
Nohaa
Walsh (2022) son and Choxen Vahh (2024) daughter with Mars Walsh;
Importantly, he is the Prime of Wilson Carver, whose two sons Geoff and Paxton are... somewhat important. Paxton's daughter Darly prodded him to become what he 'is' now.
Turquoise, Cyan, and Ivy of the Color Guard (RY-4) who he did actually father (via splices). Post-Rookery founding during the Hallowed Silk lead-up, son Tanner Vahh (RY5) with Silver
He doesn't take credit for Amon, who is 'not this Lane's' kid with maybe not this Caroline however they have quite a bit of interaction particularly when it comes to dorming at the Mansion, and it's entirely possible that he and this Caroline will eventually... Branwen (RY7)
Hooked up very quietly with Fantell in her own Vortal construct, helping raise son Fabian in RY9
Annnd, Nachos California, his Paragon-Carramba cloned self, also has a kid now Vickie...
In RY15ish, Keenan's visit to Abode accidentally created the need for a new elfin body, now named Starward; has a daughter named Aura with Recognized mate T'hörel

Other: Is ostensibly the leader of the Convocation in 'his' realm, since he took the title from those others of his kind, knows and interacts with many professors and scientists at Paragon and Carramba. He's very busy. Versions that may show up on occasion include "Local" - the one that basically stepped aside to let this version take over the Rookery after dealing with GLaDOS (the sire of the Color Guard's first group); Knot Leaf Kale Baah of Twoarth (though rarely, because he's furry), and Kallah Vahh the progenitor of the ahlVahh clan on Zekira.

Height: 6'1 (varies by body and location, some as short as 5'9", at least one 6'2)

Weight: 170, slender though can go a bit dad-bod if he's got a desk job, strong legs from walking a lot, but not what anyone would consider 'muscular'

Hair: Greying black, usually crew-cut or military style, but has been long, distinct widows peak

Eyes: Turquoise, mixed green, teal, aqua and white, often glowing (Note that unlike the traditionally Valve-created version, Keenan does not have a wandering right eye... they both look properly in the same direction.)

Image Credits: made in Icon / City of Heroes
/ Valve Faceposer / tektek
/ Stephen McHattie

Appearance: Fair skinned, sometimes seen with age lines / marks and heavy shading/bags under eyes (in 'older' bodies), generally no facial hair though frequently has stubble (he does have a few personas on Paragon that sport a very nice if rather devilish goatee), usually professional posture, often has aura visible, and to anyone with Vortal senses he is pretty strongly powerful; enjoys wearing a suit and tie, and has had to be told 'you cannot wear that same damn blue suit all the time' (by Wilson) (who made him / bought him the black ones), he has always been fidgety in specific ways, so he can be seen straightening his tie, brushing (usually nonexistent) dirt from his shoulders, and making sure that his hair is perfect. At some point, he lost his briefcase, but he has replaced it in numerous dimensions and feels most comfortable with at least something in his hands. Does not wear jewlery, particularly not after... well, after Paragon.
Genetic Abilities: Note that the body itself that he originally created when arriving to Earth is dead, and the ones that he uses currently are all 'fixed' clones, created by Melissa and Carmen in order to alleviate the need to keep healing the one with lung cancer. While Kallah-vahh can make himself a new body out of existing matter, he chooses not to do this, because first off he freely admits he's terrible at it, and second because he has the option not to. (And third, it requires a massive amount of energy to do this, he'd rather keep his levels up and not worry about drawing too much Vortal attention to himself.) This is why he's only barely scratched the surface of 'shapeshifting' in Paragon or Carramba, he gets stuck in shapes when he isn't concentrating on it properly.
Is made of energy, thus teleportation (considered the best of the Convocation at this skill) and Genrehopping, are essentially his favorite thing to do with himself.
He can 'pause time', a form of localized time manipulation which effectively places a person, room, or area under a very slow field, immobilizing anything that can't resist it, it can appear to be entirely stopped, but time does technically pass within this area. This effect can last as long as he wishes to maintain it.
Vortal realm creation, though he admits that this power isn't nearly as 'flashy' as Paxton's or even Wilson's, he can create the very convincing Vortal equivalent of a room, objects, or location that can be interacted with and even 'lived in'. He uses a form of this along with the time freeze ability, to 'store' people he wants to preserve for later... uses. The 'Vortal Tags' that he leaves in 'space' (it's not space) are triggered whenever anyone has the ability to move into that space - so, his Office setting can be reached by, say, Mars, when she's looking to root through his liquor cabinet, or Paxton when he wants to play a chess move. Otherwise some locations 'vanish', and others are maintained in the background of his own powers (the 'storage unit' with tubes for people to be put into). If his own energy were to vanish, these locations would cease to exist entirely - a worry that caused him to unload those self-same storage tubes, and allow their inhabitants to live in the world once more.
Because he is 'made of energy', he can cause electric and electronic interference and manipulate localized broadcasts, particularly video. He likes to do this, it's one of his rare vanities to appear on an otherwise impossibly broken screen just to mess with people who might see it.
Vortal senses including auras and common abilities, he can detect in others nearby, specific suites of abilities - he knows whose empathy works at a greater or lesser distance, and who might share similar powers to his own. Those mental powers include illusions, mind stun, extremely invasive telepathy, very strong empathy, memory alteration and removal. Since he is a strong empath, though in no way controlling the emotions of those around him, he can at least nullify the effects of whatever is affecting another empath. He does this on numerous occasions for Melissa, Lynne, and even Teddy.
Because of his background on Earth, Ravens like him - they were there when he arrived in physical form, and he seriously considered shifting into one instead of a Human. He utilizes local corvids of any type (crows, mynas, etc) to keep an eye on things world-wide. Since they're found everywhere, and ubiquitously observant, no one suspects that a particular flock is 'his' until they see one of the birds standing on his shoulder. While he cannot specifically 'command' them, they absolutely do what he asks including carry messages, spread rumors, and watch out for people that he promised to keep under his protection.
Others practiced in Paragon (flight, aura blasting, tangible illusion casting, moderate amounts of shapeshifting, etc - these are limited by which specific cloned body he's in, he cannot shapeshift while he's Nachos, for instance), and Zekira (all of the above except for shapeshifting, with stronger emphasis on mental manipulation and electronic work, empathy, and teleportation).
Icarus Processing: ... no, that would be insane. To be fair, he did wear the Icarus 'under suit' for quite a while because it was in his words 'ridiculously comfortable', and has a version of the armor typically worn by Armacham assassins that he dons in Paragon for slogging around in sewers. Though he himself would not want this process on any of his cloned bodies, he does keep an eye out for people with marginal powers, that he then suggests to Melissa, to see if she could convince them to do it. He has observed the process on more than one occasion, and finds it to be revolting and horrific - particularly as an empath, and also 'as seen through Wilson's eyes' while it was being done, he will go to great lengths to then help remove the memories of the process for anyone that asks.

Skills or Profession: As with most of the Convocation beings, Keenan can somewhat be considered a 'djinn' in terms of power use and restrictions on that power. He literally has the ability to manipulate energy and matter - though he's far better at doing some things when not confined to a body - and in general must be 'bidden' to do things for or against people. This restriction can be interpreted quite loosely - witness Carramba and Paragon - "saving the world" is something that is often wished for by thousands at a time and he steps up to do that even without a Vortal contract. That Contract is something inherent and deeply seated within the Convocation, and while it cannot be considered a "power" as such, whenever someone pledges themselves to him or he agrees to make a deal, that deal is absolute, and he would suffer at least some form of consequences should it be broken or unfulfilled. See below: he's an extremely good lawyer and contract writer... for exactly this reason.

His 'profession' has ranged from caretaker of dying worlds, to superhero. He has concentrated on movement and speed over almost any other kind of skill set - though he can't actually be in two places at once, he certainly does act like he is. Part of this is because he can move through dimensions as easily as he would local space, and might be able to 'reset' his time frame based on where he shunts himself. One plane might be a few seconds behind or ahead, or even decades either way. It is in his experience to know where to go, as well as how to get there, and once he has visited a place he does not forget it. He tended to 'guide' people through areas, indirectly of course, appearing on the wrong side of a locked door, viewed through a window that no one could possibly reach, in order to keep someone moving and heading toward their goal. (Well, head toward a goal - whether it's theirs or his, that's just depending on the contract.)

For the most part his worldly skills are in the 'manipulative/sneaky' realm. Law, business, contracts, assessment, probability and statistics, has a good grasp on technology and science but is not either an engineer nor researcher. He can easily read over contracts of any length or complexity, and as long as he knows the local interpretations of them, he will be able to re-write it to his liking. Legalese is a language, is it not? With his knowledge of probability, this is how he's able to select among many potential business partners - Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shephard, even Barney Calhoun at Black Mesa all could have been 'the one' that would take out Nihilanth. Also though, with that wisdom comes difficult decisions - he started his war on Ulathoi because he saw what they might do to his people. (see below) He has impeccable printed script, however his handwriting sometimes suffers from smearing: he is left-handed, and no one expects to have to posture themselves that way with a left-right script!

Because of his Vortal abilities, he can be heard in any language, and can physically speak a good number of them including Vortigese - in two versions (modern Vort, and the version which Noah knew from thousands of years before which has not really been spoken by other Vorts in that whole time). (see below, this speech comes at a bit of a cost)

Has more recently gained skills in child care, education, psychology and the like due to both interaction with children at Carramba as well as having his own family in several dimensions. He likes paperwork, but he also loves watching people and is very attentive to the needs of those around him - even if it didn't show in times past.

Personality: Mysterious. No really, there's a reason the Vorts named him such. He's more introverted than you might think with the powers he has, though he is certainly not shy. He is intensely curious and will quietly observe things usually long before making any judgements about them. His personality from before he became Human was radically different from current and he often uses this contrast to force himself to make decisions or understand a situation best. (Other versions of him from different dimensions may not have changed their selfish, arrogant personalities as much.) A good part of why he is interacting with anyone as a Human and not just abandoning matter and moving on to another realm, is an overwhelming sense of guilt over what he'd allowed to happen over the course of his war with Ulathoi. He distinctly feels responsible for having led the Combine on a long dimension-wide chase and the loss of 'uncountable trillions' of lives are in his mind, on his hands alone. He's managed to move past the crippling feeling of having been responsible, but has decided that it's best to actually do some good rather than just 'learn from it' and move on. His people do not understand this, for the most part, and he feels considerably more comfortable among Humanity or other living creatures, than them.

He is surprisingly good with children, since he treats them as people, not as pets or as though they're stupid. He's got a certain kind of charm, and while it might make some people a bit nervous, he's often the object of a woman's attention. Keenan is hopelessly romantic and sentimental, occasionally lapsing into a deep guilt-ridden gloom over things past. He keeps other peoples secrets far better than his own these days. He knows he has his limits, and there are still some things which cause him to become a bit withdrawn or quiet. It takes a lot to get him angry, but if he is, just stay out of his way and hope you're not on the receiving end. He places a lot of value on Vortigese naming, and believes them when they announce something is attached to him or his line. Thus, living up to his grand daughter's name Darr'lih keh-vahh, 'light of redemption', was something of a turning point in his existence.

His quirks include his 'over the top sinister' manner of speaking. If he is doing business with someone, he tends to have a halting, oddly accented way of speaking, extending his 's' sounds, and generally making himself out to be a devil in a business suit. The complication to this is that he actually does sometimes have difficulty remembering which language he's speaking and has to search for the right word. This feature is one which several of his children - notably those on Zekira - have inherited. If he is speaking over an electronic source - such as those unpowered or broken televisions and radios he's fond of activating - the listener or viewer will sense the meanings of words, even if they're not in their own language. He has never had trouble being understood, even with those quirks.

Events or History: Nearly two billion years ago, the energy being that would come to be known as Nach'lih Kallah-Vahh accidentally destroyed a small planet in the hopes to learn what 'matter' was like. This world became known as the borderworld, Xen. He was nearly redacted for this incident, but the eldest of his people came to his aid and dissuaded the rest from killing him. His childlike curiosity was never sated, and he has over the course of his existence been learning how to move matter around, convert it to other things, and use his powers to observe. This has put him at odds with some members of the Convocation as they were, who find 'being alive' to be a disgusting habit. At one point he was observing life on a very peaceful world, when it was siphoned away and used, almost entirely, as fuel for a wandering colony of ships. Those ships eventually became known as the Universal Union, or Ulathoi.

He petitioned his people for help on this, knowing that at the rate that colony was drawing power from worlds, destroying them in the process, and sucking down entire civilizations within decades, this threat would reach the Convocation sooner or later and they would be devoured. Or worse: he knew that if Ulathoi as they would later be known got to their intelligence, rather than just using the Convocation's energy forms for fuel, no realm would be safe. The same could be said if they ever reached Xen, which though the broken planet there would have nothing of interest to them, the fact that its dimensional barriers were both weak and led everywhere, would let them destroy whole dimensions. His petition for aid or permission to destroy this threat was denied three times, over the course of some 45 thousand years. Desperate to stop them, he attempted to use a creature as a spy - implanted with Ulathoi's technology, Nihilanth was in his words, "one of his monumental errors in judgement", as it instead decided to subjugate the Vortigaunts of that world and eventually fled to Xen.

This all led him to come to Earth, where he believed there was the spark of enough intelligence and the ability to focus destructive energies, enough to kill Ulathoi once and for all. As Human, however, he began to discover that not only were these people a lot farther advanced in terms of Vortal and psychic energies than he expected, but their emotions and physical presence gave him a new perspective. Eventually he had to rely on the ties of family that he'd accidentally created, what he once called mistakes were the means by which his final blow was delivered. Ulathoi fell, at a great cost, but to a greater end.

The Earth of that dimension was in ruins, but not so badly that it could not be rebuilt. As it was being tended to by his new kin and friends, he and his closest family began entertaining themselves by moving from one reality to another. He found new Earths with different versions of himself in varying states of 'nice', became a superhero on one, instructs in power use as a teacher in a high school at another. In that high school, dragons and other creatures have become much more than a fad, and one of them managed to find him.

Obviously, this is a ... really curtailed 'history'. He lives day to day, hour by hour, just like anyone else. It's just that he's also existed that way for over a billion years. He likes watching the sun rise, and you can only do that when you've got eyes to see it with.

All of that, and his meeting with other versions still, have brought him to the conclusion that a dragonry on 'his' world, or one like his, would help immensely in rebuilding and keeping forces of otherworldly invasions at bay. (Note that some of 'his' history is sloppily shared with others - they like to compare notes, even if they don't particularly get along with one another, those less-nice Keenans still acknowledge their other-dimensional partners in crime.) The history of the Rookery itself comes in at that point.

Keenan resides on and off at a variety of the locations of the Rookery's world, in addition to wherever else he damn well feels like. However he only really has a bed at his Mansion. That nasty cot of Mars's in the ballistics lab or Caroline's old break room recliner do not count.

Dragon

Name: Denhadarvahth, the black wings of the Mystery (den hah DAR voth) properly spelled den ha-darr vahh(th) wings lacking light
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Sport / 5' / 20', 40' wingspan (see below for size comparison)
Colors: iridescent black, from sooty / ash grey to vibrant violet-black, on all parts; slightly darker crest and accents along body and neck; claws ashen white, eyes change and are often centered on happy blue or hungry green
Features: physically seems almost traditionally Pernese: head knobs, faceted eyes, clawed feet, spade tail, 4-fingered wings with clawed hook, neck fin; but his coloration and strong teleportation ability is clearly above and beyond, also he's really small which is a feature of many Healing Den oriented dragons
Powers: Winged Flight, Den is adept at diving and quick moves in the air, though he does have a pretty decent wingspan for such a small dragon, and thus can't really do most of those fancy tricks indoors. He isn't remarkably durable in the air, he likes to get up, do his thing, and land to walk around with his bond.
Teleportation, with Keenan being his bond, Den is absolutely going to be good at this. He has strong local teleportation, can move short distances (within 30 meters) extremely quickly and a good number of times in short succession, but also long distance - up to basically a continent as long as he knows his arrival point, temporal porting (this is more difficult and requires Keenan's careful guidance), genrehop (again, should probably not do this unattended, who knows where he'd wind up.)
Communication, has eloquent mental speech/empathy with Keenan and dragons, as well as being able to listen in on any given type of telepathic speech; cannot verbally speak, but does produce crooning sounds and all the expected Pernese noises.
Chemical fire production (unused), will pass on the ability to produce unassisted fire breath.
Parentage: Green Chaybeth, Blue Arfeth (Pernese, altered) [both of DawnSisters Weyr]; Siblings (mostly unbonded, intended for Victory Dance which never happened) Black Female Yimliguth, Blue Male Yondarnath, Green Female Eadreth, White Female Dzhumath, White Male Caramth, Black Male Palpadarth, Blue Male Salumuth, Green Female Tobleath; particpates in the Hallowed Silk project, and has paired up with both Silver Tork (long of the Den) having 8 offspring including Ell'daa-veth who has bonded to Valentine, Cheljohth to Ursula, Loomleth to Parece, Gozu'lath to Kendrick, Xkah'lih-beth with Gareth; and to Silver-Black Thaljath having at least 6 offspring including Gareth's second dragon Mech'saath (they all think this is still hysterical, what with Gareth being Gordon's son...), Lurlyk'ohath to Vickie (that's.... Nacho's kid? Nachos california has his own kids?), Odu'voonth to Joel, Hajaa-toidaalth to Quinn
Origin: Pernese, sort of; Trishath's influence (Arfeth is one of the best teleporters/dimensional travellers in the Kshau Protectorate, and Chaybeth is his devoted mate, Trishath hosted a massive battle against hydra and hydragons which both helped win. Trishath is not in the same dimension as Pern, their flipping from universe to universe certainly changed their biology a bit.) After the battle, moving between dimensions and different 'new and old' worlds certainly changed the pair, making their inherent abilities considerably stronger and all of their offspring inherited this. (Image lines by Falora of Talor Cliff)
Other Info: Is highly intelligent and appreciates a good story, is incredibly sneaky and loves to teleport short distances in order to appear behind someone - just like his bond. Keenan has hardly ever ridden him, but can and does on occasion, and does not use riding gear. Den is quite enamored of some of the newer dragons, those Old World ones are just fine but look at those Pantalan ones? With the special wings? They're almost like Icarian draks! He does fancy pairing up with a pretty dragoness at some point... He does enjoy Rook's company, even if the little pest becomes annoying at times. The little showoff can roost on spots that Den cannot...

Flitter: Rook, black/iridescent male, Healing Den origin; chatty, noisy flitter that competes with actual ravens for nesting space

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