Nova Arthur Gibbous

Name: Nova Alexander Gibbous

Gender: Male

Age: 40 years

Personality: Nova has a very serious and regal air about him. He rarely shows emotions, yet when he does, they are downplayed, calm, and very well managed. He never shows excitement, and yet, can show anxiousness, desire, and any normal emotion. Battle-hardened by many years of service as a hunter, he doesn't know fear anymore, and is the epitome of cool-headed, never letting pressure get to him. Even though he holds no leaders positions anymore, he still has the fervor and confidence of a leader, beat into his head and soul over numerous years.

Bio: Nova was, to put it bluntly, a dreamer, and not a very rational one. Despite being rather sickly and scrawny for most of his childhood, he and his brother Cress aspired to be great hunters one day. Cress had more of an easy time going at it than Nova did. While Cress had a fighter's build, natural muscle, and the qualities of a warrior, the tenacity and determination to go get what he wanted, Nova was small, very brittle, easily injured, and rather frightened of the grim, making life as a hunter seem far out of reach. Yet, through luck or skill, he was able to attend signal and beacon, being the laughingstock of both schools, bottom of the barrel, a loser, despite having been able to get into signal a year before usual, and beacon two years before. He simply wasn't ready, despite what his test scores said. And so he dropped out, ashamed, and to much so to even face his family. He was at a loss, unsure of what to do. He knew it was his destiny to become a hunter, yet every sign he found told him "no, you're not a hunter."

It was around the time for the Vytal festival to begin in Vale...drawing the good, the bad, and the strange from all corners of the continent. In his homelessness at the time, Nova had settled in with a group of gypsies at the time, particularly one...an old man garbed in navy blue robes, like an old time prophet. He wore a pointed hat that fell to one side and had a long white beard, and white hair that fell to the floor, and down over his eyes. He was also known for being a drunkard, and a very old storyteller. It was through this old man that Nova heard a story that piqued his interest. He told of a legend that, in the ruins of the emerald forest, just behind beacon academy, there was a passage hidden from the world, yet preserved by time. It led to a dungeon of horrifying trials, ruins that were filled with grim long thought extinct. But past all of it, was a sword of legend.

This sword sat in the midst of an underground lake, jammed into a black stone at the center, unmoved for centuries. It was a sword fit for a hero. Long ago bequeathed to a king, made by a master blacksmith and tempered by a master sorcerer to retain magical qualities, it could turn the weakest coward into a hero. According to the old man, the blade could link itself to the wielder's aura, and would remain that way until the user had died or had a first born son, who could then inherit the weapon at the slightest touch. The weapon was placed in such a treacherous place by the sorcerer after the death of the king to prevent it from falling into unworthy hands.

It wasn't much to go on, but it was enough to kindle the small amount of hope in Nova's heart.

Armed with his trust longsword, gifted to him by his older brother, he set off into the ruins at the edge of the emerald forest, and after days of camping and eating what he hunted, nearly starved, he managed to find in the ruins a lever, that when pulled, set off a mechanism that opened a wall up and revealed a staircase down. After filling himself on all the food he had reserved, Nova journeyed down the stairs for what felt like days, until he found himself in a massive underground cavern and city, left in darkened ruins, and teeming with strange mutations of beowulves, smaller, bat-like nevermore, and other creatures he never had the stomach to describe. After many harsh battles, and nearly falling victim to traps and nearly fatal strikes by grim, Nova had been underground for upwards of a week. He had been eating the remains of the grim and whatever partially rotted food he could find. And still he ventured on, until he came to the heart of the ruined city, a broken down chapel, standing high above all else. In he ventured, where he found what appeared to be a black suit of armor, possessed by a force he could not identify. He fought this black knight, nearly falling to the massive black sword it held, made out of some material that no man could wield. Somehow, using every bit of skill left in his body, Nova vanquished the foe, and found behind the alter a descending spiral staircase.

He descended again, further down, growing exhausted with every step. He ventured down for at the very least an hour, before finally, he dropped below the ceiling of a massive underground lake. He came to it's edge at the bottom of the staircase, and swam towards it's center, exhausting himself further doing so, and nearly drowning at a point halfway across. In the lake's center he found the old man's story to be true. A brilliant, massive sword jetted from the rock, skeletons gripping it's blade, rotted away trying to pull it from the ground.

And the old man was waiting for him. He told Nova that his family had warrior blood coursing through their veins, that his heritage was one drenched in blood and spiritual and magic influence. He was heir to this sword, which was named Xalbur. After taking the sword, Nova felt an immediate link to the weapon, revitalized, and rejuvenated. It was then on the spot that he begged the man, named Myerdin, to take him under his wing, teach him.

Nova disappeared for two years after that, unseen and unheard, until returning to enroll in beacon, no longer the same. He was a warrior, in every sense of the term. He was a leader, in every sense of the term, and with his team, team NOVA, it's members being him as leader, a spear-man named Ornstein, a rifle-woman named Veranesque, and a swordsman named Artorias, he cut his way into the ranks of great hunters and huntresses. In this field he found his love, a respected scythe-wielding huntress Luna Maria (Mar-Ria).

After marrying Luna, he received from his father heirloom weapons, one from deep in their lineage, the Ursa Major and Minor, and the two settled a home in a village up north, near the Wooded Borea. Unfortunately, this settling would not last long. Luna grew pregnant and gave birth to triplets, named Cress, Wayne, and Novus, one named after Nova, one after his brother, and one after Luna's grandfather. However, while the two were sleeping, Luna in recovery, the village was attacked in the dead of the night. Their house had been set ablaze by a clan of bandits that had been squatting outside the village after Nova had kicked them out. The two split up, Nova making sure that Wayne and Novus were carried out, Luna meant to retrieve Cress. Nova got his weapon to his back in case any resistance was met, and got his children and dashed them outside, laying them carefully in their blankets on the ground. He went to rush back in, but, as predicted, met resistance, and after fighting seven men to defend his children, his left hand being shattered and crippled in the fight, he rushed into the near destroyed house, still ablaze, only to find Luna had been bludgeoned to death, and his child nowhere to be found.

Nova left Wayne and Novus with Luna's sister for a while after, and for nearly a month, scoured Vytal for the bandit clan in hopes of finding his child, with no luck... He retired from his Hunter's job shortly after, counting himself a failure, unable to protect his own, and unfit to protect others. He returned Xalbur to it's resting place, and took a teaching job at Signal to support his sons, living out his days in silent misery as an "unfit" father to his children.

Physical Appearance: Nova stands at Six feet, six inches tall, with a deceptively lean build. He is very muscular, yet he appears to be very thin and lanky, often amazing his foes when he is able to swing around his signature weapon. Currently, his iris' and his hair are a brilliant golden color, his skin a perfect ivory white, unscared and unblemished. He has very sharp and chiseled features, like a royal figure taken straight from the past. His eyes are slightly large for a male, thus giving them a deep, open look to them, and his nose is just a little cocked to the side, evidence of breaking.

Clothing/Armor: Nova has been retired for several years, and thus wears normal  clothes as anyone else, usually a long-sleeved white dress short under a black suede jacket, and black dress pants with black loafers. Despite this though, he still wears metal gauntlets, testimate to his old hunting days. The gauntlets are gold colored metal, layered in plates, with the fingers actually being clawed. They reach up to the elbow, and are usually covered mostly by his sleeves. In his days of hunting, he would typically wear a pair of gold colored metal greaves to accompany these gauntlets. His clothing consisted of a gold-colored pair of tassets over black pants, and a white long sleeved shirt with his emblem stitched in the center back, with a black leather sheath on his back, strapped around his torso.

Semblance: Nova is versed in what he calls "Blade-mancing." This is essentially a way he learned to channel his aura under his training from the wizard, and it appears to be almost magical, though it requires the use of Xalbur and drains on his strength, especially now in his old age. It allows him to do astonishing feats with his sword when channeling aura through it. This commonly includes his signature attacks "Crescent slash" "Full orbit" "Cosmic stab" and "Blade rush" Crescent slash is a swing of the sword that expels a crescent shaped wave of aura from the blade,  Full Orbit is a spinning move in which Nova spins in two full rotations, expelling dangerous amounts of Aura from the blade in a circular motion. Cosmic stab is an attack in which Xalbur is thrown into the air and a massive silhouette of itself made of aura surrounds it, pointing it down and slamming it into the ground expelling all the aura in a huge AOE attack, though this attack is usually used as a last resort, as it drains heavily on Nova's strength. His more common power attack is Blade Rush, which is actually a change in strategy. Xalbur is surrounded in a thin layer of gold aura, while four carbon copies of it are created. These five blades are controlled almost telepathically to stab at and swing at the target. Any striking on Xalbur's true form will end the copies, so Nova will keep it next to him and use it to block should the enemy get to close. however the block immediately ends Blade Rush, and the attack to Xalbur tolls heavily on his aura, and immediately drops the weapon. Nova's final skill is calling Xalbur to his hand with his aura link to the blade.
However...Xalbur has been lost to him for many many years.

Color Represented: Gold

Fairy Tail Represented: King Arthur

Emblem: A moon with two black crescents making the white portion into an oval shape

Miscellaneous Info: Like his children, Nova is unable to use his aura unless the moon is out. Nova is also left handed, though a lasting and crippling injury plagues his left hand, and so he uses his off hand for most things now. While Nova takes after his mother's appearance, and Cress their father's, Wayne, Novus, and Cress all take after their grandfather's looks, while Rei takes after her mothers and grandmothers.

Approved!