Lightsong (Warbreaker)

"All of this, because I couldn't figure out how to die."

- Lightsong

Summary
Lightsong the Bold, or Stennimar is a former accountant and later a Returned who is part of the Court of Gods in Hallandren as the God of Bravery.

Former Life
He was born under the name of Stennimar, and as the little brother to Llarimar. Little is known of his childhood, but it is known that he grew up to become an accountant that worked to discover fraud or embezzlement by looking through ledgers to find discrepancies.

He grew rather close with his niece, and Llarimar's daughter, Tatara.

In the year 322, they went sailing on the Red Panther, where they experienced a massive storm which swept Tatara overboard and into the raging waters, and he leaped into the water without thinking, in order to save her, despite not knowing how to swim. He managed to return her to the ship and save her life. However, in doing so, he drowned and passed away.

Returned
Following his death, Endowment gave him a vision of war and destruction, and offered him a choice to Return in order to work to prevent this from coming to fruition. He took this offer and was resurrected as a Returned.

After Returning he was named Lightsong the Bold by the Cult of the Returned. His Return restored the faith of Llarimar, who became Lightsong's high priest.

Lightsong's attitude at the time of his returning was one of indolence. However this would change when he began to grow close to Calmseer, which started with mutual respect but quickly turned physical. This relationship drove him to become the god everyone expected him to be and give up his lazy ways. However, this backfired, and left his followers feeling dissatisfied with him, and the other gods mocking him for being a hypocrite.

He blamed his failure on the other gods who would not take his new attitude with the seriousness that he felt he deserved, and reverted back to his lazy ways, albeit with a newly sharpened wit. Through this wit he let loose with as much vengeance as he could muster. The other gods took in natural he act this way, so he remained stuck in this and gave up on changing.

Around the time of the Pahn Khal Rebellion, he found himself, as a member of the Court of Gods and one trusted with an army of 10,000 Lifeless, to be in a position of responsibility, one that he found deeply undesirable. This war also pushed Blushweaver, who was attempting to consolidate power and control over the armies of Lifeless, to try to recruit Lightsong to her side. At this time he also experienced dreams of war and the city burning which he found distressing.

When one of Mercysong's servants was murdered, he was driven to investigate the death. Both from a desire to distract himself from his visions, along with a deeper urge as a result of his past self resurfacing. In his investigation he found himself to be very skilled at it, despite having no practice in his current life. This furthered his interest in finding out more about his past, and led to him actively practicing countless different things such as mathematics, foreign languages, juggling, etc. In order to try to make out more about who he was in his past life.

When Blushweaver managed to obtain control of Hopefinder's and Mercystar's Lifeless warriors, Lightsong gave his own security phrase to Allmother, in the hopes that she would oppose Blushweaver's call to war. And she surprised him by giving him her access code. And, unable to shirk his responsibility any longer, he took command of Allmother's Lifeless, giving himself control of half of Hallandren's army. When the vote was called to go to war with Idris, he walked away without casting his vote.

On the night of the rebellion, he and Llarimar entered the tunnel complex under Mercystar's palace, where they ran into Blushweaver being held captive by Pahn Khal scribes who had disguised themselves as priests. Believing himself to be an investigator and skilled swordsman, he tried to attack them to free Blushweaver, only to discover that he did not know how to fight. Thus he got captured and thrown into a cage. This pushed Llarimar to become tired of him and lost his patience, yelling at him about what he truly was in his past, not a fighter or detective, but an accountant.

The Pahn Kahl demanded his security phrase, but he refused their demands, and in response they slit Blushweaver's throat, killing her, and threatened to do the same to Llarimar. Horrified and wanting to protect his brother, he gave in and gave them his security code.

He found himself imprisoned alongside Susebron, where he remembered his death and the vision granted to him, remembering his purpose. Knowing what he was meant to do, Lightsong sacrificed his Divine Breath, and thus his life, to heal Susebron, restoring the king's tongue, and allowing him to overpower his captors and was able to prevent the war from taking place. However, in giving away his Divine Breath, he passed away.

Appearance
As a Returned, Lightsong is the ideal specimen of human beauty. He is very tall, standing at over seven feet tall, and has black hair, chiseled features, and golden tan skin. . He is also well muscled. His colors as the God of Bravery are red and gold, which are used for all of his outfits.

Personality
Lightsong doubts his own divinity, and due to this deliberately tries to undermine his own image in the eyes of his priests. He frequently mocks himself, calling himself useless and redundant. He purposely acts apathetic and lazy, and shows no interest in the debates between the priests and Gods regarding the governance of Hallandren. This extends to his views of his own divinity, that is to say, his doubt of his own religion, and rejection of his own divinity.

He often mocks others, though it is in a good-natured manner, and is never cruel or hurtful. The way he acts, with his humor and remarks, are simply a show intended to distract, and are also a subtle commentary on what he thinks of the other gods and the way they're all treated. Shaped by his past experiences as a Returned greatly souring his views of the other Gods. This is also simply an act, as he thinks of something flashy and comic to say as a way to distract himself from his the problems he feels inside. This dichotomy between how he acts, and how he feels inside, is the main defining aspect of his character.

He is loving to his people, and is known for listening to every one of his petitions, and reviewing and giving his honest thoughts on every piece of art or poetry sent to him. As a result of his honesty and care for his people, Lightsong actually has the most followers of any of the gods, a fact that he is personally not pleased with. Despite this displeasure, he does still continue to act the way he does.

He has a deep desire to find out more about his past and who he was before he died and Returned, and pushes to find it against the push by Llarimar to stop searching for answers.

The fact that he is as handsome as he is, and the fact his Divine Breath has no gone into hiding, is a strong implication that he is more pleased with himself and his position than he lets on.

Allmother
Allmother sees him as useless and looks down on him.

Blushweaver
Blushweaver is in love with Lightsong and often tries to seduce him and get him to have sex with her. And despite being flirtatious back at her, he always turns down her advances and their relationship had never grown to the point of being physical, despite her attempts.

Furthermore, she wants to work together with him in order to consolidate power in the Court of the Gods, to gain control over the entirety of the Lifeless army.

While he respects her, he opposes her desire to go to war with Idris.

Calmseer
He had a close relationship with Calmseer based on mutual respect. This relationship of theirs eventually turned physical, though was never one of love in the traditional sense.

Llarimar
"You are a god. To me, at least. It doesn't matter how easily you can be killed, how much breath you have, or how you look. It has to do with who you are and what you mean"

- Llarimar to Lightsong

While he does not know that Llarimar is his brother, the two have a close relationship. With Llarimar acting as his priest and spending most of every day with him. He calls Llarimar by the affectionate nickname "Scoot". Llarimar is annoyed by this nickname, and also by Lightsong's irreverence and quips, but he takes it with a quiet and respectful patience.

Llarimar tries to keep Lightsong's life before his Return a secret, even as Lightsong searched for the truth of his past and even asked about who he was. However, despite going against his wishes, he still loves and respects his brother, who died saving Tatara, his daughter. Lightsong not only saved his daughter's life at the cost of his own, but his Return also helped Llarimar with the crisis of faith that he was going through at the time. This mixture of factors is what led him to become his high priest, and also, as his priest and brother, he is always willing to handle Lightsong's doubts about the theology of the Cult of the Returned, and discuss theology to help Lightsong through whatever questions might be worrying him.

Lightsong also deeply respects Llarimar, with his patient temperament, and considers him to be the perfect high priest, he however does feel that he deserves a better god to follow.

Sisirinah
Siri is one of the few people that he is truly open to and candid with. Seeing her as a young and naïve girl placed into a hard position, he takes pity on her and gives her advice on dealing with the politics of the Court of Gods

Siri herself sees him as the most respectable member of the Court of the Gods, and came to rely on in, although he encouraged her not to come to rely on him.

Powers and Stats
Name: Stennimar | Lightsong, Lightsong the Bold

Origin: Warbreaker

Gender: Male

Age: Unknown, Five Years Old Mentally

Classification: Accountant | Returned, Cognitive Shadow, Nalthian, God of Bravery

Powers and Stats: Human = None Notable Returned = Enhanced Senses by Perfect Colour Recognition and Perfect Pitch (Due to his wealth of Breaths, he has an extraordinarily high ability to discern between different sounds and colours, to an extent far beyond that of any human), Extrasensory Perception by Aura Recognition, and Perfect Life Sense (He is capable of feeling the presence of others in his proximity, and can tell when he is being watched), Immortality (He is ageless and effectively immortal), Superhuman Physical Characteristics (As a Returned, he has various enhancements to his strength and speed), Self-Sustenance (Can live without food or water), Limited Shapeshifting (As a Returned he can manipulate his physical appearance to a limited degree) Resistance to Poison Manipulation (He is essentially immune to most poisons), and Resistance to Disease Manipulation (Is immune to most physical ailments, including nearly all, if not all, diseases)

Attack Potency: As a Returned he possesses a superhuman degree of strength

Durability: As a Returned he possesses a superhuman degree of durability

Speed: As a Returned he possesses a superhuman degree of speed, he should scale to the speed of Denth, who was capable of moving so quick to be able to draw his weapon and move to slay two bodyguards at such velocities that Vivenna couldn't follow or process it.

Intelligence: He is a rather intelligent individual, and is a very able investigator, having spent his past life as an accountant employed to discover fraud or embezzlement by looking through ledgers to find discrepancies. He also knows how to investigate for information surrounding various criminal cases, and properly interrogating and organizing witnesses in order to collect information on cases. He is also very skilled at mathematics as a result of this past. He also has an instinctive ability to accurately make out and interpret the meaning of abstract art pieces.

Weaknesses: He consumes one Breath in his storage every week, and would die if a week passes without a Breath to give up, for it would lead to his Divine Breath being consumed, killing him. Following from this, if he uses his Divine Breath to heal somebody, he would perish. His Life Sense cannot detect Drabs, it can also be interfered with or blocked by Aviar, Copperclouds, or a Soulbearer storing all of their Ivestiture into a Nicrosilmind. He lacks memories of his past life, however, skills of his past life do remain. He does not know any foreign languages. Despite his superhuman strength, he is very poor at fighting. And despite his immortality, he can still perish if he has his throat slit.

Returned Nature
As a Returned he consumes one Breath every week, and if he runs out he would perish. However, this does not pose an active risk to him, as he is given Breaths every week to prevent him from passing away.

Along with this, he is physically stronger, more durable, and faster than any normal human.

As he has many Breaths, he would be capable of seeing part of an Artist's soul in an abstract art piece, and make out the purpose and meaning of the piece in a way that no normal human can. To the extent of seeing things that aren't necessarily there.

Shapeshifting
As a Returned he has the ability to shapeshift to a limited degree. Such as changing his height, weight, race, or hair color, but only to a reasonable extent.

Heightening
Having been Invested by a Divine Breath, he has been brought up to the Fifth Heightening.

Aura Recognition
Aura Recognition is the ability to see the Breath auras of others, and make out around how many Breaths an individual has, this also allows one to make out the exact amount of Investiture within each Breath as well, with the incredibly Invested Divine Breaths only registering as a single one to their sense, but one can still make out just how dense with energy said one Breath is.

This also appears to give one the instinctive ability to not only quantify how much Investiture they have, but make out what Heightening they should be at.

Perfect Pitch
Perfect Pitch is as it sounds, granting perfect pitch to those who achieve it.

Perfect Colour Recognition
Perfect Colour Recognition is the ability to instantly and instinctively determine exact shades of colors and their hue harmonics. He can make out even the smallest differences in colours, and instinctively measure exactly how many "steps" a colour is away from its perfect form. This includes being able to tell apart colours whose differences are so minute to not be perceivable to an ordinary human.

This also gives one an inherent and deep respect for the beauty of colours and how they work together.

Perfect Life Sense
Perfect Life Sense is the instinctively sense other people around you, and tell when you are being watched. He can feel them in a rather large, but unspecific radius, and can pinpoint the approximate location of where people and other living beings are in his proximity. Thus he becomes essentially impossible to sneak up on, due to a constant awareness of all living things surrounding him.

Despite being for all intents and purposes, perfect, he is unable to detect Drabs due to their lack of Investiture. It can also be interfered with or blocked by Aviar, Copperclouds , or a Soulbearer storing all of their Investiture into a Nicrosilmind , and cannot detect that which is blocked by Aluminium. This is due to all these methods working to make a being devoid of Investiture, or seemingly devoid of Investiture. While non-Nalthians do not have any Breaths, they almost always have more Investiture than a Drab, therefore, outside of special cicumstances, non-Nalthians can still be detected.

Agelessness
Agelessness is the maximized resistance to ageing and disease. Due to this, he is immune to most toxins, including the effects of alcohol, and most physical ailments, such as headaches, diseases, and organ failure.

Awakening
As a Returned with a relatively high supply of Breaths, he has the capacity to use Awakening. Although he does not hold the knowledge of how to do so, and in fact believes himself incapable of doing so.