Appearance

Mask

He looks like a man somewhere between 55 and 65 years of age. His hair is white with streaks of grey, and his skin is very pale and the wrinkles of time don't bother hiding. His eyes are black, which create an interesting contrast with the color of his hair and skin. He is about 5'9" feet tall, but walks hunched over most of the time, which makes him look as if he was only around 5'4" feet tall. He weighs somewhere around 145 pounds and while time has not been kind to his physique, he is surprisingly wiry. He usually wears a variety of dark rags and worn out clothing that look as if he looted a few graves to acquire them.

Mien

His mien is similar to his mask with a few distinct touches. His skin is dark grey and his eyes are entirely black. His ears are slightly pointed, and his nose slightly crooked. When he opens his mouth, he reveals rows of jagged teeth--if one could even call them that--that appear to be constantly rotting. When he moves, his arms and legs appear to bend and twist in strange ways as if his entire body was double jointed.

Mantle

His mantle is quite subtle, lacking a visual element to it. When others stand near him they feel the temperature drop quite a few degrees, as if someone had opened a door letting in a chilling winter wind.

Background

Born in San Francisco, California in 1956. His name was Eric Whither, and he was shy ever since he was a little boy. As he grew older he remained much of an introvert, working as a conductor for San Francisco's subway system. His life was not too exciting, it was rather dull actually. However, when he was 35 years old he had an experience that changed his life forever.

One day back in 1991, Eric was at work and had to make an emergency stop due to some sort of obstruction in the tracks. He stepped down to investigate further and found what seemed to be the corpse of some animal. The smell was foul, and it was so dark that it was hard for him to identify what kind of animal it was. He decided to take a few steps forward to take a closer look.

All of a sudden he heard a shriek as he watched a swarm or rats lunge towards him. He begun to run as fast as he could through the tunnels to escape the rats; an extreme fear settling in his heart. He run and run, picking up his pace as much as he could. Eventually he ran into a dead end. He could hear the rats quickly approaching and suddenly he heard a voice from the darkness.

"Over here!" called out the voice.

Eric could not see who was calling out to him but headed in that direction without hesitation. He was so afraid of the rats he did not stop to think about what the hell someone was doing that deep in the tunnels.

"Quick, if you want to escape, follow me!" called out the voice.

"Alright, alright. Whatever you say. Just get me out of here!" responded Eric with a tone of desperation.

At that moment some sort of magical gate manifested in the pitch black of the tunnels. Suddenly, Eric felt as he was dragged by some strange force through the darkness and through the mysterious gate. He didn't understand what was going on, but he was scared shitless.

He felt like he was dragged for eternity, as he felt thorns tear at his clothes and skin. He could feel the blood run down his arms and legs as he struggled in vain to get out of his captor's grasp. His eyes were closed through the whole experience, he was too afraid to open them up.

When he finally got enough courage to open his eyes, the dragging had stopped and he felt as he was tossed into a hole. As he opened his eyes he noticed he was in some sort of dungeon; it was quite dark but he could tell he was no longer home.

For the next 10 years--even though it seemed like a hundred to him--he spent most of his time in that dungeon, not knowing what he had done to deserve this sort of imprisonment. He never got to see the face of his captor, but he heard others that were also trapped in the dungeon talk about her. They called her names such as "The Ebony Lady," "The Mistress of the Night," "The Baroness of the Shadows," and similar names.

During his durance, he mostly kept to himself, talking very little with some of the other "residents." One night, he overheard some of the other ones talking about a plan they had to escape. He listened closely to them and decided that he would try to take this opportunity to regain his freedom.

That evening, or day...he really didn't know since he was always in the dark, the other prisoners started to dig a tunnel out of the dungeon. He offered to help and he was welcomed by the others. They used whatever they could find as tools, mostly resorting to their bare hands.

He felt blood under his fingernails as he continued to dig frantically. Suddenly he heard a scream somewhere behind him. The others started to pick up their pace as they screamed that She had found them and was close by.

The tunnel they were digging appeared to get darker than it was before as he continued to dig faster and faster. He tried remembering his life before, but could not even remember his own name. Spending that much time in that dark prison had made him lose his sense of identity.

He continued to dig and dig as he kept trying to remember what lied ahead. As he continued digging he was able to recall a day when he visited Sacramento. He had a great cup of coffee at a Starbucks in the city.

For some reason that was all he could recall, as his hands began to tire and he felt as his skin was pierced by thorns as he continued on digging. He pushed ahead through the pain and finally squeezed out of a hole and found himself in an alley.

It was night time and he was cold, hungry and had no freaking clue of where he was. He wandered out of the alley into the streets. He looked around as if he was in a foreign place, confused by his surroundings. He finally spotted a Starbucks. It happened to be the same coffee shop from his flashback, and he knew he was in Sacramento.

He was scared and had no clue of where to go. At that moment he also realized that he was the only one from the group that had made it through safely. An intense feeling of sorrow overcame him as he began to wander the streets of the city.

As he was walking around he stopped in front of a store. He looked intensely into the glass window as he stared at his own reflection...and was horrified by what he saw.

He could not bare looking at himself and felt as a tear ran down his left cheek. At that moment he ran as fast as he could, as if he was trying to escape his new reality. He ran and ran, not knowing where he was going until he finally came upon a manhole. He lifted the cover and climbed down the tunnel.

There he spent another 10 years, only interacting with the rats and other critters that lived down there. Darkness was familiar to him, so he spent an entire decade in the dark underground of Sacramento in hiding.

During that time he discovered ways in and out of the Hedge from his underground home. He met other changelings and hob creatures during his trips into the Hedge. He could not remember his real name, so he took the name "Degnar," which he claimed was given to him by the rats that resided with him back in Sacramento.

Whenever he would come back out of the Hedge he'd keep to himself and remain hiding in the tunnels. Until one day, he finally decided to climb out to the surface and search for others like him on this side.