Skagi is the newest character to grace Sockland with his disturbing presence. He was just kind of made on the fly while doing one of my usual monster drawings. That’s usually how my character creation works, though. I just sketch up a design I really like, decide to keep it, and slowly build up the character from there. With most of my other characters, however, I’ve had a few years to refine their backstories n’ such so they fit well within the world and timeline I made. This guy is still only a few months old… so don’t be surprised if this gets tweaked more than the others throughout the years to come.

Growing up as a normal bat, Skagi was severely altered upon the beginning and following years of the apocalypse. While he was pretty well off at first, he couldn’t help but notice other animals and even his fellow bats suffering. This saddened him, but he wasn’t sure about what he could do to save them… He was only one bat, after all. That is, until his discovery of an odd piece of what seemed like wood. It was shaped slightly like a skull, which by itself is strange, but there was an eeriness aside from its appearance. It was almost as if the object had a living presence, like there was the slightest of wisps from a powerful soul still inhabiting the cracks. At least, that’s what Skagi gathered. Intrigued, he placed the piece of wood on his face, like a mask. It fit perfectly. In fact, it was almost as if the mask embraced him. He instantly felt a new power surge through him. Not a physical power, but more like an overwhelming sense of achievement. Like he could do anything, accomplish anything, even the things he considered himself too meek to even attempt beforehand.
Inspired, he fashioned his new trinket into a proper mask and rallied up the bats in his community to band together and help one another. His community grew rapidly, even accommodating animals such as rodents, insects, and birds. The community grew so large, in fact, that it was becoming too hard to control. Monsters were attacking his people in attempt to gain territory, remaining humans were attempting to hunt them down, and resources became slimmer by the day. Skagi knew that things would only get worse if he did nothing, so he grouped up any able-bodied creature capable of flight and set off to find better land.
Nobody would accept them. All parties wanted something in return, but Skagi no longer had anything to give. Then, one of the last contacts he visited said that he would share his food supply if Skagi and his group could eliminate the neighboring faction. Reluctantly agreeing, the opposition was decimated by Skagi’s forces. He then realized that most of his contact’s needs were within the boundaries of mercenary work… and that’s when Skagi’s group took to the warpath.
The majority of the community back home had little clue about how they were suddenly flooded with resources, but they were grateful for it. But, such secrets cannot be hidden for long, and word quickly spread about Skagi’s true deeds. Slowly but surely, the community disbanded. Even those that participated in the mercenary work grew disgusted with their actions and left in the dead of night. Only a few members, eternally loyal to their leader, remained by his side.
By this point, Skagi was not the same bat in the slightest. His mask seemed to only worsen his physical condition, causing his fur to fall out in patches and ruining the quality of his wings. He cared little, however. In fact, he saw this as a sign of the mask listening to his pleas, and the degradation of his body was little to pay for in return. He eventually saw all altered creatures like this, those that must have been blessed by whatever being of infinite power inhabited this mask before him.
Feeling disgraced and completely enraged by the betrayal of his people, all Skagi could do was descend father into his work. To this day his small band of bats will gladly destroy any living thing for the right price.

While Skagi got some upgrades not unlike most other animals, his main source of power (or at least what he thinks it is) is his mask. Shed by the most powerful being on Earth in the early years of the apocalypse, even the discarded shell holds deep ties to the planet. It may be slowly sapping his life away, but it gives Skagi a much better understanding of the shifts of the Earth, be it deep underground, on the surface, or in the sky. And, in a world where the planet is at its most unpredictable, it is a highly beneficial power to have.
In recent years, Skagi was hired to kill Victor. He has failed on every occasion thus far, and the two have been in a savage rivalry ever since. Both essentially believe they are working for the same team, but if any two ideals couldn’t coincide in this new world, it would definitely be those two. Freaks.

beautiful, beautiful man
and, again, i realize now that my fanart just screams "WHOA WHAT WAS THAT THOSE WERE /PANTS/ THE WHOLE TIME WHOA HEY THeRE"