Mace

Mace
Characteristics
Race	Dreamkeeper
Gender	Male
Age	14 (current) 8 (Prelude)
Professional Status
Affiliation	Main Cast
Personal Status
Status	Active
Relative(s)	Whip ("brother")
Home	Anduruna (Grunn's Orphanage)
Power and Weapons
Power	Unknown
Debut
First Appearance	Volume 1 (Chapter 1)
Image Gallery

Mace is one of the main characters and the protagonist of Dreamkeepers. Prior to events that take place in Volume One, Mace resided at Grunn's Orphanage. He is currently on the run.

Appearance

Mace's swatch art.

Mace appears to be more of a feline hybrid with a raccoon’s tail. He has marine blue pupils, large ears, and has brown triangular patches on his white fur body. He usually wears a tan colored winter jacket, and beige cargo shorts. In the prelude, he wore a red hoodie sweater. He is one of those Dreamkeepers who appears short in height.

Personality

As an optimist, Mace is always the one to look at the bright side of things, with his physical resilience to match his similar emotional endurance. It's no wonder why he’s the light-hearted mischievous joker from the characters in the series. He is rarely seen moping around, but rather spending his time enjoying life and plotting his next big plan. The mischief and odd happenings that occur around him have given him an ill reputation with his peers and mentors.

However, this oddly doesn’t earn him an attraction to the girls he met on his way, and would rather chose Whip for his cuteness and cuddliness. Ironically, Mace has few friends that he knows he can trust on and share with his adventures. Despite his cheerful side, he shelters a fragile sensitive side that he rarely exposes to others; he doesn’t want seeing them hurt or tortured, and would try to protect them and keep their promises as best as he could.

Mace has a history of disobedience and deviant thought patterns, manifesting in an almost total lack of respect for authority. Like Bast, he's is a troublemaker from the law as well and treats them with impunity. However, instead of resulting in rash decisions and violence, he tends to escape and solve them in a hilarious way.

History

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD
HOLD IT, reading powers are restricted beyond this point! This article contains actual spoilers from both GNS and Prelude that may reveal major plot points and hidden character information. If you wish to be saved from the nightmarish reveals, tread carefully and read at your own risk!

Past

Mace was left in the care of Grunn at his orphanage right around the time he was born, alongside Whip who together would grow up together to where they were inseparable. Mace would end up to consider him as his brother despite the difference in appearance and form.

Volume 1

Chapter 1

Shortly after Paige falls out of her boat after it is tipped over by Randy, Mace and Whip help her out of the water with an oar. Together, they row back to the orphanage as Mace declares he has a prank in store for Randy.

Sometime later, they are in the mess hall, sitting down for lunch. Since they were the last ones in, they got the least amount of food. Mace generously spooned most of his food onto Paige's plate, which she responded to with a hug. Afterwards, she handed him a pendent shaped like her head, claiming that it was for him to look at in case he got lonely. After Paige gives Mace the pendent, they decide to put their plan into action. As Mace asks Whip for the plans that they had drawn, Mace yells at Whip, who had secretly stolen the rest of his food. As Whip reluctantly returns it to Mace's plate, they go over the plan. Mace had stolen a handful of coins from Grunn and coated them with female bander pheromones. The plan was to drop the coins for Randy to pick up and a male bander would come running to pounce on him, attracted to the female scent.

Seeing Randy close by, Mace puts the plan into action. As he and Whip casually walk past Randy's table, the coins suddenly fall out of Mace's pocket. Mace puts on an act of blunder while Randy instantly jumps to the floor to take the coins. However, Grunn suddenly appears, looking for the coins and the person who stole them. Randy would then proceed to tattle on Mace as the other orphans silently side with him. Mace attempts to plead his case, but Grunn would congratulate Randy as he grabbed his coins with a balled-up fist, while Mace looks on in fear.

Suddenly, a male bander smashes through the doorway and spots the source of the female scent in Grunn's hand. Mace and the other orphans then become unwilling witnesses to Grunn being sexually assaulted by the male bander. As Grunn manages to punch the bander off, forcing it to crash through the floor of the mess hall and into the water below, he would then grab Mace and deliver a punch to his face. Paige rushes to his aid, but Grunn shoves her away. After Grunn orders Mace and Whip to fix all the damage, Mace is tossed out of the mess hall.

Later on, Mace and Whip are repairing a dock beam down in the water. A wave hits Mace, causing him to be coated in bander slime. As he reaches over and pulls a splinter out of Whip's arms, Mace comes up with a plan to run away from the orphanage with Paige. As he and Whip iron out the plan, they are called up to the dock by Grunn. Grunn orders them to head into the city to pick up his favorite fermentae and to be back by eleven or else Paige would take over on the repairs. With that in mind, Mace and Whip race off.

While in the Margate District, Mace prattles on about the freedoms of being a runaway, but then has to pull Whip away from a group of adoring girls. As Mace reminds Whip of what they had to do, he carelessly runs into a girl. It was Lilith Calah, who was now slightly covered in Mace's bander slime. She politely pardons Mace for the collision and happily goes on her way. Mace instantly falls in love with her, but Whip smacks him across the head, reminding him of their errand.

Later that night, as they are returning home with Grunn's fermentae, Mace decides to postpone the runaway plan until the Harvest Festival for a chance to go out with Lilith.

Chapter 2

The next morning, Mace and Whip groggily look away from their work to look over at Grunn, who had fallen asleep on the beach. Paige comes by to talk with them from a boat being rowed by the Konkords.

At that moment, a siren goes off nearby. Grunn awakes from his slumber to tell the orphans in the boats to head to the cleaning room with their catches and those with school to get going. Mace and Whip quickly race off into the city.

Sometime later, they arrive at the Margate District Learning Center. As they walk in and arrive to their locker, a tall, young man is leaning against it with a sneer. Mace asks the boy to step aside, but he simply ignores him. Annoyed, Mace grabs the boy by the red scarf he wore. In response, the boy flings Mace head first into the opposite lockers. A fight would then break out between Mace and Whip and the boy which would eventually result in a bloody nose for the boy. Moments later, a faculty member arrives to break up the fight. Lilith, who was watching the fight nearby, volunteers to take the boy, known as Bast, to the infirmary. Mace and Whip, however, are sent to detention.

In detention, Mace and Whip notice a high-tech gun nested in the nearest corner of the room. Just then, Mr. Nibbs enters the room and informs them that the gun is a non-lethal safety weapon meant to keep students from leaving the room. Moments later, he turns the lights off and turns on a learning movie on the wall-mounted data-scroll. While Mr. Nibbs had his back turned, Mace and Whip make their way into a ceiling vent just above them.

While in the vent, they run into a pink imp Dreamkeeper named Namah, who leads them to a security room. There, they find a cluster of data-scrolls that displayed Mace and Whip's school profiles. Notcing the manual controls for the safety weapons, Whip grins and presses the button to engage them. Mace and Whip grin at each other as they lock onto Nibbs while Namah gleefully writes in her journal.

Back in the detention room, Nibbs wipes away a tear as the movie ended. Realizing the boys weren't in the room, he sneers then hears the gun closest to him clicking as it turns to aim at him. Suddenly, Mace yells a quip over the gun's intercom and fires, shooting green foam all over Nibbs. In the security room, Mace and Whip bust out laughing. Then, they turn on the intercom to hear Nibbs yelling at them while laughing uncontrollably from the foam's neural effects. Bidding a friendly farewell, Namah leaves the room while Mace scolds Whip for eating a moldy hamburger that was sitting nearby.

Sneaking back into the vents, Mace and Whip stop in the vent running through the infirmary to see Lilith and Bast. After Bast asks Lilith out to the Harvest Festival, which she accepted, Whip sadly looks to Mace, who had already left. At the end of the vent leading to the outside, Mace roughly kicks the grating out and leaves the school with Whip close behind. They both exchange unhappy glances as they walk through the rain together.

Sometime later, the two boys had broken into a restaurant's storage cellar to have a bite to eat and steal some supplies for the runaway plan. Gathering their supplies, the two boys return to the orphanage. Walking into the tent, they find Paige crying next to her bed. She tells them that Randy was scaring her, saying that a "Sandman" was coming to get her. Mace reassures her that there was no such thing and even if there was, he would protect her. Informing Paige of his plan, she excitedly accepts to join them in running away. She runs off to get some things for the trip and takes Mace's jacket with her to wash it. Mace asks Whip to go watch over her due to the severity of the storm.

As the nearby glow-orb begins to go out, Mace falls asleep. Suddenly, from the darkness, a creature with bright blue eyes emerges and grabs Mace by his throat. As Mace struggles with the creature, Whip returns and bites the creature's head, taking a chunk out of it. A blue gas shoots out from the creature, causing the nearby sleeping orphans to awaken and begin choking. Mace escapes from the tent as the creature gives chase. As he grabs onto a rope leading over the water, a massive wave tears the rope from the dock, throwing Mace into the ocean. He struggles to stay above surface, but a net had his legs tangled. As he began to sink, Whip grabs him and pulls him to shore. Together, they run back to the orphanage as Whip goes to check on the other orphans. Mace heads to the washroom to find Paige. As he arrives, he falls to his knees, finding Paige's mutilated corpse on the floor, her blood staining the walls.

Chapter 3

Minutes later, Whip and the other orphans arrive to witness the scene. Randy suddenly jumps on Mace, telling the others to get Grunn as he caught Paige's murderer. But, before he could do anything else, Mace kicks him in the balls, allowing him to break free. Grabbing his jacket, Mace and Whip flee from the orphanage.

The next day, late in the afternoon, Mace and Whip are brought to Igrath's secret house by Scinter, where Grunn and Igrath were waiting. Mace had been knocked out, while Whip had bit down on Scinter's arm and wouldn't let go until they arrived. As Mace awakens, Grunn questions Mace on what happened the previous night. Mace goes into detail about the creature that attacked him and what it looked like. Moments later, Lilith and Namah arrive, both badly wounded, with their pet ryuu-neko Cuddles following them. Namah explains to Igrath how Tinsel tried to kill them after she overheard Tinsel arranging someone's murder with a man named Ravat. Afterwards, Mace and Whip watch as Igrath and Scinter help Lilith and Namah with their injuries.

Later that night, the teens are put in a room to sleep for the night. As the others fall asleep, Mace remains awake long enough to swear to Paige that he would kill the monster that took her life.

Volume 2

Chapter 4

Early the next morning, Mace wakes up. He rubs his head as events of the past few days flash before his eyes. He then looks over to Lilith and leans over to look at her more closely, but gets bitten in the arm by Cuddles. He covers his mouth to keep from yelling, quips at the ryuu-neko, then leaves the room as he puts on his jacket. Then, he hears the voices of Grunn, Igrath and Scinter in a nearby room. After listening in on them for a few minutes, they acknowledge his presence and invite him in to talk. As Mace questions them about why they believed his explanation from yesterday so soon, Igrath begins to answer him, but then a strange, moth-like creature taps at the window. The adults instantly react as Igrath smothers Mace's face.

Sometime later, Igrath grabs the girls with Mace and Whip already in his arms. He takes them to a telepad in his basement, throws them onto it, and teleports them to an unknown location. As the teens gather their thoughts and investigate their surroundings, Whip finds some jackets for them to wear since the cave-like room was cold. Bundling up, the teens proceed through the fortress-like structure and soon find the exit. They emerge from the fortress to find they were at the top of the Starfall Mountains, miles away from the city. Mace looks up to see the peak of the mountain, but nearly stumbles off the balcony they stood on. Lilith manages to save him, pulling him back as they both fall on the balcony in a pile.

As Namah drags Whip off in search of food, Lilith and Mace talk about the Sandman. Later, after Namah manages to find some food in the fortress, they settle down to eat outside while they continue to discuss what they knew from past few days of misfortune. Finishing their meal, they decide on what to do next. In the end, they settle for returning to the city.

Later, they are making their way down the slopes of the mountain when they hear a strange rumble behind them. Turning around, a Nightmare being ridden by a Dreamkeeper emerge from the snow, preparing to attack the teens.

Power and Abilities

Unknown Power: Currently, Mace has yet to awaken his "Power", however it seems that whatever kind of power he has it is enough to have the Nightmare after him. Ravat has shown interest in awakening it as he pushed Mace to try and unlock his power with no success.

When Mace was separated from his friends during their journey into the lost archives, he met an ancient spirit who told him to find the Relic of Eresh-Kigal in order to help awaken his power. The spirit described the power as being a "power of the ages" and was considered the ultimate power that only one can have and that he had to unlock it. It is also said that this power is the one thing that can help save the world from falling into darkness.

During a [[Thursday Chat]] with [[David & Liz Lillie|David]], it has been revealed that Mace’s power does exist and will be shown in time. However, the events surrounding it will be grave. As to if this indicates that a character may die or any other information beyond this is fully speculation.

Hand-to-hand Combatant: As Mace has no access to his "Power", he mainly relies on various resources in order to effectively fight in melee range. At school he was able to fight evenly with Bast during a scuffle, managing to get a good hit on him and even deflecting a garbage can flung at him. He was also able to hold his own against a Sandman Nightmare and defeat it using what was around him and without the use of his power.

Great Resilience: Despite his age and size, Mace has shown incredible endurance and high resilience towards surviving dangerous encounters. He is capable of persisting in taking actions so that he does not die, more so than other kids his age.

Trivia

• Known to call Lilith’s ryuu-neko “Dumbass”
• In an earlier version of volume 1, Mace’s plan sheet featured a side doodle with him and a generic cat girl. This was later edited out because of its possible confusion with Lilith, whom at the time was completely unknown to Mace.
• Currently has a crush on Lilith.
• In an earlier release of Tendril's Demise, Mace did have a halo above his head while pushing over the pillar. It has since been removed and it has been rumored that his power is no longer extraordinary strength.
  • In an early concept art of Smiley, Mace was shown to be fighting it using a similar looking power to that of Lilith, Namah and Bast as his hands were glowing and something was shot at the creature. For a while, a freezing ice power was considered for Mace, because it contradicted Bast's heat power. It can be seen in an early print, but the idea was quickly dropped.
• Originally designed to have solid black eyes with a white shine. This was changed when Dreamkeepers went from being a television pitch to a comic book.

• In the current state of things, Mace’s power remains unknown. He has been called a late bloomer for his still undiscovered power. Indeed, even at the release of Tendril’s Demise, Mace still remained powerless while his companions were capable of full-fledged combat with an early version of a nightmare named Tendril. It should be noted that Mace was capable of summoning enough strength to push over a sizable stone pillar and in the moments there after attempt to prevent its fall for a short period of time. Whether the pillar was structurally unsound to begin with remains unknown. This was thought to have provided a clue as to what his actual power may be, until it was decided by David in 2013 that the 10-page Tendril's Demise sequence was to be cut from the Graphic Novel Saga continuity and deemed uncanon.
  • Volume 4 hints at what his eventual power may be and once the book is released the name will be covered.

Other Appearances

Mace in Starwarriors.

Mace has made a small cameo in the webcomic Star Warriors, as one of the many different people who have wished upon the stars for hope, regardless of what world or universe they may happen to be from. His wish represented a need for hearts.

Quotes

• (to Cuddles) "Joke's on you, ya rabid sock puppet. You have no idea the places I've been."

Navigation

Margate District
Residents
Business Owners	Grunn
Orphans	Deral • Gorse • Konkord Twins • Krin • Mace • Narp • Paige † • Randy • Whip
Other	Karo • Robert Frederick • Viriathus
Pets	Grunn's Pet † • Mr. Grumbles †
Locations
Facilities	Margate Learning Center
Other	Grunn's Orphanage