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Political Studies Student
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Canada!
Posts: 1,577
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Alright, uh. Character posting time. Originally was gonna go Assassiny Abyssal, but looking at the people on-deck for joining the Circle when someone else dies, I decided to do a Lunar with a bit more of a social twist instead (while retaining some Combat ability, of course). I'll probably be aiming at building his Social stats and charms from now on, but he's a bit jack-of-all-trades right now. Hopefully, he won't die immediately.
Anyway, backstory time.By the standards of many Exalted, Kahaku of the White Tides’ life pre-Exaltation was surprisingly mundane – if not entirely pleasant. His father was a Wavecrest Sailor who died in a Lintha Pirate raid, three months before he was born. His mother, a woman from the Neck’s Cyanine tribe, was taken in by his great-uncle in-law, a retired merchant-captain of some note, and given work as a servant in his mansion on Halcyone Island. Though undeniably an act of charity, his Uncle (and the whole household) was a devout follower of the Immaculate Order – and well aware that the Cyanine tribe boasted an unusually high number of God-Bloods. Therefore, while still part of the family, his mother never managed to escape the suspicion of being not-quite-human.
It was here that Kahaku was born and raised – not quite as a servant, but not quite a member of the family either. He was educated, sufficient to assist in the merchanting business at least, and apprenticed at as young an age as was possible – to the male part of Wavecrest’s bureaucracy. The decision was primarily motivated by pragmatism on his Uncle’s part – the family lacked connections to the bureaucracy and Kahaku had proven to be quick minded enough to do well there. Whether Kahaku’s questionable parentage played into this decision as well is a matter of speculation.
Such thoughts aside, Kahaku proved to be capable in this path of life. By the time he was an adult, he was already a full-fledged Cargo Inspector in the port of Crescent – and also an informant within Wavecrest’s Obsidian Blade spy network. As far as he’s aware, the majority of his contributions to the network have been minor. Still, he managed to build a solid reputation as an honest inspector – after all, being anything but in Wavecrest was extremely hazardous to your health. Aside from the general stigma that any man in Wavecrest faced for not being a sailor of some kind, Kahaku’s life was pretty good by many standards.
Then, one night, he was mauled by a Wyld twisted creature. He was visiting his uncle’s estate at the time. While he was unconscious, the creature had gotten into the mansion and started killing people. By a twist of fate, he’d woken again – and, after struggling to get back up (he had to save his mother), Exalted. He’d turned into a wolf and chased the creature down – it had a mutation which was dangerous for mortals, harmless to the Exalted – and dispatched it relatively easily. He’d found his mother a few moments later. She was fine.
…and that’s when someone shouted, “Anathema!”
It was bad luck that his Uncle’s estate had bordered a Dynast’s vacation home. It was worse luck that there had been a small cadre of Dragonblood there at the time. That they’d reacted fast enough to send someone to investigate the commotion – with extraordinarily bad timing – was the worst luck of all. The Wyld Creature, unfortunately, had turned to dust a few moments before.
His mother told him to run. There’d been little time to discuss it and she promised nothing would happen to her. It was him they’d want – he was the one glowing like a Christmas tree, after all. She would delay them if she could. So, he’d left. Within a few hours, he’d been found by a pair of Lunars who’d been sent to collect him – and they spirited him away to Abalone island, and the Lunar Elder there.
It wasn’t until later, that he learned the official story behind what had happened that night. Yumi Akouta, a God-Blood Sorceress from the Neck, had allowed her son to be possessed, and ultimately devoured, by a demon to kill most of the Immaculate Believers within the mansion. When it had completed its task, she’d banished it – before the Hunt that eventually came to investigate the Anathema sighting could arrive. Apparently, she’d attacked them with her magic – and they had slain her in combat.
…over the course of the next month, the Elder tattooed and tested him. Eventually, after vision-questing within the Wyld – standard practice for her when determining a new Lunar’s Caste, apparently – a she fixed him to the Changing Moon Caste. Most of his training from that point on was handed off to one of the Lunars who had saved him the first night – a Full Moon. The Elder was apparently an individual of unusual renown within the Silver Pact, and was a member – with varying degrees of influence – within all its factions, save the Seneschals of the Sun Kings. Much of her time was devoted to her Thousand Stream River project, centered around the native tribes of Wavecrest. As a result, she had little time or inclination, to train young Lunars.
He’d spent roughly a little less than a year under his Full Moon mentor – training that was unusually martial for a Changing Moon, but valuable nevertheless. He’d learned a lot during that period – mostly fighting, but also the bare essentials of the Silver Pact’s history, factions and goals. His mentor, it seemed, cared little for such details and even less for politics – a quirk that Kahaku seems to have emulated. Beyond technical membership in the Swords of Luna faction, he’s had little to no contact with Lunars and their society.
During this period, he’d also gained some understanding of the Elder’s project – which is to say, the perpetual state of warfare the tribes of Wavecrest were in was useful to her goals, if not outright desirable. Kahaku had wanted nothing to do with her plans, and had instead informed her that he was going to civilized Wavecrest to further his training and do what he could to shore up its stability. The Elder, with more important things occupying her, had granted him permission to do so. As a stable Wavecrest peripherally benefited her experiment, she’d even given him the location of a minor (and poorly constructed) Manse for his use.
Since then, Kahaku has spent much of his time in Wavecrest monitoring the various factions active in its civilized areas. Eventually, he gambled and made contact with the country’s leader, the current Feathered One, and now maintains a tenuous alliance of convenience with him, under the guise of an Outcaste Dragonblood (of exceptionally poor breeding) known as White Tides, serving him as an independent spy. This alias is also what Kahaku relies on when acting overtly within the country – something he does extremely sparingly.
Lately, his actions have been focused primarily on the Exalted from Skullstone, who serve as the emissaries of the Silver Prince. To say they concern him is an understatement, to say the least.
Next, various pieces of expanded information regarding his Backstory. Read if you're interested - limit break (based on Red Rage of Compassion in the Core)
Expansion on things.Limit Break:
Curse of the Vicious Sheppard: Overcome by his protective instincts, Kahaku descends into an animalistic rage and seeks, at all costs, to protect his pack mates. While under the effects of a Break, Kahaku attacks anything and everything (including inanimate objects) that he perceives as attacking one of his positive intimacies, until he perceives it to no longer be a threat (typically, this requires it to be knocked unconscious or destroyed in some manner). If he should become engaged with an opponent in battle, he will focus on this opponent to the exclusion of all else unless another of his intimacies cries out from an injury, or he sees them obviously overmatched by another opponent – in which case, he will move to their aid using the most efficient speed possible. If no intimacies are present when he Breaks, he immediately seeks one out and will attack anything that hinders him. Charms may not be used for in this state, though the character ignores wound penalties taken. Complex mental and social actions are also impossible – he can only communicate through growls.
Partial Control: Kahaku manages to retain some semblance of his mental faculties, and can fight efficiently, rather than wildly. He still seeks to protect his intimacies at all costs, but may apply his charms to this task, does not necessarily need to attack a threat, does not tunnel vision when engaged in battle, and is able to better to judge when something is no longer a threat. Because he capable of evaluating a situation before leaping in to assist his intimacy, it is possible – though extremely difficult – for him to hold himself back from acting entirely, under certain exceptional situations. He will want to assist very badly however, and will likely disregard his better judgment when the intimacy is too obviously threatened to ignore (if they get wounded, for instance, bets are off) – among other extremely situational concerns. Wound penalties act as normal, he can not take social actions.
Duration: One full combat scene (once when all enemies are incapacited) or hours equal to Compassion - unless in an exceptionally dangerous location. In which case, it lasts for roughly a day.
Condition: When one of Kahaku’s positive intimacies takes a non-superfacial lethal wound, or placed in obvious peril when he can not (or should not) assist.
Significant NPCs:
Mother: Full name, Yumi Akouta – a woman from the Neck’s Cyanine tribe. She fell in love with Kahaku’s father when he came to the Neck during a routine trading run, and immigrated to Wavecrest twenty-four years ago. Yumi had trouble acclimatizing to Wavecrest’s cultural traditions – particularly the ones which prevented her from significantly interacting with the sea to provide for her family – but adapted sufficiently to run a small household and make a small amount of money on the side, as a craftswoman. However, once her husband died, this small amount of income wasn’t sufficient – she was saved from poverty by Kahaku’s great-uncle. Whether or not she’s a God-Blood is left intentionally ambiguous – as is what happened in the mansion that night. Personality-wise, she serene, forgave others easily and had little trouble accepting her lot in life, whatever it was. She died some years ago now, so unless some Sorcery held her back, it’s likely she entered Lethe very quickly afterward.
Lunar Elder: A Sorceress of some renown within the Silver Pact, the Elder is a No Moon Caste Exalted, with access to the Terrestrial and Celestial Circle – and possibly their Necromancy equivalents. Though she herself is not a survivor of the First Age, her knowledge of its Lore is impressive – as is her resolve that the Solars can not be permitted to rule without challenge again. The direct goals of her Thousands Stream River experiment are unclear and she has little inclination to discuss them with outsiders. Her relationship with Kahaku is distant and disinterested at best – that his present actions peripherally support her experiment was sufficient justification for her to provide the location of a demanse and the the plans necessary for its conversion to a Manse. Its rather unlikely that she would help him even if he called upon her.
Full Moon: One of the Lunars who rescued Kahaku on the night of his Exaltation. The Elder assigned Kahaku to his tutelage for reasons that are likely arbitrary. An Exalted from one of the tribes involved in the Elder’s Thousand Streams experiment, the Full Moon possesses an unusually high number of mutations from his life as a human for a Lunar. Fortunately, or suspiciously, most are benign or positive. A member of the Swords of Luna, the Full Moon cares very little for politics or indirect action – making him possibly the worst Mentor for a Changing Moon. Still, Kahaku learned most of his martial skills from him, and was regifted his Moonsilver Bracers in recognition for his successful contact with the Feathered One of Wavecrest. Kahaku and him are quite close – though its unlikely that he’ll be much use in populated lands. He stands out in a crowd.
No Moon: The second of Kahaku’s rescuers – an Ex-Priestess of the Volcano gods. Kahaku knows relatively little about her, save that her skill as a Sorceress far outstrips her age (she’s not that much older than him), and that she spends a lot of her time within the Wyld. What she’s looking for – or perhaps training for? – is unclear. She’s a member of the Crossroads Society and the Swords of Luna – though the former obviously takes precedence for her.
Backgrounds/Knacks:
Contacts: Calling the Feathered One of Wavecrest a friend – or even an ally – of Kahaku’s is an exaggeration. However, the pair of them have something of an agreement – Kahaku delivers whatever useful information he finds when out prowling the streets of civilized Wavecrest to the Feathered One, and the Feathered One does not call the guards to kill him. Sometimes, Kahaku even performs more specific tasks for the man. While visiting with the Feathered One, Kahaku makes use of his Changing Plummage Mastery knack to masquerade as an Outcaste Dragonblood known as White Tides – though after close to a year of such visits, he suspects that the Feathered One is aware that he’s not what he says he is. Kahaku is quite aware their relationship is one of convenience.
White Tides: When overt action is necessary, Kahaku uses his Changing Plumage Mastery knack to masquerade as an Outcaste Dragonblood (of extremely poor breeding) named White Tides – something he does extremely sparingly. A causal check into this background reveals – quite blatantly – that no Water Aspect Terrestrials matching his description have Exalted within, or come to, Wavecrest in…well, forever. At least, not legally. Though effectively a paper-thin disguise, thus far, no one has had reason to poke it too hard, yet. Kahaku uses less auspicious aliases when being a Dragonblood would be more trouble than its worth.
Manse: A level 1 manse Wood Manse, located within the deep forests on the Abalone Island. As far as Manses go, this one is very simple - its a tree, with a dug-out hollow beneath it. The tree is actually the only important part of the Manse - but the hollow beneath its there for shelter. It was the last – and only – gift that Kahaku got from the Lunar Elder before they essentially ceased contact, as something like payment for working in a manner that peripherally supports her Thousand-River-Stream experiment. Its entrance is a small gap within the tree's roots - and is consequentially very easy to miss.
Artifact: A pair of Moonsilver Bracers – a hand-me-down gift from his Full Moon Mentor, in recognition for his managing to get in-touch with the Feathered One (and more importantly, be mildly competent). He usually wears them under his clothing (typically on his legs, since shirtlessness is in fashion for men on Wavecrest) and reasonably attached to them.
Spent 14/16 XP boosting Stamina to 2 and buying a Favoured Charm (Hide of the Cunning Hunter). Hopefully I won't regret not taking Outward Forsaking Stance. Not sure if all my math is right on various aspects, but the core Attributes and Abilities are right.
Edit: Updated the text.
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I'm always available to chat on AIM and Skype/MSN, so if you've like to speak further with me about anything I say, or just address something to me personally, feel free to add me. I welcome such conversations.
Also obligatory signature!
Last edited by Teal Mage; 08-26-2012 at 04:55 AM.
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08-25-2012, 01:21 AM
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