Kiaan/Kiaane



Kiaan/Kiaane is a mage and mercenary who specializes in dangerous types of magic.

Appearance
Kiaane’s a fairly striking fair and striking young man of around nineteen to twenty years of physical age with a fit build and height of around 5’ 11.7’’. They have languid lime green eyes, the more shadowed parts greener and the ones less so as closer to yellow, possessing alert, calculating, and potentially pugnacious feelings to their gaze. Their irises are noted to be large and wide, more so than most other eyes. Their bangs are commonly swept to the sides, serving as further distinction to the varying shades of their hair—the portion above is a darker shade of blue that is less striking than that of the bottom portion. The two portions are separated from about the lower edge of their ear, horizontally speaking. While from the front it would appear that their hair spans to just beneath their neck at most, a majority of the center portion behind is long enough for them to easily tie it into a fairly low ponytail that typically cannot really be noticed from the front and frontal sides. Their hair is also incredibly flowy and wavy, and so combined with its colors, their hair has been likened to foxes’ tails…hence partially being the reason for their nickname as “Gumiho”, even though they don’t change into a woman or eat livers, things like that.

Onto specific features. They have: A tall but unprominent nose arch; dark eyelashes; a pair of double-eyelids for their two eyes; their eyebrows are the color of the top portion of their hair; naturally tan complexion; and a consistently saturnine expression. Kiaane does not smile. They never smile. Never. No exceptions. Though if they could, it would be a pretty nice smile, in the narrator’s honest opinion.


 * "Kiaane's hair is...well, it's a specimen by its own right. It's naturally shiny. Blue hair of any shade isn't supposed to be so shiny." (7/9/20)

Outfit Preference
While they do not only wear one outfit, they commonly wear light armor, or at least a black and fairly vertical shoulder pauldron on their right. Colors of their clothing are often warm, and their clothing generally marks them as someone from the Medieval Sect, especially someone who is at least efficient in basic combat from those times. It’s likely they wear laced-up combat boots, and it’s also very likely their current fashion sense is the same as theirs from their youth. Whether that means their young fashion sense was incredibly mature or their current fashion sense is immature, it’s worrying either way.

Personality
Kiaane’s kind of hard to define as a person, and they exhibit multiple traits that contradict one another (those that are actually supposed to contradict each other, not the ones the lazy narrator just can’t organize). All in all, they’re mostly pretty “chill” with a pretty loose personality. They never really seem tight-strung in any situation, even if they might not really be as calm inside as they look outside. They’re not necessarily the eye of the storm (in fact, they do give off chaotic vibes even while generally not acting chaotically), but at least they usually act by what’s expected of them. That is, they do know how to comport and present themselves to others, and mostly, they do act by those theories of behavior. However, when it comes to a style they cannot possibly fake/act like for a long time, they usually back out of doing so; also, they have various difficulties with even acting by those social theories in the first place. They’re not really a lazy person, but they just do not strive for that above and beyond, which makes them terrible for chores or just about anything having to do with regular daily life. Point at the floor and tell them to sweep it? They’ll sweep that bit of floor you happened to point to, and they did it well…but the rest of the floor is suffering with grime and dust, and they really don’t seem to notice. The bottom line is that they don’t particularly think of anything in a complicated manner if a simple way would achieve the same result, but it stems more from a matter of efficiency instead of laziness, and it’s for the better anyways.

They’re really not much of a people person, and they don’t particularly give the feeling of someone who needs other people to be well-off, even if it’s also not the opposite (that is, someone who would be well-off if there weren’t other people). It’s just that even since their uttermost youth, they never have ever given off the feeling of needing particular help, aid, or even pity, and they never really feel like someone who is fragile or prone to harm. They just stick to a serious demeanor, though they are not stern—that is, they could care less about exhibiting what they think/believe upon others, not to mention ever turning it to an authority of their own. When they do have an opinion that they wish to speak out, then they rarely do so in a straightforward way, with more of an actual tendency towards hinting it or repeating it lightly in a continuous manner rather than state it abruptly and in one go. Though they’re a pretty independent entity, they are not imposing and are actually pretty retiring and unassertive. They may take things seriously, but they don’t really expect that of others; in fact, if others are acting stupid when the situation’s serious, they’re the type of person to just deal with it on their own end and then just kind of leave the others to their devices or death, or whatever the consequences of the others’ actions may be. Kiaan is not a very actively judgmental person.

In that way (but not just in that way), they can seem out of reality, sometimes failing to understand others’ mannerisms, and that failure at times just translating to straight-out incredulousness. It’s not that Kiaan doesn’t really believe others—it’s that they don’t really understand why anyone would tell them certain things, so it’s, by that token, wiser to just not take the fact or whatever happened to be told to them by heart. By that same way, they also aren’t one to tell someone else more than what needs to be said because there’s no need to say so much. Nonetheless, if the need is proven, they can be surprisingly candid. However, they’ve never found the need to talk about themselves, really, so they just don’t.

Oh…speaking of not understanding social mannerisms…Kiaane sometimes has the tendency to threaten others. Mostly, that’s the result of a particularly bad mood, which is also rare…mostly. Basically, they don’t often get one, but when they do and someone (close to them or not) irks them, they have a tendency to say something like “Die” in a hyper-casual way. They never act to follow up on it, but one can easily see how easily that can scare someone or be misunderstood, since usually people don’t say that lightly, and they are also pretty capable of acting it out in theory. They can be somewhat acrimonious in that kind of bad mood, and unfortunately for anyone else, they don’t have the instinct to shut themselves somewhere and calm down. They just kind of venture outside as if usual and probably nearly start a fight or something. Worse of all, sometimes their usual sense of humor involves all of this anyways, so it’s extremely hard to tell just when they’re in this sort of mood.

To summarize all of that, they’re not a very considerate person at all. Kiaan’s very much a person who looks more at the larger picture than the smaller details or even where they personally are within that picture. This may also explain just why they never investigated what happened during the entire chain of incidents regarding their family’s death or anything really to do with themselves. In their perspective, most everything just does. Perhaps that also explains the lack of vengeance they actually hold towards whoever killed their family, even though they do care for that family in question…and also will explain why they don’t know what happened to people such as Ryoo and never investigated, even though they presumably cared for her as well. Overall, socially, they’re really not fit for social life. They have never smiled, and it’s very likely they never will. They have a perverse sense of humor that gives off more “dead” vibes than “funny”, and commonly, they are uncaring to changes in their environment (“oh. A bomb.”) and are not particularly close to anyone. They may have those they are somewhat close to, but there are always those closer to their close ones than they. Aaaand, they have a weird liking of standing at precariously high altitudes when they do retreat into thinking.

As implied by their strange ways of thinking about certain things, they’re not that organized in general, but still, even they have likeable traits (hopefully). For one, they’re not really one to see to expedients. As a matter of fact, they are actually pretty thoughtful and don’t mind doing more if it’s really needed. They can be genuinely coy, and they are not a robot; they are capable of having self-opinions. In terms of obedience, it is not just a matter of them having to, but a matter of choice, even if it’s a strange matter of the definitions being intertwined. Most prominently, the most major and perhaps even only reason Kiaane obeys absolutely everything they’re ordered to do by the Thaohals/their leaders is because those family ties, in their perspective, strictly binds them to the family. Perhaps it’s some variation of the saying that family is the first greatest force to an individual, and to Kiaan, who doesn’t have any other forces, they take it to the uttermost priority. Even if they do not, inside, agree with what the guild does, they still do it with the family simply because they are family. In their perspective, just the fact that the Thaohals adopted them at all means the family as a whole and those individually has the right to use them, even as if an object. Thus, absolute obedience isn’t absolute in reasoning but is absolute in nature. Even if they think differently from all the others, they would never, ever betray the others, and while they might not hold personal contempt against traitors of the family, if the family were to prosecute those said entities, they would do it for the family while possibly still caring for those traitors in question somewhere inside. Again, the fact they have emotions behind their consistent frown is just not exhibited, but unsurprisingly, they also have some problems with how they regard others’ opinions of themselves as well. For one, not only do they think the family (members) has/have the right to use them as an object, they tend to always think as if others think of them in an objectified way. True or not, that’s really an unhealthy way of identifying oneself, but it makes it easier for them to distance themselves from others, sometimes remembering and believing that caring for others and others caring for them is not something that they should be engaging in. So, when others do care, they tend to amplify every detail in between their relationship that signified caring and, even more, anything that could category their relationship as strictly professional to make themselves stop doing the former.

Alright, onto weirder and hopefully lighter topics.

Outside of just not caring about talking about themselves, they…do not care for themselves very much. They don’t really sleep (they pull all-nighters when they can, which is basically whenever no one gets on their case), they don’t eat much, stuff like that. And they like coffee. No, it’s not the reason why they don’t sleep. And their most prominent quirk? They basically eat that sort of chocolate that tastes like fermented and solid sugar on the first of every month—the kind that has like 300 calories per bite—and then they spend the rest of the month drinking mostly water and maybe some chocolate that has like 100% cacao and no sugar as the sweetest thing they’ll ever eat for the remainder of the month. And really bitter coffee, of course. Why do they do that? No one knows. Not even themselves. They just kind of have always done it.

Outside of food habits, they’re a mercenary, and a pretty effective one, too. However, they don’t care for money, for a glorious future, or what most might think of them to value even as just a human being. One of their greatest values is actually seeing others happy—all others, be they friend or foe…but they don’t stop for this. They don’t like causing pain (when they do notice specifically that they’re causing it), which is also why their enemies are known to be terminated really quickly.

These traits contrast, of course, and in general, it might seem as if they are actually a good person who somehow has to do evil things because they are forced to. Really, if one were to ask Kiaane themselves, they don’t really care all that much for “good” and “evil”, and certainly not enough to pin those on themselves. If they have to be some way, then so be it. Until then, they exist as a seemingly selfish person who actually just takes care of some extent to maintain their own state of existence, doesn’t try to actively understand the world, and wouldn’t really mind sharing what they have as long as they still have some in the end.

Powers/Abilities
As mentioned before in the weapons section, they really do tread every dangerous boundary, and while Kiaane’s obviously trained to be adept in most situations for the purpose of performing well (and not dying) during missions, their most obvious ability is magic. While they could study some sort of magic with less cost and risk, they have chosen to wander far from that path.

As of the current moment stemming from an experience of many years, Kiaane studies arcane magic, even though just doing so for a certain component of it might be wiser. While the narrator struggles to define various parts they’ve headcanoned for Kiaane, arcane magic is generally defined as the manipulation of mortally-unknown forces and energies that somehow transcend the natural laws of the world/its reality to bend the fabric of reality to create a desired effect (it is likely concepts that will develop this ability will make this all largely differ from other definitions after a while). Reality manipulation magic types obviously include but are not limited to: Transmutation (time and space manipulation), abjuration (protection magic), necromancy/revival (bringing the dead back, obviously), miracle inducement, illusion, enchantment, infusion, divination, conjuration, and more. They are at least competent in all fields, being able to at least cast spells or do whatever it takes to achieve the effects, but that doesn’t mean whatever it takes is reliable at all or with effects greater than the sheer risks. Of course, there are some effects they are more advanced in—for instance, they are very skilled with creating a mana shield around themselves (only themselves, unfortunately, and they refuse to manipulate others’ mana) with abjuration, which is capable of defending even the attacks of the gods, and they happen to be skilled with most of the latter listed. But in the end, arcane magic is reasonably dubbed as one of the least reliable magic types—while incredibly powerful, it involves the need for large amounts of time, control, balance, and also mana—the life force of someone channeled into magical energy and also one of the mortally unknown forces/energies that transcend natural laws. While Kiaane is far from lacking in mana, they also are not a living tank of mana, which then means their lack of self-care becomes an issue (rest and general self-care help restore mana after use); they also refuse to kill anyone for mana-obtaining purposes, which could easily result in a shortage if one thinks about it that way. Oh, and if anyone’s wondering, even after they kill someone, they leave the other’s mana well alone to drift throughout the world. The lack of understanding they have towards the ability’s fundamentals also renders it less effective than it might be.

The largest weakness towards this type of magic they use might just be the lack of self-balance. Despite their seemingly True Neutral moral alignment, their true thoughts and such are far from balanced, and so they cannot use this ability greatly when they are in any state less than at least a reasonably balanced one. Oh, and also, arcane magic is known to be addictive, even more so than other types! So, the fact it needs a lot of practice and also will become more addictive as there is more practice is a common problem for Kiaane. And they do not have Addiction Immunity! So yay.

Their “old” magic practice is worth mentioning, not only because it hinders their current magical development, but also because despite that, they still practice it as a backhand in case their current study goes wrong and also because they dedicated enough time to both that giving up either would be a waste and true shame (so really it’s not all that old, it’s just no longer their primary study). This magic is called Gray Magic (also known as Neutral Magic)—truly floating in between white magic and black magic, its volatile nature (with a different volatility than their current area of study) proved to be a problem as soon as they actually had to use their magic to accomplish most anything. The Thaohals aren’t really known for being of a balanced morality, and so working for them with this sort of magic, which isn’t supposed to harm but also isn’t used for complete good, became quite consequential for Kiaane. The family’s certainly far from being heavenly, but it’s also not completely demonic—nonetheless, mixed natures of the guild made it so that they could never use this sort of magic actively or else risk self-annihilation mentally and likely physically as well. However, this also means they may use it for any purposes unrelated to the family and according to its original uses, and also, it helps balance out some deficiencies of theirs related to arcane magic (for instance, it can carry a balancing quality towards most negative effects of arcane magic, such as make them stop practicing arcane magic by simply being another option or actually cancelling out some addiction effects). However, use of it also means Kiaane can’t use some elements of arcane magic—for instance, they are known for not being able to cast magic relating to banishing anything or anyone. Good for people they want to banish to some foreign world, not so much for them. Another perk of neutral magic is it seems to enable Kiaane with the ability to see others’ true moralities, but honestly, they could care less.

Anyways, up and away with all that complex stuff. Kiaane’s pretty skilled with basic magic (hey, gotta make sure they at least will survive an unpleasant encounter even without their main types of magic handy, right?). They’re more than capable of using elemental spells in various ways and heal basic wounds, and they can do just about anything from inscribing spells to using runes to casting them by speech. All those magic basics, you know. They also have a pretty good memory and are very practiced for those methods—they likely draw a correct magical circle faster than most, and they don’t have the problem of not remembering spells, symbols, formulas, et cetera. It’s mostly what comes up while they’re trying to recite a spell/create a rune/do anything magical that really ever creates problems in this area, but their magical abilities are overall very high and formidable.

Battle Statistics
Tier:

Attack Potency:

Speed: (Combat, Flight, Reaction, Attack, Travel)

Lifting Strength:
 * Very strong and wielded an extremely heavy ax on a daily basis when they were young.

Striking Strength:

Durability Levels:

Stamina:

Range:

Standard Equipment/Utilities: As one will learn after looking more at the abilities section, Kiaane treads the line between “dangerous” and “dangerous”…also known as there is no such line.

They’re fairly efficient with most weapons, and they train themselves at least how to use each. However, they do focus on certain weapons. All such mentioned weapons usually include incredible risk not only to others but also themselves. Other than that similarity, most of their weapons are at least moderately sized and are used to keep others away. Crossed with their abilities, once Kiaane does pull out a weapon, the tactic is pretty effective. However, even then, the weapons’ risks are not reduced to a very big extent and remain reliant on their skill and training for safe handling/usage…wait, is there even safe usage for weapons? Anyhow...

Most of what they utilize are long-range (or at least with some range, as mentioned before) weapons from some sort of medieval age slightly changed from their original forms, but they are also highly effective and induce great pain. Kiaane is not above using any form of poison against those they are deemed to need to fight against, and they are also not above dismembering foes while killing them quickly or anything needed to gain victory. Notably, once fights start to err towards the immortal level, they are usually less likely to use some weapons as compared to others, and usually in fact abolish those that might be easily affected by the deity/deities in question to harm themselves.

They use different weapons depending on the situation. To keep opponents away from a far range, they will use a varied form of an atlatl as well as a crossbow. They do not commonly use a longbow; they tend to instead use chakrams, essentially vertical Frisbees with sharp edges that they throw and can easily spear someone in half if they’re not looking out, as well as chu-ko-nus. Closer up, they will use a zhua, a weapon with multiple deadly claws attached to a rope-like extension, a katar, hook-swords, and an aara. In the end, however, their most preferred weapon is an urumi, a deadly and hard-to-use weapon with multiple blades. While they can work up the number of blades, Kiaane tends to utilize nine blades, some of which may be poisoned and with all always sharpened. An urumi is like a whip and is very viable for defensive purposes, and can easily cut through armor, magical or not—combined with Kiaane’s magical abilities, it’s especially deadly. Nonetheless, despite its efficiency, it remains very dangerous to Kiaan themselves, but they still yet use it as their primary weapon of choice.

Intelligence:

Weaknesses:

Notable Attacks/Techniques: 

Quotes
"I am Kiaan. I am Kiaane." --When introducing themselves to others.

"Coffee will increase efficiency." --7/9/20, to Elio.