CaptainPenguin/UlekhTailoikh

Solar! Twilight! Physical-Social-Mental! Thrown, Survival, Stealth, Linguistics, Ride! This is a Tiffa/Challenge. If you like the character, thank Tiffa. :)

Ulekh Tailoikh, the Flying Man of Yarezh (Challenge #1)

Name: Ulekh Tailoikh, the Flying Man of Yarezh
Caste: Twilight
Concept: The fastest spy-messenger in the entire East
Nature: Thrillseeker
Anima: Brilliantly-colored wings with rainbow feathers fold from a solar disc floating between his shoulders, and shed shining feathers.
Experience: 0 (All points used)

Attributes
Physical: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, Appearance 1
Mental:Perception 1, Intelligence 4, Wits 3

Abilities
Caste Abilities: Investigation 4, Lore 1, Occult 4
Favored Abilities: Thrown 3 (While Leaping +1), Survival 3, Stealth 3, Linguistics 4, Ride 1
Non-Favored Abilities: Archery 3, Athletics 2 (Acrobatics +1)

Backgrounds

Contacts 3 (Majors- Myetluk, Spymaster of the nation of Braan, Rana-Chak, chieftan of a powerful hill tribe, and Daijo, a Lookshy bureaucrat. Minors- several throughout the Hundred Kingdoms, one or two circuit riders, and several in Nexus. Ulekh's contacts are his former employees from Yarezh, now fled to various regions. Most are aware of his double life, but are on friendly enough terms that they would never sell him out. He uses them as something of a minor rumor mill of his own, working with them to gather information.)

Resources 2 (A comfortable but modest house in Yarezh, with a sunny walled garden.)

Artifact 2 (He possesses a Short Powerbow which he stole from the Lord of Yarezh on his first spying assignment. He calls this bow the Fantastical Miracle Bow, though more often it is simply called the Flying Man's Bow)

Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, Valor 2
Willpower: 5
Essence: 3 (Personal 14, Peripheral 35)
Health Levels: -0 / -1 / -1 / -2 / -2 / -4 / Incap

Charms:
Archery: Wise Arrow, Sight Without Eyes
Athletics: Graceful Crane Stance, Lightning Speed
Linguistics: Whirling Brush Method
Occult: Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Ride: Master Horseman's Eye
Stealth: Easily Overlooked Presence Method
Thrown: Precision of the Striking Raptor, Joint-Wounding Attack

Appearance

Ulekh Tailoikh incredible success at the stealthy business of spying is made even more incredible by the fact of his appearance. He is a very difficult man to miss.
Ulekh dresses in baggy swathing clothes which swirl about him as he moves. Many of his outfits appear to be made entirely from woven together bits of garish flags and kerchiefs. All of these garments are brightly, even garishly, colored, with obnoxious patterns and stand-out adornments. Woven into this ridiculous outfit are thousands upon thousands of beads, trinkets, little pendants, and other objects, which jingle merrily as he moves. On his chest, he wears a brass breastplate in the shape of a solar disc. He covers his horribly scarred face with wildly-colored hoods and face-masks of silk, so that only his eyes can be seen.
Underneath these accoutrements, however, his entire body is covered with horrible scars, scored deeply into his flesh and creating an intricate net of whitening scar tissue. His skin is a tone of medium brown, and his curly hair is preternaturally grey. Yet, despite these deep scars, the Flying Man of Yarezh has the merry twinkle in his blue eyes of a truly happy man. He speaks in expansive, cheerful tones, and frequently uses wide hand gestures to illustrate his points. People often find him instantly likeable. He speaks with a strong Yarezhi accent.

Background

Born in the small Scavenger Lands city of Yarezh, Ulekh showed early a propensity towards constant movement. He was the fastest and most acrobatic boy many of the Yarezhi had ever seen- he climbed trees like a monkey, and ran like a gazelle. Very early in his childhood, he began to earn pocket money by being a messenger boy; utterly reliable, he never failed a job.
As he grew older, he began to expand his business into a small but effective city post. Out of his home, he dispatched messengers to run messages throughout Yarezh, and even into the hills surrounding it. He was relatively prosperous.
Then, as folktales about him tell, a stranger came to him with a new kind of job.
This stranger, an odd, dark man who Ulekh never saw again, contracted him with the gathering of certain pieces of information. Ulekh was to infiltrate the palace of the Lord of Yarezh, a Satrap of the Realm, and gather a number of scrolls which were in his possession. According to tales told about the Flying Man of Yarezh, he then leaned over his table and asked:
"What then would I be rewarded with?"
None know what was spoken by the mysterious man, but it was enough that Ulekh Tailoikh took the job.
The next night, it is said that Ulekh Tailoikh, feeling prepared, began to climb the walls of the palace of the Lord of Yarezh. Under cover of darkness, he passed along the walltops and slipped down the stairs into the inner yard.
There, he slipped into the kitchen of the palace. Subduing a waiter-boy, Ulekh stole a staff uniform and crept away into the house.
But, speak the tellers, he was captured.
For two weeks, he was not seen. Deep within the bowels of the palace, it is said, he was tortured terribly.
But none know how he escaped, save Ulekh himself. For as he lay stretched upon the racks in that terrible place beneath the palace, the Unconqered Sun himself came to him, revealing his godly presence in a cloud of blazing mist. And Ulekh was Exalted.
Ulekh, gifted by his Twilight power, recalled every detail he had every seen about his captor's palace and forces. He also discerned the manner in which he would escape.
Back within the territory of folktales, Ulekh, after telling his employees to flee the city, fled himself into the forests beyond Yarezh.
The Lord of Yarezh dispatched squads to find his escaped captive. For weeks, armed warriors searched the misty forests each day for hours; meanwhile, it is spoken, Ulekh, master of survival, survived on naught but roots and rainwater, and every night defeated one of the warriors under cover of darkness.
Eventually, though, Ulekh saw that he could not return to Yarezh. He fled west, toward Nexus.
It was in Nexus that he gained his famous name, that of the Flying Man of Yarezh. In Nexus, he established his first spying business. Under the facade of a messenger business, Ulekh established himself as the spider-in-the-web. His "messengers" were, in fact, spies, who brought him all the information he needed to please his clients.
But in the course of this business, he ran afoul of a powerful gang leader, Jyagariz the Claw (now deceased). Once again, Ulekh found himself on the run, this time through the innumerable streets of Nexus. It is said that by the time the soldiers of Jyagariz the Claw caught Ulekh, they had chased him over every inch of the world's biggest city. Finally, he stood upon the top of a huge brick tenement-tower. The warriors of Jyagariz the Claw drew glittering knives and bared their rotten teeth. But Ulekh Tailoikh merely grinned, and leapt from the top of the tower, plummeting towards the street.
And, as any who know the stories will tell you, Ulekh Tailoikh flew!
Soaring through the air above Nexus, carried by the wings of his magic, Ulekh Tailoikh became the legendary Flying Man of Yarezh.

Several years have passed. Ulekh Tailoikh is still an interesting, if somewhat rarely-known, subject of folktales throughout the region between Yarezh and Nexus. There are small clusters of tales about his intrigues in Lookshy, and he is a household name among a group of hill-tribes. He rarely stays in the same place long- he goes through many towns on a circuit which changes yearly. In public, he advertises as a messenger, and indeed, he will ride post if needed. But his main income comes from his spying. He is a fantastic spy, and those familiar with Solars might peg him as a Night Caste. But his lust for knowledge, keen intelligence, and the magic he uses in infiltration and stealth show his true Twilight characteristics.

Let The Criticism Be Loosed!

Yes, tell me how much it sucked. -- CaptainPenguin

Cool. But how did he fly? :-- JohnBiles