Kalisara/Leonidas
Leonidas
Player: Silent Wayfarer
Experience: 0 spent, 0 banked
Caste: Twilight
Concept: Fighting Twilight
Anima: A gold-skinned man with pearl-studded gauntlets
Attributes
||Str 4||Cha 2||Int 5|| ||Sta 2||App 2||Wit 2|| ||Dex 5||Man 2||Per 2||
Abilities
Craft (Air) 2 (Exquisite Jewellery +1)
Craft (Earth) 1
Craft (Fire) 2
Craft (Magitech) 5 (Orichalcum Artifacts +3)
Lore 5
Occult 5
Martial Arts 5 (Snake Style +3)
Integrity 2
Resistance 2
Athletics 3
Dodge 5
Linguistics 1 = Old Realm, Flametongue
Charms
First Martial Arts Excellency
Striking Cobra Technique
Serpentine Evasion
Snake Form
Essence Gathering Temper
Second Craft Excellency
Craftsman Needs No Tools
Graceful Crane Stance
Monkey Leap Technique
Emerald Circle Sorcery (Unbreakable Bones of Stone, Invulnerable Skin of Bronze)
Backgrounds
Artifact 4 - Damaged Celestial Battle Armor (Essence Gauntlet Cannon Mode requires double mote cost to fire, 1 less die from stealth subsystems)
Artifact 1 - Energy Tap creating an Arcanobezoar functioning as a level 3 Hearthstone, can only be used to power other artifacts (detailed in Savant and Sorcerer p. 27)
Artifact 2 - Damaged Bracers of Universal Crafting (Does not have the ability to eliminate penalties for working without tools)
Manse 4 - Adamant Skin Gem, converts lethal damage to bashing; bashing overflows to lethal as normal, does not affect aggravated damage.
Sorcery 2 - Unbreakable Bones of Stone, Invulnerable Skin of Bronze
Allies 2 - Akane, apprentice, sidekick, and outcaste Terrestrial.
Merits and Flaws
Known Anathema +2
Unusual Appearance +1
Enemy +2
Amnesia +2
Wanted +3
Other Traits
||Compassion 2(2)||Conviction 4(4)||Temperance 1(1)||Valour 3(3)||Willpower 7(7)|| Virtue Flaw: S.R.M.D. (Science Related Memetic Disorder) ; Limit: 0
Limit Break: The SRMD victim, exasperated by the abject incompetence of his peers, proceeds work on a mad project. This isusually a weapon of mass destruction, but sometimes it can be a seemingly-innocent object with very unorthodox and nasty uses. The victim secludes himself from the Ignorant Masses, ranting incoherently about how They Dared To Doubt Me, and how his Great Project will Show Them All. This usually lasts for a number of days equal to the victim's Conviction, during which the victim is thoroughly useless for anything besides stomping around and building his invention. If the victim has an existing project going on, he will work on that instead, and if he actually completes it, he will proceed to use it in terrifying and deadly ways. The same applies if one of his inventions, completed within (Conviction) days, is lying around. In this case, the Limit Break end after one scene.
Controlled Limit Break: Instead of acting on his mad impulses, the Solar rants and raves for Conviction days, berating the stupidity of his peers and generally being a pain in the ass.
Trigger: Someone doubts the mad theories of the SRMD victim, or opposes a suggestion the SRMD victim believes in.
||Essence 3||Personal 16||Peripheral 28(38)||Committed 10||
COMBAT
Join Battle = 2
dDV = 8
Essence Gauntlet (Speed 5 ; Accuracy 16 ; Damage 16L/4 or 21B/4 ; pDV 8 ; Rate 3 ; N, O, P)
Essence Cannon (Speed 5 ; Accuracy 16 ; Damage 10L or 15B ; Rate 2 ; Range 60 or 100 (costs 2 motes per shot) )
Punch (Speed 5 ; Accuracy 11 ; Damage 4B ; pDV 6 ; Rate 3)
Kick (Speed 5; Accuracy 10 ; Damage 7B ; pDV 4 ; Rate 2)
Clinch (Speed 6 ; Accuracy 10 ; Damage 4B ; Rate 1)
Soak: 15B/14L/13A, Piercing 9B/8L/7A, Hardness 9B/9L, Fatigue 1 (Unarmoured 2B/1L/0A)
Health: 0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4Kalisara/Leonidas/Incap/Dying/Dying
SOCIAL
pMDV = 1, dMDV = 5
Motivation: Uncover First Age relics throughout the South
Intimacies: Akane, his artifacts
Equipment
Artifacts as above
Story
Leonidas' story is... singular among most Solars. Leonidas himself is a First Age Solar who Exalted just a few weeks before the Usurpation. His spirit, though young, bound strongly to the soul-shard, and its scant memories were passed over in Lytek's cleansing process. However, when it bound to a worthy Second Age candidate, the memories and personality within the shard overwrote that of his host, and the result is essentially a First Age Solar brought into the Second Age. His only clear memories of the First Age were the words his father told him, and the sight of a perfect Circle of Sidereals making the Greater Signs of their respective Maidens before he was murdered by his Dragonblooded honor guard, though he thinks it's
Fortunately, he had Exalted in a relatively hidden workshop Manse, which contained, in addition to its formidable Adamant Skin Gemstone, a damaged set of celestial battle armor and a damaged pair of bracers of universal crafting that were presumably awaiting repairs and forgotten during the Usurpation. Unfortunately, this was a workshop in the Solar sense of the word; it was little more than storage space for reference books and the damaged items in question, being that any First Age Solar craftsman worthy of the title would need nothing more.
After overcoming the initial corporeal shock and leaving the Manse behind, Leonidas set forth into Creation, naively thinking to introduce himself to the first Terrestrial Exalt he saw and seek directions to Meru. The first Terrestrial Exalt he saw was a devout shikari of the Wyld Hunt, and only the Dynast's utter shock at the audacity of an Anathema lighting his Caste Mark and speaking to him in fluent Old Realm enabled Leonidas to escape without bloodshed.
Leonidas wandered the South for some time, until he met a wounded and weakened Akane, who, in her delirious state, collapsed in front of him. Though his experiences told him that Dragonblooded were usually bad news for him, something about her called out to him, and he brought her to a nearby city, where he stayed by her side until she recovered. When Akane asked to be his travelling companion, he readily accepted her offer, and thus began three of the most enjoyable years of their lives, spent chasing artifacts, ancient knowledge, and adventuring.
Along the way, Leonidas trained her in artifice and the occult. At first it was just to pass the time, but she had a genuine aptitude for these topics, and took up everything he could impart to her like a sponge. While she certainly couldn't match her master, she knew enough to be an apprentice worthy of a Twilight, and a formidable craftswoman in her own right.
Unfortunately, the two of them were forced to part ways one night when a detachment of the Wyld Hunt found him out in An-Teng. She was in a public bath, and several heavily armed shikari had him cornered in his room. Faced with the options of staying and being overwhelmed by the well-trained Exalts, or fleeing and not endangering Akane, he reluctantly chose the second, which, incidentally, strung them out enough that Leonidas could double back and finish them off one by one while they were exhausted from the long chase.
By the time he returned to the guesthouse they had been staying in, however, she was gone. Ever since then, he's been looking for her, though his heart gets heavier with each day that goes by without news of her. He's met other Solars, even one with a warstrider - tinkering with its AI and internal mechanisms has helped lighten his mood somewhat. Sometimes it almost lets him forget that Akane's not around.
Almost.
Appearance:
Leonidas' current body is in its mid-twenties; a Southerner's, which implies dark skin and black hair. However, that last is not true for him - his hair is as white as the Northern snows, and he grows it out long enough to hang over his forehead and obscure his Caste Mark. He usually ties it into a ponytail and slicks it with oil to keep people from pulling on it, a practice that Akane picked up on.While he is no Adonis, nobody would call him ugly, or even average.
He is rarely, if ever, seen outside of his suit of Celestial Battle Armor, whose "parade colors" system he uses to make it appear like a suit of white and blue articulated jade plate armor. He covers the armor up in a long brown oilskin cloak, so that curious observers who see past it come to the conclusion that he is simply an outcaste, rather than looking closely at the armor details and realising that it is of Celestial manufacture. Despite his constant armor use, Leonidas does not usually cover his face up unless he has to, because he does not wish to alienate himself or others.
Personality:
In the First Age, Leonidas Exalted at 15, which is extraordinarily young for a Solar. He went from a fairly carefree youth to a high-pressure indoctrination environment which impressed the magnitude of his newfound status as a Solar upon his mind, and before he could even begin to cope, he was killed during the Usurpation. His reincarnation as a stranger into a strange land was just as jarring, and the responsibility of taking care of Akane, as well as struggling to survive in the Second Age, would have broken a lesser will. It certainly forced him to grow up very quickly, but it didn't change the fact that he's fundamentally a decent kid who's trying to get by and protect the things that are important to him. He's a bit wiser in the ways of the world, for sure, but still naive, idealistic... as well as being creative, flexible of mind, and filled with the energy of youth. He approaches new and complex artifacts with a blend of childish wonder and intellectual deduction, which is actually par for the course for his approach to most other situations.
Something to be noted is that Leonidas' Exaltation did not exactly overwrite the Second Age host's. His memories and personality are still resident in Leonidas' mind, to some extent, in the precise reverse of most Throwbacks - instead of the mad First Age survivor screaming in the contemporary Exalt's head, the Second Age Solar's thoughts and impulses subtly influence the First Age Solar's mind. While the man whom Leonidas became is largely benign, he had a very strong connection to his now-deceased little sister... and this has colored Leonidas' relationship with Akane (who considers him her big brother) very strongly...
AKANE
Appearance:
Akane is petite and lithe, with little in the bust or hip department. Combined with her very forward and mannish way of speaking (the result of being the only daughter among four elder brothers), Akane has a very tomboyish image, which is strangely contrasted by the long, flowing ponytail she keeps (in memory of Leonidas). She is quite pretty, and could probably be quite a stunner if only she took a little more care of her appearance...
Unlike Leonidas, she dresses in minimal armor, favoring a shortened surcoat of spirit shark hide over a red jade breastplate that combines protection with the freedom of movement she needs. The latter item was made for her by Leonidas (complete with much cursing about how jade wasn't as responsive as orichalcum), which explains why she wears it at all times, even while sleeping. Her decision to wear very short-cut-offs is puzzling, and has led to unwelcome attention at times. Fortunately, Akane also learned how to fight from Leonidas, so such attention is usually short-lived.
She also carries a pair of jade hearthstone bracers and a jade switchklave, but these items were made by her during their separation. So far, they've stood up to every test levelled at them, and Akane is eager to show them off to Leonidas.
Personality:
As befits most Fire Aspects, Akane is a loud, direct, passionate bundle of energy who's fiercely vocal about the things she believes in. Having been raised in a household (and village) full of men, it's only natural that she talks like them, and Leonidas has commented on her excessive testosterone level several times, to which Akane usually replies with a punch to the shoulder. What he doesn't know (because he hasn't seen it yet) is that Akane is actually very feminine under her tomboyish demeanor; it's just that she so rarely removes her emotional armor to let that side of her show. It's that part of her that leads her to take care of small defenseless animals, want to soak in hot baths, and sometimes, even cry for the loss of people important to her.
Not that she'd ever admit it, of course...
