Rei'oun
Height: 7'2" Weight: 223lb Race: Ar'Tuel (currently in a nekojin physical body) Age: Unsure, actually.
Appearance
Rei'oun appears to be a type of nekojin, though the pale-furred creature seems to borrow from both feline and lupine traits when it comes to the overall look of his features. He is tall and lithe, narrow-shouldered and lanky—standing at a little over seven feet tall when not relaxed and slouching, but Rei is made of pure muscle, bone, and fur like a cheetah or a greyhound and just as quick. His face is elongated and ears are tall, tufted like a caracal, but as a leucistic creature, the nekojin is pure white but the skin beneath is grey, almost black, darkening the areas where his fur is the shortest. His eyes are a striking blue, crystalline, with vertical, irises typical of a feline.
Long fingers and long toes end in sharp claws and in his mouth are omnivorous teeth with pronounced canines. A long, feline tail gives him poise and balance and his fur is mostly short, with longer tufts to accentuate his features. His dark nose is pierced at the septum, as are his ears—Rei preferring silver and bone to gold. He likes a bangle or two on his tail, too—leather bracelets accentuated with silver.
He dresses in dark, flowing clothing—mostly faded indigo and grey with a hint of browns and greens—all worn in the traditional layers found in Akashima culture. Usually dressed for stealth and ease of movement, Rei is a practical creature who travels light and survives without the burden of too many personal belongings.
Missing from his person are weapons—the nekojin owns none other than the teeth and claws and body he has been given.
In the right light, especially out in the wilderness, it has been said that Rei'oun glows faintly in warm, comforting colors, but it could just be a bit of being limned by sunlight, right? His pale fur isn't overly reflective, but there's something about the brightness of his eyes or something that almost makes him seem to give off a soft glow, even in total darkness.
Personality
Aloof, almost elusive upon first meeting, Rei'oun can come across as unfriendly and gruff, but he's simply a quiet, thoughtful creature who weighs each of his words carefully before saying them. He reserves his friendship for those who prove themselves trustworthy.
Once someone slips past his well-honed guard, however, they can find a warm, generous friend with a ready, if not toothy, sort of smile. He is capable of playing as hard as he trains, and he's fiercely loyal and protective when he needs to be.
Rei feels as though there is something he is missing, however—part of himself or part of a history that was written before he was born and he is somehow, mysteriously, a part of. It haunts him in dreams and chases him into wakefulness. He is burdened by a strange sense of guilt, and no amount of meditation and seeking the wisdom of his elders has yet to bring him peace from the feeling as though he has something he's supposed to redeem himself for.
Equipment
Rei travels light: he owns a few changes of linen and cotton clothes, leather bracers and greaves (wrists and lower legs), a handful of jewelry, and a compact leather pack.
Inside his pack, he carries various medicinal herbs and salves, various healing supplies, a copious amount of tea, an iron teapot and cups, and sometimes food.
Skills
- Herbalist: Well-studied about healing and medicinal herbs; poisons; and consumables such as tea or seasonings.
- Linguist: A keen ear for language, Rei loves learning new means of communication.
- Martial Artist:Zui Quan, Paed Kha
- Stealth: Sneaking; moving silently; hiding at all times of day in different situations; covering tracks; avoiding detection by using the environment; etc.
- SurvivalistForaging for food and water; recognizing what is and isn't safe to eat; building basic shelter; learning new environments.
- Tracker: Keen observation; intuition when reading others, sensitivity to changes in an environment; distinguishing different tracks; reading a room or an area for information; pursuing a target; etc.
Abilities
Keen Senses
Rei'oun possesses senses that are superior to an average human by nature of the body he inhabits:
- His vision is very keen, able to see detail to a distance of 5 km, while modern humans with binoculars would have difficulty seeing the same detail. His night vision isn't anything spectacular, though he can see about 25 m in shades of grey in darkness.
- His sense of smell allows him to detect particular scents up to a mile away, and his hearing is amazing, allowing him to hear a larger spread of frequencies than a human, mostly in the higher pitches with a limited lower range.
These superior senses give him the ability to perceive, observe, and track creatures and events with amazing accuracy and skill.- In addition to physical senses, Rei has always had the ability to reach beyond what he considers the normal range of perception sense someone or something on a spiritual or metaphysical level—an awareness of life that he can't yet explain but often gives him an understanding much like reading an aura or seeing into someone's heart: a greater insight that he can't always articulate.
Animal Prowess
Rei'oun is more agile, more dexterous, and generally faster than the average human, and while he doesn't possess brute strength so much as a wiry, lithe power, he has honed his body for defense and stealth. In his current body, he is about three times as fast as a human.
Not only in his long-legged loping sort of gait is Rei more swift, but he can also jump further, climb faster, and dodge better because of this agility.
That said, his speed is limited to short bursts instead of long, sustained running. He's a sprinter, not a marathoner. He is not, however, more durable than his less empowered peers, and his bones can still be broken, he still bleeds just the same, and he can still totally be injured. His nekojin heritage allows him to use his claws and teeth as extensions of his martial arts training—turning more of his natural gifts into weapons without needing to carry any.
Mana Flow
Rei'oun is a reborn (albeit once-corrupt) Ar'Tuel, though he doesn't know it. He is sensitive to the flow of life in the natural world, able to tap into mana sources and put it all to various uses.
- Redirection: Currently, Rei has learned to harness or channel mana defensively, like a shield or deflecting energy, he is able to deflect physical attacks, normally the blunt force of a fist or a weapon or even a projectile, away from himself. The force must be moving at a reasonable human speed, else it is slowed but not completely deflected or completely unaffected, and while he can bend the trajectory of rain or a campfire, redirecting its energy protectively away from himself, he cannot, for example, redirect a magical ball of flame fired toward his person (yet, anyway).
He can currently channel this sort of redirecting force three times per thread for normal, non-magical forces or only once per thread to slow extreme or magical forces.
These defenses require him to use his own concentration and physical energy and he does grow tired—if he channels away the force of a blow from an enemy blade, his flesh may not get cut, but he will still feel the sting of it as if it did slash him. If he redirects a something hot, he will feel the heat of it all as if it was actually burning him, but it would take sustained exposure for him to actually be injured.
Background/History
Rei'oun currently has no concrete memory of his ancient and unfathomable existence, his old, corrupted soul choosing to forget within the womb of a nekojin. While the young woman might have thought she was helping her small band of forest nomads escape death and destruction from the entropic creature and its kin, the birth of her litter bearing such a kit drained her of her life to bring into the world something seeking to be made new.
Adopted by another family clan who found the white-furred kit the lone survivor mewling and hungry after the night of his birth apparently stole the breath from the lungs of his entire family unit without warning, he was swiftly labeled a bad omen and handled with caution by everyone except his adoptive mother who couldn't see anything but good in the boy. Secretly, she instilled in him a hope that whatever had sought to destroy him had failed and he'd been given a chance to redeem his birth and his family, the kind woman not knowing the level of redemption his soul longed for.
Always different, always somehow both more connected to the life of the world and yet burdened by it, Rei grew into a sense of awareness without the anger and guilt his old soul once bore. Maybe he'd call what memories did sneak into his life dreams or visions, maybe what he occasionally experienced in meditation or while half-awake daydreams. Too often, however, they felt too real to be illusions or the result of an overactive imagination, and as Rei grew into adulthood, he became restless and unsure.
Eventually, he left his home and all that was familiar to wander, seeking peace and understanding, hoping for both. He learned from any who would teach him, a pliable and sensitive student of both the martial and mental arts. He's hidden away in isolated monasteries, gotten lost in ancient libraries, and wandered villages hidden deep in demon-infested forests looking for answers. He's perhaps forgotten how long ago he started, too, unaware that he stopped aging decades ago.
The visions grow clearer slowly, and now he seeks magic to help him see all the pieces put together, woven in to the tapestry of who he really is.
