Yeah... helluva name, right? I first off have to get something off my chest as far as this goes, in that I had been turning over the idea of the gempalms for Planechaser since he had been asking about them. Now even before that, I had been thinking of the fact that we didn't have an assassin that would more seamlessly fit into a larger world, and let's face it, for all his skills Huinn is **** crazy. War of the Wheel aside, his arc isn't actually tied INTO being an assassin. He doesn't take jobs.
But I felt like that left a hole that I just couldn't deal with not having someone to fill. Hence, the idea of Kallin started to take root. Combined with the idea that I wanted her to be, ultimately, a little more than just an assassin, the idea to expand her suite of skills ended up mirroring the traditional ninja. So that ended up raising another question, if an assassin has the skills, does that make her a ninja, even if the world doesn't have them?
Trigger warning wrote:
implied abuse
Spoiler
Name: Kallin Reithiss Discipline: very minor illusion, imbued death magic Alignment:
Description Kallin is of medium height, lean and hard muscled. She is a product of her life, and there is a basic utility to everything about her appearance. She dresses simply, always goes armed, and exudes an aura of... nothing. It is as if the world around her is incapable of making an impression upon her. She is upsetting to be around for those who do not know her, but her dispassion does not mean she is empty of emotion.
Kallin's eyes are a pale blue and almond shaped, an odd shade against her dusky skin. Her dark hair is kept short, chopped more than styled and hangs longer in the front than it does in the back. Her small nose appears to have been broken at one point, and is slightly off center, though hardly noticeable at just a glance.
The most shocking thing about her is the large diamond set into her palm, fused into her flesh and scarred around the edges. She normally wears golves, most often fingerless gloves, to hide this fact.
History
Spoiler
Kallin is an orphan. That has been the cascading event which has defined her life. Her parents left her life one after the other in a very short time, and alone, in an unfamiliar city, she was cast adrift and left to fend for herself. Her father had died of plague when she was little, and her mother could not provide for her in the rural home she had been born to. Taking Kallin and everything she couldn't sell, Kallin's mother moved the pair of them to the city where a single woman had a better chance to earn a living. Six months later, Kallin's mother lay dead at the end of a knife in the dank back end of some alley. Kallin ran as hard as she could away from the crime scene, knowing that her mother had probably saved her life, but she found herself lost in the city. Nothing was familiar and she was alone in a place she did not know. She never found her way, left in the dark shadows of the spires all around. That was when she was 9.
She killed for the first time at the age of 11.
Deathdealer Living on the streets, she had nobody to rely on, left only to herself, and she did whatever it took to survive, but she was still a child, and that meant she was often a victim. She stuck to the shadows when she could, but that was not always an option. Even living on the streets, others gave her a wide berth though, either seeing another mouth to feed or someone with less than even themselves, but in truth, it was the calm detachment she was possessed of that made most avoid her. Even to the desperate people, she was... unnerving.
Then came the day when she could not hide and she was left with only one choice, confronted with a predator who wanted everything. He was hardly the first to come looking for her, but it was perhaps the first time that Kallin felt she could fight back. She lured him into the shadows and nobody save her is quite sure what happened there. Only that she came out covered with his blood and whatever she could scavenge for herself off of his corpse. That death marked a change in her fortunes, and she seized her future with her own two hands.
Kallin had little formal education and living on the streets meant that there were few jobs for her. She found what work she could and for the next 7 years pulled herself up from the depths of the darkened gutters. The job that would shape the rest of her life was working as a bouncer at a gambling den. As small as she was, nobody was quite prepared for how dispassionately vicious she could become. Eventually she gained a reputation, and that reputation lead to steady pay.
During what seemed a regular evening, Kallin's reputation was not enough to dissuade an unruly patron and she did as she always had, attempted to silence him and found herself on her back for it. She calmly picked herself back up and drew her weapon, but the man who had seemed drunk moments ago was now standing quite calmly and assessing her. His shoulder was also hanging out of its socket. He asked for her help to put it back in and then invited her to discuss things more privately.
He was an assassin, and that act had been a test. Though Kallin had been rebuffed, she'd passed and if she was interested, she would be allowed to become his acolyte. The threat laying under that offer though, was clear. She had seen his face and would not be allowed to leave alive. No matter how she might have conducted herself, it was clear that he was many times more skilled than the farce he had adopted when she'd fought him before.
Kallin flourished in her new environment. She proved to have a deep potential, but unlike most of her peers in the sect, she did not share their passion for the work. It seemed, instead, as if she did this simply because she was good at it. She quickly rose through the ranks, trading the onyx stone that marked her status for the other stones of rank.
She climbed all the way until the second to last stone, the final one that would have marked her as a master. But that was before she tendered her resignation, in no uncertain terms, at the end of a knife. She doesn't speak of why she left, only that she left no small amount of bodies in her wake. Whatever triggered this... betrayal, it is in her past now.
Tools of the Trade Kallin has some minor capabilities with illusion, but it is not particularly good. It will not hold up under dedicated scrutiny, but it was only ever meant to help her blend into the background to begin with. Kallin, in fact, is not truly skilled with any form of magic. What she is most accomplished with is imbuing, using mana to give additional properties to her weapons of choice. This has one very noteworthy effect, as when she imbues her weapons with black mana, it makes them deadlier than any poison she might be able to find.
Her primary choice of weapon are steel stakes, or what some might call oversized darts. Though they are made for throwing (a skill she is excellent at) she is just as able to use them in hand to hand. For any problem that cannot be solved either in long range or short range, she carries a length of chain with a heavy steel orb covered in spikes. This piece of equipment doubles as her belt.
Principles and Personality Though it would seem she is apathetic to her work, it does not mean she is in any way bloodthirsty. Quite the opposite, it seems that she continues to maintain her status as an assassin largely only because she is accomplished at it. She has no burning passion for the work, no zeal or drive, and seems perfectly willing to do other things to survive. She chooses to be an assassin not because it is who she is or what she has been shaped to be, but merely out of convenience.
Kallin seemingly has no concept of loyalty to her clients as it seems that despite her skill, she does not care if her targets live or die one way or another. There have been multiple instances where she has betrayed her contract when offered money, or even just a good reason why her target should live, often from the target's own mouth.
There is exactly one point of principle that she will not abandon, quite possibly the only actual moral she possesses: No children. She will never end someone who is the sole caregiver of a child, nor will she kill anyone in front of a child. She, in fact, loves children, one of the few times that she demonstrates any great emotion is with children and animals. She's fully aware that it seems incongruous with her chosen profession, but doesn't particularly care.
(Yes, okay, large portions of that are cribbed from the Professional, but I think it makes sense everything said!)
So, there's all she is that came out of Kallin. There are some... unpleasant aspects to her past that I hope don't bother people too much. I'm a little iffy on using those aspects myself, but it's what she wanted to be. That's what a lot of her boils down to, and quite frankly, I wasn't going to argue.
Author:
chinkeeyong [ Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:16 am ]
Post subject:
Re: [Planeswalker] Kallin of the Crystal Sect
I like this character a lot. I only wish she was tied to some other character to give her motivation. It would be really cool to see her as the right hand of, say, Vasilias.
Author:
Barinellos [ Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:29 pm ]
Post subject:
Re: [Planeswalker] Kallin of the Crystal Sect
I had kind of seen her as a regular piece on the Chessmaster's board, but that was before she ended up coming across as somewhat flaky. I think if I had to attach her to anyone at the moment, I think she would play off of Fisco most interestingly.
Author:
Heliosphoros [ Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:45 pm ]
Post subject:
Re: [Planeswalker] Kallin of the Crystal Sect
I refrained from giving my two cents given recent events, but I have to say that I really love this character. Pretty much the most original character I've seen in a while.
Author:
Barinellos [ Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:53 pm ]
Post subject:
Re: [Planeswalker] Kallin of the Crystal Sect
Thanks Helio. I won't lie that I find it interesting that she's had such a positive reaction so far since I felt like I was playing a little closer to tropes than normal, but I'm hoping there's still enough twists in her that makes her stand out as more than an application of cliche. At the very least, I hope I've done a decent job of creating a character whose traits are more about self-sufficiency than overblown ambition.
Probably because the "ruthless" shtick is sadly the first thing that comes to mind. Which is a shame, really, considering how large Black's slice is.
It's a big problem with green too*. White ends up having the most variance in terms of depiction, with blue and red getting a little shine time.
*Arguably bigger than black.
Author:
Heliosphoros [ Wed Oct 01, 2014 4:31 pm ]
Post subject:
Re: [Planeswalker] Kallin of the Crystal Sect
Indeed. In Green's case I think it's mostly because a general lack of understanding or interest, which is why I take the hipster route and am focusing more on Green lately.
Author:
RavenoftheBlack [ Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:38 pm ]
Post subject:
Re: [Planeswalker] Kallin of the Crystal Sect
Honestly, I didn't have a very strong reaction to her. I don't dislike her by any means, but there are cues in here that tell me she's going to be tricky to write for. You did the same sort of "off-putting air" thing with Huinn, and when I tried to write it, it was a major challenge, and I probably went overboard with it. Also, the whole dispassionate killer gimmick is going to make her hard to get into. At least the has the kids/animal thing going for her to give her some heart.
The person who jumps out to me as having a potentially interesting interaction with her is Kahr. They have some really interesting points of opposition that I think would make it a fun little conflict.
Not that I would expect you to nail this down specifically, but in light of our power-level discussion a while back, where do you see Kallin in terms of physical combat skill compared to some of our other melee warriors? How would she stand against, say, Raef?
Not that I would expect you to nail this down specifically, but in light of our power-level discussion a while back, where do you see Kallin in terms of physical combat skill compared to some of our other melee warriors? How would she stand against, say, Raef?
Raef is tricky for a couple of reasons. Skill wise, she probably has an edge on him because her form is probably more efficient. But Raef doesn't have baseline human strength and reflexes anymore. Raef would probably beat her because of that.
About the offputting air, it's a different sort of aura than Huinn. Huinn is... crazy. Kallin is just universally apathetic. Closest sort of comparison I can draw is probably Rei from Evangelion, now that I think on it.
