Kalen

BASICS

Your name or nickname: Angel
Your year of birth: 1983
A reliable DW account the mods can PM to reach you: angelcide
Who you currently play at 6I: N/A
Link to your hold comment: Here
Referral: I don't think they were trying to rec/enable but I found out about it through Sharn

Character name: Kalen
Character type: Fandom character
Fandom/Canon: Bone Witch series
Character DW journal: lifeofadeathseeker
Does this character have previous CR?: No

HISTORY

There is no wiki link yet.

- He is shown to be a spellbinder and forced to join the deathseekers at 15

In this world children who show the ability to use magic are sent to train as asha (for girls) or deathseekers (for boys). Its later said that deathseeker training is harsh. This is an important event in Kalen's life since it influences many of his later action

- After a year of training, he officially becomes his cousin prince Kantz's bodyguard
- Kalen accompanies Kantz to Kion. In Kion Kalen protects Kantz and a passed out Tea when she inadvertently reanimated an army of skeletal rats at the Falling Leaf teahouse. Kalen stays with Kantz as his bodyguard for the next year in Kion

He agrees under protest to begin training Tea. After several months he quietly tells Tea to stay away from Kantz because she is a danger to him. But as he is Kantz's bodyguard he can't stop Kantz from continuing to see Tea whenever Kantz chooses to.

- The Ozzy first destroys the stage at the Darashi Oyun, killing many asha and deathseekers in the ensuing battle, but Tea manages to drive it off.
- The Ozzy next appears along the border between Odalya and Kion, killing 20 deathseekers at one time so that Kalen is called on to reinforce the survivors since the total number of deathseekers is so low.

In this canon, there are 7 of these monsters called 'deva'. They seem to be a plot point but for now, it is simply a monster that is impervious to magic. The Ozzy is a giant three-headed dragon.

- Kalen is shocked when Tea, Fox, Polare, and Zoya catch up with the deathseekers at the shore of lake Stripnik. Kalen doesn't see much of the ensuing battle, but he does see Tea merge her mind with the Ozzy and then sees the Ozzy sink into the lake. It increases Tea's image in his eyes.
- Along with Fox, Kalen is instrumental in the capture of the Faceless woman posing as a maid at Tea's ashaka.
- Kalen accompanies Kantz when the prince returns to his kingdom of Odalya.
- Kantz becomes formally engaged to princess Anessa of Kion but at the engagement party Kantz tells Kalen to protect Tea before passing out and succumbing to the sleeping sickness. A few days later Tea and Fox leave to get Kalad but when they return a few hours later they find the palace has undergone a hostile takeover and Kalen is now a prisoner

The hostile takeover is being (apparently) carried out by the Duke of Holsrath who is Kalen's father. Kalen already hated his father since Kalen has been at court while his father was imprisoned and the Duke makes that hatred more intense with his reactions to Kalen.

- Tea, Fox, Lick, Zoya, Kalen, Kalad, Princess Anessa plus Polare, Mikaela and Althesia break out of imprisonment in the palace.
- Kalen says that he is staying with Kantz in Odalya but in desperation, Tea uses a compulsion rune on him so he will go with them. Kalen is furious.

Kalen was already struggling with his conscience but Tea taking away the decision for him made him understandably angry at her. But she had stopped compelling him before he was actively helping them escape. It's of note that Lick is a male spellbinder but petitioning the asha association of elders to be trained as an asha.

- An attack on the Kion capital means that the group splits up and Kalen goes with Tea, Fox, Lick, Kalad, Zoya, Shadi, and Princes Anessa. They have to ride to the kingdom of Dinores many miles away on the winged Ozzy to escape the Odalyan army again. 
- Kalen confesses that he's been in love with Tea for some time.
- Princess Anessa goes through with the wedding to the emperor of Dinores, the Odalyan army catches up to the group at the same time and the palace prepares for a siege.
- Lick dispels the wards on the palace, flooding it with magic and revealing a Faceless who had been posing as a secretary
- Kalen follows Tea to fight a leser deva called the Savul, and when Tea abruptly has the Ozzy ripped from her mind he protects her and himself from dragonfire, taking a lot out of him. While his resistance is low he is then hit with a compulsion rune and comes very close to killing Tea, but mentally resists.
- The group plus Mikaela, Polare and Althesia are smuggled back into Odalya in order to raise the former king Vanor from the dead and find Mikaela's Heart's Glass. 
- They figure out that the current king, Telamaine (Kantz's father) had Vanor killed. They also find out that Telamaine's mistress is the Faceless woman who was posing as a maid at Tea's ashaka and furthermore she was responsible for killing Kalen's mother at the same time as Kantz and Kalad's mother.

Telamaine has seemed to be very gracious and accepting but now is harshly cold and says he kept his brother Lance (Kalen's father) alive for years but the Faceless' compulsion on him broke his mind at last and killed him. Kalen understands after all these years why his father first rebelled against Telamaine and that hatred he has harbored against his father transfers to Telamaine. Telamaine deflects Kalen's sword and mocks him as he does, then shatters Kalen's sword because his is made of a stronger metal. Kalen disarms Telamaine through hand to hand combat. This is the first time Kalen has used violence against Telamaine, who through most of his life was a father-figure to him enough that Kalen actually made it a point to defend Kantz and Telamaine's decisions.

- After a pitched battle, the Faceless uses a compulsion rune on Tea. First having her nearly kill Mikaela then herself but Kalen uses a Heart Share rune (a healing rune) on Tea to get past the compulsion
- The Faceless attacks the Ozzy's mind instead, making it attack anything close enough and it seemed like it was going after Mikaela but killed Polare instead. 
- Tea snapped with grief and mentally tortured the Faceless' mind, had the Ozzy kill her viciously and then lashed out at Telamaine, driving him mad. Kalen is the only one to forgive Tea then and helps her to sleep with the Heart Share rune.
- Kantz is grieving and angry when he wakes up, but Kalen defends Tea saying Telamaine had to be stopped. Kalen tells Kantz of Telamaine's crimes and that Telamaine had no problem poisoning Kantz and killing his own brothers in his quest for power. It is very obvious Kalen is angry as well as sad.
- Kantz, who is now king, exiles Tea from the whole kingdom of Odalya.
- Kantz releases Kalen from Kalen's vow to protect him because he says he can't ask that of Kalen anymore knowing what his father did to Kalen's. Kalen later says that he would go with Tea to Kion since there was nothing left in Odalya for him.

Many of the things that happened after they were smuggled back into Odalya happened in quick succession but were all influential to creating the nebulous but deep feeling of being betrayed Kalen now has.

What is your canon exit point?: Ch 32 of Heart Forger (the second book in the series)

PERSONALITY OVERVIEW

N/A

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

What skills does your character bring to the situation?

What skills he has taught himself are physical ones. Fighting with a sword only requires nominal aptitude to satisfy a requirement of his position as a bodyguard but his perfectionist mentality has made him become the best at it that there is. He doesn't realize it but the fact that he has proved himself to be both mentally strong and practical in unusual situations makes him a stalwart ally. At the same time, he is not a leader and doesn't have the charisma to be anything close to one. Mostly he can come off as not even friendly but someone very good to watch your back in battle. Since he has spent his whole life protecting the same person it is hard to say for certain how that might carry over, but what he liked most in Kantz was his empathy and kindness. In a world he doesn't understand it's probable that would make a deeper impression on him than it usually would.

Why did you choose this specific character for 6I, and how do you picture them fitting into the game?

Kalen has grown up and lived his entire life in a world where magic is common. I am keen to see how he will act and react to being in a world where it is not. Foremost I am looking for CR to fill the Kantz shaped hole in his life. At the canon point I am taking him from, he has just literally lost his reason for becoming a bodyguard in the first place and a lot of his self-definition has revolved around being one or working on skills to make him a better bodyguard. While he is still a spellbinder and thus still a deathseeker he is cast adrift and very much has no idea what to do with himself.

In 6I it's probable he would prefer working at the forge. Mostly because it would discourage other people from braving the extreme heat to interact with him. Also, the creation of weapons without the use of magic in their making would be fascinating.

How do you imagine your character will survive in 6I, and in what ways will they contribute to the settlement, if any?

Though he isn't good at interacting with people, Kalen is willing to contribute toward a common goal. He is not above doing manual labor though he does have to see the sense in it first. While he is willing to help, more often than not he takes great pains to not show that he is helping. He has learned to keep up an image of being a confrontational "bastard". He started doing that in order to seem more imposing with the goal of stopping the whispers about being traitor's son at court. It worked to an extent, but the whispers still follow him anyway. They have just become more subtle. He is not much good at cooking but he would be willing to learn, again if he saw the sense. If he does not he will simply walk away, probably with a scathing remark. Without the use of any runes, Kalen would essentially be starting from scratch. Which is to say he wouldn't know what skills he might offer and would need to figure that out through gameplay. All that he would be able to offer at first is the ability to persevere. No matter how weird things might get or what happens around him Kalen is always able to keep going.

To be totally honest this is a difficult question to answer beyond "I'll have to wait and see how it goes?" since Kalen is coming from such a radically different world

How will your character react to...

Being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones and their previous life, including loss of powers, if applicable?

At his current canon point, he has lost a lot of the connections he had to his old life very recently. This will also not the first time he has had to deal with a loss of autonomy. Tea used a compulsion rune on him the first time, then later he was under compulsion again and nearly made to kill her. While the loss of spellbinding would be very difficult for him to cope with, he has dealt with wards before which nullifies the use of magic. He's able to do things without magic if he has to. It would be hard for him to essentially relearn how to do everything differently and it might get frustrating when simple things that are fixed with magic in his world are different here, but he would persevere through it. Likely he would fall back on old habits and internalize that frustrated anger.

Their environment being manipulated, possibly in strange or extraordinary ways, and possibly in ways which restrain them?

Growing up where magic is commonplace gives Kalen something of an advantage here. Using runes that can cause instant changes makes those changes not seem so daunting if they are to occur outside runic magic. He wouldn't be happy about them but he would have an easier time accepting sudden changes to the environment. Once again this would also not be the first time he would have to deal with a loss of autonomy so that would also be less daunting than it might be for others to mentally cope with after the fact. He has worked on mentally resisting compulsion runes, but that has more to do with the mind than with magic.

Being physically and/or mentally manipulated, such as having hallucinations or suddenly possessing special abilities they did not have before?


Having hallucinations would be weird but not as difficult as having a new and unknown power. The former could be excused as a form of an illusion rune but the latter would be more alarming because Kalen would feel dangerous with it. Even if it was the most innocuous of powers, he would feel that he has no practice and thus little control. And with having so little control over these new powers then what about his control over the more destructive ones he already knows? The idea that someone has been making changes to him without his permission or knowledge is pretty disturbing.

POWERS & SPECIAL ABILITIES

In this canon magic = energy and that energy can be directed. However, people would need to be a spellbinder to see it as a rune because otherwise it just looks like hand and finger motions in the air.

Combat runes Because combat runes can be combined it is possible to create runes like hurricane from water and air if the spellbinder is competent enough. Therefore it's popular to know and use elemental runes.

Support runes A shield rune, a rune causing a minute of strong emotion (like fear, doubt, or confusion), a rune creating lighter-sized flame, a rune that creates flare-like light, a rune that detects and amplifies tremors in the ground and runes used in making clothes and accessories are all considered support runes.

Healing runes These have rarely been used in canon since plants and herbs used in cooking are effective for most common problems (illnesses, inflammation, food poisoning, etc).

Reading Heart's Glass This is a canon-specific ability so it won't apply here.

WRITING SAMPLES

SAMPLE 1
Why did you choose this sample? It's a link to the TDM thread?
Linked or pasted sample: TDM thread

SAMPLE 2
Why did you choose this sample? I was mostly just writing for this character? Hopefully, it works and shows a semi-decent grasp of him.
Linked or pasted sample: Just a link to my musebox to save room

SAMPLE 3
Why did you choose this sample? I was hoping to show that I try to think through my tags. Even if it might take me a while a lot of the time.
Linked or pasted sample: Thrawn prose thread