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Personal Information
Name: Lylith
Age: 32
Personal Journal:

lylith_st 
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: Lylith_st@yahoo.es. / PlurK: lylith
Current Character(s): Scott Summers initia_nova 

Character Information
Name: Kale Brangaine
Age: 27
Appearance:

Body: Muscular / Athletic
Height | Weight: 6 ft or 183 cm | 194 lbs or 88 kg
Hair color: Peach
Eyes: Aquamarine

Kale is mixed race, has a beauty mark under his left eye and his blood is royal blue, not red. Here's some examples of how he looks like. And yes he always dresses like that unless he has to armor up for a battle.

Character history:

Legal slavery has been going on in the south and their preceding colonies for a little over 400 years. The Duke Leefolt Brangaine once came back from one of his military campaigns with a baby and all but dropped the little creature on the first maid he could find.  Kale’s biological mother was unknown, but given Kale’s looks it was easy to tell that she had been of dark colored skin. While he recognized Kale as his son, Leefolt refused to acknowledge him except when disciplining him and didn't paiy him more attention than necessary.

Ironically, that spared Kale from growing up with the same narrow minded racist mentality as his father, since he was raised mostly by different maids and babysitters who were slaves in his state. The most notable one being Mama Jo (Real name Joeline), whom Kale adored and considered a surrogate mom.

When he was fifteen his dad caught him messing around with the stable boy, one of the slaves of the plantation, named Percival. They grew up together and were practically jointed at the hip and while the revelation of what had been going on with them didn’t come as a surprise for Mama Jo, Leefolt didn’t take the news well.

He got ballistic and had Percival arrested and executed. After a heated and violent argument with his father about Kale’s preferences and whatnot, it was only thanks to Mama Jo’s intervention that Leefolt didn’t kill his son on the spot. The Duke almost stabbed her with his sword when she tried to defend him and Kale threatened to make everything public if he hurt Mama Jo, knowing that his father’s pride wouldn’t stand the embarrassment. Leefolt agreed to let her live, giving his word, but in a fit of rage he marked Kale’s nape with a slave branding iron before kicking him out the plantation.

He was left to flee for his life, literally on his own, and in the subsequent years he survived hustling and doing some not so reputable things that he regrets. At seventeen he joined the The Atheris, a group of mercenaries led by a woman named Ildikó Lujza, who took a liking on him after Kale managed to lift a pouch of gold from her.

The reason why Kale stole it wasn’t because he wanted the money, he had seen the man who gave Ildikó the pouch, a Potioneer, soak the gold in poison beforehand and wanted to warn them. Ildikó confronted both Kale and the Potioneer. When she confirmed that the man wanted to kill the The Atheris and make sure none of them spoke of the work they did for him, they killed the Potioneer for his treachery and raided his store. Life went on, Kale learned how to fight from The Atheris as well as how to use some magic spells, and Ildikó liked having someone around who wasn’t trying to get into her pants. They got into trouble more often than not, both with commoners, the knights, and other mercenaries.

One day Kale found Mariela, horse sized tiger that people use for racing, in a street market. She was in a cage way too small for her, malnourished and being sold to be butchered for consumption because she was too old to keep up with the racing. Being really fond of animal and lonely creatures, Kale used all the money he had to buy her and restore her back to health. He tried to set her free once she was healthy enough to survive on her own but Mariela refused to leave his side and he been using her as a ride, much to Ildikó’s amusement.

At age twenty-three they parted ways and Kale traveled on his own as a mercenary for hire. He only had one goal in mind, to get back to Mama Jo and set her free, as well as to help other slaves in her same situation. He used the money he earned to buy people who were kidnapped and enslaved and returned them to their families. Each time he saved some of the gold to one day get back to his father’s estate and buy it from him.

But being a hero was expensive and he never seemed to have enough money, so he started taking more dangerous jobs. That was how Kale eventually found himself after a wendigo. When his plan to corner the creature in the forest went wrong, he was separated from Mariella and in need of a ride. Kale headed up the hills, knowing that the wendigo favored areas with more vegetation where it could hide, and was lucky enough to find a cabin. It wasn’t inhabited and, much to both men’s surprise, the owner of the house was someone Kale had met years ago.

It’s worth mentioning that initially Galahad Farkas wasn’t very thrilled about meeting Kale again. Galahad was a bisexual boxer who wasn't in good terms with his homoromantic side and always had a hard time accepting himself. The day he met Kale, after he just won the Championship Belt, he was baffled at how little the other man cared about what society thought about his preferences. They drank, talked and slept together. The next day, Kale was gone back to The Atheris and Galahad collected the money from his prize and left town.

Back to the present, Galahad let him into his house for the night and they made up for lost time. However, the wendigo had followed Kale up the hills and because his scent was all over Galahad he attacked the man, almost killing him in the process. Kale managed to trap the wendigo inside the house and set it on fire to kill it but he was not expecting the whole place to blow up. It turned out that part of Galahad’s job consisted in brewing alcohol in his basement and the stash exploded when the fire reached it. They did manage to kill the wendigo but nothing of it was left and Kale had no way to prove it was there, so he wouldn’t be paid for the job.  

Galahad had it much worse. He was left homeless and in trouble with the clients who won’t be getting the alcohol they already paid for. Not to mention that, while Kale healed his injuries in time for him not to die, he was bitten by the wendigo and affected by its curse. He had no place to go and decided to join Kale while they look for a cure for the wendigo curse. Eventually, they found Mariella again and a horse for Galahad, and started traveling around. During the following days Gallahad’s change became noticeable: His ears were pointier, his fangs more pronounced and his sense of smell increased. It only got worse after they got attacked by a gang of men working for the Mungik family who were less than happy with Galahad leaving without fulfilling his part of the deal in the alcohol trade.  

At first Kale thought they were the group of slave traders he had tricked a few weeks ago, and when they shot an arrow at Galahad's neck upon showing up, he was too stunned to do anything but to try his best to cure him with his magic. It didn’t seem to work and Kale was left exhausted after using the spell. Believing himself the cause of the death of another person he cared about, Kale didn’t bother to fight back when the men used that to their advantage to torture him.

Galahad, unstable but alive, turned into his monster form upon hearing Kale scream and killed them. Because he was not a natural wendigo but he turned into one due to its bite, his other forms was not decaying and none of his bones were visible. That didn't make him any less intimidating or deadly. Once he calmed down, Galahad dragged Kale to the nearest inn so he could rest, knowing that Kale would be able to heal himself properly once he woke up. Feeling guilty for what happened, Galahad left. He didn't get very far because Kale tracked him down the next day and refused to leave. In the end they agreed that they were both at fault for all that had happened to them in the last week and kept traveling together.

Personality:

Overall, Kale is an easy going guy. He’s friendly, he likes to joke, to tease, and he’s the first to give a hand when someone needs help…or when he can get something out of it. He’s a practical man on a mission and he needs all the money and resources he can get. Nearly everything he does is done with the purpose of freeing Mama Jo, getting back to his father, and helping the slaves he finds on his travels.

He has his own agenda and acts accordingly. Sometimes he struggles with gray morality and he can be selfish on occasion. While he never does it out of malice, he tries to see the bigger picture of things: In the past he had to make deals with human traffickers to gain their trust so he could trick them later and free their slaves. When a wendigo he was chasing was in Galahad’s house, Kale burned the whole place down to kill it, not even stopping to consider he was destroying someone else’s property. From his point of view that was the fastest and safest way to stop the creature. And so on…

When it comes to the protection of those he cares about, Kale is ready to throw ethics on the bonfire and toast marshmallows in the subsequent blaze. However, he’s still prideful and has his own set of morals that he would not cross for anyone, such as hurting kids or taking advantage of those in a desperate position.

He can be genuinely charming, understanding, and truly care about the people that get close to him. He’s a hard worker and definitely has the brains to back up the high spirits personality. Kale has the tendency to get himself in bad situations because he long ago stopped caring about what might happen to his persona. It’s one of his worse traits and the one that drives Galahad up the wall, since he is dragged into Kale’s troubles more often than not.

At the same time, he is snarky, violent and vengeful, but that’s a side he reserves for his father, slavers or abusers. On the surface, Kale is smiles and confidence but that does cover up a lot of damage. After he got someone he deeply cared about killed, he promised himself never to fall for someone that way again and carried on. If there was one thing his father had drilled into his brain, was that men did not cry or confront their feelings, because they were not weak. That's something Mama Jo had spent years trying to undo but didn't quite succeed because of Kale’s unresolved daddy issues. Because of this, he’s prone to drinking himself into a stupor when upset, but he doesn’t do it often.

Deep down he suffers from survivor guild and a never-ending fear that he won't get back to Mama Jo in time and that those he cares about will end killed by his actions. This happened twice with Galahad: first with the wendigo attack and then when the Mungik gang almost killed him. The second time, in which Kale wasn't able to fully heal Galahad, he was shocked to the point of not even trying to defend himself and mentally shutting down for a while.

Despite his upbringing, or maybe because of it, Kale greatly values freedom, has a great deal of compassion and can't stand it when people are imprisoned. He is a strident humanist who fights for people’s right to make their own decisions and mistakes, free of the control of others no matter their race or species. That clashes spectacularly with his father’s view of the world. Kale was never all that fond of studying and he's more street smart than anything else but he is well read and educated and that might give people hints about his less than humble origins.

Given the sort of father he grew up in, he definitely has a violent side. Most of the time he keeps in in check and rarely loses his temper outside a battlefield but there are certain things that trigger his rage: hurting children, sexual abuse, violence against animals (Kale is really fond of cats), and certain name calling will get a violent reaction from him. His bad temper it's like a claw: it only appears when he needs it, and the rest of the time, no one knows it's there.

When he fights, he does it because he's getting himself in trouble, he likes a challenge, or he sees some material gain to be had. He might get cocky in battle but always keep in mind his limitations and do all he can to win. Combat pragmatist is his thing. Kale’s willing to use different tactics to do what needs to be done quickly, to use mundane tricks and to take advantage of people’s weakness. Unless he faces an opponent that got his respect, which is rare considering that he’s always antagonizing criminals and slavers, he feels no remorse in using every scrap of advantage available in a fight. He's a mercenary, not a knight, and he doesn't follow the same code. Winning is important to Kale, sometimes cheating is the easiest way to win. Those who care more about honor than reason make good corpses, it's not like one gets style points in these things.

However, Kale does love fighting knights, much more than criminals, because he was taught the knight’s code when he was young and he knows they always follow the rules…so it’s fun to trick them. He had a blast fighting Lady Gawain because she was trying her best to keep the fight honorable until she got fed up with Kale’s antics and reverted to her younger days dealing with the drunkards that populated her father's inn. Their quarrel ended in a punch-up and Kale couldn’t be happier. He even said he would bed her if she weren't a woman and Lady Gawain was so amused by the end of the fight that she let that slip away.

The issue of sex was the spark that finally burnt out the relationship he had with his father and made it unsalvageable. Kale likes men, he’s not shy about it and he doesn’t see any problem with it. You like what you like, sex is nice and pleasure is good for you. He’s neither shy nor ashamed of his body, he knows what he likes, but he also has standards and there are just some lines he won’t cross. Kale believes that sex has to be a satisfying experience for everyone involved or it’s just not worth the trouble.

He’s a bottom, and a pushy one. He really gets around as one could easily lose track of his exes, even if most of them are just occasional encounters. He doesn’t brag about them unless he’s doing it on purpose to pester Galahad ("You know, I had sex with a dwarf once...he was really good at it, the little fucker") or to get a get a rise out of someone. He's rarely been jealous when one of his lovers have slept around either but he does not cheat himself. Technically he’s not into any formal relationship so there’s no cheating to be had, but he still wouldn’t do it if it was the case. He gets really offended if someone call him a harlot and the few occasions that happened, Kale absolutely trashed the person afterwards.

Kale's never had a real, long term relationship. He has other things in mind, he's been constantly traveling and deep down he’s worried he will get the person he cares about killed again. His worries both proved to be correct and wrong when he started traveling with Galahad. He almost gets the man in danger each week but Galahad is more than capable to defend himself.


Powers and Abilities:

Kale is a normal human, he doesn't have super strength, enhanced speed, or anything of the sort. His only advantage consist of being a really skilled fighter and very good at dodging. He learned how to fight with all sort of melee weapons since he was a kid, as he was first raised to become a knight, but swords aren't his preferred weapon of choice. He’s more willing to use crossbows, lances and long range weapons; if someone gets close enough to him, he goes for the axe or his fists. Kale is really fond of weapons in general and can turn almost anything (even bones) into one if he puts his mind to it.

He's totally inept when it comes to magic. In his world, because almost everything is tainted with residual magic, normal humans can learn and use it. It takes a lot of studying and concentration and Kale never had the patience for it, and so he only mastered two spells.

- The first one it's a healing spell that proved to be useful on more than a few occasions. However, because Kale’s not properly trained, using healing magic exhausts him almost to the point of passing out, his body shuts down and he can't barely move. He’s really vulnerable after healing himself or someone else and that’s why he tries not to use it if there’s another option available.
 
- The second space is using the Black Space, it consist on creating a hole into a parallel dimension to use as storage. Basically, it's having access to hammerspace. He likes to travel light and uses the Black Space to store weapons, clothes and money. Food rots and anything organic cannot enter or survive in there. Better wizards can create a hole in thin air or any surface available when they want to retrieve an object from the other dimension. Again, due to Kale's limited abilities when it comes to magic, he only enchanted his cape and that's what he uses as portal when the occasion calls for it.



World Summary:


The world where the continent of Carmadine is located is a fantastic setting  similar to the European Middle Ages. It mixes traits from other classical periods and different cultures as well, such as Medieval China, Ancient Egypt and Medieval India. Slavery had been happening for centuries in Carmadine and, while it depended on the ethnic group, more often than not slaves were wholly at the mercy of their owners with little protection from society. Some slaves are personal servants of individuals, others belong to estates of temples and noblemen and are taken during a military campaigns if not bestowed by the king.
 
Magic is a common thing, so are gods, spirits and all sorts of mythological creatures like dragons, dwarves, elves, humans and other races have their own pantheons. The current magic in the continent is residual magic. At the beginning of time, the Gods tried to share their existence with humanity and the barrier that separated the Gods' realm and the human world was broken. It caused many troubles to humans, and the Gods, not wanting their creations to suffer, withdrew to their own world. The brief contact, however, changed the human world drastically and many new races and creatures appeared, most of them influenced by the magic of the Gods: vampires related to the Gods of the Death, trolls and werewolves related to Earth Gods, dinosaurs and other giant animals that people use as pets or rides...
 
Not all the magic was the same because it came from very different  Gods, and thus it affected humans in different ways. Some humans were born with a noticeable level of magic in them while others learned to train their powers and make them grow. Magic became inherent and could be transferred through spells, but they could kill the user if it was done the wrong way.
 
Technology is not very common in the South half of the continent, but the North has steam-driven machines. Northerners have managed to develop certain advanced technology, while the Southern technological fields stagnated, especially those related to communication.

Kale lives in the south of the continent. Outside the few major urban areas the landscape becomes rural and eventually gives way to the natural areas of vegetation. The landscape consists of scattered rainforest and large areas of savanna grasslands which eventually merge into the different desserts. The 'Forests of Giants' gets its name from the fact it as some of the tallest and biggest trees on the planet.

The South is really hot; it's humid and the summer sun bakes the landscape sending columns of heat into the atmosphere. When the monsoon finally hits it rains for two months straight, day and night, sometimes bringing deadly floods. The weather is harsh in the South, and so are its inhabitants.

Despite the difficult environment and periods of extreme heat, the South is home to big population of creatures, from normal (horses, dingoes, snakes, cows...) to magical ones (Nagas, dragons, chimeras, trolls..), and all of them want to kill anybody who gets close enough. The South is also one of the richest mining places in the continent, which is the main reason why people still live and work there.



Samples
Network:

 

[Hello Nautilus, there's a new face in the network. A man in his late twenties, dressed in a way that would put a Spartan to shame. He gives the camera a smile but there’s caution written in his eyes.]

Nice place you all have here, if it weren't for the whole kidnapping business going on I would say these vacations are almost pleasant. I’m looking for two friends and was wondering if any of you have seen them.

The first one, her name’s Mariella. Big bright eyes, long fangs and even longer claws. Also gold fur, pale legs and black stripes. She likes taking baths and belly rubs but I don't recommend doing that to a horse-sized tiger like Mariella unless she really likes you.

The second one is not as furry but he still has big fangs. His name is Galahad, he’s older than me with ginger hair and light blue eyes, almost white. He often looks like someone murdered his puppy or took away his alcohol. That only happened once, by the way…<small> My ears are still ringing from the explosion, though</small>. He’s human.

[Kale stops and seems to think about that for a bit.] Well, mostly human.

Third Person:

[It was not the first time Kale woke up in a strange place with no idea where he was or how he got there. Usually when that happened, he had naked company and said strange place was someone's bedroom, not a city.

The whole place seemed wrong to his eyes. It was too green, not enough hot or humid and there wasn’t even sand covering the ground. Mariella was nowhere to be seen, neither was Galahad, and that’s what really bothered Kale. They were both getting in trouble without him, he was sure of that. Galahad was as much of a danger magnet as…well, Kale himself.

After his arrival, he got an explanation from the locals about how things worked in the city and who controlled it. Kale was less than happy to know that gods and humans were back to sharing the same realm. It didn’t end well when that happened in his world.  And that so called ‘bending’…what a strange way of naming something that could be more simply labeled as magic. Because that what it was to him, and it only made him more uneasy. Magic, while useful, had brought him more troubles than anything in the past.

Upon discovering that the way to get back to his home world was crossing the Gates he tried to do just that.  None of them opened for him, no matter how much he pulled, pushed, or stabbed it with his sword. Once his rage had subdued Kale felt bad for that last part and fixed the Gate as much as he could. Granted, he wasn’t very effective but maybe no one would pay attention to the cuts before he could get good enough at bending thing to properly fix it.

Sighing in defeat, he decided that exploring the city couldn't hurt. If he was stuck there he better learn which ones were the best places to hunt and get water, and he better learn it quickly. He had been walking for less than an hour when he saw it. Of course, Kale new it existed in his world too. He had heard the stories, the myths, and he had dreamed to see in one day in person but he never could back in his world.

The ocean.

So big, so bright and blue, he had never seen anything so beautiful in his whole life. Or seen so much water together in one place. It looked like it didn’t have an end and Kale’s eyes were big, fixated on the waves like a child marveling at the beauty of the world. And maybe, just maybe, this city wasn’t so bad.]