[Characters] Kiva, de Korvosa

[Fragmaster01]

Name: Kiva
Race: Humanish
Class: Soulknife, Has a lower Enhancement progression in exchange for being able to make Mind Armor as well.Armored Blade
Gender: Female
Age: Appears to be Late Teens

Ten Minute Background:

 

Write 5 background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character.
Kiva is a young girl who passes reasonably well as a human. While she appears to be in her late teens, she only recalls to about 2 years back, when she woke up in an alleyway in Old Korvosa in the dead of night.
She had few memories aside from her name, the fact that something about her physical state was not correct(what we'd today consider body dysphoria), and that a crime boss by the name of Gaedren Lamm was involved in the problem.

Kiva, lacking few skills other than an innate arcane talent to shape ambient energy into solid objects, took up work as a bodyguard and hired thug around town. While she doesn't like hurting people who don't fight back, her lack of upbringing to suggest that violence is necessarily bad makes her an incredibly remorseless fighter when she believes that someone is deserving of violence. Onlookers describe it as being a very bipolar shift between the laid-back street rat and the cruel assassin, despite them being one and the same.

While she looks human with slight elven blood, close inspection reveals this to not exactly be the case. Those who have been around her the longest note she has not actually aged at all in the two years she has been in Korvosa, her magical talents are not of a type commonly known in the land, and her skin tends to gleam and shine with arcane tattoos when she channels energy. Her soulknife powers have a distinct angelic or bird-like motif to them, with a blueish white color to the mana.
Kiva has never actually been outside Korvosa, seeing little point. Food and money are inside the city, and outside is just grass and trees. She can see that around town, and there's no need to work hard at forging papers to leave the city. For her, Korvosa is her world and her life, and she has a childish lack of basic understanding of things that cannot be found inside that world.


List at least two goals for the character.
Kiva feels incredibly ill-at-ease with her own body, whenever she stops to rest. Something is wrong, though she does not know what. She has spent her free time over the last two years investigating, though going it alone has borne little fruit.

She is very much devoted to the development of her own skills and power. In her life, the ability to enforce your will on others is an absolute requirement, and she dislikes feeling powerless when other, more experienced fighters take the stage.


List at least two secrets about your character.
Her childish derpy moments aren't an act: she really doesn't know very much. Whatever wiped out her memory destroyed a lot of basic concepts as well. If she wouldn't have come across it in a street rat's life, she just doesn't know about it.

Kiva is super terrified of being alone and aimless, to the point of codependency if others seem to be abandoning her. Part of her roughhousing work is a way to repay the people who took care of her during her awakening.


Describe at least three people that are tied to the character.
Surt McHurn, Commoner 1/Fighter 2: A bitterly scarred human bartender and owner of a bridge-side inn in Old Korvosa. Used to work in the city guard before retiring due to excessive injuries. While he ostensibly serves drinks to travelers and locals, his inn serves as the meeting place for many local strongarms, Kiva included. His primary profession involves loaning these fighters out to those who have need of additional protection, defensive or 'otherwise'. Kiva was brought to him when she awoke, and has lived in and around his inn as far back as she can remember. He tries to avoid being a father figure, for thoughts that he's a poor example, though he knows that Kiva lacks the skills to really get a profession in less bloody work.

Deri Kaleran, Ninja 3. Surt's top halfling, and a handy assassin in a pinch. She doesn't necessarily stick around town all that much anymore, now that her skills have gotten noticed by some of the towns rulers, but she does still remember the old streets quite well. She's an amoral sort, who enjoys the thrill of the hunt far more than law-abiding citizens get to, and is generally the wrong sort of person to meet in a back alley. She sees Kiva as one would an adorable lost dog, who is fun to tease and lead on into odd situations. This is probably for the best, as her bad side is not one most wish to witness.

Ur'Kosh, Fighter 2/Paladin 1. A local guard captain, and on no good terms with Kiva. He has strictly suggested a beating to her should she start taking on jobs that aren't as ostensibly "bodyguard" related. Kiva does not like him. For one thing, he smells, and looks like something is prominently stuck up his bum. Others suggest that this is just her impression, and he is infact very rugged and handsome for a half-orc. Ah well.


Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has.
Kiva has no sense of proper street etiquette. If it is faster to clamber on a rooftop, then it is faster to clamber on a rooftop. They wouldn't have made them so flat if they didn't want people to walk there. Geez.

Kiva prefers to say hello to various animals, on the off chance they will say hello back. With druids, you never know.

While most mages insist that her method of siphoning mana from the air is "cheating", Kiva is actually complete rubbish at the usual wizard style of casting. There are way too many rules, and principles, and... it's just easier to grab some energy and tell it to be solid, rather than trying to imprint Concepts onto reality with her mind. If someone in the party were to teach her how prior to third level, she'd take the Gifted Blade archetype(a four level psychic warrior progression in place of Psychic Strike), otherwise she'd just take Psychic Strike as normal.

[Fragmaster01]

Questionnaire 2 1. How does your character interact with the others within a group? While Kiva tends to work by herself or with one other adventurer, as opposed to a solid group, she's not opposed to it. She's willing to trust first, and only argue later if her companions are shown to be inept through their actions. If someone proves themselves to be really badass, she'll tend to fall in lockstep behind them, because oh wow that is really cool. 2. What is your character's role in a group? Melee Damage, Low Maintenance. She's a front-line fighter, albeit one that doesn't require enchanted weaponry or armor, which shores up more funds for the squishier members of the group. She can throw her mindblades at a short distance, but it's not very far. In leadership terms, she's the second fiddle. Someone will tell her what to do, she may or may not question it, but at the end of the day she'll go along with what everyone else seems to think is great. It's probably not worth arguing over, and if it is, she's probably not the best voice to argue it. She's not the party face, as she knows she'll eventually say something off-putting that causes people to stare blankly at her in confusion. 3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others. 4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious? 5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love? Love is too strong a word for her. She gets smitten with people, but it's nothing as strong as that. Young love, if you will. 6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past? Not in a harmful sense. She takes keen appreciation of what makes different races strange, but doesn't use it to judge maliciously. She does tend to like the skinnier races though, as a matter of personal beauty. 7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them? She has a definite sense of It's a Small World. She's lived all her life that she knows of in Korvosa, and doesn't really seem to get the idea of an outside world. Someone says that they're from "far away", and she'll think of the other side of town. In less serious terms, she does not know where food comes from, and assumes that it comes from underground. All the food storage she's seen around the inn is in the basement, so perhaps that's the best place for them? 8. How is your character about material possessions? She doesn't get too hung up on things of luxury, preferring instead to value items that are comfortable or convenient. Yes yes, you have your fancy ball gown, but this jacket has pockets enchanted to hold twice as much stuff. That's handy, dammit. 9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be? She has a minor case of serious brain damage, and the absolute assurance of her brain that she knows who did it. It's these sorts of things that keep you up at night, wondering who you might have been, or who you really are. 10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be? Gaedren knows something, and like all bad people, he is best solved with violence. It's likely she'd get very lost and confused if he didn't actually know anything about her, or gave her information that was contradictory to what she'd like to believe. 11. What are your character's religious beliefs? She's not really beholden to any domain of worship. The gods are really large people in the sky, who are symbolic and such. Kiva doesn't get why there needs to be people symbolic of stuff. Why can't people just have the stuff, and call it what it is, rather than attaching a divinity to it? 12. What does your character fear? 13, How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off? It's a calm sort of temper. Injustice, people being jerks, that sort of thing can cause her to get really snippy. This is a warning sign that she's preparing to make it clear she doesn't tolerate that sort of thing, and has the mindblades to make a stand over it.

[Quarterpound]

Before I continue reading and come up with some questions and comments, I wanted to ask you to change your font to black. I'm colorblind and the blue makes it very difficult for me to read .

[Fragmaster01]

Done! Sorry about that, hope it's legible now.

[Quarterpound]

Thank you very much, very appreciated.

[Quarterpound]

How does she know that Gaedren is connected to her memory loss? Is it a name she remembers, a note she found in her handwriting, a vague memory, or did someone tell her?

Kiva feels incredibly ill-at-ease with her own body, whenever she stops to rest.

What do you mean by when she stops to rest? Can she not sleep well? Does she not sleep?

Could her feelings towards Ur'Kosh really be just a childish understanding of being attracted to him?

[Fragmaster01]

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

How does she know that Gaedren is connected to her memory loss? Is it a name she remembers, a note she found in her handwriting, a vague memory, or did someone tell her?

It's a name she remembers, and an incredibly strong gut feeling. She doesn't remember specifics, but she's utterly sure that he's involved somehow. Given how little she had memory wise, the fact that there's something there means that she's rather sure it's important, and not at all the product of an addled mind.

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

What do you mean by when she stops to rest? Can she not sleep well? Does she not sleep?

The whole "committing violence for money" thing is a good distraction. It's basically whenever she's got time to herself, and isn't preoccupied with other things that the feelings surface. She sleeps as well as any person with serious brain damage can, though bizarre nightmares are more common than with a well-adjusted person.

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

Could her feelings towards Ur'Kosh really be just a childish understanding of being attracted to him?

Quite possibly. Both Kiva and Ur'Kosh would be mortified if this were actually the case.

[Quarterpound]

So she remembers a name and a gut feeling, but for all she knows (though she doesn't suspect), Gaedren could be an ally and friend, instead of a villain?

[Quarterpound]

Where does Kiva live? What is her living situation?

[Fragmaster01]

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

So she remembers a name and a gut feeling, but for all she knows (though she doesn't suspect), Gaedren could be an ally and friend, instead of a villain?

Yes. *whatatwist!*

Originally Posted by Quarterpound

Where does Kiva live? What is her living situation?

She lives in a back room in Surt's bar/inn. It's not a very wonderful living arrangement, but it serves as a good place to crash. He feeds her too, given that she technically works through him in her roughhousing job.

[Quarterpound]

Gotcha. That's it for now, thanks!