"Whether death threaten me, or temptation draw me, I will never set wing within the Observatory unless it is with my clan at my back"
Background
KetsuekiRyuu was the dragon who found a site for her lair, which would later become the first home for the clan Fukutsu no Seishin. She worked to make it large enough to hold multiple dragons in the hopes that she would not be alone for long.
She had been young, and perhaps naive, when she started her project. Beginning in winter, when even the magic of the Starfall Isles could not entirely keep out the chill, had not been her smartest idea, but she had been driven to do it nonetheless out of a desire for company after being alone all her life.
She did not know what had happened to her parents, with only a vague recollection of two red fae, much like herself, before they had disappeared. Why they had abandoned her, she did not know, but they had and at times she grew quite bitter in her thoughts when she remembered her hatchling self clinging to the peak of one of the crystal spines protruding from the water, desperately seeking shelter and food.
When her plans finally bore fruit and she was joined by Kanshi, begging her for shelter and help saving the almost cold egg he was carrying, she was delighted, and accepted his advances. If they mated, then he would not leave her.
The loss of her child almost killed her, only her other two keeping her sane as she looked desperately, only to find her safe and cared for in an Ice clan. Her daughter’s abandonment hurt, but the young guardian’s determination to enter the clan, not as a replacement out of guilt but because she thought she belonged there, soothed the ache.
As the clan began to grow, with more and more hatchlings, and the occasional grown dragon, joining the clan, she was relieved. While many that were born there, including her remaining two children, decided that it was time for them to move on, most going to serve the Arcanist directly, the clan was now so numerous that she knew she need never worry about being abandoned, and that despite her suspicions that her parents, too, could be found in the Observatory, she swore an oath to herself, binding it with her own magic, that the day she stepped foot in the Observatory would be the day the entire clan moved there with the prestige of a lair honoured enough by the Arcanist to be referred to as Ancient.
Personality
She is a motherly figure, prone to getting attached to the hatchlings in the lair very quickly and often rescuing them from dangers they did not realise they were in. This passion to protect them carries over as they reach dragonhood, and more than once she has had to be reminded that they are no longer hatchlings, and in many cases have become more capable of defending themselves than she is of protecting them.
She is also a good decision maker, and is the undisputed leader of the clan despite never formally running for the position. Her high intelligence helps keep the clan safe, and on the rare occasions that she will bark out an order, often interpreted by one or two of the other dragons for the sake of those that struggle to understand her monotone, it is instantly obeyed, and never questioned.
There are times when she goes quiet, and the mood around her is melancholy at best, evident to even the coatls in the clan. This often occurs after a hatchling she grew particularly close to leaves the clan for whatever reason, echoing the abandonment she tries to forget. It tends not to take her too long to recover, although sometimes the help of members of the clan is needed, and she will return to her usual self.
At times she can also be quite playful with even the older dragons, teasing them mercilessly if their pride is dented, but always in good humour, which is normally reciprocated. There are some dragons she has learnt to leave alone, after a few aggravated gestures that even she could understand, but others, particularly Kanshi, she has no qualms about poking fun at.
Appearance
For a female fae, her size is average. Things like apparel have yet to appeal to her, and the same goes for changing her appearance subtly or completely. Her only current aim to to change her genes, transforming her appearance entirely away from the abandoned hatchling without changing her colours with the help of iridescent, shimmer and spines, which would darken her to match her occasional mood, and also make her seem a little less friendly to dragons who want to take advantage of her hospitality in ways she does not permit.
Now that the transformation has begun, she has often been mistaken for a dragon originating in the Scarred Wasteland, at least until the stranger sees her piercing pink eyes, in which she holds pride.
Abilities
Magic
As a fae, particularly one born within the Starfall Isles, KetsuekiRyuu’s magic is strong and she has little difficulty in channelling it to do various tasks. One of her main aims, as the sole Arcane Fae within the clan, is to reinforce the magical barriers around the lair, already almost unreachable as the unstable magic around the Observatory pulls it up, away from the ground that makes up the majority of the disintegrating and re-growing Focal Point.
While she likes to use her magic for the sake of the clan, there is one potent magic that she used selfishly. Her oath, swearing her to only enter the Observatory when the entire clan is granted space to live there, was bound with the strongest magic she possessed, to the extent that she cannot even fly near the Observatory.
Mêlée
With regards to physical fighting, she is useless. Her small frame makes her a difficult target to hit, but her own hits have no power behind them in turn, leaving her reliant on either her magic or the warriors of the clan on the rare occasion that she enters the coliseum. One day she has decided to spend enough time in there to classify herself as a warrior mage, but physical fighting is, and will always be, beyond her.
Trivia
- KetsuekiRyuu is Japanese for 'Blood Dragon'