Character Name: Jakkanth Rosbane
Race: Oblivionite (Highly Diluted "Hybrid" of Part Dovaa Blood, 15/16 Obliv; 1/16 Dovaa)
Gender: Male
Sex: Male
Orientation: Heterosexual
Path: Battler
Clan: Ayrala
Class: Undecided (Currently: Anything but barbarian)
Appearance: Visibly indistinguishable from other oblivionites, Jakkanth looks for all practical purposes like the rest of his kin: dark skin and hair, no eyes, and will grow all the parts that an oblivionite does as he grows. The only physical attribute that arguably attests to his dovaa blood are several patches of dryer, rougher skin on the backs of his shoulders and down his left side that may be related to the genetics for scale development. He does not have scales, however, or horns, and is rather self-conscious about these dry patches, which he keeps treated with moisturizer with ritualistic persistence in an attempt to minimize their notability.
Tentatively: Dark grey skin, straight black hair. (Need to further develop this since I am having trouble imagining him looking different from the premade.)
Personality:
Straight-laced: Rules are made to be followed. They are not always fair, they are not always just, but they are in place for a reason, and until you have the power to change them yourself, it is not your place to complain or rebuke them. Jak has a very strict and narrow definition of how the world ought to work and tends to see everything, for better or for worse, in black and white (haha?).
Conformist: In line with the previous trait, Jak does not feel any special need to stand out or fight authority, even when he considers what is being done 'wrong' or unfair/unjust. Things work best in his opinion when everyone stays in the role they were allotted and does not cause trouble. This does not, however, prevent him from seeing the problems in the world or mentally critiquing the system. He simply keeps his critiques to himself.
Cynical: The world is a dark and broken place. Those alive in it should make the best of whatever lot they were given and do so without complaint. Jak is a practical cynic, though. He does not wallow in self-pity or bemoan the evils of the world, but rather simply sits with his opinion that things are unlikely to get better. The best that can be done from wherever you sit is to try not to let them get worse.
Charmless: Between his black-or-white attitude about the world to his unwillingness to step out of line barring extreme circumstances, Jak is not an especially fun or charming person to be around. He is polite, when it suits him, presentable, direct, and keen. But not charming. Unfortunately for him, his own lack of charm and understanding of it also tends to leave him clueless or blind to it when others are attempting to flirt with/woo or otherwise charm him. It comes with the side benefit, though, of being largely immune to flattery that might be intended to manipulate him.
Precise: Everything has a place. Just as a period goes precisely at the end of a line to denote the end of a sentence and the sun follows a strict and singular pattern through the sky without wavering, all things have a path to follow and a role to fill. Nature is beauteous in its dedication to patterns and precision. People are less reliable and as such much more frustrating. Jak, though, makes an effort to see that at least he is always in order, from the buttons on his coat being nocked precisely so to the curves of his handwriting being exactly in line and shaped as they should.
Private: What Jakkanth thinks of you, or anyone or anything else for that matter, is none of your business or anyone else's but his own. Similarly, his space is his sanctuary and he does not appreciate eyes or fingers meddling where they do not belong. He does everyone else the courtesy of not nosing about in their business and expects the same treatment, often to his disappointment and displeasure when these expectations are not met.
Helpful: Despite the impression others may get from his tight-lipped and stiff exterior attitude, Jakkanth is generally very willing to lend a helping hand. As previously stated, just because the world is unlikely to get any better does not mean that things should not be done to help prevent it from getting worse. With this attitude at his hip, Jak may well be found doing all manner of things, including helping to mend a leaky roof here or delivering a letter there, minding the stables for a half hour, or house-sitting your contemptuous little feline that you couldn't convince the docking crew to allow you to bring on your ocean vacation to a distant island for a week. The crucial point to note is that he will not take action in this way as any sort of rebellion against societal norms, and if 'helping' in a given case would be seen as controversial or inappropriate for one of his standing, he is unlikely to act.
Hard-working: If you are going to do something, do it right. Jakkanth does not believe in cutting corners, and he applies that concept to the fullest extent when he goes about undertaking any task himself. If at first he doesn't succeed, he try-tries again.
Capable: Between his helpfulness and his hard-working attitude and eye for precision, Jakkanth will end up developing a wide and useful range of skills, some of which would not necessarily be expected of a nobleman, including but not limited to: fixing and building things, cooking, gardening, and animal care. Above and beyond this, Jak will also be generally competent at the things he is expected to learn and is taught as a growing boy, including swordsmanship, archery, calligraphy, history, and literature among other things. While he is not 'world class' at any of these things, he is capable. One might even call him a 'Jak of All Trades' (hah...ha...).
Honest: Tell it straight, like you should have the first time. Despite having grown up among the upper echelons of noble society in the capital city of a race that stems from darkness, deceit, and a goddess of chaos (or perhaps because of these things), Jakkanth has very little patience for lies or liars, and he doesn't tend to waste time on them himself. This isn't to say that Jak will 'spill the beans' on any secret or doesn't know how to cover for himself, he does, but he prefers to achieve that by not opening his mouth without putting thought first into what he will say rather than lying outright. Because he is already a quiet and private individual, he gets away with a great deal of very short answers that, while true, don't say much or anything at all. This is exactly how he likes it.
When he does decide to speak in more detail about something, though, Jakkanth still tends to be truthful, and if he chooses to grace you with his opinion, it is likely his honest one.
Cultured: Having been raised noble, Jak was exposed a great range of culturally significant material. He engrossed himself in the history he was taught, loves old poetry, music, and the arts. Even the different religions fascinate him. But good luck getting him to engage smoothly in conversation about them.
Biography/Background: Jakkanth spent his formative years much as any other young oblivionite noble. Born in the heart of Obsidian City to a powerful bloodline, he had all he could ever want for. His parents, though, took special care to see to it that he did not become 'lazy' and that he learned a proper respect for rules and authority. This impressioned itself upon him as best as could possibly be hoped for. Under rigid tutelage and the watchful eye of both his parents and various hired caretakers, Jak grew into a strictly-managed, upstanding young aristocrat who listened a great deal more than he spoke. His mother, in particular, played an iron-hand role in his upbringing with enough of a sharp tongue, cold wit, and authoritarian demand for the best and nothing less that even after growing into a young man in his own right, Jak may have a lingering tendency towards being more readily subservient to the whims and commands of women.
On or about his thirteenth or fourteenth birthday, Jakkanth learns the 'great secret' of his birth and the reason behind his father's mysterious disappearance at a younger age. This 'secret', namely that his father bore a sliver of dovaa lineage in his veins and passed an even smaller percentage of that on to him, will affect others about him and how Jak must learn to deal with his secrets than it will affect his own perception of himself. When he inadvertently 'chooses' his clan in skirmish with an ayrala dragon, balancing who he perceives himself as and what he is physically will become more difficult. The ayrala dovaa magic, because of his diluted bloodline, will not affect his appearance (other than that the dry patches on his skin may get a slightly grayer tint and several strands of hair, which he will promptly pluck out, may go white), nor will he be able to properly control it, or certainly not at first, and never like a dovaa would.
Instead, the ayrala magic will be more reactive. While externally, Jak may be calm, an emotional event may cause the winds to pick up or bluster about his desk and disrupt his work inconveniently. When he is fighting, there will likely always be stray gusts that seem to move unnaturally in comparison with the previous direction of the winds. If he becomes especially stressed, the air may start to become less breathable for others in the room due to fluctuating oxygen content in accordance with his mood.
Thoughts on the Great Engagement: Publicly, Jakkanth expresses little to no opinion about the Great Engagement. As a dutiful conformist, he will say generally that those bound to the role of soldier ought to fight and the laws and orders of their great leader best be respected and complied with without question. Privately, Jak believes that the Great Engagement is one of the most wasteful engagements in the history of the peoples of Magesc. At the same time, the politics and convoluted strings of history that tie into it fascinate him, particularly when it comes to the fact that in the end, this endless war was ordained on them by the will of something above which there is no higher power: the goddesses themselves.
In many ways, this is the root of Jakkanth's cynicism. The worst and most needlessly bloody and hateful dilemma ever to waste the time, resources, and lives of his people was put into motion by the very power that gave them breath to waste to begin with. A paradox, almost, and a very depressing one.
Thoughts on the Magescian Races:
- Oblivionites: Oblivionites are his people. Jakkanth considers himself to be oblivionite wholeheartedly and that will never be shaken. He believes his people are a complex, dark and deceitful race with splinters of goodness strewn throughout. He believes the structure of their society runs on rules and a hierarchy of power. Oblivionites have the most efficient soldiers because they have only one life to live and everything to lose if they don't.
Orderites: Orderites are the enemy. They are not his enemy, per se, but he understands them as the enemy to his people. Rarely can they be reasoned with, but on the off chance that they could be, Jak believes there may be much to learn from them. More than many people give the race credit for, in any case. He would prefer, though, to do that learning from a distance. The thought of interacting with one in person leaves a foul taste in his mouth.
Dovaa: Was this race not just an afterthought of a god who was too careless until too late to see what was going on beneath his nose? Jakkanth does not know what to make of dovaa, but he will in time meet and interact with some, even on occasion from a young age, when diplomats gather with his family to discuss battle tactics and fashion. Regardless of this limited exposure, the dragon race is wild, unpredictable, uncooth, and a little dirty. Finding out that that he is, at least in some minimal fraction, related to this race may make him bathe more often.
Hybrids: Jakkanth has never and will never consider himself hybrid. Even after his parentage is revealed, it simply is not who he is. Hybrids a strange lessor, an alien anomaly, an unplanned accident: thieves, monsters, miscreants, lost souls, wretched, destitute, homeless, strange, exotic, outcast, and unwanted. They are uncultured because they have no culture. They are bound to be forever wanderers because no place is their own. They are raceless because they are not any of the things which have names. Hybrids are undefinable, but he has definition. If anything, discovering that a great-great-grand someone or another in his family history was dovaa will stoke his curiosity, but further cements his identity as an oblivionite. He is rule-bound, clean, and ordered, where hybrids obey no law of lord or god.
Thoughts on the Dragons and Khehora: Khehora were designed to be bonded. Those are the rules that ought to govern them. Feral khehora feel to Jak much like hybrids in the sense that they are anomalies and out of character with their intended design. Just as hybrids should not be born, khehora should not be feral. Dragons are ferocious beasts and a great source of power. Beyond that, he is not altogether interested in them.
Statistics: INT: 4. DEF: 5. ATK: 2.
Quote for cert: Equality is a popular fiction.
