Serin

[Serin]

Name: Serin
Race: Kitsune (Youkai)
Personality: Self-confidence bordering on arrogance but surprisingly grounded for the most part, Serin is vivacious and charismatic and ephemeral all at once. While her parent's lessons and world-wise subtlety did not entirely come home to roost in their daughter, her upbringing did instill a certain respect for mystery, in knowing - or appearing to know - things that others do not; the young kitsune takes refuge in audacity, probing and incisive on wit and insight alike. She may not be wise per se, at least not when it applies to herself, but she is perceptive and attuned to people, and tries to leave behind growth in her wake by making others think... or at least messing with them until they kick her out. She doesn't bully, but Serin's love of teasing is as immense as her ego can sometimes be and she goes too far sometimes even if no harm was actually intended.

Possessed of the 'all-knowing wisdom' of all teenagers, mixed with elements of the actual wisdom passed down by her parents, she does a surprisingly good job of actually acting the part of wily trickster without actually understanding what she's doing sometimes, and for those more experienced it's not actually that hard to trip her up when she bites off more than she can chew intellectually - Serin is a bright kid, but she isn't as smart as she thinks she is and her impatience and dislike of being told what to do make her easier to read or even control than she knows. And while she thinks she knows people pretty damn well, and is indeed pretty perceptive, she is no master at the craft, not at the level of her parents.

While she does have a remarkable level of restraint for the most part when it comes to using her magic, Serin does have a tendency towards simple solutions when possible, and her impatience sometimes amplifies matters. She always took refuge in small-scale, meaningless usage of her magic, usually in secret, so it is not uncommon for her to act upon impulse for minor feats like adjusting natural seating or enhancing and watching flowers grow and bloom rapidly when bored; nothing fancy, but more than enough to betray some glimpse of her talents, though nothing of their outer reaches.

The lack of praise from her parents has left her hungry for positive reinforcement, and Serin positively blooms when praised, becoming eager to please. In some ways she is desperate for it, but not to the level of an obsession so much as a strong desire. She was not unloved, but wants to use her magic and be recognized positively for it. It is perhaps a very childish, or at least childlike, outlook, but one built on an almost naive level of well-meaning; she truly does altrustically want to use her magic for good, but also selfishly wants people to know she did it.

History: The tails of a kitsune are said to contain or at least represent their magical power - the more tails a kitsune possesses, the more they are to be respected... and feared. On average, a kitsune gains one for every century of life, though the number varies; it isn't uncommon to be a decade or two overdue. Very rarely, kitsune gain their second tail a few years early, perhaps as much as a decade. While the rate almost always settles back to the usual of one per century after that, early bloomers like that are often believed to be lucky or talented beyond their years, but also viewed with some suspicion by their elders.

Serin had her second tail by the time she could talk, and the third by the time she hit puberty.

Needless to say her childhood was an interesting experience for all involved. Her family were the guardians and spiritual mediums of a small valley far to the southeast of Elibe, a farming commune that was reasonably well known within a day's travel at best, offering the solace of belief in spirits and subtle geomancy to aid in harvests to make life simpler. Neither of them were especially prepared to deal with their precocious little prodigy's absurd connection to the earth; before she could talk she had already outstripped them in sheer magical prowess by a wide margin, and her growth was only exponential from there. Worse, she had no respect for magic itself, so used to her own power that she used it for even the most trivial things. It did not take a great deal of thought to foresee where her development would go.

But while they might not be as strong as she, her parents were made of tougher stuff, and they did not fear their daughter as some might. They were not simply charlatans who took over the valley by sheer force, but the keepers of the shrine at the center of the valley for generations, who used magic only as it was needed and made a science of the magic of people - learning the secrets and hopes and dreams of villagers and farmers and subtly helping them. It was not exactly magic in the traditional sense, but the people of the valley came to believe they had far more kinds of magic than they did.

So they turned their talents toward Serin as well, striving to teach her respect. Restraint with the magic she wielded, forcing her to do chores by hand to instill an understanding of what it was to live without that power, to not simply take it as the first solution to everything. Reading and influencing others without simply resorting to force; learning to understand rather than simply listen. They worked to teach her responsibility - respect for tradition, a work ethic; perhaps even something resembling patience.

It would be a minor understament to say that Serin herself was not especially enthusiastic about any of this, or that things did not always go exactly to plan - but the loving and often strict efforts of her parents did prevent her from going mad with power if nothing else, and allowed her to actually empathize with other human beings as more than simply lesser beings. Unfortunately, it also taught Serin subtlety of her own, developing and honing a wily trickiness in the headstrong youth to try to bypass those restrictions and go out on her own more and more as she grew - though as she learned many times, it was difficult to outfox the original tricksters despite her best efforts.

Still, it did keep the young kitsune's personal growth going in a somewhat acceptable direction, even when she gained her fourth tail at the ripe old age of 17 and celebrated the occasion by accidentally causing every field in a sizable chunk of the valley to bloom overnight. But even as she matured enough to finally begin to understand the value and necessity of those lessons, so too did the discontent within her grow - finally able to sort out her own feelings, Serin came to believe that she could do more for people - use her power for more than parlor tricks - and use it on a larger scale for the benefit of Elibe, rather than simply the people of the valley. At least that was what she told herself. It was likely there was more of her immaturity lurking behind that noble-sounding goal; simple thrill-seeking and the eternal teenage resistance to authority and wisdom.

Eventually the wanderlust took her and spirited her away from her home to see the world outside. Floating cities, ancient runes, plains where the dirt was soft and hot and the sun beat down relentlessly, even lakes so big that you couldn't see the other side, with waves bigger than a man. She had heard tales of the outside world and all its strange and wondrous inhabitants, and somewhere out there, Serin thought, there had to be somewhere she could feel like she actually belonged.

There may also have been a minor element of wanting to actually explore what she was truly capable of. Not even she really understand what the limits to her magic were.

Combat: Serin is a phenomenally talented geomancer, capable of freely manipulating earth and stone within a huge radius to erect barriers, swallow foes, or launch ballistic barrages of boulders; a mix of offense and defense that brings the world itself to bear against foes, though she has never really had cause to use it in an offensive capacity or thought much of how to abuse it in a fight. She has an equally impressive grasp of floramancy, and can bring a forest to life to harry her foes or more commonly just grow herself a nice little chair of bent and twisted branches to sit on.

The difference between potential and practice is fairly large - while she COULD be one of the most terrifying geomancers Elibe has ever seen, she actually hasn't done much of anything impressive since leaving the valley, aside from a few small-scale incidents, and definitely doesn't have anything resembling a killer instinct or even much of a desire for combat.

Stats:
Magic Power:3
Magic Range: 3
Magic Area: 3
Barrier