Anik
From Gameresource
Contents |
[edit] Mechanics
[edit] General Information
Name: Anik
Caste: Full Moon
Totem: Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
Tell: Black diagonal bands across his face, unblinking eyes with vertical pupils
Anima: A coiling, massive snake.
Motivation: To neutralize any threat to the Night Sky Regime.
Intimacies:
[edit] Attributes
Strength ****
Dexterity ****
Stamina ****
Charisma *
Manipulation ****
Appearance ***
Intelligence **
Wits ****
Perception ****
[edit] Abilities
Athletics **
Awareness ***
Dodge **
Integrity *
Linguistics * (Flametongue)
Lore **
Martial Arts *****
Occult **
Performance **
Presence **
Resistance ****
Sail *
Stealth **
Survival ***
War ****
[edit] Backgrounds
Artifacts: ***** (Moonsilver Celestial Battle Armor)
Backing: ** (Night Sky Regime)
Command: ** (One Scale of magically equipped soldiers, provided by the Regime.)
Henchmen: * (Mortal technicians.)
Manse: *** (Snakeskin Stone - Currently committed to his CBA.)
Reputation: ** (A bit too well known for the killing, perhaps?)
Wealth: ** (Purchased: Resplendent Personal Assistant)
[edit] Virtues
Compassion *
Conviction ***
Temperance **
Valor *****
Virtue Flaw: Curse of the Lone Wolf
Limit: 0/10
Essence ***
- Personal: 19/19
- Peripheral: 43/48
- Committed: 5m (5m negated from Aegis-Inset Amulets)
Willpower: 8
[edit] Combat
Armor [Celestial Battle Armor]: +15L/+15B Soak, 10L/10B Hardness, Mobility 0, Fatigue 1
Essence Gauntlets: +2 Acc, +10L or +15B punch, +1 Def, Rate 2, P
Essence Projection: +2 Acc, 10L or 15B, Rate 2
Health Levels
-0:
-1 x2:
-2 x2:
-4 x5:
Incapacitated:
Dying x8:
[edit] Charms
Third Strength Excellency
Might-Bolstering Blow
Rousing Bear Throw
Second Dexterity Excellency
Third Stamina Excellency
Relentless Lunar Fury
- Might-Bolstering Blow
- Durable Battle Mind
- Bruise-Relief Method
- Halting the Scarlet Flow
[edit] Knacks
Prey's Skin Disguise
Deadly Beastman Transformation
- Fangs, Enhanced Sense, Nightvision, Thick Scales, Toxin
- Gift Charms: Bruise-Relief Method, Halting the Scarlet Flow
Life of the Hummingbird
[edit] Fluff
[edit] Background and Outlook
What happens to a soldier when the war is over? What happens to a weapon in a time of peace? For the man once called Eight Headed Shuu, it was an easy idea. Grow old and rusty with his beloved, enjoying the era of peace they had ushered in during a time of war. A surgical striker in the Primordial War, his talents for right action transferred easily to acting on the deliberative floor, lobbying for causes his tactician Dawn caste wife had seen fit to support. By and large, they were one of the happy couples, the sort other celestial couples envied.
It was an unfortunate event, a weapons test for the event of an emergency gone awry, and when the core of the manse when supernova, all present were threatened. The vicious serpent of war threw himself into action, going up in a flash with words of regret and love on his lips. His eyes never left her until his very being was reduced to base Essence. He wasn't the only casualty that day, but by using his massive strength to hold the shutters closed a bit longer, a good deal many more were spared.
She never got over it. To be fair, had their positions been reversed, he never would have either, but Solars have a certain way of making their feelings better known across the entirety of Creation. So, when Anik was found, three days after activating a distress beacon as the sole survivor of a military unit sent in to handle a Wyld anomaly, there were some questions.
How had he won? By picking and choosing when to strike the monster, patching together his gear from that of dead comrades. How had he survived? As a southerner, he was use to harsh conditions and planned accordingly, laying low in the worst of the heat and striking at night. Had he been Exalted long? The truth of the matter is he only noticed the silver glow as he was finishing slaying the beast, a final, desperate bear-hug until his Gunzosha armor and the creature's skull finally gave. It only took a cursory examination to figure out one of the great heroes of the war had been reborn.
Of course, she wasn't in the right mindset to receive him, after his basic training. He never really compared right to Shuu. How could he? Shuu had been a warrior without peer, a brilliant man who had taken to being a perfect compliment to his wife. Anik was the son of travelling performers, technically skilled and intelligent, but only really good at the sort of killing that had driven him into the service of the Deliberative. He didn't have his predecessor's charm, only his wits. He was useful as a weapon, and nothing more.
As far as most of the other Solars were concerned, Shuu never reincarnated. His widow had gone from a socialite to a cold woman, throwing herself headlong into more efficient solutions for any potential accident or emergency that could challenge what the two had worked for. Some theorized his shard had perhaps been destroyed in the calamitous accident that claimed his life. Others assured her he would be found, reincarnated and waiting. Until then, she had her work, and her soldiers. In particular one she kept close, a masked man whom was her bodyguard and favorite research dummy. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he somehow got the shard, they whispered?
Anik of course did what he always did. He repressed. He denied. He persevered and followed orders. Somewhere along the lines he began to stop thinking of himself as a person and more as what he was used as. A soldier. A weapon. Of course he wouldn't be accompanying her to the Calibration party. It'd be the same having your men cart an essence cannon about behind you. Not to be done.
Anik still can play out the moments in his head. Dead asleep, as was his custom, only for the alert to go off on his Personal Resplendent Assistant. She was under attack. She needed him. And then an almost immediate request, half-order, half-plea for all units to stand down. He considered for a minute, feeling the stirrings of the man he had been when he'd refused to die to the creature from beyond the edge of the world, then quietly dialed the volume on the alarm to silent. Issued the orders to stand down. And allowed himself the smallest, bitterest smile.
Most of the Night Sky Regime was shocked to find out who he was and had been all along, and further surprised that he had, in his own way, been so quick to join their cause. He was an asset at first, a great tool for helping drive out those stubborn remnants. And then... he returned home. They'd let him know when they needed him next. They'd send someone to check. He had a house to help pull back into working order. He had a lot to think over, anyways.
Namely...
What happens to a soldier when the war is over? What happens to a weapon in a time of peace?
[edit] Appearance
Anik typically is dressed in his customized armor. As his armor is designed from a scaled up suit and largely rebuilt suit of Gunzosha armor, it retains the minimalist, sleek lines of a standard commando suit of gear; perhaps the only obvious clues it isn't a simple soldier's gear is the command insigna and additional exhaust vents on the back, to release the excess heat from the more advanced equipment onboard.
For those rare times Anik makes an appearance without his armor, he typically dresses in simple clothes, preferring browns and greens. He is roughly about six feet tall, and typically wears a guarded, neutral expression at all times. Despite her death, he still wears the half-face mask that his Solar demanded he wear at all times outside of his armor.
