Likulau

**Likulau** (**李克勞**, a.k.a. **Clouded Leopard**) is one of the primary characters in Nekojishi and Nekojishi: Lin & Partners.

## Introduction

*"A clouded leopard from the Rukai, with a tattoo of Hundred Pacers on his body.*

*A subordinate of the King of Hundred Pacers (aka. master of the dead), Aidridringane. The leopard brought spirits of the dead to view a performance and met Liao there. Sensing the potential within Liao, he wanted to convince Liao to deal with the problems that have been troubling his people for a long time.*

*He often does things without thinking but believes in the conviction of his morals and is extremely determined. He doesn’t know Mandarin Chinese so communication can be difficult, leading him to come off as cold at times. However, at the heart of his personality, he is a passionate and sensitive person."*

## Background

**Likulau** is an aboriginal clouded leopard spirit hailing from the Rukai legends. Subservient to the King of Hundred Pacers **Aidridringane**, an omnipresent spirit of immense power, Leopard carries out its will providing guidance to the Rukai people both in life and the afterlife.

Possessed of keen intellect and sharp instincts, Leopard is a quick learner and swift on his paws. Imbued with a sliver of the Master of the Dead's spiritual power, Leopard travels through the *Spirit Paths* darting from place to place in mere moments. In his role as pathfinder, Leopard also leaps alongside other spirits to guide them through the spirit paths to their destinations.

In the past, Rukai spirit mediums such as *Oracles* (*barakalai*) and *Witch Doctors* (*taraivigi*) with considerable spiritual power can sense the clouded leopard prowling in the glades and forests of the mountains. In times of need or crisis, Leopard would empower and awaken the mediums' *Third Eye* (陰陽眼), in order to commune with the Rukai tribes and lead them to settle elsewhere better. Two such tribes, **Kochapongane** and **Kongadavange**, were some of many tribes guided by Leopard to thrive in new lands; eventually, Leopard guides the **Wutai** (*Vedai*) tribe to settle in Wutai township. After many generations, Leopard returns to Wutai once more, troubled by the impending danger that may befall the Rukai people living there and the lack of spirit mediums to communicate with to prevent said disaster.

During an undetermined time period, Leopard visited the coastal island of Sanxiantai (三仙台) on Aidridringane's wishes and befriended the local Sea Dragon God Jifa Wu-An, who was out drinking at the time and was asked by the King of Hundred Pacers to watch over Likulau.

Before the story of Nekojishi began, Leopard caught wind from the spirit realm of an aboriginal dance performance dedicated to Rukai traditions soon to occur in Taipei. With interest piqued among kindred spirits and struck with curiosity, Leopard agreed to bring them to Taipei through spirit path to see the performance. Arriving in time, Leopard and the spirits were enticed by the dancers' display of physical prowess. Meanwhile, Liao was hard at work helping out backstage on performance night. Sensing potent spiritual essence emanating from somewhere close to the stage, Leopard leapt forth and soon discovered the source.

Fearing the loss of this rare opportunity, Leopard channeled his spiritual power to awaken Liao's third eye, but in the process causes Liao to feel exhausted from the sudden surge of *Chi* (靈氣). At the end of the performance, Leopard quickly gathered the spirits and guided them back, before returning to Taipei to follow Liao home, in hopes to reach out and acquaint with his newfound oracle.

## Personality

He can appear silent and stoic with a crude manner of speaking in parts due to his initial lack of proficiency at the Mandarin language. Despite this, he makes an effort to communicate and understand others. As a spirit of an aboriginal tribe, he possesses very little knowledge of the modern world in general. Because of that, he can be curious and naive at times, to the point of being gullible. This also partially accounts for his social awkwardness and passivity.

He values his tribe greatly and has often times shown considerable concern and anxiety for his people and their safety. He can also be very devoted to those he cares about. However, his conviction can lead to wrongful doings on his side, like attacking Liao.

## Appearance

He appears as an anthropomorphic, muscular clouded leopard. On his inner truncal area is a blue tattoo of the Hundred Pacers. White and ochreous yellow are the dominant colors of his pelage, and a large portion of his body is littered with large dark dusky-grey spots. Striped patterns of a similar color appear on his tail, near his cervical area on the back and run through both of his shoulder napes. Cursive lines decorate the two sides of his face. His ears and the tufts of fur in between are close to black. His eyes are bright yellow. His tail is tipped black at the end.

In his first appearance in Nekojishi, he wears a black, hooded topwear that exposes the front of his upper body as well as black shorts with a blue cloth on the side. Both his topwear and bottomwear share the same pattern of what seems to be the Hundred Pacers along the edges. He wears black finger-less gloves and open socks. Additionally, he dons a yellow neck accessory.

## Abilities

Out of the three cats, Likulau is the most powerful, according to Lin Hu.

* **Chi Absorption:** Like Lin Hu, Likulau can absorb the Chi from his offerings.
* **Intangibility:** Like any other spirits, he can't be touched by normal people. Only the ones who have their Third-Eye awakened can touch him.
* **Flight:** In the game, Likulau is described to have the ability of flight.
	+ **Shapeshifting:** A deity does not have a fixed appearance and he can transform to whatever he wants.
* **Object Levitation:** As a spirit, he can move objects around.
* **Spiritual perception:** As a spirit, he can sense other spirits and gods nearby. He can also track down spirits he has encountered.
* **Lightning Channeling:** Likulau can channel lightning in his hands and can shoot it out as bolts.
* **Spiritual Binding:** Likulau can use spiritual vines to restrict gods, spirits and people from moving.
* **Soul Taker:** Likulau can extract a person's soul from their body. This technique is taught to him by Leopard Cat.
* **Spirit Pathfinding & Traversal:** Likulau is described to have the ability to find and use Spirit Paths.
* **Third-Eye Awakening:** In the game, Likulau awakened Liao's Third-Eye so he can see him. It is unknown if he can awaken someone's Third-Eye with weak spiritual power or not, as Liao has decent spiritual power.
* **Possession:** Like the other cats, Likulau can possess people's bodies. He is so powerful that he can also control people without actually possessing them.
* **Supernatural Agility:** In the game, he is known to move extremely fast and can dodge things easily.

## Trivia

* The English script from the v1.06 update of Nekojishi mainly refers to him as *Leopard*.
* Likulau is based on the Taiwanese Clouded Leopard.
* Likulau has also been called *Clouded Leopard* (雲豹) and *Leopard* (豹) by Liao, *Kulau* (克勞) by Liao and Senpai, and *Aborigine* (原住民) by Tiger.
* Likulau means *Clouded Leopard* in the *Rukai* language, so Likulau is not actually his name.
* In Nekojishi, Lin Hu states that Likulau is more than 2 times stronger than he is, which explains why despite being a Guardian Tiger, he hasn’t been able to kick Likulau out of Liao’s house.
* Three years after the events of Nekojishi, Likulau now speaks Mandarin Chinese fluently.

## Quotes

* (To Liao) *"Sia likulau aku"*
* (To Liao) *“I will not leave you to anyone else.”*
* (To Liao) *“Think of you. I will.”*
* (To Liao) *“Teach me. Dance.”*
* (To Liao) *“I want try.”*

## Gallery

* Clouded Leopard Likulau splash art.
* Leopard's blue energy symbolizing his affinity to lightning.
* Kulau enjoying the sunshine above the trees.
* Kulau daydreaming in beautiful nature.
* Kulau's pokerface!
1/5
Clouded Leopard facial expressions concept artLikulau concept art Likulau phone wallpaper Likulau's reminder about Taiwan Aboriginal Day
## References

1. ↑ Nekojishi Official Website: Characters - Clouded Leopard Likulau
2. ↑ Nekojishi BKIH on Twitter: Likulau Concept Art
3. ↑ Nekojishi BKIH on Twitter: "各位玩家大家好！ 非常感謝大家，我們的募資進度已經到三十萬了！"
4. ↑ Nekojishi BKIH on Twitter: "大家好！ 今天8月1日，是我們的台灣原住民日喔！"

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