Seika

## Background

Kurayami Seika is a noble in the service of Master Kai, lord of the Acolytes of the Phoenix and holds a place of honor in his court in the elemental plane of fire.

As a fire genasi, his entire body is wreathed in flame in a mixture of oranges and yellows. His hair is in a loose ponytail that flickers and waves with blue fire, and a similar hue emanates from his eyes and mouth. His actual skin has the appearance of dark rock similar to obsidian, with his face resembling a mask carved from smooth stone.

Being from the Plane of Fire, his clothing has no equivalent in any culture of the material plane, and consists of loose pants that are almost like a split skirt, a white shirt with silken sleeves, and a vest with ornamentation resembling the wings of a phoenix. The only weapon Seika carries on his person is a *tantō* tucked into his waistband.

## Personality

While he is a respected member of his order and quite knowledgeable about the major and minor elemental planes, his familiarity with the material plane is very limited. Seika is often baffled by simple things such as customs, creature biology, or some basic rule of nature that does not hold true in his home realm. He is polite to a fault and will simply smile an otherworldly grin when he is confused rather than risk embarrassing those around him. The more confused he is, the wider his grin, to the point that his eyes narrow into thin slits when dealing with some people.

His primary motivation is to serve Master Kai, and to Seika this extends to those related to him. He sees his duty to his lord as indistinguishable as his duty to his home plane and to the good of all.

## Relationships

### Greckles

Greckles and Seika both speak Auran and share a lot of culture between them, and they even know many of the same people. Greckles often refers to Seika as "Kurayami-san" as a token of respect appropriate to their shared culture.

Seika himself is nothing if not obedient, a result of his position within the order and serving directly under the Master. Seika is fiercely protective of Greckles' safety, sometimes reminding him that he is meant to be the "Hero of Legend". Despite this he has also shown to be quite wise and more than capable of thinking on his own, and has on occasion given Greckles lectures meant to educate him on what Seika feels he needs to do.

### Remy

For the most part, Seika and Remy get along amicably. However, the two nearly butted heads when it came to a difference in warrior ideology. When locating the dead Goliath king and discovering that he impaled himself on his own spear, Remy called the lost king a coward for taking his own life, whereas Seika saw it as an appropriate death for someone who lost everything. When Remy moved the body from the throne as a means of giving it a proper resting place, Seika took particular offense, accusing Remy of "dethroning" the king posthumously and desecrating the site. It took Task providing a compromise to the situation to clear the tension.

## Trivia

* MontyGlu recruited Mark Allen, Jr. because her ideal guest star for the arc needed to speak reasonably fluent Japanese, have a good understanding of Dungeons and Dragons, and a schedule that could accommodate the streams. One of Monty's local friends familiar with the situation had the bright idea of contacting the friend of Edward Bosco who helped him write the letter in formal Japanese that was featured in Episode 117 / Podcast 104: Bird Business.
* Mark was the person that assisted Bosco in writing the letter in formal Japanese.
* Mark Allen, Jr. has a degree in Japanese and at one time held a rating of N2, though he admits he is very rusty due to not using it enough.
* The primordial language of Auran is represented in-game by Japanese.
* When formatting the character's name, Seika is the given name, while Kurayami is the surname. In his culture, the surname comes before the given name, which allows it to read as Kurayami Seika. This naming convention is a common tradition in many cultures.
* When asked, Mark Allen Jr. said that Seika would be a Tibetan Fox if he were transported to the Dog Zone. MontyGlu agreed.
* In a Q&A session on 7/14/21 Mark revealed that Seika was asexual and had no plans to have offspring.

## Gallery

* Seika fanart by @Yggdrassal
* Seika fanart by @ArtsArukana
* Seika fanart by @nikkiTsquare
* Seika fanart by @TheropodArt
* Official Seika art by @BrachyZoid
* Seika fanart by @KaijuZ
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