Kiche

## Description and story

Kiche of the Thunder Grand (Kiche Nochelday in Ximi, literally meaning "Kiche of Lightning Great") is a

magical construct, or more specifically a doll, built by and belonging to Archmage Pluton.

Pluton was looking for a more permanent familiar. At first, he wanted a simple golem, but that proved to be too dependent on him. Of course, he wouldn't trust a random person to be his personal assistant either, so there really was just one option left for him: to build an advanced golem fueled by mixed souls.

Using normal souls was too dangerous, and so Pluton had to go through a long arduous process of breaking down souls to their most basic, mashing them together, and creating a brand new amalgamation.

Once an abomination of souls had been created, he needed a vessel.

Rather than go for a stereotypical clunky golem, he chose a more flexible humanoid form. For that a doll would be perfect.

Being versed in lightning magic and wanting the same of his servant, Pluton replaced the usual doll joints with steel balls. These balls would then be infused with lightning magic. Not being properly connected meant that the doll parts could easily bend and move in ways no human or construct could, while also acting as conduits and power. He placed one such steel ball into every joint of the construct as well as three major ones on the back of her head.

The doll was given real hair, though it is unknown whom it used to belong to. Since there's so much electricity going through Kiche, her hair tends to get messier the longer she's active and is bound to give static shocks to anyone who touches it.

For whatever reason, the mage decided to not give her any thumbs and instead gave her six fingers on each hand. Since the fingers are able to bend in any way they wish, the lack of standard thumbs isn't as much of a problem.

Once everything was ready, Pluton powered Kiche up. She was confused at first, with no idea about anything. He was surprised she even had any self awareness at all, but it didn't matter, as she turned out to be quite subservient and loyal regardless of her limited sentience.

Since then, Kiche has been by Pluton's side, doing everything he wants without question.

As she was imbued with some of Pluton's power, Kiche earned the nickname "Kiche of the Thunder Grand". In combat, she will bring down the power of lightning upon any who stand against her, her master, or anyone whom he has tasked her to defend.

Due to her electric affinity, she usually doesn't go outside into the rain unless forced to. Getting water into her structure may cause her to become erratic, bug out, or straight out shut down. This can be used to the advantage of her user, however, as she can be dumped at the bottom of a lake, completely light it up, and kill anything living that enters the water. Of course, it is far easier to just have her do so from the land.

Through each of her fingers she is able to summon a whip of lightning to strike down her foes. However, she usually uses this power to construct buildings for Archmage Pluton.

During the 13th century, before the Firmamental Break, Archmage Pluton developed a magical way to construct cheap buildings, fast. This would require a large iron rod to be positioned into the ground, lots of mud, and skill in both lightning and earth magic.

Once all is prepared, the mage will imbue the rod with lightning. Then, he will mold the mud into the shape he desires, around the rod. The mage will activate the rod, sending strong lightning throughout the muddy structure, hardening it, and making sure it stays in place with the shape it was given. It basically creates primitive bricks. A few meters of the rod remain outside the top of the structure in order to catch lightning and move it throughout so it keeps its shape and doesn't collapse.

It's not a great way to construct buildings, but it became widely used post-Break in places that had bad land and couldn't really support normal foundations, such as the swamps of Oknamizemoor or the small islands of the Shattered Isles.

Starting with the town of Pluton, founded by and named after said Archmage, this technique became the most common settlement style for the Shattered Isles region.

Rather than spend time having to set up all these structures himself, Pluton had Kiche do it for him. Thus, Kiche of the Thunder Grand became a sort of architect and builder, and, ironically, more popular than Pluton himself.

Kiche was constructed during the Bjorn's Campaign civil war in the latter 10th century and is still part of Pluton's arsenal as late as the 15th century.

## Design

Kiche is built as a general human sized doll, but her joints are made of magical steel balls and aren't truly connected to the limbs. This allows the body parts to move in many more ways than normal dolls can. Her skin is totally grey.

Her hair is orangeish with white strikes here and there. The hair used to belong to a real person, though it us not know who that was.

Like her joints, her eyes are a blue shade. They conduct electricity as well. On the back of her head are three conduits that act as the main power source. Kiche will continue to operate even if the three are damaged, but she will be far weaker.

Her hand has six fingers on each, with no thumb. As her main way of combat is to summon thin lightning whips from her finger tips, the amount of fingers helps her to attack stronger and cover a larger area.

As for the rest of her design, it is fairly simple. Most of the time, she will wear a simple dress, some pants, and boots. Kiche will never change clothing unless Archmage Pluton wishes her to.