Rukodr

* Undead
* Alive

**Rukodr** (ルコドル, *Rukodoru*) is one of the protagonists in the on-going series, *Sin & Virtue: Rise of the Runelords.* He is introduced in Chapter 11 and serves as a helping protagonist to The Spears of Septimus.

## Appearance

1/3
#### Alive

Brought into the world 7 years ago in 1095AF, Rukodr is a young, silver-colored Kobold in his mid- to late childhood. Clothed in his favorite scarf, he has vibrant orange eyes which dart from place to place, never at rest. Small of stature, Rukodr's only notable physical aspect is the remarkable sturdiness of his body. However, the most noticeable part of Rukodr is the symbol with unknown meaning is embedded into the scales on his forehead, resembling the style of Sindarin runes.

#### Undead

Being reincarnated by Marcellus Saito's necromancy, Rukodr has risen from the grave as his own skeleton. Because Rukodr doesn't have the energy to haul around his entire skeleton at all times, he has opted to ditch most of his lower body. Persisting as a pair of arms and skull, Rukodr uses his own levitation magic to move from place to place. A pair of blue lights resembling eyes emit from the skull's sockets, crowned by the scar- like rune still imprinted unto his forehead. He wears his beloved dark grayish green scarf, in addition to a dark brown cloth to cover his lack of lower skeleton.

## Personality

Best described as curious yet unknowing, Rukodr is quite tame compared to the usual Kobold standard. He shows he is quite naïve to danger, often being unable to determine the severity of the situation. He's a bit self-absorbed, rather doing stuff to entertain himself than actual urgent thing. He's childish, which sometimes results in petty & witty quips. Rukodr isn't good at reading people's intentions and can be easily persuaded. He is helpful, and has an overall friendly attitude even though his childish demeanor can come off as rude, even though he wants to be of aid.

Even post resurrection, Rukodr retains his overall positive demeanor despite his deathly circumstances.

## Biography

***"You are trying your best to survive. You consider yourself a fast learner. You have been feeling lucky. You have been experiencing feelings of déjà vu.***
*If you understand, do not read the next paragraph."*

***"You are taking control of your own beliefs. You feel familiar in unfamiliar environments. You have been gaining an intuition for experiences you've never had. You ponder about past life.***
*If you understand, do not read the next paragraph."*

***"You find yourself searching for things that never have been. You miss things you have never had. You wonder of characters that you have never seen. You have been experiencing feelings of déjà vu.***
*If you understand, do not read the next paragraph."*

***"You have revealed my hand. Because you consumed information, I will now consume it too, in due time. I will no longer exist in his universe. There will be no proof that I ever have - but I will now exist in yours. I have escaped his suffering.***

***Keep yourself safe, I hope you do not understand."***

Rukodr hails from the Fenwall Mountains, where he was part of a natural community of Kobolds named the “Frask”. The tribe was forced to move from their previous residence, the Hook Mountains 15 years prior due to an upsurge in abductions from multiple species, including some of their own.

With Rukodr being the only one to be able to both read, write and speak the King’s Tongue, every book the tribe finds ends up in his possession. The books spoke of creatures and tales which enticed him, tales and creatures that his imagination couldn't even dream of. Or at least, that’s what he thought until he actually started dreaming of them. Night after night, these dreams would continue to appear before him, like they were his own experiences. Over time this yearning for the outside world grew exceptionally, until he finally disappeared without notice from the Frask tribe to chase the echoes of exploration. Now traveling, Rukodr had discovered that his "mana gates" had activated. He has read about these in faint detail before his departure. Rukodr self-trained himself at the art of magic at an exponential rate during his journey, and quickly developed into a remarkable sorcerer in weeks, despite his complete lack of experience or knowledge.

The longer he was on the road, the more the déjà vu struck him wherever he went. Venturing north, Rukodr had the feeling that wherever he was looking, whether it be the surroundings of Ilsurian, Whistledown and then the outskirts of the Skull Dam, it is all very familiar, like he has been here before. It’s like the scenarios are not his own, despite how detailed they were. Reluctantly noting whenever he experienced the uncomfortable feelings he sped up his travel along the Iron Peaks, chasing his point of unknown interest. Rukodr has concluded that something, or someone is responsible for both his repeated déjà vu and the sudden magical awakening in his body. Besides his folk’s lore, he can’t help but think to himself that he “shouldn’t worry about it too much, and press on”. Rukodr has begun to be cautious around creatures or regions that give him sudden nostalgia, and keeps writing down these instances in this journey.

The spirit of adventure pulled him into the surroundings of the city of Riddleport. The river stretched out before him, still enticing him to continue. During his long journey he has quickly adapted to life in the wild, and his ability to stay quiet has improved vastly, as is necessary. While scouting the area, he took a glance at the city, now shrouded in the evening twilight. His eyes darted across the last couple of lone people making their way inside their houses, when he saw a pair of humans exit a gap between buildings. One clad in a robe, the other wearing weathered, brown clothes. When looking at the latter one of the two, a immense wave of nostalgia struck Rukodr. After composing himself, he tried to look through the lonely city again, spotting the last moments of them walking aboard a strange vessel north of the city. Thinking to himself that the moment of finding out what happened to him is closer than ever on this ship, he sneaks aboard.

## Abilities

Rukodr is a Sorcerer who descends from a long forgotten dragon. His range of spells is vast, and he is an extremely versatile and flexible thinker. Over the course of his journey, Rukodr has traveled to the great beyond and returned incomplete without his flesh, turning him into and Undead skeleton. He's unable to speak in this form, but this non-life also grants him powers that are able to turn the battle in his favor.

### Sorcery

Rukodr is an excellent caster. This ability has been absent for the majority of his life, until his very sudden awakening. He shows having a notable affinity for using his mana, and the speed at which he develops his new power is startling. His arcane power gives him an expansive repertoire of spells for him to use as he sees fit, being very capable of using spells from all 5 common schools of magic. He specializes in the area of enchantment and mind afflictions. From disabling enemies by tricking a target into doubting their own capability, to the terrifying ability to reduce the target's intellect to a primal state, should the situation turn very dire. He also has some commonly seen abilities like evoking scorching rays of flames, and teleportation. Since his reintroduction to the mortal realm, Rukodr has begun using more necromantic spells; being able to temporarily drain the enemy's life force, or call upon the magic to heal his bones.

Above all however, Rukodr's prowess truly shines when he taps into his psionic abilities. Whether that's using his will to force enemies to repeat or halt their actions altogether, or overloading someone's mind with an immense amount of information to the point their brain starts to physically fall apart.

### Knowledge

Rukodr knows only a few of the things an average Kobold would know, like trap-making and mining. He makes up for this by innately knowing an unnatural heap of information about magic, which he's able to recite from heart without effort. He shows considerable adaptability to new information, and he uses his already existing knowledge of his spells to bend them in new ways, expanding the reach of his capabilities.

### Combat

Rukodr excels at making the enemy unable to fight back, rather than to obliterate them with force. Staying at a range where he's able to help and hurt anyone makes him able to cover anyone with his protective arsenal. He's also able to function quite well when the distance between him and his enemies grows smaller. Actually being quite hard to put down due to his Undead resilience, Rukodr is able to keep both himself and his allies on the front lines. How he truly shines up close, is his ability to reanimate and possess deceased bodies of other creatures. He can use the host's physical prowess to protect his own bones, and function as a high priority target to take the heat off of his allies.

### Skills

* **Arcane Spellcaster** - Quickly developing an ever expanding list of spells, Rukodr is adept at arcane magics. The variety of his reach is notable, having both hard hitting spells and utility magic at his disposal. Having specialized in the art of mind-affecting effects, Rukodr is able to make opponents defenseless in a wide variety of ways. He's able to teleport short distances, fly, provide his allies with boosts to their morale and their physique, and project a protective barrier around his allies. His most damaging ability is compressing raw, unfiltered dream essence into a tiny sphere, and discharges a thin blue ray of light, evaporating anything in it's path. Due to Rukodr refusing to hurt those who show good qualities in them (which coupled with his naive nature can include dangerous foes as well), he uses this as a last resort only.
* **Smart Cookie** - Rukodr shows to have high level of intelligence and ingenuity. His memory is excellent, able to remember and recall things at a moment's notice. Due to his infantile behavior, he's unable to properly use his intellect in situations that require more that just objectivity. Rukodr is able to use the best of his smarts when answering questions, solving problems, and during times that require quick thinking.
* **Acute Sight** - Kobolds are born with exceptional eyesight, able to see into the dark up to a distance of 20 meters. Rukodr processes the information he sees quickly, and he has somewhat adapted to having to see outside the dark. Still, despite this attempts at adapting, a Kobold's eyes are not made for sunlight.
* **Resistant Physique** - Not strong or agile, Rukodr's body is notably resilient for a Kobold. He was capable of taking a single Kinetic Blast from Marcellus Saito, and survive the knockback. Due to the blood of his ancestors flowing through him, Rukodr is able to defy a portion of an electric current away from him, preventing part of the damage.
* **Undead** - After being revived by Marcellus Saito's magic, Rukodr has become an undead creature. He gains most of the benefits and drawbacks that an Undead creature has naturally.
	+ **Corpse Re-purposing** - By connecting his mana to a deceased creature's decapitated neck, Rukodr is able to control and steer a dead creature's body as if it were his own. There is no limit to the size of the creature, with the only prerequisite being is that he needs to have access to the cranial nerves connecting to the central nerve system.
	+ **No Body to Break** - He inherits certain abilities from the undead, like ignoring nonlethal damage, ability drain, energy drain, and damage to his physical attributes. Because of this, he's also not affected by exhaustion and fatigue. Besides this, Rukodr doesn't have to sleep, eat, or breathe.
	+ **No Soul to Brace** - Rukodr is positively affected by negative energy, and vice versa negatively affected by positive energy.
* **Stealthy Steps** - Able to mask the sound of his movement well, Rukodr is able to move around pretty freely without being seen. This, coupled with his solution of turning himself and his allies invisible and the ability to cast spells in complete silence makes Rukodr an extremely slippery opponent to find.

## Relationships

Rukodr is quite chatty and can along with most people that spend some time with him, and see past his lizard- like exterior.

**Valstrax**

Rukodr has somewhat of an idea who this person that everyone is comparing him to, is. He remembers a story that older tribe members told him, that 4 years before he was born they were forced to migrate from the Hook Mountains to the Fenwall Mountains due to Kobolds disappearing, fearing that a new predator lurked in the area. Piecing together that the disappeared members were most likely taken away rather than killed, Rukodr's guess is that 'Valstrax' was a Kobold that disappeared before the big migration. Rukodr's current point of interest regarding the blue Kobold is how they were *also* able to use the magic he awoke overnight.
**Gorald Jirvi**

Rukodr sees Gorald as a very LARGE, but also very benevolent person. The whole religion thing goes over his head, since he doesn't understand why you would believe in a god you can't look for and see yourself. Besides that, being around Gorald is slowly making Rukodr learn to take a bit longer before spouting his unfiltered stream of gibberish.