Kuno Waterun

**Kuno Waterun** is an Undine Magus from Oyashima. Initially serving as a member of the court of Kenji Ryu, he became involved with the Seekers of Divinity in order to help defend his home.

### Early Life

Kuno grew up in an undine community on the shore of a small island about a mile from Akihito. The Undine communities in Oyashima traditionally raise their young as a unit with everyone pitching in. As a result, he has a strong familial bond with everyone in that village - he saw everyone as either siblings, aunts/uncles, that sort. Through this, he developed an innate paternal instinct for kids. He idolized his mother, who was chieftain of the village and somewhat of a skilled sword master whereas his father always had his nose in a book. However, books were hard to come by in an isolated Undine village, so Kuno often tagged along with his father to visit Akihito to buy supplies and books - those special trips with his father were some of his fondest memories. Kuno proved to be a gifted prodigy in swordplay. It wasn’t long before he surpassed his mother and the best warriors in the village.

Kuno also has a younger brother named Takumi. They really tested each other’s patience growing up with Takumi becoming a bully to the other village kids, going so far as to form a small gang. It was all to try to get attention edgewise over their parent’s favoritism in Kuno. They were very much opposites in personality with Takumi being impulsive, hot-tempered, and witty, whereas Kuno was patient, level-headed, and a little air-headed. Takumi was also better at wielding magic while Kuno had the sword. As they matured, Takumi and Kuno grew closer, but it was a tentative truce. One day, Kuno received an invitation to begin an apprenticeship in Akihito with a famous master. That’s when Takumi went ballistic, frustrated mostly with his own inability to be as accomplished as Kuno. They fought and didn’t speak to one another for many years.

When Kuno surpassed his mother in his sword training, there was roughly a decade where his sword training stagnated. He pushed himself to the extremes all for the sake of “training”. Being young, this ended up just being misguided, reckless tasks. One day, he pushed himself too hard when he decided to swim straight into the deep waters of the Oyashima Sea. He got caught in a bad storm and got lost. He wandered for weeks, just barely surviving from passing schools of fish and seagulls. Eventually a ship happened upon him as he was floating on the surface, exhausted and famished. Much to his dismay, this ship was full of pirates that were quick to imprison him and sell him off as a rare Undine trophy for sex trafficking. For about 2 years, he was bounced around throughout Oyashima and used by anyone who could afford the chance to have sex with an Undine. Eventually, out of pure serendipity, one customer ended up being a business associate of his father when him and Kuno would visit Akihito to buy supplies. That guy pulled some strings to get Kuno out and get him sent back home. Ever since, Kuno was very averse to anyone touching him, and it took a very long time to recover from that ordeal.

He looks upon dragons with reverence. His village had a symbiotic relationship with a sea dragon named Ao Guang that protected them in exchange for a share of the food and treasure from shipwrecks they collected. The dragon visited weekly to gather their spoils, but the visits were brief with usually just a word or two exchanged between the dragon and his mother. He hopes to one day meet other types of dragons and have a conversation with them.

With how popular Kuno was in his village, he didn’t actually have many friends to speak of from there. He was always the “cool older brother” that everyone followed around, but they were all too intimidated to stand on equal grounds with him. He did have a small group of friends from the Koan Dojo he trained at in Akihito from his late teenage years. There was Kamil Lua (Male Sylph), Shen Da (Male Oread), and Sige Heilu (Female Drow). They became a tight-knit group during the years they spent in the Dojo. This Dojo was essentially a funnel for pupils to transition into military or government positions, so they all were assigned to different factions. Over the years, Kamil eventually moved up to a Commander level in the Navy while Shen snagged a special ops position focused on the local environmental preservation. Sige decided to remain at the Dojo and become a swordmaster there to train future generations. Kuno was the only one that was taken directly to the royal court as a next level apprentice. They all kept in touch, using mostly letters sent through the same system they were placed in.

### At The Royal Court

Kuno spent many years in the royal court working as a chronicler for the emperor. Kuno would say he worked there to be a chronicler of world renown and travel throughout Gernon to record his findings. Kuno hopes to get glory from his position, but glory in the sense that he is famous for his unique contribution and chronicling towards the record of world history and general knowledge. Kuno and Sige developed a romantic relationship after they reconnected in earnest after many years of just keeping in touch by mail. They were going steady for about 3 years when Kuno was ordered inland by the emperor following the silver dragon prophecy.

### The Silver Dragon Prophecy

in 33 asr, Kenji Ryu consulted the oracle Sawako Sung. She read him a prophecy that upended Kuno's life.

> *Hear your fate, O dwellers in lands of many isles;*
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> *Either your famed, great home must be sacked by Tellumnar’s sons,*
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> *Or, if that be not, the whole land of Oyashima*
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> *Shall mourn the death of a king of the house of Ryu,*
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> *For not the strength of Dragons or of Fiends shall hold him,*
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> *Strength against strength; for she has the power of Gods,*
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> *And will not be checked until one of these two he has consumed.*
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Horrified, they asked how they might forestall such an end for the emperor or the realm, which elicited the response:

> Pray to the Dragoness of Silver. They will prove to be mighty allies of your empire.
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> They are present in Bacrian Lands, a seeker of Ugin, who will aid you.
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Kuno was ordered inland to try and find this "silver dragoness", and told not to return until he was successful. He was pained by the order, but did as he was told. He eventually settled in a small village in Bacria, an out of the way province in the Union of the West near the Pale Grasses. He set himself up as a children's tutor to kill time while doing his utmost to research the silver dragoness. Kuno’s greatest fear during his years stuck in Bacria was that Sige moved on or something bad happened to her after all these years without a word from her. Really, he’s scared that he won’t find someone fast enough that he would fall in love with to start a family before his years slip by him. He had strong feelings for her, and tried to send letters to her from Kurosekai. He wasn’t sure if they ever got through to her at all and he never heard a response back. They were on good terms when Kuno left - Sige understood he had to follow the Emperor’s orders, but they both anticipated that he would only be gone for a year, maybe two at most, but neither of them expected 7 years. But after being stuck in a backwater village for nearly 7 years and he’s basically in his 30s maturity-wise, he found himself desperately wanting to start a family. He looks upon the families in Bacria with envy. The thrill of shaping a child’s mind and morals is incredibly appealing and his time actually becoming a proper teacher has made him ache for it all the more.

He really isn’t fond of Orcs since they were seen as monstrosities in Oyashima and that’s the perception he grew up with. But living so close to the Pale Grasses for many years and living amongst people of orcish descent has changed his viewpoint. He tries his best to be open-minded in general as it’s the best way to absorb knowledge, so he has made it a point to speak with some of them - learning Orcish in the process. Right now, he still feels pangs of discomfort around them, but sees them as equals.

### Dragonborn Peak

Kuno's life finally started up again when an acquaintance he had met in Bacria, Aquafina, discovered Atarka Dragonborn. Aquafina immediately recognized the silver insignia on Atarka as a sign she might be someone Kuno would want to interview, and upon learning that she was seeking her companion Ugin, Kuno knew he had found the focus of the prophecy. He immediately attempted to get her to come with him to Oyashima, but was stymied by her insistence on heading towards the frozen peaks of the Antax Mountains. Unwilling to let her out of her sight, Kuno followed Atarka to Dragonborn Peak. Kuno assisted with Atarka's trial, and received a boon of a magical water elemental binding artifact from Myrrhgabrethaka. Following the successful summoning of Ugin, Kuno convinced Atarka to eventually go to Oyashima (after one final stopover in Kurosekai).

### Seven things that make Kuno happy

* Children
* Sitting by a body of water (and being in it)
* Puppets
* Relaxing and playing his flute
* Absorbing and divulging new information (Being, you know, a teacher)
* Crab cakes
* Practicing with his sword (he does it when he needs to ‘think’)

### Seven things that make Kuno angry

* Anyone who tries to hurt or take advantage of children
* Close-minded people
* Being interrupted
* Disobedience (He’s CG, so not necessarily breaking the law)
* Wanton violence on the environment/animals
* People insulting his culture or how he dresses
* The cold (not so much angry, just miserable)