Hsien-Ko

***WARNING**: This article may contain Spoilers for an ongoing or future storyline that has not been completed yet*

 **First Appearance** | n/a

Hsien-Ko is the Lieutenant of the 1st Company of the Palace Guard. He is the main actor responsible for the security of the palace and the royal family, as well as being Princess Mia’s personal bodyguard.

It is said that when Hsien-Ko was a young boy, he rescued a baby dragon he befriended from poachers and sought to return it to its family on Mount Kuang. He failed to bring it back before it succumbed to wounds from the poachers trap, and was on the verge of death himself from tirelessly traversing the dangerous terrain. Out of gratitude for the boy’s valiant efforts, the dragon’s mother placed her child’s dying heart in Hsien-Ko so they could always be together and her child could save the boy as he had saved it. The changes the dragon flesh made to his physiology caused him to be branded a monster, and the first village he found captured him and prepared to have him executed. However, Princess Mia happened to be passing by the village, and she demanded his release. Shortly after, he rescued the princess from an avalanche, discovering that his new heart gave him power, and she decided to take him with her back to the palace. At first he worked as a page, but it was soon deduced that the boy’s strength could be put to better use, and he quickly rose up the ranks of the palace guard.

## Appearance

Hsien-Ko is a lightly tanned young man with long black hair, some of which is tied back in a thin tail. He has small eyes with reptilian yellow pupils. Parts of the left side of his face are darkened with burn marks. Small horns protrude from the front corners of his skull, which are obscured under his hair.

He does not wear a traditional palace guard uniform, and has his own dark red one commissioned for him by the royal tailor.

## Personality

Hsien-Ko feels deeply indebted to, and protective of, Princess Mia. Despite his respectable and important position, he often feels the need to prove himself, and reassert that he deserves his position. He is guarded and reserved, and his furious passions are mostly concealed within his professional demeanor and self control. His guard is only entirely loosened around Princess Mia. He has sympathy for things he considers lost, and feels compelled to bring home every stray animal he sees in the capital. Hsien-Ko often has chaotic, unorthodox methods for performing his work, but they always end up appearing sensible and effective upon completion.

## Skills and Equipment

Hsien-Ko does not have the weapons training of an average palace guard officer. He is still catching up on the intellectual development that most people in the royal sphere have attained over their entire lives, though he is a fast learner.

His altered physiology has made him enormously strong, and he is capable of breaking steel with his bare hands, launching armored men through walls with backhand strikes, and leaping great distances. His body is inhumanly tough and immeasurably heat resistant. He can move with sufficient speed that he appears a blur, and can react fast enough to catch crossbow bolts. He can generate elemental forces of heat and lightning from his body at close range, occasionally leaving small clouds in his wake. Hsien-Ko is also practically immune to magic. As his body has not yet fully matured, it is unknown what abilities he will demonstrate when fully grown.

Hsien-Ko is usually unarmed, occasionally carrying a specially made long pole with large metal balls on each end. He is proficient in the use of this weapon, which has been estimated to weigh a hundred pounds.