Kisk Babaeni

# Kisk Babeni

## Description of Species - Vastness Mutants

The Vastness refers to the jungle to the west of the Central Lakes. The Vastness is known for having small spots of complete safety contrasted with areas of extreme danger. The City of Stilts, home to the Sial of Calai, is in one of the largest safe spaces of The Vastness. Flies and bugs are common in The Vastness, and with them come horrifying illnesses. While they are mostly easy to cure, they still claim many lives every year. However, some of the creatures of The Vastness reflect the Calain theme of balance, and give equal blessings and curses in form of mutation. And of course, to counteract the extreme plagues, sometimes the blessing is the only thing.

While some of these mutations are worse than just falling dangerously ill, quite a lot have benefits. The range of what is considered mutations varies, from biological anomalies to magic. A common mutation around most of the Sial province for example is Troe Ti, which turns the afflicted's eyes entirely a sickly green, giving a limited kind of night vision. Many other mutations can occur, most giving some for of protection from the jungle.

In the City of Stilts however lies the most well known and most mystical type of mutations, rituals known as Bondings. That is where we go to the story of our fighter.

## Description of Fighter - Kisk Babeni, The Serpentine Shadow

### Backstory

From a young age, Kisk was an element of trouble, which suited her situation. Born in the town of Diaplet on the Sial-Sangi border, the Calain Anarchy which had permeated her life and the life of her ancestors for hundreds of years. As a border town, Diaplet transferred between Sial and Sangi control throughout history. In the final years of the wars, Kisk's home transferred between the two tribes regularly. The Sial were relatively benevolent, but their repeated attempts to 'liberate' the town from Sangi control caused more damage sometimes than the Sang. And that was saying something. The Sangi believed that the Great Uniter could only be satisfied and called back by the spilling of blood. The Sangi, like all other Calain tribes, took this very seriously. While a few generations back the Sangi were active in their taking of blood, for the last two decades they had been fighting enough to satisfy themselves, with the rest of their attention focused on the growing strength of non-Calain tribes and the arrival of strange peoples to the west.

However, as the Sangi and Don came to a mutual defensive pact, attention was diverted entirely to the Ancien Pai of Azir and Sial.

The tithe of blood returned.

After an attack on Diaplet, Kisk, valiantly defending her home, was spared as Sangi rushed to mercy kill those who were seriously injured in the battle, taking their blood in buckets. Amused by her fighting despite being only seventeen, Kisk was taken to the Flowing Crimson Mono, and interred within one of the arenas there. As an arena fighter, she was given whips to use, and designated the role of an assassin, participating in bloodsports for the audiences and the long absent Great Uniter. The time desensitized her to violence even more than living in a war torn town, a despressing yet effective solution to any further trauma. While lounging in her cell about three years into her time there, she met another fighter. She had become a rising star in the arenas, who voluntarily went into them for unknown purposes. Kisk had bartered some books on Gweriþ linguistics, from Don merchants who had bought them from the far away colonies, and were giving to another fighter by a fan. After mentioning them, the fellow blood spiller turned from somewhat bored to beyond ecstatic. She took the books, and within hours had killed half the guards, drained them of all their blood and run away.

Five years later, she became Reyn of Sang.

Proclaiming a desire for the Sangi to keep their bloodletting to themselves, Kisk was freed, and offered a ticket to The City of Stilts in Sial, a now fellow member of the Pentarchy of Calai.

Taking the offer, Kisk Babaeni did not return home, but she returned to Sial at very least, to that far off city where the slightly nicer occupiers had come from, and admittedly had more culturally in common with her, at least before her time in Sang proper.

There, as she arrived at night, the way illuminated by the glowing flowers of the floating Lodgers, she saw people huddling around a specific lodger. Getting off the ship onto one of the many piers, she guessed that a unifying event was a good way to get to know people from personal experience.

As she looked waters below, she saw the object of fascination. What she would later find out to be a Ritual of Bonding between a Sibling Frog and Migou was happening, the first in a good few years outside an obscure swamp outpost. One of the sailors on her ship, commissioned during the wars at great coast from Gwerith, came out. Kisk had thought he had looked agitated for the last few days of the journey, and now she found out his quarry.

The sailor took a fishing spear from one of the nearby observers, and threw it at the two creatures, screeching 'Down with The Pent pricks, disarray on you all!'. In a moment of Kisk did all they knew, and lashed her whips, slitting the spear and the man's hands. Screeching, this time in agony, the sailor was hauled away by some dockworkers, and thrown into the water. As Kisk tried to get the droplets of blood from the bloodied whip into a vial for barter in Sang, she noticed something on the other. The ritual had obviously failed as she would later find out, despite her efforts, as illusions signalled that the Sibling Frog was very much asleep, and more obviously the Migou was on her whip. It slithered to fit around her arm, which while odd at first at least warmed up some of her scars. Slightly taken aback, Kisk wandered around to see what was happening. However, she had ironically little knowledge of the language of the Gwerith, which had become the unofficial language of Calai while The Pent came up with a common tongue for their newly unified nation. With very few words in common between Sial, Sangi and her own town's dialect, she was unable to find lodgings for the night. Cursing her own idiocy, and that of The Pent, she skulked to the nearest alley. Sitting down as storm clouds brewed and rain began to fall, she really felt something for the first time in a while, crying at having found somewhere in which unity is not bought upon by ritualised violence. But she could not talk to these people, and that aversion to violence was clear as the sky was currently not, with some having looked at her with disdain, in retrospect likely after the ritual had failed. Crying, she just wished she could disappear, finally to end her time in the spotlight, for better or worse. As tears mixed with rain, she felt a movement. The Migou slithered up her arm. Irritated, she tried to brush it off, but it would not budge. It moved up her shoulders, up her neck, until it much to her annoyance moved up her mouth and nose. About to grab it, the snake-like creature was held into place. With horror, her eyes indicated it had gotten into her head. About to scream, as even the arena had not produced something like this, the Migou fully placed itself by Kisk's brain. Knocking her head in a frenzy, the thing moved itself out of her head, and onto the floor.

Touching where the creature had come out, Kisk's fingers went past where the skin was. Rushing to a pool of water, she looked into the reflection.

In the shape of a snake's head, an entire section of Kisk's forehead was an inky black. Investigating further, Kisk took the handle of her whip and placed it into her head. Holding the whip, it went in as far as she could place it. Kisk really, really wished she could disappear now.

*So she did.*

And so did the Migou. Looking at it, Kisk realised she had met something that had fulfilled her wish. The magic of the Sial had been whispered about in stories of assassinations and illuminations, the flashy and the dull. Remembering the strange frog and it's lightshow, she guessed she had met the dull one of the duo. At last, she had a sense of balance, something to offset some unneeded fame.

These days, Kisk is still desensitised to violence, but is a lot warmer inside. She knows a decent amount of Gwerith now, and travels around the world after receiving some money from a much apologetic Reyn and a exponentially larger amount of newly published foreign dictionaries. However, running low on money, she now seeks fights again, however this time with those who wish and for the purpose of getting enough money to buy a nice house in The City of Stilts, to finally relax for the first time, well, ever. With snake like whips in her hands, made by a young inventor inspired by the interruption of the Bonding Ritual, she now fights for another reason as well, to promote a newly unified Calai, as a nation which shall never again be the site of the massacre of entire towns.

### Stats

**AT: 5 - Kisk has been fighting her whole life, whether in scraps as a kid, as a defender of her now dead town or as an arena fighter. It is not hard to say that her whips and a few bites from her Migou help with this.**

**IN: 3 - While Kisk is no genius, she has never been an idiot, and in particular battlefield tactics has been something she has learnt to value through experience.**

**DF: 1 - Kisk is often in vulnerable positions due to her fighting style being best used in hiding, which is hard in the open areas she often finds herself fighting in, and unless a specific combination of actions happens the Migou seems annoyingly unreliable to call upon for stealth.**

**AR: 1 - Sangi armour is not hugely poor, but it is made specifically to allow for easy spilling of blood. Most of the body is protected, however arms are left completely bare and the throat is as well, for an easy mercy kill in case of grievous injury. This is naturally an obstacle to not being killed.**

**HP: 3 - Kisk is used to taking hits, but some injuries have not properly healed, leading to perfectly average health, an annoying fulfilment of her wish to be a bit more normal.**

**SP: 4 - Kisk is not the fastest, but by the Uniter she is very much fast.**

**EN: 4 - Kisk has been really put through hell, she has been running or doing some kind of exercise for near all her life, but she is a bit lazy from the first periods of peace she has had since being a baby.**

## Abilities

### Poison

*This ability will poison in your opponent, causing their endurance to drop at a faster rate. This move deals no damage. This move can be stacked, and will reduce endurance by 3 for each additional stack of effects. Ie. First poison -2 per turn, second poison -5 per turn, third poison -8 per turn.*

While the Migou is very much not a snake, as a smack from it's tail told Kisk when she made the inquiry, it does have a long list of common characteristics with a snake. The venom of the Migou is lethal, slowly worsening over time unless a antidote is provided by the same Migou. The Migou and Kisk always provide this after the fight of course, if the opponent pays a bit to the retirement fund of course.

## Target / Focus

*Spend a turn watching your opponent, ensuring your next hit strikes harder. Gain a 3 endurance drain, and you forfeit all COMBOS while focusing. Permanently gain a 10% chance to critical strike, dealing your full damage + half of the opponents damage upon successful hit. Your next hit deals 50 extra fixed damage, this cannot be combined with any other ability or combo.*

Kisk has learnt over the years of fighting in the arena how to study her opponent, to make a quick end of them before she is removed herself, and because she was told a long glare while warriors run up with their blades up thrilled the audience. A new extra set of smart eyes makes it a lot easier as well, even if those eyes belong to something that seems to be intelligent in everything (at least for a snake) except for verbal communication.