Crane

"Good work, Crow. You seem to have improved a great deal with your brushwork."

Mistress of Seals

An Eastern demoness  from ancient times that migrated to the West. The renowned Demon Sorceress of the East, she is the one who revolutionized the field of magic called Sealwork and 'Magical Language' for the Easterners.

## Appearance

Crane is a tall and imposing demoness in her humanoid appearance, standing at 5'9" with a slender and willowy body. She is a beautiful woman, with long dark hair often done in elaborate Eastern styles with red hair ornaments. Her eyes are a piercing ruby red, and she has pale skin. Her facial features are of course Eastern in appearance, with slightly slanted, almond-shaped eyes, slightly rounder cheekbones and small, full lips. Her figure is quite noticeable, especially due to how she wears her kimonos - which are quite revealing on the lower body, showing her legs, though she does wear high, fit red boots. She wears body armor with silver and gold designs, a match for the several blades that she wields simultaneously with both hands.

Her crane form is larger than the usual cranes, with a wide wingspan of around twelve feet. The bird has beautiful white and black plumage, along with a red crown. Because of her demonic nature her talons can transform into large, sharp and wickedly curved weapons to be used. Her flight in her crane form is much more enhanced, and she is able to glide for long periods of time. Crane can also bring out her wings, scaled for her human size, in her humanoid form. Her wingspan for her humanoid transformation is ten feet, large and able to support her in flight.

## Personality

Crane has a very serene and easygoing personality, despite her intimidating initial appearance. She is one of the more approachable Eastern demons, willing to work with foreigners for a shared goal. She often smiles faintly and speaks in a lilting, confident tone, her voice quite melodic even if she doesn't sing. Hardly anything fazes her and her practiced, polite smiles, even in the worse of situations she often has a wry or humorous remark at the ready, though when she does get serious it means one thing for the enemies: *run.* Despite this easygoing and calm manner, she has a certain sad air about her that the observant ones would notice.

Also, she's very keen and observant herself. Despite her calm personality to almost everything, she doesn't trust others easily. She won't be swayed by pleasant talk or flattery, and charms will get you nowhere with her unless she feels like indulging you.

One thing she's particularly serious about is her work. Whenever she's focused on a task, she doesn't take well to being disturbed. She takes her practice of magic seriously, and isn't so eager to take on new students unless they prove themselves to her in some way. As an Old One tasked with watching over the contract demons, she's also very vested in the wellbeing of the contract demons.

## Abilities

As one of the Old Demons from ancient times, Crane has a large magical
repertoire and knowledge of different forms of combat. Her greatest
strength lies in her magic, though she isn't weak when it comes to
physical combat. Among the Eastern demons she has the most vast magical
repertoire and knowledge about almost every form of magic available in
the East, along with the more foreign Western magic.

Her best skills lie with the Seals, using and combining the five
Elements - earth, water, air, fire - and the last, Ether - for many
different purposes. Because of that she's considered the most
outstanding demon sorceress, able to raise large and intricate defenses
with only brushing intricate sealwork. She can move mountains, cause
storms, raise the earth as a wall to protect herself - she's versatile.
She can imbue her weapons and herself with the swiftness of Wind, the
damage and ferocity of Fire, and the immovability of Earth. She can heal
 and encourage things to grow with Water.

Her favored element is Air, as an avian demon, it is the element she uses and is the most skilled at.

Along with her Sealwork, she's plenty powerful with chanted spells, able
 to switch around the words in incantations to create new effects or
sequence different elements. She's the one who discovered the 'language'
 of Eastern magic and opened whole new possibilities for the East. A
magical prodigy.

That isn't to say her skill with physical combat is lacking. Quite the
opposite, she's travelled far and wide to learn a lot of Eastern martial
 arts, which she soon enhanced with her magic and her sealwork. She's
also taken what she can learn from foreigners from the West who are
occasionally granted entrance into the Eastern lands.

Supernatural Condition

Avian Physiology

* Aerial Adaptation
* Claw Retraction
* Enhanced Agility
* Enhanced Lung Capacity
* Enhanced Reflexes
* Flight/Wing Manifestation
* Hollow Skeleton

Enhanced Intelligence

Magical Combat

Binding

Mystical Martial Arts

Spell Casting

* Sealing and Seal Creation
* \*Demon Sealing
* \*Elemental Sealing
* \*Soul Sealing
* Inscriptive Magic

Elemental Imprisonment

Avian Manipulation

Weapon Manipulation

Shapeshifting
 - she can transform into many kinds of birds, but a crane is her true
form. Her human form is also something she can shift into at will.

Short-range Teleportation

Telepathy

Air Manipulation

Enhanced Combat

Illusion Manipulation

* Illusive Appearance

## Character Relationships

### Huli

The kitsune considers herself as Crane's rival and harbors an intense grudge that has lasted for centuries. Huli is one of the reasons Crane chose to travel away from the Eastern Capital and away from the East, both for the safety of her newest apprentice and to keep conflict from arising within their homeland. While Huli hates Crane, the Old One herself is quite neutral towards the fox, only showing anger if her work is interrupted, or if her apprentice is somehow threatened.

The reason for their hostile relationship is not yet fully explained, though it is implied that Crane's past relationship with Kasimir was what sparked it - along with many other complications that arose among the Emperor's court in the past.

### Kimyotake

Crane and Kimyotake are on good terms with each other, even calling each other friends. As both have been courtesans and advisors in the Emperor's court in the past, both know each other pretty well. Kimyotake is also one of the few people to know the true cause of the animosity between Huli and Crane, and what part Kasimir played in it.

## Trivia

* Crane's talents are traditional Eastern dance (particular with fans and umbrellas), calligraphy, formal tea ceremony, ikebana or flower arrangement, and playing the flute.
* Her hobbies are calligraphy, ikebana and tea ceremony.
* She is particularly good at shogi, being one of the Emperor's strategists when she once stayed in his Capital for longer periods of time.