Myriadism and Company

Ok, so this is how I'm going to do this. I'll have one post per character, and I'll attempt to order them by genre but most of my characters are still in development. Also most of my characters end up being girls. I'll try to put some good male characters in there too but we'll see what happens.

I will start with normal, non-magical, modern day characters.

Remember, I haven't done this in a while so it may take me a while to get a good group of people up here. Also, all of my characters are works in progress so if you have suggestions feel free to let me know.

Name-Kia Meredith Shelly
Age-22
Orientation-Straight
Relationship-none
Physical Description- Small, slim, petite. Just under 5 ft, with wavy blond hair. Her eyes are large, warm, and brown. A small nose, fair skin, and perfect oval face gives her a rather pretty appearance. She looks like she should still be a cheerleader in High School. She certainly still wears the same bubblegum lip-gloss, sparkle eye-shadow, and frilly pink clothes that she wore in High School. She smiles often, and looks adorable with pigtails.

Personality-Naïve and light-hearted. Kia is the sort of person that will always give her pocket change to beggars. She speaks in a high pitched sing-song voice that is more often endearing than irritating, and is on everyone’s side. She believes that good things happen to good people, and that peace and chocolate can solve any problem.

Skills-Though you’d never be able to guess, Kia is a bit of a mathematical genius. She can do complicated four and five step equations in her head. She took a college calculus course when she was 14, and since then has earned countless scholarships to top schools like MIT and CalTech. Right now she’s working on her PHD in theoretical mathematics. She often doesn’t bring up her math skills in conversation because she doesn’t want to make anyone feel stupid, or intimidated.

Shortcomings-Gullible, sheltered, and often way too naïve. Can be meek, and utterly useless in any sort of dangerous situation. Not strong, or particularly resourceful. Well suited for her lifestyle but not really much else.

Friends would describe her as- A Sweetheart, Doe-eyed, Everybody’s Younger Sister, a bit Ditzy but Adorable, and a Lucky Gal.

History: Kia has lived a mostly uneventful life. Her father is an engineer, and her mother is a really good cook. She was an only child, and though she now has her own apartment, she still calls her parents every other Sunday. She lives comfortably, with enough money to support her avid shopping sprees.

Aspirations- Kia's goals in life are to find a sweet and sensitive guy, get married, and have two perfect children. And also publish a couple math papers on string theory, or analytical statistics.

Ok, so forget what I said about putting them in order. I'll just put up the first people I can think of. These next two are from a magical world without much technology. And they go together.

Meet Kali and Anthony Weir:

(Kali's information is a bit long...oh well)

NAME- Kali
AGE- almost 300 years
GENDER- Female
ORIENTATION- mostly straight
RELATIONSHIPS- She is magically bonded to Anthony Wier, but their relationship is a bit complicated.
SPECIES- Shape-Shifter
WEAPONS AND SUPPLIES-
several small throwing knives, one or two longer hunting knives. A variety of other sharp objects such as shears, sewing needles, and broken pieces of glass. A bag full of poisonous berries. One or two smoke bombs. A vest, breeches, and one long white shirt that looks like it was made for someone a bit larger than her. A black leather jacket with lots of pockets and no shoes.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION-
(In human form) Kali is of medium height for a girl (about 5’6”) with a thick muscular build. She has wide shoulders, toned muscles, and dark tanned skin. High cheekbones, a long nose, and sloping eyes give her face an intense angular appearance, which is not at all softened by black hair that is thick, coarse, and straight as an arrow. She has a tattoo on the left side of her chest directly above her heart. It is a magical seal with symbols and written incantations that might mean something to an extremely old and experienced practitioner, but to everyone else it mostly looks like gibberish. The seal is repeated in a smaller form around her wrists, ankles, and neck, in such a way that it reminds one of shackles. The skin around and on these tattoos is marked by what looks like burn marks. Kali has yellow eyes, and unusually strong fingernails.
PERSONALITY-
Serious, and often intense without meaning to be. Kali has been a fighter her entire life and carries herself accordingly. Almost by instinct she will sit with her back to the wall, note all possible exits, survey nearby objects for possible weapons, and view everyone she sees as a possible threat. Old habits. She tries to do so subtly. Kali is used to being alone, she doesn’t start conversations, or readily introduce herself. She likes to wait and consider things before she speaks. She does not like to have debts or regrets. Kali is terrible at understanding human jokes or humor. She is straight forward and says what she means, and doesn’t often become embarrassed by much. She’s had a bit of a violent life. But she is mostly harmless now, particularly with Anthony to watch over her.
SKILLS-
Despite being so straight forward with her speech, Kali is actually very good at lying when she wants to. She is also a good fighter, she doesn’t have a strict technique but she’s so used to fighting that it comes very naturally to her. And she doesn’t believe herself above fighting dirty, if she thinks it will work then that’s what she does.
FAULTS-
Besides lying, dirty fighting, and being quite open to casual sex, Kali is terrible with empathy, sympathy or really understanding other people in general. If she does something that hurts someone it’s usually because she didn’t think about how it would affect them. And sometimes she just doesn’t really care how it would affect them.
ABOUT HER SPECIES-
Shape-Shifters, also known as Shifters, and Changelings, are a rare and highly magical race. They are also very unstable beings. Shifters generally have one ‘home’ form that they identify themselves as and spend most of their time in, and then they shift into other forms. The most stable Shifters have only one or two different forms, and spend most of their time in their home form.
Some Shifters have two home forms in which they are equally comfortable in. These types of shifters are known as Duos. Often they can only shift between these two forms.
Reproduction for Shifters is a bit complicated. Both male and female must be in the same form to consummate, and while carrying a baby the female cannot change her form. The child is then born into whatever form the mother is at the time. Shifters age at varying rates depending on the metabolism of their birth forms and other environmental factors. Young Shifters remain in the same form until they hit puberty and begin to make their first shifts. Often their birth form becomes their home form but not always.
Shifters gain the ability to change into different forms by learned association. If they study a species long enough and wish to become one of that species they can make a body for themselves. It’s a bit like learning a language, and a bit like self-hypnosis. They study how the other species moves, what they eat, how they behave, the way their bodies and minds work, and then they imagine how it would feel to become one. For example a shifter wishes to become a bird, they would imagine what feathers would feel like, how they would eat with a beak, the mechanics of flying, what the world might look like through a bird’s eye… If they imagine well enough then they find themselves changing into a new form.
The darker more destructive way to learn a new form is to kill another Shifter with that form and to then perform what is called an ‘eating ritual’. The eating ritual isn’t exactly a magical ceremony or spell it’s really just as simple as consuming a body with the intent of gaining some of the previous owner’s experiences and power. It works for shifters without a specific incantation or magical construct because of their inherent magical properties.
Sometimes a young, inexperienced, or otherwise inhibited Shifter will attempt to shift and become stuck halfway between two forms. These unfortunate creatures are called ‘mongrels’ and suffer in paralyzing pain until they eventually die from the complications of being in such an unstable and incomplete state.
Shifters do not have a set lifespan. It is postulated that they could live indefinitely if they were not killed by shifting accidents or other magical complications. Because they live in so many bodies with specific biological, physical, and mental differences, Shifters are mentally and emotionally strained, if not completely unstable. A very common result is madness, marked by self-mutilation, extreme aggressiveness, and suicidal tendencies.
Though Shifters do not always have a human form they almost always have human intelligence, or rather intelligence to form tools, solve problems, and make complex plans that has absolutely nothing to do with being human as far as they are concerned.
HISTORY-
For a long time Kali was known and feared by countless magical creatures. Her reputation preceded her, and dead bodies followed in her wake. Kali was an abnormality. When she was young she became stuck midshift and became a mongrel. But instead of dying she was able to kill another shifter and perform an eating ritual. She was then able to live in one of the stable forms she had acquired. However after a time she would become unstable again and she needed to find and kill another Shifter to survive. It shouldn’t have been possible but Kali did it anyway, and she didn’t just survive but thrived. She was overflowing with magical power by the time she became fullgrown. But she had no control. Perhaps she didn’t want control, maybe she enjoyed the blood, and the mayhem, and the power, or maybe she’d gone just a little bit crazy as Shifters so often do. Maybe she only did what she had to do to survive. You’ll never get a straight answer out of her.
Eventually a group of wizards, believing her to be a powerful threat to the balance of the world, developed a plan to control her. They managed to trap her, by sealing her in the form of a human and bonding her to Anthony Weir. Because Anthony is non-magical he will stabilize and ground Kali’s magic and render her unable to shift. The seal also allows Anthony to control Kali. She cannot physically go more than 50 meters away from him, and when he gives her a direct order she must obey it. Kali is also forced by the seal to emphasize with Anthony and feels whatever he does. If Anthony dies then she will also die. But this is one sided, at least at the beginning. Which is why the wizards intended to put Kali on trial and then execute her. But Kali found a loophole. She was able to repeat her one-sided empathy onto Anthony so that now he feels what she does and will die with her. Now if the Wizards attempted to execute her they would also be responsible for killing Anthony. Wizards of course have rules against killing mortals, particularly innocents. Thus Kali was allowed to live. Grudgingly.
Now she and Anthony travel around, attempting to do mostly good things. Anthony tries to teach Kali about right and wrong, while Kali wishes she could get him to understand that all those Ideals of his will get them killed one day. Luckily Kali’s past doesn’t often catch up with her because she is in an unknown human form, and her magic is mostly hidden by the seal. She has become much more calm and mentally stable due to Anthony’s grounding influence.




NAME-Anthony Wier (Kali calls him Tony)
AGE-37
GENDER-Male
ORIENTATION- Straight
RELATIONSHIPS- Magically bonded to Kali. He views himself as a sort of combination of her friend, parole officer, judge, and handler.
SPECIES-Non-magical Human
WEAPONS AND SUPPLIES-
one bow, mostly used to hunt for game. A couple of knives, again, mostly for hunting. One Small hatchet. A coin purse on the side of his belt that is often alarmingly empty. One sword, it’s nothing special but it was given to him by is father. Worn cloths that have seen a lot of travel. A long green cloak, that keeps him warm and dry and sturdy leather boots.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION-
Tall (around 6’), of medium build, and stronger than he appears. He has tan skin that has seen a great deal of sun and hard labor, and brown hair that has been lightened to almost blond by being outside regularly. A short stubble covers his cheeks and chin which he thinks makes him look rugged. His hair sticks up no matter what he tries to do with it. He has a strong chin, straight nose and regular features. His eyes are the sort of warm friendly green that makes people feel at ease.
PERSONALITY-
Anthony behaves like a cop even though he has never really seen a policeman and only vaguely knows what they are. His sense of justice and good will is unwavering. He always strives to protect those unable to defend themselves, he can’t help himself. If he sees someone in trouble, or something he thinks is wrong, he acts on it without hesitation. Otherwise Anthony is laidback and easy to get along with. He is open with people and unfailingly honest. Anthony is the guy that will always have your back even if he doesn’t know you that well.
SKILLS-
He’s pretty good with a bow, and gets along well with children. (Kali finds human children to be unsettling, and annoying.)
FAULTS-
Sometimes Anthony will give people more credit than they deserve. And it ends up coming back to bite him. He’s a good judge of character he just doesn’t want to believe that people can be evil. Also he likes to plan everything out. And usually it works well, but when something unexpected happens it can throw him off.
HISTORY-
He grew up on his parents’ farm with his four younger brothers and one sister.
They lived far from the closest town and were mostly self-reliant. One day a suitor came for his sister and she ran away with him unexpectedly. Thinking that his innocent sister had been kidnapped or something awful, Anthony left to go in search of her and bring her back to the farm. When he finally found her, it turns out she wasn’t so innocent after all and didn’t want to go back. Anthony found himself alone, without funds, and disillusioned with the world. Then he was contacted by some wizards who needed his help to destroy some great evil. Then all this crazy magical stuff happened (see Kali’s history) and now Anthony is stuck with some crazy 300 year old woman as a constant companion. He tries to stay positive and do his best with what life throws at him.