"Welcome to Hell, ticket's for a one-way trip only. Me ? I'm the warden, the torturer and the ferrywoman."
♫
Kaliska Nayati Khaldun
| Alias: |
Shadow Killer |
Magecraft: |
Ars Goetia, Shadow Molding |
| Year of birth: |
1999 |
Origin: |
Shadow |
| Height/Weight: |
166cm/66kg |
Attribute: |
Demon |
| Country of origin: |
Germany |
Element: |
Ether, Imaginary Numbers |
| Affiliation: |
Nayati family, Khaldun clan, Millenium (a single pruned world) |
Circuit Quantity: |
A |
| Species: |
Magus, Mixed-Blood |
Circuit Quality: |
A+ |
| Day of decisive battle: |
One spar too much |
Circuit Composition: |
Normal |
The Nayati family
Since time immemorial, long before it settled in cities and tilled the land, mankind has always felt fascination and reverence for the forces of the unseen. Spirits of nature, remaining hidden from humanity yet lending a hand when asked through rituals and the likes. As civilization went on, other entities came to make their presence known too, invisible forces that were born from mankind and stood in their midst. Distortions of nature, unbound from physical laws. Through different cultures, these distortions took different forms, and for each, some people decided to study them.
In the Germanic regions of the Holy Roman Empire, such a family took upon themselves to study the regional variant of these distortions. Working as undertakers and healers, the Nayati family remained in the shadows, hiding from the Holy Church in the very area of their influence for centuries, while being some of the greatest specialists of Western Europe in the field of demons. Keeping a place of choice in the Clock Tower's Department of Spiritual Evocation, they perfected the craft of summoning and binding the Spirits and Phantasmal Beasts that took the form of the Demons of folklore by adapting the King of Mages’ Ars Goetia Foundation to their usage.
As countless other magi, their magecraft often resulted in undergoing bodily modifications to facilitate a ritual or another, to increase one's compatibility with the demon they were trying to channel or contract. However, such change wasn't without consequences, and more than once resulted in a loss of fertility, among other issues. A death sentence for magi, as it would mean cessation of their quest for the Root, since even life-prolongating Magecraft had its limits. Alchemists, Zoology members and other life-weavers didn't face such issues, but the common magus was not so lucky, as only a handful of Foundations displayed a way to artificially create a heir or fix the fertility issue at its root.
That being said, the Nayati had an ace in their sleeve too. If it was in fact impossible for these unlucky magi to produce a heir naturally, their craft wasn't one that bothered following tbe limits of nature and the human perception of possibility. Making use of their mastery over demons, existences that regularly took human form to deceive others, at several points in the history of the Nayati was a child born from the union of a human magus and a contract-bound demon. Bolstering their lineage's Circuits by the same occasion, it became common practice for Nayati magi to prepare several heirs at each generation, in case one child's inhuman blood were to awaken, leaving some siblings to continue lineage and act as a facade to avert the outside world's gaze from the unholy crafts of the Nayati. |
Background
After centuries, the Nayati had built themselves to a large clan well established in the European magical world and as a force to be reckoned with since the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars. Though the first World War cost them the lives of a decent part of the clan, it continued on strong during the Great Depression thanks to their contracted demons’ wealth sustaining them. However, their haughty confidence would only further deepen the pit of their fall, and things turned sour suddenly during the Second World War. Owing a debt to a very high-ranked magus, the main family's head was sent to secure the German Occupation's hold on France by wiping out resistance cells in the wilderness, the Maquis. Irritated by that order, he only grew more careless as he saw the task as beneath him, a work better cut for a lower class of magus. However, pride only aggravated his downfall, and he died to an Egyptian Dead Apostle guarding the Charles Martel Maquis.
Losing their Magic Crest at the same time as their family head, the main branch of the Nayati quickly fell from grace as the rest of the clan deserted them, leaving only the remnants behind, a mere few children with fewer leftover grimoires to their name, in the midst of Germany's defeat and the aftermath.
Left alone in the cold unfeeling world, itself deeply wounded and scarred, the children could only rely on each other to continue, and so they did. Only knowing a handful of spells compared to the countless rituals of the previous generations, they survived as well as they could ; though they only had their Circuits as a pedigree for the ruthless magical world, they managed to grow back from misery to at least a correct living wage as they grew older thanks to financial help for orphans. As time passed, the next generation came, and the next one as well. After suffering from the consequences of centuries of hubris crumbled in a mere few years, the family had lost all their interest for magecraft, knowing they would only find pain if they returned to this cruel rapacious world.
Yet, despite their hopes of cutting bridges, their past came back. Among the second generation born after the loss, one child stood out from the others. Showing from a young age abilities that her family never hoped to see again, Kaliska was born with the inhuman blood of her ancestors, carrying the legacy of the Nayati. Growing up in a loving family only brought closer by the hardships they went through during the second half of the century, Kaliska secretly fought in underground clubs as soon as she entered high-school, taking advantage of her unnatural strength to easily beat unsuspecting opponents and help her family with the money she earned that way. Rising up to higher fighting grounds over the years, she gained an infamous reputation underground, attracting the attention of those who knew where to look. However, higher fighting grounds meant stronger opponents, and she had to draw more and more from her inhuman blood to keep up with trained humans, even though her small unassuming frame played in her favor. One day, she drew further than she ever did, and tragedy struck. With her demonic factor taking over her humanity, she underwent her first Inversion in the middle of a fight, tearing up a grown man into pieces in front of a large audience. In short, a disaster waiting to happen.
However, luck was on her side, or rather someone was. A mere few moments after her transformation, hands formed of solid shadows held her down and the crowd stopped at once, put under a trance by a member of the audience. For dwellers of the magical world, a young girl beating up grown men with ease without any apparent training was usually a sign that Mystery was involved, and word about Kaliska's fights reached the ears of a figure shrouded with shadows, Layla Khaldun. Leaping from the audience to the ring, the lean blonde Egyptian beauty beat down the transformed girl until she came back to her senses, and took her outside while the audience was still under her spell. Once they left the room, the situation was exposed to Kaliska : she had risked breaking the Concealment of Mystery, the first law of the magical world, and she had a choice to make.
Would she go back to the ring, and fight as she used to, at the risk of another Inversion, this time in the eyes of magi with less kindness ?
Would she leave her life behind, and follow the woman who saved her, joining a predatory world of mystery she was part of by her birthright ?
Of course, she choose to — |
Personality
Likes: |
Going all out, finding a strong opponent, leaving a mess |
Dislikes: |
Being bound by conventions, mornings |
Talents: |
Fighting dirty, hiding in plain sight |
Natural enemies: |
"John Smith", Einar Ljóssson |
Alignment: |
Chaotic Neutral |
Unfitting for a magus carrying the legacy of a millennium-old lineage, Kaliska is a young woman with a personality closer to a school thug than a dignified magus. She is a careless battle-junkie who fights for her own enjoyment without any regard for norms. Arrogant to a certain extent, she only acknowledges as enemies those who prove themselves to be a challenge to her.
Though hot-headed and somewhat egocentric, she is not a bad person at core, and won't hide her love for her close ones. |
Abilities
Shapeless Shadows Schattenwelt
Kaliska's signature ability, and the root of many of her spells. The Alien Common Sense she displays because of her inhuman factor, manifested as a world of shadows due to her Origin awakening the blood of a Demon of shadows from the fourteenth century : in the world of Magecraft, that inner spiritual World is known as a Reality Marble. It takes the form of a realm filled with complete opaque darkness as far as the eye can see, thus it is impossible for any relying on their five senses to actually perceive what it contains. As a matter of fact, Kaliska herself is unable to properly make out the shape of anything in this darkness. Yet, because it is a world born from her mind, her perception, it takes the form she perceives it to have, thus, it is a world devoid of any given shape. However, being shapeless doesn't mean it's empty. On the contrary, instead of hollow void, it is filled with unshaped Ether Clumps waiting only for her to mold them with her imagination.
-
Mystic Eyes of World Projection
A unique set of Noble Colour Mystic Eyes possessed by Kaliska, which laid dormant until Layla helped her discover her inhuman abilities. Upon activation, she brings the senses of the targets selected within her sight into an illusion of her world, that is to say, she overrides their visual channel with her Alien Common Sense, Schattenwelt. While she is yet to learn how to properly deploy her Reality Marble, these Mystic Eyes more than make up for it, as it creates a gap between her target's shifted view and the reality of the world around them that she can exploit to her advantage in a fight, remaining unseen as she traps their sight in endless darkness.
-
Shadow Molding
The main Magecraft that Kaliska practices, a combination of Projection and Displacement Magecraft. She pulls Ether Clumps of tangible shadows from her inner world, and applies a shape and concept to them to use as she pleases. Through this, she can create a wide variety of effects, depending on the underlying concepts, such as a cloud of dark smoke to obscure others’ vision, animals born from the shapeless mud like snakes and bats, or physical constructs, like the claws she usually uses in close quarters. Compared to normal Projections, it pales in term of resemblance to the original image, but shows a clear advantage due to its composition, allowing a rapid reshaping of existing constructs into another form.
-
Devil-bound Shooter Nambu Type 14
The personal Mystic Code that Kaliska wields, the only heirloom she kept from her family after Layla retrieved it from her great-grandfather’s corpse. Built from the standardized gun of the Japanese officers of the Second World War, it has been enchanted to resemble the legend of a hunter who made a contract with the devil - the so-called Der Freischütz. Its casual use is to shoot compacted magical energy into a physical interference spell, but its proper use involves a curse to shoot a series of seven enchanted bullets, each stronger and more precise than the previous one - however, the seventh inflicts both the shooter and the target with its curse, though only the latter has to worry about the bullet's impact itself. A Demon is bound by a contract to the gun itself, and the wraith of the Japanese officer who originally wielded it remained linked to it too, lending its help to its wielder. |
Author's notes
Aaaaand a second entry because let's take advantage of the extension for the sake of it. Simpler because I have less time, it's speedrunning time thanks to You's extension.
A fun fact about Kaliska is that she originally was designed as a Master in a very particular War in a worldline that honestly ciuld only end up pruned … And her Servant is on this forum ! It's none other than Frigix's Cesare Borgia.
So yeah. No epilogue because the only one I could think off felt too similar to Wind’s for me to proceed.
|
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
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