Kalwara

Kalwara, formally known as Kal Wa Suri of the Clan Wara of the A'kia, is a recent arrival in the great city of Colonial Bay. She is 'Wa Suri' - Wind Touched - with a destiny known only to the Seven Spirits of the Wind Mountains. As wind touched she can no longer become a mountain ranger, a role she had trained for over many years, and is seeking a new purpose. She is hoping to find that in Colonial Bay City.



Description
Kalwara is tall (6ft 2") and slender (140lbs), a result of the fae blood in the A'kiri ancestry. Her hair is vivid red, bangs hanging over her brow in the front, falling loose below the shoulders at the rear. Kalwara's skin tone would be considered oriental on earth. Her eyes are a intense dark blue. She has a cross shaped scar on the left side of her face.

She wears the costume of an A'kiri warrior. A red long sleeved kimono on top with a blue umanori hakama from her waist down. A glowing necklace hangs around her neck. Around her waist is a braided silk belt dyed with her clan colors. Her forearms bear polished silver bracers embossed with a thousand tiny eyes. A sheathed katana style sword is tucked into her belt at her left side.

Powers
Kalwara is wa suri (wind touched). Granted mystical powers by the spirits of the Wind Mountains. She was trained from earliest childhood in the combat arts of blade and hand to hand fighting. When she started ranger training at the age of sixteen she was presented, as all ranger trainees are, with an enchanted A'kiri Talisman. And, of course, one of the first things ranger trainees are taught is to hone the A'kiri battle rage, a form of berserking, into a combat trance - enhancing their prowess - without the loss of control of a true berserker. At the same time a proud father gifted her with a family heirloom, the Bracers of a Thousand Eyes. These silvered forearm bracers originate from the Golden Age of Fae culture, before the Dragon Wars, and can deflect or mitigate even the fiercest of attacks.

On becoming wa suri, Kalwara was granted the ability to move as fast as the wind, leap through the air, and summon up a wind strong enough to support her on any surface. If she is aware of an attack she can move fast enough to evade the full effort (combat luck). Her speed of movement allows her to engage multiple opponents in hand-to-hand combat in a single flowing motion.

Perhaps the greatest of the gifts granted is that of Wind Sense, a sensitivity to air currents that allows her to sense with almost unerring accuracy everything within a hundred paces or so of her if there is an open path between her and there. Finally, as wa suri, Kalwara was given one of the wind swords by the priests of the temple. Each sword is said to bestow seven powers to the owner - powers that only emerge by trial and error and then protracted practice.

Skills
Kalwara has the skillset of both an A'kiri warrior and an A'kiri wilderness ranger. She is skilled in hand-to-hand and bladed combat. Her interpersonal skills are more rudimentary. Rangers are by nature solitary individuals.

The A'kiri people are mostly human. However there's definitely fae blood in their heritage and their native language is in fact archaic fae. Kalwara has a basic understanting of the English language due to her childhood association with the daughters of Lady Markham-Lothven.

Complications
As daughter of a clan chief, proud of her A'kiri heritage and of being wa suri (wind touched), Kalwara makes no effort to conceal who and what she is. Only with great reluctance will she wear anything but the traditional costume of the A'kiri warrior class. Any such effort to conceal her identity would be doomed to failure in any event. As wind touched, Kalwara is constantly surrounded by winds that ruffle her hair and clothing even in enclosed spaces.

As a member of the warrior class Kalwara is expected to test herself, and be tested, by combat against other skilled fighters. The martial artist version of the 'gunslinger' syndrome with martial artists competing against each other to determine who is best.

Almost from birth Kalwara has been expected to excel and praised when doing so. Add to that being chosen as one of the seven wind touched, and it's hardly surprising she is excessively confident in her skills and abilities.

The one downside to having been chosen is the prohibition placed upon the wind touched against killing. Making her unsuitable for the role of ranger.

Born and raised on one of the less well known Twilit realms, Kalwara is a stranger to Earth and knows little to nothing of Earth's ways and customs. Her people are human, but there is considerable fae influence in her people's culture.

Origin
On her sixteeth birthday Clan Chief Daughter Kalwara began her training as a A'kiri Ranger. Four years later, just after her twentith birthday, came the time of her initiation trial. Each ranger trainee must travel alone into the Wind Mountains and return with a wyvern's claw. Or not return at all. On the third day of her trial a great storm broke over the A'kiri lands. Battered into near insensibility by the force of the storm Kalwara was lifted into the air by a raging wind and eventually dropped into the courtyard of the temple of the Seven Winds. She had become 'wa suri' (wind touched).

The wa suri are granted mystical powers, although most of these only emerge after rigorous and prolonged practice. Unfortunately for her ambition to become a ranger, they are also forbidden by the wind spirits to kill. Which is not helpful when engaged in tracking down bandits, brigands, and dangerous animals. The priests of the temple nursed her back to health, presented her with a sword of the seven winds (of which there are only seven) and suggested she go to the realm known as Earth, where her inability to kill would not be such a handicap.

''Background: This is not known to the A'kiri: The spirits of the Seven Winds are in fact ancient and extremely powerful fae mages from before the dragon war. Believing in the sanctity of life these mages could not be a part of the brutality of the dragon war. Withdrawing to the realm occuplied by the A'kiri they sealed it away from contact with other realms until the dragon wars ended. They select seven of the best warriors in each generation to become wa suri (wind touched) granting them mystical powers but also forbidding them to kill, as protectors of the A'kiri people.''

Personality
Rangers are by their nature solitary and quiet individuals. Kalwara is no exception. Despite being the daughter of a clan chief she is not herself a leader personality. Neither, though, is she easily swayed from following her sense of duty and principles. Trained to contain her berserker rage she is slow to anger and will rarely if ever lose control. But once angered she is implacable and relentless in her response to whatever angered her. Kalwara is proud of her A'kiri heritage and status as a 'wa suri' (wind touched).

History
Kalwara is the daughter of an A'kiri clan chief. The A'kiri people live on a distant Twilit realm where the relative time rate is extremely variable. It was the realm that Princess Stephanie moved to so Princess Meleryniel could quickly, in Undermoon years, grow old enough to be able to defend herself when it seemed the fae were likely to fall into a civil war. The Markham-Lothvens accompanied the royal family as friends and bodyguards. The four children, Princess Meleryniel, the daughters of Lady Markham-Lothven, and Kalwara, became known as the 'four furies.'

The realm of the A'kiri warriors is a rough and ready place. In some ways rather akin to the ancient Viking culture. Even for the young, who are expected to settle their childhood disputes with flying fists, hot tempers, and quick forgiveness. Even so the quartet of children who came to be affectionately known as the four furies took that to extreme. The ladies Markham-Lothven were effectively invincible in physical conflicts, with Clan Chief Daughter Kalwara not far behind them. While on those frequent occasions their excesses came to the attention of adults, Princess Meleryniel was almost always able to charm their way out of serious consequences.

The A'kiri culture is an odd mixture of fae refinement and human warrior traditions. Most conflicts are settled by combat. Quick to anger, quick to fight, and quick to forgive, accurately descibes the A'kiri. This is especially true of A'kiri children. Fists are the accepted way to respond to conflicts. The exception being A'kiri rangers who are trained to control their beserker rage.

Kalwara was always the quiet one of the four furies. It came as no surprise that she opted for ranger training on coming of age. Fortunately she has a younger brother who can inherit the clan chief role. Kalwara excelled in her ranger training and was considered ready for her initiation trial by the young age of twenty. To pass the trial she had to go alone into the Wind Mountains and return with a wyvern claw. Not an easy test and some trainees never returned alive.