Application - Trans 9
Character's name: Guru Clef
Character's LJ: conductyourself
Character's canon: Magic Knight Rayearth
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
Clef is a striking and unusual figure, even for a Cephirian. In general, people in Cephiro tend to look the age they act even if this isn't their chronological age. This is not the case with Clef, at least outwardly. Although his appearance is that of a young boy, he projects himself as being much older and it even comes through in his facial expressions. People are often surprised that someone can manage to look so old while physically being so young. He is the kind of person one could very easily imagine shouting at kids to get off his lawn, though he somehow manages to toe a fine line between 'fussy old man' and 'dignified advisor to royalty.' Though infamous for his short temper, which apparently includes violent tantrums, he never allows his anger get the best of him during times when there are more important matters to be attended to immediately. He has his priorities straight and can be content to quietly seethe or even ignore something that is bothering him if there are other demands on his concentration.
Although his serious and grumpy side may be the most obvious part of his personality, it is actually his gentle side which is more important. He is strict and prickly as a result of the stress of his position as the Master Mage of Cephiro, but his compassion and purity of heart are more natural parts of him and they are where his primary motivations come from in canon. He has a certain affection for all of the people of Cephiro, especially his students, along with a certain paternal protectiveness and wish for them to be happy. Along those lines, he is careful not to do anything that would cause someone he cares about to be unhappy, such as allowing harm to come to himself or others through his own recklessness. As such, he is not prone to reckless or self-destructive behavior and is more likely to stay behind the scenes and help others than to rush blindly into the unknown and fight monsters or something. In fact, although his seemingly-abrasive outer projection of himself would appear to invite conflict, he actually prefers to avoid it unless absolutely necessary.
Left to his own devices, Clef is a very quiet person. He treasures complete silence, and so tries to conserve words by being as succinct as possible in his phrasing. To that end, he generally says exactly what he means and, when he's not falling into formal courtly speech, might be accused of bluntness. This style carries over into his writing which, while eloquent in its own way, suffers from the same barebones style. One thing he is not conservative with, however, are questions - except when asking them might be considered prying. He is curious, but not nosy - though he is perceptive and confident that even closely-guarded secrets will reveal themselves eventually - and therefore patient and careful. Part of the reason he is able to avoid being reckless is because he's not burdened by the general sense of urgency most people have and is able to sit down and plan out what he is going to do. That often means that he ends up in the background or behind the scenes, but that's perfectly fine with him. Glory is for the young, anyway.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
Clef has always been the Guru - not literally, but when one has been alive and doing the same job for seven centuries or so, one ceases to be a person and becomes a fixture synonymous with the role that one fills. Clef's role in particular is a bit vague and varied. He is a teacher first and foremost, but also a diplomat and political figure, a protector of and attendant to the royal family, an advisor. Whatever the title of Guru, or Master Mage, originally meant, it has probably expanded since he came into it to include the wisdom that comes with having lived through the reigns of multiple Pillars. Considering that each Pillar, whose duty it was to pray for the continued peace and safety of the country, probably lived a long time since they were a powerful magic-user in their own right, this was no small feat.
Most of the more powerful and prominent magic-users in the country were trained by Clef: Lantis, the country's only magical swordsman; Zagato, the head priest; and Alcyone, who perhaps was meant to succeed Clef in his position. Emeraude, the Pillar of Cephiro when the story starts, might also have been one of his students - if not, then she was certainly like a daughter to him in any case. That in mind, it is understandable that his devotion to his country - which had until that point been unshakeable - began to break when he realized that Emeraude had fallen in love with Zagato. A Pillar's heart is supposed to belong only to Cephiro because otherwise she might become distracted and cease to pray for its continued existence - with disastrous results. Clef cared very deeply for Emeraude and Zagato, so it seemed wrong that they should be denied happiness so that the country could flourish. He wasn't sure he could believe in Cephiro anymore if that was going to be the case.
Clef didn't think that things should have to be this way, but Emeraude was more of a mind to deal with what was in front of her and did not question the way things were. In her mind, the only solution was for her to die so that another Pillar could be born. Zagato, on the other hand, put his lover's life before the fate of the country and was adamantly against this course of action. When Emeraude summoned the Magic Knights - the legendary warriors from another world whose role was to kill the Pillar - two distinct sides formed. On Zagato's side was Alcyone and whoever else he could come up with, and on the other was Clef, Presea, and the Magic Knights.
Clef was an unwilling leader, protecting a country he wasn't certain that he believed in anymore against several of the people dearest to him. He might not have chosen a side if Princess Emeraude hadn't made him promise to help the Magic Knights, and if the Knights hadn't turned out to basically be little girls who just wanted to return to their families. He couldn't, and didn't - didn't help them as much as he probably should have, and didn't do so in good conscience. He outright lied to everyone in the process - incuding Presea, the Master Weaponsmith, who was probably his closest friend who wasn't one of his students. The story he told her and the Knights themselves was that Zagato had kidnapped Emeraude and they needed to confront him and rescue her. In his mind there had been no other way - if Presea had known the truth she would not have put her best effort into making weapons for the Knights, and if the Knights had known they wouldn't have been willing to do the job they were summoned for. In either case, the Knights might have died or at least been unable to return to their own world.
When Alcyone appeared to try and separate the Knights from Clef, he sent them on ahead while he stayed behind to face her himself. He tried to stall her, partially to protect the Knights and partially because he must have known that her choice to side with Zagato would not have a good outcome, and he later admits that he wishes he could have seen her one more time before her death. Even though he was not defeated by Alcyone, and the beast she left to keep him at bay couldn't have posed too much of a challenge, Clef was not seen or heard from again for the entire rest of the first series, except for a brief scene where he teaches Umi and Fuu magic telepathically using Mokona. It's unclear what happened to him, except that he apparently went out with a huge BOOM! and Hikaru and Presea seemed to think something might've happened to him, but he apologizes in the second series for disappearing so it's probably safe to assume that he willfully deserted rather than that he was seriously injured.
After Emeraude and Zagato were killed and the Knights left Cephiro - or perhaps while he was elsewhere during the first season - Clef gathered the country's most powerful mages and designed and built an immense palace for refugees to flee to. He also became a sort of de facto head of government, seeing as the crown prince wasn't very good at anything other than appearing dashing and interrupting private conversations. When the Knights mysteriously returned, his response was to apologize for misleading and abandoning them before and to say that this time the Knights should use the magic, armor, and weapons he and Presea gave them to protect themselves rather than fighting for Cephiro. He was very emphatic on this, as a core part of his character is concern for the happiness of others and so what he did the first time they arrived must have really gotten to him. This is around the point when I am taking him from in Trans 9.
Despite his appearance of being in charge and having his shit together, however, Clef wrestled much of the time with the ethical issue of finding another Pillar versus allowing Cephiro to crumble and die. Everything did eventually turn out okay, however, and in the epilogue, Clef seemed to continue playing a major political/diplomatic role as either the head of state in practice or at least a diplomatic representative of Cephiro to the other countries. He also presumedly continued teaching magic, as he had taken Ascot under his wing sometime between the first and second seasons and the boy continued to hang around the palace in the epilogue.
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
There are a lot. They are also all magical abilities. As the Master Mage of Cephiro, this is what Clef does. Seeing as he has been doing it for seven and a half centuries, he's pretty good at it. In canon he's shown using a lightning attack that, while impressive, is also apparently very common among magic users and simple to perform - it'd be like one of your first-level spells if this were D&D. He can also summon magical creatures, create elaborate illusions, and generate energy shields. In the anime, he's also capable of thought-projection, teleportation, and really badass energy shields that can protect an enormous palace with thousands of people in it. Even though I'm taking him from the manga timeline, I assume he has all these abilities but just generally doesn't use them. Additionally, he obviously has some sort of age/appearance-changing ability, given that he's 745 and looks about ten.
That said, I don't want him to be a godmode and the only powers that I enjoy playing out with him are the healing abilities that I assume he has but doesn't demonstrate very much in canon. The only reference to him is his offering to make a potion for Umi at one point, but in my headcanon healing and defense are actually his core competency. After all, he's extremely powerful and yet always stays behind and lets the Magic Knights go out and fight instead while he makes sure people are safe - it must be that that's just what he's good at and he comparatively sucks at attacking things.
So, I will be weakening all of his elemental powers except the ones having to do with the element of light, which I perceive to be responsible for healing, defensive shields, and illusions. He will also be able to make potions, assuming that he can actually get the necessary ingredients. All other magic will be significantly weakened - especially attack spells - and things like teleportation and thought-projection won't work at all.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
He's a very good politician/diplomat - which essentially just means that he's skilled at figuring out who should get what and when, organizing what needs to be organized, and compromising with people to make it happen. It doesn't mean that he's a good liar - which, in fact, he isn't at all.