Character Info
In Character Information
character name: Luciela
Fandom: Claymore (manga)
Timeline: Chapter 64, after she escapes from Isley but before she is found by Rafaela!
character's age: seems to be in her early 20s? She's been around for at least two or so generations, though, so somewhat older than that.
powers, skills, pets and equipment: (all canon)
Luciela is an Abyssal One. In brief terms, this means she was a No. 1 Claymore that transformed into a violently powerful Awakened Being, setting her in a category with only two other characters that are essentially super versions of super monsters. Like other awakened beings, she eats human guts and will begin to weaken if she doesn't get her necessary fill every so often.
Luciela basically has two forms: a human one, which is similar to but much more powerful than a normal Claymore, where she looks like her original self. She has enhanced abilities all across the board (speed, strength, agility etc), regeneration, and can read and use the energy known as yoki. She's also incredibly resilient, taking several large rods through the torso without being too badly affected by it. Occasionally, she will sprout tentacles from... somewhere (more on that in a second.)
Her second form is even more powerful than that. It consists of a large humanoid feline with a vertical set of mouths, numerous blade/winglike protrusions and the aforementioned tentacles, which serve as a dual tail in this form. She also has the ability to open mouths up on any part of her body, with a precedent for devouring projectiles from her enemies, keeping her from harm. It's implied that she can actually taste anything that gets eaten by them and can use them in either form. As with others of her type, though, it takes yoki energy to maintain this form, so she wouldn't stay in it indefinitely. Being severely injured will make her revert back to her human form so she can heal more efficiently.
Tl;dr tentacled catgirl demon that can eat anything. Thanks, Japan. She has no equipment or pets. Or clothes.
canon history:
The Organization, they say, was created to protect the people from the monstrous, man-eating yoma. They did this by creating weapons even more powerful, but no less monstrous: by implanting the flesh of a yoma into young girls and training them as soldiers, they created beings known to the world at large as Silver-Eyed Witches (due to the loss of pigment caused by the implanting process) or, more commonly, Claymores.
Using a power called yoki that came from monsters' flesh, the Claymores would fight the yoma and protect the humans who were generally grateful, if afraid of both parties. And eventually, each Claymore would meet one of two fates - to be killed, or to awaken and be consumed by the monster within. Awakened beings, as they were called, were even more powerful than normal yoma, and would quickly be made targets of the Organization's soldiers... for the most part.
Luciela was a special case. Nothing much is known about her life before the Organization, but she and her sister Rafaela were taken in by them to be subjects of a new experiment to create even better weapons than before. The two girls were hybridized using the flesh of the same yoma, and were trained to bonding - in essence, one of them would hold both souls so that the other sister could use her powers to awaken and return at will. As anyone could probably guess, the experiment was a catastrophic failure. Luciela rampaged out of control upon awakening and was unable to return to humanity. Whoops. She did, however, leave the Organization devastated in her wake; over half the warriors and trainees were killed, and Rafaela was expelled from their ranks for her failure. She went into hiding, suppressing her yoki and determined to one day kill Luciela to make up for what had happened.
Luciela herself went south and settled there as the third, and youngest, Abyssal One - awakened beings who had once been the highest ranking warriors, the most powerful of which there were only... well, three. Aside from Luciela, there was Riful, in the West, who had been the youngest to ever awaken; and Isley in the North, from a time when males were used instead (with appropriately terrible results.) For a long time, each Abyssal was content to stay in their territories, avoiding clashing with the others, and too powerful to be targeted by the Organization. However, Isley found himself emboldened by Plot and eventually headed south, intent to take Luciela's lands from her.
Initially they had agreed not to use their overly destructive awakened forms to fight, but of course Luciela didn't hesitate in breaking their pact. It turns out she needed the extra boost from cheating after all - at the tail end of the battle they were both in bad shape, but it was Luciela who was running for her life. She had been using too much of her yoki during the fight to properly regenerate and ended up reverting back to human form somewhere in the woods, which is about where I'm picking her up from.
personality:
Luciela seems pleasant enough, at first. She'll almost always smile when she talks to you, whether it be showing off her sharp wit or simple flirting, or even insults - she can be rather catty and blunt in her opinion about someone, having called Isley a "horrible man" before revealing that she understood his devious plans from the start, and later claiming that he "tastes terrible" (they were fighting, I swear.) And all of this is done with a coy little smile. She gives off a much more feminine air than the other female Abyssal One, Riful, opting for a little more decadent appearance, but really this only serves to hide her claws.
The fact is, Luciela isn't really all that pleasant. Like the other Abyssals she's cruel and cunning, and rather ambitious despite lacking the resources necessary to follow through with it; she's the only one without a Trusty Companion and claims to dislike herding up, which leaves her isolated. She has no qualms about cheating in her contest with Isley, either, even going so far as to deliberately dress for the occasion (fashion tip! Long dresses are good for hiding tentacles.) What's more, she claims not to want to damage the land that she and Isley were fighting over... but of course, in breaking their pact by cheating and unleashing her power, she goes ahead and damages it to hell anyway. Being destructive isn't something she's too concerned about, no matter how lovely the landscape is.
The only real ties to humanity she seems to have is through her sister, Rafaela, whom she seems to genuinely care about... to an extent. Past the canon point I'm taking her from she finally reunites with her sister and tearfully embraces her, saying that she's waited so long to see her. It's only after that does she grab the opportunity to beg Rafaela to awaken and join her, showing just how ambitious she can be, no matter what the circumstances. Still, it's implied that she does truly care for Rafaela and that it's mutual, despite the fact that Luciela never sought out her sister for whatever reason, and the fact that Rafaela, well. Kills her.
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?
...tentacled demon catgirl. She's essentially one of the big monsters of a series about killing monsters, so she has more than enough inhumanity to defend herself if need be. She's not without some vulnerabilities, though - whatever feelings she still has for her sister, for example - so even with her monstrous nature she's not above being affected by the setting.