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PLAYER INFORMATION-
Name/Nickname: Claire
AIM/E-mail/Contact: ametatsu7 (AIM) clairepear@hotmail.co.uk (email)
LJ: baby_werewolf
CHARACTER INFORMATION-
Canon Character and Series: The Disreputable Dog (Kibeth) from the Old Kingdom Trilogy
In-Game Name: The Disreputable Dog
Age: Indeterminate.
Gender: Female
Position & Ship: Silvana, Cabin boy
Appearance:
Generally, a large, wiry-haired black and tan mongrel dog, around the size of a woflhound or German Shepherd. She wears a collar around her neck which, while at first appearing to be plain leather, is completely magical in nature.. The Dog has a friendly and enthusiastic air about her, and since "enthusiastic" in doggy terms tends to involve mud on the dog and/or dog saliva on the faces of anyone in the immediate vicinity, she's not always the cleanest of creatures.
That initial "generally" is an important word, as the Disreputable Dog is quite capable of changing her shape as it suits her - while she's always a dog, she can become small to fit through narrow gaps or large to menace an attacker, for example, or turn her paws into suckers for balance or fingers for dexterity. She can even grow wings if the need arises. She can't shift out of a dog shape, or grow above the size of a Shetland pony.
Personality:
The Dog is a friendly, cheerful individual. Adventurous, curious and easily distracted by a new pathway or an interesting smell, she gets into everything and can be relied on to pop up unexpectedly. She's intensely loyal to her friends, and readily jumps to their assistance or defence, although there are some battles she's very much aware one has to fight for oneself, and won't interfere in.
Not called "Disreputable" without reason, she has very little respect for anyone's privacy or personal space, or for the rules - whether this means curfew or the laws of physics. She will sometimes do as she's told, but more because she wants to please the person giving the order than because she cares that it is an order.
She's intelligent and knowledgeable, and can, at any given time, be either a good source of information and advice, an incorrigible smartarse, or distracted by a rabbit.
She's generally blunt and to the point in speech, although she's also good at dissembling and avoiding or ignoring questions she doesn't feel like answering.
Abilities/Weapons:
Talking dog! Talking dog that can change shape as described above, and can also disappear completely on occasion.
Teeth, claws and slobber come as standard dog weapons, but she has more mystical abilities on top of that. She can make both the Dead and, sometimes the living move as she wants by barking, and weave magic spells as well - again, using her bark. The Dead, as a rule, are far easier to control than the living because they tend to lack free will and can't resist compulsion. A being with free will can resist the Dog's control, which is, strictly speaking, more of a suggestion than an order - it says to you "you want to go that way," and if you know you don't, you can refuse to obey.
Because she's not, strictly speaking, a living creature, she's fairly hard to kill. She doesn't get tired and never needs to eat, although that's not to say she doesn't like to.
How well can your character hack?:
Surprisingly well - for a dog. She doesn't believe in privacy, so if you're hiding something, she will want to try and find it out, and that includes your journal entries. And she's a determined critter, so she's picked up a few skills along the way. She's not the world's greatest hacker, but she can probably get into the easy stuff, provided she can be bothered to keep her attention on it for long enough.
Weaknesses:
She doesn't always understand quite how human society works, and can be overly blunt or indiscreet, accidentally offending people - although she will probably be quite apologetic afterwards.
She's also fairly impulsive and emotional, and not very good at staying still or quiet when she doesn't want to. Nor does she always remember that most people won't expect a dog to talk, so she can blurt things out at inappropriate moments.
History:
It has been said of the Disreputable Dog that she is either something new, or something so old that all the books about her are dust. Both, in a way, are true. In her current form, the Dog has only been on Reial for a few years, but has existed since much, much longer ago. She is a much-diluted form of a spirit that has been in existence for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Long before settlers first came to Reial from the world below, the world caught the attention of Orannis, the Destroyer, one of the Nine Bright Shiners - powerful spirits with the power to greatly affect the worlds they encountered: in Orannis's case, as a force of chaos and destruction. The Dog was then Kibeth, another Bright Shiner, who, with six others, fought Orannis, and, beating him, sealed him into the broken halves of a giant metal sphere, which was buried in the Badlands hills - Reial being then deserted, it seemed a safe place.
After the defeat of Orannis, the Seven invested themselves into the magic of the world, forming, among other things, the Charter - a system of marks that binds part of the magic in the world, making it controllable. Free magic, and plenty of it, still exists in the world, however, and, indeed, part of the Dog's current form was created by Free magic, part by Charter. As well as the Charter, some of the essence of each of the Seven went into the bells sometimes used by necromancers to summon and control the Dead - the bell named for Kibeth is also known as the Walker, and has the power to control the movements of the Dead and the living.
After this, there was a long period of dormancy. The Dog, until recently, rested in the form of a small soapstone figurine of a dog, until she was found by a young mage called Lirael. Lirael was a lonely girl, who failed to fit into the community of seers into which she was born. She decided to use the statue as the base to create a magical construct of a canine companion. However, she lost control of the spell part-way through, and, when it finished, instead of finding herself in possession of a mere illusory sending, was faced with the Dog. Although she was as solid as any normal dog, and at first, the only indication that she was not one was her collar, which, when touched, was clearly pure magic, the Dog was far from normal. For one thing, she talked. Quite a lot, in fact.
Once Lirael got over the shock of having summoned herself a talking dog, the two quickly became fast friends. After several years spent largely in the great library where Lirael worked, Lirael was dispatched on a mission to investigate strange occurrences which had been occurring out in a remote region of the Badlands. The Dog, of course, went with her mistress.
The cause of the strange happenings turned out to be Orannis, who, with the help of a necromancer named Hedge, was well on the way to freeing itself. Lirael, with the help of the Dog and a number of others (several of whom turned out to be Lirael's relations), succeeded in re-binding Orannis. Afterwards, the Dog, her purpose with Lirael fulfilled and her strength depleted in the battle with Orannis, left, leaving Lirael with her new-found family.
She spent the next few years wandering, both in Reial itself and on the other side of the boundary with Death. The Dog goes where she will, and if there is any great purpose behind her movements, it's not discernable. Still, if she decides she wants to go with you, she's pretty damn hard to dissuade. And most recently, she's decided she wants to follow the Silvana's crew.
Feel free to use this as a crit post (comments are screened) or for anything else you want to say. Alternatively, drop me a line any other way you like~