OOC - Application
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Guru Clef
SERIES: Magic Knight Rayearth (manga)
RESERVED: No.
WISHLIST: No.
PERSONALITY:
Clef is a striking and unusual figure, even for a Cephirian. In general, personality and appearance are difficult to separate in Cephiro because one can change quite a few things - perhaps everything - about one's appearance at will, if one has the inclination to do so. This is not the case with Clef, at least outwardly. Although his appearance is that of a young boy, he projects himself as very much a curmudgeonly old man. 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, the secret is that he manages not to let his anger get the best of him during times when there are more important matters to be attended to immediately. He is more likely to quietly seethe when his concentration is otherwise engaged than to distract himself with needless flailing - however frustrated he may be, and however efficiently frustration may be relieved by hitting someone upside the head with a blunt object.
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 to 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 tends to avoid it.
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.
TIMELINE: End of Series 2, Volume 3. (Post-canon) - Manga
BACKGROUND:
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 formost, 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 in the recent centuries 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 waver in her prayer for it or become distracted and all manner of hell could break loose. Clef cared very deeply for Emeraude and Zagato, however, and 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 was certain that it didn't need to be this way, but Emeraude was certain that it did. In her mind, the only solution was for her to die so that another Pillar could be born. Zagato, regardless of whether it was necessary or not, was adamantly against this as he returned the Princess's feelings for him. 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 when they showed up. He summoned Fyula, his pet giant flying fish (yes), to retrieve them when he felt the strong surge of magic signalling that they had been summoned. They fell from the sky for some reason, but when Fyula returned and deposited them on a cliff close to where Clef had been when he had sent her off he remained out of sight for a while and watched them in sheer disbelief. These were the Legendary Magic Knights?! They were innocent and more than a little silly - how could he in good conscience send them on their way to fulfill the legend?
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 or a fish. The story he told her and the Knights themselves was that Zagato had kidnapped Emeraude and they needed to confront him and rescue her. It sounds awful, but there was no other way to go about it - 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.
Of course, it wasn't as though he was quick to furnish this tale - he hesitated, telling the Knights first that it was not possible for them to go back home. He sort of hoped to sweep the whole 'killing the Pillar' business under the rug entirely, but then all three girls seemed hopelessly sad about never seeing their families or friends again (whod've thought?) and... he simply couldn't bear to force anyone else to be so sad. So, he did the best he could and his decision with the full knowledge of its consequences was one he bore alone.
He gave them armor befitting the legendary Magic Knights, as well as magic - and then was surprised when, upon attempting the latter, the Knights' elements chose them. The dialogue is a little confusing at this point, but my creative interpretation is that normally he would have to ask the elements to please consider them as candidates for magic, but in this case when he started the spell the elements were just like, "MINE. /GRAB" Unfortunately, he only had time to teach one of them how to actually use this magic, and for some reason he chose to teach Hikaru first. Perhaps he sensed that she had the strongest will out of the three and therefore would be the most powerful and useful in the short-term. Immediately after teaching Hikaru the basics, he had only enough time to summon a griffin and send the girls on their way to the Forest of Silence before Alcyone showed up. He insisted on sending them on ahead while he stayed behind to face Alcyone himself - which turned out not to be that big of a deal because he was like a bazillion times more powerful than she was. Still, she ran off and left him to shout after her to wait - later it becomes clear that it was probably only out of concern for her. 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 Spirit 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. The Knights returned, mysteriously, and pretty much the first words out of Clef's mouth were an apology for leading them into that awful battle. He then went on to say that he didn't know who summoned them, but Cephiro was about to turn into a battlefield with the other three countries invading - so they should sit tight until he could figure out who summoned them because obviously that person must be the next Pillar. The girls insisted on fighting for Cephiro, though, to which his response was to shout severely that there was no reason for that. He cares, but sometimes the way he shows it is to get all bitchy. He sort of reiterated along the same general theme when Umi came to see him later on and tried to apologize for her behavior when they first met. His response was to apologize again and to say that this time she and the other girls should use the magic, armor, and weapons he and Presea gave them to protect themselves first - he's very emphatic in this, as though trying to get it to sink in the way it seldom seems to. They must choose their own safety and happiness first, please.
Despite his appearance of being in charge and having his shit together, however, Clef wrestles much of the time with the ethical issue of finding another Pillar versus allowing Cephiro to crumble and die. At one point, he even muses that he's not certain he wants to live to see another Pillar. He eventually confides his feelings in Presea and comes to terms with the fact that he doesn't have any say over whether or not there is another Pillar, nor who it is, but he can make sure that whoever it is goes into the job with the full knowledge of all that it entails - loneliness and self-sacrifice. He nearly does die when the Road to the Pillar opens and, upon recovering from his sudden bout of unexplained unconsciousness, spends the duration of the events leading up to Hikaru's ascension to the position of Pillar in abject :O!!! shock as Mokona proceeds to melt all of his shiny sparkly jewelery for no reason. Oh, and also reveal that Mokona is the Creator.
In the epilogue, Clef seems 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 is also presumed to continue teaching magic, as he took Ascot under his wing sometime between the first and second seasons and the boy continues to hang around the palace.
ABILITIES: There are a lot. They are also all magical abilities. As the Master Mage of Cephiro, this is what Clef does. This is the only thing that he does. Seeing as he has been doing this one thing for seven and a half centuries, he's pretty good at it. However, I don't expect him to recover even half of these abilities, much less become as awesomely badass at any of them as he was in canon - I have made an attempt to produce an exhaustive list here so that I have more of a choice in which ones he actually develops.
Shown/Mentioned in Canon
Animal Communication Available at birth - One of his joys in life is talking to Spirit Beasts, or summoned animals, and it is unclear what differences exist between Spirit Beasts and regular animals, if any - he is also shown talking to animals (at least one) whom he didn't appear to summon and might in fact be wild. In ES, since he may at some point be able to summon Sphere fauna, I'm going to go with there not being a notable difference between Spirit Beasts and other animals in this regard.
Element(Lightning) - Lightning Strike(Sundace) Unlockable - A spell that calls a bolt of lightning from the heavens to strike an enemy. When he does this in canon onlookers are pretty amazed but, while he can probably make it more or less powerful to fit the situation, it's really just a basic attack spell.
Element(Light) - Shield(Cresta) Unlockable - Just your standard shield spell, it forms a bubble around its caster. The strength of the bubble is proportional to the caster's willpower and energy. Again, Clef can probably make it more or less powerful as needed.
Element(Light) - Illusions Unlockable (requires memories + practice) - Holographic images created with one's mind and willpower. Clef's can be very elaborate, but he tends to use them as maps and illustrations to what he's talking about rather than for trickery.
Summoning Unlockable (requires memories + staff + animals willing to be summoned + practice) - In canon, this appears to bring a Spirit Beast out of hammerspace inside his staff. In ES, however, it will teleport an animal from wherever it is to wherever he happens to be. Summoning will not work at all in Edensphere, but he will eventually remember that he USED to be able to do it.
Potions Available with training - This ability is only mentioned in canon, not shown, so it's unlikely that he'd remember anything about how to do it through memories. It requires some knowledge of horticulture, no doubt, as well as how to put ingredients together into something that does what you want it to do. He'll find he has a definite knack for at least the latter part, even if Sphere flora isn't at all like Cephiran flora.
Magical Item Creation Available with extensive training NOTE: Powers come with a 60% chance of failure. - This is kind of glossed over in canon. When he gives the Knights their armor, it's just kind of like, 'BAM PRESTO TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE there you go.' It is mentioned that he also created the lock on Pharle Presea's door, but that's never shown. Although he makes item creation look easy, it's worth noting that the only other character who can just go POOF HERE'S A THING is, um. God. As such, I imagine it takes a lot of energy and focused willpower, as well as the discipline and sheer concentration it would take to summon all of that power over such a short amount of time as to instantly create an item - not to mention intimate prior knowledge of how you intend for the item to function, et cetera. Not to mention that this is probably a much more difficult undertaking in the Sphere than in Cephiro, where the physics of the land are more conductive to creating objects by sheer force of will. In ES, Clef will never get to the point of being able to successfully create an object out of thin air, although he might get to the point of being able to make something with available materials or give an already-existing item magical properties.
Giving Magic Powers to Other People Available with extensive training, as part of a significant plot - Yes, this is something he can do in canon. There is a spell that will actually give the target magic. However, I imagine that it can only work on a candidate with sufficient willpower to use magic - not necessarily just anyone. Secondly, the candidate still needs to be taught how to wield and control it before it can be of any use. Therefore, Clef won't be able to use this power, period, until he remembers enough about magic to actually teach other people how to use it. This isn't some ability he's going to unlock one day and just decide it might be fun to try out. This is an ability to use as part of a long-term plot - if at all. Clef is also the sort of person who would develop it and not tell anyone.
All others - Extrapolated from canon under the assumption that he can't teach someone to do something if he doesn't have that ability himself.
Element(Lightning) - Offensive Unlockable (requires practice)
Element(Light) - Creative Unlockable (requires practice)
Element(Fire) - Offensive Available with training
Element(Water) - Offensive/Defensive Available with training
Element(Wind) - Defensive Available with training
Element(Ice) - Offensive Available with training
Element(Darkness) - Destructive Available with training