(no subject)
NAME: Liz
JOURNAL: rizumcbutt
EMAIL: silkenaracna@gmail.com
AIM: the p0rn nun
WIKI NAME: lizbutt
CHARACTERS: n/a
CHARACTER NAME: Khisanth
FANDOM: Dragonlance
CANON: After waking up from being punched out by a knight, and directly after learning Led had abandoned her.
WHAT THEY LOST: The knowledge of why the chromatic dragons' queen/goddess put the whole lot of them to sleep! Takhisis essentially sold her children out, and vowed to put them into what's called the Sleep to save her own life. She was subsequently imprisoned in the Abyss, but spared. Khisanth eventually realizes that there's a fine line between being put to sleep and being left to die, as it's already been about 500 years, and some of those sleeping dragons will have died of old age. This is yet another little betrayal that she faces that hardens her and makes her more suspicious. Without this memory she'll be a little more susceptible to, you know, general fuckery.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Black dragons, on the whole, are evil creatures. They're unpredictable and unreliable, driven by greed, self-aggrandizement, and self-preservation, in that order, and Khisanth is certainly no exception to the generalization. They're your typical treasure-hoarding evil dragon, straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Intelligent enough to mock humans, cruel enough to do it right before killing them. And, again, Khisanth fits the bill. She's petty, she's easily offended, she has a childish and insistent sense of retribution and revenge, and she's impossibly vain. These are, again, traits common to all black dragons.
But Khisanth also manages to be a little different. She spent a good part of her limited life in the company of two undeniably good creatures. Kadagan and Joad taught Khisanth something that no black dragon ever learns: they taught her patience. With patience came the ability to see past useless rage and petty greed. Khisanth can even rise above evil intentions and mindless cruelty, if she sees fit to. The problem is that she rarely does see fit to. Still, the possibility for it remains, and every time that she fails to act thoughtfully or responsibly, she finds yet another one-up on her fellow dragons. She recognizes her failures as such, and can learn from them.
In addition to this unusual capacity for rationality, she's seen more worlds than most dragons can claim to have, through her shapechanging. She understands, albeit begrudgingly, a human's perspective. She's been human, she's felt the sweep of emotions that goes with the change. And because that sweep of emotion got her betrayed, she's far more guarded against ever letting herself be carried away by them again. But she understands her capacity to feel them, and is far more comprehending of the sensation than any other dragon would be.
Once or twice in her life, Khisanth has even been victim to feelings of duty, respect, and even rarer - pity. These are also foreign to the nature of a black dragon, but Khisanth has formed stronger relationships than dragons tend to. Solitary creatures by nature, Khisanth has defied these inclinations often enough to form another rarity: friends. In Pteros, Khisanth found a dragon she could look up to. He was old, wise, and knowledgeable. And, yes, he was a coward, and contemptuous for that, but she still felt enough gratitude (and pity) for him to forgive him his cowardice and put him out of his misery in the end. In Jahet, Khisanth found something even more valuable. The other female provided her with an equal. Khisanth respected Jahet, even going so far as to seek her body to give it a proper burial after Jahet had been killed. Jahet had been the only dragon Khisanth had ever met that hadn't betrayed her, and for that Khisanth really, truly, and unexpectedly liked her.
So, while Khisanth easily succumbs to the natural self-serving, and violent inclinations common to all black dragons, she's also capable of rising above them. She can see past her own greed and desires now and then, and she can even go so far as to have relationships resembling those humans are more familiar with.
A full history can be found here, BUT IT'S AN AWFUL LOT.
ABILITIES: Aside from being a generally competent fighter (only as a dragon! she's totally balls at fighting as a human), Khisanth has two main abilities, and one magical bauble that I'll count as an ability. One is the art of qhen, which is a mental discipline more than a magical skill. Think of it as zen. At its most simple, it allows her to calm herself, reason her way out of anger, and behave logically - far more logically than most greedy, rage-driven dragons. It also allows her to understand the general Nature of Things, and so shapechange into any animal she sees. The change is instant, but it's not an exact copy. Just as she turns into her version of a human every time, she turns into her version of a badger every time.
The second power is more varied, and comes naturally to all dragons. It's never concretely defined, but it seems to be a manifestation of will. If a dragon pictures its immediate area cloaked in darkness, that will happen. If a dragon pictures a particular treasure of theirs suddenly smaller and easier to carry, it will happen. It requires concentration, but no spell components or incantations. For sake of not going insane or being too godmody, I've compiled a list of every example of magic Khisanth displays in canon, and I'll keep her use of it limited or related to these.
-Extinguish light
-Create fog
-Create flame at fingertips, fireball with enough concentration
-Shrink/grow objects
-Teleport short distances if she can envision the area
-Telepathically nudge heavy objects
-Create swirling lights/colors to blind
-Rain icicles from the sky
-Form a bubble shield
-Hasten movement
-Create illusions- including those for other senses, including smell.
-Mimic any voice perfectly
-Create "recordings" to be played back from animals or inanimate objects
-Blood mingling (allow her to see into the heart of someone else, and vice versa--though she hasn't actually learned this one from her canon point.)
-Form invisible walls
And as for the bauble: It's called the maynus globe, and she has officially inherited it from the nymphids after seeing the last of them die. At her point in canon she has no idea that it's a living, imprisoned creature, and just thinks of it as a really useful something-or-other. She's never too sure how it works, but it seems to simply carry out any order you can think of. It will:
-Float around with a life of its own
-Put a creature to sleep
-Wake it up
-Carry heavy things
-Hide bodies inside of itself (and then dump them out later hideously lightning-charred)
-Record and play back silent scenes that it's witnessed
-Teleport the owner and things/people around them
-Blind people with bright light
Same as with dragon magic, it's pretty ambiguous, but those are all the things it's done in canon.
JOURNAL: rizumcbutt
EMAIL: silkenaracna@gmail.com
AIM: the p0rn nun
WIKI NAME: lizbutt
CHARACTERS: n/a
CHARACTER NAME: Khisanth
FANDOM: Dragonlance
CANON: After waking up from being punched out by a knight, and directly after learning Led had abandoned her.
WHAT THEY LOST: The knowledge of why the chromatic dragons' queen/goddess put the whole lot of them to sleep! Takhisis essentially sold her children out, and vowed to put them into what's called the Sleep to save her own life. She was subsequently imprisoned in the Abyss, but spared. Khisanth eventually realizes that there's a fine line between being put to sleep and being left to die, as it's already been about 500 years, and some of those sleeping dragons will have died of old age. This is yet another little betrayal that she faces that hardens her and makes her more suspicious. Without this memory she'll be a little more susceptible to, you know, general fuckery.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Black dragons, on the whole, are evil creatures. They're unpredictable and unreliable, driven by greed, self-aggrandizement, and self-preservation, in that order, and Khisanth is certainly no exception to the generalization. They're your typical treasure-hoarding evil dragon, straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Intelligent enough to mock humans, cruel enough to do it right before killing them. And, again, Khisanth fits the bill. She's petty, she's easily offended, she has a childish and insistent sense of retribution and revenge, and she's impossibly vain. These are, again, traits common to all black dragons.
But Khisanth also manages to be a little different. She spent a good part of her limited life in the company of two undeniably good creatures. Kadagan and Joad taught Khisanth something that no black dragon ever learns: they taught her patience. With patience came the ability to see past useless rage and petty greed. Khisanth can even rise above evil intentions and mindless cruelty, if she sees fit to. The problem is that she rarely does see fit to. Still, the possibility for it remains, and every time that she fails to act thoughtfully or responsibly, she finds yet another one-up on her fellow dragons. She recognizes her failures as such, and can learn from them.
In addition to this unusual capacity for rationality, she's seen more worlds than most dragons can claim to have, through her shapechanging. She understands, albeit begrudgingly, a human's perspective. She's been human, she's felt the sweep of emotions that goes with the change. And because that sweep of emotion got her betrayed, she's far more guarded against ever letting herself be carried away by them again. But she understands her capacity to feel them, and is far more comprehending of the sensation than any other dragon would be.
Once or twice in her life, Khisanth has even been victim to feelings of duty, respect, and even rarer - pity. These are also foreign to the nature of a black dragon, but Khisanth has formed stronger relationships than dragons tend to. Solitary creatures by nature, Khisanth has defied these inclinations often enough to form another rarity: friends. In Pteros, Khisanth found a dragon she could look up to. He was old, wise, and knowledgeable. And, yes, he was a coward, and contemptuous for that, but she still felt enough gratitude (and pity) for him to forgive him his cowardice and put him out of his misery in the end. In Jahet, Khisanth found something even more valuable. The other female provided her with an equal. Khisanth respected Jahet, even going so far as to seek her body to give it a proper burial after Jahet had been killed. Jahet had been the only dragon Khisanth had ever met that hadn't betrayed her, and for that Khisanth really, truly, and unexpectedly liked her.
So, while Khisanth easily succumbs to the natural self-serving, and violent inclinations common to all black dragons, she's also capable of rising above them. She can see past her own greed and desires now and then, and she can even go so far as to have relationships resembling those humans are more familiar with.
A full history can be found here, BUT IT'S AN AWFUL LOT.
ABILITIES: Aside from being a generally competent fighter (only as a dragon! she's totally balls at fighting as a human), Khisanth has two main abilities, and one magical bauble that I'll count as an ability. One is the art of qhen, which is a mental discipline more than a magical skill. Think of it as zen. At its most simple, it allows her to calm herself, reason her way out of anger, and behave logically - far more logically than most greedy, rage-driven dragons. It also allows her to understand the general Nature of Things, and so shapechange into any animal she sees. The change is instant, but it's not an exact copy. Just as she turns into her version of a human every time, she turns into her version of a badger every time.
The second power is more varied, and comes naturally to all dragons. It's never concretely defined, but it seems to be a manifestation of will. If a dragon pictures its immediate area cloaked in darkness, that will happen. If a dragon pictures a particular treasure of theirs suddenly smaller and easier to carry, it will happen. It requires concentration, but no spell components or incantations. For sake of not going insane or being too godmody, I've compiled a list of every example of magic Khisanth displays in canon, and I'll keep her use of it limited or related to these.
-Extinguish light
-Create fog
-Create flame at fingertips, fireball with enough concentration
-Shrink/grow objects
-Teleport short distances if she can envision the area
-Telepathically nudge heavy objects
-Create swirling lights/colors to blind
-Rain icicles from the sky
-Form a bubble shield
-Hasten movement
-Create illusions- including those for other senses, including smell.
-Mimic any voice perfectly
-Create "recordings" to be played back from animals or inanimate objects
-Blood mingling (allow her to see into the heart of someone else, and vice versa--though she hasn't actually learned this one from her canon point.)
-Form invisible walls
And as for the bauble: It's called the maynus globe, and she has officially inherited it from the nymphids after seeing the last of them die. At her point in canon she has no idea that it's a living, imprisoned creature, and just thinks of it as a really useful something-or-other. She's never too sure how it works, but it seems to simply carry out any order you can think of. It will:
-Float around with a life of its own
-Put a creature to sleep
-Wake it up
-Carry heavy things
-Hide bodies inside of itself (and then dump them out later hideously lightning-charred)
-Record and play back silent scenes that it's witnessed
-Teleport the owner and things/people around them
-Blind people with bright light
Same as with dragon magic, it's pretty ambiguous, but those are all the things it's done in canon.