-Information-
Character name: Riful of the West
Fandom: Claymore (manga)
Timeline: Chapter 94
Character's age: Unknown; physically, she appears to be somewhere around 13, but Awakened Beings don't age. She was the Number One warrior in the first generation of female warriors; Clare was part of the 77th generation. So Riful is old.
Powers, skills, pets and equipment: Riful is an Awakened Being, one of the most powerful. Having once been a Claymore, formerly a Number One, she has superhuman strength, speed, and agility, can reattach or regenerate severed limbs, and has the ability to sense yoki, or demon energy. She normally looks like a little girl, but her awakened form looks like this. She uses the ribbons that make up her body to bind, stab, and attack her opponents. Harming her is very difficult: normally, when cut by a sword, she merely unravels into those ribbons, and her awakened form is very resilient to cutting and stabbing wounds. As for skills, as a former Claymore, it's reasonable to believe she still knows how to handle a sword, though she has apparently eschewed this for using her awakened powers.
Canon History: Yoma, they say, have been around forever. They are flesh-eating monsters that plague the villages on the island the Claymore manga is set on. They can easily hide amongst a human population, able to flawlessly imitate a person in their own community who in actuality has already been consumed. Only the mysterious female warriors sent by an equally mysterious organization can detect them, because they've had yoma flesh implanted in their bodies. They have yoma energy inside them. This makes them faster and stronger than humans and yoma alike, turns their hair blonde and their eyes silver, which earns them the name "Silver-Eyed Witches," though they don't call themselves that. They don't call themselves "Claymores" (for the swords they carry) either. They're names that are given to them by people on the outside. They simply go where they're told and carry out the organization's mission of killing yoma.
As it turns out, some of that isn't at all true. Yoma haven't been around forever: in fact, they were created by the organization, which is not as benevolent a group as it appears. It keeps many secrets, including the true nature of Voracious Eaters. They say that they're old yoma who have become stronger and hungrier over the years, but in fact they were once Claymores. When Claymores use their yoki, they begin to resemble the monsters they've had grafted into them. When they use too much, they are unable to turn back to being human. They become Awakened Beings, given over to the yoma side of their psyche and possessed with a hunger to consume human innards.
Three times in history, a Claymore awakened into something more terrible and much more powerful than any other Awakened Being. All of them were ranked Number One--one came from the male generation of Claymores, two from female generations. One of those awakenings nearly destroyed the Organization entirely. They are known as the Abyssal Ones. By happenstance (though this turned out to be a very good thing for the island) they settled into three different parts of the world. Isley took the North, Luciela the South, and Riful held the Western territory.
Riful was the youngest Claymore to ever awaken. Because Awakened Beings don't age, she still appears to be a pre-teen girl, but she is just as dangerous as the other two. For a time, the three Abyssal Ones coexisted in their disparate regions of the island, passing their days sleeping and feeding, as she described it to Clare. But then Isley began amassing an army in the North, began aggressively encroaching on the others' territory, even went so far as to eventually attack Luciela. Riful retaliated by trying to build an army of her own, and this was how Clare encountered her: she had taken to capturing Claymores to torture the strong ones into Awakening, in order to fill out her forces. She was in the process of doing this with Jean when Clare and Galatea found her, and she left her task to help her lover, Dauf, fight them. She stayed on the sidelines until it became apparent that Dauf was in trouble, quickly intervening.
Clare encountered her again, seven years after supposedly dying in a suicide mission in the North. She and the other survivors rescued a group of hunters. This time, Riful was after a very specific sort of Claymore: those with an enhanced ability to read yoki. There was a reason for this. After Isley and Luciela’s battle, Riful went to the battlefield, hoping to take advantage of his weakened state to off him for good, but there she encountered Priscilla. Isley’s woman after he defeated her in battle, so the story went, but Riful quickly realized that the story must have been false because Priscilla’s power was far greater than his and Riful’s own. She stormed away in anger, bitter to realize this, but on the way back she encountered the fused figures of Luciela and and her sister, Rafaela. She brought this back to the West with her, and was seeking out Claymores with enhanced sensory capabilities and the ability to manipulate yoki to goad into awakening. She needed help to defeat Priscilla, after all.
Eventually she found one such Claymore, Renee, and cut off her legs to get her to cooperate. Renee insisted on being allowed to reattach her limbs to be able to concentrate better, and Riful granted this request, confident that she’d be able to stop the Claymore if she tried to run. But she was distracted by Dauf, who had transformed inside the castle they were living in against her orders, and when she left to deal with the threat, Renee escaped. She ordered Dauf to rip off her limbs. When Renee proved too fast, she left in pursuit, and while she was gone the merged being awoke into something so powerful that Riful, distracted from the escapee, wasn’t sure she could defeat. She told Dauf that her chances of defeating it were 50%, but its power was growing, so she opted to retreat.
They were thwarted, however, by the Abyssal Feeders: creatures created by the organization with no personality, no humanity, nothing but an all consuming hunger that could only be sated by the flesh of their target. Specifically, the Abyssal Ones. They manage to take off Riful’s arm and part of her head. She was about to retaliate when Alicia and Beth arrive.
Personality: On the surface, Riful appears to be a polite, winsome, cheerful girl, but this is a dangerously misleading facade. In truth, she appears to be these things but is capable of being utterly ruthless. She tells Clare, Galatea, and Jean she really doesn’t want to kill them during the fight with Dauf, and this is perfectly true, because she’d much rather torture them physically and mentally until they reach their breaking point and awaken. What she was like as a Claymore, it’s impossible to know, but Awakened Beings are universally described as having abandoned their humanity and are much more like the Yoma that was originally spliced into their bodies. They are hungry: both for human flesh and, as in Riful’s case, for power.
Riful is an opportunist, and she is very analytical. She is very quick to process what is happening in a battle and understand what’s going on, assess the special skills of whoever she’s fighting, and act accordingly. (Or direct Dauf to act accordingly, because as she’s the shadow muscle of their partnership, she is also the brains.) She is also, at contrasting times, cautious and willing to take risks. She wishes to prod the slumbering merged sisters, Luciela and Rafaela, into awakening, even though she admits to having no idea how powerful the thing could become, or whether it would have any desire to help her. She does, however, have a plan for that--killing it before it awakens--and when it does transform into something she isn’t certain she can control, she tries unsuccessfully to retreat. So if Riful is a gambler, she is a high roller, skilled enough to attempt for big pots but intelligent enough to know when to cash in her chips and go home. She does settle her debts though: whether she’s agreed to give someone information (such as Clare, for cutting her) or to rip off someone’s limbs for attempting to run away from her (like Renee).
Almost entirely without scruples, there is little she won’t do to accomplish her goals. This seems to be true of all of the Abyssal Ones, and it’s perhaps why she says that she’s the one who understands Isley better than all his comrades. There is one thing she holds dear, and that is Dauf, her lover. She says that he accepts her without breaking, and he is loyal to her, and whether it is for these reasons or a variety of others she genuinely loves him. She refuses to leave him behind when she is being pursued by the Abyssal Feeders and Alicia, and she defends him against Priscilla even though she is painfully aware that she stands no chance against her.
Fandom: Claymore (manga)
Timeline: Chapter 94
Character's age: Unknown; physically, she appears to be somewhere around 13, but Awakened Beings don't age. She was the Number One warrior in the first generation of female warriors; Clare was part of the 77th generation. So Riful is old.
Powers, skills, pets and equipment: Riful is an Awakened Being, one of the most powerful. Having once been a Claymore, formerly a Number One, she has superhuman strength, speed, and agility, can reattach or regenerate severed limbs, and has the ability to sense yoki, or demon energy. She normally looks like a little girl, but her awakened form looks like this. She uses the ribbons that make up her body to bind, stab, and attack her opponents. Harming her is very difficult: normally, when cut by a sword, she merely unravels into those ribbons, and her awakened form is very resilient to cutting and stabbing wounds. As for skills, as a former Claymore, it's reasonable to believe she still knows how to handle a sword, though she has apparently eschewed this for using her awakened powers.
Canon History: Yoma, they say, have been around forever. They are flesh-eating monsters that plague the villages on the island the Claymore manga is set on. They can easily hide amongst a human population, able to flawlessly imitate a person in their own community who in actuality has already been consumed. Only the mysterious female warriors sent by an equally mysterious organization can detect them, because they've had yoma flesh implanted in their bodies. They have yoma energy inside them. This makes them faster and stronger than humans and yoma alike, turns their hair blonde and their eyes silver, which earns them the name "Silver-Eyed Witches," though they don't call themselves that. They don't call themselves "Claymores" (for the swords they carry) either. They're names that are given to them by people on the outside. They simply go where they're told and carry out the organization's mission of killing yoma.
As it turns out, some of that isn't at all true. Yoma haven't been around forever: in fact, they were created by the organization, which is not as benevolent a group as it appears. It keeps many secrets, including the true nature of Voracious Eaters. They say that they're old yoma who have become stronger and hungrier over the years, but in fact they were once Claymores. When Claymores use their yoki, they begin to resemble the monsters they've had grafted into them. When they use too much, they are unable to turn back to being human. They become Awakened Beings, given over to the yoma side of their psyche and possessed with a hunger to consume human innards.
Three times in history, a Claymore awakened into something more terrible and much more powerful than any other Awakened Being. All of them were ranked Number One--one came from the male generation of Claymores, two from female generations. One of those awakenings nearly destroyed the Organization entirely. They are known as the Abyssal Ones. By happenstance (though this turned out to be a very good thing for the island) they settled into three different parts of the world. Isley took the North, Luciela the South, and Riful held the Western territory.
Riful was the youngest Claymore to ever awaken. Because Awakened Beings don't age, she still appears to be a pre-teen girl, but she is just as dangerous as the other two. For a time, the three Abyssal Ones coexisted in their disparate regions of the island, passing their days sleeping and feeding, as she described it to Clare. But then Isley began amassing an army in the North, began aggressively encroaching on the others' territory, even went so far as to eventually attack Luciela. Riful retaliated by trying to build an army of her own, and this was how Clare encountered her: she had taken to capturing Claymores to torture the strong ones into Awakening, in order to fill out her forces. She was in the process of doing this with Jean when Clare and Galatea found her, and she left her task to help her lover, Dauf, fight them. She stayed on the sidelines until it became apparent that Dauf was in trouble, quickly intervening.
Clare encountered her again, seven years after supposedly dying in a suicide mission in the North. She and the other survivors rescued a group of hunters. This time, Riful was after a very specific sort of Claymore: those with an enhanced ability to read yoki. There was a reason for this. After Isley and Luciela’s battle, Riful went to the battlefield, hoping to take advantage of his weakened state to off him for good, but there she encountered Priscilla. Isley’s woman after he defeated her in battle, so the story went, but Riful quickly realized that the story must have been false because Priscilla’s power was far greater than his and Riful’s own. She stormed away in anger, bitter to realize this, but on the way back she encountered the fused figures of Luciela and and her sister, Rafaela. She brought this back to the West with her, and was seeking out Claymores with enhanced sensory capabilities and the ability to manipulate yoki to goad into awakening. She needed help to defeat Priscilla, after all.
Eventually she found one such Claymore, Renee, and cut off her legs to get her to cooperate. Renee insisted on being allowed to reattach her limbs to be able to concentrate better, and Riful granted this request, confident that she’d be able to stop the Claymore if she tried to run. But she was distracted by Dauf, who had transformed inside the castle they were living in against her orders, and when she left to deal with the threat, Renee escaped. She ordered Dauf to rip off her limbs. When Renee proved too fast, she left in pursuit, and while she was gone the merged being awoke into something so powerful that Riful, distracted from the escapee, wasn’t sure she could defeat. She told Dauf that her chances of defeating it were 50%, but its power was growing, so she opted to retreat.
They were thwarted, however, by the Abyssal Feeders: creatures created by the organization with no personality, no humanity, nothing but an all consuming hunger that could only be sated by the flesh of their target. Specifically, the Abyssal Ones. They manage to take off Riful’s arm and part of her head. She was about to retaliate when Alicia and Beth arrive.
Personality: On the surface, Riful appears to be a polite, winsome, cheerful girl, but this is a dangerously misleading facade. In truth, she appears to be these things but is capable of being utterly ruthless. She tells Clare, Galatea, and Jean she really doesn’t want to kill them during the fight with Dauf, and this is perfectly true, because she’d much rather torture them physically and mentally until they reach their breaking point and awaken. What she was like as a Claymore, it’s impossible to know, but Awakened Beings are universally described as having abandoned their humanity and are much more like the Yoma that was originally spliced into their bodies. They are hungry: both for human flesh and, as in Riful’s case, for power.
Riful is an opportunist, and she is very analytical. She is very quick to process what is happening in a battle and understand what’s going on, assess the special skills of whoever she’s fighting, and act accordingly. (Or direct Dauf to act accordingly, because as she’s the shadow muscle of their partnership, she is also the brains.) She is also, at contrasting times, cautious and willing to take risks. She wishes to prod the slumbering merged sisters, Luciela and Rafaela, into awakening, even though she admits to having no idea how powerful the thing could become, or whether it would have any desire to help her. She does, however, have a plan for that--killing it before it awakens--and when it does transform into something she isn’t certain she can control, she tries unsuccessfully to retreat. So if Riful is a gambler, she is a high roller, skilled enough to attempt for big pots but intelligent enough to know when to cash in her chips and go home. She does settle her debts though: whether she’s agreed to give someone information (such as Clare, for cutting her) or to rip off someone’s limbs for attempting to run away from her (like Renee).
Almost entirely without scruples, there is little she won’t do to accomplish her goals. This seems to be true of all of the Abyssal Ones, and it’s perhaps why she says that she’s the one who understands Isley better than all his comrades. There is one thing she holds dear, and that is Dauf, her lover. She says that he accepts her without breaking, and he is loyal to her, and whether it is for these reasons or a variety of others she genuinely loves him. She refuses to leave him behind when she is being pursued by the Abyssal Feeders and Alicia, and she defends him against Priscilla even though she is painfully aware that she stands no chance against her.