Kiana the Kval's page

About Kiana the Kval

Description:

You see before you a little periwinkle imp.

It is, in a way, cute. Its gleaming teeth are too sharp and its hellfire eyes are too bright, but it manages to be more sweet than scary, even with those decidedly too-big curlicue horns of deep midnight blue. The effect is helped by the massive pistols it wields. They are held cocked upwards, otherwise the barrels would be muddied by the ground. A single lightning bolt is inscribed on the barrel of each, just below the hammer, matching the identical bolts beneath her eyes. The guns are near as long as the imp is tall, and held in hands that are too small for the guns but too big for the arms on which they are set, which are in turn slightly too big for the broad shoulders to which they join. The being is almost triangular in silhouette, with broader shoulders and a large, intelligent head, but tapering down and in to a narrow waist then out again to slim but strong hips and legs that end at tiny clawed feet. The being is, overall, about as tall as the length from a human's elbow to their wrist. Its stature is strong, and you can tell that it is not in any way bothered by the weight it wields.

It is clad in gunmetal grey leathers that look sized for a doll, and they seem cut in a feminine manner, though not so much as to be impractical on this sexless figure. It wears a battered leather cap not dissimilar to an aviator's, which has holes cut for the horns. You can only imagine the hassle in getting it on. There is civilisation in its attire and intelligence in its eyes, and you find your mind gravitating towards more personal language. The being seems to be wearing feminine clothing, so "she" will do for now. There are large leather holsters on her back, specially cut for easy withdrawal given the lack of leverage present in those strong but short arms. At her sides are two long swords, though of course they would be less than kitchen knives in your hands. They seem barely used, and you get the feeling that she prefers to work with gunpowder over a blade, though could quite capably cut your hamstrings if she were so provoked. Across her chest lie two bandoleers of firearm ammunition, each great cartridge more like a grenade than a bullet.

You get the idea. She's tiny. Minuscule. Not a threat, it would seem, except that she's stronger, faster and more intelligent than a being that size should be capable of being, and she wields weaponry that is ridiculously sized for her stature. You don't know what she is, but whatever she is? Unsettling, to say the least... and that's when you notice that she has no shadow.

Personality:

Kiana is... complex. As a Kval, she experiences a deep and powerful drive to hunt down and destroy evil, as well as a naturally disconcerting disposition and a lack of social acumen. She is, at her very core, someone who is aware that she exists for the sole purpose of ridding the world of evil.

However, she was also "raised" (as she puts it) by Gnomes. From them she learned the less straightforward manners of the world. She learned politeness, but also subtlety. It sounds strange, to learn subtlety among such an overtly excitable race, but she learned that not all mischievous behaviours are evil, and that morality is much more flexible than she had been led to believe by her nature. She also learned of privacy and the rudeness of analysing the souls of one's friends without proper permission/

Her true formative years, however, were spent at the Crashing Tempest Academy, and from them she learned duty. Not her inherent duty to thwart evil, or her Gnomish duty to herself, but the duty that comes with having a squad rely on you, that comes with upholding one's name and the name of one's academy, that comes with the honour of the lightning-brands she wears on her cheeks. It is this that curbs her natural tendency to destroy evil at any cost and it is this that taught her how to be respectful and subordinate even when working against the laws that allow those traits to survive.

It is also here that she found faith, faith in Ashava, who she identified with upon seeing a fellow student praying in her name. Not a god, but a being outside the gods, a being of darkness like Kiana is of darkness, but of good as well.

Her attitude today is... still disconcerting, and carries the oddity of the Gnomish people without any of its charm, but it is noble. It knows of chaos and order and everything in-between, and it is respectful so long as it is respected. She is also no stranger to rejection, and does not make many lasting bonds, both due to her always-moving mentality and lack of interpersonal skills compounded by her demonic appearance. When bonds are made, they stick. She is fun-loving but dutiful, obsessive yet reasonable, crazed though responsible and above all is Good, even when it would be so much easier to just cave in to the darkness.

Background:

One day, Kiana appeared on the fields outside a Gnomish settlement in the Riverlands. That's all there is to it. She just... appeared. There had been an excess of abyssal activity in the area for a while; some spellslinger gone mad with arcane lead exposure had opened a few too many portals and... well, let's just say that even though he was eaten within minutes, his folly had reaching repercussions. Everything was pretty well dealt with, but there was still some dimensional instability. Thus, the powers that be decided to create a Kval-pod, as a sort of planar immunoresponse to the trouble. It turned out, however, that all the King's horses and all the King's men did all too good a job at putting reality together again and so only one Kval ended up being spawned from the wreckage, and that imp's presence alone was enough to balance the bonds once more... all of which left rather a problem; a purposeless Kval without any evil to vanquish, a day after the last of the creatures had been banished away.

It was a stroke of luck that this creature was found not by one of the returning reality-menders, but by a young Gnome woman known as Triggit. After loudly announcing her name, "KILLERATH-ANNION OF THE BLACKSTONE WASTES" and having to explain that no, that didn't have much explanation, the Kval realised that this woman was not cowering in fear or pledging allegiance, but was looking... perplexed and, shockingly, motherly. She was a new mother, who had lost one of a pair of twins to childbirth, and took the arrival of this seemingly harmless creature as a sign from Desna that she was intended to be a mother of twins still, if not the ones she had intended. In addition of that, Killerath-Annion sounded suspiciously similar to Kiana, the name of the lost child.

And so Kiana was, in a way, born. She was given the female gender which didn't really fit but was a kind gift well-meant, so she took it and wore it as a badge of honour. She was also given a home and a family, and so she grew. Or, rather, she didn't. She matured at a breakneck pace, but her height never increased. Triggit had presumed that the creature's toddler-like nature and unimpressive size had been a sign of youth, yet this one did not grow up or out as she matured; she did, however, grow stronger and faster at a worrying pace. She was far stronger than any natural-born gnome in the settlement and more quick-fingered too, all before her first birthday. It was on that day that her "parents" realised that their "daughter" was now more akin to a teenager in attitude than a one-year-old, which was especially pronounced given a Gnome's slow maturation. She had gone from being taken care of by her older cousins, to amusing THEM with little made-up games. "Katch the Kval" was popular, and intensely difficult. She still had the worldly knowledge of pre-teen, however, and was worryingly straightforward in her morality. They, decades ahead of schedule, had to start teaching her of the ways of people, only mastered by themselves some years earlier.

She stayed with the Gnomes for five years, helping them bring up her twin brother before becoming restless, needing to do something productive in the world. Her self-destructive Kval need to take down evil was eating at her soul, and she needed a way to improve her skills. So, like anyone would do in such a situation, she broke into the Crashing Tempest Academy armed with a couple of swords and a kegful of gumption, and challenged its headmaster to a dual-duel.

She lost within seconds of course, but the headmaster saw potential, and once she had recovered she was offered a place at the academy. She learned much there, like how to shoot a gun and how to juggle ammunition, as well as how to more effectively wield a weapon in each hand. The instructors were amazed at how effectively she could wield weapons designed for those six times her height, and saw her natural agility and good aim as a chance to initiate a new warrior into the way of the modern Tempest Dancer. Over time and against her better judgement, she began to grow respect for this academy, for its teachers and its students. It was no longer a tool or a means to an end, but a family as well, even if she was still an outcast within the student halls due to her appearance and demeanour.

Years later, she passed her final tournament exam with flying colours, using her great agility and stealthy nature to skilfully weave her way in and around her foes and catch them in surprise with two gunshots to the back, as well as leaping over the heads of the crowds in the horde stages of the tourney. She swore her oath, achieved her brands, and bonded her weapons in a final demonstration of dedication to the academy. Then she set off, to do its work and hers across the land, ridding the world of evil wherever she found it, and visiting back home every so often too, to see how her brother is growing up and how Triggit and Ham are coping without her.