Raven

*self-approved*


Name: Raven

Occupation: Student, as far as she is aware. While she does live in the Dome, it has not contacted her regarding her studies for some time.

Age: 24

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Weight: 55kg.

Height: 160cm.

Hair: Mostly straight, her jet-black hair is usually not put up in any way, except for a white hairband to keep it out of her face, but she can put it into a bun or ponytail if she needs to. Looks dyed, but is technically not.

Eyes: Black; the irises are only slightly lighter than the pupils.

Appearance: While she once wore clothes which hung off her, Raven has since begun to prefer the type without loose edges. Having lived in the Dome for a couple of years has also exposed her to styles she once didn't even know existed. Favoring achromatic shades - mostly dark greys and black - Raven will, when not expecting a fight, wear a grey tank-top and a dark pair of jeans, accompanied by a heavy black jacket if it is cold. Unlike the rest of her outfit however, she had found her old leather boots to be much more comfortable and reliable than their modern equivalent... although she did need to have them replaced once, and so now she wears a black pair. They are they kind to cover her ankles and be tied by a small belt wrapped around her foot, above and below the ankles.

On the other hand if she is expecting a fight, she will travel in a way including even fewer loose parts than her standard gear; during her stay at the Dome she had become interested in the infiltration gear of a ninja she met (although she did not know that they were called that until a while later), and thus grew attached to "shinobi shouzoku" - stealth clothes - which apart from the tabi which she finds uncomfortable and thus does not wear, consist of special trousers with double-ties which fasten at the ankles, knees and waist; a jacket with overlapping lapels which is tucked into the trousers; and protective arm-and-hand sleeves. She recognizes that it is not ideal for infiltration, but she has found it very useful for her fighting style.

No matter what else she is wearing, she will always have a small black pouch tightly fastened to her waist to store her bolos.

...As for her figure, she is somewhat lean, yet her stance is one of a skilled acrobat. She has a rather round face with a slightly upturned nose and a smooth jawline.

Weapons: Keii to Gimu. A pair of sai the ninja Raven met gave her after he taught her how to fight with them and not hurt herself in the process. They are each a single piece made of steel with a leather grip.

The left-hand sai is Keii - "Honor" - and has thick extended guard-prongs primarily used for catching an opponent's blade. The right-hand sai is Gimu - "Obligation" - and can be identified by the spiked central prong; unlike a normal sai, Gimu's explicit use is that of stabbing, with guarding being a useful secondary nature. As a pair, these are used best in momentarily catching a foe's blade with Keii, then quickly stabbing them with Gimu; the reverse can be done, but Gimu's thinner prongs and Keii's blunt central prong make this difficult. These sai are kept on the back of Raven's belt when not in use (or in a pair of bolos if they would otherwise get in the way).

Armor: N/A

Carried Possessions: Knowing that her room at the Dome is always mere moments away has lead Raven to tend to never carry anything more than her sai (note: plural) and pouch of bolos. While she keeps many spares in her room at the Dome, her pouch will only fit 9 bolos.

Powers/Magic/Skills: Raven is primarily a being of shadow & darkness. While yes, she is human, she is but a fraction of one. So while she can still use the Order magics she could use while she was whole, her control over the Chaos magics has been reduced to mere novelties in most cases. The exception to her lack of control over the Chaos magics is her now adept command of darkness-based magic.

Order Magic: Magic which relates to the fundamental rules of the universe. While her teacher was a master of it, Raven was taught little, and remembers less.

Create Bolo: A precise manipulation of Gravity in a small area is key in creating a bolo. To create a bolo, Raven must find a basketball-sized area comprising equal parts of each of the six Chaos elements, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Light & Darkness. She must then use Gravity to make a shield around this area, and fold it in on itself until it is the size of a marble. Releasing the original bubble of Gravity will then cause the marble-sized ball to grow very slightly, but from then on it is as a physical object of no distinct color or weight. It will, however, become heavier if anything is put inside it. Bolos can be destroyed, but only by magic; destroying a bolo sends everything inside to the Void, and if it has a strong enough connection to the user (like for weapons and clothes), from there it will go to their room in the Dome.

Element Manipulation: Using Gravity on a bolo again can let Raven push the Chaos elements in and out of the bolo with ease. Since a bolo is essentially an infinite storage device, there is no limit to how much she can put in there, but she has no way of knowing how much remains in any given bolo until it is empty. Typically, Raven keeps six bolos with her filled with all of these elements, even though the manipulation of the energies within comes at a trickle for all but darkness. She must be within 5 metres of an element in order to do anything with it, except for Darkness, for which she has twice the range.

Matter Manipulation: Using Gravity and Time magics on a bolo together will let her store physical objects within, perpetually frozen in time. Raven will either be holding her sai in two of these, or leave two free for them. The last bolo in her pouch is used for when she needs to carry something else. Only one object can be stored in each bolo, although multiple objects stuck together firmly enough count as a single item. There is no limit to the size of whatever she wants to put in her bolo, but it takes her a few minutes to put in or take out anything the same size as her, and exponential longer for bigger objects.

Chaos Magic: Magic which relates to all which comprises up the physical universe. Various other "elements" are made out of combinations of these, such as ice being Water with a lack of Fire, or electricity being a small amount of Fire with a large amount of Air mixed together.

Fire: While Raven can only move this at a trickle, it is still useful for burning the more flammable things one may find. At best, she can absorb or release heat no more than that of a small magnifying glass' focal point on a sunny day.

Water: Raven finds very little use for this, as she can only make things very slightly wetter or drier. It would take her a couple of seconds to dry up a single drop of water if she tried to absorb it.

Earth: While one might think that Earth magic is the manipulation of physical matter such as rocks and dirt, it is actually the manipulation of that which holds all solid matter together. At the slow speed Raven can use this ability, a pebble would take around a second to reduce to sand and gravel.

Air: With the tiny trickle of power Raven can use with Air, this power is essentially useless to her. It could probably keep her alive a couple of seconds longer in an otherwise airless environment though.

Light: Known as a "Balance Element", Light is mainly about how bright something is, although unknown to Raven's tiny power, it is also about Illusion. Raven only has the power to do things like make a pitch-black area light enough for owls and similar to see, although not humans.

Darkness: Known as a "Balance Element", Darkness is all about putting things out of sight and hiding. All of these abilities are for Raven - unless otherwise stated - instantaneous and/or can be kept up for so long as she is conscious and within 10 metres.

Shade: Raven can, unless somebody is looking specifically for it or they, hide an object or person by enveloping them with a curtain of Darkness. She can't do this to herself though. The object or person is, except for their visibility to others, exactly the same as the are normally.

Shadow Walk: If Raven tries to cast Shade on herself, she will instead be pulled down into her own shadow. Her shadow will be cast as if she is still standing there, but can walk over any surface, including ceilings or very thin surfaces. In this form she has no weight, can only travel along connected solid surfaces (ie. no jumping), cannot effect non-shadows physically, and cannot cast any form of magic except Darkness, but is otherwise the same as she always is. Note: Hiding her shadow in other shadows can obscure - or in a good case completely hide - her own shadow, making her less conspicuous to others.

Dark Trip: In order to use Dark Trip, Raven must turn her whole body into Darkness. This can only be done from the middle of a Shadow Walk, and takes a bit more than a minute to activate. Dark Trip will send Raven to a place halfway between her current location and the Void. In this dimension she is undetectable by the real world unless she is near a void portal (which will send her to the real world if she enters), and cannot effect the real world in any way except to make a Void portal. She doesn't have any proof, thanks to learning this skill only after the only other such mage she knew left the Dome, but Raven suspects that anybody who can sense Dark or shadow magic well enough would also be able to see her. To her knowledge, this ability cannot be used on anybody except herself; not even her "sisters" would be effected by it.

Dark Eye: By covering her eyes with Darkness, Raven can let herself see through light-based illusions. A side-effect of this, however, is that she cannot see shadows or Darkness while using the ability. Using this ability at the same time as Dark Trip (as useless as that would be) would render her temporarily blind. If she tried to cover somebody else's eyes with this ability, their vision would only be hindered.

Absorb Darkness: To (re)fill a bolo with Darkness, Raven will concentrate on the area directly surrounding her body and absorb the Dark elements around her. This will cause most people to subconsciously want to look away while it is in effect - just like the Shade skill - but only lasts for 2 seconds, and can't be used again in the same place for another minute. Walking while using the ability extends the time to 5 seconds, but also makes a much larger area the ability can't be used in. This ability cannot be used while running, as Raven would not have time to concentrate on the area around her enough to both sense the Darkness and extract it.

Emit Darkness: While she pretty much never feels the need, Raven is able to send Darkness out from her bolos. As an inverse to Absorb Darkness, Emitting Darkness is a very noticeable technique. While not very practical in hiding herself, it can potentially be a very good distraction. Using this technique for a second in a place where she has already used Absorb Darkness cancels the normally-required one-minute wait.

Void: Not a form of magic per se, but rather the lack of it. A Void portal is formed whenever any given location lacks both Balance elements. Although Raven only has a very small amount of power in removing Light from an area, a small Void portal will still grow out of it unless forced shut by Light or Dark magic. After a few minutes, however, a Void portal will automatically close in on itself regardless.

While the Void portals once took Raven and her sisters directly into the nothingness of the Void - where there is no space, time or sound - they had quite early-on learned how to direct it to specific (or even random) places & times. And ever since Raven's room at the Dome had first been created, entering the Void directly just took them straight there (Or so Raven had tested; the others haven't bothered trying yet).

Anybody can enter a Void portal, but if it exits into the Void itself, the person inside will usually be ejected where they came from within a few seconds unless they either think of a place they really want to go, or fate has chosen something else for them.

Strengths: As the acrobatic person she is, Raven is usually rather good at avoiding things coming her way, and getting around things in her way. Her Darkness-based abilities aid her in this even further.

During her training with her first mentor, Modenhal Ezoth, Raven - then R'keltera - was taught how to identify whether an object was of proper Order. Over time, this let her feel the heat, dryness, stability, breathability, light and darkness of anything within several metres of herself. Since then, this sense has grown and now she has an almost preternatural awareness of the world around her... within five metres or so. While she practices it less, she also has an awareness of her own body and senses when it comes to the powers of Gravity, Time & Sound.

Weakness: Raven is, to put it simply, not a warrior. She's only athletic to the point where she moves swiftly, not with power. Furthermore, her weapons are built for deflecting single large blades, not small ones, multiple ones, or weapons that don't even fit between the prongs of Keii in the first place. Not that she's a master at using those anyway.

If she loses it, or it is destroyed, you can be sure that if she doesn't have her bolo containing Darkness (or an empty one she can fill up quickly), Raven is little more than an acrobat thanks to her lack of ability in any other magic. If she's lucky she'd have her sai, but for someone of her skill, that's not much better.

Other: Raven has several "sisters"; they look very similar to her, except for the clothes & hair. The reason for this is because they are actually all the same person, only split up into different parts. Raven is the "Darkness" sister, and knows of Tera and Thira, but does not know what elements they represent.

Personality: While Raven once led a calm, almost monastic, life - before she was split from her sisters at least - she has since grown a fondness for playing friendly pranks and making dry humor. While she doesn't go out looking to be friendly with everyone she meets, she is in few ways an unlikeable person, and so has a tendency to make friendly acquaintances regardless.

On the other hand, she is the type to hold grudges. She dislikes being ignored, and hates being insulted, and so has a tendency to be rude - often in creative ways - to anybody who has done this to her. Regaining her trust takes time, and her trust cannot be bought easily.

Biography: Although now she is known as Raven, in her early life she was named R'keltera Thirav'n, born in the Njorn backwater hamlet of S'vandig. She was disliked by pretty much everybody around her, especially after her mother committed suicide, but in time learned to ignore them, just as they ignored her. It was only when she was a teenager that she had had any positive meaningful contact with another human being, this being her first teacher, Modenhal Ezoth.

She did not know why the old man had taken a liking to her so quickly, but quickly grew thankful for it, as he was the one who first taught her how to use magic, how to fight, how to survive in the wilderness, and most importantly as far as he was concerned, how to read. "Helps you learn how the world works," he said.

Sadly, however, such a time could not last. Over the years, the man grew older and eventually died, leaving behind as a will naught but his staff. Utilizing what she knew of Time magic - with some help from the old man's books - R'keltera froze her tutor's body in time. It was cheesy, she knew, but she wanted to pay what respects she could to the man who'd saved her from a life of street crime in what was likely the poorest part of the country.

It was a couple of years of wandering later when the girl's life would once again change forever. As she sought shelter from the weather in what seemed to be a deserted wasteland, she was caught by surprise by a number of others who had done the same. A fight ensued - although the cause long forgotten - and in the end R'keltera had attempted to absorb and use the illusory magic of her last foe and failed, creating a Void portal for the first time. Inside, she felt like she was trapped; she could see to the outside though, and what she saw surprised her - it was someone who looked just like her, trying to call into the Void.

In quite literally no time at all though, the view to the outside was gone and the girl was alone. After thinking about how to get out, everything began to make sense to her: If she was somewhere, someone or something must've been there before. If something had been there before, where was it now? Unable to move physically, she sought it out with her mind, and suddenly, she was in the Dome.


It was not long before the other her had found her way to the Dome as well, and after a brief conversation, it had been decided that Raven - the one who had reached the Dome first - would stay, while Tera - the one who followed after - would continue her journey outside. The newly-dubbed Raven was quick to start a journey as well, only hers would be one within the Dome. Following a tourgroup eventually led Raven to her official teacher in the Dome, Louis Fritz, a laid-back fiddler who helped answer a few questions his new pupil had about the place she had found herself in. It was not long then before Raven had her first test, which somehow had led her from the neverending halls of the Dome to the deck of a large metal watercraft with no land in sight. Raven was given a choice between fighting several different people, including yet another one of herself - the self-named "Thira", who it seemed had been created during Raven's tour of the Dome - and their lifelong estranged father Pelarn Veyer.

Choosing her father as her opponent, against whom she had a grudge thanks to abandonment, the battle took but a few minutes for Raven to win, but unfortunately Thira was thrown into the Void in the process. Upon being declared the victor, Louis hurriedly directed Raven to her room and walked away.


Around few months later, Raven was practising her magic when she discovered that she could her in her own shadow. Seeing the potential for such an ability for sneaking up on people, Raven silently entered the testing room of another student. The black-garbed student seemed to be on a sneaky nighttime mission of their own, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, window to window, tree to tree... it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a surprise visit. Quickly figuring out the black-clothed man's goal from her high vantage point, Raven slid down the tree and ran as a shadow for the man's target, barely making it there before him. Right when the man picked up the golden cup and turned around, Raven popped out of the ground in front of him. The man in his surprise seemed to instantly have a dozen knives in his hands, all pointed at Raven. Scared, she dropped back into her shadow and ran away laughing, both at her prank and her fear.


It wasn't for a couple of months until Raven saw the knife-wielding man again. It was in one of the gardens, and he seemed to just be relaxing on a bench. Figuring that sneaking up to him again was probably a bad idea, Raven walked up to the man as she prepared an apology.

"That was a very nice trick you played back there, girl," the man said before she could begin, "and I would love to know how you did it. I imagine it would be rather... useful in my profession."

Stunned by the praise, all Raven could seem to say was a blurted, "Uh... thanks; your job?"

Ignoring the jumbled words, the man answered, "many would call me an assassin or spy - and I suppose that the second is true - but in the Okokuen language my profession is known as 'shinobi'... although I have heard some here of an age beyond mine refer to me as a 'ninja', which I found to also be true."

"Shinobi? Ninja?" Raven asked, after collecting herself.

"Yes; in the Common Words, 'shinobi' means stealth, and 'ninja' refers to a person who is stealthy."

"'Common Words'... Ah!" Raven came to a realization upon hearing the phrase, "'Common Words' is what I once read to be the name of my language far to the east from where I live; you must be from the same world as me!"

"It is possible; who knows? This is the Dome, and many things can happen here at the meeting place of all worlds." The man looked vaguely into the distance. "But that is of little matter. Right now, all I am interested in the technique you used that night."

"But why?"

"You are probably not aware, but magic is not an appreciated practice in my country. There are those known as Tatenoibuki who will kill any mage of any kind on sight, for they believe that all people who can use magic are evil." Seemingly not noticing Raven's worried look, he continued, "What is not known by most, however - even in the Capital - is that there are those who exist as mercenaries, often in service of the Emperor, who can - and do - use magic on a regular basis. Of course, in order to evade the Tatenoibuki, we must be either very fast, very strong, or very very stealthy. Luckily, it is often these very skills for which we become employed."

"So... you want me to teach you how I become a shadow? I'm not sure if I can; I was born with the magic I have, and it was a very complicated process to get to the point I'm at now."

"Shadows, is it? This is a magic I know well." Waving his hand, the ninja formed the shapes of several knives in his hand and held them between his knuckles. "Not so good for attacking, but certainly enough to scare off those who aren't expecting them... as you may remember."

Watching the man brush his hands through the shadow knives effortlessly, Raven considered for a moment then spoke, "I guess I could try, but... what could I get in return?"

"How about some clothes more fitting for one who walks in shadows?" The man chuckled at the double-meaning. "You can have them the day we start."

Looking down at her now rather old and worn-out clothes, it did not take Raven long to look up again. "Deal."


Around a year and a half after Raven had last seen her teacher was when she finally had finished teaching the trick of hiding oneself in shadows to the man she now knew as Soutarou - he never asked for a surname, so neither did she - just as he had he had finished teaching her the basics of wielding various sorts of knives. Since he had noticed that she had taken most toward the sai, he gave them to her as a parting gift, as he was due to finish his Dome training within the week. During their training together Soutarou had unfortunately been unable to hide in his own shadow - for his nature was of creating shadows, not using them - but with Raven's help he had learned other methods of avoiding detection, such as causing others to avert their eyes from the shadow.


Two years after she had last seen her official teacher, Raven was becoming restless. For the third or fourth time, she again asked what was happening, but she never seemed to get a straight answer. It seemed all she could do was wait, and explore the Dome.