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Kali Ranya The Dame-Armiger, the Knight of Solace |
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| Design: | Kapral Pelikan |
| Artwork: | Misty |
¶ Kali Ranya
Lore inspiration for the vtuber of the same name, and hub character of the Pentra setting.
¶ Quick Facts
- Species: One of the theri, the anthropomorphic animals of Pentra. Specifically, a Feline, patterned after a mountain lion.
- Appearance: A woman with tawny fur all over her body, sharp green eyes with vertical pupils, and voluminous golden blonde hair that falls just past her shoulders. She has a long tail that darkens at the tip, sharp claws at the ends of her fingers and toes, and dark pointy ears as well as a feline muzzle. Her base vtuber outfit is a red dress that falls high on one hip and across the opposite knee, with a burnished gold belt and clasps, and sandals with steep heels.
- Pronouns: she/her (cisgender woman)
- Age: not defined, but canon "present day" depicts her in early middle age.
- Height: "175 cm, at the tips of the ears, with the assistance of wedges"
- Family: mother Tishara Lady Ranya, father Kurraso Lord Ranya, three older siblings (Karlihn, Tethys, and Hara), one younger sibling (Purlo).
- Vtuber Allies: Kitaen Silva, Misty (more to be written!)
- Other Allies: Adulath Caracai II, Tahro Argonne, Nirin Dereth, Kithia Verdon, Janus Thakarr
- AU Variations: none written yet, though urban fantasy variants have been proposed for the Wolfenland and Afrika settings.
¶ History
¶ Early Life
Born the fourth child of the first Lord and Lady of House Ranya, Kali found herself lost amid three already accomplished siblings in a newly established noble family dedicated to coordination with adventurers and mercenaries from across Pentra. Feeling ever trampled underfoot, she adopted an attitude of utmost deference and obedience to her elders, revering and striving to imitate the storied heroes who walked the halls of Castle Ranya.
It perhaps didn't help that she showed no aptitude whatsoever for any form of magic: not her mother's invocations of the Powers, nor the elemental war-spells favored by the mercenaries, nor the old mind-arts of her Feline heritage.
¶ The Huntress Knight
Kali found her way in early adulthood, however. She dedicated herself first to the strictures and orthodoxy of the Church of the Fivefold Powers, becoming perhaps second only in devotion to the Lady Ranya herself. Her will thus steeled with vigil and prayer, she practiced the craft of knighthood: swordplay, archery, and riding especially, with an additional dimension of the ranger's woodcraft in survival, hunting, and tracking.
She earned the title of "Dame-Armiger", matriarch-knight and bearer of noble arms, swiftly after attaining her majority. Her specialty lay in tracking fugitives--thieves, adulterers, apostates and heretics--riding them down or ambushing them, and capturing them to hurl them on the justice of Church and crown, or putting them to the sword herself. Thus became she by reputation the Huntress Knight, all zeal and swift vengeance.
¶ Errantry
This story from the archives tells of how Kali eventually had a change of heart: A Crisis of Honor
The Ranya elders were not pleased that their honored Dame-Armiger had suddenly started refusing orders from their allies in the royal court and the Church. For some years, Kali dared not darken the doorstep of her own family's manse. Instead, she traveled from one village to another, drawing on customs of hospitality to find room and board, assisting whoever needed the aid of a strong sword arm or experienced woods-theri. She saw it as her quest of atonement: she could not restore the lives lost or ruined by her enforcement of unjust law, but she could spend the rest of her life lifting up the downtrodden and striking back at those who lorded their power over those less privileged.
¶ Present Day
With time, however, Kali succeeded in building a new reputation. The nobility still thought of her as the fallen erstwhile Huntress Knight, but among the serfs and the lost, she became known as a lay harbinger of the Bright Power Mün: the "Knight of Solace".
This was, perhaps, not what House Ranya had most hoped for, but it was good enough: Kali was, undeniably, still an adventurer and a hero. She was not forgiven her unsanctioned turn of allegiance, but it has been, for now, swept aside to reckon after another day. The Lady Ranya now permits Kali and her friends to live in the Ranya manor again, and stage her unprofitable but story-worthy quests from there.
So situated, the Dame-Armiger has begun to learn of the existence of other worlds, and make stranger allies than she would ever have before dreamed...