Updated 5-22-2009: Finished updating her bio. Still need to double-check her alignment. -LZ
Updated 5-21-2009: General updates and changes; she's not the same kitty she started as. Still need to update and refresh her bio, and double-check the alignment and such. --LZ
Updated 8-17-2006: Minor updates to personality, and a rough bio section I wrote has been added. --LZ

Created by Wilson, RPed by LZ

Name: Kali Sou
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Race: Demihuman (Feline) Black Cat
Class: Samurai
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Height: 5’ 7”
Eye colour: Aqua
Hair colour & Style: She's a black cat, which clashes somewhat with her aqua eyes - most demihuman black cats have yellow eyes, but then, Kali's unusual in other ways as well.
Clothing: The seriousness of her current situation, as well as lots of advice from her companions (read: veiled threats by Vix that if she got hurt because she wasn't armored properly, she might not get attended to), Kali has finally gotten rid of most of the largely ornamental bits of addon-armor and whatever that she used to wear seemingly on random parts of her body. Much to her amazement, it's actually increased her survivability, and she's much more agile than she was before.

Oh wait, you mean clothes? Whatever, really. She still had a black, red-trimmed cultist robe made for a dwarf or something as it only comes down to her knees. She wears it under her breastplate but over her greaves, so it looks much like she's wearing a black skirt. Bonus: she doesn't have to wear pants. No trademark clothing, though; the robe is getting a bit torn, so she'll probably replace it with the drab olive stuff aboard the Demise. Not that you can usually see what she's wearing under her armor. The only special piece of clothing she owns is a silk komono. She hasn't worn it for quite some time, as she's been saving it for a special occasion.

Weapons: Katanas
Starting Spells: *
Skills: Kali’s strongest redeeming quality is her ability to keep everyone around her at least moderately upbeat—she talks, sings (usually badly), recites battle hymns, and generally acts as if she abhors a single silent moment. Cheerful people tend to find themselves cheered; dour ones, even, might crack a smile to hear her outlandish tales. Though it admittedly can get very annoying to hear her voice for hours unbroken, she’s nevertheless a good person to have around for long journeys, since on average she’s more interesting than banal. Still, when she gets in a rut, she’s a real pain in the butt. And now that she's traveling without Ketal, she's gotten in something of a rut. Much quieter and less cheery than usual.

Advantages: (+7)
-Signature Weapon, Katanas: 20% chance to critical with Katanas (+5)
-Hardened, 8/level: (+2)

Since she lost her ability to use her special skills, Kali has become something of an expert with her katanas. To look at her one might not think she’s particularly dangerous, but, especially when she gets in the first strike, she can be as deadly an opponent as any other.

Too, Kali has gotten into her share of trouble: some people just don’t take to her cheery and garrulous demeanor, and some people think that this demeanor means she’s an easy target. Not being up to being pushed around or taken advantage of, she’s seen her share of fights and has come out somewhat thicker-skinned for it.

Disadvantages: (-7)
-One Arm (-4)
-Gold Sink, 85%: Gains 15% fewer Gil from all rewards (-3)

It had, until a week and a half ago, been a very, very long time since Kali’d been able to draw out or in any way contact the spirits that reside in most katanas, or indeed to commune with any spirits at all. She’s been a samurai in name alone for many years, wandering around the world hoping to stumble on someone or something that knows why she’s been excommunicated by her ancestors. Perhaps, some joke, they’ve gotten tired of listening to her and simply “forget” to answer when she tries to contact them. Unfortunately, the same dangerous situation that got her in touch with the spirits again also got her left arm thoroughly paralyzed. It's totally useless.

She's still not a proper samurai - she's a ronin, and largely out of touch with the spirits a true samurai calls upon. However, she still saves money to give when she comes across a shrine..and regular healer visits for Ketal.

Traits: (Eh, maybe coming)

Personality: Extremely talkative, tending to fill in blank spaces or quiet pauses with chatter. Some of it is inane, but much of the time she finds something at least slightly interesting to talk about, and so isn’t as poorly tolerated as one might expect. Otherwise, she’s a helpful soul, wandering from village to village doing little good turns in the hopes that they might add up to a redemption for whatever has taken away her Samurai skills. She often will pick up a companion or two for a while and wander around with them until the time comes when they kick her out, having heard all her stories or just getting tired of listening to the sound of her voice. This kind of rejection generally slides off her back, and she merrily hangs herself onto a new party of adventurers—fortunately, she makes friends slightly more easily than she alienates them. Those who don’t mind her inability to stay quiet for more than a minute at a time find themselves a reliable ally whenever they cross her path.

Bio: Kali was born to a samurai mother and a semi-noble father in a small village in the foothills of the Aerbs mountains. Her father was semi-noble because he was part of the village's ruling council, rather than being part of some kind of royal ruling class.

Since she was a girl, Kali was trained by her mother in the way of the samurai. It was a very demanding regimen, and she took it very seriously. When Kali finally finished her training in her late teens, her mother sent her out on a mission, the nature of which Kali has long since forgotten.

For as soon as Kali went out into the wider world, her nature changed. She'd been confined not only physically to the village she'd lived in, but also mentally. There were few books, and nobody talked much about the outside world. Kali found the oft-crazy history of the Mist Continent fascinating, and neglected her training and communion with the spirits for years as she explored everything this strange new world had to offer.

A few years later, she found herself quite unable to call out the spirit of her katana...or any other, for that matter. Wondering if perhaps she hadn't done her share of good deeds or something, she wandered from village to village in the countryside, doing odd jobs that needed doing by someone skilled with a sword. On one such visit, she heard about a sickly young wolf named Ketal...

She was a history nut, and a lover of stories of all kinds. The wolf was the son of a bard, and something of a storyteller himself. She got Ketal to leave the house with her; while he was rubbish with a blade, she did manage to convince him to practice his archery again, and finally begin to regain his strength. After dark, she'd spend much of her time with the normally nomadic family, trading stories and debating history.

A combination of her cheery can-do attitude, obvious capability with her katana, plethora of knowledge of the past, and her looks (ill and distracted though he was, Ketal was still a hot-blooded young man) finally brought the bardling out of his shell again.

At last, wanderlust took hold of the rogue samurai once more, and Ketal's parents urged her to allow their son to accompany her. He was finally himself again, and (they decided) ready to go out into the world, at least for awhile. But not alone; his malady meant periods of intense vulnerability where he needed someone willing to look after him.

Kali agreed, and the already inseparable pair became still more so. They made a point of finding Ketal's parents once a year to visit and check in, and they always left together. Once Ketal's voice stabilized, it became apparent he'd inherited his father's, and the naturally musical wolf took up an instrument as well.

Some have joked that the two of them are actually a freakish symbiotic organism created by the Mist; others have joked (or said in seriousness) that if they ever married, their children would be reading bedtime stories to their parents from the crib. Though not a bard, Kali has become something of a minor poet and storyteller in her own right (though her singing is . . . rather less welcome in town squares than Ketal's is).

Kali's friendship with Ketal has had an unexpected side effect, however; she has found herself getting dissatisfied with the poor reception her garrulousness often gets. She doesn't really understand why she annoys people, and sometimes gets tired of getting booted or rejected merely for being what she sees as friendly. Ketal always seems to know how to cheer her back to her normal self again, though, much as she makes sure his needs are attended to during his occasional creative retreats, during which he'll often be so preoccupied in composing a song or writing a story that he'll forget to take care of even his basic needs (such as eating).

The ronin isn't all that worried at present about what Ketal's parents will think at next check-in, when they'll find out the two have become romantically involved...but she has become worried that she may never find a cure for Ketal's malady.

Recent Events

After being kidnapped by cultists in the hills near Alexandria, Ketal and Kali escaped when the cultists' airship landed near Burmecia to buy more supplies. With the help of Jessabelle, they killed their former captors, took the airship, and began making their way to North Gate to investigate rumors of attack there.

Unfortunately, there was a lich hidden aboard that had other plans. He and his two minions came across Kali first, who (having changed into a cultist robe to keep warm) he mistook for one of his own. Leaving her to guide the craft, he went and found the others, tied them up, and was about to execute them when Kali volunteered for the duty.

Having no such intention, of course, she instead admitted her feelings for Ketal and cut them all free, holding off the lich and his two minions by herself while the others armed themselves. It was a difficult fight, and she very nearly died; as it was, the lich cast some kind of spell on her that backfired, paralyzing his body and her left arm. She kicked him out the window.

During the fight, Kali had finally managed to call out her katana's helping spirit; but her satisfaction was short-lived. They crash-landed near the Arakkis Monastery. By the time they arrived at the monastery proper, Ketal had come down with one of his bouts of illness again.

At this point, the pair met Vix, and many other odd people. Upon hearing of South Gate's fate, and that Vix intended to stop the Mist, Ketal urged Kali to accompany her without him. Doubting her ability to protect the bard in a fight with her newly-paralyzed arm, the ronin reluctantly agreed.

This post has been edited by Ketal on May 22 2009, 12:15 PM