Illustrious Kell

Character Page for Illustrious Kell in CrazyIvan's "Nothing Certain" Exalted Game

Exalt: Solar
Caste: Zenith
Anima: A faint corona of dazzling multicolored light emanating from between a translucent pair of golden wings rising from her shoulder blades
Concept: Glorious People's Tomboy Archer.

Character Details

Bio

Kell's early life was rought, brutish, and short. Raised in a tiny goatherding village in the bitter north, on the very outskirts of an imperial satrapy near Cherak, she spent her entire life without traveling more than 4 hours from her home village. Her mother mended pots. Her father was a goatherd. She and her eight sisters made goat-cheese in fantastic quantities, since this was her village's only meaningful export to the world, and its sole method of paying off the satrap's demands for taxation. There was literally no outward sign of the destiny that awaited her, beyond, possibly, a spark of intensity in her eyes during those long afternoons of churning goatbutter.

And then, when she was seventeen or eighteen years old-- who can afford a calender? -- there came a winter to end all winters. The goats froze in the paddocks, and in the morning, when you went out to find them, they would shatter like glass to a touch. hungry wolves and ice bears were seen passing the village at night. The caribou herds thinned to nothing, and in pursuit of the fleeing caribou came the icewalkers. They took the village by force: her people had nothing but slings to defend themselves, and the whoever tried to stand against them, the icewalkers killed without mercy. The raiders stalked from hut to hut, taking the food, women, and sometimes the men. When they came to Kell's family's hut, they found her standing outside, holding a pail. She spun it around her head like a bola and whipped it at the first icewalker she saw, showering him in milk.

"Have I got your attention?" she asked, and it seemed to the walkers that she glowed with inner light.

She explained to them that this raid was wrong. She spoke to them of justice, and fairness, and good social order, and the inadvisability of random violence. She described the futility of taking from those who had nothing, while others lived in plenty. Suddenly the fearsome icewalkers all felt very, very sorry for what they'd done. They apologized, citing the bitter necessity of raiding in times of starvation. She explained to them how none of this would be necessary if only there wasn't a rot at the core of the Realm, if only the people had glorious leaders. The words spilled from Kell's lips, and she didn't understand where they came from, but they seemed so right. She spoke at great length, for a long time, in the bitter winds of the north.

The next dawn, when the icewalkers left the village, they had a new clan chief.

The next spring, they began to seize the caravans of tribute on their way to the blessed isle....

Kell never looked back, even as she abandoned her family and village, or spoke to her parents ever again. She barely shows signs of remembering them: it's as if, in her exaltation, she cast off all her old attachments to fall into a higher calling.

First Age Bio:in her last incarnation, Kell was a fiery High Court Advocate: a barrister who defends, not just the aggrieved or the accused, but the justness or legitimacy of the laws themselves. As the age trended to corruption and decadence, she found herself becoming an increasingly strident, and increasingly ignored voice for justice. As her fellows turned towards hubris and indulgence, Kell found her own great curse manifesting in bouts of extreme melancholy and despair. On the eve of the Great Usurpation, as blood ran through the halls of her golden manse, and her servants and mate died defending her, she mixed a drought of wine, oleander, and aconite and drank reclining in her favorite chair. By the time the assassins found her, she was already dead.

Appearance

Illustrious Kell is a tall, freckled, somewhat big-boned girl. Despite the loot her raiders acquire from tax inspectors and other parasites, she makes a point of wearing common peasant outfits or heavy barbarian furs. Her only affectation since her exaltation has been her habit of hacking her hair tomboy short and dying it in a variety of colors. She smiles easily, and often, even at the crudest jokes.
Portrait
Full profile

Motivation

To return righteous social order to Creation.

Intimacies

The Unfettered are the heart I keep outside my body (Love)
From each according to their abilities to each according to their need (Belief)
No one who does not believe in Rajadharma –(“The way of the sovereign is bound to the best interest of his people”)— deserves to hold a throne (Belief)
Everyone deserves to find love, even me (Hope)
There is no such thing as too much laughter, too much color, or too much beauty (Love)

Personality

Illustrious Kell is a tiny ball of immense energy and passion with no real notion of moderation. She doesn’t walk, she runs. She doesn’t laugh, she guffaws. She doesn’t speak, she orates. To her men, she’s somewhere between an animated little sister and a chiding nun. By chiding, bullying, and jollying, she keeps her massive throng of cutthroats and barbarians in line and on what she considers the side of the Righteous.

Character Sheet

Attributes

Strength 2
Dexterity 5
Stamina 3

Charisma 4
Manipulation 2
Appearance 5

Perception 2
Intelligence 1
Wit 4

Abilities

Caste:
Integrity 5
Performance 5
Presence 5 (Persuasion 1)
Resistance 3
Survival 3

Favoured:
Archery 5 (Powerbows 2)
Athletics 4
Dodge 5
Socialize 4 (Discern Motivation 1)
Stealth 4

Others:
Awareness 4
Linguistics 2 (Low Realm, Skytongue, Rivertongue)
Investigation 3
War 2

Virtues/Willpower/Essence

Compassion 4 (Red Rage of Compassion)
Conviction 3
Temperance 1
Valor 3

Willpower 9

Essence 5
Personal 24
Peripheral 55
Committed 6

Background

Artifact 3 (Orichalcum Powerbow)
Followers 4 “The Unfettered
Influence 4 “Daughter of the Unfettered”
Lunar Bond: 4 (Feel free to use this against me in evil and insidious ways)

Charms

Archery:
(1st, 2nd, 3rd Archery Excellency)
There is no Wind
Accuracy Without distance
Trance of unhesitating Speed
Arrow Storm Technique

Linguistics:
Sagacious Reading of intent

Dodge:
1st Excellency
Shadow over Water
Seven Shadow Evasion (Compassion Flaw)
Leaping Dodge Method
Reflex Sidestep Technique

Presence:
(1st, 2nd, 3rd Presence Excellencies)
Hypnotic Tongue Technique
Worshipful lackey Acquisition
Majestic Radiant Presence
Underling promoting Touch
Enemy Castigating Solar Judgment
Irresistible Salesman Spirit

Performance:
1st Performance Excellency
Heart Compelling Method
Husband Seducing Demon Dance

Integrity:
1st integrity Excellency
Integrity protecting Prana
Temptation Resisting Stance
Elusive Dream Defense

Socialize:
Wise Eyed Courtier Method

Stealth:
Easily Overlooked Presence Method

Combo

“Special Reverse Tactical Advance Method”:
1st Excellency + Shadow over Water + Seven Shadow Evasion + Leaping Dodge Method + Reflex Sidestep Technique

Artifacts and Equipment

Orichalcum Long Powerbow

Combat

Weapon
Orichalcum Long Powerbow Speed 6 Accuracy 14 Damage 6L Rate 3 Range 400

Dodge DV: 8
Parry DV: 4

Soak: 3B/1L

XP

XP Total: 200
XP Spent: 198
XP Available: 2

XP Expenditures

16 Dex 4 > 5
05 War 0 > 2
07 Resistance 0 > 3
07 Survival 0 > 3
09 Athletics 1 > 4
09 Stealth 1 > 4
09 Investigation 0 > 3
08 Trance of Unhesitating Speed
08 Arrow Storm Technique
08 Leaping Dodge Method
08 Reflex Sidestep Technique
08 Majestic Radiant Presence
08 Underling Promoting Touch
08 Enemy Castigating Solar Judgment
08 1st Performance Excellency
08 Heart Compelling Method
08 Husband Seducing Demon Dance
08 1st Integrity Excellency
08 Integrity Protecting Prana
08 Temptation Resisting Stance
08 Elusive Dream Defense
08 Wise Eyed Courtier Method
08 Easily Overlooked Presence Method