Song App

[najaran]

This will be an app for Song! There will be spoilers up to volume 5 of the manga; not that I expect anyone to have ever heard of it before seeing this journal.

There will be angst. Given she is CRAU there will be a lot of angst actually. She used to be so cheerful... Drama. Warnings for combat mentions. And for... well... a lot of her life can be seen as disturbing. I don't think there is much there that would be triggery though other than combat mentions, death mentions, and possible body horror when discussing her Master.

Anyhow, you've been warned. Now entering the angst zone...

Comments

Najaran | Culdcept | RESERVED

[najaran]

Player: Chicklet
Age: Adult.
Contact: Here or ChickletLARP
Current Characters: No one yet, but did put in my Iroh app.

Character: Najaran
Canon: Culdcept (Manga) with VT CRAU
Age: The manga is unclear. I estimate her at having been about 15 when she joined VT in march of 2020. (That game ran 2 days IRL to one day in game, so she was there for a year in game) so she's approximately 16. I don't think she knows herself.

Background Information:

The best "wiki" I could find.

Basically the Goddess Culdra created everything by writing it into the Book Of Creation, called the Culdcept. One of the other Gods stole the Culdcept and tried to destroy the worlds so he could remake them. In the war, Culdra shattered the Culdcept to stop him. The pieces fell into the worlds in various forms. In the world Najaran is from they fell in the form of Cards. A small percentage of people can use the Cards to summon forth whatever creature, spell, or item the Card holds. These people are called Cepters, and Najaran is one of those Cepters.

The as truncated as possible version of her past until her CRAU:
Until about the age of five (Again canon is weird about her age at different points) she and her father lived homeless running from debt collectors while he tried his best to raise her and teach her right. What the debts are is never said. Where is her mother? Who knows.

Then she is living with Master Horowitz. Where is her dad? Who knows. How did she come to be with him? No clue. Why is he so kind and avuncular in that flashback and so much harsher on her later? It is apparently a mystery. (Though we might get some of those issues in volume 6, but as I can't read Japanese.... I may never know.)

But she comes to live with Horowitz in a smallish place on an island inside an old volcano. She sneaks into his attic to look for food while he is cooking (lots of small bits of evidence point to the fact that she was nearly always more than half starved when she was with her dad.) She finds a stick up there and starts gnawing on it. Which is when the face carved in it wakes up. Master Horowitz investigates and determines that he is some weird sort of man headed cane, with no active memory of anything but his name... however he knows a lot about Cards in general. So Horowitz decides that Culdra must have put Goligan in Najaran's path for a reason and gives him to Najaran telling him to be her other teacher and guide. Goligan was with her ever since.

Fast forward about ten years. She's lived with just her Master and Goligan and their Cards. There are implications she goes to a farmer's market but other from that has no other interactions with people. Then after one of his unexplained trips, her Master comes back and tells her he needs her to go on a mission to investigate a group called the Black Cepters.

So she sets off into the world for the first time in about a decade with just her Cards and Goligan and a backpack full of snacks and tourist guides. She wound up in deadly combat, had her first run in with Zeneth the Dragon-eyed (Not at all like he is in the games) when he tried to kill everyone to find someone strong enough to be worth fighting. Sir Owen risks his own life to save Najaran when Zeneth sets his sights on her. Zeneth goes off to regroup. Najaran gets invited to a dinner in her honor, just to find out she's the main course for a horrible creature that she later learns is one of the four Elemental Lords created by the God Baltheus to help him destroy and remake the world. Zeneth comes back for a rematch and accidentally saves her. The Lord of Air escapes with the Black Cepter who was looking after him.

Najaran returns home to report to her Master. Including the fact that the Black Cepter had another Man-headed cane. One who recognized Goligan and thought he was supposed to be on their side. She actually argued with her Master to defend Goligan, and he gives ground accepting that he had never hurt her. But he's worried. He sends her to go have a spirit vision by looking through a precious artifact - an eye of the Dragon Gilman. Dragons all died out in the War if the Gods that shattered the Culdcept, fighting on the side of Culdra. She watched the history of the war as if living it as Gilman.

Now that she knows this history, her Master sends her to consult with an old (never use that word where Grubel can hear it!) friend Grubel. He uses a powerful spell Card - Dimension Door. Which requires precise calculations. Najaran had snuck extra food and it nearly got her killed. She wound up days away from where she was supposed to arrive.

She found herself in the only village in a grand wood. The village is mostly treasure hunters trying to raid the ancient city of Bisteam deeper in the woods. But it is guarded by a terribly powerful Cepter, the Elf (Or nymph? They translation team chan't seem to make up their mind, so I go with Elf) named Kigi. Najaran saves a number of people using her Knight Card to deflect Kigi's Gargoyle. The people she saved turned around and arrested her. For being a Cepter.

A treasure hunter named Alta broke her out and gave her a choice... come with her and help her break into Bisteam... or be left there for when the guards wake up. Oh and by the way Kigi had her Cards. So Najaran escaped, not glad about the situation, but desperate.

Najaran got to know Alta's crew as they worked their way to Bisteam - Joaquin the alchemist, Alta herself, and Ganz a drunkard ex military man. At the gates they were faced with harrowing trials. As they worked their way through each, the group got closer and Kigi started to think they might be the ones the legends spoke of, the Mistrals. The ones who would take from the elves the Burden that was destroying them - the true secret of Bisteam. Kigi was the last. But as the Black Cepters use a treasure hunter named Dum Dum to poison the woods Kigi is starting to fall victim to the corruption that took very other Elf. Najaran and the others pass every gate in unconventional ways, including freeing the trapped spirit of a Zombie Dragon. Declaring them the Mistrals of legend, Kigi gives over their task before she joins the spirits of her people in Old Willow. Their secret? Old Willow, their tree of souls, their whole city of Bisteam is built on top of one of the Four Elemental Lords - The Lord of Earth. He is what was corrupting the Elves; but they were the only thing sealing him away.

Najran ad almost gotten things settled when Zeneth showed up for a rematch and accidentally destroyed the seal. Najaran lost it at him and told him he HAD TO HELP HER FIX THIS NOW! And oddly...? He listened. The fight was bad, one of the worst she'd ever been in and in the end they only defeated the Lord of Earth because Zeneth unleashed his secret weapon. A Card embedded into his arm. Specifically one of the Elemental Lords - the Flame Lord.

The Lord of Earth defeated, Zeneth vanishes again. Alta realizes there is no longer any desire to take anything from Bisteam. Having seen it was enough. She disbands the group and they go off in their own directions. Najaran goes back to Old Willow with Goligan and the spirit of Kigi's older sister gives Najaran all of Kigi's cards, bidding her to care for them. Najaran who grew up seeing a Book (a Cepter's deck of Cards is called a book) as part of the Cepter's heart accepted the gift - and the aditiona spell Card bestowed upon her, and cried.

She never quite forgave herself for not being able to save Kigi. But she ow understood in a way she hadn't before that the Elemental Lords absolutely had to be stopped. So she pressed on to find Grubel.

Grubel... is an interesting character and there isn't space enough here to get into her really. The short version is she can read the Culdcept in all things, has a machine that can see into other worlds, is potentially immortal, and that she used Najaran and Goligan as slaves in exchange for fulfilling Horowitz's request. Najaran threw herself into chores because it kept her too busy to think too much about Kigi (not head canon, she outright says it to Goligan). Grubel sets them a challenge. She will let them get out of the rest of their chores and skip right to giving her the answers her Master wanted... just as soon as one of them can surprise her. Which should be impossible since she can read every person and thing's past present and future by looking at them.

Najaran however, almost immediately pulls it off, by accident. The tea she had made Grubel... let's just say it is confusing that we have implications Najaran can cook elsewhere in the series, because she messed up making the tea so badly in such weird ways. Grubel seizes her for a closer look and realizes that she can'r read Najaran clearly at all! She determines that it is because of Goligan, claiming he is not of their world and somehow added an element of pure chaos into Najaran's base makeup that wasn't written in the Culdcept.

She shows them her machine that can see into any world. She shows Najaran some other worlds and then turns it into their own world to look for the Black Cepters. Somehow they sense Grubel and attack her through her machine. Grubel sends Najaran off to get revenge, and one of Grubel's Cards chooses to go with Najaran.

Najaran flys back to report to Master Horowitz, but he isn't home. Deciding this the best time to steal his sweets, but as she is going after them a group of Cepters burst in and kidnap her and Goligan. There is a frankly too long section of playing off of "Najaran misunderstands things", and the most important part here really is that suddenly... she can't use her Cards. At all.

Where they take her is a mobile floating island hidden from non-Cepters. It is a whole community of Cepters and Creatures living together more or less in harmony. They drag Najaran before the leader of the Cepter's Guild of Endess Isle - a place she'd never heard of. More Najaran misunderstands gags and then we learn that the human leader (not the Guild master, that she's not told about till later) is actually Horowitz.

He brings Najaran to speak before the guild. A Cepter named Karin, one of her kidnappers, claims she isn't fit to speak to the council and points out that all the Black Cepters carry man headed canes, so Goligan is proof she's not to be trusted. She then challenges Najaran to prove herself in a tournament. A tournament for ranking is hastily set up. Goligan begs Najaran to yield because she still can't summon her Cards. But Najaran wants to defend Goligan, and anyway... her Master just wished her good luck, so she'll be fine, right. Besides it isn't to the death or anything, he just worries too much.

Yeah, they all went after her right from the first and she might well have died in the first seconds if she wasn't so agile. Karin runs her mouth again and insults everyone Najaran ever beat saying they must have been weak. Which causes a shonen trope of "insulting my friends unlocks my true power to defend them!" And Najaran's power exploded outward and she could summon again. In fact she was more powerful than ever. Because unbeknownst to her, not only did she get Kigi's Cards, but Bisteam became her territory. Her inability to use her Cards was because her body needed to adjust to her new power. Also the spirit of the Zombie Dragon she freed stayed with her invisibly, giving Thunderbeak a boost. So despite the fact that everyone in the tournament was gunning for her, she managed to get down to just her vs Karin. A bitter fight it came down to them each having one last card each. Karin backed down at the last moment because the only Card she had left was a deadly Card given to her by someone who hired her to murder Najaran with that Card. And Najran's shonen protag words had gotten to her. She didn't want to in that way, didn't want to dirty her hands. So she made sure everyone knew who had given her the Card and why and allowed herself to be arrested. Najaran declared as Karin was dragged off that Karin couldn't say she was friendless anymore, because Najaran was now her friend!

Najaran was abducted from her own victory celebration to meet the "Guild Master". The other Cepters had told her so many horror stories of how people who go to see the Guild Master never come back that she escaped and ran away. She stumbled upon an odd monster girl in a watery chamber. They talked a bit then the guards and her Master caught up to her and introduced her to the monster creature. The Guild Master. Who is also the Lord Of Water. And the Isle itself. She assured them all that she would never serve the Black Cepters, because she'd never serve ANYONE again. She enjoys being the home of the Cepter's guild, subisting by sipping excess nergy spilled in their constant tournaments for ranking.

They talk about how now that she won people were listening and they go through plans. But Najaran and her Master have a spcial task. Going after Zeneth. Because he has the Flame Lord. And because, among other reasons, he has Gilman's other eye. Her canon point is from as she was about to leave the submarine like Card with her Master to seek out Zeneth after learning more of his tragic past.

[najaran]

CRAU history is more easily summarized.

VT was a game set on a sentient Train that brought the characters to worlds that needed their help every month (game time, every other month IRL). Najaran's very first mission they were helping evacuate people from one part of their world to another. Then nearly without warning the Train used their SCAs (safety devices all the characters wore that tethered them to the Train) to summon them all back into the Train and then the Train FLED as dark shapes spread over the world they had just been on and destroyed it. Utterly. All lives lost.

Something broke inside of Najaran at that. This also cemented her friendship with Duo (one of her strongest CRAU ties) when they sobbed themselves to sleep together. Najaran never ever forgave herself for the fact that she ran away from people who needed her, though everyone pointed out she hadn't made the choice to run. The Train had. So she stopped wearing her SCA so it would never happen again. Which nearly got her killed on several missions, and led to huge arguments with most of her friends.

For a while that was the worst drama. Arguments nearly every mission about her not wearing an SCA. Eva tried to ban her from going on missions at all. Duo yelled at her a lot. A few people just... talked to her about it, though. Curufin, Esteban, and Mina didn't yell. Nell started out not yelling but wound up arguing bitterly with her. Leia had the best luck, because Leia came at if from a "mom" angle rather than a friend angle and met her with calm reason. I mean, it is general Ogana. She's good. She couldn't get Najaran to wear her SCA, but she got her to think through consequences more and to make smarter choices in other areas. She also taught Najaran a lot of other things like about germs. There was one event where they all got temporary false past lives/memories and Leia actually was her mother and she had two sisters... but Najaran remembers very very little about it. Just that it was the first time she understood what a mother actually was. Della had tried to explain it to her previously but... she never understood till then.

She made a lot of good friends on the Train, and tried to befriend the Train itself. She did a lot of chores on the Train to fight against her guilt and to make up for the fact that she wasn't training. She met other Elves, though she doesn't realize she met someone who was part Dragon. She did meet someone who could TURN into a Dragon, but it was an asian dragon so she didn't quite recognize him as a Dragon Dragon.

Then...

They found another world in danger from the World Eaters. They were trying to evacuate as many people from the world as they could. But some people refused to leave, choosing to stand and fight for their world. Najaran, not wearing her SCA, stood with them. The World Eaters ate the world and Najaran died.

But being a DW game, the Train brought her back to life - it actually turned out they weren't there in their real bodies; their bodies were unconscious back home they found out - in the luggage car. A lot of people were very hurt that she did something so reckless. And Leia gave her disappointed mom lectures. Esteban mostly hugged her. Then tried to distract her. She felt... so guilty. And this time she couldn't easily shove it aside, though she tried. Guilty she hurt her friends. But more guilty that she had failed to save the world, and all those people. That she survived when they didn't.

And knowing she died but came back, she became far more reckless on missions. She could accept the pain of dying if she did it to save or protect someone. This did not go over well with her friends.

Duo had been gone a while at that point then one day he returned. But it wasn't him. Another Duo. She befriended that one too, but thought it was her Duo just having forgotten her; which hurt. Until her Duo returned. Then she had two Duo friends. A duo of Duos. She even told one of them that they were like twins - a concept she learned in that false memory event - they grew up the same and looked the same, but they were different people and her friends in different ways.

The Train stopped taking them to missions, and instead they went every month to the station were a number of the refugees were to study the World Eaters and try to find a plan to stop them. Najaran tried so hard to be involved but she couldn't handle being there. Being surrounded by people who lost friends, family, their homes, their world... because she wasn't good enough. Every time they went there, she broke a little more until near the end she refused to even get off the Train there.

Then it was time to face the World Eaters again. They had negotiated with the chaos entity that had created the false memories and it agreed to help. It ate the World Eaters, and they even managed to save some people from the past - a distant past before Najaran was ever on the Train - that had gotten lost in time trying to escape the World Eaters.

There was a big celebration after. But Najaran couldn't see all the people they saved. All she could see... was all the people who should have been there. Everyone she had failed. For all there was rarely anything that could get between Najaran and food - she still eats like she's a half starved homeless child - she couldn't handle the feast and ran away.

Then it was time for the Train to send them all home or to other Void Trains. Mina promised that she could find Najaran again and would help her gather all their friends so they could always be together. That actually broke through Najran's guilt and sorrow enough that she happily ran to let all her friends know. She said what she hoped were short time goodbyes and then left for them to break her tether so she could return to her body and wake up.

She... "woke up" here instead. Whoops?



Personality:

Before the World Eaters Najaran was generally a very cheerful young lady with more bravery than smarts. Oh she can be clever, and she's brilliant in combat when she puts her mind to it, but in day to day life? She's not the brightest bulb in the crayon box. She's also naive. Or had been. And while she couldn't be called uneducated, her education was so specific to her world and to being a Cepter that very little of it has any practical application in a jamjar. So she comes across as an uneducated country bumpkin with no people skills. Everyone is a friend after all. Try to kill her multiple times, but then have one moment of grace? You're now her friend forever! Like it or not. Kigi - tried to kill her several times, but they had a *moment* at the end and Kigi and she decided they were friends. Karin kidnapped her, tried to get her killed, almost killed her, mislead her, insulted her friends, insulted her Master. But Najaran declared her a friend. Joaquin used her as a test subject for his concoctions and was generally rude to her and harsh (he doesn't know how to people. At all.) But he also taught her lots and in the end they fought on the same side, so... friend. She's also alarmed people in VT when she's told them about Zeneth, then they found her thinking about how maybe all he needs is a friend... (In this case she's actually probably right, but it still sounds alarming given how many people he's nearly killed trying to kill her....)

Before Kigi died, Najaran was also fairly lazy. She'd do almost anything to avoid chores and training. She used her Creatures to do her chores and whined at her Master when he wanted her to train. After Kigi died, while she was with Grubel, chores were a good way to not think. It's why she didn't notice she couldn't summon. She had Goligan to talk to and chores to do, so she did her own chores for once. Then after that... she was too busy to need to do chores to keep her mind off Kigi. Until she wound up on the Train, then she found a balance. She did chores... but had her creatures help. She still avoided Training, but that was at least partially practical... there were no other Cepters there and she is under STRICT orders not to use her spells without her Master present. (She has power but no control.)

Najaran also grew up with her father's strict moral code. Never use Cards against a non-Cepter (On the Train she expanded that to allowing herself to use them against a creature more powerful than a human that was trying to kill her or someone she was protecting). When dueling for ante, only take a single Card, never be a bully who tries to claim a whole Book from a fallen foe. He also taught her that because of the ante Card a Cepter's book is made up of the hopes and dreams of other Cepters, that a Book is part of the heart of those Cepters and should always be protected and treated with respect. He taught her "If you take pride in the fight you're fighting, then your Cards will surely come to your aid". By example, he showed her how to look at bad situations as positive ones. Until she looked back a decade later (while incarcerated in that village near Bisteam) she actually bought it that he dad had decided that the snow was too pretty to waste sleeping inside. As a kid she never realized they were homeless in the way she understood it when she was older.

After the World Eaters... she's trying desperately to hold onto who she used to be but guilt attacks her whenever she lets herself think about it. She can distract herself for a time, but it always comes back. Especially being without Goligan is going to hit her very hard. She is used to leaning on him - and not just because he's an actual walking stick.

She's also far more reckless now. On the Train knowing death wasn't permanent she lost a lot of her fear for herself. And then here, being told she's dreaming again... she may presume it is the same way.

Really right now guilt is in the driver's seat, and I look forward to see what changes as she meets new people in this game and has new experiences.

[najaran]

Abilities & Inventory:
Powers: Cepter. That is her big one. She can summon the power inherent in the Culdcept Cards. If the mod team wants to play with the Culdra myth to put things in the world that are other worlds' version of the Cards I am happy to go into detail of the myth and help out!

Most of her creature Cards are wind/air element, though from Kigi she also has a number of earth/plant element Cards. She has some from other Elements from other people, but wind/air are where her main strengths have been for most of her life. She's good with her item Cards and can even use some of them - like her swords and shields - without giving them to or attaching them to a creature. (Not unique to her, at the least we see Karin do it multiple times)

As to how many Cards she can control... in her world a Cepter can carry as many Cards as they own i they wish, but their "Book" is based on how much mana/magical energy they have and that limits how many Cards they can use before they have to rest. Also while summoning a creature or item back into a Card heals/repairs it, they cannot call that Card out again until they've rested. (That part is harder to tell if it is accepted social mores or an actual limitation.) Given that she is only starting with five, she is not likely to hit her limit for her book anytime soon. She uses at least eighteen Cards during the tournament on Endniss Isle. And if she gets stronger in game, so will the number of Cards she can use at a time.

The big thing with her Cepter skill other than summoning Creatures and items would be spells. Najaran was forbidden to use her spells even before she gained Bisteam as a territory, because she has waaaay too much power and almost no control. With an attack spell she hits nearly everything EXCEPT her target. She used mutation on Goligan once and he was super strong and had libs for... about ten seconds then he collapsed very ill. So even when she has spells... she is forbidden to use them. In an emergency she sometimes forgets this. Goligan usually reminds her, but without him in game... this will be interesting and I look forward to seeing the disasters she causes. I will of course plot OOC with all involved parties that I am aware of before she unleashes a spell.

Small part of her power, she can summon her Cards to her hand from inside her pouch, so long as her pouch is on her/in easy reach.

Non power abilities - she is very agile and far stronger than she looks. She's tough and doesn't stay down easily. Also she has an almost disturbing skill at picking out produce at a glance. (This actually came up and almost saved her life once, that she could tell one plant spirit apart from her identical sisters by how fresh her leaves looked/how yummy the others looked.)

Also, not sure if this is a power or not, but she has hammer space. Usually used for lunchboxes (no clue where they came from) she uses to fill up with yummy foods. Related: she seems to have hammer space in her stomach as well. Girl can *EAT*.


Items:
Her outfit that she is wearing, which was a gift. A short chiton (Greek/ Roman style dress) with cape, in purple, with an orange border, a thick gold and purple belt, and comfortable shoes. (I think they were orange, but I can check if you need me to) Also she is wearing small diamond stud earrings, cause they were a gift from the same friend earlier. A purple and gold headband.

Her pouch of cards, which dangles from her belt. I was told she could start with five. So her five...
Knight (He's her signature Card and she loves him tons. He would do anything for her. Even peeling potatoes. And he hates peeling potatoes.)
Thunderbeak, her second most used Card on missions on the Train as he is good in combat as well as for travel. Also she loves snuggling against him while he chews on her head.
Eidolon and Gremlin are 3 and 4 because she is almost never seen without them when things are peaceful in the manga. Eidolon is almost useless in combat, but he's pulled her out of a bad situation before. And besides... he's really good at chores. And Gremlin... does all her tech stuff. Her world is no to low tech so... Gremlin figures it all out.
The fifth was the hardest, but in the end I chose Cait Sith because I thought he'd be interesting around Final Fantasy kids and he's one of the few that talk, so there is someone else who can maybe translate Najaran weirdness into words others can understand. (Usually Goligan's job, lol)



Suitability & Plans:

I had started out just missing playing her. But once I started her on the TDM... I realized that the last game broke something fundamental in her. I want to see what happens next. Will she find people and situations that help her heal? Or will she break further and further until she has to find her strength to heal herself from within. We've seen in the manga that every time she dips too low she comes back up. I want to see if she does that. Or if someone helps her. Or if something else happens. This is going to be new territory for me with her and that excites me. I... accept that there is a chance she may break in such a way she's unplayable and I may have to drop her... but I think there is potential enough that I want to give it a try!

Plus there is a version of Della here that doesn't know her, and getting to know this Della could be a fun dynamic. Also given the characters in this game that she's never met... I can see a lot of potential for her to be pulled down deeper intentionally (Azula, Flowey) if the players are game for that. Or lifted up by the power of friendship. I mean, the game has a Sora, how could I not want to see if a Sora player might want to bring Najaran back to herself given how similar her early canon self was to his early canon self?

Most important to consider is how will the character fit in?: I.... honestly don't know yet! I have lots of ideas as shown above, but I want to keep an open mind and see where the CR goes. I've only played her without Goligan briefly so far, since he was her first regain in VT if I recall correctly, so this has potential to be very interesting, learning to get along without him. She's already stumbled over it in my sample. I have some ideas I could pitch for events depending how she develops, especially once I start getting regains for her. If she swings more reckless, I may go for spells and pitch plots based on bher spells flying wildly out of control. If she falls more to guilt, her regains may focus on Woodfolk, cause she has guilt with them too and then I could pitch environmental plots. If she gets brought back to her old self? She would totally try to convince people to host feasts and will help cook!


Test Drive Sample: Sample
Network of her on the Train after she died.
Y'know, I forgot she knew Azula... interesting.

Questions: Anything else you want to know? I am happy to explain/elaborate as best I can.