The following will contain spoilers for up to volume 5 of Culdcept. The app is based on the manga series and not the game. Thank you for your understanding.
Name: Chicklet Age: Adult Contact details: Plurk: ChickletLARP, or PM the journal. Other characters: Khary, Elfangor - both original universe.
Character Information
Name: Najaran Canon: Culdcept Canon Point: End of book 5, as they were surfacing before the shore of Shantenion. Before she sees the ruins or learns about the city's sad fate and hatred of Cepters. OU/AU/CRAU/OC: Orginal Age: unknown in canon. Teens at best get, probably about 16 from her art (though she acts MUCH younger at times. Also they talk about how long she was with Master Horowitz, but it seems inconsistiant with how old we see her still with her father... so... gonna guess at 15 or 16. Honestly she probably isn't sure herself.)
World Information:
"The first thing the Goddess Culdra created was a book. In the book she mapped out the size and shape of the universe, and from her design the universe grew forth. Culdra also described in it the vast array of Gods and living thingds to inhabit her newborn world. This is how the Goddess Culdra created life and the universe - through the magical words she wrote in her book, the Culdcept, the Book Of Creation."
These are the very first words of the manga series. Similar words start most if not all of the video games of the same series. The short version is that Culdra created multiple worlds, multiple realities. Everything that would ever exist was written in the Culdcept. (we get a lot of this information from Grubel, an ancient Cepter who looks in her prime who has learned to read the Culdcept in everything and thus knows how everything will end, and thus is utterly bored with the universe.) Culdra even created those who would, in time, shatter her book, her Culdcept.
When the book of creation was destroyed, the pieces fell to the various words, transforming - for the most part - into cards. There were some forms of life that are not cards, for some reason that is... unclear. Humans are not cards. Elves.... sort of are? Really the manga is very confusing about it. The general rule that the characters seem to accept is that if it has sentience, it isn't a card, despite the fact that they've had long conversations with the creatures summoned from cards. (anything summoned from a card is in essence a card still, and by returning to its card form can be healed or repaired. But cards need to draw their power from Cepters in order to come free of their cards, to heal, and even to survive.
A Cepter is someone with the power to sustain and control the cards from the book of Culdra, the Culdcept cards. Generally Cepters are solipsistic jerks who can't work together for long and only want to gain more cards. Some want to recreate the Culdcept itself by gaining ALL the cards. But again, this too is inconsistent. We are told this in book 1, to set up how rare and shocking it is that there is a group calling themselves the Black Cepters who seem to be working together for a common goal. Except Naja can work with nearly anyone. And Master Horowitz worked for years with two other Cepters. And then there is, oh yeah, a whole society of Cepters that lives together.
So the basic break down is that the world was created by the Goddess Culdra writing in her book, which got shattered and fell to the world in the form of cards that some living things can use the way Pokemon trainers use Pokemon, sort of. That part is pretty much not disputed.
Also in history there have been several wars, and most people don't trust Cepters as a result. This is not really disputed or refuted. (Though some people and even some towns are exceptions.)
There are whole areas where there used to be thriving civilizations and now is nothing because of Cepters. Which goes back to people not trusting or liking Cepters for the most part.
There is a group called the Black Cepters that are trying to gain all of the most powerful cards, presumably to recreate the world in their image.
I am sorry that the world of Rakan and the universe of Culdcept is so confusing.
Naja's timeline is.... difficult. We know somethings. We know that when she was little she and her dad were basically homeless vagabonds, always in debt, often on the run from people who wanted to hunt her father down. He taught bitty Najaran a lot during those years, like how she should never use her cards against non-Cepters, and his own personal code of honor. What little we see of him shows him to be a good man and a good father in a bad situation.
Naja at some point winds up with Master Horowitz on Gilman Island, and it is said she is there for ten years. But nothing says when she is brought there, or what happened to her father. Her mother is NEVER mentioned in canon at all.
We get a flashback to her on Gilman island in which she looks signifgantly younger than she was with her father, just to make things more confusing.
In this flashback, a young Najaran was playing in the attic, where she found a man headed staff that was dormant. She began gnawing on it (not sure if this was teething making her even younger than she looked, or just evidence that Najaran's insane appetite was always a thing) and it came to life. This was Gooligan. Gooligan had no clue who or what he was, and Master Horowitz didn't know either. From that day on, he was Najaran's closest companion, and often the only adult in the room in oh so many ways whenever Master Horowitz left. He's, in a lot of ways, Jiminy to her Pinocchio (even though he is the one seemingly made of wood)
We don't get much in the ten years she's there other than that one flashback.
The story begins with Master Horowitz returning from one of his many trips abroad with news. A group of Cepters - yes that's right a group - calling themselves the Black Cepters are on the move, but no matter what he does, they always seem a step ahead. So he asks Najaran to help him out, and to give her a chance to see the outside world for the first time in ten years.
Najaran is sent, with Gooligan, to Soron, a desert town that used to be a harbor town. It is one of the few places that accept and even welcomes Cepters, because ever since the water dried up, their only real revenue is the tourist trade of the annual Cepter tournament they hold.
She was told to keep a low profile and investigate, but after losing her temper at a competitor who was harassing the staff at the inn where she was eating, she winds up in the tournament herself.
The tournament is interrupted when a reckless person called Zeneth the Dragon-eyed shows up and attacks, seemingly at random. The lord of Soron, instead of calling his guards out on this intruder who nearly killed half of the spectators invites him to join the remainder of the tournament. For reasons known only to himself, he agrees.
During the first part of the tournament, Najaran had impressed many people. Most importantly to her in the moment is the Innkeeper who feeds her a lot to celebrate her wins and to thank her, but more important plot wise are Sir Owen who broke up the fight between her and the rude customer, and the rude customer himself, Chimino. During her battle against Chimino, she was brought up short by the fact that his cards loved him, even when he treated them horribly, and she refused to keep fighting. She won, but he wound up rethinking a lot of things, and ended up giving her the card that saved her life later on, Cait Sith. The other important connection was Sir Owen who had broken up the bar fight, and was impressed enough with her that he sought to ensure that Zeneth would not kill her - and half the town - in their duel the next day. To that end he ambushed Zeneth for one major purpose. He his a trap in Zeneth's most deadly spell, Tempest, shattering it when he next used it. He almost died doing this. Between him and Najaran, Zeneth didn't wind up destroying Soron.
Naja was declared the winner of the Tournament, and was invited to a feast in her honor thrown by the lord of Soron. At that feast she met another Man0headed Cane who said that Gooligan was a traitor who forgot his true mission. And she was almost the main course of the feast, being served up to Beelezebub, Lord of Flies. Beelezebub is an "anti-creature" created by Balteas, one of the gods. Beelezebub is one of the four Elemental Lords that were meant to destroy this world so that Balteas could use the power of the Culdcept to remake the world as he wished it.
Zeneth showed up as she was about to be eaten, ticked off that they didn't get their battle finished properly. He didn't care what else was going on, he just wanted her to admit that he was the best, even offered to save her if she said as much. The Lord of flies decided to destroy Zeneth as well, which was an insult he couldn't leave unanswered, so he attacked. Najaran, ticked off now at pretty much everyone, decided to EAT the bindings that had immobilized her. Just... let us please take a moment to realize that Naja was bound by a trap card that wrapped her and Gooligan in thick leather straps that were held together with metal. And she ATE HER WAY FREE because she was ticked off. Okay. Moving on.
She then proceeds to blunt force wail on Beelesebub and Zeneth both with Gooligan before getting her emergency card from inside his... mouth...? Seriously, where did he hide that, he was talking! (This is also where she learns never to leave her deck behind, even if she wants to let her cards rest at the Inn). She summons Eidolon (picture the Craving creature from the old honeycombs commercials) which chews through a chain to drop a chandelier on one of the Black Cepters. The Black Cepters decide to nope out and teleport away with Beelzebub because keeping him safe is their number one priority. (The whole Tournament, it turns out, was to feed powerful Cepters to him so he could regain his strength)
With the Lord of Flies gone, it begins to rain. Salt water. And fish. The ocean is back. Soron is saved. Njaran is hailed as a hero, though no one knows the details. Zeneth, ticked, swears his revenge while she tucks into a seafood feast.
Naja went back to the isle to report to Master Horowitz, who had a fit about her sticking with Gooligan after what she learned. She insisted that the war of the gods was all mythology and he was blowing things out of proportion, so he sent her on a quest to peer through an artifact he had hidden deep within a mountain that shared the crater the island sat in. She found the Dragon eye and through it saw the war of the gods as remembered by the dragon who fight in it, and was the one who trained Master Horowitz and his friend way back when.
She came to in her own bed, a day later, filled with the sadness of the Dragons who saw their kind die out. Somehow Master Horowitz was now fine with Gooligan again. She asked about the dragon's other eye, and Horowitz said that it might have been destroyed in fire.
Horowitz sent Najaran and Gooligan to his friend Grubel in the Bistream forest. He told her to bring a gift then sent her off via a transportation circle. Najaran, unaware of how meticulously the Dimension Door spell had to be calculated didn't realize that having snuck extra food would mess up the spell until they were already falling within it. (Dimension Door is a spell card, just to add to the oddness of how things fail to make sense in this series.) She dumped the extra food, and they fell out of the spell somewhere in the forest, where a carnivorous plant immediately tried to eat Najaran. She wound up eating it instead and a week later found the only human con trolled village in Bistream.
The village had a lot os "searchers". Treasure hunters trying to find the treasures locked within the forest, but they weren't doing well because of a powerful guardian who didn't want the humans to succeed. The Guardian sent a card creature, Gargoyle, to give the humans a warning that they needed to leave. Gargoyle attacked and Najaran ran to aid the injured, summoning Knight. She saved the people and as thanks they arrested her and took her cards. She gained some sympathy for Zeneth, guessing he'd been treated like this a lot, and some deeper understanding of the troubles her father endured.
Najaran was "saved" by a searcher named Alta and Alta's crew, who hoped to use Najaran to het past the Guardian Cepter to claim the treasure of Bistream. She was given the choice between joining them or staying there to deal with the repercussions of what they did to break her out. They had her cards. She went with them. the trip to the first gate was... not smooth. Najaran accidentally attacked some Woodfolk thinking they were trees, Alta had swapped her cards for playing cards which almost got them killed, and over all the team... did not work well together or trust each other.
They were nearly to the land of the nymphs and the gates they guard, when another group of searchers attacked them. Najaran refused to draw her cards against humans, even ones that were trying to kill her, if they weren't Cepters, and they weren't. They would have been lost and killed except that the guardian sent her Gargoyle to attack them all, because humans at the threshold of the gates were not to be tolerated. We are told that her power was over 40,00 so she couldn't possibly be human according to Gooligan. She destroyed the group of searchers that had attacked Alta's group, because their leader offered a huge reward for the Guardian's head. Their leader retreated, leaving his injured people behind. Najaran raced in, even being told that winning was impossible, and used her cards to defend against the Gargoyle.
She yelled at the other searcher for leaving his people then yelled at the Guardian for continuing to attack them once they were helpless. The Guardian (I'm just going to use her name - Kigi- from here on out) nearly killed Najaran, but she listened to Alta, and more, she listened to the forest. She decided to give Alta's small group one chance to test the gates themselves. When she found evidence that the Forest was in danger, Kigi took away their choice and used Fly and her Gargoyle to send them to the first gate.
The first test was a sealed room with odd walls. On the floor were the skeletons of people who had died in that room, their torsos twisted, jaws unhinged. Old corpses and new mixed together. Then mushrooms grew from the skeletons. Suddenly everything seemed ridiculous and silly, and they all began to laugh. The alchemist of the group found the reason in his book, the mushroom spores make people laugh themselves to death. And they were all starting to fall pray to it. worse, every time they were attacked, more grew, son that either they'd die of laughter or be smothered. Najaran, in true Najaran fashion, decided that the mushrooms that were killing them all looked yummy. She started to eat, then realized it wasn't fair to be the only one enjoying. So she summoned all her creatures and together they ate the mushrooms even faster than they could reproduce. Then they found the main mushroom and she and Knight went after it. It grew so much that it smothered itself and the room opened with the words "You passed the first hate. No matter hoe adaptable a species is... ... no species can survive by itself forever."
Resting between gates... so Najaran could eat... they were attacked by a corrupted Woodfolk. Working together as a team, perhaps for the first time, they were able to purge the flowers that had infected the woodfolk, freeing them from the corruption, saving them.
They finally found the second gate, and the challenge was to catch a specific dryad, but grabbing the wrong one turned them into trees. Najaran figured out which was the right one because "I can always tell the yummy vegetables from the not-so-yummy!" Since the second Gate was a tree that wasn't so healthy, the least healthy or "yummy" dryad had to be the right one... Najaran almost had her, but she got away and Najaran became a carnivorous plant. But the woodfolk helped the last member of the team, in thanks for saving them.
Kigi declared this cheating until she realized how much the Woodfolk cared for them. If the creatures of the forest cared for them, she would hold her arrows and allow them to take the test of the third gate.
The third test was to deal with a zombie dragon. (This is where we are told that Najaran is forbidden to use Spell cards, despite there being no issue with that in book one, as another place where the canon contradicts itself.) Naja, having seen the war throgh the Dragon's Eye realizes that the dragon they face doesn't know that it is dead,. that the war is over. Naja was talked into using a spell - Wind Cutter, and nearly killed them all. What was left of the zombie kept trying to fight, but Najran spoke to it, thanked it, told it that humans were stronger now and didn't need his protection any more, that his spirit should join hi friends before he became something too far from what he had been. She set his spirit free, turning the test of power into another test of heart, after all. She used one more Spell card, Fly, to help his spirit ascend.
Kiji thanked Najaran for setting free the spirit of an old friend and letting him be at peace. Then she told them of the legand of the Mistrals, the ones the Nymphs were waiting for to destroy Balteas and save the forest.
They made it into the city of Bistream and were seperated from Kigi. When they came to her again, she had been taken over by darkness and was ruthlessly slaying the searchers who had followed Alta's crew. Najaran and Kigi wound up in a Cepter battle. Alta's crew jumped in, despite not being Cepters, to help as they could. (At one point wee are told that Kigi is down to about 37,000 magic points, and Najaran at about 500. But that still doesn't tell us where Najaran started... or what these numbers mean in a practical sense. They do not line up with the game's math, which makes it really really hard to gauge her power.) (also this is where Kigi stips referring to her kind as Nymphs and uses the word Elves.)
After beating Kigi, Kigi explained more about the mistrals and the curse on the elves of Bisteam and then opened the final gate for them. Najaran declared that she and the dying Kigi should be friends and survive together and cook nymph food together. Because Najaran has her priorities.
the Black Cepter that had been using the other searchers chose that moment to attack while Kigi was weak, hoping to destroy Bisteam. Nepenthes kidnapped Naja, holding her till her magical energy refreshed to steal it from her. Meanwhile he showed her what he felt to be the truth of Bisteam, unaware or uncaring that Alta and the others were coming to save Najaran.
Heb showed her the "treasure" of bistream, the remains of the Lord of Earth. Which was what was poisoning the forest and killing the nymphs/elves. Najaran came to understand that the gates weren't to keep people out of Bisteam, but to keep the Dark Lord, the Lord of Earth, in. That the Nymphs had been sacrificing themselves to keep his power sealed. Najaran vowed that she would do whatever it took to keep the Lord of Earth from waking, and started chewing through her restraints.
Which of course was when Zeneth showed up for a rematch. His attack broke the seal on the Lord of Earth, allowing him to begin awakening. Najaran yelled at him, giving him the angry ten cent tour about what he had just done. Of course in her screaming she said "We" and "our fault" not laying the blame all on him. She got Zeneth to agree to help, since even he now saw this was bigger than their rivalry.
Power flooded Najaran when she stood beside Zeneth and called on her Knight to join the fight. The creaturews of the forest were aiding her, having beaten Kigi, the Forest was now her domain, increasing her power tremendously, as well as increasing her recovery and power even more when she is actually IN a forest. (the manga doesn't specify a forest or that one specifically, so going off a combination of implications and the mechanics of the game, since that's all I've got.) Zeneth and Najaran worked together while Alta rallied the remaining searchers, friend and foe alike. And they all realized that the challenges of the gates hadn't been arbitrary, they were testing the skills needed for stopping the Lord of Earth.
Ganz (part of Alta's team) and another soldier took out the Black Cepter when the combination of awakening the Dark Lord and fighting Naja and Zeneth left him weak. But without a Cepeter, the Dark Lord started feeding on the lie energy of the humans around. Zeneth said that he had to use his secret weapon, but that Najaran had to keep the Lord of Earth distracted AND know when to get out of the way. Zeneth's arm was revealed to be embedded with a card, specifically the Lord Of Fire. He used the power of one of the four Elemental Lords against its brother. Knight and the Old Willow where the Nymphs gave their life protected Najaran from the blast.
Kigi's sister, who had given herself to Old Willow to reinforce the seal on the Dark Lord spoke to Najaran, telling her that Kigi and the others were all at peace now, and that this isn't death. She gave Najaran a powerful card Wind Of Hope (which in the game is weak) that was meant to be a link between Culdra and their world. She aslo gave Najaran all of Kigi's cards,m saying that they wanted to serve the human who called Kigi friend.
Things settled, the group seperated. Alta drew a map for Najaran to find Grubel's place. A week later, helplessly lost and desperate Najaran and Gooligan realized... that Njaran had been holding the map upside down this whole time....
Tare found them when Najaran failed to kill a jungle yak like creature with her teeth and bare hands. He had a letter telling him exactly where and when to meet them and even had a drawing of Najaran falling off of the Yak's back. Tare was, of course, sent by Grubel, the fortune teller. Tare left them at the entrance of Grubel's place and fled. The whole entry way was filled with what looked like statues of people in desperate pain. Tare, leaving, let slip that they weren't statues, they were people who had upset Grubel by bringing up her age.
After fighting her way in and being chastised not to mess up the rugs, Najaran was allowed to give Grubel the letter from Master Horowitz in which Najaran's master asked his old friend to help in their fight against the Black Cepters and offered Najaran's services as payment. Grubel agreed and immediately made slaves of Najaran and Gooligan.
They were given horrible and sometimes dangerous tasks, constantly being told by her servants that they'd be killed if they failed, or seeing her servants being harmed by other servants or begging forgiveness. Mostly she was just playing with them, though.
Grubel explained why she had no joy left in life, because she could read the descriptions of everything in the world, so nothing held any surprise or delight for her any more. The world is like a book she's read over and over again, she said, so it is boring, because she knows the ending already. Najaran of course, still emotional from Kigi and the zombie dragon and everything else she's been dealing with yelled at her, which Grubel said she knew was coming. Grubel offered her a wager. If Najaran could surprise her at all, while serving her, she would do what Horowitz asked and they would be done serving her. While Najaran and Gooligan were freaking out that it was impossible, Grubel smirked and took a sip of the tea Najaran had made for her and then flailed backwards, disgusted. Apparently Najaran accidently gave her pepper instead of sugar and instead of tea had steeped seaweed.
Grubel freaked out that she had been surprised, that Najaran had been able to do that. She grabbed Najaran and declared that she couldn't read Najaran as easily as she could read everything else, that somehow Naja deviates from what is written in the Culdcept. She asked Gooligan if this was his dooing since he was from outside Rakan. Finally thrilled and entertained. Grubel set about to keep her word. She had her servants prepare a device that she and Horowitz and Salvadore had created long before Najaran was born when they had been called "The Three Wise Ones Of Bablascha", Bablascha being the continent where Bisteam is located.
Grubel showed Najaran a glimpse of other worlds, all teeming with life, all created by Culdra, all touched by the Culdcept. They used the device to scry the location of the Black Cepters, but one of them sensed the scry and reached through space to attack them. After getting a small cut on her face, Grubel's temper blew up the part of her house where they had been. Once they moved outside and Gribel was tending to her cut face, Grubel gave Najaran a crystal ball with information for Horowitz and then demanded that Najaran destroy them all for cutting her face and ruining her mansion. She gave Najaran permission to come again sometime, as a visitor this time, and one of her servants, who was a card, went to join Najaran.
Naja and Gooligan made it back home to report to Horowitz, but he wasn't there. While raiding his snack jar what seemed like air pirates attacked. Three Cepters. Najaran tried to fight back, but her cards wouldn't respond. She and Gooligan were quickly captured and taken away on their airship. They passed through a Hurricane which turned out to be a defensive card protecting Endaness Isle, a secret island just for Cepters and their cards.
Najaran was awed by the Isle and the Capter's guild. A whole land where cards were free to mingle amongst their Cepters, where no one had to hide what they were, no one was hated just for being a card or a Cepter. She was dragged to see the Guild Chairman, but what she saw was Master Horowitz in an important looking seat. She was sure he was going to get himself in trouble and tried making excuses for him, not realizing he actually was the Guild Chairman.
He gave her a few moments of comfort while she changed into formal clothing, and then told her she was being taken to speak before the Assembly. It was a huge meeting of Cepters brought together to come up with a plan to defeat the Black Cepters, except it was chaos, no one able to agree with anyone else, each shouting their own plans and not listening. She was brought in as one of the few Cepters who had fought the Black Cepters multiple times and lived to tell the tale. But they wouldn't listen to her, one of them going so far as to point out Gooligan's presence, claiming he was proof she was herself a Black Cepter since all the Black Cepters had man headed canes. When Najaran stood and defended Gooligan elegantly, the Cepter then challenged Najaran herself, saying they shouldn't have to listen to a mere student who had never proven herself.
And so, in the middle of a crisis, they had to stop for a full on Cepter tournament. Doaens of participants. Najaran to defend Gooligan and Master Horowitz's good names agreed, even though she still couldn't summon her cards. What her Master knew but didn't share with her was that it was because she had gained too much power all at once when she gained Bisteam as her territory. Her body wasn't able to cope yet with how much stronger she had become. He figured that in battle she would find her way. He was right, but it wasn't easy or safe. What unlocked her ability was when the Cepter who challenged her started badmouthing Najaran's old opponents. Once again, she found her strength in defending others. She could not let Kigi and Sit Owen and the others she fought be called weak or pathetic. Each of them had helped her, each of them... she was coming to understand, she respected. To protect them, even if only in name, her power came rushing to her and unlocked the blockage caused by her rapid power gain. On this battle we also get the concept of ante cards... for the first time.. discussed as if it is a common practice.
The duel came down to just her and the Cepter who spoke against her, but in the end Najaran got to her too and she refused to use her last card, which had been given to her by someone else to not just defeat Najaram but to kill her. She instead called out the one who had commissioned her to kill Najaran and both she and the one she was working with were taken away for questioning. Najaran, however, got to enjoy part of a victory feast before she was dragged off to speak to the Guild Master.
The Guild Master was a secret, some one only a select few had ever met. Najaran soon found out why. The Guild Master was a card, was the Isle they were on. Was the Lord of Water. But she refused to work for Baltheus (the spelling of this changed as well as the series went on) no matter what. The Lord of Water challenged Najaran, demanding to know what kind of world she would create if she had the Culdcept. Najaran admitted that she'd never thought about it, that there was too much of this world she'd never seen yet, how could she even think about what she'd want in a whole new one? This amused the Lord of Water who sent Najaran, Gooligan, and Horowitz to track down Zeneth and ensure that the Lord Of Fire attached to his body never fell into the hand of Black Cepters....
Najaran is a kind girl who likes to see the best in people when she can, but sometimes her temper gets in the way of that. Thankfully her temper is rarely a lasting thing. She is more the sort to work out or vent out her temper and then feel better, rather than being someone for whom temper lingers and festers. Also, her temper is rarely because something happened to her. When her temper rises it is usually because someone else has been hurt or insulted.
She is a protective soul, honestly, despite being someone who in some ways needs protection herself and in other ways seems like she does. Najaran will always ALWAYS put herself into danger to protect someone else, even if that someone else had been trying to kill her moments before. The only exception seems to be that she will not actively try to protect someone while they are trying to harm others. Not never, mind, but as a general rule.
Najaran is also... a lot like Sora from Kingdom Hearts. At her core, she wants to be friends with everyone, and see everyone safe and smiling and happy. Ideally she wants to share food with everyone she meets, but that goes to gluttony.
Najaran is a pig. She would spend her whole life eating if she was allowed, and would consider it a good life. She is constantly hungry and never seems to be able to have enough food. That said, she tries to share when she can, be it with her friends or her cards. She firmly believes that yummy food should be enjoyed and shared.
She can be a little callous sometimes, without meaning to, but mostly that is with Gooligan because of their relationship, which is... unique. She gives him a hard time and takes him for granted in a way she doesn't with anyone or anything else. The two of them are kind of like combative siblings, even though they both clearly do love each other and have each other's back, Najaran very much treats him worse in many ways than she treats even her enemies. She uses him to block blows aimed at her, she uses him to stir things and as a drying rack for her laundry. He's the one person she'll get into screaming arguments with that aren't heat of the moment over and done. But she will also defend him against ANYONE who speaks against him, including Master Horowitz.
In general, Najaran is a strong girl with weaknesses, rather than a weak girl with strengths. She is generally more childish, emotionally, than her body suggests, but her intellect, when she bothers to use it, is on point. She learns from everything and everyone and her split second tactical thinking is amazing. In the duel on the Cepter's island, she used tricks learned from pretty much everyone she had met along the way, beating all the high ranked Cepters who had challenged her, despite having been in far fewer battles than they had been in. (That whole issue they keep miscounting how many battles she'd been in, but never the same way twice.) She used what she learned from Alta with the corrupted Woodfolk against one challenge, and in another she remembered what Ganz told her about traps and was able to turn a trap set for her against the person who set the trap. This is a girl who can't follow a basic map and thinks that she can hunt her dinner by jumping on a yak's back and trying to bite its neck with her very human teeth, but she can think like a military genius when in combat.
But one of the most important things to mention is her code of ethics. Shaped by her father and by Horowitz, Najaran does not believe in attacking someone who can't fight back, even if they had been fighting before. Once they are disarmed, she stops. She will not use her powers against anyone who can't meet her powers with their own, she'd rather be jailed than pull a card on a non-Cepter. She'd rather be killed than attack someone who is attacking her if she knows that her power is so far above theirs that they'd have no choice. And she defends the helpless. Friends, strangers, former enemies. If someone is hurt and can't fight back, she will do whatever she has to to defend them, even at the cost of her own life.
She also carries with her everyone who has ever helped her, and keeps them in her heart. Her father, her Master, Golligan, Kigi, Sir Owen, even Chimeno and Zeneth. She fights to defend their names, their memory. They are all with her. That said, she'd still be just fine if maybe she didn't have to deal with Zeneth again so soon, maybe?
CRAU developments: N/A
Key themes:
Defense/protection - her main card is Knight, and she uses him often to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Bravery - Connected to the above, she'll run away if she's the one in danger, but will put herself in the path of dangers for others. She is a good example of "bravery is not the absence of fear, it is being afraid and standing up anyway."
Friendship/loyalty - to her core.
Gluttony - her single biggest weakness, and the cause of much of the humor in the series. Also messing with her food is one of the ways to trigger her temper, but feed her good food and she's libel to love you forever.
hidden intelligence - Really, she comes across as clueless and useless and stupid so often, but then she suddenly just... knows things. And even those who saw her learn the lessons are shocked when she actually uses that learning. Only Master Horowitz seems to realize just how much she absorbs.
Easily lost - seriously, this is a train that doesn't have side passages. Expect her to get lost at least once a week despite that.
Honesty - this keeps coming up, people keep calling her honest, but in a way that implies they mean simple minded/stupid. It is not usually said as a compliment. More as in that what she said had to be what she really meant because it was so stupid no one would have said it as a lie.
Main Motivation: If you asked her, she'd say that it was to taste all sorts of yummy foods. She might even say that she wanted to share them with all sorts of new people. She really thinks that most of the time. She thinks that fighting the Black Cepters is a short term goal, that soon life will return to normal and all she'll have to worry about is eating, lessons, and not upsetting Master Horowitz.
Really though? Her goal seems to be to use her cards to protect people and bring them together.
Skills:
Cepter - she can summon creatures, items, and spells (dear god do not let her use spells) from her cards.
Agile - she doesn't look it, but in a pinch, she can MOVE. Even if she lands on her face, she gets back up quickly.
Observational skills, especially with food/pants. Seriously, it is scary.
The ability to turn foes to allies and friends, simply by being a friend first.
Item: Her book, I was told she could have ten cards (which is how many cards she was able to use at the start of the series at once, though she owned more than ten, even then.)
1. Knight. (Of course.) 2. Shield. 3. Wall Of Stone (From Kigi) 4. Gargoyle (From Kigi) 5. Eidolon 6. Gremlin 7. Thunderbeak 8. Cat Sith (from Chimino) 9. Living Weapon (From Grubel) 10. Wind Cutter (Tough choice, but a spell that can backfire... seems like a fun plot thing....)
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Part 1 of 4
Player Information
Name: Chicklet
Age: Adult
Contact details: Plurk: ChickletLARP, or PM the journal.
Other characters: Khary, Elfangor - both original universe.
Character Information
Name: Najaran
Canon: Culdcept
Canon Point: End of book 5, as they were surfacing before the shore of Shantenion. Before she sees the ruins or learns about the city's sad fate and hatred of
Cepters.
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: Orginal
Age: unknown in canon. Teens at best get, probably about 16 from her art (though she acts MUCH younger at times. Also they talk about how long she was with Master Horowitz, but it seems inconsistiant with how old we see her still with her father... so... gonna guess at 15 or 16. Honestly she probably isn't sure herself.)
World Information:
"The first thing the Goddess Culdra created was a book. In the book she mapped out the size and shape of the universe, and from her design the universe grew forth. Culdra also described in it the vast array of Gods and living thingds to inhabit her newborn world. This is how the Goddess Culdra created life and the universe - through the magical words she wrote in her book, the Culdcept, the Book Of Creation."
These are the very first words of the manga series. Similar words start most if not all of the video games of the same series. The short version is that Culdra created multiple worlds, multiple realities. Everything that would ever exist was written in the Culdcept. (we get a lot of this information from Grubel, an ancient Cepter who looks in her prime who has learned to read the Culdcept in everything and thus knows how everything will end, and thus is utterly bored with the universe.) Culdra even created those who would, in time, shatter her book, her Culdcept.
When the book of creation was destroyed, the pieces fell to the various words, transforming - for the most part - into cards. There were some forms of life that are not cards, for some reason that is... unclear. Humans are not cards. Elves.... sort of are? Really the manga is very confusing about it. The general rule that the characters seem to accept is that if it has sentience, it isn't a card, despite the fact that they've had long conversations with the creatures summoned from cards. (anything summoned from a card is in essence a card still, and by returning to its card form can be healed or repaired. But cards need to draw their power from Cepters in order to come free of their cards, to heal, and even to survive.
A Cepter is someone with the power to sustain and control the cards from the book of Culdra, the Culdcept cards. Generally Cepters are solipsistic jerks who can't work together for long and only want to gain more cards. Some want to recreate the Culdcept itself by gaining ALL the cards. But again, this too is inconsistent. We are told this in book 1, to set up how rare and shocking it is that there is a group calling themselves the Black Cepters who seem to be working together for a common goal. Except Naja can work with nearly anyone. And Master Horowitz worked for years with two other Cepters. And then there is, oh yeah, a whole society of Cepters that lives together.
So the basic break down is that the world was created by the Goddess Culdra writing in her book, which got shattered and fell to the world in the form of cards that some living things can use the way Pokemon trainers use Pokemon, sort of. That part is pretty much not disputed.
Also in history there have been several wars, and most people don't trust Cepters as a result. This is not really disputed or refuted. (Though some people and even some towns are exceptions.)
There are whole areas where there used to be thriving civilizations and now is nothing because of Cepters. Which goes back to people not trusting or liking Cepters for the most part.
There is a group called the Black Cepters that are trying to gain all of the most powerful cards, presumably to recreate the world in their image.
I am sorry that the world of Rakan and the universe of Culdcept is so confusing.
Part 2 of 4
Personal History:
Naja's timeline is.... difficult. We know somethings. We know that when she was little she and her dad were basically homeless vagabonds, always in debt, often on the run from people who wanted to hunt her father down. He taught bitty Najaran a lot during those years, like how she should never use her cards against non-Cepters, and his own personal code of honor. What little we see of him shows him to be a good man and a good father in a bad situation.
Naja at some point winds up with Master Horowitz on Gilman Island, and it is said she is there for ten years. But nothing says when she is brought there, or what happened to her father. Her mother is NEVER mentioned in canon at all.
We get a flashback to her on Gilman island in which she looks signifgantly younger than she was with her father, just to make things more confusing.
In this flashback, a young Najaran was playing in the attic, where she found a man headed staff that was dormant. She began gnawing on it (not sure if this was teething making her even younger than she looked, or just evidence that Najaran's insane appetite was always a thing) and it came to life. This was Gooligan. Gooligan had no clue who or what he was, and Master Horowitz didn't know either. From that day on, he was Najaran's closest companion, and often the only adult in the room in oh so many ways whenever Master Horowitz left. He's, in a lot of ways, Jiminy to her Pinocchio (even though he is the one seemingly made of wood)
We don't get much in the ten years she's there other than that one flashback.
The story begins with Master Horowitz returning from one of his many trips abroad with news. A group of Cepters - yes that's right a group - calling themselves the Black Cepters are on the move, but no matter what he does, they always seem a step ahead. So he asks Najaran to help him out, and to give her a chance to see the outside world for the first time in ten years.
Najaran is sent, with Gooligan, to Soron, a desert town that used to be a harbor town. It is one of the few places that accept and even welcomes Cepters, because ever since the water dried up, their only real revenue is the tourist trade of the annual Cepter tournament they hold.
She was told to keep a low profile and investigate, but after losing her temper at a competitor who was harassing the staff at the inn where she was eating, she winds up in the tournament herself.
The tournament is interrupted when a reckless person called Zeneth the Dragon-eyed shows up and attacks, seemingly at random. The lord of Soron, instead of calling his guards out on this intruder who nearly killed half of the spectators invites him to join the remainder of the tournament. For reasons known only to himself, he agrees.
During the first part of the tournament, Najaran had impressed many people. Most importantly to her in the moment is the Innkeeper who feeds her a lot to celebrate her wins and to thank her, but more important plot wise are Sir Owen who broke up the fight between her and the rude customer, and the rude customer himself, Chimino. During her battle against Chimino, she was brought up short by the fact that his cards loved him, even when he treated them horribly, and she refused to keep fighting. She won, but he wound up rethinking a lot of things, and ended up giving her the card that saved her life later on, Cait Sith. The other important connection was Sir Owen who had broken up the bar fight, and was impressed enough with her that he sought to ensure that Zeneth would not kill her - and half the town - in their duel the next day. To that end he ambushed Zeneth for one major purpose. He his a trap in Zeneth's most deadly spell, Tempest, shattering it when he next used it. He almost died doing this. Between him and Najaran, Zeneth didn't wind up destroying Soron.
Naja was declared the winner of the Tournament, and was invited to a feast in her honor thrown by the lord of Soron. At that feast she met another Man0headed Cane who said that Gooligan was a traitor who forgot his true mission. And she was almost the main course of the feast, being served up to Beelezebub, Lord of Flies. Beelezebub is an "anti-creature" created by Balteas, one of the gods. Beelezebub is one of the four Elemental Lords that were meant to destroy this world so that Balteas could use the power of the Culdcept to remake the world as he wished it.
Zeneth showed up as she was about to be eaten, ticked off that they didn't get their battle finished properly. He didn't care what else was going on, he just wanted her to admit that he was the best, even offered to save her if she said as much. The Lord of flies decided to destroy Zeneth as well, which was an insult he couldn't leave unanswered, so he attacked. Najaran, ticked off now at pretty much everyone, decided to EAT the bindings that had immobilized her. Just... let us please take a moment to realize that Naja was bound by a trap card that wrapped her and Gooligan in thick leather straps that were held together with metal. And she ATE HER WAY FREE because she was ticked off. Okay. Moving on.
She then proceeds to blunt force wail on Beelesebub and Zeneth both with Gooligan before getting her emergency card from inside his... mouth...? Seriously, where did he hide that, he was talking! (This is also where she learns never to leave her deck behind, even if she wants to let her cards rest at the Inn). She summons Eidolon (picture the Craving creature from the old honeycombs commercials) which chews through a chain to drop a chandelier on one of the Black Cepters. The Black Cepters decide to nope out and teleport away with Beelzebub because keeping him safe is their number one priority. (The whole Tournament, it turns out, was to feed powerful Cepters to him so he could regain his strength)
With the Lord of Flies gone, it begins to rain. Salt water. And fish. The ocean is back. Soron is saved. Njaran is hailed as a hero, though no one knows the details. Zeneth, ticked, swears his revenge while she tucks into a seafood feast.
Naja went back to the isle to report to Master Horowitz, who had a fit about her sticking with Gooligan after what she learned. She insisted that the war of the gods was all mythology and he was blowing things out of proportion, so he sent her on a quest to peer through an artifact he had hidden deep within a mountain that shared the crater the island sat in. She found the Dragon eye and through it saw the war of the gods as remembered by the dragon who fight in it, and was the one who trained Master Horowitz and his friend way back when.
She came to in her own bed, a day later, filled with the sadness of the Dragons who saw their kind die out. Somehow Master Horowitz was now fine with Gooligan again. She asked about the dragon's other eye, and Horowitz said that it might have been destroyed in fire.
Horowitz sent Najaran and Gooligan to his friend Grubel in the Bistream forest. He told her to bring a gift then sent her off via a transportation circle. Najaran, unaware of how meticulously the Dimension Door spell had to be calculated didn't realize that having snuck extra food would mess up the spell until they were already falling within it. (Dimension Door is a spell card, just to add to the oddness of how things fail to make sense in this series.) She dumped the extra food, and they fell out of the spell somewhere in the forest, where a carnivorous plant immediately tried to eat Najaran. She wound up eating it instead and a week later found the only human con trolled village in Bistream.
The village had a lot os "searchers". Treasure hunters trying to find the treasures locked within the forest, but they weren't doing well because of a powerful guardian who didn't want the humans to succeed. The Guardian sent a card creature, Gargoyle, to give the humans a warning that they needed to leave. Gargoyle attacked and Najaran ran to aid the injured, summoning Knight. She saved the people and as thanks they arrested her and took her cards. She gained some sympathy for Zeneth, guessing he'd been treated like this a lot, and some deeper understanding of the troubles her father endured.
Najaran was "saved" by a searcher named Alta and Alta's crew, who hoped to use Najaran to het past the Guardian Cepter to claim the treasure of Bistream. She was given the choice between joining them or staying there to deal with the repercussions of what they did to break her out. They had her cards. She went with them. the trip to the first gate was... not smooth. Najaran accidentally attacked some Woodfolk thinking they were trees, Alta had swapped her cards for playing cards which almost got them killed, and over all the team... did not work well together or trust each other.
They were nearly to the land of the nymphs and the gates they guard, when another group of searchers attacked them. Najaran refused to draw her cards against humans, even ones that were trying to kill her, if they weren't Cepters, and they weren't. They would have been lost and killed except that the guardian sent her Gargoyle to attack them all, because humans at the threshold of the gates were not to be tolerated. We are told that her power was over 40,00 so she couldn't possibly be human according to Gooligan. She destroyed the group of searchers that had attacked Alta's group, because their leader offered a huge reward for the Guardian's head. Their leader retreated, leaving his injured people behind. Najaran raced in, even being told that winning was impossible, and used her cards to defend against the Gargoyle.
She yelled at the other searcher for leaving his people then yelled at the Guardian for continuing to attack them once they were helpless. The Guardian (I'm just going to use her name - Kigi- from here on out) nearly killed Najaran, but she listened to Alta, and more, she listened to the forest. She decided to give Alta's small group one chance to test the gates themselves. When she found evidence that the Forest was in danger, Kigi took away their choice and used Fly and her Gargoyle to send them to the first gate.
The first test was a sealed room with odd walls. On the floor were the skeletons of people who had died in that room, their torsos twisted, jaws unhinged. Old corpses and new mixed together. Then mushrooms grew from the skeletons. Suddenly everything seemed ridiculous and silly, and they all began to laugh. The alchemist of the group found the reason in his book, the mushroom spores make people laugh themselves to death. And they were all starting to fall pray to it. worse, every time they were attacked, more grew, son that either they'd die of laughter or be smothered. Najaran, in true Najaran fashion, decided that the mushrooms that were killing them all looked yummy. She started to eat, then realized it wasn't fair to be the only one enjoying. So she summoned all her creatures and together they ate the mushrooms even faster than they could reproduce. Then they found the main mushroom and she and Knight went after it. It grew so much that it smothered itself and the room opened with the words "You passed the first hate. No matter hoe adaptable a species is... ... no species can survive by itself forever."
Resting between gates... so Najaran could eat... they were attacked by a corrupted Woodfolk. Working together as a team, perhaps for the first time, they were able to purge the flowers that had infected the woodfolk, freeing them from the corruption, saving them.
They finally found the second gate, and the challenge was to catch a specific dryad, but grabbing the wrong one turned them into trees. Najaran figured out which was the right one because "I can always tell the yummy vegetables from the not-so-yummy!" Since the second Gate was a tree that wasn't so healthy, the least healthy or "yummy" dryad had to be the right one... Najaran almost had her, but she got away and Najaran became a carnivorous plant. But the woodfolk helped the last member of the team, in thanks for saving them.
Kigi declared this cheating until she realized how much the Woodfolk cared for them. If the creatures of the forest cared for them, she would hold her arrows and allow them to take the test of the third gate.
The third test was to deal with a zombie dragon. (This is where we are told that Najaran is forbidden to use Spell cards, despite there being no issue with that in book one, as another place where the canon contradicts itself.) Naja, having seen the war throgh the Dragon's Eye realizes that the dragon they face doesn't know that it is dead,. that the war is over. Naja was talked into using a spell - Wind Cutter, and nearly killed them all. What was left of the zombie kept trying to fight, but Najran spoke to it, thanked it, told it that humans were stronger now and didn't need his protection any more, that his spirit should join hi friends before he became something too far from what he had been. She set his spirit free, turning the test of power into another test of heart, after all. She used one more Spell card, Fly, to help his spirit ascend.
Kiji thanked Najaran for setting free the spirit of an old friend and letting him be at peace. Then she told them of the legand of the Mistrals, the ones the Nymphs were waiting for to destroy Balteas and save the forest.
They made it into the city of Bistream and were seperated from Kigi. When they came to her again, she had been taken over by darkness and was ruthlessly slaying the searchers who had followed Alta's crew. Najaran and Kigi wound up in a Cepter battle. Alta's crew jumped in, despite not being Cepters, to help as they could. (At one point wee are told that Kigi is down to about 37,000 magic points, and Najaran at about 500. But that still doesn't tell us where Najaran started... or what these numbers mean in a practical sense. They do not line up with the game's math, which makes it really really hard to gauge her power.) (also this is where Kigi stips referring to her kind as Nymphs and uses the word Elves.)
After beating Kigi, Kigi explained more about the mistrals and the curse on the elves of Bisteam and then opened the final gate for them. Najaran declared that she and the dying Kigi should be friends and survive together and cook nymph food together. Because Najaran has her priorities.
Part 3 of 4
the Black Cepter that had been using the other searchers chose that moment to attack while Kigi was weak, hoping to destroy Bisteam. Nepenthes kidnapped Naja, holding her till her magical energy refreshed to steal it from her. Meanwhile he showed her what he felt to be the truth of Bisteam, unaware or uncaring that Alta and the others were coming to save Najaran.
Heb showed her the "treasure" of bistream, the remains of the Lord of Earth. Which was what was poisoning the forest and killing the nymphs/elves. Najaran came to understand that the gates weren't to keep people out of Bisteam, but to keep the Dark Lord, the Lord of Earth, in. That the Nymphs had been sacrificing themselves to keep his power sealed. Najaran vowed that she would do whatever it took to keep the Lord of Earth from waking, and started chewing through her restraints.
Which of course was when Zeneth showed up for a rematch. His attack broke the seal on the Lord of Earth, allowing him to begin awakening. Najaran yelled at him, giving him the angry ten cent tour about what he had just done. Of course in her screaming she said "We" and "our fault" not laying the blame all on him. She got Zeneth to agree to help, since even he now saw this was bigger than their rivalry.
Power flooded Najaran when she stood beside Zeneth and called on her Knight to join the fight. The creaturews of the forest were aiding her, having beaten Kigi, the Forest was now her domain, increasing her power tremendously, as well as increasing her recovery and power even more when she is actually IN a forest. (the manga doesn't specify a forest or that one specifically, so going off a combination of implications and the mechanics of the game, since that's all I've got.) Zeneth and Najaran worked together while Alta rallied the remaining searchers, friend and foe alike. And they all realized that the challenges of the gates hadn't been arbitrary, they were testing the skills needed for stopping the Lord of Earth.
Ganz (part of Alta's team) and another soldier took out the Black Cepter when the combination of awakening the Dark Lord and fighting Naja and Zeneth left him weak. But without a Cepeter, the Dark Lord started feeding on the lie energy of the humans around. Zeneth said that he had to use his secret weapon, but that Najaran had to keep the Lord of Earth distracted AND know when to get out of the way. Zeneth's arm was revealed to be embedded with a card, specifically the Lord Of Fire. He used the power of one of the four Elemental Lords against its brother. Knight and the Old Willow where the Nymphs gave their life protected Najaran from the blast.
Kigi's sister, who had given herself to Old Willow to reinforce the seal on the Dark Lord spoke to Najaran, telling her that Kigi and the others were all at peace now, and that this isn't death. She gave Najaran a powerful card Wind Of Hope (which in the game is weak) that was meant to be a link between Culdra and their world. She aslo gave Najaran all of Kigi's cards,m saying that they wanted to serve the human who called Kigi friend.
Things settled, the group seperated. Alta drew a map for Najaran to find Grubel's place. A week later, helplessly lost and desperate Najaran and Gooligan realized... that Njaran had been holding the map upside down this whole time....
Tare found them when Najaran failed to kill a jungle yak like creature with her teeth and bare hands. He had a letter telling him exactly where and when to meet them and even had a drawing of Najaran falling off of the Yak's back. Tare was, of course, sent by Grubel, the fortune teller. Tare left them at the entrance of Grubel's place and fled. The whole entry way was filled with what looked like statues of people in desperate pain. Tare, leaving, let slip that they weren't statues, they were people who had upset Grubel by bringing up her age.
After fighting her way in and being chastised not to mess up the rugs, Najaran was allowed to give Grubel the letter from Master Horowitz in which Najaran's master asked his old friend to help in their fight against the Black Cepters and offered Najaran's services as payment. Grubel agreed and immediately made slaves of Najaran and Gooligan.
They were given horrible and sometimes dangerous tasks, constantly being told by her servants that they'd be killed if they failed, or seeing her servants being harmed by other servants or begging forgiveness. Mostly she was just playing with them, though.
Grubel explained why she had no joy left in life, because she could read the descriptions of everything in the world, so nothing held any surprise or delight for her any more. The world is like a book she's read over and over again, she said, so it is boring, because she knows the ending already. Najaran of course, still emotional from Kigi and the zombie dragon and everything else she's been dealing with yelled at her, which Grubel said she knew was coming. Grubel offered her a wager. If Najaran could surprise her at all, while serving her, she would do what Horowitz asked and they would be done serving her. While Najaran and Gooligan were freaking out that it was impossible, Grubel smirked and took a sip of the tea Najaran had made for her and then flailed backwards, disgusted. Apparently Najaran accidently gave her pepper instead of sugar and instead of tea had steeped seaweed.
Grubel freaked out that she had been surprised, that Najaran had been able to do that. She grabbed Najaran and declared that she couldn't read Najaran as easily as she could read everything else, that somehow Naja deviates from what is written in the Culdcept. She asked Gooligan if this was his dooing since he was from outside Rakan. Finally thrilled and entertained. Grubel set about to keep her word. She had her servants prepare a device that she and Horowitz and Salvadore had created long before Najaran was born when they had been called "The Three Wise Ones Of Bablascha", Bablascha being the continent where Bisteam is located.
Grubel showed Najaran a glimpse of other worlds, all teeming with life, all created by Culdra, all touched by the Culdcept. They used the device to scry the location of the Black Cepters, but one of them sensed the scry and reached through space to attack them. After getting a small cut on her face, Grubel's temper blew up the part of her house where they had been. Once they moved outside and Gribel was tending to her cut face, Grubel gave Najaran a crystal ball with information for Horowitz and then demanded that Najaran destroy them all for cutting her face and ruining her mansion. She gave Najaran permission to come again sometime, as a visitor this time, and one of her servants, who was a card, went to join Najaran.
Naja and Gooligan made it back home to report to Horowitz, but he wasn't there. While raiding his snack jar what seemed like air pirates attacked. Three Cepters. Najaran tried to fight back, but her cards wouldn't respond. She and Gooligan were quickly captured and taken away on their airship. They passed through a Hurricane which turned out to be a defensive card protecting Endaness Isle, a secret island just for Cepters and their cards.
Najaran was awed by the Isle and the Capter's guild. A whole land where cards were free to mingle amongst their Cepters, where no one had to hide what they were, no one was hated just for being a card or a Cepter. She was dragged to see the Guild Chairman, but what she saw was Master Horowitz in an important looking seat. She was sure he was going to get himself in trouble and tried making excuses for him, not realizing he actually was the Guild Chairman.
He gave her a few moments of comfort while she changed into formal clothing, and then told her she was being taken to speak before the Assembly. It was a huge meeting of Cepters brought together to come up with a plan to defeat the Black Cepters, except it was chaos, no one able to agree with anyone else, each shouting their own plans and not listening. She was brought in as one of the few Cepters who had fought the Black Cepters multiple times and lived to tell the tale. But they wouldn't listen to her, one of them going so far as to point out Gooligan's presence, claiming he was proof she was herself a Black Cepter since all the Black Cepters had man headed canes. When Najaran stood and defended Gooligan elegantly, the Cepter then challenged Najaran herself, saying they shouldn't have to listen to a mere student who had never proven herself.
And so, in the middle of a crisis, they had to stop for a full on Cepter tournament. Doaens of participants. Najaran to defend Gooligan and Master Horowitz's good names agreed, even though she still couldn't summon her cards. What her Master knew but didn't share with her was that it was because she had gained too much power all at once when she gained Bisteam as her territory. Her body wasn't able to cope yet with how much stronger she had become. He figured that in battle she would find her way. He was right, but it wasn't easy or safe. What unlocked her ability was when the Cepter who challenged her started badmouthing Najaran's old opponents. Once again, she found her strength in defending others. She could not let Kigi and Sit Owen and the others she fought be called weak or pathetic. Each of them had helped her, each of them... she was coming to understand, she respected. To protect them, even if only in name, her power came rushing to her and unlocked the blockage caused by her rapid power gain. On this battle we also get the concept of ante cards... for the first time.. discussed as if it is a common practice.
The duel came down to just her and the Cepter who spoke against her, but in the end Najaran got to her too and she refused to use her last card, which had been given to her by someone else to not just defeat Najaram but to kill her. She instead called out the one who had commissioned her to kill Najaran and both she and the one she was working with were taken away for questioning. Najaran, however, got to enjoy part of a victory feast before she was dragged off to speak to the Guild Master.
The Guild Master was a secret, some one only a select few had ever met. Najaran soon found out why. The Guild Master was a card, was the Isle they were on. Was the Lord of Water. But she refused to work for Baltheus (the spelling of this changed as well as the series went on) no matter what. The Lord of Water challenged Najaran, demanding to know what kind of world she would create if she had the Culdcept. Najaran admitted that she'd never thought about it, that there was too much of this world she'd never seen yet, how could she even think about what she'd want in a whole new one? This amused the Lord of Water who sent Najaran, Gooligan, and Horowitz to track down Zeneth and ensure that the Lord Of Fire attached to his body never fell into the hand of Black Cepters....
Part 4 of 4
Najaran is a kind girl who likes to see the best in people when she can, but sometimes her temper gets in the way of that. Thankfully her temper is rarely a lasting thing. She is more the sort to work out or vent out her temper and then feel better, rather than being someone for whom temper lingers and festers. Also, her temper is rarely because something happened to her. When her temper rises it is usually because someone else has been hurt or insulted.
She is a protective soul, honestly, despite being someone who in some ways needs protection herself and in other ways seems like she does. Najaran will always ALWAYS put herself into danger to protect someone else, even if that someone else had been trying to kill her moments before. The only exception seems to be that she will not actively try to protect someone while they are trying to harm others. Not never, mind, but as a general rule.
Najaran is also... a lot like Sora from Kingdom Hearts. At her core, she wants to be friends with everyone, and see everyone safe and smiling and happy. Ideally she wants to share food with everyone she meets, but that goes to gluttony.
Najaran is a pig. She would spend her whole life eating if she was allowed, and would consider it a good life. She is constantly hungry and never seems to be able to have enough food. That said, she tries to share when she can, be it with her friends or her cards. She firmly believes that yummy food should be enjoyed and shared.
She can be a little callous sometimes, without meaning to, but mostly that is with Gooligan because of their relationship, which is... unique. She gives him a hard time and takes him for granted in a way she doesn't with anyone or anything else. The two of them are kind of like combative siblings, even though they both clearly do love each other and have each other's back, Najaran very much treats him worse in many ways than she treats even her enemies. She uses him to block blows aimed at her, she uses him to stir things and as a drying rack for her laundry. He's the one person she'll get into screaming arguments with that aren't heat of the moment over and done. But she will also defend him against ANYONE who speaks against him, including Master Horowitz.
In general, Najaran is a strong girl with weaknesses, rather than a weak girl with strengths. She is generally more childish, emotionally, than her body suggests, but her intellect, when she bothers to use it, is on point. She learns from everything and everyone and her split second tactical thinking is amazing. In the duel on the Cepter's island, she used tricks learned from pretty much everyone she had met along the way, beating all the high ranked Cepters who had challenged her, despite having been in far fewer battles than they had been in. (That whole issue they keep miscounting how many battles she'd been in, but never the same way twice.) She used what she learned from Alta with the corrupted Woodfolk against one challenge, and in another she remembered what Ganz told her about traps and was able to turn a trap set for her against the person who set the trap. This is a girl who can't follow a basic map and thinks that she can hunt her dinner by jumping on a yak's back and trying to bite its neck with her very human teeth, but she can think like a military genius when in combat.
But one of the most important things to mention is her code of ethics. Shaped by her father and by Horowitz, Najaran does not believe in attacking someone who can't fight back, even if they had been fighting before. Once they are disarmed, she stops. She will not use her powers against anyone who can't meet her powers with their own, she'd rather be jailed than pull a card on a non-Cepter. She'd rather be killed than attack someone who is attacking her if she knows that her power is so far above theirs that they'd have no choice. And she defends the helpless. Friends, strangers, former enemies. If someone is hurt and can't fight back, she will do whatever she has to to defend them, even at the cost of her own life.
She also carries with her everyone who has ever helped her, and keeps them in her heart. Her father, her Master, Golligan, Kigi, Sir Owen, even Chimeno and Zeneth. She fights to defend their names, their memory. They are all with her. That said, she'd still be just fine if maybe she didn't have to deal with Zeneth again so soon, maybe?
CRAU developments: N/A
Key themes:
Defense/protection - her main card is Knight, and she uses him often to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Bravery - Connected to the above, she'll run away if she's the one in danger, but will put herself in the path of dangers for others. She is a good example of "bravery is not the absence of fear, it is being afraid and standing up anyway."
Friendship/loyalty - to her core.
Gluttony - her single biggest weakness, and the cause of much of the humor in the series. Also messing with her food is one of the ways to trigger her temper, but feed her good food and she's libel to love you forever.
hidden intelligence - Really, she comes across as clueless and useless and stupid so often, but then she suddenly just... knows things. And even those who saw her learn the lessons are shocked when she actually uses that learning. Only Master Horowitz seems to realize just how much she absorbs.
Easily lost - seriously, this is a train that doesn't have side passages. Expect her to get lost at least once a week despite that.
Honesty - this keeps coming up, people keep calling her honest, but in a way that implies they mean simple minded/stupid. It is not usually said as a compliment. More as in that what she said had to be what she really meant because it was so stupid no one would have said it as a lie.
Main Motivation: If you asked her, she'd say that it was to taste all sorts of yummy foods. She might even say that she wanted to share them with all sorts of new people. She really thinks that most of the time. She thinks that fighting the Black Cepters is a short term goal, that soon life will return to normal and all she'll have to worry about is eating, lessons, and not upsetting Master Horowitz.
Really though? Her goal seems to be to use her cards to protect people and bring them together.
Skills:
Cepter - she can summon creatures, items, and spells (dear god do not let her use spells) from her cards.
Agile - she doesn't look it, but in a pinch, she can MOVE. Even if she lands on her face, she gets back up quickly.
Observational skills, especially with food/pants. Seriously, it is scary.
The ability to turn foes to allies and friends, simply by being a friend first.
Item:
Her book, I was told she could have ten cards (which is how many cards she was able to use at the start of the series at once, though she owned more than ten, even then.)
1. Knight. (Of course.)
2. Shield.
3. Wall Of Stone (From Kigi)
4. Gargoyle (From Kigi)
5. Eidolon
6. Gremlin
7. Thunderbeak
8. Cat Sith (from Chimino)
9. Living Weapon (From Grubel)
10. Wind Cutter (Tough choice, but a spell that can backfire... seems like a fun plot thing....)
Sample:
With Lea on the TDM
And a PSL sample
Notes:
Weeding down her deck to just ten was hard. >.<
I am sorry about this insane app. Thank you.