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[galdorleod]

THE WIZARD HOWL

Howl's Moving Castle (film) CANON 24 AGE Zenith FACTION Tier 1 HARMONIZATION LEVEL

After Sophie's dream CANON POINT Male (he/him) GENDER Stargazer ASPECT Tier 1 DISCORD LEVEL

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A charismatic, handsome young man of above-average height and a very slim build. One immediately gets a sense that he is a fashionable and expressive individual. Exceptionally well-groomed, exudes an aura of beauty and gaeity. Favors billowy shirts and form-fitting trousers and is often seen wearing flashy, expensive accessories like jewelry and ornate coats. Clearly someone who takes pride in his appearance. On a typical day, he appears with shoulder-length blond hair, but if caught during a quieter or more tired moment, he may be seen with his natural black hair. Eyes are pale blue and have a vaguely lifeless appearance; one might think they were made from glass or marble on first glance.

An ambient cloud of magic surrounds him wherever he goes, which can be perceived by those with the special senses necessary to do so. Those especially adept at sensing magic may notice the plethora of beautification spells he casts upon himself daily or the presence of his magical contract with Calcifer. Smells strongly of vanilla and hyacinth flowers, especially on days where he is fully dolled-up. Voiced by Takuya Kimura (JP) and Christian Bale (EN). Welsh accent.

SHARD

Howl's Shard is a circular, flat, disc-like stone resembling mosaic turquoise. Its surface looks less polished than the average Shard and has more of a matte texture. It is about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. Most notably, there is a small hole at the center of his Shard, about 1 cm in diameter. Howl's Shard rests in the near-center of his torso, slightly to the left (his left).

Calcifer's Shard is a small, hard gemstone resembling black diamond. It is very small, the size of a bead, less than 1 cm on its longest side. It is cut into the shape of a rectangular four-pointed star. Its smooth, polished facets reflect orange hues. Calcifer's Shard sits on the underside of the fleshy, black blob that his fiery body burns from; because he cannot move unless someone picks him up, the Shard will almost always be hidden from view, as he essentially "sits" on it.

ASPECT TATTOO

Howl's Stargazer tattoo (✷) is about 1.5 inches (4 cm) in diameter and is located on the inside of his left wrist. The "ink" is dark red, but bleeds into a very thin turquoise blue border along the edges.

Calcifer's Exalt tattoo (✾) is very, very small, and located on the top of the black blob at the base of his fire. The ink is charcoal black, almost the same color as the blob itself, and even when unobstructed by wood or other fireplace debris, it is very difficult to see through Calcifer's flames.

PERSONALITY

❖ Highly charismatic. Calm, smooth, confident.
❖ Rebellious and free-spirited. Anti-authority.
❖ Cowardly and avoidant. Ignores his own negative emotions.
❖ Vain and selfish. Prone to insensitive outbursts when upset.
❖ Fickle and immature. Hates "adulting."
❖ Eager for love. Craves deep emotional connections.
❖ Pessimistic about his own life. Considers himself unloveable despite constantly searching for love.
❖ Low self-worth. Willing to put himself at great risk to help others.
❖ Anti-war, anti-fascist, but not anti-violence. Willing to engage in violence to prevent harm to others, either actively or reactively.

BACKGROUND

When Howl was ten years old, he caught a shooting star just before it hit the ground. The shooting star was actually a demon named Calcifer, and if he were to hit the ground, he would die — as he expected to when he fled heaven in the first place. Howl, feeling sorry for him, agreed to give Calcifer his heart to bind their lives together and prevent the demon from dying. The boy swallowed the demon, and a few seconds later, Calcifer emerged from the front of his chest with his heart in tow. A contract had been made.

Although it was not his motivation for making the contract in the first place, the contract gave Howl an unnaturally large well of magic power to tap into. The adults around Howl took notice of both his enormous magical potential and his pre-existing curiosity towards magic, and he was sent to the royal capital of Ingary to enroll at the crown's Sorcerer's Academy. There, he caught the attention of the Royal Sorceress, Madame Suliman, and was selected to be her apprentice and heir.

Howl formally graduated from the academy when he was twenty-one years old, swore an oath to serve the king, and continued on with his apprenticeship. However, soon after his graduation, Madame Suliman discovered Howl's contract with Calcifer. Her response was heavy-handed; she ordered Howl to be captured, detained and subjected to known methods of breaking demonic contracts — which are fatal to the demon and highly unpleasant for the wizard.

Howl fled in fear, effectively abandoning his apprenticeship with Madame Suliman and becoming an unofficial fugitive. Channeling his and Calcifer's power together, Howl constructed a magical, portable, inter-dimensional castle made from random rooms, rooftops, cannons, smokestacks, and other bits of architecture, that could move about on two pairs of metal chicken legs. To support himself, he set up shops in several different cities under different aliases, selling potions and spells to the general public. Each storefront connected magically to the front door of his castle, which roams the countryside he grew up in. Now on the run, and in need of privacy and anonymity, Howl intentionally spread rumors about "the Wizard Howl" being a dangerous rake who consumes the hearts of maidens, hoping it would keep people from bothering him while allowing him to conduct business under his pseudonyms.

From there, the events of the movie happen, which are summed up here.

ABILITIES & SKILLS

SHAPESHIFTING

The strongest and most well-developed of Howl's magics is transformation, whether of himself or objects. Most prominently featured in the film is his ability to transform himself into a large sparrow-like creature. Howl can fly while in this form and engage in air combat with other flying beings. However, after being transformed for an extended period of time, transforming back can be painful and exhausting.

Important to note about Howl's bird form is that works on a sort of gradient. It isn't like an on/off switch where he can morph back and forth between one specific form and his human form. Rather, he can invoke the general transformation magic to different degrees at any given time — depending on his needs, he could just have wings spring from his back, or he could cover his entire body with feathers, or he could make his legs turn into bird talons to attack people, or he could make his legs disappear entirely to make himself more aerodynamic... or any other combination of these various bird-like elements. Additionally, and thanks to the deep well of magic that Calcifer provides to him, he can essentially "overclock" himself with his own transformation magic and become a gigantic bird-like monster. The more often and more intensely Howl transforms his body, the more arduous it is for him to transform back to normal, and the greater the risk of the transformation overpowering Howl's mind and making him unable to transform back at all.

Howl's powers of shapeshifting apply to more than just himself, however. He can also "transform" objects in various ways, not simply by morphing their actual form into something else, but by imposing smaller or more subtle changes. This ranges from removing a burn mark from a table, to helping a field of flowers grow by enriching the soil, to completely changing the inside of his castle in a matter of seconds with the help of Calcifer. Note, Howl's power to transform things other than his own body is limited in Kenos by the game's overall "reality-bending" power cap. This power will probably only ever come up for flavor/as a "social" power.

ILLUSIONS

Howl's shapeshifting power is blurred somewhat with his ability to alter how other people perceive things (in contrast to literally changing the thing in question). For example, the spells he uses to beauty himself straddle the line between illusion and transformation, using elements of both to achieve the desired effect. More directly, Howl can craft spells to disguise other people and objects with the assistance of illusions, such as turning a person invisible or causing their face to resemble someone else. These spells are easier to see through and dispel compared to Howl's transformation powers. When used on others, Howl's illusionary magic will last about five minutes.

POTIONS & SPELLCRAFTING

Howl's main method of supporting himself financially is to sell spells and potions as a wizard for hire. These spells resemble "house magic" and tend to be relatively minor, being more intended to assist with the daily problems of the average person. Some of these spells depend on something akin to a placebo effect, i.e., the purchaser's belief that it will work - but they're never entirely without some magical component.

Moreover, because these spells are prepared ahead of time and are meant to be given to others to use, they have some kind of physical form that contains the spell until it is activated. The most basic example of this is a potion that does something upon being consumed, but Howl's spellcrafting is not limited to potions. For example, Howl might create a special magical powder that, when sprinkled on a wet object, will make it dry almost instantly. Also, many of Howl's beautifying spells take this form and could thus theoretically be sold to other people instead of kept for his own use. The upper limit of power on these spells would be something like a spell made for sailors that causes the winds to be more favorable on an upcoming voyage. Howl's stronger magical abilities cannot be put into potions in this way.

PORTALS & TELEPORTATION

Howl can create rooted portals that connect two distant locations together. These portals must be "rooted" in an actual door or window and cannot be moved without remaking the portal from scratch. This ability is primarily used at the front door of Howl's residence; as of October 2022, his dormitory front door is connected to two locations: the Tomes area of Highstorm, and a door inside an abandoned building in Springstar.

Relatedly, Howl can also conjure objects from elsewhere, although "conjure" is a misnomer. In reality, he is not creating something from nothing, but bringing it to himself from somewhere else. In order for this ability to work, Howl must know enough about the object to correctly visualize it and must know the exact location of the object. An example of this power in action would be "conjuring" some firewood by teleporting it from the storage of someone who owes him money.

TELEKINESIS

A pretty basic thing for a wizard of Howl's power to be able to do. Not only does this work on people (for example, forcing a person's body to involuntarily walk away) but he can also influence objects from a long distance (for example, turning the engines off in a warship while standing on the ground). Using this magic in excess has the same negative effects on Howl as exploiting his bird form too intensely.

FIRE RESISTANCE

Thanks to his bond to a fire demon, Howl is highly resistant to fire, whether started by himself or by others. This would also apply to extreme temperatures generally, such that a hot brand will not burn his skin. This is not completely unlimited — no vacations to the surface of the sun, for example.

In the case of magically created fire, as opposed to natural fire, Howl is less resistant and can be hurt by it, depending on the power of the magic and any other unusual characteristics. The exception to this is Calcifer's fire, which he is completely immune to.

MISCELLANEOUS MAGICAL WHIMSY

Yes, this is a power!! Howl is from a "soft magic" canon, where it's implied that he can do a lot of different things with magic, beyond what he chooses to do over the course of the story. His canon is also the kind of fantasy story where, half the time, magic is used for maximum whimsical/humorous effect. Thanks to the looser, more open rules at Kenos when it comes to powers in such scenarios, there is a lot of wiggle room within threads for the unexpected to happen with regard to Howl's magic. This encapsulates those instances of magic that don't fall into the other categories, but which I'd want to do because It Would Be Funny/Cute.

For a canon example of what I'm talking about, look no further than the temper tantrum that Howl throws when Sophie messes up all his potions and spells in his bathroom. In his pettiness, he suddenly starts channeling the "spirits of darkness" and oozing gallons of green slime all over his house. Is this a "power"? Who knows? What it really is, is Funny. And Howl's magic can and will do lots of things for the sake of me being able to write something amusing or interesting on the fly.

On top of that, the squishy and undefined limitations to Howl's powers means that, for the most part, he already knows how to do most of the spells in the Tier 1 Spellbook. Being an experienced wielder of magic, Howl is available to help other characters learn their Tier 1 spells. For more information on that, click here!

PERMISSIONS

PLAYER INFO

Played By: Lazdo
Contact Info: PM, lazdo, OddLazdo#2470

OUT OF CHARACTER

Writing Style: I prefer bracket tags, but I am happy to switch to whatever format you prefer. Similarly, I prefer present tense over past tense, regardless of format. I can try to match past tense but my brain is likely to trip up since I'm used to using present tense.

Backtagging: I am willing to backtag a thread for as long as it remains unfinished. If I drop a thread, it's most likely due to it being old and not feeling like it needs to go on longer. However I am always available to continue any thread that you'd would like to play out to its full conclusion!

Threadhopping: If a thread is marked as closed, or a prompt was written for a specific other character, then I would ask that you not hop in. However, I welcome threadhopping in any other situation. But, you may want to check with the other person I'm tagging with before doing so.

Offensive Subjects: There isn't anything particularly controversial that's likely to come up in tags with him... although he can be a bit of a fuckboy and may give other characters unwanted flirtatious attention. Please let me know if you'd prefer to avoid that.

IN CHARACTER

Physical Violence: ✅ (expect IC consequences.)

Death/Dissipation: ✅ (I'm open to this. Let's talk and plot it out!)

Physical Affection: ✅ (highly likely to be reciprocated...)

Shipping/Sex: ✅ (Howl is dtf)

Mental/Communion: ✅ (Any introspection I mention in tags is open for another character to pick up on, assuming they have the correct Aspect/Tier/powers to do so.)

Offensive Subjects: ✅ (Hit me with the full depth of your character's messed up backstory and/or actions.)

MISCELLANEOUS

REFS & OTHER

Image References:
❖ Normal form (blond, enchanted): (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)
❖ Normal form (unenchanted): (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)
❖ Bird form (partial transformation): (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8)
❖ Full bird-monster form: (1), (2), (3)
❖ Calcifer: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)

Outfits: (1), (2), (3)

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