kenos ➩ application

[galdorleod]

PLAYER INFO

NAME: Lazdo
CONTACT: lazdo, lazdo, OddLazdo#2470
OVER 18?: yes

CHARACTER INFO

NAME: Howl
SERIES: Howl's Moving Castle
CANON POINT: After Sophie's dream
AGE: 24

CHARACTER SUMMARY:
Disaster male love interest wizard who permanently screwed up his life at the age of ten when he entered into a contract with a demon, purely because he felt bad for it and didn't want it to die. Since then, he's been missing his heart (both literally and metaphorically) and grown up into a sexy manchild as a result. Emotionally immature and irresponsible, he would prefer to spend all of his time enjoying the pleasures of life, but because he's kindhearted at his core and has a strong sense of right and wrong, he often finds himself stepping up when necessary... and when it suits him. Very much a chaotic good type of guy. His contract with said demon has given him enormous magic power and ability, but on a day-to-day basis, he struggles with more commonplace issues in his personal life. Being a powerful wizard is useful for a lot of things in life, but it can't help Howl learn to love himself or act more responsibly.

POWERS:
TRANSFORMATION & 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 creation/reality-bending power cap. For the most part, I only intend for Howl to get into manipulating objects and places around himself for the sake of whimsical flavor (see below) or as a "social" power. Please let me know if any hard limits are needed for this!

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. If you ever bought a "witchcraft" book in middle school that required you to bury a penny outside your bedroom window in order to help you ace a job interview, it's in that realm of "magic," except that Howl actually does imbue these spells with real magic to help them actually work.

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. As an 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. In order to craft these sorts of "portable" spells, Howl must have the ingredients necessary to do so. These run the gamut of special plants, animal parts, metals, crystals, locks of hair, and objects from certain special locations or situations.

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, giving him an easy and fast way to get between his house and the commerce areas of Highstorm and Springstar. I know this may butt up against the power cap, so if this needs to be limited to a maximum number of portals, or to only allow Howl to use them, please let me know!

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. This power is limited by both the conjuring and teleportation power cap, so he would only be able to do this for objects on the same floating island that he is currently on, and only on objects that will not break the faction balance of the game.

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.

GENERAL WHIMSICAL WIZARDRY: Alright, so, this is basically the... miscellaneous section. 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. As I've discussed in the past when it comes to my problems with how Aion Teleos did its powers, I'd love to have some wiggle room here to be creative in a similar way when the opportunity arises in a thread, without it necessarily having to fall under the strict handful of powers listed in Howl's power section. So, in the interest of being open about that, I'm putting this here as a "power" to encapsulate 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 an actual canon example of what I mean by this: Howl's slime tantrum. Does it count as a power?? Who knows? But it's fucking funny when it happens and a wonderfully creative example of how giving magic superpowers to a manchild can and will backfire. That's the sort of flavorful, spontaneous manifestation of his magic that I'm envisioning here (although for everyone's sake, it won't always have to happen when he's having a tantrum).

I understand that allowing this to be completely open-ended might be something the mods would hesitate to approve, so if some limitations have to be imposed on it, I'd be okay with that. Maybe it can be the sort of thing where, if I get the okay from the thread partner, then whatever we want to do is fine? As long as it fits within the game's overall cap? Or, what if I limited it to everything in the tier 1 spellbook? (Since I was planning on Howl being a "tutor" for those spells anyway.) Please just let me know how this kinda thing can work, if it can work.

GAME INFO

ASPECTS:
STARGAZER: Howl basically fits this Aspect perfectly. A vivacious and expressive individual, Howl puts the most value on his ability to live his life how he wants, with as few restraints put upon him as possible. This same attitude translates to his relationship with his own magic power and his openness to how it can be used; unlike the bureaucrats in his home world, Howl does not consider any field of magic or reason for using magic to be inherently bad. His desire for freedom is not necessarily a selfish desire, as he wishes others to enjoy the same freedom to live their lives as he does — a desire at the root of Howl's first meeting and contract with Calcifer. However, his priority for freedom often lends itself to a self-imposed lack of structure. In his desire to be free and comfortable, Howl rarely sets new goals or expectations for himself, leading to the stagnancy and boredom that Stargazers can fall victim to.

ADVOCATE: If I had to pick a second option for Howl's Aspect, it would be this, because it captures the side of him that not only cares deeply for others, but that wants to care about others. Howl longs for companionship and acceptance, to the point that he is eager to give the same sentiments to others. This can backfire spectacularly when he discovers that someone he's reached out to was not actually deserving of his time and energy, but he's quick to offer it despite those past experiences. Howl also shares the problems of having low self-worth and a fear of disappointing others. However, Advocate doesn't capture Howl's focus on freedom and experiencing everything the world has to offer the way Stargazer does — his devotion to others and constant search for love are really just an expression of the larger aspects of his personality.

ANTICIPATED FACTION:
Zenith. Howl's world was in a state of warfare and fascism at the time he left it, and he'd always tried his hardest to protect himself and the people he loves from the harshness of that world. If given the offer to remake everything into something better, he would take it, and if those few people he cared so deeply for were guaranteed to be coming along with him into the new world, he would accept the offer in and instant and become one of Zenith's most stalwart supporters. This is not to say that Howl couldn't be convinced of the short-sightedness of Zenith by the right person, but going purely off his own personal values, he'd gravitate to Zenith naturally.

SUITABILITY:
The more that could be promised to Howl for his service to Zenith, the more likely he'll be to devote himself to it (see above). At the same time, Howl is sensitive to the tyranny that bureaucracy and blind loyalty can foster, so he's also someone who could be pushed into a more centrist or neutral position if the right mixture of experiences and problems were to occur. Even as a loyal follower of Yima, he's likely to remain cordial towards people from the other faction (something that wasn't possible for him to do in AT) because he approaches conflict from a very anti-war, anti-leadership, pro-individual mindset. Really, he just wants to live a quiet life where he gets to play with magic and surround himself with friends and family, and it's only when something comes between himself and that goal that he'll fight others.