Another new (or more accurately redone) character for the House of Seasons. Koda's story took me a bit to get right, but I'm really happy with it now.
If you're just checking out The House of Seasons characters, and want to start with a bit of background and read in the order the characters were introduced:
Alice of Autumn (And intro to the world of House of Seasons) - https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t755-alice-of-autumn-from-the-world-of-house-of-seasons
Isblomma of Winter - https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t855-isblomma-of-winter-from-the-world-of-house-of-seasons
Thornapple Maudsley - https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t955-thornapple-maudsley-from-the-world-of-house-of-seasons
And now, Koda
When Alice was ten, her family visited the House of Summer. While her parents petitioned Summer for more aid in the war against Barlow, Alice was left to play in the expansive gardens, where she met the boy. He was about her age, with white hair, and eyes that were two different colors. While the irises of both were a bright red, the left eye was set against a black so deep, it looked like the iris floated and glowed in a bottomless darkness. He told her that he had escaped from the catacombs below the main house, where he had been caged his whole life. His days were full of torturous experiments and brutal training, with the goal of crafting him into some sort of weapon.
Even at her young age, Alice's sense of justice was intense and immovable, and she spent the day helping him navigate the woods and aiding in his escape, her fancy court dress torn and stained with mud as they ran. He had no name, and was referred to by his keepers simply as "the dog," so Alice decided to name him Koda after a stuffed toy she had.
It was near dusk when the riders caught up to them. There were at least twenty, and Koda killed close to half of them before they managed to subdue him. He fought like a cornered animal, and Alice had never seen anything with that speed, strength, and sheer savagery.
A powerful witch took her memories of the day, before returning her to her parents, claiming that she had simply gotten lost in the woods. They were skeptical. As the daughter to the House of Autumn, she shared a deep connection to the wild lands, and the idea of her becoming lost was almost unimaginable. Still, their need for help from the House of Summer was so great, they agreed to put the incident behind them. To this day, Alice will still wake from dreams she can't quite recall with a feeling of some important memories just out of reach. For Koda, Alice's help and kindness may be the only he has ever known, but that single day has remained powerful in shaping who he has become.
The Queen of Summer was deeply paranoid, and believed in conspiracies all around, with all set against her. She wanted a weapon unparalleled, an unstoppable assassin she could use to carry out any feat, no matter how impossible. She tasked a number of unscrupulous witches that had long been shunned for delving into the blackest of arts with instructions to "cross the boundaries that no one else will cross" and to bring her something truly unequaled. What followed were a series of secret experiments that delved in to the darkest depths of the arcane world. One witch, whose name was scrubbed from all records, disappeared for three weeks. When she returned, she was pregnant, claiming the father to be a greater demon and a prince of Hell. It is believed she died during childbirth, although the disappearance of her body immediately afterward has led to some speculation.
Koda truly was a creature like no other, and has been raised since birth to be a living weapon. As half demon, he is inhumanly fast and strong, and trained in combat from the moment he was old enough, til his every movement became defined by it. Any wounds quickly heal, an ability that has been used to unusual results. If a body part is severed, he can sense it's direction and he has used bits of himself to track his prey over great distances. Bones were removed from his legs to fashion the handles of knives that would always be an extension of himself, and he regrew them within days. As he got older, his demonic powers proved beyond control, so his right arm was bound in sacred wraps, not to suppress but to channel and control it. A patch was fashioned to seal his demonic eye, which would insatiably devour the magikal energies around him. After his childhood escape, his chest was cut open and a seal was placed on his heart, the corresponding carved bloodstone talisman the final means of control should he prove too willful and uncooperative. He was well educated, in the hopes that it would make him clever and resourceful, but the aim was always the same - to craft him into a monster that only the queen could control. But while he has faithfully served the queen of Summer so far, he has never lost sight of his goal of freedom, always plotting and looking for his opportunity.
The night that Alice arrived in Equinox to attend Balefire, eight years after her childhood encounter with him, Koda was sent to kill her aboard her airship, in an attempt to destroy an already weakened great house. Her death could be blamed on Barlow, and the House of Summer could manipulate events to expand royal control in Equinox. But when Koda recognized her from all those years ago, he refused his orders, and for the first time, failed to carry out an assignment. Seeing her again changed something in him, and his patient and meticulous planning began to fall to a new intensity, an undeniable need to be free of his captivity, to find out what he could be, beyond a tool of Summer's mad queen. He would need to work quickly. But if free, would that one small kindness from years ago be seed enough to grow his humanity, or would he just become the monster he was created to be?
If you're just checking out The House of Seasons characters, and want to start with a bit of background and read in the order the characters were introduced:
Alice of Autumn (And intro to the world of House of Seasons) - https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t755-alice-of-autumn-from-the-world-of-house-of-seasons
Isblomma of Winter - https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t855-isblomma-of-winter-from-the-world-of-house-of-seasons
Thornapple Maudsley - https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t955-thornapple-maudsley-from-the-world-of-house-of-seasons
And now, Koda
When Alice was ten, her family visited the House of Summer. While her parents petitioned Summer for more aid in the war against Barlow, Alice was left to play in the expansive gardens, where she met the boy. He was about her age, with white hair, and eyes that were two different colors. While the irises of both were a bright red, the left eye was set against a black so deep, it looked like the iris floated and glowed in a bottomless darkness. He told her that he had escaped from the catacombs below the main house, where he had been caged his whole life. His days were full of torturous experiments and brutal training, with the goal of crafting him into some sort of weapon.
Even at her young age, Alice's sense of justice was intense and immovable, and she spent the day helping him navigate the woods and aiding in his escape, her fancy court dress torn and stained with mud as they ran. He had no name, and was referred to by his keepers simply as "the dog," so Alice decided to name him Koda after a stuffed toy she had.
It was near dusk when the riders caught up to them. There were at least twenty, and Koda killed close to half of them before they managed to subdue him. He fought like a cornered animal, and Alice had never seen anything with that speed, strength, and sheer savagery.
A powerful witch took her memories of the day, before returning her to her parents, claiming that she had simply gotten lost in the woods. They were skeptical. As the daughter to the House of Autumn, she shared a deep connection to the wild lands, and the idea of her becoming lost was almost unimaginable. Still, their need for help from the House of Summer was so great, they agreed to put the incident behind them. To this day, Alice will still wake from dreams she can't quite recall with a feeling of some important memories just out of reach. For Koda, Alice's help and kindness may be the only he has ever known, but that single day has remained powerful in shaping who he has become.
The Queen of Summer was deeply paranoid, and believed in conspiracies all around, with all set against her. She wanted a weapon unparalleled, an unstoppable assassin she could use to carry out any feat, no matter how impossible. She tasked a number of unscrupulous witches that had long been shunned for delving into the blackest of arts with instructions to "cross the boundaries that no one else will cross" and to bring her something truly unequaled. What followed were a series of secret experiments that delved in to the darkest depths of the arcane world. One witch, whose name was scrubbed from all records, disappeared for three weeks. When she returned, she was pregnant, claiming the father to be a greater demon and a prince of Hell. It is believed she died during childbirth, although the disappearance of her body immediately afterward has led to some speculation.
Koda truly was a creature like no other, and has been raised since birth to be a living weapon. As half demon, he is inhumanly fast and strong, and trained in combat from the moment he was old enough, til his every movement became defined by it. Any wounds quickly heal, an ability that has been used to unusual results. If a body part is severed, he can sense it's direction and he has used bits of himself to track his prey over great distances. Bones were removed from his legs to fashion the handles of knives that would always be an extension of himself, and he regrew them within days. As he got older, his demonic powers proved beyond control, so his right arm was bound in sacred wraps, not to suppress but to channel and control it. A patch was fashioned to seal his demonic eye, which would insatiably devour the magikal energies around him. After his childhood escape, his chest was cut open and a seal was placed on his heart, the corresponding carved bloodstone talisman the final means of control should he prove too willful and uncooperative. He was well educated, in the hopes that it would make him clever and resourceful, but the aim was always the same - to craft him into a monster that only the queen could control. But while he has faithfully served the queen of Summer so far, he has never lost sight of his goal of freedom, always plotting and looking for his opportunity.
The night that Alice arrived in Equinox to attend Balefire, eight years after her childhood encounter with him, Koda was sent to kill her aboard her airship, in an attempt to destroy an already weakened great house. Her death could be blamed on Barlow, and the House of Summer could manipulate events to expand royal control in Equinox. But when Koda recognized her from all those years ago, he refused his orders, and for the first time, failed to carry out an assignment. Seeing her again changed something in him, and his patient and meticulous planning began to fall to a new intensity, an undeniable need to be free of his captivity, to find out what he could be, beyond a tool of Summer's mad queen. He would need to work quickly. But if free, would that one small kindness from years ago be seed enough to grow his humanity, or would he just become the monster he was created to be?
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