Name: Kasenn "Lupe" Wreid (Kah-sin ree-ihd; he usually uses the name in the middle there)
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Job/Role: The blacksmith's shopkeep.
Personality: Naturally, Lupe has a healthy distrust for anyone, though he tends to hide it in a kind of friendly mask. Still, though, once someone has truly earned his trust, he would dive in a lake for them (and he's not a very good swimmer). He acts just about as cheerful as can be, except when he feels threatened or particularly insulted. He can, at such times, become quite explosive.
He also has a tendency to give into instinct or act somewhat like the animal he seems to be related to, barking, growling, or howling occasionally. In general he sees it as a sign that he is healthy, and resists instinctive demand only when it's something really stupid and he knows it.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Lupe is fast and dexterous, and very well coordinated, but not particularly strong. He is physically fit and muscular, without a hint of unnecessary fat, but he is not capable of inhuman (or even much more than average human) strength. He can't swim, at least not very well; he would have to resort to thrashing if the water was very deep. His instinct can occasionally get him into trouble, such as following a particularly odd scent or staring at something shiny. He dislikes fire if it is in large quantities and/or used for killing, though he seems to have no aversion to campfires or hearth fires in inns.
Abilities/Powers: Lupe has very good senses of smell and hearing, and far better balance than a human could normally achieve. His twin swords seem to both be enchanted; they pull back into his hand if he drops or is robbed of one or both and he says a command within earshot.
He is actually capable of air-movement magic, but doesn't even know it, much less having trained it. He will use it by accident when in a rage, yelling at someone, trying to run, or trying to fight. In the latter two cases, he unconsciously causes the air flow around himself and/or his twin swords to move in unnatural directions so that he can move faster with less tiring than without such augmentation.
Lupe is also a decent singer, though it can't exactly be considered a useful ability in battle. He usually sings to entertain himself and keep his language sharp while on the road.
Bio: Kassen Wreid was born to two perfectly human parents in a small village, and when he was born he came out looking as he does (claws, sharp teeth, furred parts). He was never treated as a normal child, and had few friends as adults were afraid to let their kids near him.
For a long time nobody really knew what to think. Kassen's parents treated him as normally as they could, despite his occasions of acting on instinct. When Kassen was around eleven, they concluded that his family was cursed by the gods, and should be punished (killed, or exiled). It was then that the truth finally came out: His father had offended a great magician, and had been cursed. At the time he'd had no idea what the curse was, because the mage's description of it was brief and cryptic. Of course, he had figured it out as soon as the boy was born, just didn't bother to tell anybody.
Unfortunately, things still went badly for Kassen's family, because nobody would believe his father. He was, since moving into the village, very afraid of magic, making his story seem to have been made up regardless of its truth. The mob killed his parents, but he managed to himself escape.
It was after this that he took the moniker Lupe, giving his real name only to people he really cared about. He stayed in the first town he came to for about three years, and was again nearly killed. The second town took only two to do the same, and he decided that he would not remain anywhere in civilization for longer than six months from then on, since obviously nobody humanoid really liked him enough to let him stay.
Lupe heard rumors about the rare race of Neko-jin, more like myths and stories, but the number of such stories spread out over all of the towns he visited led him to believe that, quite possibly, there was some truth to them. He managed, through searching, to find rumors of a group heading for a place to call their own home, and resolved to try and find these people. Perhaps, even if they were cats, they would understand his predicament with humans and allow him something of a permanent home. These were his hopes, of course. Nobody ever mentioned a cursed lake or evil doubles.
After a year or so of searching, he finally came upon the kingdom he sought. Before entering he was warned by the humans living nearby of the curse about the place, but it was a risk he was willing to take. The people were as accepting of him as he could have hoped, and he was able to attain citizenship before long. Though he could fight quite well, he was unwilling to take up a job as a soldier, afraid that even in such a well-run kingdom his blades would be turned toward an end he did not support. After a month or two of doing odd jobs to support himself, Lupe was able to hold down a more permanent job as a blacksmith's assistant and errand-runner.
On Other Forms: Lupe cannot shapeshift, unfortunately. He's tried, both toward a human and a creature, since either would be more acceptable to society than what he looks like now, but without a bit of success.
Appearance: He looks like the
man on the left in this picture, if you ignore the blood, glowing eyes, and irrelevant-to-my-purposes girl. His eyes are actually a somewhat dark amber yellow, and also notably his teeth are sharp and his tongue longer than a normal human's. He wears the pants and also a long cloak that covers his upper body most of the time, as well as having two sheathed short sword, one on each side of his belt, for self-defense. His fur is a shade of blue that's easy to mistake for a light gray.
It took me awhile to come up with a believable profession for the guy...this one implies an NPC but said NPC need not be too important to the plot or anything.
