(Not my own work. Belongs to Deviantart Artist "ryky" who does phenomenal work like this).
Name: Runin Das Möngömaa (Mongo/Rin)
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Species: Human – Gran Pulsian
World and Universe they are from: Final Fantasy XIII
Appearance:
Mongo stands at approximately five foot two with a build that is focused on upper body strength, particular in the lower back and abs. On the back of her left shoulder blade is a tattoo of a silver lobo, signifying her being of an appropriate age and training to own and ride one with the rest of her clan. On her right arm is a tattoo of Clematis, an airborne monster that she hunted when she came of age. Both tattoos are done in bold, black ink, and bear the styles of the Runin Highlands, an area of Pulse far to the West of Oerba. Meanwhile, on her right hand is her L'Cie Brand, freshly reset to a new Focus. Her hair is a dark brown and kept generally at shoulder length, where it typically fluffs outward on the sides. Wrapped into the hair that frames her face are two sets of beads, reminiscent of the ones worn by the people of her province when they went to war. Her eyes are blue, edging more towards the lighter end of the spectrum than the darker.
Physically, Mongo is through the physical rigors of puberty, but still bears some of the acne that comes with it on her face and back, though she has attempted to draw attention from this by painting markings under her eyes that are more akin to tear streaks or claw marks. Anything to keep one's eyes off of the pimples.
Starting out, Mongo wears a long one-piece jacket that is folded over on the left side of the chest. The sleeves of the coat only go to the elbow, and small pockets are woven along the right breast. While the outer material is a sturdy cotton, the interior material is more of a quilted fabric to maintain warmth in the colder areas of Pulse. Underneath the jacket is a simple cotton undershirt and trousers. A set of sturdy boots complete the look, while a leather belt adds both the ability to keep one's pants up and a space to hang pouches from.
Personality:
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Mongo falls into the category of people who are extremely driven to achieve their goals, no matter the cost. This comes part and parcel with being a L'Cie, but Mongo expressed these traits long before she was chosen by Ramuh.
Growing up in the rural Runin province of Pulse, honesty was a trait cultivated by her parents given their poor economic status and the general dog-eat-dog world that Mongo lived in. Dishonesty led to conflict within the community, and that conflict could lead to their family unit getting overtaken by the monsters who called the mountains their home.
Due to both her upbringing and the events that pushed her to become a L'Cie, Mongo has an eye for self-improvement in most capacities, especially as they might relate to her Focus. Personality defects are prone to being brushed off due to her age, but the all-consuming fear of becoming a Cie'th prompts her to take to heart any criticism that might help her achieve her Focus.
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Mongo's driven nature can lead to her becoming hyper-focused on one thing at a time, typically leading to positive results in whatever the issue is. However, this entails a problem with multi-tasking, and an inability to properly segment her attention between different goals.
Growing up with three brothers of varying ages, Mongo adopted their patented sarcastic banter, often earning a laugh or a quick jibe from a friend, but also often landing her in trouble with her parents or other adults in her family.
As stated before, Mongo is intensely goal-oriented, but a solid portion of this behavior comes from trying not to think about the loss of her family. Classical avoidance behavior dictates that she moves from one goal to the next, keeping her mind off what truly troubles her. This leads to a lot of different jobs getting done, but also a lack of personal momentum for her own baggage.
At the end of the day, Mongo suffers from something of a pride issue when it comes to her choices. It's an honor in her culture to be chosen as a L'Cie by their protector, Ramuh, and Mongo is not one to suffer an insult to her decision. The expectations of her people weigh on her shoulders, prompting aggressive, prideful behavior when questioned or demeaned.
Competition was a common element of Mongo's childhood, whether it was with her brothers, her friends, or even her fellow budding hunters. Competition is something that Mongo understands and pushes others to partake in, sometimes to her own detriment. No conflict can't be resolved through some measure of competition in Mongo's mind.
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Returning to Mongo's drive, there are elements of her behavior that can be considered self-destructive. The resolution of her Focus or intended goal can, at times, willfully come at a physical cost to herself. When her family died in the initial volley of the War of Transgression, Mongo threw herself to the Fal'Cie for the opportunity for vengeance, no matter the cost it would have on her future. When she was put through the training regimen onboard the Arks, she would often push herself beyond her limit, forcing another L'Cie to intervene on her behalf.
When pushed away from her sarcasm, Mongo has the tendency to become blunt and insensitive to situations going on around her. This can land her in hot water with more empathetic characters, as her bluntness and lack of a filter can antagonize an emotionally precarious situation.
Since the death of her family and the events that followed, Mongo has been quicker to anger than she's ever been before. Some of this could be credited to becoming older, but more of it is tied to her perception about the world and her place within it. In classic teenage fashion, Mongo is angry at the world, except unlike most teenagers, she has good reason to be.
In relation to her focus on goals, Mongo has a terrible habit of dehumanizing people who stand in the way of her job. Get in her way too often, antagonize her too much, and Mongo will file you under the category of obstacle, or even worse, active threat.
While Mongo struggles at time with self-improvement, yet is susceptible to it, she is often judgmental towards those who are not equally as set on improving themselves. When Mongo does something wrong, she gets mad at herself for getting it wrong. People who do not share a similar mindset are often ridiculed by Mongo for this perceived weakness.
History:
Mongo was born in the Runin Highlands, an area of Gran Pulse several hundred kilometers to the west of the Archylte Steppe and its surrounding areas. Consisting of mountainous areas, dramatic seascapes, fertile farmland and even a notable bog or two, the Highlands were a place of wandering family units supported by a network of small independent towns. While the towns consisted of people who sought out a more sedentary lifestyle, the people of the highlands were known for being nomadic. Historically, some settled over Gran Pulse's history, but an amiable relationship existed between both groups. The nomadic groups maintained their way of life and traded animal skins and valuable natural resources to the sedentary communities for goods and services they either did not have access to or could not easily replicate.
Of these two groups, Mongo was born to a nomadic family unit that hunted for a living, trading meat and pelts for crops and medicine when the need arose. At times, they would be requested to hunt a particular pack of monsters that were troubling a town's crops or walls, often trading their services for shelter when the winter came.
Mongo's life was relatively traditional for a person of her lifestyle. It takes a village to raise a child, and in this case, Mongo's entire family had some hand in her upbringing. From her mother and father, she learned the shared history of the Runin people and what it meant to live as a member of her tribe. From her uncles and aunts, she learned how to hunt monsters and skin them for pelts. From her brothers and cousins, Mongo learned how to exist as a child within her clan, and where her place was in the social hierarchy of her people. From her grandparents, old as they were, she learned how to read, write, and do basic arithmetic.
At seven, Mongo began to go on hunts with her cousins, as was clan tradition. At age ten, Mongo undertook her rite of adulthood and successfully hunted a Clematis in the Tikany Bog. By thirteen, Mongo and her brothers were common faces in the local towns when it came to selling pelts or taking jobs to hunt specific animals. Mongo's life was a simple one, and not one she could have seen changing.
However, Man plans and Fate laughs, as her situation changed at the age of fifteen when, while on the hunt for a behemoth, Mongo bore witness to the opening volleys of a conflict that would later be known as the War of Transgression. Instigated by Cocoon, Mongo watched from the side of a mountain as ships of unfamiliar origin landed in the village that her Clan was trading in. From a distance, the violence that occurred was hard to miss, and by the time that Mongo made it back, all that remained was a smoldering ruin. Of the dead that remained recognizable, one of them bore the markings of Lindzei and Cocoon, imagery that her parents had always told her to fear and associate with the moon that humans were historically tricked to.
It would take several weeks for news to spread and disseminate properly, but the people of Pulse would soon come to learn that they were officially at war with Cocoon and its Fal'Cie. Mongo, like many other people, would turn to the Fal'Cie of Pulse for help as Cocoon forces continued to attack different provinces across the planet. For some, this choice came with the knowledge that their sacrifice was necessary for the future, but for Mongo her choice came with the drive to avenge her family. The future didn't mean a thing to her when her family were dust and ashes and her people's way of life had been annihilated.
Mongo would ultimately seek out the Fal'Cie that controlled the weather in the Runin Province – Ramuh, also known as the Old Man of the Mountain. A gargantuan Fal'Cie in the shape of an old man with a pipe, it was he that controlled the weather for several hundred kilometers. It was he that called down the rain for crops, and he who annihilated human settlements who poisoned the air with industrial waste. At sixteen, Mongo was branded as a L'Cie, and was given a vision of Ragnarök, a gargantuan monster that would tear down Cocoon.
From there, she traveled to Kutha, capital of Gran Pulses' humans, and joined up with the quickly assembling military. Whereas before, humans of Pulse had felt safe behind their defensive armaments, the attacks by Cocoon's forces proved that playing defensive was not enough. The people of Gran Pulse needed to strike back, and fast. For months, Mongo trained in one of the Arks with other L'Cie to build up her power and to prime her for a war on Cocoon's surface while Pulse's unbranded military did what they could to buy her and the other L'Cie time. Finally, three months after arriving at Kutha, Mongo was sorted into the general L'Cie forces that would be waiting for a smaller group of L'Cie to make a hole in Cocoon's shell, allowing the rest of them and Pulses' military to counterattack the invading force and create a bridgehead on within enemy territory.
On the eve of Disaster, Mongo bore witness to Ragnarök's summoning and the destruction it wrought, sundering Cocoon's outer shell, and giving Gran Pulse the opportunity to finally counterattack. With Cocoon finally being opened, Mongo, as well as hundreds of thousands of other Gran Pulsians took advantage of the opening given to them and attacked. Hundreds of transports, thousands of fighters, and tens of thousands of humans rushed forward to defeat their enemies, only to seemingly fall into a trap planted by the Fal'Cie of Cocoon. The landing of Pulsian forces on the moon of Cocoon was brought to a halt by dozens of Fal'Cie and their associated L'Cie; to say nothing of the pre-existing defenses manned by the slaves of Lindzei.
In the chaos that ensued, Mongo's transport, like many others, was shot down in the skies within Cocoon and sent crashing into the wilderness. In the aftermath of the crash, Mongo and the surviving crew were beset upon by L'Cie from Cocoon. Ultimately, all but the Pulse L'Cie were killed, and Mongo and the rest of her L'Cie partners were separated and imprisoned deep within Cocoon's superstructure.
There, endless tortures abounded as the Fal'Cie of Cocoon attempted to force the Pulse L'Cie to turn into Ragnarök for an inexplicable reason. Every avenue of torture was utilized, and many L'Cie died in the process. This was to be the end of Mongo, until one evening her brand seemingly reset. A new vision came to her, and by the morning, her cell was strangely empty…
Powers:
As a L'Cie, Mongo has access to the latent magical powers that all humans have in her world. By being branded by a Fal'Cie, Mongo can not only easily access these powers, but also utilize a more focused iteration of them. Magic for a L'Cie falls traditionally into six major paradigms, with a L'Cie traditionally having access to three, and some having access to more. A L'Cie can only use one paradigm at a time and must actively swap between them to gain access to the different branches of abilities.
These branches of magic go as follows
• Commando – Associated with magic that does physical damage and boosts one's own naturally produced physical damage (such as through a weapon or a physical blow)
• Ravager – Associated with elemental magic such as Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Ice and their associated elemental consequences.
• Sentinel – Associated with defensive magic that boosts protections or forces an enemy's attention onto oneself.
• Synergist – Associated with magic that directly buffs companions, making them faster, tougher, stronger, more resilient to various effects or adding elemental effects to weapons
• Saboteur – Associated with magic that debuffs opponents, making them weaker, slower, less resilient, or outright interfering with the ability to utilize magic
• Medic – Associated with healing magic, curing of illness or status ailments, and bringing recently deceased people back from the dead.
Presently, Mongo only has access to the Ravager, Saboteur, and Medic roles, and due to her brand being reset, she only has access to the beginning abilities.
• Ravager Spells
o Blizzard – Ice elemental damage to a single enemy
o Fire – Fire elemental damage to a single enemy
o Aero – Wind elemental damage to a single enemy
o Thunderstrike – Thunder elemental damage dealt through Mongo's bow to a single target
o Aquastrike – Water elemental damage dealt through Mongo's bow to a single target
• Saboteur Spells
o Deshell – Reduce magical resistance and deal non-elemental magical damage
o Deprotect – Reduce physical resistances and deal non-elemental magical damage
• Medic Spells
o Cure – Heals one target, reducing pain and restoring vitality upon contact
Power Limitations:
• Only one paradigm can be used at a time, and a two to three second cooldown is required before swapping again.
• While in one paradigm, Mongo cannot use another's abilities without first swapping
• To properly utilize her magic, Mongo needs one to five seconds to properly charge up one to five spells, one second per spell. If she waits the full five seconds, then she can release all five in quick succession. If she releases her magic at three seconds, then she can only chain three spells together.
• Mongo's magic comes directly from the L'Cie brand and the crystal eidolith implanted in the back of her right hand. If one could inhibit the brand, one could inhibit her ability to use magic. However, directly removing the limb would only prompt the brand to shift somewhere else, as the brand is tied more so to her soul than to her physical body.
• Anything that would interfere with crystal-based magic would directly interfere with Mongo's abilities, due to the crystal eidolith that Mongo was implanted with.
Skills
• Hunting and Tracking – A
• Fishing – B
• Trapping – B
• Archery – S
• Skinning – A
• Survival – B
• First Aid – B
• Knife-Fighting – C
Weapons:
• Airgetlám – a recurved composite bow composed of wood taken from the Runin Highlands, with horn and sinew taken from a slayed behemoth. On the bowstring is a small silver ring, worn through centuries of use. Mystically followed her through for an unknown reason.
Strengths: Hunting, survivalist activities, ranged combat
Weaknesses/Fears: Never properly avenging her clan, losing Airgetlám, burning to death.