葛葉ライドウ (Kuzunoha Raidou XIV) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
capital_asset) wrote2023-12-14 06:56 pm
capital_asset) wrote2023-12-14 06:56 pm
[undying] App
Player Information
Player: Zoe
Pronouns: "Not she/her" is the best I've got for now
Over 18: Y
Invited By: Mod invitation
Current Characters: N/A
Pronouns: "Not she/her" is the best I've got for now
Over 18: Y
Invited By: Mod invitation
Current Characters: N/A
Character Information
Character Name: Raidou Kuzunoha XIV (Note: This is technically a title; going by the light novel his original name was Jouhei.)
Character Pronouns: He/him
Canon: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha
Canon Age: "Late teens."
Canon Point: Post-King Abaddon, with New Game+ elements
Canon Link: Here. The official fanbook also notes that he spent his childhood in isolation in Kuzunoha Village, enduring harsh training in order to earn the right to carry the Raidou Kuzunoha title and spend the rest of his life defending the Capital against supernatural threats. As of his canon point, he has only been in the Capital for a few months at most and has already had to fend off two separate apocalypses.
Character Pronouns: He/him
Canon: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha
Canon Age: "Late teens."
Canon Point: Post-King Abaddon, with New Game+ elements
Canon Link: Here. The official fanbook also notes that he spent his childhood in isolation in Kuzunoha Village, enduring harsh training in order to earn the right to carry the Raidou Kuzunoha title and spend the rest of his life defending the Capital against supernatural threats. As of his canon point, he has only been in the Capital for a few months at most and has already had to fend off two separate apocalypses.
AU Information
AU Name: Raidou Kuzunoha
AU Age: 17
Physical Differences: No hat. (There is no official art of him with his head uncovered.) Otherwise, he largely looks the same, outside of longer hair and less pointy sideburns. In canon, he's considered very pretty, and that's probably not changing here.
AU History: Raidou's human family is old and of middling influence... now. The problem? They used to have more power, and their social status has been consistently waning over the last decades - and certain members of the clan missed that influence. So, in a tradition the Gold Court is no doubt very used to by now, they started collaborating with the Court of their own wills in various ways, no enthrallment needed. This included giving them human servants, including members of the clan itself; the Kuzunohas hoped that this would make their social and financial position less precarious than it had become. And to some extent, it worked - mostly on the financial side. Certainly it didn't endear them to the neighboring families, the lower-status members of their own family, or the servants, and the vampires were mostly just amused. By the time Raidou was born, this had been going on for decades if not centuries.
Raidou's conception and birth caused a minor scandal; his father, a kind man who was relatively beloved or at least appreciated by the servants, had been a fairly high-ranking member of the family, while his mother had not only been of lower social status but the maid of Raidou's father's wife. They had, in fact, been courting, before Raidou's father was married off to a more "suitable" candidate; it was widely agreed that his mother's assignment in the household was a punishment for someone, but no one was quite sure who. Raidou spent the first few years of his life being raised in the servants' quarters by his mother, with occasional visits from his father; by all accounts, they both doted on the child. But his mother's health had never been the best, and a sudden illness killed her when he was three. Raidou's father then moved him in with him and his wife, which went over about as well as expected with almost everyone. Still, it did afford Raidou some protection from the rest of the family, and after a rocky start, his stepmother eventually came to love the child as well.
Sadly, because nothing in Raidou's life was destined to go smoothly, his father was killed in a hunting accident when the boy was seven. His stepmother, to her credit, tried to protect him, but more powerful members of the family saw a way to simultaneously curry more favor with the Gold Court and (in theory) do away with a troublesome reminder of his father's scandal, and so at the earliest opportunity Raidou was shipped off to the Gold Court, where he spent the next several years learning how to navigate that environment. Fortunately for him, he proved to be a quick learner, and reasonably adept at dealing with the sometimes volatile personalities in the Court, which saved him from permanent thralldom; the problem was that he hated just about everything about the Gold Court (as much as he was allowed to), though he learned to hide it as best he could.
Eventually, it was decided that he would be sent to Castle Courtsheart to become a vampire himself. By the time he arrived, Raidou had more or less resigned himself to being stuck with the Gold Court forever, only to find himself... not. He's still not sure how to take that; he thinks he might be relieved.
AU Personality: In canon, Raidou is a silent protagonist, although the various choices and conversation prompts you're given throughout the game imply that he's very reserved and on the introverted side. His body language also tends to be very closed off - outside of battle, where he does occasionally indulge in some flashy gestures and flourishes - and he's never shown actually sitting down in the games; the only time he's seen resting is when he's passed out and been dragged to the detective agency couch. The official fanbook also notes that he stopped talking altogether after a certain point, as he didn't believe anyone really wanted to hear his opinions, which as explanations for a silent protagonist being that way go is just depressing. He's very dedicated to his job because that's more or less all he has to start with.
This version of Raidou also tends towards introversion, but not quite to the extremes of his canon counterpart; for one thing, he actually had people to talk to growing up (through granted, several of those people were vampires or enthralled humans). Like his canon counterpart, he's observant and shrewd, although this Raidou is far more cynical; growing up the way he did has left him more or less expecting betrayal or abandonment from anyone and everyone, and he has a tendency to assume ulterior motives even when there are none. Like canon Raidou, he tends to default to politeness, but where canon Raidou's politeness is masking awkwardness (canon Raidou is far more used to talking to demons than regular humans, especially those his own age), this Raidou is hiding for his own continued survival. He's capable of making friends, but actually trusting people is generally a slow process if it even fully happens at all.
AU Age: 17
Physical Differences: No hat. (There is no official art of him with his head uncovered.) Otherwise, he largely looks the same, outside of longer hair and less pointy sideburns. In canon, he's considered very pretty, and that's probably not changing here.
AU History: Raidou's human family is old and of middling influence... now. The problem? They used to have more power, and their social status has been consistently waning over the last decades - and certain members of the clan missed that influence. So, in a tradition the Gold Court is no doubt very used to by now, they started collaborating with the Court of their own wills in various ways, no enthrallment needed. This included giving them human servants, including members of the clan itself; the Kuzunohas hoped that this would make their social and financial position less precarious than it had become. And to some extent, it worked - mostly on the financial side. Certainly it didn't endear them to the neighboring families, the lower-status members of their own family, or the servants, and the vampires were mostly just amused. By the time Raidou was born, this had been going on for decades if not centuries.
Raidou's conception and birth caused a minor scandal; his father, a kind man who was relatively beloved or at least appreciated by the servants, had been a fairly high-ranking member of the family, while his mother had not only been of lower social status but the maid of Raidou's father's wife. They had, in fact, been courting, before Raidou's father was married off to a more "suitable" candidate; it was widely agreed that his mother's assignment in the household was a punishment for someone, but no one was quite sure who. Raidou spent the first few years of his life being raised in the servants' quarters by his mother, with occasional visits from his father; by all accounts, they both doted on the child. But his mother's health had never been the best, and a sudden illness killed her when he was three. Raidou's father then moved him in with him and his wife, which went over about as well as expected with almost everyone. Still, it did afford Raidou some protection from the rest of the family, and after a rocky start, his stepmother eventually came to love the child as well.
Sadly, because nothing in Raidou's life was destined to go smoothly, his father was killed in a hunting accident when the boy was seven. His stepmother, to her credit, tried to protect him, but more powerful members of the family saw a way to simultaneously curry more favor with the Gold Court and (in theory) do away with a troublesome reminder of his father's scandal, and so at the earliest opportunity Raidou was shipped off to the Gold Court, where he spent the next several years learning how to navigate that environment. Fortunately for him, he proved to be a quick learner, and reasonably adept at dealing with the sometimes volatile personalities in the Court, which saved him from permanent thralldom; the problem was that he hated just about everything about the Gold Court (as much as he was allowed to), though he learned to hide it as best he could.
Eventually, it was decided that he would be sent to Castle Courtsheart to become a vampire himself. By the time he arrived, Raidou had more or less resigned himself to being stuck with the Gold Court forever, only to find himself... not. He's still not sure how to take that; he thinks he might be relieved.
AU Personality: In canon, Raidou is a silent protagonist, although the various choices and conversation prompts you're given throughout the game imply that he's very reserved and on the introverted side. His body language also tends to be very closed off - outside of battle, where he does occasionally indulge in some flashy gestures and flourishes - and he's never shown actually sitting down in the games; the only time he's seen resting is when he's passed out and been dragged to the detective agency couch. The official fanbook also notes that he stopped talking altogether after a certain point, as he didn't believe anyone really wanted to hear his opinions, which as explanations for a silent protagonist being that way go is just depressing. He's very dedicated to his job because that's more or less all he has to start with.
This version of Raidou also tends towards introversion, but not quite to the extremes of his canon counterpart; for one thing, he actually had people to talk to growing up (through granted, several of those people were vampires or enthralled humans). Like his canon counterpart, he's observant and shrewd, although this Raidou is far more cynical; growing up the way he did has left him more or less expecting betrayal or abandonment from anyone and everyone, and he has a tendency to assume ulterior motives even when there are none. Like canon Raidou, he tends to default to politeness, but where canon Raidou's politeness is masking awkwardness (canon Raidou is far more used to talking to demons than regular humans, especially those his own age), this Raidou is hiding for his own continued survival. He's capable of making friends, but actually trusting people is generally a slow process if it even fully happens at all.
Novice Information
Starting Season: First season
Maker: I'm not opposed to him having a player character as a maker, but for now I'm assuming foundlinghood.
Anticipated Court: Blue, at least to start with. At first glance, it's an awkward match; Raidou isn't a partier, and he's not particularly vicious or cruel. That said, their emphasis on identity, learning more about the facets of one's own while also learning to disguise it, would resonate with him, especially as he's spent a lot of time hiding facets of his own personality (as much as one can when surrounded by mind-readers) to the point where he doesn't know quite who he is sometimes - which will hit him in a different way once his memories start to come back, given that canon Raidou has to give up his identity to take on his role as Raidou. The emphasis on knowledge that isn't taught in vampire history would also resonate with Raidou once his memories start to return, given that the Kuzunoha clan and the organization they serve have many, many secrets; there's also the fact that Blue Court vampires target the worst of humanity, which is also something Raidou has had to do in canon, albeit somewhat less bloodily (mostly).
(Memoryless vampire Raidou, on the other hand, would likely see going after the worst examples of humanity as catharsis, and while learning about the hidden history of vampire society would probably weigh on him, it probably won't hit him in quite the same way.)
There is a chance that he might skew towards Black, because what has currently been revealed about them would resonate with the rest of canon Raidou's job (hunting down and dealing with troublesome supernatural entities) while giving vampire AU another outlet for his resentment, but that remains to be seen.
Maker: I'm not opposed to him having a player character as a maker, but for now I'm assuming foundlinghood.
Anticipated Court: Blue, at least to start with. At first glance, it's an awkward match; Raidou isn't a partier, and he's not particularly vicious or cruel. That said, their emphasis on identity, learning more about the facets of one's own while also learning to disguise it, would resonate with him, especially as he's spent a lot of time hiding facets of his own personality (as much as one can when surrounded by mind-readers) to the point where he doesn't know quite who he is sometimes - which will hit him in a different way once his memories start to come back, given that canon Raidou has to give up his identity to take on his role as Raidou. The emphasis on knowledge that isn't taught in vampire history would also resonate with Raidou once his memories start to return, given that the Kuzunoha clan and the organization they serve have many, many secrets; there's also the fact that Blue Court vampires target the worst of humanity, which is also something Raidou has had to do in canon, albeit somewhat less bloodily (mostly).
(Memoryless vampire Raidou, on the other hand, would likely see going after the worst examples of humanity as catharsis, and while learning about the hidden history of vampire society would probably weigh on him, it probably won't hit him in quite the same way.)
There is a chance that he might skew towards Black, because what has currently been revealed about them would resonate with the rest of canon Raidou's job (hunting down and dealing with troublesome supernatural entities) while giving vampire AU another outlet for his resentment, but that remains to be seen.
Samples
Samples: TDM