Raaji
Appearance
Raaji is not tall for an grown up. He is rather small and slender, but still trained and agile. He looks rather young and many think he is younger than he looks. This could be related to the fact that some Abtati blood is flowing in him and he actually is still growing a little.
Raaji mostly wears quite ordinary clothes that appear neither poor nor rich. He often pretends to be a crystal merchant in order to get into various towns inconspicuously and to always have a reason to travel, should someone ask.
He has braided some of his hair and often wears it tied up. Three coins are braided in it and are his lucky charms.
Raaji mostly wears quite ordinary clothes that appear neither poor nor rich. He often pretends to be a crystal merchant in order to get into various towns inconspicuously and to always have a reason to travel, should someone ask.
He has braided some of his hair and often wears it tied up. Three coins are braided in it and are his lucky charms.
Skills and Abilities
He has Abtati blood flowing in him, but it is very diluted and Raaji is not even aware of it. Neither his parents nor his grandparents were sand elves but humans and he has never heard that one of his ancestors was an Abtati. However, his mixed blood could be the reason for his magical abilities.
Crystallized: On the one hand, he is able to control whatever has a crystallized structure. Since sand is basically quartz, he can control it and since metal also does have an cristallic atomic structure, he can also influence it. However, crystals and metals with an amorphous structure are difficult or impossible for him to grasp like rocks or metal alloys.
He can also temporarily create crystals or metals out of mana on his own, but only those with a high crystalline structure and purity like diamonds and silver - the simpler its structure, the easier it is to create. Since diamonds have only a rather simple cubic atomic structure, but are extremely solid, Raaji can best create this type of crystal. And he does this for diamond shields and diamond daggers. Therefor he is sometimes known as the diamond assassin.
While he can easily give the impression of being richer than he actually is, no one needs to know out that these diamond daggers are not actually real. However, he himself would be able to sense fake crystals on the market, after he can feel the structure and wouldn't be able to control artificial gemstones, but he never thought about working as an crystal professional even though he sometimes pretend to be an crystal merchant.
Illusory: On the other hand he is gifted with an illusory magic. However, this does not affect the sense of sight but the nervous system. He can stimulate physical feelings. For example, the person could feel pain without having any wounds, freezing in the heat of the desert or vice versa. It is only imagined but the body can react to these signals in a very real way. For example, start sweating in complete cold, because it thinks it is overheating. Raaji would also be able to reduce real pain and make it more bearable this way.
He cannot stimulate emotions and he cannot apply this ability on his own nervous system. He needs direct contact with the person he is influencing this way, and the effect stops immediately the moment the direct contact ends.
Weaponery: He was tought to use polearm but doesn't like it and isn't really good in it - but he knows how to use it. He also learned how to use small weapons, daggers and throwing blades. He prefered this kind of fighting and is improving it. After he can make his own weapons from diamond or silver, he rarely carries a weapon with him. But he does have real weapons that he sometimes has to use - for example when he is not allowed to use magic in order not to attract unwanted attention.
Athletic: Raaji is persistent, agile and nimble. He is good at both sneaking and running parkour.
Survival: He knows some survival tricks to survive in the deserts and savannahs.
Poisonology: He does have a basic understandig of poisons in Amol-Kalit. There are a few plants and animals from which he can harvest the poisons. He uses it mostly to kill people or to numbing pain. But there are one or two poisons he uses just to have fun and to get high.
Crystallized: On the one hand, he is able to control whatever has a crystallized structure. Since sand is basically quartz, he can control it and since metal also does have an cristallic atomic structure, he can also influence it. However, crystals and metals with an amorphous structure are difficult or impossible for him to grasp like rocks or metal alloys.
He can also temporarily create crystals or metals out of mana on his own, but only those with a high crystalline structure and purity like diamonds and silver - the simpler its structure, the easier it is to create. Since diamonds have only a rather simple cubic atomic structure, but are extremely solid, Raaji can best create this type of crystal. And he does this for diamond shields and diamond daggers. Therefor he is sometimes known as the diamond assassin.
While he can easily give the impression of being richer than he actually is, no one needs to know out that these diamond daggers are not actually real. However, he himself would be able to sense fake crystals on the market, after he can feel the structure and wouldn't be able to control artificial gemstones, but he never thought about working as an crystal professional even though he sometimes pretend to be an crystal merchant.
Illusory: On the other hand he is gifted with an illusory magic. However, this does not affect the sense of sight but the nervous system. He can stimulate physical feelings. For example, the person could feel pain without having any wounds, freezing in the heat of the desert or vice versa. It is only imagined but the body can react to these signals in a very real way. For example, start sweating in complete cold, because it thinks it is overheating. Raaji would also be able to reduce real pain and make it more bearable this way.
He cannot stimulate emotions and he cannot apply this ability on his own nervous system. He needs direct contact with the person he is influencing this way, and the effect stops immediately the moment the direct contact ends.
Weaponery: He was tought to use polearm but doesn't like it and isn't really good in it - but he knows how to use it. He also learned how to use small weapons, daggers and throwing blades. He prefered this kind of fighting and is improving it. After he can make his own weapons from diamond or silver, he rarely carries a weapon with him. But he does have real weapons that he sometimes has to use - for example when he is not allowed to use magic in order not to attract unwanted attention.
Athletic: Raaji is persistent, agile and nimble. He is good at both sneaking and running parkour.
Survival: He knows some survival tricks to survive in the deserts and savannahs.
Poisonology: He does have a basic understandig of poisons in Amol-Kalit. There are a few plants and animals from which he can harvest the poisons. He uses it mostly to kill people or to numbing pain. But there are one or two poisons he uses just to have fun and to get high.
Personality
Even though he is like that by nature and not just doing so to manipulate someone, it is definitely something that helps him with his profession. He does have some acting talent as well, but he uses it only for work. In his "freetime" he doesn't want to act und to pretend, for it is something he does enough at work.
Although he is friendly, he is not so towards everyone, nor is he submissive. And although he is open-minded and doesn't appear to have to hide anything at all, he indeed has secrets he can't talk about with everyone. And of course, even he has days when he is not in a good mood.
His profession as informant and assassin has limits: Raaji would never kill children nor friends, actually not even poeple he knows and likes. Since he only works for himself, he has the freedom to reject such requests. And since he does not work only as an assassin but also as an informant, he also demands to know for what and why he should kill someone. His clients can refuse to tell, but the price will expand then.
His past was not always gentle with him, there were enough incidents that could have made him an asshole. But he didn't became it for he has also repeatedly encountered people who were indulgent and kind-hearted. Through the experience of both sides, a very mature world view even grew. He does not judge other peoples or groups, even if he had negative experience, because he knows that there is good and wrong on each side.
Biography & Lore
Raaji was born somewhere on a trip in Amol-Kalit. His parents belonged to a nomadic tribe, so he travelled since ever a lot. However, he was still relatively young when their caravans were raided by an Abtati tribe. They thought their people were travelling traders and many actually were. Some of the people died protecting their families and belongings, among others Raaji's mother.
It was only weeks later that they were attacked again by human bandits, who took advantage of their weakened condition. After they could not rob much in the way of valuables, they took some of the people as slaves. The old and weak were left to fend for themselves or were killed. Raaji was young then and not worth much to the bandits, so he was sold in the slave market. At this point, he also lost contact to his father, but were at the slave market with some others of his tribe. At least until he was bought.
In the beginning, he was passed on a lot from trader to trader till he eventually was bought from a man that belonged to an assassin organisation. Ironically, it was an abtati. Raaji could not stand them at that time, after he belonged to the tribe who had attacked his family. But he quickly learned that this one was different.
When Raaji was bought, his training as an assassin started. He was not treated badly at all, in fact he was treated very humanely and they also restored him psychologically so that he was mentally stable. They made the best of his current situation. And he was quite grateful to the organisation for teaching him to fight back - even if that was not the actual goal, Raaji was glad not to be defenceless any more. And the illusion of eliminating "bad people" felt good. It was somehow a kind of retribution.
As his training ended, he worked for the organisation. They had trained him for working for the organisation but Raaji did it by will, after all, they had become something like family to him. But there came a day when the headquarters of the organisation was destroyed and core members were killed. Possibly because their actions had angered powerful people, who were seeking revenge. Raaji thus lost his second family. He fled as soon as he heard about the incident so as not to fall into the hands of possible pursuers. He avoided going near it again and so he did not find any contact with others who might have survived it.
Since then, he has been travelling alone and on his own.
It was only weeks later that they were attacked again by human bandits, who took advantage of their weakened condition. After they could not rob much in the way of valuables, they took some of the people as slaves. The old and weak were left to fend for themselves or were killed. Raaji was young then and not worth much to the bandits, so he was sold in the slave market. At this point, he also lost contact to his father, but were at the slave market with some others of his tribe. At least until he was bought.
In the beginning, he was passed on a lot from trader to trader till he eventually was bought from a man that belonged to an assassin organisation. Ironically, it was an abtati. Raaji could not stand them at that time, after he belonged to the tribe who had attacked his family. But he quickly learned that this one was different.
When Raaji was bought, his training as an assassin started. He was not treated badly at all, in fact he was treated very humanely and they also restored him psychologically so that he was mentally stable. They made the best of his current situation. And he was quite grateful to the organisation for teaching him to fight back - even if that was not the actual goal, Raaji was glad not to be defenceless any more. And the illusion of eliminating "bad people" felt good. It was somehow a kind of retribution.
As his training ended, he worked for the organisation. They had trained him for working for the organisation but Raaji did it by will, after all, they had become something like family to him. But there came a day when the headquarters of the organisation was destroyed and core members were killed. Possibly because their actions had angered powerful people, who were seeking revenge. Raaji thus lost his second family. He fled as soon as he heard about the incident so as not to fall into the hands of possible pursuers. He avoided going near it again and so he did not find any contact with others who might have survived it.
Since then, he has been travelling alone and on his own.