Hey all! Today I’m compiling four characters commonly associated with one another, into one post. These are Katiel’s four ‘friends’ who act as Guardians: Artos Ninjeste, Eckhardt Bright, Kaia Oceyen, and Mayfield Summers.
All four share the common factor that they’re spirits straight from Laia, and all four owe their lives to Katiel in some form, hence the repayment of their debts a thousand years later. While Katiel insists they’re not his Guardians, they’ll easily lay their lives down for him. They don’t all travel with him at once, but usually rotate with somebody travelling closely with him. Each one has lives in other worlds that they sometimes go back to as well.
Artos operates under shadow of night usually and is rarely seen during the day. He often is out doing reconnaissance missions through the day and reports to Katiel at night, but it’s unknown what he is usually surveying. He has long, dark hair usually wrapped around his head in an eastern style, and dresses in dark clothes. Katiel calls him a ninja, but it’s unclear whether or not he actually is. He’s a formidable fighter and probably the fastest of Katiel’s friends. Artos was trained as a warrior in Southern Laia with the Gustav Clan and later became a vassal to the Glaciem Resistance. He worked closely with Katiel in Selenzora and they became fast friends.
Eckhardt takes up the role of caretaker often, adhering to policies as a sworn paladin to look after any travelers he may come across. He has a home in cheery Bonnin and usually arrives when Katiel requires a healer or some kind of aid. Though a fierce combatant, he’s like Will in his steadfast honor and refusal to fight an enemy at a disadvantage. His knowledge of herbal mixes is practically unmatched, save perhaps by Dawn. His paladin training comes from Demerite Kingdom in Southern Laia, once a student of the famed Oronest Masterblade.
Kaia is perhaps Katiel’s closest friend and clings to him nonstop, a notion that many passerby mistake as romantic. She sees Katiel and Ryoku as her ‘little brothers’, though she is small enough to hang from Katiel’s neck without hindering him. She’s a talented water mage hailing from Eastern Laia with her sister, Reze, where Zgyruath burnt her water-tribe village to the ground and seriously disabled her sister. In seeking help, the fifth greater demon, Arramos, cursed Reze into the form of a water serpent that now follows Kaia around in her travels. While Kaia’s motivation was once to turn her sister back to normal, she learned that her sister preferred her new form to her disabled one of the past, and both now work closely with Katiel to better the world. Kaia is a seriously talented water mage who can speak to the water spirits, similarly to Dawn’s druidic blood, and later teaches Ryoku the art.
Mayfield is famously Katiel’s most angry friend, a girl also from Laia who pledged that she would marry him one day after Katiel saved their home in Western Laia. However, her jealousy and possessiveness over the matter appear almost comical and rival the affections Kaia shows to Katiel, albeit platonically. Mayfield didn’t begin as a warrior, but adopted the warhammer and learned how to use it more effectively than many trained soldiers. Since she was a bit younger than Katiel and an orphan, Katiel saw to protecting her through his travels despite her acclaimed, and unrequited, feelings towards him. She mellowed out somewhat after leading the charge to save Katiel from Roland when he was first transformed into an Omega, possibly saving his life and preventing the experiments from ruining him as a person. It is a debt Katiel honors to this day.
So far, the four characters just play side roles in helping Katiel and Ryoku. Eckhardt helps heal Ryoku more than once, Kaia teaches him water magic, and the others have helped Katiel from the sidelines. In Book Two, Eckhardt, Kaia, and Mayfield have a more involved role in a later Act – stay tuned for that! And, of course, Defenders of Laia later updates will eventually feature these four characters in more depth!
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