Volter St. Kepral

Volter St. Kepral is a character in Grand Battle Season Unknown Game 1.

Weapons/Abilities
St. Kepral has the natural flexibility and powerful, whiplike arms of his race. As a palace guard for the Earl of Cloudrest, he is armed with an ornate, hooked halberd, issued to him on the first day of his charge and kept close, shined, and sharp ever since (a feat which would admittedly be more impressive were this not his second week on the job). From his bevor to his greaves his armor is brassy and polished, capable of turning away swordpoints, absorbing the crash of maceheads, and shrugging off shot of most caliber beneath cannonfire. When he brings down his visor, smooth and featureless but for two glass-plated eyeholes, he looks more metal than man. His most notable and useful equipment, however, is his pair of Seven-League boots, gleaming brass sabatons with steam pistons built into the heel. These strap to a hefty, intricate rig of dials, gauges, pressure canisters, arm-mounted secondary boosters, and gliding windfoils to allow Volter St. Kepral to engage in the spectacular aerial duels Gandeerish troopers are famous for, springing from rooftop to rooftop in percussive pops of steam and blasting at one another with rippling bolts of psionic energy. In a pouch at his back are three drakehunter charges, adhesive explosives he can strap to the end of his halberd for a serious extra kick at the risk of permanent damage.

Description
Volter St. Kepral is a Gandeerish stormtrooper in the prime of youth. His skin is slick and violaceous. His eyes are darting, pale grey embers in the dark, backset cave of his heavy brow. His limbs are flexible and osseous, and tipped with tapered, double-jointed digits. On his face, twitching and questing, is a small forest of thick tendrils where a set of sideburns and a trimmed goatee would normally have residence. A human, upon examining a Gandeer, would liken them to a Spanish conquistador crossed with a squid.

Volter is the youngest of three brothers; the eldest is an important ambassador to Curvewillow Keep, and the middle is a celebrated scholar at Cloudrest's observatory. Volter himself has big shoes to fill and expectations to meet. It doesn't help that he's a little short for a stormtrooper at five foot seven. When he joined the watch (against his father's wishes), he was told to expect a desk job, until his unexpectedly potent psionic ability earned him the marks needed for Palace Guard. His seat in the Duke's palatine estate, his newfound position of authority, and his ostentatious uniform, all swoopy sleeves and flashy armor, are entirely new and novel. The young Gandeer, used to subservience to two larger brothers and patchwork hand-me-downs, is suddenly respected. His orders are immediately followed. He has let it get a little to his head. The quiet and careful boy who sidestepped through his brothers' longcast shadows has become a boisterous, excitable firebrand, quick to laugh and quicker to challenge.

All the same, his superiors in the watch agree that the peppery new guardsman has potential. His in-air control is remarkable, and he has trained phenomenally hard to sharpen the innate Gandeerish psionic ability into a keen weapon. He is highly loyal to the Duke, who has finally given him the glamorous center of attention he never received at home. Now is his time, to stand shining by the Duke's side and prove himself of worth! To his Polis and to his family!

What could go wrong?

Errata
-Volter's Seven-League boots allow him to jump six or seven stories at a time. He can supercharge them to go even further and higher, but risks overheating and being grounded for dangerous amounts of time. They were originally designed to allow infantrymen to battle drakes, but have given rise to hopping, windblasted combat of astonishing verticality. -His psionic abilities are mostly powerful artillery evocations, all explosive force and ultraviolet flame, with little attention paid to utility and artfulness. Mindreading, telekinesis, and planar travel elude him. His power remains, however, very open-ended, more a shapeable force of will than a strict list of “spells”. -Volter was not raised well. His inner youngest-child sheepishness becomes apparent when faced with men of rank and power higher than his. He is aware this feeds into a potential for bullying spitefulness against those below him in power and rank, which reminds him unpleasantly of his father's behavior. He wants to be a good person. He is working on keeping himself agreeable, and makes great effort to see the best in people and act in an upright way. But he struggles all the same with a certain internal darkness, an urge to exercise newfound physical and social dominance, and when he is angry his eyes grow umbrous and full, and something ugly in him looks out from them. -When brought to more human dimensions, he will find most food repulsive but for fish and sugary snacks. He will be desperate to return home to his post, the first place he has ever felt comfortable and welcome.