Hokuto/Abilities

Hokuto possesses many skills and abilities, some of which were acquired before arriving on Yuriba and others after. This section includes learned talents and inherent abilities.

OOC: Using this knowledge

Anything in innate, trained magic, and trained general skills categories are probably things that can be inferred or learned from asking around. The weaknesses and acquired skills may be known or inferred, but far less reliably, and it may be best to check OOC before you take advantage of them.

Trained Magical Skills

These are abilities that Hokuto is capable of teaching to others, provided they have the dedication and desire to learn.

Onmyōdō

Onmyōdō is a traditional Japanese esoteric magical tradition that blends natural sciences with mysticism and occultism. Hokuto is classified as an onmyōji, a trained practitioner of this esoteric art. As an onmyōji, Hokuto was trained to perform divinations and maintain rapport with spiritual creatures such as kami (nature spirits). Through her onmyōdō, Hokuto possesses the following talents:

Conjure Ward: Hokuto can ward an area against malevolent spirits or curses. In order to do this she must craft ofuda (paper prayer talismans) and affix them in a perimeter around the warded site during a prayer ritual. Creating a ward takes time based on its size; a small ward (such as a 5-foot by 5-foot area) takes 1 minute, and incrementally larger areas take increasing amounts of time. Wards can also be created to bless locations and promote or attract kami.

Command Kami: Hokuto can form rapport with kami, requesting them to perform tasks for her. This differs from her summon kami ability (below) as it often requires a mentally-performed negotiation. Often times this negotiation manifests in the form of a ritual offering. After which time Hokuto may request one service from a kami. This ability usually manifests in the form of elemental manipulation, such as bolstering, moving, or quenching an existing fire or other elemental material.

Empathetic Healing: Hokuto can heal the physical injuries of others by imparting some of their damage onto herself. Hokuto cannot return the dead to life with this ability, and her recovery time from physical injuries is extended, due to her incorporeal body (see below). Hokuto no longer requires an ofuda to heal others.

Sense Spirits: By concentrating, Hokuto can sense the auras of spirits and supernatural creatures (even invisible ones, or spirits possessing other creatures). Due to her connection with breisleach, she is even capable of sensing the kitsune's aura when others cannot.

Summon Kami: Hokuto is capable of summoning kami (spirits of nature) that are inherent in all things. Her favored kami are shikigami, a spiritual entity that takes the form of a bird (typically associated with one of five elements). Summoning a kami requires Hokuto perform a medium to long ritual and also requires natural components related to the type of kami she is summoning. Hokuto can see and hear through her Kami and also project telepathic communication through them to nearby creatures. Hokuto has summoned the below kami while on Yuriba:

• Autumn: A fiery-plumed wren-sized bird with beady, black glass eyes. The autumn shikigami brings swirling winds and rustling leaves with it wherever it goes and represents facets of autumn; balance, rain, and letting go.

• Winter: A four-winged white dove with three narrow almond-shaped eyes that has drifting snowflakes of light that fall from its form, this shikigami is a representation of facets of winter; cold, renewal, and change. During one of her dream-travels, the bartender of Leona's, Real, nicknamed the shikigami Yume (japanese for dream) in a very unexpected and highly coincidental manner.

Utility Magics

Sumeragi Technique: Hokuto can perform a long and dangerously taxing ritual on another willing or unconscious participant. By means of this ritual, Hokuto can project her consciousness into the minds of others, allowing her to combat possessing entities, visit specific memories belonging to the target of the Sumeragi Technique, and manipulate the memories of willing creatures. Hokuto is physically helpless while performing this ritual and cannot defend her physical body. Additionally, any injuries she sustains in the mindscape are reflected onto her physical form. Following the use of this ritual Hokuto is exhausted for 24 hours and cannot utilize any supernatural abilities.

• Note: Hokuto has only used this ability once, on Kashiri the Sentry of Engetsu, to help her overcome traumatic past events.

Trained Skills

These are various particular skills that Hokuto has picked up over her lifetime; she is capable of teaching any of them to others.

Tailoring: Hokuto learned tailoring from breisleach during her first two years on the island and has fostered that ability in the years that have passed off-island and since her return. She is skilled at making clothing with natural fabrics and with traditional Japanese and Yuriban aesthetic.

Acquired Skills

These skills are ones that have been developed by certain events in Hokuto's life; by and large, she cannot train anyone to use them and many of them are not common knowledge.

Dreamseeing & Dreamwalking:

OOC: Dreamseeing

Hokuto's dreamseeing is a plot device, anyone who wishes to infer something to Hokuto in dreams is welcome to. Send an @mail to Hokuto with whatever you want, and she'll be considered to have dreamt it by the next time she ICly sleeps. Anyone is welcome to use this power to further their own character development, and the staff is welcomed to use Hokuto's dreams as a hook for any potential TinyPlots that may come about as well. Remember, Hokuto will react ICly to anything she sees in her dreams, so plan accordingly!

Hokuto possesses the ability to spontaneously recieve ominous visions while sleeping. She has no control over this ability, and visions can com from both divine sources (such as the island's Goddesses) or also the impending psychic impact of significant future events. Additionally, Hokuto can consciously choose to project her sleeping mind into the dreams of others to communicate. Sometimes this happens involuntarily, but it is rare.

Thanks to her connection with breisleach, Hokuto can dreamwalk into the kitsune's mind with permission.

Incorporeal Body: In 2006, during a period of extreme emotional and spiritual weakness, Hokuto suffered from an incident in which her corporeal body was taken from her by the goddess Tsuki and her spirit divested into an unattached, incorporeal shadow-like form. In order to save Hokuto, breisleach offered a sacrifice to the Goddess, one that she has kept the details of close to herself and confidants.

Ever since this time, Hokuto has existed not as a wholly corporeal entity, but a spiritual being made of from radiant golden energy that is capable of taking on a convincing humanoid form. The physical transformation is usually visible when Hokuto teleports through the island's ley lines and has also left her more physically mutable and influenced by the island's blessings, often times expressed in vivid visualizations of her blessed form being drastically different from her non-blessed form.

Hokuto can become incorporeal at will, transforming into her light-body to pass through solid objects or travel through ley-lines. See weaknesses below for further information.

As an incorporeal creature, Hokuto does not need to breathe, eat, or drink but does not realize she is free of these limitations and still chooses to. Hokuto still needs to sleep. See weaknesses below for more info.

Teleportation: Like many residents, Hokuto is capable of utilizing Yuriba's innate magics to travel quickly to major areas of the island, however she cannot teach others how to perform this task as it is directly linked to her incorporeal body ability.

Sense breisleach: Due to their intrinsic connection, Hokuto can sense breisleach's general location and distance from her as well as subtle empathic indications of her well-being. Likewise, breisleach can sense Hokuto's physical and mental well-being remotely.

Untethered: Unlike breisleach, Hokuto is able to leave Yuriba, though suffers from extreme periods of fugue and homesickness when away. Her connection to breisleach weakens while off-island, and she can only faintly sense the kitsune's presence.

Weaknesses

Hokuto possesses the following weaknesses:

Complicated Fertility: Lacking a true physical body, Hokuto cannot bear children while still able to make use of many of the aspects of her technically non-physical nature. As she has not undergone the same rituals as breisleach, this absence has not been mitigated.

Reflective Injury, Perceived Injury: While Hokuto is technically highly resistant to injury, she faces the same problem of mind over matter as breisleach, due to her incorporeal nature. If Hokuto thinks she's been hurt, for all intents and purposes, she is. Wounds that effect her emotions tend to linger and take much longer to heal. Furthermore, serious magical or physical damage done to the island is reflected as intense pain mirroring physical injuries inflicted on breisleach by the same effects. Hokuto takes twice as long to heal on her own from such injuries, and is immune to most forms of magical healing that do not originate from breisleach, or require manipulating physical biology.