Name: Kuja Canon: Final Fantasy IX Canon point: Endgame, after the formation of Memoria. Kuja finds the crystal of origin, font of all life, and it is within reach to destroy, ensuring there will never be a world without him-- and, uh, now he's here instead. Age: 24
Summary:
◎ Kuja is a sadistic, self-loathing narcissist with little regard for the lives of others, an experienced faux-obsequious grifter, a poster child for arrested development -- and someone simultaneously proud of and deeply disgusted with his origins. If that last bit doesn't make sense... good! It's hard to make sense of being born to destroy the only beauty you've ever known.
◎ He's very playful, adores luxury, and is both elegant and eloquent. Theatre is what he has instead of empathy.
◎ He is a Genome created with the form of an adult, and given the role of 'Angel of Death' to Gaia. He swiftly fell in possessive, selfish love with the world he was meant to destroy, rejecting his dead homeworld and bucking under the reigns of his master. Thus he schemed to surpass his master in power for years -- but when he got what he wanted, he immediately learned he was fated to soon die. He proceeded to have a literal world-ending meltdown about it.
Powers/abilities:
so like. i already was like OKAY I'M TAKING THIS AWAY for the worst of it but in general for nerfs. good god. do what you need to do. im sorry this will get kind of long.
◎ Kuja disdains weaponry because he doesn't need it. He's a powerful red mage, master of both black (destructive) and white (protective, healing) magic. Notable spells include spell Teleport, which he can use on a group of people at once, and a big cool signature spell -- Flare Star! He can't toss around a lot of those though. He gets tired.
◎ Can use magic to float around. He loves using magic to float around. You think he's gonna get dirt on his nice boots if he has a choice? No.
◎ Thanks to bringing Queen Brahne's soul into his body, he is now capable of attaining Trance. This is a state of heightened power brought on by pain, adrenaline, and high emotion. Trance makes him significantly more powerful when he was already kind of goddamn broken.
In FF9 this lets him actually start tossing around Flare Stars like they're nothing, and lets him use Ultima, with which he decimated his homeworld. H3 even used the power of his first, sustained Trance to will into existence a pathway through time and space to the origin of all life so he could try to break it.
...anyway, I am taking that away! He can still Trance, but it's over after 10 minutes, max, and no longer lets him break reality.
◎ Queen Brahne's still in there, for the record. I won't be playing them as two characters in one or anything, but this will have some effects.
◎ Difficult to injure. While never explicitly stated, he's likely passively using white magic to make himself more durable. Bastard has Auto-Protect on.
◎ Genomes were conceived as vessels to house an outside soul. Despite having a soul of his own, Kuja is still capable of this, and in general is able to manipulate the.. stuff...of dead souls, able to summon forth monsters and craft living dolls.
◎ Capable of telepathy. This is a Genome thing rather than a Kuja specific thing. Psychic alien furries!
◎ Can innately command the creatures of Terra. Probably irrelevant!
Inventory: ◎ His clothes, though they're quite tattered due to his canon point.
◎ Some spare makeup because, honestly, who goes to kill their dad without some emergency eyeshadow?
◎ I'm also gonna say he had his personal Tetra Master deck with him because it's funny.
OTHER
Sentimental item: A forged theatre ticket, that claims it allows admission for one to the play 'I Want To Be Your Crow.' Kuja has no idea what the hell this is -- it belongs to Vivi, the first black mage he ever created. Because of his memory alterations Kuja doesn't recall that he feels both revulsion and a strong sense of identification with Vivi. Instead, he just has a vague sense of pride in himself in a job well done (that little prototype is actually powerful!), and a patronizing amusement at Vivi's many efforts to stand against him.
Gemstone: A round gem with a divot in the middle. Primary color is blue, secondary is red -- the outer part of the sphere is blue, and the inner is red. Its qualities as a stone are similar to alexandrite, with the two colors changing places under daylight vs starlight.
The damage is based off of this round gem -- though it of course isn't in four pieces, the gem has lines of cracks where the pictured one does.
Lost memory #1:
His purpose. Kuja knows he was made for something, ordered to fulfill some grand goal despite his creator considering him a failure -- but it is stricken entirely from his mind what that goal was. He can recall that he was very, very good at what he was meant for, despite his master's criticism. But what was it? What was the tune to which he was forced to dance, until the day he could strike down the conductor...?
Without this knowledge, Kuja no longer understands...well... himself! His own easy brutality feels alien in origin. He loses his easiest justification for violence -- "I was made for this, and there is none better at it than I" -- and will end up, like, thinking twice more before deciding hurting people is his best option. He's not magically capable of empathy now but pragmatically, maybe murder isn't as good of an option anymore.
Lost memory #2:
He doesn't remember why he hides his tail.
The self-disgust with that aspect of his body is just, poof, gone. It'll still have an illusion cast over it when he arrives to the game, but when that naturally soon wears off he'll just. Have it out! With the dysphoria toward his tail is also gone (some of) the motivation behind why he heavily changed his appearance with magic -- my man is gonna start getting red roots and not even care. He still knows he wants to be an independent person different from other Genomes, but... the big physical shame is gone.
Altered memory:
His memory of how he created the black mages has changed. He remembers inventing the method all by himself, rather than basing it directly off the method of his own creation. This eases some of the... very intense.. disgust he feels toward the mages as fellow weapons of war that are given life only to kill. Thanks to memory loss #1 he doesn't even remember being a weapon of war! So... to Kuja, instead of a disgusting mirror of himself, they're just some funny little murder dolls he made to sell to the queen. The emotional element is gone.
Zazo / Kuja / Final Fantasy IX
PLAYER
Preferred pronoun(s): they/them, he/him
Contact:
CHARACTER
Canon: Final Fantasy IX
Canon point: Endgame, after the formation of Memoria. Kuja finds the crystal of origin, font of all life, and it is within reach to destroy, ensuring there will never be a world without him-- and, uh, now he's here instead.
Age: 24
Summary:
◎ Kuja is a sadistic, self-loathing narcissist with little regard for the lives of others, an experienced faux-obsequious grifter, a poster child for arrested development -- and someone simultaneously proud of and deeply disgusted with his origins. If that last bit doesn't make sense... good! It's hard to make sense of being born to destroy the only beauty you've ever known.
◎ He's very playful, adores luxury, and is both elegant and eloquent. Theatre is what he has instead of empathy.
◎ He is a Genome created with the form of an adult, and given the role of 'Angel of Death' to Gaia. He swiftly fell in possessive, selfish love with the world he was meant to destroy, rejecting his dead homeworld and bucking under the reigns of his master. Thus he schemed to surpass his master in power for years -- but when he got what he wanted, he immediately learned he was fated to soon die. He proceeded to have a literal world-ending meltdown about it.
Powers/abilities:
so like. i already was like OKAY I'M TAKING THIS AWAY for the worst of it but in general for nerfs. good god. do what you need to do. im sorry this will get kind of long.
◎ Kuja disdains weaponry because he doesn't need it. He's a powerful red mage, master of both black (destructive) and white (protective, healing) magic. Notable spells include spell Teleport, which he can use on a group of people at once, and a big cool signature spell -- Flare Star! He can't toss around a lot of those though. He gets tired.
◎ Can use magic to float around. He loves using magic to float around. You think he's gonna get dirt on his nice boots if he has a choice? No.
◎ Thanks to bringing Queen Brahne's soul into his body, he is now capable of attaining Trance. This is a state of heightened power brought on by pain, adrenaline, and high emotion. Trance makes him significantly more powerful when he was already kind of goddamn broken.
In FF9 this lets him actually start tossing around Flare Stars like they're nothing, and lets him use Ultima, with which he decimated his homeworld. H3 even used the power of his first, sustained Trance to will into existence a pathway through time and space to the origin of all life so he could try to break it.
...anyway, I am taking that away! He can still Trance, but it's over after 10 minutes, max, and no longer lets him break reality.
◎ Queen Brahne's still in there, for the record. I won't be playing them as two characters in one or anything, but this will have some effects.
◎ Difficult to injure. While never explicitly stated, he's likely passively using white magic to make himself more durable. Bastard has Auto-Protect on.
◎ Genomes were conceived as vessels to house an outside soul. Despite having a soul of his own, Kuja is still capable of this, and in general is able to manipulate the.. stuff...of dead souls, able to summon forth monsters and craft living dolls.
◎ Capable of telepathy. This is a Genome thing rather than a Kuja specific thing. Psychic alien furries!
◎ Can innately command the creatures of Terra. Probably irrelevant!
Inventory:
◎ His clothes, though they're quite tattered due to his canon point.
◎ Some spare makeup because, honestly, who goes to kill their dad without some emergency eyeshadow?
◎ I'm also gonna say he had his personal Tetra Master deck with him because it's funny.
OTHER
Gemstone: A round gem with a divot in the middle. Primary color is blue, secondary is red -- the outer part of the sphere is blue, and the inner is red. Its qualities as a stone are similar to alexandrite, with the two colors changing places under daylight vs starlight.
The damage is based off of this round gem -- though it of course isn't in four pieces, the gem has lines of cracks where the pictured one does.
Lost memory #1:
His purpose. Kuja knows he was made for something, ordered to fulfill some grand goal despite his creator considering him a failure -- but it is stricken entirely from his mind what that goal was. He can recall that he was very, very good at what he was meant for, despite his master's criticism. But what was it? What was the tune to which he was forced to dance, until the day he could strike down the conductor...?
Without this knowledge, Kuja no longer understands...well... himself! His own easy brutality feels alien in origin. He loses his easiest justification for violence -- "I was made for this, and there is none better at it than I" -- and will end up, like, thinking twice more before deciding hurting people is his best option. He's not magically capable of empathy now but pragmatically, maybe murder isn't as good of an option anymore.
Lost memory #2:
He doesn't remember why he hides his tail.
The self-disgust with that aspect of his body is just, poof, gone. It'll still have an illusion cast over it when he arrives to the game, but when that naturally soon wears off he'll just. Have it out! With the dysphoria toward his tail is also gone (some of) the motivation behind why he heavily changed his appearance with magic -- my man is gonna start getting red roots and not even care. He still knows he wants to be an independent person different from other Genomes, but... the big physical shame is gone.
Altered memory:
His memory of how he created the black mages has changed. He remembers inventing the method all by himself, rather than basing it directly off the method of his own creation. This eases some of the... very intense.. disgust he feels toward the mages as fellow weapons of war that are given life only to kill. Thanks to memory loss #1 he doesn't even remember being a weapon of war! So... to Kuja, instead of a disgusting mirror of himself, they're just some funny little murder dolls he made to sell to the queen. The emotional element is gone.
Sample:
Here are a couple long conversations he's had.
Here is an action thread.