Sybal Heim: Chandra

Sybal-Heim take 2: electric boogaloo. Extra ref can be found [Here.]

Name: Chandra Kulkarni

Nicknames: n/a

Age: 27 (Left in 1745, skipped forward and arrived in June 1893)

Physical Age: 27

Height: 6’5”

Hair: Dark brown

Eyes: Gold (left eye is pale due to blindness)

Faction: Conservative Insurgent

As a new arrival, Chandra hasn’t had too much time to form an opinion on the city. While it looks like a paradise on the surface, the murmurs and whispers of a fairly recent assassination and the tension throughout the city have left him fairly unsettled. He would not be difficult to sway towards trying to find a way out...

Occupation: Bodyguard/Odd Jobs

Chandra has yet to pick up a trade due to being so new, so he’s been doing odd jobs around Heilig in the meantime. He’s more than happy to put his muscle to productive use, and will take most any job ranging from helping people move items across town to heavier farm work. Due to his martial training, he would be willing to take up a guard post or act as a bodyguard for someone who would pay for one.

Personality:

Chandra can be simply described as a gentle giant. He seems distant and intimidating on first meeting, but it’s his struggle with severe anxiety that leaves him so quiet and reserved, rather than any intentional effort to impress others with an aloof appearance. Due to his anxiety, he can sometimes seem indecisive--in actuality, his hesitation stems from a fear that the decisions he makes could turn out be terrible mistakes, and he finds himself overthinking the consequences of his actions before even taking them, even if he’s considering the objectively correct choice. The stoic expression he tends to wear is used entirely as a shield, an attempt to look more sure of himself and his decisions than he truly is, in order to avoid what he believes would be inevitable negative judgement from those around him. However, Chandra is much more decisive under heavy pressure, and his hesitance falls by the wayside in favor of a defensive instinct when someone is in physical danger. The only decisions he’s ever sure of are ones that involve ensuring the wellbeing of others.

In spite of his anxious tendencies, Chandra is a very compassionate and sympathetic individual, he just never has any idea where to start helping others unless their needs are obvious to him. His fear of committing a social faux pas by offering help at the wrong time or place can occasionally keep him from taking action. He’s reluctant to intervene in verbal conflict from fear of making it worse or starting a physical confrontation on accident. Chandra also isn’t fond of becoming involved in arguments of his own, and tends to forfeit them easily to avoid further conflict. This makes him come off as a bit of a pushover, but trying to goad him on topics he feels strongly about can sometimes invite retaliation. Chandra is loyal to those he trusts, but if that trust is betrayed or he is asked to something he is morally opposed to, he would not hesitate to let them know exactly how he feels about it.

Though he usually keeps strangers at arm’s length, both literally and figuratively, people he interacts with regularly will eventually see him relax during conversation and begin to speak more. He tends to go out of his way not to touch others if he doesn’t know them well enough, but usually amends this if they make contact first. Regardless of relation however, “PDA” tends to make him visibly embarrassed, and he avoids or politely rejects it if possible. It takes a lot of coaxing to get him to go out to a social function or gathering, and he tends to choose a spot off to one side and stay there for the duration, even if he’s there with someone else.

Sybal Form: The Jovial Gadadeva

Chandra’s Sybal stands at about seven feet tall at the shoulder, and looks like a cross between a bull and a reptile. Two pairs of large tusks emerge from a mouth filled with blunt teeth, and bull horns curve out of the top of his head. A third eye rests on his forehead, set into an ornate headdress. This eye is normally closed unless Chandra is using his Sybal power. Most of his body is covered in leathery blue skin akin to that of an elephant, while the black plating on his back and shoulders is tough and durable. Chandra has two sets of arms, each of which has a different purpose--the heavier, front pair of arms is used for walking and lifting heavy items, while the smaller pair is significantly more dextrous and used to interact with people and smaller items. His headdress is part of his body, but the other fabric and jewelry he wears is removable. However, they disappear when the sun comes up.

Chandra’s size and bulk grant him incredible physical strength and durability, but he is also surprisingly agile and light on his feet, to the point where his fast movements almost seem like dancing or prancing. While he is capable of walking only on his back legs, he usually ends up being much too tall for most indoor spaces, and he finds it easier to carry himself on four anyway.

Sybal Power: True Sight

Chandra’s Sybal has the ability to place an invisible “mark” of sorts on a person by deliberately holding eye contact with them with his third eye for a few seconds. The sybal being marked feels a very brief sense of unease, like the hair at the back of their neck prickling up, or a shiver up their spine, letting them know the power’s mark been placed on them. This mark cannot be removed by any means, not even by Chandra himself, and lasts until the night is over.

When Chandra opens the third eye on his forehead, he is able to see through the eyes of the person he’s marked. This ability does not give him control over the person by any means, nor does it allow him to listen in--he only sees exactly what the marked person sees, down to the movements of their head, objects obstructing their vision, or just the inside of their eyelids. He can only use this ability to see if the affected Sybal can see--any Sybal without eyes or a medium of sight does not provide Chandra any visual feedback, rendering him unable to place a mark on them in the first place. If the marked person wanders about two miles away from him, his vision through them cuts out suddenly as though a screen had been turned off, and his third eye closes just as abruptly until the marked person returns to his two-mile range. When Chandra uses his power, the marked individual will start to feel as though they’re being watched. This feeling intensifies the more he uses the power, to the point where eventually the marked person will realize what’s happening and who marked them.

Even though the mark cannot be removed, Chandra can activate and deactivate his Sight at will, and is not forced to see through another’s eyes for the entire night. Despite his overprotective nature at night, it’s rare for him to mark someone with his sybal power without their consent, as he’s very much aware that it’s an invasion of privacy. On the rare occasion he does, it’s because he feels that particular individual is about to do something incredibly reckless or dangerous, and he feels he may not be able to stay nearby to protect them for whatever reason.

Docile or Feral: Feral

Despite being classified as a feral, Chandra is far from dangerous--rather, it comes from the difference in behavior between Chandra and his Sybal, which is notably like night and day. After the sun goes down he becomes jovial and relaxed, as though all his worries and anxieties have melted away. He is easy to bring to laughter and is eager to dance and play, his energy boundless. He’s also much more physically affectionate, and has a tendency to hold others in brief embraces with his smaller pair of arms. He is difficult to dissuade from this, but he means no harm. His voice does not change between forms, but he speaks much louder than usual, and his jovial laughter is somewhat distinctive.

Chandra’s desire to protect others intensifies at night, to the point of following around those he perceives to be in danger. This applies twofold to whoever he placed the mark for his Sybal power on. He tries to make it seem as though it’s a coincidence that he’s nearby until he’s sure the danger has passed, but if called out on it he will readily admit his motivations. He always retains his jovial nature while dealing with conflict in an attempt to keep all involved at ease, even when a confrontation seems to be heading towards violence. If the person he is watching over is in mortal danger, he will do anything in his power to remove himself and the object of his protection from the situation--this includes going through the danger if there is no other recourse, though he typically tries his best to avoid outright attacking others or causing collateral damage.

History:

Chandra was born into a nation in conflict. The Maratha empire was seeking to expand, and as the ambitious Peshwas found more and more weakness in their enemies’ leadership, all of India was ripe for the taking.

One of several sons of a notorious tax collector, Chandra’s parents taught him and his brothers the tools of the trade as they grew up. Unlike his brothers, Chandra never really seemed suited for the task, his shyness and lack of charismatic charm and ambition for wealth making him a less than ideal inheritor of the family business. He was of the type to sneak food and coin to beggars on the street instead of trying to take it away, and despite his strong anxiety and fear of looking foolish, Chandra was always willing to take the brunt of the punishment for the loss in profits in order to do what he felt was right. Though he was never one for words, he did, however, excel in his spars with his brothers, leading his father to assign him a mentor and later enroll him into the army at the age of 17 with the hope that he’d become a prodigious warrior instead. In time, Chandra excelled in the use of spears and other polearms as well as in mounted combat, and by the age of 23, he was well known among his peers for his martial prowess.

Anyone who knew Chandra in his childhood would say that becoming a soldier hardened him, but this was far from true. While he did quickly develop a stoic exterior to avoid being emotionally trampled in the army, all that shyness and anxiety never went away, and neither did his concern for other people. He deliberately kept himself in the thick of the fight, far away from where harm could be done to innocents, and he never raised a weapon against a non-combatant. He constantly hoped that the conflict would be over soon and he could return home honorably, but unfortunately, the final straw would come soon.

The invasion of Bengal was bloody and brutal, unlike anything Chandra had experienced before. It was as if the Maratha armies had been consumed with bloodlust, slaying and pillaging all in sight, civilians be damned. The atrocities committed against the Bengali in the name of conquest horrified him, and though he held fast to his morals and never attacked a civilian, Chandra was unable to stop any others from doing so. The shame of being complicit in such horrors became too much to bear. In the middle of the night after a particularly bloody attack, Chandra took his horse and his spear and stole away into the darkness, knowing full well he would be executed for deserting if he was ever caught.

Regret and fear set in as the sunlight began to creep over the horizon--he had nowhere to go, and nowhere to hide from the hand of the Peshwa. Overcome with despair, Chandra freed his horse and wept on the side of the road, completely at a loss of what to do, convinced there was nothing he could do to save himself from a swift execution. He prayed, begged for mercy from the gods, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself confronted by green. The lush forest was completely unfamiliar to him, and the sun trickling through the canopy made it all look like a dream.

He hastily followed the path set before him, wondering if this was the answer to his prayers and pleas, and found himself at the edge of the forest, looking out at Sybal Heim in the distance...

 Additional Info:

 His left eye is blind due to injury in combat. A blow to his head permanently damaged his sight on one side. This persists into his Sybal form.
 Has started greying at the temples due to stress. He's not sure how he feels about this. 
 Is fairly good at singing and dancing in both his forms. Though it’s nigh impossible to see during the day, he’s not hard to encourage to dance after sundown. 
 Will not divulge his history easily due to being ashamed of the circumstances that led to him arriving in the city. If asked, he will vaguely mention having been a soldier and leave it at that.
 Tends to only introduce himself with his first name unless he’s speaking to a city official.
 Is actually rather embarrassed of his Sybal’s behavior at night. If asked why, he’d just say that it feels inappropriate.
 Unconsciously picks at his braid when he starts feeling particularly stressed. If he catches himself doing this, he puts his hands down and fiddles with the seams of his clothes instead. One can usually tell how stressful of a day Chandra has had from the state of his braid just before nightfall.
 Uses physical activity to relieve stress. Can be found going on runs or at the practice courts in Heilig’s ministry estate when not otherwise occupied.
 His preferred weapon is a lance. He is however, also trained in the use of swords. 


Relationships: 

 Dicue: Pretty decent friends, hang out every so often. Is only mildly intimidated by him.
 Tisiphone: Very close friends, trusts her a whole lot.