Kiyal-Lantana

"Did he... did he just eat poison ivy?!"
"Yeah, he does that sometimes. Don't worry about it."

— Ozim Laila to a concerned friend

Kiyal-Lantana, or Kiana for short, is the adopted son of Ozim Laila and Esther Zylpeiros du Geneva. He is one of the tragic yet fearsome Sikna, a solitary predator once common though now thought extinct within the tropical forests of the Majetzda Continent. Rather than kill him, the Laila accidentally released him from his territorial tether. Although feared at first, Kiana managed to wiggle his way into the hearts of the adventurers who changed his life.
To date, Kiana is the only known successfully domesticated "feral sophont." His place in zoological history is overshadowed by his proximity to Ozim Laila. Over the course of their travels and the subsequent rise of Lainism, Kiana became a prominent mythological figure in his own right. Lainists and the general public know him best as the Laila's Eyes. Lainists say that that he is a benevolent spirit that can look into a person's soul and see one's virtue, a judgment he then passes down to his divine parents. 
A purposeful far cry from the adventurous days of his past, Kiana is often seen but rarely met by all but the Lailai's inner circle and the communities of Haven and Heshi Ariko, where he flourishes safely out of the limelight.

Physical

General Appearance

Kiana has the appearance of a small child, though his exact age-appearance and height varies from time to time. His brown skin, once protected by thick, wavy black hair as a Henin-turned-Sikna, is now covered in dusty brown feathers, as a Henin-turned-Sikna-turned-Yashelin. He has vibrantly light brown eyes with diamond-slit pupils. He dresses conservatively, but colorfully; head to toe in patchwork clothing made by his parents.

Defining Features

• Fluid physical age. He appears anywhere from 2 years old to 12 years old, although he has started experimenting with older appearances in recent years.


• The diamond-slit pupils of a small ambush predator, which is common in 'feral sophonts' but unheard of in regular sophonts. This especially spooks unsuspecting Awassi people on an instinctual level.


• Preference for colorfully patched clothing and yellow headscarves, which is the origin of his full name: Kiyal-Lantana.

Physical Condition

Kiana is light-footed and fit, owing to a life spent hunting stealthily through the woodlands of Kivria. He is capable of moving quicker and attacking with more strength than his perceived physical age implies, a hallmark trait of a Sikna. He is able to control his strength around those in his physical age bracket, but still has difficulties with accidentally hurting adults he does not know well. 
His wings are currently that of a flightless mali, but he's learned that he can use them to soften his landing when he jumps down from trees, to the detriment of his family's blood pressure.
Although Kiana has more strength and speed, his chosen size backfires on him when he remembers just how hard climbing in chairs and opening the fridge becomes when you're small. That's what he has parents for, he reckons, so he'll make them help him. Vicious predator of the forest, spoiled child of the house.

Special Abilities

Shapeshifting

Kiana has the ability to alter his physical appearance within certain parameters. He is not able to change the appearance of his pupils and wings, nor can he shapeshift into another animal, but he can change his physical age and general physical appearance. To the surprise of many a stranger, he did not look remotely like the members of his adoptive family when they first met.
Until recently, Kiana had no idea that shapeshifting was a unique ability. He had figured that everyone had made the choice to look like they do. He is much nicer to teenagers, now.

Spiderweb of Connection

Kiana holds the ability to discern the connections between individuals via what he describes as a spiderweb, or the threads which connect everyone to each other. With these threads, he is able to read the intentions and feelings of an individual or a group towards another. He is most skilled at parsing the threads when the situation involves only two or three separate people. This ability has earned him the moniker the Laila's Eyes by Lainists.
A quintessential example of the utility of his power is when there is a mismatch of intention. Person A may believe that they are friends with Person B, but Person B hates Person A and has ill intentions towards them. In this case, Kiana would go running to the Laila, who can then put a stop to Person B before it's too late. This special ability often causes him stress when in large gatherings, but as long as he's with his parents, he feels safe.
Show Prose

In the garden, Kiana pulls on Oz’s pant leg urgently.
“Hm, hm, hmmmm?”
“Hm, hm, hmmmm!” Kiana replies. Then, he says, gesturing broadly, “Mara and sissy are all good!”
Oz stops to regard Kiana carefully.
“Not an alarm bell today.” He reassures, patting Oz’s leg. “Good, good, good bell today! Happy bell! Happy, happy, happy, bell, bell, bell.” He does a little dance to drive the point home.
"Oh, good," Oz replies, patting his head. "He sure has been worried about Ravi and Eve, huh?"
Kiana shrugs then opens his mouth to ask when are they getting married?, but Oz cuts him off by shoving a watering can in his hands and putting him to work.

Mental

General Personality

Kiana's personality is a mixture of world-weary wisdom and childlike enthusiasm. He greets each day with a blend of curiosity and confidence. He takes a no-nonsense attitude towards everyone with little discretion. Kiana is an empathetic observer who is quick to notice the subtleties of people's behaviors. He's just as quick to point out these oddities in front of the person in question.
There are many people who have dismissed him out of hand on account of his unusual comportment and speech patterns. Those who stick around to listen, however, grow to understand that Kiana is no naive child. That being said, few appreciate Kiana's cloaked wisdom more than children. Kiana is adept at navigating the culture of children, often due to the same mix of traits which irritiate/intimidate adults. While traveling, he made new friends at almost every extended stop. Today, he is the leader of Haven's most adventurous children and the protector of all. 
Despite his outgoing nature, Kiana's daily life is marked by a pervading sense of insecurity. Siknas are meant to be solitary ambush predators with a strict territorial boundary. No matter how hard his family tries to accommodate his needs and no matter how much he enjoys people, he will never feel secure in the communal life of his home.
While his globe-trotting former lifestyle has provided him with a plethora of benefits, he truly only remembers the grim. He has been exposed to the worst of humanity, but what truly scarred him was poverty. He has an unhealthy obsession with not wasting anything, from food to time. He will eat spilled food off of the floor or the ground if it is not cleaned up before he can get to it. In addition, he is also especially sensitive to impermanence. The transitory nature of his former life and the short lives of his mortal acquaintances means that if he has decided that you are a "stay person," he's stuck to you like glue.
Show Prose

Kiana narrows his eyes up at Seri, then the rest of the room. He's interpreting the spiderweb, but when Esther reciprocates the gesture as if he was asking permission for a question, he asks imperiously, “Can I go back now?”
“We still need to--” Bee pauses for a deep breath and then continues, “--decide where you'll live on Aravu.”
Kiana leans his head back to glare at Seri and accuses, “Then why cover my ears for so long? Waste, waste, waste of my time. I want food. Fix that next, stupid.”

Likes & Dislikes

.

Likes

Hunting

Dancing

Rabbit meat

Yellow

Nature

Dislikes

Loud noises

Crowds

Chickens

Cold weather

Wasted food

Savvies & Ineptitudes

.

Savvies

Hunter

Wilderness guide

Maracas player

Alerting others of danger

Ineptitudes

Literacy

Subtleness

Solo problem solving

Foraging

A Note on Hunting

Kiana is a natural hunter, owing in part to his instincts as one of Kivria's most fearsome predators. Unlike the rest of his kind, he has had time and the tools to hone his skills to a fine point. He is primarily an ambush predator. He waits and studies his prey from a distance until the right moment strikes. When he strikes, he strikes hard and swift. He is also capable of pursuit predation and upfront attacks, but he enjoys neither and regards them as acts reserved solely for desperate times.
At first, Kiana maintained his primitive form of hunting with hands and teeth. He still does that for fun, but his true skill lays in his ability with slingshots, bow-and-arrows, and spears. He also makes most of his own traps. Show Prose

A loud snap of a twig below snaps Kiana instantly out of his cat nap.
The snaps multiply by the dozens.
"Eugh," Kiana whines quietly. He turns on his side and peeks down at the forest floor, squinting irritably and ready to hunt whatever was making all that racket on principle alone.
Wait! Kiana jolts backwards. It's not prey, it's Chamu! The idiot, doesn't Chamu know that being so loud like that makes them vulnerable?!
Kiana follows Chamu secretly through the forest for hours, keeping an eye out for any dangerous creations stalking nearby.
Thankfully, there are none, so Kiana doesn't worry too much. Instead, he focuses on watching Chamu and learning their mannerisms.
... Until sunset, when Chamu sighs to themself, "Where even am I?"
What? Kiana grabs his slingshot. No more playing, Chamu is an idiot!
Chamu shrieks and skitters back from not one, but three, projectiles which land at in front of his toes with unnerving accuracy.
Before Kiana can beat a hasty (albeit giggly) retreat, Chamu looks up.
Their eyes meet.
"Kiana?" Chamu calls, voice threaded with barely concealed fear.
"Chamu, Chamu, Chamu," Kiana grumbles in reply. "So loud. Sssh."
Chamu laughs nervously, "Did I wake you up? What are you napping all the way out here for?"
"Why are you?" Kiana growls, jumping from the tree to the ground below in a flurry of largely flightless wings. "Dangerous being so loud! Alone!"
"Um, dangerous? Kiana," Chamu stutters, but otherwise steels themself, fearful that if they back away, they might trigger his hunting instinct. "I'm a... I'm an apex predator, remember? Ko Forest is my forest. We talked about this."
... It is at that moment that Kiana remembers that the Yashelin are the apex predators of Aravu. Nothing, except for him, has the power to stalk Chamu for so long undetected.
In a blink of an eye, Kiana transforms from a grouchy forest predator to a mali.
First, his eyes go wide as saucers.
Then...
"Oh, shit! No, Kiana, don't cry, please, it's ok, you made an honest mistake!"
"I don't cry!" Kiana wails. "I'm sorry!"

Education

Kiana's education took place primarily outside of the classroom. He is a hands-on learner with a short attention span for anything that he hasn't been made to care about. It is already a miracle that he learned to speak, and so, his parents approach education carefully and slowly.
Kiana is currently labelled as a pre-50-year-old mali by Aravun Yashelin society. He is welcome to seek out learning opportunities the same as any others, with added accomodations. Seri tutors him personally, which had achieved mixed results until recently. They have realized that Kiana is receptive to whole symbols for words instead of an alphabet system.

Spiritual

Self Perception

• Spiritual a child, but mature enough.


• Dependent on his parents - and perceives himself as safer because of it.


• A proud hunter and naturalist.


• While he has come a long way, he sees himself as an evil spirit and that he owes it to the world to 'make it better.'


• Especially responsible for the well-being of children. If something happens to one of Haven's children in the forest and he wasn't able to keep it from happening, he feels incredibly guilty and beats himself up about it.


• He does not have a strong sense of self perception, but he is coming to understand it over time.

Excerpt from: Kiana describing Oz's job and, as a result, his own.

Self Expression

• Bundled up in clothes - helps him feel secure and hidden in a communal society as a solitary ambush predator.


• Picking and choosing his appearance, age-wise.


• Triumphantly displaying his successful hunts to his family and friends.


• He must contribute food to feel like he's pulling his own weight.


• Greets every single child of Haven practically from the time they were born, to ensure that the children know that he's their leader.


• Maracas playing and dancing - his body and spirit are merged. As such, activities such as singing are overwhelming. This is his way to express himself spiritually speaking.

Dreams & Needs

First and foremost, Kiana needs his family. He may seem like he could manage independence, but he would absolutely fall apart without their guidance. He will never be able to function in a regular sophont society without assistance. 
Lately, he dreams of becoming a skilled naturalist. He is very obvious about this passion and his admiration of Chamu. As such, Chamu became Kiana's Ayiru before the boy had even been assigned an official Wanuye. Chamu regularly takes him to work with them.

Excerpt from: when Kiana scared the shit out of Chamu by catching an animal they had been telling the kids on their tour about...  Their first time meeting each other.

Beliefs

• There is nothing in the universe that Kiana believes in more than his parents, Oz and Esther.
• No food should ever be wasted.

Personal

Personal History

A Ritual Gone Wrong

There was once a Henin child named Atem. Atem lived in fear of turning three years old, but nevertheless, he did. His family offered him up as part of a traditional, but dangerous, ritual.
Like too many children before and after him, the ritual failed. Instead, it corrupted his spirit and welded it to that of his body. Atem would become a Sikna if his family did not do something soon to prevent it.
His family dumped his not-quite-a-corpse miles away from their homestead. Instead of setting him aflame to prevent his fate, they prayed over him. They then threw him into a bog, in a belief that it would prevent his corpse from reanimating. 
This misconception would cost Atem's family greatly.

"... Oz, Esther, wait! Look!" Areta calls softly. "Are those...?"
Oz and Esther look up where Areta points, to the balustrades high on the town's walls.
Three bodies hang in rusted cages, now naught but bone.
The trio slow their horses, then wordlessly shrug on. Nowhere else to go but forward.

Predator of the Trees

Atem separated from his mortal corpse with the barest memory of his past life and a gnawing hunger. The sikna would forever haunt the surrounding forest of his ad-hoc grave, and not even the boggy outcropping could slow him down. Nary a rabbit or squirrel escaped his hungry grasp, nor deer or even boar.
The first time a Henin forager passed into his territory, he approached. He attempted to speak to her, but whatever words he had once known escaped him the moment he opened his mouth.
The woman screamed and ran.Kiana's instincts kicked in. Few passerbys from that point onward survived his hunter's instinct once they had made contact, but he learned stealth to avoid hunting something that tasted bad. 
As time went on, his territory grew smaller until he was tethered to only a small part of the trail which he once ruled over. Small game that he once hunted with no problem slipped out of his grasp. 
Desperate, he gambled on a traveling party of three. Two unfamiliar birds, one uninteresting sheep, and three mouth-watering horses. He failed to take them by surprise or even spook the horses, but he continued to follow them listlessly all the way to the end of his territory. He struggled against it for a short while before giving up. He laid down underneath a tree and stared off into space in the direction the people disappeared in. 
The next morning, the people from the night before came back. One of them kneels in front of him, fearlessly. Atem attacks in disbelief, all teeth and claws and without a care for the loud screaming, until he felt a snap. Then he felt nothing.
It should have ended there. Instead, he awoke with more strength than he remembered having in years since his tether diminished. Naturally, he responded with a great howl and destroyed the tent in which his captors had placed him. He ran back to the trees, but discovered that they were not his trees and he had no idea where he was or how to return home. With nowhere else to go, Kiana instead haunted those who set him free, following their slow travels in the shadows of the trees and hunting for himself as he had always done. While the birds slept, the sheep sneaked a heaping bowl of meat scraps outside and addressed him from where he hid in a bush:

"Winter's coming, little sikna. Come eat."

A week later, the travelers built a shanty. The brown winged bird and the sheep brought him scraps every night, always waiting until the third had fallen asleep. 
When winter came and brought snow with it, the sikna ran to them for help. Rather than cast him back out, they showed him hitherto unknown kindness.
Show Prose

When she wakes up again, the creature has fully burrowed under Oz’s blanket. Its formerly cold little feet are shoved under her back, toes curled into her back feathers and its face shoved in her side feathers, stirring them with each tiny puff of breath.
Oz cranes her head. Areta is sitting up, tending to a fire. It’s warm in the shanty, and there’s surprisingly little smoke. Her makeshift fireplace works, thank wanuye.
Oz whispers, “Aret?”
Areta startles, then glances over at Oz, “Morning. It was so cold!”
“A visitor opened the flap.”
“Another raccoon?” Areta grumbles.
“No, the sikna.”
Areta turns around to get a clearer look at Oz, horrified. “A sikna was in our house? Did you shoo it away? I told you two to stop leaving food out!”
“Keep your voice down,” Oz hisses. “It’s still in here.”
Areta looks around the one room shelter rapidly and then says, dryly, “You’re not funny, Oz.”
Oz carefully twitches her blanket to the side.
Areta sucks in a deep breath.
“I’m not moving.” She re-covers the sikna.
“Uh, good plan.” Areta replies. “Don’t get bitten again before Essie comes home. I can’t heal you.”
“No promises,” Oz mutters.

Domestication

That winter, the triad worked together to teach the sikna how to live life indoors and in the company others. In the comforts of the home and its warm fireplace, Kiana was a resounding success.
Then spring came. Areta left, and Oz and Esther resumed their nomadic lifestyle. The sikna followed the pair, their raggedy shadow.
Kiana claims that he does not remember anything from this part of his life, when people ask him about it. If pressed, he will reply along the lines of "remembering it is a waste of my time. Bad is made good."
Suffice it to say that Kiana and his parents made it through the other side of the domestication process. It was not easy, and it was not always gentle. Esther nearly cut off ties with Oz over the last straw - the final time Kiana ever killed a sophont. She did not leave Oz, or that is to say, Kiana wouldn't allow her do it. He wouldn't leave without his other parent.
Not all aspects of his domestication were dark. Some were even joyful. During this time, he gained his preference for bright, all-encompassing clothes. He also began to learn to speak, albeit imperfectly.
Show Prose

Furious at Oz and Esther both in equal measure, Areta hisses, “Give me one good reason why we shouldn’t put it out of its misery?”
“He can speak, and--”
“Come again?”
"I’m going to do better. I’ve gotten help, Areta, he--”
“It can speak? Oz, stop. That's impossible!”
“Kiana!” Oz calls.
Kiana’s head pops up from the bed, where he’d been sleeping, hair wild. “Wha?!”
“Areta’s here!”
“Whozza?” Kiana clearly does not actually care, because his head slams back into the pillows.
“The one who sleeps all the time. From the first snow?”
“S-now, s-now, s-now,” Kiana repeats in disgust, muffled by the pillows.
“… Hi, Kiana,” Areta hazards in disbelief. “How are you?”
“S’eepy. Go back bed.”
“It’s noon,” Oz argues.
Esther says, “It’s time to wake up, you lazy bum.”
“No,” Kiana grumbles. “I s’eepy sikna, no 'azy bum.”
Esther blows a raspberry at him.
He turns his head to reply in kind.
Oz laughs and shakes her head, as if any of this is in any way shape or form normal.
Areta needs to sit down, suddenly.

The Lailai's Eyes

As Oz's fame grew along with the news of her miraculous powers and legendary adventures, so too did that of her companions. 
One of the most popular legends about Kiana is that of "the Sikna and the Moose." The story goes that Oz, Esther, and Kiana set up their shelter in a small hamlet. It had been blanketed by seemingly impenetrable snow. All of the hamlet's residents were either starving, freezing, or both. No matter what Oz and Esther did to help the villagers survive, nothing seemed to relieve the suffering. 
Despairing that his young friends were turning into skin and bones, Kiana took the issue into his own hands. Some say he was gone for a matter of hours, others weeks, but everyone agrees that when he returned, he returned dragged not one, but two moose behind him. The meat and furs were put to good use by the suffering people. From that day forward, Kiana personally ensured that not a single person went hungry or froze until they were freed from the horrid winter storm.
Another, later and more famous myth about Kiana's life is entitled, simply: "The Laila's Eyes." It hearkens back to the time when Oz, Esther, Areta, and Kiana temporary took shelter within the city of Oseka. No one can agree on what exactly the typically rural and poor group was doing in the richest city in the world. Nevertheless, Oz took on work from the city elite.
Reportedly, the Laila would never suffer to bring her son with her to meet any of her clients, despite their growing curiosity. Instead, he was sequestered away safely at home, at Esther's side. This changed when Esther was temporarily called out of the city.
Oz finally caved and brought Kiana along with her.
When he arrived to the city hall, he took one look at the King's guardsmen, pointed at them all, and said, "Bad."
The nobles at first tittered, as did the king, until the moment the guardsmen turned on him.
Moments before, Kiana sounded the alarm... And saved the king's life in the process, though it was a close call in the end.
As a reward for Kiana's foresight, the king gifted Oz with the land which would one day become Haven.

Haven's Peace

Kiana did not much care where the party decided to move to next, as long as he was able to escape that horrid city. All he wanted was to escape from the stifling, terrifying confines of Oseka in which his parents had temporarily trapped him. He wanted the forest.
That is to say: Haven exceeded all of his expectations for his next home by a mile and more. The moment they left the cart behind and waded through the dense forest by foot and by mule, Kiana thought he had entered a personal dream come true.
Somewhere along the way, his parents stopped. They looked at him all seriously, with barely concealed exhaustion.
They asked him: "Do we live here?"
Kiana took a look around and bounced on his heels. Rather than truly contemplate on whether it was a good place to set up shop or not, he said, "No." He only said no because his parents had given him the power to say so.
About a 1/3 of their traveling party groaned and stopped there. In that spot, they would found what would come to be known as Idelpol.
The rest of the party continued their slow foray into the forest, until one night, Kiana realized that he liked their campsite and awful lot. He didn't want to leave it behind in the morning, and maybe not even the next. There was a spring only a short walk away, and its gurgling soothed him.
He announced to his parents and the other travelers: "We live here."
The entire party appeared to have a weight lifted off of them. Drinks and musical instruments seemed to appear out of thin air.
The next morning, Oz took her ax and started to build their new home, right there in the middle of the wilderness. She and those who had joined them on the entire journey became the founders of Haven.
Little did Kiana know that when he said they lived there, that they would live there... and stay! Not for a winter, not for a few years, but as near to forever as Oz could possibly make it so.
Kiana still primarily lives in Haven today. Since its foundation, Haven's population (now an independent nation) has increased modestly. There are three towns, and Kiana's home - Elysium - is the largest village of them.
While Kiana has relatively little to do with the general governance of Haven, he does play a beloved role as the guardian spirit of the forest and protector of Haven's children - there isn't a single one that Kiana has never met.

Aravu's Promise

(This particular section is still a WIP) While Kiana's life mostly remains unimpeded in Haven, he has also recently been introduced to Aravu and the Yashelin society therein.
Sikna are beholden to the condition of their corpse. Everyone had thought that he was safe from death after his separation from the tethered boundaries he lived in. They were wrong. It was only his body's disposal in a bog which had saved his life for such an unnaturally long time.His along, along with hundreds of other corpses, were uncovered by a team of archaeologists. No museum could truly save little Atem's body from decay, especially since the family had no idea that it had been uncovered in the first place. They didn't realize that something was amiss until Kiana's condition rapidly deteriorated in the space of only a few months. They only figured out what had happened when the news did an expose on the archaeological work in the area, years later.
Rather than allow her son to die, Oz brought him to the altar of Aravu. In an unauthoritzed ritual which borrowed the words of the Tikiran Yashelin ritual, Oz adjusted it to suit Kiana's unique circumstances. Kiana became one of the Yashelin. He is now technically a Tikiran Yashelin, but he is not a Tikiran in the traditional sense because he remains, forever, a Sikna at the same time. He is an otherwise unheard of subsection of the Yashelin population.
Although scared out of his wits, one of Kiana's first truly lucid thoughts in a while was: Oz saved me a second time.

Current Status

Ever since his transformation, Kiana has divided his time between Haven and Aravu.
Life remains as it always in Haven, giving him the security necessary to allow him to grow as a Yashelin mali in Aravu.
On Aravu, Kiana primarily concerns himself with making new friends amongst the other mali. He also loves to explore the woodlands around his home, which is located just on the outskirts of Purple Mountain City. When not doing one of those two things, he can often be found irritating his little sister, Nanatu, badgering his friend, Ravi, or stalking his Ayiru, Chamu.

External

Important Personal Relationships

General Perception by Others

Friends

Family

Community

General Public

by AsterVela (Midjourney)

Kiyal-Lantana, The Person

Name Meaning

Colorful/Yellow Scarf

Purpose

To Teach Lessons

Spiritual Color(s)

Yellow

Pronouns

he/him si/sil

Species

Sikna, now a taxonomically nameless Yashelin-Bilikuot blend.

Ethnicity

Havenite

Homeplace

Haven

Parents

Esther Zylpeiros, Ozim Laila, and (to a lesser extent) Areta Maikir

Profession/Rank

Hunter and Forest Guide

Conditions

Reincarnation of Seri, Echolalia, Palilalia

.

Kiyal-Lantana, The Myth

Pseudonym

The Lailai's Eyes

Associated Religion

Lainism

Patron of

Children, Hunters, Social Workers