At-A-Glance
Character Name: Saralegui
Character Canon: Kyou Kara Maou!
Character Age: 17-18, rounded up to 18+

Breed Choice: Mermaid
Must Have Traits:

• Based on a Blue-ringed Octopus


• Human head, shoulders, arms, chest, and hands


• Glowing gold eyes (the glow shift to a light blue when actually using his hypnotic powers)
• Ability to change into a land-functioning form with human legs


• Wears his standard purple-tinted glasses in place of traditional mermaid eye coverings

Optional Traits: None initially, he'll develop some over time.
Height: 5'7"

Rarity: 5 stars

Once upon a time in the country of Ivore, there was a little brothel called the Teahouse.

~~~
Arguably the finest establishment of its kind in the capital city, the Teahouse, owned by a Mr. Xanthe Atros, sits neatly at the edge of the noble's district. It offers a range of pleasures suited to any customer, upper class or common, provided they have the coin. For the right price, customers can enjoy the services of its courtesans, be it for a few hours, a night, or a more lasting arrangement. The men and women of the Teahouse are highly regarded for both their attractiveness and their "talents" even outside the city itself, or so its most dedicated patrons would have one believe.

Upon entering, customers are greeted by a lavish main hall with lovingly polished marble floors and grand, sweeping staircases leading off to a number of private rooms. A handful of servants keep the place in pristine condition, fit for even the royal family were they to ever deign to visit. A quiet and professional bouncer stands vigil unobtrusively out of the way, protection in the odd case of a violent visitor, and at any hour at least one or two of the brothel's courtesans are lounging on the main hall's plush seating in wait of potential customers. It pays to be proactive, after all -- the higher earners are granted the best ammenities and perhaps the occasional outing into the city, sweet treats for those whose lives belong to the Teahouse.

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Kelly
Contact: tinybro; kmr9665@rit.edu; or just PM this journal
Age: 24
Current Characters: N/A


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Saralegui
Age: 17
Canon: Kyou Kara Maou!
Canon Point: End of the third season of the anime

Background:
Saralegui was born to King Gilbert of Small Shimaron and Queen Alazon of Seisakoku when Gilbert was shipwrecked and washed up on a beach in her hidden country. Alazon nursed him back to health and they fell in love, eventually producing a child, but the situation in Seisakoku was tense. The Holy Sword that gave the country life had been lost, and the presence of a human and a half-human child only added to the population's unease, so Alazon was forced to make the decision to send Gilbert and her child away, back to his own country.

So Saralegui grew up in Small Shimaron with a father who paid him no attention. Perhaps Gilbert simply had no idea what to do with a child, or he couldn't bear to deal with the little boy that looked so much like his lost love, but whatever his excuse was, Gilbert barely even looked at his own son. Saralegui was cared for by the servants and nothing he did was enough to catch his father's attention. At some point during his childhood, he apparently gave up on trying, having realized that it wasn't because of anything he did and so nothing else he did would change it. Instead, Saralegui decided he would simply have to one day become a far greater king than Gilbert ever was, so that everyone would love and respect and fear him. It wouldn't matter if his father didn't care for him and his mother seemed to have abandoned him, not if the rest of the world would always give him his due attention. During this time, the only person he was close to was a mysterious dark man, Belias, who came to the castle when Saralegui was young and pledged his loyalty to him on the spot.

Skipping forward to when Saralegui was fifteen, King Gilbert died of natural causes without ever attempting to become close with his own son. Saralegui became the ruler of Small Shimaron amidst nobles who would try to take advantage of his inexperience and use him like a puppet, with only Belias to trust. He would prove to be good at the job, however, and established a reputation as a kind king skilled in governing his country despite his young age and despite those who would try to manipulate the throne for their own ends.

Another two years later sees Saralegui's first appearance in the anime. After disposing of the previous king Belal and all other possible heirs, Lanzhil takes the throne of Large Shimaron and throws a party to celebrate. Saralegui goes to pledge his allegiance to Lanzhil and Large Shimaron, if only to save his country the possible trouble of not doing so. During the party, the Maou, King Yuuri of the demon country Shin Makoku, sneaks in disguised as a girl, and Saralegui plays Prince Charming and rescues "her" from a humiliating situation by asking for a dance. After a very sparkly dancing montage and some polite words, Yuuri flees and Saralegui comments on the fatefulness of the situation, as he'd wanted to meet the Maou and apparently wasn't at all fooled by the disguise.

Yuuri manages to get himself captured and while the rest of the room panics and gossips over the presence of a demon, Saralegui watches secretly during the execution Lanzhil arranged for Yuuri to see just how strong the famous king of demons really is. He isn't disappointed, too transfixed by the Maou's display of power to even look away until Belias pulls him to safety and guides their own escape from the area.

The two kings meet again later in the country of Caloria, when Saralegui rescues Yuuri once more, this time using Small Shimaron's army to scare off a mysterious group that was threatening the Maou and his friends. Yuuri recognizes him from the party in Large Shimaron and Saralegui admits to having known all along who he was, though he'd been unable to say anything in order to keep up appearances with Large Shimaron. Sitting down with Yuuri and the ruler of Caloria, he claims that the previous conflict between his and their countries was orchestrated without his knowledge by a subordinate, and he asks for forgiveness. He returns the soldiers from Caloria that had been stationed in Small Shimaron and asks to join in Shin Makoku's alliance with the other human nations. Quietly, of course, as he still couldn't publicly ally with Large Shimaron's enemy while still a vassal to that country. Yuuri accepts without hesitation, always eager to befriend everyone, and Saralegui promises to invite him to Small Shimaron at some point.

He issues that invitation shortly after, meeting some resistance from those serving him but powering on through it. A group of assassins attacks while Saralegui is meeting with Yuuri's group some ways away from the capital, and after the crisis is dealt with he admits to them that there are some within the country that do not agree with his ruling, who would like to kill him and overthrow the country. He claims not to know who's at the heart of it, though he'd secretly guessed one of his men named Gerald was behind the unrest.

Arriving at his castle, Saralegui plays innocent and introduces Yuuri to Gerald as his head of defense and "a man he trusts deeply", and Gerald for his part puts on an act as well, claiming he'd been about to send some men out to assist them after hearing about the attack. He sends the majority of the soldiers away from the palace so that he can gain control inside, while Saralegui leads Yuuri's group on a tour of the castle and explains the history between their countries.

During a moment of rest, some of Yuuri's subjects wonder amongst themselves at Saralegui and Belias' appearance. They explain to Yuuri about the Shinzoku race and their country of Seisakoku, how the people had such powerful magic that they were thought of as gods and the country had become closed off and hidden away two thousand years earlier so that few knew of the Shinzoku people and even fewer had ever seen one. They mention how Saralegui's pale gold coloring resembles the Shinzoku, and Belias' dark hair and eyes made him look like a demon, but of course such things couldn't be true of the king of a human country and his personal bodyguard.

While Saralegui is taking Yuuri on a stroll through the palace gardens, some soldiers alert them that intruders had penetrated the grounds and that they should get to safety. Saralegui drags Yuuri away from his guards -- just before their group is ambushed by rebel soldiers, and the Shin Makoku group certainly notices that little detail. The Maou is as oblivious as ever and fails to realize the discrepancy, instead trying to comfort his new friend as Saralegui plays dumb and distressed over the attack and the possibility of Gerald's involvement in it.

They hide in an empty coffin in the royal tomb, Yuuri taking that time to marvel over how pretty and nice-smelling Saralegui is while Sara instead asks about Yuuri's country. They pick the conversation up again after the rebel soldiers leave up in Saralegui's room. He asks about Yuuri's mother, admitting in a rare vulnerable moment that he never knew his own and that his father never told him anything about her. Yuuri is well-loved by everyone back in his castle, Saralegui points out, but the human king himself had always been alone. Yuuri promises that he would never have to be alone anymore now that they were friends, but the conversation is cut short as a group of rebel soldiers burst into the room. Saralegui pushes Yuuri out the window where he slides down a roof to safety, allowing himself to be captured alone.

This was his plan all along, as it turns out. Yuuri's group escapes while Gerald captures Belias with Saralegui held hostage, but even still Saralegui brazenly mouths off to Gerald. He guesses that the plan was to have him abdicate the throne due to "illness" and hand it over to Gerald, who would serve Large Shimaron and eventually allow Small Shimaron to come back into their power. At this point, Saralegui reveals a power of hypnosis that he uses on Gerald to make him leave the room for the time being. As he expected, Yuuri's group stages a rescue, getting help from a lord still loyal to Saralegui.

Large Shimaron had already heard of the Maou's presence by the point, and sent representatives to look into these rumors. Yuuri's assistants are reluctant to just leave, suspicious of Saralegui and thinking that he will simply help Large Shimaron organize an ambush for them as soon as they're out of earshot. So instead, he organizes for them to hide in the throne room while he greets the Large Shimaron representatives, so they can watch while he claims the Maou's group hadn't been there at all. But this is just to keep their trust, and he had secretly used his power of hypnosis on Gerald earlier to have him barge into the throne room in the middle of the meeting and attack Saralegui. Yuuri, of course, jumps out to defend him, revealing his presence to Large Shimaron's representatives on his own. The representatives leave to report this to Lanzhil, and Saralegui insists that Shin Makoku group should escape and leave him to handle the situation. Yuuri refuses to abandon him and suggests that he's handed over to Large Shimaron and later rescued by his own subjects, so that Saralegui couldn't be held responsible.

They meet Large Shimaron's forces in a large field, and while Saralegui escorts Yuuri to the enemy side, an arrow is unexpectedly shot at the demon king. Saralegui pushes him aside and takes the arrow in his place. He'd arranged for Belias to stealthily shoot the arrow from a hidden location, trusting his bodyguard to not kill him, so that he could kill roughly three birds with one stone. The Shin Makoku group assumes the arrow was an assassination attempt on Yuuri's life by Large Shimaron and that Saralegui had selflessly protected him. Yuuri goes berserk and destroys Large Shimaron's forces with his power as the Maou. Saralegui survives, of course, with no one but Conrart suspicious of Belias' involvement in it all, and after Yuuri's group escapes the country, Saralegui futher turns the situation in his favor. He reports to Large Shimaron's representatives that the arrow must have been a plot of the demons, trying to kill him for assisting Large Shimaron. To each side, he appears to be a proven ally, and he'd managed to weaken Lanzhil's army in the process.

Some time passes, and Conrart is sent to Small Shimaron where Saralegui claims to have arranged for a meeting between him and Lanzhil, but surprise, the arrangements "aren't finished yet" and Conrart is left locked in a guest room in Small Shimaron while Saralegui accompanies the Large Shimaron navy to attack Shin Makoku. Through a teleportation accident, Yuuri ends up on Saralegui's ship and on the spot, Saralegui decides to use this sudden appearance to his advantage. He takes Yuuri out onto the ship deck and hypnotizes him into unleashing the Maou's power and destroying Large Shimaron's fleet, coming very close to killing Lanzhil -- which would have only served Saralegui's purposes, as it turns out he's after Large Shimaron's throne himself.

Conrart escapes Small Shimaron after realizing Saralegui's deception and goes around Large Shimaron combating Lanzhil's tyranny. That chaos works well for Saralegui, but he couldn't risk someone else claiming that throne in his place -- someone like Conrart, who had a legitimate claim and was being lauded as the people's savior. So he sends Belias to capture Conrart, knowing his bodyguard had been craving a duel with the other swordsman. Belias, however, allows himself to be captured by Conrart and taken back to Shin Makoku.

Visibly upset for once upon hearing the news of Belias' loss and subsequent capture, Saralegui travels to Shin Makoku to pick up his bodyguard. Upon meeting Yuuri at the docks, he plays sweet and innocent as if he hadn't recently tricked the pacifistic Yuuri into destroying a fleet of ships. The Maou suggests they take a private carriage back together and waits until they have some privacy to confront him about the matter, saying that he's angry but he'll still trust Saralegui no matter what happens, because they're friends. Saralegui seems shocked for a moment, but then happily hugs Yuuri, evidently pleased to find Yuuri wouldn't abandon him even after he'd done something so terrible. He goes to Belias after a more formal meeting in the Maoh's throne room, good mood gone and irritated at Belias sneaking into Shin Makoku on his own, and says they'll talk about it once they return home. Belias, however, refuses to leave.

That night, Alazon invades Shin Makoku's castle, magically putting most of the castle to sleep and attempting to leave with Yuuri. The group Small Shimaron had rescued them from back in Caloria was hers, as it turns out, as she was seeking Seisakoku's Holy Sword. Having found it, she needed a powerful half-blood to harness its power and save her country, like the half-demon/half-human Yuuri. Belias bursts out of his cell, the release of power dispelling the glamour that darkened his hair and eye color from the same pale gold as Saralegui and Alazon, and goes to interrupt the scene. But Saralegui comes upon them all, and after Alazon recognizes him and flees, he correctly guesses that she was his mother.

With everyone all sat down to figure out what had just happened, Belias explains how his Gilbert and Alazon met; how Gilbert and Saralegui were sent away; and how he had gone with Alazon, his sister, to find the Holy Sword. Her methods had become more and more cold, however, and eventually Belias left her to go find his nephew in Small Shimaron.

All that worked out, Saralegui again requests that Small Shimaron and Shin Makoku create an alliance. However, he explains how he plans to take Large Shimaron's throne once Lanzhil is kicked off, all the other candidates already disposed of and Conrart with no intention of leaving Shin Makoku, and asks for Shin Makoku to turn a blind eye while he works to unify Shimaron. It would work in their favor as well, he points out, as he and Yuuri would then control the largest parts of the human and demon lands and could create a lasting peace.

Alazon comes again to meet with the Maou properly and ask for his assistance, with Yuuri's subjects present as well as Saralegui and Belias. But when Yuuri accepts her proposal and she moves to hand him the Holy Sword, Saralegui decides that he won't let her have Yuuri and pushes his way in, snatching the sword away himself. Its power suddenly goes nuts, as Saralegui, a half-blood himself, turns out to be its true wielder. He briefly tries to turn it on Alazon in a fit of rage when she refuses to acknowledge him as being just as worthy as Yuuri, but the Maou stops him before things can escalate. The sword's power teleports Saralegui away to a random alleyway in his distress.

Still emotionally unstable, Saralegui comes across Janeus there, an ex-servant of his mother, and gives him the sword's power so that he could get revenge on her for both of them. Janeus wreaks havoc on the city with the Holy Sword's power, and that same uncontrolled power nearly kills Saralegui, but Alazon sacrifices herself to save him just as Belias arrives. Saralegui has a bit of a breakdown, understandably confused by his mother's mixed signals. Yuuri and the Original King manage to subdue Janeus while Belias tries and fails to heal his sister, and the Holy Sword's power rains down on the city. Saralegui charges the sword again with that same power, using it to heal his mother.

Yuuri is still unconscious some days after the battle, his magical energy exhausted, and Saralegui volunteers to use the Holy Sword's power to heal him as well. Some of Yuuri's subjects resist at first, still unwilling to trust him, but eventually they relent and Yuuri is woken up. Yuuri goes to meet with Alazon now that both of them have recovered, and she laments how her country is apparently fated to die, but Saralegui interrupts to say that he will use the Holy Sword's power to revive Seisakoku. Not for her sake, of course, but as a favor from Small Shimaron to Seisakoku that he will see repaid.

Saralegui says farewell to Yuuri, their relationship repaired if somewhat more honest now, and Saralegui teases him that he should be careful around ambitious men like him. He travels to Seisakoku with his mother, returning the Holy Sword's power to the country with a quick but formal ceremony, and he turns to leave the moment it's over, Belias following after him. However, he pauses near the exit, just long enough to say that he'll return at some point, as it's the country of his birth. He leaves it at that, heading out as Alazon sheds quiet, grateful tears.

Personality:
By all outward appearances, Saralegui is just the young and charismatic king of the country of Small Shimaron. He's intelligent and fair in his rule despite his age, and well-liked by his people. He's kind and charming and strives for peace, the sort of king that really cares about his people, rather than just enjoying the luxury that such power brings.

In reality, however, Saralegui is manipulative and scheming. He plays nice with others to keep up a good reputation, because it's that sort of thing that helps him most in the cutthroat politics of his world. Saralegui doesn't shy away from using others to accomplish his goals, and he's both intelligent enough and powerful enough to get away with it. "Powerful" in this case referring less to his rank and more to the hypnotic magic he can work with his eyes. He doesn't even need that much of the time though, more interested in the challenge of going without, or doing things the more complicated way, such as in the incident where he arranged for himself to be hit by an arrow apparently intended for Yuuri in order to gain his trust. When asked by Belias why he was going so far when he could simply use his powers for the same purpose, Saralegui had simply answered that it was more fun going without. He's extremely intelligent, plotting moves out far in advance and predicting the moves on others accurately in order to make all his plotting work, and with his hypnotic abilities to fall back on, he's willing to make extremely risky gambles that always seem to work out for him in the end.

It isn't a lie that he cares for his country, but even that has a selfish root -- a need to be a greater king than his father was, to be acknowledged and loved and respected and feared by everyone because his father would barely even look at him. He has something of an abandonment complex, between his father's lack of care and his mother having been entirely absent from his life. No one is nice to others without wanting something from them, as far as he's concerned, and the concept of love is a pretty lie. How could he believe in something like that, after all, when his own parents, the people who are supposed to love you unconditionally and before all others, wanted nothing to do with him?

On a casual level, he ranges from genuinely affable to incredibly two-faced. He's very focused on appearances and often lies and sticks to polite surface interactions for the sake of maintaining that persona of a sweet and pleasant young ruler. But it's not as if everything he does always has such ulterior motives. He's very much capable of being friendly and getting along with others, and with all the societal rules and niceties out of the way he can actually be pretty great for intelligent conversation or flirting or joking around. After the whole revelation about his mother while at Blood Pledge Castle, with all the scheming and deception behind them, he actually manages to have a simple, pleasant day with Yuuri and Greta while getting a tour of the castle and being introduced to Yuuri's various friends. As long as things remain on a lighthearted surface level, he can be fairly genuine and likable without issue -- it's getting deeper than that that starts opening up a can of worms. He has some intense trust issues as well, so he lies and manipulates rather than put his faith into others, and his pride can just as easily get in the way of such relationships.

The only person he trusts absolutely his his bodyguard, Belias, and that's a trust built up over more than a decade of loyal servitude. Had Belias entered his life later it might have been too late, with Saralegui already too suspicious of others in general to allow anyone that close, but Belias came at a critical point, when Saralegui was still young and desperate enough to cling to whatever attention he was given. Belias is the only person he truly trusts, and he takes that trust to an extreme, even fearlessly putting his life in his bodyguard's skilled hands, as in that example with the arrow. For everyone else, however, he's skeptical of others as a rule, and prone to suspecting others of having ulterior motives than simply accepting the kindness of a stranger.

Despite everything he's done, Saralegui isn't exactly a villain. He does bad things, sometimes cruel things, but his intentions are often good. His world peace scheme, for example, wherein all his machinations to deal with Large Shimaron and take over as its king would supposedly lead to a situation where he and Yuuri could set an example for the rest of the world as allied leaders of the two greatest nations. He has a very "ends justify the means" attitude, which is why he could so easily trick his only friend, the pacifistic Yuuri, into destroying entire armies for him on two separate occasions -- it might hurt Yuuri, yes, but it gets rid of the threat of Large Shimaron's forces without having to send a single soldier into battle, and if it manages to kill off Large Shimaron's king in the process, then that just means he can claim the throne himself and definitively end all the fighting between humans and demons.

Abilities:

• He has a power that allows him to more or less hypnotize other people. It seems to require eye contact (at least initially) and as he always removes his glasses before using it, most likely can't penetrate even transparent surfaces. He can give commands that run counter even to a person's natural survival instincts, and even commands that activate at a later time. Subtle commands worked into a conversation can go unnoticed even by particularly powerful targets, but blatant, obvious use of his power is remembered by the victim unless he specifically commands them to forget it. The commands given don't have to be verbal, and resistance to them is based on willpower, but it should be noted that the ability is very powerful, with only the Demon King ever being shown actually breaking free from it. He doesn't seem to like abusing this power, however, as it's only ever brought out in situations he can't somehow manipulate through other means.
• His vision is particularly good, and he can see even in complete darkness. The downside is that his eyes are very sensitive to light as a result.
• If he were to ever gain possession of it here, he would have the ability to use the Holy Sword of Seisakoku to its full potential, which involves a sort of life magic that spontaneously creates plantlife in great abundance, can heal others, and provides vitality to an entire country.
• Other than those, he has no special abilities other than his charisma and cunning.

Alignment: Thras. Much of how Saralegui navigates his interactions with others is with more subtle variations of fear and bravery: wariness and caution and arrogance and confidence. He's also just kind of crazy, and tends to react more towards the "fear" end of things where emotional things are concerned and more towards the "ridiculous reckless bravery" end where actual danger is concerned. This boy has goddamn mind control powers and yet decided to take an arrow to the chest to solve his problems because it was more fun. Like, what the hell.

Other: The events in all the mediums of Kyou Kara Maou! differ greatly from each other. I'm playing from the anime adaptation specifically, but I do flesh things out here and there with details from the novels, manga, and audio dramas where they don't contradict the anime canon.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: Character Portrayal (previous game thread)

Use of Emotions sample:
[Unsurprisingly, but frustratingly enough, unintentional effects on this world using emotions came much more easily than intentional ones.

He must have spent an hour out there, growing frustrated sitting in the dry heat while trying to get the temperature to change. But he was nothing if not single-minded and determined, and eventually he'd managed to get the air pleasantly cool, at least in the area immediately around him. Hard to say how far it extended, but he could appreciate the little victories. And he certainly did appreciate it, exhaling and leaning back on his hands with a grin and an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and triumph.

A scent drifted in, cutting sweetly through the dusty air. Something like vanilla, almost. Saralegui paused, turning about to find the source of it, but he was as alone out in the middle of nowhere as he'd been for the last hour.

And with a start, he realized the scent might have been an unintentional creation. A moment of irritation, that something like that could come without even thinking about it while he'd been stuck struggling forever trying to make a change on purpose. And then, as if in reaction to that surge of annoyance, the smell in the air soured.

Saralegui wrinkled his nose and made a disgusted noise, standing and brushing the dust from his boots. He'd had some level of success. That was enough of that for now.]

Questions: N/A

The Basics
Canon: Kyou Kara Maou!
Character Name: Saralegui
Character Journal: enthraller
Player Name: Kelly
Best contact method: tinybro, kmr9665@rit.edu, or PM this journal

Character Details
Canon Point: End of season 3 of the anime
Species: Half human, half Shinzoku (best translation is probably "Divine" or "God Race", basically humans with odd coloring and their own brand of particularly powerful magic that comes naturally, as opposed to the sort most humans use which depends on external aids like magic stones)

Timeline of Important Events in Canon History:

Born - Not long afterwards is effectively exiled from his birth country of Seisakoku along with his father.

5 years old - Meets his bodyguard/uncle, Belias, for the first time.

Roughly a decade of fatherly neglect and teaching himself the ways of nobility and getting what he wants.

15 years old - His father, King Gilbert, dies. Saralegui inherits the throne of Small Shimaron.

~16 years old - Arranges a field test of the Box his country has secretly possessed for an unknown amount of time, using Conrart Weller's severed arm that he arranged to have stolen as the key. Shit goes poorly, the Great Demon Kingdom takes possession of the Box, and Saralegui leaves his subordinate Maxine to take the blame for the incident.

17 years old - Meets the Demon King Yuuri for the first time at a party while Yuuri is disguised as a girl. Saves Yuuri from a socially awkward situation, has fun watching Yuuri's capture and later escape.

Meets Yuuri again after stepping in with an army to save him from the White Crows, reveals his identity as King of Small Shimaron to Yuuri and declares his desire to ally with the Great Demon Kingdom.

Invites Yuuri to visit Small Shimaron. Plans the visit to coincide with a coup d'etat he'd predicted, runs off with Yuuri during the attack so they could have some alone time and then makes a show of letting himself get captured while he let Yuuri escape. Warded off the attempts to get him to give up his throne with his mind control powers and waited patiently for Yuuri to come back and save him, which he of course did.

Tricks Yuuri into revealing himself to Large Shimaron's delegates during their visit to investigate rumors of Small Shimaron fraternizing with demons. Arranges for Belias to shoot him with an arrow in a fake assassination attempt while later releasing Yuuri into Large Shimaron's custody, making it look like he was protecting Yuuri and thus causing Yuuri to wreck Large Shimaron's shit in a fit of rage.

Sends Yuuri off back to the Great Demon Kingdom while still recovering from the arrow to the chest, and convinces Large Shimaron that the arrow incident had been an attempt on his own life by the demons meant to turn Large and Small Shimaron against each other.

Sends Yuuri forewarning of Large Shimaron's imminent attack and offers to arrange a meeting between Yuuri and Large Shimaron's King Lanzhil. Conrart Weller is sent in Yuuri's place, and Saralegui locks him in a guest room and goes to join Large Shimaron's naval assault.

Yuuri shows up on Saralegui's ship right before the naval battle via water teleportation, Saralegui mindfucks him into once again wrecking Large Shimaron's shit.

Sends Belias to re-capture Conrart Weller, who had escaped during the naval battle. Belias is captured instead.

Travels to the Great Demon Kingdom to pick up Belias at Yuuri's invitation, gets a severe scolding from Yuuri over being so manipulative, and they reestablish their alliance. Belias refuses to come home just yet, and that night Saralegui meets his mother Alazon while she was attempt to spirit Yuuri away in the night. Realizes that she is his mother and Belias is his uncle all at once, and then everyone has to sit down and have the story of his birth explained and it's very awkward.

Asks Yuuri if he can be present when Alazon returns. Is completely ignored by Alazon when she does return to ask for Yuuri's help using the power of the Holy Sword of Seisakoku. Throws a fit and steals the sword, and everyone realizes Saralegui is its true intended wielder when its magic goes nuts. Alazon refuses to ask him to help her instead, Saralegui loses his shit and tries to fight her, then accidentally teleports away using the sword's magic in a moment of distress.

Offers up the sword's power to an abandoned servant of Alazon's in a moment of poor, very emotional decision making. Said servant proceeds to wreck the capital using said power, and Saralegui is nearly killed in the chaos but saved by Alazon. Belias struggles to heal her, Saralegui has a mental breakdown over the situation, and eventually he saves her life using the sword's power.

Revives Yuuri from a magic exhaustion coma using the sword's power. Passive-aggressively offers to use it to save Seisakoku for Alazon in Yuuri's place.

Travels with Alazon to Seisakoku and revives the country using its power. Heads back home finally after implying he might visit again someday and thus making his mom cry.

Personality:
Saralegui's primary motivation in all things is an extreme need to be acknowledged, born of growing up ignored by his father and abandoned by his mother. Deep down, he craves the affection and support he never had as a child, but like hell would he admit that even to himself. In canon, he mainly aims to be a better king than his father was so everyone will respect and fear or love him, primarily by pulling crazy stunts to accomplish the seemingly impossible while maintaining a flawless public image. He makes this much harder for himself by reserving his mind control powers for special circumstances, going about everything through old-fashioned manipulation and calculated risk-taking, partially because it makes his successes feel more legitimate and earned in his own eyes, but also partially because he's just a thrillseeker and thinks it's more fun that way.

By all outward appearances, Saralegui is just the young and charismatic king of the country of Small Shimaron. He's intelligent and fair in his rule despite his age, and well-liked by his people. He's kind and charming and strives for peace, the sort of king that really cares about his people, rather than just enjoying the luxury that such power brings.

In reality, however, Saralegui is manipulative and scheming. He plays nice with others to keep up a good reputation, because it's that sort of thing that helps him most in the cutthroat politics of his world. Saralegui doesn't shy away from using others to accomplish his goals, and he's both intelligent enough and powerful enough to get away with it. He's extremely intelligent, plotting moves out far in advance and predicting the moves of others accurately in order to make all his plotting work, and with his hypnotic abilities to fall back on, he's willing to make extremely risky gambles that always seem to work out for him in the end.

On a casual level, he ranges from genuinely affable to incredibly two-faced. He's very focused on appearances and often lies and sticks to polite surface interactions for the sake of maintaining that persona of a sweet and pleasant young ruler. But it's not as if everything he does always has such ulterior motives. He's very much capable of being friendly and getting along with others, and with all the societal rules and niceties out of the way he can actually be pretty great for intelligent conversation or flirting or joking around. After the whole revelation about his mother while at Blood Pledge Castle, with all the scheming and deception behind them, he actually manages to have a simple, pleasant day with Yuuri and Greta while getting a tour of the castle and being introduced to Yuuri's various friends. As long as things remain on a lighthearted surface level, he can be fairly genuine and likable without issue -- it's getting deeper than that that starts opening up a can of worms. He has some intense trust issues as well, so he lies and manipulates rather than put his faith into others, and his pride can just as easily get in the way of such relationships.

The only person he always trusted absolutely was his bodyguard, Belias, and that was a trust built up over more than a decade of loyal servitude. Had Belias entered his life later it might have been too late, with Saralegui already too suspicious of others in general to allow anyone that close, but Belias came at a critical point, when Saralegui was still young and desperate enough to cling to whatever attention he was given. Belias was the only person he truly trusted, and he took that trust to an extreme, even fearlessly putting his life in his bodyguard's skilled hands, as in that example with the arrow. For everyone else, however, he's skeptical and jaded, prone to suspecting others of having ulterior motives than simply accepting the kindness of a stranger.

Despite everything he's done, Saralegui isn't exactly a villain. He does bad things, sometimes cruel things, but his intentions are often good. His world peace scheme, for example, wherein all his machinations to deal with Large Shimaron and take over as its king would supposedly lead to a situation where he and Yuuri could set an example for the rest of the world as allied leaders of the two greatest nations. He has a very Machiavellian "ends justify the means" attitude, which is why he could so easily trick his only friend, the pacifistic Yuuri, into destroying entire armies for him on two separate occasions -- it might hurt Yuuri, yes, but it gets rid of the threat of Large Shimaron's forces without having to send a single soldier into battle, and if it manages to kill off Large Shimaron's king in the process, then that just means he can claim the throne himself and definitively end all the fighting between humans and demons.

By his current canon-point at the end of the series, his trust issues and obsession with appearances have eased just a little bit. He has a family now, even if he's still working through his feelings regarding his mother, and he has an unwavering friend in the form of Yuuri who he can be his true self around. He's making something of an attempt to make up for his past dick moves, and he's been taught a lesson by Yuuri about not manipulating people all the time. He's still skeptical of others as a rule, and tends to adopt an idealized persona when dealing with acquaintances, but he's more likely now to open up and will likely get even better at being a normal, decent person with time.

Abilities, Magic and Supernatural Skills/Afflictions:

He has a power that allows him to more or less hypnotize other people. It seems to require eye contact (at least initially) and as he always removes his glasses before using it, most likely can't penetrate even transparent surfaces. He can give commands that run counter even to a person's natural survival instincts, and even commands that activate at a later time. Subtle commands worked into a conversation can go unnoticed even by particularly powerful targets, but blatant, obvious use of his power is remembered by the victim unless he specifically commands them to forget it. The commands given don't have to be verbal, and resistance to them is based on willpower, but it should be noted that the ability is very powerful, with only the Demon King ever being shown actually breaking free from it. He doesn't seem to like abusing this power, however, as it's only ever brought out in situations he can't somehow manipulate through other means.

His vision is particularly good, and he can see even in complete darkness. The downside is that his eyes are very sensitive to light as a result.

If he were to ever gain possession of it here, he would have the ability to use the Holy Sword of Seisakoku to its full potential, which involves a sort of life magic that spontaneously creates plantlife in great abundance, can heal others, and provides vitality to an entire country.

Other than those, he has no special abilities other than his charisma and cunning.

Dragon & Magical Element
Elemental Alignment:

Light - Most obviously, the Light element suits him aesthetically, what with him being all gold and light, and the shining gold light that emanates from the Holy Sword when he uses it. It also reflects his natural ability for night vision with the Night Sight power, and the light healing ability he could use with the Holy Sword. The powers in this element also most closely resemble some of the magic his mother and uncle use, like force-fields and energy blasts.
Shadow - He's often visually tied to the night and the moon, and the dark nature of some of the Shadow element's powers suit his methods and style well, like poison abilites and Blood Manipulation.
Earth - When using the Holy Sword, Saralegui was able to use its life/earth magic to great effect, creating entire forests and fields of flowers while the sword was going berserk, and other instances of the sword's use created vines that choked and crushed enemies. The poison and thorn abilities from the Earth element also suit his style well.

Dragon: Saralegui's dragon, who he calls Shima after his home country, is between medium and standard size, about the size and build of a particularly lean horse -- if that horse had wings and a long reptilian tail, of course. She has four legs and one set of wings like your standard Western-style dragon, but with some distinctly avian features. Her snout more resembles a bird's beak with a downward curve to a point and a bone-smooth surface, and her wings are feathered rather than leathery. Small, almost downy feathers also run down along her spine and at the top of her neck just behind her jaw and ears, and her tail is tufted with some longer feathers. Her hide is primarily covered by smooth, pale gold scales, with certain patches along her legs and underside being a bit darker and more resembling the scaling on a bird's feet. Her feathers at their base are a pale gold that blends in with her scales, but they lighten along their length to a creamy white near the tip.

She's capable of flight, but only just large enough to be ridden by one person. Because of her size and the placement of her wings, a rider would have to sit further back than they would on a horse, with their legs behind the joint of her wings, and lay low against her back to keep balanced. She eats meat, preferably raw, and though she can hunt on land, she prefers fishing for her food. She doesn't really like to be entirely immersed in the water, but she doesn't mind getting a little wet while fishing or splashing around in the shallows by the shore.

Her egg will be just a little bit smaller than an ostrich egg, smooth in texture and ivory colored with golden flecks throughout.

Personality traits inherited from Character Bond:

Needy

Headstrong

Mischievous

Loves physical contact

Writing Samples
First Sample: TDM sample
Second Sample:
He was used to hearing a bit of a commotion following him through the market, between the attention his delicate looks had always gotten him and the new addition of a dragon doggedly tailing him everywhere. Even just in the short while he'd been in the city so far, he'd grown accustomed to the sounds of things getting scattered and knocked over by an overeager juvenile dragon and the surprised and irritated noises of the nearby locals. It was lucky that the people of the city seemed to revere the dragons so much, otherwise Saralegui imagined those messes wouldn't be shrugged off so easily.

Everything taken into consideration, he didn't pay much attention to the sudden ruckus behind him. The familiar scrabble of claws on cobblestones, the clattering of something being toppled. He'd only paused, sighing and mentally preparing to apologize and charm whatever poor merchant had had their stall knocked over.

Then he heard his own dragon's screeching, familiar but louder and more distressed than he'd ever heard her, and his heart seemed to stop for a moment as he whipped around, plans and speeches already forgotten.

There was indeed a stall knocked over, its owner pressed anxiously back against the wall while Saralegui's dragon hunched behind the fallen wooden top, visible only by her bright feathered wings peeking out. A larger dragon, rusty brown and intimidatingly covered in small spikes, hissed and clawed at the other side of the wood while its scion frantically tried to reign it in.

The was blood on the stone path.

Blood suddenly like ice in his veins, Saralegui pushed back through the gathering crowd, sidestepping the hostile dragon just barely and clambering over the side of the topped stall. Hidden behind it, Shima was curled awkwardly, one foreleg held off the ground and dripping blood. He didn't even have to call her before she was on him, scrabbling up into his arms as best she could with what seemed to be an injured leg and a scratch along her side. He thought she probably shouldn't have been moving around at all before that was looked at, that moving had to only hurt more. But she pressed close to him with another distressed little screech, and he gathered her up almost automatically.

It was lucky that she was so light. She was still only about the size of a medium dog, but he wasn't known for his strength or muscles. Still, whatever effort it took to carry her didn't seem to reach him at that moment. Neither did the words of the other scion, frantic and apologetic with some explanation of the scene he hadn't witnessed. Later, he'd probably dredge up some anger for them and their beast of a dragon, but he couldn't even manage that right then. Shima was curled against him, claws digging into his shoulders and blood staining his pale clothes.

He ignored the other scion and pushed back through the crowd. Suddenly, all he could find he cared about was finding some sort of healer. Immediately.


30 Day Opt-In

In the 30 days that your character has been in the city, how have they spent their time? Saralegui spent the first few days deeply depressed and mostly taking it out on the little dragon he'd found himself stuck with. Luckily, she's a needy little thing and wasn't dissuaded, and he got over himself after those first couple of days and stopped trying to chase her off. The majority of his time since then has been spent focusing on his dragon to think less about everything that was lost back home, figuring out her eating habits and mannerisms and whatnot. He's explored the city a fair bit, and he's trying to build himself a solid foundation of knowledge about the city, its inhabitants and its system of governance.

Has the dragon hatched yet? Did their egg hatch immediately or was there time between locating their egg in the Heart of Nuren and the dragon's hatchday? How much have they grown? His dragon hatched about a day after being located. She's grown just a little so far, to about the size of a average dog.

How have your character's interactions with the Remnants within the city been? Aside from his first few days of sulking, Saralegui's made an effort to come across as pleasant and charming with the locals. He's gotta build himself a reputation from scratch, after all, especially if he wants to gain any real influence here.

How have your character's interactions with the Touched within the city been? He admittedly can't help but marvel over some of the more obvious Touched, the more inhuman-looking ones, but he otherwise treats them no different from the Remnants. He knows better than to assume one sort of people are any different from another, despite surface differences.

Has your character been living in the mountain cavern homes of Upper Nuren or within the housing areas of Lower Nuren? He's stayed in the mountain cavern homes so far, mostly out of convenience, but he's been getting curious about finding somewhere more private lately.