Arakki of the day

[Sutekh]

(A thread where I come up with new mutants, specifically for Arakko/Amenth. Others are free to contribute.)

Ter En Ki, Stopper of Hearts
While appearing older than her brother, the Stopper of Hearts is the younger child of the Brass Bull, and while her mother exults at her dangerous mutation, she despises the mother who abandoned her at birth, and only seemed interested in claiming her as daughter when she developed her mutant power to control the surface tension of liquids to clot the blood in a living body and kill people with a touch. Originally, she was a normal child, abandoned to the appointed caregivers, those whose mutations proved useless for matters of war or survival in the harsh lands of Amenth, and when she reached puberty, her power at first seemed little more than a pointless trick, to cause fluids to become firm, with a consistency between leather and gelatin, such that she could walk over temporarily solidified water. But when she learned how to focus it on the liquid in a person’s body, causing their heart to fail as it tried to circulate blood now thick as soil, she gained new recognition and was sheparded from the work enclaves for ‘useless’ people.

Ter En Ki is a lean woman with a long strong ‘mannish’ face, and any pretense at beauty would be spoiled in any event by the lackadaisical care she affords for her hair, usually bound up in careless dreads, or attire, which seems to be whatever she thought was clean enough that day. She has a borderline obsessive fascination with the nature of her powers, stemming at least in part from a fear of being thought useless or weak and being shunted back to the camps, and so has turned her powerful mind and will to developing new techniques for her gift. One line of study has taught her how to momentarily ‘stiffen’ the water in her own skin cells, so that her skin becomes very hard to penetrate, such that a sword slash only slices open the very top layer of cells, but cannot penetrate the solidified water within, leaving only a thin red stripe, as if scratched by a prickly thorn, and not a metal blade! Another notion led to the discovery that she could affect not just fluids, but even some other substances that assume fluid properties, such as sand, and she can ‘stiffen’ loose sand so that she and her allies could run across it effortlessly, and allow it to ‘soften’ behind her to hinder anyone pursuing her. She has a keen interest in learning new applications, and the scientific knowledge now available to the Arakki, after so many generations 'stuck at the bronze age,' intrigues her, making her one of the first Arakki to show interest in learning new scientific theories that might prove relevant to her powers development, particularly in subjects like fluid dynamics. Due to her estrangement from her mother, she prefers to use her sobriquet Stopper of Hearts, than her given name, although she is still pondering a more distinctive moniker, like Slows-The-Blood or Blood-Runs-Thick.

(Someone whose mutant power is to walk on water? Yes, and I made it vaguely useful! I wanted something other than 'throws zaps' or 'animal person mutant' or 'telepath #42,' and controlling the surface tension of liquids sounded pretty darn out there.)

[Sutekh]

Nam En Ki, Water Child
Brass Bull’s eldest child, Nam En Ki appears as a youth of perhaps thirteen summers, having not aged a day since his mutation first blossomed over a decade ago. As a result, his interactions with his younger sister, who is a head taller than him, can be confusing to people unaware of the age discrepancy. Unlike his driven sister, Nam is quiet and introspective, more concerned with the notion that he may indeed be immortal, and will outlive most of his family and friends, as his body transformed at the time of his mutation, and while it appears and functions as a humanoid body, for most purposes, it has fluid properties, such that physical attacks simply pass through his liquid self, which reforms behind a blade or talon, like water falling back into a lake. Only damage that could destroy the matter of his body, like fire, can truly harm him, and he is otherwise as invulnerable as he is ageless, lacking only any significant means of offense, to keep him from the ranks of omega mutants. He has only a passing interest in war, and so is a capable, but not exceptional warrior, despite being unkillable by most of the hostile forces Amenth can bring to bear. So as to not impede the fluid nature of his form, the Water Child prefers to go without a shirt, wearing only a short kilt, and an armband, as well as a belt holding his sword, and a bow and quiver slung over his back. (His archery too, is competent, but nothing truly outstanding.)

The Water Child has received an invitation from the School of the Vile to further develop his offensive potential, tantalized with visions of assuming a corrosive or toxic form, or entering a gaseous state of great size and flesh-scalding heat, or, even more temptingly, to mature his form from the perpetual state of adolescence he’s been stuck in for over a decade. He has resisted such overtures, concerned that students of the Vile end up both taking on the unique aesthetic of their patron Tarn, physically twisted and, to his eyes, grotesque, and more disturbingly, seem almost fanatically devoted to Tarn himself, almost as if his will has subsumed their own…

[Sutekh]

(The last member of the En Ki family, mommy dearest.)

Shub En Ki, the Brass Bull
Almost a whole head over two meters, Shub En Ki has a dual mutation, similar to Earth mutants like Nightcrawler, who have both a mutated physiology, and an oft-times unrelated ‘super-power’ as well. In her case, the Brass Bull looks like a classical minotaur, with hooved feet, a powerful build, and a horned bovine head (with long incongruous locs), with strength bordering on superhuman and hide like dusky leather. Thick bands of brass adorn her upper arms, wrists, thighs, waist and ankles, as well as a thick pectoral that protects her neck and upper chest and back, the belt as well having a massive boss to the front and rear, to protect her stomach and lower back, but she otherwise eschews the demon-hide leather worn by her warrior peers.

Her true power is to transform into brass, sturdy and gleaming, and yet still capable of motion, albeit at a slower pace, as she moves in her metal form with deliberation, and great strength, able to support ten tons in this form. As such, she is a powerful warrior, and has won much acclaim for both her savagery and effectiveness in her mundane form, and for when she is surrounded on the field of battle and becomes a thing of brass, practically unstoppable to the demons of Amenth, and using a collection of sturdy axes in combat, which she can use both in hand to hand, or throw at range, with great proficiency. As much as she enjoys battle, she also enjoys the celebrations afterwards, and has had several children as a result of such revels, two of which have developed notable mutations themselves. She receives reserved acceptance from the eldest, her son, but her most recent daughter resents her only belatedly taking interest when the child’s mutation proved exceptional, and avoids her mother entirely.

(Like most Arakki, the En Ki clan are of African descent, and, while capable mutants, are far from the Omega status of their Great Ring leaders.)

[Sutekh]

(From the brief description we got, Redroot's power was 'aura of decay', so I decided to run with that, and make her one of several related Arakki with plant like traits.)

Redroot
Younger daughter of the Acacia Spirit, Redroot has abandoned the name her mother claimed she no longer deserved to carry, after the death of her older sister beside her in battle. She shares the plant-like form and appearance common to her family, and is a somewhat abrupt woman made of entangled crimson vines and leaves, almost as tough as wood, and stronger than a man of significantly stouter build, although only barely to the level of superhuman strength. Her mutant power allows her to exude an aura of fungal spires that rapidly devour tissue around her, draining it of moisture and nutrients to fuel a sparse carpet of moss over a field of bones, where once stood living creatures. This process occurs in minutes, but those exposed to the spores begin suffering cramps as moisture is extracted and other side-effects, such as blindness and suffocation, almost immediately, dying within a minute, and withering away soon thereafter, leaving only bones and a fine carpet of fungal ‘moss.’ Redroot seems more in tune with Arakko itself than with her fellow Arakki, and has some difficulty focusing on a single topic, or relating with most humanoids, whose thought processes she finds esoteric and impenetrable, too fast and inconsistent, leaping from topic to topic with no rhyme nor reason that she can discern, leaving her with a reputation as odd or addled in some way.