Want to friend Nightingale? You need to log in or join our community, first! It's fast, free and easy.

Want to tell the world what you love about Nightingale? You need to log in or join our community, first! It's fast, free and easy.

Nightingale

Played by MerAkko

Menu

Main

  • "A knife is only as good as the one that wields it."

  • Basic Info

    • Name: Kali Philomel
    • Alias: Nightingale
    • Age: 19 (may vary)
    • Height: 5'4"
    • Occupation: Thief, assassin
    • Hair: Black & white
    • Eyes: Gray
    • Birthplace: East Side of the Slums — The Kingdom of Lumacie
    • Alignment: Chaotic Good

  • Personality

    Nightingale, on the contrary of what most may be led to believe as initial presumptions due to the nature of her work, is surprisingly affable and sociable. Having known little else all her life but the hardships brought about by life in the Slums, she is well acquainted with the ever-needed drive and determination required to survive in such harsh, poor environments, and has made a life skill out of adaptability and compatibility with her surroundings, able to adjust to different crowds and settings with only moments worth of experiencing it. To this extent, she has trained herself to be incredibly perceptive, and can detect changes and shifts both big and small in her environment and the persons around her. Although, in contrast, she tends to be insensitive towards others emotions and feelings.

    Bold, direct, and straightforward, she values the truth highly and strives to maintain that rule herself as much as possible. Ironically, however, she is not entirely against acts of deceit, unless she deems that the victim of that same deceit is deserving of that treatment.

    Since childhood, Nightingale has possessed a natural sense of curiosity that underlies most of her decisions unrelated to her assassin work. A majority of those same decisions are often done on impulse as well. She finds joy and amusement in teasing others, poking and prodding at topics and people that pique her interest even by the slightest. Nightingale likewise explores areas and engages in subjects that are unfamiliar to her, and might be found silently listening or actively posing queries should someone tell tales and facts of realities outside of that which she already knows.

    She is also infamous for her adventurous streak, a majority of her escapades and plans as a thief leading her to risky situations that more often than not have resulted in her getting imprisoned—such as her renowned stunt of stealing from the Lumacian Royal Treasury. But, of course, not a single lock in the world could keep her in or out.

    However, despite being popular among the Slum people, Nightingale is detested by the higher society: merchants, royals, princes and queens and noblemen and countesses alike, considering they are the most frequent target of her exploits. Abuse from people treading down the wealthy walk of life have brought a rise to a cynical belief within her, and she holds a high sense of hatred and loathing for these men and women; more so especially if she witnesses them in any selfish, single-minded act, as out of context as it might be. To go along with this, Nightingale has essentially dedicated her life's work to rebelling against authorities defiantly, and is the textbook definition of a true "free spirit".

    Being a thief and an assassin, Nightingale retains an innate tendency to slink about in the shadows with "slippery hands", and finds it difficult to remain immobile in one place. Even among close friends and colleagues, she adores pickpocketing them to show off her capabilities in misdirection and sleight of hand. Whether or not she returns the momentarily-stolen possessions is unknown. Nightingale can also be fairly impatient, and is known for taking on solo contracts for assassin work due to a personal, somewhat self-centered mindset that she would much rather partner with no one than someone who would only put the mission and objective in jeopardy, or someone who "could not keep up with her".

    Her initial instinct with most situations is to observe and analyze, to predict the outcomes of certain situations and if she would be the one to benefit the most from them. She will not provoke if she herself is not provoked first, unless something is of interest to her. Oftentimes, she offers solutions to problems that seem strange and usually unviable, but tends to surprise others when it works out: "Better to try than to not, right?"

    Despite being a thief, about a third of the stolen items she takes from the wealthy she makes a point of distributing to the poor to help make their situations more comfortable. She can reach a suicidal, self-sacrificial point when defending the people of the Slums, anyone who has known only hardship and pain and suffering their entire lives. In this manner, Nightingale has become somewhat of a beacon of hope for the lower class, and upholds a sense of morality and justice, albeit primarily at the expense of the wealthy. Nightingale does not make any promises that she cannot keep, either, and prefers to give vague answers on the occasion that she cannot adhere to an oath presented to her.

    Nightingale is a young lady that, while dabbling in the illegal and truthfully immoral underworld of the harsh and rigid so that her other kin would not have to, also harbors her own set of dreams and ambitions. For the people: a life of comfort where all their needs are satisfactorily met, at least at the bare minimum of it; and for herself: to travel the world and discover what it is her eyes have not yet discovered.

  • Background & History

    The Past

    Nightingale, originally named Kali at birth, is the daughter of two ignorant and spiteful parents. They considered her a burden upon their already heavy lives as it was, being from the Slums of Lumacie, and decided to disown and abandon her at age 5 when they received the slightest opportunity to flee from that horrid place.

    A weak and hungered Kali was eventually found by a pair of twin boys a year or three older than her, named Jester and Jorge. They brought her to their own personal hideout located underneath the roots of the Great Philomela Tree, known for its most common residents, the nightingale birds. This hideout also doubled as an orphanage and home to other Slum children who were in similar situations, making the most of some underground ruins beneath Lumacie and turning them into a humble abode. The ruins also extended to some of the sewer passages right beneath the castle and high society of Lumacie.

    The children and few elders that helped them maintain the hideout could navigate the ruins and all of its contents easily, even in the darkness. Kali likewise familiarized herself with the entrances and exits available as she began to settle in, though she was not always the most magnetic person around.

    Kali often joined the JJ twins on their little expeditions around the Slums, following the boys’ instructions whenever authorities neared. However, there were times that their own carelessness led to them causing public scenes after bumping into citizens of Lumacie’s high society, who deemed them dirtier than the dirt beneath their own feet and degraded them in front of the others.

    One day, the JJ twins returned home with a blonde girl of Kali’s age in tow. She wore tattered robes barely reminiscent of a noble’s, and it was clear she had been through some trouble before she arrived. Kali took to the new girl, who then introduced herself as Karma, and the pair became fast friends.

    Karma shared many stories about her time before she arrived there, with her genuine naivety keeping her tales both vague and intriguing, especially for the ever-curious Kali who was already commonly found to be listening to the elders’ stories during the evenings after dinner. She especially loved the ones detailing the adventures of the various birds of folklore, always finding the tunes of the nightingales to speak to her soul whenever they passed by the Philomela Tree at the break of dawn. Karma and Kali wove flower crowns, played hide and seek, and went sightseeing on occasion, visiting a certain point in the Slums known as Sparrow’s Peak—a tall, haphazardly placed stack of wood, metal beams, concrete, and other desolate materials to create an unsteady tower climbable only by those who knew where to grab and step on.

    There would even be a few times when the other children at the orphanage would pick on Karma for her mysterious background, throwing rumors here and there about why she was there and who she really was: but Kali defended her nevertheless, sometimes reaching a point of physical conflict because of it.

    A few years since they met at age 9, now age 12, Kali, Karma, and the JJ twins were on a stroll through the marketplace of the Slums. A defining and peculiar feature of the Slums was that, at the center of it was a large space that served as a road that led to the closed-off, high society sector of the kingdom, and at the middle of that road was the makeshift town square where people went to make announcements, put on shows, and the like.

    On that stroll, they bore witness to a group of armed sentinels bearing a sigil foreign to Lumacie all but barging in towards the town square. They did not spare much time in announcing to the people that they were there to demand that the lost princess Kassandra Alecto Raina Montivere de Antyss of Estalucia be returned to them, as she was last witnessed there on a visiting trip three years ago.

    Unknown to the group, Karma was the very same princess the sentinels were searching for—she ended up there, of all places, after she was taken in the middle of the night while on that visit to the Lumacian castle. A certain group of underground trafficking criminals had staged the kidnapping, and would have gotten away with it had a strange fellow not stopped them and blown the cart with the princess inside to bits, effectively throwing the girl beyond their reach. Fortunately, Karma had accidentally discovered one of the nearby entrance and exit points that led to the ruins beneath the Kingdom, where the JJ twins and Kali resided; and the following morning after the attack, the former boys had found her bruised, wounded, and tattered.

    The sentinels threatened the Slum people with death and destruction, and realizing that it would put the orphanage, the JJ twins, and most of all Kali in danger, Karma decided to turn herself in, to the former’s dismay. They were parted without any appropriate goodbyes save for a lost glance in farewell, and a shouted promise from Kali that she would not stop looking for her, and that Karma better not forget them—all the while she was restrained by the boys.

    Due to the circumstances of the Slums and their own positions in the economic game, Kali resorted to thievery as a means of collecting info about Karma. The JJ twins were already practicing the crime long before, and the three met objectives in the act for the sake of providing the necessities that the children and elders in their little hideout would need. Kali grew incredibly skilled and determined, albeit never missed out on returning the earnings from the wealthy back to the poor and destitute, the people she was born amongst and left with, for dead.
    Becoming Nightingale

    Years would come to pass before a certain realization settled in Kali’s mind, partially sowed there by Jester and Jorge themselves: that Karma would never return, and that their short time together was little more than a farce. The Slums, they said, were simply too insignificant, too “dirty” to be remembered, especially by someone too good for such a place—like the very royal that she was. Like the rest of them, Karma was self-minded, cruel… keeping to promises that were made on the changing air.

    It was heartbreaking, undoubtedly. Kali was naive for her earlier years, but grew harsher and more rigid as a result of the world’s view upon them. Karma had been the one soul she clung to in belief that not every royal, not every bit of the world hated them, hated her… but she was proven wrong by her sheer absence, with the seven years that encompassed them since their parting only furthering that fact.

    Now 19, Kali continued to develop and nurture her efforts in thievery and misdirection, the movements becoming about as natural as breathing could be. Jester and Jorge delved more into shady occupations themselves, until one day they got Kali involved in a staged kidnapping by other related underground authorities, that forced Kali to submit herself to assassin work so that “her talent would not be wasted”. This was her ticket to freedom as well.

    When the boys found out, they took up the job instead so that Kali would not have to. Yet, Kali found a certain sense of satisfaction when killing targets that she knew had done atrocious acts against the people, the marginalized, the belittled; so she continued to hone and dedicate herself to this line of work, though she did not agree with it entirely.

    The rewards of her contracts were increasing in value as her own contracts became more and more popular in nature. After a certain point, Kali broke off from that underground organization and took up a namesake as a freelance assassin: Kali Philomel, after the Tree under which her dearest family resided under. The residents upon its branches became her new alias, as well: thus, Nightingale was born.

    This change was not simply work-related, however. In embracing this new persona of “Nightingale”, Kali allowed herself to forget the pain, sensitivity, and naivety that she once had, that her old self bore, that the old Kali carried, and that old Kali’s weakness. She buried Karma and all the former abuse from the higher society into the recesses of her mind, allowing herself to shift into a more free, more bold individual that would forget herself in favor of bettering the world.

    At some point, Nightingale began to receive contracts from outside sources, even extending to royals who desired to get rid of and eliminate political competition amongst themselves. To their surprise, Nightingale was not at all picky with who she killed and threw their corpses in with the actual targets, and cared very little for those royals’ identity or background, but simply that they were in as high a status as they claimed they were.

    She racked up enough of a kill count that the people who spread about rumors and legends of the famed Nightingale bestowed upon her a title: the Songbird That Sung of Death, for the quality of her work and the high success rate she was known for accomplishing her missions with. This became her legacy: an assassin of retribution, and a thief for the people. Nightingale even managed to gain a few notable rewards for her work: a bracelet imbued with summoning properties that enabled her to conjure wings for flight, as well as keep weapons within; and two twin ornate daggers lined with true gold and silver, as sharp as a needle and as light as a feather. The one accessory that stayed constant was her red scarf, having been made years before by the kids and elders beneath the Philomela Tree. It is her most beloved possession, even more than her knives and daggers.

  • Gallery

    I drew these! :^D