JR’s Characters

[JR19759]

Spirit: Mihira

Host Name: Yasmin Jiang

Zodiac Animal: Tiger

Ability: Strength

Probably one of the most dangerous zodiac spirits, Mihira the Tiger couples power with supreme intensity and a personality highly predisposed to huge emotional swings. Her mood can change in an instant and she is not to be crossed when angry. The strongest physically of all the spirits, by virtue of her spirit ability, alongside her own naturally fearless nature,  only Anila the Dragon and Vajra the Ox would stand a chance against her should they come to blows. But even with her unpredictable disposition, there are only a very few spirits that Mihira cannot deal with. She openly dislikes Sandilya the Snake, whose analytical approach clashes with her own head-first way of life, and she has somewhat of a rivalry with Makura the Monkey, mainly over their differing power vs. speed approaches to fighting. Makura, being the prankster of the group, is the only one who actively goes out of their way to antagonise the tiger, something which a lot of the rest of the group do not appreciate. On the other hand, Mihira gets along relatively well with Indra the Horse, Catura the Dog and Vikarala the Pig. Indra because she is another of the highly competative spirits, but one that doesn’t feel the need to compete with Mihira directly. Catura mainly because he is the best at calming Mihira’s more agressive tendancies and also, Mihira sees him as somewhat of a younger brother, especially in this incarnation. Vikarala mainly gets on with Mihira because they both don’t like Sandilya and Makura, plus she appreciates the Pig’s honesty. The host Mihira chose for this incarnation was Yasmin Jiang, a former judo champion, as the Tiger spirit appreciates hosts with fighting prowess as well as a compatible personality.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Antira

Host Name: Katie Owens

Zodiac Animal: Rabbit

Ability: Jumping

The Rabbit zodiac, Antira is one of the more reserved spirits, prefering to avoid conflict whenever possible. She is very compassionate and sincere, always looking out for the well-being of the other spirits. However, because of her pacifistic nature, she is often seen as a pushover by the more aggressive spirits, especially Anila the Dragon. As well as Anila, she also struggle to get along with Vajra, on account of his stubborn “bull-headed” attitude, and Kubira, due to his greed and underhandedness. But out of all of the friendships formed between zodiac spirits, none is stronger than the friendship between Antira and Pajra the Sheep. As the two most timid spirits, they often have to fall back on each other to avoid being overwhelmed by the more impossing personalities in the group. Antira also gets along really well with the other less dominering spirits, such as Catura the Dog and Vikarala the Pig. Being the Rabbit of the zodiac, it should come as no surprise that Antira’s ability is her amazing leg strength, which she uses for jumping and kicking. From a standing start she can leap 15 feet into the air vertically and with a run up that distance can almost double. And though she is adverse to combat, when she is forced to fight she can send a person crashing through a concrete wall with a single kick, such is the power of her legs. She is also the second fasted spirit in terms of running speed, but if she needs to travel long distances she prefers to jump, for obvious reasons. Her host is Katie Owens, a young waitress, who, before becoming the zodiac’s host, had to juggle not only work and her college degree (in web design), but also looking after her younger siblings after their parents died in a car accident a few years prior. Whether or not she will ever be able to see them again is unclear.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Anila

Host Name: Zhihao “Zee” Zhu

Zodiac Animal: Dragon

Ability: Flight

The most powerful and the defacto leader of the zodiac spirits, Anila the Dragon is a natural leader, fearless, charismatic and surprisingly warm-hearted. However, she has a ruthless streak and will do whatever it takes to win, no matter the cost. Because of her status as the most powerful spirit, Anila is by far and a way the most ego-driven of all of the zodiac, and has been known to disregard sage advice if she feels it would make her look bad or others look better than her, leading to some tension with other strong willed spirits. She especially doesn’t get on with Vajra the Ox, who is as stubborn as Anila and often prefers to take a slower, more cautious route, which often conflicts with Anila’s despires. She also isn’t fondly regarded by the trio of Antira the Rabbit, Pajra the Sheep and Catura the Dog, who are the more reserved and less forceful personalities amongst the spirits. Amongst them, Anila is often seen as somewhat of a bully. However, there are other spirits that see Anila’s natural self-confidence as good leadership and get along quite well with the dragon, one such spirit being Sindura the Rooster, even if Anila can sometimes ruffle his feathers by changing the plan on the go. Another spirit she gets along well with is Makura the Monkey, in as much as Anila is pretty much the only spirit that Makura listens to most of the time, and one of the few spirits the Monkey truely respects. As for Kubira the Rat, well, it’s not really clear whether or not he really likes the Dragon, but he’s smart enough to know that keeping on the good side of the most powerful spirit is beneficial and the best way to do that is to stroke her ego as much as possible, so it’s not like Anila is complaining. In terms of her spirit ability, Anila is the only zodiac able to truely fly, due to her huge reserves of magical energy that make her so powerful. She is also impervious to fire for short periods of time if she concentrates hard enough. Of course, in spirit form she is far more powerful, essentially invincible, but each spirit has to deal with the limitations of the human bodies that they inhabit. For some this is a boon, such as Kubira the Rat or Antira the Rabbit, but for many of the more powerful spirits it is somewhat of a hinderance, as it was designed to be. For her host, Anila sought out and inhabited Zhihao Zhu, or Zee to her friends, a fashion magazine editor and blogger with a desire to be the best, not matter what.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Sandilya

Host Name: Johnny Hernandez

Zodiac Animal: Snake

Ability: Venom

Dangerous is probably the best word to describe Sandilya. The Snake zodiac is not one to be taken lightly. He likes to keep his thoughts to himself and is very hard to read. He is also highly analytical, he can read a situation almost instantly and figure out what to do. Both of these combined make him very unpredictable. But his introverted nature makes him quite hard to get on with. This is especially obvious when looking at his relationships with Mihira the Tiger and Vikarala the Pig, neither of whom trust Sandilya at all. It probably doesn’t help that Sandilya is increadibly jealous of both of these spirits (and Anila the Dragon, although she isn’t as distrustful of the Snake as her fellows), due to their great power compared to himself. He does, however, get along with Vajra the Ox and Sindura the Rooster, both fo whom appreciate the Snakes analytical mind and work ethic. He also gets along surprisingly well with Makura the Monkey, though not even Sandilya could tell you why. For his spirit ability, being a snake, Sandilya has the ability to produce any form of venom or toxin, whether it be to cause paralysis, uncounciousness or even death. As with all snakes, he administers these toxins through a bite, which means he has to be somewhat proficient in close-quarter combat. Luckily, his host, Johnny Hernandez, has some experiance in that area, being a former special forces operative, trained to be able to make descisions on the fly and take out targets as quickly and silently as possible, just like a snake.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Indra

Host Name: Elizabeth”Lizzie” Penn

Zodiac Animal: Horse

Ability: Speed

As one might expect from the Horse spirit, Indra is by far the most energetic of all of the zodiac. She loves nothing more than to be on the move and cannot stand to be still. This, of course, makes her very impatient and also rather independant, as she often sees others as slowing her down. She loves to race and is always testing herself against anything she can to see if she can outrun them. If anything or anyone should slow Indra down, they can expect to be on the recieving end of a barbed comment from her sharp tongue, as she has quite the repetoire of put downs and snide comments. The spirits usually on the recieving end of such disparagements are Kubira the Rat, Vajra the Ox and Antira the Rabbit. Indra does not like Kubira one bit, she sees him as creepy and a suck up. Vajra is essentially Indra’s opposite, she uses speed/ he uses strength, he takes things slow/ she likes to go fast, he is a hard-worked and loves detail/ she is way to impatient to ever finish anything. They clash all the time and can rarely stay in the same space together without others, just so they don’t have to interact. As for Antira, well, the Rabbit is technically the second fastest of the zodiac spirits and could probably keep up with Indra if she didn’t use her ability. As such, Indra always feels the need to remind Antira that she is still slower, but Antira never seems to care, which annoys Indra more than if Antira actually beat her in a race. She tends to get on well with Mihira the Tiger, both spirits are highly competitive and are very proud of it. She also gets on well with Pajra the Sheep and Catura the Dog, which is somewhat surprising considering their close friendships with Antira. Indra’s top speed when using her ability has never been measured, but she has managed to outpace various sports cars over a mile dash. Her ability also has the added benefit of giving her infinite stamina whilst moving, so she could feasably run forever if there were no obstacles in her path. However, unlike Vajra, her stamina will deplete if she stops. Obviously, Indra’s main consideration when choosing a host is “how well can they run” and, if she could have her pick of anybody in the entire world she’d probably go for a world champion sprinter. However, due to the compatablity restriction she had to settle for Elizabeth Penn. Lizzie isn’t a world class sprinter, though she has done a few charity marathons and jogs regularly as part of her daily routine. She is (or was) a school teacher, in sports yes, but still, Indra can’t quite get over the fact that she didn’t get that champion sprinter. By the time Indra is through with her, Lizzie will be ready for the Olympics, or at least, that’s what Indra hopes will happen anyway.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Pajra

Host Name: Alice Cox

Zodiac Animal: Sheep

Ability: Invulnerability

The most shy and reserved of all of the zodiac spirits, Pajra the Sheep is very kind, hating to see conflict and almost always trying to find peaceful solutions to problems. She has a great deal of anxiety and is very insercure about herself. To deal with her anxiety, she tends to undertake a number of creative endevours (almost all of her hosts have had some artistic, musical or performative skill and her current host is no exception). She tends to get along well with the other more reserved spirits and doesn’t work so well with the more pushy spirits. Anila the Dragon is one of the spirits she gets along with least, as the Dragon is highly agressive and ruthless. Whilst you would think that she would get along with Vajra the Ox, both being kind and reserved spirits, Vajra find her to be too unreliable due to her anxiety and therefore they don’t gell as well as they probably could. And much like Antira the Rabbit, she can’t stand Kubira the Rat. He’s just way to creepy. She’s also a tiny bit terrified of Mihira the Tiger, although most of the smaller zodiac are to be fair. However, she gets on really well with Vikarala the Pig. He is the most honest spirit and, though he may be blunt, he always knows the right thing to say to make her feel better. Surprisingly, the same could be said for Indra the Horse. Though Indra is very unlike Pajra personality wise, the two spirits have been close since the beginning and the Horse is always very supportive and encouraging of the Sheep spirit. And then, of course, there is Antira. The Rabbit and the Sheep are two of the closest friends out of any of the zodiac spirits and are very close personality wise. They get on well with most of the same spirits and dislike many of the same as well. Antira is the slightly stronger willed of the two and stands up for Pajra as best she can if she feels like other spirits are picking on her. Pajra’s spirit ability is somewhat befitting of a spirit of her disposition, an anxious ball of fluff that hates fighting. Her ability makes her wool almost inpenetrable and impervious to damage and she can create a huge woolen shield around herself by surrounding herself with her own wool, although this can only be maintained for a short while. She can also protect others using this technique, though it has been known to get rather warm after a while. Pajra’s current host is a trainee nurse called Alice Cox. Through her, Pajra is able to act as the medic for the zodiac group, as none of the spirits really have a grasp of human medicine and none have healing abilities. Alice aslo is a dab hand at drawing, something which Pajra appreciates very much.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Makura

Host Name: Lucy George

Zodiac Animal: Monkey

Ability: Agility

The joker of the zodiac spirits, Makura the Monkey loves having fun above all else. Hugely energetic and exuberant, she is always looking for the next game to play or prank to pull. She lacks self control, if there’s something she wants, she’ll have it, if there’s something she wants to do, she’ll do it, no matter the consequences. She always puts pleasing herself ahead of pleasing others, but that doesn’t mean she is without empathy. She is a surprisingly good listener and is much wiser than most would give her credit for. When she needs to be serious she will be and is very good at reading people and situations. Having said that, she does mostly use her perceptiveness to figure out how to annoy the other spirits, her favourite targets being Mihira the Tiger and Vikarala the Pig. She harbours no malice against them, it’s just they’re the easiest to annoy. Vikarala sees Makura as very childish, and despite his highly tolerant nature, Makura is the only spirit that can really push him to the edge. And as for Mihira, well the Tiger is very highly strung and that is a target that the Monkey cannot say no too. She’s also one of the few spirits that can actively take on Mihira in competition, due to her amazing agility, she can land hits without taking a hit. Of course, if Mihira were ever to catch her, it would be curtains. As for the spirits she gets on with the best, well, Kubira often acts as Makura’s pranking buddy, she’ll make use of his stealth ability to set up her pranks, plus the Rat is very good at knowing how to endear himself to the Monkey. Anila is the only spirit Makura doesn’t mess with. She respects the Dragon spirit, the two have a long history and started out hating each other. No-one really knows what changed, and neither will tell, but something happened to make their attitudes towards each other alter and now the two are close allies. Makura’s amazing agility is primarily down to her spirit ability. She can leap the second furthest out of all the spirits (although nowhere near as far as Antira) and her sense of balance is peerless. She can hold on to the smallest of ledges and climb vertical surfaces, with such quick reflexes that she can change course ina heartbeat. In any enclosed space, there is no force on earth that could keep up with Makura. This ability is also bolstered by the Monkey spirit’s chosen host. Lucy George was a street dancer and a parkour/ free runner. Already having an excellent base coordination and balance, fusing her skills with Makura’s has made for a formidable pairing.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Sindura

Host Name: Andrew Farrell

Zodiac Animal: Rooster

Ability: Sonic

Often considered the most uptight of the zodiac spirits, Sindura the Rooster is a perfectionist in everything he does. He works hard and can often spot thing that others will miss, but he cannot stand it when something goes wrong in his plans. He prefers things to be as straight-forward as possible, he hates over-complication (and, judging by the spirits he has to work with, that is probably for the best). He also hates underhandedness and trickery, which is probably why he does not get on with Kubira the Rat, to whom they are both second nature. Other than Kubira, Sindura also isn’t on best terms with Antira the Rabbit, who finds him rude, and Catura the Dog. Sindura tends to like his personal space and Catura has no concept of what personal space is, so the Dog spirit often finds himself on the recieving end of a few sharp words from the Rooster. Now, being the only bird zodiac, one would assume that Sindura would have the ability to fly, but this is not the case. In fact Sindura can manipulate sound waves, with an ability called Sonic. This manifests itself in his vocal cords, essentially meaning that Sindura’s full volume alarm call could wake the dead. He tends to only use his ability sparingly however, due to the other spirits not being immune to its effects (it tends to cause some discomfort for even the spirits with the poorest hearing, such as Sandilya, so imagine how it would feels for Catura, Indra or Kubira, who all have very sensitive hearing). Sindura’s host is Andrew Farrell, an event organiser, whose natural perfectionism and organisational skills not only drew Sindura to him, but have been amplified to almost unbearable levels by the Rooster spirit.

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[JR19759]

Spirit: Catura

Host Name: Matt Roberts

Zodiac Animal: Dog

Ability: Senses

The Dog zodiac, Catura has a fearsome appearance that belies his big heart. He is all about loyalty, he is unyeildingly protective of those who treat him well and distrustful of anything that might upset the balance of the group. Catura is hugely emotional, when something good happens it will literally be “the best thing ever”, and when something bad happens he will lose all motivation to do anything, but these swings will often only last minutes as Catura has virtually no attention span to speak of and will be off onto the next thing before anyone realises what has happened. He’s also very kind and generous, willing to share anything with anyone should they be in need. This does lead him to being manipulated quite easily, even though he is one of the more intelligent spirits, he is at the whim of his nature. However, if he is given a task, he will not waver from it, no matter what. As for his relationships, there aren’t any spirits Catura truely dislikes, every member of the zodiac has earned his loyalty in one way or another. However, his realtionships are probably best defined by others opinions on him. Anila the Dragon sees him as too subserviant, whilst Vajra the Ox and Sinudra the Rooster often find themselves being irritated by the Dog’s constant mood-swings and lack of personal boundries. This lack of understanding in what the words “personal space” means does also cause problems with Pajra the Sheep, who is the most reserved of all the spirits. Even though the trio of Antira the Rabbit, Pajra the Sheep and Catura the Dog generally get on well, Catura can still be too much for the sensitive Sheep sometimes. In contrast, Catura gets on fabulously with Mihira the Tiger. Both are highly emotional spirits and you will often find their reactions synchronize, much to many of the spirits annoyance. Catura is also somewhat of a calming influence on the highly agressive Tiger, well, as calming as a manic anthropomorphic puppy dog can be. Seen as he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, Catura is the best at subduing Miira if she ever gets worked up into a rage. He also likes Indra the Horse a lot, mainly because she has enough energy to keep up with him and his insanity. And, as previously mentioned, Catura also gets along really well with Antira the Rabbit. She saved his life in a previous incarnation and the Dog spirit has sworn an oath of endless loyalty to the Rabbit. He would defend her even if it meant his own destruction, though she would prefer it if he didn’t go that far. As might be expected from a Dog spirit, Catura’s main ability is his hypersensitive senses. His sight, smell and hearing are more sensitive and accurate than any sensory equipment known to man and he can follow a scent trail for over a thousand miles or pick out an individual voice in a room full of people from a mile away. As such, he’s pretty much the only spirit Makura can’t prank, even when he’s asleep (though that doesn’t stop her from trying). Catura’s host of choice for this incarnation is a kid called Matt Roberts. Matt is the youngest of the current hosts and lives with bi-polar disorder, something not helped by the emotional rollercoaster of being the Dog spirits host. When he first became the host he thought he was a werewolf and ran away from home. Luckily he was found by the other spirits, who helped him through the process. If he had remained alone, he could have been in serious danger.

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[Mr. Vaudeville]

Loving the Chinese zodiac characters.

I really  like the designs for Red Kite, Lioness, and Osprey on the previous page, too. Great concepts!

[JR19759]

@Mr.Vaudeville- Cheers dude

Anyway

Spirit: Vikarala

Host Name: Henry Molden

Zodiac Animal: Pig

Ability: Momentum

The final zodiac spirit, Vikarala the Pig is highly intelligent and very well mannered. He strives for comfort and luxury but could never be said to be snobbish or indolent. Prizing tolerance and honesty above all else, qualities he prides himself in, he is not one to cross. Despite his ponderous appearance he is deceptively strong and agile, when properly motivated he could even be a match for Vajra the Bull or even Mihira the Tiger, and he is considered one of the most powerful spirits alongside those two and Anila the Dragon. Despite his tolerant nature, there are those spirits that tend to get on his bad side more often than others, cheif amongst these being, of course, Makura the Monkey. Vikarala is too easily flustered and annoyed by Makura’s pranks and, as such, finds himself a frequent target. Vikarala also dislikes Sandilya the Snake. The Snake and the Pig spirits have had enmity for many centuries, due to Sandilya’s jealous and unpredictable nature. They have fought before and Vikarala is not one to forget a slight, even though he was victorious in their encounter. This animosity with Sandilya did, however, strengthen the friendship between Vikarala and Mihira. The Pig spirit deeply respects the Tiger’s power and courage anyway, but they bonded further over their mutual distrust of Sandilya. Oh and they’re both Makura’s favourite targets, so they share that as well. Other than Mihira, Vikarala gets along very well with Antira the Rabbit and Pajra the Sheep. He appreciates the calmer presences of the pair and finds their more pacafistic approach to be much needed in a group with such aggressive spirits dominating. Going back to Vikarala’s strength and power. Whilst he is physically a very strong spirit, most of his power comes from his ability and this is why he is able to stand toe to toe with the strongest of the spirits. He has an ability called Momentum, which quite simply means, if he starts moving he cannot be stopped. And considering his size and weight, that is a truely terrifying power to have. As befitting of a spirit who desires luxury, Vikarala’s chosen host was a wealthy business man called Henry Molden. Unfortunately for Vikarala, that luxury was short lived, as he was forced to join the rest of his fellows away from human civilisation to avoid detection, much to his dismay.

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[JR19759]

Jade Emperor: Lin Yong Zhou

Many thousands of years ago, in what would later become known a the country of China, Lin Yong Zhou was revered as one of the greatest mortal sorcerers of the ancient world. His magic was so great that some even worshiped him as a god and claimed he had a hand in the creation of the world and the human race. However, Zhou tried to be benevolent and kind with his power. He aided the Four Heavenly Beasts created many of the guardian spirits of nature to help mankind, including the zodiac spirits, who were put in charge of watching over time and the birth of new life. But there was one thing that Zhou’s magic could not do, save himself or those he loved from dying. He became more and more bitter as he watched more and more people die from disease and age and he vowed never to let death take him. Given as there was no magic that could halt death indefinately, he turned to the next best thing, using it to steal the lives of others. He claimed the lives of many of the spirits that he had created in his quest for immortality, bringing about the wrath of the Four Heavenly Beasts. But so great was his magic that even the Beasts could not defeat him directly.  However, the Beasts were cunning. They hid the remaining spirits, including the 12 Zodiac Animals, away, far outside of China, in an attempt to wait out Zhou’s remaining life. Knowing this, and knowing he has little time remaining, Zhou has become more desperate in his methods. Where he once only stole the lives of those he created, he will now kill any who stand in his way. Even those who serve him are not safe from giving him what little extra life they can offer.

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[Vampyrist]

I’ve really been digging this zodiac series. My personal favorites have been Makura, Mihira, and Pajra.

[RobM]

Fun to see the “regular” and powered-up versions of the zodiac characters. Well executed too, of course.

[JR19759]

@Vampyrist- Cheers dude

@RobM- Of course 😉 Good to see you back dude, been missing having you around these parts.

[Author]

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