Kepler

Kepler is a Warlock of the Last Safe City. Reanimated by a Ghost and imbued with the Traveler's Light to serve in the common defense of humanity, he is currently serving with the Skybreakers.

Appearance


Dark-skinned with orange eyes, Kepler's hair is kept short and to the point. He is always seen wearing his fieldweave robes, and does not take his helmet off unless he is outside of combat.

Biography
Kepler was resurrected by his Ghost, Procyon, in the collapsed remnants of the Arecibo Radio Observatory. Kepler knew nothing of his past life, and was very quickly killed by a Fallen Vandal who encountered him shortly after he left the observatory. After being resurrected, he incinerated the Vandal that killed him and moved on.

In much the same way as many Guardians before him did, Kepler got a handle on his Light and learned how to fight and use firearms by roaming the wilderness where he was raised, scavenging what he could and picking fights with Fallen he found. Eventually, he was able to make his way to the Last City, where he was accepted by the Vanguard, outfitted as a Guardian, and underwent training as a Warlock.

Kepler was teleported to the Rift in the middle of a high energy particle experiment, which resulted in him materializing in the same spot as one of the walls in the Nagishiro Estate. This killed him; fortunately, Procyon also made the trip, and once he was found was quickly able to resurrect him. He accompanied the group at the Estate back to the Terminus Cluster, and was one of the first Skybreakers accepted.

Personality
Kepler, like many Warlocks, is an inquisitive individual who is unafraid of asking questions and deepening his knowledge on just about anything. Unlike many Warlocks, Kepler knows there's more to being a Warlock than being the smartest person in the room, and he doesn't treat individuals who do not understand him with contempt. This is a good thing, because Kepler can get quite loquacious and doesn't quite understand that some people may not be able to follow his heavy scientific jargon; fortunately, he has Procyon to help him out.

While Kepler attempts to avoid learning forbidden lore unless absolutely necessary, knowing well the stories of Warlocks like Toland or Osiris who fell victim to obsession, like many other Guardians he considers his physical form disposable under certain conditions, and is perfectly willing to run risky experiments that could result in grievous bodily harm or death without fear of the consequences. Similarly, should his death serve a greater tactical purpose, or should he feel his death can be used to save lives or buy time, he will die gladly.

Abilities

 * Paracausality: As a Risen, Kepler has been imbued with the Light - a paracausal force that is superordinate to material physics. While he is still a human, and can still be misdirected, tricked, or directly mind controlled, his paracausality means that any other magical attempt to predetermine his actions (such as forcing a particular fate onto him) will fail. Guardians make their own fate.
 * Risen Strength: The Light has enhanced Kepler's physical strength to a moderate degree. While he is not quite a supersoldier, he is still able to carry and fire weapons other human beings would not have the constitution to use without a tripod, like City machine guns.
 * Light Shields: Energy shields comprised of fundamental Light, Kepler generates these shields subconsciously if he knows he is in a fight. These shields fall into the "fast-charge" category - they cannot take extreme punishment, but will quickly regenerate to full strength if left undamaged for several seconds. These shields cannot protect against indirect offenses, like subtle psychic powers or debuffs, but are very good at protecting against all other forms of direct harm.
 * Glide: Kepler can channel his Light to glide long distances, allowing him to cross gaps others might not be able to. The powered glide only functions for a few seconds, after which Kepler must touch the ground to regain its use.
 * Light Tricks: Kepler is capable of generating transient Light holograms for personal flair usage - what Guardians refer to as "emotes".
 * Igniting Touch: Kepler can focus his Solar Light into a palm strike, which lights a target on fire if it connects.
 * Empowering Rift: By "depositing" some of his Light below him, Kepler can create a well that arbitrarily increases the power of attacks inside it - physical strikes land harder than they ought to, blades cut as though they are sharper, bullets travel faster, energy weapons increase output, explosives increase yield. The Light needed to invest in this is significant enough that it cannot be performed on demand.
 * Daybreak: The term for Kepler's Supercharged state. Kepler augments his shields with his Solar Light, granting them incredible resistance to damage. He also crafts several things out of Solar Light, including wings that allow for flight, and a flaming sword capable of firing explosive crescent-shaped blasts of Light. While Supercharged, Kepler is incredibly powerful, but the massive amount of Light expenditure this demands means he cannot use this on demand, and cannot use it for long without risking the consumption of his spark of Light, and his final death.

Skills
Being a Guardian necessitates that Kepler be a decent shot with firearms; he is moderately skilled at close quarters, but has difficulty hitting targets at extended ranges. He also knows a lot about the current state of Sol-D973 and the entities contained within, as well as nearly everything that is currently known about Sol-D973's general past.

Being a Warlock, Kepler is a literal fast learner, and is excellent at research both through archives of knowledge as well as through "field testing". He is also better than he seems at reducing complex concepts down to a level laymen can understand... the big problem with that is that he almost never does it unless Procyon tells him to.

Weapons

 * 18 Kelvins: A handgun manufactured by Nadir. 18 Kelvins is somewhat nondescript for performance; it's a handgun. While outclassed by most other types of firearms in regards to pure power, 18 Kelvins is an incredibly small and light weapon that is a perfect holdout weapon; it's always faster to draw a pistol than it is to reload your long arm.
 * Coldheart: A trace rifle manufactured by Omolon. Coldheart represents the pinnacle of City weapons technology - it is something Omolon invented independently, although it is likely Golden Age humanity had laser weapons. Coldheart in particular is a simple deuterium-pumped laser cannon, powered by a cold fusion reactor. While cold fusion is ordinarily impossible, the implementation of Light into the micro-reactor allows for the function of something that, by standard laws of physics alone, shouldn't work. A beam laser weapon, Coldheart does not deal much damage if fired in intermittent bursts, but keeping the laser on target for extended periods of time dramatically increases how well it can burn through something you don't particularly like. Coldheart's ammunition consists of a proprietary deuterium mix, stored in magazines that keep it cool; the cool liquid also serves to keep its reactor running at subzero temperatures, which also keeps the trace rifle from violently exploding after a second of fire.
 * Crooked Fang-4fr: A linear fusion rifle manufactured by VEIST. Based on the "Sleeper Simulant" infrequently issued by the Warmind Rasputin, Crooked Fang is best described as a nuclear blaster cannon. Using a combined battery/feedstock unit that fits flush with the weapon, Crooked Fang generates a single fusion reaction over the course of a second before intentionally destabilizing it and projecting it out the barrel of the weapon as a powerful bolt of relativistic, superheated helium. While its penetration is incredible, impact after-effects are minimal, so knowing where to aim to deal the most damage is important. Crooked Fang, like all VEIST weapons, carries an onboard "dumb" AI modeled, in this case, after a pit viper. It is unknown what tactical effect this provides, if any.
 * Fusion Grenades: Simple grenades Kepler uses that detonate several seconds after being thrown in a blast of Solar light. They lack penetrating power, but make up for it in heat generation and explosive force.

Armor

 * Kepler's Robes: Kepler's warlock robes serve as both excellent clothing and protective armor. Made of a resilient, Light-commandable material called "fieldweave", Kepler's robes can seal to the void and hazardous environments on demand, and combined with emissions of Light allows Kepler full functionality in a zero-gravity environment. These robes also serve as a microcomputer that projects a heads-up display in Kepler's helmet, and lets him interface with datastreams from Procyon. While Kepler's robes do have some protective value, it isn't all that great; his shields are better at taking blows. Notably, Kepler's chestpiece is a non-functional replica of the Voidfang Vestments, which he intentionally purchased from a hustler for the style before reporting the hustle.