James Kaider

Full Name: James Lindsay Kaider

Age: 21

Race: Demihuman

Status: Active

Faction: Power-wielder Hero, Tier 6 (10,000,000 ~ 100,000,000)

Appearance

As if some deliberate allusion to the kitsune lore with which James is infrequently associated, the most notable aspect of his physical appearance is his femininity. Though he stands tall, nearly six feet, his frame is slender and there is a soft look to his body. This is further compounded by the fact that he is a vulpine demihuman; typically, he is indistinguishable from his eight sisters.

His mode of dress leans towards traditional far-eastern clothing, as most often he is seen wearing elegant kimonos. As well, his affluence is expressed through his dress unabashedly; at any given time he wears the price of a mansion on his neck and wrist alone. Given the almost obsessive care he takes with his appearance, it could be said that James is very beautiful depending on one’s tastes.

Powers

In terms of raw strength, James is generally regarded as the most powerful psion on the planet, if not the most powerful power-wielder on the planet. Though the true extent of his psionic potential remains carefully hidden from the senses of others, his power-level has been estimated to be upwards of ten million, and capable of reaching over fifty. He has an intimate knowledge of the blade, having studied the art from a very young age, and has displayed the ability to transfer energy and matter through dimensional rifts on a few separate occasions. Other less often seen abilities include creating psionic illusions, the ability to split-form, and an advanced teleportation technique that allows him to ghost through solid matter with ease.

The demihuman’s weapon of choice is the odachi, an impractically large eastern-style blade. The length of the blade itself is six feet, and the hilt is an additional three feet long. Because it is an unorthodox and impractical weapon, its unprecedented reach and his ability to exercise a surprising amount of control over it often present problems for those unaccustomed to his style of combat. Bound to the hilt is a length of crystalline wire that can be manipulated at great speeds, and is often used to ensnare and damage other weapons and limbs.

It has been rumored that James also commands magic, but no one has actually seen him wield it for quite some time, and others speculate he has abandoned the practice entirely.

Biography

James Kaider was born into one of the wealthiest families in Cardinal a bit over twenty one years ago. Being his mother’s only son, he received preferential treatment over his sisters from a very young age, though oddly enough this never seemed to create friction between he and his siblings. James has valued family ever since understanding what the word meant, and while he loves all of his sisters dearly, he seems to be closest to his youngest sister Sally; the two of them were inseparable as children, and even today she stands by his side as the Headmistress of his schule.

Though born with a silver spoon in his mouth, James did have a somewhat troubled childhood. Without a father figure to identify with (his father was presumed deceased before his birth) and only a mother and eight sisters, he soon began to develop an odd ‘complex’ that could most accurately be described as cross-dressing. Dismissing it as a phase, his mother failed to stem his fascination with emulating his sisters’ appearances before it developed fully.

Like his sisters, James was groomed from a young age to succeed his mother as the president of their excessively-involved brokerage, though unlike his sisters, he lacked the passion for the work to truly shine at it. As a youth, he turned to swordsmanship to fill the void, and soon found an insatiable affinity for Japanese culture as well. With these two things being his only respite from the hours upon hours of classes and workshops he was deluged with on a daily basis, their influence on him truly began to shine when he reached adolescence.

Upon reaching the age of eighteen, James expressed his concerns to his mother, who while reluctant to release him of what she felt was his duty to the family at first, eventually decided that the happiness of her son was more important to her than a male heir to her corporation. In a symbolic gesture representing the cutting of all ties to his former life, he was disowned, and he changed his name to assume the moniker Johnny Gnash.

What followed after as he departed into a world that he’d been sheltered from since childhood was a turbulent series of events that, while painful at the time, eventually served to mature and develop him beyond his handful of years. Shortly after departing home, James entered his first Tenkaichi Budokai tournament, where he met the Shen’Ihr Raseri Cuore, who later became a very important part of his life. Outside of the castle, he also met the elven healer Miriam Litmir, with whom he eventually fell in love. After months of persistence, his feelings remained unreciprocated, which, coupled with his brutal defeat at the hands of Geist Esser, drove the demihuman to an attempted suicide. Shortly before the close of the tournament, he leaped from the walls of Deius Castle. While his body survived the fall, his mind and will were broken to pieces when he hit the ground. For three months afterwards, James Kaider was not seen or heard from.

The time was spent living in an alley with a handful of other downtrodden demihumans, eating trash to survive and sleeping inside of dumpsters. Eventually, the vulpine’s charismatic side began to reemerge, though this time to a much less pleasant end; he and the demihumans formed a gang, and for a short while they robbed, mugged, stole, and assaulted humans as a retributive act for the abuses they had suffered at their hands. This continued for another handful of months before an orphan by the name of Anna Maybelle caught James’ eye. Though living in the same deplorable conditions as he, her optimism and loving personality eventually unearthed a deep-seeded paternal instinct. Now desiring to provide a better environment for the young girl, he abandoned his life as a criminal and eventually recovered from his downfall.

His life was started anew, though with his adopted daughter to keep him on the right track he had a much more positive outlook. After a brief recovery period, he founded the Schule vom Gemut, a university for mortals and power-wielders alike. Though initially the institute was meant as a test bed to see if latent psionic abilities could be nurtured and brought forth (this was proven to be the case when his first three students, all halfbreed ki-wielders, were also made into fully capable psions), the school has now become much more. After two remodelings, the first of which saw almost every aspect of the school provided for by Empirical Industries and the second which saw it purged of all EI influence, the schule has grown to enormous proportions. James considers it his own little link between the power-wielding community and the mortals he sees it as his place to both educate and protect.

Though he played a significant part in expelling the Chorus from ARCHIE III during their invasions and occupation of the space station (he is credited with killing several officers, including the commander of the detachment himself) he downplays the significance of his accomplishments, not wishing to glorify his killings in the eyes of his child.

Presently, James lives in a medium-sized home with his daughter and mate. After being ejected from the 2006 Tenkaichi Budokai, defeated once by Jade Boskonovich and once again by his alter-ego Johnny Gnash, he has returned his attention to maintaining the integrity of his schule.