Luakuninuioneoneihonua

Kopa Loei
He ho'okele moana
Hero of the Makai Protectorate
Makua of the Temple of the Blood of Lono

Description


~Impressively built, Luakuni exemplies a Hawai'ian native in his late 20s who has known physical labor all his life. Muscular and self-assured, much of Luakuni's bronze skin is often on display. He swaggers about the beach or relaxes on his boat in little more than tropics-styled swimming trunks or a colorful vintage tunic that hangs loosely on his broad shoulders and powerful limbs. The seaspray keeps his short black hair dry, though his sober and focused brown eyes are saturated with oceans of utopian hopes. Well-traveled, keen, and cautious, Luakuni gazes beyond to the next horizon and seems ready for anything.~

OOC: Appearance 2; Arcane 1

"There are a lot of things out there that you don't get to know about."

History


Hawai'i was never just a few tourist attraction islands. The archipelago was home to a rich and ancient heritage. In some reclusive places, such as Kaalaku village found south of Papa (on Hawai'i island), the "old ways" were still observed. Culturally bound, Ipo'ola grew up in a simple but reverent and caring community. His father, Melei, was a fisherman. Ipo'ola's mother was Alaula and she raised he and his two sisters (one older, one younger), Puanani and Pualani. To grudgingly honor the US National Census, Melei adopted the surname of "Bay" for his family.

Still the "Bays", like everyone in Kaalaku, resisted Western cultural encroachment. They did so by upholding the old ways -- customs and beliefs alike. Ipo'ola's mother made traditional jewelry while his sisters learned how to dance. And Ipo'ola followed his father's footsteps. He reveled in the sea and joined his father on the fishing raft all the time. Ipo'ola was taught to be brave but wise and respectful. His judgment had to be as strong as his body, his father warned. The sea was unforgiving, man's greatest challenge that even white man's technology could not explain or surmount.

From the moment of Ipo'ola's birth in 1977, he was raised with the religious customs of the ancient Hawai'ians, too. He learned all the kapu (taboos), as unusual as they may have seemed to haoles (foreigners). Human sacrifice was no longer performed, of course. But all the chants, dances, foods, crafts, and other "primitive" lifestyles were promoted in Kaalaku. Yet the ocean's horizons beckoned Ipo'ola more than tradition ever did. When at sea, he was never disoriented and knew exactly which way home was. Furthermore, Ipo'ola was akin to a fish in the water. He held no fear of sharks that shared their waters (for he knew how to avoid attracting their hungry curiosity), and he was always tiptop healthy. Ipo'ola held his breath for durations that Navy SEALs would envy, as if he couldn't drown at all (though that wasn't the case).

However, his youthful fantasies and boldness were shattered in his sixteenth year. By accident, Ipo'ola swam into a pocket of seawater thick with spilled oil from some motorboat. Ipo'ola freaked out -- he could no longer breathe. He barely managed to hurtle himself free of that disgusting death trap. But his thrashing attracted a hungry shark. Still terrified by the oil encounter, the youth tried to swim away from that impending dorsal fin doom. The shark was a massive great white. In a quick gulp, Ipo'ola was swallowed whole. In the "darkness of death", the boy had a vision. Ipo'ola saw himself on his boat, visoring his gaze against the bright sun. He saw himself peering out over a vast horizon of unexplored islands beyond Hawai'i. He saw himself discovering old and forgotten temples to the gods. It was an adventurous life he yearned for and wished he could have pursued.

Then the darkness passed. Ipo'ola found himself washed up on the shores of Kaalaku. There was still oil on his body but no signs of being eaten or bitten by a shark. Ipo'ola didn't think it was a hallucination, however. He believed that the gods chose him and they manifested as a shark to share that vision and teach him a little modesty. The village ali'i (high priest), Kapuiwa, concurred. After Ipo'ola cleaned up, Kapuiwa took the boy aside. He learned from the priest that his eyes were now opened to the flows of mana (magic, Quintessence) in the world and his ears were opened to the callings of the heavens. He must henceforth always see and listen. Ipo'ola could never turn his back to the truth.

And based on the nature of Ipo'ola's Awakening vision, it was obvious that the boy was to become a Wayfinder. He was to become a searcher of the seas. Kapuiwa thus apprenticed Ipo'ola to an expert Wayfinder, a mature and weather-hardened man from Maui named Waokame. After saying good-bye to his beloved family, Ipo'ola set out to sea with his new mentor. He was aboard a simple raft the likes of with which ancient Hawai'ians navigated all of Polynesia.

Under Waokame's guidance, Ipo'ola was introduced to the other chosen servants of the earth. He met the mana guardians, called the Menehune, and the fierce sea guardians, the shark-folk Rokea. Ipo'ola was more terrified of them than he let on. Waokame noticed, however. Though he never saw any, Waokame informed Ipo'ola all about the spirits -- the embodiments of the world around them. Of course, the young man also learned all the vital chants -- chants built on centuries of custom, proven to observe the old ways in such a correct fashion that the gods granted the speaker favors ("magick"). Ipo'ola also learned practical arts to aid and enhance navigation, movement, weather, and his own body. Waokame was a very good teacher.

After two years of touring eastern Polynesia and learning of the Wayfinders' pragmatic magics, Ipo'ola was decreed ready for his rite of passage. They returned to his home village's harbor. The priest, Kapuiwa, and Waokame both oversaw the youth's test. Ipo'ola had to wade out into the open water, then dive down and hold his breath for about five minutes. If that wasn't trying enough, the ali'i summoned the spirit of a great white shark. The entity manifested and charged the terrified boy. But he didn't panic this time. Ipo'ola kept chewing a medicinal root to keep his body in good shape despite the shark's sharp teeth and denticles. With confusing flips of his limbs, the apprentice Wayfinder further disoriented the shark. This gave Ipo'ola enough advantage to wrangle the creature as best he could. The youth clawed at the shark's eyes. And soon, the spirit gave up, broke off, and swam away.

Thus, Ipo'ola rose from the water an adult. Kapuiwa anointed him with blessed seawater. He was considered true Kopa Loei thereafter and accepted a new name: Luakuninuioneoneihonua. Known as Luakuni for short, the new Wayfinder's handle expressed his deep reverence and interest in not only honoring the past but also recovering it -- no matter how unpopular it was with haoles. Covered in his own blood yet unharmed, he knew his life's work would be a testament to surviving the dangers of the Land. He shed his fear of real sharks with this moment. Yet his own haunting dreams of the shark that consumed him still frightened the young man and drove him forward.

So all the same, Luakuni set out on his own. He began by building his own boat. The basic design reflected Waokame's craft but he kept it even simpler for now. With a family hand-me-down map of Polynesia, carved into a dried gourd, Luakuni felt as ready as he could be. His family even helped him to make that boat, as if they figured they might never see him again. With a tearful good-bye, Luakuni sailed. He oriented the archipelago, seeing all of Hawai'i that he hadn't before. The Wayfinder acquainted himself with his homeland. Luakuni even encountered other Kopa Loei, mingled in with the general population. When he met a fellow Wayfinder, Luakuni heard about the Undoing -- spiritual death -- of a local kahuna (a sort of Menehune). After parting ways with this Wayfinder, Luakuni sadly realized that they were all doomed to that same fate. When the true culture of Hawai'i was gone, so would be all its magic.

After this first year of exploration, Luakuni set a course for south. He headed towards French Polynesia. Of course, on his archaic craft the journey kept him at open sea for months at a time. Luakuni caught the occasional storm but he always weathered. With respect to nature, he negotiated most bouts of bad weather without magic, only Wayfinder savvy. Regardless, Luakuni also kept constant vigilance for the sight of mana pools -- also known as Dragon Nests or Nodes -- and the "ley lines" or dragon lines that connected them. For the first couple years of this journey, Luakuni didn't find any of them.

But he knew they were out there and didn't despair. In the southern island chains, Luakuni did pick up on a faint dragon line. It led deep into a thick and unsettled forest. Noting that the only folk on the island were a handful of Menehune, he assumed that any mana was already found and protected there. Over time, Luakuni made a few other such discoveries. He turned his boat back north for Hawai'i. He stopped back at Kaalaku, surprising his family with a visit. He also told Kapuiwa all he encountered and witnessed. Though he didn't find any new sources of mana, he was helping the Kopa Loei map out the scattered and fragmented seats of power throughout Polynesia.

Still, Luakuni wanted to discover more, to provide more to the Kopa Loei. He felt like his personal vision was falling short of expectation. He decided to take a break to revisit the Hawai'ian islands. He mingled among the passionate Menehune, reveling and competing with their young athletes (warriors), the Kokua. One of them, a lava bloom named Kiele, he romanced for the next two years. Their relationship was fiery and tempestuous. Of course, Luakuni also took advantage of this downtime to improve his mystical arts. He worked with the Ali'i of the Menehune, drawing comparisons between their similar brands of magic. His Avatar gave him no real rest, however. This prevented him from becoming wholly complacent. Before he sank into too much distraction with Kiele, the Wayfinder leaped to a sudden insight. The strength of purpose a men held was more important than the purpose itself.

Bearing that in mind, Luakuni reluctantly separated from Kiele before they got too serious. He returned to his boat and headed into the western isles of Polynesia. For the next five years, Luakuni explored this vast area. He tracked the routes of dragon lines and how they criss-crossed. Yet he found no more Dragon Nests that weren't already in the custody of Kopa Loei or Menehune. Of course while braving the Pacific Ocean, Luakuni survived numerous common dangers and problems.

But a particularly fierce typhoon proved a serious threat. Luakuni barely negotiated the rain, waves, wind, and waterspouts. Unfortunately, his boat was severely damaged. He limped it into a nearby island port that happened to be Guam. To his shock, while his boat was repaired, Luakuni found traces of a Dragon Nest on Guam. But there were no fellow supernatural creatures. Instead, working as shadows behind the US military occupation, he detected a hollow-souled folk: Technocrats, who wanted to stomp out his people's traditional culture. They epitomized the worst of Western imperialism and greed and were quite aware of mana. They craved it and no doubt they were raping the Dragon Nest hidden somewhere on the island.

However, the Technocrats suspected his presence. Spirit-dead agents in black suits scoured the port for Luakuni. They chased the snooping Wayfinder down back alleys. Luakuni was forced to break kapu by calling upon unsubtle Arts and escape to his boat with wikilele (teleportation). Not long after his narrow escape from Guam, another vicious typhoon hit the area. Luakuni wasn't so lucky this time and shipwrecked. His boat was driftwood. Luakuni wanted to get back to Kaalaku to report his findings so far. Instead, he was lost on some tiny, uncharted island...

Significant Other


One day when Luakuni was shipwrecked in late 2004, he found himself on an uncharted and uninhabited island. Well, it was almost uninhabited: he found a young ha'ole teenager, stranded here since she was a child. Off of preternatural survival instincts, she'd lived almost a decade here all alone. Out of pity and no small amount of lust, Luakuni took the girl under wing, naming her Miliani and promising to care for her always. She soon clung to him in return. As Luakuni explores Aina once more, he now has a companion. Though she's white and not of kahuna ancestry, Luakuni has plans for the girl. Ha'oles don't listen to anyone but other ha'oles. He intends to teach Miliani the right way of living and let her teach her own people in the future. And while he instructs the girl in harmonious existence, Luakuni figures he might as well enjoy her as White Man enjoyed his island women! Marriage and children? Not even in the plans and probably never will be. For now, Miliani is a beloved mu and nothing more. Luakuni would probably continue puna'lua, given the opportunity. But fortunately for Miliani's little heart, such opportunities are far and in between. Luakuni explores the ocean far and wide.

Miliani

Weakness
Against the World


Luakuni's life is dedicated to salvation of his culture's ways and beliefs. He will not relent until the Kopa Loei are restored to their ancient honor and the corrupt, greedy lifestyles of foreigners are expelled from Hawai'i and all of Aina. He may want harmony, but is harmony in Aina true harmony? Even if he succeeds, will Aina truly be harmonious if the rest of the world is falling apart around it? Of course not! But he refuses to see beyond his own people's needs.

Likelihood of Corruption


Average.

Luakuni is a wary traveler. However, he does travel with no fellow Kopa Loei by his side. If he were to be tempted to corruption, there'd be no one nearby to keep him in check.

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