Inanna
⦋ 8 || Iran || Male ⦌
APPEARANCE & PERSONALITY
APPEARANCE A golem standing at five feet and seven inches, Innana sports a slim, flimsy-looking body with no significant muscles to speak of, hidden under hooded red robes and leather boots. His skin is a pale white, and feminine facial features work with long white hair to frame wide, deep green eyes. He carries with him an ancient steel staff, adorned at the top with a bizarre symbol with two curved protrusions running down opposite sides.
PERSONALITY TRAITS
- Optimistic
- Naive
- Caring
- Trusting
- Apologetic
- Negativity is a foreign concept
- Old-fashioned
BACKSTORY & MOTIVATION In the depths of the deserts of Iran, an ancient order sought to create a vessel for the revival of their ancient god. Created from hallowed clay, souls from fighters across the world, and a piece of metal that was said to be a fragment of a magical blade that was said to be a source of ki itself, the golem was to return an order to the world that had been lost with the fading of magic.
Well, Inanna certainly wasn't what they were expecting. The first thing he did when he rose from the arcane crucible was ask if they needed a light turned on in their occult basement. They’d strain their eyes if they worked in the dark like that, he explained to a crowd of confused hooded figures.
As Inanna began to experience the world around himself, his hobbies expanded to such awe-inspiring areas as singing, sewing, and occasionally cooking. His creators weren’t convinced that their little project had gone as intended, but decided to test his skills anyways. While he took fairly well to fighting with his staff, he had difficulty channeling his seemingly immense stores of ki. He was almost written off as a failure until one day of training; his opponent tried to land a finishing blow, only for a mysterious voice to leave Inanna's lips as his opponent ended up hitting himself in the head by way of two green portals.
Though it never spoke through him since then, he eventually began to hear it speak to him as he developed his arcane talents. While he enjoyed all of the positive reinforcement he was getting for once, Inanna eventually hit a brick wall. He simply wasn’t going to attune any further as a vessel in his current state. He eventually left his home, embarking on a worldwide search for either more souls or more shards similar to the one that served as his core. Mostly just the latter one though, he reasoned. His first stop was the tournament held in Rio. With so many strong fighters hanging around, someone had to know more about these things, right?
FIGHTING STYLE & ABILITIES
FIGHTING STYLE Trained in the style of his temple, Inanna uses momentum to make up for his lack of strength as he twirls and strikes his enemies with his staff to keep them at bay. Though it allows him to strike from a decent range, it isn’t anything special in terms of damage.
His real strength comes in the form of his ability to conjure magical portals around him. He can create up to two sets of two interlinked portals. Momentum of anything that goes through a portal will be carried through to the other side, and if a portal closes while something or someone is partway through it, they get spat out violently from whatever side contains most of the subject’s mass.
SPECIAL MOVES & TECHNIQUES ■ [Desert Twister][Inanna sticks his staff into the ground before grabbing it and swinging around it as he extends his feet for a solid kick, using the momentum to send opponents away.
■ [Warp Step][Inanna opens a portal under his feet and reappears from the air in a different location.
■ [Warp Thrust][In lieu of a proper ranged attack, Inanna simply opens a portal in front of him connected to another in front of his opponent, and thrusts once with his staff before bringing it back and closing the portals.
■ [Warp Snap][Inanna creates a portal in front of him and a few feet in the air that connects to another one behind his opponent. He reaches through with his staff and hooks it around his opponent's neck, pulling it against the inside edge of the portal. He then unhooks and withdraws his staff, closing the portal and sending his opponent flying.
■ [Retribution][A counter-attack in which Inanna opens a portal directly in front of him connected to another one above his opponent. In the event that a projectile passes through it, it ends up travelling down on the opponent’s head. In the event that the opponent uses melee techniques and strikes through the portal itself, Inanna capitalizes on the fact that gravity is pulling the enemy in two different directions by twirling behind them and sending them the rest of the way through with a solid strike, letting the fall do the rest of the work.
■ [Inanna’s Grace][Though ki gives the clay that makes up his body properties similar to a human's flesh and bone to protect his core, he is unable to heal over time as a human would. By channeling ki, he can reshape his body, smoothing over any injuries and even remaking lost limbs, provided that he has a source of clay nearby to replace them. The process takes up to a couple of minutes depending on the severity of the injury, making it ill-suited for battle.
SUPER MOVES ■ [Damocles Drop][Briefly searching for an item to use, Inanna decides not to inconvenience anyone and opens a portal at his feet, dropping his staff through it. It reappears high in the air, dropping into another portal linked to the previous one, and the staff continually accelerates as gravity pulls between the two portals. When he’s ready, he can release it out of the loop by linking the bottom portal to an exit portal over the opponent’s head. He quickly readjusts the portals to reach out and retrieve his staff from a distance. While initially nothing special for a super, leaving him vulnerable without his staff, giving it the time to reach terminal velocity will result in a quick and devastating attack.
■ [Rostam’s Rush][Summoning uncharacteristic determination, Inannna slaps his opponent as hard as he can… Which still isn't much. However, he continues his assault by repeatedly slapping them with one hand while utilizing portals to strike at them again and again from many different angles with his staff held in the other. He finishes by thrusting forwards with his staff once the opponent loses balance, sending them away.
■ [Shaghad’s Strike][Raising his staff high, Inanna swings as hard as he can and sends his opponent into a portal set above the first one. Much like Damocles Drop, he allows gravity to accelerate his opponent. He releases the target to the floor once they reach terminal velocity, allowing them to hit the floor as if they decided to take a skydive without a parachute.
WEAKNESSES & LIMITS While Inanna’s portals give him the ability to move and attack all across the stage, he lacks strength and mobility outside of his gimmick. His best ways of dealing damage come from either gravity or the opponent’s own strength, meaning that those who can counteract such forces are that much better off. His portals also come with a fatal flaw; they work both ways, and leave him wide open to anyone smart enough to attack him through his own portal. Overall, he lacks the experience and drive to use his skills to their full potential.
Being designed as a vessel for another, Inanna is also more vulnerable to possession and similar shenanigans than most other beings.
OTHER
Innana is capable of eating via breaking down food into the ki from whatever it was made from. He can even drink alcohol, though no one has ever dared to make him try it.