Laniakea Kaʻanāʻanā

Laniakea Kaʻanāʻanā is one of the main protagonists in Pokemon Tabletop: Hunters of Noh Islands.

Bio & History
Laniakea Kaʻanāʻanā was born to Loto Kaʻanāʻanā, a former hunter and spelunker turned fisherman after a mysterious accident at sea around the coasts of Mehr Ohri in Yhri Sra made him unable to fight and most his pokemon dead, and his mother Oliana, a merchant’s daughter who originally hailed from Dher Moh. He spent his early years poor but with enough from the sea and from his father’s pay to get by day by day. It was hard, but there were a lot of good experiences to be had in those simpler times living on the coast or sometimes even on the sea itself when his father took him on fishing trips.

The best of times though, were the rare opportunities that his grandparents over in Dher Moh brought his family to visit them in Dher Oss. The beauty of the place always captivated him, along with the stories with it. His favorite place in particular was by a strange tree overlooking the coast that had more Lumineon than most parts of town, coming alight at night with the Volbeats around its branches and the runes and the fish within its waters. There was a sense of peace, awe and vigor that filled him whenever he relaxed underneath its branches or even played along with the pokemon.

It was during these visits and those trips with his father that he’d glimpsed other lives. Lives that had… more. More freedom, more food, more love, more adventure… more everything. Slowly but surely, he gained a yearning for adventure, for freedom, for… more than what he had in life. But he couldn’t just leave his parents and strike off - they needed him as much as he needed them. However, there weren’t just many opportunities he had as a poor, barely literate son of a fisherman unless he apprenticed himself to his grandparents’ mercantile work in Dher Oss… but being a salesman wasn’t him just like it wasn’t his mother Oliana.

Soon though, he found his opportunity when he saw sailors of the Mehr Ohri navy did their annual recruitment drive. A few thieves had tried to steal their shipment of fish and even a few pokemon and he along with some of his fellow fishermen’s sons chased after them to a beautiful grove near the end of town, with a few of the navy men looking on. It ended with a few near missteps to grave injury and a sudden abrupt outburst of magic from him that sent the thieves careening into the water, unconscious. The sailors and the now nervous comrades hauled the bodies out of the water, with only a single sailor close to him.

He then received an offer to join the navy after that from that same sailor, Chief Petty Officer Tane Kahue, taking special note of his outburst of magic. He saw that as a chance to have some of the freedom he desired while still helping his parents, and with the new leery or awed way the people on the ship looked at him after tales of what had happened by the tree spread… he had a little more reason to want out now.

His father was leery of this, but after a sincere talk under the tree and feeling invigorated after that… his father decided to teach him how to bind pokemon with the old, revered ways of tattoo binding by imposing his will. He used one of the offspring of his old pokemon - a Timburr he had been meaning to give to his son on his birthday - as a demonstration. He then gave him his old shield and bid him good luck before sending him on his way with the recruiters.

He’d thought he’d known life on the ship and that it would be the same in a military capacity. He was wrong. Boot camp aboard the ship was rough - a different kind of hell as he learned about the different kinds of ships and how to sail them, how to help clean them, and more. He learned what it was to be a fighter, what it was to be a sailor in the navy, and what it meant to work as a unit. The last part particularly chafed him, but he learned as well as he could and even made friends - even impressed a few people on the boat.

After bootcamp afloat, they then were dispersed to specialized training camps. He himself was sent to Duhl Sra to learn how to be an officer and to harness his magic, graduating as an Ensign. He had worked hard and his aptitude with learning magic had been noticed -especially his own as it developed further- and so upon graduation he was placed in a special task force meant for those with special abilities and skills like magic.

Those years in the task force were some of the hardest he’d ever had as he’d learned entirely new rules and was pushed harder than before, with the expectations of the city states of Yhri Sra on them to perform well. They patrolled the borders of Yhri Sra, but more often they hopped from port to port, island to island to help solve disputes, act as escorts, or fight off the pirates and particularly violent pokemon that infest the seas. He’d met and bound his second pokemon there, a particularly determined and stubborn specimen met time and time again until he’d befriended it and bound it to his will.

Things were never black and white on the sea and in the military, and soon his actions under the government’s orders began to make their marks on him, just as there were skirmishes and battles that made their mark on his body. A group of sea bandits turned out to be desperate fishermen out of work here, a bunch of smugglers helping out refugees and exiles there… but all had to be dealt with in the name of the government. They were the shield that guarded the realms of Yhri Sra, the sword that cut through its enemies. No question was to be made, no quarter to be given to the government’s enemies once they were declared, no matter how much Yhri Sra tries to paint themselves to be understanding and benevolent.

And they were… but some days, Laniakea just wasn’t sure if they got the little details in their pursuit of the big picture. It made some of his promotions taste like ash in his mouth. It was the events of the last one though, that finally led to his resignation a bit ways later - his promotion to Commander after the Tragedy of Akamu near the city of Thund in Bhak’Loh. The secret mission had gone wrong due to misinformation, but by sheer grit and throwing away decency and honor he managed to complete his mission with the two remaining soldiers in his unit after their deaths. It was after that they’ve learned the reasons behind the extermination and destruction needed in Code Akamu along with the large amount of civilian and non-involved personnel casualties.

Enough was enough. Six months after the fact, Laniakea resigned his commision. He then took up mercenary work in order to support his now older parents. He tried to stay clean and do legal work, but more than once he had been forced or tricked into doing less than legal or even sometimes outright monstrous work. His began to precede him and he was slowly starting to see his work become darker and more violent, only with less restraint than even the governments of Yhri Sra. 

It continued that way until, ironically enough, he had accidentally awoken a sword stabbed into a strange stone. It was the sword he was supposed to retrieve for a client - but no one had told him that it was sentient. Not only sentient, but wanted to eat his soul at first until he’d befriended it. It then led to a lot of talks between them -well, the sword was more scratching out its answers or whatever surface it could- and it slowly sparked that sense of wonder and optimism back in him. The irony of a soul-sucking sword being the one to do that didn’t escape him either.

In the end when the deal went horribly wrong and the sword decided to kill his client… he decided to take the sword with him instead of putting it back in its resting place. Conflicted about where his life was going after that incident, he went to visit his parents, who had now moved to Dher Oss to take care of his ailing grandparents. He spent some months there, talking and simply recuperating, relearning what it was he fought for… what it was he’d originally wanted.

Freedom.

He’d sworn before his beloved tree -even if it were just to himself- that he’d try harder. That he’d be better. He’d start anew - in the hunter’s guild that his father had served long ago and find his way there. There would still be politics, there would still be violence, but he hoped that it would be more righteous than the causes he’d sworn to himself before. That he would have better hands to lead him with. That it wasn’t only freedom he would find, but something worth fighting for beyond his blood.

He wasn’t sure what to feel when the guild then proceeded to occasionally pair him up with an assassin of all things then. But… they weren’t doing anything bad. Anything dubious. Not yet. They were helping and saving pokemon and people.

Maybe in the future, they could help save his soul.

Personality
On the outside, Laniakea generally presents himself as a friendly rough and tumble young man with a penchant for bluntness. Always with a smirk and with an easy grin as he chats away or hangs back to watch and enjoy the show. He always moves forward in life with a confident stride, sometimes even heading on full steam ahead without considering possible consequences or even lies and deceit. Determination and grit are things he keeps close to heart, even if it’s sometimes to his detriment.

He’s even the flirty sort - slipping in the occasional tease here and there with pretty people who catch his eye - with a penchant for being touchy. Sometimes he forgets about personal space and the need people have for it. He does so love the eye candy he gets to see, when he gets to see them, and he likes to make it known though he rarely if ever takes it seriously.

On the inside though, there’s hidden turmoil there from his harsh past and the mistakes he’s made, the regrets he’s had. He’s not one to admit to weakness or fear, though he will admit to his mistakes if pressed. He carries with him his grief and his problems and hides it with a veneer of smiles and bravado, thinking it’s his duty to be that silver lining to most people he befriends or serves and likes. He is the wall, and he knows that part of the jobs he usually takes requires him to be strong not only physically and magically, but mentally as well.

The only rules he really feels beholden to are his own and those of his current employer, as long as they mesh up with his of course. He does uphold a certain code of ethics and sense of honor as a hold-over from his days as part of the Yhri Sa military, albeit modified to suit his new lifestyle as an adventurer-for-hire and now member of the Hunter’s Guild. He’ll work with scum as long as there’s a good reason for it, at the very least.

Surprisingly, he has a love of the occult. It stems from the magic in the blood and the many histories and mysteries he’d heard as a child and during his time as a soldier to pass the time. He loves to study about them, especially about his own magic that he inherited from his father. He knows he has more to learn -always more to learn- and he finds that the best part even if he’s not good at it still.

Pokemon

 * Māui the Gurdurr
 * Moana the Lapras
 * Ku the Honedge