A Reintroduction to Kali

With a new project release, a reintroduction is in order. This is all about Kali of the Two-Six.

Kali of the Two-Six is a cloud of dystopia within the Two-Six. She is absolutely capable of all sorts of debauchery and malicious action. However, her threat comes not from her want to do many of these things, but her unconscious mind’s acknowledgement of the potential and possibility that someone can. More so than any of her sisters, Kali is fascinated by the mechanics of the world, particularly that of the mental machinations of others. Her curiosity is incessant, like that of a young child. And through that curiosity her restraint in doing all she can to satisfy that curiosity is threadbare.

Kali’s most destructive aspect, however, is not her own activity, but her effect on others. She exudes “madness”. Everyone around her becomes consumed by an unyielding desire to, like her, satisfy any desire that takes them. It isn’t as sudden as a transformation, but more like the breakdown that comes after endless prodding.

A voice starts in their ear, telling them to fulfill some middling desire. That voice keeps repeating the same message, urging them to make their desire come true; “Do it. Do it.” It never rises to the level of a shout or a yell. It never becomes anything more than a whisper. But it becomes constant, and it becomes clearer. What at first may have been nothing but a whisper heard in a stray moment of quiet once or twice a day, becomes a record playing in the background of their mind at all times. It never tells them what “it” is, only that they should fulfill their desire.

In this state, the person us overcome but their own desires. Someone angers them and that briefest of thoughts that the source of that anger should disappear leads to attacking and killing the irritant. A hint of lust towards another, and they suddenly try to rape that person. Any one of these incidents will cause fear and apprehension in anyone that knows of it. That accelerates the voice, and they too seek to end the threat. Now, they too start attacking others, killing others, to ease their own dear of being attacked and killed. And as such the spiral grows.

In a way, Kali is something like patient zero for the Rage Virus. Albeit threadbare, she is in possession of her mental faculties and her sense of inhibition. She chooses when and where to let herself go past these internal limiters. She is infected just like everyone else, but she doesn’t suffer the same as everyone else. But when she comes in contact with others, she spreads that sickness, and they are not able to resist it the way she does. And so they fight, and they kill, and so a town, a city, a country, a world, can spiral down, down, into chaos.

Her sisters are a temper on that valve. If they are around, the effects are limited – unless of course we’re talking about Izanami.

My concept for Kali began when I first conceived of the Two-Six. There were only six of them back then, and the plan at the time was to have two groups of three, diametrically opposed to one another, as the basis for an overarching conflict at the backdrop of the First Moon universe. This idea was in turn based on the Cthulhu mythos, and was set to establish an “inner/outer” dynamic. That got toyed around with in framing it as inner/outer planets sort of like the Sailor Moon series. That led to an idea of having them represent sins v. virtues. That would have ballooned the count to 14… Long story short, in paring back my plans, I was still in need of a character on the “bad” side. I wanted her to be a very sexy individual, sort of embodying the worst aspects of a fully uninhibited sexual appetite. She was going to be extremely lewd, wear the most erotic clothes, and everything she said was going to be laced with sexual overtones and inuendo.

So, that was the sort of character I was looking for. And eventually I came across the original unaffiliated image that became the basis for Drusilla Arenzai. However, by the time I got to the planning portions of the Arenzai part of the story, my thinking changed. I didn’t have any interest in essentially writing up a hentai, and given the direction I was taking the Arenzai story, that sort of characterization didn’t fit so well anymore. I needed to tone it back somewhat; change Drusilla from just an unfettered bundle of sexual energy into something more refined and controlled.

As a result, even though Drusilla still retains her relatively exaggerated sex drive, encompassed by the choice to make her a succubus, she is a different kind of predator. It became less about her chasing her prey, more about luring it in or finding it caught in her range. I found myself gravitating more and more towards Arachne from the Soul Eater series, until eventually I decided that I would allow the two to be subsumed, taking what parts of Drusilla’s identity I already had in place then, and seasoning it with aspects from Arachne’s, particularly the visual aspect and some particularities such as her “Madness Enhancement XXL.”

Kali has various “incarnations” in my story. There is her “true” self, Kali of the Two-Six, who resides in the Rosenckruez universe as Drusilla Rosenckruez. She is the closest to the original concept I had for her character, the least like Arachne. She is more brash and lewd than the others. That threadbare sensibility I noted before is much clearer. She has an air of aloofness, but crystal clear eyes, as though she can see the whole world in the same detail as a structural engineer looking at their blueprints. She can often appear slovenly kept, evidence of her periods of disinterest. But given her feminine charms, this can play as a bit of seduction at the same time. She absolutely picks up on when she is enticing another, and will often times play this up for no reason other than to see what reaction results.

Drusilla Arenzai of First Moon is the more “traditional” version of Kali I play with in creating the others. This version is less the mad social scientist, but retains the same intellectual brilliance. While Kali is aware of her sexual magnetism she exudes and willfully toys with others using it, Drusilla of First Moon constrains herself. She is aware of her own beauty, and is not aloof to the effect she can have on others, but doesn’t readily trade on that ability to entrance others with her physical grace. That being said, she can be exceptionally passionate when the time comes, First Moon displaying this in her mad dash to try and win Yami’s affection. Her intelligence shines through more here because it isn’t being abrogated by flights of fancy or casually mentioned plans for atrocities.

Drusilla Arenzai of the Cromwell Universe is my most complete, most detailed, version of Kali (and probably my favorite). She has all that passion and outgoing nature that is First Moon Drusilla, but also the focus and attentiveness that defines Drusilla Rosenckruez. Cromwell Drusilla starts off more like the polar opposite of Rosenckreuz personality wise. She is very demure, very prudish, in the way she keeps herself. Being physically identical she obviously has the same beauty and allure to work with in that regard, but until her encounter with Yugi had only sporadic relationships that barely held her interest beyond a date or two. Oddly enough, in beginning that relationship with Yugi, getting married and starting a family, she becomes less inhibited, more relaxed and effervescent. To put it in game terms, her charisma was ranked A and then moved up to EX.

Unlike the other Kalis, Cromwell Drusilla has absolute control over her Madness Enhancement and utterly stifles it. She generally rejects violence, whereas First Moon Drusilla accepts its use in generally any circumstance she might need it, and Kali herself feels no way about it either way. Cromwell’s uses her amassed intellect not to probe social behaviors or impress a married man with her ability to maintain her rule, but to pursue an expansion of her kingdom to every possible place in her universe, one negotiated acquisition at a time.