Steel Sage

Real Name: Lu Tong Niao
Hero Name: Steel Sage
Title: The Metal Mage of the Luminous Library
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Age: 3000+ but young adult due to interdimensional shenanigans
Gender: Female
Race: Half Dragon/ Human
Hair: a deep navy blue
Eyes: black
Height: 4'11'' human form / 26 feet nose to tail , 9 feet from floor to shoulder. No wings.
Weight: 95 lbs. / 13 Tons as a dragon.
Blood type: O+


(pic is Iuchi Shahai of L5R)

. o O ( Chelle Edit here - linked to the Wiki page for the face claim )



In modern parlance Niao is a bit of a recluse. A collector of the strange and bizarre knowledge of the broader multiverse, she spends about twice as much time studying and cataloging as going on adventures. She can be described as having the opposite of a short attention span- she must study and analyze something that interests her down to its tiniest detail, then meticulously record her findings in a neat and organized manner. Traits that are useful for someone who minds her father's vast collection.



Born in ancient China shortly after the rise of the first emperor, Niao’s birth was engineered as part of a dragon’s program to produce magically capable offspring. The dragon in question is Lu Feng the Mad, a rogue scholar among dragon kind. Lu Feng went for the fish net approach and cast a very broad net indeed; Niao’s mother was a court cook, her family lowly peasants who had saved up to send one woman to learn a trade and qualify to work for the new emperor’s palace.

Thanks to a new system of meritocratic examinations, Niao was able to qualify for courtier education and gain all the necessary skills Lu Feng needed for his purposes. After feeding the Emperor mercury as a faux elixir of life, Lu Feng took his sizable family – their human mothers included- along to his cosmic journeys. Attrition wore down those who were less capable, until only a handful remained who could run his Luminous Library. Niao was assigned as its chief caretaker, and she became ever the avid collector and cataloger, though she visited her world of birth only rarely- she had naturally, outlived her human mother, and had no connections to earth.

Her seclusion though, would soon come to an end, as visitors from earth to the Luminous Library would spark her curiosity once more...



Geokinesis (both forms) - the ability to move and manipulate earth and stone telekinetically. Flying boulders, earth walls, opening and closing the ground, compacting earth into stone or softening it into gravel, dust or sand, and so forth. In dragon form, Geokinesis is performed with her voice in lieu of hand gestures.

Ferrokinesis (human form only) – the ability to move and manipulate metal telekinetically. The Magneto. From causing held weapons to fly out of wielders hands and turned on them, to using a car door as a levitating shield, disassembling and reassembling small machinery and parts (as long as time is spent understanding the object), to stalling  a battle tank in its tracks (starting to get challenging), or simply rip a steel column right out of a building's foundation (with several minutes of great uninterrupted effort). Then there are more artistic applications like sculpting metal, or wielding several blades telekinetically.

Transmutation (human form only) – the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct metals on a fundamental level, changing its shape (rip off a car door and turn it into armor) or even composition (lead into gold!). Changing object shapes is done fairly quickly, but composition change takes time.

Detect Metal – the ability to detect and identify metal, in what quantities, even through the ground, out to a range of about 100 feet.

Basic Seismic Sense – the ability to perceive and “feel” vibrations in the earth, like ground penetrating radar. With a bare foot to the ground, Niao can take a “picture” of her surroundings, noting the location of objects and spaces on and underground. In roughly a hundred feet downward and outward, she can get a 3-dimensional impression of what is there.  

TRANSFORM! - the ability to assume a dragon form. Drake, to be precise, as Niao's deep connection to earth means she forgoes wings. She is a relatively small creature in this form, just slightly larger than male african elephants. (dragon measurements above)

Super strong (dragon form only) - As a typical member of dragon kind, Niao has proportional creature strength. She just slightly exceeds the largest african elephants or wooly mammoths in physical power.

Super tough (dragon form only) - as a dragon of metal, Niao's metallic scales provide excellent protection against most conventional and many magical attacks.

Earth Glide (dragon form only) – the ability to move through and “glide” through the earth as a fish in the sea. Niao can move through sand, soil, stone and even metal. This burrowing leaves no tunnel or hole (though Niao may choose to make them), and at sufficient depth leaves no signs of passage.



Magnetism: Magnetic fields disrupt the fine control Kitten has over metal objects, with the exception of her attuned items and non-magnetic metals.

Rust: Corroded metals are not affected by Ferrokinesis.

Contact: The power of transmutation requires the caster hold the metal to be transformed for the entire process.

Ritual of Concentration: Transmutation of Composition requires the sorcerer’s full concentration and disables her from doing anything else.

Equivalent exchange: transmuted metal must retain its mass, so structural integrity may be compromised when the dimensions of the new object exceed the original. Further, transmuting metal into metals of different density may yield different volumes.

Transmutation is metal to metal only: Only metal objects may be transmuted and only into other metal objects.

Somatic: Requires at least one free hand to use geokinetic and ferrokinetic powers. hand gestures and movements allow fine control over her telekinetic abilities. Having her hands restrained limits her ability, much as a person tied up has to use a key with just their mouth.

Dragon's Song: In dragon form, Niao requires her voice instead to perform geokinesis. If her jaw is muzzled or otherwise restrained, or in a area of magical silence, she cannot use geokinesis.

Grounded: Niao's power is intrinsically connected to the earth, and as such, she must be in contact with the ground or a conducting surface to safely channel magical energy, being rendered powerless by the simple act of being lifted off the ground.

Magical weapons / magically warded metals / metals large amounts of electricity - Magical enchantments serve as a protection against ferrokinesis. Even with player permission, Niao needs an opportunity to study the enchantments. Attempting to manipulate Metal with a current flowing through causes a feedback against her ferrokinesis, resulting in the mage to "short circuit" or deactivate her ferrokinetic power for a few minutes.

Dragon Bone - Dragon Bone weapons are highly effective at bypassing the defense of dragon scales.

Sphinx Fur - A lock of Sphinx Fur is well known to shift a dragon into their alternate forms.



Classical Education - As a noble lady from ancient China, Niao has had immersion in a broad number of topics such as song, dance, poetry, calligraphy, flower arrangement... but also military strategy, swordsmanship, ancient martial arts, and horse riding.

Alchemy / Chemistry - through her own studies and experimentations, and by 'borrowing' knowledge through the years, Niao has a deep understanding of scientific process and chemistry, particularly in the field of metallurgy.

Nerd - Niao loves to read and learn new things and can be easily distracted by large amounts of information.