I am doing writeups! Slowly. Very slowly, because these are more "character bio" than "traditional demon writeup", and are correspondingly longer and more complex. In this one; Echo has declared that now that she is a teenager (and a demon lord), she wants her name to be spelt properly. Which is to say, in Old Realm, as "Eko".
(It's kind of hilarious how just switching it to the Old Realm spelling makes it a perfectly viable demon name.)
Eko, the Joyful Wind, the Silent Soliloquy
Fifth Soul of Keris
Principle: Be Loved.
Means: Hurting everything nearby.
Statement: Joy as a wind that never lingers.
Attitude: The Csend (Fear)
Few could describe the details of the Joyful Wind's face, for she only has clarity in motion. Her body is akin to turbulent white smoke loosely wound around with red and white ribbons, which resolve as she moves into a slender, coltish teenage girl with long four-jointed fingers and a jade-white grin. To touch her is to die. Eko's winds flense away pain and hatred from tainted hearts, and leave terrible wounds as they do. When she needs to touch without killing, she dons elbow-length gloves and a ribbon-woven dress spun from the voice of her greater self. Only five things are spared the touch of her winds: feathers, bells, amber, tar and those conscious beings with unclouded hearts.
Like her sister Calesco, Eko can assume many forms, for she is a casual trickster and endlessly curious. Folding herself down, she can become all manner of lithe fast creatures. Her nature shines through, though - all her forms are mute and their hides are dappled red and white. These seemings are merely a trickery of her wind body, and to touch them risks losing a hand - for what seems like solid flesh is in truth a killing gale the size of a hare, a falcon or even a jumping desert mouse.
Her coming is heralded by a musical whispering; sounds fleeing on the wind before her silence that build to a crescendo of hushed song before ceasing abruptly. Scarves and ribbons writhe and coil like serpents in her presence, and her laughter snaps the strings of musical instruments. Gold and rubies run like wax under her breath or her touch; dripping down surfaces and pooling on the ground. The lamentations of those who find their precious treasures so ruined amuse her greatly when her subjects bring her word of them.
Despite her flensing winds, Eko is seldom malicious - to hurt those she touches is simply her nature. She is a creature of joy and fleeting whims who runs wherever she wishes; curious and impulsive, irreverent and informal. Fears, hatreds and other negative emotions slough off her in short order, for she cannot sustain such things without great effort. A genius beyond any other in Krisity, she holds great fondness for puzzles difficult enough to hold her short attention span. When none are to be found, she makes her own entertainment. The mischief of the Joyful Wind is a well-known scourge of the Ruin, and her pranks are as elaborate as they are indiscriminate - her wit cutting, her mockery and satire a well-honed blade. She holds no respect for anyone; even her Greater Self, though she adores her mother with an unconditional affection that survives even brief bursts of temper.
Occasionally her steps are dogged by loneliness and insecurity over the flensing nature of her touch, but such moods rarely last long. More frequent are the bitter moods that result from frustration - both at the isolation her genius imposes on her, and the struggle to communicate or share her ideas. Eko is voiceless, and though her miming and gestures hold supernatural eloquence, her ideas and thoughts are too complex and alien for most to grasp, leaving her unable to explain herself in full to any but the keenest of mind.
Eko's greatest strength is murder. She is a killer and athlete whose prowess rivals even the Exalted, adept with any close-range weapon and able to slaughter entire mortal armies with ease. Spirits find no safety from her, for she can hear the faintest song of their essence and bring death to lesser beings no matter their lack of mortality. Her knife, Örömi Windcutter, was a gift from the Silent Wind that allows her to cut through barriers that bar her passage and slice away the darker feelings of those she wounds. Her natural grace and speed make her the peer to the most nimble of the Chosen; able to traverse any surface and outrun the wind. One should never assume that her physical prowess translates to a slowness of mind. On the contrary; Eko is blindingly intelligent. Despite her lack of education, raw brilliance renders patterns obvious and ciphers clear to her. Seconds slow to hours in her eyes when she is still, and so she runs endlessly to reach the future, lest she be trapped in treacle-time with a mind that runs faster than thought.
Of all her siblings, Eko is the least concerned with long-term goals or strategy. This is not to say she is indolent, but her myriad plans are short-term, off-the-cuff ideas that she devises and discards in days; often passing them onto others as all-consuming urges to bring to completion. For all that she loves her mother, she thinks little of her intellect, and seeks to guide her path from behind and steer her towards happiness down paths she cannot see for herself. Many of her madcap schemes are intended to bring Keris joy or love - or nudge her into doing what her Fifth Soul thinks best. Some say that she considers Keris' greatest purpose to be acting as Eko's entertainment, and it might be argued that they are right. Those plans or actions that do not ultimately benefit her Greater Self - at least in her eyes - are usually spun simply to sate her curiosity and ward off crushing boredom. She fears her elder sister, the Csend who is the Silent Wind's heart, and keeps her ears ever-alert for ways to ward off or find safety from the Silence in Adorjan's Wake.
When summoned, Eko is usually put to use in battle. She can kill an army, slay a behemoth or silence a town with terrible swiftness, and is generally happy to kill if paid for her time. Less obvious are the uses her intellect can be put to - challenges of cognition that require raw brilliance instead of great learning, such as ancient long-lost ciphers of the High First Age or the impossible geometries of eternity locks. Eko takes such things as welcome tests of her oft-unchallenged genius and will usually thank a summoner for bringing them to her attention; occupying herself more with the puzzle than the prize behind it.
Sorcerers should be wary, however. Despite her power, Eko makes a poor servant, as her attention span is short and she is liable to forget her orders for anything but simple, immediate tasks - though she cannot do so deliberately as she can with other thoughts. Though she will still attempt to loyally serve the wishes of her summoner if bound, her distractible nature and mercurial memory may force her to do so by intuiting their desires from what she has already done - an unpredictable and dangerous risk on her summoner's part.
Eko's inhibited speech frustrates her endlessly. When her miming and writing fail her in kind and she is stymied in expressing that which she considers of desperate importance, the impotent helplessness wells up inside her and causes her to gain Limit. Her curiosity can draw her from her home when a group of learned scholars debate over a puzzle until their voices grow hoarse, yet fail to find a solution or explanation despite their best efforts.
Notes:
At Calibration, Eko takes a form of flesh; black-haired and jade-toothed and grey-eyed. She is every bit as nimble and deadly in this aspect as her usual form, and it is her habit at such times to make up for a year's worth of silence in the five days she has voice.
Eko is associated with wind, silence, ribbons, shawls, flags, banners, blood red, bone white, ink black, scrimshaw, butterflies, sleek, fast or agile animals, broken instruments, dust, wide open spaces, puzzles, riddles, frustrated genius, mockery, satire, laughter, joy, clean cuts, knife wounds and dutch tears. Her symbol is that of the five winds; five curving lines atop each other that denote a stylised gale.
The eldest sibling of her pantheon; Eko holds herself in high regard as such, and applies her unique definition of sisterhood wherever she feels it is needed. She considers her brother Rathan to be an excellent scapegoat and an object of ridicule; one far too concerned with his image and how he is seen, and so she tries to force him to relax and adopt a more carefree attitude to life. She knows her sister Haneyl to be happiest when her fires are up and her passions focused, and so rousing her ire with pranks and mockery is a kind and loving act when she seems upset. Calesco is her full sister, and the sibling she is closest to - Eko offers her unconditional affection and urges her not to hide beneath her veils when morose or bitter. While her brother Vali is far too loud for her tastes, Eko enthusiastically supports his destructive tendencies and aids him in them. Zanara is perhaps the sibling she is most at odds with, for their easy expressiveness grates against her own struggle to communicate, and they show little reaction to her satire. To Dulmea; Queen of Krisity and Keris's right hand within it, she offers cheerful but disobedient affection and a whimsical mixture of gifts and trouble, while the Serpent-King Pekhijira tolerates her playful ventures into the Edgelands with amused affection and the occasional snap of fury - the sole true limit she acknowledges.