Cori

Main=

Corimus Nocturne Arka, also called Cori, is a main protagonist of the Meropolis Series and an important character throughout the years.

They are a mercat hailing from Porpopolis. They are gender-neutral and are quickly involved in a nasty war. Currently, they are the heir to Neris, a supposed kingdom their father has been spending half their life to find. The discovery of Neris and its questionable existence will be explored later in a midquel.

Appearance
In their mercat form, Cori is described as having light brown hair and ear tufts that perk up or down depending on their moods. Their scales are not entirely described, and neither are their finger webbings. Their eyes are black, and they are said to have a black cat's nose and lip set. Instead of legs, Cori has a tail. When they smile, they have cat teeth.

As Casper, he is described as having long, flaxen curly hair, a long nose, deep eyes and a limp.

Cori does not wear armor and only wears a chiton with an unknown color. Strangely, the chiton itself is a clothing garment made for Meropolan females, and it completely covers the chest and the lower part of their neck, obscuring their gills. The chiton itself is hinted to be some shade of blue, as former illustrations showed Cori wearing a blue chiton.

Personality
Cori is easygoing and very feminine but is stated to have hated their home world and went as far as to disguise as a male human called Casper and temporarily live in the human world, Chioria, until the hybrid came into view.

Cori was also born without a personality, making him very apathetic and unhappy, but Merlin was able to find a workaround. He determined that if Cori studied behaviors of other people, they could essentially develop their own sense of character by mimicking the way they acted around them. The downside, however, was that Cori's new behavior would not immediately be their own, and that they would essentially be a miniature version of whoever they seemed to emulate the most.

In this case, Cori emulated their father the most, and essentially acts like him, with a feminine nature (wearing a female clothing garment), a slightly feminine voice, and their equal amount of unusual calmess and serene grace.

Eventually, though, Cori begins to develop character values that are against Malencheine's own, hinting that they are finally developing a personality of their own.

Powers and Abilities
Cori is shown to be proficient in many skills throughout the series.

Combat
Cori fights using their water bending ability. Other than that, they are very pacifistic and don't wish to fight because they see it as a great waste of time and health/life.

Shapeshifting
Cori has the ability to turn into a human in the first part of TSOK. It is hinted they inherited this from Markahlihnni or Malencheine.

Speech
Cori and all other mer speak in the meropolan language by default, and as a result do not know English. However, they can cast a spell to make non-merwolves or non-meropolan speakers hear their speech as if it was English, and vice versa.

Hydrokenesis
Cori is a master of the water bending ability all mer have and can create and wield what Karali cannot.

Knowledge
Cori is shown many times to have immense smarts of the sea in general, of Porpopolis, and of the human world due to their time there as Casper.


 * -|History=

Pre-Story
Cori was born during the beginning of the fifth era on the 5th day of Wind-Snap to Malencheiene and Corquanta. They were the couple's only child and was stated to have been emotionless and expressionless for most of their life. Merlin managed to discover that Cori lacked empathy, and therefore, had no personality. However, he also determined that Cori was capable of forming a temporary personality, which would serve as a sort of "placeholder" until they could eventually learn to develop their own distinct behaviors. Cori started by acting like their father.

When the war began, Cori used his powers to temporarily take the form of a human boy he called "Casper" to escape the war under the orders of his father, Malencheiene, who considered fighting back against the chieftain until it became clear that the only target was Meropolis itself, from which he then became idle. It isn't known how long Cori remained as Casper, but time was said to have passed by before they befriended Quinn only a few months before the start of the series. "Casper" realized something and went back to Porpopolis as Cori to assist Quinn in saving Meropolis from the attack of the Sharks.


 * -|Trivia=


 * Cori is one of the few asexual characters in the series.
 * So far, Cori is the only character referred to as a "they". The idea of them being a "they" didn't come until later in development.
 * Cori is also one of the few "surviving" characters to be drafted into the main story.
 * Cori's name is both Gaelic and Irish, with the meanings "Ravine" and "From the round Hill." "Ravine" betters suits their personality considering that they are technically one (an empty cavern devoid of personality until something (personalities) fills it).
 * Cori's design has been consistent with the original manuscript's. In fact, all they lack from the original design are patterns on their chiton and arm bands. They may get back the bands, but the chiton will remain blank to symbolize their empty personality.
 * Originally, Cori and Karali were not cousins, but an orphan found on the street with a mission to find their own parents. That was also Karali's former mission.
 * Cori was born on the 5th day of Wind-Snap, which is equivalent to the 5th day of October.
 * Cori is not half-human despite their ability to become Casper.
 * Cori is the simplest to draw, usually only taking two tries at one time.


 * -|Gallery=

As Drawn by S.
'''Please do not add images that are not important to the article, such as fan art or things that are not directly related to the character. Only verified pictures are allowed.'''

Original Manuscript
Only S. has access to the original manuscript, so as stated above, do not upload fan art or any other pictures to this section.