Anan Kael is an experiment of mine. I don't usually let my characters delve anywhere into insanity, because my mind does not lend itself to real madness. I've created psychotic characters before, but their evil was a fairly rational sort of evil, embedded into a fairly stable personality.

Anan, whom I mostly refer to as Enki, is crazy in that he attempts to control his personality based on whom he is speaking with. Very few people know the real him - most people know a clever facade. That alone, of course, is not insanity - it's that he has consciously given up his own desires for his own desires. If that sounds like a blatantly obvious contradiction, it is.

To understand how that works, it might be worth noting that Enki would argue that his opinions do not matter, but not only indulges in his own opinions, but inflicts them on others, particularly his group, Gaia's Vengeance. He is, paradoxially, a people person, but by design a misanthropist. He knows that if he were to let himself act unchecked, he would befriend everyone - but instead chooses to hate mankind with active effort, letting his sadism run wild with the few he does not deem chosen people.

Furthermore, Enki believes he has a fool-proof understanding of what an otherkin - and thus one of his chosen people - actually is. In other words he believes he can tell the difference between a real otherkin and a simple pretender - even though some otherkin may pretend without being consciously aware of their 'insincerity'. Really, it is not only unlikely that he can tell the difference - he can't. It's quite random, which further enforces the subtle madness inherit to his person, as he is obviously quite convinced he is an idealist with firmest principles.

What I enjoy most about Enki, though, is, firstly, his ambiguity as a character - for he reveals himself to be such a genuinely warm-hearted individual whenever privately viewed, yet is quite clearly and unmistakably sociopathic, on genocidal scales - and, secondly, his simple brilliance. Enki is not a Bond villain - he strives for the effective execution of plans, and while he does not always achieve that goal, it is quite frightening how rigorously he applies that ideal. He would never boast his superiority to a captive - he would simply kill them as quickly as possible to allow no leeway for their escape. He has to be extremely convinced of the infallibility of a plan for him to indulge in anything at the side, be it sadism, arrogance or just the desire to talk.

Initially, I'd created Enki with hopes to try something new: a character that was feared and respected in-character, but could be laughed at out-of-character. Since then, he's mutated... and while he still has some comical aspects, I fear that even out-of-character, he's come to demand respect.

Taken from the Crimson Feather website, this is the original attitude blurb:

"Anan's personality is very hard to peg, because it has many facets, very few of which are based on any rational thought. He tends to harbour many emotions simultaneously, making him a puzzle for empaths. All in all, though, one can say there are three recurring models of thought in Anan:

"The first is his social mask, though how much of it is a mask and how much is genuine may be debatable. He's nervous and shy when in this mood, often wide-eyed, attentive, careful. In the meanwhile, he has a very distinct underlying malice to him, as though his cautiousness spawned from a deep mistrust of those around him.

"The second is what could best be described as 'Enki', the Daemon, because he enjoys being called this while in this mood. Enki is a vicious, confident creature, who's tactic is to wield truths like a weapon and whittle away at people's beliefs and concepts. In this mood, though, he is truly psychotic and should not be underestimated - he has no remorse killing someone simply to get them to shut up, and fully delights in the pain of others.

"His third most frequent mood is that of the caring otherkin, which he only exhibits either as a mask to those ensnared by Enki's sharp tongue, or to fellow otherkin. This is where his charisma comes from - it is his deepest layer of emotions, the one most true to him, with the other two like the layers of an onion above it, smothering it quite effectively."

Taken from the Crimson Feather website, this is Anan's original physical description:

"Anan is strange in that he has charisma without any degree of classic attractiveness. He's got a wirey, geeky build, looking almost ridiculously fragile, shoulders often hunched casually. He has a narrow face and large eyes - one of which is a sapphire-like blue, the other of which is an equally bright green, much like an emerald. No one's bothered to verify if that's his natural eye colour, but, equally, no one's ever seen him look different, so the assumption is that, yes, it's a natural deviation from the norm.

"Anan has short hair that's just long enough to style in a myriad of different ways. Usually, he doesn't bother too much with his hairstyle, letting the strands fall as they wish - the occasional one will fall across his forehead, tips of those hairs reaching to its middle. His hair colour is an interesting mix of copper, a blond colour, and darker streaks. Of these, the coppery colour is the most prominent.

"He tends to wear what's comfortable, rather than what's trendy, though he occasionally goes through what his friends call a 'goth phase', and wears all-black, which tends to overemphasise his apparent fragility, and thus tends to be dismissed after a week, only to be gotten back to in a month after that. He detests jeans, though, and much of anything that does not fall about him freely, but tries to hug his shape.

"He wears three rings: the first is on the index finger of his left hand, a simple silver without decoration. The second is on the middle finger of the same hand, and has the same width and thickness, but black engravings in form of a snake or eastern dragon - it's not high-quality detailed enough for one to tell for sure, though it seems a bit feathered, which would be in favour of it being a dragon. The third is on the index finger of his right hand and is more of a miniature modern art sculpture than a ring, ranking around his finger like a thin, organic blade, or perhaps an erratic, sharp-edged spiral. It's about as wide as his finger, all in all, though, since much of this width is free space between the levels of the hypothetical spiral, it's no more attention-grabbing than his other rings.

"Anan has large hands, which further adds to his bizarre appearance, with long fingers and fairly pronounced joints. Since he chews his nails, they tend to be of an irregular length, though unless you made the reverse connection, you'd be unable to tell they've been bitten, as they keep a smooth edge regardless, and he takes great care not to damage the surrounding skin."