What’s up with Kafka?

Loredump 12.2024

A non-PAFL loredump? Colour me shocked. 

For those not in the know, Beginner’s Guide to Heresy is my secondary project that has been put on hold due to time constraints. However, I still enjoy thinking about that story and hope to return to it when I get the chance.

I’ve posted some scattered info on my Tumblr before, but I assume most of my current audience is not very familiar with what these characters are about. So let’s have a little rundown on them, starting with the poster girl! 

Two notes:

• This is a character-focused loredump, I won’t go into detail about the world. But if you’re unfamiliar, the gist is that literally any human can be like Goethe’s Faust and sell their soul to a demon. Most people do. Conveniently this hasn’t changed the course of history too much.

• The Kafka you see in my 2018 videos is a very different iteration of the character. I reworked her, the angel, and the guy from Through Me to You into their BGH versions during 2019. This is about her post-rework version.

General

Kafka is a demon that was born as a serpent roughly 2000 years ago.

In the human realm, she normally takes the form of a petite young woman with short curly hair, though her appearance can be fairly androgynous. Like other demons, her “human” form is monochrome and bears the typical demonic horns and tail.

Kafka has a very playful personality and rarely takes things seriously. She has participated in more than a few schemes against her market competitors, earning her a lot of enemies in the business - though, she’s usually smart about avoiding them.

The imp has always had a passion for human art and entertainment, so she prefers working with creative types that don’t care too much about artistic integrity. Luckily, her current client fits that bill to a t.

Relationship with her client

Steel is a journalism student that contracted Kafka after turning 18. While lacking in writing talent, he has good social skills and knows an opportunity when he sees one.

The young man sold his soul to Kafka right after moving to the big city, hoping she’d make him into the socialite he always wanted to be. That didn’t quite work out, but they hit it off pretty well regardless.

Sometimes he wonders if she’s worth the bother: her eating his yogurts and randomly inviting Ron to their place does annoy him (and there’s that whole eternal damnation thing, too).

But Kafka has helped Steel become more assertive and open to others, as well as taught him how to lie, blackmail, and weasel his way in and out of sticky situations – that is, priceless journalistic skills. 

He can’t help but appreciate her company, all things considered.

Relationships with other demons

For the past century and a half, Kafka has been especially close with two other demons: Levi and Ron. 

Her relationship with Levi is rather complicated, but she’s always found his snooty attitude endearing. Despite being close in age, Levi is often annoyed at Kafka’s unsophisticated behaviour, while she doesn’t get his obsession with appearances.

Levi doesn’t remember much from before his memory got cloudy, but according to Kafka, they’ve been friends long before the incident. Levi feels a strange tension when he is around her – a suspicion he struggles to clearly place.

That said, he hasn’t uncovered anything incriminating over the course of the past 100 or so years working beside her.

Ron and Kafka are very buddy-buddy. They share a fun-loving (assholish) nature that makes it very easy to get along – and bully Levi. In addition, Kafka always has a great time playing with Ron’s client’s kids, whereas Ron doesn’t mind messing with Steel whenever he gets the chance.

However, Kafka and Ron’s relationship is far from actual camaraderie. The two have worked together to take down market competitors for years, but if it came down to it, one wouldn’t hesitate to throw the other under the bus.

Kafka’s powers

Generic abilities

All demons can possess these to some extent, but their proficiency varies depending on talent, as well as stuff like the weight and density of their anthropomorphic form. For example, since Kafka’s body is very light, she can freely float and bounce around with cartoon character physics. 

Shapeshifting also comes naturally to her, because her density is very low and she has a natural talent for perception-based skills. But unlike some other demons (Levi), Kafka’s body mass cannot change no matter which form she takes.

Special abilities

Each demon has their own personal hell inside them and the souls of living beings are its fuel – Kafka’s no exception. Her special abilities also follow the same ruleset as everyone else’s, being split into her passive (does not expend souls), active (expends souls, but some can be recovered), and ultimate skills. 

Passive: Phantom Hull

You cannot accurately perceive Kafka. While her image doesn’t usually stray far from the truth, her exact pose, expression and even position are always concealed. The ability adjusts itself when there is physical contact with other objects or beings to not cause any logical conflict.

Mostly subconscious, but can be turned off at will. 

Active: S.R.T. Metamorphosis

A Soul Release Technique that spits up one of Kafka’s souls, or part of a soul. The soul is morphed to look like whatever object or person she wants, and can move and speak as if animate. Turns into a puddle of ink shortly after being “killed”, leaving Kafka’s control radius or simply running out of gas. Illusions made from stronger souls last longer.

Most frequently, Kafka uses it to make copies of herself to escape confrontation or to be annoying.

Ult: Full Eclipse

Releases a part of Kafka’s internal hell upon a target. Specifics unknown.

Miscellaneous facts

• Kafka offers a pretty good linguistic package: aside from her client’s native tongue, she can learn 1 extra language fluently, plus 2 extra languages on a basic to intermediate level.

• She likes apples and apple cider. She’s also developed quite a taste for junk food over the past couple of decades.

• Has mostly had male clients. 

• Is a reptile, so her body temperature is lower than that of an average human. Despite not being very sensitive to weather, she doesn’t like working in cold regions.

• Had a very rough start to her career and messed up the lives of several clients due to her careless attitude. She did get better over time, but is still struggling to improve her 4.4 out of 5 customer rating. 

Author’s note

I didn’t expect a Kafka loredump to win the poll, but I’m glad it did! Felt nice to ramble about BGH after so many years.

I’ve been making some modifications to the story to give it more direction, so perhaps some of Kafka’s character details will have to change as I rework the plot. But I don’t think there will be anything all that drastic. She’s fun as is.