Daikokuten
(Pronunciation:
“Dai” like “dye“
“ko” like “cohort”
“ku” like “coup“
“ten” like “ten“)
Image from Dragalia Lost (video game, 2018)
Charming Mouse
Shine/Dragon Type
Original Media: Dragalia Lost (video game, 2018)
Story
A dragon who is also a mouse, with a magical mallet. It should be noted that while the above image shows Daikokuten with a cape and a pair of wings, he does not normally have these in Chaos Zone.
Daikokuten’s birth family is a mystery; the furthest back he knows is being left in a bundle near a small village, the village taking him in and collectively raising him. One day, Daiko accidentally released a wave of power from his mallet as he was swinging it (nobody was hurt), and he immediately thought of how strong he could be with it; more importantly, how he could help the village, even if they already had soldiers to protect them.
Eventually, wondering what there was outside the village, Daikokuten began training on his own, trying to figure out a style of mallet-swinging that he could use to protect others. He was about ten when he decided he was ready to go out on his own, and while the village was hesitant, they ultimately supported the little dragon mouse, and he went on his way.
While he has since found himself in conflicts that cause him to question his existence or the benefits of his actions, Daikokuten (now 12 years old) still keeps his head high and sticks to what he believes in.
Voice
General Description
Child; usually bubbly and cheerful, but can sound much more timid when unhappy
Example Voice
Source: Peanuts (television series, 2014)
Original Context: The voice of the character “Linus Van Pelt”.
Behind the Scenes
The story of me finding Daikokuten and trying to insert him into my writing might be more complex than his own story. It began in 2022 when I was aimlessly searching up information relating to Dragalia Lost, curious about what kind of game it was in the wake of the news that it’d no longer be playable by the end of that November. I found Daikokuten in my searching, and immediately fell in love with his soft, cute design.
By 2023, I had begun thinking of how to insert Daikokuten into The Chaos Zone, already thinking to have him be only loosely related to the world of Dragalia Lost at most (having never been especially interested in the greater world of the game). I was tossing numerous ideas around in my head of how he’d appear and who he’d be in the context of Chaos Zone, especially since Dragalia Lost gave me very little to work with beyond great power and a cheerful demeanor (though I still looked hard through his few appearances in Dragalia Lost storylines to try and extrapolate some kind of additional character from his actions).
After about a year of brainstorming, I eventually decided to introduce Daikokuten in the middle of an ongoing story with the simple motivation of wanting to help in a battle that about 5 other characters were tangled up in. He ended up being kind of a bystander as the battle came to a close and further revelations about one of the characters (played by someone else in the roleplay) came to light.
Eventually, the storyline Daikokuten was in came to an extended pause, and while I found other things to keep me occupied during this time, I was eventually hit with a spark of inspiration regarding Daikokuten’s backstory, and how to both compare and contrast the version of him I was inventing with the original Dragalia character. This was where the details of his upbringing were introduced, and where I began to lean into the idea of him having some ambiguous power, but still being ultimately a kid who didn’t know how to handle the mystery of his power, along with the idea that he didn’t actually have the cape and wings he had in Dragalia (at least, not yet).
All of these ideas were stirring in my head as the storyline Daikokuten was already in was still awaiting further developments, so for a little while I was stressed over having this big idea for a Daikokuten story when he wasn’t even done with the story he was currently fulfilling a role in. Eventually I was given the idea to start writing the new story anyway, having it be written as a sort of “fast forward”, taking place after Daikokuten’s current story despite said story not actually concluding yet.
Being able to finally let loose my new ideas for Daikokuten was refreshing, and soon after the new story was concluded, I was given the chance to conclude the prior story, letting me set up the events in a way that let me decide how the situation changed to lead up to the predetermined beginning of the new story.
In conclusion, despite (or perhaps because of) my indifference to the media he came from, trying to decide Daikokuten’s journey became sort of a journey itself, but reaching the destination and fleshing him out as a unique case of a character re-imagined from his source material was absolutely satisfying.
Brash Buster 