Niepa (涅帕 Nièpà) is a character that appears in The Legend of Hei movie and The Legend of Luo Xiaohei webseries. He is a cannibal elfin who is only capable of subsisting on humans, thus the Elfin Guild has made a special exception to allow him to hunt "evildoers" as prey in order to not deprive him of the right to live[1].
He was captured and brought to the Guild by Wuxian. Niepa took an interest in Xiaohei after encountering him while hunting and observed him and Xiaobai from afar for a while, a fact that Xiaohei did not take kindly to.
Appearance[]
Niepa appears as a blue and white bipedal leopard with yellow markings across his chest and shoulders. The yellow on his face produces the effect of face paint. He has black dreads tied into a ponytail and wears striped balloon pants with a red and blue pompom belt. He wears a necklace with blue and black beads.
History[]
One night, Niepa was attacked and captured by an executor for the Elfin Guild named Wuxian. [2].
Afterwards, Niepa made a deal with the Guild. Niepa was a man-eating leopard, who could only get energy from eating humans, so the guild decided to allow him to do it. The only thing they could do was regulate his hunting so he only targeted evil-doers, and he had to bring every one of his preys to the guild before killing them. The guild agreed to give him information about evil or damned people. They couldn’t take away Niepa’s right to live, and saw man-eaters as victims as well. Man-eaters were not liked by many elfins, not to mention humans, and they had no other options. The guild let them hunt on their own because they couldn’t have human food hatcheries[1].
One day, Niepa captured a human who was illegally catching dogs. Niepa ran away with his prey, but he was followed by a young elfin named Xioahei. Niepa asked Xiaohei where he was from, but Xiaohei simply told him to drop the human. Niepa didn’t know why he should do it, but ended up doing it anyway, since he was happy to find another elfin. Niepa wanted to understand Xiaohei’s actions, and asked him if he was on the human’s side, the elfin’s side, or the animal’s side. Xiaohei told him it was none of his business, and that he had to stop hunting humans. Niepa told him that he had a special permit from the Guild, which allowed him to hunt down humans, legally. Still, he didn’t want to fight Xiaohei, so he left instead. Xiaohei returned the human to his house[3].
Later, Niepa followed Xiaohei to his home, where he saw that Hei lived with a human girl, named Xiaobai. [3] .
Days later, Niepa went to Lingxi’s Guild Hall, where he met Xiaohei and Kali, the director of the Hall. Hei was not happy to see him. Niepa told Xiaohei that he had been watching him for a while, as well as the girl he lived with. This made Xiaohei quite angry, and he scared Niepa with a harsh glance. Niepa lifted up his hands and told Xiaohei to calm down, as he was not allowed to hunt down humans like Xiaobai. Niepa was just in the guild to travel somewhere, and he left soon after.[1].
Personality[]
He seems to be an aloof guy, casually and even somewhat tauntingly explaining to Xiaohei that his kidnapping of the dogcatcher was sanctioned by the Guild.
Abilities[]
Fire manipulation[]
He is able to create and utilize blue flames in battle, shooting them from his hands[2].
Agility[]
He is shown to be physically agile while running away from Wuxian's arrest[2], then later when confronted by Xiaohei as he's carrying a human off to be examined as an approved prey[3].
Trivia[]
- He has the same voice actor as Fengxi.