[hider=Pietro Machelli] [b]Name:[/b] Pietro Machelli [b]Age:[/b] 30 [b]Gender:[/b]Male [b]Species: [/b]Human [u][b]Background[/b][/u] [hr] [color=royalblue] [center]Ah-HA! So you are interested in learning the tale of the marvelous Pietro Arnaldo deSanto Mordante de la Machelli! Well, it is a powerful and adventurous tale, one of chivalry, daring, and fantastic hair![/center] [/color] [b]Kingdom of Origin:[/b] Nepharie [b]Parents: [/b]Count Fernando Machelli, Countess Maria Machelli [b]Backstory:[/b] The tale of the great swordmaster does not start as one would expect. No, Pietro Machelli, the legendary adventurer and swordmaster, did not start off as a poor urchin or a grief-stricken orphan, but as the lazy and untalented child of a Nephari count. Pietro was born in a town named after his family, Machelli, a small, coastal fishing village south of Port Orarius. His family took a tax from the people on their fishing exploits and also owned three large orchards, one of apples, one of oranges, and one of grapefruit. His father Fernando was wealthy and influential, a good friend of the governor of South Nepharie and an excellent businessman. The people of Machelli were industrious and lucky, as their village sat at the mouth of a river where many species of fish migrated. The town grew rich and, with it, Fernando Machelli and his house. Pietro was not anything particularly remarkable growing up. He lived a life of luxury, spending his days lounging on his father’s yacht or reading stories. Pietro was inspired by the tales of chivalry that he found in books, especially in the Tales of the Knights of the Ram, a compendium of stories written by a Talborian scholar who followed the Knights for five years. So, Pietro decided that he wished to be a knight when he grew up. Fernando encouraged this dream, thinking that dreaming for something so noble would motivate his son to grow up well. He bought Pietro a wooden sword for his sixth birthday, and Pietro would spend hours every day training against his father’s guards. Soon, Fernando began to teach Pietro proper swordsmanship. He was not a particularly gifted swordsman, preferring to fight with a lance, but his training was enough for Pietro to learn the basics. In addition to swordplay, his father taught him use of the lance, axe, and dagger. Though he was motivated to learn the ways of the sword, Pietro was not quite as interested in more academic pursuits. In fact, Pietro’s least favorite thing in all of his life was his tutor. Though the boy was brave and strong and loved to read, he was exceptionally bad at mathematics and history. His tutor said that he just wasn’ trying hard enough, but Pietro thought differently. In his mind, he just wasn’t cut out to be a scholar. As such, he avoided his nobility-worthy education for most of his childhood and learned relatively little besides how to read. When Pietro turned twelve, his father’s griffon gave birth to two chicks. He gave Pietro one of them, telling him that if he raised it well, he could one day ride it wherever he pleased. Pietro raised the griffon from a very young age. When it became large enough to hold him, he began to take it on brief voyages across the countryside. He became fascinated with the archipelagos off the coast of Nepharie, and began exploring the islands, drawing maps of them and finding their hidden secrets. On one such mission, Pietro ran into a band of thieves who were hiding out in an abandoned watchtower. Slightly before he had arrived, a Nepharie battalion had begun to set up at the far side of the island. Their assignment was to capture the thieves and bring them back to Capital City. Pietro decided that he was going to join them in the raid, despite their warnings for him to go home. These were real criminals, they said, not toys for a child to play with. Despite this, Pietro attacked the thieves’ hideout. As one would expect, he got his ass kicked near-instantly. Though his swordplay was impressive for someone his age, the brute strength of his opponents easily wore him down and he was vastly outnumbered. They beat him, stabbed him, nearly cut off his arm, and left him for dead. Had the Nepharie soldiers not saved him, he would have died. Because of his foolishness, most of the thieves were able to escape. Fernando was furious, but he knew that his son’s heart was in the right place. He realized as well that day that he could no longer give his son the training that he desired. So, he sent a letter to his cousin in Talbor, the Thane of Ferdinand, Enver. He left a few weeks later, thinking that it was a punishment of some sort. He arrived at Castle Ferdinand at the age of sixteen. Now Thane Ferdinand, in addition to being the arbiter of his squire, was a Master Knight of the Ram. Several other knights served under him, each with one or two squires. Ferdinand himself had no squires, as his duties as thane were too important for him to be distracted. His cousin from Nepharie was convincing, however, so Thane Ferdinand decided that he would test the boy Pietro to see if he had what it took to be a knight. Upon Pietro’s arrival, Thane Ferdinand took him to a courtyard in the center of the castle, where all of the squires serving in the castle stood with their weapons. Pietro was told that if he could defeat every squire in the room using the training that his father had given him, he would become a squire himself, serving directly under Ferdinand. One by one, Pietro defeated every single one of them. As Ferdinand promised, the boy became a squire. Pietro trained under Ferdinand for four years, learning the ways of a Knight of the Ram. He got a new tutor who begrudgingly attempted to undo the damage that the first tutor had done, learned the ways of chivalry, and learned an entirely new training regiment. Though some squires disliked him for skipping page status, those who knew him well became good friends of his. Because of his noble birth, the king of Maceron at the time, King Arnold of Jessup, took interest in the boy. He invited Thane Ferdinand and his squire to several feasts at Maceron. There, Pietro became good friends with the son of the Thane of Draco, who would one day become king. Four years later, Pietro completed his training. He became the strongest squire of his class and was by far the best swordsman, capable of defeating even some of the knights in swordplay. He was offered knighthood, but, in the first instance in the last hundred years, he turned it down. He realized that knighthood would tie him down to Talbor, disallowing him from travelling the world. Staying in Castle Ferdinand all that time with only sparing voyages out on his trusty griffon made him miss travelling much more. So, he decided to dedicate his life to travelling Tithe, exploring the islands, making maps, and studying other styles of swordplay in hopes of becoming a true swordmaster. Thane Ferdinand, while speechless, understood the young man, and made him an honorary Exemplar of the Order. For the last eight years, Pietro has travelled Tithe on the back of his griffon, Velpar. He has crossed swords with opponents from across the realm, from the xenophobic Valkyries of the floating isles to the vicious dragonkin of the far north. He has explored more of Tithe than any man could dream of, amassing quite a fortune while doing such. Occasionally he stops by Castle Ferdinand for a meal with his old master, and a few times a year he pays a visit to Machelli, where he tells tales of his adventures to the local youth. He is a folk legend in many places, a larger-than-life tale (which is most definitely filled with inaccuracies). Many know of his name, though few have met the swordmaster of Nepharie. [u][b]Physical Appearance[/b][/u] [hr][color=royalblue] [center] After all, Tithe’s greatest warrior is also the most beautiful man you will ever see! Prepare yourself! [/center] [/color] [b]Height:[/b] 5’9” [b]Weight:[/b] 140 lbs [b]Appearance:[/b] Pietro is a small-framed and agile man, with the build of a gymnast. He has thin, tightly-packed musculature, well-defined but not thick, just the kind that a nobleman would have. His skin is distinctly southern Nepharie, tanned like a southern Italian. He has long arms and is quite tall for a human, generally looking an inch or two down on others. His body is littered with a scar or two (this is early renaissance tech, everyone has scars) but none of them are particularly impressive. He’s generally well-kempt for a guy in the renaissance era, with manicured nails, well-combed hair, and somewhat-straight teeth. He has a long neck. Pietro’s face is slim and gaunt, with strong cheekbones and a strong jawline. He has a somewhat pointy chin and a romanesque nose. He has hair black as night. His hair comes down to the bottom of his neck. He generally combs it out of his face, allowing it to fall down the back or to the sides. It frames his face rather well and helps to hide his rather large ears. Pietro also has a rounded black goatee which he trims quite often. His eyes are almond-shaped, and his irises are dark brown. He has thick eyebrows which are very animated, betraying his emotions quite well. Pietro walks elegantly, with his chin up and his chest puffed out. He always looks as if he’s trying to show how much better he is than others. He speaks with an Italian accent, as all people in South Nepharie do. [b]Attire:[/b] Pietro dresses as a nobleman, wearing a long-sleeved white blouse, a black and brown tunic vest, a pair of tights, and a pair of brown leather boots that come up to just below his knees. The tunic is actually a jack of plates. A jack of plates is a leather jacket which has small steel plates inside of it, designed to protect Pietro from attacks while remaining lightweight. He wears a pair of brown leather gloves on his hands which come up to three quarters of the way up his forearms. The gloves contain a layer of chain mail inside of the forearms and the back of the palm, protecting Pietro from strikes to the hand. Over Pietro’s outfit he wears a short black travelling cloak which comes down to midway down his thighs. On his head, Pietro wears a wide-brimmed cavalier hat. It is made of felt and has an ostrich feather sticking out of it. A sword belt holds his rapier at his left side. [u][b]Personality: [/b][/u] [hr] [color=royalblue] [center]I am the greatest man alive, the greatest warrior of Tithe! You’d better get used to it, because it’s not going to change anytime soon. Now how about you give me a kiss, sweetheart?[/center] [/color] [b]Personality: [/b]Pompous and spoiled, Pietro is a rich playboy. He’s larger than life, a hammy guy who has a massive ego. He’s got the archetypal adventurer personality. He likes playing the hero, rescuing people and then expecting a reward at the end. He’s a pretty spoiled guy. If he does something right, he expects compensation, be it through money or love. He’s quite spoiled, and complains constantly when low on food or money. He’s also quite lecherous, a lady’s man who can’t keep it in his pants. He has spent many a drune in brothels. In general, Pietro is pretty shallow. He does heroic things because he wants recognition, not because he wants to do the right thing. He prefers the easiest course of action in a situation. If given the opportunity, he will steal other people’s credit to make himself look better. If around women, he will ham his stories up even more, adding in details and taking out allies to make himself seem more heroic. Though many of his stories are exaggerated, most of them have at least some base in fact. Pietro’s spoiledness pales in comparison to his hubris. Pietro has a reputation to hold up, one of being the best swordmaster around. He will keep that reputation, even if it means cheating or being dishonorable. Pietro will always do the thing that makes him look best and maintains his reputation. He will not back down from a fight and will keep fighting no matter what to maintain his reputation. When his reputation is tarnished, Pietro can turn angry and violent very quickly. This has caused him to pick a lot of fights and doesn’t necessarily make him a team player. He has become so convinced in his ability that he has a habit of calling himself “Tithe’s greatest warrior.” At times, this is a mantra that gets him through hardship. At others, it’s a reason for someone to punch him in the face. Point is, he says it way too much, to the point that it makes you wonder if he has to say it to keep himself from going insane from the pressure he puts himself under. So why is Pietro here? Why has he been chosen for this magnificent quest? Well, not many are sure. Sure, he is skilled in combat, but there are many who are more useful when on a quest to save the world. Pietro is here because he has the capability to be a great hero, not because he is one. Pietro is a dick. He’s a self-absorbed hedonistic prick who doesn’t care about others. Perhaps if someone or something taught him how to live a better life, Tithe would be a lot safer. [b]Hobbies:[/b] Pietro can be found most of the time in taverns, telling stories of his grandiose adventures across Tithe. Generally, there will be a crowd of young boys and attractive girls around him, reveling in his adventures. As he works as a professional duelist, he spends a lot of time in arenas and in city squares, challenging other prizefighters. He has begun to learn how to play the lute, and carries one with him. When travelling alone, he will often mess around with it, attempting to play songs that he has heard in the past. When he was young, he was given violin lessons, but he doesn’t remember much of them and doesn’t care to try. [b]Skills: [/b]Pietro is an accomplished equestrian, a skilled rider of both horses and winged animals such as griffons and pegasi. He is skilled at calming domestic animals because of this. Besides that, Pietro’s skills can be summed up to “keeping himself alive”. He is a decent hunter, though his lack of dogs makes it difficult for him to take down and big prize. He is a good enough cook to be able to make food that is palatable when not in a town, a good enough navigator to not get lost too often, and a good enough firestarter to not freeze to death. he received a nobleman's education, so he knows reading, writing, a little history, and a little math, but he didn't pay much attention in lessons, so he's not particularly intelligent. [u][b]Abilities [/b][/u] [hr] [center] [color=royalblue] I will fight any and all, and bring all foes to their knees, for I am Tithe’s greatest warrior! Ah-HA-HA! [/color] [/center] [b]Abilities: [/b] Though much of Pietro’s reputation is false, his skill with the sword is not. He is a gifted swordmaster, capable of defeating nearly any opponent. He has trained with dozens of different kinds of blades, from the single-edged curved scimitars of Ostraca to the blunt, two-handed bastard swords of the Dragonkin. His fighting style is incredibly quick, revolving around striking vulnerable spots multiple times quickly. He can adapt his fighting style to his weapon, though, and so fights more defensively with a longsword and so on. Pietro has also trained with spears, lances, and maces, though he’s only particularly good with the spear. He is an okay shot with a bow, but I wouldn’t put my life on him hitting someone with an arrow. Pietro’s agility is unmatched, and he is fairly strong for someone his size. Though he is not trained in magic, he has consumed a tear and so is capable of a few very small acts of magic. While in Haderlock, he trained a bit in the art of illusory magic. He uses this combined with his very small amount of magical ability to cause illusory copies of his blade to blink into existence when fighting, making his strikes much less predictable. Besides this, Pietro cannot perform any magic. [b]Weaponry:[/b] Pietro’s primary weapon is a rapier named acus, a thin, sharp-pointed sword known to be carried by noblemen. It is a duelist’s weapon, a very thin and light blade designed for short, quick thrusts and slashes. It is very long, nearly 36 inches in length, with a fat pommel to balance out its length. The sword is ornately-decorated, with a swirl of metal protecting his hand (google rapiers). As Pietro comes from a noble family, it is a blessed sword, and so it is very hard to break (though, since it is so long and thin, it breaking is not completely impossible). In addition to this, Pietro carries a rondel, a twelve-inch steel dagger which comes down to a needle tip. Like the rapier, it is primarily used for stabbing. While in Haderlock, Pietro trained in the ways of the compound bow, the weapon of choice of the Shadow Corps. He carries a compound bow on the saddle of his griffon, though he rarely uses it in combat and prefers using it for hunting game. Finally, while in the Southern Isles, Pietro took possession of a flintlock pistol. As it is a very early pistol, it takes a long time to fire and isn’t very accurate, so Pietro only uses it in close-quarters situations. Generally, he keeps the weapon for show. [b]Weaknesses: [/b]Pietro is a fighter who prides himself on being lightweight and quick. Because of that, he wears a very small amount of armor. The jack of plates on his torso only really protects vital spots and, while it can take a little bit of a beating, it by no means can stop a strong swing from a sharp weapon. Pietro’s weapon is also very lightweight and is very long, so an armored opponent with a very aggressive attacking style can take on Pietro and have the upper hand. Pietro’s biggest weakness is his hubris. He has come to see himself as the greatest warrior in Tithe, and so he can vastly underestimate his opponents. While he has thus far survived his dueling career without being mortally wounded, he has had many close calls. He has come to think of himself as invincible, and thus has an extremely aggressive attack style. Those who can capitalize on this have a better chance at defeating him. [b]Mount:[/b] Pietro rides a griffon, a half-bird, half lion creature. It is about the size of a horse, with long, feathered legs ending in sharp talons. Its head is shaped like that of a harpy eagle, thin and arrow-shaped with a tuft of feathers on the back. There are tail feathers on its rear. As it is a flying animal, the griffon has a pair of very large wings. When stretched, it can have near a twenty foot wingspan. It is covered in brown feathers instead of fur, and has a long yellow beak and the large, yellow eyes of a hawk. Its underside is white, giving it countershading when in the air. Pietro named this griffon Velpar, and commonly refers to it as Vel. Velpar is a fast and agile flyer, capable of flying at 80 mph in short bursts with Pietro on its back. It can run at around sixty mph when on the ground, but cannot keep this speed up for very long. It can only fly for up to an hour before it grows tired, due to the fact that griffons generally don’t have to worry about having a person and all of their stuff on their back. Vel also requires a clear path to run down in order to gain lift, much like an airplane. It has to get a running start, so it can’t just take off from a standstill. Other: [hider=The Wanderer by Dion][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEzqndjwwIA[/youtube][/hider] [/hider] [hider=Anna Strauss] [b]Name:[/b] Anna Strauss [b]Age: [/b] 21 [b]Gender: [/b] female [b]Species: [/b] Fairfolk [u][b]Background [/b][/u] [b]Kingdom of Origin: [/b] Concordius [b]Parents: [/b] Iro Strauss, father Ava Strauss, mother Weiss Strauss, sister (she’s currently fourteen) [b]Backstory:[/b] Anna was born on the coast of Lake Castus, the only city in Concordius and, thusly, the capital. Her father was Iro Strauss, the current Grand Servant of Concordius. Growing up, however, her father was only a servant, a travelling protector of Concordius. Her mother was an apothecary in town, known to be one of the town’s best healers. With two parents skilled in magic, Anna was bound for greatness. When she was very young, she would help her mother out gathering herbs and working in the shop. She went to one of the schools in Lake Castus, which taught reading, math, history, science, and basic magical technique. At the age of seven, Anna was taken down to the Pool of Origin and was allowed to drink some of the divine blood there. She would spend much of the next three years of her life at the pool, watching the strange creatures that lived there and gathering strange plants to experiment with (one of these potions once turned her hair into grass for a month). Some say that her exceptional talent with magic came from her consuming extra blood during this time, more than the average amount given by the Council of Sorcerers. She wasn’t a particularly well-liked girl and tended to keep to herself. Her few friends were other brainiacs like herself, spending their times reading and searching for herbs. While other fairy children spent their time kissing under flower trees and pretending to be knights, Anna and her few friends spent their time playing magical pranks on others (those grass bombs came in handy) and experimenting with magic. Her father wasn’t around much, as servants travelled across Concordius. When her father was there, he would indulge her love of magic and show her all kinds of wonderful spells. When she graduated from school at the age of ten, her father gave her a wand, a thirteen-inch cherry wood wand that she still uses to this day. When Anna was ten, her father was elected to be the new Grand Servant of Concordius. Her family moved to the Temple of Ma’el, and her father stopped travelling. She didn’t get to see her father for long, though, as Iro decided to send her to the Academy of Sorcery in Nepharie, a place where she could learn how to be a good sorcerer. Though she desired to see her father more, she desired to be a great witch so much that she left home and travelled there for school. When she got to the academy in Port Orarius, she had to pick an educational path. She decided to learn water magic, as she desired to be a healer like her father. She excelled in her classes, and was in the top 10% of students in her path. At the Academy, Anna became much more popular than she was in Lake Castus. Surrounded by likeminded individuals, Anna’s social life flourished along with her academic life. She graduated primary magic school at the age of fourteen, receiving straight-As on her final examinations and being certified as a proficient water mage. Over the summers, Anna would go back home to Lake Castus and see her family. Her family was always glad to see her. While at the temple, she would show off her new magical abilities to her father. Occasionally, she would participate in controlled wizard duels with those who she went to early school with, some of which also attended the Academy. She was a decent fighter, winning about half of the duels and in others falling by slim margins. Despite this, she showed herself to be the best apothecary amongst her age group, even when compared to potion-making students at the Academy. Her mother worked as an apothecary for the Servants now and, when home, Anna would help her. From there, she entered a secondary school specialization program. She took the healing specialization path. Healing is the hardest path at the Academy, as healing itself is incredibly difficult. Despite the difficulty, Anna passed with flying colors. She was number one in her class, the best in the healing path at the entire school. Anna graduated at age twenty with honors and immediately travelled back to Concordius, where she wished to spend some time with her family before training to be a Servant. Before she could do this, however, her family was visited by a strange visitor with a wonderful request. His name was Cosmas. He was a fat old satyr wizard, a sage of the Academy and the best apothecary in Tithe. He came to Anna’s home after Mirabella personally suggested the young woman to him. Cosmas was researching a new form of magic, one which utilized an ancient kind of magic known as aether, or quintessence. He called it soul weaving. He wanted Anna, a skilled healer, apothecary, and water mage, to assist him with his research. In exchange, he would teach the girl all she wished to know. Once more, Anna was given an opportunity that forced her to leave her family. She accepted, and travelled to Robore with Cosmas. So far, she has trained under Cosmas for two years. Her magical abilities have increased dramatically, and his apothecary skills have rubbed off on her to significant degree. She has begun to unlock the secrets of soul weaving with him, and has learned much about how it works. She is one of very few soul weavers in Tithe, the first of a brand new style of magic which hopes to reform the future. [u][b]Physical Appearance: [/b][/u] [b]Height: [/b] 4’8” [b]Weight: [/b] 78 lbs [b]Appearance:[/b] Anna is a small, thin girl who looks like the last time she exercised was at mommy and me pilates. For a woman in the middle ages, Anna is shockingly frail. This comes primarily from the fact that she can do normal house chores with magic and thus doesn’t need to do any of those kinds of things. While she’s certainly not slim to the point of looking malnourished (she’s quite healthy), she certainly looks like she would do more damage to herself than to you if she punched you. She has small hands with calloused palms from working with potions, as well as callouses on her feet from walking around barefoot most of the time. Her skin is a very light pink, bordering on white. In the right light, this can allow her to pass for human, though why she’d want that she’s not sure. Her wings are primarily violet, slowly transitioning into dark blue and eventually cyan at the tips. Anna tends to walk with poor posture. She has a noticeable and partially deliberate slouch, with her chin down, her shoulders rounded, and her back loose. Her body language can be interpreted as lazy and moody. She generally sits with her legs and arms crossed and her head down. Generally she’ll be fidgeting with something small or reading. Her facial expression generally delivers sulking or boredom. Anna has a skinny neck and a relatively small head. She has large pointed ears. Her face is heart-shaped, with a somewhat angular chin. She’s quite pretty, with soft-rounded features, high-arching eyebrows, and deep-set eyes. Her eyes are an unnaturally bright violet. She has long eyelashes and dark rims around her eyes that make them seem to glow. Anna has blonde hair that comes down to her shoulders. She keeps it long and somewhat disheveled. If she’s attending some kind of formal event, she will begrudgingly put it up in a french twist or in a bun. Her mouth is generally in a pouting frown. Anna speaks with a german accent, though so much time away from home has caused it to grow fainter. [b]Attire: [/b] Anna wears a simple powder blue dress made of cotton. It is long sleeved, with sleeves and a skirt made of a much lighter material to keep her cool. The dress cuts off just above her ankles, and has a violet trim. The back is dropped down farther to prevent her wings from being cramped. She has two other dresses of the same style in one of her saddlebags, one which is green and one which is grey. She wears the golden ring of a wizard who graduated from the Academy of Sorcery on her left ring finger. On her right middle finger is a silver band which has the words “Strauss” inscribed on it in cursive Faerspeake script. This is a house tradition, and every member of her lineage wears one. She wears a silver rope belt around her waist. Attached to this belt is a pouch containing some of her bombs. It’s a purple bag made of dragon hide, and the inner lining is charmed to be shock-resistant. A leather sheath for Anna’s knife is also on the belt. Anna generally walks barefoot, the way that people do in her homeland of Concordius, but when she enters cities she wears a pair of simple leather sandals. Why? Because these human cities are disgusting. Seriously, nobody cleans up after themselves?! Horse shit, sewage, and rotten food covers the damned streets! Have some dignity! Anna carries a multi colored crepe de chine drawstring bag with her. This bag is her lifeline, containing all of her tools that she uses on a regular basis. It contains her mortar and pestle, backup bombs, six herbal bandages, a flask of magical anesthesia, a few vials, both empty and containing special potions. any fresh herbs that she finds, her money pouch, a tinder box, a small cauldron, and a magic textbook (Using some british sci-fi technology, it has made bigger on the inside). Like her bomb pouch, it is shockproof, so things don’t shake around when she walks or runs. It was a gift given to her by her mother, so she treasures it dearly [u][b]Personality: [/b][/u] [b]Personality: [/b] Moody teenaged know-it-all. Because fairies live so long, they have slightly delayed emotional and physical maturities. This means that, despite the fact that Anna is in her early twenties, she acts like she’s about sixteen. She’s pretty grumpy most of the time, moody, even, and tends to act as if she wants to be left alone. She’s strongly antisocial, the kind who prefers being alone to partying. She’s fairly simple in her desires. Anna wants to do science. She wants to explore the world and see how she can use magic in other ways. She’s got a very scientific mind, one geared towards analysis and experimentation. She can be extremely curious, sometimes dangerously so. On more than one occasion, she has blown up labs by mixing things improperly (poor professor Biggledy’s arm was never the same, even after they had it regrown). She sees no field of research as too dangerous and believes that anything can be studied, albeit with safety restrictions. Because of this, she’s always interested in learning more about magic, thus the soul weaving. Morally, Anna is neutral good. She wants to do the right thing and help people, as she is a healer, but she doesn’t mind doing morally grey things to help people, thus her arsenal of bombs. Anna has always found her desire to be a healer contradictory, as she hates being around people but loves helping injured ones. Anna sometimes dislikes her antisocial nature. She has very poor people skills, so she’s come to drive them away from her. Usually, she’s perfectly fine with this, but occasionally she drives away friends by acting sourly. She can become rather lonely sometimes, and in those times wishes she had better social skills. Anna has a pretty big ego sometimes. She believes that she knows more than most people who she comes across. She tends to talk down to people who she thinks she’s smarter than, and kiss up to people who are smarter than her. Anna’s goal is to be as smart as is possible, so she will do whatever she can to learn more. This curiosity and willingness to learn can be detrimental sometimes and can cause her to place her trust in unjust people. [b]Hobbies: [/b] Anna spends a lot of her time reading or experimenting with different potions. She enjoys combining different ingredients and searching for rare kinds of mushrooms and herbs. As of recent, she created a serum out of mushrooms that releases sweet-smelling fumes that have a similar effect on the body to very strong marijuana. Occasionally, when she’s very bored, Anna will go someplace where she knows no one else in the group will find her, sniff some of the fumes, and get high for a few hours. She knows she shouldn’t, but goddamn it’s such a great feeling. [b]Skills: [/b] Anna is a gifted apothecary, a brewer of potions and such. Given the proper ingredients, she can make potions that do just about anything, from curing diseases to ridding stomach aches to making people fall in love. Her constant experimentation has made her quite good at creating different kinds of potions. She’s also learned several special enchantments from her mother, such as making a bag bigger on the inside and making chores do themselves. She’s a mean pool player. She cannot cook or sew worth a shit. This is intentional. [u][b]Abilities/Combat: [/b][/u] [b]Abilities:[/b] Anna is a prodigy sorceress and apothecary. She is adept at creating potions with a variety of effects, from poisons to smoke-producing gasses to bombs. She has a decent arm for a bookworm witch and can chuck her bombs quite a distance. Apart from that, Anna is a water mage by trade. She excels at manipulating water. She can change any water in her area into different states of matter. This allows her to use water, steam, vapor, or ice in combat. She can use her ice magic to fire frozen projectiles at opponents and to freeze areas, making it hard for opponents to walk. Her vapor magic can be used to create heat shields and to obscure enemies’ visions. Her steam magic can be used in close-quarters to blast enemies with flashes of hot gas. Anna’s liquid water magic is her most practiced form. Due to water’s high surface tension, Anna can create whips of water that become solid enough on impact that they are akin to being struck by concrete. By surrounding an opponent in a bubble of fast-moving water, she can trap them. Similarly, she can defend herself by surrounding herself with a torrent of fast-moving water. Her skills with water magic make her a competent healer, as the body is mostly made of water. She studied healing magic extensively at the Academy of Sorcery and is very good at it. As of recent, Anna has taken to learning a new kind of magic, a kind known as soul weaving. Soul weaving is a form of magic which manipulates the life force of living things. All living things in Tithe contain life force, a spiritual energy which flows through the body and connects the mind, spirit, and body. Exactly how life force works is unknown, but what is known is that a thing with no life force is dead and adding life force to a thing causes it to be alive. Life force is the key to magic in Tithe. Magical blood amplifies the life force in a living thing and allows it to manipulate its surroundings. Soul weavers are mages which study life force and attempt to manipulate it. Necromancers do the same thing, but instead of amplifying or diminishing life force, they transfer it between the living and dead or between others and themselves. Using soul weaving, Anna’s healing abilities become completely unmatched. Through amplifying the life force in a person, Anna can cause their body to heal at an accelerated rate, causing wounds that would normally require hours of concentrated magic and herbal bandages to heal instead heal in a matter of seconds. Anna can also use this ability to boost others’ magic by amplifying their life force, allowing them to use more powerful attacks. She herself cannot do this, however, as using soul weaving is extremely taxing and prevents her from using other magic while she does so. It also quasi-immobilizes her, preventing her from effectively fighting enemies while doing this. It is assumed that she could one day overcome this, but right now she’s far too inexperienced with the magic form to overcome its strain. In the same way, soul weaving can be used to weaken others’ magic, drain others’ strength, and to slow the healing of wounds. Anna can use this against enemies to weaken them, though the aforementioned strain of soul weaving makes it so that she cannot take down opponents solely by using it. If Anna is really in danger, she can also externalize her own life force and use it in battle. Life force when extracted from a body manifests as glowing green light. Anna can use soul spells to blast opponents with life force. Life force blasts can burn skin and saps the strength of the target, weakening their muscles and magic and, if the blast is big enough, paralyzing them. This is an absolute last-ditch effort for Anna, as doing such can have catastrophic effects on her own health. [b]Weaponry: [/b] The only physical weapon which Anna carries is a small, silver knife which is used for cutting herbs. It is curved and very sharp, but Anna has no idea how to use a dagger and doesn’t intend to find out. To help with her magic, Anna carries a wand. Said wand is thirteen inches long, and is made of a deep red cherry wood. Satyr-made, it is ornately-carved, with swirls travelling up the sides of the shaft. A small orb of black glass sits on the end of the wand handle. When Anna isn’t using her magic, she uses a few different potion bombs to fight. Said bombs are about the size of an apple, and she is currently carrying two of each kind (except for Last Resort). They are as follows: [b]Dragon’s Breath:[/b] This is a fire bomb, an explosive charge which then spreads an oil-based fire across a small area. It contains a mixture of dragon oil, which ignites and explodes on contact with oxygen, magnesium powder, and whale oil. When the terracotta shell of the bomb breaks, the internal components ignite and explode, spraying burning oil in all directions. [b]Spectre’s Shroud:[/b] This potion acts as a smokescreen, obscuring an area in thick, black smoke. It contains a mixture of squid ink, powdered crow talons, Robore bomb mushroom spores, and crushed blessed quartz (quartz which grows in Concordius or Robore. It has magical properties). When the terracotta shell is shattered, the bomb releases a massive cloud of thick, black smoke that spreads across a small area in a cloud, obscuring vision and causing friend and foe to choke if it is inhaled. [b]Escapist’s Swain:[/b] A potion made by Anna herself, this mixture of skunk oil, rafelsia petals, psilocybin (a chemical found in some mushrooms), dandelion spores, and chlorine is possibly the most disgusting gas ever. When a pin is pulled, a timer makes a small pocket of dragon oil in the center of the bomb detonate in seven seconds. The corresponding gas is foul-smelling, causes hallucinations, and can knock a person unconscious if used on them in an enclosed room. This potion has the most widely-available ingredients of any of the others, and so Anna will be able to make many more of them later. [b]Last Resort:[/b] Anna only carries one of these, and, judging by its name and the rarity of its ingredients, it is used only in a last resort. Last Resort is the most powerful explosive potion in Tithe. It contains a mixture of dragon’s oil, cadmium powder, fluorine gas, sulfur, bellow saliva, death cap mushroom, quiliae oil (the oil of a flower that grows in Robore), and crushed bombardier beetles. Anna puts some iron shards in her’s as well to act as shrapnel. The softball-sized bomb is contained in a thick shell and is activated by pulling a pin. When activated, several of the chemicals in the bomb begin to mix. About ten seconds after the pin is pulled, the bellow saliva reacts with the cadmium powder and beetle oil and creates a concussive blast, breaking the shell and throwing the other reacting components into the air. Once they react with each other and oxygen, they create an explosion which is befitting of a missile. Last Resort is capable of blowing buildings made of stone to smithereens and releases gaseous chlorine trifluoride, a fluorinating agent so corrosive that it burns through things that sane people think are nonflammable, like brick and concrete. Basically, anything Last Resort hits is dead. Of course, due to the fact that you can only throw a bomb the size of a softball so far in ten seconds, it can also cause significant collateral damage. Anna keeps one of the first three bombs in a shock-proof dragonskin pouch on her belt, and the other things in her bag. Her bag also contains herbal bandages, magical bandages which cause wounds to heal more quickly. Due to her soul weaving, these are somewhat irrelevant, but she keeps them in case she is caught in a situation where she cannot use magic to heal someone. Her bag also contains several other potions ingredients which she can use to whip up cures in a jiffy (said bag has very deep pockets). To keep up a water supply, Anna keeps a horn of spring water on her belt. [b]Weaknesses: [/b] Well firstly, if one were to ever get Anna into a situation where she had no weapons and was without bombs, she’d be toast. She has zero non-magical combat experience and no weapons to use. She herself is quite frail and isn’t particularly athletic. Put a sword in her hand, and she’ll probably just sit there thinking about how to disintegrate it into iron dust. Anna is also quite dependent on her environment. If she is in a dry climate, she cannot use her water magic, and her soul weaving requires either another person to be around to defend her or for her to put her own life in danger (I’ll get to that in a bit). While Anna carries bombs and a very limited water supply, skilled mages can remove her water supply (basically just by combining it with the ground) and she has a very limited amount of bombs. If she runs out of bombs, she has to gather the ingredients for more, which, depending on where she is, could be impossible, especially if there’s no apothecary store nearby. As far as Anna’s soul weaving goes, she is still very inexperienced with it. The weaving only works up to a distance of about twenty feet and the farther away from her the person gets, the weaker the effects. If Anna uses her own life force as an attack, she puts herself at extreme risk. You see, life force is a limited substance, one that every creature has a limited amount of. Soul weaving boosts this life force by absorbing the life force of microbes in the air into people and by making that life force more high-energy, causing it to become stronger. No matter what, a person’s life force always has a finite limit. Anna’s life force blast releases a ton of life energy from her body. Depending on how big the blast is, it could drain Anna to the point that she has little to no life force, paralyzing her or even killing her. What’s more, life force doesn’t just automatically replenish itself. It takes weeks of rest for a person to regenerate their life force, during which time using magic could potentially spell their doom. So, if Anna uses her life force attack, she could quite possibly kill herself in the process or make herself completely useless on the battlefield for weeks. [b]Mount: [/b] Anna rides an Andalusian horse, a breed of horse from South Nepharie. It is a smaller breed of horse designed for speed. The horse is white in color, with patches of grey on her neck and rump. She named her horse Augustus. It has a brown leather saddle with saddlebags containing survival supplies and potion ingredients. One of the saddle bags is charmed to keep ingredients cold so that they won’t spoil or wilt. [b]Other: [/b] [/hider]