Name: Victoria Crafte

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Age: 27

Nationality: Samare / Lapuria

Appearance: 6'1" with short black hair and blue eyes. White-skinned. Sports a black, stylized white-trimmed long coat. Thin layer of gambeson found beneath the coat with a single plate of armor covering the upper-chest area. Grey leather pants. Leather boots that go up to the knee.


Equipment:

Cutlass (Sheath worn at her left hip. Passed down to her by her father.)

Spellbook

Mechanical Gauntlet (Worn on her left arm. The gauntlet may from a buckler and houses her spellbook beneath an armored frame.)

Pack Belt (Worn around her waist. Several smaller packs are positioned along the belt, meant to hold a number of small items and tools.)

Mana Crystals (Pre-charged crystals imbued with mana. Used as a battery of Victoria to siphon mana from. Carries a total of ten.)

Backpack

Coin Purse

Backstory:

Victoria's childhood was mostly uneventful for a good ten years. She was raised between two caring parents, both of them respected within their former careers. Her mother was a well-known adventuring mage and her father, a witty privateer. Both of her parents, upon marrying, settled down somewhere along the coast, away from the hustle and bustle of everyday society. And away from their previous institutions. They lived their lives peacefully as farmers though as they raised Victoria, it was later found out she possessed a well-sized Mana Heart, a factor that would easily allow her to become a mage. Added to her ever-developing curiosity and the ramping up in expedition requisitions by the League of Explorers at the time, both parents believed their daughter would inevitably show interest in the League.

As she grew, both her parents revisited their trade experiences and taught her what they knew. Her father trained her on how to use a sword and the workings of economics while her mother taught her how to use magic and how to survive in the wild. Even though they trained her every day, one little aspect at a time, they were still a bright and happy family. However, at the age of eleven, Victoria's mother was called back into the League regarding an important expedition westward. She initially refused at first but for reasons unknown, she eventually accepted. She never came back from the expedition, and the entire thing was hushed. Victoria's father resented the League of Explorers ever since.

While she and her father tried to get along, it was never truly the same without her mother being around. Victoria ended up picking up the slack maintaining their farm with her father. Training still continued but as she became of age, she would eventually enroll into the Lapuria Academy to study magic and eventually become an adventurer like her mother. Victoria's father strongly opposed this but after she voiced her interest, along with the backing of her father's relatives, he eventually conceded to allow her to go.

When she eventually graduated at the age of 23, he applied to become an adventurer for the League of Explorers. As a graduation present, her father passed down to her his own cutlass he had kept with him during his many voyages, along with a collection of tomes and articles her mother had stored away. Since then, Victoria has participated in many expeditions and even lead a few herself with other explorers. Like her mother, she would work her way up to a high enough position to keep a larger portion of loot recovered from exploring, though only for research purposes. Though she maintains a more optimistic view of the Leauge, unlike her father, she is aware of the disappearance of her mother and as a side goal, she discreetly seeks to find out what had ultimately happened to her.

Abilities:

Having been trained at a young age by her father, a former privateer of the Eastern coast, Victoria is skilled in the art of single-hand swordplay.

Being an adventuring scholar, Victoria often documents many magical and scientific discoveries encountered on her expeditions. As such, she could be considered a walking library of knowledge. Her main prowess is through deciphering tomes, runes, and other artifacts recovered throughout her journeys. Through, sometimes rigorous, studying and dissecting of ancient knowledge, Victoria is capable of reproducing some ancient spells and even engineer new ones through modern and efficient methods. Although possessing both a large-sized Mana Heart and a very good understanding of magic, along with a wide range of spells, the spells she however employs is geared primarily as support, both in battles and as a tool when exploring ruins and dungeons. It is rare for Victoria to use offensive spells.


Funnily enough, given her recent and occasionally perilous encounters, Victoria has also been seen to be a rather surprisingly athletic runner.

Personality:

Despite practicing a humble demeanor, Victoria is certainly not afraid to speak her mind and express her views when necessary, sometimes comical or sarcastic if it benefits the mood. Being an easily fascinated and curious sort, she takes her role as a scholar by heart (if not seriously) and seeks knowledge whenever she can find it; until it gets her into trouble. Nonetheless, she does show great pride and devotion to her line of work and will always open to offering a helping hand in those in need.

Although being a woman, Victoria’s exhibits a tomboy-like attitude and behavior and is unafraid to commit to any physical-demanding activities when necessary. This is further evident when she becomes flustered (to a certain degree) upon being told to act more feminine or required to wear dresses. Such circumstances she considered both unexpected and embarrassing. Though she does appear to show her feminine side at times when encountering anything considerably ‘cutesy’.

For some strange and almost inexplicable reason, Victoria seems to have a beef with Anubite culture. Might have something to do with the ears…

Name: Samuel Cortés
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: 43
Nationality: Samare, in the seaside nation of Marton
Appearance: Samuel is of an average height with long black hair which he ties back into a ponytail. He has a bushy moustache and a jawfull of stubble, broad shoulders and a large toothy grin. He dresses well; his style is a mixture of pragmatism and finery, with notes of militarism and a penchant for tough, sturdy jackets and heavy waterproof boots. His fingers are gnarled and his face weathered due to his experiences but that doesn't stop him from carrying himself with the utmost confidence and self assuredness.
Equipment:
Peregrin’s coin purse
Ear plugs
A codpiece
Compass
Spyglass
Crossbow & bolts
Rapier
His own coin purse
Spare clothes
A local map (even if crude, to help him orientate himself to some landmarks)
Business cards

Backstory: For as long as he could remember, Samuel has wanted money and power. As a young boy he was described as ambitious and high-spirited, and his work-hard-play-hard approach to his schooling (funded by his family's sizeable wealth) procured surprisingly good results. He was a notorious womaniser in his youth and it's rumoured to be the reason he was sent to the Marton naval academy in order to straighten him out and clear his head. It didn't work too well; Samuel's still a flirt, but now he's a flirt with a plan.

Samuel didn't believe in money in his youth, not unless it sat in the palm of his hand. He was flippant with his spending and cut off once or twice by his beleaguered family simply because he couldn't comprehend finances and economy without it being set out before him. Nevertheless, this precarious relationship with money meant he was living the high life one week and scrubbing lavatories the next. This made him into a hard worker and fuelled a veritable obsession with wealth, to the point where he studied the ebb and flow of economics in his free time. Afraid of falling back into the miseries of poverty, Samuel started putting real force into becoming an entrepreneur. Afraid of going soft, he decided to carve his business out of the dirt with his bare hands. The only thing Samuel knew for certain at that time was that he wanted to make his business in international trade; with this in mind he joined the League of Explorers to meet new people and discover new places he could invest into.

Samuel's path hasn't been without its setbacks. There's been plenty of missed meals, sleepless nights and grey hairs over the years. One of his most dangerous failures brought him to one of his greatest assets; during an expedition to the jungles of Amierre Samuel was separated from his expedition team and ended up hopelessly lost. He found his way to a river and tried to catch a fish; his spear landed in the side of some subspecies of Nereid, wounding her and nearly getting him drowned and eaten. Some hasty negotiations over the language barrier prevented his certain demise and he was able to find the shore with her help as well as getting her medical attention. Ever since, Peregrin won't leave Samuel alone; she lingers around him constantly. Having a travelling companion and someone he can faultlessly rely on isn't necessarily a bad thing however, and even though Peregrin is more inclined to use coins to decorate her strange watery dens, she's slowly becoming a key pawn in his lofty goals.

Abilities:
Networking: Samuel is a hardworking man and a person pleaser. With years of working in the field he has managed to obtain helpful contacts to include in personal businesses scattered across the known world.
Cartographer: Samuel has been trained to accurately draw maps based on his observations and, with the use of a compass and a few hours, he can produce a map of the local area with relative accuracy.
Swordsmanship: Samuel is highly trained with a rapier and has used it to save his life on multiple occasions.
Maritime operations: Samuel is experienced in conducting and partaking in nautical operations as a captain, having graduated from Marton’s naval academy.
Other: (Optional)

Name: Peregrin
Gender: Female
Species: Nereid
Age: Adult
Nationality: Amierre
Appearance: Peregrin’s skin and hair are used for camouflage in the muddy depths of jungle rivers. As such, she has mottled flesh that ranges from green to brown. Her irises are large and brown, similar to a horse’s. Her hair is very dark, long and straight. She’s absolutely packed with muscle and has a mouth of sharp teeth. Her nose is very flat and she’s marred with scars all over. She usually wears a skintight grey bodysuit that extends to her wrists, ankles and neck. On top of this she will be dressed in loose fitting, easy to remove clothes like a robe, or a tunic. The bodysuit’s purpose is to retain as much moisture as possible and it’s not uncommon to see her pour water over the suit.

Equipment:
Bodysuit (to retain moisture)
Hunting Knife
Leather Armour
Rope
Box of Waterproof Matches
Metal Poleaxe
Medicinal Poultice (For disinfection, sealing wounds and numbing pain)
Fishing Net (typically used to carry her gear)

Backstory: Swamp Nereids often travel in pods - large swarms of them that writhe and linger in the deepest, darkest depths of the murky jungle rivers and lakes. They’re bottom feeders and predators that usually rise up to the surface when they feel the vibrations of disturbed water and drag whatever they can grab down with them. As such, they are less accustomed to life on land than the common Nereid. Whilst some of the swamp Nereids were caught to bring into the iron mine, many escaped their fate by swimming deeper into the coursing rivers that interlaced through the jungle. Swamp Nereids have a tendency to grow engorged Mana Hearts due to their smaller gene pool and the lack of organ harvesters so deep in the jungle. Magic, though common amongst Swamp Nereids, is not formally taught and errs towards an instinctive craft that’s loosely taught from generation to generation.

Peregrin is no exception to the rule. Born into a large family that made up the majority of her pod, she was taught the magic of her ancestors from a very early age. The words mean nothing to her - relics of a long lost history - but the spells were an integral part of everyday life. Since none of the mages were formally taught, their culture wrapped around the constant fatigue that came with inefficient use of mana and involved frequent naps and lots of food. Only the elder nereids were able to refine their technique but many of them had been captured or poached when Peregrin was young. She spent an indeterminate amount of time swimming the lengths of the jungle waterways, never really surfacing save for something to eat. Meanwhile, her pod was consistently poached from and hunted down as inhabitants of the mines figured out their affinity for magic. What started as a group of 50 spread across the jungles had dwindled down to 20 during her lifetime.

Peregrin was one of the few who managed to escape through unlucky circumstances when an aspiring explorer known as Samuel Cortez accidentally speared her in the side trying to catch a fish. Wounded and disgruntled, she promised to show the man the way back to the estuary in exchange for medical attention. It took several days, during which the wound had started to become infected. When they arrived Samuel found the relief team harboured by the shore after his failed expedition, ready to take back any survivors. Peregrin was bustled onto the boat alongside him and brought to a small encampment in Umbara where qualified healers were able to nurse her back to health. A long way from home and exposed to the vast benefits of civilised society, Peregrin decided to stick around with her human friend and join the League of Explorers. Her loyalty, however, is solely to Samuel Cortez and his dreams of becoming a trade baron.

Abilities:
Racial Abilities: As a Swamp Nereid, Peregrin has very keen senses that are accentuated for use underwater. Since air is less dense and clearer than the murky depths she grew up in, her eyesight is impeccable and her hearing is very sensitive. This is both a blessing and a curse; bright lights and loud noises can seriously disorient her if used correctly. Her body is used to swimming against strong currents and pinning large creatures to the bottom of the river which makes her quite strong but walking around on land is much more tiring than floating in water, so she tires quickly.

Spells
Scry: Using a reflective surface and a piece of biological matter from the target, Peregrin can provide a glimpse at where they are. The distance of the target and the duration of the glimpse increase the difficulty of the spell. The biological matter is consumed upon casting.
Swamp Song: A channelled spell. When cast, it produces a series of vibrations from Peregrin’s vocal chords that carry the spell to the listener’s ears and produce a weak but persistent urge to get as close to the source of the sound as possible. The closer the proximity to the source, the more powerful the urge. The spell makes Peregrin immediately detectable by any living creature within range and thus leaves her vulnerable to attacks, as she cannot move or defend herself whilst channelling. Blocking one’s ears or inhibiting the transmission of the sound can lessen its potency, disrupting the spell cancels it completely. It is much stronger underwater.
Hibernate: A healing spell. When cast on the self or one other, the target falls into a deep slumber which speeds up natural healing processes but leaves them vulnerable. Consumes mana from the caster until the spell is either cancelled or the mana heart is depleted, at which point the caster will fall unconscious for the respective amount of time it takes to replenish their mana. When cast on the self, the caster is unable to awaken until their mana heart is depleted and they subsequently recover, or if someone else is able to disrupt the spell.

Other: Some of Peregrin’s gear is carried by Samuel, though this is usually restricted to anything that can’t afford to get wet.
Peregrin struggles to speak on land, which often gives the impression that she’s less intelligent than most civilised folk. When underwater, she can speak at length.

Name: Reisha Vay

Gender: Female

Species: Half-Beast (Cheetah)/Elf

Age: 26

Nationality: Valasha Clan

Appearance: Reisha is on the small side only standing at 5'3", but her small stature tends to hide her deceptively powerful athletic build. She is not a pure-blooded Half-Beast as her mother was elven meaning that her only animalistic features are her brown pointed ears on the top of her head, sharp pointed teeth and a bushy two foot long tail. The rest of her features are elven with unblemished skin apart from several scars on her forearms and stomach area. Reisha's most stunning feature would have to be her amber colored eyes that seems to glow from within no matter the amount of external light.

Equipment:

Twin Serrated Bone Daggers

Ornate Dark Wooden Bow

Leather Quiver filled with 15 arrows

Leather Chest piece and Leather Fur lined Bracers

White Traveling cloak that covers the torso and head

Backstory: Reisha was born for the hunt. She was born into one of the most well known hunter clans of the Umbara savanna known for tracking and taking down many of the beasts that harass travelers through the region.

Abilities: Reisha does not have any magical abilities since she was born with a small mana heart and because of this she purely relies on her physical prowess. Since she is not a pure blooded Half-Beast she did not get all the traits that her father has with her traits only developed in her enhanced speed and night vision. She has really embraced her natural born speed and elven agility and pushed them to their pinnacle as she has yet to meet another person that is able to match her speed for extended periods of time.

Reisha's weapons of choice are her bow and twin daggers given to her from her father. She has trained with these weapons for almost her entire life giving her a high amount of proficiency with both weapons in many different situations. She can be a force of nature as she is able to fire her bow at high speeds while closing the distance to finish any opponent off with her skills in close combat.

Other: (Optional)