S I S T E R Ł A S K A
I am but an instrument of a greater will.
16 | FEMALE | WARLISH | CLERGY | 7.25
P E R S O N A L I T Y
❖ Devout
❖ Polite
❖ Forgiving
❖ Optimistic
❖ Patient
Superficial ❖
Seething ❖
Rigid ❖
Sadistic ❖
Relentless ❖
Edyta Łaska is a woman of extremes, as her station and duties demand. Dogmatic, ruthless, and relentless in her pursuit of threats identified by the Red Rezaindian order, she is, conversely, generous, kind, and eager to help those in need. This is, perhaps, what one would expect of someone of her background. However, it is not the entire story.
Somewhere, on a level that perhaps not even she is aware of, there is fear: a fear that the church is certain it burned out of a little girl named Edyta in turning her into a holy weapon. She dreams, she hopes, and she lusts. The forty-odd years that she is expected to live is all too short a time for her. The joy and laughter that she sees in others is something that she craves for herself. Below all of the layers that she has saddled herself with, she misses her family. She wants to be loved. Yet, she is certain that, for love to flourish, evil must be destroyed.
C H A R A C T E R A P P E A R A N C E
Young, fair, and beautiful, with grey-blue eyes and sandy brown hair, Sister Łaska dresses like a nun of her order: conservatively and chastely. Her hair and neck are often covered, as is the rest of her bar her hands and - sometimes - feet. When in battle, she often (though not always) dons the red robes of her order and wields twin scythes of Ahn-Eshiran, representing
fire and
ice. It is rare to find her wearing anything but her clerical robes. If compelled to dress informally, she favours simple hairstyles or ponytails, and long, light dresses. She will always carry prayer beads on her person somewhere, as well as a pentact. Her weapons remain concealed.
L A N G U A G E S
Fully Fluent: Warlish, Avincian
Semi-Fluent: Enthish, Perrench
Rudimentary: Pestian, Revidian
Having had no formal education for the first eight years of her life, Edyta Łaska considers herself amply blessed by Shune just to be literate. However, there is no denying the role played by her tireless dedication to learning. If she is only truly master of her mother tongue and Avincian, she is fully conversant in Enthish and Perrench, as well as at least somewhat capable in Pestian and Revidian.
T H E G I F T
Icevein ❖ Greyborn
Level 5 in Arcane ❖ Level 3 in Binding ❖ Level 3 in Kinetic ❖ Level 3 in ???
Trained from her eighth year by the Quentic Church in The Gift, Sister Łaska is seamless and fluent in its use as few others are. Magic is a natural extension of her being, as the Gods intended, her immense blessing employed to its utmost in their service. Most particularly, she favours the thermal uses of Arcane Magic, which are greatly empowered by her Icevein mana type. This is further augmented through her Kinetic talents, carefully honed to allow her to strike from a distance, boost her speed to superhuman levels, and manipulate her environment at will.
A whirling dervish of ice and fire in battle, she is blindingly fast and strikes with colossal power and a surgeon's precision, phasing in and out of reality as a greyborn. Her blessing and curse, this mana type allows her to walk in the space between planes of existence, becoming intangible when she does so. Her allies, however, may not be so slippery and, for them, she is well-versed in the sacred art of binding: mending diseased and damaged flesh with a high degree of competence.
Finally, there is the forbidden magic that she has learned, and Edyta has struggled to assimilate it, wracked by feelings of fear and guilt but recognizing its necessity in making her an effective weapon of justice and shield of the innocent. She has trained extensively in this skill, but will not, even under pain of death, speak its name. Sister Łaska understands that, while she is beloved of the Pentad, as are all sons and daughters of creation, it is not for her to make the decisions, but to carry out Eshiran's will. This duty is one that she solemnly accepts with the utmost humility and conviction.
B A C K G R O U N D
It all began in the village of Bynowice in the south of the Kingdom of Warlisz: a tiny place that doesn't even appear on many maps. The majority of its people never travel further than thirty kilometers from their homes, to attend the monthly market in the town of Tarwałki and the cathedral there on feast days. Edyta Łaska was born there to an unremarkable family of serf farmers, the seventh of ten children and fourth daughter.
The first eight years of her life were little different from those of any other girl in any number of villages scattered across the Warlish countryside. Then, shortly before her ninth birthday, she disappeared - literally. Her first time entering the space between planes that greyborn are able to inhabit bordered on traumatic. Some thought that she had died or was a demon. It was during a famine and paranoia ran high.
Only the local priest had some idea that she may have manifested a form of magic. When her parents were questioned and admitted to strange incidents like items falling, minor fires starting, or unusual cold drafts in their house, he passed the information on to the bishopric in Tarwałki. It was a warm Stresia, pear and apple trees heavy with white and pink flowers, mud beneath Edyta's small feet, and a constant hollow hunger in her stomach. Within a week - a fitful, frightening period in her young life - representatives arrived from the abbey of St. Karol. Two more passed and her simple parents found themselves summoned to the cathedral in Tarwałki, prostrating themselves before a visiting archbishop of the Rezaindian Order.
Edyta was given an education and a future in the service of her faith. Her parents were given a monthly stipend that made them among the wealthiest in their village and food enough to ensure that their children would grow and flourish. She bid them goodbye and promises were made that they would see each other for a handful of weeks each year, during holidays.
It didn't happen. Instead, it was prayer, lessons, and training that filled Edyta's life in the coming years. As she approached her teenage years, she grew accustomed to the ways and schedules of the convent that she had come to call home. Then, Father Bartek happened. The only other greyborn within the red Rezaindian order in Warlisz, he became her trainer upon her twelfth birthday. At first, these were merely simple twice-weekly meetings between the two, during which he taught her how to harness the full extent of her powers. Then, he took her to 'ride along with him when sent on assignment by the church.
Time and again, the young nun-in-training witnessed, firsthand, the destruction wrought by those with uncontrolled power and few scruples. Villages were ruined or burned, people maimed and killed and, always, were it not for Father Bartek, there would have been no accountability; the demons, sanguinaires, or wildbloods who had caused so much harm would be allowed to walk free for want of anyone able to stop them, only to strike again later. In the cases when it was not one of these, it was some figure of privilege and there was some sort of excuse on his or her lips. Those ones, she was instructed not to lay a hand on. It was a matter for the Somnians. She learned to hate the Somnians, for they never did anything. Most of them were rich too.
She was fourteen when a dragon wildblood wounded her mentor by stabbing him through the shoulder. Edyta didn't have time to fear. She simply acted and earned her first kill. Two months later, she was anointed Sister Łaska and moved to active duty by the order. More enemies have fallen since then. She has gone wherever her unique skillset has been needed. Now, the order needs her in Ersand'Enise, the beating heart of magical practice in the Twin Continents. Big things are happening and she is ever willing to answer the call.
M O T I V A T I O N
Sister Łaska lives to serve... the gods, and Ahn-Eshiran in particular. She derives purpose and meaning from it and tries ever so hard to tamp down on the conflicting voices that emanate from the deepest recesses of her mind: the ones that scream at her that these people took her from her family, the ones that insist that she should have her own purpose, and the ones that say that she is - in truth - a creature of evil as a greyborn.
Dami, how she hates the rich!
She has pledged not to live in hatred. Each life that she takes is only so that others may be saved, only because its continued existence threatens them. Really, she wants to think that her actions - more than just her martial ones: the good works, the charity, the friendliness - will make the world a better place. It'll make
everything worth it. She's certain they will. They
have to.
I N V E N T O R Y
Generally, Edyta Łaska lives ascetically. She always carries a small coinpurse, prayer beads, holy water, a flask containing a very potent mana shot, and a utility knife on her person. When able, she can often be seen with the Menana and, when training or headed for potential conflict, her enchanted twin scythes:
zamrażanie and
palenie. They boost her energy capacity by 32 points and have... other, undisclosed enchantments.
S T R E N G T H S & S K I L L S
❖ Tidy: cleanliness is next to godliness. Sister Łaska is excellent at maintaining the spaces that she inhabits.
❖ Practical: she is capable, hands-on, and largely unsentimental, able and willing to see any necessary task through.
❖ Excellent Cook: as a regular kitchen helper at the convent, Edyta eagerly imbibed everything she could.
❖ Vocally Gifted: always busy singing or humming as a young child and then in a choir, she knows many hymns and folk songs.
❖ Seamstress: Need clothes repaired? Customized? Made from scratch? She is a virtuoso with thread and needle.
W E A K N E S S E S & F L A W S
❖ Singleminded: She can't admit to being wrong, because that would challenge the flimsy framework that props up her 'personality'.
❖ Angry: Deep down, Łaska has anger issues that can erupt. Maybe repressing so many feelings, hopes, and dreams isn't healthy?
❖ Self-deceptive: She doesn't know herself and wouldn't be honest even if she did. This impacts her ability to read others as well.
❖ Bad lungs: a childhood bout of illness left Edyta with a faint lingering cough that she has never shaken, or so she claims.
❖ Claustrophobic: a result of draconian discipline during training. Small, cramped spaces can give her anxiety attacks.
M I S C E L L A N E O U S
❖ She likes to give things nicknames in her head to act as mnemonic devices. Sometimes, these rhyme.
❖ She waffles between being ashamed of her origins and proud of them, but usually more the former.
❖ She still dreams about her family and thinks that she sees them in crowds or random places.
❖ Her HEX codes are 6ecff6 and f26522.