When a Jäger is activated, they inherit the skills and knowledge necessary to leave the safety of their ancestral home and begin to walk the Path. The Path refers to a Jäger's mission to protect the mundane world from the evils that lurk in the darkness and beyond the veil the separates our world from another. This has been the sacred duty of the Jäger since time immemorial. When an elder Jäger passes on, their memories and skills are passed along to their closest heir. In this case, the heir was Ellara, and the elder Jäger unbeknownst to her was her late father. When this happened, the memories and training of Ellara's ancestors were passed onto their living descendant, 'activating' Ellara as a Jäger.
It is for this reason that, Ellara has a natural aptitude for fighting as it is her ancestors' memories imprinting themselves on her reflexes and reactions which acts as a sort of instinctual intuition. She gained their knowledge of fighting against the supernatural, and with it their weapons' skills and preferences. As part of her heritage, Ellara also possesses incredible observational abilities and keen instincts.
Perhaps the most valuable, though underutilized skill that Ellara gain upon being activated is her 'Divine Tongue'. Through her ancestors, Ellara has become something of an omniglot, capable of speaking and reading languages she has never heard of. The additional cones in her retinas allow Ellara to view written language in a way most humans can't, and to see messages under the letters left by others like her. In addition to the modern language, Ellara possesses the gift of a 'Nightingale Tongue' and has an innate, almost imprinted understanding of 'Divine Languages' such as Latin, Gothic, Enochian and most notably, the 'Language of the Birds'. This is a significant contributor to Ellara's natural connection to the supernatural and therefore affinity for performing mystic arts if given the correct direction or training.
► Limitation(s)
Ellara's inexperience as a Jäger is her biggest limitation despite having grown up seeing the supernatural, Ellara never had anyone to guide her nor train her despite her 'Ancestral Activation'. As such, while she can survive on instinct alone, if Ellara ever starts actively pursuing her heritage, she will quickly find herself outgunned and outmaneuvered by beings who have centuries more experience in confronting and defeating Jäger.
Additionally, due to the overwhelming amount of information unlocked in her mind upon 'activation' and her 'Divine Tongue', Ellara can suffer from bouts of glossolalia, or 'Speaking in Tongues' which makes it near impossible to communicate with others unless they're familiar with the tongue or a translator is provided.
► Weakness(es)
The greatest drawback to being an 'activated' Jäger is the numerous memories and personalities that cloud the mind of the new hunter. The mental strain alone has left Jäger in the past institutionalized upon being activated and not everyone survives the ordeal. Some Jäger have even had their personalities and sense of identity completely overwritten upon activation creating a loss of self and almost a reincarnated form for the previous Jäger.
While activation can aid a Jäger in combat, it is not a suitable replacement for actual training and over-reliance upon inherited memories can lead to a Jäger's downfall. Additionally, the memories provided by her 'activation' are limited to just that, being memories. If Ellara encounters anything new or unfamiliar, she has no aid from her 'activation' and must resolve the situation on her own.
► Application(s)
The primary application of the Jäger's ancestral activation is to preserve their knowledge and skills through each subsequent generation. This method also allows for accelerated training and avoiding learning curbs due to being able to draw upon the experience of those who came before.
Ellara has a unique physiology gained from a long ancestry dating back most famously to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. While her abilities are underdeveloped, Ellara still possesses several differences from a base human. The first of these differences is nearly undetectable, Ellara possesses two additional cones in her eyes' photoreceptor cells which allows her to see things that escape detection from the average human eye. Predominantly, this allows Ellara to see and detect the presence of the supernatural whether those around her want to seen or not. Ellara's sense of smell and her sense of hearing are also enhanced and with the proper training could be honed to the point where Ellara's hearing or sense of smell alone could compensate entirely for the loss of her sight. Additionally, Ellara possesses a sixth sense, a sort of supernatural 'radar' that provides her with an overwhelming 'gut feeling' whenever she's in the vicinity of something belonging to the supernatural.
The most notable aspect of Ellara's Jäger Physiology is her resilience to physical harm. As a Jäger, Ellara's body is substantially more durable and resistant to blunt force trauma than that of an ordinary human's and she possesses an incredibly high pain tolerance. It is difficult, though not impossible, to bruise Ellara and even more difficult to create strain on her joints or break her bones. Ellara possesses a sort of metaphysical strength that is not related to her physical mass and thus is hard to fully gauge. At best, it puts her above a trained strongman but not on a level that one would consider superhuman. Likewise, her physical speed, agility, and reflexes are also enhanced and while impressive to an average human, anyone one of these attributes would be rapidly outpaced by an individual possessing a superhuman trait of the aforementioned.
While a regular person may require eight to ten hours of sleep, Ellara requires considerably less but still needs rest to function. Ellara herself is capable of staying awake for days but this will result in her 'crashing' and her body forcing her to sleep for half a day. Provided Ellara is left undisturbed while she recuperates, there will be no lingering disabilities. When sleeping, Ellara can recover from most non-lethal injuries, the severity of which will determine how long she requires rest. Likewise, her body can sustain itself on very little food and water, having nearly double the threshold for dehydration or starvation that a human has, which leads to Ellara eating relatively lightly on an average day but capable of putting away large amounts of food after a long fought battle.
► Limitation(s)
The Jäger's sixth sense for the supernatural is not accurate, it can only inform the Jäger that there is a being of supernatural origin within a fifty-foot radius. It cannot determine who is the supernatural being or even what kind of supernatural being it is. A Jäger who is not accustomed to the sensation of their 'sixth sense' may also feel nauseous, even violently ill which would do them more harm than good. Additionally, Ellara's Jäger Physiology does nothing to alert her of the presence of enhanced beings outside of the supernatural spectrum.
Ellara is also something of a technophobe, preferring to do things by hand whenever possible and using computers and cellphones sparingly. Furthermore, a lifetime of seeing what others can't has left Ellara in poor mental health and quite damaged. This has led to Ellara often refusing friends, help or aid even when in need of any of the aforementioned.
► Weakness(es)
There are several noticeable weaknesses to Ellara's Jäger Physiology. The first of which is that in the same way Ellara can see the Supernatural, they too can see what she is. When her abilities see through the disguise of a supernatural, her own nature is revealed to them. Despite their resounding resilience against blunt force, a Jäger can be injured by conventional bullets, bladed weapons, and more advanced weaponry just as easily as an ordinary human can. Likewise, despite being able to perform it, Jäger's are not immune to magic and can be harmed or even killed from offensive spells.
All Jäger suffer from a weakness to 'Witch Blood' which is a literal term and refers to blood belonging to a living practitioner of magic. Weapons or objects laced with Witch Blood have a toxic reaction with a Jäger, causing burns upon contact and preventing wounds from closing. Ingestion of Witch Blood can lead to a Jäger being reduced to human levels if not outright killing them pending the quantity of dosage.
As a Jäger's primary method of recovery is through sleep, this leaves them with only two choices while injured requiring them to either continue fighting while wounded or to retreat in order to sleep. Either way, this decision could lead to the Jäger's untimely death due to falling in battle or being discovered while unable to defend themselves.
► Application(s)
A Jäger is designed to do one thing, and one thing very well, protect the world from the threats of the supernatural. As such, they equipped to seek out, discovery and destroy any supernatural threats, possessing the natural tools to survive and overcome any encounter especially when trained to do so.
While a Jäger's Physiology provides a significant boon against the forces of the supernatural, when faced with overwhelming odds, Jäger are known to mark their skin with arcane runes. This practice traces back to their Germanic origins and often is done using Germainc Runes however some Jäger are known to favour Enochian instead. The actual rune itself is mostly ceremonial and it is the magic sealed within the symbol that has the greatest influence on the effect of the rune.
Application of a rune requires a skilled practitioner of magic, specifically one skilled in alchemy due to the process involved in the mixing of the ink. No two runes require the same combination of ingredients and almost every mixture contains an ingredient of a magical origin. For this reason, runes are sparingly used and only applied in dire circumstances. Amongst the Jäger, there are specific members who dedicate their lives to learning how to craft and draw runes, those who walk the path often bring tribute to these 'Scribes' as compensation for their services.
While these runes are almost exclusively used by the Jäger, they could be applied to a mundane however the detrimental effects would be accelerated without the Jäger's constitution to stand up to the toxicity of the runic concoction. Outside of ritualistic body modifications, runes are also used on weapons in order to create specific effects and enchantments. If applied during the forging process, the rune is more stable and often has a longer period of use than a rune added to a pre-existing weapon.
► Limitation(s)
Each rune can only contain one effect and the use of multiple runes accelerates the risk of poisoning within a host or degradation of a weapon. Damage to the rune can render it unstable and any sort of breaking of the symbol will render it useless to the host or user. In the event of a damaged rune, pending the extent of the damage, a Scribe may be able to touch it up and stabilize the magic but a ruined rune will need to be removed and reapplied.
► Weakness(es)
Runic Markings are exceptional volatile both to apply and to the host. Ingredients need to be measured precisely and mixed exactly otherwise the rune will fail or worst, backfire in horrific ways. The rune itself will fade with each use but must also be cleansed from the host system using a purification concoction. Failing to cleanse the rune from the host after it has been extinguished, will result in a form of arcane blood poisoning to the host. Continued neglect will eventually lead to madness and a mindless, feral state turning the afflicted Jäger into a zombie-like creature.
Much like the rune itself, the purification process requires the correct alchemical concoction and depending on the state of blood poisoning and the rune that caused it may require a stronger blend or specific ingredients. If prepared incorrectly, the purification concoction can lead to severe side effects if not outright killing the consumer.
► Application(s)
Runes are used to compliment a Jäger in any area they're lacking or to specifically target a known weakness. They can be used not only to bolster both offense or defense but also create specific situational effects if given the time to prepare.
Tongue of the Nightingale
The tongue of the Nightingale or 'Divine Tongue' is a Jäger's unique gift that gives them the ability to command and understand both written and spoken language in a way more humans can't. Considered to be 'Priority Speakers' when casting incantations or banishing beings from this plane, a Jäger's words take precedence over those of a rival caster or opponent. In addition to this, Jäger's are able to see messages hidden behind words and characters especially in the cast of rune or glyph based writing. Due to their 'Divine Tongue' and enhanced sight, new messages can appear on a page that wasn't present before due to the Jäger's mind being able to extrapolate the hidden text.
Combined with her ancestral knowledge, Ellara possesses a high degree of mastery over language and the longer she remains 'activated', the more ingrained her knowledge of Earth's various tongues will become. As a side effect, all Jäger speak in perfect pitch and share a natural talent for singing, storytelling and other vocal forms of communication.
► Limitation(s)
The Divine Tongue, while granting a Jäger a mastery over language, does not allow for instantaneous learning of foreign tongues. Pronunciation may come easier to a Jäger but they will still need to learn the ins and outs of a new language if they wish to speak it correctly. The only exceptions to this rule are the Divine Languages which are ingrained within a Jäger's subconscious.
► Weakness(es)
The Divine Tongue is not a universal translator and when confronted with a foreign language not in their repertoire whether, through their ancestral memories or their own learned, a Jäger will be as lost as those also involved in the conversation. This goes both ways in that a Jäger will not automatically begin speaking the foreign language in order to communicate when necessary. Languages not of Earth or based on other forms of communication such as pheromones or even sign language will present as much difficulty to understand to a Jäger as anyone else.
► Application(s)
The greatest application of the Divine Tongue is casting or countering magic. Due to being a 'Priority Speaker' the Jäger will be able to overcome most lesser practitioners as well as being able to unleash a powerful offensive of their own.
