Malia Namzu

Human/Mercane Halfbreed

Female

25

For the most part, Malia looks rather human, however, her Mercane heritage comes through in a few different ways. Her skin, for one, has a bluish tint to it, especially on her face and torso. The further from her center the skin is, the more normal of tinge the color is with her hands and feet being the most natural of skin color, at least for a human. She also has unnaturally long fingers with an extra index finger on each hand. She is tall, standing at a lanky 7’2” and weighs about 210 lbs. Her hair is a steel blue color and curly, usually free and falling down in flowing locks around her face. As for her attire, she is usually in loose robes adorned by yards and yards of jewelry. Each finger has, at least, one ring on it, some having even two or more depending on the sizes. Her wrists jingle each time she moves with how many bracelets that adorn them and some may say her neck looks heavy with how many jewel encrusted necklaces she has wrapped around it. Even her wide brimmed witch’s hat has a ring of gems around its crown, each of a varying size. She even has some gems woven into her hair and has a circlet with a few gems resting on her forehead. She practically glistens when she walks in the sun.

Malia is stubborn to a fault, believes she knows best in all situations, will die on any hill even if what she's fighting for is completely false, and thinks she should rule the world. An absolutely great combination of traits for any 25 year old to have. She can quickly get on anyone's nerves and personally thinks she's unbeatable even though it was her defeat that brought her to the Maw in the first place.

She doesn't trust anyone and thinks that if something needs to be done, then it's only ever going to be done right by her, unless it's killing someone. She doesn't like to get her hands dirty like that. She will, if she has to, but she much rather leave that to the brutes. She's far too sophisticated for that.

Malia was born a bastard child of a wealthy Merchant woman. At first, she was ignored by the populace because her mother was one of the best merchants in the Westerlands and she was kept locked away inside the manor. However, as she grew older, it was getting harder and harder for her mother to keep her locked away. Little Malia would be found roaming the streets at all hours of the day. Her blue skin, height, and extra fingers always made the other children nervous. So, even though she only sought companionship from those her own age, she was usually left standing in the streets as the human children ran from her in terror. No one knew who her father was and her mother never spoke of him, not even to Malia. All she ever got was that he was not of this world. Constantly being locked away and neglected, Malia developed a rebellious personality that only spiraled into a dangerous one when she learned that she not only could wield magic but was actually quite adept to it.

At the ripe old age of 11, Malia encountered the court magician on one of her forbidden outings. The man took an interest in her immediately, trying to discover her heritage and to see if he could figure out just what she was. In exchange for his research, he offered to show her some of his magical items and spells. With nothing else to do and an obvious interest in who her father was, Malia agreed. So away they went to his study so he could run some tests. At first, he had thought her part giant with some kind of birth defect. After all, she stood at least six feet by that point, so she must be part giant and the birth defect would explain the odd hands. However, when he ran the tests and cast the appropriate spells, the results were a blatant no. Perplexed, he began to run every test he could think of. Tiefling? Negative. Merfolk? Nu uh. Elf? Nope. Celestial? Nada. The tests went on and on and day after day Malia returned to his study. As the magician worked, she explored and learned. She found she could wield any magical item, no matter what it was. It did not matter if the item required something to wield it or for her to have a certain type of ability to wield it, she could use it without any problem. She also discovered, by chance, that she could teleport, if only a very small distance. She discovered she could teleport when she accidentally opened a case that was not meant to be opened.

The magician had long ago given her free reign of his study with the cautionary words of “if it’s closed, it stays closed.” And she had intended to follow those rules entirely but there was this one case. It sang to her. In the beginning it was so easy to ignore. He said to leave it alone, so she left it alone but, each time she came into his office, the singing grew louder and harder for her to ignore. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her and she opened it. A creature was inside, a shadowy beast who tried to devour her the moment the case was open. Instincts took over and before she knew what was happening, she had dropped the case and appeared on the other side of the study even before her scream was finished. Unfortunately, the magician didn’t have the same chance as her. The beast had gotten a hold of him before he had a moment to fully comprehend what was happening. A battle ensued that eventually ended with the magician mortally wounded and the shadowy beast locked within a jewel the size of her palm. Before he perished, the magician entrusted her with the wand that had trapped the beast and the jewel, giving her a warning to never release it else suffer the same fate as he. She promised to never release the beast before the magician passed.

Now with the weapon the trap creatures in jewels and a powerful creature trapped within the jewel, she set out to discover just what she could trap in jewels. She began small, a rat here, a cat there. These gems were tiny, some barely larger than her fingernail. As she experimented more, she learned that the more magic a beast had, the larger the jewel became. So she began a collection. Her mother had no problem eventually taking her jewels and making them into jewelry for her to wear. So Malia began decorating herself with the beasts that she had transformed into jewels. Eventually, she decided she wanted to do more than just catch and wear the creatures. So she invested in some magic that allowed her to control the creatures as well and thus her summoner career began.

One would think that Malia might use those skills and the creatures she captured and controlled to help the kingdom but all those years of neglect and distrust from the populace had long ago planted a seed of distrust and resentment within the girl. She used those creatures to get whatever she wanted. She found pleasure in causing people annoyance. It began small but as her jewel horde grew, so did her power and influence. Before long, Malia had her fingers dipped into the darker crimes of the kingdom. As she grew into adulthood, she had lords in her pockets, each paying her a large sum of money to keep their part of the kingdom safe. She was quickly growing wealthier than her mother ever had hoped to be and she was becoming quite a threat to those in power but little girls were never meant to be lords. Eventually, the lords of the land gathered their resources and hired an assassin to kill her. He almost succeeded, to be honest. He got very close but it was the unleashing of the shadow beast that finally brought the fight to an end, leaving her barely alive and severely wounded. She was retrieved, healed, then sent to the Maw by the order of the King.

• Teleportation- She can teleport up to ten feet away with ease and up to three times in quick succession. If she wants to take someone with her, she can only go up to five feet and only once before having to rest. She can’t take more than one person with her at a time.
• Magical Item Adeptness- Because of her Mercane heritage, she can interact and use any magical item without having to learn how to use it
• Creature Summon- Because of the vast horde of creatures she has captured throughout her lifetime, she can summon an array of different creatures to her aid. Depending on how magical they are, depends on how many she can have out and control at one time. For example, she can control a horde of rats with ease while summoning more but she may only have out a single griffin or phoenix and depending on their magical abilities depends on whether she has the jewels on her person or within her bag. The more magical creatures, whose jewels would be far too large to make into wearable jewelry, would all be carried around in her satchel. So the true threat comes when she reaches into her bag.

• Her Age- Malia is young. Being only in her mid twenties, she can be reckless and rather at times. She thinks she knows what's best, even if she doesn't, and will try and convince everyone else that she does too.
• Doesn't Like To Personally Get Her Hands Dirty- She doesn't like being the one in the middle of all the action. Shes more than happy to be the one who starts it all but she doesn't want to be the one who ends it. She rather be the one who drops in the golden apple and see the fight ensue.

Just her clothes, jewelry and her satchel that she keeps slung over her chest.

She can get a little touchy if someone pushes too hard to try and figure out what she is because, she herself, doesn’t know.

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Human


Female, intentionally androgynous


19


Small, waif-like build. In public she wears enough bulky clothing to hide both her gender and nationality, such as rough tunics and work breeches and a slouch hat. When working (AKA thieving) tends to wear a black skin-tight cotton shirt and leggings. Hair cut short in a page-boy style when possible, tied back when barbers are not available.

In complexion, she’s fair, if you can see past the dirt. The dirt is intentional, and gets heavier when she’s working. Eyes are brown.



Cheeky and irreverent when among friends, but a decent actor who plays whatever part the score needs at the moment. A good beggar, a competent busker with a tinwhistle or pipe, capable of street preaching if that will attract coin. Meek and mild when in the presence of authority until their back is turned, then cut-throat and callous as required.

Comes across as amoral, as befits a thief. Thoroughly corrupt, and takes to bribery and abusing the legal system like a fish to water. But somehow always finds reasons not to steal from the peasants and shows a special fondness for stealing from the upper classes. This is probably what led to her downfall.

The Maw has yet to break her. She grew up on the streets, and the lawless Maw is just the same but more so. She fully intends to escape and resume her crime spree. She will cheerfully go along with any plan the Warden gives her, confident in her ability to slip free later.



An orphan and a street urchin, thanks to the policies of Temple and Throne. Adopted - if that’s the word - by the thieves guild of Vorhaaben, one of the larger of the river cities. Proved to be a gifted, if not brilliant, pupil of the illegal arts. Already a near-legendary cat burglar by the time she hit puberty with several daring heists to her resume. Called “Shade” by the commoners, she was well on her way to being a folk hero for her exploits

Like most thieves, she was always looking for that one last score that would allow her to retire in obscurity. In hindsight, stealing from the High Temple of the Sun in Vortigern was probably not the way to cap off a career.

At least the manhunt was epic. They nearly turned over the entire city in the search. In the end it was one consecrated piece of silver that allowed the priests to sniff our her trail and corner her in a back alley.

As far as the Kingdom knows, the thief known as “Shade” danced the hempen jig in front of thousands of witnesses for his crimes. In truth, that was some other poor soul. The real Shade was tossed into the Maw where, if she should survive, she might prove useful.



Can jigger a lock, pick a pocket, climb a wall, all while silent and cloaked in shadow. A master sneak thief, a good con-artist and a competent backstabber. Capable of talking, sneaking or bribing her way out of most any kind of trouble.



Still young, not particularly sturdy, definitely not a front line fighter. Still a bit naive as to the ways of the upper classes and high politics.



Officially, just the clothes on her back. Somehow she ended up with a mostly complete set of thieves tools, including lock picks, climbing crampons, knives and a fair bit of rope. Has a modest bit of coin tucked away in various pockets.



Jagg is the standard fantasy “young thief” character, only a bit older than normal by this point. Think Talen from Eddiings, early Skiff from Lackey or Jimmy the Hand from Feist.