As for the Tatzelwurm Vola can try to help skin it, though she's not the most knowledgeable in that regard either ^-^; we'll probably have to rely on our orcish constitution quite a bit to not die from foodpoisoning, at least until we can cosy up to someone who wouldn't mind teaching us their skills... XD
Lazash: "Give me good meat from your kills, I'll show you how to make fire. The more good meat brought to me, then I'll give you more training to help you refine that skill."
The world sometimes feels like a stage…we’ll never always know what part we might play in the grand scheme, what role we will place ourselves in, or where we’ll ultimately end up after it all I think. Nothing is certain in that sense.
But in the end, we must all face it until our own curtain call whenever it comes…and I find that poetic.
…Besides, my mother always did like going to the theater when she got the chance
Name: Seraphilla Alyriana Laevataenia Omphalonius
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Appearance:
A physically matured younger woman who stands with confidence as she walks or moves about. She further has the same silvery hair of her mother, but also the silvery eyes of her paternal great-grandmother, both of which alongside her general looks has drawn the gaze of some of her peers as she’s grown up. Her build overall remains relatively fit and slim, something she had worked with personal exercise (offscreen at least) to maintain in turn over the years after some advice from her mother noted years ago that: ‘health in body is also health in the mind and leads to better excellence in magic’.
As for her uniform? It has been modified to an extent, maintaining that ‘formal look and etiquette’ as well as a small waist-cape and a back-cape having been attached for flair whilst still maintaining the ‘formal’ type of look to it. The doublet has been simply adjusted to wear comfortably without any sort of bagginess or such to it, though ultimately the belts and leggings were frankly a more notable modification to it on her part. She likewise wears the boots (ignore the shoes) that came with the uniform as part of it without any modifications to them. Outside of the ‘formal yet fashionable’ modifications to her uniform, she hasn’t done anything to the cloak and keeps it for use when she needs it in turn. (In other words, hey I am part using her appearance pic as a general-ish reference for her uniform because it works! I think. Hopefully.)
Personality:
A relaxed yet studious younger woman, Seraphilla is someone who will push herself hard to get work done and learn the things she has a desire to learn. She is the sort of person who takes charge of group projects at times, or chides a peer for not putting in the effort and complaining about the result they got. At the same time, Sera is also someone who will on occasion overwork or push herself too far if she gets too wound up about something mentally or emotionally (rather than lash out with it visibly). She is also someone who is willing to listen to others if they need it, though feels bad about having someone listen to her in return if they ever extended her the favor. Seraphilla also has a general interest in the history of the very territory the Republic exists upon, spurred in perhaps some small part by her family’s own long history and the pride they have had in that history in turn.
When it comes to personal habits she will at times tinker with tiny little projects, like making a little golem to fly or run around her room. She can also be the sort to crack open a book or tome to read if it catches her fancy. There is also doing things like seeking out some fancier food to eat on certain occasions (sometimes stress related ones), taking long and drawn-out hot baths with flowers floating on the surface, or even opening the window or sitting outside at night to feel the cool night air on her face and just relax. In short, in that vein she is a ‘stop and smell the roses’ type of person if it is relaxing to her or even a bit silly and yet still relaxing to her she'll still do it.
Background:
Seraphilla was born as the third of four children to the current head of the Omphalonius family, himself an enterprising and merit-driven Prefect in the midwest of the modern Magister’s Republic of Cresvald who had been more outgoing and active in things than his more reserved father before him. Though with the changes in generations ever moving onward, such differences in the heads of the family were seen as nothing much to the Omphalonius in general. In fact, as a rather old if not ancient line they had seen and been through quite a lot of things over the myriad centuries indeed.
From a young age, Seraphilla was raised with a general education and learned general things about magic just like her 3 other siblings were. Though while in the end only those who achieved noesis could take up the mantle of running the family as its head, even those without the boon of magic (as few and rare among the Omphalonius line as such had eventually become) would have places and roles in which to help or assist the family as a whole without ill treatment. This was also admittedly done in some part for fear of retaliation or other issues arising from such individuals, but for Seraphilla and her siblings that would manage to not be a matter of such concerns as they all achieved noesis at various points in their lives. Her older brother achieved noesis at the age of 12, her older sister at the age of 11, and her younger brother in final would eventually achieve his at the age of 13. All of these ages were generally standard times to achieve noesis within the long and generations-bred line of magi, though slightly younger and slightly older ages were not unexpected or unforeseen points to achieve noesis either.
She, meanwhile, stood out as an oddity in the family when her noesis triggered at the ripe and abnormal age of 9. It was certainly something that astonished her parents and relatives without a doubt, the youngest in about three or four generations to achieve it so young, but the occasion was also something unexpected that came both without warning but with consequences at the time. Long had Seraphilla been a playful and rambunctious child, and with her siblings or parents or caretakers she had often made a habit of hiding and waiting to be found, making playful mischief, or even just curiously going about the family estate to learn about things. On the day of her noesis, she had been hiding in the family’s backyard under some cover in the pouring rain (as a hired servant tried to find her in turn) and passing out due to the event. It did, however, cause the servant to finally and quickly locate her and rush her in after finding her almost half-drowning in a puddle she’d been sitting next to at the time. One sickly round of pneumonia later on her part, as well as a scolding from a admittedly frightened father and mother, and she would finally begin her preliminary magical education in earnest with them as her older siblings had before her.
When it came to an area of interest for her preliminary magical studies, thhough, hers would by one of the family’s various business pursuits: Mining. In particular, through being exposed to it somewhat, she found herself admiring geomancy and somewhat hydromancy, and on top of this had a growing curiosity about transmutation. It would be from this that her initial magical education would be shaped and formed around her, at least at the start of it.
But only one year later, at the age of ten, ‘The War’ would start...and with it things would begin to crumble around them.
Living where they were within the central provinces, it all began with several neighbors turning to the rebel side and trying to convince and then ultimately coerce the Omphalonius to join them. This would lead to a number of attacks on their estate as things escalated, until eventually proper skirmishes were occurring around where they lived. Despite the bringing in of many disaffected citizens to their estate for protection, magical and non-magical alike, it would only bloat the worsening situation as the warpath of Anedor and his forces began to come down toward them. Seraphilla and her remaining siblings (as her older brother was off getting an education at another magical school at the time elsewhere), meanwhile, were secreted off to the city of Akarith on the west coast with a relative living there for safety when word of Anedor’s forces marching south came along. It would also be a desperate flight to safety, however, that would see several of their escorts dying along the way to boot.
Despite her initial magical education being continued in the large coastal city of Akarith and under the careful guard of a member of their own house, after their arrival Sera and her siblings would look for news of their parents and siblings each day with baited breath as it came with merchants and news-bringers and refugees to boot. Would they be alive? Would the estate and everything be gone? What little they first heard was of their parents and large family estate having become a pocket of fierce pro-Magisterium resistance against Anedor and his hordes, with nearby magisterium forces in that area having been pushed to their estate as her family gave them refuge and in turn got help to fortify the place further. Beyond that, however, word became scarce as the focus turned mostly toward fighting back against the insurrectionists. At the same time, Seraphilla would ultimately throw herself into her preliminary magic education as she hoped to be able to get back home one day...even if she had to learn the magic to fight her way back home herself! Learning and playing and going about town or to the beach with her father's uncle and his guards was all she was much allowed to do in those days at any rate, all to try to keep her and her siblings busy, but even so the hope she’d make her parents and family proud by learning more as they fought on was there to help her mentally for the time being at least. In regards to magic it eventually become something the magic-educated siblings would be able to practice around each other during those years, at times in play, at other times competing against each other or their father's uncle's youngest two children, at times making life a little more difficult for the servants of the estate and the relative who had taken them in, and otherwise as they tried to make the best of a situation they had no real control over. Even so, in the end the paternal relative who had taken them in, Rhadegus Siegrend Alberic Omphalonius, would certainly treat them like family and even at times get in on the fun himself with a jolly laugh. Yet while he was a gracious and kind host, the mercantile-oriented mage would also likewise impress their line's value of treating family well along the way at the same time as they lived upon his personal estate within the city walls.
The city of Akarith was certinaly not a minute place either, having myriad sights and smells and goods and so forth of the large middle coastal city that supplied many goods from the sea directly to the central provinces (including being a notable mercantile location in moving goods by sea along the Republic's western coast from north to south and vice-versa by sea) as well as a place that acted as a hub of sea trade with places abroad. It was certainly a place Sera and her siblings had never seen before, with wide open beaches nearby to boot that proved fun to play upon over the years, and it was likewise during these years that Seraphilla would learn how to swim in the ocean after her first exposure to its beautiful and comfortable yet also dangerous waters as well (these being far from her common expeirences in swimming in the rather large lake connected to her family's estate back home). However, even this very place that gave them refuge likewise became a place of refugees in part as the tide of those fleeing the war would arrive and set up within or (mostly in this latter case) around/outside of the city walls. With them would trickle in further news of terrors, deaths, and destruction caused by both rebel guerillas and Anedor's forces alike, and it would cause the local Prefect to institute a number of measures such as nightly lockdowns, expelling a number of the initial refugees from within the city walls and swelling the ranks of local guards to send patrols through the forming refugee suburbs. Even Rhadegus would take Sera and her siblings with escort when they left anywhere, 'just in case' as he would always tell them, and small incidents like thieves and the occasional guerillas who had snuck into the refugee suburbs to wreak havoc certainly felt like justification for a number of the measures despite the discontent of those refugees who wanted to live within the already-packed city walls.
Midway into the war a number of more iterant and discontent refugees, despite attempts to send wagons of supplies as well into the refugee area beyoond the walls by the local Prefect to try to help keep them compliant, would attempt to storm the city gates to force their way inside after a number of guerilla attacks and incidents within this area...leading to what is even now remembered post-war as 'The Akarith Incident'. City guards and local mages assigned to the defense of the city would try to generally scatter the crowd and disperse them, until a guerilla cell who had infiltrated the mob that day tossed several spells back at the front gate and guards manning it. The gate became set ablaze by magical fire, and a number of those living inside panicked under the assumption the city was being put under siege (a real fear in the city in those days) in turn. Attempts to stop the panic inside and the raw violence developing outside finally erupted into a force led by the local Prefect personally engaging in an unavoidably bloody massacre of the mob members and most of the guerillas that had been concealed within (the rest being captured as prisoners). This in turn would lead to smaller incidents being incited by this as word was spread in twisted rumors of 'the Prefect murdering innocent refugees' and so forth, though the Prefect would consolidate a more formal authority over the space beyond the city walls with the deployment of further guard patrols and mages as well as the building-up of more permanent guard stations throughout these new refugee-wrought suburbs at the time. No more of such incidents could be tolerated, much less allowed, and the Prefect would ensure that with a fist of iron. At the same time, a number of refugees would leave after the major incident and smaller ones, with their own complains and fears about being 'purged' and otherwise due to guerilla actions that would incite further smaller 'incidents' as the local rebels would be hunted down and outed bit by bit. Even the siblings would not be exempt from what few issues managed to make their way within the city walls, Sera receiving scarring burns on her back from a rebel who tried to attack her with a torch after she snuck out once night to see the ocean again despite her uncle's myriad stern warnings.
In time the suburbs would be fully secured by the Prefect, chasing out the guerillas in final and stopping their ambushes on guard patrols and so forth, as well as better organizxe and build up these informal suburbs. Forging formal roads, altering the spacing of guard posts to more effectively distribute the manpower and reduce the former excess of guard posts, create boundaries for markets and so forth to be set up, and even better formalizing neighborhoods so things could be tidied up with the patrols and so forth. This made a good case inthe minds of many refugees, who in turn settled down to stay otherwise after losing everything where they had once lived before (and other reasons, etc, that people might find to stay by that point) by the time the war ended. At the end of the war, then, all it took was formalizing things on paper in the aftermath with the Republic and the Prefect would frankly incorporate the suburbs into the city proper before beginning construction of further outer suburb-protecting walls. This as the original city walls would be kept to protect the 'inner city' or 'old city' of Akarith and act as a boundary line. It would also be around this same time of initial celebration in Akarith (one was held to celebrate the incorporation and end of the war at the same time) that, with the arrival of some familiar messengers, Sera and her siblings would finally be brought back home on safer roads than they'd fled upon to reach greater safety years prior. The losses her family and many others incurred by the end of the war, as they would soon learn, had been notable in and of themselves, losing about half of the extended relatives and so forth that had been living on their bloodline's primary estate proper...their own mother being among those. She had died valiantly, succimbing to magic and wounds as she'd been protecting a number of injured who were being cared for in their main room (a makeshift 'hospital' at the time) from attacking rebels and waves of undead. It was a time of grief for Seraphilla, her father, and her siblings, but at the same time they found a vital source of comfort in each other in the days to come.
Rebuilding wasn’t easy at first, but the Omphalonius had been through much before and survived perhaps even worse times than this. The family would rebuild, some would remarry, and their estate would be marked by permanent outer walls and other magical defenses surrounding it after this point to boot. Her father’s prefecture would gradually begin to rebuild as well, and for the first time in years the estate was home again...and while it felt different at first it began to finally feel like such to them again over time. Despite promises and an open invitation from their father's uncle that they could visit again at any time they wished, though, the continuation of herself and her siblings' magical education back at home (rather than with their relative) would see Seraphilla looking toward where she wished to go to get a higher grade of magical training due to her age in particular. Her older sister, meanwhile, would be heading off to go to another school their father had been to, as well as try to catch up due to the effects of the war on her own magical learning before she could get a chance to go off to another magical school as well. As for Sera herself, she would be suddnly one night called into her father's meeting room upstairs about the matter.
Said room was a major place in their own home where he talked business with others, family or otherwise, but usually not his children. In that sense it was an odd place to call her up to simply to talk to her in this case, but even so she went. The two would speak together for some time on her personal motives and desires to further her magical education and learning. Then, after ascertaining what he seemed to feel like was enough about his own daughter in greater depth, her father would softly yet bittersweetly smile and withdraw a sealed letter of reccomendation from his drawer to hand to her. As it had turned out, her mother was an alumni of Glynwood itself and had expressed the idea years ago of sending Seraphilla and her younger brother there to learn. Her mother, an accomplished mage, was fond of her alma mater and had hoped to allow at least one or two of her children the same experience. This conversation had occurred about a year before the war started, but after Sera's own noesis. Ultimately, after all that had happened, her father had simply wanted to see her resolve to learn before giving her a letter of recommendation to the school itself as a way to honor her mother's wishes.
Safe to say, it was a time of some tears and joyous celebration with her family the night before she left for Glynwood.
Attunement: Tellurian
Aura:
Her aura looks like she is surrounded by a shining (and suspended in the air) field of gemstone-shaped various metals, ones which are constantly changing into different distinct gemstone-like shapes, which glint with light and the wet cool of water droplets sitting upon them as if they had just passed under a fresh spring rain. To the touch the aura feels cool indeed, and yet at the same time moving into or through it gives others a sticky sensation like one is touching wet clay. Her feet are likewise seemingly surrounded by a smooth floor of incredibly smooth muddy clay, which is constantly swirling around her at the center and rippling with little waves that rise up as if it was part of an ocean or she is standing in the eye of a storm. On occasion a metallic sheen will pop through the swirling floor of muddy clay torrent round her feet, which comes up to her heels at most, like something hidden that was concealed underneath has risen up for a glimpse only to disappear again under the depths once more.
Magic:
Transmutation - Most often used to: transmute earthen materials into metal for her use in terms of daily or general use, transmute earthen materials into minerals for use in fortifying her mud spells or so forth, tweak little things like the color of her clothes or food, purify water and metal and other materials or such things, and so forth along those general lines. She is rather interested in expanding these skill far and wide, however, even whilst keeping to its uses in her daily life or in tandem with her magic in a general sense.
Mud/Clay Magic (Geomancy/Hydromancy) - An art whose components are geomancy and hydromancy, it involves the creation, conjuring, and manipulation/use of mud/clay. She often employs it to the end of creating simple golems to do her bidding or carry things or grab things for her, create little platforms of shaped clay/mud to move over dangerous or inconvenient terrain, to make a place or spot as slick and slippery as possible to slip up others, and can do things like make defensive mud barriers and dense/blunt (due to mud/clay’s very nature) projectiles formed from dense mud/clay to boot.
Likewise due to her education in this area, she has some more general geomancy and hydromancy capabilities by virtue of necessity for her craft, and hopes to supplement these far more with an education, using them to do things such as (but not limited to): clean herself or other things of general of dirt and grime, dry her body more quickly after a bath or shower or after swimming, remove dirt and earthen materials from a rug or bed or such things, and even conjure and manipulate rocks to use as projectiles or barrier.
Metal Magic - Also known as ‘Métallomancy’, it is a more niche area of Geomancy that involves the conjuration, manipulation, shaping, and use/control of metals, ranging from metal spikes to thin metal wires and barriers and so forth. It is often used to protect her from things like rain and weather (and things such as falling objects), create a mirror to examine herself when getting dressed or so forth, create little tools for her work without having to buy them (at least in the more basic cases), and reinforce or add metal components/parts to her golem constructs. She could create metal projectiles and barriers and such with this, at least of a basic or personal-use sort.
Artifice - Mostly used in the daily sense by her in the creation of golem constructs of a simpler sort, or in making little trinkets of a most basic sense to make something easier. In that vein she has much room to expand or augment her capabilities in this area to be sure.
Divination - A magic she has put to more common daily use in things such as (but not limited to): Finding missing items or locating things she is seeking out, looking at other rooms or places from afar to see if someone is there, looking at the basic past history of older or historical items to see what happened to them or where they were, and alert her of something out of her sight like a falling rock from the top of a cliff or stampeding steed blitzing around the corner of the street that could hit her. Like with Artifice, she has much room to expand and develop her skills further in this area (and is interested in doing so both for this magic and in regards to Artifice).
Arcane Items:
Pocket Memory Tome - Kept safe in a little snug leather pouch on her left hip, it stores her memories and any information she has learned automatically if it is within a certain distance from her so she can look back at them later. Can even allow her to re-experience her stored memories to boot. Prefect for the young or even very old mage on the go, or who wishes to review the past and what they’ve learned later on! An expensive but rather resilient and durable little piece of artifice her older siblings purchased for her before she left, with a little help from their father, as a gift. Also helpful for mages who can be more forgetful, such as her younger brother, who also got one of these at the same time as she did back at home.
Usually this artifice only stores memories from the time of receiving it onward, as adding the capability for storing older memories in it costs extra. Her father paid for this extra functionality however, so she’d have full functionality of the item…though admittedly there are certain points in time she does not look back at or such in the book for personal reasons as well.
Staff of Luwen - A fancy magical staff passed on to her by her family, an heirloom of some age which has been lovingly cared for and also enchanted in depth to maintain its good condition despite its further usage over the centuries. It is a proper mage’s staff and high-quality magical tool with some family history and quality preservation/durability protecting measures added to it, to put it simply.
Ring of Alert - Like a little alarm clock worn on her right hand, she can set it using a simple spell to ‘go off’ at a certain time to wake her up each day or wake her up from a nap or such. Has had it for years, as it was a gift from her mother to help her wake up for her initial preliminary studies in the first year she began to learn magic. Still keeps it and uses it to this day as a nice little tool.
Other:
On the map Thoth made, their estate would be a dot right in the middle between where the capital of Pontaion is and where Glynwood is.
Her family, the rather ancient Omphalonius line, is a line of mages that originates back far before the pre-Republic times, which has made them something of a ‘historical artifact’ in that sense of the word. Their family vault, a thing kept under their vast home compound and estate, is said to hold within it a number of familial ancient items and relics and so forth from ages long gone. Said vault is a veritable treasure trove of the past, with some things even the family by current times does not have all the information about still, and by modern times the vault’s contents have been increasingly kept under layers of enchantments and spells and doors and barriers and so forth to keep them within the family’s hands and as safe as mortally possible. Some have made jests at their excessively protective nature of said vault even going into current times, though others have mostly shrugged at them and gone on with life due to them not making trouble for anyone about it save for potential or attempted thieves. It has, however, lent a mythical air and slightly ‘ancient’ sort of mystique to the Omphalonius bloodline all the same.
At the same time, however, beyond jokes about their very old bloodline the Omphalonius have long adapted to and weathered the ages through their efforts. In ways they have remained the same in their line’s overall acceptance of the trials of life and the passage of time, comparable to a great mountain remaining still standing resolute despite the changing of the world around it. On the other hand, they have kept with the ruling politics of the time and likewise adapted with the changing of local culture and ideas. ‘Flexible’ would be a word that could be applied to the bloodline in a general sense, bending and flexing without destroying themselves…or taking up means to strengthen themselves or rebuild before the erosion of the changing tides can wear them away.
It would be this bloodline that ‘Sera’ (as she insists only friends or family can ever call her) was born into what amounted to great opulence and wealth, managed, wrought, and accumulated over the generations as they’ve expanded into a modestly large house of sorts without trying to ‘reach for the stars’ in the eyes of their neighbors.
Her middle two names are taken from female ancestors of hers, who were each themselves notable magi in their day. In fact, the Omphalonius Family have long used these long, winding names for their children as a way to remember their history and pay some respects to their ancestors in turn. A local family myth even holds that the spirits of those whose names one is given will help watch over them in times of need.
Likes the rain and swimming, she’s also enjoyed swimming and has become a great swimmer at that over the years. Sometimes has even gone off to swim in the last two years just to just help clear her head a bit, or done so to get out some stress and energy. Can hold her breath underwater pretty well to boot!
"Nah, I've tasted enough blood in my past life. Not thirsty enough to go for it yet."
"Fair enough."
She wouldn't judge. It was, after all, gross even by human standards. But they were orcs, and when it came to survival...well, this would also be a bit of protein and such to boot. Not something she'd do a bunch of, but she would do it in this case for a proper drink during her first hunt and quest. A reminder of her past experiences until they came across proper water to drink.
As Lazash sipped the fresh Elwet blood, she would find it none too pleasant. Metallic on her tongue, bitter on the way down, and overall possessing a pungent smell and a strange black-pepper taste that burned the sinuses, it was also warm and thick without a living heart to keep it flowing. However, it did cause a rather interesting urge to bubble up deep in her guts...
Curious. Any biomatter, as it were, would work? Even simply blood? Most curious indeed.
...Yes. She would choose yes to activate the Ingestion skill as she drank more of the Elwet blood beyond the first sip, and would just drink enough blood from her fresh kill to get herself properly hydrated for the moment being. Perhaps she'd manage to get a certain amount of Elwet Ingestion percentage in this case at least, of course without going all in and health-hurtingly overboard doing so based on this incident alone. What idiot runs around drinking animal blood all the time, unless they were some kind of vampire? Would make them ill and cause disease, among other things.
While she thought about this decision, the smell of smoke reached her nostrils---the dry stick she'd been using as a drill on the fire plow had produced a thick sprinkling of black ash by this point, and a single glowing ember was producing a thin, curling trail of vapor even as she stopped moving the drill. With some tinder and a few careful breaths, a small fire was soon born! While she thought about this decision, the smell of smoke reached her nostrils---the dry stick she'd been using as a drill on the fire plow had produced a thick sprinkling of black ash by this point, and a single glowing ember was producing a thin, curling trail of vapor even as she stopped moving the drill. With some tinder and a few careful breaths, a small fire was soon born!
Perfect! Certianly a pain in the arms and hands to make, but they now had access to fire at the very least. Proper fire. Certainly a morale booster of sorts as well to have finally make her first fire in this new life. Yet as she and Grunthor moved to carefully add fuel to the flickering sparks, she used her [Creature Analysis] on her ally and their fallen prey-
Analyzing Creatures...
Orc Runt (Grunthor) - Orc newborns mature quite quickly. A baby orc will generally begin crawling after about 10 weeks, and within four months are fully mobile. By the time human infants are just learning to toddle, Orc Runts are capable of beginning to train and hunt. FAMILIARITY BOOST: Grunthor is small, stringy, and seems grumpy. He's currently injured but seems to be toughing it out.
Elwet (Dead, x3) - A chicken-like creature with antlers. It also has scales instead of feathers. However, it is said that their wings are of little use. Their breast meat is quite fatty, and their eggs have incredibly hard shells. REPEAT BOOST (x2): Elwets can breathe fire using a low-rank elemental skill. They keep their eggs warm by setting fires beneath their nests. Males of this species have more pronounced draconic features and longer tails, though their antlers are somewhat smaller than those of females. They fiercely maintain their territorial boundaries by driving out other small predators, and will expand it by acquiring a harem.
Fascinating. For only the first rank of this skill, it certainly allowed her to gain some basic analysis of the living things in this new world. A useful tool for one born into a brutish system as those the orcs seemed to live in, living in the wild and such like this. Hence her choice of it from among those skills she'd been presented with by the spirits. Likewise it seemed to boost the provision of information based on factors like familiarity with a subject as well as the number of subjects analyzed...hmm. Yes, once she got back to camp, she would start using this skill of hers on each and every orc she could over time. No major rush, but perhaps it would prove to grant more insight into the orcish race biologically after so many subjects would be analyzed overall as well.
Of course as the other two returned, empty-handed in this case, Lazash would simply nod to each of them as the old-sounding one got to work on her Elwet and Grunthor got to work on his personal training to boot. She would also take the time to use her Creature Aalysis skill on Akeno, attempt to use it on herself, and then use it on the old-sounding one quickly before she returned to the tasks she had at hand.
She would gather the removed Elwet heads from Grunthor's and Esfir's kills, bringing them close to the fire and taking the time to remove the antlers and place them in a pile next to her but away from the fire. Then she woould use a couple of smaller but proper-sized sticks to get the heads roasting just next to the fire (and add some more wood from what they'd gathered to the fire to keep it as well). She would carefully remove her own Elwet's head with her stone, then, to place on its own stick as well to roast next to the fire. She wouldn't go about placing them too close to burn, or too far away to cook, but angled in close enough to rotate safely on her end as they cooked at least.
Disgusting as it would look, meat on the cheeks or such could still be nice and edible at the very least. Etc.
She would then go to take the removed limbs from Esfir's Elwet, likewise taking them over to the fire and usings sticks to impale thm and get them starting to cook in turn. Lazash would even return for the removed skin of the other female's Elwet, taking it over near the fire and her antler pile to remove remaining feathers before cutting the skin into manageable segments. She would then take the segments and, after sharpening about four smaller sticks with her stone, skewer the skin on the sticks, wipe off any dirt, and get the skin likewise roasting around the small fire.
From there she would generally try to manage and watch the fire, as well as the cooking food about it, as she began to butcher her own Elwet after looking to how Esfir was doing so. Her hands were admittedly not as practiced as those of Esfir, as she could see for herself, but she had the general idea...but would of course exersize an amount of caution in doing so just in case. Of course this would include removing the limbs, to also cook over the fire once she got or made room to do so around it, and eventually adding most of her own Elwet's skin to the cooking as well.
She would then take a piece of scaly skin left behind from her Elwet, chewing on it some to kill time as she worked on her bird before calling out to the others around her in particular without looking up:
"By the way, everyone, eating any part of these creatures will grant progress for the Ingestion skill if you wish."
Seemed fair to tell them that, even if it was perhaps able to be intuited from whatever they knew about themselves thus far. Maybe.
Yet whenever she would get to the organs of her own Elwet, however, the female orc runt would try to use her Creature Analysis skill on the individual organs as she tried to examine them carefully. If that even worked that is. But it was worth a shot, wasn't it? Worst it could do was not work, best case she could identify the organs and try to separate them out carefully. Overall she'd simply keep working at her tasks regardless to get the stuff processed and cooking...even roasting herself a few familiar-enough organs of the 'safer' sort that they couldn't clean right now (if she got the chance).
Ingestion - After consuming a required amount of biomass from a particular Creature, 1 of that Creature's Skills can be copied at its lowest Rank.
Creature Analysis - Rank I - Upon analyzing a target, information relevant to the chosen type will be displayed. Higher Ranks will grant more detailed information. (For example, using Creature Analysis on a Slime would tell you the most generic, widely known information on Slimes as a species)
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Current Equipment and Inventory:
Swaddling Pelts - Equip, Clothes - Old animal skins used to keep an Orc baby warm as they sleep. Once the Runt is old enough to start hunting, these are usually just enough to cover the parts that need the most covering.
Wooden Stick - Equip, Weapon/Tool, Material Component - A wooden stick. From a tree. That's...that's all there is to it. Can be thrown.
Sharp Rock - Equip, Weapon/Tool, Material Component - A rock with a slightly sharp edge. Useful as a primitive knife or chisel. Can be thrown.
@Crusader Lord There’s a handful of minor inconsistencies in your backstory like some of the years not lining up (which I’m assuming are from the edits) but she’s accepted after those are fixed.
Yeah, I did type the whole backstory in one go late at night and while partly asleep. Expected to need to do some fixing edits in that case, but am happy to do so!
I just did some fixes to said backstory before I have to leave for work today, including the years lining up bit I believe, but have to rush off to work now as well for the rest of this evening.
"It's good to meet you, Grunthor, despite the circumstances we're in.
I'm Lazash."
An individual wanting to focus on the task ahead, eh? Tough, strong, and took a beating on his part, but still was in good spirits and polite enough to give his name. A good impression in her mind, at least for the circumstances they were in.
She and Grunthor had managed to gather a fair amount of fire supplies, which she had arranged in proper order to make a fire, though without any lingering embers or such to light the thing it was certianly a rough situation. It was also a situation that had a potentially unique solution to it as well.
Given their capabilities as orcs, the temptation to just grab the nearest raw bird and chew it down to get something out of it was certianly there potentially. Could start her own fires forever after that. Albeit it would also waste the birds and see them maybe gain ire from those who had assisted in the hunt. Hmm. Not good then, at least in the social sense if either of them were going to weather orc society. But this all was a rough situation she'd been in before, and even now could feel the memories begin to bubble up again in the back of her mind and in her arm muscles when it came to fire.
Ah. That would perhaps work. She still knew how to do it, after all, and had practiced a bit consistently in turn with a bit of training since her return from that island years ago. What had once been simply nostalgia for something so simple, and a slight hobby in that sense she supposed, would pay off now at least.
"I'll get to work on a quick fire plow to get a fire going, Grunthor, and this stone of mine and the material we've gathered should be enough for that. Then I'll start draining the blood out of these things as well so we can carve up and cook them better."
Grabbing some extra visually-gagued-for-use pieces of wood to start, she would arrange her wood and use her stone to work out a basic fire plow to get their fire started. It would be that simple in the general sense, unless a deluge came down on their heads suddenly. She knew enough to do that much, though any dead Elwets sitting around (unless anyone tried to or stopped her from doing so to their particular dead Elwets) would be dagged over closer to where she was going to light the fire before she got started on her fire plow proper.
"Too much would be bad in the long-term but I'll take a sip of the draining blood to get a good drink in until we find water. Want a sip?"
If some herdsmen in Africa back on Earth could do it to some extent, she certainly could in a pinch this one time at least. Not sure if it counted for the "Ingestion" skill, but she was getting a little thirsty and wanted to ensure she was hydrated for the road ahead at least. Properly hydrated, that is, not just getting some small sip to wet the mouth or anything paltry like that. If Grunthor was game to participate, then she'd gladly let him too. Otherwise she'd just be drinking a good proper drinking of Elwet blood for herself (not enough to fill up her stomach before the meal mind, she wanted to not get sick on the further hunting) unless it did something like burn her mouth with literal fire.
In the meantime, however, whenever she got fire started she'd also curiously activate her "Creature Analysis" skill on Grunthor, and then on each of the dead Elswets to boot. Just to get a quick read on things in the moments in-between tasks, or at least try to. She'd prioritize bleeding the corpses and drinking that if it was too slow a process in the end.
Ingestion - After consuming a required amount of biomass from a particular Creature, 1 of that Creature's Skills can be copied at its lowest Rank.
Creature Analysis - Rank I - Upon analyzing a target, information relevant to the chosen type will be displayed. Higher Ranks will grant more detailed information. (For example, using Creature Analysis on a Slime would tell you the most generic, widely known information on Slimes as a species)
Empty Skill Slot
Empty Skill Slot
Current Equipment and Inventory:
Swaddling Pelts - Equip, Clothes - Old animal skins used to keep an Orc baby warm as they sleep. Once the Runt is old enough to start hunting, these are usually just enough to cover the parts that need the most covering.
Wooden Stick - Equip, Weapon/Tool, Material Component - A wooden stick. From a tree. That's...that's all there is to it. Can be thrown. (Was set down on the side of the bushes they started on, for the moment being at least that is.)
Sharp Rock - Equip, Weapon/Tool, Material Component - A rock with a slightly sharp edge. Useful as a primitive knife or chisel. Can be thrown.
Her vision went white, even as the pain cut deep into her core. Yet this wasn't just mere 'pain', but something else she'd brought on herself. Searing, white hot, intense, excruciating, and frankly unbearable pain, all coursing through her very being like lifeblood and down through her feet as it burned out the bottom of her walking shoes and the smell of char and burning flesh and material erupted into the air like a horrible idea for a stink bomb. The electricity tried to scurry along and out of the situation, like a frightened mole seeking to escape a predator, finding itself burrowing down into the welcoming comfort of the very grounding element that was the earth below her and the mechanical water-ninja's feet. All of this even as her muscles froze in position from the constant electrical shock coursing through them that kept them in place, a common thing to happen for one being electrocuted as she'd once learned, and her vocal chords tore into the air with a rending screech and wail of a scream that seemed to well out-shout whatever they'd heard roaring out from afar before...even as it made her very vocal chords run themselves horribly raw in the process.
And then it was suddenly gone.
Like a heavy stone, she felt her body torn from its position as the current was interrupted for a moment when Zell kicked away the cyborg and her body collapsed under its own weight in the man's arms. She was barely conscious enough to stop the channeling of her magic, mostly as her body couldn't even manage that much anymore at this venture if she were to be honest. At the same time, a vague and fuzzy line of subconsious thought recognized the burn marks seared all over the mage's body and face as damage caused along the way. Even her clothes had some holes and burned or scorched spots on them as Zell would fall over and James would take her from the other man's hands.
Yet still, her vision was barely anything but a blur.
Her body was anything but able to move or walk on its own at that right now, drained of energy and still suffering from a now somewhat-burnt and semi-charred stab wound that had also hit a lung for that matter. What it had done in sealing some of the smaller damage around the wound's entrance was by virtue of an impromptu and unintentional self-cauterization of sorts that she'd managed to do to herself, however, was still nothing before the gaping bleeding wound and the damage done to her otherwise by this point. At the same time, she fought for life as her mind sought to drift off and a strange but oddly familiar numbness began to take hold in her limbs even beyond their status of an utter lack of energy to move already.
By the time her vision began to somewhat clear in the most general sense, she could at least make out the blurry outline of James' face. Then the movement of boodies being uppercut away or kicked to the side. Then the blur of something over her head, before more movement of some brown and green stuff...as far as she could tell anyway.
"ROOOOOAAARRRRR!!!"
At this point she didn't even have the energy to care, though in her mind she could imagine the smirk her face couldn't form as she imagined the ninja getting crushed into a paste by whatever it was. Not that she'd live long enough to get there, but at least she could manage to get the last dying laugh, right? Maybe. Perhaps it would even just be a pittance made up in her head to make her feel better about dying.
...Heh. Dying. At least the first time it was swift and instant, a clean kill on the part of the wind she had been assuming. Otherwise she'd have remembered more about it if she'd died there bleeding or something. But no, that had been reserved for the SECOND death. An honest mistake on her part, she couldn't see the future or anything....or even physically see much of anything, for that matter, as she tried to keep awake with what fading energy she had left at least.
Yet even as her mind wandered more and more into a denser, foggy haze, something would click in it eventually as well in those moments.
'Hah...well, if that ghostly man was of any indication with that 'Quinity' comment and its potential context perhaps there is someone watching us right now. Someone-s? Deities. Or this world. Or something.'
There had been magic here and so forth, but now things had her more than a little curious at least. Maybe she'd meet one after dying again, get to learn a bit more about things about the afterlife in this world. Maybe she'd wake up back home on an operating table, sent back home to die and pass on there. Ultimately it was worth calling out from her mind for the sake of seeing if this world could surprise her more.
'Hey you...death? Not sure if you've a name here yet, and haven't had much the chance to ask anyone either. A god of death? Goddess of death? A being born from the planet as part of nature? Ah, whatever you are I'm here and calling out to you on what is probably my deathbed I think.
I'm certainly no cleric, the group already has one, but I'd love to learn more about the afterlife here or strike some agreement for something coool if you're willing. Maybe get this ghostly guy who tried to help me out of here so he can at least get out of this dreary place to have died, if the first thing isn't permissible for an out-worlder like me or you're feeling generous. Perhaps people might even ask you for miracles or something else, like saving their lives or go about attempting to offer to serve you in exchange for being able to talk to a dead relative. I don't know, really, but I figure might as well ask out there while I have any chance to do so.
Maybe you won't answer me, or are not inclined to the random rambling of any random dying mortal. If so, that's fine. I suppose this in part is just me being also somewhat scared of dying as well. Scared of being alone...again.'
Alone. But even at worst, she had her final diatribe or ramble out into the void. A prayer some tutelary deity she had no idea if they existed, local or not, that maybe would give light to something in her last moments. A curiosity she wished to experience right before passing, if she could, before anything else occured beyond this point. But the numbess only seemed to deepen as time passed, whatever the heck was going on at this point for the others and herself. She couldn't really tell anymore.
At least she'd have her own thoughts to give her company at the end, even if they were really a dying prayer tossed out there into the void.
'But hey, if you could at least just help save the skin of these honest-to-goodness loveable idiots I would be grateful at least. A bit more...at peace. I'll even help hunt...that Witch Queen from...beyond the grave...if it'd be of any help to you.
Ah...its suddenly getting even harder to...think...to make words. A prayer even...as I suppose...this...is. Sorry...for...maybe wasting your......time...'
I should not answer the question, perhaps, as my answer would be a silly meme answer at best for 'which actor'. Because I don't know actors well at all either. (@_@)
Finally got an app done! If you get the time to look at it and find any little things for me to fix, then I'd welcome that as well! Whatever needs fixing will be fixed and so forth! :D
The world sometimes feels like a stage…we’ll never always know what part we might play in the grand scheme, what role we will place ourselves in, or where we’ll ultimately end up after it all I think. Nothing is certain in that sense.
But in the end, we must all face it until our own curtain call whenever it comes…and I find that poetic.
…Besides, my mother always did like going to the theater when she got the chance
Name: Seraphilla Alyriana Laevataenia Omphalonius
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Appearance:
A physically matured younger woman who stands with confidence as she walks or moves about. She further has the same silvery hair of her mother, but also the silvery eyes of her paternal great-grandmother, both of which alongside her general looks has drawn the gaze of some of her peers as she’s grown up. Her build overall remains relatively fit and slim, something she had worked with personal exercise (offscreen at least) to maintain in turn over the years after some advice from her mother noted years ago that: ‘health in body is also health in the mind and leads to better excellence in magic’.
As for her uniform? It has been modified to an extent, maintaining that ‘formal look and etiquette’ as well as a small waist-cape and a back-cape having been attached for flair whilst still maintaining the ‘formal’ type of look to it. The doublet has been simply adjusted to wear comfortably without any sort of bagginess or such to it, though ultimately the belts and leggings were frankly a more notable modification to it on her part. She likewise wears the boots (ignore the shoes) that came with the uniform as part of it without any modifications to them. Outside of the ‘formal yet fashionable’ modifications to her uniform, she hasn’t done anything to the cloak and keeps it for use when she needs it in turn. (In other words, hey I am part using her appearance pic as a general-ish reference for her uniform because it works! I think. Hopefully.)
Personality:
A relaxed yet studious younger woman, Seraphilla is someone who will push herself hard to get work done and learn the things she has a desire to learn. She is the sort of person who takes charge of group projects at times, or chides a peer for not putting in the effort and complaining about the result they got. At the same time, Sera is also someone who will on occasion overwork or push herself too far if she gets too wound up about something mentally or emotionally (rather than lash out with it visibly). She is also someone who is willing to listen to others if they need it, though feels bad about having someone listen to her in return if they ever extended her the favor. Seraphilla also has a general interest in the history of the very territory the Republic exists upon, spurred in perhaps some small part by her family’s own long history and the pride they have had in that history in turn.
When it comes to personal habits she will at times tinker with tiny little projects, like making a little golem to fly or run around her room. She can also be the sort to crack open a book or tome to read if it catches her fancy. There is also doing things like seeking out some fancier food to eat on certain occasions (sometimes stress related ones), taking long and drawn-out hot baths with flowers floating on the surface, or even opening the window or sitting outside at night to feel the cool night air on her face and just relax. In short, in that vein she is a ‘stop and smell the roses’ type of person if it is relaxing to her or even a bit silly and yet still relaxing to her she'll still do it.
Background:
Seraphilla was born as the third of four children to the current head of the Omphalonius family, himself an enterprising and merit-driven Prefect in the midwest of the modern Magister’s Republic of Cresvald who had been more outgoing and active in things than his more reserved father before him. Though with the changes in generations ever moving onward, such differences in the heads of the family were seen as nothing much to the Omphalonius in general. In fact, as a rather old if not ancient line they had seen and been through quite a lot of things over the myriad centuries indeed.
From a young age, Seraphilla was raised with a general education and learned general things about magic just like her 3 other siblings were. Though while in the end only those who achieved noesis could take up the mantle of running the family as its head, even those without the boon of magic (as few and rare among the Omphalonius line as such had eventually become) would have places and roles in which to help or assist the family as a whole without ill treatment. This was also admittedly done in some part for fear of retaliation or other issues arising from such individuals, but for Seraphilla and her siblings that would manage to not be a matter of such concerns as they all achieved noesis at various points in their lives. Her older brother achieved noesis at the age of 12, her older sister at the age of 11, and her younger brother in final would eventually achieve his at the age of 13. All of these ages were generally standard times to achieve noesis within the long and generations-bred line of magi, though slightly younger and slightly older ages were not unexpected or unforeseen points to achieve noesis either.
She, meanwhile, stood out as an oddity in the family when her noesis triggered at the ripe and abnormal age of 9. It was certainly something that astonished her parents and relatives without a doubt, the youngest in about three or four generations to achieve it so young, but the occasion was also something unexpected that came both without warning but with consequences at the time. Long had Seraphilla been a playful and rambunctious child, and with her siblings or parents or caretakers she had often made a habit of hiding and waiting to be found, making playful mischief, or even just curiously going about the family estate to learn about things. On the day of her noesis, she had been hiding in the family’s backyard under some cover in the pouring rain (as a hired servant tried to find her in turn) and passing out due to the event. It did, however, cause the servant to finally and quickly locate her and rush her in after finding her almost half-drowning in a puddle she’d been sitting next to at the time. One sickly round of pneumonia later on her part, as well as a scolding from a admittedly frightened father and mother, and she would finally begin her preliminary magical education in earnest with them as her older siblings had before her.
When it came to an area of interest for her preliminary magical studies, thhough, hers would by one of the family’s various business pursuits: Mining. In particular, through being exposed to it somewhat, she found herself admiring geomancy and somewhat hydromancy, and on top of this had a growing curiosity about transmutation. It would be from this that her initial magical education would be shaped and formed around her, at least at the start of it.
But only one year later, at the age of ten, ‘The War’ would start...and with it things would begin to crumble around them.
Living where they were within the central provinces, it all began with several neighbors turning to the rebel side and trying to convince and then ultimately coerce the Omphalonius to join them. This would lead to a number of attacks on their estate as things escalated, until eventually proper skirmishes were occurring around where they lived. Despite the bringing in of many disaffected citizens to their estate for protection, magical and non-magical alike, it would only bloat the worsening situation as the warpath of Anedor and his forces began to come down toward them. Seraphilla and her remaining siblings (as her older brother was off getting an education at another magical school at the time elsewhere), meanwhile, were secreted off to the city of Akarith on the west coast with a relative living there for safety when word of Anedor’s forces marching south came along. It would also be a desperate flight to safety, however, that would see several of their escorts dying along the way to boot.
Despite her initial magical education being continued in the large coastal city of Akarith and under the careful guard of a member of their own house, after their arrival Sera and her siblings would look for news of their parents and siblings each day with baited breath as it came with merchants and news-bringers and refugees to boot. Would they be alive? Would the estate and everything be gone? What little they first heard was of their parents and large family estate having become a pocket of fierce pro-Magisterium resistance against Anedor and his hordes, with nearby magisterium forces in that area having been pushed to their estate as her family gave them refuge and in turn got help to fortify the place further. Beyond that, however, word became scarce as the focus turned mostly toward fighting back against the insurrectionists. At the same time, Seraphilla would ultimately throw herself into her preliminary magic education as she hoped to be able to get back home one day...even if she had to learn the magic to fight her way back home herself! Learning and playing and going about town or to the beach with her father's uncle and his guards was all she was much allowed to do in those days at any rate, all to try to keep her and her siblings busy, but even so the hope she’d make her parents and family proud by learning more as they fought on was there to help her mentally for the time being at least. In regards to magic it eventually become something the magic-educated siblings would be able to practice around each other during those years, at times in play, at other times competing against each other or their father's uncle's youngest two children, at times making life a little more difficult for the servants of the estate and the relative who had taken them in, and otherwise as they tried to make the best of a situation they had no real control over. Even so, in the end the paternal relative who had taken them in, Rhadegus Siegrend Alberic Omphalonius, would certainly treat them like family and even at times get in on the fun himself with a jolly laugh. Yet while he was a gracious and kind host, the mercantile-oriented mage would also likewise impress their line's value of treating family well along the way at the same time as they lived upon his personal estate within the city walls.
The city of Akarith was certinaly not a minute place either, having myriad sights and smells and goods and so forth of the large middle coastal city that supplied many goods from the sea directly to the central provinces (including being a notable mercantile location in moving goods by sea along the Republic's western coast from north to south and vice-versa by sea) as well as a place that acted as a hub of sea trade with places abroad. It was certainly a place Sera and her siblings had never seen before, with wide open beaches nearby to boot that proved fun to play upon over the years, and it was likewise during these years that Seraphilla would learn how to swim in the ocean after her first exposure to its beautiful and comfortable yet also dangerous waters as well (these being far from her common expeirences in swimming in the rather large lake connected to her family's estate back home). However, even this very place that gave them refuge likewise became a place of refugees in part as the tide of those fleeing the war would arrive and set up within or (mostly in this latter case) around/outside of the city walls. With them would trickle in further news of terrors, deaths, and destruction caused by both rebel guerillas and Anedor's forces alike, and it would cause the local Prefect to institute a number of measures such as nightly lockdowns, expelling a number of the initial refugees from within the city walls and swelling the ranks of local guards to send patrols through the forming refugee suburbs. Even Rhadegus would take Sera and her siblings with escort when they left anywhere, 'just in case' as he would always tell them, and small incidents like thieves and the occasional guerillas who had snuck into the refugee suburbs to wreak havoc certainly felt like justification for a number of the measures despite the discontent of those refugees who wanted to live within the already-packed city walls.
Midway into the war a number of more iterant and discontent refugees, despite attempts to send wagons of supplies as well into the refugee area beyoond the walls by the local Prefect to try to help keep them compliant, would attempt to storm the city gates to force their way inside after a number of guerilla attacks and incidents within this area...leading to what is even now remembered post-war as 'The Akarith Incident'. City guards and local mages assigned to the defense of the city would try to generally scatter the crowd and disperse them, until a guerilla cell who had infiltrated the mob that day tossed several spells back at the front gate and guards manning it. The gate became set ablaze by magical fire, and a number of those living inside panicked under the assumption the city was being put under siege (a real fear in the city in those days) in turn. Attempts to stop the panic inside and the raw violence developing outside finally erupted into a force led by the local Prefect personally engaging in an unavoidably bloody massacre of the mob members and most of the guerillas that had been concealed within (the rest being captured as prisoners). This in turn would lead to smaller incidents being incited by this as word was spread in twisted rumors of 'the Prefect murdering innocent refugees' and so forth, though the Prefect would consolidate a more formal authority over the space beyond the city walls with the deployment of further guard patrols and mages as well as the building-up of more permanent guard stations throughout these new refugee-wrought suburbs at the time. No more of such incidents could be tolerated, much less allowed, and the Prefect would ensure that with a fist of iron. At the same time, a number of refugees would leave after the major incident and smaller ones, with their own complains and fears about being 'purged' and otherwise due to guerilla actions that would incite further smaller 'incidents' as the local rebels would be hunted down and outed bit by bit. Even the siblings would not be exempt from what few issues managed to make their way within the city walls, Sera receiving scarring burns on her back from a rebel who tried to attack her with a torch after she snuck out once night to see the ocean again despite her uncle's myriad stern warnings.
In time the suburbs would be fully secured by the Prefect, chasing out the guerillas in final and stopping their ambushes on guard patrols and so forth, as well as better organizxe and build up these informal suburbs. Forging formal roads, altering the spacing of guard posts to more effectively distribute the manpower and reduce the former excess of guard posts, create boundaries for markets and so forth to be set up, and even better formalizing neighborhoods so things could be tidied up with the patrols and so forth. This made a good case inthe minds of many refugees, who in turn settled down to stay otherwise after losing everything where they had once lived before (and other reasons, etc, that people might find to stay by that point) by the time the war ended. At the end of the war, then, all it took was formalizing things on paper in the aftermath with the Republic and the Prefect would frankly incorporate the suburbs into the city proper before beginning construction of further outer suburb-protecting walls. This as the original city walls would be kept to protect the 'inner city' or 'old city' of Akarith and act as a boundary line. It would also be around this same time of initial celebration in Akarith (one was held to celebrate the incorporation and end of the war at the same time) that, with the arrival of some familiar messengers, Sera and her siblings would finally be brought back home on safer roads than they'd fled upon to reach greater safety years prior. The losses her family and many others incurred by the end of the war, as they would soon learn, had been notable in and of themselves, losing about half of the extended relatives and so forth that had been living on their bloodline's primary estate proper...their own mother being among those. She had died valiantly, succimbing to magic and wounds as she'd been protecting a number of injured who were being cared for in their main room (a makeshift 'hospital' at the time) from attacking rebels and waves of undead. It was a time of grief for Seraphilla, her father, and her siblings, but at the same time they found a vital source of comfort in each other in the days to come.
Rebuilding wasn’t easy at first, but the Omphalonius had been through much before and survived perhaps even worse times than this. The family would rebuild, some would remarry, and their estate would be marked by permanent outer walls and other magical defenses surrounding it after this point to boot. Her father’s prefecture would gradually begin to rebuild as well, and for the first time in years the estate was home again...and while it felt different at first it began to finally feel like such to them again over time. Despite promises and an open invitation from their father's uncle that they could visit again at any time they wished, though, the continuation of herself and her siblings' magical education back at home (rather than with their relative) would see Seraphilla looking toward where she wished to go to get a higher grade of magical training due to her age in particular. Her older sister, meanwhile, would be heading off to go to another school their father had been to, as well as try to catch up due to the effects of the war on her own magical learning before she could get a chance to go off to another magical school as well. As for Sera herself, she would be suddnly one night called into her father's meeting room upstairs about the matter.
Said room was a major place in their own home where he talked business with others, family or otherwise, but usually not his children. In that sense it was an odd place to call her up to simply to talk to her in this case, but even so she went. The two would speak together for some time on her personal motives and desires to further her magical education and learning. Then, after ascertaining what he seemed to feel like was enough about his own daughter in greater depth, her father would softly yet bittersweetly smile and withdraw a sealed letter of reccomendation from his drawer to hand to her. As it had turned out, her mother was an alumni of Glynwood itself and had expressed the idea years ago of sending Seraphilla and her younger brother there to learn. Her mother, an accomplished mage, was fond of her alma mater and had hoped to allow at least one or two of her children the same experience. This conversation had occurred about a year before the war started, but after Sera's own noesis. Ultimately, after all that had happened, her father had simply wanted to see her resolve to learn before giving her a letter of recommendation to the school itself as a way to honor her mother's wishes.
Safe to say, it was a time of some tears and joyous celebration with her family the night before she left for Glynwood.
Attunement: Tellurian
Aura:
Her aura looks like she is surrounded by a shining (and suspended in the air) field of gemstone-shaped various metals, ones which are constantly changing into different distinct gemstone-like shapes, which glint with light and the wet cool of water droplets sitting upon them as if they had just passed under a fresh spring rain. To the touch the aura feels cool indeed, and yet at the same time moving into or through it gives others a sticky sensation like one is touching wet clay. Her feet are likewise seemingly surrounded by a smooth floor of incredibly smooth muddy clay, which is constantly swirling around her at the center and rippling with little waves that rise up as if it was part of an ocean or she is standing in the eye of a storm. On occasion a metallic sheen will pop through the swirling floor of muddy clay torrent round her feet, which comes up to her heels at most, like something hidden that was concealed underneath has risen up for a glimpse only to disappear again under the depths once more.
Magic:
Transmutation - Most often used to: transmute earthen materials into metal for her use in terms of daily or general use, transmute earthen materials into minerals for use in fortifying her mud spells or so forth, tweak little things like the color of her clothes or food, purify water and metal and other materials or such things, and so forth along those general lines. She is rather interested in expanding these skill far and wide, however, even whilst keeping to its uses in her daily life or in tandem with her magic in a general sense.
Mud/Clay Magic (Geomancy/Hydromancy) - An art whose components are geomancy and hydromancy, it involves the creation, conjuring, and manipulation/use of mud/clay. She often employs it to the end of creating simple golems to do her bidding or carry things or grab things for her, create little platforms of shaped clay/mud to move over dangerous or inconvenient terrain, to make a place or spot as slick and slippery as possible to slip up others, and can do things like make defensive mud barriers and dense/blunt (due to mud/clay’s very nature) projectiles formed from dense mud/clay to boot.
Likewise due to her education in this area, she has some more general geomancy and hydromancy capabilities by virtue of necessity for her craft, and hopes to supplement these far more with an education, using them to do things such as (but not limited to): clean herself or other things of general of dirt and grime, dry her body more quickly after a bath or shower or after swimming, remove dirt and earthen materials from a rug or bed or such things, and even conjure and manipulate rocks to use as projectiles or barrier.
Metal Magic - Also known as ‘Métallomancy’, it is a more niche area of Geomancy that involves the conjuration, manipulation, shaping, and use/control of metals, ranging from metal spikes to thin metal wires and barriers and so forth. It is often used to protect her from things like rain and weather (and things such as falling objects), create a mirror to examine herself when getting dressed or so forth, create little tools for her work without having to buy them (at least in the more basic cases), and reinforce or add metal components/parts to her golem constructs. She could create metal projectiles and barriers and such with this, at least of a basic or personal-use sort.
Artifice - Mostly used in the daily sense by her in the creation of golem constructs of a simpler sort, or in making little trinkets of a most basic sense to make something easier. In that vein she has much room to expand or augment her capabilities in this area to be sure.
Divination - A magic she has put to more common daily use in things such as (but not limited to): Finding missing items or locating things she is seeking out, looking at other rooms or places from afar to see if someone is there, looking at the basic past history of older or historical items to see what happened to them or where they were, and alert her of something out of her sight like a falling rock from the top of a cliff or stampeding steed blitzing around the corner of the street that could hit her. Like with Artifice, she has much room to expand and develop her skills further in this area (and is interested in doing so both for this magic and in regards to Artifice).
Arcane Items:
Pocket Memory Tome - Kept safe in a little snug leather pouch on her left hip, it stores her memories and any information she has learned automatically if it is within a certain distance from her so she can look back at them later. Can even allow her to re-experience her stored memories to boot. Prefect for the young or even very old mage on the go, or who wishes to review the past and what they’ve learned later on! An expensive but rather resilient and durable little piece of artifice her older siblings purchased for her before she left, with a little help from their father, as a gift. Also helpful for mages who can be more forgetful, such as her younger brother, who also got one of these at the same time as she did back at home.
Usually this artifice only stores memories from the time of receiving it onward, as adding the capability for storing older memories in it costs extra. Her father paid for this extra functionality however, so she’d have full functionality of the item…though admittedly there are certain points in time she does not look back at or such in the book for personal reasons as well.
Staff of Luwen - A fancy magical staff passed on to her by her family, an heirloom of some age which has been lovingly cared for and also enchanted in depth to maintain its good condition despite its further usage over the centuries. It is a proper mage’s staff and high-quality magical tool with some family history and quality preservation/durability protecting measures added to it, to put it simply.
Ring of Alert - Like a little alarm clock worn on her right hand, she can set it using a simple spell to ‘go off’ at a certain time to wake her up each day or wake her up from a nap or such. Has had it for years, as it was a gift from her mother to help her wake up for her initial preliminary studies in the first year she began to learn magic. Still keeps it and uses it to this day as a nice little tool.
Other:
On the map Thoth made, their estate would be a dot right in the middle between where the capital of Pontaion is and where Glynwood is.
Her family, the rather ancient Omphalonius line, is a line of mages that originates back far before the pre-Republic times, which has made them something of a ‘historical artifact’ in that sense of the word. Their family vault, a thing kept under their vast home compound and estate, is said to hold within it a number of familial ancient items and relics and so forth from ages long gone. Said vault is a veritable treasure trove of the past, with some things even the family by current times does not have all the information about still, and by modern times the vault’s contents have been increasingly kept under layers of enchantments and spells and doors and barriers and so forth to keep them within the family’s hands and as safe as mortally possible. Some have made jests at their excessively protective nature of said vault even going into current times, though others have mostly shrugged at them and gone on with life due to them not making trouble for anyone about it save for potential or attempted thieves. It has, however, lent a mythical air and slightly ‘ancient’ sort of mystique to the Omphalonius bloodline all the same.
At the same time, however, beyond jokes about their very old bloodline the Omphalonius have long adapted to and weathered the ages through their efforts. In ways they have remained the same in their line’s overall acceptance of the trials of life and the passage of time, comparable to a great mountain remaining still standing resolute despite the changing of the world around it. On the other hand, they have kept with the ruling politics of the time and likewise adapted with the changing of local culture and ideas. ‘Flexible’ would be a word that could be applied to the bloodline in a general sense, bending and flexing without destroying themselves…or taking up means to strengthen themselves or rebuild before the erosion of the changing tides can wear them away.
It would be this bloodline that ‘Sera’ (as she insists only friends or family can ever call her) was born into what amounted to great opulence and wealth, managed, wrought, and accumulated over the generations as they’ve expanded into a modestly large house of sorts without trying to ‘reach for the stars’ in the eyes of their neighbors.
Her middle two names are taken from female ancestors of hers, who were each themselves notable magi in their day. In fact, the Omphalonius Family have long used these long, winding names for their children as a way to remember their history and pay some respects to their ancestors in turn. A local family myth even holds that the spirits of those whose names one is given will help watch over them in times of need.
Likes the rain and swimming, she’s also enjoyed swimming and has become a great swimmer at that over the years. Sometimes has even gone off to swim in the last two years just to just help clear her head a bit, or done so to get out some stress and energy. Can hold her breath underwater pretty well to boot!
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