Name: Talise "Tali" Rangatira
Age: 19
Race: Demon (Formerly Sylve)
Appearance:
Personality: Her time in the cult and time as a street urchin have shaped her entire life. Her time on the streets made her highly self-sufficient and perceptive. She is careful and cautious, always seeking to do things with the least amount of energy needed. If she had to eat or drink anymore, she would hoard and hide it to keep it from other thieves. Her valuable possessions are few and far between, limited to what she feels sentimental value from. She tries to avoid traveling with items beyond her needs as she feels it makes her a target for thieving and attack. She has an innate distrust of guards, nobility, and royalty from her time dodging them just to get enough food for the day.
The cult life has softened some of her habits, but many still remain from her early life. The main thing that has softened is her reactions to strangers. She is both warm and inviting to strangers, seeking to make them feel welcome and perhaps wanted. She is prone to be sultry and suggestive as per how her mother and friends taught her. Her demonic apotheosis has simply amplified this aspect as well as made her voice inherently captivating, giving it a seductive undertone and innate lilt. Once comfortable with someone, she practically lacks personal space and also tends to play tricks. If she takes a particular liking to someone, she will spend time as close as possible to them whenever possible. She will also, if that person sleeps, provide her lap as a pillow and stroke their hair through the night, singing a quiet lullaby.
She has a free spirit that leads her to do as she wishes, when she wishes without regard to laws, customs, or current company. She expects others to live according to their desires as well and will attempt to encourage them to find themselves and become who they want to be. She has no qualms about nudity and will often do it herself. She often spends her idle time lounging in the nude to enjoy feeling the air on her skin, ignoring any protests from those around her.
If idle, she spends most of her time singing, dancing, drawing, or painting. She is especially fond of drawing people going about their lives or people exploring scenic places. Another hobby of hers is swimming. She loves to be in the water and both play in it and dive deep into it.
Her personality reverts to her childhood when in danger. She will first and foremost protect herself and anyone she considers a potential or active lover. She will attempt to kill rather than incapacitate and flees if she has no advantage. She does not hold back at all and thus refuses to spar. When cornered, she bwecomes even more dangerous and aggressive. She does not maim or torture and goes for decisive strikes to conserve energy and mana. Toying with the enemy wastes her time and resources, so she tends to conduct combat in an almost heartbreakingly dispassionate manner.
Bio: Born a Sylve and orphaned at a young age, Tali scrabbled together a life on the streets as a waif. Her penchant for stealing, pickpocketing, and information gathering let her keep stocked on food and money through her direct stealing and brokering the secrets she uncovered. One particular secret intrigued her, though. It told of a group that worked like a family and had strange powers. People said they were a dark cult, worshipping demons. Talise, not believing in the supernatural beyond some magic, heard the possibility of a family and warm food and beds. She tracked down one of the cultists and followed them from the market to the wilderness. The cultist was not aware of the waif's presence, essentially leading her into the cave network that they used as a home. Tali found the place to be warm and inviting compared to her previous life, often smelling good cooking from the various homes of members.
After following the cultist to her home, Tali slipped in behind them, watching them for a night and gauging how likely they were to be nice. In the morning, she decided to make her presence known, thinking it was better to try first rather than wait longe rand risk detection. The cultist had magically detected her already but was curious to see what the girl did. The appearance in the morning was unexpected, but it was not unwelcome. The cultist saw the girl as a prime opportunity to have a child she never could as well as gain another member. Thylylla wasn't worried about being part of a cult and was only concerned about a family and home. The cultist, who introduced herself as Visaese, was more than happy to bring the girl into her home. Tali later learned she had become the daughter of the cult's leader.
Thus, from the age of 8, Talise lived in the cult, discovering the powers and worship were not rumors. She took to it well as the demon was always benevolent to those in the cult and the magic helped her to live comfortably. Despite not knowing what endgame the demon, a succubus, had, Tali was happy to reap the benefits. The cult itself was only formed of women, so no male role models existed for Tali. Instead, she was surrounded by strong-willed women who encouraged her to explore herself and become her own person. She learned many techniques for seduction as well as ways to bait people in with innocence. By the age of 12, she was already growing into a beautiful woman, likely a result of her mistress's influence, and used the skills with her criminal skills to help the cult grow and flourish.
As of her fourteenth birthday, the cult had grown to an impressive 214 members, including her. They were enough of a force to actually begin to evangelize to small towns in the area. While not exactly maligned, they were distrusted to be sure. The sudden appearance of a new goddess was to many a sign of dark intentions. The villages, while at first tolerant, had push back that resulted in their doors being closed to teh cult. Seeing the situation and having to resort to hunting and gathering to maintain their lives, the cult began to make plans for a ritual to create an avatar of their mistress. These plans would require a willing participant and a strong incantation. The original ritual would require no sacrifice except for an orgy, as befits a succubus. However, the original leader died under unusual circumstances, leaving her second in command at the head. Talise, being the adopted daughter of the old leader, knew far more than most. She knew the ritual inside and out as well as recognized the circumstances as obviously an assassination from the usurping new leader.
Unfortunately, the new leader knew Tali likely suspected her, so she gathered her inner circle to make plans. The ritual was changed to involve a virgin sacrifice and consume her blood and soul to strengthen the avatar's emergence. This meeting went by unnoticed by the rest of the cult, but Thylylla had snuck into an adjacent room and listened in, taking in the info for the new ritual. She later studied it, finding only the incantation and virgin sacrifice would produce the results. The new leader had a flair for the dramatic, so she suspected she could disrupt the ritual in time to prevent a sacrifice or at least prevent the avatar from being the usurper.
After years of service to the cult and not suspecting her being the target, she was taken in the middle of the night, bound, and sat before the altar. She was to be the final sacrifice to their mistress. Surrounded by her cult family and lorded over by the usurper, the chanting began. Little did they know that the incantation was too slow, the flourishes superfluous, and the dagger far too close to their virgin sacrifice. Tali knew the ritual and had begun the incantation under her breath as she loosened the bonds on her wrists. She knew that the ritual only required the incantation and dagger, so she sped through the incantation, speaking the final two words as she suddently slipped her bonds, grabbed the dagger, and plunged it into the usurper's chest, piercing her heart. The energy and ritual, corrupted by a nonvirgin, essentially devolved into the same result but with unpredictable consequences. The entire cult inside the cave complex, save for Talise, died on the spot, their blood and souls mingling above the Sylve. The ritual bound them to her, bombarding her with all the power from the collective life force and changing both her fate and existence. The corrupting of the ritual intrigued the demoness overseeing the cult. Being a succubus, she decided to let the ritual proceed and add in a couple "gifts" to the equation. Meanwhile, Tali passed out from the strain as she acended into full demonhood rather than just being an avatar of her mistress.
Upon waking, she discovered the "gifts" she was given as well as the new immortality from the ritual. The succubus spoke into her mind, commending her for her quick thinking and giving her blessing to go forth into the world with her new power. After that, her previous mistress fell silent, never again trying to control the life of her once servant. The years that have passed have led Tali to wander, following both her whims and the desire to help others. A long path of both assistance and destruction follows her, littered with old enemies, lovers, and victims. She is careful to avoid fame and recognition to prevent anyone from delving into what her powers come from. So, she wanders endlessly, sometimes disabled from mortal wounds, coming back to find the new enemy and destroying their life essence. She has no home, no land, and no alliances. She simply wanders to keep going and finding new things to disrupt and dismantle.
Equipment:
Cult robes: Magically enchanted to be unbreakable, unfading, and self-cleaning. It provides no additional protection. The clothing is specially enchanted to be removed with minimal time and effort, thus allowing her to mentally undress or redress over about a second.
Clawed heels: These high heels are enchanted to be similarly unbreakable, unfading, and self-cleaning. They are sharpened along the points and underside of the claws on the toes. She can use these as weapons. The claws can be magically dismissed to change the heels into open toed high heels.
Signet Rings: Tali has her own signet ring of her cult as well as the signet ring of her adoptive mother. Both are set with rubies and have the cult crest set over top of the gem. The metal of the crest and ring band are made of a gold/platinum alloy to maintain the gold apperance and strengthen the normally fragile metal.
Demon Bride's Veil: This veil was given to her by her adoptive mother with the message "Our mistress seems to have plans for you." It has magical enchantments to bind it specifically to Tali and can change apperance to any sort of head adornment as Tali wishes. It cannot be removed from Tali's possession without her consent or sufficiently strong magical suppression abilities. She normally keeps it as a veil.
Abilities:
Life Eater: As a demon, she does not recover mana naturally. She instead gains it by draining the blood and souls of creatures. The more intelligent a target, the more sustaining the feeding will be. She does not gain nourishment from food and drink, though she sustains no negative effects from them either. To feed, she either drinks blood or siphons the soul through her claws and mouth.
Immaculate Succubus: Her body produces waste of no kind, does not require any sort of breathing, and cannot do things like sweating. Any sort of dirtiness on her body or skin will be magically purged mere seconds after getting on her. Her body is free of hair except on her head and her skin is always flawless and unable to scar. Her breath always smells sweet and full of citrus. Her body scent is a mixture of a fruity orchard and vanilla. She has no need for sleep and has essentially limitless stamina. Her body is incredibly flexible, easily three times that of a Sylve gymnast. Her eyes can see in all levels of darkness, even magical and pitch black darkness. She retains the ability to see color in those situations. She is always in perfect shape, unable to lose her current form or even gain or lose weight or body mass.
Spellcasting: Her spells are mostly attack and restraint spells that will drain blood from foes to help her sustain her mana mid fight. She can also do life transference healing spells, draining some of her own mana and blood to restore that of a target. Her utility spells focus upon invisibility, charming, and illusions. These illusions can also be used to create clones of herself to take a hit for her as she moves out of the way or to confuse foes as she moves away invisible and her clone does something else.
Seductive Presence: She can use mana to enhance her already highly seductive qualities. Her presence near a target will attempt to enthrall their mind and cause them to obey her temporarily. She usually uses this to turn enemies against one another or draw a feeding target close. She can only have one target enthralled at a time and the effect lasts up to an hour at a time if she concentrates on maintaining it.
Demonic Resurrection: If disabled in some way, whether destroyed or mortally wounded, Tali will enter a form of stasis, her body reforming and healing fully over time. Once fully healed, she will rise again, though in a starved frenzy. She will drain the first target she can reach, regardless of their relationship to her. She cannot be killed permanently by destroying her body completely and her soul is nigh indestructible as well. Tali has no idea if her soul can even be destroyed and her mistress did not tell her anything about it. This also renders her ageless and unaging as well as immune to disease.
Flight: Though she can fly using only her wings, she also can magically fly at will. It does not drain mana from her as long as she flies at the same pace as her wings could carry her. This magical flight allows her to hover perfectly unlike winged flight.
Binding Mark: Tali can create a sigil on a target to provide them with resistance to charming effects and mental dominations not done by Tali. This sigil also marks them as her lover to other creatures, both visibly and through other methods of sensing relationships or mate status. When marked, the target and Tali share a telepathic bond that lets them communicate mentally as long as they are on the same plane of existence. Tali can have multiple marks, but she uses this ability rarely at most as it is saved for her most intimate lovers. The major downside to the mark is that the marked becomes almost unable to resist any charming or mental effect Tali produces. Another downside is that it requires a lengthy and involved ritual.
Extra notes: Tali is capable in a fight but operates as a roguish cad, hitting low blows and killing key targets. She uses her claws and clawed high heels in fights as her weapons. Her tail is used to disarm, trip, or lock enemy limbs. She keeps her wings folded down along her legs as a sort of skirt when not actively using them. Her eyes, when in the dark, glow fully red, including the sclera and pupil. As a demon, she is tougher than normal and can easily take strikes from most common warriors without harm. Stronger warriors can still harm her, though it is still not as damaging as to a standard mortal. Certain magical weapons can bypass this resistance. Her demonic "gifts" included making her into a hermaphrodite and making her selectively barren and impotent. She also gained a slight golden tint to her previously white hair.
