Name: Skrala Helocke
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Species: Human
BackgroundKingdom of Origin: Haderlock
Parents: Hinter Helocke the Fifth(Father), Unknown mother
Backstory: Skrala was born in the region of Haderlock, a vicious frozen wasteland more fit to be a depressing icebox rather than habitable space for humans. And yet humans still eked out their existence here, and surprisingly well at that when considering the economic boom generated from the diamond mines. Truly, then, Haderlock is a nation that expresses human perseverance to its fullest.
Yet even among these remarkable people, there existed a family that took to the art of survival with extreme gusto. It all started when a lone magic practitioner came to Haderlock. None knew where exactly he hailed from. None knew the details of his life before he came. People only saw a haggard looking wizard in flowery robes all too unsuitable for the wintry void around him. Even more oddly out of place was that he was carrying an infant with him. Needless to say, this man did not fit in with the Haderlock bunch, and it seemed he had no desire to. Some theorized that he was a recluse because he held forbidden secrets. Perhaps he was a criminal on the run, having stolen or drunk too much of the sacred blood of the gods. Perhaps he had committed some heinous crime with his magic. There was no substantive answer, but plenty of insubstantive rumors that clouded the man's reputation in an unapproachable shroud. He became the boogeyman to keep the children away from - the outcast referred to only in hushed whispers.
He kept to himself in a society where communication and community were upheld. As a result, he was rejected, and he did not mind. He had had enough of people and their silly machinations anyway, and so he took to what best suited him: nature. Once he spent a few initial years understanding the lay of the land, how trade worked, and how the people around him operated, he left civilization and traveled West. When he came upon tundra so brutally harsh that it lay untrod upon even by the inhabitants of Haderlocke, he knew he had found the solace he wished for.
He survived well. He knew how life worked. How the plants around him danced and died in a cyclic prance of life and death. How the prey and predators, so pitted against each other and yet so reliant on the other to survive, walked their tenuous paths of life. Gathering the rare and mystical plantlife sequestered away by frost's firm lock, the man created marvelous potions and concoctions that he gathered en masse and sold every three months to traders to sustain himself reliably.
Through all this time, he continued to raise the child he had brought. He taught her all the ways of life in the wild untouched by mankind, but oddly he never taught her magic. Rather, he actively sought to conceal the fact that he practiced magic to his child. So the child grew up attuned more with the solemn drone of winter winds than the bustle of a marketplace. So their lives continued in a monotonous, difficult, and yet beautifully simple manner.
Time flowed, and years passed. By the time Skrala was eleven, she had knowledge of trading routes and how to conduct her father's minor business in his stead. It was during one of her excursions to a trading post that she stumbled upon an odd sphere of chromatic black, hidden under piles of muddied snow. Ever curious, she brought the object with her to the small wooden cabin she called home. Her father appraised it, and yet could not identify it. Skrala had thought that was odd, her father seemed to know everything. Nevertheless, she decided to keep the strange thing as a nifty trinket after her father determined it posed no threat.
Several days later, the thing shattered apart, revealing that it was an egg. Within it was an enigmatic creature that she immediately became captivated with. She nurtured the little hound like thing as a substitute mother as well as she could, guessing its needs as even her father could not discern what manner of creature it was. She named the beast Thel, and from then on the two became inseparable.
More time swam by. When Skrala was fifteen, her father left. At least, this is what Skrala thinks is what her father did. There was no chance in the world that someone as larger than life as her father could simply succumb to winter's bite when he had already tamed it. This is what she believed, and yet when she attempted to find her father by asking those at the trading post for clues, they merely could give her pitiful looks for what was, to them, an obvious case of a parent making just one slight mistake in the dangerous wild and falling to either weather or beast.
She did not accept that such an end had happened, so she continued to live in hopeful wait for her father's return. He had left behind a vast storage of strange liquids and remedies, and Skrala understood their value enough to ration them for supplies every few months when the traders came to the nearest post. She lived day by day, week by week, until finally a year had passed and her father had not returned.
That was when she decided that she was done waiting. She never did accept the possibility that her father had simply died, which let her live everyday with a strong will and hope - two traits essential to the physical and mental health of any human. So she acted on what was missing from her life. She decided she would set out to find him herself. Taking well stocked packs and as many odd metal circles that her father had called "currency", she set out into the world of the unknown with Thel.
In a year, she has traveled through much of Haderlock, and has learned, due in part through many honest and helpful individuals that did not exploit her cluelessness, how to live by herself among other people. Her journey has not ended by any means, and she presses onward at a leisurely pace, enjoying all things new.
Physical Appearance:Height: 170 cm
Weight: 60 Kg
Appearance: Skrala is a lean and wiry young girl with a slender, agile physique. Her bony features and long limbs cause her to appear somewhat sickly and awkward physically, but a more keen observer could perceive that her body is practically designed for dexterous movements and running. Skrala's skin is of a light ocher brown and often is splotched by the wear of a harsh outdoors environment: dirt, mud, frost - all take harmonious company about Skrala's complexion. Her hair holds a lively auburn hue, extending down to her jaws in an untamed and unkempt explosion of waves. Skrala bears a copious amount of scars that have left their marks on her skin in the form of distended lines for lacerations and dark botches for more expansive wounds. Her hands are amply calloused and worn, bearing the proud marks of survival amidst adversity. Skrala's facial features are youthful and expressive, with dark eyebrows and piercing olive green eyes that give life to all her reactions and thoughts. Skrala exudes a feral feel about her with her unkempt and yet hardy appearance: an untamed visage of the wild.
Something like
this would be a good representation of her.
Attire: Skrala is dressed in the fruits of her labor. All of her clothing is created from the fur and skin of animals she has hunted down or traded for, providing her with thick and insulating clothing fit to shield her from the chilling grasp of Haderlock. She wears a tight fitting and lightweight fur skin shirt as her undermost layer, and tops it off with a thicker, more protective upper layer while also wearing a thickly furred parka over both initial layers. For leggings, she wears fir lined trousers. She prefers to move about with fur boots that shield her feet from icy or snowy grounds. To keep her hands warm, she dons either mittens or fur lined gloves depending on the situation at hand. None of her clothing looks particularly well made, considering they were made mostly by her own hands. Her clothing is more like practical patchwork that focuses entirely on pragmatic usage instead of having any sort of consideration for aesthetic appeal. There are no patterns or distinguishing features dotting her clothing, exacerbating their bland appearance.
PersonalityPersonality: Skrala is a lively and energetic persona, fueled by an endless curiosity. She naturally inclines herself towards wonder and wanderlust, constantly striving to make known what is the unknown. As a result, she can seem fearless, and in many instances, headstrong. The fact that she possesses a strong stubborn streak does not help in making herself seem more meek. Skrala holds an inexhaustible ocean of interest for all things around her, but at the same time she is a tried and true pragmatist. When the situation calls for sound reasoning and when times turn tough, Skrala wields a mind's eye that is exceptionally perceptive. She can shut out any semblance of idealistic fluff or obstructive mental barriers in constructing the utilitarian way out of adversity's most devious mazes. In this regard, Skrala can be seen as cold, and indeed she is not one inclined towards empathy, which too is a product of her difficult life. It is not so much that she actively holds any ill against others, but rather that she is simply incapable of relating to the emotions of others simply due to not having had much contact with people other than her father and traders so winded from journeys and struggles that any elegance of world would long be beaten out of them. Even so, Skrala finds that she would much rather live in the idyllic and infinitely more interesting pace of life characteristic to regular people; a lifestyle she is just now attempting to acclimate herself into. She is also still young and impressionable, and thus does not have much experience in worldly ways.
Hobbies: Skrala's hobbies are now mostly whatever she wants to try out. She had little luxury to have anything close to a "hobby" before her journey, and most of what she could even remotely classify as hobbies would be better served as skills instead, considering their practical usage.
Currently, Skrala is engrossed with music of any kinds (though as a practitioner she is rather lacking), having experienced little of it beforehand. She is also interested in all things magical, as well as the general bustle and flow of city life. Essentially most anything outside of what she had experienced in her own bubble of an existence would be things she would be interested in enough to practice as hobbies.
Skills: Survival
Skrala is incredibly hardy in both body and mind. She is completely built around survival against the wild rather than against fellow men. If wizards practice the mystical art of magic, then Skrala practices the wondrous but not at all flashy art of self-sufficient survival that those living in cities would never have learned. She is able to track and hunt down the most elusive of game, set up the soundest of shelters from the shoddiest of materials, and intuitively tell the distinctions between harmful and beneficial flora. She is an expert in using the bow and in stealth maneuvers, though these skills have only been honed against beasts. She is also quite skilled in utilizing daggers, but once again she has only had experience in matters of basic survival such as hunting, skinning, construction, and so on. Skrala is also a quick learner in matters of survival, having been hardened by the harshness of her own environment. As a result, she can easily adapt to foreign conditions and cross apply skills she already knows to the most far flung of wildernesses.
Taming
Skrala is surprisingly good at reading the language of wild animals such as beasts. She can perceive their movements and state of mind, allowing her to avoid them or comfort them. Even beasts that should be unfamiliar to her, such as the strange mounts that many traders rode on, find a kindred soul within Skrala, whose perception in regards to the wild's heart is as piercing as the finest of blades. As a result, she is quite skilled in taming wild beasts, especially if they are more intelligent.
Abilities/combatAbilities: Bow and Arrow/Dagger/Hunting/Etc.
Skrala is an expert in using the bow. She uses a longbow and serrated arrowheads designed mostly to take down large beasts. She has no experience in shooting down men, but her innate experience with the bow would allow her to do so at quite a practiced level. Mostly though, Skrala can't be said to have "combat" skills. She is a survivor, not a warrior of any sort. None of her skills have been honed against men, warriors, brutes, and so on. Although many of Skrala's skills, such as her knowledge of deadly flora and wieldiness with the bow and dagger, can be used to be combat abilities, they are inherently survival abilities, and Skrala herself would be hesitant to use them in pursuit of another sentient life.
Weaponry: Bow and Arrow
A longbow along with thirty arrows in a woven quiver. She can certainly make more arrows, but none of them would have the tempered steel arrowheads that her original thirty arrows possess.
Haderlock Flora
A huge amount of specimens of Harderlock's flora kept in pouches on a belt that Skrala wears. She is knowledgeable about the usage of all of the plants she carries, allowing her to create both medicinal and toxic products out of them. Complements Skrala's arrows well, as their serrated heads are designed to stick into a target, thus causing any poison on the arrows to spread quite deep.
Daggers
Two chipped daggers with worn handles that Skrala mostly uses for practical means.
Weaknesses: Skrala has absolutely no experience with magic aside from being awed by performances from the occasional trader. She would very much like to practice it, but she has no idea how. As a result, she possesses no means to cast magic of any kind, nor is she familiar with it to recognize its limits and usages. She's also unused to most types of combat at large, as her only experience in life or death struggles is through the hunt. She does not know the range of swords, nor does she know how they are operated. The same can be said with really any man made weapon such as spears and the like. Really, the only weapon she'd be familiar with to a fault would be the bow, but even that knowledge would be much negated against a crossbow, which she has never seen in her life. Her absolute inexperience and unfamiliarity with the world at large, despite granting her immense advantages against the ills of nature, leaves her very susceptible to the malice of human made combat.
Against any real fighter or soldier, Skrala would lose in most cases. She does not have the right mindset and experience to deal with an intense combat situation revolving around war.
Mount: Thel
An odd beast hailing from the northern edges of Silvestre. So far, none have been really able to identify what kind of monstrosity Thel is, with the name simply being what Skrala calls the thing. It is a repulsive, sinister looking monster that glides along darkness, with a form that seems to waver as if it was darkness manifested. The creature's shape is vaguely reminiscent of a hound, but the similarities end there.
It is a mass of black, rigid flesh that resembles bone. It is quite large, being more than three meters in length and almost a meter in height. The beast's head does not really seem to have a defined shape. Instead it would be more accurate to say the beast's body ends in a gigantic, tubelike mouth with several dozen circular patches cut into it like boils riddling a plague ridden body. Underneath these circular cuts there seems to emanate an ominous red radiance that is sickening to take in. The light must shine from something within the creature's body, and yet one would find that the body is actually empty like a shell.
In fact, calling it a "body" is somewhat misleading in of itself. Rather, its basic appearance is simply the form the creature had from birth and which it chooses to continue to hold simply out of Skrala's wishes. The creature has no defined shape or mass. It's serpentine, hound like figure can morph and twirl and contort freely, shaping itself into any manner of object whether it be creature of item. It's body can also expand and contract with almost supernatural efficiency, allowing the creature to flatten itself out into a huge pancake shape or condense itself into a sphere the size of a basketball.
Most of the monstrosities in Silvestre possess massive strength and magical prowess, but this creature is rather odd in that it seems to be rather on the weaker side of the monster scale. Of course, being weak when compared to the top dogs of Silvestre would be a resounding compliment for the capability of most other monsters. But this creature is by no means outclassed by the regular brutish lot of beasts.
Instead, it is more attune with deceit and the mystical. It can blend its body inside darkness, allowing it to dissipate into an invisible, smoky pitch black form that would be nigh impossible to make out in the night or in any area secluded from light's grace. It is incredibly quick and agile, capable of running up walls and adhering to surfaces like a gecko. Its capability to change its form is also not one that requires much effort, and it can do so rapidly and on the fly, expanding and contracting and twisting and curling while leaping about from wall to wall, making it a difficult target to hit. It's strength is also nothing to scoff at, capable of crushing an unarmed and untrained man into a bloody pulp in a manner of seconds. However, it has difficulty in breaking through hardened flesh and armored targets.
The most distinctive feature of this creature is its tongue. A long, slithering ghostly blue appendage that is prehensile and flexible. It can be shot out rapidly from the body, and can also be morphed into different shapes. The tongue is directly linked to the creature's thoughts, allowing it to transfer its stream of consciousness to those it wishes through piercing others with its tongue. It can also drain thoughts from others or even alter them, allowing it to learn from sentient minds. In its natural state, the creature would have used its tongue to cause potential prey to suffer mental breakdowns due to memories being altered in terrifying manners, but due to it being raised away from its natural environment and in one where it has received more stimulus than a simple desire to survive and reproduce, the creature can use its tongue in more varied and helpful manners, such as in aiding psychological torment, soothing pain, and so on. Due to the complex nature of this organ, the creature is quite intelligent, and can also leech off the knowledge of others to become even more perceptive.
The creature naturally regenerates what it has lost in scuffles over periods of days, but can speed up this process by consuming flesh. To kill the creature, fire or some corrosive substance would be most effective as its malleable body that holds no vitals means that conventional weapons do little to impede it. The creature's disposition is peaceful and reserved with a somewhat shy streak. It is comfortably mostly only around what it considers its mother, which would be Skrala. However, Thel is also a predatory hunter by heart, so it by no means would be hesitant to strike down threats without mercy.
Something like
this would be what Thel appears to look like.
Other: None
