| {Full Name} |Kiora
| {Age} |Twenty-Eight (28) Y/O
| {Species} |Human
| {Sex} |Female
| {Class/subclass} |
| {Appearance} |Kiora can be described as everything that comes to mind when one thinks of a Chasind warrior. She stands tall at six feet solid (one hundred eighty-two point two centimeters) with sun-kissed skin, a sturdy physique, and mysterious brown eyes and flowing raven hair. Her palms and feet are calloused from the life of a wilder and while not grotesquely marred she has the stray scar and blemishing across her body. Sitting in the midst of this hardened build is a face that, despite the occasional scowl or empty stare, is alluring and glows with life and intelligence. Her hair is usually kept tied in a simple ponytail or sometimes in a single braid down her back.
Kiora walks, talks, and acts generally with an assertive confidence. While at times abrasive and intense she is not unpredictably savage and knows how and when to avoid making a scene and drawing attention to herself.
Kiora is rarely seen outside of her armor and her sword and axes are always close at hand. As a proper warrior and a Grey Warden both Kiora always keeps herself at the ready for danger, be it the darkspawn or otherwise.
| {Equipment and Personal Belongings} |Redgnaw - Redgnaw is Kiora’s trusted sword. A two-handed Chasind flatblade that belonged to her father, taken from the battlefield where he fell during their tribes’ final ill-fated stand against the Darkspawn early on during the Fifth Blight. This sword has savored the blood of men, elves, dwarves, darkspawn, wyverns, and even a dragon.
Twin Dwarven Waraxes - Kiora acquired these twin axes from a surfacer dwarf not long after she became a Reaver, taking them as payment in exchange for slaying a rival of his. They make for a fine secondary choice of armament and she uses them in place of her greatsword when finesse and speed are necessary.
Grey Warden Armor
Father’s Amulet - Kiora’s final memory of her father was looking up at him as he handed her his amulet before leaving with the warriors of the tribe to fight the wretched darkspawn. It was a gift from Kiora’s mother to him, a leather cord baring a totem of stone and iron in the shape of a writhing dragon. Simple in appearance but deep in its meaning to Kiora.
| {Skills} |Master Combat Training - As a young Chasind, Kiora was trained in the ways of a warrior by her uncle and the elder fighters of her tribe. She was relentlessly driven and groomed to be the perfect warrior.
Survival Skills - Life in the Korcari Wilds is not for the weak or feint of heart. Kiora learned how to survive in the dangerous marshes and dense woodlands from her tribesmen as well as from her own experience - enduring many hard lessons and earning scars in doing so.
Herbalism - As the daughter of a shamaness Kiora was taught how to make medical potions and ointments to treat many varied ailments. A skill that has come in handy enough over the years.
| {Talents} |Devour - In battle Kiora is a true bane to face, driven by her Chasind warrior pride and the inner barbarity that can be summoned forth as a Reaver bring out an insatiable bloodlust in her. As Kiora fells opponents and becomes drenched in their blood and hung with their entrails she find her zeal and vitality greaten. Pain is not quite as severe and her arms seem to never tire as she swings her weapons driven only by the desire to spill more blood.
Dual Wielding - Kiora was trained in dual weapons fighting as part of her tutelage, while she prefers a greatsword she can hold her own with a weapon in each hand.
Indomitable - As a seasoned and hardy warrior Kiora is able to maintain impressive composure on the battlefield, resilient against most any attempt to stun or fell her.
Reaving Storm - When Kiora’s bloodlust becomes overwhelming she will experience a surge in strength and stamina and will at the behest of her fury begin to make wild cleaving swings across the battlefield at the cost however of great exhaustion when her rage leaves her.
| {Home/Family} |Kiora was born in the Korcari Wilds to the Dark Tongues, a particularly aggressive and infamous Chasind tribe that has been traced all the way back to the Exalted Age - even if by sparse and questionable accounts. The Dark Tongues were known for their ties to the Avvar and for the many blood mages numbered among their elders over the generations. Kiora’s father was a Reaver and one of the Dark Tongue’s elite warrior caste, her mother a shamaness who was a healer and one of the spiritual guides for the tribe. Kiora had a younger brother, however he was stillborn and Kiora’s parents did not attempt to have any more children after the loss of their son.
Kiora was but a child when the Blight reared its insidious head and ravaged the land. She lost her father in the Dark Tongues’ last battle against the darkspawn. Thankfully her mother, uncle, and other members of the Dark Tongues would survive to see the end of the Blight. In the years to come Kiora made few friends, focusing on her training as a warrior. After her mothers’ death in 9:41 Dragon Kiora became a distant soul, her only real relations being the handful of Dark Tongue warriors she had come to call her comrades. After their deaths as well (9:49 Dragon) Kiora became all but totally closed off to others and has made no friends or close allies among her new order, the Grey Wardens. The only close relation she has left is her uncle who dwells in the Korcari Wilds with the straggling remnants of the Dark Tongues.
| {Flaws and limits} |Reckless In Battle - Kiora, while a valuable ally to have, is what one can call a wild card when met with intense adversity. Her training and experience as well as her abilities as a Reaver make her invaluable against overwhelming odds and powerful foes. However, she fights with little calculation and the longer an engagement endures the more likely she is to give in to the savage calling of the wyvern blood and fly into a violent frenzy - putting allies at risk should she truly lose control.
Aloof - Kiora’s people, the Dark Tongues, are by nature a distant and hard-nosed folk. Add to this no longer having either of her parents, witnessing the deaths of the closest of her battle companions, and the harsh reality that she is among the last of her dwindling kin - Kiora keeps those she meets at a distance and seems to live only for killing and the heat of battle. She is of little to no use in any sort of social or diplomatic scene and makes for a poor voice of reason or calming.
| {Personality} |As a child Kiora was what one could call determined and spirited. After the loss of her father and witnessing the terrors of the Fifth Blight she would grow into a rather inured young woman. The memories of the darkspawn as well as the harsh ways and violent tendencies of the Dark Tongues would shape Kiora into a distant and arbitrary person. Though she would become notably close to the other youth she trained and grew up with and the love she bore for her mother and uncle retained some flickers of tenderness within her soul even if she seemed coldly austere.
After partaking of the wyvern’s blood to become a Reaver, Kiora would inevitably become more prone to mood swings and angry outbursts when agitated and in battle she would show greater ferocity and would come to cast aside any concepts of mercy for a foe. The death of her mother would of course harden her further and the unfortunate slaughter of her battle-kin by the darkspawn years later would cast further dark shadows within the depths of the Chasind woman.
Those who know Kiora now, as an adult, a seasoned warrior, and a Reaver would describe her as “brooding, hollow, and fierce but also loyal to those she fights by and unwavering in the face of danger”. Kiora is not heartlessly sadistic by any means but she warrants no quarter for those who stand against or in her way and will stand no threat or offense to her person. She is very utilitarian and oft judges based upon material worth and advantages gained. Within her, though wholly unbeknownst to her, there are wisps of consideration and courtesy, traces of a person that could have been and might be. Suppressed within by a severe way of life and a fractured past.
| {Background} |Kiora was born in 9:22 Dragon, the daughter of a Chasind Dark Tongues warrior and a shamaness of the tribe. With her younger brother being stillborn and Kiora’s parents not attempting at having anymore children she was raised an only child. Her parents reared her well and even as a young girl she showed an adventurousness and a keen mind and was looked up to by other children. The elders expected her to be a fine member of the tribe when she came of age.
In 9:30 Dragon, when the Fifth Blight was unleashed on Thedas, it was the Korcari Wilds that first suffered the darkspawn horde. When word reached the Dark Tongues of a darkspawn army approaching they assumed it to just be a well-organized darkspawn raid. While other Chasind began to migrate or seek refuge the Dark Tongues mustered their strength and rallied their allies, eager for a chance at fighting the tainted ones and also earning the respect of surrounding tribes and furthering their own prestige. Unfortunately, the reality of things was far worse and despite early petty victories against the darkspawn advancing units the Dark Tongues were ultimately far too heavily outnumbered and outmatched by their foe. Three separate battles would be fought against the main darkspawn advance, all three would be crushing defeats for the Dark Tongues - the last battle taking place in the heart of their territory and most of the tribe were butchered or abducted after the loss. Kiora’s own father was killed in the third battle and she, her mother, and her uncle would just barely escape with handfuls of Dark Tongues survivors.
The Dark Tongues took up refuge in the southernmost reach of the Frostback Mountains, just north of the Uncharted Territories, throughout the course of the Blight. For the next year Kiora and what remained of her people would hide away in the frozen woodlands, hunting and foraging to survive and occasionally clashing with wandering Avvar bands. While the Dark Tongues suffered few deaths during this time they also had few numbers and by the end of the Fifth Blight their tribe was near extinct. All their Reaver warriors were dead as were many of their mage-bloods and elders - the majority of the surviving Dark Tongues being women and children.
After the end of the Fifth Blight the Dark Tongues would return eastward back to the Korcari Wilds. Many other Chasind tribes had been wiped out or scattered and yet others, namely those that had fled from the Blight early on, also would return. Some now boasting a power not held before as their rival tribes had been eradicated and they sought to further their own standing leading to conflict between Chasind groups. The Dark Tongues would ally themselves with a handful of other smaller tribes forming a coalition of their own and for the next decade would be embroiled in petty tribal feuds and politics to survive. During this time Kiora was being raised by her mother and uncle and undergoing her training.
At the age of eighteen (9:40 Dragon) Kiora and the chosen of the next generation of Dark Tongues would undergo their trial to become Reavers, the most fearsome and elite warriors of their people. The young warriors ventured out and embarked upon a great wyvern hunt. The hunt would last for weeks and in the end with only two deaths among their number Kiora and the others returned triumphant, hauling back with them the forms of slain wyverns and the blood necessary to undergo the transformation into a Reaver. The transformation ceremony was grandiose and a moment of inspiration for the Dark Tongues ; they had faced annihilation, the destruction of their clan and the eradication of their heritage and culture, but they had endured and now a new host of warriors stood to lead them into the future. Kiora was overwhelmed with pride at becoming a Reaver as her father had been and much of her mind was lended towards endless ambitious thoughts. Unfortunately she and her tribe would be dealt a devastating blow the following year.
In 9:41 several ranking Dark Tongues - including Kiora, her mother, and her uncle - were meeting with another tribal coalition just east of Fallow Mire when they were ambushed by a bevy of demons, brought forth by one of the many fade rifts plaguing the region in the midst of the breach crisis. Many Chasind were killed and at the climax of the fighting Kiora’s mother was gravely wounded by a monstrous demon. The Reavers fought and bought time for the other Chasind to escape before fleeing themselves. Kiora’s mother died that night at the Dark Tongues camp, succumbing to her wounds. While overcome with grief Kiora maintained her composure, if just barely, and with her kin sought to stave off the demons and survive what many were calling the end of the world. Throughout the year the Dark Tongues and their allies stood against the demons, suffering great losses in their struggle. By the time the Inquisition forces had defeated the Tevinter creature Corypheus and mended the breach and rifts the Dark Tongues had endured heavy casualty and corruption among their tribe. Once again they stood on the cusp on extinction.
Over the next eight years the Dark Tongues would be caught in yet another endeavor of survival, feuding with other Chasind while cultivating alliances and struggling to retain control of their land from interloping tribes and Fereldens alike. Kiora would face many would-be usurpers and enemy warriors in the name of her people, as Reavers she and her kin would prove to be terrifying opponents and despite the dwindling numbers of the tribe they maintained their reputation as unparalleled fighters and undesirable enemies to have. Kiora was quickly becoming one of the finest warriors of her people and her name was on the lips of many Chasind in the south. This of course lead to a surge in her pride and it was this pride that would prove her undoing.
In 9:49 Dragon a darkspawn cohort had journeyed up from underground into the marshes and were ravaging Chasind villages and outposts. Eager to face the old enemy of her tribe and avenge her father Kiora lead the bulk of the Dark Tongues’ Reavers in a search for the fiends and soon tracked them to a hillside cave system. The darkspawn were few in number but proved vicious when cornered. The fighting carried well through the night as the Chasind and darkspawn skirmished in the caves in a bloody melee. As the last hurlock fell dead only Kiora and three other Reavers remained alive. Dawn had come and as the four left the caves behind exhaustion took over as well as illness. They had been stricken with the darkspawn taint and collapsed halfway back to their encampment.
Kiora would awake hours later, staring into unfamiliar faces and finding herself restrained. She and her kin had been found by Grey Wardens who apparently had been pursuing the darkspawn the Chasind had slain. However, Kiora was given the grim news that the others had succumbed to the taint and died as would she soon enough. The Wardens gave her the choice of a quick death or to undergo the joining and become a Grey Warden. In the end Kiora chose the joining - driven by a desire to avenge her fallen companions as well as all her people. The darkspawn had brought her tribe to ruination and she intended to seek bloody vengeance against their kind. Kiora also realized that her pride - her arrogance - had cost many their lives, and to serve as a Grey Warden and fight the darkspawn would also serve as a humbling penance for what she had done. Kiora left her people behind and accompanied the Grey Wardens to begin her new life and duty - her mind and heart brimming with uncertainty and bitterness even as she holds her chin high.
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Snowdrops,
mickilennial,
Spike,
Crimson Flame,
ButtsnBalls,
PrinceAlexus,
Chronic
