B A S I C S
Name: Shiara Cazarin
Age: 19 (born in spring)
Height: 5'6"
Weight: ~110lbs
Occupation: cook/scout
Shiara is a slender young woman with deeply bronzed skin in the way of the Peledan islanders. Her hair is untamably curly, a problem she solves by tying it back most of the time, or occasionally putting it in lots of little braids. She has a round face; dark, gently tilted eyes; a wide, flat, and slightly upturned nose; high, thick brows; and full, expressive lips. She has an athletic build, with gentle curves in the right places.
She likes going barefoot, though usually she does wear either sandals or shoes of supple leather. She loves bright colors and patterns for her clothing. She has a variety of jewelry, mostly made of beads or shells. She'll sometimes braid such things into her hair, or add a bright flower behind her ear. One particular necklace she always wears, a simple leather thong with two pendants. One is long and thin, like a claw or a tooth. The other looks more like a large scale or shaped piece of abalone.
She always has one of her knives on her person, sometimes two or three depending on where she's going. While she knows how to fight with her fists, she's not particularly intimidating and a sharp blade does a lot to convince people to leave her alone if they give her too much trouble. Shiara often carries a small satchel either on a shoulder strap or belted at her hip. It's a good place to put a bit of money, and anything else she might need.
Shiara's speech carries a gentle Peledan accent imparted by her father and grandparents. She carries herself with confidence, and moves with more energetic athleticism than grace. This is not to say she's clumsy, but she's disposed to large gestures, her movements and stance saying just as much as her words.
Shiara started as a bright, cheerful girl. She loved watching the stars or playing in the waves. She enjoyed wandering the beach or the woods, and was eager to try new things. She was always rather independent, encouraged to be self-sufficient from a young age. The questionable acceptance of the townsfolk was never an issue in the mostly-Peledan part of the outskirts where she lived, and she never saw any reason to bother with people that didn't want her around. She took to her grandmother's teaching with solemn dedication, eager to prove herself worthy of her gift of magic, and the sort of respect she saw people giving Nisme. She absorbed stories and music with a wide-eyed eagerness, as if they could show her a glimpse of the world beyond her horizon. Shiara wasn't sure she wanted to be a bone woman despite her dedication to the training. She craved adventure, and there was always a driving curiosity in her constant questions on anything and everything.
Unfortunately such wide-eyed idealism doesn't last long in the real world. A raid by the Church's Witch Hunters on her town drove the dismal reality home for her, and resulted in the death of her mother and father. Now Shiara resents the Church passionately, and she's driven to find a better life for those with magic. Her respect is hard to earn, and only given to those who show themselves to be intelligent, able to look at the facts instead of trusting blindly in what "everyone knows", willing to back up their words with actions, and possessing a certain level of integrity.
She wants to travel, to see other countries and have real adventures. She wants to learn about other peoples, too, and about things where the answers the Church give her aren't ones she trusts. They have so much wrong about the Peledan people, after all. Who knows what they've screwed up beyond that? Above all, she wants to show all the world that they are as backwards about magic as they accuse the islanders of being in general. She'll be a hero like in the stories, maybe, or she'll find some brilliant use for her magic that helps everyone. Or maybe she'll just write songs and tell stories like her grandfather. But she's sure there's an adventure waiting for her just beyond the horizon.
Shiara's father came to mainland Australia as a teenager with his parents and elder sister in the wake of a volcano eruption that devastated their island home, along with a number of other refugees. His mother, Nisme, is a bone woman -- a spiritual leader among the Peledan tribes native to the eastern archipelago. The Peledan see necromancy not as a curse but as a highly-regarded skill, and it approaches divine blessing. The bone men and women work with the healers as medicine men; they work with the rare speakers of souls to placate restless ghosts; they are the ones sought for blessings and guidance, and to ease the passage of the dying. Nisme's husband Yuriah is a musician and a keeper of stories, and though their daughter returned to the islands they decided to stay with Zelias following his marriage. The Peledan are a highly communal group, and if their son and his wife would not join them on the islands, they would bring the community to the young couple.
Shiara's mother Rosalie lived in the coastal town where most of the Peledan refugees settled. She was studying to be an herbalist like her own mother, and her father worked as an assistant to the harbormaster. She and Zelais met during the worst of the difficult times that faced town and refugees, and married several years later. Shiara was born within a couple years into a warm and happy household that didn't care what the townsfolk thought of the mixed family.
As a toddler the child was much like any other. She was extremely curious, and loved stories and the sea. If other children gave her a hard time she shrugged it off, and played instead with the children of refugees-turned-citizens and the raven Ainel, who'd adopted her as his. Nisme recognized the girl's magic as soon as it started to manifest, and began lessons the moment they would be retained. Shiara learned of her rich island heritage from her father's side of the family, and while she didn't disdain the more structured life her mother encouraged, she was never very good at sitting still. There was always something to do, somewhere to explore or an adventure to find. Skirts and "proper" clothes were restrictive and got dirty or ripped. She did pick up bits of herbcraft from the instruction of mother and both grandmothers, but she heeded it only because it was her duty to learn in order to fulfill the responsibilities of her magic. She greatly preferred "playing" her grandfather's various flutes and whistles.
When Shiara was seven, Witch Hunters raided her town, killing both her parents and devastating the small islander community. Many decided to return home to Pelecola, including her grandparents, and they took Shiara and her two-year-old brother with them. It was Shiara's first ship voyage, and she loved the sway of the deck and the wind in her hair. It was partially this voyage and partly her grandfather's stories of adventure that prompted an adult Shiara to decide on a life of piracy. She knows killing is generally wrong, but the world's a mess and sometimes you just have to hoist your flag and take what you can.
Shiara can play flute, ocarina, and lute. She's got a good singing voice, too, though most of the songs she knows are either Peledan or the sort of thing one might hear in a tavern.
She swims like a fish, and she loves the ocean. The river's okay, but it's not at all the same. She's pretty good at paddling a coracle about, and her aunt has taught her a bit about sails and how to manage them. She can't do more than the basics for a small sailboat alone, though. On a large ship, she knows the names for all the different masts and sails.
She knows how to cook and make tea.
Shiara knows the basics of first aid.
She is skilled with a knife, and always carries at least one on her person, usually more. She can use them hand-to-hand or thrown.
Shiara knows how to use a flintlock pistol or rifle, and how to care for either. She's a decent shot, but much prefers knives.
She has a little experience using a rapier, but again, knives are her go-to.
She is bilingual, speaking Peledan and English.
She knows how to sew and repair clothing. Her stitches aren't the most even, but they're perfectly serviceable.
Magic Type: necromancy (bone magic)
Basic Effects: Shiara can speak with the dead, both human and animal. She serves as a focus point for spirits that have not yet crossed over, carrying them with her until they are ready to move on.
Advanced Spells:
Channeling: Shiara can make use of the powers of a single spirit to help her with what she's doing. Currently she carries with her a thief named Senki and a rapier-wielding pirate named Rokkal. She can channel animals too, but it's more difficult and gives her less of an advantage.
Necromantic Golems: Shiara can fashion golems (generally one to two feet in height) and invest them with an independent spirit. Alternatively she can use spirit fragments and her own magic to animate a golem, but this requires her full concentration. The former sort of golem moves at roughly the same speed as the spirit animating it did in life, and in the same manner. It hits a bit less hard than the spirit did in life, due to the limitations of materials, but Shiara has found that knives make great weapons for her golems. A bludgeoning weapon is the best way to destroy them.
Raising the Dead: Generally Shiara does not raise the dead. It is a delicate process, and may only be done with the dead creature's permission -- at least ethically. That's not to say she can't, just that she normally won't.
Shiara has several knives that she carries on her person.
She has jewelry-making tools, as well as a small bag of string, beads, and shells.
She has a small first aid kit.
She has a sewing kit.
She carries materials for basic golem-crafting -- pieces of clay and obsidian, as well as a collection of small bones.
Ainel, Shiara's companion raven, is often found perched on her shoulder or flying overhead. He is smart enough to talk, as are most of the ravens from Pelecola. He is not a pet in any way: Ainel comes and goes as he pleases, and his girl has no authority with which to tell him to do things (not that she doesn't try). It's simply that he chooses to stay with her, like a small feathered guardian.
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