Seasons Don't Fear the Reaper (Level One)
Name: Kalida
Age: 31
Race: Undead Human
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 140
Personality: Impatient, humorless. In general she's like the retail employee that's spent one too many Christmas rushes on the battlefield. She knows she's not getting fired so her level of give-a-care has shriveled.
Appearance: She's been given certain abilities from her Master that allows her to shift her appearance. While this will be outlined in more detail under the abilities section below, for the most part she appears as a dark horse or as she was in her previous lifetime - a tall woman with dark hair kept in a neat bun, dressed modestly in a brassy orange wrap-style dress with a blue scarf tied either around her waist or used as a head covering when traveling. Her skin is dark from the sun, her eyes are the amber-brown of raw honey. She doesn't wear jewelry but in any form a dark birthmark in the shape of a ram's skull shows on her neck, a little too distinct and perfect to be natural.
History: There was a point in time when she had another name. Now it felt like another life. She'd grown up in a nomadic tribe in Fallien, a colorful caravan of weavers, hunters, and jewelcrafters working together to survive the harsh deserts. Her early memories were snapshops of oasis to oasis, finding glass, watching for dangers in little rivers and springs. Her favorite food was figs, she loved goat's milk, she had a mother.
When her first menstruation came, her mother sent her to another tribe to wed into it. She wasn't scared, it was just a fact of life and the girls that had come from other tribes had never seemed unhappy to be with her family - she felt that she would be just as comfortable as they were.
The tribe, though, was different than hers. Where her family had always worshipped the sun and the gods of nature, this tribe danced by the light of the moon and talked of a dark mother who embraced the cold, sleeping world. The new ways of life were overwhelming but soon she had a husband and children and fell into the every day.
She bore three children before the bad luck came. Three more babies grew in her belly but were born lifeless before her husband dragged her from the birth bed, the blood of her last stillborn child still clinging sticky and sour to her thighs. She was brought before the Elder of the tribe, and when the moon rose over the dunes he burned her birthed placenta and read the smoke as it lazily danced into the sky.
"The Night Mother is angry," said the elder. "In her heart, she has not been keeping our ways. She loves the Father that cast her out too much." He was speaking of the god that lived in the Sun, the god who she still prayed to in secret now and again when the day was harsh and children were sick or water was scarce. Had she really forsaked The Mother in those moments?
Before she could defend herself from the accusation, with grief and exhaustion shaking her body, she was hurled into the flame. The agony of the fire never seemed to end, not even when she realized that the flames had died down and she was alone in the desert with no body and no mourners.
Time slipped by, and she watched as the dunes were blown away and built again and again by the winds. She watched even though the years took mere moments and no creature stayed by her long enough for her to notice them. She watched until the placement and movement of the stars were all she could really remember with much clarity, until one night time seemed to stand still and a single star appeared to be falling from the sky.
The Night Mother was coming for her.
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Skills:
Navigation - She can use the stars at night to find her way, making it nearly impossible for her to get lost if she's seen a map.
Iron Determination - Her willpower is incredibly high, driven by unnatural servitude and the hope of eternal rest
Abilities:
Shapeshifting - She can shift her appearance to anything she'd like. However her strength and abilities in any form remain the same with a larger form. With a smaller form, her strength scales down. So if she transforms into a bear, she is as strong as she is as a human. If she transforms to an otter, she is as strong as a human who is the size of an otter.
The only exception to this is that when she takes the form of a black horse she gains the "Night Mother's Steed" perk which allows her to run as fast as a wild mare.
Night Mothers Embrace - Kalida has an increased defense akin to wearing light leather armor.
While she cannot die, when she takes an equivalent amount of damage she becomes incorporeal for a fortnight and cannot physically control or change anything in the realm of the living. She also cannot use this method to spy as she is not strong enough to see or hear humans in this form as well. The fortnight passes too quickly for her perception, as did the time she spent before the Night Mother came to her.
Equipment/Weapons:
2 Calli glass daggers, with handles engraved with locusts
