Teal
01-19-09, 02:31 PM
Name: Kate Downs
Age: 28
Race: Human
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Gray
Height: 5' 8''
Weight: 124 lbs.
Occupation: Entertainer
Personality: Kate is insane, to be blunt. Most of the time she is extremely skittish, and spooked by almost everything imaginable. At random intervals, this behavior deteriorates and she turns into a slightly sadistic and unnerving individual. While like this, her fears disappear and she becomes brave almost to the point of stupidity. Although changes between personalities happen randomly, she generally switches to her brave self when in danger, as sort of a defense mechanism.
Appearance: Kate has her red hair grown down just below her shoulders. She almost never washes, and thus her face is almost always a bit grimy and her hair is filled with split ends and sticks up at odd angles. Her cheeks are dotted with freckles, and she has fair skin. Most of the time, she wears simple, loose, cloth clothing, sticking to tan or brown colors. She also enjoys walking barefoot, and as her feet are covered in calluses, she can do this on almost all terrain without feeling the need to put on shoes.
History: The Downs family has always taken to the craft of entertainment. Before your mind begins thinking about what that "entertainment" may be, you should know that this the entertainment is in the form of music and circus arts. From the day of her birth, Kate was taught the arts of singing, playing instruments, and various acrobatics tricks. Although she mostly failed at the flips and rolls in which her brothers excelled, she quickly picked up playing lute and developed a decent voice.
Kate worked in the streets, at bars and inns, and on the road to earn a few coins. While her skittishness made her terrible at dealing with other people, she was a master of filling her pockets with money. She worked with her family up until she become reached the age of 16. People only had so much money on them, and would pay the same to one entertainer as they would to an entire group, and sadly, with a group, the money had to be shared. Like her brothers and sisters before her, she set out on her own.
For the next few years, life was fine. She made a living, working at inns and drawing in customers in exchange for a room and a meal. At this point in her life, she grew used to other people and her skittish demeanor began to fade away.
In the winter of the year she had turned 21, Kate stopped in a small town to hole up for the next month. She had hoarded her money for the past year and was prepared to buy a room and stay there until the snow cleared. She did just that, boarding up in a small inn and quickly making friends with the others who were living or working there. The first night she stayed there, there was only a small group of people in the common room, mostly men, and most of them deep in their ale. Only one was truly paying attention to her. He was a tall, thin man with unkempt black hair in about his fifties. He kept tapping his fingers against the table where he sat alone, his eyes darted back and forth. He reminded the musician of herself, years ago.
After Kate had finished playing, the man approached her. He offered to buy her a drink, and Kate, never refusing free alcohol, accepted and followed him back to his table. Once there, the man explained himself. He said that he was a magician and was looking for someone to travel with once the roads were clear. After a few moments of thought, Kate accepted his offer. He seemed nice enough, and a magician was good at bringing in crowds.
The next night, they performed together. The magician, who's name was Morsh, summoned small purple orbs and dazzled the people on the streets by making them glow brightly and then juggling them high into the air while Kate played on her lute. As the temperatures steadily rose over the next few weeks, the pair of them filled their purses twice over and became celebrities in the small town. As spring poked its head around the corner, the pair left the town and headed along a wide road towards a nearby city.
During this time, Kate asked Morsh to teach her his tricks. After a long round of persuasion, the magician gave in and decided to teach her the basics of his trade. To begin with, he plucked a ball of purple energy from the air and slipped it around his hand like a glove. Then her punched her shoulder.
The glove flowed from his fist onto her shoulder at the point of contact and then sunk into her skin. She felt her arm go weak, her muscles melting and a dull throbbing pain in her bones. Morsh quickly explained to her that he hadn't learned his trade to entertain others. It was an art that had been shown to him by sorcerers in the country's army. There were also serious downfalls to the art. It was black magic, and it shoved the worst in people out into the open. It must be learned slowly, so as to not damage the mind of the user. Kate readily agreed, dismissing her throbbing arm.
Over the next two years, she studied with Morsh. It was slow going. The first step was to build up a resistance to the dark energy. This required cutting herself and then Morsh pushing the matter into her bloodstream. After such an ordeal, she would be brain dead and unable to walk for hours. It took her almost a year for the effects to finally begin to lesson. They next moved on to the art of summoning the energy. It all pivoted on pain. Morsh painted thin columns of runes on her palms with a jar of purple ink that he always kept on him. He taught her to focus her mind in a certain way, focusing on the pains in her body to pull the purple matter from the runes on her palms and into existence. It was extremely difficult at first, but after another year of study, she learned to summon small amounts of the energy. Morsh warned her not to push herself, as it could pull her mind into insanity if she overused the matter.
Near to her 24th birthday, Kate and Morsh had been staying in a small village inn. They were in a large wooded valley, just a few miles off of a larger road. In the middle of the night, Kate awoke to the smell of smoke. Sleepily, she exited her room and walked down to the common room, which was, strangely, empty. She left the inn and was greeted with the site of a burning village. Plumes of smoke spiraled up into the dirty sky, and fire leaped and crackled from wooden roof to wooden roof. A small group of men stood nearby, carrying torches and swords at their hips. She felt heat on her back, and turned. The inn had just been set on fire, the second floor alive with flames.
The men nearby called out something, and began to run towards her. Kate can't remember what exactly happened in the next few minutes, but it ended with a pile of dead bodies at her feat. Small bits of dark energy clung to their clothing. Then she fainted.
Though Kate doesn't know what really happened herself, she had pushed herself beyond the limits of her magical abilities. Due to the nature of the power she was wielding, her mind was overwhelmed and a second nature was unlocked within her. This second nature was all the bad in her, sadistic and cruel as well as very brave. The event also reverted her back to her own skittish nature.
The entertainer woke about a day later among the ruins of the village. She spent days searching through the rubble for life, but all the survivors had fled long before. With a heavy heart, Kate rejoined the main road and took up her life of performing again. Yet this time, things were different. She now stole from the unwary, tried to swindle her audience out of money, and occasionally, had surges of bloodlust. She also began to use her black magic in her acts, and started to learn more tricks with the dark art.
Skills:
Arcane Pool - Kate has a pool of arcane energy within herself that she uses for her black magic. It takes around two posts of her not using any of the energy to fully recharge the pool.
Dark Energy - For half of her arcane energy, Kate can summon a fist sized bundle of dark energy in one of her palms. She has direct control of any dark energy within three inches of her body, allowing her to manipulate it when it is nearby. When the energy touches organic matter, she can discharge the energy into the point of contact. The energy weakens the area that it touches and creates a dull throbbing pain. For example, when used on humanoids, it generally weakens their muscles that are nearby the point of contact.
Imbue - For half of her arcane energy, Kate can imbue any dark energy that she has control of with her own energy. This extra energy can be used in two ways. When discharged, the energy can be used to double the draining effects on its target. The extra energy can also be expended to give Kate minimal control of it when it moves away from her. She can fire the energy at a target at the speed of throwing a ball of a similar size. She can have the energy make slight turns if it is up to about two meters away, but past that her control over it only allows her to maintain its speed.
Dark Resistance - Kate is immune to any dark energy that she creates, though she can be effected by similar energy created by someone else.
Daggers - Kate has an average skill level when wielding one of her daggers.
Lute - Kate is an expert at playing her lute
Equipment: A steel dagger, six inches long and 1.5 inches wide. Light brown cloth shirt, tan cloth pants. A leather satchel for carrying necessities. A wooden lute.
Age: 28
Race: Human
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Gray
Height: 5' 8''
Weight: 124 lbs.
Occupation: Entertainer
Personality: Kate is insane, to be blunt. Most of the time she is extremely skittish, and spooked by almost everything imaginable. At random intervals, this behavior deteriorates and she turns into a slightly sadistic and unnerving individual. While like this, her fears disappear and she becomes brave almost to the point of stupidity. Although changes between personalities happen randomly, she generally switches to her brave self when in danger, as sort of a defense mechanism.
Appearance: Kate has her red hair grown down just below her shoulders. She almost never washes, and thus her face is almost always a bit grimy and her hair is filled with split ends and sticks up at odd angles. Her cheeks are dotted with freckles, and she has fair skin. Most of the time, she wears simple, loose, cloth clothing, sticking to tan or brown colors. She also enjoys walking barefoot, and as her feet are covered in calluses, she can do this on almost all terrain without feeling the need to put on shoes.
History: The Downs family has always taken to the craft of entertainment. Before your mind begins thinking about what that "entertainment" may be, you should know that this the entertainment is in the form of music and circus arts. From the day of her birth, Kate was taught the arts of singing, playing instruments, and various acrobatics tricks. Although she mostly failed at the flips and rolls in which her brothers excelled, she quickly picked up playing lute and developed a decent voice.
Kate worked in the streets, at bars and inns, and on the road to earn a few coins. While her skittishness made her terrible at dealing with other people, she was a master of filling her pockets with money. She worked with her family up until she become reached the age of 16. People only had so much money on them, and would pay the same to one entertainer as they would to an entire group, and sadly, with a group, the money had to be shared. Like her brothers and sisters before her, she set out on her own.
For the next few years, life was fine. She made a living, working at inns and drawing in customers in exchange for a room and a meal. At this point in her life, she grew used to other people and her skittish demeanor began to fade away.
In the winter of the year she had turned 21, Kate stopped in a small town to hole up for the next month. She had hoarded her money for the past year and was prepared to buy a room and stay there until the snow cleared. She did just that, boarding up in a small inn and quickly making friends with the others who were living or working there. The first night she stayed there, there was only a small group of people in the common room, mostly men, and most of them deep in their ale. Only one was truly paying attention to her. He was a tall, thin man with unkempt black hair in about his fifties. He kept tapping his fingers against the table where he sat alone, his eyes darted back and forth. He reminded the musician of herself, years ago.
After Kate had finished playing, the man approached her. He offered to buy her a drink, and Kate, never refusing free alcohol, accepted and followed him back to his table. Once there, the man explained himself. He said that he was a magician and was looking for someone to travel with once the roads were clear. After a few moments of thought, Kate accepted his offer. He seemed nice enough, and a magician was good at bringing in crowds.
The next night, they performed together. The magician, who's name was Morsh, summoned small purple orbs and dazzled the people on the streets by making them glow brightly and then juggling them high into the air while Kate played on her lute. As the temperatures steadily rose over the next few weeks, the pair of them filled their purses twice over and became celebrities in the small town. As spring poked its head around the corner, the pair left the town and headed along a wide road towards a nearby city.
During this time, Kate asked Morsh to teach her his tricks. After a long round of persuasion, the magician gave in and decided to teach her the basics of his trade. To begin with, he plucked a ball of purple energy from the air and slipped it around his hand like a glove. Then her punched her shoulder.
The glove flowed from his fist onto her shoulder at the point of contact and then sunk into her skin. She felt her arm go weak, her muscles melting and a dull throbbing pain in her bones. Morsh quickly explained to her that he hadn't learned his trade to entertain others. It was an art that had been shown to him by sorcerers in the country's army. There were also serious downfalls to the art. It was black magic, and it shoved the worst in people out into the open. It must be learned slowly, so as to not damage the mind of the user. Kate readily agreed, dismissing her throbbing arm.
Over the next two years, she studied with Morsh. It was slow going. The first step was to build up a resistance to the dark energy. This required cutting herself and then Morsh pushing the matter into her bloodstream. After such an ordeal, she would be brain dead and unable to walk for hours. It took her almost a year for the effects to finally begin to lesson. They next moved on to the art of summoning the energy. It all pivoted on pain. Morsh painted thin columns of runes on her palms with a jar of purple ink that he always kept on him. He taught her to focus her mind in a certain way, focusing on the pains in her body to pull the purple matter from the runes on her palms and into existence. It was extremely difficult at first, but after another year of study, she learned to summon small amounts of the energy. Morsh warned her not to push herself, as it could pull her mind into insanity if she overused the matter.
Near to her 24th birthday, Kate and Morsh had been staying in a small village inn. They were in a large wooded valley, just a few miles off of a larger road. In the middle of the night, Kate awoke to the smell of smoke. Sleepily, she exited her room and walked down to the common room, which was, strangely, empty. She left the inn and was greeted with the site of a burning village. Plumes of smoke spiraled up into the dirty sky, and fire leaped and crackled from wooden roof to wooden roof. A small group of men stood nearby, carrying torches and swords at their hips. She felt heat on her back, and turned. The inn had just been set on fire, the second floor alive with flames.
The men nearby called out something, and began to run towards her. Kate can't remember what exactly happened in the next few minutes, but it ended with a pile of dead bodies at her feat. Small bits of dark energy clung to their clothing. Then she fainted.
Though Kate doesn't know what really happened herself, she had pushed herself beyond the limits of her magical abilities. Due to the nature of the power she was wielding, her mind was overwhelmed and a second nature was unlocked within her. This second nature was all the bad in her, sadistic and cruel as well as very brave. The event also reverted her back to her own skittish nature.
The entertainer woke about a day later among the ruins of the village. She spent days searching through the rubble for life, but all the survivors had fled long before. With a heavy heart, Kate rejoined the main road and took up her life of performing again. Yet this time, things were different. She now stole from the unwary, tried to swindle her audience out of money, and occasionally, had surges of bloodlust. She also began to use her black magic in her acts, and started to learn more tricks with the dark art.
Skills:
Arcane Pool - Kate has a pool of arcane energy within herself that she uses for her black magic. It takes around two posts of her not using any of the energy to fully recharge the pool.
Dark Energy - For half of her arcane energy, Kate can summon a fist sized bundle of dark energy in one of her palms. She has direct control of any dark energy within three inches of her body, allowing her to manipulate it when it is nearby. When the energy touches organic matter, she can discharge the energy into the point of contact. The energy weakens the area that it touches and creates a dull throbbing pain. For example, when used on humanoids, it generally weakens their muscles that are nearby the point of contact.
Imbue - For half of her arcane energy, Kate can imbue any dark energy that she has control of with her own energy. This extra energy can be used in two ways. When discharged, the energy can be used to double the draining effects on its target. The extra energy can also be expended to give Kate minimal control of it when it moves away from her. She can fire the energy at a target at the speed of throwing a ball of a similar size. She can have the energy make slight turns if it is up to about two meters away, but past that her control over it only allows her to maintain its speed.
Dark Resistance - Kate is immune to any dark energy that she creates, though she can be effected by similar energy created by someone else.
Daggers - Kate has an average skill level when wielding one of her daggers.
Lute - Kate is an expert at playing her lute
Equipment: A steel dagger, six inches long and 1.5 inches wide. Light brown cloth shirt, tan cloth pants. A leather satchel for carrying necessities. A wooden lute.