Arie Natalia
Daria Quietus
J'hara Novaca
Kyrea N'land
Lexa Painbringer
Metra Gegalek
Mika Brightstone
Mirri Grae
Rayne Quietus
Shayen Meilai
Syndil Quietus
Táranis "Phoenix" Narmolanya
Tiai Basset
Zackery Nickolas

Tiai Basset
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Species: Puma anthro
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 128lbs.
Birhtday: Nuatoirc 34 (april 20)

Appearance: Tiai is pretty, with big gold eyes with slitted pupils, high cheekbones, a small nose, slightly upturned, and a small, expressive mouth. She has gold hair that she keeps in a bob, and her tufted ears stick up even with the top of her head. Soft, tan fur runs down her spine and covers her long tail. She dresses in the fashion of most Ctsu Klan Masters, a cream-colored shirt, dark pants, and a gray cloak. She has a real problem with chauvinists, and avoids Nivoh because of the prevailing attitudes there. Her Mystabre, Wave Singer, is silver with emeralds and aquamarines in it.

Guild/Rank: Ctsu Klarn Master

Personality: Tiai is semiserious, with a bluntness bordering on innocence. She likes helping people, but doesn't feel as if she fits in with them. She sees irony in almost anything, and her insights sometimes make her a little annoying, especially if the timing is inappropriate. She is also always moving, whether it be bouncing her knee when seated to tapping her fingers, to pacing. When she uses magic, it comes out rhythmically, almost a spoken song.

Family

Mother: Lita Basset, Master Tanner Craft, 49
Father: Nicolas Basset, Master Smithcraft, 52
Siblings:

Background: Tiai was the middle of five kids, and not the most talented of them, by any means. Her parents felt the best way to honor Irotana was in the useful service of a craft, and she seemed he most likely to fail in that respect. Her brothers were poised to follow in her parents footsteps, and her younger sister was forever putting potions together, a real child prodigy. Her youngest sister began displaying a talent for the Healing arts at an early age as well. The only thing that might have hinted at a craft was her love of rhythm and movement. She was forever twirling around Nivoh with the long pole her father had made for her, following a song only she seemed to hear. She also took a minor interest in the martial side of her parents' crafts, learning how to make sheaths and sword belts, and about the forging of weapons in an attempt to appear useful. However, she knew that she would never follow these paths. Eventually, she would have applied to the Bards' Guild, to become a dancer, most likely.
However, when she was nine, she caught the eye of a Master Cstu-Klarn at the testing. Master Laroach explained the song in her head was actually the sounds of Nature, a gift from Irotana. At the entrance ceremony, despite some heavy objections, the goddess made her will plain, and Tiai was accepted into the order of Guardians. She befriended a girl named Kynisha, the two of them being the only girls in the temple.
The first couple of years, Tiai went with Master Laroach into the outside world, but when he was no longer able to leave Nivoh, she began taking all her classes at the temple. Even though she excelled in private with her teacher and Kynisha, she chose to do mediocre in the public classes to draw less attention to herself. She learned to fade into the background, letting Kynisha lead the fight for bringing women into the order. Many were surprised when Tiai passed her Master's test with flying colors, and pleased when she requested to be assigned outside of Nivoh as much as possible. She still goes back to Nivoh sparingly, but is fascinated with what the outside has to offer.
Tiai joined Kynisha's expedition after Joril defeated her in a duel to force her out of the order. A year after that, she finally found herself able to get back out into the world, collecting information for the Order.

Bond: Jadyith, a ryuuki with slate blue scales, fawn colored fur, and turquoise eyes. She's very hedonistic, looking out for her pleasures and comforts, and Tiai's . She hears the music that Tiai holds in her head, and finds it fascinating. Their bond ability creates a pocket outside of normal space in which she can store specific items: riding harness for Jadyith, her weapons such as her bow, steel staff, any others that she's received while training in Nivoh (it is limited to about that size, and she can't just pick something up off the ground and shove it in, it has to be marked with a complicated spell.) She has to concentrate for several seconds to access the items.

Shayen Meilai
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 130lbs.
Birthday: Hyrab 10 (may 15)

Appearance: She has soft wavy pink hair that hangs to mid-back loose, but for her work she keeps it up in a braided bun. She had big royal blue eyes set in a heart-shaped face that would be considered sweet. She has a soft tan, the result long term but infrequent outdoor exposure. When she works, she wears pants or shorts and sleeveless tunics in dark colors, the better to the hide stains. The rest of the time, she wears split skirts and shirts, with knee high boots. She carries a wooden staff as a walking stick, although she has no limp. She keeps her jewelry for formal occasions, creations of her mother's.

Guild/Rank: Wanderer Healer

Personality: Shayen is a sweet girl, very personable and friendly. She has a wonderful bedside manner, and is very protective of her patients. She does know how to distance herself, however, as part of her medical training, and can be calculating when necessary. Although she never thought to bond herself, she's fascinated by the bonding, and actually prefers to treat bond animals.

Family

Background: Shayen has had a good life. She was born into a good family, and gets along reasonably well with her brother. When she was 11, she heard about the first bonding in the new age, and became fascinated with the concept. She did well in school, and was soon accepted as a healer apprentice. Although she learned everything they taught her, she focused on bond animals in all their forms. When she met a bonded pair for the first time, she questioned them for hours to get information. Somehow, the thought of bonding herself never came to mind. When she passed her Wanderer test, she went first to Oceania, then to StarScape to study under new teachers, and learn more about each realm's bonds. She bonded in the first Unity bonding, and has become roommates and friends with the Artisan's guildmaster, Cecili. When Chaos invaded, Shayen pulled up shop and headed to Kiridia, where they were expecting fighting to occur.

Bond

Bond species: flamecat
Bond name:Trynal
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: Trynal is a common firecat. Mainly deep pink, with sky blue tipping his ears and cheek tuffs, and his paws and tip of his tail. Sky blue eyes. His build is more like a cheetah, without the sprinting ability.

Personality: Very affectionate, a total ham without being obnoxious. His days of rubbing up against strange people are over, but big eyes for pets will never go out of style.

Ability: They have the ability to purge poisons and infections from the body.

Mirri Grae
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 110lbs.
Birthday: Natori 16 (jan 3)

Appearance: Mirri skin is pale, a result of being inside most of the time. She has medium brown hair that has to be long to get into the outlandish hairstyles she wears, but she never wears it down. Chocolate eyes and wide mouth take up most of her triangular face. She wears light eye and cheek makeup.
Mirri prefers to wear full-length wraps in darker, vibrant colors. Soft knee high boots when one can see them. She has a small plain dagger. If she had any jewelry, it would be large and somewhat gaudy.

Guild/Rank: Mage Apprentice

Personality: One of the main reasons Mirri was still an apprentice was because she's unsure of her powers, and herself to a smaller extent. She's been tied up quite a bit into her studies, and hasn't taken a lot of time to find out more about the city she now finds herself in. She smiles easily, though rarely laughs. She has a logical mind, and tries to thoroughly examine any situation before commenting or acting on it.

Family

Mother: Deceased
Father: Deceased
Siblings: Deceased

Background: Shortly after the Chaosians took over Shadow Star, a powerful mage and his apprentice, Mirri, attempted to start a revolt in the lowest caverns of Cascadia Falls. The revolt was swiftly destroyed when a group of Chaos mages sealed the entrances to the cavern the two were in with stone and magic. When it became apparent that the conspirators wouldn't make it out alive, the mage used the last of his power to send Mirri into status, until someone found a way to break into the cavern. However, no mage was willing to go to the site so soon after the incident, and anyway, had no way of knowing that anyone was still alive. The magic endured until Chaos was forced from the island, but by then no one remembered the cavern even existed. The recent activity due to all the bondings, and especially the preparations for the first Unity bonding, caused a small opening to appear where one of the entrances used to be.
When Mirri emerged, she was taken to the Healer's guild, where Aneirin treated her. He led the team that figured out how exactly Mirri lived, and treated her as she her condition improved. The doctor-patient relationship bloomed into full-fledged romance. She's been living at the dorms, trying to get up the nerve to take the Wanderer's test.

Bond

Bond species: maricorn
Bond name: Ara
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: She's a steel gray with a brilliant white mane and horn. Her lower legs and hooves are black. When in mer form, her fins are black.

Personality: Ara's a philosopher, caring and compassionate. She sometimes finds herself taking the role of the other side in decisions involving both logic and compassion.

Ability: They have the ability to cause lightning strikes, although it is somewhat unpredidtable.

Kyrea N'land
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Species: Fox anthro
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 130lbs.
Birthdate: Natori 11 (December 29)

Appearance: Kyrea is tall(6'2 with the ears), slim, and graceful. Long white hair to her knees frame almond shaped gray eyes, a long narrow nose, high cheekbones,and a small mouth. Her eyebrows are white, and turn up toward white fox ears on the top of her head. She has a healthy tan.
She generally wears loose-fitting pants and shirts, and ankle boots. Most often she carries a pair of iron fans, sharpened to blades. When she is dancing or involved in a ceremony, she has a several silk outfits, all of which follow the basic pattern. The bodice fits tightly to the body, while arms are flowing, nearly touching the ground. There is a full-length many layered skirt, with each layer cut into overlapping strips. She goes barefoot. When wearing these outfits, she carries a pair of sharpened clear glass fans.

Guild/Rank: Land Queen, Priestess of Tyrea.

Personality:Kyrea is a bit of a dilemma in the personality department. Having supressed almost all of anything that would mark her as an individual for the majority of her life, she now has a tendency to go to extremes when parts of her personality do surface. She also has a tendancy to fixate emotions on specific targets for prolonged periods of time. Anger is pressurized under a calm, sometimes frazzled, sometimes curious surface. She still takes her responsibilities to her religion and people seriously, and uses her skills to be a thoughtful listener to both friends and petitioners. She has a general naitivity about how life works outside a high rank position. This makes her a bit spoiled, and she doesn't seem to know what 'no' means sometimes.

Family

Mother: Mother High Priestess Lyrea N'land, 36, bonded to Royal kyushi Hallesh (not a member of the unity royalty)
Father: unknown
Siblings: Zyrea N'land (Twin sister): training to be high priestess of Tyrea.

Background: Several generations ago, a group of anthros looking to make their own settlement were attacked by a group of wolfs. Although they fought bravely, the small group, held back by numerous sick, was outnumbered. An elderly land dragon saved the group, and led several of their warriors to the place she had left clutch of eggs. Shortly after, the clutch hatched, and many bonded to the settlers. The Matron of the land dragons soon passed on, but the group settled at the site, because it was where they received their protectors and friends. Over time, the legend grew to say Tyrea led them there, as the wolf is her symbol. A whole faith system grew from that dubious start, including the semi-worship of land dragons and their bonds.
Over time, a system grew, and as druids were forgotten, a new system sprung up. Dance became the center of the ceremonies to Tyrea, led by a high priestess. Succession is handed down mother to daughter. The high priestess only has one pregnancy. Nine months after she becomes pregnant, the womb is removed with the baby still inside. If the child is a boy, then the next female to bond a royal becomes High Priestess. If it's female twins, both are raised to succeed their mother after she commits ritual suicide at the age of 45. At that time, the two would go threw a series of grueling tests, and whoever survived would succeed their mother.
That's the reality Kyrea and her twin Zyrea have been facing since childhood. Together, they have trained for the day that one of them would die. The training never seemed to stop. If it wasn't the ceremonies, it was the battle training that allowed the tribe to remain little affected by Chaos, to the lore of their people. Neither had any clear advantage, a bad omen to the tribe. Another bad omen was that neither was chosen by a land dragon. Although both realities strained the people's faith, it didn't prepare them for recent events that has shaken their beliefs to the core.
First was the disappearance of their companions, the land dragons. It didn't take long for them to be missed while in battle with the legions of undead that swept into the village and killed so many before they just stopped.
Kyrea and Zyrea were out in the wilderness doing a private ceremony to determine the land dragons' whereabouts when the attack occurred. The ceremony failed, and they returned to find many dead, and their mother badly hurt. Amongst the two, they decided that Kyrea should go out and find answers to why Tyrea apparently abandoned her people, while Zyrea stayed to help their mother and people. Kyrea is now on her own for the first time, in a world she knows nothing about.
Kyrea came to Cascadia, more than a little confused about everything, shortly before the first Unity bonding. While at the castle, she first learned of the other bonds, and agreed to stand. To her surprise, she bonded royal, and to a kreanon, a form so symbolic to her people, and was named Land Princess.
Shortly afterward, accompanied by a small group, she forewent bond training to begin the search in earnest. Several months later, after shaking up her tribe some more by bringing outsiders in for the first time in centuries, she found the kyushi, and returned them to thier homes. When she returned to Cascadia, she found she had already been named Land Queen.
The last three years have been hard on her. Her increasing need to take up what she saw as slack in two of her fellow monarchs, the suicide of another, and her strained relationship with her bodygaurd and bond of Raqiell's mate has made her once-supressed temper rise. She's working on controlling it, but it affects almost everything she does, and colors her interactions with the rest of the council.

Bond

Bond species: kraenon
Bond name: Raqiell Already Bonded (Unity Crusaders), Royal Bond

Appearance: She's a royal kraenon, with long, soft, coal black fur and chocolate eyes and a silver ruff.

Personality: She's bigger than most of her age group, strong, with a regal bearing and a playful side. Having seeningly been overly successful trying to pull Kyrea out of her shell, she now stands in as a bit of a sheild between other's and her bond's rather stubborn, strong temper.

Ability: They can shift solid minerals into other solid materials, OR reshape a solid mineral as long as the mass stays the same as their ability.

Mika Brightstone
Age: 12
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Height: 4'8"
Weight: 101 lbs.
Birthday: Nadinu 30 (dec. 2)

Appearance: Mika is an average preteen, more knees and elbows than anything else at this point in her life. She got almond shaped green eyes, black hair kept in two pigtails of medium length, sometimes braided. Her complexion and features hold a slightly Asian cast, inherited from her father. Most of the time, she can be found in cotton clothes of primary shades, preferring reds and browns. She wears knee high pull on boots. She's not old enough for jewelry.

Guild/Rank: Apprentice healer

Personality: Mika was a ten year old girl with goals in life: a successful bonding, and later, marriage, and to be the best healer on the open seas. By the time she was eleven, she'd bonded to "the best dolphin ever" and apprenticed to a kind and knowledgable healer. She's pretty sure she's doing better than most.
Most of the time, she got a sturdy head on her shoulders, showing the good sense that being her parents' daughter taught her. When something exciting happens, she's generally overexcited, while disappointments have a tendency to be blown all out of proportion. Generally a good learner, she's curious and inquisitive.

Family

Father:Tolv, 36, Shipmaster
Mother: Anndi, 33, Trader
Siblings: None yet, but her parents are still young.

Background: Mika has grown up mostly in the seaside village of Crescent in a large trading family. Most of her grandparents five children live within a three minute walk of each other, with Mika being one of three girls in their seventeen grandchildren. Her father, the captain of a fishing ship, married into this mob happily, being an only child. Four times a year, the family sets out to one of the major cities to do business for a couple of weeks.
Mika's father, often despite her family's disapproval, spent a lot of time on the ships with her father, learning about the fickleness of the sea, and how fragile most people were in her grip. Using the practicality of the two lifestyles she was involved in, she came to the conclusion that if a ship had a healer aboard, then the ship wouldn't have to go in for every injury, and more money could be made. Since she was already interested in herbs, she decided that she would become a healer for her village, and maybe even stay with the ships when they went out to sea. When she finally confessed this dream to her parents, they were proud of her and gave their consent, despite reservations about the maturity of their only child.
She was given into the care of first Shayen, a wanderer healer they had met coming into Cascadia. Shortly after she bonded, Aneirin took her as his apprentice, liking her spunk and reconizing talent. When Shayen left Cascadia, Mika moved in with Aneirin.

Bond

Bond species: dolphin
Bond name: Darnra
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: dusky dolphin (short nose, smaller dorsal fin) Black on top, with black dorsal and tail fins, black flippers, and black snout tapering to ends off the mouth. The belly is white, with a streak of gray from between the forehead to right behind the flippers that fades to white, and a separated one that runs along the tail.

Personality: Darnra is the balance the to Mika's youthful mood swings. Often, he's the one that reminds her to calm down, and be at peace. Not to say he doesn't enjoy himself or have bad days, he's just more rational about it. He's not the dolphin doing the most high flying leaps, but his playing is more graceful, relaxing, mesmerizing.

Ability: Causes Mika's body to either grow angel wings, a halo, and starry eyes when trying to convince people she's innocent or having done something very good for someone else or dragoon wings, horns and a tail when she's mischievously lying or scheming.

J'hara Nocava
Age: 1031 (appears mid twenties)
Gender: female
Species: Vampire
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 120lbs.
Birthday: Loyortob 15 (July 4)

Appearance: J'hara is beautiful, with an oval face, high cheekbones, elegant nose, and full lips. Well shaped eye brows and long eyelashes a shade lighter than her chocolate colored hair frame golden eyes with red pupils. Her alabaster skin is cool to the touch except right after feeding. Dark brown feathered wings rise from the lithe body. Her hair is usually kept up in a braid very high in back, held together with two black steel rings, a thin one at the base, a wide one with glyphs on it tying it off. She most often can be found in either softened leather or cotton. Most often, this is a black sleeveless, backless shirt with dark leather arm protectors from shoulder to wrist, which strap on, form fitting black pants that lead into dark brown leather knee high cuffed boots, and a dark brown leather belt with a large black steel buckle, also with glyphs. Her choker is a miniature of the belt. She carries black steel gauntlets with razor tips on each finger and thumb, and a dagger of one piece of black steel. The glyphs appear on these as well.

Guild/Rank: Master assassin, Demonlady

Personality: J'hara left her what humanity she had behind long ago. She loves the thrill of the hunt, and gets a rush from the fear her prey feels. Her loyalty is to whomever is paying her at the moment, as long as she gets to hunt. She's a predator, she's a kill junky, whatever. She prefers few people around her, and she has no friends save Raidius.

Background: J'hara was mortal once, maybe an angel, she really couldn't tell you. She only says angel because she aged quickly and flew- she thinks. And the wings are a clue. Anyhow, she was stolen from her family and trained to be a slave for a mid level assassin, she can't remember his- or was it her?- name. It really doesn't matter. He got killed, and messy too. He made a mistake, and the hunter became the prey. The vamp that killed the idiot was going to kill her too, he was killing all the servants, until her realized she was more fascinated with how her master died than scared that he was dead, and really had very little fear of him, much more in the way of a worshipful look on her face. And it was a pretty face, so what the hell, he took her as a trophy. It didn't take him long to realize she had gift for death, and began training her to be his left hand. She thinks she might have been six or seven, it really didn't matter. He was rich and powerful, and taught her everything everyone else seemed to think wasn't suitable for her. She was a happy little psychopath.

Eventually, Michael did her the favor of making her a vampire. He was slightly disappointed that she showed no magical ability, and only passing interest in training her gifts of mind and emotion control. She did, however, show a strong interest in the more physical of her gifts, getting faster and stronger. She became an excellent assassin, noteworthy among the independant operatives in Dralche. Michael found he could even sell her services, which she didn't mind because she was getting a cut, and doing what she loved.

All good things come to an end, however. Michael, at the urging of some of his contemporaries, began having thoughts of power. Well, the High Priest caught wind of it, and in ironic twist, bought Michael's own assassination from him at the hands of his own. J'hara and Michael, caught in a tangled web, devised a plan. Michael had to die, but J'hara could gain some of his power, by using a spell Michael himself set up. It was the first and last sexual contact the pair had. The contract fulfilled, J'hara snuck out of the city and went freelance, about five hundred years ago.

Fifty years ago, she rose to find Raidius, weak in body but strong in spirit, in the room with her coffin. Somehow, it felt so natural that she only questioned it for a moment. She had a servant clean up the blood the demonsteed tracked in, and treated the cuts on her forehead. Over the next several years, she managed to get out that Raidius had once "belonged" to a demon with the idea that using bond creatures not bonded to him would be a great way to get power. Now he was dead. J'hara left it at that.

J'hara's made a great deal of money doing what she loves, and has a big house set out away from the rest of the city with some very nice stuff in it. More recently, Kurai saw something in her, maybe a little bit of herself, and made her Demonlady. Over her lifetime, she has mastered superhuman speed, she can influnce a single individual to feel comfortable around her, or inspire terror in that individual, can make commands up to a sentence long that only the strongest willed can resist, and has enhanced strength.

Bond

Bond type: demonsteed
Bond name: Raidius
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: A female demonsteed of a deep cream color, with hooves, wing sails, horns, eyes, and mane a burgundy. She has a cross-shaped scar in the middle of her forehead, a reminder of her greatest fear.

Personality: Raidius is cold, calculating, with a huge cruel streak, and a taste for blood. She has never actually said she's bonded to J'hara, although she knows she is, even though she knows J'hara cares for her. The story she has told J'hara was a fiction, based on seeing her twin tortured and die through a bond. She got the scar at that time when his hooves caught her during his struggles. Although not terribly shaken from the loss, the scene has created a fear of the bond in her that hasn't faded with time.

Ability: They can cause all sound to cease in a target area with a radius of no larger than thirty feet, and no smaller than six feet. No one can hear anything coming from this area, nor can the people inside it. You can't even hear yourself scream...

Arie Natalia
Age: 23
Gender: female
Species: Angel/ice half elemental
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 140lbs.
Birthday: Nakal 41 (march 15)

Appearance: Arie has a well balanced body, neither extremely curvy nor supermodel thin. She has an athletic build, and moves with contained energy. Her skin is an ice green and her hair and wings are both a light gray. Arie has a perchance for pastels, usually gray and tan for normal wear. When she gets the chance, she likes silks and satins in the cool shades, such as silver, jade, and lavender. Arie has big ice-blue eyes, a small upturned nose, and a wide Julia Roberts-type smile. Her hair is kept short, about an inch in length on the sides and back, and lays flat in uneven layers, while shorter on top, a little spiky.

Guild/Rank: Treasure Hunter, Wanderer

Personality: Arie's spunky, with a showy side, even without an audience. She's social, but she doesn't like letting people in. She's at her most animated when she's doing what she prefers to do best: dungeon adventures. She's a showman, and has been known to do street performances, or even mercenary work when money is tight.

Family

Father: Iniki Trolabard, Master bard, Ice elemental
Mother: Nada Natalia, 39, Master artisan weaver, angel
Siblings: None

Background: Nada Natalia was living an ordinary, boring village life, apprenticed to a weaver. In her eyes, her future looked even more boring; probably marry a farmer boy, raise a houseful of kids, and scrape by on a meager living. No adventure, no romance, no luxury.
That's probably why she fell head over heels when a handsome bard came to town. He was dressed in rich silks and velvets, and his stories told of amazing adventures and high romance. His unusual colorings and appearance declared him exotic and desirable, and not just to the pretty Nada. Many of the village girls wasted their virtue on Iniki. Nada, however, was the only one that got pregnant.
When the village realized who the father was, the demand to end the pregnancy was instantaneous. Nada, however, was seventeen and smitten, went to Iniki for help. Iniki laughed at her, however. He had come to the village to "spread his seeds," but felt little inclination to help her now that she had served her purpose. The village ran Iniki out of town, and continued to demand that the pregnancy be ended. Clinging to the one thing she hoped would turn Iniki's eye back to her, she was instead isolated until the babe was born, then banished until she gave up the child.
That happened three years later. Nada realized that Iniki wasn't coming back, and that she couldn't live alone with the child anymore. So she abandoned Arie, and was welcomed back into her village.
Arie was found by a group of traveling entertainers of all kinds, weak and scared. They took her in and she was trained as an aerial acrobat. Her unusual colorings were usually passed off as make-up to not scare off the customers. She was at turns praised and punished for heritage. If she did something spectacular during a show, Arie was given gifts of costumes and trinkets, but if she lost control any other time, she could receive beatings or was starved.
When she was fifteen, Arie had a horrible nightmare. When she woke up, a large area was frozen solid, and three people who had been sleeping nearby died. She was banished, with only a very few items to get her by.
Wandering lost and abandoned again by those she loved, Arie didn't see the violent storm until it was too late. She took refuge in nearby ruins. Waiting the storm out, she quickly discovered the traps that littered the place. She stayed for a couple of days, fascinated with the challenge of getting through each deadly event. The gold and ruby statuette, which she was able to sell for a pretty tana, was the final hook. She became a treasure hunter, surviving for the next thrill to be had.
It was during one of these trips that she met two more half-elementals of the water sphere. The experience changed her somewhat, and she continued travelling with one for a time, even skipping the majority of her bond classes, barely showing up for the graduation. She's learned to control her abilities somewhat, to the point where she's not freezing a patch of ground every time she's surprised, and Nalae has helped helped a great deal.

Bond

Bond species: gryphon
Bond name: Nelae
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: She's average sized, a tan color on top fading to a dark bisk underneith. She has hazel eyes.

Personality: Nelae knows what it's like to be alone. She went two years before she found Arie, can't stand the thought of ever being without someone again. She's out to prove that people can choose to care without wanting anything in return. She's very protective of Arie.

Ability: Can create an environmental shield about fifteen feet in circumfrence, able to block any temperature changes out.

Táranis "Phoenix" Narmolanya
Age: 257
Gender: female
Species: Dragoon
Height: 4' 8"
Weight: 195 lbs (wings included)
Birthday: Loyotab 20 (July 9)

Appearance: Phoenix has rather average facial features, set in an oval face. Her eyes are a dull light purple, almost gray. Her hair is naturally bright red, which she hates, and is cut short except for a slim ponytail in the back. It has a tendency to stick out to the sides and down in pointed clumps. It's apparent that she tried to darken it with something, which resulted in the now warm purple color it is. She hates that color, too. Her wings are also a bright red. She often rubs mud onto them to make them darker and more neutral. She really hates bright red. During the day, she usually wears comfortable clothes, such as lace up shirts and loose pants, in the colors that best suit to hide her in the forest at any given time of the year. At night, she prefers dark colors, the closer to black the better. She wears boots, although the fit isn't always the best. She generally has a couple of hunting knives on her, but she usually isn't attached to them.

Guild/Rank: No guild, may become a ranger. Currently relieving Chaosian "immigrants" of their goods.

Personality: Phoenix has been a recluse since the end of the uprising, and prefers to keep quiet and observe most of the time. She's not the best at socializing, and has a tendency to be blunt, whether the situation deserves it or not. She also carries a piece of wood with her, so should she be unable to reach any, she has something to whittle on.

Family

Mother: Nessa, Master Artisan (woodworking), Missing, likely deceased
Father: Valandil, Druid of Clyrean, Changer rank, 649
Siblings:

Background: Taranis was born in a small village near Croturtas Point in the south. Her father was a Druid, and he and her older sister kept themselves hidden away for fear of Chaosians. Her mother began teaching her young children carving when they were around 5, as well as home schooling them. However, she never sheltered them from what was actually happening. And what was happening was pretty bad. As she grew, Taranis came to hate the Chaosians that kept her father away for so long, and for destroying a lot of the forest nearby for their wants. She hated them for cheating and hurting her mom, often paying for a work with their fists. She wanted to drive them out, but didn't know how. However, rumors held that the surrounding areas hid more than just the rest of her family. Besides the obvious ones about wild bonds, there were people, organized against the Chaosians, that darted in and out of the forest. Taranis and Golradir both took to exploring, trying to find them. It was actually Golradir who found the first signs of them, in the early spring. It was summer when Taranis found them the first time. Or rather, fell into them. She had been sitting in a tree, watching the path Golradir had pointed out, when they appeared below her. She leaned forward to get a better look, and the branch she was leaning against broke. She ended up landing on one man, much to the amusement of his comrades. One laughingly said that he had caught a phoenix. When the nine-year-old girl made a plea to join them, they laughingly refused, and left the humiliated girl to find her way home. She set out to prove she was worthy to join, and started doing little things to annoy the dictators. Eventually, she started sabotaging them with cut tack, and herbs in beer to make them sick. She thought she was very smart until a note showed up on her bed one night. "Phoenix, you want to do them real damage, make their orders from their superiors disappear." After she got over the teenaged angst of not being as good as she thought, she began learning how to sneak into houses. By the time she was twenty, she was not only making correspondence disappear, she was moving vital items, and even stealing small supplies for the rebels. Always, her contacts called her Phoenix. Then, one night, while she was away delivering supplies, her mother disappeared. The loss shocked the twins. The next day, their father came to take them into hiding. Golradir went with them, but Taranis chose to go to the rebels. From there, she kept her eye out for her mother, and tried to get a measure of vengeance. Every now and then, she'd receive a letter from her family, but even they had to take to using her other name so they didn't reveal themselves should the letter be intercepted.
Phoenix was ready when the uprising happened. She wasn't ready for her brother to die. The news sent her into deep shock, and when she pulled herself out of it, the change of power was complete. Her comrades disappeared into towns and cities to celebrate and never came back.
It wasn't too long before Chaosians were back in her little neck of the woods. She began preying on them for items she needed, and then just harassment. Somewhere in the last seven years, she gained a little friend, and when the cleansing of the area by the bonds was done, she began drifting from wilderness to wilderness. The only prolonged stop she's made has been in Cascadia where she picked up a rather useful friend....

Pets

Bond

Bond type: fire dragon
Bond name: Ayrielle
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: Ayrielle is an average sized fire dragon, with horns that go back before going up, and a wedge a the tip of her tail. She's a dark lilac color, with burgandy claws, horns, and the edge of her wingsails and tail. Her eyes are also burgandy.

Personality: Ayrielle is a no-nonsense type of dragon, confident and smug. She knows she's as good or better than every other dragon out there, they just need to let her prove it. She's also a showoff, with more luck that brains half the time. She's also totally committed to fighting Chaos, the one thing she and Nix seem to agrre on.

Ability: Allows Ayrielle to shrink down to move through the forests with ease, around shoulder height on Nix.

Metra Gegalak
Age: 82
Gender: female
Species: Half-demon, half city elf
Birthday: Llocdaerd 1 (Sept 19)

Appearance: Metra is about 5'6", with a lithe build, black flowing hair that reaches mid-back, and undersized bat wings. Two small sheep horns start in the back of her head, and curl forward, ending right above her red and gold eyes. Her ears are pointed, and her skin is pale, the only things she claims she got from her mother.
Metra favors black and loose, be it robes, pants, or dresses. The tops are always sleeveless, and have vee cut necks ending right above her breasts, and backs in a vee cut all the way down to the crack of her rump. She often wears a carved gold pendant that hangs in the middle of her chest. She carries a small set of torture tools, a spell book containing basic simple blood magic she's copied herself, and a wicked curved triangle dagger.

Guild/Rank: Apprentice Justice

Personality: Metra is demure, respectful, and polite. She enjoys serving her father as assistant, and the power he can wield. She also enjoys her own calling, and watching other's work in that field, always looking for new techniques. In private sessions, or on the sparring ground, or the workroom with her peers, she has an arrogance that hasn't quite been earned. She's working on it, though.

Family

Father: Zevrik Gegalak, 786, Special messenger, father
Mother: Andra Quietus, 314, Zevrik's whore
Siblings:

Background: Metra was the last child bore to Andra, as her overworked womb was damaged during delivery. She is also the only child of Zevrik, who raped her mother shortly after Tempest was born in a fit of thwarted rage. She was instantly taken into her father's household to be raised as his body servant. However, he realized when she was twenty or so that she had a reputation for cruelty, torturing small animals and the other servant and slave children. Curious and bored one day, he allowed her to demonstrate her skills. He had found himself correcting her where natural inclination led, and decided to have her trained as a Justice.

Metra was a quick study, and eager to learn. She was found more than once reading spell books and incorporating some very simple spells into her techniques. Her favorite is a corrosive spell that turned the victim's own spilt blood against them.

Today, Metra is Zevrik's pride, and vice versa. She has no knowledge that she has four half-sisters by her mother. If she did, she'd practice on them like she does her mother. Or kill them, whichever is more convenient and pleasing to Zevrik.

Pets

Pet name: Kara
Species: Stabbie

Bond

Appearance: Gargoyle female, dark gray with dark yellow wingsails, back ridge, and both horns.

Personality: Patient, but brutal. She complements Metra's demure nature, never overstepping her bounds, and reveling in the cruelty her bond displays in the interrigation room.

Ability: A corrosive green mist is produced around her hands at will, which she can control as fast moving whisps or touch contact. This mist does not harm Metra or Aroarus, however, any and all other life is affected. She can create a fogbank of the mist, but must expend a great deal of energy to do it, leaving her vulnerable to magic attack.

NPCs

Syndil Quietus
Age: 104
Gender: female
Species: ½ city elf, ¼ heat elemental, ¼ mer
Birthdate: Loirym 5 (August 9)

Appearance: Syndil is ash. Her shoulder length wavy hair is a light ash gray, her eyes are a darker gray, and her complexion is so light to almost be white. She has a heart-shaped face, with large eyes set wide, a small nose, and lips a shade darker than her complexion. She has a dimple in her chin and pointed ears. She stands about 4'11", and her frame is just starting to fill out from malnourishment. Even at a healthy weight, her hips and breasts are small.
Syndil prefers long skirts and wrap around shirts with open sleeves in whites and light creams. If she knows she's going to get dirty, she wears brown pants and long sleeve shirt. Generally, she prefers ankle boots in colors matching what she's wearing.
Syndil loves ribbons, and uses them to keep her hair away from her face. She also will wrap them around her neck like a choker and let the ends hang down to the front. She has a full length cloak in a light gray. She carries a utility dagger on her waist when in public. She wears no jewelry.

Guild/Rank: None, although she'd love to become a teacher.

Personality: Syndil's life has always been about control, and it shows. She holds herself away from any extreme emotion. Her facial expressions are always understated, and she gives of an air of calm acceptance. If Rayne is the leader, Syndil is the advisor, giving suggestions about her more impulsive sister's ideas and actions. Sometimes, it's gentle. Sometimes, she lets them all know exactly how idiotic they're being. She doesn't like being touched, and generally gives an involuntary flinch if someone makes a sudden move in her direction. On the inside, she's very lonely, and fears being alone again.

Family

Father: Gavin Flamewave, deceased
Mother: Andra Quietus, 314, Zevrik's whore
Siblings:

Background: Andra Quietus was a reward to Zevrik Gegalak, a special messenger between the leaders in the Wings, in the when she was 93. Fair-skinned and beautiful, she held an innocence that attracted many Chaosians' will to crush. Zevrik promptly put her to work as a server during the meetings many members of the upper command had in his private residence. She lost that innocence to a demon fairly shortly after that, being forced to serve his guest any way she could. She didn't loose her faith, however, although it was tested many, many times.
She got an answer to the question of why when the birth control she was forced to take every day failed, and she became pregnant. She didn't know who the father was at the time, but she desperately needed that anchor, and hid the pregnancy from Zevrik and the other servers. Or so she thought.
Some of the servers were actual servants, not slaves, and were jealous of Andra's apparent appeal. One had sabotaged the control, hoping to Andra would panic. After six months of nothing, the woman told Zevrik in front of all his guests. Enraged, he raped the pregnant elf, far more aroused by her pleads for the safety of her baby than anything else had ever gotten him. He locked her to his personal service for the duration of the pregnancy, taking her violently often, his pleasure growing with her stomach. The night her contractions hit, he cast her out of his chambers, demanding the child be destroyed. It was only after his only guest for the night saw the squirming child that he stopped.
Gavin Flamewave remembered Andra very well, remembered her cooking, seared flesh, her screams after his orgasm. A heat half elemental with a strange enough appearance to pose as a demon, he had explained the damage away that night with a smirk. Seeing the child, a living cinder, he saw another way to hurt the quietly defiant slave. He suggested, in front of Andra, that should Zevrik raise the child, he'd have another woman of Andra's stock to breed for his hungers. His suggestion was so well received, he was allowed to name the child. Smiling into Andra's horrified eyes, he called her Syndil.
Syndil was raised in the servers' quarters, the better to learn her appointed task. Andra, in desperation that what she though was her half elemental daughter never be found out, drilled the girl from infancy in self control. Still, there were times she found herself covering up charred wood and burnt bedding for several years.
Syndil was in control of her powers when she got her first competition in the servers' nursery, another girl born four years after Syndil to another server. Two others, also by different mothers, came into the nursery before Lexa was born. On more than one occasion, Syndil found herself defending the infant from the other girls. By the time Daria came, Lexa was her defender when she was around.
Syndil was 14 when she realized men were born the same as women, when she overheard the servers talking about the last pregnancy of one of them ending in the death of her son, whom Zevrik had deemed useless. Looking back and remembering her mother's two other pregnancies that didn't end with a child, she mourned the brothers she knew she must have had. The sharp pain for the ones she never knew made her determined to hold onto the ones she had with her. She comforted her mother through one more childless pregnancy before Rayne came to them. She remembers Andra's final pregnancy, and her grief that convinced her that she had lost another unknown brother.
Zevrik ran into serious money troubles when Syndil was 37. She was dealt four plows painfully quick: first, Lexa being taken, then she and her sisters being taken from home and mother. Soon, she was sold into slavery away from the other two. Her new master was a clerk to a much higher member of the Gegalak family. Later, she would look at that time with irony. An adolescent heat elemental working around paper and ink. How stupid.
The imp she was assigned to was a hard master. She learned to read in order to avoid repeated blows from fetching the wrong files. Food came when he remembered, or didn't finish his own food. Punishment came when he made a mistake. She spent her time under him black and blue, with the occasional broken bone. She learned not to cry out, but simply accept what happened as her due. Any time not spent sleeping or working was spent with a file. She found herself addicted to reading once she had learned, and enjoyed the feel of the letters under her eyes. Numbers came slower, but eventually, she learned basic math from watching her master do figures.
Time went by in this fashion indeterminately, marked only by the addition of new files and the changing of the year on the calendar. Then, a year ago, her sisters appeared in the tiny private quarters adjacent to the office. She followed them out of the office and over the bodies of the guards, remembering the little details that hadn't seemed to change over the years: Lexa's straightforward brutality, Daria's cold logical violence, Rayne's quick and nimble fingers, always into everything. She looked back only when the smoke rose from the part of the building that the office had been in, mourning the loss of words.
When Rayne suggested rescuing Andra, Syndil was the one who provided the layout of the keep, and the resistance they should expect. When they came out of the keep running like the Justices followed, she was the one who had the escape plan in place. Two weeks later, they were in Oceania, working for hire doing whatever needed doing.
Daria and Lexa both have encouraged Syndil to work with her powers to create some kind of defense, as she's not very good at fighting. She's come up with superheating the air around her hands. From there, she can do significant damage to a small area. She's also working on shooting the heated air at a target.

Bond

Bond type: Fire dragon
Bond name: Haille
Standing to Bond, Common Bond

Appearance: Random fire dragon hatchling female

Personality: You get the impression that Haille is rolling her eyes a lot. She's pretty sure she's the only sane one in the bunch, and she's not afraid to tell anyone who listens, usually in a martyr's voice. She's the first to encourage Syndil, however, and she's waiting with bated breath to see whatever's behind door number two.

Ability: Permanently creates a telepathic web between the four sisters and their bonds, and a temporary link to any one person any of them are touching. Bringing that person in is very draining, however, and is only done in situations where Syndil is not in danger, and emergencies. After ten minutes with the stranger in the link, Syndil will pass out from energy drain, and will require the same rejuvenating drinks and rest a mage would.

Lexa Painbringer
Age: 93
Gender: female
Species: ½ city elf, ½ grizzly anthro
Birthday: Nadinu 25 (Nov. 28)

Appearance: Lexa stands an impressive 6'4" and weighs about 225 lbs of muscle. She looks to be somewhere around 30 years old by human standards. Medium brown hair hangs to her shoulder blades, and is usually kept in a braid. Her large almond-shaped brown-gray are set evenly in an oval face. Her lips are full, her ears are elven, and her nose has been broken. She has recently learned about plucking eyebrows, although if she doesn't do it once a week, she has a unibrow. Despite a tan, it isn't hard to tell her complexion is pale. Scars stand out on most of her body, including a diagonal scar from her right ear to the edge of her chin. She keeps her claws down to about three inches nowadays, and don't tell anybody, but she has a small bear tail.
Lexa usually wears loose fitting short sleeve tunics with the neck untied and open to the middle of her chest. She also wears loose pants with tight wrapped waists, which the shirt is tucked into. The pants are tucked into calf-high leather boots. She prefers earth tones. She carries only a travel knife and a pack. She has a brown travel cloak that hangs to her knees. She wears steel studs in her ears and left eyebrow.

Guild/Rank: Mercenary

Personality: Lexa has a lazy smile and a ready laugh. She also has watchful eyes and quick hands, and quicker temper. Lucky for those around her, she has learned to focus that anger, or they'd probably either be burying bodies everywhere she went. She does fall into an uncontrollable battle rage every now and again. She slipped easily into the role of defender of the sisters, and can be crazzing intimidating when she wants to be. She's terribly touchy, much to the discomfort of Syndil and Daria. She can often be found with her chin resting on Rayne's head and her arms loosely around her waist. She also feels slightly insecure about being the "ugly" one.

Family

Father: Ulgalo Painbringer, gladiator, deceased
Mother: Andra Quietus, 314, Zevrik's slave
Siblings:

Background: Zevrik's rather disturbing discovery that he liked forcing himself on pregnant women led him to start seeking out ways to get his whores knocked up. When a fight master the Wings did occasional business came up with the idea of breeding one of his most dangerous gladiators to Andra to get a longer lived, vicious fighter, Zevrik jumped at the chance.
Andra would later tell Lexa that her father was the most gentle lover she had ever had. A Unitarian slave forced into the fights, Ulgalo did what he had to in order to survive. He slept with Andra three times before she got pregnant, and was as forced into the position as much as her. Lexa grew up knowing that her father had at least gave a damn about her mother, which probably did more for her sense of goodness in the world than anything else.
Lexa was raised with the other girls, but she was trained to fight from the time she could run. She protected her sisters from the other girls Zevrik was saving to take their mothers' places, and loved them a great deal. When she was 26, still younger than the contract specified, her father found himself in dire need of quick money. The fight master paid less than the contract specified, but took her off his hands, and into the pens.
Lexa was pleasantly surprised to find out her father was still alive. He was equally surprised to see his daughter. He was her strength those first years, talking through the cages when she was discouraged or bored, telling her of his home on ShadowStar and giving her tips on how to survive the fights. She took his advice, holding her most pleasant and beloved memories of her childhood close to her heart, hope deep in her soul, and rage in her mind. And when he died in battle twelve years later at the age of 48, she took his surname as her own.
Lexa became everything the fight master had wanted: vicious, cunning, and brilliant in holding a crowd and controlling a fight, while maintaining her youth. Several times he tried to breed her, and every time, he found a dead gladiator in her cage. He threw her into harder and harder fights, trying to break her. He had about succeeded, too.
When Lexa had awaked to find Rayne and Daria standing outside her cage one night a year and a half ago, she had thought she was dreaming. The dream quickly became reality as Rayne picked the locks to free her. Walking past the dead guards, she had one more task at the arena, she had one last task to achieve. When the authorities arrived the next day, the fight master was spread rather thin around his room, a smiley face drawn in the blood.
They freed Syndil six months later, and have been on the run from the Justices and Daria's owner ever since. About three months ago, they aborted an attempt to save Andra when they were nearly captured by a young demon who had been torturing her. They made it to Oceania about two weeks later, and have been selling themselves out for various tasks around ever since. On a dare, Lexa and Rayne picked up bonding pendants last week, and then they were off on anther adventure.

Bond

Bond type: kyushi
Bond name: Hush
Already Bonded, Common Bond

Appearance: Hush is naturally chubby, with perodite eyes. He shifts between fur and crystal depending on the seasons. He's gray with darker gray spots.

Personality: Just as affectionate as Lexa, and rambunctious to boot. He loves the whole mixed up bunch, even Mith. He really gets off on being on the minority of the sexes, and has been known to flirt with all six of the girls.

Ability: Lexa and Hush can cause the molecules of any substance she touches to vibrate moderately, causing damaged done by any strike to be more than expected. No, they can't blow anything up, but visible damage, like dents and bruises, will be larger, and bones that may have just cracked will break. The use of this ability is annouced by a faint humming sound.

Daria Quietus
Age: 87
Gender: female
Species: ½ city elf, ½ angel
Birthdate: Nuatoirc 41 (May 1)

Appearance: Daria stands about 5'7", with voluptuous curves and toned muscles. She keeps her waist length midnight purple hair in a low bun most of the time, only letting it down for assignments as a personal escort. Her skin in very pale, almost white. She has an oval face, with dark gray eyes, high cheekbones, and pointed ears. Her lips are full, and her nose is straight. Her wings work for gliding, and are black with purple highlights.

Daria prefers dark grays and blacks, usually pants and long sleeved, high necked shirts. Her boots are knee high black, the finish dull. She always wears a full-length black cloak with a oversized hood to keep the sun out of her face. She wears no jewelry, but carries a short sword in a sheath on her hip.

Guild/Rank: Personal escort, bodyguard

Personality: Daria prefers the shadows, day or night. Even when she's watching over someone, she hides herself out of sight. She prefers a lack of any physical contact with any person, yet will not let any of the others take assignments where their employer is looking for a complete night. Her eyes show little emotion, and always seem to be measuring up the person she's looking at. She's highly protective of all her sisters, but sticks closest to Rayne, more for the other woman's knack for getting herself and them into real trouble than any real preference. She's a total jellyfish, however, about her former master. The others fear if he were to ever get within speaking distance of Daria, she'd be lost to them forever.

Family

Father: Nas Gender, Deceased
Mother: Andra Quietus, 314, Zevrik's whore
Siblings: