[fieldbox="Hlynn, #6666ff, solid, 15, Arial Black"]
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Class: Mystic
Position on Magic: Pro-Magic/Pro-Profane
Time with the Wardens: 2 Months
Equipment:
Combat Gear: A small dagger, a long cloak, light leather armor
Other Equipment: Whetstone, cold iron ring, backpack, sleeping roll, flint and tinder, chalk, a water skin, and a lantern.
Mana Pool: Low
Spells:
Virulent (Major)
(Gentle Wave, Heavy Hail):
This spell allows her to slowly summon a large protective sphere of magic around herself, sustaining it with mana or blood. While she has little trouble keeping this shield on her person for several minutes, she can expend much greater effort to have it extend in a much larger radius, for an equally much shorter amount of time. This shield is very difficult to penetrate by mundane means, and magical abilities have trouble getting through as well. People cannot enter or exit the shield once it has been put up. However, it is two-sided, meaning that anyone attacking from inside the spell will have equal trouble attacking from within it. The shield is also semi-opaque, and looking through it is like looking through a cloud of fog. It is completely immobile, and needs to be built up over a period of 30 seconds to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the shield she is trying to construct. At its biggest, she can hit about a 30 foot radius - however this only lasted a few moments before draining her mana completely.
(Beautiful Melody, Bright Burst):
This spell allows her to summon up waves of energy around herself and release it as a short-to-mid range attack of pure magical energy. Depending on how much blood and mana she uses, she can summon up more to keep up around her as a reservoir of ammunition. This ammunition is maintained through very minor mana consumption until she uses it all, falls unconscious, or dismisses it. She directs the energy with hand motions, and can fire it off at speeds rivaling an arrow from a bow, but with less accuracy. Her average is around 5 energy bolts to a reservoir, but she can manage more if she pushes herself. It takes about 15 seconds to create a new bolt, so summoning multiple at once for combat purposes is desirable. If she fires one bolt at a time, they are single-target, but if she amasses 5 together, she can fire them all together - when they hit something, they create a small explosion of magic with about a 10-foot radius. She can also call it up as a more specific element - Water, snow, or air, though this takes more energy than standard to call and maintain.
Conjuring (Minor)
(She is but a Distant Memory):
Hlynn has learned to summon a particular spirit to her aid with this spell, and finds that calling this spirit is easier than others. In order to induce familiarity, she will often summon it into an animal and then keep that animal as a pet for a day, before dismissing it. While she can summon the spirit in a pure form for short bursts (only a few moments), she prefers not to, as its visage is frightening to her. Regularly, she can summon the spirit into a body for several hours, up to a maximum of a full day before it is de-summoned. The spirit is skilled in combat, about as much as a competent soldier, able to wield melee weapons and fight unarmed with some skill, but Hlynn is protective of it, fearing its injury if in a body that gets destroyed. She can dismiss this spirit from a body at will if she is touching it.
Blood (Minor)
(We are but Listless Strands, Which Cannot Touch):
This song gives her the ability to send her own blood to strike out in small crimson tendrils at nearby attackers - this can cause minor cuts, but that is not the real power of this ability. If she can guide a tendril inside someone's open wounds, she can infect their blood, causing it to rebel against the host's body. The tendrils attack at the victim's body from the inside, poking and slicing at nerves and organs. This envelops the target in an immense amount of pain, and can stop large creatures in their tracks. This causes only minor damage, leaving mostly a few heavy aches and pains in the average person, but can knock a weaker person unconscious from the pain. She can only control these tendrils within a few feet of her, and as such the effects of the blood infection only last while she's within that range (however, the pain may take some time to fade). This takes a moderate amount of mana to conjure and maintain.
Strengths:
+Survivalist
| Skilled at surviving in harsh environments - setting traps for food, catching animals, which plants to eat, etc.
+Creative
| Comes up with strategies and magical poems on the fly, and also created her own magical techniques.
+Powerful Spellcaster
| Profane magic gives her strength, and that strength is of a fairly high magnitude.
+High Pain Tolerance
| She cuts herself a lot, and has gotten used to the feeling of blade on skin, as well as other, external pains.
+Intuitive
| Her guesses tend to be right.
Weakness:
-Suspicious
| She does not trust anyone, and trust does not come easy. She often must split focus in combat with allies and compulsively lies about herself.
-Fragile
| While she can stand a lot of pain, her constant use of blood magic makes her highly susceptible to physical attacks and damage. Also pretty anemic.
-Inexperienced
| She has been in a few fights, but does not have any real knowledge about the world, history, mathematics, etc.
-Low Mana
| While she can cast powerful spells, her inner energy is quick to run out, requiring her to use blood magic for almost anything above the lowest capabilities of her basic powers.
-Scarred
| Her arms and legs are heavily scarred from her practitioning of the profane arts, and as such anyone who sees them can be thrown off or suspicious of her magical abilities.
Personality:
Hlynn is a girl with a chip on her shoulder the size of a mountain. Still, she tries her best to be polite when meeting new people, and makes an effort to do good when she sees the chance for it. However, she is very shallow and secretive in her conversations, not wanting to reveal too much about herself. Her desire to do good is mostly selfish - she wants people to like her, or at least not see her as a threat. She attempts to live each day to the fullest in terms of seeing and doing new things. She doesn't hesitate to jump into a fight if it's something or someone she cares about, but if she is not personally involved, she gages it carefully to see if it is something she must participate in.
Biography:
"I choose how I die." The phrase rang in Hlynn's ears as the girl's neck spurted blood, sending splatters of the dark liquid across the snow clad earth. The body fell, hard, slamming into the snow, twitching and sending a pool of dark red liquid spreading across the frosted ground. Hlynn could not turn her eyes away, and her mouth was open in an expression of pure horror.
Even as a child, Hlynn was very secretive - finding little pieces of metal, dead leaves, small sticks, and hiding them about her bedroom. An only child to her single mother, she often had to go out for chores and work, despite her young age. She was taught to never talk to others - her father, it had seemed, was not somebody her mother wished to talk about. Her father was someone that the village did not like, that much was certain - but Hlynn never knew more than that. However, their shared secrets suited Hlynn - both of them liked their privacy.
Her mother, Miranda, was kind. They lived in an average-sized village in a snowy valley of Norboro, hateful of magic as many are. Very traditional and very suspicious, Miranda chose to keep her and her daughter out of the public eye as much as possible - an impressive feat, considering the amount of gossip that made the rounds daily. In their isolation, she always had enough to eat, they played games of chance and had long, drawn-out discussions into the night.
As they grew older, however, Hlynn noticed her mother becoming more distant and cold. Though she still pushed for the talks and games, they became more forced every day, Miranda coming home from her job as a seamstress and immediately going to sleep, without so much as a "hello". When confronted about this coldness, Miranda didn't answer, just gave a sad smile and replied, "it's not your fault." What Hlynn did not know, however, was that she had been exhibiting signs of magic in her sleep - in her dreams and nightmares, currents of magical energy would shower off her body. Her mother did not tell her, in fear of the village killing her child if she revealed it.
Hlynn began to pursue other relationships, but it was difficult - she could relate to few people in her village, with her previous life of secrecy having been too effective. However, there was one girl, who seemed to see something in the young girl. "I'm Kethel," she introduced herself. It was late, just as Hlynn began to do her grunt work for the village. They talked for hours, late into the night, both wrapped in the same blanket to keep warm. They promised to talk again, and Hlynn was happy, for a while.
They began to spend the days and nights together. They did their chores and their village grunt work together, as well as went out and explored the surrounding country, and the years that they spent together were the happiest Hlynn had ever been. When she was with Kethel, she felt like nothing could hurt her. At nights, they would run away from the town meetings to build their own snow tunnels out in the woods, and talk and think about the future. That's when Kethel revealed her abilities to Hlynn. They were amazing, sending beautiful sparks of electricity through the air current and carving out small burns in the snowy walls that they touched. When Hlynn touched Kethel, she could feel her hairs standing up on end.
But it was Kethel's bravery that made Hlynn fall for her. She would skip village work, tempt wild animals with food just to get a closer look, climb to the very tops of trees just to gaze, wonderously, at the world around her. Whereas Hlynn had spent her years trying to stay under the radar and do what she was told, Kethel always wanted to try new things, do new things. "I've got to live every day like it's my last!" She would cry, perched precariously on the highest branch of a snow-covered tree. For the first time since she was a child, Hlynn felt truly happy. They shared their first kiss beneath the single, dead tree next to the frozen lake, and Hlynn could feel static running through her body.
Not everything was pure and idyllic, however. Hlynn could feel the sadness radiating from Kethel when she was asked about her family. She always had bruises she tried to play off as being from exploring outside. Every day she would go home, and as they walked together, Hlynn could feel Kethel's feet dragging. Hlynn never really met Kethel's surviving parent, her father, but she would wait at the end of their property line, at the behest of Kethel. Kethel's father was a well-respected hunter in the community, bringing in all sorts of hard to catch meats, but that was all Hlynn really knew. She didn't think much of it at first, but as time went on, she could tell there was something sinister going on there. Eventually, she decided to stake out the house after Kethel had left, and determine once and for all what was going on.
Through a crack in the curtains, Hlynn could make out Kethel, yelling something at her father. Then, a hard slap, and Hlynn could feel the impact from outside. A range of abuse quickly took place inside, with Hlynn frozen in fear outside, tears streaming down her face. She didn't tell Kethel she knew, but only tried to hug her tighter when they were together. She didn't know what she could possibly say, what she could do to make this stop.
And then there were the magic trials. Year after year, there were accusations - someone would see a large wind gust around someone, or a villager had an exceptional way with animals or healing - nearly instantly they were accused of possessing magic and were put on trial. There were a few tests they would be put through, a burn here, a poke there, nothing
too wounding, to draw out any magic as a self-defense mechanism. Very few actual mages were found, but there were a few that Hlynn could remember. They were taken away, and publicly executed. The lynching was long, ritualistic, and painful, hanging them up to a large wooden post, beating and stabbing them, until they finally died from their wounds. It was brutal, but the town council determined that it was the best way to dissuade more magic from cursing their town.
Hlynn didn't like to watch. But then there was Kethel. Kethel, who was proud of her power, even as she kept it a secret - who liked to practice out in the woods, letting bolts of electricity fly from her hand to see how big of an arc she could create. It was only a matter of time before someone caught her, and brought her back to face the trial. Kethel cried out as the pain reached her, involuntarily sending sparks up the small shortsword and severely burning the hand of the man that did it. She was immediately grabbed, and began to kick and scream, trying to get away. Hlynn would never forget her grim face, as she stole a knife from one of the warriors, stabbing him in the jugular. When the others surrounded her, swords out and slowly inching towards her, Hlynn could see that Kethel knew that she couldn't escape - with only enough time to flash Hlynn a sad, tragic smile, and say her final words, she drove the knife into her own throat.
The crowd dispersed quickly, and Hlynn rushed to the body, cradling the still-bleeding girl in her arms, as Kethel's father approached, a blank expression on his face. "I always knew she was a bad egg," he sneered, before shaking his head. "Don't even think she was mine anyway." He waved a hand dismissively and turned, leaving Hlynn to sob over her love's corpse.
After that Hlynn fell into a state of depression. She didn't want to go anywhere, to do anything. Her mother, still withdrawn from her daughter, attempted to comfort her in her limited time at home, but nothing would draw her out of this depression. She barely ate and barely slept. Slowly, but surely, she began to come out of it. It started with going to work, the manual labor letting her work thoughtlessly, and then she began to go back to more social work. Not that she really wanted to go face the village people again. Nobody could replace Kethel, but maybe she could make a connection again. She was wrong.
That look on Kethel's face. Those words. Even as she tried to be more outgoing in town, they haunted Hlynn's dreams, and were the first things she thought of on that warm summer day when her powers first manifested. It was an unnaturally warm summer when the children began aggressively bullying her. Her relationship with Kethel had been fairly well-hidden, but her breakdown over the girl's death had drawn the ire of her peers. Why should she care that another magic user is dead?
With Kethel gone, she was no longer willing or brave enough to defend herself from these antagonists. They ripped at her hair and knocked her to the brink of consciousness, before taking her deep into the forest to that frozen lake (now thawed for the summer), and held her underneath, calling her terrible names and saying she didn't deserve to eat the same food they did, to live in their town. It didn't end well for them. Hlynn felt something rising up in her, as she watched the blood from her cuts float in front of her face, drifting in the water, starting to glow. She screamed, and the blood transformed into pure, magical energy, striking out at the boys and wreathing them in pain and blood. They almost immediately passed out, not dead, but in a huge amount of pain.
She knew then that she would never be safe. Never be free from this curse, this magic that would make everyone in her town try to tie her up and kill her. Like Kethel, she would be sentenced to a horrid death. She ran home as fast as she could, wanting to escape before the boys rose from consciousness. She had a plan - she was going to run. Luckily, her mother had been preparing for this. In tears, Hlynn confessed to what had happened at the lake, and Miranda immediately ran to collect the bag full of savings she had collected from working extra, and gave it to her daughter. "Run," she told her, "Run south. To somewhere where you can grow, where you can be safe. Do whatever you have so you can survive." With one final, tight hug, Miranda piled Hlynn down with clothes, supplies, and a pair of daggers, and sent her on her way.
Hlynn traveled for several years, avoiding towns and villages like the plague, camping out in the wilderness for most of her journey. She only went into towns when she absolutely had to, and never stayed for longer than a day. Out in the woods, in between villages, she began practicing. She didn't know much about magic, as it was never talked about in her village outside of lynchings, but she knew that she could feel power whenever she spilled blood. Whether it was hers or some unfortunate animal's, it boosted her own abilities tremendously.
Eventually she found that her talents extended not only to blood, but also to pain and powerful magical blasting spells. She developed her own techniques that resonated with somatic components and gentle, melodious talking. While it did not necessarily matter what she was saying, she found that it helped her focus the magic into points of power, as well as call up spirits in powerful forms, or into small creatures she encountered.
As she became more powerful, she heard talk of havens for mages, and began to look for a place where maybe, somehow, she could find a more permanent home. She was tired. Tired of travelling, of being alone, of training alone. Soon she made her way to Morcrest, where she heard tell of the King's Wardens, a place where she might be safer, might be more accepted as a mage. She quickly made her way to the place and inquired, hoping to find a place where she could be accepted and free.
Hex Code: #6666ff
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