[b]Name:[/b] Priestley

[b]Race:[/b] Animata

[b]Gender:[/b] N/A (Usually Identified as Female)

[b]Age:[/b] 401

[b]Birthday:[/b] 44th of Jadeyan, 101 ML

[b]Birthplace:[/b] Kellin City-State.

[b]Resides in:[/b] Mobile

[b]Occupation:[/b] Unemployed (Survivalist)

[b]Appearance:[/b]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/lmlLlUR.png?1[/img]

[b]Personality:[/b]
As one might expect, Priestley's personality is quite... scarce. As in, it's very hard to tell if she even [i]has[/i] a personality. 

She speaks in a very robotic, emotionless manner and has a preoccupation with statistics and empirical analysis. She was not designed to be social; as such, she has very little in the way of social skills. Most notably, she will always state the blunt truth, whether others want her to or not, and her practical analysis of almost everyone she meets inevitably leads her to make inadvertantly rude comments about people. A trait she shares with most of the Animata is that she tends to refer to herself in the third person, to lend a sense of impartiality to her statements. For instance, she will usually say 'This one', 'Priestley', or for occasions of import, 'Animata Priestley'.

There are some hints of a personality under her cold exterior, however. She seems to take pride in her skills and abilities, but usually not to the point of arrogance, and apparently has some hidden understanding of sentimental value and gratitude, considering that she named herself after her saviour. Plus, sometimes when her blunt statements of fact are brought up during inconvenient or disadvantageous situations, it can almost sound like she's being sarcastic. Of course, it's entirely possible that this is an accident and she has no understanding of what sarcasm actually is.

[b]History:[/b]

Priestley no longer knows it, but she was originally created over a hundred years before the death of magic by the ancient underground-dwelling Kellin civilisation. Imbued with the soul of a willing Kellin scholar whose name has been lost to time, it was her task, as a Kellidium-forged 'Interpreter', to receive messages from the Kellin's God, Ordin-Cotac, and relay them to the Kellin in a form they could understand.

Priestley was among the Interpreters when Ordin-Cotac issued a message to the Kellin scolding them for becoming overly reliant on their Animata servants, and thus, both intellectually and physically lazy, and warned them of a coming disaster which would surely destroy them if they did not sort themselves out. A year later, the Death of Magic occurred. Ordin-Cotac seemed to vanish from existence, and all the Kellin Animata seemingly 'died', reduced to lifeless scraps of metal. Within a matter of weeks, Kellin civilisation proceeded to destroy itself in a civil war, almost exactly as Ordin-Cotac had predicted. The resulting conflict, coupled with a catastrophic cave-in (burying most of their underground City-State) and starvation killed off over two thirds of the population. The rest dug their way out and eventually assimilated into surface society, their knowledge eventually being forgotten.

Unbeknownst to the surface, however, a fair number of the 'dead' Animata had survived the cave-in, with some even being brought to the surface and dismantled either as 'souvenirs' or to be sold to the surface-dwellers for lots of gold. There is, however, one family, the caretakers of the Animata Interpreters, who recovered the remains of any Interpreters they could find, took them to the surface, and buried them in various locations, in the hopes that one day, magic would return and they would reawaken to speak the word of Ordin-Cotac once more.

Priestley, as it happened, was one of the Interpreters returned to the surface. Almost exactly as the caretakers had predicted, the magic eventually did return, at midnight on the 1st Jadeyan, 300 DM. It was then that Priestley awoke, the soul that had powered her simply remaining dormant the entire time. However, she had no memory of her previous existence; her role in the communion with Ordin-Cotac, or even Ordin-Cotac's existence, or even the Kellin, or even her name. As far as she was concerned, she was a lost relic of unknown origin who may have served a purpose once before, but doesn't now.

She wandered aimlessly through the Tundra south of Frigmount where she unearthed herself, when she was attacked by a group of Bears. With no knowledge of how to defend herself, she was trashed. However, she was found by a local hunter, a man called Talan Priestley. Talan, intrigued by what he saw as a woman made of metal, first took her to the nearest Smith to fix her up. Then they first spoke, and Mr. Priestley asked her what her name was, she said she didn't know. The following conversation is what ultimately lead the formerly-nameless Animata to assume Priestley's name.

[color=6ecff6]"You don't know your own name?"[/color] He responded. [color=6ecff6]"How is that possible?"[/color]

[color=fff79a][b]"This one's archival records are... incomplete. They have been inactive for an abnormally long period of time."[/b][/color] She explained. [color=fff79a][b]"All records within, if there were any before, have been erased."[/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6]"I guess that makes sense. But... wasn't there some kinda clue where ya... woke up or whatever?"[/color]

[color=fff79a][b]"This one cannot confirm the presence of any signs of this one's identity. ...This one did not query, what is the name you are known by?"[/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6]"Uh... well, in full, it's Talan Priestley."[/color]

[color=fff79a][b]"Based on logical naming structure as dictated by the majority of cultures analysed, there exists an 87% chance that 'Priestley' is the name of your family. Is this hypothesis true?"[/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6]"Um... yes?"[/color]

[color=fff79a][b]"Then this one shall call itself 'Priestley'."[/b][/color]

Her subsequent reasoning for taking that name was that it was in the absence of any alternatives that made logical sense to assume, 'Priestley' was the only option, and she couldn't take the name 'Talan' as well since that's a unique given name and would thus lead to confusion. The fact that 'Priest' also describes her former job quite nicely is just a coincidence.

Unaware of her origins or what she even was, T. Priestley came to the conclusion that she was worth treating as a human based on the fact that she could speak and had some awareness of what was happening around her. For several months, he answered almost all of her near-constant questions to the best of his abilities, and taught her how to defend herself with a sword so she wouldn't get trashed by Bears again. All in all, things went quite well, and Talan's local fur business thrived because his new assistant tended not to attract scent once taught how to be discreet.

Eventually, however, word of Priestley's existence reached the Draconic scholars of Pyresia to the south. Having unearthed some knowledge of the Kellin Animata, they sent in some Dwarf agents to learn more about her, in the hopes of convincing her to accompany them back to Pyresia for study. When they approached Talan's cabin, however, Talan immediately became suspicious of them, and accused them of wanting to dismantle his 'companion'. The confrontation eventually escalated to violence, with one of the Dwarves stabbing Talan in the throat in self-defence, but not before Talan managed to kill one of them. However, Priestley, who was collecting fur from further away, only returned at this point. Without the necessary context, she assumed the Dwarves were attacking and threatened them with violence. When another Dwarf, who was practiced in magic, got hasty and attempted to strike her with lightning, the magic seemed to pass into her harmlessly; in fact, it added energy to the soul core that was her power source, and she, almost automatically, turned the lightning against the 'attackers', driving them off for good. Unfortunately, she managed to harm herself in the process, making her temporarily shut back down.

By the time she woke up again, Talan had bled to death. Not knowing what to do with a corpse, Priestley chose to move it and the corpse of the Dwarf inside Talan's house to shelter it from the weather, thus making them easier for anyone to identify. She also proceeded to read a rather large collection of journals, in which it became apparent that Talan cared so much for Priestley because she reminded him of his wife, who had apparently left him some time ago, and he was suffering from abandonment issues (though mercifully, he knew better than to attempt anything 'dirty' with her). She also searched the body of the dead Dwarf, learning of their reasons for coming here via a note. The note was ambiguously worded, however, and lead Priestley to think that they wished to kidnap her. Thus, she chose to flee the house to avoid possible retribution, leaving the bodies behind.

From this point onward, she moved south, unwittingly heading towards Stone Crest, in the hopes of finding some place of refuge from these 'kidnappers'.

[b]Skills:[/b]
Animata Transmutation - 30 (+30 Racial Bonus)
Intelligence - 20
Cryptography - 10
Observation - 10
Investigation - 10
Mathematics - 10
Physics - 10
Stealth - 5
Negotiation - 5
Copying - 5
Weapon [url=http://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/44179-5-1381508554.jpg](Slim Sword)[/url] - 5

[b]Magic Abilities:[/b]

[b]Active Abilities:[/b]
[i]Healing (Lay On Hands):[/i] A derivation of Transferral, or 'Conduitism', an Interpreter's ability to effectively buff nearby allies by enabling them to tap into the user's Magic Reserves; in theory, anyway. At the moment, Priestley can only use this technique to heal an ally's injuries. It works rather quickly, but can only be used on one person at a time.
[i]Static Overload:[/i] Throws Electrified 'Bombs'; rather powerful, but will drain Priestley's magic reserves almost instantly and submit her Soul Core to significant trauma, putting her out of action for some time.
[b]Passive Abilities:[/b]
[i]Levitation:[/i] Enables the user to float a short distance off the ground (or water) for a few minutes at a time, moving at faster speed.

[b]Possessions:[/b]
Talan Priestley's Cold-Iron Sword (pictured above).

[b]Ledger:[/b]
N/A (she never paid for that sword)

[b]Story List:[/b]
Date - URL - Characters involved