heading home, gonna be off for a while while on the bus.  X.x


[hider=progress]Name: Ziotea Elpis Phaidros (zee-OH-tee-ah EL-pis FAY-dros)

Age: 19

Height/Weight:  (You have got to be kidding me.  I'll work on this...*sigh*) 4'9? (I have an irl person I am going to ask for numbers, since she's the size I want Ziotea to be ^.^;;  )

Race: Omestri-Lanostran halfbreed.

Appearance: With bright red hair, eyes closer to gold than to brown, and a very distinctive etheric signature, there's mistaking Ziotea for anything but Omestri, and a strong one.  She keeps her bright hair short, never past shoulder length, and often ties it back somehow.  She has a round face and heavy brows often draw together in a frown.  Her skin tans easily where it is frequently exposed to the sun, namely her face and arms.  The rest is fair though marked with various scars she's picked up over the years.  Of particular note are the marks of whippings on her back, a set of ragged parallel lines from deep slashes gouged across one hip, and the puckered dent where she had a chunk ripped out of the opposite shoulder at one point.

She's a tiny little thing, very short and deceptively thin, but she is muscle and sinew without an ounce of extra fat.  This makes her rather bony, and combined with her narrow hips and a general lack of bust she could be mistaken for a boy with a particularly pretty face from a distance.  She's learned how to pick clothing that flatters what little figure she has in order to compensate, but even that can only do so much.  The armor she wears is heavier than that of many Inquisitors, and she favors sturdy gauntlets with vambraces, greaves that protect the front of her knees, and a full brigadine and tassets in addition to her breastplate.  She carries a round curved and spiked shield with a diameter about the same as the length of her arm and a winged spear, as well as a small quiver of darts.

Personality: Ziotea is cynical and misanthropic.  The world is a terrible place, and people as a rule are awful.  Those who raised her for her first few years hated Lord Varya and the conquering Varyans, and she picked up some of the attitude even though she has few specific memories from that time.  She was not so sullen as a child, but the harsh life of an urchin turned her rough, as a certain amount of callousness was necessary to survive.  She saw all the different ways one person could mistreat another, and she realized that 





and her loathing for the god that called for the subjugation of all others combined with her fear of the Inquisitors that instructed them to turn her into a hard young woman



A description of your character's personality-- their strengths, flaws, religious views, ect.

Background: Ziotea was born to Adrestia, a Lanostran priestess with a gift for preserving life as well as taking it, captured in an early raid on the nation before the war officially began and forced to serve as a Varyan slave.  Her father was a pureblooded Omestrian, one of the many ether slaves the woman was forced to look after.  With the help of the members of the Lady's Anger, Adrestia feigned a stillbirth and had the girl smuggled out.  Unfortunately there are so many ways for a revolutionary to die, and those that had care of Ziotea met with one such, leaving her with only vague memories of kind people that looked after her before her days on the street, as well as a lasting disgust with the ways of the world.  ,Fortunately for her, they'd kept her hair dyed black, and by the time it had grown enough to be an issue she'd added a coating of grime and learned to keep her hood up at all times.

The life of a young child on the street is a hard one, but the urchins have a rough camaraderie and even a tiny girl like Ziotea could learn enough to scrabble out a meagre living.  Things changed dramatically when she dove headlong into a nook she thought would be secure, a determined guard on her tail.  Instead of safety she found another child, who made enough noise when she slammed into him that they both had to flee.  By way of apology she split the loaf of bread she'd stolen with him once they escape.  It wasn't long before Ziotea and Rodion were inseparable, and towards the end of their time on the streets they pulled off a number of dramatic thefts.  The boy might not have been particularly skilled, but he was fast and did well with machinery -- and it was far easier to get away if there was a huge ruckus in the opposite direction.  Ziotea's ether had an affinity for heat and explosions, and she was able to pull off some truly spectacular distractions.

They couldn't escape capture indefinitely, of course.  That sort of thing caught the attention of a warpriest, one General Vasaliev.  He snagged the boy first and as close as she was to Rodion, Ziotea had a crippling fear of the Inquisitors.  She didn't know why one of the elite was after them, and she didn't really want to know.  Rodion might lose a hand, or be pressed into service, but if they caught /her/ she would end up an ether slave, doomed to a half-life of agony.  She fled, and upon his return with a promise of amnesty for her she still required a great deal of convincing before she'd come anywhere near their stern benefactor.

If life on the streets was difficult, life at the Red Seminary was brutal.  Training demanded every shred of strength and willpower Ziotea possessed, and she's grown into an exceptional fighter, skilled with her weapons alone but truly devastating when she uses her ether.  She's had little time for hobbies at the seminary, driven by her heritage to enjoy fighting and forced by the unruly nature of her ether to take extra time to learn to use it well.  If she didn't concentrate well enough, any spell she cast tended to blow up in her face -- literally.  This was in addition to the trail of broken dishware and shattered glass she left when stressed, and the need to compensate for that sort of thing was another demand on her time.

She is looking forward to getting away from Varya, though she is less sure about their mission.  Perhaps Eluria will hold answers to the questions she doesn't know to ask.  Perhaps a simple change of scenery will keep her from being so restless.  Either way, she's ready.

Talents/Ethereal Abilities: 

Ziotea has a larger than average resevoir of ether to draw on.  Her Omestri heritage is strongly evident, but the true nature of her ether is...[i]explosive[/i].

Literally.

It helps to have an amulet to draw on, but even without she is able to generate bursts of concussive force that can be devastating if properly applied.  Initially she had major difficulty controlling the strength and aim of such attacks, and more than one sparring match turned lethal when she misjudged.  She's refined her skill over the years, and she can use her ether internally easily enough, but any use of ether beyond her person comes with a risk, and she's best kept away from anything that requires restraint.  Furthermore, this aspect of her power means that a number of basic skills are beyond her.  Simple things like heating a rock to boil water, cooking an egg, kindling an ether lamp, carrying additional weight -- she can do none of these things.  Rocks and eggs explode, lamps shatter and the liquid ether evaporates, and while she can /lift/ things, actually carrying them for any length of time is an issue.

However, force can be used in countless ways, and what she lacks in finesse she makes up for in creativity.  She uses her ether to hit with disproportionate strength, far beyond what is expected from someone her size, and to support her shield when deflecting attacks, including bullets though these pack a big punch if she doesn't catch them just right -- she broke her arm in an early attempt.  She can add height to her jumps, and fling herself forward with considerable momentum.  Combining the latter with a shield bash makes for a particularly nasty attack.  Her darts leave her hand at high speed, even without being thrown, and she has good aim, able to hit a target at (50-100 paces?)

Application of force at a weak point in an object can break it, as she has demonstrated on countless  -- some objects can be made to explode.  She can knock chairs over -- or poorly built market stalls, as she did as a child.  An unexpected shove can put opponents off balance or even knock them down.  A stronger, less focused push can move them a few feet, though she's determined that this is not usually a useful technique, save occasionally for driving enemies towards her.

Ziotea is unusual in that she can draw not only on her own ether and her personal totem, but also nearby sources, though she cannot use them efficiently.  This exacerbates the problem of her unpredictable offensive casts, though the ability itself wasn't uncovered until a couple years after the rest.  With Rodion's help she's experimented with pulling ether from nearby creatures as well.  She's managed to siphon small quantities from animals, with some difficulty, but the only successful attempt to pull from another person resulted in Ziotea and Rodion both passed out on the floor of a destroyed lab, and they've abandoned the idea for the moment.

Alternatively, instead of drawing on nearby ether, she can use some of her own to negate ether others are actively using.  The technique is difficult and drains her strength far quicker than any of her other skills.  This means that she is most effective countering single attacks, instead of undoing things like personal buffs or crafting an anti-ether shield.  She still needs to refine the skill, as careless use of it will result in a loud explosion instead of simple negation.

Ziotea is skilled with her weighted spear and shield.  She knows how to fight unarmed, though she prefers not to.  She can use ether to punch hard enough to break bones if she must, and she knows a number of throws and pins, but if someone gets a good grip on her that's the end.  Her ether is unsuited to supporting lengthy grapples, and her size leaves her at a major disadvantage.  Her best bet is to slip quickly free of an attempted grab, then use a few quick strikes and an ether push or a throw and to get out of grabbing range.  From there she can make a clean escape, or keep moving and use makeshift weapons and her ether to wear the opponent down.

She's not much slower than people with longer legs, though she worked [i]hard[/i] to be able to say as much without resorting to the use of ether.  Her physical endurance is excellent, as is required of everyone at the Red Seminary.  Her etheric endurance is superb, but her ability with sustained casts is very low, and trying to do generally results in her signature explosive backfire.

Personal Seal: ((something in a sunburst -- probably a spear)) and the sunburst pattern in general, which adorns her shield.

Character Relationships: 

Once the cast is chosen, we're going to collaborate on creating the shared histories between the different people of our group. Your characters can be anything from friends, enemies, lovers, ect. Remember, you've all spent your time years training in the Red Seminary together and have suffered and bled throughout your time there, so your relationships must be forged of your experiences during that time together.

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