[hider=The Orphan of Anshu]
[color=ed1c24][h3][b]HEART AND MIND - WHO YOU WERE BEFORE[/b][/h3][/color]
[color=7bcdc8][b]Name:[/b][/color] Esha
[color=7bcdc8][b]Sobriquets:[/b][/color] [i]The Orphan of Anshu[/i]

[b][color=7bcdc8][b]Concept:[/b][/color][/b] An orphan forged into a tool of war, heir to a black heart and a wish that neither truly belong to her.


[color=7bcdc8][b]Origin:[/b][/color] Abandoned by the world, born with no name or a home. The nameless thing was but one of many orphans left in the wake of the devastation of the world as the very heavens descended upon it and man turns against their neighbour in a desperate bid to survive. The tale of a forlorn child would have been a short but a common one were it not for the mercy of a weeping man she would come to call “Father”. Once a beacon of hope for the lands he ruled, she knew that “Father” embodied the very pinnacle of human excellence. Blessed with wisdom and the willpower to turn dreams into reality, if any could have saved the lands of Anshu, it would have been him. But it was not to be, hope turned ashen and in the shadow of that blinding potential rested despair. Even at their greatest, humans are but ants when faced with the forces that govern fate.

So it was that “Father” looked towards the stars and dreamed of a place where humanity could shine amongst them. A dream inherited by the forlorn child, a dream inherited by the countless orphans that “Father” had taken and perhaps even made. It was a dream that served as a catalyst of change for the forlorn child for she was finally needed by someone. Locked within the Cradle of Stars, she and many suffered cruel and heartless experiments, stripping away her humanity and with it hoping to find the key to something greater. In time the nameless child would even become the hand to practice the weaving of flesh, to marry the human with the strange and forbidden, for she was not beholden to the values of humans.

Death was a blessing, for the alternative was far worse as meddling with the eldritch and the arrogance to master the unknowable left many but husks of their former selves, mockeries to humanity itself. The nameless child thought little of this, for the unimaginable becomes everyday, the hideous becomes tedious, the unbearable becomes routine. The child herself was also but another subject at times, the difference is that she endured where others fell. Less than a dozen persisted to reach the final trial, to be the host of a black heart recovered from places unspoken from. She was not the first upon the operation table nor the last to be chosen, but it was her body the black heart choose for she did not perish, in fact she grew stronger. Whispers that she could not fully understand filled her mind, opening her to the mysteries of sorcery. It was upon this success that “Father” finally bestowed a name upon the nameless girl, naming her Esha. To carry a wish not her own, in a heart that was not truly hers. 

The cradle educates, but it is unable to offer more than it possesses. She had entered as a nameless orphan and departed as a hunter, to claim the knowledge and means that were beyond the ken of common man. Her first ventures knew the constant scrutiny of the agents of “Father”, allowed only brief engagements in the countless wars and skirmishes of the Eight Nations where she could truly explore and refine her talent. Only to be unleashed upon the beasts of the Edge of the Known World, claiming whatever she could of their strength for her own. 

Esha’s caretakers however, did not endure the rigors of the Edge of the Known World, leaving her with none to hold her leash. Ignorant of the wider world yet possessing the burning wish entrusted to her, she returned from the Edge and found herself in the wolf-haunted kingdom of Elatreis. “Father” had been the pinnacle of what she believed a man could be, yet as the legends of the hunter-saints reached her ears she grew ever more curious to learn of six who could do what hundreds could not, to slay a behemoth. 


[b][color=7bcdc8][b]Appearance:[/b][/color][/b] The Orphan of Anshu is sometimes also known as the Doll of Anshu, years of living within the Cradle and hunting through the night have left her with an eerily pale alabaster skin, as if never having known the kiss of sunlight. Standing at a diminutive height despite being a fully grown woman, she could easily blend in a crowd were it not for some peculiar oddities about her being. Overall her body possesses a lithe but toned physique, born from years of training and hunting beyond the Edge.

Wisps of white hair frame her face and her crimson eyes, marking her as an albino. Her long locks often woven into a thick braid trailing down all the way to her lower back. A bushel of brightly coloured feathers hanging from the ribbon keeping her hair braided together. One might even consider her a beauty, but that idea would surely vanish if one were to ever see what rests below her clothing. Pale flesh darkened into leathery black blotched skin before exposing the pulsing mass of grotesque black flesh, numerous circular holes can be found in this wreath of horror, closing and opening as swollen flesh parts and tightens. One experienced in the field of medicine can perhaps even make up the shape and some qualities of a constantly beating heart. The eldritch organ spanning across most of her upper left torso.

Fortunately, it is a secret well-guarded with numerous layers of clothing. Shrouded in a tattered deep red cloak, exotic patterns native to the Edge trailed across its surface in an even darker shade of red, with numerous brightly coloured feathers dangling from the hem. Beneath the cloak Esha is clad in a pair of thick leather boots, reaching just past her knees. Countless exotic feathers blossom from the upper edge of her boots, before giving way to a pair of voluminous pair of dark brown pants. Fastened by a leather belt holding all sorts of small pouches and straps for amenities, a long length patterned white cloth hangs across her left hip, the fabric stained with dried blood. Her torso largely covered by a dark voluminous shirt, each short sleeve wide enough to match the girth of a small tree trunk. The hem of her shirt lined with a similar exotic pattern as her cloak. 

Her head and face however are often obscured by the massive beast skull helmet mounted on her head, thick horns curving inwards while thick fangs still protrude from its sealed jaws, curving along the side of its jaw. Its eye sockets have been carefully removed to allow her red eyes to peer through the holes. Despite that a small mane of dark green feathers graved the back of her helmet, her long white braid often spilled past that, giving some indication that she was a human wearing a helmet.

Commonly she is equipped with a steel anelace, crafted with a special hilt that can be attached to a chain and sickle that she often wields in her right hand. A small steel ring can often be seen locked around her middle-finger, with two pointed tips angled downwards, faint traces of dried blood can be seen on the tips. 



[color=ed1c24][b]Skills and Flaws[/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6][b]Hand of Mercy:[/b][/color] As a hand of “Father” in carrying out his nightmarish experiments, Esha acquired an intimate understanding of the inner workings of both the human body and of many beasts alike. Yet as a subject who knows suffering, her medical knowledge swelled as she tended to the ill and cursed alike, alleviating their pains from unknown causes. Far from the likes of true physicians, she can at least ease one’s suffering and if required, offer one a painless end.

[color=6ecff6][b]Eldritch Hunter:[/b][/color] Esha is a hunter of the strange, the weird and forbidden. Equipped with an anelace attached to a chain and sickle, she has been known to be threat on both close and medium range and ever flexible to adjust to the situation at hand. Numerous hunts on beasts left her agile and quick to dodge, for to do otherwise would be to court death.

[color=6ecff6][b]Writhing Mind:[/b][/color] Raised in the Cradle and later nurtured in a life of constant battle. The world that Esha understands is one vastly different from the one that most others experience. Leaving her far better equipped to endure the rigors on the mind from both the battlefield and the things man were not meant to behold.

[color=0072bc][b]Stranger to the Mundane:[/b][/color] Allowed very little contact with the world outside, even during her journeys she was kept away from most settlements, giving birth to one unknown to the ways of the world. Alien to the very basics of society, not even considering that one might lie for practical reasons rather than purely emotional ones, Esha can be easily exploited when it comes to navigating the many intricacies of society that are taken for granted.


[color=7bcdc8][b]Hooks:[/b][/color]

[list][*]She was not first or last to be chosen receive the black heart, amongst the orphans of the Cradle that would have come after her. One believes that it was more deserving to be the black heart’s recipient.
[*]She has known only the love of one, she has only received the wish of one. To bring about the ascension of man, to offer them entry into a realm of gods. But perhaps the orphan might find a wish of her own in a world on the edge of apocalypse.
[*]Thousands have been dragged to the Kingdom of Night, torn away from the world at the hands of angels. What is it the Angels see in humanity to draw them into Heaven, what is it that humanity is yet blind to.[/list]

[color=ed1c24][h3][b]SOUL - WHAT YOU ARE BENEATH THE SKIN[/b][/h3][/color]
[color=7bcdc8][b]Initiation:[/b][/color] Host to the black heart of a Nephilim, unknown to its nature and the words it whispered into her mind day after day, Esha stirred to her potential as a sorcerer as the eyes on the inside of her mind opened to the power that rested within the black organ and how it could be utilized to her own ends and purposes. 

[color=ed1c24][b]Weirds[/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6][b]Conqueror’s Heart:[/b][/color] The shape of life and perhaps the closest crystallization is nothing else but the lifeblood pumping through the veins of all that lives. The exact sum and balance of all it contains and provides being most essential to nourish craving flesh. Thus to hold dominion over it is to alter its composition or to deprive one of that valued essence carried in blood. It is a power that the Orphan holds, provided her own blood flows through the veins of her enemy. Depriving them of oxygen, thriving on their heat and nourishing her own flesh with what they possess. She can be even as cruel to allow it to coagulate till their heart pumps no more.

[color=6ecff6][b]Chimerical Metamorphosis:[/b][/color] Upon the transplantation of the Black Heart, Esha’s body did not reject it, or could not reject it. Instead the Black Heart made Esha’s flesh its own, leaving one to wonder how much of her mind is still truly hers. It is through the same process that Esha can claim the body parts of other beings and join them to her own. A lost leg can be replaced with a new one, even exotic limbs such as tails and other curiosities can be joined to her flesh. It is a painful process and demands adjustment, but it leaves one with the chance to shed the frail flesh of man.

[color=6ecff6][b]Sanguine Surge:[/b][/color]  The orphan’s blood is much alike to a river, yet it is one that cannot be broken. Even ample sums of blood is spilled, it is not truly separated from her just yet. Instead it becomes an extension of herself, a gateway that can be traversed if one knows how, often confused for teleportation. Knowledge currently limited to only two. Blood mixed with her own also becomes another extension of herself, turning the battlefield ever more in her favour the more her opponent bleeds. Only when her blood coagulates does it cease to be a gate to leap through.



[color=ed1c24][h3][b]BLOOD AND BONE - THE NEPHILIM[/b][/h3][/color]
[color=7bcdc8][b]Nephilim:[/b][/color] Qarth
[color=7bcdc8][b]Sobriquets:[/b][/color] [i]The Sanguine Sovereign[/i]

[b][color=7bcdc8][b]Concept:[/b][/color][/b] Sovereign amongst primals, its pride only eclipsed by the searing heat of its blood.

[b][color=7bcdc8][b]Form:[/b][/color][/b] Gargantuan even by the standards of Nephilim, this colossus is most easily identified by the thick ivory exoskeleton surrounding its form and the almost feral bent to its anatomy despite standing on two digitigrade legs. Its bones resembling humans just enough to inspire a sensation of eeriness, for most of its shape takes on elaborate twists, some evoking particular patterns that might lead one to think it is its sarcophagus, while others weave in circular patterns. Amongst its armour-like bone numerous deep red black pupiled eyes can be spotted, ever vigilant. Amongst other gaps a bright fiery light spills from it, perhaps betraying its scorching interior. From its spine protrudes a series of thin bladed bones, some even interwoven with another to shape abnormal patterns. Beyond that, it possesses two arms ending in a pair of massive claws, joined by a pair of gargantuan eyes resting in its palms. 

Crowned upon its body rests a massive elongated head, its ivory luster doing little to veil the many rows of thick fangs and bladed teeth, seeming always primed to go for the kill and potentially even beyond it, when its jaws part, a faint fiery light could be seen from within. A thick set of dark horns trail backwards, curving downwards before ending in pointed tips. Six slanted sockets lined its skull, coming in pairs of two with each possessing another deep red glowing eye within it. Its head crowned with a series of ink thick black tentacles, long enough to reach the middle of its back and in a way resembled a majestic mane. Yet those twisted appendages were far from regal, seeming to always gently sway and contort even when there is no exterior force to manipulate it. Another set of thick jet-black tentacles can be found at the lower end of its spine, considerably longer than its own body length, each of these eldritch appendages sway about in a way much reminiscent to that of a tail. 

Despite its feral and primordial demeanor, an alien intelligence burns in its many-eyes, imbued with a deep cunning and complete understanding of its surroundings found only in beings of true sapience. 


[color=ed1c24][b]Abominations[/b][/color]

[color=6ecff6][b]Sanguine Spear:[/b][/color] Countless eyes trail the form of Qarth, gazing and almost unblinking. Beyond providing near omnidirectional sight at all times, each eye can launch highly pressurized jets of blood from its sockets at enemies. Possessing the potential to cut through metal itself, it can be a powerful weapon to use but it comes at the cost of Qarth’s own blood.

[color=6ecff6][b]Smouldering Wrath:[/b][/color] Even in undeath, the Nephilim Qarth is still imbued with a roaring heat smouldering in the depths of its body. Allowing it to flare up to the temperature of its lifeblood to a feverish pitch, far surpassing the blood of mortals for where their blood turns to steam, the blood of the Sanguine Sovereign still continues to boil. A power that can be combined with Sanguine Spear to create even more lethal bursts or can alter the discharge of Sanguine Spear into a heated mist of blood, shrouding Qarth from sight and can potentially scald Nephilim and creatures not attuned to enduring such temperatures.

[color=6ecff6][b]Sovereign’s Mandate:[/b][/color] Blood is the ultimate expression of life, and through it Qarth can reshape the bodies it flows through, turning them into reflections of his own being as their bodies twist and contort to mirror Qarth. Engraving their minds with an unquestionable loyalty and reverence for Qarth, for it is from this power the Nephilim earned its moniker of the Sanguine Sovereign. Given the chance, it can turn legions of beasts to stand by its side. However, it is far from all-powerful as the speed at which the mind is overwritten varies on the level of sapience and the quantity of Qarth’s blood present within the body. 

[color=0072bc][b]Ancient Appetite:[/b][/color] Aeons of deathless slumber has left Qarth with a thirst for blood and flesh that could only be truly slaked by devouring one of its own. Lesser creatures may temporarily appease it, but its patience is far from eternal. If tested too far and presented with Nephilim, it may be cast into a frenzy till its hunger has been sated, one way or another.
[/hider]