[hider=Mama Tiana]
[center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/42/01/c4/4201c4d9ccbf288855ef2ed0d571ba10.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][h2]Mama Tiana the Witchdoctor[/h2][/center]
[center][i] “He stared but did not stir,
Long’d but had no money:
The cunning merchant bade him taste
In tones as smooth as honey…”[/i][/center]
[hr]

[b][u]Nicknames:[/u][/b] Mama, Mama Tia, Tia
[b][u]Race:[/u][/b] Gnome
[b][u]Gender:[/u][/b] Female
[b][u]Age:[/u][/b] 51

[b][u]Appearance:[/u][/b] Tiana has a bit of an aging motherly vibe to her appearance, with more visible lines on her features than shown in the photograph. Though she wears a circlet on her forehead all the time, her clothes are modest and humble. She typically wears no shoes. Her body is littered with scars.

[b][u]Personality:[/u][/b] You would expect a manipulative sanguinist to seem dark, sultry, and coy; the outright truth of the matter is that Tiana is none of those things. She’s a bit ambiguous, sure - but she’s friendly, welcoming, and often quite endearing due to her small stature. She makes friends easily, and her age and experience makes her somewhat respectable. Tiana lends a hand in classes, she checks in on the novices often and is quick to organise and enjoy many a festival, feast or party. She didn’t earn the title “Mama” for nothing - she always goes out of her way to make sure the homesick and the lonely have a place by her hearth.

[i]That[/i] is what makes her such a dangerous person to be around. She’s honest about her actions, but one can never gleam her intentions. She will always tell the victim of her spells precisely what she is doing, but not why - she will always withhold the right amount of information without making it seem too obvious. Questions are easy to dismiss when you’ve earned the trust of the clientele. The truth is, it is almost impossible to tell whether or not Tiana likes you or is simply using you until her plan actually comes into fruition - by which point she already has an alibi and she’s gotten rid of the evidence. She is meticulous. She leaves no paper trails and no evidence. 

And yet it is frustratingly obvious that Tiana isn’t out to get absolutely everyone, and her crimes are so difficult to pinpoint or so insignificant in hindsight that it is very well possible that she does genuinely care for the people she claims to help. Her ‘act’, if you were to believe it, is hardly an act when there are many people she has protected and looked after without calling in for her dues. Her moral ambiguity calls for wariness but does not deserve a prison sentence...and so, Mama Tiana walks free, unshackled and unchecked, capable of heinous acts yet beloved by many.


[b][u]Biography:[/u][/b] Tiana’s story is known by basically everyone, but the details change so often depending on who is spinning the tale. She came from a far-off land, where the climate was more temperate and the trees denser. Snow clumped around your skirts and the cabins were made of logs, and a fire could mean the difference between life and death. It used to be owned by a lenient mage lord, who left the gnomekin to their own devices deep in the pine forests of the mountains. When the great Alsijan empire took over, her homeland was turned into a logging operation. She was shunted out of her abode and travelled towards the centre of this nation, for reasons unknown.

In Tiana’s old world, there was no such thing as good and evil magic - only different sorts. There were no laws and rules to restrict the people. Your survival depended upon your wit and your determination. Tiana had learned the craft from a very young age, from a very long line of matrons who taught her all she needed to know. She travelled towards the centre of this nation, with a mind full of curses and a bag full of knick-knacks.

The tale becomes more twisted around this time. Some Tiana she killed for sport - others likened her to a leech, draining unsuspecting victims of their blood in order to gain power. The most-recounted tale was that she only truly preyed upon beasts and monsters but was still branded a witch and a bloodsucker. She was arrested, and put onto trial, but her silver tongue let her slip her bonds. She travelled towards the centre of this nation with a criminal record and a rumour.

Tiana was stopped at the city gates, brought into question once more and then given the right to do business within the city. She toyed with the citizens, unsuspecting and fat on imports from the land they conquered. She earned money and favours. She became too much of a nuisance for the guild who had such difficulty policing her mischief that they decided (with a bit of persuasion from Tiana’s behalf) to simply keep her right under the guild’s nose so she cannot scheme away in the back-alleys. She seemed to quieten down, become complacent in her lavish halls and even went as far as to help the guild in their endeavours to educate their new and prosperous nation.

The story goes that a young gnome was torn from her burning homeland and tricked her way into luxury, but who’s to say what the true story was? Mama Tiana changes it every time.


[b][u]Affinities:[/u][/b] Sanguination, Enchantment

[b][u]Craft:[/u][/b] Infusion (Intermediate Skill)

[b][u]Magic:[/u][/b] Tiana, like the vast majority of her kin, is a trickster and a fraud - she is simply very good at making people believe otherwise. Posing as some sort of seer, she delves into the memories of others and beguiles them into believing her false prophecies for coin - those who wish for a more decisive tool to protect them against the uncertainty of the future may be able to receive enchanted trinkets, or special runestones. Everything has a cost, however, and the price must be paid off eventually...

[b][u]Skills:[/u][/b] Cooking. Baking. Speechcraft. Tailoring. Skinning. Foraging. Herbalism. Tiana has learned a great many professions in her lifetime, due to her long journey and a necessity for survival. She is very good with her hands - an extensive list would be impossible to write down, but she is only partially good at a great deal of things. Her mastery lies in trinket-making, an art of creating small, portable and alluring oddities that she can inscribe and enchant with runes made of blood or magic.

[b][u]Other:[/u][/b] For a character like this, cooperation is key. There’s no fun in finding the villain and thwarting their plans on the first day - mutual trust and a bit of OOC planning can make for good RP that suits us all!
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First RP back after a difficult time IRL. Please be gentle!