Name: Sika

Race: Therian (Kobold base form)

Age: 10

Appearance: 
[hider=Kobold][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/d57219aa-9e0a-406b-8ca8-be315fabc6a5/ddaxdoo-fdeb8a7f-73da-446b-8ac9-f07ea4823a64.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvZDU3MjE5YWEtOWUwYS00MDZiLThjYTgtYmUzMTVmYWJjNmE1XC9kZGF4ZG9vLWZkZWI4YTdmLTczZGEtNDQ2Yi04YWM5LWYwN2VhNDgyM2E2NC5qcGcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.kKLMFzU9Qua2Ts-kXBJ654WB88hgGkpDpwQMlZ7NFjY[/img][/hider]


Affinity: Vitamancy

Talents: 
[list]
[*]Hunting and other wilderness survival skills
[*]Trap-making
[*]Cleverness and creativity
[*]Strong memory
[*]Team-oriented
[*]Unyielding optimism
[/list]

Problems:
[list]
[*]Incomplete language comprehension outside of her tribe’s language.
[*]Almost entirely ignorant of how to live among civilization
[*]Diminutive size
[*]Unyielding optimism
[/list]

Recommendation Letter: Sika was considered, from a young age, to be a strange one among her tribe. She grew up just a bit different from all the other Kobolds, and those differences only grew stronger as she became older. She would always tend to get lost in the caves or at night, and she eventually figured out that she could not see in the dark nearly as well as her kin. As well, while she does have claws, they did not become proper digging claws as she matured, so she could not easily contribute to many of the tasks that her tribe would find simple. She would find herself the subject of ridicule from other children for the fact that she could not explore the caves as they could, and she always felt the need to try and live up to expectations she simply could not meet. 

While she practiced hard to try and learn skills to make up for her shortcomings, Sika still ended up as sort of a black sheep of the tribe by the time she was an adult. For a while, she could only hunt during the daytime, and she could only use traps that did not require too much digging. However, she was a perseverant, adaptable, and clever individual. She learned how to create tools to overcome her weakness in digging so she could craft more types of traps for hunting. For the kinds of prey that only tended to come out at night, she started patiently observing their habits and preferences so she could figure out lures to bait them into her limited vision, or simply into her traps. For navigating the darkness of the caves her tribe tended to use, she, throughout her life, developed a rather impressive memory and sense of direction. Even so, despite her accomplishments, Sika never ended up satisfying herself her own standards of being a worthy member of the tribe. In her mind, she had to go through so much extra effort just to do the same things as everyone else. 

The event that would eventually come to reshape Sika’s life was the arrival of a group of outsiders. They were an expeditionary group, sent from the Apotheosis Aranaeum to study the Kobolds and other tribal people that lived in the remote areas of Crystaalilk. They were, as all outsiders, met initially with suspicion. But, Sika’s tribe, while defensive, was not a bloodthirsty one, and when the outsiders came bearing gifts of food and supplies, her tribe was honor-bound to treat with them as they would another Kobold tribe. The gift the outsiders wanted in return was one of knowledge, and it was one that was granted, albeit reluctantly. The task of leading around outsiders all day and answering endless questions was not a particularly desirable one for most of the tribe, so of course, Sika was one of those selected for it. 

Over the course of a few months, and a few rounds of gifts on the part of the expedition, Sika spent most of her time with an Elvish man named Melecus tasked with studying the particulars of the tribe’s dialect, and their history. She was surprised to find that he could already [i]sort of[/i] speak their language at the start, but even still, it took some time before he learned enough of their tribe’s particular dialect that they could communicate effectively. At that point, she spent most days doing just as she was asked and telling as many of the stories and myths of her people as she could remember. However, unlike most of the other Kobolds, she also [i]returned[/i] that curiosity in kind. She asked Melecus about where he was from and what stories he could tell her. She learned [i]some[/i] of his language, and more importantly, became engrossed in the concept of magic and being a mage. Sika started telling stories more personal to herself, rather than the tribe as a whole, and he eventually identified that she was not a Kobold at all, but rather a Fey like himself. A Therian.

Even after a few attempts at an explanation, Sika never truly understood what it meant to be a Therian, and she still thought of herself as Kobold, but she did understand that it meant she could be something else. She could have a body other than her own, and considering how much she hated the body fate had given her, that was an idea she latched onto. She told him she wanted to go to the Arcanaeum he had told her about this magic, though it was some time before she got her answer. 

It was just before the expedition was set to move on that Melecus offered Sika a chance. It would not help her to join him, but she could make her own case for acceptance into the Arcanaeum. He gave her a book with hand-drawn maps, which he taught her to read, as well as copies of notes he made on their respective languages to help her translate and learn more of his language. He told her that, if she could make it on her own from her village to the Aranaeum, then the journey would be enough to prove her worth to them. He had written pages of helpful advice to assist her journey, and finally, gave her a pouch of circular, shiny objects. He told her to go to a specific city and wait for a specific woman, a “captain” of a big boat, to give her that pouch, and tell her that she wanted to go to a place called Trasis. The woman would take her on the boat to the island, and only then would Sika be able to reach the Arcanaeum.

Melecus had also tried to warn Sika of the many dangers and challenges she would face on such a journey, but she had not spent much time worrying about them. As soon as the expedition left, so too did Sika. And indeed, her journey was one which could be written into a novel. Across many miles, many regions, and many landscapes she walked. She had no carriage or beasts of burden to carry a stockpile of food and supplies, so every day called upon her skills of survival to hunt and forage in order to sustain herself. Melecus had given her some descriptions and illustrations in the book of a few types of plants that were safe to eat in regions outside her homeland, but that was far from enough to make it easy. Even the simple act of walking could be made a challenge when forced to traverse everything from mountains, to thick forests, to swampland. She had to find new ways to hunt creatures that behaved in ways she had never seen, and to fight off dangerous beasts that could easily see her as a meal. She dealt with injury and pain, exhaustion and hunger, all while protecting with her life the gifts that Melecus had given her. Sika was mentally at her lowest when, under the guise of a friendly offering of a warm meal, she was lured into the camp of a small group of highwaymen, beaten, and robbed of her few belongings. Still, even when it would have been easier to give up, she persevered, tracked them despite her injuries, and stole in the night everything they had taken from her. 

It took over a year, a year of pain and persistence, but Sika never faltered in her commitment. She made it to the city, braved its frighteningly large crowds and alien buildings for days until she could find the woman Melecus had described and gave her the pouch. She boarded the impossibly large boat and endured days of the most sickening nausea she had ever experienced, but she finally made it to the island. The final stretch of the journey to Medaya was a casual stroll compared to everything she had been through. But, through it all, as just a diminutive Kobold, she had finally made it to the Apotheosis Aranaeum.