[hider=Paladin][list][*][u][b]Name[/b][/u]: Paladin Tyaethe Radistirin, First and Youngest of the Knights.
[*][u][b]Age[/b][/u]: 238
[*][u][b]Gender[/b][/u]: Female
[*][u][b]Race[/b][/u]: Human (Vampire)
[*][u][b]Appearance[/b][/u]:
[hider=Default][img]https://i.imgur.com/CbyFwtq.png[/img]
Average knight for scale:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/QD7tugC.png[/img][/hider]
[hider=Adult]For obvious reasons, she doesn't exactly fight like this:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/2778xE7.png[/img]
It's not even that much taller:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/DqyHwHb.png[/img][/hider]
[hider=Armoured]Standing over six feet tall, it definitely doesn't match her height out of armour...
With sword:
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1006233682547323100/1089720868734767104/image.png[/img][/hider]
[*][u][b]Personality[/b][/u]: The opinion of those who only have to interact with the Iron Roses in their capacity as knights is that Tyaethe is a serious, no-nonsense veteran. This is completely true provided that she's acting in her capacity as a knight of the church, off rescuing people or doing simple military work--she's quite serious, if prone to taking the aggressive and faster option. When there's a real fight on hand or something strong to oppose, she gets more hot-headed... and in general is quite prone to an "ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK" mentality, prone to forgetting that most people do not share her ability to disregard physical injury.
Off the battlefield, outside of religious matters she's quite lazy. There's no equipment for her to upkeep, no physical exercise to keep in shape, no family matters to attend to, and even the captain only needs so much assistance in a day. It leaves her plenty of time for either emulating a cat and finding somewhere inconvenient but comfortable to nap, or playing tricks and teasing other members of the Iron Roses. Or helping them as the case may be. At times, the vampire can actually [i]seem[/i] her age, bored of the repetitiveness of time and duty--but still obliged to be here.
Unless she respects you, making fun of her height or age is quite a way to set her off.
[*][u][b]Brief Backstory[/b][/u]: Coming from a minor noble family, Tyaethe was always expected to carry on her family's duty as knights of the crown. Yet due to favours owed by a highly influential and religious duke to her father, the standard of education that the girl received was much higher than her family would have expected--until the duke's own outspoken nature and the cause of the original favour came back. Having made enemies with a vampire of some age, and defied death once before, they came back for vengeance during a feast. Perhaps the vampire recognised Tyaethe as the child of one of its enemies and wanted to make a more ironic point, or maybe they just didn't want to kill a child in training--but of the attack, she was the only survivor, and quite confused at that.
With her teacher dead, but his influence still felt, the girl went to the church and pledged herself to training as a paladin and to become a knight in Reon's service--with no idea of what she had been afflicted with. When this became apparent, it was already too late to back out... despite Reon's virulent hatred for vampires in particular, to reject an orphaned child unwittingly burdened with undeath would have been far too cruel, and a faithful servant is hardly the threat most become. So, even though the church would normally have resisted accepting the undead into their ranks, Tyaethe completed her training as best as possible despite the lack of ageing and became a paladin.
Hot-headed and somewhat hard to work with, Tyaethe spent most of her time as a crusading knight-errant and working on her magical abilities--not wanting to go to yet another social function made doubly awkward by her apparent age, or snap at another companion for bringing attention to the fact. Her tendency for long trips away from most paladins helped with forgetting [i]what[/i] she was, and Tyaethe developed a reasonably good reputation for her abilities.
Which is about when Elionne prevented the assassination of Falthir and impressed the older paladin so much that she was the first to swear her service--before the Iron Roses had even been founded--and was something of a teacher. This, combined with her apparent age, is the source of the "First and Youngest" title... which she [i]still[/i] hates hearing. Unfortunately, it's open knowledge, along with her condition, leaving Tyaethe with a very strange reputation.
When Elionne disappeared, the vampire didn't know more than anyone else, though she certainly took the news hard. In the end, Tyaethe stuck with the knights, though she's become touchier about her apparent age over time, and has a tendency to act as a stumbling block to changing tradition. Occasionally, nobles looking to advance their control over the knights have been dismayed to learn that the circumstances of Tyaethe's original vow to join the knights more or less require Elionne to be the one to make her leave or be proved dead. Of course, that's outweighed by the people who are glad she [i]hasn't[/i] gone anywhere; finding someone willing and able to fight dragons when they intermittently show up, let alone one so gleeful about it, would be... difficult if the paladin were to retire or go travelling.
[*][u][b]Equipment[/b][/u]: The only piece of "real" equipment that Tyaethe possesses is her sword--a blessed blade enchanted to have no weight to the wielder, so that even someone in her situation can wield it without any difficulty, and as resilient to damage as it could be made. Everything else, aside from her scarfs, is nothing more than a magical construct created as needed.
Though it isn't really equipment, she also has two hundred years of accumulated money left over for whatever might need the investment--not a bad amount.
[*][u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: As one would expect of the most experienced knight in the order, Tyaethe's greatest asset is her swordsmanship, despite the link between vampirism and magical power. She takes pride in achieving victory through nothing more than the mundane application of skill, now honed over entire lifetimes, and insists that using some magical enhancement hardly detracts from the achievement; there are enough people around physically monstrous enough to achieve the same effects regardless. Some people have disagreed with this. Whatever their opinion on magically assisted swordsmanship, her skill is sufficient that she only gets excited when prodigies join the knights and provide some decent competition until they leave, or age catches up.
Of course, as a vampire, there is no avoiding the massive raw magical power requirement to survive the process, one Tyaethe seems to have naturally exceeded by a considerable margin despite her development. Although dependent on regularly feeding to be able to fuel this level, the point that the paladin considers to be satiated and not a danger--and therefore maintaining something approaching her natural capacity--is akin to standing next to a bonfire of mana.
All of this energy is regularly redirected into one of the least efficient spells possible, generating an illusion and enforcing its reality through stubbornness and sheer magical energy. In practical terms, it amounts to a minor capacity for shapeshifting and conjuration, no matter the mechanism behind it. This, of course, is how the paladin maintains an adult appearance as needed, or actually armours herself as a knight--ageing up or conjuring armour as appropriate. Due to its nature as little more than raw magic, it protects even better against magical attacks than physical, although it also provides the (rather unnecessary) protection of normal armour.
With the illusions requiring constant investment, there [i]is[/i] a limit to how long they can be maintained, with the armoured one being particularly extreme and reserved only for combat itself. Merely looking how she would if she had grown normally can be kept up with little difficulty, as long as she's awake.
Then, of course, there are the abilities that stem directly from [i]being[/i] a vampire. Using mana for physical enhancement is the most obvious, and where even the weakest vampires get a dreaded reputation: unless starving, even the least combat-trained vampire can boost themselves to scary levels. The other one is that inflicting damage that can't just be [i]healed away[/i] is a matter of some difficulty without holy blessing or a talent for decapitation. It also has a few minor talents that are occasionally handy--obviously, seeing in the dark is a big one, but her other senses are quite sharp, although not to extreme levels. Except for two exceptions: heartbeats and the smell of blood. Quite hard to sneak up on, this one.
Having pretty terrible unaided eyesight isn't a skill, but it's noteworthy.
[*][u][b]Other:[/b][/u] Yes, drinking blood is required--blood becomes mana, mana sustains life. Yes, the sun is dangerous. It isn't quite lethal, though: Reon hates vampires but she's aware it's not a choice.[/list][/hider]