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Lyria, the Scion of War
"Enough of your words. There are no promises to give, no payments to make, that will save you from destruction.”
Profile
Name: Lyria
Titles: Peace-Bane, The Scion of War, Doom of Esria
Age: 555
Gender: Female
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Build: Muscular
Appearance:
Lyria’s perhaps most striking feature is her apparent humanity. The casual observer most often sees a tall woman with unmistakeably human origin. Blonde shoulder-length hair and a face with distinct likeness to civilizations past makes her easy to fit in the race category. On closer inspection, however, that is where the similarities end. Her eyes roil with flames that twist and churn on her retinas. Her features are locked in an eternal frown of irritation or anger, a fine complement to her constant battle-readiness; always equipped with some form of armour and weaponry. Such equipment tends to change with the times, but it is always of grand quality, as though to show off.
Personality:
Lyria does not appear to have missed the fact that she looks more like a human than a proper devil, instead it seems to have impacted her two-fold. Firstly, her animosity for the world is hard to match, her irritable demeanour easily turning to anger, rage and defensive accusations. Her issues with her kindred are in ever increasing supply, and every reminder that she is different appears to drive her into further anger. Secondly, she heralds the human – and by extension, her own – form as the ultimate shape for war. She is adamant in her perceived superiority to a fault, and will defend her less-brutish form both in lengthy debate and violent duel. As a byproduct rather than any morality, she heralds humanity as valiant warriors and effective killing machines.
She is prone to bouts of rage, frustration and murderous intent. When she is not raging against the world, Lyria can be disturbingly cunning and pragmatic. As a scion of war, she is ultimately quite skilled and preferential to strategy. She enjoys outmaneuvering an opponent on the field of battle and logistics as much as she does destroying them on the battlefield. She considers diplomacy a wasted effort and negotiation a perversion of the natural order, but will paradoxically engage in it if it will bring her victory in the end.
She is never kind, but has been known to exalt warriors and soldiers who do well on the battlefield or at the strategist’s table – whether they are her own or the enemy’s. Impressing her is often the best way to remain on her good side.
Specialty:
Lyria is first and foremost a warrior and a commander. She can and will wade into the thick of battle and destroy countless hapless opponents. Through determination, brute force and tactics she will wear down and batter most opponents in due time. She is a fearsome enemy for mortals and demons both, and given the chance – devils. The harder an enemy fights, the more power and speed she appears to move with. She encapsulates strategy and the cunning of war in body and spirit, and can muster campaigns and conflicts that would be impossible to a mere layman.
Furthermore, the burning desire for conflict that she deifies is infectious. Her followers – devils and mortals alike with a passion for war – or subjugated into service – find themselves whipped into a blood rage that can only be stopped with total and absolute victory. Among mortals, her thirst for battle can be so empowering that allies turn on one-another, and armies dissolve into disorganized fighting pits and blood feasts – even after the enemy has quit the field. Likewise, her eye for strategy is corrupting, and any war council influenced by her will start eyeing possibilities that were previously morally wrong or treasonous.
Dominating Trait: War
Background:
Born to at least one human parent (or so the rumours say) in a region known then as Esria, Lyria quickly excelled in a martial career, rocketing her through the unprepared noblemen’s system. Though many throughout the years have expressed fear, disturbance and anguish caused by the woman, few rise to challenge her presence and continued climb wherever she goes.
For Esria, it first meant unparalelled success as the scion of war expanded their territory in every direction, subjugated folk wherever she went. The soldiers loved her, the coffers were full, the people saw luxuries unimaged. Then began the infighting, the pillaging, the unabashed slaughter of any who clung to a banner. A collective madness fell over the rich land, and what was a glorious union quickly fell into squabbling factions while the blood-crazed soldiers of the state turned on their superiors, their friends, and anyone else who was unfortunate enough to remain. When Esria turned to ash, the Scion of War had already moved on, with new campaigns and conquests on the horizon.
For centuries now, she has been a force as the tide or the wind. Powerful kings, devils, or simply just people of ’great’ character see her in the service for a time, as a mercenary queen, a general, or simply a powerful bodyguard. Most devils are loathe to keep her around for long, both because of her appearance and her endless animosity towards her own kind. She simply will not stop looking for reasons to fight someone, and most find the threat of rebellion, madness and death too great a price to keep her around for long. Those that benefit from her services find themselves victorious more often than not in whatever conflicts they were embroiled in, but are also left forever changed by the experience, whether that is brutality, loss of manpower, or dread.
Not so for Morelion. In rumour among the courts it is said he invited the Scion of War to his abode and bested her in single combat, earning her loyalty on a tenuous leash. Others yet say that he is paying her in some inscrutable way, with a payment that is as horrifying as it is hard to discern. Everything from eternal war to blood ritual bindings has been spoken of. Even still, some discerning devils note that ever since Lyria first associated with the the pale devil-lord, her assaults on the civilized worlds have petered off into surgical raids and disciplined drills, as civilized as devils can be. A call has gone out far and wide for hopeful battlemasters to join the greatest horde that will ever be. Of course, Lyria would not call her army anything else. But it appears that the Devil-Lord has managed to somehow leash the unruly warrior. Why, and how long, remain to be seen.