Ellara Charlotte Van Abrams was born late into the evening on one fateful Wednesday in September of 1993. During her infant years, the young Ellara moved around from place to place as her parents, primarily her father, were on what was known to the Jäger as the 'Path'. While walking the path, the Van Abrams lived as grifters funding their trips through fraud and petty theft while the new family moved from town to town. Ellara's memories of these days are few and far between due in part both to her young age and the trauma surrounding the events of the death of her mother Sofia. The one thing she knew for certain was that her mother was murdered by something that scared even her father which prompted Jonathan Van Abrams to leave Ellara in the care of her Aunt.
It would only last two years until Ellara learned that death followed her no matter where she went. At the age of seven, her Aunt's house was broken into, her Aunt Diana was subsequently killed during the home invasion. Ellara arrived home after school to find Diana's body impaled in a broken piece of the banister. The police were never able to find those responsible and so Ellara was transferred into the custody of child services as the whereabouts of her birth father were unknown.
Going through foster home after foster home for the next nine years, Ellara kept her head down and avoided getting attached to any of her foster parents or siblings. Neither her biological parents or Aunt had ever taken the time to explain to Ellara what she was or how her abilities would work. Instead, Ellara grew up afraid of her own shadow as she began to see things she couldn't explain. Faces would change in front of her and a sick feeling would form in the pit of her stomach whenever she was in large crowds of people. It made Ellara prefer solitude to the company of others.
Maintaining decent grades throughout school, Ellara held down several various afterschool jobs, eventually saving the money required to attend college. But like most things in her life, college didn't work out for Ellara and she soon dropped out when she was offered a full-time position from her current employer.
Working at a bar called the 'Tír na nÓg', Ellara expressed her 'Activation' while off from work, celebrating her twenty-first birthday. Since that point, Ellara has experienced numerous vivid dreams and more commonly nightmares due to the memories of her ancestor. Continuing to work at the bar, Ellara is slowly beginning to understand what she had been seeing all of her life due to the new memories now in her head. Although, she realizes to explain any of this to anyone would likely end with her in a padded room.
//Abiliites:Ancestral Activation | At the age of twenty-one, Ellara's eyes were opened to an entirely new world, one that had been hiding in plain sight before her eyes. When an elder Jäger passes on, their memories and skills are passed along to their closest heir. In this case, the heir was Ellara, and the elder Jäger unbeknownst to her was her late father. When this happened, the memories and training of Ellara's ancestors were passed onto their living descendant, 'activating' Ellara as a Jäger.
It is for this reason that, Ellara has a natural aptitude for fighting as it is her ancestors' memories imprinting themselves on her reflexes and reactions which acts as a sort of instinctual intuition. She gained their knowledge of fighting against the supernatural, and with it their weapons' skills and preferences. As part of her heritage, Ellara also possesses incredible observational abilities and keen instincts.
Perhaps the most valuable, though underutilized skill that Ellara gain upon being activated is her 'Divine Tongue'. Through her ancestors, Ellara has become something of an omniglot, capable of speaking and reading languages she has never heard of. The additional cones in her retinas allow Ellara to view written language in a way most humans can't, and to see messages under the letters left by others like her. In addition to the modern language, Ellara possesses the gift of a 'Nightingale Tongue' and has an innate, almost imprinted understanding of 'Divine Languages' such as Latin, Gothic, Enochian and most notably, the 'Language of the Birds'. This is a significant contributor to Ellara's natural connection to the supernatural and therefore affinity for performing mystic arts if given the correct direction or training.
Jäger Physiology | Ellara has a unique physiology gained from a long ancestry dating back most famously to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. While her abilities are underdeveloped, Ellara still possesses several differences from a base human. The first of these differences is nearly undetectable, Ellara possesses two additional cones in her eyes' photoreceptor cells which allows her to see things that escape detection from the average human eye. Predominantly, this allows Ellara to see and detect the presence of the supernatural whether those around her want to seen or not. Ellara's sense of smell and her sense of hearing are also enhanced and with the proper training could be honed to the point where Ellara's hearing or sense of smell alone could compensate entirely for the loss of her sight. Additionally, Ellara possesses a sixth sense, a sort of supernatural 'radar' that provides her with an overwhelming 'gut feeling' whenever she's in the vicinity of something belonging to the supernatural.
The most notable aspect of Ellara's Jäger Physiology is her resilience to physical harm. As a Jäger, Ellara's body is substantially more durable and resistant to blunt force trauma than that of an ordinary human's and she possesses an incredibly high pain tolerance. It is difficult, though not impossible, to bruise Ellara and even more difficult to create strain on her joints or break her bones. Ellara possesses a sort of metaphysical strength that is not related to her physical mass and thus is hard to fully gauge. At best, it puts her above a trained strongman but not on a level that one would consider superhuman. Likewise, her physical speed, agility, and reflexes are also enhanced and while impressive to an average human, anyone one of these attributes would be rapidly outpaced by an individual possessing a superhuman trait of the aforementioned.
While a regular person may require eight to ten hours of sleep, Ellara requires considerably less but still needs rest to function. Ellara herself is capable of staying awake for days but this will result in her 'crashing' and her body forcing her to sleep for half a day. Provided Ellara is left undisturbed while she recuperates, there will be no lingering disabilities. When sleeping, Ellara can recover from most non-lethal injuries, the severity of which will determine how long she requires rest. Likewise, her body can sustain itself on very little food and water, having nearly double the threshold for dehydration or starvation that a human has, which leads to Ellara eating relatively lightly on an average day but capable of putting away large amounts of food after a long fought battle.
Tongue of the Nightingale | The tongue of the Nightingale, or 'Divine Tongue' is a Jäger's unique gift that gives them the ability to command and understand language in a way more humans can't. Considered to be 'Priority Speakers', when casting incantations or banishing beings from this plane, a Jäger's words take precedence over those of a rival caster or opponent. In addition to this, Jäger's are able to see messages hidden behind words and characters especially in the cast of rune or glyph based writing. Due to their 'Divine Tongue' and enhanced sight, new messages can appear on a page that wasn't present before due to the Jäger's mind being able to extrapolate the hidden text.
Combined with her ancestral knowledge, Ellara possesses a high degree of mastery over language and the longer she remains 'activated', the more ingrained her knowledge of Earth's various tongues will become. As a side effect, all Jäger speak in perfect pitch and share a natural talent for singing, storytelling and other vocal forms of communication.
Limitation(s) | Ellara's abilities coupled with her checkered past come with numerous limitations both inflicted by her abilities and her own psychological barriers. Due to the overwhelming amount of information unlocked in her mind upon 'activation' and her 'Divine Tongue', Ellara can suffer from bouts of glossolalia, or 'Speaking in Tongues' which makes it near impossible to communicate with others unless they're familiar with the tongue or a translator is provided.
Ellara's inexperience as a Jäger is her biggest limitation despite having grown up seeing the Supernatural, Ellara never had anyone to guide her nor train her despite her 'Ancestral Activation'. As such, while she can survive on instinct alone, if Ellara ever starts actively pursuing her heritage, she will quickly find herself outgunned and outmaneuvered by beings who have centuries more experience in confronting and defeating Jäger.
The Jäger's sixth sense for the Supernatural is not accurate, it can only inform the Jäger that there is a being of supernatural origin within a fifty-foot radius. It cannot determine who is the supernatural being or even what kind of supernatural being it is. Additionally, Ellara's Jäger Physiology does nothing to alert her of the presence of enhanced beings outside of the supernatural spectrum.
Ellara is also something of a technophobe, preferring to do things by hand whenever possible and using computers and cellphones sparingly. Furthermore, a lifetime of seeing what others can't has left Ellara in poor mental health and quite damaged. This has led to Ellara often refusing friends, help or aid even when in need of any of the aforementioned.
Weakness(es) | There are several noticeable weaknesses to Ellara's Jäger Physiology. The first of which is that in the same way Ellara can see the Supernatural, they too can see what she is. When her abilities see through the disguise of a supernatural, her own nature is revealed to them. Despite their resounding resilience against blunt force, a Jäger can be injured by conventional bullets, bladed weapons, and more advanced weaponry just as easily as an ordinary human can. Likewise, despite being able to perform it, Jäger's are not immune to magic and can be harmed or even killed from offensive spells.
All Jägers suffer from a weakness to 'Witch Blood' which is a literal term and refers to blood belonging to a living practitioner of magic. Weapons or objects laced with Witch Blood have a toxic reaction with a Jäger, causing burns upon contact and preventing wounds from closing. Ingestion of Witch Blood can lead to a Jäger being reduced to human levels if not outright killing them pending the quantity of dosage.
As a Jäger's primary method of recovery is through sleep, this leaves them with only two choices while injured requiring them to either continue fighting while wounded or to retreat in order to sleep. Either way, this decision could lead to the Jäger's untimely death due to falling in battle or being discovered while unable to defend themselves.
//Skills:Mixologist | One of the more popular bartenders at the 'Tír na nÓg', Ellara is responsible for maintaining the supplies and inventory of the bar. Outside of this, she serves customers, generally working in the evening and leaving before midnight. As a bartender, Ellara is very familiar with the preparation of classic cocktails and is responsible not only serving both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks but also for formulating new, themed or seasonal drinks for the bar's various events.
Pragmatic Combatant | As Ellara's 'Ancestral Activation' is far from consistent or reliant and as it has only occurred in a very recent part of her life, she can't count on it in a fight. As her true nature has always been with her, the supernatural have been attacking her the majority of her life and because of this, Ellara has become accustomed to fighting with whatever is at hand. Capable of thinking quickly on her feet and making the best use of her surroundings, Ellara has become an accomplished pragmatist.
Street Smart | Living her life in the manner that she has, Ellara has learned how to listen to the rhythm of the city's heart, finding its beat and discovering the way in which it moves. She knows how to evade the police, where to find a hookup and can tell which storefronts are legitimate business and which are hiding a backroom filled with suspicious activity.