Age: 23
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Demisexual / Homosexual
Role in Society: Commoner
Occupation: Eastern Woods Ranger
LegendThere are many more myths than legends that surround the
'Ranger Lord.' Said to have taken up the eastern forests as a home, she is often regarded as a phantom, a ghost, or the very spirit of the woods. Actual logging of it's trees have slowed down since the spread of her presence, because many people tend to believe that if you take more than you need from the forest, an arrow will suddenly materialize and kill you.
Though she isn't a killer, the myths seem to stay strong regardless and even more are spread about those who've tried to challenge her domain. They say anyone foolish enough to charge in her direction or manage to put a shield up, can never manage to land a single blow, as blades and knives literally phase through her body. She is like a shadow among darkness and it doesn't seem like anyone can accurately describe her appearance. Some say that if you see something move along the tree lines in the eastern forest, she is watching you.
Personality: There a lot layers beneath the layers of Cerylia's personality. What's most obvious though is that she is a focused and self-driven individual. Often whatever goal that she has set up for herself, she easily finds the determination to pull through almost any challenge that presents itself. Beyond that, it is easy to see she is a kind and friendly soul, however cautious she may be of others. Though she is used to keeping alone most of the time, it doesn't bother her as much as some others, being an introvert in nature.
However it is a tad hard to get past her walls, even for trusted allies and friends, but if you manage you might find someone who is just as human as anyone else despite her confidence. She is lonely and depressed deep down and puts on masks of fake smiles. She also has trust issues despite the fact that her belief in love actually gives others a chance to prove her wrong - she just normally assumes she's right not to fully trust anyone.
Skills•
Master Bowman: Having spent most of her life behind the drawstring of a bow, Cerylia has all but become a grandmaster of the bow. She's well talented enough to even use it within melee range, whether it's point blank shots or using the arrows as mini-daggers. She is easily one of the best in the land.
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Master Tracker: A unique combination for rangers, this skill is a mixture of hunting and stealth in wilderness environments. Since she has been thrown into the druidic circle since a young age, she was able to grasp this well enough that by the time she reached an adult, she had become one of the most renown trackers in all of Iliviace.
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Expert Herbalist: Not the same as alchemy, but Cerylia knows the wilds enough - even outside the forests - to be able to tell if something is healthy to eat, does nothing, is poison, or even magically charged for alchemy.
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Acrobatics Expert: Having run through the wilds since she was young, it is easy for her to jump, spin, or otherwise continue her momentum as she chases prey or retreats. This also greatly increases her ability to dodge and avoid blows and projectiles.
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Nature Affinity: This skill is to explain her ability to smell rain hours before it's coming, read birds patterns for season changes, calm deer to eat from her hand, or otherwise walk around wolf packs without being attacked.
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Journeyman Cook: She knows enough to make a decent meal that tastes good, but nothing that you would remember the next day, but at least nothing you'd complain about for a week either. It's not fancy or amazing, but it fills the stomach.
Combat Flaws•
Melee Prowess: Being a weakness, this pretty much means it isn't very refined and in fact still on an apprentice level. Just enough to survive a regular sword fight against a low-ranking militia. Beyond that though, if she were to find herself without a bow against a knight, she would be in danger.
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Urban Environments: Pretty much anything outside of the natural world, she is at a distinct disadvantage. While she can still track, it's only half as good as it is in the wilds. The same goes her her nature affinity - while not unfamiliar with civilization, she doesn't understand the suitabilities of it all.
Personality Flaws•
Fear of Being Alone: An ironic type of fear since she has spent most of her life in loneliness, but she is truly afraid that in the last of her days, in her deathbed - no one will be there to comfort her, that she would have lived her whole life completely alone.
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Communication: At times, if things are confusing or not spelled out, it can be easy for Cerylia to assume things or get frustrated by the lack of understanding. She often employs exact wording to avoid this issue.
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Trouble with Men: Though it didn't last the majority of her life, being abused by her father was a large portion of her childhood. On the good side, it developed fast and her father often did not show her much kindness so it didn't traumatize her as much as other victims. However she still feels 'touchy' and flinches away from any man's touch and generally has trouble trusting that others actually give a damn.
Magic Spells•
Calm Animals: Typically only a Weave Magic available to druids and rangers, it helps calm down the base instincts of animals and feel more safe and calm around the user. Extreme hunger or rage can counter this though.
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Trackless Step: A Weave Magic developed by rangers, when spoken, it can quickly cover up any and all signs of their path. This can only be used on their own tracks however and covers up to hundred feet.
Abilities•
Legendary Archery: Being her first and foremost mastered skill, it was easy to guess that this skill would be effected by Deep Magic.
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Hawkeye: Drawing her bow causes her vision to magnify at will, zooming up to three times nomral vision. She can also passively see up to 8 times sharper than normal. This essentially allows her to distinguish features that are 20 feet away that others would have to be 2 feet away to make out.
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Quick Draw: A unique pulse of magic fires off when she reaches for an arrow and draws her string back, causing her to draw and set the bow ready to aim twice as fast - which at her mastery level can be rather fatal for enemies.
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Legendary Tracker: Being of the second skill mastered, Deep Magic has also settled into her ability to hunt and and meld into natural settings.
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Eye's Veil: At will, the Deep Magic puts up a sort of perception filter. Even onlookers find themselves having a hard time concentrating on the exact location of Cerylia. Though she can be found with enough willpower (if in plain sight), but she seems blurry and out of focus. This is only half as effective in unnatural environments though.
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Heightened Sense: As a tracker, one must be able to spot the unseen and hear the quiet steps of others. Deep Magic has seeped into her, enhancing her level of hearing and the ability to notice small, out of place details. Unlike Eye's Veil, this is not hindered by other environments.
BackstoryCerylia did not have a normal childhood nor a happy one. Her mother had died at childbirth, leaving her father to raise her alone as they bounced from one kingdom to the next. Her father however was not a man meant to sire a child - he was a con man, trying to fool people out of coin for alchemy potions that were nothing but sweet water. What was worse is that he was also a drunken abuser. Every time he gained enough gold to spend a night at a tavern, he would always come back to sweet, young four year old Cerylia and throw a few blows her way. That's all she knew for most of her younger years until she finally grew tied of it at the age of nine, gathering all her courage and resolve and running away into the eastern forests.
Normally, she would've never survived, not that she cared - death seemed sweet compared to a life of physical torture. Instead of death though, she stumbled her way into a druidic grove, home to an ancient order of Gaia worshipers. Taking pity on her, they dressed and cared for her and gave her a place to call home and finally feel safe from the evils and abandonment of the world. Despite their good graces though, they saw her strength and decided - somewhat without any empathy - to throw her right into training. Cerylia never once felt loved or cared for by the group, but they did save her life and they were teaching her ways to survive on her own without depending on anyone but herself. Amazingly, against the emotional scarring of abandonment she continued to endure, she advanced through the training at a quick pace and took a particular favoring of the bow.
As she grew older and more skilled, she was allowed more and more freedom into the forests, allowed to track and hunt on her own. Before she gained the ability to make her own camps and essentially be independent of the circle, she would often find herself spending hours at creeks, waterfalls, and in trees, admiring the beauty and peace of the natural world. Some may call it a fluke, or an oddity, but somewhere among nature's embrace she found the belief of something greater - perhaps it was compassion, or the hope for love, or sympathy. No matter the case, she used this belief in trying to help people as much as keeping the balance of the wilds, mastering the ability to track and use her bow for these purposes specifically.
It had been an odd, emotionally traumatizing life into her early twenties. She had gone from abusive father, to emotionally cold druids, to isolation in the woods and yet somehow still found the unbelievable strength to fight for good, to show compassion and mercy for others, and wisdom to know when to end it. Most people may have become bitter, cold, unforgiving, untrusting, or completely detached. Though it was true she had become cautious, almost hopeless, even depressed, she kept clinging onto a sliver of hope that someday it would be all better - that she would finally find someone worth sharing her life with. This deeply hidden and powerful resolve to cling onto a tiny light in an ocean of darkness is what Jergal saw in her. This was the resolve, the determination against all odds in her life that drew his attention and in those later years of her life, she was gifted with his Deep Magic.
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