Meow's Marvelous Morons (or Bird's Beautiful Bints)

[Meowmai]

This is my assembly of dipshits, some of whom I even play!

Main Cast

Kestrel Nankeen: A curious and cheery young bird-girl archer and adventurer. She simply wants to explore the world and have fun but her naïve and foolish nature inevitably leads her into all kinds of trouble.

Elizabeth Welles: A young smart catgirl looking to turn away from her life of crime and use her skills for good as a hacktivist. She's a huge nerd and an equally huge coward though, so don't expect her to take a stand when her life is on the line.

Pania Waikaha: An angry human psion and warrior grappling to control her powers and seeking vengeance against those who experimented on her. She's new to the Nexus and a fresh member of MERC.

Atsede Nnadi: A teenage delinquent Changeling whose soul is entangled with that of an angel's, and is doing everything she can to rebel against her strict and highly religious parents. This mostly involves getting into a lot of trouble at school and doing some very stupid things.

Sylvia Brownlow: An anxious and skittish Lapin (bunny-girl) trying to find the courage to leave home and escape her families pressures. She spends most of her time reading, writing, drawing, and freaking out over anything trivial.

Tespa: A dubious catfolk fortune teller and necromancer, cursed with unbreakable magic that rots her body and drags her closer to death without ever quite pulling her over the line and into the grave. Loves to be cryptic and mysterious, and is always on the lookout for weird occult relics or new sources of power.

Ginger: A gnollish Champion of the sun Goddess Sarenrae, who is perhaps more boisterous and blunt than you would expect from a divine warrior. She strives to make the world a better place, striking down evil but always being sure to offer a helping hand to those willing to take up the path of redemption.

[Meowmai]

Kestrel Nankeen

The Basics
Aliases: Kes, Feathers
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Bird-Kin
Age: 21

Profession: Adventurer, Camp Counselor at GLoG
Sexuality: Bisexual, but with a strong romantic preference towards women.
Height: 5’2” (157cm)

Description
Kestrel is a girl with a short, slender frame, her unassuming build hiding a surprising bit of strength built up from her years of labour and archery. She has tanned skin, and golden eyes that peer out from under her very messy shoulder-length brown hair. Most striking are the reddish-brown feathers that grow from her skin, tipped on the very end in black. These emerge from the back of her ears, very small feathers that grow to a point not unlike elf ears. Larger feathers grow from the underside of her forearms, and yet larger tailfeathers emerge from her lower back. These feathers sometimes flatten or puff out depending on her mood.

Kestrel’s outfit isn’t too complicated, as she prefers the practical and comfortable over the stylish. She wears grey shorts, a brown t-shirt, and comfortable brown boots. Over the top of her shirt is an old, thin, leaf-green jacket, with seams that seem barely stitched together. She wears a pair of fingerless gloves, once again brown. Her two concessions to fashion are a yellow bandana hanging low, and a small leather choker with a golden arrow charm decorating her neck.

Personality
Curious, adventurous, and ever-cheerful, Kestrel is a girl who’s always eager to go out into the world and try new things. While the realities of the world don’t often match her storybook heroic dreams, she’s excitable and optimistic enough that such things rarely weigh her down. She’s quite impatient and easily distractible though, often getting lost in thoughts and daydreams should something fail to hold her interest.

Not having many when she grew up, Kestrel is always on the lookout for new friends. Thus, she always tries to be friendly when meeting people, and is more than willing to offer a helping hand at a moment's notice to those she does befriend. She’s naive and pretty inexperienced, and so prone to quickly trusting most people she meets. This also makes her quite susceptible to peer pressure, her desire to look cool and impress those around her overriding the more rational part of her brain.

Kestrel acts quite reckless and overconfident, and while some of this is a genuine over-estimation of her own skills, a lot of it is a facade. Her youth and inexperience shows, and she’s developed more than a few little insecurities in her need to be taken seriously. Cracks in this facade will reveal she’s a lot more shy, nervous and uncertain when it comes to some things than she tries to let on.

History
Kestrel grew up in a relatively small, unremarkable village, and spent most of her life as a farmgirl there. While she loved her parents, she always longed to leave for adventure, and was known for exploring the woods and getting into trouble. Her uncle tried to teach her the skills of a ranger, and while she struggled to pick up skills such as magic and navigation, she learned enough and quickly became attached to learning archery. When she turned 18, she left home to take up adventuring, and managed to eventually after a few years find herself thrown into the Nexus. She still has desires to keep adventuring and one day become a hero, but is less purely dedicated to it as she was before.

Further Information
Equipment
Family Shortbow: Really, the only significant piece of equipment Kestrel carries with her, as she’s quite broke. Even then, the bow is only special for sentimental value, previously belonging to her uncle thus making it one of the few reminders of home she has with her in the Nexus. For all intents and purposes, just a well-made wooden shortbow.

Hunting Knife and Pan: Her backup weapons should enemies ever get too close. Both are what they say on the tin, and used as weapons only as emergencies. Her hunting knife is a very simple blade mostly meant for skinning animals, and her pan obviously meant for cooking. On more than one occasion though, she’s had to rely on one or the other, and they are surprisingly trusty last-lines of defence.

Abilities
Archer: Kestrel is no keen sharpshooter, but she’s good enough with a bow to at least usually hold her own while adventuring. Kind of. She prefers a mobile, skirmishing style, and while that keeps her out of harm's way it doesn’t exactly help her aim. Still, it’s good enough to be a valuable skill in her arsenal.

Basic Ranger Training: While much of it did not stick, Kestrel at least understands the basics of herbalism, hunting and cooking, stealthy movement, and animal communication/care. She’s even managed to pick up a way to “speak” very simply with wolves!

Birdkin Body: Her ancestry provides Kestrel a few little useful quirks. She’s surprisingly light, which makes her hobby of climbing easier and safer. Her eyesight is sharper than that of a regular human. In addition, she bounces back from wounds and injuries a little quicker than most.

Were-Harpy: After the magic from a failed wish and an accidental bite from a werewolf mixed with her bird-like ancestry, Kestrel unwittingly found herself becoming a wereharpy. Her appearance in were-harpy form includes increased feather growth, slight changes in colour as some of her feathers take on a pinkish hue, while her legs become that of a bird and her arms transform into wings without proper hands. She has no real control over the transformation, and has yet to figure out the trigger. While the lack of hands makes everyday life difficult in this form, it does at least grant her the ability to fly. Kestrel is mostly herself while transformed, but notably is a touch more instinctual, and much more physically expressive.

Mild Misfortune: While not really an ability per-se, Kestrel is notoriously unlucky. Yet, paradoxically, she’s similarly blessed with a strange luck. While things always go wrong and she always finds herself in trouble, she rarely ever seems to find herself in so much danger that she can’t escape with more than a few scrapes and a bruised ego.

Misc Info
Kestrel is not alone in her travels, for while she does not take him on dangerous adventures she’s almost always otherwise accompanied by a young wolf cub named Silver. He had gotten loose from some goblin pens after his mother died, and injured himself. Kestrel rescued the poor cub, and he bonded to her in the absence of his mother. She negotiated being able to adopt and look after him from the goblins after helping them out, and now the two are basically inseparable. One day she hopes Silver will grow to be a wolf companion able to fight by her side, but for now she’s happy to spoil the curious and mischievous cub.

Kestrel has picked up a MERC Licence to help herself find adventuring jobs, but while she’s not adventuring she instead works at GLoG, happy to help out in any way she can.

[Meowmai]

Elizabeth Welles

The Basics
Aliases: Eclipse
Gender: Female- transgender, she/her
Ancestry: Catgirl
Age: 23

Profession: Thief and Hacktivist
Sexuality: Lesbian
Height: 5’4” (163 cm)

Description
Elizabeth is pale and scrawny, and even on her good days always appears at least a little bit messy and tired. Her eyes are bubblegum-pink, a telltale sign marking her as yet another child of Reinholdt’s. Her hair is blonde, as are her cat features- a fluffy tail and two fluffy ears atop her head.

Her standard getup is nothing flashy. Sneakers, long jeans and trousers, or shorts depending on the weather, and faded graphic t-shirts always hidden under a black hoodie. The only thing of note is the device she wears on her left wrist, a purple holo-projector screen strapped in place besides a few little switches and knobs.

When she gears up for a heist or other such crimes, her face is mostly covered, concealed by the hood as well as the addition of a bandana and a visor she uses to see in the dark or look through her drone camera.

Personality
Elizabeth is an intelligent young woman whose talents, passions and skills are rather held back by a prevalent laziness and general unwillingness to get up out of bed before noon. She’s quite antisocial, preferring to spend most of her time locked in her room and only emerging once in a while, like some dishevelled and likely malnourished cryptid. Part of this is informed by her refusal to do a single honest day's work- resulting in her preference to stay anonymous in most things. All of this means that should she ever be thrown into an actual social situation, she immediately becomes rather quiet and quite awkward. She is staunchly anti-authority, distastes violence, and holds little regard for the law in general. Despite some of these firmly held beliefs, she’s a huge coward. Elizabeth is neither tough nor brave, and she knows this, so prefers to instigate conflicts and confrontations from behind a laptop screen and several layers of proxy servers.

History
Elizabeth was a child born to two loving parents, with the slight added caveat that one of these parents was in hiding, and the other was a criminal. Her father was a particular clone of Reinholdt, made to be a sleeper agent, who escaped and eventually fell in love with Elizabeth’s mother. Her mother in turn was a hacktivist, using her skills to try and make the world a better place. And so Elizabeth grew up, learning larceny from her father and hacking (or datacrafting, as it was called there) from her mother, and always keeping a low profile. When she went out into the world on her own though, instead of taking after her mother she fell into bad habits, stealing and defrauding to make her way in life. After some time the guilt began to weigh down upon her though, and these days she once more tries to use her skills for good, working to expose or sabotage corrupt corporations or people of influence. Old habits die hard though, and one way or another, she’s still making a living off of a life of crime.

Further Information
Equipment
ECM Rig: The quintessential multitool of a datacrafter. Elizabeth’s Rig is a computer she wears on her wrist, built specifically for hacking, but it comes with a few additional tricks. This device uses nanite technology and other advanced tech to enable hackers to deploy a selection of pre-loaded programmes that can hack or interfere with close-by technology far more rapidly and effectively than one normally could. In addition, it allows her to hack targets without being at whatever terminal or systems would typically be needed to access them, instead simply needing proximity to the target. Elizabeth tries to avoid using the ECM capabilities unless she really needs to though, as replenishing the nanites is not exactly cheap, and she is almost always broke.

Polly: Polly is a small flying drone that Elizabeth has definitely not stolen, salvaged and reprogrammed in order to assist her on her “jobs,” keeping her out of the danger zone. Nicknamed Polly as letters on its side read “POLI,” with two more letters filed off. Polly is currently equipped with tools that enable Elizabeth to do some amount of remote hacking through it, and modifications that allow it to run silently and sneakily. Additionally, Polly is equipped with a taser. Just in case. POLIs AI so far is rudimentary and so mostly needs piloting by Elizabeth, but she’s hoping to one day change that.

Heist Equipment: You can’t live a life of crime without the tools to do so. Lockpicking sets, rope, a crowbar, a small pouch of flour, a pair of night vision goggles, additional hacking equipment etc., it’s all here.

An Endless Supply of Computers: Elizabeth always seems to be able to get her hands on a variety of desktop PCs, laptops, phones, and general electrical components. Don’t ask how.

Abilities
Hacking: Be it social engineering, or direct software hacking, Elizabeth is well-versed in gaining access to other peoples systems using a variety of methods and technology.

Larceny: Elizabeth is sneaky, and knows how to pick locks and pockets alike with practised ease.

Engineering: while she doesn’t exactly have an engineering degree, Elizabeth knows enough to be able to work on programming, constructing and repairing certain equipment, especially any electronics, and has learnt a lot about robotics recently.

Misc Info

[Meowmai]

Pania Waikaha

The Basics
Aliases: None so far
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Human
Age: 25

Profession: Mercenary
Sexuality: yet to decide ngl, sue me
Height: 6’1” (185cm)

Description
Pania is a tall, muscled woman, with dark skin and brown eyes. Her hair is dark brown too, thick and almost a little unkempt, cut off before it goes below her shoulders. She is obviously athletic and muscular, with a few scars here and there- most notable a faded one that goes through her left eyebrow down to her cheek. Tattooed below her lips and down to her chin is a Tā moko tattoo, stylized like symmetrical koru.

When geared up for combat or her mercenary work in general, Pania wears her combat armour- a black undersuit covered in various grey metal plates for protection. A few dark green decals and glowing yellow lighting gives the armour a pop of colour. Over her armour she wears a couple things to remind her of home- a short feather cape, a pounamu koru necklace, and a reed skirt.
On a more casual day, you’re likely to find Pania in simple sportswear, or else very loose-fitting basic shirts and shorts/trousers.

Personality
For the most part, Pania is direct and straightforward, preferring a simple and perhaps sometimes blunt approach. It’s rare to find her in a good mood- typically grumpy, tired, and in pain, so it’s unsurprising that she can be quite quick to anger. She’s very stubborn, determined to see through whatever tasks she’s set for herself. She doesn’t tend to bother to hide her emotions, instead wearing them openly- no point in bothering when her stronger moods quite literally radiate outwards to others. Thanks to the way her psionics manifest, strong emotions feed into one another, resulting in low lows and (much rarer) high highs. Pania is very slow to trust, and tries to keep other people at arm’s length- thinking it’s safer that way for her and them both.

History
Pania grew up isolated from most other cultures, on a planet long-severed from other worlds after an apocalyptic disaster some 300 years ago. Over the years she learnt to gather, hunt, and eventually fight, but things became increasingly difficult for her as her Psionics began to manifest, and the people around her grew more and more suspicious and wary of her uncontrolled power. Things got particularly bad after her powers led to an accidental death, but before things could boil over Pania was thrown into the Nexus. Unfortunately, rather than being an escape, Pania ended up in a far worse situation when she was kidnapped by the Maxwell Institute of Neural Discovery- MIND- who noticed her power soon after her arrival. There, in a hidden research facility, they attempted to study her powers in an attempt to weaponize them, subjecting her to a long list of awful and extremely illegal tests. One of their tests backfired though, a painful brain implant granting her unexpected power and control over her Psionics, and she used the new boost to her abilities to escape. Now, with no real place to call home, and no real friends in a strange new world, Pania’s mind is set to one thing only. Revenge.

Further Information
Equipment
Advanced Armour: Pania’s armour is made using relatively advanced technology and materials, going for a mid-way balance between mobility and protection. The plating is mostly designed for minimising the impact of bullets and diffusing energy weapons instead of against melee (though it still provides adequate protection in that regard)- giving her as a melee combatant a much higher chance of actually making it into combat whenever guns are involved.

Axe: Her two-handed axe is made of similarly advanced metals, allowing it to keep its edge for longer while cutting through tougher materials. It’s blade is stylized a little like a tewhatewha, as a reminder of home.

Psionic Amplifier: A brain implant installed against her will, this device has made her powers stronger and granted her some amount of improved control over them. However, it results in constant headaches, some quite severe.

Abilities
Enmetic Psionics: Pania has strong psychic abilities that she views as both a blessing and a curse. This power was not something she had to train for, nor something she knows the true origin and nature of, but rather something that just began to manifest within her one day. They work as an extension of her determination and emotions, bending reality around her as she wills it, or sometimes unconsciously wishes it. Because her Psionics are an outward manifestation of her will, she cannot do things such as read the thoughts or emotions of others. Instead, it allows her to do things such as invade the minds of others, forcing them to think or feel things; or instead exert a telekinetic force, sending objects flying or unleashing a shockwave without ever needing to touch someone. The stronger her willpower or emotion, the stronger these powers get in turn. This also means that pain frequently fuels her Psionics as well. While on a calm day Pania has control over these powers, intense emotions can lead to disaster as she loses her grip, in particular her anger leading to some violent accidental demonstrations of psychic talent.

Combat Prowess: Pania does not just rely on her Psionics alone in a fight. The woman is very strong and athletic, fast, and more than capable of handling her axe whenever combat breaks out. She finds a lot of joy in fights, able to freely let intense emotions loose with little concern.

Enhanced Physiology: Long before the apocalypse in her homeworld, humanity had mastered genetic modifications. These modifications stayed in the gene pool long after the technology to make more was lost. All of this means (like everyone from her home) that Pania is just naturally stronger and more resilient than a baseline human.

Keen senses: Pania’s training in skills such as hunting has lead her to develop particular acute senses, as well as solid survival and navigation skills.

Misc Info
Pania is still haunted by what was done to her in the MIND facility, the events having traumatised her. In particular being held down or bound now terrifies her, as does anything that reminds her of the surgery room. This makes getting medical treatment particular difficult for her, a problem considering her job, although magical healers are usually able to avoid triggering any bad memories.

Pania negotiated a contract with MERC, to live on their premises and work for them, in exchange for getting what help they can reasonably offer on dealing with MIND. She needs some amount of protection, as MIND definitely wants her back,

[Meowmai]

Atsede Nnadi

The Basics
Aliases: That Stupid Idiot Chicken
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Changeling
Birthday: 6th March
Age: 17

Profession: Student
Sexuality: Bisexual
Height: 6’4”

Description
Atsede is a surprisingly tall, dark skinned teenager, with four magnificent white feathered wings that sprout from her back- a large pair, and a smaller pair below them. Her blue shoulder length hair is almost always hanging down in such a way to partially cover one of her matching blue eyes. She holds herself in a smug, cocky posture, and she just naturally seems incapable of having a bad hair day.

She’s most often seen in a white t-shirt, blue denim jeans, a navy jacket, and a pair of yellow and white chequered sneakers. It’s not a constant fit though- she has a few varieties of casual shirts, shorts, trousers, and jackets, more than a few intentionally distressed for when she wants to lean into the punk look.

Personality
Atsede carries a bit of an ego with her. She’s cocky, smug, and always very self-assured, even when she shouldn’t be. She’s very flippant, brushing most things off that she doesn’t care about without much thought or tact, and not caring much for authority in particular. Her attitude gets her into trouble a lot, which she often intends, having become increasingly rebellious in her teenage years towards teachers and parents alike.

History
Born as a Changeling- a human whose soul became entangled with the soul of a fey trying to enter her world at birth, in this case that of an angel- Atsede’s parents viewed her as someone destined for greatness the moment she was born. Her parents were part of the Triaug Church- a cult that holds beliefs on maintaining the purity of the body, mind, and spirit. To them, her birth was a sign, and they held great expectations for her.

While she was treated as extremely special all her life, with time Atsede began to resent the strict rules she had been made to live under, chafing against the edicts of the church and the demands of her parents alike. When, as a teenager, her family ended up in the Nexus, and she was exposed to the wider world as a whole, she saw it as a chance to break free from her chains, and the relationship became quite hostile. At her new school, Atsede became a delinquent almost entirely out of spite, sneaking out, getting into fights, and causing trouble simply because she had never been able to before, and because she knew it upset her parents. She made a couple new friends in May and Eliseo, and now is just waiting for the day she can escape for good.

Further Information
Equipment
Wards: Atsede’s parents, to her chagrin, make her carry a little booklet of prayers and warding symbols designed to keep away spirits, as Changelings are a beacon to them. They need to be refreshed through various little rituals weekly, and rewritten every month. While she has little care for it, and thinks it’s mostly an exaggeration, Atsede has found that it’s not worth the trouble to refuse to carry them.

Skateboard: A little scuffed from use. Pretty sick though.

Baseball Bat: For sports, and cus she thinks it looks cool and punk to carry it at times.

Spray Cans: One of her rare non-sporting hobbies is a mild interest in art, and since she started causing trouble on purpose this obviously led her into taking up graffiti. She’s gotten pretty good at hiding things from her parents so they can’t confiscate them.

Abilities
Flight: Those angelic wings aren’t just for show, letting Atsede fly around with ease, though still not at too much of a faster speed than walking. She is able to carry another person while flying, but barely.

Angelic Appearance: There are a few perks aside from the wings to having half the soul of an angel. Mostly, Atsede just doesn’t have to put all that much effort into presenting herself. Her hair always falls right, dirt seems to fall away easily, and she doesn’t need to wipe away sweat post-exercise.

Misc Info
As mentioned above, Changelings act almost as a beacon to other spirits. This means Atsede is actually quite vulnerable to possession. Thankfully, her parents are for once right about at least one thing, and the wards she carries along with the little frequent rituals throughout her life keeps her protected.

Atsede plays baseball and has taken up boxing to keep her entertained when she’s not messing around with her friends after school. Boxing in particular has been a good outlet for a few of her frustrations

[Meowmai]

Sylvia Brownlow

The Basics
Aliases: N/A
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Lapin
Age: 24

Profession: Writer
Sexuality: Bisexual
Height: 4’9”

Description
Sylvia is very short, slender, and pale, with very little indication in her build or complexion that she’s ever done much physical work, or indeed ever gone outside. She has grey eyes with just a hint of purple, behind a pair of rectangular glasses. Her hair is grey too, long, though often bundled into a bun or braided to keep it from hanging too low. A pair of long rabbit ears stick up from her head, similarly grey with white fluff and one white tip, and she also has a fluffy white rabbit's tail.

Sylvia always dresses very prim, proper, and chaste. She is very fashionable, and wears expensive clothes, but avoids bold choices and colours. Most of the time she chooses long, cream or brown coloured dresses, often layered.

Personality
Sylvia is first and foremost extremely shy, timid, and easily spooked. She gets very anxious about things that would be trivial to most people, working herself up until she freezes completely over it. This has gotten in her way all of her life, and so her social skills suffered, as Sylvia never really managed to work out the courage to get out and meet people. Her familiarity with and reliance on all the comforts of wealth has further discouraged her from stepping out of her comfort zone in turn. She’s very creative though, and passionate about the beauty of the world.

History
Sylvia has spent her whole life growing up in a large apartment building colloquially known as The Warrens. It was built specifically for and occupied almost entirely by fellow Lapin or other similar rabbitkin, deliberately trying to emulate the old burrows they used to live in but now with all the comforts and conveniences of modern life. The Warrens are crowded, and most Lapin like it that way, being very community oriented. Unfortunately, for someone like Sylvia, it’s a little much. This stressful feeling of being boxed in was only compounded on her by pressure placed on her by her family. Her family are all professional Magical Artificers- Lapin who are able to weave magic into solid shapes, the simpler of which almost anyone can use and the more complicated working as powerful catalysts for mages- and are very wealthy for it. Sylvia has no such talent, however, and caved under the pressure, finding herself too stressed to contribute in any way. Her ambitions lie in travelling the world, sketching what she sees while using it as inspiration for her writing, but for all the pressure she faces inside she’s similarly far too nervous to pursue such dreams.. It’s only recently that she began to very cautiously take steps and venture outside The Warrens.

Further Information
Equipment
Sketchbook and Journal: Sylvia carries a few books around with her always, that she uses to sketch out and write about whatever catches her interest.

Artificed Tokens: Sylvia carries around one or two pieces of her family's artificed magic, as while she cannot make them near-anyone can use them. Most commonly she uses two pieces, a stone that can emit light, and one that emits heat. They’re useful as a battery-less torch and hand warmer, respectively.

Abilities
Rabbit Form: Sylvia can transform into a regular bunny rabbit. She does not have control over this, and it mostly happens when she’s extremely spooked and trying to hide.

Misc Info

[Meowmai]

Tespa

The Basics
Aliases: Shadowseer
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Catfolk
Age: 29

Profession: Necromancer and Fortune Teller
Sexuality: Bisexual
Height: 5’9”

Description
Tespa is a catfolk, a humanoid figure with a cat-like face and limbs and tail. Her fur is black, and her eyes are piercing gold with vertical slits. Her tail is long and swishes back and forth with her emotions. She always smells faintly of cold, damp earth, uncannily reminding one of the smell of a grave. While her appearance is initially unremarkable for a catfolk, when her curse manifests, it grows deeply more unpleasant- to most, at least. Her body begins to rot, skin withering away or falling off in sickening patches of green and red and yellow, much like an undead. Shards of bone elongate, piercing through her skin, and life seems to have been drained from her body.

Tespa dresses mostly in black robes, lined with turquoise, looking a little tattered and weathered, as if it too is slowly rotting. She does her best to cultivate this effect. She wears a necklace of small animal bones to complete the ominous effect, and is absolutely decorated in gold jewellery and ear piercings. She prefers footwraps or bare feet over whatever boots suit her paws. When her curse is particularly nasty and she needs to look presentable, she bandages what skin is on display and wears a simple cat mask made of bone, to try and hide the rot and protruding bone.

Personality
Tespa is deliberately cryptic, mysterious, and ominous, doing her best to talk around questions about her life and answer in vague statements. Part of her has always been like this, but she intentionally leans into it as well, as playing the part of a dubious fortune teller delivering spooky omens amuses her. She has a deep fascination with magic, in particular necromancy and the forbidden, and spends a lot of her time pursuing more magical knowledge and seeking out rare artefacts. She is selfish, and willing to do quite a lot of immoral things to gain power and protect herself, particularly if that immoral thing is some kind of forbidden ancient magic. That being said, her cult days are still long behind her, and she still has lines she tries to avoid crossing- she’s not out there murdering random innocent people, for example. She’s pragmatic enough to put her unlife on the line to help out travellers and adventurers once in a while, and avoids going too far in her necromantic pursuits- openly anyways- as it helps keep the torches and pitchforks away, and keeps the world in nice working order. She lives here, after all.

History
Tespa’s early life was a little unremarkable, at least by fantasy standards anyways. Her parents were spellcasters, so she always had some minor interest in magic, but that wouldn’t develop into an occult obsession until much later. When, in early adulthood, a major disagreement kicked up between her and the leader of her community, she resolved the problem as most catfolk do- leaving with intent to return in a few years, and let things settle down. She took up the role of a travelling fortune teller in the meantime, but quickly became dismayed at how little such a life earned her, and how little it achieved. She wanted real power, and real fortune. These ambitions lead her down a dark path, slowly and steadily, until she had found her way into a cult, doing all sorts of terrible things in an effort to grow their magic and gain their power. Then the day came that the cult leader sought to obtain lichdom. Only the ritual, performed by the cult as a whole, failed. The magic backfired, pure necromancy coursing from caster to caster, withering away each member it passed through until all nought but dust was left. It was a bizarre stroke of luck that Tespa survived. Whether it was the layout of the ritual circle, a fortunately placed artefact, or the simple fact that she was the last one for the magic to reach and most of its power had been burned through by then, she doesn’t know. Just that the magic failed to kill her. It filled her with power and knowledge all at once but tore at the fabric of her flesh and soul alike, burdening her forever with a nigh-unbreakable curse. And as far as she is aware, she was the only survivor.
This incident forced Tespa to reconsider her life choices, although frankly she didn’t consider them all that heavily. She hasn’t so much turned over a new leaf as slightly rotated one a little. Her cult days are behind her, but her necromancy days sure aren’t.

Further Information
Equipment
Obsidian Sand: Not actually made of obsidian. Tespa has a brass canteen full of what appears to be pitch-black sand that she keeps safely on her person at all time. It’s an extremely powerful necromantic catalyst, able to push necromantic magic far beyond what the caster might normally be capable of. The stuff is highly dangerous though, difficult to control and carrying with it great risk of magic corruption. In Tespa’s eyes, it is only to be used in dire emergencies, and she seems to otherwise be holding onto it for some reason in particular.

Knuclebones: The oracle would never leave her home without carrying at least one set of knucklebones for fortune telling somewhere on her person.

Abilities
Curse of Living Death: Tespa’s curse is both the source of her power but also a burden upon her. Whenever she draws upon her magic, the curse worsens, dragging her closer to death yet never quite pulling her over the line. The energy drains from her, while her flesh starts to rot, and bones crack and grow through the skin in jagged shards. It becomes harder to treat her as wounds refuse to heal, and she weakens as the curse takes its toll on her body. Yet, paradoxically, for all it pulls her close to the grave, it steadies her, keeping her from passing over that line. Diseases and poison cease to take effect. Her blood stops flowing, growing cold, but she no longer needs it. The magic of her curse sustains her, keeping her from bleeding out even from grevious wounds. All of this carries the hallmarks of undeath, and the curse is necromantic in nature, but Tespa herself is not technically undead. She never died, never rose again. The worse her curse gets, however, the closer she is to this not-quite-undead-state, leaving her vulnerable to the same kinds of weaknesses that most undead have.

Necromancy: Her magic is divine in nature yet definitely not holy, nor is it pulled from one deity in particular. Tespa’s studies and abilities are mostly focused on the school of necromancy. She is an expert in raising the dead, reanimating corpses and binding spirits, but she also knows a lot about the soul. Her curse in particular lets her consume small fragments of another's soul, letting her momentarily drain a living target or rejuvenate herself in the moment of another creature's destruction. Of course, while her focus is on reanimation, necromancy goes far beyond that, and she’s happy to dabble in those areas too.

Seer: Tespa is a genuine seer and fortune teller. While most of the time she’s happy to put on a show and tell a customer what they want to hear, Tespa can indeed read the future. Or, more accurately, what the future is most likely to be. Her methods focus on the use of bones (which she assures a viewer are all animal bones)- watching how knucklebones fall and land, or observing how a bone cracks in the fire- but occasionally she gets visions too, whether she wants them or not. The visions are usually fragmented, difficult to understand but quite worrying in what they show.

Misc Info
While her income is mostly fortune-telling or otherwise obtained through ill-gotten means, Tespa does run a little bit of a shop. She mostly sells scrolls, a few magical implements/artefacts, and necromantic catalysts (usually bones related to some horrific deadly incident or other), but she also deals in occult secrets and knowledge- such as rituals from forgotten tomes. She doesn’t tend to advertise this service though, especially as it’s uncommon for her to be willing to part with these things.

[Meowmai]

Ginger

The Basics
Aliases: N/A
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Kholo (Gnoll)
Age: 34

Profession: Champion of Sarenrae
Sexuality: Lesbian
Height: 7’3”

Description
Ginger strikes quite the intimidating figure, especially at a glance. As a gnoll, of course, she appears as a somewhat hunched humanoid with hyena-like features- particularly the head, with digitigrade legs and a bushy tail. She’s very tall, built of muscle and scar tissue- with a particularly noticeable scar running diagonally down from under her left eye and across her nose. Her fur is yellow-tan in colour, like her namesake spice. Dark brown spots speckle across her back and the top of her arms, and a bushy mane of thick fur runs all the way down her spine. Her wide grin, although often friendly, is full of unsettlingly sharp teeth. Her eyes, while dark at a distance, are brown and full of kindness with a closer look.

Ginger wears a suit of well polished armour, trimmed with gold, emblazoned with a golden sun. The armour itself is not as all-encompassing as normal platemail- protecting her chest, shoulders, forearms, and upper legs, leaving a lot of fur exposed. She wears no helmet. Underneath it she wears a sleeveless vest of gambeson, and blue cloth.
When heading out without her armour, Ginger tends for something simple- a cream tunic and dark shorts for example, or on more formal days donning a deep blue cloak with golden suns along the bottom.
No matter the occasion, she’s always seen with three necklaces. Each one carries the holy symbol of one of the Prismatic Ray Goddesses- Shelyn, Desna, and most importantly to her Sarenrae.

Personality
Ginger is a do-gooder, firmly set to go out and make the world a better place. Her most important virtue is redemption- so much so that she intentionally perseus foes she believes could be talked down and turn a different path in life. She’s not naive though, or so single-mindedly dedicated to redemption that she’ll let innocents suffer for it- she knows that sometimes someone has to go down. She’s very friendly, boisterous, and loud.

Ginger is still carrying a few vices from her youth, these being mostly drink, women, and the odd bit of gambling. And for all she tries to avoid them, she can’t deny she enjoys a good fight. The Kholo in her still finds the concept of honour a little silly, but she holds great stock in her Goddess’s domain of truth and thus can be quite bluntly honest in a way that often stings. For all her genuine kindness despite this, Ginger also has a long buried issue with anger that on occasion threatens to bubble to the surface again.

History
Ginger was raised in a Kholo tribe in the Mwangi Expanse, but as she grew into adulthood she did not stay there. She always had anger issues, but these only got worse, and so she was eventually pushed out of her tribe for being too violent. For a time, to survive, she took up banditry, robbing and sometimes killing to make her way in life.

And then, one day, everything went wrong, and she found herself in a prison cell after some adventurers rolled through her bandit group’s camp. With nothing to do but think when not labouring, Ginger began to feel regretful for her actions. And that is when a priestess of Sarenrae, named Thalia, began to visit the prison. She taught Ginger many things. That she was more than her capacity for violence. She could make amends. She might never earn the forgiveness of all of her victims, but she could nonetheless atone, and work to ensure others never make the same mistakes she made.

When Ginger was released from prison, on parole, she began the long and difficult process of leaving her old life behind. Her work with Thalia lead to her devotion to Sarenrae, and eventually she was chosen as a Champion of the Dawnflower. She swore an oath of redemption, and has since began to travel, protecting the innocent and helping wrongdoers lead a better life wherever she can.

Further Information
Equipment
Sunrise: Ginger’s primary weapon, a magical greatsword, its long blade inscribed with runes up the centre. Mostly the standard sword enchantments- making it swifter and deadlier in her hands, as well as sturdier- but it is also inhabited by a holy spirit. The spirit grants the blade abilities, which Ginger can alter with a little time and a prayer. Usually, this comes in the form of holy fire, but could be a few other things, such as the ability for the blade to change shape into other weapons, or fly back into her hands.

Armor and Shield: Considerably less impressive equipment than Sunrise, they are nonetheless well-made and provide adequate protection.

Holy Symbols: Around her neck are three holy symbols, representing the Prismatic Ray Pantheon. A woman with arms outstretched, and wings reaching upwards around a halo- the symbol of Sarenrae, her focus of worship, Goddess of the Sun, Redemption, Healing and Truth. A purple moth, with the sun and stars and moon upon its wings- the symbol of Desna, Goddess of Dreams, Travellers, Luck, and the Stars. A bird with long, arcing tail feathers coloured like the rainbow- the symbol of Shelyn, Goddess of Love, Beauty, Art and Music. The symbol of Sarenrae is magical in nature, able to emit a light that is particularly adept at revealing lies, illusions and the hidden.

Abilities
Sword and Board and Teeth: Ginger is a very proficient fighter, able to hold her own in hand-to-hand and armed combat alike. She particularly thrives in an aggressive, reckless style while armed with her two-handed greatsword, but she knows how to fight defensively or use her impressive strength to grapple and control even sizeable foes.

Sarenrae’s Blessings: Ginger does not have a huge arsenal of spells at her disposal, but as a Champion her Goddess has blessed her with the gift of divine magic nonetheless. She can cure wounds and fight diseases/curses by touching her hand to someone’s body. She can send visions of past sin and future redemption alike to flash through the mind of an attacker, causing their blows to falter as the magic saps their strength and weights them down with guilt. She can use the same power to instead ignite holy fire upon the target, burning them within for trying to attack an innocent. And, when situations are most dire, she can outright take a blow for an ally, redirecting all of its harm to her in their place.

Diamond in the Rough: For all her intimidating outward appearance and ferocity, as well as occasional brusque attitude, Ginger can be quite charming and understanding when she wants to. This makes her surprisingly adept in social situations when you might not expect her to be, quite capable of sweet-talking or comforting someone.

Misc Info