Nata Corvus -- Paladin of Milani

[Lwmons]

%5Bfloatleft%5D%5Bsetfield%5D%5Bimg2%3D350%5Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F564x%2F92%2Fa3%2F67%2F92a3674ff103156e67df16ff9d2fa6ec.jpg%5B%2Fimg2%5D%5B%2Fsetfield%5D%5B%2Ffloatleft%5D

Nata Corvus

F%20NG%20Tiefling%20Paladin(Chosen%20One%2FLegate)%2C%20%5BB%5DLevel%5B%2FB%5D%201%2C%20%5BB%5DInit%5B%2FB%5D%200%2C%20%5BB%5DHP%5B%2FB%5D%2014%2F14%2C%20%5BB%5DSpeed%5B%2FB%5D%2030%0A%5BB%5DAC%5B%2FB%5D%2014%2C%20%5BB%5DTouch%5B%2FB%5D%2010%2C%20%5BB%5DFlat-footed%5B%2FB%5D%2014%2C%20%5BB%5DCMD%5B%2Fb%5D%2012%2C%20%5BB%5DFort%5B%2FB%5D%206%2C%20%5BB%5DRef%5B%2FB%5D%200%2C%20%5BB%5DWill%5B%2FB%5D%203%2C%20%5BB%5DCMB%5B%2FB%5D%20%2B2%2C%20%5BB%5DBase%20Attack%20Bonus%5B%2FB%5D%201%20%20%20%0A%5BB%5D%20%20Morningstar%20%5B%2FB%5D%20%2B2%20(1d8%2B1%2C%20x2)%0A%5BB%5D%20%20Dagger%20%5B%2FB%5D%20%2B2%20(1d4%2C%2019-20%2Fx2)%0A%5BB%5D%20%20Studded%20Leather%5B%2FB%5D%2C%20%5BB%5D%20%20Light%20Wooden%20Shield%5B%2FB%5D%20(%2B3%20Armor%2C%20%2B1%20Shield)%0A%5BB%5DAbilities%5B%2FB%5D%20Str%2012%2C%20Dex%2011%2C%20Con%2018%2C%20Int%209%2C%20Wis%2013%2C%20Cha%2014%0A%5BB%5DCondition%5B%2FB%5D%20None%20

F NG Tiefling Paladin(Chosen One/Legate), Level 1, Init 0, HP 14/14, Speed 30
AC 14, Touch 10, Flat-footed 14, CMD 12, Fort 6, Ref 0, Will 3, CMB +2, Base Attack Bonus 1
Morningstar +2 (1d8+1, x2)
Dagger +2 (1d4, 19-20/x2)
Studded Leather, Light Wooden Shield (+3 Armor, +1 Shield)
Abilities Str 12, Dex 11, Con 18, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 14
Condition None

• I will learn the weight of my weapon. Without my heart to guide it, it is worthless. My strength is not in my weapon, but my heart. If I lose my weapon I lose a tool. If I betray my heart, I have died.
• I will have faith in The Everbloom. I will channel her strength through my body. I will stand in her garden, and I will not tarnish her glory through base actions.
• I am the first into battle, knowing that I may not leave it.
• I will never be taken prisoner by my free will, nor will I willingly surrender any to a similar fate.
• I will never abandon an ally or innocent, though I will honor sacrifice freely given.
• I will guard the honor of my fellows, both in thought and deed, and I will have faith in them.
• When in doubt, I may force my enemies to surrender, but will show them no quarter they have not shown to others.
• I will never refuse a challenge from an equal. I will give honor to worthy enemies, and contempt to the rest.
• I will suffer death before dishonor.
• I will be proud in my actions and bold in my behavior. I will strive to emulate Milani's passion.

These tenants, stolen adapted from those of Iomedae, Milani's sister, were whispered into Nata's mind the day she first met Hope. While willing and able to follow them, Nata fears she may be unable to, and struggles with the weight on her shoulders.

---

"... The problem with becoming the kind of hero you needed yourself... Is that it can't change the fact that nobody came for you."

---

Appearance

Although you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at her, Nata was born an aiuvarian, and still has their features marking her heritage. Sharp features, pointed ears, and curiously, distinctly Elven blue eyes, making her stand apart from most aiuvarians.

Of course, those features are oft ignored when the more immediate features of a tail, horns, and red-tinted skin are often at the forefront of other people's perceptions of her. These infernal features, though obvious and visible, are much less pronounced than those on natural born cambions of a similar age. Her horns look practically juvenile, though they've been smashed and broken to soon into their growth that they've begun growing at awkward, irregular angles, her right horn even splitting into two smaller ones from the base.

Her flesh is marred in numerous places, in the form of various burns, scars, and bruises, though most of the latter have healed by the time she has reached Kenabres. While many of them are easily attributed to youthful mischief or improper handling of a torch, the truth is that most of them come from her peers and neighbors from her home town, disgusted at her infernal form, driving her away whenever she tried to return. Many of the burns coincide in places where more profane deformities had begun to manifest, being "cauterized" in the words of her tormentors.

She carries herself very slightly, often with a pronounced hunch, shoulders slouched, and her tail wrapped nervously around her legs. Ever since meeting Hope she's done her best to carry herself more aggressively and proudly, but she often slips up and reverts to her defaults, reclusive nature.

An overwhelming majority of the equipment she has brought with her was donated by other members of Milani's faithful, and consequently much of it is ill-fitting or awkwardly sized. Even the morningstar she was provided, thoughtfully emblazoned with the Everbloom's emblem, looks almost comical as the small girl tries to use it. The only possessions of hers that came with her to the city are the clothes on her back, which look like little more than an assembly of rags, and a rusted, broken piece of an arming sword, sized and sharpened almost like a dagger.

---

With her at all times, though oft tucked away within the safety of her armor, is a small white mouse, bright red eyes inquisitively staring at anything and everything it can, commonly chittering and squeaking to Nata as though she can understand it.

Personality

Nata aspires to be everything that Milani sees in her, even if she doesn't see those same qualities herself. Bold, ambitious, confident... While she can and will exhibit all these qualities to the best of her ability, she often finds herself stumbling and retracting back into herself, an action she feats will cost her her oath one of these days.

Still, despite her apprehensions and misgivings, she is determined to do something good with the chance she was given, no matter how small the gesture might be. She'll never overlook those in need, as long as it is within her ability to help.

Due to her being ostracized from civilized society, and from living in such a small community to begin with, Nata's education was never particularly robust, and struggles to understand the wealth of topics she is unfamiliar with.

Backstory

Nata Corvus' story begins generations ago, long before she was born, in the city of Nerosyan. Though long before Nerosyan was Mendev's capital, it was a small agrarian community, rustic and peaceful. As the Worldwound was birthed, and before the First Mendevian Crusade was able to integrate themselves and fortify the city, the corrupting influence of the Abyss poisoned the soil and water alike that gave life to Nerosyan, it's corrupting influence seeping slowly into every resident of the small town, and those along the border. Not enough to kill, mind you, but that poison always lingered, and was passed down from parent to child unknowingly for the next hundred years.

That poison, that corruption, laid dormant for generations, never manifesting beyond perhaps the occasional lucky sorcerer. Though it was never truly gone.

One particular family from this town was a member of the Corvus line(though that particular name only joined the family a few generations later). His children's children would eventually make their way further north to the town of Valas's Gift, by the West Sellen River, and that is where the family would stay for many more years, until eventually Nata was born.

Despite how she looks now, Nata was born a half-elf, an aiuvarin, to a loving family. Their home, and their town, was small, but warm and welcoming in the face of the Worldwound. For the first several years of her life, this was all she knew, and in truth, she likely would have been happy to have spent her whole life there. Of course, life has a way of taking you in unexpected directions when you least expect it.

Although no more than ten years old at the time, Nata was stolen away from her sleepy little town, and forced into a profane ritual for reasons she never came to learn. Her memories of the encounter are hazy, she doesn't even fully know how she got away or found her way home(she thinks she remembers some adventurers coming to her aid, though that could just as well be wishful thinking). Though while returning home, things were, different for her.

The ritual failed, at least that's what she thinks happened. She wasn't sacrificed or killed, but that small bit of poison that had tainted her blood for generations finally made itself manifest, and although unknown to her, it saved her. In a way. Gone was the half-elf, with a warm smile and rosy cheeks, and instead a cambion walked into the village, complete with horns, a tail, and the Abyss on her tongue.

Any goodwill her home had for her was lost with these new features. What should have been a joyous time of a missing child returning home lead to fear and paranoia. Her parents were accused of cavorting with demons, making a deal to save their child, or some other horrendous acts. The paranoia eventually even breached the safety of her family, her father leaving for lands unknown, refusing to live in a home with a demon and her mother. Eventually the torment from her peers and the ensuing poverty cost Nata's mother her life, and for the first time, Nata was well and truly alone.

Still only a child, Nata was well and truly unsure what to do. She couldn't fathom leaving home, even without any kind of support, and even with the abuse her neighbors graced her with. She struggled to care for herself, doing what she could to teach herself to forage and survive on her own, never venturing far from what used to be her home. She's try and sneak in, sleep in her old family home, now abandoned(and eventually burned to the ground). She'd try and visit her mother's grave, only to be chased out of town and the small plot desecrated.

She counts herself lucky that she wasn't sold to slavers or killed by goblins, if that could even be considered worse, but by the time she was an adult she had well and truly lost all hope. The once vibrant blue eyes of the young aiuvarin were now dulled and grey, barely even considering herself worth of survival, let alone joy. But she still never worked up the courage to leave Valas's Gift, no matter how awful they were to her. It was the only home she ever knew.

Still barely an adult, eking out a meager life in the woods, she was set upon by a small, white, field mouse. The animal stared at her eagerly, knowingly. The fact that it's color was so distinct from it's surroundings made it vividly stand out, and Nata was helpless to ignore it for long. Although incapable of speech, she felt an odd kinship with the creature, feeling comforted by it's presence. The day she met this small mouse, a promise was whispered to her, from no one she could see. A promise of hope, of a chance for change, in exchange only for her trust and her faith. Perhaps she was desperate and didn't truly understand the choice being offered to her, perhaps she truly wished to embrace a higher power, not even Nata is sure she understands yet. Though perhaps reluctantly, and confusedly, she accepted.

With one last forlorn look back at her home, and what had once been her mother's burial plot, Nata left, her only companions being a rusty sword fragment, the clothes on her back, and the small, white mouse, which she began affectionately referring to as Hope.

Over the next couple weeks, guided by Hope, Nata made her way south along the river, slowly making her way to Kenebres. Hope wanted to make sure they arrived by the 16th of Arodus, though she didn't understand exactly why, but followed unquestioningly. The trip, however brief, was beset multiple times by a number of Milani's faithful, presenting gifts and lessons at The Everbloom's guidance. Weapons, and armor, combat methods and prayers. In truth she barely understands any of what she is being asked or given, but graciously accepts their charity, even if their mere presence mutes her already apprehensive personality. If there's anything she took away from their tutelage, though, it's that Hope wanted to make sure they didn't miss Armasse, so she could hopefully get proper combat training and not only some basic forms.

She made it to the city early on the day of the 15th, one day before the celebration. She had never seen so many people before in her life, and while she might have been in awe while she was still a child, she couldn't help but look on in terror as memories of her neighbors and former peers once more swirled in her mind. The past few weeks of feeling valuable and wanted were instantly swept away, nearly making her flee, before instead burying herself in an alley, away from prying eyes. She knew she couldn't stay there forever, not like in the woods, especially not when they're so close to the goal Hope set for them. It was unbecoming for one of Milani's faithful as well, at least that's what she tried to tell herself as she skulked her way deeper into the city. Rather than allow herself to sleep on cobblestones, and feeling the weight of the coin in her pocket, Nata decided to try and embrace the brashness that Milani so undoubtedly wanted to instill in her. She'd find an place to stay, a proper meal, and she'd do so confidently! That's what it takes, right? Fake it 'till you make it?

Maybe the Honeyed Blackmoor Café has rooms...

---

Notes

I'm not totally sold on the Stolen Fury angle, to be honest.

I was originally considering Touched by Awfulness, and the backstory was going to go something like "being exposed to a powerful Abyssal entity at such a young age, combined with the long-dormant Abyss in her blood, caused her to turn into a Tiefling", but the Stolen Fury trait literally being "you absorbed Abyssal energy from a ritual" it seemed more fitting.

If Nata does get in and we have two people with Stolen Fury but no Touched by Awfulness I'm open to changing it if you'll allow. Also as mentioned in the OOC chat, I'm also up for Touched by Divinity for similar reasons, since I think it works nicely with the Chosen One Paladin angle. I'd probably end up changing the backstory to having her just manifest her latent tiefling features later than normal rather than being from an external catalyst.

 

Edited April 4 by Lwmons (see edit history)

[Lwmons]

Reserved

[Lwmons]

Reserved 3: The Search for Reserved 2

[Lwmons]

Reserved 2: The Search for More Money

Edited April 5 by Lwmons (see edit history)