The Rogue's Gallery
OOC/
IC Velaire Hornshell (Vel for short)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Appearance: Vel stands at roughly 5 and a half feet, Her skin is pale, and in the right lighting a touch green. Dark brown eyes that seem hazy and dull, long and dull amber hair. Her face is full of faded freckles. Her facial features are soft but not round. She is lean and though she looks sickly she’s fit.
Vel has scars across her body from various encounters with enemies, she has a small tear in her left ear and a scar that runs across her left side from her belly button down her hip that is held closed by stitches and she’s missing her tongue.
Vel tends to be self conscious about her sickly appearance and so in public tends to cover herself with heavy clothing, gloves and a hood. But when among friends she wears a regular tunic and britches.
Race: Human (undead)
Role within the company: Front line fighter.
Racial Skills and Abilities ~
- Stronger than you - Because of her undeath Vel’s before limited strength has increased to beyond that of a normal human being’s.
- Sense - Vel’s sense of touch (Pain and pleasure) has dulled considerably.
-Her sense of smell is keener than a normal humans but by no means surpases that of an animal, or beastfolk.
-Her eyesight is about average with the added insight that she doesn't need to adjust to the darkness and she can see just as well in dim light as she can daylight.
-Her hearing is keener then a normal humans but by no means surpases that of an animal, or a beastfolk.
-Vel’s sense of taste has dulled considerably, which is why she likes her food heavy seasoned, spiced, flavored. (not to mention she’s missing most her tongue). - Slow metabolism - since her undeath, Vel’s body functions have slowed down she no longer needs to eat or drink regularly in order to function, but this also means her agining has slowed considerably as well as her ability to heal.
- Undeath has its perks - So long as Vel has her body part in hand she can reattach it and with the aid of magic or a medic can keep it back on. She also has a resistance to diseases, illnesses and poisons though she is not completely immune.
Normal Skills and Abilities ~
- Sewing - vel has become very good with a needle and thread, both on cloth and on flesh.
- Linguist - if she had a tongue she could speak many of the languages that float around, due to her exposure of her family's large library of information and the endless hours she had in it, she can write and read in many languages. And with time she’s also learned to read lips.
- Gardening - when not out doing work for others Vel finds some comfort in digging around in the dirt or in small pots and growing something And she seems to be quite good at it to. This also allows her to identify herbs, spices and poisonous plants out in the wilds.
- Climbing - as a child she would climb sheer bookshelves, as an undead she likes to climb trees, cliffs and buildings.
- Fighter - With the time she has spent in the seedy town of Balefire’s backstreets and despite her otherwise cushy upbringing Vel learned to fight and defend herself, quickly. not only by first hand experience but from watching others in combat. She learned to take cheap shots, find weaknesses in someone’s guard and adapt to weapons one could pick up on the streets. Though her preferred weapon is a two handed weapon she’s just as capable of using single handed weapons and improvised weapons.
Weapons: Two long knives,
Two handed great axe.
Armor: Vel tends to fight light so has adopted a leather armor vest with special emphasis on protecting her heart, spine, and neck.
Equipment: Sewing kit, water skin, bedroll, cloak, gloves, face mask, coin purse, books (just 1 at any given time), First aid kit, Chalk, Inkwell and quill, blank book.
Personality: Vel appears to be a very quiet and reserved Character, even with her friends. She doesn't talk much, or rather communicate via gestures and writing. She doesn't tend to talk about herself a lot.
In public she tends to try and draw the least amount of attention she can.
When alone with her companions she’s a little more relaxed but still tends to be more observant than participating. Rarely does she truly seem to get excited about something.
When fighting Vel seems to forget about not drawing attention to herself and tries to draw the enemies attention to herself and away from her companions, becoming the biggest nuisance or danger on the field to keep their focus on her.
Likes: Milk, her companions, books, children, the quiet places in nature, rain storms.
Dislikes: Crowds, holymen/paladins and priests, magic, her family, food that isn’t spiced/seasoned/flavored heavily enough, Fish.
Background: Velaire hornshell comes from a long line of sophisticated mages, claiming their power comes from the blood of a high elf ancestor from far in their families past. Every person in her family tree has been a mage, some stronger than others and some more well known but always magical.
And then there’s Vel. The first child in a long line of a magical lineage to posses no magic at all. Her parents were horrified that one of their children had missed out on their magical ‘birthright’.
They were determined to find out what went wrong, and determined to give vel the ‘birthright’ that should have been bestowed upon her at birth. They poured their resources and magic into every conceivable idea and test they could while Vel grew up, absolutely determined to unlock her magical potential that they knew she had.
Unfortunately for Vel this meant that from her childhood to her teenage years she didn’t live a normal life in any sense of the word. She grew up with her parents and siblings pitying her, assuring her they would change her to what she knew she wasn’t, and feeling unaccepted and isolated because of it. She grew to hate magic and her family.
Eventually she was allowed to go out, to her parents dismay. And she attended normal lessons, and participate in normal everyday things her family felt were demeaning to their statues. But she found meaning in it, and some semblance of peace.
It was on her nineteenth birthday that her brother claimed to have found the answer to her problemes, as much as she tried to protest he dragged her into their magical archives, and deep into the forbidden section, a place especially to guard magic, curses and spells that should never be open to the world… where he laid on her a spell, and unspeakable spell. One that promised power.
He was unable to finish the spell as it was beyond his level of understanding and fortitude. unable to finish the casting Vel was left in a horrifying state… not quite alive.. But not quite dead.
Horrified by the rapid changes that took place under the half cast spell Vel fled leaving her brother weeping on the floor. Her parents were just as horrified at the incident when they found out and they confined her to her rooms in an attempt to stall for time to find a way to reverse the curse. Days turned to months, months to years and vel’s appearance changed to the sickly looking women she looks like now.
It was clear that she longed to leave, she wanted nothing more to do with magic, magic had cursed her and she didn’t believe it could cure her… with her brother opening the way she fled her home and into the forest, continuing to flee until she had reached the sea cliffs. Where after pondering the few paths she had had she threw herself off into the sea.
The impact must have caused her to bite her tongue, losing almost half of it in the sea. She isn’t sure how long she drifted in the sea before washing up on the shores near the port of Balefire.
When she came around, it took her some time to adjust, but she quickly took to hiding herself and her lacking need for food gave her time to find ways she could earn money and gain skills and equipment to do so. Eventually she was able to get into a mercenary group.
Karrha Nameko
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