Kaledoria wrote:Okay, time to throw my hat into the ring as well... Say if parts of the background don't work.
I might still go more into detail, too.
Application
Name: Saoirse O'Gwalchmei
Age: 13
Gender: female
Appearance: Athletic, muscular redhead girl, often covered in bruises, dirt or warpaint(Image)
Divine Parent: Liara, goddess of freedom, chaos, rebelsfun, love, hope, optimism, athletics, music, the poetry of nature, dawn, healing, practical skills, wine, the duality of sexuality and innocence, the will to live, birth, fertility, forgiveness, free speech, jesters and a couple of other things the clergy is split about. Most critics of her faith simply describe her by the domain of freedom, if they feel positive about her or by chaos and rebels if not ... or they go all the way an derogatory call her "Goddess of Anarchy"
Inherited Abilities:
1. Vitality: Saoirse is exceptionally tough even for a demi-god. She is also full of vigor and can fully exert herself in every action but still she never tires. She is immune to most natural poisons and diseases and highly resistant to supernatural ones possibly even black snow but she does not want to put that to a test because ... obviously.
2. Indomitable mind: As the daughter of a rebel goddess, her ability to resist or shake of mind control is exceptional, believed to be absolute (but then again she did not yet have the opportunity to test it against a full-blown deity or such).
Background (This doesn't have to be long, but it can be, I hope):13 years and a few month ago, Liara manifested to her followers and held a little competition, as she used to do every few years or at least decades. Any man or woman could challenge her in basically anything - arts, crafts, knowledge, games. Sometimes she refused the most ridiculous challenges but most of the times she accepted. The price she promised was an intimate night but rarely ever did any challenger win.
This time there was one challenger, named Caith O'Gwalchmei, a knight and imposing man. As his challenge to the Goddess was one that the general crowd of challengers and spectators considered one of the most impossible, he had the right to go first. He had challenged Liara to a wrestling match and everybody knew that among all challenges, a physical competition with a divine avatar were the ones to never succeed. But Caith waived his right to go first and gave others the chance. For two days he just watched. Watched Liara. Watched as she defeated challengers in tricky games and challenges of obscure skills. Finally after 14 failed challengers and much celebrations surrounding the event, he stepped into the ring to wrestle Liara. She met him smiling. As they locked arms, she instantly realized, that he was strong, she could understand, how he could think he was the best wrestler there was, even if she had barely started to draw upon her power and could still hold her ground against him. Certain to teach him a lesson about the differences between gods and men, she tried to throw him down, when suddenly he surged in strength and almost countered her. She was joyfully surprised. She would have never imagined a mortal challenging a god and ... holding back. She decided to focus on her defense now and instead of taking offensive actions she waited what else he had planed. Thus she was prepared when he fainted a flaw in his technique only to explode in an even stronger burst of power than before and tried to throw her down with a sacrificial throw. But due to her patience (and divine strength and agility, obviously), she ended up on top of him and prepared to control his arms and pin him down.
As they were wrestling on the ground, she could feel his heavy breath, and hear his heart beating strong and fast. It was clear that now he was fighting at full power, no more holding back. She grappled his arm, when suddenly he whispered into her ear: "You have already lost. Because you want me to win." The audacity shocked Liara in a way, she had not experienced in a century. In a moment of confusion he seized her arm and a leg and rolled the two of them over.
Suddenly below him, the goddess prepared to draw another bit of her divine power when he once again whispered into her ear. "You know it. You know the price and that nobody else here is able to seize it. You want to lose to ME."
Liara's power ebbed down. She did not want to admit it but the way he tried to control her, full well aware of the fact that she could easily overpower him physically, yet confident in his ability to charm her to not do it ... It felt nice actually. She faked a little struggle against his grip but ultimately he got into a pin. Those in the audience who knew how to read a fight probably realized that she was intentionally throwing it but this did not cause them to celebrate Caith any less then the audience who really thought, a human had beaten a god in a match of wrestling when the referee counted the pin. And Liara? She had realized, that Caith's real challenge had been, that he would be able to surprise, impress and charm her, like no human had for several generations. And she gladly accepted her defeat on that playing field.
It was only after Caith had claimed his price and layed with Liara, that he talked about his true intentions. He carried an old guilt. A taint of evil, that no matter to what standards he held himself now, he could not balance out. She looked at his soul and saw it, too, a stain of guilt under the shell of virtue. And since he could not forgive himself, it was true, that for now he was bound for the Void. Thus it was no surprise when he told her: "I want to father a child of yours, and I want you to claim me as yours in purgatory in return." Caith truly was a champion of her faith, Liara realized. Threatened by Eiryia herself, he did not lose hope but had thought of a way to fight his fate. His request had not been unique. She had taken the life of willing lovers before, a child in return for a way to cheat Eiryia out of a soul for the Void. And none of the others had be as worthy of the deal as Caith.Newborn, Saoirse was given into the care of the Stellarum Tripudium, a group of people who were something akin to an Holy Order among the (rather disorganized) followers of Liara. Their leader Kylie was herself an descendant of Liara's children, making her a great-grand-half-niece of Saoirse, despite being 33 years older. The Order's main missions were patronship of the arts, protection of politically prosecuted and speaking truth to power. However, despite their devotion to life as a concept, they knew, that to protect the innocent against tyrants sometimes required violence and thus they honed their martial skills, too, focusing on personal combat and asymmetric warfare. Thus, while Saoirse also got an education in arts and useful skills like writing and math, wilderness training and physical education did not fall short.
She was not treated much different then most other children in the care of the order, she did not have any more privileges, however she did have more duties, which was necessary to saturate her massive energy. In fact her childhood could easily have been overly strict and stressful if it had not been for the many holidays and celebrations, the Stellarum Tripudium celebrated throughout the year, teaching Saoirse that diligence gets rewarded, to enjoy life and to form friendships with the other children of her age. This all changed, when the gods disappeared and the monsters rose...Liara had always been a very involved goddess in the affairs of the mortals. When she suddenly did not answer anymore and the prayers of her followers were the loudest, the Stellarum Tripudium changed the focus of their Order to find out why she and the other goods vanished and how to free her from whatever kept her off Dystrairia. Saoirse was still to young to be of any help but the disciples assumed, that she was their best connection to the goddess and continuing her education was more important then before. Fighting training was added to Saoirse's schedule. As the neighboring nations fell and the remote parts of Ayrtica that the Order lived in became more and more de-facto wilderness, Saoirse's wilderness skills had to be put to use, as she had to help the adults foraging supplies.
The great festival times were becoming increasingly rare. And ultimately, the young child was confronted with death, as some members of their Order did not return from their quests. Their resources faded while their new mission made little progress, while Saoirse became a teenager. Seeing the dire situation of the Stellarum, she stood up in a membership assembly and brought a new quest to the schedule: The conquest of her inheritance...... but not that inherited through her mother, but that of her father. Throughout her childhood, the others had often talked of Caith O'Gwalchmei, a chosen of Liara who had been a loose affiliate of the Order himself. And a well-off knight, who had owned a massive estate with several attached cottages and over a hundred serfs, which, due to the absence of children, had fallen to his brother.
Saoirse demanded the Order's support to claim this inheritance and offered to make it their new base of operation afterwards. The decisive tone and great confidence convinced the others and they relocated to the fortified house of her father, known as Caer Gwain. Obviously Saoirse's uncle did not believe her claim to be Caith's daughter. She challenged him to a duel but when she won, he claimed she was using evil witchcraft. However, his house-guards did not stand a chance against the well-trained fighters of the Stellarum. Nevertheless she allowed him and his family to stay in the same building on the edge of the estate, that he had also lived 11 years ago, while Caith was still the head of the family.
The local Baron was more easily convinced, that Saoirse was indeed Caith's daughter and rightful heir and legitimized her annexation of Caer Gwain. With a base of operation, the situation for the Stellarum Tripudium improved. They filled their numbers with some of the (former) serfs, and secured the adjacent farms, protecting it from monsters and dotting the fief with little shacks for the farmers to seek refuge in, so they would not be as much at risk of getting surprised by black snow during their field-work.
Over the next years, Saoirse even made friends with her cousins and her grandmother, even though the relation to her uncle remained cold.
It had been two and a half years as Lady of Caer Gwain, Saoirse earned some respect by the order members and despite the young age they looked at her as one of their peers. Now she wanted to return to the previous main mission of finding out what happened to Liara, when the rumor of the moonchild reached them. And for some reason - some inner voice - Saiorse knew that this was more then a rumor.
Other: -slightly claustrophobic
...
Whoa, surprised anyone wanted to go into as much detail considering how basic the application is, nice effort. Accepted.
Oh, notes on her vitality abilities though, the kids mostly don't have to worry about diseases or poisons. It would take high-level mythical beast venom to even have an effect and those will stop short of killing them(though they would be left on death's doorstep and thus easy prey). Black snow will kill them, though in an even more dragged out process than humans get. Her extra vitality could make her completely immune to anything besides the snow, that's fine.
