Dawn Skittem (Devourer)

Name: Dawn Skittem

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Element: Water/Light

Signature Spells: 

Razor-sharp Water (Water): Dawn can either create from her nearby environment or release from her body water sharp enough to inflict a fatal wound. The objects that Dawn creates in this style can be pertain to a multitude of shapes and uses. Whether the object is used offensively or defensively and whether it is constructed as a wave of water or a mass of mist is all up to Dawn’s discretion.

Aqua Trap (Water): When close enough to an enemy, Dawn starts to emit streams of water from her entire body, eventually engulfing the target within an aquatic sphere. Manipulating the water to guide her limbs, Dawn prevents the water from hindering her abilities while maintaining a possible disadvantage for her opponent. With the same types of manipulations, Dawn can also inhibit or even control the movements of the target. This is typically used to maintain the target’s presence within the sphere or propel the target towards Dawn. Obviously though, a superior or competent opponent can circumvent these tactics through a variety of means.

Flash (Light): With a quick flash of intense light, Dawn can momentarily disable or distract an opponent. This ability can be targeted towards a single opponent with a thin, propelled strand of light or released haphazardly in all directions.

Heal (Light): Dawn can heal either a target or herself, though her usage tends to lean more towards the latter. Because of her lack of proficiency and celerity in healing, she tends to reserve healing for unsustainable wounds.

Invisible Tendrils (Water/Light): Dawn releases a razor-sharp tendril of water from her body, either silently or extremely rapidly, and conceals it immediately upon propulsion by manipulating the surrounding light particles. Dawn can either fire it as a projectile, releasing it completely from her body and dissipating it upon impact, or she can latch it against a surface, maintaining an invisible wire capable of slicing an unsuspecting opponent. Upon latching it onto a surface, she can also choose to release her grasp on the tendril and attach her side of it onto another surface, creating a static wire unaffected by her movement. Because this spell requires an immense amount of concentration and exertion, Dawn avoids using it if at all possible.

Starting Weapons: 

Dawn wields a magically enchanted katana known as Damenis Reputilim, literally meaning Water-synergized Edge. As the name implies, Damenis Reputilim is well-suited to combat underwater and slices through liquids as easily as it would through air. Incapable of erosion or rust, Damenis Reputilim is an essentially self-maintaining blade. Its material is also enchanted for lightness, allowing even the most unathletic to wield it so long as they have the skill to properly utilize it. However, while Damenis Reputilim is extraordinarily practical for water mages, it is only on par with most regular weapons in terms of brute force.

Dawn also wields a set of ten throwing knives, concealed inside of a secured small leather pouch. Because of the transient nature of such tools, Dawn occasionally restocks them, either through thievery or purchase. In order to prevent any issues at times too late for their remedy, Dawn checks any new knives for balance and appropriateness before seriously utilizing them. These knives are mostly dedicated to times of desperation, and Dawn will rarely employ them in combat for anything other than distracting or disabling. If necessary, she is ready to use them for close combat.

Description:

Dawn has light, smooth skin, mostly free of impurities due to natural luck and a few alterations thanks to light magic. She has dark brown eyes and flowing, black long hair, extending all the way to her chest. Standing at a height of five feet and four inches, she is not too tall yet not too short. Although years of physical exertion have strengthened her muscles, their size is typical for an ordinary human being, and they barely impact her overall appearance. Dawn is also relatively skinny, owing credit to a fast metabolism and not any dietary habits. Deeply affected by her past, she holds a generally pessimistic and apathetic outlook towards the world. However, she won’t hesitate to support someone in need if doing so seems practical and morally compelling. All in all, Dawn senses no purpose in her life and currently only lives to survive to her end in what she considers a wretched world. 

Clothes: Dawn typically wears casual shirts of varying colors and designs, with the priority of allowing easy movement. Her pants are more interesting, as while they maintain the same casual, flowing structure, they also include slots to secure Dawn’s katana scabbard and multiple pouches. Along with her throwing knives, Dawn’s pouches allow her to conveniently carry around important objects like money or food. 

Bio:

Abandoned at the age of six in a distant, insignificant land, Dawn’s life would have been incredibly short if a local tribe had not saved her. Unconscious the entire time due to starvation and fatigue, Dawn was ignorant to the turbulent events that began to take place.

Nurtured in a hut for the injured, a hospital of sorts, Dawn rested for the remainder of the day while the tribe awaited the divinations of the village elder and leader, an old woman who, as traditionally, held powers of the Dracim and Psychic alignments.

Once again following the path of tradition, the elder would carry out her deed. She would fall into a deep sleep, welcoming messages that she had begun to trust as prophetic towards newborns and new members. Relatively constant in her sleep patterns, she would observe emerging letters in the sky of a completely white world, the destined name, each with its own hidden meaning. At times, she would notice patterns within the normally unchanging constancy of her dream world, but while they too were prophetic messages, they were usually too cryptic to understand until the event had come to pass. As such, the only meaningful substance they presented was a future joke upon the maturity of the intended recipient.

But when the elder entered her dream seeking knowledge for Dawn, she immediately became aghast at the vivid, shocking scenes before her. The name Dawn Skittem emerged in the sky, the first name of which eluded her in meaning but the latter of which clearly translated into “Survivor of the Poison”. The words themselves would have meant little to her; perhaps they would have even offered a benign outlook with emphasis on luck. But the images before her, of a world disturbingly reminiscent of her’s, of a direct replica of her precious, beloved village, flooded premonitions of death, chaos, and destruction into her mind. A towering wave of water swept across the landlocked village, and she suddenly awakened.

Horrified in a way that had eluded her years, the elder shuddered for a second before resigning herself to the future. As tradition stated, her tribe must not do anything to prevent whatever events were to come. For beings insignificant to the larger workings of the world, it would be folly to try and alter the future. Knowing that she would need to announce her newfound knowledge to the tribe, she resolved to steel herself and present herself as a role model.

But as much as she tried, the overwhelming paranoia of the populace could not be completely reduced by her speeches. When Dawn woke up, she was greeted unsympathetically with discrimination and fear. Eventually forgetting about her fleeting past, the village, even with its obvious shortcomings, became home to her. And while Dawn, incredibly intelligent and eager to learn, flourished within her new environment, she found herself conflicted between her sense of loyalty and her sense of outcast.

For a few years, Dawn passed her life simply within the village, a member of many, interlocked within the unbreakable bonds of the community. While it was apparent to her that a degree of mistrust was directed towards her, she reasoned with herself, ignorant to the elder’s dream, that it was because of her origin and that working hard to integrate herself into the community would, in time, solve everything. And for a time, it seemed like everything would progress as Dawn imagined. Time erected a barrier against the distant memory of an ominous dream, and the villagers began to appreciate the friendly and incredibly helpful Dawn.

And so life continued pleasantly. The villagers were a simple folk, who lived solely on socialization and work. When Dawn wasn’t preoccupied with gathering fruit, hunting, or helping out the collective village chores, she would throw time away with her ever growing stock of friends or pursue a growing personal interest, magic.

When she noticed the usefulness of healing magic while helping take care of the injured, she immediately wanted to increment her magical prowess. With an inherent skill in water manipulation, she added the concept of light magic to her expertise by consulting fellow villagers or the limited tribal library. Dawn swiftly improved her magical abilities far beyond village standards by pursuing her interests with the same resoluteness she carried in her work, quickly becoming something like a celebrity. Time’s barrier was growing stronger and stronger, and Dawn’s infamy had been positively subverted.

But time was not formidable enough as a barrier, and when both tribes and outside settlers began to assault their village in war, the idea that Dawn had caused their crisis became ingrained in the villager’s minds. At first, the community as a whole was confident that they could survive, but with the heavy disadvantage of Dawn’s pacifistic nature, which caused the idea of even killing intruders to appall her, the feeble villagers were outnumbered. While the elder held unique magical powers, her combat abilities were nowhere near what was necessary.

Overcome with panic at the undefeatable enemy forces, the villagers resorted to rash action, some even attempting to murder Dawn. When she fought back, unintentionally killing a few assailants in self-defense, the villagers found new reasons to target her. The majority of her friends killed in the war and the majority of the villagers assembled in a violent mob against her, it seemed as if she had no chances of survival.

In an act of desperation, she began to emit bursts of water from herself, quickly flooding the land and drowning almost all of her combat-inexperienced enemies in the rapid currents, the villagers having only slight, necessary mastery of magic and the invaders only being uneducated travelers. Sitting in a field of bloodless dead, it was only later, when the water had drained away that she noticed what she had done. But when she saw the legions of slaughtered betrayers before her, she didn’t cry. Shaking in an unmoving position, she stared blankly at the ground for hours. Part of her blamed herself for her foolishness, while another part of her raged at what the people around her had created.

So absorbed was she in her despair that she didn’t notice the warm presence of a hand on her left shoulder until the presence began speaking. Turning around, she bitterly noticed the wistful smile of the elder.

''The world was a sad place. Endurance was necessary. Good and bad things came in their own balance. Unfortunate events were just opportunities. She would have to fend for herself from now on. She wasn’t truly alone. A place would come to her in the world. She would just have to keep looking.''

The reassuring words flew past Dawn, unnoticed in her anger, sadness, and passion. Dawn cursed her mentally, insulted and bothered by her seemingly calm demeanor. How could she ignore the cruelty of what had happened with some hollow words? How could she explain such actions so simply?

Before she realized it, Dawn was alone, alone in the endless expanse with nothing but a sheathed katana beside her. Sobbing desperate tears, she clutched her head in her hands and drifted off into the night.

Dawn arrived, and she awakened, lifting the surprisingly light katana upwards and pressing it towards her chest. Without a goal, she began to wander from village to village, doing what she felt had to be done but never feeling fully alive. Hearing of the bustling city of Imperis, she immediately headed out, concluding that if the world had anything left for her, it could definitely be found in such an eventful region.