Coraline
Coraline Suvi Kaarlontytär Takala (a.k.a. Cora, Gravewalker, The Powder Witch, She-Wraith, Blackbird)
Yö on pitkä jos aamua pelkää.Coraline Takala is a young woman of far northern birth originally belonging to a branch of the drachari, a small family group of the Mavari peoples. Born to a tribal leader in the northern state of Ikurouta with savant syndrome and high functioning autism, both of which were far from the understanding of medicine in her time, Cora lived a relatively normal if not exciting or overly happy life under the gruff oversight of her stern father, training for combat with her foreign uncle Daymon while she aged. Midway through her thirteenth year, a small feud within her caravan group developed into a fully-fledged rift as her father, Kaarlo, was accused by other family leaders of poor leadership as they claimed his hostile and isolationist attitudes towards both other drachari families and the townfolk along their usual trade route. In following with Mavari tradition, it was determined that Kaarlo should leave the caravan and that the group should elect a new figurehead from among their ranks while his children were to be raised by widows. Not wishing to part with his children - particularly Coraline herself, as he knew the child was particularly difficult to raise due to her social oddities - he spoke with Daymon who ended up carting their family far southward to his city of birth, Wayford. Neither Kaarlo nor his children were particularly well suited at first to city life nor southern customs, and this restlessness eventually lead the youngest of the four, Miilo, to lash out by joining up with a local band of unorganized militiamen intent on wreaking havoc amongst the ranks of the occupying Durranian Empire. Having ridden out to visit her brother and convince him to return home, the militia's camp was suddenly set upon by an imperial ambush in retaliation for a recent raid against one of their supply carts. In the midst of the chaos, Cora bore witness to the sight of her brother being struck down by a man of tremendous size before, while attempting to run towards his body, she too was lanced through the gut with a speartip and left to bleed out on the ground. The bodies of both her and Miilo were found the following day and returned to Wayford wherein they were buried in the crypts beneath the city. To the surprise of both the girl and her family, she was re-awoken two days later as a rare form of undead known as a dhaeva, though her brother found no such fortune. Currently, she attempts to hone in her supernatural abilities and protect her family by studying and training at the esteemed University of Selby, though her locale is unfortunately likely to soon be subject to war. She has allied herself with the efforts of Ardran's council and the local militia forces in recent times, assisting their more subterfuge-driven approach to postponing greater conflicts.
Physical Description
Body Features
Cora's skin bears an unusually pale tone due to her undead nature as though her entire life might have been spent indoors. Below the neckline she lacks any body hair whatsoever, giving what little skin she leaves uncovered a distinctive and otherworldly smooth quality. Much of her form has become hardened with a semi-defined musculature over time, though this more solid quality tapers off around the curves of her hips and chest, which give her a distinctly feminine shape and the latter of which she frequently binds with cloth or similar fabric before battle. Much of her skin is often marred by battle-scarring, though each of these heal given time.
She is undoubtedly striking, though many describe her as off-putting for a reason they can't quite describe.
Facial Features
Cora's face is rather delicate in structure, bearing an overall mousy sort of appearance with a slightly upturned button nose and a set of plush though somewhat thin lips. Her eyes seem larger than average and their bright blue sheen gives them an almost unnerving quality when she stares out from behind her bangs. Overall, her visage still bears much of the girlish qualities from her relative physical youth that clash abruptly with her sometimes obnoxious personality and hardened body shape. Despite this and the physical un-aging qualities bound to her by her curse, many mannerisms and ticks might suggest the qualities of someone a few years the girl's senior; often times her eyes may appear rather sunken-in or surrounded by darkened skin and her face, though unmarred by any scars or wrinkles, bears occasional lines beneath her eyelids or ridges along her brow.
Her mouth appears fully human at a glance, but a number of slits can be seen on the tops and bottoms of her gums upon closer inspection. These slits allow for the disguise of a second set of teeth found among all vampiric breeds - long fangs which extend from the gums and past the more human set of teeth to allow their bearer to shred through thick skin and flesh. Additionally, her ears were slightly mutated with the transformation into a dhaeva, becoming somewhat misshapen and elongated; commonly she passes this off as having elven heritage to those unaware of her undead state.
Identifying Characteristics
Though nearly all of the scars which Cora receives in battle will eventually recede back to the normal shape of her skin and fade away over time due to the supernatural healing properties inherent to her species, the most prominent of her former wounds never will. A diagonal scar on the lower right of her torso near the waistline is eternally etched into the girl's pale skin as a marking of her first death.
Special abilities
Physical Abilities and Anomalies
Aside from her pale skin, the only immediately obvious physical differences between Cora's form and that of her fully human self is the more pale tint to her skin and the slightly malformed, pointed ears that stick from beneath her locks of dark hair. Upon further inspection, of course, her inner mouth and jaw have also undergone the typical mutations of a dhaeva, with a second set of jagged fanged teeth able to snap into extension from beneath the gums of her upper and lower jaws and a biological mechanism in her skeletal and muscular structure allowing her jawbone to temporarily disconnect from her skull for a wider extension of the mouth without sacrificing much biting force. Supernaturally, however, the girl's physical skills have increased tenfold since her mortal form. Though her somewhat define musculature might hint to a fairly fit individual, her true strength is more comparable to that of a larger goblinoid creature such as an ogre or troll. Due to her comparably light weight and small stature in comparison to such beasts, she naturally lacks the true heft that those larger beings possess, though the more focused power she can deliver through sheer strength alone is more than formidable. While still learning her strength, the girl fractured, broke, and shattered many of the bones in her hands and arms by mistake when throwing punches. Her increased speed and reaction time are perhaps her greatest physical assets, however, as she is parry all but the deftest of strikes made against her and swing her blade in an arc faster than the eye can follow. Her vestibular sense was also boosted via the transformation, giving her a better sense of balance and weight-gauge than most others.Umbramancy
A form of magic innate to wraiths and other spectral beings, umbramancy refers to the manipulation of darkness and shadows, most usually in a gaseous, solidifiable form comparable to excessively black smoke or fog. While Cora bears an inherent ability for this brand of sorcery due to a dhaeva's wraith influences, she scorns magic as a concept and does not wish to take the years of her life which would be necessary to learn the uses of umbramancy to its fullest effects, instead simply choosing to implement it as a combat aid. While specters employ the magic to warp across great distances, physically disappear entirely, or phase through solid objects, a dhaeva's fully corporeal form prevents any of these, though Cora can use this power to instantly shift locations over very short distances or travel across longer spaces to a fixed point with immense speed. These powers come with the drawback of dealing fatal damage to the girl's body if she is impeded by a solid object in her path while they are used, however, and thus she tends to save them for dire situations.
Specialized Equipment
Ylinkjen Greatscythe
Bronze Earring
A simple ring-shaped piece which is notably the only jewelry worn by Cora. This earring was enchanted by the girl with some amount of effort after studying the magical properties of wraiths and wights through a technique occasionally referred to as "netherbinding." Through this enchantment, certain objects of the enchanter's choosing may be linked with a single 'tether' which may then be employed to transport the netherbound items to the tether's location and then back to their original spot at will. While this allows Cora to maintain a much lighter load while still having access to a decent arsenal of tools, it also carries with it the additional danger that the loss of the tether means that she would loose access to her more dangerous weapons. For this reason, the earring is crafted out of a somewhat common metal and designed to be as bland and unimpressive as possible to draw less attention from would-be thieves or pilferers. Additionally, its use as a magical tether is kept secret from all save from her immediate family and a select few comrades within Selby.Khomdaruhm Longsword
Coraline's primary weapon of use is a Tharronese longsword of unknown make, though likely commissioned through Bhaldish smithies judging by the blade shape and expertise shown in the shaping of such an unruly metal. The blade of the sword itself is comprised entirely of Khomdaruhm while the more intricate designs of the handle, pommel, and crossguard are forged with pure and unadorned carbon steel, giving the entire weapon a silvery, metallic sheen. The hilt and guard are shaped from a single piece of steel and welded firmly against all sides of the blade's base, giving the sword an overall integrity and resistance to any blunt force or other means of deconstruction. The longer-than-average length of the hilt and weighted pommel assist in counterbalancing the heavy weight of the blade. It was originally gifted to Coraline after her presumed death, serving as her uncle Daymon's gift of remembrance in her tomb. Upon her revival, he insisted she use it permanently. Before that, Daymon had carried the sword for a number of decades after it had been similarly passed to him as a parting gift by Ser Alexakes of Tharron, the knight errant whom he had served under as squire. Prior to its use by the aforementioned knight, its history is unknown to either the girl or her uncle.
by RoosterEma
Broken Blade
The withered, battle-worn hilt and blade of an average, well-made sword which seems to have been snapped off roughly a third of the way down the blade by some incredible force. In the absence of any true smaller blades, Cora occasionally employs this weapon as a sort of improvised shortsword or dagger, though its primary purpose seems to be as some sort of memorabilia or keepsake. Its origins are apparently unknown to all but the girl herself who keeps the makeshift dagger on display in her belt at nearly all hours of the day.
Wheellock Dragon Pistol
by RoosterEma
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Childhood and Death
Born as the middle child to a leader of the Takala family of the drachari tribe in the far north of Ikurouta, Cora was often disregarded in her youth as being simple-minded or "slow" due to her inability to function well under social constraints. Mavari tribes typically exist as nomads who turn a profit by carrying goods between towns they frequent, so a girl who was more interested in drawing pictures in the mud than chatting up the locals of a town could often be viewed as useless. Her younger brother Miilo, older siblings Stojan and Mabel, and uncle Daymon - a former lecturer and combat instructor in a city to the far south sibling of Cora's late mother who died during the birth of her fourth child - were four of the only other tribe members which she felt comfortable expressing herself around, and would often confide in the latter of them when scorned by her father Kaarlo who, despite the affections he held for his children, had trouble relating to the strange mind of his daughter. From a young age, Daymon would entertain the girl with lessons in his native Durranian tongue and, as she grew older, began teaching her to fight as well. Despite her father's displeasure, it was hard for him to deny that his daughter seemed destined for such a profession, excelling far past either of her brothers in combat despite her smaller stature and frame, and he begrudgingly allowed her continued training under Daymon's watchful eye.
As her social anxieties strengthening rather than receding over time, Cora devoted much of her time to the art of combat and study of languages, able to hold her own against many of her tribe's adult warriors, to both the chagrin and latent support of her father and outright pride of her uncle. Her skill in learning tongues meant that she was often brought forth as a translator for their caravan when venturing through the various lands of their travels, though the girl was hardly as pleased with such affairs. This relatively comfortable life was rather suddenly thrown out of balance, however, when the fiery temper of Coraline's father caused a fallout with the locals of a small village in Stryzheim well known among their tribe for the trade and sale of manufactured goods difficult to procure within the mobile caravans. It was demanded of Kaarlo to step down from his position as the caravan's leader and, in accordance with tribal law, to voluntarily exile himself from the caravan altogether. While not particularly bothered at the thought of leaving the tribal family, such an act would necessitate that he leave his immediate family as well. Faced with the prospect of quite possibly never seeing his children again in his lifetime, he at first considered the thought of requesting a stay within the caravan though to be exiled from political and family matters - such an act would leave his children to be raised by the clan's widows, though he could still interact with them once old enough - though he worried that Coraline's peculiarities would leave her ill-fit for such a living situation. Looking towards what he believed to be his final option, Kaarlo discussed with Daymon the prospects of moving southward, and within days they split from the caravan group with a single wagon to make the weeks-long journey to the outlander's home city of Wayford.
Daymond managed to use his familiarity with the town's warden, Thurstan Drummond, to afford the family with a suitable if not incredibly spacious home while the man himself ventured further to Selby and resumed his former position of over a decade prior at the esteemed University located there. Kaarlo conscripted himself into the local guard to ensure that his family would remain in the public's good graces while his sons took care of the household, though it seemed as though the group had elected to return at an inopportune time. The neighboring empire of Durrania, looking to expand its borders, had declared ownership over the cities of Ardran mere months before their arrival. Over the course of the coming years, tensions began rising as the nearby Durranian town of Westguard became further populated with military presence while militia bands began springing up across Ardran - both sides seemingly preparing themselves for an inevitable war.
While Coraline herself seemed to fit right in amongst the city life, the young girl taking many trips down the river to visit her uncle and tour the university's library, the rest of her family fared less favorably. Accustomed to a life of travel and intimacy among the extended family of the tribe, Cora's brothers and father grew restless within the cramped walls of the trading city, such feelings finally reached a boiling point when Miilo, the youngest of her siblings, left his family's home with the goal of joining one of the many disorganized militia bands popping up around the city. Upon hearing this news, Cora immediately set out in a similar manner, ignoring the protests of her father in order to track down her brother and bring him back home.
Despite being a youth at fourteen years of age, Miilo had taken quite readily to the shoddy circumstances of the militia camp, proudly informing his sister that he had already participated in the raiding of a Durranian supply cart in the week or so that it had taken her to track him down. Though doubting just how involved said 'participation' had been, Cora mostly attempted to brush through these claims while admonishing her brother, demanding he return home. Perhaps midway through her younger brother's retort that he was growing into a man himself and that their father had no right to demand he return, the camp was set upon by an imperial ambush apparently in retribution to the raided supply-cart the boy had been speaking about moments earlier. The siblings lost each other in the chaos as militiamen were cut down around them by spear and arrow alike, though the girl did manage to catch sight of her brother just as he was felled; struck down by the blow of a seemingly giant man who cleaved through his guard with a single swing of a massive sword that nearly lopped the boy's torso in two. No doubt he died almost immediately upon suffering such a blow, though Coraline panicked and scrambled forwards to reach her brother's corpse only to soon find herself stuck through the gut with a spear-tip, its owner no doubt having assumed she was among the rebels' numbers.
The girl died a painful death bleeding out against the muddy ground, and the corpses of both siblings were found the following day by a similar band of militiamen-to-be who carted the dead back to the city so they might be reunited with their families. Understandably distraught at the notion of losing his two youngest, Kaarlo fell into a deep despair and left his brother by marriage to oversee their burials. In Mavari culture it is typical to either bury or burn the corpses of the dead out in the forests so that they may rejoin the spirits of their ancestors amongst the trees, though Daymon instead saw fit to entomb the both of them in the crypts beneath the city alongside his own lineage.
Birth of the Gravewalker
To her understandable surprise, Cora awoke in what she initially perceived as the following morning to find herself ravenously hungry, confused, and confronted by shocked and confused men in what appeared to be a crypt. She terrified herself as her body acted nearly of its own accord, ripping the men to pieces with her teeth and bare hands with beast-like fury and swallowing down their raw flesh in an instinctual fervor. Horrified by her actions, she sat in the stone tunnels and sobbed to herself until she was discovered by Daymon who ran in down a flight of stairs to discover that his neice, awoken within the depths of her own resting place, had somehow returned to life.
Re-uniting with her family was a happy if extremely strange and bittersweet affair, Cora's father and uncle informing her of how her body had been brought back from the camp after the Durranian raid and was fitted to be placed within the crypt over the next few days. All of this had taken place over the course of five days, so she was informed. Though all were wondrously gracious for her supernatural return, the apparently more permanent death of Miilo still hung over the group like a dark cloud.
In the coming days, Coraline sought an audience with the city's warden who himself had become rather notorious for his opposition to the exact sorts of militia bands which Miilo had been killed within. At first quite furious with the man as she initially held his lack of oversight towards his city's populace at least somewhat responsible for the needless death of her brother, she quickly came to sympathize with the warden's cautious attitude. Regardless, Thurstan could no longer ignore the growing restlessness within the city and, against his more personal wishes not to "prod the embers", as he put it, began attempts to unify the various anti-imperial groups under a more singular and perhaps more officiated and organized band - an act that would soon lead to the creation of the so-called 'Rivermen' across Wayford and Selby.
Over this same time, Cora would go on to discover that her return to life was hardly the only strange part of her resurrection, as a return to sparring practice with her uncle quickly lead to discovery of greatly enhanced strength and speed. Her blunted sword had whistled ferociously through the air and crashed against Daymon's leg with a wicked crack that had sent him reeling to the ground and leave him with a limp upon his recovery. For his own part he seemed proud of his nieces newfound abilities, claiming that she never could've broken his leg in the first place if it wasn't for how he'd taught her growing up, though the girl herself was more than a bit scared of her developing abilities. Such fright compounded as she attempted to put these supernatural skills to better use and fight on in Miilo's place, joining up with the Rivermen who had begun to refer to the girl as Gravewalker, some speaking about her with caution in hushed tones. Cora's anger exploded when, while tagging along with a few other scouts on a reconnaissance trip, she recognized one of the Durranian patrolmen from the ambush that had lead to Miilo's death and, without second thought, leaped into action to cut the man and his companions down. While her fellow rebels had at first been worried of the girl so quickly throwing her life away, that worry quickly shifted focus as Coraline saw her righteous anger compound with the bloodshed, losing herself to that same hunger she had felt upon awakening in the crypt and ruthlessly butchering the Durranian patrol with animalistic fury. Once the rage had subsided it was replaced with the returning shame and terror felt towards her own capabilities.
Regardless, Coraline could hardly put aside the hatred she felt towards the empire for the murder of her brother, and worked in tandem with the Rivermen over the coming months despite disagreements with Thurstan over his more measured tactics. During this same time, she would join her uncle at the University - Daymon having pulled a few strings to secure the girl living quarters on its premises in return for her assistance in the library - while the two of them would attempt to hone and practice her immense supernatural abilities while digging through historical texts for some clue as to the nature of her resurrection.
Education
Cora is explicitly well-trained in matters of combat, having practiced primarily techniques employing swords, polearms, and daggers with her uncle since she was a young girl. This same time saw her delving deep into the study of various tongues, a passion for which she still holds today, able to switch between a large host of languages learned through polyglottal passion.
She could be considered a polymath, additionally, in more academic matters, though has struggled to express herself in more creative or theoretical passions - rhetoric and moral philosophy continue to be the subjects which best evade her understanding among the university's lectures.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Titles
by Donghwan Kim
by Guweiz
Mental Trauma
Cora is afflicted with a decent number of mental woes, though at her time these would mostly be recognized as simple faults of the mind. Born with savant syndrome, high-functioning autism, and a minor sporadic compulsive disorder, she would later go on to develop accompanying depressive and anxiety disorders alongside post-traumatic stress garnered from her involvement in combat and the rather unique experience of dying multiple times.
She bears a distinctive sense of self-loathing and disappointment, carrying survivor's guilt due to believing herself to be at fault for the death of her brother - a concept which she is also unwilling to accept in full, holding out the likely misguided belief that he will be able to return to life in the same manner as herself, despite his death being over a year in the past by now - due to her father having once mentioned in passing that she was the primary reason he took their family south to Wayford rather than staying with the tribe. While hardly meaning to insinuate such a thing, Coraline's anxiety-driven paranoia refuses to separate the two thoughts. Despite her somewhat friendly and good-natured attitude, the girl is generally very dismissive with others and attempts to keep even her closer friends at an arm's length as she sees herself as a danger to those who might care for her due to the threat of violence that could come both from others seeking to harm those close to her or from herself when she loses control.
Though not incredibly frequent, the girl will nevertheless find herself waking from memories of her own death, her brother's, or those she has killed.
Intellectual Characteristics
Despite her oddities, Cora is without a doubt an absolute genius in terms of raw mental abilities, though in spending any lengthy amount of time with her the first thing that most are likely to notice about the girl are the peculiar ways in which her mind functions. Her somewhat childlike immaturity and hotheadedness often clash with the vastness of her intellect and the speed at which she is able to properly think and make connections, both of which can be quite troubling when bundled with her obsessive compulsions. Coupled with her difficulties in forming meaningful relationships, Cora is left with a strange duality of being a clinical slacker while finding near permanent boredom with whatever it is she's currently doing, often attempting to keep herself occupied by reading, woodcarving, or drinking alongside the occasional bout of physical violence or intellectual engagement with others.
The skill which she touts the most enjoyment of, however, is what she refers to as "people-reading", which is a form of logical deductions garnered from the physical qualities, behaviors, and speech patterns of the people she interacts with. Alongside this are her penchants for mathematics, physics, engineering, and linguistics, the latter of which has allowed her to be a mostly self-taught fluent speaker of thirteen languages with partial knowledge of many more. Her incredible mental faculties also assist her in combat, as she can often-times predict the actions of an opponent after observing their styles and patterns of movement, though her complete lack of concrete long-term aspirations leaves her most-often using her incredible deductive skills and pattern recognition to win street brawls and bar fights rather than for any ultimate benefits.
Easily describable as hyperactive and immature, complaints of boredom are never far from her lips, and she will often go out of her way to annoy, tease, and nag at those she's more friendly with. Sometimes considering juvenile pranks and generally being a pest to be the height of fun, these childlike qualities are only heightened by her incredible difficulty at expressing powerful emotions and insatiable curiosity, as she has practically driven others mad while trying to pry for every piece of their history as though they were a puzzle to be solved, yet lashes out at any attempts to analyze or question her own past.
Personality Characteristics
Savvies & Ineptitudes
On an internal mental level, Coraline seems to excel at more or less any subjects she gets her hands on. Though holding a particular affinity for deductive reasoning and pattern recognition and any areas of study which lend themselves to such skills, she also finds an acute interest in the research of advanced mathematics and mechanical engineering – on occasion, she has been known to spend what little amounts of spare money she comes across on relatively expensive clockwork baubles such as pocket-watches or music boxes only to disassemble them and peer at the inner contraptions.
Insofar as areas of pure intellectual capacity are concerned, she seems primarily limited by little more than her interest in a subject; Cora holds a firm grasp on rudimentary biology, though only as it relates to physical trauma, and detests the discussion of rhetoric and moral philosophies despite holding very strong opinions covered by either realm of knowledge.
On the other side of the coin, she is thoroughly unskilled within the domain of social intellect. Even without her acute anxieties, the girl is both naive in many well-accepted social contracts and blind to many conversational cues and niceties, unintentionally offending many due to the tendency to speak to others as bluntly as she would wish to be addressed and finding it incredibly difficult to read more subtle emotions without physical clues. Idioms and euphemisms additionally show a tendency to fly over her head, suggesting an overly-literal interpretation of most things she's told – a notion supported by the lack with which she speaks in turns of phrases despite a dialect heavily laden with slang and an overly-casual tone.
Relationships
History
As Arletta passed while her second daughter was only two years of age, Coraline lacked the time to establish any true relationship with her mother.
History
Kaarlo has long attempted to care for and look after his daughter after coming about the understanding that she did not think in the same manner as those around him, but nevertheless his gruff and impatient attitude towards any trials in his life has, over the years, driven something of a wedge between him and his daughter. Following the death of his youngest son and subsequent death and resurrection of Cora, Kaarlo and his youngest daughter rarely speak to one another.
by Koyorin
Species
Ethnicity
Year of Birth
1451 2E
18 Years old
Birthplace
Central Ikurouta
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
The City of Selby in Ardran
Sex
Female
Gender
Female
Eyes
Large and Unnaturally Blue
Hair
Dark Brown, Lengthy
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale White
Height
5' (152 cm)
Weight
110 lbs (50 kg)
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
- Mavare/Northern Mavaran(Saami)
- Movdi/Western Mavaran(Ukranian)
- Mavaran(Romani)
- Mosdrea/Southern Mavaran(Romanian)
- Ikuroutan(Finnish)
- Durranian(English)
- Volskjen(Norwegian)
- Skjellic(Swedish)
- Aralish(Serbian)
- Kyrvash (Russian/Cossack)
- Vanyengi(Hungarian)
- Strytz(German)
- Dakvy(Czech)
- Skovodi(Slovak)
- Tuvant(French)
- Vosqod
- Odainish
- Lisga (Irish Gaelic)
- Halvic(Danish)
- Doldeschen(Dutch)
- Skokian(Croatian)
- Prusvayi(Lithuanian)
- Kaljan(Estonian)
- Dalesh (Scots Gaelic)
- Sredian(Bosnian)
- Bolsian(Polish)
- Chisjen(Spanish)
- Anatarian(Portuguese)
- Reznian(Bulgarian)
- Filian(Italian)
- Legian(Latin)
- Hementi(Greek)
- Kabarish(Turkish)
- Khadli(Arabic)
- Yeqizi (Persian/Farsi)
- Zhi Yu (Min Chinese)
- Kduni
- Adurgeshi
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