Liliana Tulwenn

Details

You see a young, slightly pale Ravarynian human woman with long, jet black hair. She has a small scar beneath the left eye, and above her upper lip, on the left side. Her attire is often a mixture of the style of nobility, and the practicality of a traveller. Regardless the (usually dark) color of her outfit, she always has many decorative pieces of silver, or sometimes even gold, with the occasional gemstones or crystals on display, yet they are a part of her clothing in a manner that is both secure, and allowing for mobility. Around her neck, tied to a thin, silver chain, is a white golden ring with a black onyx gemstone embedded within, that she often keeps out of sight. If she's travelling, she may not even carry it with her, at all. Several small bags and elaborate pouches are around her waist, as well as number of bound cases for scrolls or maps or other paperwork.

She carries herself with an air of ambition, cunning and dedication that settles in a rather cold and focused expression, yet there's a certain understanding behind the gaze of her light green eyes. There's a certain air of hardened stoicism about her, and to anyone with a good intuïtion for people, it seems like it would be difficult to make her laugh genuinely, beyond a practiced polite smile. Yet there are some rare moments where she concedes a wry smirk, where it's fitting, or otherwise briefly lets her guard down. Down-to-earth and very matter-of-fact, it seems like she prefers to focus on what she deems important, and anything else is of lesser relevance.

Liliana's magical expertise lies first and foremost with Dark Alchemy, infusing items, through the lifeforce of other living beings, with dark properties to suit her purposes. Due to the nature of dark magic, she often does this in as subtle and creative ways as possible.

One of her favorite ways is to curse something like a gemstone (with something's lifeforce), and throw it in someplace like a well (or a barrel of wine, to hide any purple sheen of dark magic), where in turn the water gets enchanted to slightly drain the energy of whomever drinks it (in a manner that isn't overtly noticeable), and siphon it into something like an amulet or ring that holds a fragment of the initial gemstone, for the stored energy to be used at a later time. She also enjoys using such items to spy on other people to get information to blackmail, or otherwise get ahead in life, if even just a little bit. She knows she's also capable of enchanting a weapon with life-draining (or other magical) properties, though such is incredibly overt as it would gain the telltale dark purple sheen of dark magic.

In dire times, she could potentially drain a small animal in one hand, to mend someone's (or her own) wounds with the other, though such would come at great risk of discovery, as well as potential instability. This can only mend small surface wounds or stop bleeding, however, and does nothing against internal damage and deep/large wounds, illnesses, or any damage caused by magic. In short, her ability to mend wounds with her magic is very limited.

In combat, her magic has limited options, and all of them are overt. She can drain the life out of nearby nature (grass, trees, foliage) to cast a single harmful dark bolt at an enemy, but must move to a position with more life to drain in order to do so again. (lest she drain her own life in the process) She can also attempt to drain the energy of a creature from a distance, though this takes a good minute or two to do (the longer the distance, the longer the time it takes), and creates a very obvious dark tether between her and her target. If she manages to directly touch her target, however, this effect can be devastatingly fast, often leaving behind a dark mark of necrotic tissue. This can also be done by touching clothes or armor, but would again take more time, anywhere from five/ten seconds up to a minute, depending on the material between her and her target.

Lastly, the downsides to her powers. Without a source of life to drain, there isn't much she can do with her magic, making places like city streets a nightmare to do any spontaneous casting. If she does attempt to cast any dark magic without a direct or stored source to drain from, the magic can and will drain from her own life force. Hence why she practices some swordplay as well, to not be caught entirely off guard. As mentioned frequently, most of the results of her dark magic are very overt, though she has practiced a lot with Dark Alchemy to at least make the purple sheen on her cursed items less noticeable, or at least blend in with an object that already has a similar sheen. And while she doesn't know it yet, the use of her magic might also draw unwanted attention from an entirely unknown angle, as who knows what sort of creatures are drawn to such power...


Spellbook:

Her spellbook is bound in dark purple dyed leather with silver finishings depicting hands in spellcasting motions, in an almost maddening pattern. Heavy duty clasps keep it tightly shut, and it is able to be locked, as well. If one were to look upon the pages, most of the writings seem like mad scribblings at first glance, though a clever mind might see that things are encoded with a cypher to keep the information hidden from prying eyes. There are, however, delicate illustrations on occasion that may hint at what the text may be about, most such drawings concerning things from elaborate hand motions, to comparisons between animals and their anatomy, seemingly with a ranking from 1 to 10. Other images might be nothing more than a complex series of geometric shapes, or strange, foreboding runes.

Born on the 12th of The Snow Moon, 1424 P.F. , Liliana grew up in a rather wealthy family within Sleetspire, whom had profited greatly off of the local trade and had ambitions of joining the nobility in Ishgard. As the only daughter in the family, Liliana was spoilt a fair bit, especially by her mother, Caragwynn, yet also enjoyed the best education money could buy. Her brother, Darion, was only a few years younger than her, but immediately got a lot more attention from her father, Abathor, than she ever did. It was clear he had always wanted a son, instead of a daughter. Their childhood passed fairly normally, with Abathor often complaining they should move away from 'this frozen hellhole'.

As they grew older, Darion was being groomed to become the new head of the family, and a leader among warriors. Though he hated every moment of it, having a passion for sculpting that Abathor didn't approve of. Meanwhile, Liliana was instructed in religious matters, and courtly manners, essentially being prepared to either become a powerful mage, or to end up marrying one. She too hated every moment of it, and thus often saw eye to eye with her brother on a lot of things. When it turned out more and more that Darion was becoming a disappointment to his father, Abathor began drinking and gambling away his coin, often and frequently stating that he might as well 'waste his coin because his wife was like a hole in his pocket, and his children sure didn't deserve to inherit it', though in much more colorful words. He became a spiteful, bitter man the older he became, and ended up spending much more due to his gambling habit than the family actually earned. Darion joined the local guard to keep up with the expenses (and occasionally helped train Liliana with her swordplay), while Liliana was forced to help with her mother's dwindling mercantile business.

Then, one cruel Midwinter day, Caragwynn had fallen badly ill, during a time when healers were in short supply, and practical medicine was costly. Too costly, it turned out, as Abathor had all but spent the family's last coin. Darion and Liliana took on extra work where they could, sometimes sacrificing honor or dignity in the process, while their father could do nothing but drink away his sorrows. It wasn't enough, and she faded away overnight some seven years ago, now. To say that Liliana and Darion resented their father from that day onwards, was an understatement, to be sure. In an effort to get away from their father, Liliana sold her mother's old business, and departed with her brother to Ishgard, saying nothing to her father. No farewells, no insults. Nothing. She'd cursed her father, in more ways than one, and soon enough found that her dark words had meaning, trying to take shape in the form of dark magic.

Liliana tried to set up a business as a medicinal healer and alchemist, as that was mostly what she'd always helped her mother with. Darion soon found an opportunity to join a group of adventurers, to see the world, and wanted to earn enough to retire and make sculptures of all the strange things he'd ended up seeing. At least, that was his plan. Having said their farewells, Lilian was left alone with her bitterness in Ishgard for a few years, and was beginning to lose faith in the gods, while her dark magic grew in strength. But surprisingly, she found companionship soon enough in the form of a lover, by name of Gideon Varash. A wealthy and charming courtier that had entered her life, almost as if in a dream. Two years ago now, they had even happily married, and life was looking great. She could, for once, focus on whatever she'd wanted to do, having all manner of private tutors. She'd hardly even thought of using her dark talent, for the longest time, and perhaps even began to grow a rekindled faith in the gods...

But that too, was not meant to be. Eight months ago, Gideon was, as he put it, on an 'important and secretive mission' for an influential figure in the Ravarynian court, Liliana came home from private swordplay lessons one dark night, to find her husband assassinated, lying in a pool of his own blood. Grief gave way to hopelessness and hatred, which eventually settled in a calculated coldness for everything, and everyone. She began to rely more and more on her own dark powers, instead of the cruel gods that had taken so much away from her. And clearly, reïncarnation was a lie, for surely her husband would have returned to her by now, in some form? So she thought. Her somber feelings culminated into a dark ambition, swearing to herself that she would find the power so that nothing could be taken from her, ever again. That whatever the price, she would never again feel so... helpless. Powerless. Weak. Never again...

(No trivia as of yet!)