Veraasí Sâleesh

Name: Veraasí Sâleesh (Or, with permission, Vera)
Pronunciation: Veer-rah-see Sal-eesh
Gender: Female
Type: Amphiptere
Species: Quetzalcoatl
Age: 54 years
Date of Birth: December 3rd

Personality: Vera is, cautious to say the least. Before her abduction she was a shy, yet friendly and carefree individual; but her experiences with the Shadowed Path have caused lasting damage to both her personality and her emotional capacities. She now has a difficult time learning to trust other dragons, especially those with the smallest degree of proficiency in shadow magics, and her capabilities to feel certain emotions have been crippled. She is also a very straightforward dragon; so while she can appreciate anyone who has a way with words, she'd rather get to the heart of the matter instead of "blathering on about useless accentuations". However, she also hates being talked around, so it's really just a double-edged sword.

Hobbies: Vera dislikes "wasting time", and as such refuses to give herself much time to relax, or sometimes even sleep; but when she does have time, she enjoys relaxing on sun-warmed rocks, reading, exploring, tasting new teas, refining her control over her magic, and collecting flowers.
Likes: Sunny days, innocence, jasmine scents, poetry, tea, proper etiquette, silence, and (surprisingly) hatchlings.
Dislikes: Cloudy days, being cold, surprises, rudeness, manipulation, the dark, idleness, breaches in protocol, and lies.

Fears: She'd never admit it, but Vera is terrified of the Shadowed Path finding her and dragging her back to the Akademy. And as the NightBlades of said Akademy are armed with powers over the darkness, Vera also has an irrational fear of anyone who demonstrates said shadow powers. She finds it hard to even begin to trust such dragons, and this can lead to her verbally or physically lashing out or making all sorts of other unwise decisions.

Quote: "I am Veraasí Sâleesh. I have done many unspeakable deeds in the name of darkness. I was forged in the fires of the night, burning away the impurities of my former life and leaving me a shell of my former self. Now freed, I will do everything in my power to snuff out the darkness once and for all."




Place of Origin: A dense rainforest on Shveki
Tribe: Currently Rogue, wouldn't mind having a Tribe
Position: N/A
Language: Universal, Kishin, Ga'ar, and rough Arretiz and Xoyan.

Home: Verula, The Jungle of the Lost
Parents: Mother: Neriwynn (deceased); Father: Leoxisys (deceased)
Siblings: None
Relatives: None
Mate: Nasir (deceased)
Offspring: Nasir and Vera had a single egg; unfortunately, it was crushed during Vera's abduction.

History:
Vera seems shy and closed off, but her shy exterior conceals a dark secret: she's an assassin. Or- an ex-assassin in the very least. But she never wanted to be one in the first place. She was gathering fruit in the jungle, carefully carrying her and Nasir's egg in a sling, when a cloud crossed over the sun and the shadows around her writhed and began to twist unnaturally. Numerous draconic forms emerged from the seething darkness, and the shadows themselves reached out and restrained her; heartlessly crushing the egg in the process. She tried and failed to scream as the unknown drakes bound her mouth shut and dragged her off into the shadows.

She was immediately thrown into a cell upon arrival, and stayed in that cell for several days without food or water. Every few hours a dark figure came to ask her whether she would comply. Heartbroken over the loss of her egg, at first she resisted and screamed until her throat was raw. But then began the torture, her jailer would bring in wonderfully smelling food and eat it right in front of her. When that didn't break her, they moved on to physical torture. Eventually, she gave in and pleaded for mercy. She was then dragged into some sort of throne room where she pledged herself into the service of what she now knows to be The Shadowed Path, an elite guild of ruthless assassins-for-hire, led by the Shadow-Blade. She trained in their secret monetary by the Shadow-Blade himself after attracting his attention by resisting compliance for so long. She was his star pupil. Until the day she "graduated" she almost thought he thought of her like a daughter, like he was some sort of perversely adoptive father. His graduation gift to her was pair of obsidian daggers, silver stars engraved on their hilts with a strange infernal glow within them.

As soon as she grasped them, a powerful, rumbling, raspy voice spoke a single word into her mind: "Miiiiiiiiiiiine..." Her body moved without her commands and she found herself a prisoner in her own body for 22 years. The spell finally broke when the mate she thought she'd lost somehow found the Shadowed Path's fortress and ripped one of her daggers from it's scabbard and clutching it to his chest. The voice abruptly vanished from Vera's mind as Nasir's form started to crack and brilliant white infernal light spilled forth; he managed to croak out, "Run-" before his form began to crumple and draw inwards to a single point. Vera fled as a supernova exploded behind her; taking out a large portion of the Path's mountain fortress.

She still has that singular dagger, its harsh white glow having muted into a slight, infernally glowing reminder of everything that happened. She keeps trying to throw it away, but it always returns to her after a few days. So, left to her own devices, she fled to the aptly named Jungle of the Lost and made her home in the largest tree in the forest; always watching and waiting for the Shadowed Path to send their Nightblades after her. Because, when they do-? She'll be ready.




Height: While laying flat against the ground, Vera stands about 4ft tall (technically her body's diameter); but she usually rears up to a height of about 20-30ft.
Length: Vera is 60ft long.
Wingspan: Her total wingspan is 130ft.
Scale/Fur/Feathers: Vera is a dark blue scaled quetzalcoatl with cyan feathered wings, and a Cyan feathered tail fan. She has a feathered crest of the same color as well as a partial mane of feathers connecting her crest to her wings. However, her coloration is subject to change as Vera's emotions display themselves as splashes of color along her body. With tangible effort, Vera can force herself to change colors based on her desires, but more often than not her emotions run rampant.
Eyes: Light blue, fading to a brilliant purple around the pupils with a dark sclera.
Accessories: Vera wears nothing except for 2 sheaths; one is empty and the other occupied by an obsidian dagger alight with a strange, white fiendish glow in its center. The dagger is unnaturally sharp, sheds dim light when unsheathed, and gives the bearer a faint sense of unease. When fighting several enemies at once, Vera will frequently split her dagger into 7 shards (to be explained further under Fighting Styles), and can reform the blade just as easily after the battle. It will return to Vera if certain conditions are met:

The strange bond forged between Vera and the blade has enabled her to instantly summon the blade back to her side as long as it is within 60ft of her; but the blade is also possessive, and doesn't enjoy being separated from it's bonded user. As such, it will return to Vera upon the 7th dusk that it has spent separated from her. There is a way to prevent this, however; much like the cure for the Shade-Borne Infection, the dagger must be enveloped completely by light. If any shade touches it? It instantly dissolves and returns to Vera.

Armor: Vera wears no armor aside from her thick scales.
Horns/Spikes: Vera has a single pair of elegant dark blue horns extending from her temples in the shapes of elongated S's.
Overall Appearance: Basically this, but the aforementioned accessories and color scheme: (Found via google search, Artist is Sunimo, credits to here: https://mackenziesdragonsnest.wordpress.com/category/feathered-dragons/)

Official headshot art by our very own Annoyed_Dragon!



Abilities: Vera's only natural abilities are Limited Shapeshifting and Emotional Coloration. Vera can shapeshift her entire body, or just parts of herself, into that of any dragon that she's seen or can assemble from the dragons she's seen. She can take certain aspects of one dragon and combine them with aspects from another dragon. Emotional Coloration just means that her emotions express themselves as splashes of color on her body. With a fair amount of focus, Vera can force her body to either not change while she's focusing, or to change to a color of her choosing.


Strengths:

~Strong Mind: While at the Akademy, Vera was trained in all manners of mental defenses. And as such, her mind is a formidable fortress to anyone who might attempt to break her. She is highly resistant to any mental effects such as mind-reading, domination, outside influence, etc. Resistant meaning that these effects and abilities take twice as long to grasp ahold of Vera's mind.

~Machine-like Body: Vera's body is a well-oiled machine. She is extraordinarily strong and dexterous and has a large pool of stamina to match due to her rigorous daily routine; she's a little more than twice as physically powerful as a normal dragon. But she won't brag about her prowess, after all, why make potential enemies aware of your strengths?


Weaknesses:
~Sunlight: Vera's magic is shadow based, so it is extremely hard to utilize them in broad daylight. Any of her shadow based abilities become twice as taxing to use, and the cool downs are doubled as well. Additionally, when she get overwhelmed by the shadows (See under Shade-Bourne Infection), being in direct sunlight is extremely painful for Vera. Sunlight doesn't physically hurt her per say, but sudden exposure in that state will stun her for 1 minute (1 post)

~Paranoia: Vera wasn't released from the Akademy, she escaped. And as such, she's terrified of the NightBlades coming for her and dragging her back there. This fear of hers has led to a irrational fear and/or hatred of anyone who demonstrates control over the shadows. She recognizes that it's irrational, but she's deeply paranoid of these dragons all the same; this fear can lead her to verbally and physically lash out, spy on them, or make other such unwise decisions.

~Extreme Temperatures: While not completely cold-blooded, Vera's family is from a warm tropical climate, and as such never needed to become fully warm blooded; possessing a hybrid system of sorts. As such, Vera becomes slower and more lethargic when she's cold. She's not in any more danger of freezing to death than other dragons, but cold and ice based attacks will slow her down in the heat of battle. Additionally, seeing as Vera's partially cold-blooded; she can't regulate her internal temperature very well, so while cold slows her down, being warm keeps her at an optimal condition. But, while just the right amount of heat is nice, too much heat can be deadly; she could literally cook if she doesn't find a way to cool herself off. Heat based attacks make Vera faster at first, but after 3-5 heat-based attacks, she needs to find a way to cool off or suffer the consequences.


Fighting Style:
When in battle, Vera has two methods. The first being sneaking up on an enemy before they notice her and dealing as much damage as possible before they can react. Method 2 is more barbaric: she manifests her 'War Form' (an additional 2 sets of feathered wings plus a set of forelimbs, courtesy of her Shapeshifting ability and honestly mostly just for aesthetic purposes), splits her dagger into 7 shards, summons a seething mass of razor sharp shadows, and leaps head first into the fray. If needed, Vera can throw her dagger (or dagger shards), up to a range of 60ft. The shards, although smaller, are still shards of extremely sharp volcanic glass. Upon striking their target, the dagger and/or shards vanish in a puff of smoke; reappearing in Vera's grasp. Because of their smaller size, the shards don't do as much damage as the whole dagger does (The damage of a cleaver versus the damage from several small pocket knives is a good example of this).


Magic: Vera's magic is primarily based upon her control of the darkness:

~Shadow Manipulation: Vera can pull upon the powers of darkness and manipulate the essence of any and all nearby shadows. In doing so, she can change it anyway she pleases. Ex, create a protective shield, fashion it into a lock pick, form it into a blade, etc... In it's shaped, semi-hardened forms, the shadows have roughly the consistency of unworked iron; not the strongest substance in the world, but nothing to scoff at either. Shaped shadows either last up to 6 hours (6 posts) after Vera stops channeling energy into them or last as long as Vera feeds them energy. The bigger the shaping, the shorter it lasts after it's cut off. Unless fighting against daylight or some other influence, there's no limit to the amount of small shadow manipulations Vera can do (ex. using the shadows to snuff candles, or forming a small ball for hatchies to play with). Medium difficulty manipulations, such as forming 15ft radius globes of darkness to blind enemies or attacking via sharpened daggers of shadow, can be done 30 times per day (12 posts), and difficult manipulations, such as creating her shadow maelstrom can only be done 3 times per day (12 posts). In daylight, any shadow manipulation takes longer than usual, and lasts for half as long as it normally would. Close inspection would reveal the shadows rapidly dissolving in the light.

~Shadow Meld: As she mastered the shadow magics presented to her, Vera found herself slowly dissolving into merely a living shadow herself. Luckily, she was able to get a firmer grasp on her powers and save herself. But ever since, she's been able to slip into the shadows and partially dissolve to the point where she becomes one with the shadows and almost completely undetectable. The spot she's in will just look slightly denser and darker that the usual shadows. If the shadows she's hiding in are ever completely banished by some sort of light, Vera is instantly, and painfully, expelled from said shadows and is disoriented for a minute (1 Post). While in this state, she can slip through spaces with a diameter of an inch or more; i.e. under most doors, open windows, etc... Vera can do Shadow Meld up to 10 times per 12 hours (12 posts).

~Shade-Bourne Infection: This rarely happens, but sometimes Vera will become so enraged that the normally just clingy shadows will practically coat and drip off of every aspect of her being. Additionally, if she uses the shadows too much (forcing herself to go beyond the listed limits), her form begins weeping these shadows until she burns the congealed shadows away by bathing them in sunlight. In this Shade-Bearing state, if Vera stabs, cuts, or barely wounds someone with her dagger, she can force living shadows into their veins. These shadows act like sentient agents of death, slowly and painfully working their way towards the victim's heart as the corrosive shadows begin to melt them from the inside out.

The shadows cause extreme pain, nausea, trembling, partial paralysis, muscle spasms, hallucinations, and if not treated properly (and the other person allows it) even death via permanently melting into shadows. The treatment for this infection is surprisingly simple and yet difficult: the infected one must not have any contact with shadows for 24 hours (15 posts). This extreme light therapy burns the shadow out of their veins. Vera can only purposefully do this once every 3 days (30 posts), and it's extremely exhausting for her. Afterwards, even if she didn't mean to, Vera becomes lethargic and her energy pool is reduced by a third until she has slept for at least 8 hours.

---
~Edits
-History refinement
-Re-tailored abilities
-Took out the "Pain doesn't matter" strength and also removed the "Honor bound" weakness

Ok so I looked over the app and here are some of my notes on stuff that needs changing.

If the Dagger can break into 7 pieces, is that fair? Are they more dull than when the dagger is in one piece?

With the said dagger pieces that can be thrown up to 120 feet and make them teleport back to her...that is a bit too much.

Shadow manipulation: No limit in the darkness is a bit much.

Shadow Meld: 10 times per 12 hours? How many times can she do it per post?

Time descriptions: Change all the per hour time ratings to per post, that way its more accurate of a count on how many times per post over how many posts she can use her abilities.

Bump!
I added the post limits I'm not used to site fighting so please tell me if they're unreasonable ;P, halved the range on throwing the daggers, added limits to the manipulations and edited the shard descriptions to be less damaging than that of the whole dagger.

1/2 approved

So the main problem I see is you got too much stuffed into one character. You got shape shifting, you got healer, you got shadow manipulation, becoming a shadow, duplication, teleportaiton, plant manipulation, and that isn't including strengths. Weaknesses are small as some can be lumped together like cold and extreme heat. Overall you need to tone down your character to be mediocre at all of the above, or be really good at a couple of aspects and not everything if that makes sense.

Bump! I think I nerfed her enough...?

~Changed Shapeshifting to Limited Shapeshifting: Only dragons, and parts of dragons, that she's seen before.
~Edited Temporary Healing to basically be a magic band aid, only helps keep creatures from bleeding out. It won't really do anything other than that.
~Took out the Resonant Echos as a whole
~Took out Plant Speech
~Combined both temperature weaknesses into Extreme Temperatures and added Honour Bound as the 4th weakness

So the only reason teleportation was an approved ability is if it was severely hindered. I don't want to 'gut' your character, but teleporting needs to come with severe weaknesses/lack of other abilities. When I am free we can dm and talk about it if you wish to avoid the delay in grading ^^;

Sure thing! And don't worry too much about gutting her; my go-to creation method is to shove as much stuff as possible into each app so that slimming them down doesn't damage my initial idea too much.

Re-Re-Re Fixed! (Hopefully)

Removed all teleportation abilities, and added the ability for her shadow-meld ability to let her slip through small spaces. Also removed the teleportation aspect from the dagger.

~Added 1 ability & elaborated on another of the dagger's abilities: returning to Vera within 7 dusks, and granting access to the Waystone Network

~Edited her physical strength to be twice as strong as a normal person instead of 3 times

~Separated Shadow-Gate into 2 variants: Blink & using the Waystone Network
   -Blink requires seeing both the sending & receiving shadow with the naked eye, vision enhancing effects have to effect on the ranges (usually within 60ft of each other, but can go as far as a mile or 2 with a proper vantage point).
   -Waystone Traveling requires actually touching one of the Waystones and can only transport the user to another Waystone. If the user doesn't have one of the Path's special blades, they will sustain serious damage that increases with the distance traveled. Even one with a special blade will take damage, but not nearly as much as one without one of the blades.

Booting her to Old Apps because aaaaaaaaaa