Taliah Brightmoon

Name: Taliah Brightmoon
Pronunciation: Tall-ee-ah Bright-Moon
Gender: Female
Type: Furred Western Dragon
Species: Tundra Altaica
Age: 413 years old
Date of Birth: December 13th

Personality: Taliah is, in a word, eccentric; or perhaps expressive would be a better term. She makes the most out of life, even if she has to personally hunt down and extract every bit of enjoyment out of life with her own talons. Taliah very rarely gets angry, preferring to try and see things from the others point of view as well as her own rather than needlessly shout; but when she does get angry- Run. She's ordinarily an extremely optimistic dragoness, but not to the point where she has unrealistic expectations for a situation. She tends to "call it as she sees it", which may get her into some significant trouble if she calls out the wrong dragons. But otherwise, Taliah is a very considerate dragoness, who hates to needlessly upset others, and as such takes every precaution to make sure her decisions are as cautious and effective as possible.

Ironically, this hesitation and desire to do good has caused her to step on a few toes in the past, and surely will in the future as well. She gets SO caught up in balancing everyone's wishes and needs that she sometimes forgets to worry about herself too, something her many friends have to remind her of a LOT, otherwise she'd surely just let herself starve so that someone else could be happy. But- if you catch her attention scientifically- oh you poor, poor soul. She's not going to stop bothering you until her insatiable curiosity is temporarily satisfied. She'll question, examine, and scrutinize every aspect like you're a puzzle that she needs to figure out. The level of tunnel vision she gets while hype-fixated on a subject is... impressive. It's almost scary how intense she gets really. It's the exact opposite of her normal self; she Does Not Care how rude she may seem while trying to figure out whatever mystery it is

Hobbies: Taliah- as mentioned above- is a fiend about her research, to a degree of near obsession. Any sort of secret just begs her to uncover and reveal it in all of its hidden glory. In addition to her passion for research, Taliah enjoys taking trips out into the frozen tundra to observe and record the behaviors of the many creatures and habitats. In particular, she thoroughly enjoys the rather dangerous pastime of seeking out the nests of Arctic Thunderbirds for further observation, and to find the hidden intricacies of their lifestyles. From this hobby, she has managed to collect several Thunderbird feathers which she proudly displays in her home. She also enjoys reading old books, trying (and often failing) to learn how to cook, baking deserts (which for some reason has been the single exception to her kitchen massacres), crafting intricate jewelry, practicing her magic, and doing complex puzzles. She has also been working on her cartography skills, and personally mapping out the entire Icello region whenever she has free time.

Likes: Taliah likes crisp breezes, clear starry nights, cold crisp weather, old books, scented candles, cookies, cakes and anything sweet, painting, sketching, sculpting, experimenting with different recipes, hot herbal teas (introducing her to caffeine was a m i s t a k e), and anything with an air of mystery that gives her an adrenaline rush. So really, she's just an adrenaline junkie with a seriously curious academic side.
Dislikes: She's not a fan of heat, especially dry heat, fish and other sea foods, sour food and drink, the dark, silence, surprises, unexplained noises in the dark, being wet (all that fur takes a WHILE to dry and brush out), and swimming in cold water.

Fears: Taliah is a very bright and vibrant soul, but she's also wracked with anxiety unlike anything most anyone could ever imagine. She hides it well. Really well. But she's been haunted by night terrors and persistent insomnia ever since she fled the Xøya in the middle of the night (more details under Weaknesses). In particular, she's t e r r i f i e d of the dark, eerie and/or unnatural silence, and being alone. Bonus points if you get her into a situation with all three, as she freezes up, panicking, and go into fight or flight mode; utterly incapable of doing anything other than insuring her survival. It's also very easy to get her anxiety worked up over the tiniest of details, so she'll obsess over the "what if's" until she either fixes whatever it is, or someone manages to talk some sense into her.

Quote: "Oh hello!! Didn't see you there- Sorry about the mess! The lab can get a bit- chaotic, especially when I'm down here all by myself for a few days. The name's Taliah! Taliah Brightmoon!! And, uh- just between you and me- You're not with the Xøya, right? No? Ohthankthestars- Wonderful!! Now, what did you need?" #99ccff



Place of Origin: Deeeeeep within Xøyan territory, the capital city
Tribe: Kaamil [Xoyan Defector]
Position: Researcher [Former Scout]
Language: Xøyan, Universal, Kenarun, rough Urisa, Ga'ar, and Arretiz.

Home: The Icello Region, within the Inner City
Parents: Andrej Mikhailov [Father, alive] and Taliana Mikhailov [Mother, deceased]
Siblings: Anatolia Mikhailov [Eldest sister, alive; Skygger NPC] Aleksandr Mikhailov [Older brother, alive; Lieutenant] Kazimir Mikhailov [Older brother, deceased] and Matvei Mikhailov [Twin brother, alive]
Relatives: A number of various high ranking Xøyan officials
Mate: None at the moment, but open and looking forwards to finding The One
Offspring: N/A

History:

Spoiler:

Height: Taliah is 20 feet tall, 23 counting her impressive, spiraling horns
Length: Taliah is 29 feet long, 55 counting her long fluffy tail
Wingspan: Taliah's total wingspan is 62 feet

Scale/Fur/Feathers: Taliah is covered in thick, soft, dark grey fur, with jagged tiger stripes curving faintly to the right, and running from her head all the way to the end of her long, floofy tail. Her fur is a darker charcoal grey along her back, which is a v e r y slow gradient to a lighter grey color along her ankles. In addition to her heavy fur, Taliah has large, feathered wings of a lighter charcoal grey color, with her tiger stripes running up onto the furred arm part of her wings, but not bleeding onto the actual feathers. The actual feathers are just plain grey, albeit taking on a faint shimmering blue hue when the sunlight hits them just right.
Eyes: A brilliantly vivid shade of glacial blue, like the hearts of the oldest icebergs

Accessories: Taliah usually has a pair of satchels on either side, chock full of different reference materials, writing utensils, and anything else that she needs for her research! Additionally, she has a couple bits of silver jewelry dotting her body here and there: a few horn piercings and rings, with a chain earring adorning her left ear. Her other accessories are numerous beads of silver and various shades of blue braided all throughout her thick mane. The final accessories that Taliah carries on her are her enchanted items. She has: an enchanted bracelet one of her mage friends made for her; it's a rather simple thing, dark blue leather engraved with various sigils and runes, but it's enchanted to grant its wearer a sense of inner peace, and a restful, sleep for 8-10 hours. It can be resisted if its put onto someone who doesn't want to go to sleep, as it only makes the wearer feel incredibly sleepy. You have to choose to go to sleep for it to truely work its magic. And even then, the wearer can still be woken by incredibly strong nightmares, or all the normal outside forces. The second enchanted items she carry are her satchels, they're enchanted to hold up to three times as much as they would if they were ordinary stachels. The third and final enchanted item she carries is a small locket. She has enchanted it to project memories of herself, her twin, and their parents during the rare moments they were all together and happy whenever it's opened. There's no sound, and it's totally incorporeal, but Taliah treasures it nonetheless.

Horns/Spikes: Taliah has a magnificent set of light blue, curling, antler-like horns weighing down her head. Additionally, she has spikes jutting from her elbows and ankles, pronounced claws on the end of her wings-finger-things, and rather long claws as well; all of the same light blue color.

Overall Appearance: Ref courtesy of our very own Az, and headshot art by Rice on DA!





Abilities: Taliah doesn't have many natural abilities, most of her power lies in her magic. But! She does have a couple abilities: The first of which being her connection to her twin. Twins have always been special, they've always shared a unique bond, one neither strife nor heartache can sever. As such, Taliah and Matvei can sense whenever the other is experiencing a particularly strong emotion like love, joy, pain, anger, sadness, etc... They don't get any context to go with the feeling, nor is there a range on this connection. It just happens. Additionally, though it probably won't come up, Taliah and Matvei are mirror twins, meaning that one will often sleep on their left side, and- without knowing- the other sleeps on their right. Similar themes continue with their dominant hands: Taliah being right handed, and Matvei being left handed, their stripes: Taliah's curving to the right and Matvei's to the left, etc. Just simple little things like that, they'll end up doing them unconsciously, and completely independent of the other's knowledge.

Strengths:
~Cold Resistance: Taliah's thick fur and feathers make her very well equipped to handle intense winter winds and weather. She's highly resistant to cold temperatures, weather, and other frigid effects. This resistance also applies to cold-based magics, but only when they're area of effect spells or status effects; being fluffy won't help her escape icy chains or anything like that.
~Built For The Arctic:Taliah's family lived in the Icello region for countless generations, fending for themselves in the icy wilderness for centuries before finally seeking out a tribe of similar principles to their own: The Xoya. And the Mikhailov family's biology reflects that feral inclination to this day. As such, Taliah's senses- taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing- are all much sharper than an ordinary dragon's senses, and she is- on average- stronger and more dexterous than you might ordinarily expect. Additionally, as was rather common in the Xoya, Taliah has excellent night vision. She can see in pitch blackness as well as others can see at dawn or dusk, but the catch is that she can only see in greyscale (with the occasional hints of various blues) like this.
~Excellent Stealth: Taliah's dark coat is a hereditary trait going back many generations in her family, perfectly evolved to let her- almost effortlessly- blend into the shadows. Add that to the Xoyan stealth training she received when she was younger and you end up with a REALLY stealthy dragoness.
~Sharp Mind: You don't become a Researcher unless you're extremely intelligent, and Taliah is no exception. Even though her thoughts rush through her mind at a million miles per hour, she rarely makes mistakes in her calculations. And when she does, she's quick to catch and correct them.
~Well-practiced Magic: Taliah's magic isn't particularly strong, but it's versatile, and she's practiced it a lot ever since she fled the Xøya. As such, though none of them are particularly powerful, she can and has created a variety of ways to make her magic extremely useful in a variety of situations. This also means that she's an expert improviser in regards to magical conundrums. So if she's in a pinch, or is close to accidentally making something explode, she's excellent at solving her problems with proverbial magical duct tape.

Weaknesses:
~Overwhelming Fear: As continuation from the extensive Fears section, Taliah is a dragoness with a lot of trauma in her past, and as such she's haunted by any mention or reference to her past. In particular, she's t e r r i f i e d of the dark, eerie and/or unnatural silence, and being alone. Bonus points if you get her into a situation with all three, as she freezes up, panicking, and goes into fight or flight mode; utterly incapable of doing anything other than insuring her survival. It's also very easy to get her anxiety worked up over the tiniest of details, so she'll obsess over the "what if's" until she either fixes whatever it is, or someone manages to talk some sense into her.
~Dark Fur Coat: Although it helps with hiding in the shadows, her dark coloration makes her pretty easy to spot on lighter colored surfaces. And, since black and other dark colors absorb heat really well, the combination of dark coloration AND thick fur/feathers A. makes it very easy to get her overheated in hot environments, and B. Means that heat based abilities damage and affect her more than usual.
~Perfectionist: A direct effect of Taliah's increased intelligence is her aversion to failure. She KNOWS she can do better- maybe even be the best- so she HAS to be as perfect as possible. She checks, double checks, and triple checks her work for ANY possible errors, and will obsessively fix any mistakes she finds; whether it's in her lab work, or any other area of her life. This obsession with perfection leaves her both particularly vulnerable to criticism, and delays both her decisions and creations as she searches for better and more efficient ways to do whatever it is. With trivial matters she's fine, but as the consequences become increasingly more dire, this trait kicks in more and more.
~Unarmored: Being the fluffy 'ness she is, Taliah lacks the usual protective scales of many other dragons. So, where a scaled dragon's scales might deflect a blade, claws, or most other sources of damage, Taliah is forced to take the brunt of that damage as her fur doesn't exactly defend her very well.
~Insomniac: Taliah can barely sleep. She's constantly tormented by the night-terrors concocted by her tormented mind, she'd be lucky to get a couple hours sleep at a time. As such, she runs herself into the ground with exhaustion, again, and again, and again, and again (usually in vain) to try and get more than 5 hours of sleep in one go. She got a special bracelet from a friend of hers that's enchanted to help with sleep, but even that only helps somewhat, turning a couple hours of rest into a few hours of rest at a time, but the nightmares always win eventually. She hasn't gotten a full night of sleep ever since she woke up in that Kaamilian infirmary for the first time, over a hundred and fifty years ago. The healers theorize that, in addition to her already anxiety-prone mind, something happened when she hit that icy water and causes her brain to work overtime at night, producing fear chemicals and hormones at an astronomical rate. She's incredibly easy to disturb in the rare moments of sleep she does manage to catch as well, meaning it takes FOREVER for her to fall asleep, and even then there's no guarantee that she'll stay asleep long enough for it to really help her. As such, she's usually exhausted and sleep deprived in some fashion whenever she's up and about. She doesn't heal as fast as others do (not suuuper noticeable, but it mainly matters with major wounds; she takes a few days to a few weeks longer to heal than others), she can be extra clumsy if it's a particularly long stint without sleep, and her memory is consistently bad with little things such as remembering to take breaks to eat and drink, or remembering that she was supposed to meet a friend after work that day.
~Socially Inept: Taliah SO desperately wants to make everyone happy, and that heartfelt desire often trips her up, and handicaps her ability to really socialize. Luckily, her boundless enthusiasm and charisma usually makes up for this with normal people, but for those without a sense of humor, or those who confront her with their fury- Well. She just doesn't know what to do. This usually results in a lot of stammering, apologizing, and just general P a n i c k on Taliah's part. This trait also, unfortunately, makes her rather easy to emotionally manipulate. Especially if its coming from someone she perceives as a friend. With those she's not as familiar with, she's deeeeecent at spotting their crocodile tears and deceptions (growing up with the Xoya will do that to you), but if its someone she knows who's just wheedling away at her resolve- she usually just gives in in the end.

Fighting Style: Taliah would rather not fight at all, much more preferring to talk things out rather than draw blood. But- if she's forced to, or someone she loves is in danger- Taliah's instincts are to stay back and pelt the attacker from a distance with her icy magics. But, if particularly enraged or attacked up close, Taliah is deeeecent in fisticuffs battles? Ish?She uses her impressive horns to bludgeon the attacker senseless while mercilessly tearing her opponent to shreds with her sharp talons; but she definitely prefers to talk it out or use her magic instead of just senseless violence.

Magic: Taliah's magic is largely based around ice and water manipulation; but after joining the Kaamil she has learned how to stretch those boundaries and channel her magic into different, more useful and practical purposes. Her magic started out as fairly ordinary, and- as a general rule- it still mostly is; but she's worked hard to master the magic that she has, and she's worked even harder to learn the storm magic she's oh so proud of.

~Ice Conjurations: The arctic tundra is Taliah's heritage, her birthright; her family has thrived in the snow for as long as anyone can remember. It's only natural that the Mikhailov's would grow to have some degree of control over this harsh landscape they lived in. Taliah has practiced her magic more so than most any of her family members in the past several generation, and as such has more control than others such as Matvei, or her other siblings, but still isn't incredibly strong. She can create objects as large as a table over 2 posts [4 per 6 hours], objects the size of a chair in 1 post [8 per 6 hours], and objects smaller than a plate almost instantaneously [16 per 3 hours]. These smaller conjurations are what she uses most: paperweights, pins, ice daggers for when she needs to defend herself- You name it! She needs water and/or moisture to create these conjurations (making them in a desert is near impossible unless she brings water with her) so they will stay in whatever form she made them in until they melt or break. It's just normal ice, so it's as easily broken or melted as normal ice would be. The range on these is via touch, she can't do it from afar.

~Water Manipulation: Taliah possesses an ability to control water within a certain radius of herself. She can manipulate water she can see within 60ft of her, and either draw it closer to be used in her Ice Conjurations or manipulate it into something else using this branch of magic. She can freeze water or melt ice, form liquid water into fantastic shapes before freezing it, boil the water, or create little personal storm clouds (See: Storm Herald). She can freeze or melt 5 square feet of water or ice per post (proportionally, something about the size of a few bricks), and can do this up to 10 times per 3 hours. Manipulating liquid water is by far the easiest for Taliah, and as such she can do it the longest out of everything else. This water manipulation is literally just moving around liquid water, it could be used as a squirtgun, or to make fascinating ice sculptures, but she can't use it to blugeon, pierce, or slash anyone to death. She can manipulate up to 50 gallons of water that she can see within 60ft of her at a time, for up to 6 hours per day. She can only do it for an hour at a time before needing to take a break for as long as she used her magic for, if not longer.

~Light Globules: Over the course of many, many late nights in the office, thanks to both her erratic sleep schedule and her determination to make the unknown known, Taliah was forced to find a solution to her light problem. She has great night vision, but trying to stare at ancient relics of unfathomable power and danger for such prolonged periods of time in greyscale is... Not good for the eyes. Not to mention that color can be very important, depending on the relic, so greyscale night vision isn't going to cut it. So, after studying various scrolls on the matter, Taliah finally figured out how to make these light globules to solve her problem. They're a fluorescent light blue in color, appear to burn but are painless and cool to the touch, and while not entirely incorporeal, have the consistency of jello. (No, you can't eat them.) Meaning they can't go through windows or walls, but they can be squeezed through 3 inch gaps or larger. Taliah can only have up to 4 globules at a time, but she can summon them an unlimited number of times per day. She can mentally direct them to go anywhere within 60ft of her, they can't leave that radius. These can, in no way, be used to harm anyone.

~Enchantments: Enchantments were among the hardest spells for Taliah to learn. Her magic wants to take physical shape, it doesn't want to be confined to objects. But, through years of study, she finally figured it out. She can't do it very quickly, but Taliah can enchant objects or plants (no creatures) with relatively simple enchantments. The power of the enchantment determines the length of time Taliah must spend enchanting whichever object. As such, she has numerous simplistic enchanted objects (See under Accessories), but almost nothing that can even vaguely be considered powerful. Simple enchantments like "never let this pencil dull or break" take 1-3 days, medium enchantments or enchantments that can be weaponized such as "let this dagger hit every target it's thrown at within 60 feet" or "enchant this rock to grow into the shape of a thunderbird" take 3-6 weeks, and larger scale, more powerful enchantments such as "enchant this gargoyle to guard this door against all who don't say the password" range anywhere from 6 months to upwards of a couple years. Additionally, it's relatively easy to tell what Taliah has enchanted as the object takes on a glimmering icy blue hue, and is freezing to the touch.

As a part of this, she can disenchant items as well, even ones not enchanted by herself. As destruction is easier than creation, disenchanting an object takes half the time it would take to enchant it. So if enchanting it would take 2 weeks, disenchanting it would take 1 week. 3 days would become 1 and a half, 1 would become 12 hours, 6 months would take 3 months, and so on and so forth.

~Storm Herald: The final, and probably most powerful, use of her magic is the creation of localized storm clouds. These miniature storms often range from 5 to 30 feet in diameter, but never exceed 50 feet in diameter. These clouds can hold snow, hail, sleet, rain, and any sort of precipitation in between. All of Taliah's storm clouds take one post to create as they start at the 10ft diameter mark, and increase by increments of another 10ft per post after that. The smallest size of cloud Taliah can create is 5ft in diameter. Specifying the type of weather the cloud is to take on takes another post, and the effect actually begins on the post after that as well. So, for example, a 10ft diameter regular cloud would take 1 post to form (because there's no specified weather), a 30ft diameter hailstorm would take 5 posts to form, and a 50ft diameter raincloud would take 7 posts to fully form. (Basically: diameter divided by 10, plus 2 if you're specifying a weather pattern.)

Taliah must concentrate while creating the clouds, and as such can be interrupted while casting. Any amount of damage will distract her, along with any other sufficiently distracting act. After being distracted, Taliah has 1 post to try and recapture the storm before it dissipates completely, but she cannot recapture it while being continually hurt or distracted. All of the different precipitation options require equally hefty amounts of nearby water to happen, and as such are greatly impacted by the amount of available water, both in size and duration. Ordinarily, Taliah can keep up the 50ft diameter storms for 10 minutes, 40ft for 20 minutes, 30ft for 40 minutes, 20ft for 80 minutes, 10ft for 160 minutes, and the miniature 5ft diameter clouds for an indefinite period of time (as long as she stays awake for it). The precipitation rates can range between an half an inch per hour, and 6 inches per hour; but, as a rule, the smaller the cloud, the less precipitation it can produce per hour, and the larger the cloud, the more powerful the effects will be. Taliah's range for these storms is measured from were the center points are, and the range in question would be 100ft.

As for the uses for these storms,Taliah usually just uses them to amuse hatchlings, cool herself off in warmer places, put out fires in her workplace, and for her own amusement. She can try and use them for battle, but how easily interruptible they are makes that rather counter productive. She can draw down lightning from these clouds as often as the diameter divided by 10 per cloud, after that they can only produce precipitation for the remainder of the duration. So a 10ft cloud would only get one bolt before it's spent, and a 50ft cloud would get 5 lightning bolts before it's fully spent, etc... She can have a total of 50ft worth of clouds up, so one 50ft cloud, two 20ft clouds and a 10ft, five 10ft clouds, or 10 5ft clouds. The 5ft clouds can't create lightning bolts, only precipitation. For any of the cloud sizes, the precipitation isn't enough to physically harm anyone (the hailstorms being the only exception to this rule because WOW hail hurts; but even then the worst it will do is leave a nasty bruise). Instead, the precipitation makes the battlefield treacherous, as it remains where it's fallen long after Taliah's cloud has dissipated. It's just normal precipitation despite its unique origin, and precipitation doesn't just instantly melt away when the storm has finished.

~1/2 Approved~
So long as water manipulation doesn't include blood

Awesome character! I agree with Oculus, as long as the water manipulation doesn't include blood then all is swell!

~2/2 Approved~

out for edits. smh

Bump for reapproval!

Changelog:
- Some personality wording
- Fixed some formatting issues
- Added art & artist credit!
- Bumped her size down to approved limits!
- Spoilered her backstory and added some content warning because w o w I'm concerned about myself- /hj

Reapproved