Difference between revisions of "Zia"

Revision as of 11:15, 20 December 2012

Zia
Age	Adult (Unknown)
Species	Gargoyle
Sex	Female
Height	5'6"
Weight	Skinny
Background
Series	Gargoyles
Combat Styles	Wind Mage
Hometown	Scottish Highlands
Group	Unaffiliated
Occupation/Job	Freelance Scavenger and Part-Time Architecture
Force:	Wandering Force
Quote
"Sometimes, when yer path isnae clear. All you can do is close yer eyes and go where the wind takes ye."
Recent Events
Having lost her world, Zia is surprisingly not set adrift like some others. Instead, she's currently staying with the Shard Seekers, with plans to figure out what is happening to the worlds, and what she can do to stop any others from being lost.

Profile

The last born of a once-great clan, the story of how a single Scottish gargoyle came to live in upstate New York is a long one, with many nights far darker than her days. Yet, where there is darkness, there is also light. It was by sheer accident that a rich collector's wife fell in love with a statue while visiting a village outside Stirling, only to discover that when she arrived home, it was not a statue at all. Since then, Zia has lived on the outskirts of Manhattan, scavenging for what she needs to survive. Clever and wary, she's managed to stay clear of both the humans and gargoyles within the city. Yet, when her world came under threat, she found it impossible to stay a recluse. There are some things worth fighting for.

Skills

Albino Magical Girl, Scottish Lass, Dark and Troubled Past, Well Guarded Secret, Sorcerer's Pet, Spell Books and Claws, Beware the Quiet Ones, Slow to Trust, Mistaken for A Garden Sculpture, Scavenger, Salvager, Dumpster Diver, It's Just A Little Dirty! It's Still Good!, Wind Caller, Storm Sense, Clanless Rogue, Trouble Magnet, Reluctant Hero

Personality

Like so many who have gone through many trials at a young age, Zia carries with her a subtle sort of vulnerability. She has been through a great deal, and the events of her past are not things you recover from without having some strength of heart to carry you forward. While gargoyles are not creatures who tend to live in the past, sometimes it does catch up to her, especially on those quiet nights when the sounds of the city wander into her dreams. The sky has always been her solace - the guiding stars so dimmed now due to the light of the Manhattan skyline, and yet sometimes if she stares hard enough, she can remember them as they once were.

While Zia is certainly a survivor - one of those who manages to get through whatever life throws at them, she is also quite lonely. She still remembers what it was like to have a family, though it has been a great many years since anyone has reached out to give her a home or offer her anything in the way of comfort. Yet, she remembers what it was like with a basal sort of longing, like knowing love for such a brief time then finding it always out of reach. Gargoyles are, by nature, social creatures who prefer the safety of a clan to life alone, and yet with so many years by herself, there are some walls she has put up to keep others out. The girl is cautious and careful, having known some of the worst that humanity has to offer.

So much of what she knows comes self-taught. Her father taught her how to read and write, which came in handy when reading was all that she could really do to pass the long nights. She's a clever one, quick to figure out most things that she sets her mind to and quick-witted enough to be able to find food and shelter within a city crawling with human beings. She might not be a wiz at modern technology like some, but Zia has managed to pick up some things, and since she sometimes has longer days than most, she often spends her free time reading or tinkering with things she finds that the humans have left behind.

For the most part, Zia remained caught in limbo. She had survived, but is that all there is to life? She hovered on the precipice, reluctant to join the fight against the Heartless, but also not wanting to see more destruction at their hands. In the end, when it came down to the fate of her own world, she finally took matters into her own talons and decided that some things are worth fighting for. One thing remains clear: She has a strong heart - one that is just learning how to fight, and still longs for everything she's lost.

Background

(Note: This is an edited BG which does not include some plot-points meant to be kept hidden.)

Gargoyles were not always creatures of myth and legend. They were once just as real as so many other beasts that roamed the dark of night. Some say that the first Gargoyles took flight in a time when humans were far more likely to have been the myths. A thousand years ago, when the first humans came to lay claim to the sea-side cliffs and give them the name Wyvern, a part of the clan that lived there refused to follow Hudson's decree to live with and protect the humans. Instead, they chose to continue to cling to their own ancient ways, setting out for lands where the humans had not yet reached.

Long after Wyvern had fallen at the hands of the Vikings, they remained, claiming high cliffs and distant reaches as their home, always moving on when humans got close enough to be a danger. Over the course of time, the small nomadic clan came to adopt others under their wings - usually refugees from fallen clans who had once been so many. One that had come to them was an odd looking gargoyle who carried with him a strange blue crystal, and a secret. He never told of where he had come from before, but his strange way of speaking clearly claimed him as a foreigner to Scotland's shores. In time, he came to be as accepted as any other member of the clan and even claimed a mate. It was with her lying in his arms that he finally told his story - of the lands his people once came from and the power that the crystal still held. Through the years, the secret was kept, even as the clan began to grow smaller and smaller. Every generation, some brave souls set off to find out what happened to the rest of the clans, never to return. There were fewer and fewer eggs in the rookery, and less places they could go to be safe from the encroaching reach of humanity. In the end, there were only a handful left, with only a single mated pair who still called the cliffs of their ancestors home.

It was into this tiny clan that Zia was born - the last of a lineage that dated back as far as that stranger who came to their shores, and further still to those who once left the so-called Wyvern clan before humans had given it that name. She spent her early years living with her two parents, elder brother, and aunt, who made up all that was left of the 'clan'. In the ancient ways, she was raised without having a name, although the familial relationships were obvious. Like so many others, her aunt had wished to travel elsewhere - wanting to find a mate of her own, and she convinced her nephew to accompany her. Afterall, what hope did he ever have of a future beyond growing old alone on the cliffs with his parents and sister? They were not the last to leave.

So much would happen in the years to come, starting with the loss of her parents, and ending at last with her capture by a human sorcerer by the name of Valen, who kept her in order to study the girl and possibly use her to further his own magic. It was through Valen that she discovered her gift for spellcraft, and that ended up becoming his downfall when she turned one of his own incantations against him. It was in one of his own notebooks that she first saw the name 'Zia'. For all that the man may have held her as a captive and had darker plans for her fate, he had given her a name with a singular meaning: Light.

She was older now, and smarter about things this time as she set out into the world. For nearly two years she survived, hidden from the humans. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, and the one that brought her to New York was falling asleep in a statuary store. The unique 'sculpture' was immediately bought up by a rich wife of a senator who decided that she just /had/ to have the creature for her garden. Imagine her surprise when she got the huge shipping crate home, only to find her sculpture came to life. The papers claimed it was a psychotic break, but the tabloids picked up the woman's hospital rantings about a 'little white monster'. One would think that it would be quite hard to adjust from a small town to a city existence, but she found one thing to be true for the most part, New York-ers never look up.

So, Zia lives as she always has, as a scavenger - scouring the streets for food and shelter. She's seen the others from time to time - the clan that calls the city home, but these ones seem to work with the humans - first atop the tall castle, and then within the clocktower. Yet, could she ever come to trust humans? Zia had seen their cruelty for so many years of her life, They had taken away her family. They had given her a name. But trust? Well, only time will tell.

Abilities

Items

• Crystal Heart: The blue pendant which Zia wears has been passed down for generations from an ancestor who once came from a distant land. It's origins remain unknown, but it seems to be an item with some power. She largely keeps it hidden and guards it as her family 'secret'. So far, she has told no one what the crystal can do, but for anyone who knows of her ability to forgo a gargoyle's stone sleep, it seems likely that the crystal is at the 'heart' of it.

Combat

• Gliding: Like most gargoyles, Zia has the ability to utilize her wings and the air currents to keep her aloft. This is not true flight, as it has some limitations. She is not able to take flight in close confines, or areas where there would be no wind or air to catch her. Her flightspeed is determined by the winds themselves, and generally not as quick as with those who have more full-fledged flight.
• Wind Caller: Zia is a natural-born mage. While she still depends heavily on incantations and spells, she has a natural ability with the winds. This, in some ways, bolsters her already wind-based magic, but also allows her simple feats like shifting the winds around her while she flies, or moving the clouds to see the sky beyond, or having some weather sense when it comes to impending storms.
• Dark Thread: While most of her weather-based magic comes from tapping into some thread of connection to natural energies, this has been somewhat tainted over time. What might have become an ability to utilize nature magic, has instead been corrupted into the ability to channel a darker variation. While she rarely uses these spells, there is a touch of that darkness that an acute mage might sense even in her weather magic.
• Sorcerer: Due to her experiences while captured by Valen, Zia has some limited knowledge of sorcery, and has access a couple of his stolen spellbooks/notebooks. She knows of one quite dangerous spell, which already got out of her control once. Due to this, she's unlikely to dabble with it a second time, as she has seen the after effects of a spell gone wrong. She does have a natural skill with sorcery, which Valen had been trying to tap in to, attempting to use the girl as a focus for his own magic, but as of now it is largely untrained. She does know one spell which has saved her tail a time or two, and that is a very simple 'sleep' incantation, which only seems to work on those weaker-hearted humans (NPCs) or those willing to accept it.

Non-Combat

• Scrounger/Salvager: Over the years, Zia has developed the ability to scrounge up what she needs to survive. Usually, this involves a lot of patience, watching and waiting in order to figure out when shops get rid of expired food or faulty goods. There is also a bit of cleverness involved, sometimes knowing just the right place to look for things. Give her a pile of scrap and she's likely to find something useful there. One man's junk is another's treasure.
• Music: Growing up, Zia was raised on her father's stories and ballads, and through him she developed a love of music. She has a good singing voice, but her real skill is with a homemade set of panpipes, which her father taught her how to make when she was still a child.

Combat

Actions

Soundtrack

General:

• "May It Be" © Enya/Celtic Woman
• "Iris" @ Goo Goo Dolls/U. of Penn. 'Off the Beat'
• "Touch the Sky" @ Brave Soundtrack

Instrumental:

• "Heart of Courage" © Two Steps from Hell
• "Fill My Heart" © Two Steps from Hell
• "Shadows" © Lindsey Sterling

Relationships

Positive

Name		Status	Thoughts
Faruja Senra		Affinity	There's a sort of light in him that's hard to ignore, but with it comes a zealotry for his cause that can be a bit frightening at times. Still, he is a sweet mouse, and has been very kind to me. I'm not really sure what he meant by the gift of the ribbon, though.
Morgan Albaste		Wary	On the surface, she seems like a kind creature, but there is something there is something else there, too. There's the way she reacted to the Heartless and what she said about giving herself over to learn Dark magic. I guess I'll figure it out, eventually. I do owe her that flight, someday.
Reize Seatlan		Neutral	He seems nice enough, but perhaps not as wary as he should be. There's definitely more to him than there seems to be on the surface. I don't understand what happened with the crystal and why he seemed to change his mind about the dragon-girl. I wonder what it is about his hair - is it alive?
Sköll Ulfang		Affinity	Since the fight in Manhattan, he seems to have gone back to being Mr. Mystery, just when I thought I might be starting to understand. I don't think he's a bad person at heart, but I worry for him. I've never had someone try to protect me before, but I think he's the one that needs help. He needs to understand that I'm strong, too. I will figure out what is going on.

Neutral

Name		Status	Thoughts
Daniil Petrov		Wary	Whoever he works for, they certainly have to be equivalent to my world's FBI, or CIA, or something else with letters. He's human, though, so he's probably not as nice as he seems. What was with the lurking on a rooftop with a sword, anyway? I might be able to get some food and information out of him, though.
Deidra		Confused	She seems to have been keeping herself busy, but with what sort of company? Was she really allied with the one who turned on us in the Labyrinth? Just how much do you trust your human 'friends'? More-so, how much do they know about our kind because of you? I'm still not sure what's going on, but someday I am going to find out.

Negative

Name		Status	Thoughts
Leida		Uncertain	She may be a servant of darkness, but those cries. They were heart-wrenching. What kind of cruel joke is it to bring such forces of destruction, yet plead like a child?
LEXUS		Hatred	Whatever you drugged me with, I swear to Merlin that I'm going to make you feel it three-fold.
Negaduck		Hatred	Power-hungry loudmouthed excuse for a dinner entree.
Riku		Enmity	I don't understand how you could have changed so much in just a matter of a few days. Was that really you fighting against us? How could you have sided with them against your own allies, your own friends?
Sammy Colt		Suspicion	I'm not sure if he actually believes half the things he told me when he was planting those bugs in the Shard Seeker's HQ, or if it's all some kind of ruse to make him seem harmless. He's either very clever, or quite stupid.
Will Sherman		Uncertain	Are you an ally or an enemy? You seemed to be fighting for our world, but then... What was that feeling? It felt like having my heartstrings torn out. Are you just another traitor, or is there something else going on?

Logs