"You're not to let anyone own you, Lucky - not even a God."
•Name: Lucky
aka: Taras Seluna deRote
•Physical Information
--Race : Kelvic
--Birthday: During the first week of winter (day unknown) 505 AV
--Gender: Female
•Physical Description
Lucky is an average sized wolf or a really big dog - around 1.5 metres from nose to tip of tail. She has a medium to light build that says tracking or hunting dog rather than simple guard dog and of course the usual Kelvic intelligent eyes; while it is impossible to tell that she isn't really an animal, people do tend to wonder why that really big dog appears to be sizing them up.
Lucky has the off-white colouring and thick fur of a wolf with some ancestry in Taldera. Her coat shades towards golden yellow in places, a colouring which is less usual for wolves and helps her to pass as a dog. However, the main traits that create the dog illusion are simply the way she behaves and her usual backdrops; if a wolf is getting on with humanoids, wearing a collar and living in a city, that's a dog. Her collar, with its silver disc inscribed 'Lucky', implies not only an owned dog, but a dog owned by someone important.
As a human, Lucky possesses the uneasy charm of one who is if not stunning most definitely striking, and who lives mostly in ignorance of this fact. While she has not been blessed with feminine curves, flat planes of muscle can attract just as much attention, especially if their owner is six feet tall and platinum blonde. Her face is symmetrical, although her features can be a little sharp.
Betraying her Kelvic nature (other than the less than common hair colour) are her eyes; while they have a pupil as normal, there is no distinction between the iris and the part of the eye that would normally be 'white', both of which are yellow-gold in colour. All Lucky's teeth are a little sharper than would be expected, and all four canines are very pronounced. Close examination would also show that her fingernails and toenails are harder and sharper than is normal, which has made it very difficult for her to wear stockings or gloves made of any light material without tearing them.
Typically, Lucky wears men's or fairly masculine clothes, which she regards as quicker to get off in a hurry, and of course it's much easier to get them to fit you when you're six feet tall. She can usually be seen in a white collared shirt, black trousers, a belted black coat and a scarf, dependent on the weather. She often doesn't bother with shoes. Lucky nearly always wears her collar, which is looser on her as a human and looks more like a short necklace.
•Character Concept
--Personality: Lucky is naturally very much a dog in personality; a smart dog, and clearly some sort of guard dog or police dog, but still a dog. She is loyal, fiercely protective, slightly territorial and needs company pretty much all the time. It takes a while for someone to become trusted by her, but when she is a friend she is a friend for life. She is stoic to strangers, and open to her friends. These are all her natural traits, as a Kelvic and as a canine.
Lucky was raised, however, to be independent, analytical and scrupulously moral. She is all of these things, with the same intensity as she is everything else, but there is a slight difference; things such as loyalty are natural character traits which are just 'there': Independence and thinking at problems until they surrender are virtues, and Lucky always strives to live up to them.
--oEthics: Lucky is deeply devoted to the values Greton raised her to hold dear - individuality, justice, mercy, the pursuit of truth and a healthy mistrust of Gods and those who claim to speak for them. She takes words very seriously, and considers a promise in good faith to be binding. However, she is not entirely adverse to deception, often going to great lengths to disguise herself as a human or an ordinary animal in order to get information. She believes that her purpose is to reveal and bring justice to those who scam, exploit and do violence to others - whether born or trained, this is her nature. In terms of what methods are acceptable, Lucky stands somewhere in the middle - it is perfectly acceptable to lie, cheat and steal from bad people; it is even okay to use violence, but the innocent should never be harmed in the process. Where justice cannot be brought by legal means, it must be delivered non-legally, but the legal route must be tried first.
--Likes – Running, hunting, fighting, investigating, freedom, poetic justice, company, approval and praise, music and stories, raw meat and having her hair/fur stroked.
--Dislikes – Small spaces, inequality and injustice, slavery, boredom, quiet, being told what to do, staying in one place for too long, being alone, being treated like a child or an animal (except with regards to hair/fur stroking), rain and organised religion.
•Character History
--Pre-Creation:
The human Lucky knew as her father (although she was raised to call him 'sir') was an accomplished member of the Ebonstryfe, Paladin Greton deRote, who specialised in the policing of the faithful in Ravok and internal policing of the Ebonstryfe. Greton gained respect, admiration and not a little fear from his fellow citizens when, just two months a full soldier, he ruthlessly ordered and participated in the execution of his own wife and daughter for being part of a secret Cheva-worshipping cult: one that, while small, shaky and terrified, did at least pay lipservice to the idea that Rhysol was evil and The Voice must be overthrown for the good of Ravok.
While, clearly, this earned him a gold star with his faction and his God, this little incident was the first nail in the coffin of Greton's sanity.
From this point forward, he devoted himself completely to Rhyson's service, thinking of nothing else, and grew in rank and power. He worked without pause, avoiding a moment's thought or contemplation in the fear that his thoughts may lead him to doubt his actions.
This went on until Greton, as a commander, worked with a Paladin in eliminating a group of organised criminals who had proven themselves disadvantageous to the peace of the city. They were sorting though the boss's claimed possessions when Greton caught sight - in amongst some Kelvic slaves - of a blonde-haired baby girl who reminded him of his own daughter. He assumed this was the executed man's child.
"What do we do with the baby?" he asked his superior.
"You mean the Kelvic? It's being claimed for The Black Sun with the rest. A wolf. Would fetch a good price. Or you could ask to keep it. They're good fighters, very loyal."
Greton would later admit that it was the prospect of a child rather than a wolf companion that motivated him to ask to keep her.
Working with a master like Greton, Lucky was trained not as a direct beast of war (although she was trained to fight) but as a partner in Greton's investigative police work. She became adept at tracking people by their scent, overhearing secret conversations in the guise of a regular dog, and detecting the stink of fear in the guilty.
As he watched her grow, Greton's work focus became unstuck. He began, without really thinking about it, to try to shield her from the most grizzly aspects of what he did, and, in doing so, he began to remember that they were distasteful.
Living just the two of them, Greton's feelings towards his bright young pup fast strayed out of what was normal and acceptable for a master to feel towards his Kelvic. By the time she was a year old (and so, adolescent in appearance), Greton was introducing her somewhat grandly as Taras Seluna deRote - his 'adopted daughter'.
Lucky, of course, didn't really know any different, and she enjoyed her routine - investigating crime and heresy with Paladin Greton while at work, and wearing pretty dresses and gloves (to hide her brand), meeting Father's noble friends while off duty.
Many of Greton's comrades were convinced that he had gone insane, but as he was still one of the most efficient and ruthless secret police Paladins of his generation, they were not inclined to interfere. At this point, he was going about his duties in a fanatic near-trance, while privately becoming more and more convinced that he had been insane, and that it was only now he was sane that he realised what a monster he had been, and what a monster his dear God was.
Yet something - most likely, he thought, simple cowardice - kept him from rebelling against his superiors or presenting himself as anything but the picture of fanatical devotion. The Gnosis marks didn't help, of course. He felt owned, and was terrified by the thought that either through them or with some divine power, Rhysol would be able to see into his head and know that he was now insincere. Every moment he was not discovered merely strengthened his fear that the God was somehow playing with him, plotting his downfall. This didn't dim his resolve. He could not escape, but his daughter could.
Each night, whenever they were alone, he filled her trusting head with heresy and rebellion.
"There is no best God, Lucky. There may have been, in the God of our enemies, but he is dead. Rhysol wouldn't fear the heretics if he was truly great."
"To keep order is the finest goal you can have, so long as you seek to protect people and uncover truth - nothing more."
"Soon I'll be going, and you'll be on your own. It's okay, though. For some people - if you're owned, and there's no way to get out, it's better to be gone."
And, the instruction which was most to challenge Lucky's instincts as a Kelvic, and in many ways define her;
"You are no animal. You're no slave. You're my daughter, Taras Seluna. You're the daughter of a Paladin, a noble woman. You remember that. You have no Master - not even me. You're not to let anyone own you, not even a God."
When Greton first gave her this command, Lucky nodded slowly, looking up at him with calm, sharp eyes. "Yes Father," she said.
"No, wait - " She watched with confusion as Greton agitatedly ran a hand through his hair, frustrated as if she had done something wrong. "Don't obey me."
"You want me to do as you ask?"
"I don't want you to follow it as a command. I'd like you to promise me, if you can, that you'll do that. You'll be your own person. A promise is like - you have no Master, okay?"
"Okay."
"Or, you're your own Master."
"My own Master."
"A promise is like a command from yourself."
She nodded again. "Then yes. I promise. And if I disobey, I'll be very angry with myself."
"Yes." He smiled, a little sadly. "That's exactly how it feels, to break a promise."
That night, he saddled up his Bloodbane, loaded with cash, Lucky's few possessions and travelling supplies. Under the Paladin's supervision, Lucky skipped town.
Later that week, Greton deRote was killed in battle with a large group of Sylirian Knights in the wilds of Syliria.
"He went to fight," a soldier under his command who was lucky enough to escape reported, "Without his Kelvic, without his horse, and when he saw the Knight coming for him, he didn't even draw his sword. That's when we ran."
Lucky - now her own Master - is now adrift in the wilds of Syliria, striking out for somewhere a little less corrupt to apply her skills.
--Post Creation: none yet
•Training & Skill Points
--Initial Skill Points:
Hunting 10pts (racial)
Unarmed combat 15pts
Tracking 13pts
Interrogation 5pts
Investigation 10pts
Larceny 2pts
Riding 5pts
--Lores
---- Lore: Religion - Rhysol
---- Lore: Criminal methods and motivations
•Equipment/Possessions
-- Plain black trousers and a white short of fairly good design, black lace gloves, some soft black leather boots, a scarf and a long black belted riding coat.
-- A black leather collar/necklace (a collar on a wolf, but looser and looking like a necklace on a human) decorated with dull metal studs and a silver disc inscribed 'Lucky'.
--1 water skin
--1 week’s worth of food
--1 Backpack which contains:
----1 Set of Toiletries (comb, brush, soap)
----Food for a week
----1 eating knife
----Flint & Steel
--A portable home:
----1 large tent (4 person)
---- large tarp
----100 ft of rope
----flint & steel
----lantern
----2 torches
----bedroll, blanket
----fishing tackle & hooks
-- A horse; a 16hh Ravok Bloodbane Gelding named Hunter. Hunter's temperment is relatively calm, for a Bloodbane, and he has been ridden by Lucky all her life.
----full set of tack
----large set of saddlebags
Mask
Listening cone
Knuckleduster
Knife
•Ledger
100 gold mizas
- 18sm for equipment
= 98 gold and 3 silver Mizas
•Thread List
none yet
