SoC: Sarytz

Name: Sarytz Chao'lluire
Age: 37 (human equivalent: 20)
Height: 5' 8" / 1.73m
Weight: 143 lbs / 65 kg
Gender: Female
Race: Dark Elf Banshee hybrid (undead)
Faction: Earthra
Scent: Lily of the valley and roses, mixed with sharp, contrasting redcurrant


Job: She kills people. In the army you place her in the "special tactics and reconnaissance" team. In civilized society, you place her in some low-key job where no one will notice her, and send her sealed orders with payments when you need someone dead. Since she's new to Earthra she hasn't yet found a normal job, but she's looking.


Weapons:

Polearms: She's trained in the use of many weapons, but likes polearms due to their longer range. If she has to fight she'll use this to try to keep the enemy at a distance.
Night Claws: Her fingernails grow to frightening lengths, strong as steel and sharp as obsidian. She'll use these when she can get up close and personal.
Predator's teeth: Her bite is powerful and can under the right conditions be deadly.


Abilities:

Death Magic:
Reanimation - She can control and move the bodies of the soulless dead, as long as they are within 49ft / 15m of her and within her line of sight. If she can't see them or they go outside that range the bodies fall back to the ground, as dead as they were before. What the bodies can do is dependent on their state of decay, as well as the number of dead she controls - if she controls a single dead in good condition it can perform complex actions, if she controls a large group they are barely able to act, sluggish and uncoordinated in their movements.
Wail of the Dead - A frightening scream which can stun, shock, frighten or completely disable an enemy, depending on the enemy's susceptibility to sound and fear. Can only be used once per encounter/fight.

Shadow Magic:
Into Shade - A copy of her, made entirely from shadow, takes her place while she makes her escape from a sticky situation by traveling to a nearby shade. The shadow copy can survive small amounts of damage before it dissipates. Fantastic at night or in dark places, totally useless at high noon with no shadows in sight.



Other: As she is undead, Sarytz doesn't need to sleep, breathe, eat or drink. She is capable of eating and drinking like a living person - if she has been injured she will use these supplies to slowly regenerate once she is out of danger - but she keeps it to a minimum. If she has used magic she needs to sleep to recover energy. When she sleeps she always dreams. She has to breathe in order to speak. When she breathes her heart beats and her body warms up, otherwise her body temperature is only a few degrees higher than the ambient temperature.


Personality: Power-hungry, selfish and somewhat naive. Vengeful if she feels wronged, and occasionally quite a clever liar. Loyal to those who treat her well, and obedient to those who are in positions of authority over her. Since she grew up in a cutthroat society she always looks out for herself first, her allies second, and anyone else not at all. Though since coming to Earthra her personality has taken the first steps towards understanding kindness as something more than just a weakness to exploit.


Background:
Sarytz was born into a wealthy dark elf house on the outskirts of Necropolis. To the matriarch's displeasure the girl took after her banshee mother in looks, but it was hoped that this hybrid child would develop into a powerful asset for the house as time passed. She was raised alongside four cousins, all pure dark elves.

Her first life lesson was that she had to look out for herself. Although her parents cared for her, showing affection in public could be dangerous, and aiding the child could suggest weakness. Sarytz had to fight her own battles, prove herself at every challenge. The girl quickly understood that family was something private, that the love she felt from her parents, and saw them express for each other, was to remain secret. But she drew confidence from knowing that they cared, and it helped when the others taunted her for her lighter skin or her dark hair.

The girl did well, matching her cousins in most of the subjects they were taught. The matriarch was extremely pleased when she displayed an aptitude for Death magic as well as Shadow magic, thus surpassing two of her cousins with ease. This was promising, and tutors were acquired to school her in how to use this magic. The matriarch already had a plan forming for the hybrid, wanting to turn her into a professional killer. Sarytz was pushed through an excruciating training regime which at times threatened to break her spirit. But she had acquired a taste for power, and a willingness to make sacrifices to acquire more. The training regime was hard, and she often cried herself to sleep at night, but she was making her parents so proud.. and her self-confidence grew to unhealthy levels as she started to outperform her other two cousins as well.

The releasing of Ares back into the world came as a shock to many, but to Sarytz it seemed like an opportunity she just couldn't miss! She had finished her education, and what better place to test her abilities than the battlefield? The matriarch granted her this wish, as the ancient woman also believed the battlefield would be the final test to show her just how far Sarytz had progressed. It was time to leave the relative safety of her home and find true challenges. She had great expectations for herself. Expectations that were about to fail spectacularly.

To say that she had lived a sheltered life until then wouldn't be exactly true, but there were plenty areas of life that Sarytz knew little of. So when she encountered a charming, attractive man whose advances she found impossible to resist, she didn't know she had encountered an incubus. She could've died that night, falling prey to that sexiest of Ares' many dangers, but the man who introduced himself to her as Jetclaw, and whom she fell hopelessly in love with after a single touch, decided he wanted her alive.

She traveled with him for a while, oblivious to the danger she was in, and clueless to his actual motivations for having her around. Once, she asked him if he would join the army with her - for purely selfish reasons, as she was committed to joining despite that intoxicating feeling of being in love. But he laughed at her, and she never asked again. His words had planted a seed of doubt in her mind, but it was only later that this doubt would cause her to question her decisions. Once they reached Bordas, she reluctantly left his side to join the army as planned.

Sarytz' self-confidence took a large hit once she joined up, finding that her abilities were no longer considered special or significant in any way. She was just one more soldier, one more body to throw against the enemy. There were plenty of soldiers who outclassed her in the areas where she had previously thought she excelled. She worked hard for recognition, eventually qualifying for the army's special task force where she finally felt like she belonged. Until she spotted that most dangerous of predators once more.

She was surprised to find Jetclaw among Earthran forces. Didn't he say he cared nothing for this conflict? Feeling as if she were owed an answer, she followed him until he was alone and approached him then. She was as susceptible to his powers as before, unfortunately. To this day she doesn't remember quite what happened next, but she does remember the offer he made her. If she were to acquire some important intel on Ares forces, he, as a Commander of Earthran forces, would make her his right hand. She didn't know he was lying about his rank, or she was too love-blind to notice. But this offer of such significant power was so tantalizing, she could not resist. Finally, she would have the recognition she felt she deserved! Betraying her family, her faction.. these things did not matter at all to the infatuated hybrid. She would be at his side, powerful and respected.

Her time with the army had sharpened her skills. She managed to acquire the intel he wanted, and she almost got away with it too. Almost.

Betrayal is not a crime taken lightly. She was beaten, stripped of rank and name, and tortured to try and uncover if her actions were part of a larger plot. Delirious, but unable to betray the man she thought she loved even though she had already betrayed so many, she implicated several others successfully, causing a large internal investigation and executions of a number of Ares soldiers and personnel. Once they were satisfied they had rooted out the "unsuccessful rebellion" Sarytz was handed off to the matriarch of her house, to deliver the final punishment.

She was told her mother had committed suicide due to the shame she had brought upon them, and they made her watch as they executed her father right in front of her.. and then they killed her as painfully as they were able. Her body was handed over to Felah, her youngest cousin, so he could use his now formidable powers as a necromancer to resurrect her and turn her into a mindless golem for the family's use. The matriarch hadn't anticipated Felah's own feelings on the subject, however.

He was told to create a simple, but functioning undead possessing as many of Sarytz' skills as possible. He decided he wanted to challenge himself, create an automaton of such cohesion that it would mimic the life it once contained. To make the undead a double insult against the deceased traitor. Instead of achieving his goal, he managed to entice her soul back into her reanimated body quite without noticing it himself. Sarytz reawakened, now undead, in the darkness of a storage chamber and knew only one thing: She needed to escape.

There was only one place she would go. That man, the one who had haunted her mind since she first met him. She felt different about him now, as if death had freed her from his spell. But she needed to find him nevertheless. She just wasn't certain what she would do when she caught up to him.

Sarytz escaped her former homeland, taking advantage of the chaotic times and her honed skills to enter Earthra undetected. She felt no shame in signing up for the armed forces of her new homeland, knowing she might betray them just as easily as she had betrayed her old. Perhaps this time, things would be different. Perhaps as time passed this land would change her.

Additional Info
- Birthday: July 29th
- Some of her memories were lost after she died, for example she has no recollection of the last half hour of her life including her death. Occasional whispers of the lost memories may appear in her dreams.
- Before she died, her eyes were a bright blue. Since discovering the state of her eyes post-mortem she has felt drawn to blue things.
- Can only get a mild buzz from alcohol, if at all.
- When temperatures reach freezing she has to breathe and consume at least some nutrition to avoid freezing solid, else she risks being stuck as an icicle until the weather turns.
- Her undead body is not decaying.

Family and acquaintances:
- Meran Chao'lluire (father) - A member of a wealthy dark elf family house, this man could have any mate he wished. The matriarch of Chao'lluire was surprised to find him courting a banshee, but allowed it in the hopes of gaining an asset which would give them an edge against the other families. He was executed for Sarytz' crimes, as part of her punishment.
- Abonshi'munith (mother) - The one person Sarytz misses from Ares and would risk anything to rescue. Sarytz doesn't know if she still lives, as she was told her mother committed suicide upon hearing of her crimes, but she has not given up the hope of seeing her again.
- Felah, Sayelis, Anuthra and Mehress Chao'lluire (cousins) - They all gained from Sarytz' death and she hates them all for it. A happy family reunion seems unlikely at this point.
- Jetclaw Redgale (former lover) - He seduced her, and she was completely infatuated with him, too young and naive to realize what he was doing to her. She betrayed her family and her faction for him, because he promised her power in return, and a place at his side. She doesn't know what she will do when she finds him.

Likes: power, fine wine, tight clothes, gemstones, wealth, kind people, anything colored blue, soft beds, being inside when it rains, tart berries and sweets

Dislikes: sleeping outside, winter, long skirts, poverty, hot days, holy magic, enclosed spaces, great heights

Quote: "I see by the look in your eyes that you wished to cling to this life. Shame it's already much too late to undo what I have done."


Jetclaw belongs to and is used with permission!