Sídra Apele
She Who Walks The Stars
Abilities
While all Immortal powers are esoteric to most, difficult to comprehend in their sheer scale and strength, the others all have a niche or school they have settled into. Zarligantír is the master of fire and king of dragons, Osera is the queen of blood, and Vhul'xo is the high lord of necromancy. Perhaps in times long gone Sídra could be similarly categorised as the world's greatest master of teleportation and summoning magics, able to travel anywhere in all Creation at a whim. But she has ascended past these "limits". She is capable of altering reality at will, turning Underworld wastelands into meadows, changing calm oceans into volcanoes, calling forth a light that blinds the good and disintegrates the bad, and "reaching into someone's brain" to physically alter its shape and thoughts. In many of the ways that matter to mortalkind, she is more a God than a person.Appearance
To most, Sídra is shockingly "normal" in appearance, seeming no more than a woman of average height with olive skin and blonde hair. Her black and gold clothes are clearly made of fine silks, yet lack many of the gaudy patterns or symbol that adorn other mages. The only real clue to her otherworldly nature are her eyes, with pale grey irises that shine white at certain angles. To magical sight, however, she is terrifying. A 20ft tall bronze angel with 6 powerful arms and 4 mighty wings towers over mortals, and a ring of celestial weapons floats around her constantly. Perhaps more confusing than anything, truesight reveals this appearance, but does not claim her human form is false - both things are somehow true at the same time.Personality
For all of her seemingly infinite power, and for all of the arrogance she could claim after saving this world a thousand times over, The Planeswalker seems to speak and act like a normal person; one who has given up on the world, at least. She shrugs at questions she can't answer, snorts with laughter at amusing situations, and has such a casual air to her that the unwise might forget she is one of the supreme powers of the universe. But more than anything, she is despondent. Seemingly broken by the fact that "the world never stays saved" after her countless years as a protector of all, she has isolated herself in an ancient forest to work on her magnum opus alone and uninterrupted; she is building her own dimension, one without want or worry. One that will never need saved from outside threats, where the needs of all will be provided for eternally. The ember of hope still burning, perhaps? Or simply the desire to protect others taken to an extreme, somewhat scorched earth solution.History
The First Couatl
Couatls are sacred beings, celestial serpents who were gifted wisdom and wings as rewards for defying their creator, The Breaker in the earliest days of history. As a result, they have been hunted by Fidain's cultists for all time. The leader of this serpentine rebellion was a snake called Vai'ýpsi, who one day found himself exhausted and injured, struggling to hide from those seeking him out. When hope seemed lost, a then-young Immortal destroyed his foes and saved his life. Ever since, he has been Sídra's closest and oldest friend, remaining by her side to this day.Anywhere, Everywhere
For a long time, Sídra's greatest work was found in the form of a large structure of overlapping stone rings with arches and doors leading away from the centre. It was a portal between worlds, a gateway to anywhere. She could use it to step into the Underworld with the same ease as she might use to walk a forest path, or travel to the very stars and converse with the Gods she found in Heaven. She built several more of these structures across the planes to make finding her way home more convenient, though ceased to require the aid eventually, abandoning the structures to the long claw of time and (by the requests of Gods) enchanting them to prevent any others from utilizing them.Shackling a God
To attempt to list any Immortal's complete biography of achievements is folly. Every one of them has saved the world from scores of threats, and every one of them has shown feats of power that defy description. But only one of them has bested a God and their Champion at the same time, alone. Akhenfólas was once amongst the strongest of Empyreans, a mere breath away from the might of the Pantheon itself. He was the lord of fire, hunger, and destruction, with a power and a purpose that threatened to burn the entire world to ash. But Sídra rose to the occasion, as she had done so many times before and would do so many times again - she battled them in a space between worlds, far from mortal eyes. She chained the God, and reportedly "tossed his Champion into the Sun", where the creature still burns today.Retirement
Sídra has lived more, and loved more, and lost more than any mortal could possibly hope to understand. Perhaps a non-deific mind is only designed to hold so much, and her endless burdens grew too heavy to bear, until she declared enough. She left her position as Immortal behind, had her name stricken from history, ensured her deeds were intentionally obscured behind old languages and hidden libraries, until it was like she had never existed at all.Creator of Worlds
Whether she began her final project immediately after retiring or spend time wandering the Cosmos is unknown, but she eventually found her way to the forests near Pylona and set to work. She sought to build a world, an afterlife of plenty and peace, where none will require food or drink, and fear will be a thing of the past. In the last few years rumours of her work and her purpose somehow reached the ears of mortals who have forgotten her origins, and she has begun to be worshipped as a God, much to her chagrin.Saving Pylona
There was an attack against nearby Pylona in recent times, where cultists opened portals to The Underworld and unleashed unending swarms of demons and spirits that threatened to overwhelm and destroy everything. Whether she intervened to protect the city, or simply because the neighbouring chaos was interrupting her work, remains unknown and unsaid.The Nightmare King
Garrac Kanelatos, captain of The Exotics, was once upon a time abducted and absorbed into The Dreaming by the Lord of Terror. For as yet unknown reasons, Telío Alori, Garrac's creator and master, invested several of his lives and invoked a final favour to convince Sídra to halt her work to retrieve the warforged hero. That she was able to do so, in Kýeri's home realm, seems yet another testament to her power.The Exotics
Many months after saving their captain, events would conspire to bring The Exotics to her home in the forest. She spoke with them for a time, explaining somewhat how her teleportation device works, musing about her plans for her new world, and telling them that she would not stand opposed against Fearghal; she stated there was no point to saving the world again, as it would only end up in danger once more, and probably within a few minutes of one threat being stopped.
Children
Comments