Kath Ivoire
Kath Ivoire was born to Lillian and Guillaume Ivoire, a human couple of modest means. Guillaume laboured in the wheat fields of the Seigneur who laid claim to the principality of Lac Miroir in Oreion, where the family lived, and Lillian worked as a cobbler out of their small cottage. Lac Miroir was a fairly remote location, the Seigneur being only a minor noble (the fifth son of a fifth son), and the turbulence of politics and big city ideas left the sleepy towns around the lake largely untouched. Nonetheless, Kath’s birth was a major disruption to what might otherwise have been a very happy family. For, when they were born, they looked nothing like either of their parents. They didn’t even look human.
No one really knows how a changeling came to be born to two seemingly mundane human parents. Perhaps Lillian was unwittingly unfaithful, victim to another changeling taking the form of her husband. It could be that either Lillian or Guillaume had changeling ancestry that they were unaware of. Whatever the reason, the pale, scrawny baby with its hauntingly blank eyes sowed the seeds of discord in Lillian and Guillaume’s relationship. Kath’s shapeshifting abilities developed quite quickly, possibly as a response to their parents’ revulsion with them: survival instinct may have seen adapting to the appearances of those around them as a means of being accepted, or at least not harmed. Though the appearance of a human child was certainly less unsettling to Lillian and Guillaume, both parents knew what Kath truly was underneath the mask, and that thing was difficult to love no matter how hard they tried.
As a child, Kath spent much of their time out of the house, a place where they knew they were a source of tension even if they didn’t fully understand why. They understood that their parents couldn’t “make faces” the way they could, but they knew that there was something else that was wrong that they just couldn’t identify, something that made their father’s expression grow grim or that caused their mother to speak sharply when she’d been cheerful just moment ago. Kath adopted an appearance that took inspiration from both parents, their earliest frame of reference for what “normal” people should look like: a pale-skinned young girl with her mother’s curly black hair and her father’s wide, dark blue eyes, skinny to the point of looking frail and small for her age. Her parents had explicitly forbidden her to “make faces” outside of the house, but Kath reasoned that they had said nothing about voices. Kath used her shapeshifting abilities to modify her vocal chords to imitate the sounds around her: the trill of songbirds, the gruff shouts of the baker hawking his wares in the market, the whisper of the evening wind through tall grass. Using these imitations, Kath had long conversations with her “friends,” different personas that would keep her company as she played in the woods or by the lake shore. In time, these “friends” became so real to her that it was easy to forget that they were just facets of herself.
Fortunately for Kath, education in Lac Miroir was not limited to the elite. At the age of seven, she entered school for the first time, and was again reminded that she was somehow different from the other children there. They too could not make faces, and Kath’s parents once again forbade her from even alluding to this ability. Nonetheless, Kath was a cheerful child, so pleased to have the opportunity to play with others her own age, and she made friends easily. Her earlier voice friends were quickly abandoned in favour of the other children at school, and Kath delighted in playing make-believe, swimming in the lake, and climbing trees with her two best friends, Albert and Eloise. All three children loved sharing stories, the more fantastical the better, and Kath’s stories were always acknowledged as the best, complete with marvellous voices for all of the characters. But Kath was always careful to limit story telling to places well out of her parents’ earshot, for she had a suspicion that they would not be as pleased by them as her friends. Over the years, the three friends were as close as ever: they built a treehouse together in an old juniper tree, went ice skating on the lake in winter, and even underwent the ancient childhood ritual of becoming blood siblings. While the atmosphere at home was tense and sometimes frigid, Kath found a new home in the company of Eloise and Albert. Yet she always felt guilty that she had this great secret from them, something about herself that she could never share.
On her eleventh birthday, Kath and Albert (unaccompanied by Eloise, who was ill at the time) ventured into the blackberry patch behind the town church. It wasn’t forbidden per se, but there was something delightfully thrilling about sneaking in without asking permission first. Sitting with their backs up against the whitewashed siding of the tiny chapel, their mouths and fingers stained with blackberry juice, Kath and Albert revelled in their small rebellion under the dusky pinks and oranges of the setting sun. That moment marked for Kath the most perfect time in her young life, and she felt full to the brim with pure happiness. And as she turned to Albert to express as much, he leaned in and kissed her.
There were no butterflies, no fireworks, only a sick swoop of dread that hit Kath’s stomach like a physical blow. This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. Kath was not so naive that she didn’t understand what a kiss meant, and what it meant was that their innocent friendship, that bond that had meant so much to Kath, was broken. Because Albert didn’t understand who he had kissed. The person he had kissed wasn’t…real, at least not fully. Kath’s mind was a spiral of fear and doubt: did he like her, or did he like the face she put on in order to fit in? In four years, after all the time they’d spent together, Kath had always held something of herself back, but perhaps now it was time to find out.
Her decision to show Albert her true self was one that would haunt her for the rest of her life. In that moment, despite her fear, she had hoped with all her heart that their years of friendship would ease the sting of discovering her secret, that she herself was enough for Albert, face or no. Kath’s blue eyes slipped to blank, ringed by dark black circles; long black curls faded to white; already pale skin became paler still, and Kath’s features softened to something resembling only the suggestion of a nose and mouth. She watched Albert’s face change too: from curiosity, to shock, to terror. She watched him leap to his feet, his eyes round with fright, heard him call her a witch, a monster. And she watched him leave her, watched him run away until he was out of sight.
Kath knew that Lac Miroir was no longer safe for her. Her true self was not something that was welcome here, and there was no way to undo what she had done. Trying valiantly to stymie her tears, Kath once again embraced her voice friends, giving one of them form at last. While the townspeople Albert had roused searched Lac Miroir for Kath Ivoire, Raphael Saphir quietly stole away amongst the melons on the back of a merchant’s wagon, ready to find a new place to call home.
Since that time, Kath assumed a myriad of various identities and careers that would take them all across Solanus. It was until they adopted their latest identity of Raina LeBlanc that they met The Sanctioned, and began journeying with them that Kath began to mature in her search for identity and meaning.
Throughout many events and revelations, Kath would eventually reveal their true nature to the members of the Sanctioned, only trusting Fauna Fortune at first. They also began to develop romantic feelings for the vampire Cassandra Von Drak, a former foe of the Sanctioned turned ally thanks to Kath's efforts.
Kath would quickly come to revile Alex / Arcturus for both his Alphacian nature and his treatment of the Sanctioned, though unknowingly entered a warlock pact with him after stabbing him with their blade.
Strongly desiring to overcome their aversion towards physical intimacy (and intimacy with others in general), Kath obtained a potion that would selectively erased their memories, choosing to forget their traumatic experience with their childhood friend Albert. While this did allow them to overcome their aversion, there is no gurantee that those memories are gone forever.
A strong advocate for justice and personal freedom, Kath personally killed Cardinal Sarif, the leader of The Holy Light, and hated the insane Lightsworn Janus, believing that he should not have been offered a chance at redemption to begin with.
During his journey, Deacon died at the hands of Janus, but managed to be resurrected by the party. Unfortunately, Kath's ventriloquist doll Jeremy, a dear possession to Kath, was also lost at the hands of Janus (though there are some that did not view Jeremy's loss as tragic).
After the death of Janus, Kath somewhat accepted a position of spymaster from King Galvus Solidor II. Using their access to resources, Kath was able to obtain clues regarding the true origins of Changelings on Arkos. Upon venturing with the Sanctioned to the Harenae Desert, it was revealed to Kath that the Fallen Ancient Bellum - The Corruptor created changelings by infecting forming souls on Arkos with his blood. Upon defeating Bellum in combat, Kath managed to be freed from Bellum's hold over them; though they lost their shapechanging ability in the process.
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