Evaryn Crimson-Silk, Great Huntress of the Seven
Summary
A living legend among the rachtoh of Rotalhm, Evaryn is the greatest huntress the seven Great Houses have ever seen. Lifting herself from lowly beginnings, she would go on to redefine Rotalhm's military structure, ushering in a new era of fighting prowess. Not stopping in the slightest, she left to venture abroad with her huntresses, earning renown and acclaim across Aerthen and the lands of Aochen. Born to the Great House of Adhmad-Kar, of Clan Softstep, of family Crimson-Silk, Evaryn's mothers had great hopes for their second daughter. Sadly, she was a small child, and so wouldn't inherit the great physique that the huntresses of Clan Softstep embodied. Other roads in life awaited her, but Evaryn never forgot the bitterness her parents hid in their smiles. Growing up as a weaver, she used whatever spare time she had in training nonetheless. Evaryn earned the right to participate in guard duty and simple hunts, but nothing of the seriousness her clan was renowned for. She simply couldn't meet their requirements, no matter how much she tried. The shadow of failure hung over her for years, even as her success as a merchant spread. It would be on an eastward expedition, to the rich ports along the Barrier Sea leading to Aochen that life provided an opportunity. While selling her family's famous crimson silks, she beheld a human monk performing a feat in a town square. With utmost clarity, the monk destroyed a boulder three times her size in a single strike, awing the crowd. For Evaryn, she beheld a way to overcome her weakness, for that monk was no different than her own body at a glance. Badgering the monk again and again, she finally relented after Evaryn passed a preliminary assessment. With much angst and heartfelt goodbyes, she departed from her merchant group, heading into the mist-filled mountains. There, at a reclusive temple, she was inducted into the monk's martial order. Over the years she spent there, Evaryn learned all sorts of mana control, refining and wielding it in her small body. Rachtoh muscles were fundamentally limited in their growth--they had a real maximum unlike other species. Mana, however, could be layered again and again, like silk woven into armor. Surprising the monks with her adaptations of their teachings, Evaryn wove together a whole new form for her species. They were put to the test in her final lessons, where she was charged with taking down a tagraxi. Over the course of months, she stalked and chased the troublesome creature through the mist-filled mountains. Loneliness and sheer fanaticism tore at her mind, but Evaryn kept going. To survive she hunted other creatures, adapting to the lands, innovating new methods. When the time finally came, the tagraxi fell into a literal webwork of traps not even its intelligent mind could escape from. Evaryn, however, discovered why the tagraxi had become such an unusual problem. Poachers had unsettled its lands, and threatened its offspring. The tagraxi itself bore any number of weapons and traps still embedded in it. That more than any other drew the deepest of offenses, for it dishonored the Rotalhm way of respect for nature. Untrapping the tagraxi and tending to its wounds, the creature wearily permitted so, leaving when she was done. Evaryn went about setting new traps, now for an even more dangerous game than animals. A week later, the poachers arrived in the valley the tagraxi had left its tracks in. When she was done, Evaryn brought dozens of heads to the monks, and relayed her tale. Impressed beyond measure, they avowed she had mistressed what they could teach. Evaryn returned home to Rotalhm, swamped immediately by her family and their gratitude at her survival. She didn't wait long, electing to take on some aspiring huntresses under her arms and train them. At last armed with a qualified group, Evaryn set them to task upon the most dangerous of assignments waiting. Few in the administration were willing to let her do so, fearful of failures, but Evaryn had no more patience for being stopped. Month after month, their fears turned to disbelief, then to awe. Evaryn's eastern teachings fused with Rotalhm doctrine, creating a new method of hunting and control over their lands. Great and small rachtoh alike found new opportunities in her mana techniques, ushering in unbridled advances in armaments and armor. As Rotalhm's military power changed, Evaryn surged ahead, gathering tremendous kills and subjugating the deadliest of beasts. Her ferocity and tenacity soon outstripped those who worked with her, scant few able to keep pace for very long. And so her talented huntresses rotated out, new blood came in, and her teachings spread all the more. A crisis grew within Rotalhm as a consequence. The Great Houses benefited differently from her actions, creating a dramatic power imbalance. Worse, Adhmad-Kar stood poised to reign supreme thanks to Evaryn's allegiance. Eventually a gathering was ordained, and deliberations happened under tense circumstances. No real recourse made itself obvious, for wherever Evaryn went, the situation would invariably arise again. She herself proposed an audacious solution: a stripping of House and Clan, instead placed under the purview of the Seven as a whole. In accepting huntresses of all seven Great Houses, they would all benefit and Rotalhm would prosper. For want of any better solution, her proposal was ultimately accepted. At the head of her hunting group, Evaryn has scoured the depths of Aerthen's darkest woods, vast plains, and more. Boldly stepping into the realms of Votyoger, she earned notoriety among the dragons living there. Stepping across Aochen and into Tomu, her big game hunting fame grew more. Indeed, she laments that Etzli Cuauhtla is out of reach, for its reputation of great beasts is truly the greatest prize she eyes. There can be no doubting the aftershocks of her steps, for all sorts of big game hunting has sprung up across the lands. Woe be to those who disrespect the sanctity of her teachings, for she will hunt them next.Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Average height, Evaryn leans into the more fierce, angular, and menacing subtype of rachtoh. Such is typical of her Great House, as they are collectively more warlike and have the differences to show for it.
Body Features
There are two main features of Evaryn's body: mana lines and tattoos. As part of her self-refining mana technique, her skin and exoskeleton show curving and attractive deep blue lines, reminiscent of veins in a sense. Complimentary tattoos follow along these lines, playing up with contrasting blues, greens, and purples between the lines and Evaryn's skin color. As such she is very visually noisy when showing off.
Facial Features
Flower-like tattoos frame Evaryn's face and eyes in particular. Their soft curves and swirls contrast harshly to the sharpness of her chitin.
Identifying Characteristics
Her eye color and physical appearance are popular icons in the cultural zeitgeist of Rotalhm. Although many knock off tattoo styles have followed, her eyes are uncommon, and so they are regarded as 'hers' when people talk of the color.
Special abilities
Internal Mana Control -- Utilizing an exotic form of mana control, Evaryn can increase her physical prowess to supernatural levels. She has done so to such an extent a permanent augmentation followed, making her diminutive appearance dangerously deceiving.
Ultra Instinct -- Evaryn's awareness of her environment, intelligent prediction of prey, and effective real-time solutions is terrifying out of the normal, even by rachtoh standards. She may even give death itself a run for its money at the end of everything.
Apparel & Accessories
Evaryn's attire is a product of continual practice, theory, and skillful execution. Brown-colored silk forms an under-armor layer, created by some of the best weavers on Veltrona. A fish-net like covering layers over it, offering hookable cords to carry small tools, weapons, and other needed equipment. Atop this is the outer shell, layers of premium leather (rumored to be from a draken she herself slew) form her armor proper. Ablative steel plates are strapped in on top of that, covering vital weak points without being cumbersome. In fact, fast-release mechanisms let her shed most of her gear and equipment with alarming quickness.
Of her common tools, she has a few distinctively regular pieces. Two folding forearm blades occupy her lower arms, while two forearm mounted miniature crossbows are strapped to her upper arms. Thanks to her quick handiness, she can wield accurate ranged firepower, or quickly eviscerate enemies in melee. Wearing specialty gloves, she can quickly whip out ropes of silk, giving her immediate-to-use snares and other traps. All sorts of mission-needed equipment fills out the rest, as boring as that might be to onlookers. It is her special cloak that often garners the most attention.
Stitched with the feathers of the legendarily rare mirror crow, the cloak can perform all sorts of optical trickery. It cannot completely reflect light as the mirror crow can, but Evaryn can shift its colors. Whether the resplendent rainbow or the murkiest of bogs, her cloak shifts to her whims. She rather likes using it for gaudy displays of bright colors, flaunting herself. It is when no one can see her that perhaps they should be more concerned.
Mental characteristics
Gender Identity
Female
Sexuality
Feminine-leaning.
Education
Although trained in the ways of merchants, Evaryn's true passion ever remained the way of hunting. She pursued all sorts of mentors in that regards, great or small, whoever would receive her. The vastness of their accumulated wisdom distilled down into her critical mind, and she has a lot of otherwise 'secretive' information at her disposal as a result. Among her kin she is considered perhaps the most knowledgeable about hunting, only outclassed by the eldest huntresses.
Mental Trauma
Loneliness is something no rachtoh can endure for long; Evaryn has pushed herself to extremes in this regard. The ominous silence of nothingness is a haunting presence, and ever beside her in the long solo hunts she partakes in. Perhaps as a reaction to this, when she is finally around people again, she has an explosively larger-than-life personality for a while. Once she's 'reintegrated' into normalcy she can mellow out quickly. Her kin consider her remarkable for how long by herself she can go, though they may not be aware of the toll it takes.
Intellectual Characteristics
Evaryn's desire to be a great huntress from an early age has long shaped her for the role. She is exceedingly capable in three-dimensional thinking, predictive analysis, and all sorts of stalking-and-trapping methodology. Straight forward, capable, though perhaps a bit curt and not always clear on what she's actually thinking. When on the job, her fanatical dedication becomes that much clearer, and few people willfully stand in her way. Social gatherings and the like do reveal her more ditzy attitude, as when she has 'earned time off', she enjoys going with the flow.
Morality & Philosophy
To be a huntress in Rotalhm is more than killing wildlife. It is a mixture of security force, nature preservation, terrain mapping, herbalism, and more. Such a way of life is taking in the entirety of the natural world and coming closer to it; to take when it is time, and to give when it is needed. Evaryn is no paragon in this respect, for she is willing to bend or break rules as people need them done. Nonetheless, she makes an effort toward respect of this way, and to ensure others obey it as is proper.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Evaryn ever desired to stand amongst her kin as a huntress, and that desire became her singular purpose in life. Having found and grasped hold of a way to do so, she pursues it with a fanatical devotion. Now, unquestionably the greatest huntress alive (if not of all time itself), she is starting to face a motivational crisis. If she cannot continue to find great prey to defeat, then her legacy will come to an end. Unwilling to be a dangerous vermin that destroys for its own sake, she has fewer and fewer 'worthy' prey to hunt for. The life of a teacher and paragon is one devoid of the hunt, and Evaryn rages against the coming of age and retirement.
What path that may take her, ultimately, is entirely unknown.
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