Koranna “Kora” Merciallus

Name: Koranna “Kora” Merciallus
Age: 18
True age: 18
Sex: Female
Personality: Koranna “Kora” Merciallus is an extremely intelligent young lady who prioritizes knowledge over strength. She is a mage of skill for one so young, having studied the art of magecraft under one of the best tutors alive. Kora has displayed a dry wit and is very direct. She does not sugar coat things. She is polite, approachable and does not shy away from socialising, but she is also very serious, often acting much older than she actually is. She respects decorum and proper etiquette. She is sensible and reasonable, and she sees herself as an arbiter. She will always try to resolve conflict before it can devolve into a fight, whether she be involved or not. Kora is an avid reader, and has read as many books as she can get her hands on. She can cite from almost any book she’s read as she possesses a keen memory. She is extremely good at placing faces to names, even if she's only heard a description of someone, and producing seemingly random information that may or may not be useful at the time.

Kora is level headed and calm, capable of remaining calm in many different situations. She rarely raises her voice, but speaks with confidence, even if inside she’s scared. She is inexperienced with fighting, and does struggle to maintain her calm in a fight, especially when she is injured. Kora does have a temper though when pushed enough, and a minor rebellious streak. While she does her best to be polite as possible, she does sometimes struggle with authority, especially when that authority is her mother. They often don’t see eye to eye on Kora’s progression in life, and while Tessa would simply love to see her daughter married and happy, Kora has no interest in that sort of life at the moment. What Kora really wants is to explore the world outside Edia, and have adventures in the freelands like her aunt. Up until this point, she’s been kept home because her mother worries about her safety. Her reluctance is due to an incident that occured 3 years prior, when she met Merlin.

Kora also has an extremely strained relationship with her brother Darius, who’s behavior when he was younger disgusted her. He was alright for a time after Octavia Velerius taught him a lesson, but his recent dependency on alcohol has strained things again. She easily loses her temper with him. Out of all her family, she gets on best with her father, Markus. She adores her little sister Alicia and would do anything for her, and likewise with her grandmother. Though she has only recently met her aunt Bethany she regards her with respect. She’s slightly conflicted by Bethany’s drinking, though she handles it better than Darius, but overall finds her inspiring. She knows some of the family’s dark history but has never asked about it.

Kora has known Merlin since she was fifteen, and the Enigmatic magus has taught her magic since their initial meeting. He saw such promise in her that as her studies became more advanced he went out of his way to secure her a six month period in Sinderon to learn Magic from Mariel Shor. It took a lot of convincing to get Tessa to let her go. Kora has very little desire to join the Oculi, and feels that there isn’t really a place for her there anyway. The Elite guard, Sky Guard and Assassins Guard all lead lives of action and martial prowess, which is not something that suits Kora. Besides, the Oculi is already full of the Asentari’s best warriors. She personally feels that the best thing to do would be to join the Order, even temporarily, where she could get her adventure, help people, learn, and be relatively safe in the freelands.

Kora hates fighting. While it is necessary, especially when her goal is to use magic to better the lives of others and that sometimes means picking up her weapon, she would much prefer to sort out a situation verbally or through non violent magical means if possible. She has trained extensively with combat magic and her own abilities, and will not hesitate to use them when needed, but it's safe to say that she has never taken a life, and will do her best to maintain that particular feat. She has deep respect for the Eldari Magi, Merlin and Mariel especially, and respect for the Eldari people as a whole. Her time with them has slightly swayed her against the heanta, and she regards them warily at best. She bears no ill will towards the humans of Mondolin, and feels that the first contact war was a mistake that should never have happened.

Likes: Magic - Exploring the limitless potential that is magic is one of Kora’s favorite activities. From learning about it, practicing and creating her own spells, Kora loves the world of magic.
Books - Kora loves reading as much as she loves magic and can easily spend hours reading, especially if it happens to be magic.
Family - despite their ups and downs, and the dark past of the Merciallus, Kora loves her family and wants to bring recognition to her great house.
dislikes: Fighting - A necessary task, but one that she does not enjoy. Kora hates fighting when words can solve things.
War - She hates war, and sees it as a travesty that should be avoided at all costs.
Excessive Drinking - Her Brother’s excessive drinking has put her off alcohol. It doesn’t help that her Uncle drank himself to death, and her aunt isn’t much better.
Fears: Drakes - She had a run in with a pack of drakes, and it left her afraid of the creatures.
Death - As much as she wants to experience the world, she’s afraid to die. Its hard to learn when you’re not alive.
Harm coming to her family - Kora loves her family and fears anything happening to them, specifically Bethany and Darius who both live dangerously.




height: 5’4”
weight: 108lbs
Appearance: Kora is a blue eyed asentari, with violet accents around the edge of the iris. She has natural dark brown hair, but she has a habit of changing her hair color through magic. She has soft tanned skin somewhere between her father’s dark skin and her mothers fair skin. She is short and petite, with a small bust and slender limbs. She has delicate features, an oval face and soft round eyes, and unlike most asentari her pupil is round rather than slitted. She has scales of blue sapphire from her shoulder to wrist on the outside of her arms, while the inside of her forearms have scales of white silver that are incredibly fine and smooth to the touch.
clothing: When home, Kora wears the fine dresses and outfits expected of her, or sometimes dresses in the Eldari styles that she picked up from her time away. When she’s practicing magic she a teal robe with a wide skirt and red wraps around her lower arms to keep the sleeves tidy. She wears long knee high leather boots over grey or black stockings. She almost always wears her black leather gloves, if not keeping them on her person in case she’s required to fight.



General Fighting Tactics: Kora uses magic and her speed to keep out of reach of opponents, keeping to medium ranges when fighting. Her Staff limits her range to a max of 100ft, so she will always keep within that area unless she’s running away. Kora is versed in both offensive and defensive magic, and strikes an even balance between the two. She has very limited close ranged fighting capabilities, but has learned from the Eldari magi to defend herself against melee weapons with her staff, and deal blows back.

While she is not a crack shot sniper who can consistently hit a target 250yds away she does pack some serious punch over decent ranges. Her quick thinking and high intelligence allows her to use her magic in unique ways. Her high magical power ensures that she rarely runs out of energy, but she is also very fragile and weak. If she’s caught, she can be punished.

Combat Stats-

Strength || Poor
Speed ||  Good
Agility ||  Good
Durability || Poor
Stamina || average
Magical power || Very Good

Strengths: Mental Acuity: Her intelligence and focus are complimented by a sharp mind that can quickly take in information in her surroundings and allow her to quickly and creatively use it to her advantage, both socially and in combat.

Equipment Expertise: Kora has trained extensively with the defensive capabilities of her Mage Gloves, and the Offensive capabilities of Aer’nir. Fighting and defending herself at range comes easily, and she has enough skill to keep attackers at bay in melee combat with her equipment.

Weaknesses: Reluctance to fight: Kora will go out of her way to avoid fighting, as she does not enjoy it or see it as necessary. She will always try to talk an opponent down first, and her reluctance to engage can end up backfiring on her in situations where its best to simply get it over with.
Fear: She’s no coward and will not hide when the fighting starts, but extremely stressful and dangerous situations may overwhelm her, making her act on fear. Fear based mental attacks are likely to do the same. Her fear mainly stems from her inexperience in combat situations.


Primary Equipment
Name: Aer’nir
Type: Staff
Description: A 3ft staff of Twilight wood with a purple gem in the head. It acts as Kora’s Catalyst for her Spells and abilities. The staff was given to her by Merlin who called it Aer’nir.
Enchantments:

Name: Aer’nir’s Spark Type: Offensive Damage Category: Very weak Description: Aer’nir’s spark allows Kora to fire a very weak short beam of Lightning from it’s tip. The beam has a range of 100ft, and Kora can fire 5 of these per post, with a maximum of 30 per thread before the staff needs to recharge. The staff has a slight charge between each shot and the rate of fire is comparable to a longbow’s, and the beam travels at around the same speed of an arrow, but does not drop. Duration/Cooldown: 30 shots per thread. Name: Aer’nir’s call Type: Support Damage Category: none Description: By calling Air’nir’s name, Kora can summon the staff to her hand. She can also send it back to its resting place. Duration/Cooldown: N/A

Secondary Equipment
Name: Mage Gloves
Type: magic item
Description: A pair of fine black leather gloves, the back of which are interwoven with divinium strands. They provide exceptional protection for the hands, but are not as strong as divinium gauntlets.
Enchantments:

Name: Magic Shell Type: Defense Damage Category: Very Weak Description: Kora’s gloves allow her to summon a curved magical barrier that is centered on and moves with her hand. It's 2 foot wide. The Barrier is capable of blocking physical attacks as if it were a shield, but can only stop three blows before breaking, two if the person has very good or excellent strength and one for anything higher. It can also block a single very weak magical attack. She can only summon one at a time, and needs a free hand to do so. Cooldown: She can make up to 10 of these before a 1 post cooldown.

Non Combat spells: Track, Messenger, Mute, slow fall, Calm Aura, Telepathy

Combat spells: Mana Storm, Greater Energy Barrier.


Element:Lightning

Name: Dragon Breath
Type: Offensive
Damage Category: Average
Description: The Asentari can breath out a powerful blast of their element. Generally speaking, the stronger the Asentari, the more devastating the attack, but this is their most powerful racial ability.
Cooldown: 3 post cooldown.

Name: Multi-bolt
Type: Offensive
Damage Category: Weak (up to 4)
Description: Korra can shoot out up to four bolts of lightning from her hand or her staff tip. Each bolt has a range of 50ft and deals weak damage on impact. The shots are fired consecutively. She doesn’t have to fire all 4, however if she only fires 2 and then stops to use a different ability, the ability ends and the cooldown begins. This includes using enchantments. Likewise if the post ends before she fires all 4 the cooldown begins, and she can’t fire two more in the next post.
Cooldown: 1 x number fired.


Name: Portals
Type: Support
Damage Category:
Description: Kora summons a pair of 6ft tall portals that are linked to each other. The portals can be placed vertically or Horizontally. Kora can place them within 100ft of herself, and they have a max distance of 100ft from each other. Magical attacks will not travel through them but physical ranged attacks will. She cannot place them in the air higher than 10ft. They stay where they’re placed until Kora’s next post, and only allow people she allows to travel through.
Cooldown: 4 post cooldown.

Name: Flash Barrier
Type: Defense
Damage Category: Average
Description: Kora creates a barrier of magic at any location within 30ft of herself. The Barrier is 5x5ft, and can stop up to Average Damage. The Barrier explodes in a burst of bright flashing lights that blurs the vision of anyone looking directly at it except herself at a range of 30ft. The blurred vision lasts for one post.
Cooldown: 4 post cooldown.

Name: Force Burst
Type: Offensive
Damage Category: Average
Description: Kora sends out a shockwave of energy in all directions that repels very weak attacks, arrows or bolts, and also deals Average damage to anyone within range, forcing them back. The effectiveness of the knockback depends on the person’s strength and weight, and heavy stronger foes may only be staggered by it. 10ft range.
Cooldown: 3 post cooldown.


Seal appearance: The seal is a very simplistic black ring of scales around Kora’s left wrist just before her scales end.
Transformation method: Kora lay’s the catalyst embedded in her staff down on her wrist and says “Release” causing the seal to vanish.
New appearance: Kora’s scales spread across her back and down her sides. Her pupils become slits.


Name: Stunderbolt
Type: Offensive
Damage Category: Average
Description: Kora fires a bolt of lightning that travels in a straight line with a range of 100ft. It deals average damage and mildly stuns the target, causing random spasms and twitching, reducing their agility by -1 for one post.
Cooldown: 3 post cooldown.


Name: Dispel
Type: Support
Damage Category: n/a
Description: Kora fires a harmless ball of magic that destroys a magical barrier or ranged magical attack, up to strong damage category. It does nothing to anything stronger.
Cooldown: 1 + cooldown of the ability destroyed.

Name: Repeller Barrier
Type: defense
Damage Category: Strong
Description: an almost invisible sphere shaped barrier large enough to encompass Kora, Repeller Barrier is capable of protecting Kora from a combined damage equaling strong from magical sources, before breaking. This does not block physical attacks, though it will block magic from any physical attacks that have additional magical damage, nor does it stop opponents from getting up in her face. The barrier lasts as long as it takes to break, but has a 2pp maintenance cost per post to keep up. She can end it at any time. If the barrier is hit with an attack stronger than the remaining damage on the shield the shield will still block it, but the remaining damage will overload the shield and be dealt to Kora as energy damage.
Cooldown: 4 post cooldown beginning when the ability ends.

Name: Charge Beam
Type: Offense
Damage Category: Scales
Description: Kora charges a ball of magic in the palm of her hand and unleashes a beam of energy. She can release it almost immediately, or charge it for up to two posts, each extra post doubling the damage and increasing the range by 20ft, but also increasing the power point cost. If Kora does not Release the energy by the end of the second post of charging, the attack is wasted. Taking serious damage may cause her to lose concentration and set the attack off prematurely, resulting in losing the attack, or potentially hurting someone she didn't intend to. She suffers -1 agility while charging, because she’s focused on charging the attack.

If she doesn’t charge it, it deals weak damage and has a range of 80ft, costs 2 pp and has a 1 post cooldown.

If she charges it for one post the beam deals average damage and has a range of 100ft. It consumes another 3 pp at the start of the post and adds another post of cooldown.

If she charges it for 2 posts, it deals strong damage and has a range of 120ft. It consumes 4 more pp at the start of the post, and adds 1 post of cooldown.

Cooldown: 1 + number of posts charged.

Boosts: Magical power, Stamina, Agility, Durability +1


Seal appearance: An identical black ring to the one one Kora’s left wrist is found around her right one.
Transformation method: In much the same way as before, Kora places the catalyst of her staff against the seal and commands it to release.
New appearance: Blue scales spread the length of her shins, spreading across the outside of her calves, while finer silver scales appear on the inner sides.


Name: Sunderbolt
Type: Offensive
Damage Category: Strong or 20x very Weak
Description: Kora fires a bolt of lightning that travels up to 50ft before splitting apart into a barrage of smaller bolts that travel an additional 10ft in a 45 degree spread pattern. When split, it creates 20 x very weak bolts. Kora can command it to split at any time in the same post after it has travelled 10ft.
Cooldown: 4 post cooldown


Name: Greater Repeller Barrier
Type: defense
Damage Category: Very Strong
Description: Kora creates a dome of near impenetrable energy around herself. The dome is large enough to fit 5 or 6 other people comfortably, and keeps out all others. It deflects arrows and physical attacks. It lasts for 2 posts, and only the strongest of magical attacks can shatter it. It can take up to a total of Very strong Damage before breaking. If the barrier is hit with an attack stronger than the remaining damage on the shield the shield will block the damage but the remaining damage will overload the shield and deal that much energy damage to Kora, leaving everyone else unharmed. Kora must concentrate to keep the shield up, but others can fire magic and arrows or other ranged weapons out of the shield.
Cooldown: 1 Use Per Thread.

Name: Magic Orbs
Type: Support
Damage Category: N/A
Description: Kora summons two balls of Energy that hover around her, keeping within 10ft. Each orb is capable of firing a single very weak bolt with a range of 80ft, or creating a very weak barrier. They themselves cannot block anything, but Kora can have them slam into anyone who comes within 10ft of Kora, dealing impact damage as if Kora struck with her staff. The Orbs act on Kora’s mental commands, reacting instantly and moving almost as fast as she does.
Cooldown: 3 post duration, 1pp maintenance cost, 6 post cooldown.

Name: Lightning
Type: Offense
Damage Category: Very Strong
Description: Kora summons lightning down on a target area up to 100ft away. The air crackles in warning, before a massive bolt of lighting strikes the ground, blasting everything within a 15 ft radius with lightning. Anyone caught within 10ft of the impact area will be blasted with very strong damage, while anyone outside 10ft will take Strong Damage.
Cooldown: 6 post cooldown

New Boosts: Magical power +2, Stamina +2, Agility +1, Durability +2, Speed +1


History: Koranna “Kora” Merciallus is the daughter of Markus Merciallus and Tessa Merciallus Neè Tallus. She is the second child of three, born 8 years after her old brother Darius and 9 years before her younger sister Alicia. Kora was a very bright child, and her parents saw signs of this from an early age. She learned to proficiently read and write by the age of six, and she did a lot of reading. Growing up, Kora had some of the best tutors available to teach her. Unlike her elder brother however, Kora had little interest in fighting, and her studies covered a much broader range. She discovered her first book on magic when she was eight, and she cast her first successful spell not long after. Of course, her parents weren’t keen on her messing with magic alone, so they found a mage willing to teach Kora. Not many existed in Edia, where the Asentari relied more on force of arms and their natural abilities over magic, but some still kept the old ways. Her first mentor was a good man, but not up to the task. She outgrew her second by the age of eleven.

Kora was always a well behaved child. When not studying she spent her time socialising with other children her age, though it was obvious where her interests lay. She doted on her baby sister, often taking care of her, but had a strained relationship with her brother, who often bullied or tormented her when given the chance. However this stopped after he faced Octavia Velerius in a duel and lost, and his bullying came to light. She overheard her father warning Darius that, when he’d been younger he had bullied others including his only sister, and deeply regretted it. This was the first time she’d learned of her aunt, though not the full truth of her family’s shady past.

Kora continued to seek knowledge, and as she grew older she began to take trips down to Lower edia, where the humans had gathered all sorts of interesting knowledge. She couldn’t remember being more excited than the first time she’d used the travel stone, in complete awe of the magical skill the Dragons must have possessed to create such things. She would have loved to meet one, but there hadn’t been a sighting in Edia in nearly 150 years. There was the Onyxus incident, but despite what many had forgotten, he was not related to the Asentari.

The more Kora visited Lower Edia, the more she wanted to leave it, and see what was outside the wall. She had read plenty of books about the world outside edia, and the things the Skyguard had learned about the freelands, but she wanted to see it for herself. But the asentari rarely left their homeland, as there were many dangers waiting outside. This point was hammered home to many, when Kora was thirteen. Strange humans from outside Edia came and raided one of the smaller settlements of humans, taking many of them as slaves before fleeing to the north. Pursued by Asentari, Kora watched as her home and the kingdom of Mondolin came very close to war with each other, something she thought her people would think better of, considering their past. A conflict did occur, and her brother went off to fight. When he returned he was different.

It was years before Kora discovered what had transpired on that battlefield or what had changed her brother. However, a few months after conflict he vanished. He came back worse than he’d left, though none in the family knew if it was because things had ended between him and Octavia Velerius or because of what happened in the war. Kora was worried, but her worry turned to dislike as his drinking got out of hand, and things became strained between them. She saw him as a bad influence on their younger sister, and they often got into Arguments. She was 15 when they got into one such argument, and Darius struck her. She lost her temper and retaliated, blasting him through a wall with her dragon breath.

Her parents were furious with both of them, but Kora felt that their ire was mostly directed at her, and she did the first stupid thing she’d ever done in her life. She stormed out of the house and fled to the city with the intention of running away. She went as far as to leave the settlement below the sky islands, striking out into Lower Edia with little preparation. This of course occurred several miles from safety, when she became hungry. Torn between going home and continuing, she did eventually decide to turn back only to find that she had become terribly lost. While the Edia Jungle was not as dense as the Vultani, it was still a jungle and quite difficult to navigate.

The sun began to set, and lost, hungry and scared Kora decided the best option would be to find a place to sleep and wait until morning. With new light she should be able to find her way using the rising sun. Searching for a place to sleep, she stumbled on a nest of Drakes, who were not very welcoming to the sudden intrusion. Instinct kicked in, and Kora fled, with three horse sized predators hot on her heels. They quickly overtook her, herding her towards a cliff that was impossible for her to scale. Cornered, Kora pulled her catalyst from her pocket, and tried to cast Calm Aura. She’d never succeeded in casting such an advanced spell, however she said the words, and a pulse of magic washed over the drakes. Shaking their heads, the animals seemed to think twice, but then the spell failed. The drakes focus snapped back to Kora, before the animals lunged.

A barrier of cherry blossoms formed between Kora and the Drakes, blocking their attacks as a spear of energy launched through them, bouncing off their scales but still forcing the drakes back at the pain. The Drake pack turned and fled as a white haired man appeared beside her. He was ethereal and young looking, and he looked at her with yellow eyes, that changed to purple as he blinked. “You look lost, little one.” He said. Kora nodded shyly, not sure what to think of the stranger. She knew he wasn’t human or asentari, and lacked the horns that would make him a heanta. She quickly guessed that he was an Eldari. “Not to worry. We all get lost from time to time. Where are you from?” He asked.

Kora pointed up and the Eldari smiled. “Ah, an Asentari. To the portal stone then.” He said. “How do you know about that?” She asked. The Man smiled and started walking. “When your people first appeared, I could not help but pay a visit. Fascinating magic the dragons weaved to create your people, I would have loved to see it.” Kora looked at the strange man. “Are you interested in magic?” She asked. “I am interested in many things. Magic is one of them.” Kora considered his words then said, “You are a magi, aren’t you?” he chuckled. “Perceptive. I am. Are there many mage’s in Edia, or are you the only one?”
Kora shook her head. “There’s only a few. And I’m not a very good one.”
“Nonsense. You almost cast quite an advanced spell.” He said. “Almost.” She replied. He gave her a kind smile, then fell quiet.

“We could use some light. Do you mind?” He asked. Kora took out her Catalyst and created a ball of light above them to light the way. Merlin seemed satisfied, then he took out a water skin. “Alas, empty. Do you mind?” He asked, offering it to her. Kora stared at him confused, and he waved his hand, drawing water from the air to fill half of the skin. “You try.” Kora copied his movement, and a small ball of water formed. She directed it into the water skin. He nodded. “Very good.” They kept moving, and the lower city appeared before them. “Who taught you magic?” He asked. “I learned most of it from books. I had a few teachers but they weren’t very good.”
“Few are skilled in magic. You however possess a natural talent.” He stopped in front of the portal stone. “I do not linger in many places for long, but if you would like, I can teach you a few things about magic.”
Kora nodded enthusiastically. “I’d like that very much.” Merlin smiled. “Good. Meet me here in three days time at noon. Now home with you, little one. I am sure your family are worried sick.” He said. Kora nodded and reached the portal stone. “Wait, I don’t know your name.” She said. The Eldari smiled. “I am Merlin.” He said. “I’m Kora.” She replied and he nodded, then waved her away. She touched the stone, which recognized her draconic blood and zipped her up to the stone in Eapara city.

After returning home to her worried sick mother she was scolded, but quickly forgiven because of what could have happened. She was forced to apologize to Darius, however it made no improvement to their relationship and the siblings began to avoid each other. Kora let it go, instead telling her parents about Merlin and the offer he had given her. Before Tessa would allow it, she insisted on meeting with the Eldari and decided that he was a decent sort, giving the go ahead for Kora to learn from him as long as she stayed within the city. Kora was very excited to begin learning from him, and for the next few months he appeared in Lower Edia to teach her something new. The visits became less scarce however, as she advanced, and after two years Merlin returned with the news that there wasn’t anything he could teach her while being absent.

However, he had not come to simply tell her he was done training her, and instead went out of his way to ensure that she got the best possible training. He carried with him two things, one a sealed letter from Mariel Shor of the golden council, and the letter contained a formal invitation for Kora to visit and learn magic for several months in Cinderon, assuming her parents agreed. The other was a gift for Kora, a staff of twilight wood threefoot in length with a purple crystal in its head, called Aer’nir. Merlin claimed its name to mean spark stick in common, a mildly fitting name as it shot beams of lightning.

Kora’s parents read the letter, and after much convincing from Markus, Kora and Variana, Tessa finally agreed to let Kora go to Cinderon. Her father organised the journey there, taking her on one of the family’s Wyverns and travelled to gateway harbour, where they were met by Mariel Shor and another Eldari. Mariel greeted her and her father kindly, and had tea with them to converse with Markus, ensuring him that Kora would be perfectly safe in Cinderon, and that she was very lucky. Very few outsiders entered the golden city, and an asentari had never been one of them.

While they talked, Kora took in the Eldari that had come with Mariel to meet them. Tall, lean and athletic, the Eldaari examined her back with piercing yellow eyes before introducing himself as Eldris Ellarian, one of Mariel’s other students. Kora was nervous to be away from home, but Mariel let her settle in for a few days and Eldris showed her around the city before the real training began. Learning from Mariel was the best six months of her life, as the Eldari constantly kept her occupied with magecraft, reading, and even had Eldris begin teaching her Eldari. Kora took to the language easily, and spent the later months conversing mostly in it. Her language lessons turned into a two way exchange as she began teaching Eldris Draconic.

When she wasn’t learning spells or studying, she was training with Eldris who began teaching her to fight with the staff Merlin gave her. While she didn’t think it necessary, both elder and younger magi stressed that magic often failed when you needed it most, and learning to defend yourself from enemy weapons was just as important. Eldris was an unorthodox mage who favored martial prowess, and while he was excellent in the use of his staff he often favored his fists, a quirk that harkened back to his younger days when he lost his staff and got into serious trouble. When he told Kora about that, she began to take the training more seriously. During one of their training Sessions they were visited by an Eldari named Yavanna Elbereth, who had expressed interest in meeting the young asentari Mariel was teaching.

Kora liked her immediately, for though she was a warrior she seemed a kindred spirit. She tried to teach Kora some basic techniques with blades, and though it ended disastrously, Kora learned of the enchantment on Yavanna’s knife that allowed her to call it back to her hand, and had a similar one placed on Aer’nir. A few months into her studies, Mariel had  Kora attend the academy once a week, to attend advanced classes with some of the older students. As well as Kora was received by the Eldari, one particular student took a dislike to her, though whether it was because she was an outsider or because she was better than them was unclear. It caught Kora completely off guard when they attacked her, under the pretense of practicing, however the “practice” was discovered and swiftly put down by Yavanna.

Kora later discovered that there was more to the eldari than just peaceful magi and great warriors. Their people were divided, split almost in three by separate factions. One faction desired to remain the same, sitting back from the world and ignoring it. The other two were opposites, one that wanted to help maintain peace in the world while the other wanted to bring war, specifically to the heanta though there were a few extremists who disliked all the races. Fortunately, Kora’s presence was not offensive enough to this third faction bar the one individual, and the remainder of her stay was peaceful.

During Kora’s final few months, she developed a crush on Eldris. It was not an unlikely outcome given her age and his good looks, and she attempted to pursue it. One evening, while practicing draconic, she moved closer to him, and caught him by surprise with a kiss. Eldris lept up in shock as she tried to explain how she felt. Eldris was quick to apologize and shut down any possibility of them being a thing, mainly because he was four times her age. It left her embarrassed more than anything, but after a few days they put the incident behind them, and remained friends.

The time finally came for Kora to go home, and she didn’t want to leave. Despite a few setbacks, she had learned so much about magic and the eldari. She was met by her father in gateway harbour, and seen off by Mariel, Eldris, and Yavanna. The trio had gone out of their way to give her a parting gift of a set of fine black leather gloves lined with divinium strands, and enchanted to create basic shields that would protect her from a few blows. Kora returned home, and kept some contact with Eldris, who kept her up to date on how Yavanna and Mariel were. Kora kept up with her studies, but life back home was quiet. She was bored, and now that she had experienced the world outside Edia she wanted to return to it.

Several months passed, with Kora turning 18 during that time, and Kora became increasingly restless, but her mother still insisted that it was not safe for her to leave. She wanted Kora to pursue a safe life, to marry and have children and be happy, but Kora didn't want that. Thankfully, Variana sided with Kora and warned against arranged and forced marriages, though Tessa knew plenty about the kind of trouble that invited. Tessa relented, but still did not allow Kora to pursue the path of adventure. It was a sore point between them, but Kora kept her temper in check for the most part. A few weeks later, news of the events of Karcenak reached the family, and with it the discovery that Bethany Merciallus, Variana’s youngest child and only daughter was still alive.

Of course, there was a deeper backstory to why Bethany had left Edia, and Variana finally decided to share it with the elder of her grandchildren. It was a dark story, filled with misery. There was no signs of any of the abuse her grandfather inflicted on Kora’s grandmother and father, not on the surface at least. She was shocked to learn what had happened to the man, and it made her wary of her aunt when the woman finally returned. She quickly came to understand that while Bethany was a troubled woman, she was brave and far more valiant than she seemed to believe. Her stories of her time in the freelands ignited Kora’s desire to explore. Several days later, Kora’s Grandmother and Aline Drexara organised a Gala to donate to the order of the sun and the Slaves Bethany helped save. Kora seen this as an excellent opportunity to speak to the Leader of the Order in the hopes that he might have a place for her.

Side notes: She’s basically Thor, deal with it.
Rp example: Lightning go brrrr!

Approved A-5

seconded