Character:Larana Sirai

Character in Once more, with feeling

Larana Sirai
Caste: Twilight
Concept: Architect of Creation's Repair

Larana is tall for a woman, nearly five nine, athletic and very well muscled. Her skin remains, somehow, oddly light for someone who's worked years in forges, but somehow it manages to complement her. She is by no means a truly lovely woman, but nonetheless is certainly no twisted hag. She often appears to be distracted or lost in thought, but she has an odd way of answering things people thought she wasn't listening to regardless.

Motivation

To build something great enough to recall the glory and greatness of the High First Age.

Intimacies

Gain new Artifacts for study
Support her Circle
Learn as much First Age history as possible
Find out Mikal’s final fate and do what she can to bring him peace or comfort his family

Elusive Dream Defense: (Hatred for Unspeakable Rite of the Lady of Words, Midnight Caste Abyssal)

Anima

As a Twilight, Larana may spend five motes after damage is rolled against her to subtract one level of damage for every dot of Essence she posesses from the final damage. The effect comes into play automatically when her anima banner reaches the 11-15 motes range, and can only be used when Larana is casting sorcery or using a miscellaneous action/

Attributes

PHYSICAL: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4;
SOCIAL: Charisma 4, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3;
MENTAL: Perception 5, Intelligence 5, Wits 4

Abilities

Caste Abilities

Craft (Air) 5, Craft (Earth) 5, Craft (Fire) 5, Craft (Water) 4, Craft (Wood) 5, Lore 5, Medicine 4, Occult 5

Favored Abilities

Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Integrity 4, Linguistics 5 (Native: Low Realm; Forestongue, High Realm, Old Realm, Flametongue, Riverspeak), Melee 4, Resistance 4, Survival 2

Unfavored Abilities

None, for now.

Backgrounds

Artifact 5: Ring of Being (Attune 15)

Larana discovered this ring, amazingly, lost in the Wyld during her travels to the deepest East. It sat untouched and perfect within the Bordermarches, and no creature of the Wyld would approach it. By all accounts it had been lost with its previous owner, and it has served Larana well during her occasional treks to Wyld zones to gather rare and exotic materials. It is by far her greatest wonder, but she hopes, someday, to find a way to duplicate it…

Artifact 2: Reaper Daiklaive (The Thrice-Broken Blade of Gareth Sirai, attune 5)

This blade was last wielded by Larana’s previous Exaltation, and in fact was buried with him when he was killed. It was his signature blade, despite being very simple in design, and it served him well, slaying over a hundred demons in his time. Despite the name, Larana knows of only two prior occasions where the blade was broken and reforged—she suspects that it is destined to shatter once more, someday… and that fulfilling this destiny was part of a grand plan of Gareth’s to strengthen and empower the blade further. Only time will tell.

Artifact 2: Audient Brush (no attunement, Larana’s Recorder)

The Recorder is one of the earliest Artifacts Larana ever forged for herself, and she is rather proud of it. A simple thing, it was based on vague memories of similar devices from half-remembered inspirations from previous Exaltations, but she is fond of it nonetheless. When provided with paper, and activated with the expenditure of three motes, the Recorder takes down dictation from anyone who speaks within earshot of it. Larana can order it to ignore certain speakers, or strike out certain conversations, if she so chooses. The Recorder uses different colors and shades to represent different people (though it cannot defeat attempts to disguise oneself), and its calligraphy designs itself to represent the speaker’s mood and intent. When reading over the writings later, a reader can roll Perception+Linguistics at a difficulty of half the speaker’s Manipulation+Socialize (minimum 2) to discern these things. The Recorder can acquire more paper for itself, so long as the paper is made available to it, and Larana tends to make certain when it is used that it will have sufficient materials for the task. As a final bonus, the Recorder can create its own ink, handy when it needs to represent large conversations between ten or twelve people.

Artfiact 2: Dragon Tear Tiara (attune 2, Stone of Resilient Bamboo Inset)

Forged shortly after discovering the Dragon’s Garden, the Dragon Tear Tiara is modeled on a design Larana discovered in a tomb. It contains a Hearthstone setting, and as long as it is worn and attuned, it provides +1 to all Perception rolls. This bonus goes up to +3 when user attempts to perform geomancy, use astrology, detect spirits, or otherwise perform tasks requiring occult sensitivity. This does not include Sorcery.

Artfiact 1: Solar Seal

Found in one of the earliest days after Larana’s Exaltation, this seal can make certain her missives are read by the right person… or no one at all. If a person not intended to read the message attempts to break the seal, the paper is wiped clean automatically as long as Larana spends two motes when sealing the letter.

Manse 3 (Dragon’s Garden of Simple Pleasures, Rating 3 Wood Manse)

The Dragon’s Garden of Simple Pleasures would not necessarily be what one would expect of a Manse. It is, in fact, a massive bamboo grove with shoots growing so close as to form thick walls and even sculpted into roofs for rooms. Who, precisely, created such a Manse is a mystery, but the presence of what seem to be an extended family of over a hundred black and white bear-men suggests some sort of Lunar involvement. These creatures further seem to be immortal, so it is also possible the creator was some sort of sorcerer or First-Age creator of life, but it is impossible to tell for certain. These creatures’ only job seems to be defending and maintaining the Manse, and they are led by one enormous specimen of their get that was powerful enough to drive Larana off during her first several attempts to study the Manse. The manse itself seems to grow an odd assortment of edibles, though these are hard to recognize as such, and it always seems to grow enough to feed everyone inside. One odd quirk of the manse is the way the bearmen seem to have little or no trouble moving throughout the Manse’s architecture with remarkable efficiency despite rarely being seen if they chose not to be, and it was some time before Larana discovered the hidden passages that explained this. Larana leaves the Manse in their capable hands, though on occasion she does return to check up on things. The Manse generates a Stone of Resilient Bamboo.

Resources 3

Larana has made quite the fortune in black-market Artifacts… a few of which she had forged herself for the very purpose. She’s even built and traded a few jade weapons to select Dragon-blooded warriors (though trustworthy intermediaries, naturally!), which are designed with a couple of flaws inherent to the design that may well spell their wielder’s deaths if they challenge a Solar Exalt in combat… She considers it unlikely anyone who uses such a defective weapon will survive to complain.

Charms

Crafts

Crack Mending Technique (10m, 1wp, repair objects more easily)
Craftsman Needs No Tools (7m, 1 wp, operate without tools)
Words-as-Workshop Method (16m, 2 wp, operate as if in a Master's Workshop)
Wonder Forging Genius (Create Artifacts/Manses with lower minimums)
Shattering Grasp (5m, break object more easily)

Integrity

Elusive Dream Defense (5m, perfectly defense vs social attack by creating temporary Intimacy to the contrary)
Temptation Resisting Stance (6m, increase Dodge DV by Temperance)
Spirit-Maintaining Manuever (5m/1wp, spend motes instead of Willpower on mental influence or virtue compulsions)

Melee

One Weapon, Two Blows (1m, +1 Rate, +1 Accuracy until next action)
Dipping Swallow Defense (2m, ignore all penalties to PDV for one attack)

Linguistics

Discerning Savant's Eye (6m, 1wp, understand codes, ciphers, and obscured or hidden texts)

Lore

Chaos-Repelling Pattern (8m, area around Larana functions as if within Creation)
Wyld-Shaping Technique (20m, 1 wp, create things from the Wyld)
Wyld Cauldron Technology (upgrade to Wyld-Shaping)

Occult

Spirit-Detecting Glance (3m, detect dematerialized spirits, but not touch them)
Spirit-Cutting Attack (1m, attack dematerialized spirits, deal agg damage to spirits)
All-Encompassing Sorceror’s Sight (6m, see Essence)

Resistance

Body-Mending Meditation (10m, speed healing)

Essence

Essence: 5
Personal: 17/22
Peripheral: 26/54
Committed: 22

Willpower

5/7

Virtues

Compassion: 4
Conviction: 3
Temperance: 3
Valor: 2

Limit Break

Red Rage of Compassion
Limit: 2

Equipment

Reaper Daiklaive

Speed 4, Accuracy 13, Dmg 8L, PDV 5, Rate 4

Experience

16 banked.

8 xp spent on Elusive Dream Defense
Total: 8 spent.

History

Larana Sirai, the Most Radiant Artisan Bathed in Sunset, She Who Walks Unhindered, both loves and hates Nexus at the same time. It is here that she finds security (when she needs it) to study and perform her experiments. It is here that she has always had her best business. It is here that she finds the Firewander District, a convenient source of raw materials. And it was here in Nexus that she first came into her power, though not here that her story truly begins.

Larana never knew her parents, but she has never had too much cause to regret this. She was fortunate, she recognizes now, to have been given into the care of an architect in Thorns as an infant. She never discovered why her parents gave her up, or why of all people they gave her to Mikal Yir, but she has only recently ever had cause to care. He was not a loving man, Mikal, but neither was he cruel. He kept her fed and housed, and he never beat her as he did some of his apprentices. Perhaps it was frustration at those selfsame apprentices, or perhaps it was the discovery of her remarkable mind, but Mikal eventually took her on as his own, though in secret.

Over time, it became easier and easier to rely on Larana's work, and Larana took no issue with this. She recognized, even if Mikal didn't, that practical experience was more useful to her than anything else. And atop that, she discovered she was fascinated by the design process... and even moreso by the work of talented geomancers who so often made demands that had to be met. It complicated design, of course, but Larana found herself with an almost intuitive understanding of the requirements, or at least the reasons behind them.

The day that Mikal told her she could learn no more from him, she surprised him with an odd request... that he help her gain her apprenticeship with a local mason. He balked, at first, explaining how difficult that would be at her age... though Larana knew the real reason had more to do with wanting her to take over for him when he retired. But she was adamant... She needed to understand the construction process in addition to the design process. When Mikal finally relented, he contacted someone he knew, and gave her into his care.

From the mason, Larana learned construction, and moved then to a carpenter. From the carpenter, Larana began to understand that the suppleness and flexibility of wood could be, on occasion, preferable to the strength and solidity of stone. From there, Larana moved into metalcrafts, and from there into forging. And so it went, for over a decade and a half, until Larana was perhaps one of the most experienced mortal artisans in Thorns... who had not a single masterwork to her credit.

This time ended, of course, as all things do. In learning from so many masters, Larana had a broader understanding than any other artisan in Thorns, but at the same time, she made several local guilds very nervous. Though Larana had little intention of setting up shop within Thorns, the guilds felt she had circumvented too many of their rules to be allowed any leeway. Larana managed to learn of the assassin before he arrived, and after leaving a missive for Mikal (who she still felt fondly for, even years later), fled Thorns for somewhere safer.

She took up shop, eventually, with a Guild caravan on its trails through the East, but found the work unfulfilling. There was no challenge, she felt, nor did the caravan have much in the way of moral fortitude. Even worse were the liberties the caravan's guards thought they had rights to. When Larana took her leave of them, she took with her two of those guards' offending manhoods. She made it all the way to Nexus, in fact, and even had nearly a year of peace before they found her. When they came upon her, she was working in a forge as an overseer, and when they came to kill her, in that instant the power of the Unconquered Sun flowed through her, and with a hammer in her hands, she smashed a hole in the forge with a single blow. Her strike was perfect, and the metal flowed exactly as she intended, boiling her attackers alive and leaving the remainder of the workers unharmed. An instant later she turned and, without a second thought, pushed the crack closed as if it were clay with her bare hands.

That was years ago, and in those intervening years Larana has made Nexus her home. Here, the Wyld Hunt does not seek her out, and she finds security in the masses. And here, of course, she can buy nearly anything she needs... or make what she can't. She does, of course, take extended trips out and to the deeper East, though she has carefully avoided Thorns... for the most part. She has never felt she would be welcomed there... not as she is.

That, in truth, is Larana's greatest regret. Of all her many adventures, the one thing Larana wishes she had done, was revisit Mikal. To the best she can discern, Mikal was killed in the invasion of Thorns, and as saddened as she is by this, she can only hope he is at peace now... though she doubts it.

Larana's love of building and creating has never waned, nor has her fascination with the way Essence flows... and now she has the methods she needs to truly understand it. Larana's greatest hope is to build a better and more perfect world... and she truly believes that is no reason she couldn't. If the Unconquered Sun gave her this power, she thinks, it is only right to make the workd more perfect and glorious with it.

Merits and Flaws

Dark Secret: 2

Larana sells faulty Artifact weapons to Dragon-Blooded through intermediaries. These weapons are standard jade weaponry, and work fine in almost all situations, but are designed to subtly impede the wielder when used against a Celestial Exalt of any sort, and if used to parry any attack by a Solar Exalt whose anima banner is in the 11-15 motes range that achieves more than five successes over their PDV, the weapons will actually break. Larana considers these “modifications” to be safeguards, and does not believe that anyone who suffers from them will be able to both identify them and survive to tell the tale later… If they were, however, and were able to trace the weapons back to her, she could have a serious problem on her hands.

Obligation: 3

During one of Larana’s earliest wanderings, she was stumbled across by the Wyld Hunt. She was not their intended target, but she had just finished defending herself from a pack of Claw Striders when they came across her. Her anima was active, and they immediately attacked her as Anathema. She only survived through the timely assistance of the Hunt’s real target, a deathknight later identified as Embers and Ash Upon the Silken Threads. A Day Caste who used the distraction of the Hunters to kill two of the Terrestrials before they realized he was there. Between Larana and the Abyssal, they killed the rest of them, and Ember identified himself. Despite his being a personification of Oblivion, Larana feels deeply indebted to him for saving her life… which might have been Ember’s intent all along… or it might not have been. Larana has never been sure, but she feels a great debt to the deathknight… after all, how much is her life really worth to her? She will not feel at east until she has discharged that debt. The only problem is, she doesn’t know who he works for, what he’s up to, or how to find him. She cannot help but worry, from time to time, when he’ll show up and call his marker due. She worries even more what, exactly, he might want from her. She knows she would never betray her Circle, or intentionally break Creation, but… could she in good conscience refuse anything else?