kart app.

[rakta]

OOC INFORMATION

Name: Rachel
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: aziraphale @ plurk, lauralae @ discord
Other characters: N/A, but also apping Yuji
Permissions & opt-out: Permissions, Opt-out

IC INFORMATION

Name: Lauralae
Canon: Original
Age: 153
Gender: Female
Species: Seelie Elf
Appearance: Here
Canon point: During her eighty-year stint of isolation in the forest

History:

Daughter of a lower noble in the Seelie court, Lauralae was raised to be well educated and with the expectation of a good marriage. She was sometimes able to visit the Seelie palace, but was not close with any of the key nobles and had no links to true Seelie nobility. She was brought up to believe in the beauty of nature and the michevious mystery of her fellow elves, and trained as a Druid.

There was a passion inside of her, however: she wanted more than what her parents could offer, even with all their position and power. For all that she had been raised to know she would have power and security it was never enough - she wanted more, like an inbuilt craving. She discovered the deep libraries. The books she sought were those most feared by the rest of her clan, dark magicks that were whispered about to naughty children. It was like there was a voice coming from the pages, tempting her with whispered words of the woman she could come to be, the people she could come to meet, the places she could go. It was a desire for escape and, in her blind want, she neglected to understand the price that would come from her choice.

Reading an old book in the depths of the Seelie libraries is what teaches Lauralae about Kannoth, an Unseelie Necromancer who is willing to trade power to those that seek him out. She secreted the information away as plans for her marriage continue to develop, hoping to escape from the Seelie court and find her way to Kannoth, to make some kind of bargain for power - and with it, freedom.

The magic of the book, linked to Kannoth himself, preyed upon Lauralae's natural-born magic, her desire for knowledge, something to give her allies, friends, strength, more than her pathetic existence. Six months of her life were then spent crossing the Wilds in search of Kannoth, to attempt to make a deal with him; whatever he asks for in return the power she longed for. Upon meeting Kannoth, believing him to be the one from the stories she had read, she asked for his tutelage, heedless of the reputation that preceded him. Kannoth agreed to her terms, but asked a boon of her once her education was complete - and Lauralae offered it freely, without considering what that boon might be.

Kannoth intended to kidnap her and transform Lauralae into one of his undead subjects, but his loyalty to the Queen of Air and Darkness meant that he was forced to pass Lauralae along when the Unseelie queen took an interest in her. Rather than becoming an Undead Fey, Lauralae was tricked into a pact with the Archfey, the boon she had promised Kannoth being reaped by the Queen herself. Furious, Lauralae attempted to deny her pact and escape the wrath of the Queen, resulting in her being gifted a curse for her transgression.

Sent back to her home, Lauralae was alienated due to her new pact and curse and was exiled, forced to leave the Courts to an alternative plane. After a few years of isolated wandering, she ended up living with Myrana, an elderly woman who takes her in and teaches her herbology, poisons, cooking and basic survival, alongside additional languages.

Time continued and, for months after, life didn’t much change - not until someone else came into her life. With her gloves on and her hood down Lauralae appeared to be a normal woman, a girl learning a craft from her elders and hoping for more from her life than what her parents might have asked for her. A man came into the store, offering coin for poisons, and Lauralae was struck with infatuation - the first she had ever claimed to have in her life, the first time she had ever dared to show any interest in someone. The man, Aramas, was secretive, sly, and she was enchanted by the mystery he offered, the distraction from the ever present weight of the curse she had almost lost herself to.

The two of them danced around one another for a few months between his visits until one evening she confesses her affection for him, and he in return. A month later, she shares her curse with him, and Aramas attacked Lauralae. When she came to, she found that he had gone to her home and killed Myrana, leaving her a blooded and torn corpse in their hut. Lauralae leaves the home, never to return. In hindsight, Lauralae would like to believe that that they loved one another. She would like to pretend that what had developed between them was real, but she knows the truth; she was a young girl blinded by infatuation.

Filled with grief, Lauralae spent the next eighty years living alone in the forest, learning to develop her skills, haunted by dreams of her mother and her Archfey patron. She was nothing more than a creature of vengeance: to find a means to punish Aramas for the death of her mother, to find a way to free herself from her curse and to ensure that she would once again have her own freedom.

She survives by hunting, growing herbs and trading them with merchants and travellers that pass by, or stealing into villages to swap her wares. She interacts with people rarely, and becomes a recluse, known more as a myth of a 'witch' than anything real. This was how she became a wandering creature, only coming out when there was something to gain. She did not know how to manage the power she had and, so, she kept hiding.

Personality answers:

Explain which event in canon is most pivotal to your character's development, and who they are today.

For Lauralae, it was being trapped in a pact with the Unseelie Queen and forced to be subservient to her. In her quest for power, she had been willing to give up her soul - and more - to be as strong as possible, a desire to overcome the limitations of her home Court pushing her to being willing to risk everything. It's the loss of her soul and the new curse that she was given that changed the trajectory of her life so completely - she lost her sense of self, her belief in her own merit and her desire to be around other people, and it meant she felt as if the only thing that mattered to her was getting vengeance.

It's also coloured all the relationships she's had with other people since then, few as they have been. Her adoptive mother was too gentle with her because of her curse, despite not flinching to see her, and her first love tried to murder her because of the fact that she was poisoned by the Unseelie queen. Her curse has isolated her from other people, left her finding it difficult to speak to others, to spend time with them, to interact with them, and with the belief that all social interaction is one that requires exchange and bargaining.

What does your character think about physical appearances? Are they the sort to meticulously primp themselves, or could they not care less?

Once upon a time, physical appearance was all that mattered to Lauralae; she was being raised to be married off, so looking her best and being the most attractive candidate was significant. After leaving her home and living away from Court, however, she has lost that sense of self and is less concerned with appearances and more about power, and what she can use that power for. This is twinned with the fact that her own appearance has twisted due to her disagreement with the Unseelie queen, leaving her with arms that are cursed to look as if they're painted black, or rotting from the outside in.

While she might still want to have the belief that she is "pretty", some link back to her childhood that she can't quite get rid of, the reality is that she respects power and strength far more than physical appearance. You could be the most beautiful creature in the world, but if you don't have the power to back it up then Lauralae will be far less intersted in what you have to offer. It doesn't stop her from being a litle envious of people she thinks are beautiful or attractive, simply because her own self-worth has hit the floor thanks to her curse and her pact. It's hard to see yourself as beautiful when the only man you've ever loved tried to kill you for your disfigurment.

What is your character's biggest ambition at their current canon point? To what lengths would they go to see it to fruition?

Lauralae is currently wrestling with two major desires: to find Aramas and kill him, and to free herself from her pact with the Unseelie Queen and try to grow her power on her own. Given the fact that she has already been willing to risk her soul in the persuit of power, it would probably come as no surprise that she would be content with risking and offering anything in order to achieve what she wants. Her physical body doesn't mean much to her (she already uses it for blood magic, to empower herself and make her other magics stronger) and she would be willing to give blood, flesh and, if needed, limb in order to get what she wants.

It's the same for her less than physical self; her soul might be forefit, but she would push to give up whatever mental capacity needed in order to overcome the chains that bind her and push through to get what she wants in the end. The truth is that Lauralae simply does not see any worth in herself and would, therefore, be content with giving up anything to get what shw wants - the power to overcome the Queen, the power to take Aramas and kill him, and the strength to become one of the most powerful creatures in the world, no matter what it takes. She would be willing to offer anything - her lengths are limitless.

What is your character most afraid of?

Lauralae is afraid of death, but not so much in the traditional sense - while she doesn't necessarily want to die, she's not afraid of death because it's a great unknown, or because of the pain or hurt, but because she sees it as some kind of failure. For her, death coming too soon means that she has failed, because she has not been able to do anything to get her vengeance or to free herself from the pact and curse that she was trapped into thanks to the Unseelie Queen.

When she lived with Myr and found contentment, she feared death as an ending of the happiness that she had been able to build after years of not being able to be joyous in her existence. After losing that mother figure and having her heart broken, death instead became the end of her mission, the final part of the story; she would happily die at the end, as long as she gets what she wants first. Lauralae fears death, not because of what it might do to her, in the end, but because of the losses - and, you might argue, the real fear is the failure in death rather than the notion itself.

Inventory: A pair of long, silk gloves; a crimson dragon scale (magical, allows for burning or healing depending on use); Vampir Dagger (a magical dagger that grows heavier the more blood it consumes).
Powers/Abilities:

➤ DRUIDIC POWERS Laurlae was raised in the Seelie court to have Druidic powers, which includes low level healing magic, plant manipulation, animal friendship/speech and animal transformtion. She was never particularly good at these and is not particularly adept.
➤ PACT POWERS As a result of her pact with the Unseelie Queen, Lauralae was granted additional magic (even if it was against her will). She can use blood magic (manipulate other people's blood, use her own to power her spells, etc) and has low-level lightning magic.
➤ WILD MAGIC Years in the wild have Lauralae learning a little about wild magic, with a focus on earth and shadow magic. She's not particularly skilled at it in comparison to her blood magic skills - that's where her true focus and proficiency lies - but she is learning as she goes.
➤ CURSED HANDS Lauralae's hands are coloured dark, like charcoal, from her fingertips up to just below her elbow. Should anyone touch her hands without protection (e.g. gloves of some kind) they are wounded with lightning damage, and Lauralae received mental damage at the same time.

Samples: Here & Here nsfw
Player Goals: I think it would be fun to play Lauralae in a game to force her to become social again, to force her to be around other people and to really make her face the values she holds dear and how they compare to other people. It'd also be fun for her to go through the transformation that links with her curse, to have her face "death" and grow from it and become a better or worse person for it, depending on how it goes and how she develops with the people around her. Getting her to recognise power isn't all that it's cracked up to be would be fun as well.
Soul Choice: Spectral (revenant)