PlayerName: Stareyes
Preferred Pronoun: She/etc.
Contact:
beccastareyesCharacterName: Tazendra Lavode, Baroness Daavya. (Note Lavode is a title, not a surname)
Canon: Khaavren Romances, Dragaera series
Pull-point: Her death at the end of
Sethra LavodePermissions opt-in: N/a
Content opt-out: N/a
Age: Around 1000. In Dragaeran terms this is well into adulthood, perhaps approaching early middle age. (The analogies aren't exact: Dragaerans live around 3000 years, but they are well into adolescence by 100, so they have a far more extended adulthood than baseline humans. Tazendra had been a grown woman for some time, and her agemates have children who are reaching adulthood, but she's nowhere near old age, even ignoring the extended lifespan of sorcerers).
Gender/Sex: Female
Appearance: Tazendra is around seven and a half feet tall, with dark hair and eyes, and brown skin (my chosen PB is actually a bit light in many of her shots). She has pointed ears and her face has high cheekbones, slanted eyes, a long nose and a strong chin. Despite icons, her hair is straight and she has a distinct widow's peak. She's described as a beauty, who still has the looks of a woman half her age. Given she swings around a heavy sword, she has some degree of muscles. She normally wears almost exclusively black.
History: Tazendra was born to the Baron and Baroness of Daavya, sworn to the Duke of Arylle, and members of the House of the Dzur, the Dragaeran Empire caste most noted for heroism and suicidal bravery. When she was a child, Arylle was invaded by mercenaries and her parents were killed protecting the Duke's son. In addition, her parents had pretended to be running from battle to discourage pursuit of their charge, so Tazendra grew up believing her parents had been disgraced.
As it happened, when Tazendra was a young woman, she made three friends, one of whom (Temma, who went by Aerich) was the Duke of Arylle's son. The four joined the new Phoenix Emperor's personal guard, and, thanks to getting stuck into politics, nearly were killed by an army and locked away for life. However, this did give Aerich a chance to reclaim Arylle and clear Tazendra's parents' names. Tazendra retired to become a baroness and study sorcery.
Five hundred years later, news of problems in the capital lead Tazendra and Aerich to return to assist their friend Khaavren, who was now captain of the Phoenix Guard. While they were able to unearth another conspiracy and save Khaavren's life, they were unable to prevent a failed coup that blew up the capital in a magical backlash.
Tazendra's continued distaste for sitting still meant she eventually drifted into service of Sethra Lavode, a wizard who had been alive for as long as the Dragaeran Empire, and considered herself its protector. Sethra asked Tazendra to escort the Phoenix Heir, Zerika, to the gates of the Dragaeran afterlife to retrieve the Imperial Orb, an artifact lost in the destruction of the capital. This extended into protecting Zerika from those who wanted to be Emperor, and discovering some of her and her friends' old enemies were working for other factions. Zerika was able to retrieve the Orb and make her capital in a city held by Khaavren's wife, a Countess.
That finally caught up with them when two of their enemies kidnapped Tazendra in an attempt to draw her friends out, using power from the enemies of the gods to aid them. Khaavren and their other friend, Pel, were part of Zerika's government, but Aerich was asked by Sethra to look for her, and Tazendra's personal servant, Mica, had set out on his own. They discovered where Tazendra was being held, Mica managed to distract her captors so Tazendra could work free, and was killed. Seeing Mica killed and Aerich in danger, Tazendra flipped out and unleashed a massive amount of sorcery, managing to kill one of her captors before the other stabbed her in the back.
Personality: Tazendra is a straightforward woman, who loves studying magic, gambling, generally carousing and occasionally dueling when someone happens to seriously piss her off or she’s bored. And she's easily bored, so usually can be found out and about -- or studying magic, or perhaps painting (a hobby she picked up in prison, as her cellmate was a noted artist). She can be pretty damn arrogant, though she doesn't mind admitting when she doesn't know something. People mistake her for stupid because her attention and focus can be very selective: if it's not something she's interested in, she probably doesn't remember much about it, or care that she's ignorant of something.
Tazendra doesn’t hold grudges, but she is quick to challenge others when slighted, and has a strong bloodlust. Most people would describe her as affable, despite this, as she still cultivates friendships and doesn't start arguments to have an excuse to fight. She tends to be blunt, and is widely known for her complete inability to keep a secret when you bring up a subject.
Growing up in the Dragaeran Empire, means that Tazendra really doesn't rank physical harm or even killing as high on the moral wrong scale provided it's done in a duel or self-defense or at least in a semi-honorable fashion against someone who should know how to defend oneself. Conversely, Tazendra ranks risk of dying as a lot more desirable than many things, including cowardice and boredom. In short, she's an adrenaline junkie, especially when it comes to fighting.
Abilities: Combat: Tazendra is an expert swordswoman. She's favored both one handed and two handed blades, depending on if she needs her off hand for spellcasting.
Riding: Tazendra can ride or fight on horseback.
Other Skills: Tazendra knows fashion, and has taken up painting. She is an indifferent gambler, but has a remarkable tolerance for alcohol.
Lack of fear/berserker rage: Like many Dzurlords, Tazendra does not feel fear at all like a normal person, and can be roused to a berserker rage if you threaten her friends. It’s said that a berserking Dzurlord is a danger to anything living around her until whatever causes the rage is dealt with, though the one time we see Tazendra in such a state, she remains focused on her target (and everyone else has the sense to not get in her way).
Sorcery: With mod permission, I'd like the music of Arda to substitute for Tazendra's normal power source for the sorcery. That will cause a number of differences. She'd be unable to draw much power (as noted in the FAQ), so any destructive sorcery would be limited to the personal scale or would be something that would take her out in terms of physical and mental consequences. The fact Tazendra has been practicing sorcery for hundreds of years and is still alive means that she'll pick up what limits are on this new power source.
Most sorcery in the Dragaera setting is mediated by the Imperial Orb, an artifact that is NOT coming with her (it belongs to Her Majesty the Empress anyway). Without the Orb's safeguards, any non-destructive use of power would require at least ten to fifteen minutes of focus, or the power will not stay contained and might explode. As the music is powering Tazendra's magic, not acting like the filter the Orb is, she'll have to default to her methods for casting without the Orb.
Destructive uses of power is mostly tossing energy around: flashes of light or heat or electrical energy, loud booming sounds, and so on. Tazendra might be able to manage a gust of wind as the limit without that ten to fifteen minutes focus. Basically, her limit will be controlling what form she puts energy in, but not any refinement: so a flash of light rather than an illusion.
Non-destructive uses of her power would include: illusions of sound and light (though these would take full focus as long as they last given how much control Tazendra needs), and wards that could detect intruders. I'd infer that Tazendra wouldn't cast a spell on herself or an ally (given the risk of the spell getting out of control) and would generally keep them away from people -- around a campsite, not in it.
Tazendra could also store some of her destructive spells in an object (typically round stones, carefully prepared), allowing another to trigger it with a mental command. They have the explosive power of a early single-shot firearm (focused, but without a bullet), and can hold up to three charges. These do take a good part of a day to shape, and can be set off by a rival mage.
Sorcery is typically powered by amorphia, a substance that is not naturally occurring anywhere and hard to stabilize. It would be the sort of thing I'd have to approach the mods for: while stabilized amorphia can be mistaken for a gemstone, it's also something Tazendra would secure if only to make sure no one destabilizes it. Including it in Arda would make her exceedingly nervous. (It's about the level of finding large amounts of antimatter in terms of that.)
Inventory: Nope. She's coming at a bad time.
Anything else: She's going to be unable to tell humans and dwarfs (and hobbits, if we get any). You're all short and hairy.