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Altanis
Character Source: Original
Profession: Angry Vagrant
Species: Shadowblooded Centaur
Affinities:
- Influential — Earn twice as much Influence and Influence loss is halved. Gaining Notoriety with a Faction doubles the Influence gained with opposing Factions.
- Gifted — You can purchase "Skill Groups" consisting of up to 5 "Specific Skills", at the normal cost of a single Skill. You also gain +1 to the Skill Rank Cap.
- Persuasive — Minions (and minion-related purchases/casualties) cost 25% less Coin.
Influence:
- House of Gerudo: 36
- Jasper's Army: -3 [Hated]
- Plaineview Inc: -3 [Hated]
Character Behavior
Altanis is a Haughty Strategist.She is incredibly self-assured and prideful, to the point of dismissing almost anyone and everyone else as inconsequential. Their abilities and skills don’t matter, they could never match up to her. Even when she is proven wrong, or overcome, she insists on it being some foul trick, or else her grace for ‘letting’ them do such a thing
She is, however, incredibly insightful and has a profound tactical and strategic acumen. She has many-layered plans and schemes, often several working in concert, at nearly all times and can quickly come up with more on the fly. She deigns to gift others with her insight and lay out strategies and plans for them to use effectively, to spare herself the effort of needing to do it herself.
Altanis is an incredibly prideful creature. She was once just a pathetic little whelp, the lowest echelon of demon-infused creatures, and it took countless centuries and even many millennia for her to rise out of that pitiful state, clawing and fighting her way with everything she had and every ounce of cunning she could muster. She wasn't naturally born or granted into her prestigious position, but earned it through no small amount of boundless ambition and raw, bloody effort. The thought of all of that simply being not enough and anyone else to so much as dare of thinking themselves as her equal, gods forbid her better, is absolutely unbearable. It gets under her skin and rouses anger and bitter resentment like nothing else can. And she is a very, very vindictive and spiteful creature, lingering traces of her whelphood.
She is however, incredibly self-assured and confident in her own abilities. She knows exactly what she is (or at least, was) capable of her peak of power. She has a staggeringly vast array of information and learning to draw from, having spent many hundreds and even thousands of years studying and absorbing new information, all things practical and technological and scientific and magical and esoteric and beyond. Her hard-spent effort and time in this manner is simply another facet of her pride and dedication. She retains this unquenchable appetite and predilection for study, and devours and memorizes new information with a voracious and frightening efficiency, committing even the most minor passing details to memory on the off chance they would be further of use.
She is possessed of an eerie, animal and bestial sort of cunning and wiliness of action. While her actual intelligence as far as thought-out and carefully planned actions is unmistakable, she has highly accurate instincts as well and can make highly accurate guesses and predictions based on simple gut reaction and feeling. She thrives in the making of plans and strategies, carefully charting out tactical paths and routes for others under her command, or working with her, to follow. She has never been the most capable at direct confrontation, preferring to adopt a battle tactic of powerful defenses, laying out traps and hazards to prevent approach toward her, and dealing dreadful debilitation and ailments to anyone who does reach her to turn the battle in her favor.
She still recalls her roots of being so weak as to be inconsequential, and exploits that mindset in her strategy and planning. Always thinking of ways that the weak can overcome the strong. She will use anything and everything around and available to her to make the perfect plan, and capitalize on perceived weaknesses to turn them into unexpected strengths. There is no such thing as 'fair play' in her mind, as trying to play fair and honorably is simply a weakness and makes you predictable and easily countered.
Above all, she is incredibly disgruntled at her long span of imprisonment, and the resulting weakness deposited onto her shoulders from it. She knows she is still capable of those great heights, but must work up to them again and re-learn much of her old abilities, and re-condition her body to keep up to her former standards. She is aware of that, but sometimes lets her mind and pride run faster than her common sense. She is utterly loath to work with others on anything near an equal footing, let alone take orders from anyone or anything else. There is only one who has ever had the right to command her in such a way, and they have been painfully separated.
She is however, incredibly self-assured and confident in her own abilities. She knows exactly what she is (or at least, was) capable of her peak of power. She has a staggeringly vast array of information and learning to draw from, having spent many hundreds and even thousands of years studying and absorbing new information, all things practical and technological and scientific and magical and esoteric and beyond. Her hard-spent effort and time in this manner is simply another facet of her pride and dedication. She retains this unquenchable appetite and predilection for study, and devours and memorizes new information with a voracious and frightening efficiency, committing even the most minor passing details to memory on the off chance they would be further of use.
She is possessed of an eerie, animal and bestial sort of cunning and wiliness of action. While her actual intelligence as far as thought-out and carefully planned actions is unmistakable, she has highly accurate instincts as well and can make highly accurate guesses and predictions based on simple gut reaction and feeling. She thrives in the making of plans and strategies, carefully charting out tactical paths and routes for others under her command, or working with her, to follow. She has never been the most capable at direct confrontation, preferring to adopt a battle tactic of powerful defenses, laying out traps and hazards to prevent approach toward her, and dealing dreadful debilitation and ailments to anyone who does reach her to turn the battle in her favor.
She still recalls her roots of being so weak as to be inconsequential, and exploits that mindset in her strategy and planning. Always thinking of ways that the weak can overcome the strong. She will use anything and everything around and available to her to make the perfect plan, and capitalize on perceived weaknesses to turn them into unexpected strengths. There is no such thing as 'fair play' in her mind, as trying to play fair and honorably is simply a weakness and makes you predictable and easily countered.
Above all, she is incredibly disgruntled at her long span of imprisonment, and the resulting weakness deposited onto her shoulders from it. She knows she is still capable of those great heights, but must work up to them again and re-learn much of her old abilities, and re-condition her body to keep up to her former standards. She is aware of that, but sometimes lets her mind and pride run faster than her common sense. She is utterly loath to work with others on anything near an equal footing, let alone take orders from anyone or anything else. There is only one who has ever had the right to command her in such a way, and they have been painfully separated.
Physical Description
Altanis is a mix of something that crawled out of hell and something straight out of mythology. She stands in at just shy of 10 feet in height, not counting the imposing curve of her horns, and weighs in at well over a ton (approximately ~2,500 pounds), in a combination of size and bizarre density of demonic biology. Her humanoid torso is just shy of four feet in height, while that of her equine body reaches to nearly six feet at the withers -- roughly where it joins with her waist.
From the waist up her body resembles something humanoid, though with many notable differences. Deep scarlet hued skin, the naturally black nails on her fingers forming glimmering talons, and the eerie cast of her eyes with black sclera and golden, pupil-less irises. A pair of large horns, not dissimilar to those of a bull, rise from her head. Matching them, her ears bear resemblance to something bovine as well, and the left one sports a large silver ring through it. From the waist down, she resembles a typical horse; somewhat surprisingly slim, but packed with defined and extremely dense musculature. The coat of her equine half is a uniform dark gray in color, while the color of her natural hair, mane and tail match into a far lighter silvery-gray hue, which nearly mimics her hooves. She sports a mane of dense, soft and fluffy fur/hair around her neck which skirts the line between regal and comical, and the hair from her head is curled into a long ponytail which easily reaches her waist, and well beyond. At her rear, the mass of bushy hair which makes up her tail is similar to that of her fluffy mane and well-kept hair, and easily reaches to a length matching her wild mane of hair.
In regards to clothing, there is little to be said. On her humanoid torso, she is clad in an extremely form-fitting and skintight garment of black material which joins with the cap covering much of her head. It is sufficient to prevent showing anything inappropriate, though leaves a great deal exposed, especially in her back. A set of fingerless gloves of the same material cover her arms, reaching up to mid-bicep. A pair of silver bracers adorn her forearms, a matching belt of silver rests around her humanoid waist and a thick band of silver-hued metal also rests around her neck; each of these pieces has several links of thick, metallic chain dangling from them, the final remainders of her escape from her imprisonment.
While far from an exhaustive list, a general collection of the sorts of forms Altanis can, and is likely to, assume with her Demonic Facade (see essence purchases below) can be found here! For a handful of quick references, look as follows:
These are just a general guideline, of course. If we're ever writing together, and via story things lead to (whether necessity or whimsy) Altanis assuming a different form, just keep in mind the following details:
• The rules of the Ability itself, down below
• She cannot assume a male or overtly masculine form or appearance; she can change her biological and sexual traits and characteristics relatively freely, but it will always result in a feminine or, at best, somewhat androgynous appearance
• She is incredibly wary of and reluctant to transform into any forms with features too closely resembling those of dragons, owing to her immense personal respect and reverence of them, and will only very rarely do so if a situation truly calls for it
• She typically wears the bare minimum of clothing, just as she does in her normal form, or else what she wears is either incredibly form-fitting or tailored to the utmost precision and grace, to properly suit her personal tastes and sense of self-worth
• While she can certainly generate additional features and traits, such as differing horns or longer claws and fangs, wings, additional eyes/limbs, etc, unless purchased as Abilities they will obviously grant no real effect, other than to further her disguise
These are just a general guideline, of course. If we're ever writing together, and via story things lead to (whether necessity or whimsy) Altanis assuming a different form, just keep in mind the following details:
• The rules of the Ability itself, down below
• She cannot assume a male or overtly masculine form or appearance; she can change her biological and sexual traits and characteristics relatively freely, but it will always result in a feminine or, at best, somewhat androgynous appearance
• She is incredibly wary of and reluctant to transform into any forms with features too closely resembling those of dragons, owing to her immense personal respect and reverence of them, and will only very rarely do so if a situation truly calls for it
• She typically wears the bare minimum of clothing, just as she does in her normal form, or else what she wears is either incredibly form-fitting or tailored to the utmost precision and grace, to properly suit her personal tastes and sense of self-worth
• While she can certainly generate additional features and traits, such as differing horns or longer claws and fangs, wings, additional eyes/limbs, etc, unless purchased as Abilities they will obviously grant no real effect, other than to further her disguise
Character History
Altanis is an ancient creature, whose lifetime spans enough years she could count centuries the way many count years. If she could remember all of that time, at any rate. Once, she was a great general in the army of a dragon who styled himself as a god, and had designs to rule the world before taking his conquest to the adjoining planes and stars beyond. She was an instrumental part of his efforts, and the primary reason for the near-success he enjoyed. She personally designed and helped create the magic which would create the perverse and self-centered dream of Goreskan, her dragon lord: removing the entire 'male' part of the world's population, leaving only a planetary-sized harem-to-be for the would be conqueror and his chosen allies....but then it all fell apart. As they often do, lesser and more mortal races joined together and employed those ever-infuriating twin powers of 'friendship' and 'heroic desperation'. They overcame the spell-curse, and even managed to thrive in unexpected ways. It was so utterly unexpected, when what should have been weary resignation and broken defeat turned instead to new morale and hope.
They went from centuries of winning and careful application of their schemes to an utter loss within less than a decade.
And their punishment? The very curse that Altanis had been crafted was warped to include them. It had been a careful work to leave the armies and forces of Goreskan himself except from the curse, so it was a vindictive but somehow poetic fate for them to suffer that which they had wrought.
From there, the surviving forces were either executed or imprisoned for what was supposed to be eternity. Scattered across the world, and given appropriate punishment in their various prisons as fitted their crimes.
It was many thousands of years, during which Altanis was kept locked in a near-mindless daze of eternal punishment...when finally a freak accident of chance set her free.
Set her free, and brought her here.
General Character Notes/Writing Tips
- Generally speaking, Altanis's overall demeanor and way of speaking to people greatly changes and fluctuates based on her mood and how much she needs/wants to get something out of a person or situation. Her level of politeness, apparent respect and general civility is the most noticeable change.
- Despite her overall venomous attitude, Altanis actually rarely curses or uses overtly foul language.
- She is highly adept at carefully maintaining her expression and tone, despite what might be going on behind her eyes, as it were. She can be planning and plotting absolute murder, but have an expression and tone that is nothing but pure respect and sweetness.
- Altanis almost always refers to people by 'Miss/Mister <last name>' if she knows it, or by some official title if they happen to have one. Not out of any sense of respect, but as a general sense of professional distance. By the same token, she does tend to drop such formalities as a blatant sign of disrespect.
- Altanis almost never lies. At least, not directly. She does however resort to circuitous talk, omission of details, and only telling part of the truth, or a very specific version of the truth.
- Altanis is an expert at reading people and inferring a worrying amount from their demeanor and expression, and using that as fuel to manipulate them. She is especially good at telling people what they need or want to hear using what she gathers.
- As a general rule, Altanis is far more easily frustrated by, and inherently distrustful of, most people of the Male persuasion. She can put this aside if they happen to be useful or earn her respect in some fashion, but it is generally speaking an uphill battle. On the opposite spectrum, she holds an overall more favorable and positive opinion of those of the Female persuasion, generally even allowing them more leeway in getting away with disrespect to some degree.
- Altanis is, at her core, a bit of...a lecherous sort, having somewhat taken after the tastes and desires of her former liege and master. While she can usually restrain herself, she is not above openly admiring and leering at those she finds attractive, and tends to be a little more...direct and hands-on with such people, if given the opportunity.
- While not usually likely to come up most of the time, Altanis is strictly speaking a fully-functioning hermaphroditic creature, thanks to naturally-occurring quirks of her magic, demonic biology. And she is, in fact, used to....indulging at least once a day, if not more often, before coming here, which can often explain her general crankiness if not allowed to satisfy her urges for prolonged periods.
- Altanis generally speaks very...formally. Not in overly fanciful or elaborate terms, but in that she rarely uses things such as slang or colloquial terms, tends to refer to people or things by their proper name and abstain from nicknames or the like, and only infrequently uses contractions in her speech. And, in fact, the more frustrated or angry she is, the more overly formal, cold and distant her speech tends to grow.
- Altanis is almost entirely detached and emotionally dead when it comes to acts of violence. They are just a means to an end, and she has zero issues with any manner of inflicting pain or otherwise tearing someone apart. By the same token, however, she doesn't have any real interest in actual torture or dragging someone's suffering out either, unless it is explicitly for other purposes such as interrogation or to make a point to someone else.
- Altanis's general 'speed' of operation is to maintain a professional distance from virtually everyone else, and never get truly attached to anyone or anything. Once upon a time, that was different, but a hard life has hardened her to such things, which she now largely perceives as potential emotional vulnerabilities and weaknesses to be exploited. She isn't infallible, however, and does occasionally grow fond of or attached to others, and her emotions can get somewhat...explosive where they are concerned.
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