Gia Rilan

[Gia Rilan]

Name: Gia Rilan

Age: 22

Race: Werewolf

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 135lbs

Physical Description: Strong and lean, Gia is of an average height. She has dark brownish hair with a few natural lighter bits, not too obvious. Her eyes are a lighter honey brown, more honey than brown, an almost golden color. She typically wears practical clothing. As she travels often in wolf form, she needs to carry lightweight clothes, and so wears silk. Her clothing for around town is generally a silk dress in a dark color, and they tend to get torn if she needs to move quickly, or discarded in an alleyway. Gia has a lovely face, but most would be turned away by the definite werewolf side of her.

She makes it a point to try to hide her lycan aspects, but, as she isn't a very accomplished liar if she doesn't have time to work out a story beforehand, this is relatively hard for her to do. She doesn't have many wolfish characteristics in her human form except for the yellowish-gold eyes. Her gait is different from other humans, a toe-heel, toe-heel rather than the heel first walk which human use. People can't tell that she is a werewolf very easily, but if they know what to look for it is easier to see her true nature.

Surprisingly enough, she doesn't have that many scars. She recently acquired a matching pair of scars running vertically down her shoulder blades that even her wolf side couldn't heal quickly enough to stop the scarring. She has her bite mark and a few silver burns, though regular fire heals up well enough, as does any wound from metal without a trace of silver in it. Regular scrapes and scratches are gone in minutes, as are minor bruises and hurts.

Possessions: Small boot dagger which is tucked normally into her leather bag, beat-up recurved bow that she left at Kaledin Manor. She doesn't have much in the way of possessions except her clothing and her weapons, which she doesn't use that often. She has money from her master, lord Belatucadrus, which covers bribes, inns, meals, and just about anything else. Gia has a sturdy leather bag that she grips in her teeth when she travels as a wolf, and can carry it as a small handbag in human form. She wears a thin gold chain around her neck with a charm dangling from it. The necklace was given to her by her master Lord Belatucadrus as a way of contacting him.

Powers or Strengths: Gia knows how to use a bow enough to bring someone down, but when it comes to fighting the wolf side of her is much better at it than the human. She can't use a sword much beyond waving it around a bit, which, surprisingly enough, actually isn't that effectual. The wolf is much quicker and often more stronger than most humans, so when it comes down to fighting she prefers the wolf.

Her senses are heightened due to the wolf. She can tell what someone is (species, gender, age, skills, ect.) by their scent, and she can tell different types of magic by scent as well. Gia refers to this as 'taking a profile.' She can distinguish from battle magic and healing magic, and more 'unchained' types of magic like the sort that the werecreatures use, a feral magic. She associates scents and colors, so a wolf looks brown to her, but a werewolf has the silver glint of feral magic tinged with brown, and it smells like forest and water and just a touch of frankensense. It is simpler for her to scent in wolf form, but she gets it easily enough in human form as well.

Her hearing is more acute even in human form than it would be for a normal human, though her eyesight suffers somewhat. She sees better as it gets darker, and colors are sometimes harder to distinguish, especially red and greens and yellows and blues. It doesn't affect her being able to hunt and read.

When she is in service she is loyal to the death, fiercely defensive about her master. She will do what she is told without questioning, a boon to the one who holds the leash, so to speak. She will attack anything on command, anyone her master orders her to, even if the opponent is three times her size, armor plated, and holding a silver sword.

Weaknesses: Gia can't wield a sword and doesn't like to get caught without her bow when she's unable to shift around dangerous humans. She doesn't like to use any other bow than the one that she was gifted. She is also rather shy when she meets new people, and, although she doesn't act like it, when someone rejects her merely because she is a werewolf, she gets hurt a little.

She does have the weakness of silver, but she can be around it and not have it affect her--it only burns if she touches it. Also, the arm that she was bitten on hurts a little when the temperature is cold, and it left a bite scar wrapping around the upper part.

Being alone is a problem as well. Wolves are pack animals, and humans don't do well alone either. These two mix and cause Gia to become shocky, wane, uncertain. She has trouble deciding what to do when it comes to simple things like choosing a road or making a decision. Lupine instincts care for her for the most part, at least in terms of hunting for food and finding shelter, but she is unresponsive and vapid about it. Should a threat occur, she wouldn't first seek to destroy it, she would endeavor to find out if it was looking for a servant.

History: Gia was born as Svetlana Constantinevna Stelarova in the mountains north of Thar Shaddin. She changed her name to what it is now because it was easier to pronounce, and her name tied her to her home. Her father was a trader who swindled too many people and then disappeared, taking Gia's pregnant mother with him to hide out in the mountains that no one in their right minds went into. Gia's mother didn't want to go, but her husband forced her to.

Gia was alone when she was growing up, and desperately wanting a friend, any friend, she wandered off into the forest looking for someone to play with. She found a cute little wolf puppy to play with, and brought him to a place that she knew where they could hide and play. They did this for a few months. The 'wolf' puppy was just as desperate for someone to have fun with as the young Gia.

After a few months, the young wolf finally decided to show his new friend what he really was. So he shifted back into his human form, and Gia was amazed. She instantly wanted that magical power of being a wolf and yet not a wolf. She also thought that if her new friend turned her into what he was, they'd be able to play more. He said that yes, he knew how to make her what he was, but changing forms hurt the first few times and becoming what he was could hurt too. Also, she couldn't ever touch silver.

Being as young and innocent as she was Gia instantly agreed to become what he was. This made Kellan, the young werewolf, very happy because finally he would get a new friend besides the boring teenage packmates he had back at the den. So Kellan turned back into a wolf and bit her gently on her upper arm. Gia shouted out even though Kellan had told her it would hurt, alerting her father who wasn't far away (even though Gia thought that the place was safe enough--she was only eight) chopping wood. Her father came running to see what was the matter, and, upon seeing his daughter in the bite of a wolf, beat the wolf away with his ax. He didn't kill Kellan, but the young wolf was injured gravely.

Gia's father picked her up and carried her home after binding the wolf bite. Of course, Gia hadn't told her father that Kellan was a werewolf. That would have to wait. Her mother fretted and cleaned the wound, laying Gia up to rest for a few days. Gia's wound left a wrapping scar around her right forearm, and none of her mother's salves would make it go away.

Gia managed to keep the true nature of her bite a secret until she hit puberty, as she never shifted forms. When her human hormones started acting up, her lupine hormones did as well. Gia's mother didn't know what to do when Gia began to crave raw red meat and bay at the moon. Eventually, the truth was discovered and Gia was thrown out from her family. She had nowhere to go; Kellan's pack wouldn't take her in because her father had beat the young pup Kellan with an ax, even though it didn't kill him. They would have bitten his daughter in revenge, but that had already been taken care of.

The girl was thirteen when she was tossed from her home. She wandered far, catching her food from streams with her bare hands and picking berries from bushes. The wolf's digestive system was more useful than ever, because it was likely that the young girl, having never really been taught anything about plant lore, was eating more than a few berries that weren't that great for her body. She survived this way for a year, hating every minute of it, and then the wolf came.

Gia was scared when a creature, a great and terribly beautiful creature the color of rich mahogany like her hair stared back at her from a still pond as she crouched down in front of it to try and wash her face. Instead of her dirty reflection that she'd been expecting to see, this wolf was looking back at her with kind eyes. Gia was too shocked to move, and met the wolf's gaze with her own wide eyes. The wolf seemed to speak, but her face didn't move. Gia knew that it was the wolf though, speaking in her head. Be calm, little pup. You are probably scared of me, that is all right. There is nothing to fear. You are safe now. And surprisingly, Gia felt a little better.

She moved on with more confidence from that point, learning how to shift forms and use her newly-aquired powers. The wolf guided her on by scent and intuition until they came to a city where shifters were allowed to live in peace, and more of them populated the place than any other race. The city was Zhaltev, a sort of haven for shifters. Gia fit nearly instantly in and living happily for the next four years.

When she was eighteen she left the city due to unwanted attention from one of the main ruling clans, the Dveshiniy family. Alexiye Dveshiniy ruled Zhaltev at the time and Gia sided with the Iorden clan, who were steadily gaining power once more. However, Syordan Alexiye took a liking to Gia and she refused him, causing issues and tension. She left of her own accord. She'd been a few months gone from Zhaltev when she was roaming around as a wolf and she got captured. She was shocked that someone had caught her, and was too startled to do anything.

She was placed in a cage with other creatures, most magical in appearance. It was there she saw her first centaurs, orcs, and other beings that were certainly not human. They were held captive and put on display for purchasers who wished to own a magical beast. She met another werewolf and they conversed in their own way about it. They made their move at night, ripping into the iron bars with their strong jaws. Their mouths were torn and bloodied by the end of it, but they made their escape. Gia's mouth healed soon enough, and she changed her name to Gia in order to blend in more as she chose to head south once again. The werewolf that she'd met had decided to go to the place she spoke to him about, her beloved city of Zhaltev.

Gia herself pressed on south, hitting the great trade route and going east, eventually coming to Marn and Shim. She learned quickly enough to not speak of what she could do, and debated on going back to her home, but she decided that she might not have spent long enough away from the power struggles. Her home in Zhaltev was always open for her to come back to (once the leadership problem was sorted out anyway), and she felt like she needed a bit more time before she did go back.

Once inside the city, she looked around for a place to stay the night. A very recently collapsed building drew her attention and she managed to make herself known to the man in it, a man by the name of Mavarion. She entered into his service formally the next day, though she was wary of telling him she was a werewolf. He figured it out quickly enough on his own, as it was.

The next night Gia helped slightly in Mavarion's readying the temple for a ceremony or ritual. Gia waited outside and guarded which her nose processed scents that, had Mavarion not been kind and welcoming to her, would have been cause for some concern. But Gia, having bound herself to Mavarion, would only be worried if he was in danger and if she smelled his blood.

She dragged him out of the temple when she heard him call her name and cared for him as best as she could until he awoke. The next day he vanished, leaving her lost and alone. There was no scent trail that she could follow, and her howls attracted a great, armor-clad man who took her into his service and used her to track down a priest. The man and the priest argued, and Gia's new master Krevster ordered her to kill the priest, Phaloth. She attacked him but was not quite quick enough to ward off his bone-bladed arms as he slashed down her shoulder blades, incurring the matching scars on her back.

Krevster had taken Gia to a house in the city where they met with a strange woman whom Gia didn't like. The woman was powerful enough, but Gia hadn't understood what her master wanted with the old crone, and after they left he had abandoned her. She would have followed, she should have--but she put it off and then suddenly, when she went to search for the scent it was gone. Just like with Mavarion.

She'd skulked into the woods on the outskirts of Shim, thoroughly depressed. Two masters come and gone in less than four days, it had to be some kind of record. She was descending into the blackness of despair from being alone again when her new master came. His name was Belatucadrus and he welcomed her, fed her, gave her a place to stay and new clothes. And best of all, he gave her a job, a task. She was to find Lo'en, a half-elf who had traveled with a griffin.