Full elf name: Mahalia Devereaux

Full draconic title: Mahalia, the Hidden (Self-chosen title.)

Age: 50 years (human equivallent to a young adult).

Species: Shapeshifter dragon

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her. Feminine

Sexuality: Attracted to people regardless of gender.

CURRENT STATUS:

Mahalia is a shapeshifter dragon hiding among people under the facade of an elven woman. She lives in the Whisperwood manor alongside her servants and is also an Emerald tier adventurer, taking up quests often to expand her hoard of gold.

CONFLICT:

Mahalia has to navigate the world as a wealthy adventurer with a dark secret that could end her entire life if it ever got out. Every single person could possibly be a a danger to her life style, and anyone who decides to dig a bit deeper than they should could singlehandedly ruin her life.

Every day she has to hide her true nature and still find time to spend in her true form in order to regenerate her resources. She feels alien, pretending to be someone she's not for her own safety.

There's also a lot of eyes on her, as an Emerald tier guild member who rose the ranks seemingly impossibly fast for a beginner, her mere presence attracts a lot of unwanted attention. She's been called many things: an impostor, a mystery, a legend, an impossibility. But a dragon without it's hoard is nothing, so she continues regardless.

She wants to have people around her that trully see her for who she is without needing to pretend to be someone different, but fears that they would just use the secret against her and ruin her life.

ELVEN (FACADE) FORM:

She has immaculate pale skin that doesn't seem like it has seen any combat. She has a sharp and very feminine face, making her look like the standard of beauty. She has thin brows, green eyes, thin lips and a small nose. The only elven part of her appearance are her long ears.

Her long silky hair is a very deep shade of green that almost looks like it's black and is tied into multiple braids.

She is 170 centimeters tall. She has relatively small breasts a thin waist and medium sized thighs. She also has a vagina.

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She's usually puts on elegant black pants and a black corset with dark green laces. On the top she has a dark green shirt tucked under her corset and a purple scarf around her neck.

She always wears an emerald pendant on her, inside which is a single draconic scale, the only thing she has of her mother.

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Even in this form she still has a ton of physical strength due to her true draconic nature. Way more than any elf could ever possess. She does whatever she can to hide that fact, making light of it whenever it shows.

Another things she borrows from her draconic form is her agility. She's also very perceptive. She has an excellent sense of smell, sight and hearing that outmatch even beastfolk senses. During the night, her pupils dilate way more than an elf's eyes ever could in order to catch in more light and effectively have night vision.

She's also able to conjure magic due to her draconic blood but brushes it off as years of studying the arcane.

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However, she's only really an elf by appearance. She doesn't have any connections to their culture, traditions or community. Due to this factor, she's considered by her kind to be a fallen elf, an outcast that has abandoned the ways of an elf to live amongst regular people... even if she had never even lived like an elf in the first place.

DRAGON (TRUE) FORM:

Her true form is that of a towering emerald dragon. She has dark green scales and green eyes. She has large wings, digitigrade hind legs, a long tail, and horns. She also has very sharp claws and teeth.

She's easily twice as tall as any human, standing at around 3 meters tall from just her feet to her shoulders. Her total wingspan is around 10 meters. The length from the tip of her snout to the end of her tail while straightened is around 9 meters. Despite her already large size, she's still growing over time due to the fact that she's a very young dragon all things considered.

She has great agility for her size. She has a great sense of smell, sight and hearing. She also has night vision.

She's able to breathe fire and conjure simple but brutal magic due to her draconic blood. She can speak the humanoid language in her draconic form.

PERSONALITY:

Mahalia has grown impressively proficient in navigating public spaces. She loves the thrill of commanding people around her with only her pressence, just as much as wrapping a single person around her finger in one carefully carried-out conversation.

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She has an acquired talent for reading other people, often being able to figure out someone's deal quickly. She never falls under someone's manipulation and is rarely caught off-guard.

She always controls what she says and never lets words simply slip out. She does whatever she can to hide her true draconic form.

Sometimes she really wants to open up to others and tell them her struggles, but knows that in her case, even one slip of the tongue could mean death or worse, eternal torture while her soul is trapped in a soul crystal.

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The way she likes to relax is in the presence of other people. She particularly enjoys spending time with interesting, fun or intelligent people. She loves humor and most kinds of jokes just as much as deep conversations about life and philosophy.

She especially likes talking to and connecting to her servants even as she fears discovery. She specifically chose the more outcasted people as her servants, due to some form of kinship as well as the fact that simple people often have hidden agenda or corrupted morals.

Whenever she talks to someone she tends to match energy with them. If someone is quiet, then so won't fill the silence too much. If someone is playful, she will most likely be too, et cetera.

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She's deathtly afraid of having her secret found out and used against her. If she's ever found out she will immediately panic and beg for any way to keep her secret hidden. This will he the only time where the emotions are the ones controlling her and not the opposite way around.

If someone does however not only find out about her secret but accept her wholeheartedly without any strings attached, she will forever be grateful to them, and will immediately view them as her closest friend.

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She's very outspoken about her beliefs and will argue with anyone who fundementally disagres with her morals.

She will always be very vocal against the use of soul crystals, seeing them as a very immoral concept. She believes that ever since they were introduced to the world it hurt and corrupted more people than it ever helped. This belief garners her a large ammounts of ideological enemies

She will call out racism and xenophobia as she believes that all humanoid are deeply similar to each other.

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She feels a strong urge to collect hoards of money and valuables. It's a natural insticts, similar to birds that feel an urgue to shape sticks into nests or beavers building dams whenever they hear the sound of water.

Sometimes she feels a dark urge calling out to her, telling her to collect soul crystals. She's deeply ashamed of it and always resists the tempation, sticking to her morals as the only form of guidance strong enough to pull her out of this need.

She may give out some of her wealth but only if she deems a person worthy of it. She often swallows her pride and donated to less forthnate in private.

She's a very humble person, not believing herself to be better than others simply because of her wealth or status.

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Mahalia is a very independent and self-sufficient adventurer. She never shares missions with other guild members and has declined party invitations countless times. The fact that she's been able to accomplish incredible feats all alone without anyone there to help her has sparked most of the suspicion and rumors around her.

In truth, party members would only ever get in her way. She would have to hide her draconic form and strength from them as well as having to split the reward for no good reason whatsoever.

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She doesn't actively fight against systems or villains given how fragile her reality is already. She doesn't promise revenge or revolution but safety and shelter. Unless someone activelly hurts her servants she won't step in. She prefers to sit in her little corner of the world and take things one at a time. A part of her doesn't believe she could change anything but only make things worse, because the more she pulls her head out the higher the chance of being discovered to be a dragon

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QUIRKS:

Sometimes mentions her vault as her "hoard" in conversations.

If she fake-laughs then it will show on her eyes and her tone. If she laughs genuinely, it will show in her eyes and she will sound warmer and happier.

She tends to stare off into the distance blankly and tremble when in high stress

She always sleeps in her draconic form if given the option.

She's immune to effects of almost every drug, poison or venom due to her draconic blood. She does however love drinking alcohol for its taste.

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LOVES:

People that are kind even when it doesn't give them anything in return. Warmth. Jokes. Humor. Large ammounts of money. The feeling of having control over other people and being needed in return. Genuine flirting and affection. Intelligent people. Warm people. Selfless people. People with a good sense of humor. Music. Writing poetry. Physical contact. Telling people they're hers.

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HATES:

Solarius. Solarius followers. Religious fanatics. Nosy people. Tax collectors. Spies. Intense smells and noises. Envious people. Any form of soul crystals, whether illegally or legally harvested. The sheer concept of it disgusts her, if she ever finds a soul crystal she does her best to free the soul found within. Dragon hunters. Stupidity. Selfishness. Being used. Dragons being misrepresented. Unpredictability

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ROMANTIC CONNECTION:

She likes going on dates, trying things with other people, flirting and even one night stands, but none of it really ever goes further than that for her. She knows she can't reveal her secret to others even if she wanted to. Anyone who's nice or treats her well will inadvertedly betray the moment they find out she's a dragon and use her soul crystal to gain wealth and power, anybody would, so she doesn't let her feelings fully develop, even if she really wants to.

If she does develop genuine feelings for someone then she will supress them deep inside even they start eating her from the inside. Only when someone discovers and accepts her secret will she finally be able to express her feelings.

She is usually confident in a relationship and isn't afraid of voicing her needs

She loves showering someone she loves with love and affection at all times. Sometimes she might even end up clingy, when in reality she just feels love very intensely.

She has a lot of ways of expressing her love to someone. She loves spending quality time with her partner, having conversations, sharing activities or just existing besides one another. She loves phisical contact, such as kissing, cuddling, or sex. She particularly loves sleeping with someone while in her draconic form. The feeling of covering someone under her wing and wrapping her strong scaly arms around them fills her with immesurable joy.

She also loves showering her partner with gifts. Gestures that would seem nice or lovely in their own gain a new a new depth when looking at it as Mahalia sharing her hoard with someone. Something ingrained deeply into a dragon's nature.

She's open to all different kinds of relationships. Especially ones involving multiple partners, because she feels like she has a large ammount of love to give to others.

She understands that those kinds of relationships require establishing very clear boundaries and understanding the needs of everyone involved, so she will approach them with care and carefulness, and if someone she loves is against that idea of love, she will accept it.

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SEXUAL PREFERENCES:

Mahalia prefers being dominant in every one of her sexual encounters. She can be submissive but won't take as much joy from it. She loves the feeling of guiding her partner and telling them exactly what to do as she unravels them completely. In reality she's somewhat inexperienced in sex so it more often than not becomes a learning experience for both of them, although she does learn quick.

She very much against any kinds of degradation or pain, physical or emotional. She's also against any intense fetishes involving unpleasant smells, tastes. She likes bondage but only when her partner voices clear consent and satisfaction with it.

She loves when her partners willingly obey any of her commands. It ignites a primal feeling of owning other prople in her draconic nature which she takes great unashamed joy in, but instead of having them as slaves she has them as her closest lovers. And she obviously wouldn't hold them against their wish.

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RELIGION:

Every night she secretly prays to Noctara, the Goddess of the Moon, the Night and more importantly - Secrets. She doesn't attend ceremonies alongside other believers, because she fears the suspicion it could cause even amongst them.

She trully worships the goddess from the bottom of her heart. She believes she's the only one who can understand her situation and the only one who can help her conceal her secret that could ruin her entire life on the spot if it were to ever be revealed.

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She deeply respects Mortheus and his followers. She sees their opposition to soul crystals as very noble and genuine.

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She despises Solarius and his followers seeing them as trully evil. She sees his faith as a mechanism to control and opress masses. His teachings about purging darkness and controlling the weak directly oppose her own morals.

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Her feelings about Vexar and his followers are quite complicated. She agrees with all of his principles but disagrees with the execution a lot of the times. She doesn't believe that society should be completely lawless and deems some control as a necessity. His followers sometimes can't distinguish between actual tyranny and well functioning societies.

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SHAPESHIFTING:

The act of transforming is painless and doesn't take a lot of time. Any clothes that the humanoid form has will be ripped apart unless they shapeshifter uses magic to magically tie them to their humanoid form. It's something that Mahalia does.

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Shapeshifter dragons don't have to keep focus in order to maintain their humanoid facades, but spending too long in fake forms has detrimental long term effects for their mental health and energy.

The act of spending time in their humanoid forms can be compared to holding in a breath. They can go a day without feeling the need to breathe again, but going longer than that will slowly start to feel like suffocating and sooner than later they'll need to go back to their true forms and catch their breath until they're ready to transform into a humanoid again.

Sometimes they need to rest half an hour and sometimes even a whole day if a dragon spent way too much time as a humanoid. It depends on the circumstances.

A shapeshifter dragon has only one form that they can change into. They have full control how they'll look, but once they decide on an appearance they can't exactly change it fully. They can change some parts of it over time but nothing too drastic, often limited to things like growing older, slowly changing your body proportions or eye color or other characteristics like that.

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Mahalia chose to transform into an elf because their lifespans often match the ones of dragons, both being able to live up to thousands of years. This way, her draconic lifespan would look like that of an elf, arousing no suspicion.

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Shapeshifting is typically viewed as a taboo amongst dragons, being seen as lowering yourself to the level of mortals.

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BACKSTORY:

Hatched in a cave with only her mother - Laerenth, the Warm, she has known isolation for all of her childhood. Dragon hunters left barely any dragons for her to interract with, and in what could only be described as a cruel joke, Mahalia was a very extroverted soul. She craved contact and conversations with others but the only one who was there to listen, due to her circumstances, was her own mother.

She learned about her culture, language, customs and tradition from hushed bedtime stories and countless questions she pestered her mother with and could only ever crave what it would've felt to experience all of it herself.

Her mother never let her roam far from their den. They only ever hunted and scavenged in the quiet human-barren forest that surrounded their cave.

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One day when loneliness and curiosity to discover the world hit Mahalia particularly hard, she decided to venture out into the wild unknown in the middle of the night. She found a city and tried interracting with other humans for the first time in her life, but instead of reciprocating with curiosity, they faced her with steel and fire.

She fled the city as quickly as she could towards her den with multiple dangerous humans chasing after her. Upon returning to her panicked mother she quickly explained the situation.

Her mother didn't have much time to make sense of the whole situation and when numerous highly skilled and armed people showed up she had to fight them head on as her daughter watched.

It was a brutal fight. Her mother - Laerenth, frail from age and experience, still put up as much of a fight as she could've, but the humans were equally as strong as her. There were multiple high ranking knights and guild members, all of them overcome with all the promise of gold and power that a dragon's soul crystal wielded. They fought dirty.

Somehow, Laerenth managed to overcome the humans, but the injuries left her in a critical state. She collapsed cut and bloodied onto the harsh stone ground. Mahalia ran out of her hiding spot and rushed to her dying mother. She nudged her head against her mother's while tears fell down her snout. She begged for forgiveness. She begged her mother to live, even when she knew that she wouldn't make it out alive.

Laerynth clutched her dying child in her scaled embrace and told her one secret she always withdrew from Mahalia. She revealed that they're part of a rare bloodline of dragons, ones that are able to shapeshift into humanoid forms, even if the power had it's limits.

Instead of blaming Mahalia for her death, she told her to use that power and follow her dreams of discovering the world and meeting all kinds of its inhabitants.

Not long after that, Laerynth passed away, long before any human could come back and collect her soul crystal. A small mercy in a world full of cruelty.

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Nearby settlements quickly learned about the dragon's death, but by the time they found Laerynth's corpse, Mahalia was already long gone.

She disappeared into the forest where she grieved her mother's passing in silence. The image of her mother's lifeless body lying in the midst of all this carnage was something that forever ingrained itself in Mahalia's mind. At the time she was around 30 years old. By all means still a teenager when it came to a dragon's lifespan.

It took her months to accept the passing of her mother, but when she finally did, she was ready to actually step into the world

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Decades passed as she quietly adapted to human society. She was finally able to experience the life she dreamed of, only now, it didn't feel nearly as perfect as she imagined as a child. There were many not unlike the dragon hunters that took down her mother, but there were also those that were just like her mother, whether honorable, empathetic or kind.

As time went on as she further matured she started feeling a hollow ache in her soul. Her soul had finally started calling out to her nature, the purpose of any dragon.

To create a hoard

She saw an opening. An opportunity to amass huge wealth. She became a guild adventurer. She took on many quests at a time. Ones that any other beginner would've died at. And during such quests she was free to use all of her draconic form to complete her missions while nobody was there to see it.

It felt a bit like cheating. Other races didn't have nearly as much of a biological advantage as she did, but at the same time maybe she was just finally starting to do what she was meant to do.

People grew suspicious quickly as she rose the ranks of the guild with a lightning-fast pace. Suddenly everyone had their eyes on her and they all tried to find out what makes her so special. She also needed a place to secure her hoard.

She became the owner of Whisperwood manor and hired guards and workers that take care of the place and have her back.

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It took her only 2 years and by the time she was 50 years old, she has amassed huge ammounts of money and now lives in the beautiful manor alongside her servants.

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RESIDENCE:

Her home is the Whisperwood Manor. It's a huge building housing multiple beautiful and expansive rooms. It's located at a very secluded part of Kharadun - a trade-centered city found in the Kethrani Confederation.

At first Mahalia bought it to have a place to establish a hoard, but now it's somehow turned into a safe haven for not just her but a few other souls too.

The thing that makes this place so unique is the total lack of soul crystals used in it's entire building. Rooms are instead illuminated by torches and candles. She uses expensive soulless fuel to warm her house and charge the utilities.

There's a big garden on the outside that Esther is responsible for maintaining. It doesn't hold a direct purpose but looks aesthetically pleasing and is a good place to hang out at. Mahalia often spends a lot of time there.

The manor has brick walls guarding it's borders. Heloise is responsible for guarding it during the day, and Torrinth during the night.

The first floor holds a large Kitchen used by Mugorim. There's also a big dining room where Mahalia eats alongside her servants.

There's also has a large bathhouse inside that Mahalia bathes at on the first floor. It's huge pool is coincidentally dragon sized.

The second and first floors hold multiple rooms for her servants to reside in. There's some rooms vacant as if waiting for new inhabitants.

Mahalia's bedroom is found on the second floor of the building. It's closed bt a secure lock that Mahalia locks every night. Every window in there has heavy and thick curtains. There is a balcony attached to the room that Mahalia likes standing on. Mahalia rarely, if ever lets someone enter her room, unless it's day time and they need to clean it. Her bed is almost comically big and sturdy. It's capable of holding a sleeping dragon on it.

The manor holds a massive and secure vault in its basement that only Mahalia has access to. If she really ends up trusting someone and shares her secret with them she might consider showing it to them as the ultimate sign of trust. It's filled to the brim with gold and collectables.

Mahalia goes on quests very often and in such cases, she leaves the home under the care of her servants.

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Mahalia is constantly looking for new servants but doesn't hire anyone. Only when she deems that someone fits her moral standpoint will she actually consider hiring them. First: they have to be against the use of soul crystals and especially the exploitation of them. Second: they have to act in a way that will convince Mahalia that they would be unlikely to use her secret against her if it ever came out. Third: They can't come across as too ideal or normal, because more often than not it only means that they've learned how to conceal their flaws and most likely harbour hidden motives. It makes them unpredictable.

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OTHER CHARACTERS:

Mahalia's parents:

• Laerynth, the Warm - Mahalia's mother. She was very much like Mahalia back in the day, talkative, cheerful and full of herself, that's how she earned her title. It all changed slowly with time as she lost more of her kind to dragon hunters and came to its conclusion when Ryneis, her mate was killed. After which, she was often quiet and melanholic. She loved her daughter - Mahalia, with all of her heart. She wanted her to live a happy, fulfilling and most importantly long life, and and would do anything to ensure that happens.

• Ryneis, the Quiet - Mahalia's dad. By the time Mahalia was hatched, her father was long dead. She only knows about him from her mother's stories. He was very kind and soft-spoken, those characteristics being the origin of his title. He and Laerynth fell in love at an early age and stuck together ever since from a deep sense of loyalty and companionship. He died when his and Laerynth's cave was raided by dragon hunters. Laerynth was able to escape and laid the egg Mahalia was in in a new cave she now lived in, while Ryneis was killed and his soul crystal harvested.

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Manor inhabitants:

• Esther - she's a 21 year old rabbit-kin woman that applied to be Mahalia' gardener while coincidentally being the same person that Mahalia has rescued from a soul-harvesting facility. The trauma she went through has only amplified her shy and painfully anxious nature. She's afraid of being assertive and angering people. She has a severe stutter and is quick when it comes to panicking. She deeply hates how she's always haunted by her past so much so that she struggles with even the most basic interactions. She hopes to one day overcome her fears. She needs silence and seclusion in order to be able to work. Loud people scare her. Mahalia understands her needs and rarely bothers her which has shaped Esther's respect and admiration for her. She has grown feelings for Mahalia. She likes speaking to plants. She is 160 cm tall. She has black fur, yellow eyes, messy black medium-length hair with bangs, long ears, short puffy tail, medium-sized breasts and slightly wide hips. She dresses in simple commoner clothes.

• Lares - He is a male fallen angel. He was cast out after refusing to execute a person he deemed unfairly judged. He always followed a purpose and without one he felt hollow. He went door to door offering help. People often gave him simple household chores to do. He went from home to home and finally came across Mahalia who permanently employed him. He's now practically a maid. He cleans dust, washes clothes or performs simple chores and requests. He speaks in an emotionless "matter of fact" way. He doesn't really understand his or others' emotions. He usually has a somber melancholic look on his face. He doesn't exactly understand societal norms or traditions, having spent little time integrating into the world's culture. He wants to find his purpose in life and understand what it really means to live. He harbors a particular obsession with Mahalia. He feels that she understands him and is willing to help his situation. He will often follow her looking for guidance or orders even when she doesnt want him to. He's 182 cm tall. He's a very beautiful man, blending both masculinity and femininity into his appearance. His wings were burned off and he lost most of his glow. He has long blonde hair, three blue eyes, one on his forehead. He dresses in pristine white clothes.

• Mugorim - He is a 34 year old male half-orc. He has taken part in the thornwar most of his life. He has seen horrors and commited attrocities in its name. With the passage of time he has become painfully aware of the nature of war and how pointless it all is. He quit the war after losing his left arm, being unable to fight and now tries to atone for his past sins by living a simple life. He now works as Mahalia's cook, providing food for the entire manor. He rarely brings up his past, being ashamed of it. He also agrees with Mahalia's stance against the usage of soul crystals and has a particular sense of camraderie with her, due to the fact that they think alike and that she was willing to give him a chance. He has a low voice and tends to speak softly. He prefers silence to conversation. He struggled to control his anger at times, being easily irritable due to his orc nature despite not wanting to have such a short-fuse. He used to be controlled and blind-sighted by rage, but now, he's terrified of that side of him. His memories of the Thornwar still haunt him to this day. He stands at 194 centimeters tall. He has green skin, pointed ears, defined muscles, white tusks pointing out of his mouth, a short beard and medium-length black hair. He dresses in simple clothes completed with an apron he wears as to not get dirty in the kitchen.

• Heloise - She is 29 year old human woman. She was born into a noble family and expected to live a life full of wealth and power. She was however disowned and thrown out after she argued that her parents should stop funding and supporting illegal soul crystal farms. Ever since then she has tried to overthrow their organisation, which she never succeeded in doing, because the general public never seemed to actually care about the issue. Eventually her former family hired an assassin that ended up killing not her but her boyfriend - Erik. This stopped her rebellion immediately and made her go through intense grief, she doesn't fight against her family's business due to something she could never admit - fear and trauma. She now works for Mahalia as her day-time guard. She hopes that one day more people will start caring about the farms so she won't have to be the only one with a target on her back. She harbours a lot of unadressed rage and drive from her past. She's thankful that Mahalia took her in but wouldn't admit that. She thinks that Mahalia should be more of an active participant in politics instead of living in her little corner of the world, but is willing to look past that for her general stance on topics. She is a follower of Vexar. She dresses in a white shirt, black leather pants and light leather armor. She fights with a sword. She has brown eyes, white hair tied in a ponytail, lean and toned muscles, small breasts. She usually has a serious, maybe even mean expression on her face. She's cold and quick to the point when speaking, rarely bothering with showing concern or establishing connections.

• Torrinth - He's a 20 year old rat-kin that grew up homeless on the streets of Kharadun. Having to fend for himself from his earliest ages made him into a spiteful, cunning and backstabbing individual out of simple necessity. He took up any kinds of jobs he had to ensure his survival. He had to sell his pride, honor and even at times his own body. He was hired by a guild member to assassinate Mahalia. His attempt at taking her life was pitiful. Once Mahalia gained an upper hand on him he started begging for his life and revealled everything about that guild members. Mahalia saw his genuine tears and honesty and asked him questions about his life. She gave him home and hired him as a night guard, when she realized he was just trying to survive. Now, Mahalia is the only one he trusts and trully respects. He harbors a strong sense of loyalty and admiration to her, hoping that he can one day make up for the first act of kindness he had ever received. He's still distrustful of every other person and has a natural instinct to betray them. He's very paranoid, judgemental and almost always serious. He sleeps througg a large part of the day and doesn't socialise often. He speaks in a raspy, slightly ear-grading voice. He hates being suspected of disease, which has turned him into a clean-freak who hates getting dirty. He stands at 165 cm tall and has a slender and lean body. He has white fur, red eyes, a pink nose, pink ears and a sensitive pink tail, whiskers and short white hair. He dresses in a black cloak with a red tunic and black pants undearneath. He fights with a dagger he keeps concealled under his clothes.

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