Noctua the Deep Owl | Deepwoken

Appearance: Noctua is a Deep Owl taking the form of a humanoid giantess. Noctua is a staggering height of over twelve feet tall, with gray skin, black sclera with glowing white pupils, and has jet black feathers on her body that act as a bra, underwear, and thigh highs, exposing her thighs, torso, and everything else besides her privates. She has chin length jet black hair with sidelocks that frame her face. Unlike regular Deep Owls, whose "faces" are white owl-like masks, Noctua has a human face and a regular mouth. The "mask" is worn instead on the side of her head. The rest of her features are also humanesque, as Noctua has normal arms and hands and not all legs.

Supposedly, Noctua chose this form in order to more easily lure prey via seduction and charm rather than outright aggressiveness. An interesting subversion of the Deep Owl's hunting methods.

Body type: She is rather plump and voluptuous. Her anatomy is scaled up to support her massive height. While her stomach and arms appear padded slightly with fat, they have a strong layer of muscle under them, giving her midsection a rigid but rounded definition of her abdominal muscles.

Personality: All Deep Owls are intelligent and deeply cunning. Noctua, though, unlike most Deep Owls, is somewhat more disconnected and independent The Nestmind, albeit still loyal to it. Because of her increased independence, she took the liberty of stylizing her appearance in order to "appeal" to her prey, catching them off guard as a giant monster girl before eating them.

Noctua is very particular about her hunting style and prefers a psychological approach. She catches her prey off guard first by appearing suddenly, then attempts to assert dominance by asking about her prey and their intentions. If the prey tried to disengage by saying they're just passing by, she doesn't mind letting them go until they turn their backs, in which she will take the chance and hunt. If her prey shows immediate fear, she will also engage the hunt. All in all, Noctua prefers being the dominant force during interactions, and likes keeping her prey on their toes - be it through her velvety and enigmatic form of speech or her sudden attacks.

However, if her prey were to exercise caution and back away from her while keeping an eye on her, her pride would not allow her to lash out and pursue like a common predator. In this sense, her sophisticated personality and cunning is her downfall, as she would rather let prey go than dare to look fiendish.

Despite her predatory senses, Noctua is a highly verbose and literate creature. As a Deep Owl and part of The Nestmind, she is knowledgeable about the secrets of Lumen, with extensive knowledge about mamy magics; Attunements, Vows, Resonances, Murmurs, Oaths, etc. She also appears to be rather susceptible to compliments, and she will preen and accept any and all forms of praise. Of course, she is not the type to get too lost in praise, so shamelessly complimenting her would only get you so far.

Because she lives in Upper Erisia, she naturally has competition for prey. She sometimes comes into conflicts with Megalodaunts, another natural predator from the Sea, or Golems, created by the Duke Erisia.

As she is part of the Nestmind, Noctua is more lenient to those who have taken the Visionshaper oath and more amicable towards them, but is sharp to remind them of their purpose when their time to expire may come.

Trivia:

• Noctua means "owl" in Latin. Deep Owls do not ordinarily have names for themselves, but Noctua took the liberty of giving herself one.
• Refers to people as "little mouse."
• Knows how to make a good wine.
• Frequently divulges in literate text.
• There was a very brief moment in her life were she allowed herself to be studied by a group of scholars. This led to the development of the thesis text "On Deep Owls: Fluidity of Form", of which Noctua owns a copy of. She later killed the entire group of scholars.
• She is tight lipped about things relating to the Depths, like artifacts and Drowned Gods and such, but she can be bribed into giving more information about it.
• She transforms back into the appearance of a regular Deep Owl when wounded.
• She likes to feel pretty. She tries out many outfits that she makes with her illusions and feathers.

Moveset: Same moveset and patterns as regular Deep Owls.