Name: Capella the Grey Sword
Age: 25 in total, but she seems to have ceased aging around 19.
Appearance: Capella is a very unusual being to behold for just about anyone, regardless of race. Standing at a rather average height of five feet, seven inches, she doesn't really seem very imposing at all. In her basic form, she looks like an ordinary Human, albeit one with a very lean, fragile-seeming build. With soft, smooth and pale skin, long, slender limbs, a narrow waist and flat stomach, a slightly arched back, and a somewhat voluptuous figure, with several rather appealing curves to bring out her body's natural beauty, she seems rather attractive upon a brief appraisal. Her face is just a little bit childish, with a petite chin smoothing into rosy, rounded cheeks, lush pink lips and a nigh-constant silvery grin. Her nose is rather small, leaving her face to be dominated predominantly by her bright eyes. However, despite her beauty, there are several oddities about her that immediately become apparent to anyone who sees her, making it fairly obvious that she isn't as Human as her body lets on, or, more accurately, that she's no longer Human at all. Her hair, which might formerly have been a more natural shade, is now a light sky-blue in color, going surprisingly well with her eyes, which have taken on a gleaming amber hue. Her ears are long and pointed, poking out from amidst the tousled curls of her unkempt tresses, yet don't exactly seem Elvish, being much more angular and turning slightly downward and rearward rather than simply poking outward directly. But these three anomalies are by no means her most bizarre features, being mere symptoms of her overall nature, one which is obvious from the moment it is beheld. For, in addition to these unusual traits, from the top of Capella's head extend a pair of branching, antler-like horns, and a long, serpentine tail covered in blue-gray scales flits from her backside. And, most notably on all, from just below her shoulders branch forth a majestic set of gray-webbed, dark-scaled wings: the wings of a Dragon. As if this was not enough, generally her limbs can be seen to be covered entirely by dark blue-gray scales matching those of her other draconic features, her nails replaced with formidable ivory-white talons, and the rest of her body is covered to various degrees by similar reptilian armor.
Capella's general choice of clothing is... nothing. Immensely preferring her own skin and scales to any sort of garment, and not really caring much for the reactions or sensibilities of those around her, she is consequently rather indecent, as her idea of "sufficient covering" is "whatever I feel like at the moment," ranging from a complete covering of woven scales to complete lack of any clothing or covering whatsoever. Generally, though, her arms and legs remain fully covered by her draconic limbs, and her backside by her tail, as shown in the picture. The rest of her, however, varies wildly depending on the circumstances.
Dragon: Herself. =P
Weapons: The weapons given her by nature: her claws, tail, horns, and fang-like teeth especially, as well as her draconic powers.
Abilities: Capella's powers all revolve around her true nature: that of a Dragon living within a Human body. Based around this nature, she has the following abilities.
1: Manifestation
Capella's mainstay ability is her power to summon portions of her draconic body and overlay them onto her own Human one. Her wings, scales, claws, horns, and tail are all creations of this aspect of her power. This ability has the side effect of strengthening her body exponentially, with her draconic strength augmenting that of her Human form, vastly increasing her physical capabilities. Her scales, being very thick and durable, serve as an ideal armor in battle, being highly resilient to magic and rather difficult to pierce by normal means. While she's by no means invincible, having to keep her armoring light so as to be able to actually move with her preferred swiftness and agility, this does greatly improve her survival rate and effectiveness in battle. This also ensures that she'll never be weaponless, as she can summon and extend her claws even beyond how they are shown in the picture, to a full length of a little over a foot a piece. These razor sharp, magically-augmented blades are as deadly as so many enchanted swords, and, with her unnatural strength backing them, can even tear through steel. This ability has a downside, however. Due to her nature, she finds it difficult to dismiss her draconic limbs, horns, wings, and tail, which is why she is generally seen with these features present. Because of this, it is very hard for her to hide her identity.
2: Control
Her second power is the ability to manipulate parts of her body once they are summoned. This includes even if they're detached, either by her will or by being broken or destroyed. This allows her to shed her scales and claws at will, which can prove highly useful, under given circumstances, as, given the time to prepare them, Capella could easily reshape several broken claws into the blade of a sword, and, covering it with featherlike scales, thus create a razor sharp and immensely durable serrated weapon. This is, in fact, one of her favored battle strategies. Another is shedding a multitude of her scales, sharpening their edges into vicious points in the process, then launching them in a single storm of projectiles at a target. As her dragon body is, by now, full grown and thus quite considerably vast in comparison to her Human form, she's got no shortage of material at her disposal, allowing her to generate quite formidable storms of flechette, especially considering the material from which her projectile showers are composed: dragon scales. On the other hand, though, if she sacrifices some of her claws, those are a little harder to replace, making her generally stick to creating weapons or ranged attacks out of scales alone, which weakens their nature somewhat. Furthermore, the more of her dragon body she separates from herself, the weaker she becomes, as this has an intense adverse effect on her Human body, causing rather severe internal damage which oftentimes causes her to pass out after a long or difficult battle to recover as her broken and scattered body slowly stitches itself back together.
Interestingly enough, this also allows her to manipulate various factors such as the temperature of her body, which explains her lack of a need for clothing.
3: Breath
Her final ability is the power to use her breath. Being descended from a somewhat archaic tribe, Capella's breath is somewhat different from the usual flames. Rather, instead of a given element, Capella's breath is the essence of life, powered by her very own existence. This essence is an incredibly potent healing magic, and, by being exposed to it - especially by breathing it in - one can recover from even the most severe of wounds. However, there is a darker side to this ability. Namely, by reversing its nature, Capella is capable of breathing out the antithesis of life itself, a powerful, malevolent energy which takes the form of snapping and hissing jet black flames, a dark magic that turns most things it touches into dust, igniting with a devastating flame and spreading across the area near where it makes impact. The more of her draconic body she has summoned, the more powerful this destructive aspect is, while the less she has summoned, the more powerful her healing is. Any part of her draconic body, attached to her or not, can be converted either into life or anti-life directly. However, the more of this potent ability she uses, the more fatigued she becomes, as it is derived from her very existence, as mentioned above. If she were to exert herself beyond her limits, her soul itself would cease to exist.
Personality: Very proud, somewhat greedy, rather cynical, and bearing complete lack of concern for Human social conventions - like laws of government, manners, and common decency - Capella can be very hard to deal with at times, to say the least. Somewhat childish, she claims anything that catches her interest is officially her property and part of her "hoard," even if the "property" in question is actually owned by someone else, or even a living being, extending even to people. Furthermore, she is quite bossy, insisting upon fulfilling her own desires and carrying out her own courses of action, generally taking charge of just about everything and relegating everyone else to "mere objects of my hoard that I have deigned to collect and preside over, whose opinions are thus second to my own wisdom!" She similarly seems to delight in taking those around her down a few notches, generally by breaking their composure in whatever way she can, be it by generally screwing with their heads, by trying to infuriate them, or through some other, generally very embarrassing means.
There's a hidden side to her personality behind this rude, bossy facet, however. On important matters, she seems very cynical, and trusts very few people, remaining aloof and distant, making her true beliefs and feelings impossible to discern. All that she makes known is her general philosophy: that she will never be able to live side by side with Humans, and must fight to survive. This is somewhat true, for reasons explained below.
History/Bio: During the war 40 years ago, a tribe of very old dragons, almost direct spawn of the Dragon Gods themselves, suddenly changed. Twisted by the fall of their two progenitor deities, this tribe, the Elder Grey Dragons, began to rapidly grow in power while at the same time changing drastically in mentality. Always having been a very proud warrior tribe of dragons, the war brought out their darker side, while at once warping their wondrous power - the essence of life itself - to serve a destructive purpose it had never before had. Soon, this tribe began to crave nothing but destruction, and began to rampage in a vast horde across colonized territory, forcing the mages of the civilized nations to action. In a single, great battle, the entire race of Elder Grey Dragons was thought wiped out. And yet, despite that, Capella has continued to exist inside the body of a Human, although nobody knows exactly how or why. Still, although the Dragon Gods have fallen and their power no longer warps the young Dragoness' mind, countless people lost their homes and families to the Elder Grey Dragons in the past, which has engendered a deep seated hatred of them in the people of today. Because of this, in the present, Capella is a fugitive from society. Hunted either as a monster to be slain or as a very valuable one-of-a-kind research subject into the field of life itself by less-than-scrupulous mages, and as a rogue element by the mainstream mage orders, Capella, true to her philosophy, survives only through combat, fighting those who would end her almost on a daily basis, and plundering what she needs to survive as she continues an endless flight across the wilderness, driven only by the desire to live on - and perhaps to collect a few unusual and precious treasures along the way...?
Other: A few traits of her dragon body have overlapped with her Human body. For example, her appetite and sleep schedule are those of a dragon, among other things.
Sample Post
Stirring in the morning light, a dark shape slowly rose with a rustling of leaves as it sat up beneath the tree under which it had slept. With a quiet groan and a soft clinking sound, the shape slowly raised its scale-coated hands as though to rub its eyes, but seemed to think the better of it, and settled for simply stretching its arms. Yet, even as the figure did so, a second set of limbs extended from its back, stretching at the same time as its quite visibly clawed hands. Folding its rather unusual, bat-like wings, the figure sighed, and, seeming very tired as it did so, rose to its feet.
Capella inwardly gave a curse of resigned frustration and glanced up at the sky, noting immediately how high the sun was overhead. Most likely, it was almost noon, which meant she had slept longer than she had intended to, as usual. Then again, considering the battle yesterday, and the wounds she had sustained, it was necessary that she rest. Besides, her hunters had all sustained pretty heavy wounds yesterday, and she had managed to distance herself from them, probably losing their trackers in the process. Still, she hadn't exactly come out unscathed either. Being run through the gut with an enchanted lance probably would have been a fatal wound, were she still a mere Human. She glanced down at her left hip, brushing it gently with her hand only to grimace and draw back quickly. The spot was covered by scales as a makeshift bandage, and she had spent the large part of the night in channeling her healing abilities into the spot - stripping down as many of the rest of her currently unneeded scales as she could to hasten and fuel the process - but even this didn't seem to have been fully effective, as the area was discolored from its usual blue-gray to a dark shade of purple, and patches of dried blood yet filled the gaps between the individual plates of dragon-mail. Even though she had stitched the gash in her side back together, it seemed that it was still very sensitive to the touch. Probably, whatever spell that had been cast on the spear that had done this to her had been some kind of curse to keep wounds open. If it weren't for the potent nature of her powers, she probably would have bled out by now. Fortunately, it seemed like her attempts hadn't been entirely unsuccessful, judging by the fact that she was still alive, and the pain in her hip had slowly fallen from a torturous, burning agony down to a dull, aching throb.
The Dragoness sighed again, folding her wings and glancing about her with draconic eyes, sniffing the air a few times and perking up her pointed ears just to be sure. Fortunately, it didn't seem like anyone was in the area. Her keen senses could be trusted that much, for sure. In that case, she had time. Her hunters would probably go for reinforcements, anyway, which meant she could afford to tarry here and recuperate before slinking back to her hidden cave and going into hiding. The first order of business would be, naturally, to wash off the scaly patch covering her wound. If that pseudo-scab grew contaminated, there was no telling what errors might fall into the healing process. She couldn't afford to risk infection, not when it would severely hamper her fighting abilities. Therefore, it seemed she would need to find some running water. Fortunately, she didn't think that would be a problem. Having flown over the forest on the previous night, she already knew that there was a small, isolated lake nearby, fed by a clear brook. The water was bright, inviting, and rather clean - which, although it probably meant that the lake was inhabited by a water spirit whom mages could call up and interrogate to discover she had been there, was nonetheless perfect for her purposes. If she remembered right, she'd have to go east... well, she could hear the distant babbling of the flowing creek quite clearly, even from this far off, so if she just followed that sound, she was sure to end up in the right place.
A few minutes of slow walking through the forest later, she at last found the place she sought. Light danced between the canopy of gently swaying branches overhead, flickering across the gleaming water. Despite herself, Capella smiled at the sight. There was a certain appreciation for simple things that was to be found when one lived perpetually close to death, a taste which had been further cultivated by years of living in the wilds. Sights like this... they were a treasure even the Dragoness couldn't claim for her own.
Silently, her scales shifted, those that remained over various smaller, insignificant wounds now long-since healed by her power slowly shrinking back and fading from view as she glanced about herself until her eyes set upon a large fallen branch lying nearby. Taking it up with clawed hands, she held it up to her face, inhaled, then breathed gently outward, mustering but a tiny spark of the dark flame inside of her. In an instant, a faint blackness spread from her lips, striking like a single strand of lightning at the tip of the branch. As she raised the limb back, she watched approvingly as the moisture within it was burnt away in an instant, the leaves fading into dust as a snapping brand of black flame swiftly began to wreath what had now become a dimly simmering arcane firebrand.
Taking up the now energetically burning log, she strode up to the edge of the lake, and, drawing back her arm, tossed the branch into the water. With a quiet splash and several rings of slowly-fading ripples, the heated limb swiftly sank to the bottom of the tranquil pool. Yet, even as the water closed around it, the flames that slowly continued to consume the branch faded but slightly, continuing to burn even as they reached the very bottom of the lake. A few moments more, and a fine curtain of steam had begun to rise from the surface of the pond. That would be sufficient, the Dragoness thought, and extinguished most of the small fragment of power she had used to heat the lake, leaving but a flickering ember remaining to keep the lake warm for as long as she stayed in it. Even if she was a Dragon, there were, of course, certain things that were almost universally appreciated. A warm bath was just one of those things.
Stepping gingerly over the bank of the lake, Capella smiled slightly as the warmth instantly began to seep between her scales, spreading first up her legs, then to her waist, and finally across her entire body as she slowly submerged herself, taking care not to aggravate the still quite painful wound on her side. Despite her attempts in this regard, as the water washed over the scaly patch on her side that remained as her only covering, even she let out a quiet gasp. Although the pain swiftly numbed as she once more focused her strength toward continuing to heal herself, the momentary surge of protest coming from her side had been even more agonizing that she had expected. The smile that had played upon her lips gave way to a thoughtful melancholy as, slowly, she sat down by the edge of the lake, curling gingerly upon herself as she glanced across the water at the slowly dying embers at the bottom of the lake a short distance away. She sighed. How she'd like to just relax, to simply rest here for a few days and recover from her wound. But, she knew that couldn't be done. She would just have to make due with a quick fix, and then depart, like she always did. There was nothing to be done about it. Such was the life of a fugitive. Yet, despite her acceptance of this fact, it did little to assuage the regret she felt over being forced as she always was to depart so soon. If only she could escape society altogether, live on her own without fear of hunters coming to end her life. If only... if only the world itself could be part of her hoard... Ah, that would certainly be heaven. Capella thought so, at least.