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Mar. 20th, 2024 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steelfeatheredHisako is a Tortall OC without any connections to major canon characters!
She's a Stormwing, a kind of metal-feathered harpy standing four feet something high with a wingspan of around thirteen feet, and has been so for a good four hundred years. As an Immortal or mythic creature, she can be killed but ages very slowly and will stop when she appears to be in her fifties. She has Yamani and Copper Islands ancestry (think Japanese and Indonesian) and some suggestions of lines on her face, particularly across her forehead and the corners of her eyes, clearer in some lights than others.
Ref, lightly nsfw alt.
tl:dr backstory: human thief girl was turned into a Stormwing and exiled with the other Stormwings into the Divine Realms. Centuries later she returned, becoming more distant from her origins and gradually fully embracing her Stormwing nature. Longer backstory (with cannibalism mentions)
Hisako was born as a human girl in Port Caynn, to dockside parents. She lived during a period of general unrest. During a riot, several children caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, including Hisako, were stooped on and carried off by Stormwings, who put them down safely out of harm's way and flew off. This was her first experience with Stormwings. They were made to desecrate battlefields to show humans that there is no glory in war, but they're also individuals and people. It's difficult for Stormwings to reproduce, so they have a strong nurturing instinct that sometimes kicks in with the young of other species.
The small flock of Stormwings roosting near Port Caynn could be snide and crude but they were also a stable presence that didn't mean her harm, and she spoke to them often on rooftops, particularly a woman named Kyria Sharptail. When Hisako was roped into helping hunt a unicorn - semi-willingly taken outside of the city and then imperiled so a unicorn would come to her and be killed - only the Stormwings sympathized. They'd rig up rope harnesses to take her flying. As she grew up they advised her on developing her magical Gift and finding her way in the world, though as beings that don't starve or suffer much from illness and don't have to rely on money the practical aspects were limited.
The few mages available to teach her either had minor Gifts with limited utility or were cagy, hostile, or in one case got murdered four months in, and generally had a criminal bent. So, as she got older Hisako became a burglar, using her Gift to help hush her steps and open locks in the houses of people with more money than she had, which wasn't saying much. The dream was to save enough money to afford respectable magic lessons from someone who'd turn their nose up at a dockside girl, and leave. Magic was a ticket out for her and her family, or it could be, if she ever got free of the gangs and the Rogue. At their best, Rogues were leaders taking care of the poor of the cities whose undergrounds they ruled over; this one, at this time, saw Hisako as a means to great personal profit and that superceded anything else.
Conversation with her Stormwing friends revealed that it was possible for a human to become a Stormwing, and a teenaged Hisako, visiting after an opportunity was snatched away, ardently wished she could become one herself. This stuck with her friends, though they didn't tell her how such a transformation could be achieved. A few years later, Hisako was found to be stashing loot and not giving the Rogue the full cut and was attacked in a crowd, literally backstabbed. Kyria saw from the sky and she and the little flock swooped down, driving off the people around her. Hisako probably could have survived and even recovered fully with a Healer's help, and if this was meant as a lesson to keep her dependent on the Rogue that's what would have happened. Kyria didn't know that and gave Hisako a razor-edged feather, telling her to drive it into her own flesh. A woozy, uncomprehending Hisako did so and was transformed on the spot into a Stormwing.
This healed all her wounds and took away Hisako's human Gift. Up in the sky, and in the Stormwing roost, she struggled with a different body, different magic, a different place in life. Many of her human friends and family made no effort to contact her, though the break might not have been total. But, not much more than a week passed after the change before one of the major events in the setting occurred - the banishment of Immortals to the Divine Realms, a spell wrought by a massive coalition of very powerful southern mages who also installed a barrier that kept them from returning.
Violently dislocated to another realm where all animals and plants were minor gods and thousands of newly banished Immortals tried to appeal to greater gods to return to their homes and contested for territory, Hisako struggled further. She'd had very little idea of global politics and didn't think of herself as a Stormwing, and was clumsy and awkward besides, forcing Kyria and the others to defend and take care of her at a time when they were in trouble themselves. There was some resentment back and forth as Hisako regretted the change and the loss of her hands, her magic, and all the world and nearly all the people she'd known.
The Stormwings joined a greater aggregation eventually known as the Mortal Fear nation that gradually established territory and relationships with other Stormwing nations and Immortals in general. Hisako adjusted, though for a long time she felt othered and still half human. She wasn't comfortable with certain aspects of Stormwing nature, either. Hisako became friends with a young god, Aris, who was too minor to cross the barrier to the Mortal Realms. Aris had been a human seer who'd attracted the attention of the chief seer god, who intervened on his behalf when he was killed and helped him to ascend in the past quarter century. He understood some of Hisako's difficulty and helped her along the path towards accepting the situation, also teaching her to scry so that she could at least see what was happening in her old home. Eventually she stopped watching Port Caynn.
Four centuries passed. Hisako came to love flight and to be better at telekinetic magic than most other Stormwings. She had friends and enemies among the nation and other Immortals and little gods. The Stormwings' collective problem also became clear. In the normal course of things, they fed off the energy of mortal fear, anger, and suffering, as well as the bodies of the war-dead. As Immortals fasting didn't harm them, but they were weaker for the lack and reproduction was even more rare and difficult. Few steel eggs were laid and fewer hatched, not enough to replace the Stormwings who were killed in various conflicts. Much was tried to no clear success.
Hisako got her name, Godsup, from one such attempt, in which Aris offered himself up to be eaten by Kyria (he got better) with the idea that he'd been mortal recently enough that it might help. He did insist that Hisako be the one to kill him, the first time she'd killed anyone, and something she found quite upsetting. Overall Godsup is actually a bit of a mocking or self-deprecating name. Minor gods can be killed as easily as mortals, leaving their bodies to be consumed or otherwise used, and immediately appear in fresh new bodies. Everything eaten in the Divine Realms is part of a god of some description. It's like being called "breadeater".
Eventually another of the setting's major events happened - a power-hungry emperor found out how to poke holes in the barrier spell, summoning Immortals to the Mortal Realms and generally making deals with them. For many Stormwings the draw of finally being able to benefit from human strife again and continue the species outweighed their core anti-war purpose and the indignity of serving a warlike mortal ruler. Hisako's first experiences with being on a battlefield, drawing strength from the death and suffering, left a profound impression on her. She'd spent four centuries bathing and trying to hang on to some clothing and a more human aspect, and very uneasy at the idea of eating and otherwise defiling the corpses of the war-dead, but found a great satisfaction in it. Hisako fully embraced this part of her Stormwing nature at last.
After a few years that emperor got himself turned into a Stormwing, lost his magic and his throne, and as the barrier collapsed threw in with an old, malevolent god. The leader of the nation Hisako belonged to, Queen Jachull, backed this effort. Hisako, Kyria, and the rest of Mortal Fear were called to actually fight. When Aris asked them to stop, as the old god's aims threatened all the realms and everyone in them. The true purpose of Stormwings was to turn people aside from war and dissuade the waste and destructiveness of it, Hisako felt, so they could not allow themselves to be tools of people who would see the end of everything. She persuaded a number of friends not to participate in the conflict, but Kyria remained.
In a great final battle the queen and consort of the Stone Tree nation killed Jachull and helped to put down the ex-emperor's effort as the gods wrestled the old god back into quiescence. Kyria grew in influence, rapidly taking over leadership of Mortal Fear, though the nation was weakened and indebted to Stone Tree. She didn't look kindly on Hisako and some of their friends for abandoning the previous Queen and after a vicious argument had them barred from the nation.
Thousands of Immortals found places in the Mortal Realms. Disgusted by war and alienated from humans who largely saw her as a monster, Hisako and company drifted north, well away from her old home, and made a new place in cold pine forests. Soon enough there were new wars and skirmishes, of a smaller scale. Hisako dedicated herself and a small flock to feeding off them and trying to raise Stormwing chicks at last.
Powers and abilities:
Flies well, walks poorly. On the ground Hisako's fastest gait is an awkward shuffling hop, like a large vulture. In the air she's much quicker and with the help of just a touch of her magic she can stay aloft for days, soar very high up, and hover if she's far enough from the ground to beat her wings. It's harder to fly in wet conditions. When it's bright out she can angle her feathers to reflect light and dazzle people. She is quite strong and could carry a human in the air - ideally a rope would be involved - if they're on the small side. Her eyes have a hawklike visual acuity.
Her larger feathers are almost as flexible as keratin and cut like very sharp knives, as do her teeth. A feather removed from her cures and becomes rigid, and can be used to permanently turn someone else into a Stormwing, severing any inherent magic they had, or used to make mage-killing arrows. Hisako's smaller feathers are also metal but don't have those cutting edges. The down is like steel wool.
She can eat and may enjoy a snack now and again, but doesn't feel hunger or thirst. Being around the fear and suffering of mortals, particularly humans, strengthens and energizes her and she can analyze their feelings to understand the nature of the fear (anxiety, existentialism, scary stories, fear for a loved one, immediate fear of death etc).
To someone who can see or sense magic, hers has a bright red-gold aura that's very easy to identify even from a great distance. She can enhance flight, inspire terror, telekinetically move things as if with hands, shield herself from damage, scry (using water, fire, or a mirror to look at things happening far away or into someone's memories), and cast scarlet bolts. She can also work magic on her own shed blood, and that of other donors, to make a central pool that splits into several gelatinous, amorphous black blob "darking" servants which can act as jewelry and pockets and scrying tools; if she gives one to someone, it can work like a private network device. (Some characters can make much more advanced, independent, even sapient darkings but Hisako's not at this level. Even her level would be a major undertaking.)
She can understand animal communication but doesn't have an inherent ability to talk to animals and many animals are inclined to dislike her, so with animals that aren't mentally augmented the utility is somewhat limited, more like she can read their body language without looking.
She's a Stormwing, a kind of metal-feathered harpy standing four feet something high with a wingspan of around thirteen feet, and has been so for a good four hundred years. As an Immortal or mythic creature, she can be killed but ages very slowly and will stop when she appears to be in her fifties. She has Yamani and Copper Islands ancestry (think Japanese and Indonesian) and some suggestions of lines on her face, particularly across her forehead and the corners of her eyes, clearer in some lights than others.
Ref, lightly nsfw alt.
tl:dr backstory: human thief girl was turned into a Stormwing and exiled with the other Stormwings into the Divine Realms. Centuries later she returned, becoming more distant from her origins and gradually fully embracing her Stormwing nature. Longer backstory (with cannibalism mentions)
Hisako was born as a human girl in Port Caynn, to dockside parents. She lived during a period of general unrest. During a riot, several children caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, including Hisako, were stooped on and carried off by Stormwings, who put them down safely out of harm's way and flew off. This was her first experience with Stormwings. They were made to desecrate battlefields to show humans that there is no glory in war, but they're also individuals and people. It's difficult for Stormwings to reproduce, so they have a strong nurturing instinct that sometimes kicks in with the young of other species.
The small flock of Stormwings roosting near Port Caynn could be snide and crude but they were also a stable presence that didn't mean her harm, and she spoke to them often on rooftops, particularly a woman named Kyria Sharptail. When Hisako was roped into helping hunt a unicorn - semi-willingly taken outside of the city and then imperiled so a unicorn would come to her and be killed - only the Stormwings sympathized. They'd rig up rope harnesses to take her flying. As she grew up they advised her on developing her magical Gift and finding her way in the world, though as beings that don't starve or suffer much from illness and don't have to rely on money the practical aspects were limited.
The few mages available to teach her either had minor Gifts with limited utility or were cagy, hostile, or in one case got murdered four months in, and generally had a criminal bent. So, as she got older Hisako became a burglar, using her Gift to help hush her steps and open locks in the houses of people with more money than she had, which wasn't saying much. The dream was to save enough money to afford respectable magic lessons from someone who'd turn their nose up at a dockside girl, and leave. Magic was a ticket out for her and her family, or it could be, if she ever got free of the gangs and the Rogue. At their best, Rogues were leaders taking care of the poor of the cities whose undergrounds they ruled over; this one, at this time, saw Hisako as a means to great personal profit and that superceded anything else.
Conversation with her Stormwing friends revealed that it was possible for a human to become a Stormwing, and a teenaged Hisako, visiting after an opportunity was snatched away, ardently wished she could become one herself. This stuck with her friends, though they didn't tell her how such a transformation could be achieved. A few years later, Hisako was found to be stashing loot and not giving the Rogue the full cut and was attacked in a crowd, literally backstabbed. Kyria saw from the sky and she and the little flock swooped down, driving off the people around her. Hisako probably could have survived and even recovered fully with a Healer's help, and if this was meant as a lesson to keep her dependent on the Rogue that's what would have happened. Kyria didn't know that and gave Hisako a razor-edged feather, telling her to drive it into her own flesh. A woozy, uncomprehending Hisako did so and was transformed on the spot into a Stormwing.
This healed all her wounds and took away Hisako's human Gift. Up in the sky, and in the Stormwing roost, she struggled with a different body, different magic, a different place in life. Many of her human friends and family made no effort to contact her, though the break might not have been total. But, not much more than a week passed after the change before one of the major events in the setting occurred - the banishment of Immortals to the Divine Realms, a spell wrought by a massive coalition of very powerful southern mages who also installed a barrier that kept them from returning.
Violently dislocated to another realm where all animals and plants were minor gods and thousands of newly banished Immortals tried to appeal to greater gods to return to their homes and contested for territory, Hisako struggled further. She'd had very little idea of global politics and didn't think of herself as a Stormwing, and was clumsy and awkward besides, forcing Kyria and the others to defend and take care of her at a time when they were in trouble themselves. There was some resentment back and forth as Hisako regretted the change and the loss of her hands, her magic, and all the world and nearly all the people she'd known.
The Stormwings joined a greater aggregation eventually known as the Mortal Fear nation that gradually established territory and relationships with other Stormwing nations and Immortals in general. Hisako adjusted, though for a long time she felt othered and still half human. She wasn't comfortable with certain aspects of Stormwing nature, either. Hisako became friends with a young god, Aris, who was too minor to cross the barrier to the Mortal Realms. Aris had been a human seer who'd attracted the attention of the chief seer god, who intervened on his behalf when he was killed and helped him to ascend in the past quarter century. He understood some of Hisako's difficulty and helped her along the path towards accepting the situation, also teaching her to scry so that she could at least see what was happening in her old home. Eventually she stopped watching Port Caynn.
Four centuries passed. Hisako came to love flight and to be better at telekinetic magic than most other Stormwings. She had friends and enemies among the nation and other Immortals and little gods. The Stormwings' collective problem also became clear. In the normal course of things, they fed off the energy of mortal fear, anger, and suffering, as well as the bodies of the war-dead. As Immortals fasting didn't harm them, but they were weaker for the lack and reproduction was even more rare and difficult. Few steel eggs were laid and fewer hatched, not enough to replace the Stormwings who were killed in various conflicts. Much was tried to no clear success.
Hisako got her name, Godsup, from one such attempt, in which Aris offered himself up to be eaten by Kyria (he got better) with the idea that he'd been mortal recently enough that it might help. He did insist that Hisako be the one to kill him, the first time she'd killed anyone, and something she found quite upsetting. Overall Godsup is actually a bit of a mocking or self-deprecating name. Minor gods can be killed as easily as mortals, leaving their bodies to be consumed or otherwise used, and immediately appear in fresh new bodies. Everything eaten in the Divine Realms is part of a god of some description. It's like being called "breadeater".
Eventually another of the setting's major events happened - a power-hungry emperor found out how to poke holes in the barrier spell, summoning Immortals to the Mortal Realms and generally making deals with them. For many Stormwings the draw of finally being able to benefit from human strife again and continue the species outweighed their core anti-war purpose and the indignity of serving a warlike mortal ruler. Hisako's first experiences with being on a battlefield, drawing strength from the death and suffering, left a profound impression on her. She'd spent four centuries bathing and trying to hang on to some clothing and a more human aspect, and very uneasy at the idea of eating and otherwise defiling the corpses of the war-dead, but found a great satisfaction in it. Hisako fully embraced this part of her Stormwing nature at last.
After a few years that emperor got himself turned into a Stormwing, lost his magic and his throne, and as the barrier collapsed threw in with an old, malevolent god. The leader of the nation Hisako belonged to, Queen Jachull, backed this effort. Hisako, Kyria, and the rest of Mortal Fear were called to actually fight. When Aris asked them to stop, as the old god's aims threatened all the realms and everyone in them. The true purpose of Stormwings was to turn people aside from war and dissuade the waste and destructiveness of it, Hisako felt, so they could not allow themselves to be tools of people who would see the end of everything. She persuaded a number of friends not to participate in the conflict, but Kyria remained.
In a great final battle the queen and consort of the Stone Tree nation killed Jachull and helped to put down the ex-emperor's effort as the gods wrestled the old god back into quiescence. Kyria grew in influence, rapidly taking over leadership of Mortal Fear, though the nation was weakened and indebted to Stone Tree. She didn't look kindly on Hisako and some of their friends for abandoning the previous Queen and after a vicious argument had them barred from the nation.
Thousands of Immortals found places in the Mortal Realms. Disgusted by war and alienated from humans who largely saw her as a monster, Hisako and company drifted north, well away from her old home, and made a new place in cold pine forests. Soon enough there were new wars and skirmishes, of a smaller scale. Hisako dedicated herself and a small flock to feeding off them and trying to raise Stormwing chicks at last.
Powers and abilities:
Flies well, walks poorly. On the ground Hisako's fastest gait is an awkward shuffling hop, like a large vulture. In the air she's much quicker and with the help of just a touch of her magic she can stay aloft for days, soar very high up, and hover if she's far enough from the ground to beat her wings. It's harder to fly in wet conditions. When it's bright out she can angle her feathers to reflect light and dazzle people. She is quite strong and could carry a human in the air - ideally a rope would be involved - if they're on the small side. Her eyes have a hawklike visual acuity.
Her larger feathers are almost as flexible as keratin and cut like very sharp knives, as do her teeth. A feather removed from her cures and becomes rigid, and can be used to permanently turn someone else into a Stormwing, severing any inherent magic they had, or used to make mage-killing arrows. Hisako's smaller feathers are also metal but don't have those cutting edges. The down is like steel wool.
She can eat and may enjoy a snack now and again, but doesn't feel hunger or thirst. Being around the fear and suffering of mortals, particularly humans, strengthens and energizes her and she can analyze their feelings to understand the nature of the fear (anxiety, existentialism, scary stories, fear for a loved one, immediate fear of death etc).
To someone who can see or sense magic, hers has a bright red-gold aura that's very easy to identify even from a great distance. She can enhance flight, inspire terror, telekinetically move things as if with hands, shield herself from damage, scry (using water, fire, or a mirror to look at things happening far away or into someone's memories), and cast scarlet bolts. She can also work magic on her own shed blood, and that of other donors, to make a central pool that splits into several gelatinous, amorphous black blob "darking" servants which can act as jewelry and pockets and scrying tools; if she gives one to someone, it can work like a private network device. (Some characters can make much more advanced, independent, even sapient darkings but Hisako's not at this level. Even her level would be a major undertaking.)
She can understand animal communication but doesn't have an inherent ability to talk to animals and many animals are inclined to dislike her, so with animals that aren't mentally augmented the utility is somewhat limited, more like she can read their body language without looking.
