Tinien

image made with Portrait Workshop

Name: Tinien
Age: 35
Gender: Female

Description: Tinien is a woman with few womanly shapes. She has short, braided dark brown hair, narrow brown eyes and a wide nose. She often frowns and pulls her mouth in a sour line. She is fairly strong with a lot of leg muscle. She has great skill with the daggers she usually wears strapped around her torso. Tinien wears simple leather armour, paired with brown shirts and pants. 
Personality: Tinien is all business. Most of the others don't see her as a woman, but as a fellow mercenary. She has been a part of the group for years and pulls her weight. She will never ask to be treated as a woman, having embraced her masculine side to survive on the streets. She is daring, cunning and probably just as ballsy as the other men in the group (if not more). 

Homeworld; Gremyne
Family: Unknown, was abandoned.  

Companion: Ristiriita Balechild from Eldiheim (Planet Kynn)

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ELDIHEIM

Time stretched and the courageous woman stopped trying to keep track of time. There was little point in wondering about how long she'd been drifting in the relative darkness of this place. Though it was dark, she could still see. Though time passed by she did not grow hungry, thirsty or sleepy. But there was little to make sense of. Stairwells ran between tunnels and planets. Everything seemed to be connected and yet was separate. 
Slowly a plan started to form in her mind. She still had rope and climbing anchors. She could move uninhibited and though things did not seem to be affected by gravity as she was used to, there was still some semblance of a natural order. She experimented with the rope and anchors and after a while felt confident that she could throw it the way she wanted to. When the next staircase appeared, she did not hesitate and threw with all her might. The anchor clashed, skidded across a few steps but finally clung to some unseen crack or rail. 
Tinien let out the breath she'd been holding and started to pull herself in. The had to fight the pull of the void but she was no quitter and she refused to waste this opportunity. Time dragged on but finally she was able to pull herself onto the staircase. Almost instantly gravity returned to normal and Tinien felt oddly heavy and tired. Her muscles ached, her head hurt and her stomach growled. 
Considering all this, Tinien decided to head down the stairs instead of up. It would be the easier route but stairs led to somewhere on either end. She just needed to get out. The stairs seemed to spiral infinitely and yet it didn't take long at all for her to reach a landing. The landing looked ominous, black smoke billowing around it. But it looked very much like the portal through which she'd escaped that early morning on Gremyne. 
Tinien didn't hesitate but jumped through, readying her daggers as she rolled and got up. But there was no-one to give her grief. Just a bleak and warped place to greet her. Tinien put her daggers away but knew she could get to them within a heartbeat if she needed to. This place didn't exactly look friendly and inviting. Although she would probably have been suspicious of a flowery garden at this point. Her worldview had been turned upside down and she felt lost and scared. But she'd never show it. 
Righting herself, the black woman started to walk, her dreads moving against her head so familiar that she only now realised how much she'd missed the wind. Looking for food would prove to be a challenge as nothing she found looked familiar. The animals seemed pretty hostile but she dared not test their taste as they very well could be poisonous. What she needed was a sentient being to show her what was okay to eat, even if they might end up betraying her. Tinien wouldn't hesitate to retaliate in such an event. 
As if summoned, a humanoid figure approached her. Something was off about the person though, Tinien just couldn't put her finger on it. Something made her hair stand on end and every nerve ready for a charge. But the voice that spoke to her was quite pleasant:
"Welcome to Eldiheim, visitor."
"Greetings, may Fortune bless us both." Tinien said cautiously.
It was a phrase she'd heard countless times as a way to ward of evil. She'd never been superstitious but lost and alone, the phrase gave her comfort. And words carried power. 
"Follow me." the person said with a smile and Tinien realised she didn't even know their name.
"You may call me Nathair." they answered.
Tinien could only follow.  

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Hatching

Eldiheim was a peculiar place, but after the time spent in the Elsewhere it just felt blissful to not be alone. Hegouw, Bergen and Tinien had little trouble fitting in with the humans. The dragons were something else. Coming from a world where there were none, seeing them up close, interacting with them and preparing to raise one in the near future was a daunting thought. Especially since the Balefire dragons were hardly docile creatures. They were headstrong with a penchant for mischief. But the mercenaries from Gremyne never shied away from a challenge. And they knew hard work.
When the call came to head for the hatching eggs, the trio of mercenaries did so with dedication and purpose in their step. They walked swiftly as if heading out on a mission. And in a sense they were. The hatching was wild, chaotic and hard to contain in the minds of mere humans but in the end a message was relayed to each deemed worthy of caring for one of the bioluminescent green offspring.
Tinien was told the following:

"Perhaps a bit more than just hard work will be required for your future plans. I am interested to see what you can do with proper backing."

Name: Ristiriita Balechild (Name Meaning: Discord (Finnish))
Gender: Female
Coloration: Amber
Parentage: Zouo Balechild x Smaragyr
Personality: Calculating, Careful, Protective
Abilities:
     *Breath Weapon (Fire)
     *Elemental Magic (Fire)
     *Corruption Powers
     *Immortality
     *Realm-Traveling
     *Sizeshifting
     *Telepathy
     *Teleportation
     *Verbal Speech

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ADULTS

Bergen, Hegouw and Tinien had remained at Eldiheim while the dragons in their care grew. At times it was difficult to say who was in charge since the Balespawn had not so much bonded and appeared to view their human companions more as servants. Every dragon worth their salt needed minions after all. But luckily, Eldiheim would provide.
Or rather, Nathair, sire to Tekateki, had prepared blighthounds for all the growing Balechild-offspring. The hounds were the result of a long and arduous process of regulated balefire corruption and flesh sculpting, resulting in a highly intelligent - albeit non-sapient - pack-oriented hunter and companion. Carnivorous and fast-growing, the Blighthounds would form an empathic link with a specific Balespawn and obey only them. They would protect their chosen and anyone deemed part of their pack.
The trio of Balechildren had gathered to chose their pups, knowing the pups would need to be able to tolerate each other. Dojeon's eye fell upon a large, dominant male with brown fur striped like a tiger.
"I shall call him Schorseneer and he shall have both bark and bite."
Ristiriita went for a smaller female with green fur mottled with silver and black.
"She'll follow but also keep Schorseneer on his toes. I like her very much."
Tekateki took longer to decide, their mercurial mind going over plenty of options and imagining a variety of possible cases. Finally they chose a quiet silver-furred pup:
"She is ice, quiet and stable until she cracks and then she'll be deadly."

Name: Zeesprey
Gender: Female
Species: Blighthound
Abilities:
     *Telepathy: Mind-to-mind communication involving colors, images, sensations, and general impressions.
     *Empathic Bond: The supplemental mental connection formed between blighthound and Balespawn master
                              Allowing for complete and precise understanding of complex verbal or mental commands.
     *Naturalized Balefire: Additional exposure to balefire does not alter the blighthound, unless intentionally applied by a Balespawn.
     *Venomous Cocktail: Intensely powerful toxins secreted from any sharp bodily protrusion. Effects vary. Balespawn are innately immune.
     *Superior Regeneration: Rapid healing of damage, including restoration of limbs, barring injuries that are immediately lethal.
     *Eldritch Locomotion: Movement that seems to break physics (eg bending in unusual ways, slipping outside of reality mid-stride)

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