Stryke Stargem
(Her in her less and more solid forms. She's almost right, though her features are a little off)
(Her outfit is her pyjamas/lazy day clothes. Though, I accidentally got the colors swapped, so the shirt should actually be blue and the trousers white... Eh, maybe she just has multiple lazy day pyjamas.)
Species: Mutant clone with mixed DNA — mostly Spirikin, some from the Elder Storm, and just a little bit of Cerberus Wolf
Subspecies: Stargem (mostly)
Codename: Stormsdaughter
Nicknames: Stormy, Strykey, Stormbrain, Sparkplug
Elements: Lightning, Water, Air, Life
Hair: Black, long, straight. Turns curlier the less solid she is, ending up as a stormcloud growing out of her head when she's in her purely elemental form.
Skin: Pale white. Becomes more silver the less solid she is, turning into electricity, while her hands and feet become blue and watery. When she's purely elemental, the water and electricity mix, turning her into something truly dangerous to touch.
Eyes: Light blue. Turn into solid masses of spinning water and glowing electricity as she becomes less solid.
Created and raised as a weapon, Stryke had a fairly miserable childhood. Her only points of comfort and love were her sorta-adopted Mage sister (Charmer), Charmer's Familiar (Retfer), her pet wolf/sorta brother (Cumulus), and the many Stormlings that were imprisoned/enslaved in the Badlands.
Growing up, Stryke was told many lies about her blood family. They were monsters who didn't care about the proper way of living, leading their people to ruin, and other such horrible things. She trained hard, determined to do her duty and overthrow her them, proud to be working towards her people's salvation. For surely they would do better under the Goddess's (Blacktree's) rule...
Yet a part of her always felt like something was wrong. She was taught that freedom was something to be earned, that if you were a slave you deserved to be. She heard the screams of the prisoners, and she cried — there was no way this torture could be right.
But, as with most children, she believed in the teachings of those who raised her. She trusted them, she feared them, she abided by their rules (she never stopped visiting the other Stormlings, no matter how forbidden it was, never ceased listening to their tales).
The thing that led her to finally escape was twofold. One: she discovered the lies. It slowly fell into place, from overheard conversations to the whispers of slaves, she realized that perhaps her family weren't the tyrants they were made out to be. Her doubts grew, leading to Two: a test of loyalty. A young Stormling, one she was secretly close to, was put in front of her. She was ordered to torture the poor thing, though they had done nothing wrong.
One could say it was the final straw, or they could say it was a tiny drop in a flood. Either way, it was at that moment that Stryke turned against the Badlands. It was that moment that she escaped, taking many with her in what was the biggest jailbreak in Badlands history, even freeing the long-imprisoned Elder Storm.
(She asked her sister to come with her. Begged. Charmer has always been sadistic, unable to understand why Stryke and Retfer had issues with the way the Badlands worked, but she loved gently and fiercely all at once. Retfer wanted to go. They didn't. Charmer regrets that, but... She's happy being who she is, even if it means she'll never be on the same side as Stryke. Still, she regrets).
Stryke wasn't ready to face the family she was raised to defeat. But she was ready to face the other side of her family — the Elder himself, and his Cloud (a Cloud is a group of Stormlings). She was young still, and lived in his court for quite a while. Among the ones she had lead in escape, she discovered what it meant to be free, what it meant to be a person rather than a tool, what it meant to run across the sky without a care in the world.
But in the Elder's absence, Stormlings had been left unprotected across the Realm. They were common in slave markets and binding rituals, scattered and weak, only a few small Clouds remaining free. Stryke shared the blood of He Who Led The Storms, she felt each of them in a very unique way; now that she had tasted freedom, she couldn't believe it was something you had to earn.
Stryke was raised to be a Warbringer, a commander of armies. And that is what she would be, leading her Cloud in striking against those that would enslave her people, turning them into freedom fighters. She may have been a person, but she was also a weapon and a warrior, and she would learn to embrace it in the name of good.
It was on one of these raids against slavers that Stryke heard, for the first time in her life, a Spirikin distress call. Instinct taking over, she rushed to the aid of the one who had made it — Eric Stargem, the boy from whom most of her DNA originated.
Meeting her family at last, Stryke had quite the adjustment period, never knowing how to tell them that she was raised — and once very much wanted — to destroy them. Despite this, she bonded with them fairly quickly, especially her mischievous big brother (half brother? Technically parent? Donor? The life of a clone is a confusing one).
When Stryke first encountered the political world of the Great Stargem Council, she was armed with Eric's warnings about how very boring it was, even being gifted a Rubix Cube to secretly play with in case the tedium proved too much for her. This being said, she was quite surprised with how much she loved watching the Council work, especially her mother (the Councilwoman in charge of Starcrest City, the capital of their Tribe).
A member of the Stargem family had been on The Great Council since its creation, a tradition that looked to be at an end with Eric's general disinterest, so there was much rejoicing when Stryke announced her intention to become her mother's apprentice and train to earn her spot as one of their leaders.
(Stryke is much more beloved by the Stargem Tribe than her 'lazy' and 'useless' brother, something which very much annoys her. After living so long with lies about her family, it's hard for her to accept that her own people think so poorly of her brother, no matter how amusing Eric himself finds it. She often turns to him for political advice, finding his knowledge of psychology and almost pathological need to find out the secrets of others incredibly useful, and his orders to never give him credit for this tears her up inside)
She had been bred to lead armies, but surely she could lead regular people too?
And that's Stryke in a nutshell. Some more things happen, she gets a girlfriend and tries to reconnect with her sister, but mostly she just continues on as a freedom fighter and Apprentice Councilwoman. She is an intelligent strategist, a dedicated worker, and a little bit crazy when it comes to having fun. She does her homework, races her friends, starts minor wars with her brother, goes between the Stargem Tribe and the Elder Cloud, and mostly just lives her life; wild, happy, and free at last.
Cumulus
Stryke's loyal pet, born from the wolf fur that accidentally got mixed in with the Elder Storm's fur during her creation. Unlike regular Cerberus Wolves, he does not have three heads, though he technically can split his head into its three smaller forms without splitting the rest of his body.
Like Stryke, he is made of Lightning, Water, and Air; unlike her, he can split himself into three smaller bodies made up of each element, all three sharing one mind. He can go more and less solid, depending on how much power he is using. In his less solid combined form, he can billow outwards to a size much larger than his already massive one.
He is fierce in battle, using claw and fang along with elemental powers, his howls and barks rattling the earth around him. His senses and tracking abilities greatly surpass that of a regular wolf, making him an excellent hunter. He's also a very playful, slightly too intelligent, overgrown puppy dog.
He shares Stryke's DNA, but carried far more wolf than anything else, while she carries barely any wolf blood at all. His lack of sapience and status as her pet despite their relation occasionally makes Stryke uncomfortable, but she has grown used to the idea by now. Few others know the truth of his origin, and she would prefer to keep it that way.
Items And Such
Alternate Outfits
Power Blocking Bracelets
Stryke is constantly building up electricity. She generates it naturally, expelling it with every movement. If she stays still too long, her power explodes out of her in a destructive lightning strike.
Despite being partially energy, she still is biological, and still needs sleep. But she can't actually stay still long enough to get any real amount of rest. Get the problem?
Power blockers are meant to prevent prisoners from using specific forms of energy (magic, electricity, fire, etc). They can, however, be retooled to drain and expell energy — perfect for letting a sleepy Stormsdaughter get to bed.
The Badlands provided her with one that more cut off her power than drained it, leaving her jittery and uncomfortable, often with smallscale overloads. It was only later that she was able to get a better one made, one that would actually help her control her powers.
Stryke's Staff
[NO IMAGE AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME]
Spirikin are all born with magical Soulets (for most Tribes they're in the shape of a bracelet). This is the most important object to them, pretty much the only thing they will kill over, and WILL drive them insane if destroyed. Being away from it for too long will cause heightened aggression and difficulty thinking.
Stryke, being a magical mutant halfbreed, was born with something a little different; a fighting staff. Using her Soulets for battle confuses and distresses most Spiripa that see her do so.
Stryke is not quite as protective over her Soulet as most, and is mostly fine when she has to be away from it (anxious and scatterbrained, but nothing near the level of aggression and singlemindedness that plague her brother under similar circumstances). When it gets chipped and such, she experiences no surge of aggression and can still think clearly while it's being repaired, which is HIGHLY unusual.
She isn't quite sure what would happen if her staff was actually destroyed. Would she go insane like is usual for her species? Would she just be sad? Would something far worse happen? In some regards, not knowing is worse than the way most of her species knows in painful detail the horror Soulet Madness can bring...
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