Ashayska Cloudbright of Clan Lyraves

Name of character: Ashayska Cloudbright of Clan Lyraves

Nicknames: Cloud

Age: 20 (or the equivalent)

Sex: female

Height: 3'6" at the shoulder

Species/Race: Gryphon (gry'kite)

Description/Appearance: Ashayska has, in her feathered fore, the markings of the swallow-tailed kite; white feathers, and her sharp kite wings and elegant swallow-tailfeathers are the same obsidian shade. Her eyes are dark, and her beak is onyx, as are the talons on her greyscale forelegs. Though there isn't much color, the bold divisions of white and black are very elegant. Her furred hindquarters are just as beautiful, but instead of the contrasting white and black of her plumage, her hind is painted in earthen hues, with the mottled not-quite-spots of the clouded leopard. Her build is diminuative, slender in the fore but with stocky feline hindquarters to power her into the air, and her feline tail, which the tailfeathers rest atop, is nearly as long as the rest of her body. Her head is rounded, with a small beak and large eyes of her kite heritage that make her look much younger than she truly is. She wears little in the way of decoration, having little use for it, but she always has the Snowgem around her neck.

Background: Cloud was born in Nuvaevys Pillyr in the Realm of Kraythia. Her Clan, Lyraves, was among those who worshipped the Phoenix, one of the three major deities of Kraythia. The religion revolved around the sun and light, and was the unofficial religion of all Kraythia. Nildrakyn of the darkness had his own followers, however, who worked in secret to further themselves and Nildrakyn. Cloud was an odd youngster, who shunned her heartname of Ashayska in favor of her facename, Cloudbright, which was shortened to Cloud. She was a precocious gryphlet, as well, becoming one of the first of her age-group to attain flight. She has a fairly good control over the three main magics of the Kraythian gryphons--illusion, shapeshift, and mindmagic. She was also quite fascinated by the rarest of gryphon magicks--Gating. Only a few very rare mages ever learned this, though all gryphons had the three major magicks in varying strengths. Cloud herself wasn't among those mages, who were called the snow gryphons for their albinistic qualities. But she was always around them, and accidentally triggered a magical artifact of the snow gryphon Ahurihyrr, the Snowgem. A snowflake-shaped crystal suspended within a teardrop shape on a platinum chain, it was triggered and released its Gating energies. Cloud's primary thought through her panic as she triggered it was to find safety, and she ended up at the Sanctuary.

Abilities/Magicks: Cloud's foremost ability is that of the illusion--she can create glamories on herself to hide her true nature from those who might not understand. Putting glamories on other things is more difficult, but with the use of magestones she can set a more permanent glamorie on a small object. Big things tend to exhaust her quite painfully, and it takes a long time to recuperate. She can also shapeshift--the easiest of her shifts is from gryphon to kite or gryphon to leopard, since those are her basic gryphonic makeup forms, but most any bird or cat is easy enough. Beyond that, things get tougher, and she usually has to stay within her size and mass range. Her basic shifts can be kept for days, but it takes almost as long to recuperate. The others can't be held as long, and take much longer to recharge from. She has a gift for the mind magics of telepathy, empathy, and telekinesis, and she has some control of windish magics to make flying smoother. Beyond that, she's a run-of-the-mill gryphon.

Weapons/Items: Her weapons are mainly her own beak and claws, or whatever other natural weapons she assumes in other forms. She can attach warclaws to her talons to make them more effective, and when in humanoid form she can wield a bow with some ease, as well as small blades. Usually she has nothing artificial on her person besides the Snowgem.

Nature/Alignment: Cloud is inherantly good, as her Clan worships the Phoenix, Lightfalcon, Firebird, or any of her other myriad names. Cloud herself can be fierce, temperamental, belligerant, avaricious, and standoffish, but not always.

Special Notes: Nothing I can think of at the moment.