Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-33816423-20180101001645/@comment-26397825-20180112083832

Welp, I think I might be the first person to post. I hopy you like reading, Elynwyn, because I may have gone a little crazy with her backstory. 1)Basic Info 2)Appearance: 3)Characteristics: 4)Trivia Hunter Extension Weapon B)Semblance C)Combat Info Civilian Extension I) Day to Day Life
 * Name: Llinos Xerxes
 * CNR Explanation: Welsh name meaning greenfinch (the bird), Greek form of Persian Kshayarsha, meaning “monarch” or “ruler over heroes”.
 * Species: Human
 * Age: 20 at the time of the Fall of Beacon
 * Gender: Female
 * Emblem: circle with small stylistic bird wings flaring upwards
 * Handedness: Right
 * Nicknames: Llin
 * Occupation: Haven student, member of Team CRCL
 * Aura Colour: Green
 * Height: 201cm 6’5”
 * Weight: 78kg 172lbs
 * Eyes: Blue with green flecks
 * Skin Colour: fair
 * Face Shape: Oval with a slightly pointed chin and nose
 * Hair: Sandy blonde, shoulder length and pulled away from face by headband except for two long sections that fall in front of her ears.
 * Physical Traits: Gold hoop piercing in each ear, with a second piercing in the right ear of a diamond stud
 * Physique: Slim figure with minimal curves
 * Outfit: Forest green hooded cape with armholes and short shoulder mantle reaching to mid thigh held shut at throat by golden clasp in shape of emblem, over white short sleeve peasant blouse tucked into fitted dark pink pants and knee high medium brown leather boots.
 * Accessories: Thin gold headband set with small, alternating red, blue and green gemstones, pair of medium brown fingerless gloves with rolled cuffs, black belt with triangular gold buckle
 * Gadgets: Has a collapsible piccolo which she carries everywhere. Magnetic plate for Taliesin on back underneath cape, sword is worn over the material
 * Background: Llinos was born an only child and grew up on a family run horse ranch to the south of Mistral amongst the much larger families of her aunts and cousins. Her parents were the steady and reliable sort of people, hard working and down to earth. A very serious child, Llinos tended to avoid much louder and more rambunctious cousins her own age in favour of exploring parts of the ranch and watching her older relatives actually work, picking up small things quickly through study such as how to tie a sturdy knot.
 * From the age of 5, her mother dedicated the evenings to teaching Llinos how to play the piccolo, and her father would often ask for her ‘help’ with numbers and words, teaching her basic numeracy and literacy skills along the way. Though they were initially worried by how little Llinos spoke even at 5 years old, after a few weeks of teaching her they realised she wasn’t mentally stunted in any way. She simply preferred not to speak, and let her actions, face or body language do the talking for her.
 * When she turned seven, Llinos was put to work helping around the ranch as well, mostly just feeding the smaller animals that provided food for the family, like the chickens. She was quickly moved on from that job when she somehow got into a fight with one of the roosters, which ended up in a basket of smashed eggs, a broken wing for the rooster, and two armfuls of scratches. She maintains to this day that the rooster started it.
 * She was shifted across to helping with the yearlings (1-2 year old horses) instead, which proved to be a much better job for her as she enthusiastically helped with the feeding and training of young horses, specifically the weaned yearlings. One yearling in particular took a shine to her and on her 8th birthday she was told the colt was now hers, much to her delight. She named him Arion and dedicated much of her free time (which she had plenty of due to still being a child, if she was being honest) to training with him.
 * Not long into her 9th year, one of her uncles stopped by the stable she was cleaning out with a question - how would she like to go on an ‘adventure’ outside the ranch walls? She’d never particularly thought about the world outside before, as she’d been taught that Grimm lurked outside and it would be too dangerous to go out of the safety of the ranch without someone to accompany her, and she wasn’t allowed to travel with her oldest cousin and his dad to the markets to trade and sell horses until she was 10. Her uncle assured her she would be safe though, and with her curiosity peaked she tagged along.
 * It turned out he was taking her on a short hunting trip to check the snares around the outskirts of the ranch. It wasn’t much of an adventure, but the forested area was new and interesting to Llinos and she found herself wanting to know more. She quickly sought out her uncle and followed him around wherever she could, silently asking to be taken along on more trips outside. He complied, conveniently ‘forgetting’ to ask her parents for permission, and started teaching her to track, move swiftly but quietly, and the basics of using a bow for taking down game.
 * When her parents found out, her mother was furious with him. Llinos was summarily banned from going outside the ranch again, though this only lasted the few months until she turned 10. Afterwards, Llinos vocally asked to be assigned to her hunter uncle, and her father agreed to let her choose her own vocation in life.
 * Once apprenticed under her uncle properly, he started training her faster to get her truly ready for longer trips into the woodlands, alongside a few of her other cousins. His reasoning was that the ranch was growing but not many people wanted to be hunters anymore - Grimm were still scary, no matter how confidant you were in your ability to evade them - and he wasn’t above snatching up any untrained kids he could to try and bolster the hunters providing meat for the family. The more they caught, the less they had to buy when things were tough, as he liked to tell her.
 * She took the lesson to heart and applied it to her studies and training - the more you do now, the less you have to do later when times are tough or things are going wrong. Her first encounter with a Grimm was easy - a young beowolf that was alone and hadn’t noticed either her or her uncle when he spotted it, and a well placed arrow from her uncle’s bow had it disappearing into smoke before any more could be alerted. She continued her apprenticeship to her uncle up until her 12th birthday, when her mother decided she wanted to take her daughter into town with the caravan the next time they had to sell horses.
 * Llinos easily accepted the idea, saddling up Arion and joining with the caravan as they set off to the nearby village which held livestock markets around her birthday every year. On the trip she met the handful of Huntsmen her eldest cousin - who was being groomed into taking over the ranch, and was almost ready to step into the role of manager - had hired for protection, and listened to them talk about things they had seen with her much roudier cousins.
 * The caravan had a brief skirmish on the way to town with some nevermore that were disturbed by the large group passing by, but between the Huntsmen and the adults and teens who had received some weapons training it was easily dealt with. One Huntsmen noticed Llinos using her bow effectively to shoot the small birds out of the sky, and taking a guess on her age suggested she enrol in a combat school to become a Huntress. A few of her cousins overheard him mention it and swarmed the man, clamouring for answers on whether he thought they could be Huntsmen too, which he easily laughed off and gave suggestions to them all. Llinos wasn’t interested, her apprenticeship to her uncle meaning more to her than the words of a stranger.
 * After the markets and spending time with her mother, however, and the uneventful trip back to the ranch, Llinos found the daily grind of trapping rabbits and stalking nothing more dangerous than a deer to be boring despite how important the work was for the ranch. After seeing a bit more of the world and hearing the tales of the Huntsman from the caravan trip, she had unknowingly awoken a thirst for new things - whether it be learning or discovering.
 * She went to her father afterwards and firmly (but softly) declared her intent to travel and become a Huntress like the Huntsman from the caravan trip had suggested. Though surprised at her decision, her father agreed easily enough, content to let her make her own decisions about her future. She was saddled and set on her way in time for the next batch of students to start at a small Combat Academy a few towns over, with her mother forcing a promise to visit out of her and many exclamations of envy from various family members as they waved their goodbyes to Llinos and the couple of older and stronger fighting family members that were escorting her.
 * Once in the combat school, Llinos threw herself into training, determined to learn as much as she could. She crafted her weapon in the first few months of being at the school, using the money her mother had given her to stock up on Dust for the ranged function, and set about mastering her weapon as best she could.
 * Due to her quiet and serious nature, and her devotion to studying when school was in session so she could laze about on her off days, Llinos didn’t really make many friends. This didn’t bother her, as she found most of the kids around her to be too rambunctious and with none of the familiarity that being family brings, she found herself even less enthused about the idea of spending time with them than she had her cousins. She graduated from the Combat School with high scores, and immediately enrolled herself in Haven Academy.
 * She spent the summer of her 16th birthday back home with her family, indulging in a bit of festive spirit and spending much missed time with Arion. He’d sired a few foals by now, and a small percentage of the profits from selling the foals or breeding him out to other horse owners had been deposited into her bank account over the years, giving her a tidy nest egg to support herself in Mistral. She caught an airship to the main City rather than take Arion into the big city with her, and all too soon Haven Academy was in session.
 * Initiation went easily, though Llinos and her new partner Roisin had a few hiccups due to Roisin’s confrontational personality and the pair’s solitary natures, and they were placed on Team Charcoal alongside Castan and Candidus. Their first year was spent getting to know each other and working out kinks in their teamwork - well, learning to work together full stop, really, since none of them were ‘team players’. The Vytal Festival was held at the end of the year, hosted by Vacuo, and the team decided to attend and give it a shot.
 * They did well enough, showing a decent foundation of working together in the team rounds and winning, but Roisin accidentally got the team disqualified due to initiating a fist fight in the middle of the fairgrounds. The rest of the team were on his side though, as the victim of Roisin’s fists was a traditionalist from Atlas who had been very vocal about Roisin’s preferences and the fact that he identified as male despite having a female body. Despite being disqualified from the tournament, their professors commended CRCL on their display of team solidarity over the issue once they returned to Haven.
 * The end of the year arrived with no fanfare, and the team chatted eagerly about their winter plans. Llinos learned that Roisin had no one waiting for him at home - and indeed, home wasn’t a word he used as an orphan living in the slums of Mistral - so invited him back to her family ranch for the holidays instead. Roisin put her off at first, but eventually caved and the pair travelled to Llinos’s home soon after the school year ended.
 * Roisin almost fit in with the rambunctious family that usually occupied the ranch, though the obvious familial affection everyone threw around made him very uncomfortable and he often retreated alongside Llinos when the others got too much for him. Llinos didn’t mind, as she’d never really fit into the rough lives of her cousins either, and instead spent her days teaching her partner to care for and ride the horses her family was known for.
 * It was during one such day, when Llinos had taken Roisin for a quiet ride around the perimeter of the ranch, that he finally told her a secret; Roisin hadn’t earnt his way into Haven but instead had bought a set of half-decent transcripts from a dealer on the black market to get him into the prestigious academy. Llinos was shocked, but quickly decided that Roisin had more than proven he was just as capable and deserving of her to be at the school. She urged him to tell Castan and Candidus as well before they learnt it from a more unsympathetic source, but otherwise let him be.
 * A few days before they were due to head back to Haven, Roisin came to Llinos and told her that he had contacted their teammates and let them know the truth as well. Llinos hoped the other pair were as accepting of the situation as she had been.
 * That wasn’t the case, and it was evident within the first week of their second year. While Castan was strained, he still tried to help Roisin catch up on the theory work he had missed by not attending a Combat Academy or having private tutors. Candidus, on the other hand, felt personally betrayed as he was descended from one of the earliest graduates of Haven Academy when it was newly built, and had been privately trained all his life to live up to that legacy. While his friendship allowed him to look the other way and keep the secret, he did not go out of his way to help Roisin.
 * It wouldn’t be until halfway through their second year that Candidus finally came around, despite a few of the teachers noticing that there was a problem and attempting to talk the team through their issues. During a mission to escort a small family to a new village a little past the City of Mistral’s borders, they were besieged by Grimm. The team worked together to protect the family and drive off the monsters, and when the two more prideful males on the team made quick work of an Alpha Beowolf together Candidus finally acknowledged that it didn’t matter his background - Roisin was here now and had obviously proved he made the cut anyway.
 * The rest of the year was smooth sailing, with the team now closer than the previous year. Roisin once more followed Llinos home to the ranch for the end of year holidays. Her parents madea few jibes about the pair becoming an item - Llinos had turned 19 that year and they’d never seen her show much interest in other men - but otherwise let the two do as they please. Llinos started training a new filly named Rhiannon that had been bred from her original stallion, Arion, as a partner for the road when she graduated, and offered to train another for Roisin when he expressed interest. Together they made plans for after graduation of travelling the world and seeing new things from horseback, and extended the offer to their teammates. Candidus was interested, though Castan put them off to think about it.
 * Llinos’s third year at Haven started with a buzz of excitement, as the Vytal Festival was on again and in Vale this time. CRCL trained hard and Roisin fought to get a grip on his temper and pride in an attempt to avoid the fiasco of the previous festival. They set to take the tournament by storm - only to be knocked out in the first round by an Altas team featuring a girl wielding at least a dozen laser swords.
 * Despite being bitter over the loss, they stuck around to watch the rest of the tournament and were in the stands during the disastrous events of the Finals. Despite evacuating with the other students, they quickly jumped to the defense of Beacon and the civilians that were around the fairgrounds. During the defense they helped out a trio of younger students from Vacuo who were fighting to bring down a Giant Nevermore that was terrorising the grounds, and Llinos was struck by horror as she saw the limp body of a kid drop from its clutches as it died. His teammates caught him, to her relief, and CRCL turned their attention to clearing the grounds as the younger team took their heavily wounded member to safety.
 * There were a few tense moments when the Atlas robots turned on them, and Llinos took a shot to the shoulder that broke her aura but left her still able to swing her sword in her other hand while Castan covered her. After they deactivated and the last straggling humans were evacuated from the school grounds, the team finally stopped to rest and recuperate. They stuck around Vale for a few more weeks, helping to clear the Grimm from the city itself, before travelling back to Haven for the end of year holidays.
 * All four members returned to Llinos’s family ranch this year, and they plotted and trained out in the forest to become stronger so that if such a fate came to Haven they would be ready. None of them wanted to see their school fall as well.
 * The next school year started tense, with the professors grinding the students with schoolwork even more. Midway through the year, all students were sent home by order of the Headmaster - despite many not wanting to leave - and CRCL spent the break before the Fall Semester restlessly sparring with each other, clearing any Grimm that may have been around the ranch, and training horses for the quartet to use as transport after they graduated, with Llinos graciously buying Roisin’s horse from her family for him.
 * Personality: Rarely ever speaks, preferring actions over words in all instances. Very expressive in body and face though, so she usually gets her point across, and will speak short sentences if the situation desperately requires it. A serious and studious mindset, though she takes advantage of her days off to relax and can be hard to motivate on said days. Quick to lend a hand to her friends, though very uninterested in dealing with other people if she doesn’t have to. Despite this, she’s accepting of people and content to simply let them be rather than try to make them fit a mold or label. Patient to an extreme, tending to study an opponent and react rather than leaping headfirst into the fight.
 * Misc Traits: Has a penchant for collecting interestingly shaped keys
 * Likes: Fishing, playing the piccolo, all flavours of jelly
 * Dislikes: Working on days off, overcrowded places and people who talk all the time, chickens
 * Notable Relationships:
 * Mother and Father: Loves them both dearly, though is closer to her father for his acceptance when it comes to Llinos picking what she wants to do in life. Her mother would prefer she hang around the ranch for the rest of her life, but lets her do as she pleases.
 * Extended Aunts and Uncles: Fond of them all, respectful but mostly leaves them be. Happy to help when they ask.
 * Cousins: Tends to lump them all together as rambunctious and loud, though not all of them are like that. She doesn’t interact much with her agemates though, and is respectful enough of the older ones to not invite trouble form them. A lot of them think she’s weird.
 * Teammates:
 * Partner: Roisin Street (Irish name pronounced Ro-sheen, meaning little rose. Roisin has no known last name but uses Street to compensate, referring to his origins as a street rat in the slums) - Her best friend and favourite member of the team. Initially she wasn’t a fan as his confrontational nature had the other boys clashing at times and she preferred to stay out of it. Once he realised no one was going to give him shit over his gender or rough nature, he mellowed and came to trust them. In return Llinos trusts him and wants him to be happy. May have started developing feelings for him, but she hasn’t actually noticed it yet.
 * Leader: Castan Oliver (Romanian name for the conker/horse chestnut tree, derived from the colour olive) - Her first actual crush way back when they became teammates, she grew out of it and now just thinks of him fondly. Her second favourite team member, she used to think he was a hypocrite for not liking when others don’t follow his plans exactly when he’s quite happy to deviate at any moment, but since he’s mellowed a bit on it she’s relaxed that train of thought. Still gets annoyed when he gets irritated about it though.
 * Other: Candidus Prisca (Latin meaning White, and Ancient) - Her least favourite member of the team, and one she would never ever have feelings for (her words). Finds him too prideful and cocky, though admits he’s nowhere near as bad as he was when he was 17. Acknowledges that at least his tutors knew what they were doing as he is skilled and knows a lot about a variety of subjects.
 * Skills: Skilled piccolist, horseback riding, training, grooming and care
 * Class Allusion: Ranger (DnD 3.5 Player Handbook)
 * Other Allusion: Legend of Zelda Franchise
 * Notes:
 * The young Vacuo team that CRCL helped fight the Giant Nevermore in the battle of Beacon is Team BRNZ. In the show Roy Stallion is shown being carried off by a Giant Nevermore during the Battle of Beacon, but no resolution is ever given and we are never told if he survives. In my story, BRNZ is assisted by CRCL and Roy is heavily wounded but rescued from the Nevermore’s clutches.
 * Team Allusion is video game franchises: Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Halo and Assassins Creed.
 * Ranger allusion is tied in through her background knowledge as a hunter, learning to track. Her animal companion being trained for use after she graduates rather than to fight alongside her while she’s at the Academy is a reference to how the Ranger class gets an animal companion later rather than immediately like the Druid. Her weapon reflects the main weapon of the Ranger, a sword and a bow, and her Semblance refers to the few protection spells the Ranger has, Resist energy and Protection from Elements.
 * Her first horse, Arion, is named for an Ancient Greek horse who was extremely fast and could speak. Her new foal is named Rhiannon after the Welsh Horse Goddess, and alludes to Epona.
 * Llinos is a mix of Ganondorf, Princess Zelda herself, and Link in physical appearance, and heavily from Link in personality. Her name references Link (who is depicted as wearing a green tunic almost all the time) and Ganon (who is king of the Gerudo in a few games, especially Ocarina of Time). She draws from various outfits worn by all three main characters, though she is female because Zelda is the titular character.
 * Her weapon is both a reference to the Master Sword in colour scheme and Link and Zelda’s preferred ranged weapon of a bow as an adult. Her semblance references the Mirror Shield in its attack capabilities. The ranch she grew up on is a reference to Lon-Lon Ranch, where Link most often gets Epona from. The piccolo is a subtle nod to Link’s musical capabilities, as he plays various instruments in multiple games.
 * Name: Taliesin
 * Maker/Smith: Llinos Xerxes
 * Classification: Bifuricated Dust Shot Sword (BDSS)
 * Weapon Derivation: FFXIII-2 Serah’s Bow Sword
 * Form 1 Design: Short Sword. 9inch (22.5cm grip) with a 24.8inch (63cm)blade. Mechanism just above quillon for rotating blades. Can charge the blades with dust stored inside the handle temporarily by pulling on pommel.
 * Form 1 Aesthetics: See image
 * Form 2: Bow. Blade splits in half and rotates outwards, leaving arrow shaped central part of blade in place. Quillon becomes grip for bow. Fires by pulling on pommel, which charges dust shots. The further the pommel is pulled back, the more dust is charged. Shot is released when pommel is released.
 * Dust Capacity: Cartridges loading into handle via side of handle. Capable of holding any type, one at a time.
 * Planned/Possible Upgrades: Find a way to load multiple dust types at a time, more powerful shot for less pull of the pommel.
 * Notes: Named for the famous early Brythonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain.
 * Name: Bastion
 * Introduction: User creates a shield which absorbs damage, and can expel all damage absorbed in a single attack. The shield can be repositioned mentally by the user
 * Range: Medium (up to 10 metres away from user)
 * Type: Conjuration
 * Purpose: Defensive
 * Visual Cue: A black outline of a heater shield appears, with arcane symbols that appear on points of contact. When expending damage, shield turns white and seven pointed star fills the centre.
 * Tier 1: user summons a man sized shield, size increases with practise. Default mode is defence mode. All damage is expelled at once in a straight line from the face of the shield when switched to offence mode.
 * General Limitations: only one shield can be summoned at a time. Cannot be fired through from the users side, switching between modes requires conscious activation. Shield disperses if the user goes more than 10m away, distance will increase with practise. Shield can block solid attacks such as bullets, weapons and rocks, but cannot block elements like fire or water.
 * Dust interaction (all): infuses the expelled damage with the element, and allows the shield to block that particular element if it is non-solid such as fire.
 * Notes: a Bastion is a projecting part of a fortification built at an angle to the line of a wall, so as to allow defensive fire in several directions.
 * Reflection of Character: Not afraid to defend others and solidly on the side of her few friends, patient enough to let others act first and doesn’t let the words or actions of others bother her.
 * Preferred Range: Close-Long
 * Landing Strategy: Use her semblance to create a shield to protect her from anything she may crash into on the way, stabbing the sword into surrounding objects or improvising the bow form as a hook to swing her around a branch. If nothing is around, exchanges the dust for gravity dust and fires a blast to halt her momentum nearer to the ground
 * Fighting Style: Close range: Adopts a wait and see approach, with her fighting style revolving around maneuvering around the opponent to strike at weak spots or from behind and defending using her semblance. Utilises jumps and rolls a lot, and tends to two hand her sword for power strikes.
 * Long Range: Hang back, using the shield to defend herself from any ranged attacks while she charges shots for more powerful blows. If an enemy gets too close too quickly and she doesn’t have time to switch to sword form, she uses the blades to keep them at bay until she gets a chance to change.
 * Can mix the two up, stabbing a close by enemy and switching the sword into ranged form so it slices them apart by forcing the blades to split, before aiming and firing quick shots at close by enemies to throw them off balance. Uses the shield to absorb close hits, storing damage until she has a good shot lined up to unleash it all at once.
 * Expanded Occupation/Business Details: Her first stallion, Arion, is of good breed and a strong horse, making him a good stock to sire more foals from. She earns a small percentage from any of his foals sold by her family, enough to ensure she doesn’t really need to worry about money if she’s sensible.