Melfa
Appearance
A behemoth in her own right, she stands over most men with a towering stature, broad shoulders, and a leering gaze. Said to be made of stone, the Komodo's slate-gray skin is mottled with a mixture of thorns and scars, baring also the disease of her people in random spots at any given time. She has a tail as long as she is tall, decked in hardened spikes. Melfa's eyes are yellow with slit pupils, capable of seeing with precision both day and night. Her facial features are sharp and angular - rounded out by the curve of irregular and non-typical horns crowning her skull. What hair still left not overtaken by the horn growth is short and silver in color.Skills and Abilities
+ Tough Mudder - Inherent to her species, Melfa's scaled hide is super durable and resistant to damage. Despite this, she can often still be found geared-up with armor and protective coverings.+ I Like It Hot - Another species trait, Komodi are resistant to high temperatures and are otherwise quite at home in them. They thrive in heat that others, namely humans, would find stifling and debilitating.
+ Savage - Komodi have mouths full of fangs and bacteria. Their bite is far worse than their bark and quickly leads to infection when not tended to. Their hands and feet sport four clawed digits each capable of rending flesh and bone with minor effort.
+ Predatory Senses - Sight, smell, hearing and taste are honed at twice the capability of a human.
+ I Lift Heavy Things and Put Them Down - Komodi boast twice the strength of humans.
+ Light Me Up - Capable of producing a potent and toxic fire breath up to 10m.
+ Death By SnuSnu - Venom sacks located within their throats can eject venom up to 10m. Venom is very sticky and viscous, making it very difficult to wipe away. Venom alone with burn skin on contact. Really burns when cast within a firebreath. Can cause temporary blindness and difficulty breathing if taken to the face. When ingested it quickly causes violent sickness, though is not typically fatal.
+ I Can Eat Anything - Short of metal itself, a Komodi can survive on just about anything.
+ Three Hands - All Komodi are equipped with a prehensile tail. Melfa's can tend to have a mind of its own.
- Leper - Melfa suffers from chronic Scale Rot and is constantly treating new spots as they flare up. Similar in nature to the Human virus Shingles, it is quite painful to deal with when active. These flare-ups typically appear on her arms, legs, shoulders and back - causing her to need to cover up despite having armor-like skin.
- Mother Said I'm Beautiful - Typical within her kind, Melfa also suffers from Atypical horn growth. Her horns are not symmetrical and she sprouts new prongs every year. They've spread from her crown and down along the sides of her head and into her ears. Though it has yet to effect her hearing, it likely will begin to soon enough.
- It's Cold In Here - As a balance to their heat and fire resistance, Komodi are cold-blooded and do not produce their own body heat. They face difficulties when traveling in in the north unless they've devised means or methods to taking heat sources with them. Melfa can usually be found by the campfire when through colder climates or entertaining a warm-blooded bedmates.
- Common Rabble - Aside from manual labor and combat, Melfa has very little in the way of education or intellect. She's not the brightest by any means nor is she a capable strategist. Melfa serves her role best following orders from those smarter than her and she doesn't try to pretend to be something she's not.
- I'm Horny and Sensitive - Literally. Komodi horns are filled with nerves and sensitive to touch. While this can easily illicit pleasure in the right way, it just as easily debilitates them as well. Cutting into or breaking a horn will quickly render a Komodo useless. They also bleed profusely when broken or cut.
- Da Fuq is Dis - Melfa has no connection nor control of Magic though her supernatural senses may make others think she did. She knows next to nothing more than rumors of the Magic itself.
Personality
Melfa comes across as something of a loose canon. While not particularly intelligent in most valued ways, the Komodo has a keen sense of instinct, a honed eye for valuable goods in trade, a strong fighting spirit, and a cutting sense of humor. Though capable of speaking and understanding over a dozen languages, her ability to speak is often broken. Common tongue can be cumbersome to use and is often accompanied by interjected slurs of Komodan - something not many, even fellow Komodi, understand. But it is in Komodan that she is most eloquent, if one could call a battering ram such.On the whole, Melfa is amiable in nature and one of the least judgemental you might find. She has no sense of superiority and, seemingly, no drive for power or prestige. Melfa is content to follow those who earn her respect and exist (or perhaps more appropriately survive) wherever it is her clawed feet carry her.
Biography & Lore
Like many Komodi, Melfa's younger years were spent as a vagabond traveling beneath the stars within her family clan. As a Komodi's life typically goes, those she surrounded herself with slowly departed over the years due to disease, war, the brutality of the galaxy, and the more esoteric forces of nature surrounding the strange events of the world.Eventually Melfa found herself alone, but as Komodi were want to do - she adapted. A stint as a mercenary came and went, taking her from one place to another and eventually landing her within the realm of the Spine. In its early stages the various settlements of the Spine were controlled by Warlords and Melfa found herself drawn to the Orc Shaman Warlord of Wayrind, Balak Kotir and the culture he brought to this melting pot of war-driven zealots. His lust for vengeance also struck a chord with the Komodo.
She served within his clan for several years, passing the rights of initiation with graceless savagery and brawn. Balak seemed pleased to have the beastly woman as a member of his clan, especially when she was so easily influenced by the prospect of blood and battle. He used her strengths to the detriment of his enemies and the progression of the Wayrind Clan. Within his clan and this group of people Melfa found a solid niche for herself. As spiritual beings, Komodi could easily blend into other strong cults and cultures being that their own Gods had shunned them. She took to the Wayrind doctrines with vigor though she never did become fluent in their language.
When the Wayrind Shaman Lord died everything went to shet.
The Skarsovi Witches of the Spine lead by Sha'Matri Loxa Visl attacked Balak's fort and forward command, decimating the man who had not been prepared to have his own allies rebel against him. The Kotir clan was ransacked and slaughtered but not without putting a large dent in the Skarsovi coven. Melfa was among those who survived the attack and was later taken to the giant tree Eogorath for sacrifice.
Only apparently trees didn't have a taste for the diseased reptilian people and summarily spat Melfa back out from its gullet. It was a...spiritually awakening phenomenon for Melfa and a surprise for the witches as well. The tree bid her to aid them in their journey as they had, after all, conquered their enemy - there was little but respect to be had for their strength and tenacity even if their magick was strange.
Talking trees. Weh.
Melfa joined the witches and worked in their mines, pulling obsidian ore from the depths of the great mountains of The Spine by day and hunting all manner of the adjoining forest's corrupted creatures by night. It was a good existence, for certain. Melfa found a solid foundation of belonging within the Skarsovi Witch coven. They above all were tightly knit and strongly bound by codes of honor and dark passages of beliefs. But as most things tend to do, the Warlord tribes came full circle once again - invading the empty Wayrind to claim for themselves.
Melfa being Melfa? Well, despite her familiarity with the people she could hardly pass for a diplomatic envoy. Melfa's beauty was not in her ability to put words together. Instead she did as told, which was to stand at the Sha'Matri's side as a guardian and, perhaps, a translator.
Melfa certainly knew the Orcish tongue far better than Visl.
The talks were long yet peaceful, enough so that the Komodo had dozed off only to be awoken to learn she'd been part of a trade for continued peace between the clans. She would join the Warlords once more and put her strengths to their wars. To Exmoore, she was told.
To Exmoore she went.
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