Character profiles: Zaranda

Full Name: Zaranda Constantine

Actual real name: Natalia Mullholland

Age: mid 20’s

Gender: Female

Appearance:
Hair: Wavy platinum blonde shoulder length hair, but it’s usually pulled back into some sort of pony tail.
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5’ 5”
Body frame/build: Athletic, but not exactly thin, so I guess “average” will work.
Mouth: flawless full lips that many times utter things very unkind.
Face/Head: Her face is almost nearly round with large eyes. Overall, she’s very symmetrical, but her most common facial expression, a smirk that pulls up the left corner of her mouth and slight squint of her right eye can make her appear somewhat comical at times since she tends to “overuse” this expression….it means a number of different things, but usually that she is thinking about something.
Skin: Her very smooth, slightly olive skin tone is blemished only by a large, dark birthmark on the back of her right hand. A casual glance at her hand and one might think she was wearing a glove, even though she isn’t.
Hands: Speaking of gloves, she does tend to wear gloves quite a bit. Partly because of the birthmark, partly because the gloves she wears are thick…pretty much hand armor, which comes in handy (pardon the pun) when in a sword duel.

Clothes: Zaranda is quite an attractive gal, but she likes to downplay this nearly all the time. This usually means a dull green or gray robe with plain black, white or dull green pants and blouse. Typically her wardrobe isn’t very girly. She does have a few skirts and dresses, but these are rarely worn. Also, she tends not to wash her hair very often and almost always goes without make-up. Basically, she is trying to make herself as ordinary as possible because she knows that when you are out on secret missions, having heads turn will not help the thief takers in passing by unnoticed. Also, she finds make-up to be a waste of time.

Accessories & accoutrements: Zaranda always has her trusty short-sword which is slung across her back. It's a very ordinary looking short sword but Zaranda claims it was made by blacksmith she knew that lived near her home village. She said that this blacksmith uses techniques in sword making that most other blacksmiths have never learned or have forgotten. The result is a very light but sharp sword. Zaranda always has various darts that she carries. Without knowing her ability, this would seem like she frequents taverns and inns quite a lot to play darts that she has her own dart sets. This is only partially true. They also serve as wonderful windblown weapons. Zaranda also has a music box that she carries with her everywhere. The best guess by her few acquaintances are that it was given to her by a family member. She listens to it most often when in need of comforting.

Abilities: Zaranda has the ability to move air. To be more precise, she acts as magnet for air molecules and can either attract or repel them. To do this, requires extreme amounts of focus. This ability if used unfocused, creates a whirlwind around her with a rapidly growing vacuum in the middle. If left in this state too long, she eventually blacks out from a lack of oxygen. Focusing the air outward, she is able to push along objects usually no heavier than 10 pounds…but even that can be changed. It really varies with the amount of focus she puts into it and the velocity of the air moving outward, because too much air moving outward also leaves her deprived of oxygen and she passes out.
Focusing the air molecules to come to her to form a sort of “air armor” takes an extreme amount of mental focus as well. If she does not concentrate on how far away the air molecules should stop, they will keep coming at her and then she would basically suffocate on too much air. With that said, using her air armor is usually something she cannot do while wielding a weapon. She can sometimes fight hand-to-hand, but that is very limited.


Other Skills: Is quite handy with the sword and really doesn’t mind hand-to-hand combat. Is able to scale walls without much effort and is generally good at climbing.

Weaknesses/Special Afflictions: Zaranda is described by all as ultra-competitive. She almost always turns everything into a game of "I'm better than you". Much of this is done because she always is looking for that validation that comes from winning, that she is better than someone else. She has challenged all of the thief-takers in all sorts of things...darts, billiards, who can run the fastest. She famously challenged Ralkin to a drinking contest once...and lost quite miserably. It's the only time she has lost at something and can talk about it afterward. One of her favorite things to compete in is gambling...namely cards or other contest of chance. There have been times where she has been kicked out of taverns and poker parlors for winning a little too often and other times because she owes just way too much.

Also, she has serious trust issues (see history for details on how that happened). Basically, she does not confide in anyone about much of what she is thinking or feeling. Over time, the natural mistrust she has of everyone fades, so she is able to make some friends. Unfortunately, she is quick to mistrust them again if she even suspects they are not being true to their word. Paranoia plays a big role in how Zaranda thinks.

Zaranda also has a very big fear of natural bodies of water. Mostly lakes and oceans, but sometimes rivers as well. Travel by boat would be probably her worst nightmare.

Personality: Zaranda is very cold and icy to almost everyone that approaches her. She has trouble trusting almost anyone (see bio for the reason why) and even among close friends, she may revert to an icy/acid tone. When someone wins her trust, she does open up and becomes very pleasant. Her to-the-point way of speaking rarely wins new friends, but this and her overall icy/acidness is mostly a defense mechanism from keeping people she does not trust away from her….which is pretty much everyone. She has a special affinity with small insects, particularly ants, bees, butterflies, lady bugs and a few other beetles. She will go out of her way to not step on these creatures, help them out and even...talk to them?

Location(s): Has lived in Archen her entire life, but unlike most Archenians, she did not grow up in a very industrialized area, but rather in a mountain village that was only somewhat "modern".

Bio – early years: Zaranda was born Natalia Mullholland. The Mullholland family is one of the wealthiest most influential families in Archen…but it has a secret. Over the years, every now and then a Mullholland child is born with special powers. Since this is viewed as, at the very least a sign of weakeness, these children were raised elsewhere under different names. Such was the case with Zaranda. At the age of 3 months, she was found in her crib crying with whirlwind of toys and other debris swirling around her. Knowing that she would not fit in with the Mullholland image, she was sent elsewhere when she was 1 year old.

Life was rather interesting for Zaranda for the next few years as she explored the mountain villa where she now lived. However, the subsequent years would see a number of somewhat devastating revelations.
At age 5, the woman she knew as her mother died suddenly. It was later revealed by her father that she was not actually her mother, but her step-mother. At the age of 9, her father announced that he was not actually her father, that she had been dropped off at their remote mountain home by people that they did not know. He also said he knew about her special power.
The fact that these people were not her parents made her feel very alone…more alone than geography could. The fact that the man she assumed was her father knew about her power made her very suspicious. At this point in her life, she knew she had the power to effect air, but controlling it was very difficult. She would take ants and launch them across rooms or hover them with the air she was moving.
At the age of 12, the man she grew up calling father was suddenly ill. During his long and deteriorating illness, he revealed that he was actually her second cousin and that they were both from the Mullholland family. Of course, Zaranda had heard of the Mullhollands, all of Archen knew of them. He warned her not to approach the Mullhollands, they will deny her being part of their family and would most certainly be hunted by the Mullholland private army if she came forward. He also acknowledged that it was the Mullhollands who paid them, in an indirect way, to make sure they stayed silent and content.
The man she grew up calling father who was actually her second cousin actually did recover from his illness. From that point forward he also confessed that he too, had the same power that she did. Zacharious was his name and he and Zaranda worked on honing their air movement ability. It was Zacharious that gave Zaranda the insight that allowed her to draw in air as armor instead of pushing air away.
When she was 18, Zacharious announced that he was joining the Mullholland private army. To Zaranda, this seemed absurd after all that Zacharious had told her. He said that it was actually something that was expected of them. Of course, the Mullhollands would never accept them into their family, but they could at least give something back to the family that provided for them. To Zaranda, this seemed like it was one too many wrenchings that her life had taken and grew very bitter towards the Mullhollands and especially Zacharious whose teachings now seemed a sham.


Bio – recent years: At the age of 18 Zaranda left her mountain home as Zacharious departed to join the Mullholland private army. She wandered for a time but eventually fell in with some traveling monks who were not part of the major religion of Archen. They are monotheistic and most simply call them the Singulars and do have some radical differences with the major religion of Archen which is polytheistic. They believe that there is a god who created the world and everything in it. They believe there are clues all throughout the world as to the identity of this god, where it lives, etc. Therefore, many wander the world in search of these clues. Some of these clues have been revealed already and form the major areas that the Singular's creator-god wants them to perform during their life. These things are that they put helping others, self-sacrifice, living off the land and meditation as their main path to salvation. From them Zaranda learned all these things and took them to heart, although she tends to struggle with helping others at times. She also noticed that meditation helped greatly in focusing her ability to move air.

Excerpts from the tests performed on Zaranda before joining thief-takers:

Test #1 object: ordinary wooden broom
Result: the broom handle shattered when it struck subject’s arm. No apparent mark or injury to subject.

Test #2 object: Ralkin’s staff
Result: staff connected a sweeping blow to subject’s right shoulder. This knocked the subject off balance. No damage/injury to subject. Most likely knocked off balance due to power of the blow. Air armor appears to move with subject. More testing on this is needed to verify.

Test #3 object: another wooden broom followed by a sword
Result: the wooden broom again splintered and shattered, this time over subject’s head. Two sword blows to the arm and torso caused no injury, but subject’s skin was red as if pressure had been recently applied to it. Another interesting thing to note is that the air armor does not dissipate after multiple strikes.
Test #4 object: punch from a fist
Result: there was much laughter from both subject and “hitter”. Hitter said it was an unusual experience…much like punching sand. It seems that the air armor is made of so many smaller pieces that if some pieces are moved, others are still there to absorb it.

Test #5 – object: gun(actually a bullet fired from the gun)
Result: after getting the ok from the subject, the gun was fired and the bullet struck the subject’s shoulder, sending the subject staggering backward a couple paces. Upon inspection, the subject sustained a nasty bruise, but the bullet was found on the floor.

Test #6 – object: mine
Result: the subject waived off this test since claiming that the shrapnel would be deflected by the air armor, but the heat would not be, most likely resulting in serious burns. Subject claimed that the air armor does not protect against heat, cold or lightning.

- overall, very impressed by the strength of the air armor of the subject. Have no clue how this air armor is maintained, but further tests will be scheduled. It must be noted that each time it really looked as if we were striking the subject (with sword, staff, etc) but when moving slower, with a punch it becomes obvious the blow stops just short of the subject J. Enz

Seems like a good character, very different from your other character or the other two characters we're having so far.
A few questions about her powers - can it be used pretty much like telekinesis, to move around objects from some distance, or can she just suck them to her or blast/move them away? How strong is the air armour? How does it work? If a bullet was fired at her, would the bullet be slowed down by the increased air pressure or would the course of the bullet be altered by the strong winds around her so it wouldn't hit her?

Anything being moved to/from her by way of the air moving to/from her would have to be in a direct line to/from her....so not exactly telekinesis. This armor cannot actually be broken, so it's pretty tough. Bullets would not pass through but would severly dent the armor (like a bulletproof vest, for example). Once the armor is in place there would be no additional wind around her, just the 15-30 seconds it takes to form it.
So, the real weaknesses in this armor are a little slow to form and the mental aspect...if she loses focus and allows it to fall apart.

Hope that helps. Also, not completely finished with the profile. Should have more soon.

I like the way you've pulled this one's history together. Not much mystery, but there's definitely an agenda going on.

I also like the air manipulation. It's a bugger of a power; easy as it might be to move air, shaping and maintaining it from such an amorphous ingredient is going to be really, really hard without a lot of practice.

Nice idea to include the "tests", gives us a better understanding of Zaranda's powers and about the things that Jarvis does as a thief-taker, while bringing an interesting change to the way the profiles are done at the same time. It might be a good idea to make a post telling us that you've edited something the next time - don't wanna check all the profiles for updates all the time.

Yeah, I didn't want her profile to list exactly what it was that her air armor could stop and what it couldn't, but at the same time, I knew we'd need to have this figured out before the story begins, so I thought that having a test of her abilities by the thief-takers would be the best way to go. Notice that Ralkin's staff was one of the weapons tried on her. Wanted to hint that the other thief-takers were there as well, and most likely the ones wielding the weapons since Jarvis isn't much of a weapons user.

Also...I did originally post that I was going to be updating Zaranda's profile, but of course it took me a couple days longer to actually update Zaranda, so not exactly timely on my part.

I think I'm all set here. Finished off the missing weakness/affliction section.

**Just remembered I forgot to add something** I'll go do that now.