Nimue the blind healer changed around and adapted for the modern day.

She came forth from my attempts at translating my blind, medieval-fantasy character with a sixth sense into a contemporary setting. The medfant one's love for herbs and nature became an interest in animals and documentaries, the bedouin uncle turned into a long-distance trucker and, thanks to my game master, the aura-sensing "sixth sense" became The Sight, which can best be described as "sensing everything the light touches around you, without eyes".

At her core she's a "blind hipstergirl in a made-up north-african country", though she gains a LOT of power during the course of her roleplay. I don't mind her being OP though. Half the cast is. It just increases the stakes. Still makes it a bit uncomfortable when I share info on her because I fear people would think her to be a Mary-Sue, but the roleplay is fun and it's often fun BECAUSE of her long list of skills and how she emotionally deals with the responsibility.

➣ Description

She treats most people her age with above-average cynicism and suspicion, sometimes even coming off as passive-aggressive. She's had bad experiences with people who've tricked her in some way or used her lack of sight for cheap laughs and something like this is hard to forget. Nonetheless she tries hard to be of use, loving the feeling of being needed. The girl strives for independence, like any late teenager, but the extent to which she’s still tethered to her loved ones frustrates her greatly, especially as she knows that she could never be completely independent.

Her personal philosophy seems to be along the lines that the world might suck, along with people in it, but she doesn't have to fall to their level and perhaps, with enough work, it'll take a turn for the better. Even though Nimue may come off as distant or bitter at times she's actually very compassionate..

Some notes of a different nature:.

She exhibits a mild naivety towards sex and romance, having gained most of her information on both from a combination of radio, television and unusually awkward Talks (with very little influence from the Internet and peers, unlike with most modern youths)..

➣ Quirks & Habits

• AOR: Due to the nature of her Sight she doesn't need to look at electronical screens in order to read them. The result can be unnerving. Sometimes puts the laptop on her stomach whilst laying in bed and browses the web whilst staring at the ceiling.

• AOR: In low-light conditions reverts back to the bodylanguage of her blindness days..

• AOR: Even in lit conditions often touches things she comes across to determine their material, a hold-over from earlier times.

• AOR: Closes her nose or turns off her sense of scent when blood is involved. The touch and Sight of blood is still unpleasant to her but the lack of smell keeps it from being overwhelming.

➣ Basics

➣ Description

Nimue’s skin appears ambiguously brown and her hair – which is cut into a short bobcut for comfort purposes – is raven black. The girl’s features are soft – her face round, with discernible african influences visible in the shape of the nose and eyes. However her eyes, in strong contrast with the rest of her natural color scheme, appear pale blue in color, the pupil visible only as a darker gray spot in the middle of the retina. Their foggy gaze is aimed into emptiness by default and whenever the need arises to "look" at something – for example to indicate which person the young woman’s talking to – she tends to turn her whole head instead of just her gaze.

AOR: Eyes have taken on a glow strong enough that they have to be kept closed or hidden behind sunglasses.

➣ Aesthetic

She considers headcoverings to be cool - if the climate allows she wears newsboy- and beanie hats, with wide-brimmed feminine styles being something she falls back on in case of a heatwave. Coupled with her fondness of scarves and skinny jeans she may give off the vibe of being a discount hipster. Nimue's clothes are always of dull colors - grays and blacks and khakis and browns with a dash of blue in the form of jeans, all the better to mix-and-match without looking hideous. The girl carries around a shoulderbag in which she puts her collapsible whitecane and often hides her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses whilst out in the public.

➣ Important Notes

• AOR her left leg's covered with faded scars depicting a variety of Adinkra symbols from a brief stint of being possessed by Ife. She could likely remove them now if she wanted to but had had better things to do than notice such details.

• She has two white-canes - a normal one and a folding one. AOR still carries the folding one around with her everywhere she goes, even with Sight, in case something disables her powers or she's left in utter darkness.

➣ Background

Nimue grew up within the village of Aberas off the desert city-state of Ligstad. Her father worked a desk job in the city, sometimes staying overnight, but nonetheless did his best to help with his only daughter's education. Her mother had previously worked as a literature teacher, but took time off work after Nimue’s birth...and then never went back, staying a housewife and the girl’s main caretaker.

Nimue was not a particularily motivated student and the local school had neither the time nor the means to provide for her special needs. Though the girl attended less vision-heavy classes at first she started relying more and more on her mother’s home-tutoring as time went by, only showing up for exams or guest lectures by the time she was 12. Nimue’s relationship with her peers was strained at best. She had a number of playmates and „fair-weather friends“ as a kid – children who would play with her, but who’se games would turn to bullying as soon as they grew bored. They would tease her, steal her things, aggravate, spin her around and do anything else in their power to make the little blind girl feel vulnerable, mainly out of that casual cruelty exhibited by children who have yet to start their path towards emotional maturity. Nimue became more shut in on herself and increasingly willing to lash out, which only made her stand out more and the bullying to harden.

She made friends with a new boy in the village called Amare when she was about 10 years old. Or, more accurately, the new boy made friends with her. The kid gained Nimue’s approval by chasing away her bulliers and retrieving the schoolbag they’d taken. Whatever doubts she might’ve had of Amare disappeared whilst he was helping her recover from a broken leg. They grew closer on a mutual interest in popculture and feeling of being borderline outsiders of the community.

By late puberty the girl had largely made up with her peers to the point of tolerating their presence, but her contact with them still remained shallow. Amare was an exception – in seven years the boy had become her dearest friend and the only non-familymember in whom she dared confide in. She looked up to his compassion, his carpentry skills and cheerfulness, whilst being aware at the back of her mind that one day their relationship might grow beyond mere friendship.

➣ Ongoing story

(Skype roleplay with a friend. Rule of perceptional ridiculousness applies i.e. „The longer a roleplay series has been going on the more nonsensical it seems to anyone not taking part in it.“ I know everyone's OP but I like it that way. :P)

AOR: Nimue's village is destroyed by monstrosities called lurkers. She's saved by one of Sheme's messengers, name Ayo and together they make their way to the city of Ligstad, trying to warn the local police force of the danger and find her dad and Amare. Meets up with another messenger-human pair - Joe and Ann - who work for an organization that eradicates lurkers. Finds her dad eventually, though it turns out he's not human, but instead something akin a lurker. The man denies being a monster though, claiming to have no memory of how he came to be like that. Admits to not being her biological father either and working in the illegal organ trade due to his regenerative abilities.

She starts looking into the subject of her biological father, forming a theory that he must've been a messenger due to her increasingly frequent flashes of Sight. Her theory turns out to be correct, as she pretty much gets kidnapped and tortured on orders of Joe's boss in order to make her powers manifest. Tries to go into hiding with her loved ones and Joe+Ann but fails, which ends up in Amare getting kidnapped. As the rest are off to save him she has a confrontation with Joe's-boss, Akachi, who reveals himself to be her father. Reveals the role she and her stepdad play in his plans, traumatizes her thoroughly in ways I'd rather not get into. Amare is retrieved with injuries and PTSD.

She suffers a breakdown when lurkers start attacking Ligstad. Basically accidentally exchanges her messenger-powers for a set of lurker ones believing it would help her, but instead she loses her connection to Ayo, goes berserk, nearly eats a little kid after a painful transformation and gets shot. Ann dies, but she manages to transfer a part of the woman into her by touching a lurker's soulstone found by her body, which temporarily suppresses her lurker-abilities. She finally gets a chance to talk to goddess Sheme in person, begging Her for help, only for Akachi's plans to come into culmination and him succeeding to kill Sheme. Akachi then offers a temporary fix for the sun-situation and has a live broadcast, going public with the existence of lurkers, messengers and guardians, making himself look like the hero and Nimue&Co as lurker-corrupted villains.

Nimue escapes with her stepdad, Amare, Ayo and other allies. Manages to heal up Amare and the whole group heads out following a lead into the desert. The lead takes them to Yarea's temple. She speaks to him, gets His help in killing Akachi and binds herself to a covenant making herself responsible for whatever happens.

➣ Important Moments

• Meeting Amare when she was 10. The girl was well on her way to becoming shut-in and bitter due to bullying before he showed up .

• AOR: The massacre on her village. She got her hate for the smell of blood from there, being forced to escape (with Ayo's guidance) in a gore-filled car, spending the night in it.

• AOR: Publicly mending up some injured after an attack, before the supernatural was made puclic. As a result she gained a bit of an online following and "Brighteyes" took off online as her "superhero name".

• AOR: The first encounter involving her biological father Akachi and her stepdad Jairus. I'd rather not get into detail with this, but let's say that Akachi could take control over lurkers he's created and it messed her up pretty bad until Ife fixed her with magic.

• AOR: The soon-to-be encounter with Imamu, the being whom Akachi is possibly grooming to be the new sun-deity..

➣ Setting

A world which had truttled along just like ours had, until around 10th century AD when over half the land was covered in sand and rendered uninhabitable. No-one could rationally explain why. By 21st century the technology and culture still bear similarities to our own, but have reached their current point through radically different historical pathways. Global culture and some branches of science and welfare are less developed than ours, whilst certain branches of technology are way more complex than on Earth.

Main religion is a worship of Sheme - the goddess of life and the sun. To a much lesser extent there are also cults to Yarea - the god of moon.

➣ Terminology

• AOR

  as of roleplay, aka. "as of how things are currently taking the roleplay into consideration". I figured I'm gonna be needing to write those three words down a lot.

• Sandlurker, lurker, construct, "sandvamp"

  A monster given life by Yarea. Purged only by natural sunlight. Becomes more powerful the more creatures it devours..

• Messenger

  Bits of Sheme regularily sent to Earth to help humans. Main characteristic is glowy eyes and blindness in the conventional sense, which is made up by a magical sense referred to as Sight.

• Guardian

  Basically a more powerful form of messenger, from before the two gods got into a fight and banished each-other. Like messengers they, too, possess glowy eyes and Sight..

• Bonding

  Linking a messenger or guardian with a human's soul. Gives an extra boost to a messenger's powers and makes it possible for them to "enter" their human and share powers with them. Nimue is the first known person to be bonded to two entities at once - Ayo is bonded to her soul and she is bonded to Amare's.