Riin-daro

“Riin is Riin! No one else. One will keep it so.”

Name: Riin-daro
Goes by: Riin
Race: cathay khajiit
Gender: female
Rank: executioner
Alignment: neutral good
Birthday: 19th of Hearthfire (september)
Birth Sign: the lady
Height: 5'6, 5'9 if counting ears
Afflictions: dro-m’athra
playlist

Skills -
Light blades 2, ranged warfare 2: The skills she’s known the longest. Riin was a warrior long before she found the need to learn magic, and she never heads into danger without her armor, sword, and shield. Not all problems require a clash of steel, but when they do, she’s well prepared. Perhaps less so than previously, though - while she still has the experience and practice, one arm makes it a fair bit harder.

Restoration 3, alteration 3, conjuration 3: Simply summarized, mysticism magic, with a dash of spells from each of the schools many mysticism spells are considered a part of. She's got things to be fixing, and considers this the main way to accomplish said fixing.

Nature magic 1: Basic communication skills with her bird Ravi. They have to talk somehow, after all!

Illusion 2: Once, a friend suggested a spell to help her out. Now, she casts it on herself nearly all the time.

Enchanting 2

Necromancy 1, shadow magic 1: The skills she hardly uses, in fact barely mentions she can do at all.

Appearance: Even without seeing her face, there’s something about Riin that seems… off. While her blue and silver armor and her horned helmet might make her seem like just another battle-ready warrior, there’s an unplaceable feeling of being unsettled one might feel upon looking at her, and a strange twitch in her tail as it moves in time to an invisible tune. Riin-daro does her best to keep hidden (from those not in the Order) what she is, and hopes most would see her as just a slightly odd khajiit. Luckily for her, most strangers do end up thinking that, as long as she doesn't get too close for too long.

It’s a bit harder to ignore with her helmet, or any of her armor, off - dark, shadowy fur, bright blue stripes slashing through, and pale, pupil-less, all-white eyes. All very distinctive markings, and all very telling for anyone who knows what dro-m’athra are. (It's far less known outside of Elsweyr. So she simply goes to her homeland very little.)

Her right arm is usually kept close to her chest, wrapped in fabric from some healed-wrong injury. Like so many things about her appearance, she tries to not make a big deal about it, even as she does everything possible with her left arm instead. Her hair stays tied back in a ponytail, and there's a pendant around her neck - a small charm of a waxing moon, side by side with a crystal star.

Personality: A puzzle enjoyer and self-proclaimed problem solver, who hides her own challenges and fears behind a bright smile. She was far quieter, more cautious, when she first joined the Order, unsure if she could trust all these strange new people, but now that she does, she is cheerful to a fault. Friendly, encouraging. Content to simply be around the group that’s accepted her, whether fighting against danger together, uncovering mysteries, or just hanging out. These people have made her feel like she has a chance, a place in the world again, and she is unendingly loyal to them.

When she must interact with strangers, she’s cautious, but kind. It’s been a long time since her old mercenary days and her experiences have given her much to think about. Perhaps in helping others, she’ll also help herself; perhaps it's a habit, started out of spite to her past; or perhaps she just can't bring herself to do nothing when someone's in need, even if that's at the expense of herself. She's one to give second chances, to heal the enemy and apologize if they back down from a fight, to regret every life taken.

Some might say Riin gives too many chances, worries about others to the detriment of herself. She's been told her trust is too easily placed, too easily taken advantage of, and maybe it is. Even as Riin considers mysteries just interesting puzzles to be solved, she doesn't see people that way. People are friends, if in the Order, and if not... perhaps not friends, but still important, full of potential, realized or not. Maybe it’s odd, to have such a strong idealist in such a group as the Order, but it simply comes back to loyalty. They were the first to accept her, and thus she will stand by them and call them friends, agreement in morals or not.

Outside of being with or going on jobs for the Order, she’s essentially a recluse, having little contact with anyone. When she enters a town, or needs to come into contact with strangers, it's with helmet on and interactions friendly, yet also as short as she can make them. She has her own little cabin in the woods she can return to as she pleases, far away from any towns, and beyond that, she wanders, not just to see new places - though that is nice - or meet new people, but to seek more knowledge, hopeful that the next discovery might be the one that fixes her. Staying still, silent, only leaves her with the whispers of Namiira’s cats, tempting her to return to them. (‘Riin will not return,’ she whispers sometimes in quiet fights with the darkness, full of determination. And when it’s over and she’s bought herself a bit more time, she keeps it to herself as best she can.)

History: There’s a gap in her memory. A large one.

She knows the time before - a life growing up in Senchal, playing with other ja’khajiit, wanting to discover new things and signing up to be a mercenary. The freedom of doing whatever in between odd jobs, the excitement of discovery. And then one day a job went wrong, and -

- She knows the time after - coming back to herself as if from a dream, finding what had happened to her piece by piece. Hiding and not being trusted and feeling so alone until she endeavored to fix all her problems, to learn the magic to set things right, till she found the Order and a new home.

All that is simple. It’s the middle part she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know quite how long she was under the influence of the Bent Dance, or what she did, or who she might have hurt. And while sometimes she gets glimpses of things in her dreams, or when some object or taste or smell brings up long lost feelings and memories…

…She doesn’t know the full picture, the full amount of what she did during the in-between. And, if she’s being honest with herself, she’s not too sure she even wants to know. 

flowers by the moon (animation)