Novaehollandiae (Lyrebird) (Phinda Archimedes)

Basic Backstory

Phinda is an adventure, explorer and inventor. She loves to do anything that allows her to discover things about the world around her and drags her fellow guild leaders with her into all the adventures she likes to embark on. She has two main goals that take up most of her time, the first is to find out and record all the legends from each subspecies in the world of Animalia. The second, well, that's a bit more personal between her and her friends.

Full Backstory

Raised as a chick by Latham Archimedes Phinda spent all of her childhood knowing nothing about her parents but hoping that one day she would find them or they would find her. Once or twice she would ask Latham about them but he would always quickly change the subject instead distracting her with some kind of nick knack he was working on or book he we researching.

Her uncle Latham was always looking into things or trying to get something to work together to the point where the people in the nearby town called him ' Latham the mad scientist'. His passion quickly rubbed off onto Phinda causing her to have a love for inventing and research herself. Even though the nickname 'mad scientist' started to be applied to her as well, she didn't mind. The name was one of many things that connected her and her uncle together and she loved that.

Although her and her uncle researched and explored many things, the one thing that Latham was obsessed with researching was the legend of the birth of the Animalia species. Most of their time was pored into trying to find the secret locations the legend told about in hopes that they would make history and find out what treasures they held.

However as Phinda got older her own fascination found root in the many different legends that each Animalian subspecies had. She found that almost every different subspecies had their own legend and story that described why they were they way they were and learning about these legends as well as the truth behind her became her own little passion project.  That isn't to say she didn't still help her uncle out when he needed it, but just that she had her own interest as well.

The two were happy together in their large domed home, enjoying filling it to the brim with odd machinery and papering the walls with notes about their findings, however one day tragedy struck. Their home was raided by a small army that had been sent from a kingdom quite a ways away. They separated her and her uncle from each other and tied her up as they smashed everything in the place demanding that she tell them how to find and get into the fabled hideouts the legend her uncle was researching told about. Unsure what to do about these invaders Phinda stayed quite and played dumb insisting that she knew nothing about what they were talking about. They dug through everything searching for something but seemed to come up empty. Upset they group eventually left leaving the place quite messed up and Phinda tied up. 

With a bit of quick thinking she managed to get herself out of her restraints and searched the place for her uncle only to find that he to had been tied up and looked much worse for wear then she had. Untieing him she asked him what was going on and he responded that those Animalian were here to take their research and use it for their own selfish gain. However before they could talk much more smoke started to fill the room. The Animalian who had just been there didn't seem content to just push them around and had decided to light the place up.

Panicking Latham told her he needed to grab something before running to a desk on the far side of the room with Phinda watching him unsure what he was doing as she was more concerned trying to find a way out before the fire got to big. He soon returned with a large book in his hands declaring that they could leave now. But before they could get very far a large beam from the domed roof cracked in half and fell down right on top of Latham crushing half of his body. Unable to get the debree off and half of it impaling him Latham told her to take the book and go before it was to late for her. He told her that the book held important information about the legend and her parents and that he knew she was smart enough to do what he was never able to do and find the hidden locations. When she did she would need the phrase redacted to let her in. 

Having run out of time to ask any more questions she grab the book and crying managed to find a way out of the building. However when she did the Animalian who had lit the place on fire started to chase her demanding the book she had in her arms. Coughing from the smoke and tears she managed to escape and hide from them till they gave up and left.

She spent a good number of years after this sneaking around and trying to stay under the radar. She managed just find finding ways to make side through her natural skill with building things and she was never picky on where she slept so when a free hay pile was offered she took it. In any down time she had she would read the book her uncle had given her and even do her best to add/ improve it. The book itself was a collection of everything he had learned about the creation legend and within it was a note to her from him. It said a number of things, but the most important was that he believed her parents had been part of a secret group intent on keeping the hide outs hidden. He claimed he had found her at an entrance to one of the hideouts, but choose to take care of her first rather then try to find a way inside the hide out. He attempted to return to the spot later but was never able to find it again. He had however heard the secret phrase to open the door, the phrase he had told Phinda before he had died.

As she read through his notes nearly every night she new that her new mission in life would be to finish his research and actually find the hidden locations. He was unable to complete it, so she would have to do it for him. She also knew that she would have to keep the phrase a secret, something only she knew in order to keep it away from those that had killed her uncle. After all if they were ruthless enough to kill him, who knows what they would do with the treasures inside the hidden locations. As a lyre bird she wouldn't need to write down the phrase, she had memorized it the moment she had heard it and would be able to replicate it perfectly, she just needed to find the locations now.

She spent a number of years traveling around doing her best, but it was hard to find time to research on the run and she longed for the days when she could spend hours studying in a safe place with her uncle. However she had to spend most of her time looking for her next meal and place to sleep. Then one day when she was getting something to eat in a small restaurant a group of armed Animalian burst into the place and pinned her down claiming that they were taking her to jail for treason. Unable to fight them they dragged her away, however before she had gone into the town she had hid the book just on the outskirts of the town just encase making it so the armed Animalian had no clue that it existed. 

She spent the next few weeks traveling to the town that the men had been sent from where they then locked her up for even more time. Eventually she was brought before the ruler of the town and told that she and her uncle had conspired against him and wanted to destroy this city, however if she would give him her research he would let her go. Refusing they locked her back up in an attempt to get her to waver, however while she was locked up she ran into 3 other Animalian that would change her life.

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She now found herself stuck in a cell with Nalla, Addo, and Motlosi. they break out together and form a guild hopeing to find the truth behind the ancient legend that Latham had spent his life researching.

Outfit

Main Outfit| Her main adventuring outfit consists of a pair of heeled brown Aves boots that have a bronze soul on the front as well as a bunch of bronze buttons running up the outside edge of them that keep the tall boots tight around her leg. Her pants are a desaturated brown color, tuck into her boots and have a seam running up the outside edge. On her right leg a small belt is often strapped around her leg, holding a bag filled with knick-knacks. The bag has a bronze button holding it closed. Her dress is pulled up on her right side, giving her easy access to her leg bag. Her underskirt is a red-ish brown color with a tan fringe around the edge. Her top dress is a unsaturated red that buttons up with bronze buttons on her right side. It does not have sleeves but does have a taller neck cuff. She often wears gloves that are the same color as her underskirt. Around her neck a pair of large goggles can often befound. The goggles base is the same color as her underskirt and gloves and has a off white padding around the black lenses.

She is a Novaehollandiae has dark brown modern eyes. Basic species reference sheet can be found here. Please look at this for common errors people make when drawing this species.

More Info

Ideas for what you could draw her doing:

-inventing stuff with Latham (tinkering around)
-reading a book or being read to by Latham
-watching Latham do some experiments
-bulding her goggles with Latham
-closely examining some sides for clues(by self or with Latham)
-running away from burning home with book in her arms crying
-hiding from bad guys holding book tightly
-sleeping in a barn of on hey with book nearby and looking worn down
-fixing something at someones house (or farm or shop) in exchange for a place to sleep/food
-getting locked up with other guild members

-exploring a new location (cave, forest, city etc)
-hanging out with any of the other guild leaders
-fiddling with machinery/ building a crazy invention
-writing in the Animalia Almanac
-asking someone about their subspecies legend
-running from a fight
-fiddling with her googles on her face
-falling asleep reading her uncle's messy notes
-rolling some sides and trying to 'read' them to see if they tell her anything
-giving a inspirational speech
-trying out a new invention

Song

a song about how she is trying to learn about her past as well as the worlds past

a song about how she misses her uncle and tries to live up to his work