Ari

Ari learns that the foundation of her faith is based on a lie. She was brought up in a sect that believes death is destruction. But death is the opposite of life, it is not destruction but instead it's renewal. 

Death is ruthless and unyielding, but also fleeting, which is a kindess. Life is wonderful but also ephemeral. Everything must end. But then something new can begin. Ari starts an insane quest to find her Goddess, and seek out what it means to be an apostle of Death, and subsequently learns the value of life. 

The stones on her wings are the heartstones ripped from the chests of people in ritual sacrifice (execution). They are bound to her soul and to her magic, but carry an echo of their life and souls. One is the echo of a young girl raised to be a tribute, as she has more natural magical power than others and is a good candidate for a heartstone. She was shunned so they would not miss her, as the only thing that awaits a tribute is death. The other is of an old man, bitter, angry and violent. His death was forceful and disrespectful, and that resentment lingers. Those born to the sect's 'chosen' are given heartstones to fly, and they are assimilated into a persons magic by forcefully dominating the echos of life that live in those heartstones. The number of heartstone wings is determined by rank and natural apptitude for magic. They are, at least a little bit, visually inspired by Angel wings. 

Ari's wings allow her to fly (she has two heartstones, and eventually gains two more from people who give their heartstones to her in tragic circumstances) and they float around her as she moves. They do not need to be behind her back to fly and Ari regularly uses them as blunt weapons when fighting. The 'primary feathers' (which are made of metal) are sharp and need constant maintenance. She is able to use those few sharp 'feathers' to slice things as well. Her fighting style is mostly magical, and in close quarters she uses metal clawed gauntlets in conjunction with her sharp feathers to slice, and wings as blunt objects.

Her domain of magic is death magic, which involves a lot of healing, debuff spells and damage overtime spells. The healing always comes with a cost, and she must provide blood or vitality for the spells. She regularly carries around magical plants to siphon vitality from, to heal the party. She is a competent hunter, forager and poitioner and is constantly on the look out for herbs to make healing and buff potions so she doesn't need to use her healing magic. She eventually learns from a poison specialist and adds poison bombs and poisonous weapon coatings to her repertoire. She does not like using the healing aspect of her magic, and her other spells siphon vitality from her targets so the cost is much less than healing spells and only demands her mana and small drops of vitality, which in this case, it only eats up her mana and stamina.

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I have finally decided that she will end up as the aspect of Death. Im not sure how to plot point that out but her journey ends up with her killing Death. A renewal, a new perspective on death. Death asks and gives and shows her how to be Death and what her duties are. But in the end, she becomes Death, the cycle begins a new. The symbolism of old Death was nature, wild, unfair and accompanied depictions of predators hunting prey. There's more stuff there like giving back yourself to the land so it may be renewed. Death comes for us all and you can not escape it. New Death (Ari) is accompanied by symbolism of angels and scavengers. Death is a friend we must all meet, a change we must all face, but she is kind and she is just and she will try to give you a peace.