Zephne of Heliod

• Zephne overall appears human, if a touch strange. The main tell of her aasimar nature is her eyes: dark schleras with bright orange irises, and, most unusually, goat-like pupils.
• She always carries her censer, which she keeps ever-lit, giving off a thick, aromatic smoke.
• There are always soot stains on Zephne, usually on her hands, face and clothing.
• Zephne has a roman nose!
• She is wearing a simple chiton, a cowled cloak, and bracers on her lower legs, but no shoes.
• Feel free to use her HeroForge model as an accurate reference!
• The markings on her arms are the remnants of arcane shackles. She also has a similar loop around her shoulders and collarbone. Take as much artistic liberty as you like with these!
• You can draw her with or without the wings - they haven't appeared yet in-canon, bt when they do, they will take the form of intangible, tattered phoenix wings. She cannot fly with them, but they do look badass.
• Her celestial revelation takes the form of Radiant Consumption - bright sunlight streaming from her eyes and mouth, burning any who dare draw near. She does not yet know how to control this.

Zephne's earliest memories smell of smoke. The kind that carries death in its embers. The kind that preceeds an ashen, purified berth. The kind that scorches sins from the earth.

Zephne was raised by an isolated, nomadic sect of worshippers, following the dark god Erebos. Interaction with those outside the sect was stictly prohibited. Her only experiences of other peoples and cultures were during Purifications - ritualised razings of campsites, villages, and even the unfortunate souls who sought help from the sect but failed to conform to its rulings.
The atmosphere within the sect was strict and unyielding - the smallest deviations from the accepted rules would face heavy punishment, and followers were expected to admit and administer their own discipline, most commonly by placing their hands into the flame of a burning torch.

Zephne was found by Erebos' priests as a baby, ash-coated and crying, but otherwise unharmed by the flames that had torn through her family's village the prior night. The priests recognised her survival as a sign that she was a child of the sun god Heliod, Erebos' rival deity. The clergy decided to bring her up as one of rheir own, as an act of defiance against Heliod - although not before placing Arcane Shackles onto her, suppressing her aasimar nature. Zephne grew up unaware that she was anything more than human.

On the dawn of Zephne's 18th birthday, something was different. She began her day like any other - prayers over the ashes of the previous night's fire, singing softly to herself as she took to the day's work. She was not interupted for the whole morning - in fact, not a soul spoke to her in the entire encampment that day. But as the sun began to set and the fires were lit and stocked with fresh herbs to burn for the night ahead, she felt a heavy pair of hands on her shoulders.
Before she even had time to think, Zephne found herself forced to her knees at the base of the burning pyre, close enough to feel its heat prickling against the top of her bowed head.

They had raised the goat - and now it was time to sacrifice it.

What happened next was hard for Zephne to understand. She burnt, surely. She felt the flames creeping up her dress and licking at her skin - her world was fire, and burning, and burning. Until she realised it wasn't the fire that was burning her. A great light was forming within Zephne, forcing its way out, searing everything in its path, including her.
Only when the dawn's first rays graced the ash-cloaked clearing did Zephne realise that she was still alive.

Terrified, she ran.

"At once the sacrificial goat
and the purifying fire that claims it."

Zephne's most initially obvious theme is that of sacrifice, but perhaps more important to her overall story is the idea of rebirth and resurrection. She has just escaped from a cult, its flames quite literally licking at her heels as she ran, and now she must discover who she is amongst the ashes. She is the metaphorical phoenix - as her aasimar nature reveals itself, this will become more and more clear.
Zephne's story touches on themes of religious trauma, moral puritanism, self-determinism, and singing strange songs for your own comfort.