Pain

Pain

A Paragon of the Goddess Dira, who reigns over Death and Nature

Female - She/Her pronouns

Age: Appears to be in her 30s

Race: Human, though is technically immortal thanks to Dira

Abilities: Enhanced strength and stamina; a skilled fighter with a bastard sword; the rose and thorns tattoo on her arm can be magically controlled like physical vines, so long as her skin is exposed. Her immortality relies on her continuing to kill and 'feed the earth for Mother Dira' with blood and violence. Hence her taken name, Pain. She knows that if she bores Dira she'll be quickly snuffed out, like so many Paragons before her.

Personality: Smug, easy to laugh, arrogant. Spent too many years fighting against the nature of what she became and now has a relish for the chaotic new life Dira has given her. Loves to fight and drink and fuck, indulges quickly and impulsively in something that seems fun or exciting. Adventurous, but can't stay still for too long, feels like she always has to be moving. Guarded emotionally when it comes to real, true feelings because she knows it would be selfish to inflict herself on any one person for too long. As such, most of her friendships are with other people who live similar lifestyles - rogues, mercenaries, other Paragons who have managed to survive. Deep down wishes that she could love, honestly and deeply, but has long given up on that ever really happening. Prone to melancholy on long, lonely nights when the reality of everything she's done, and must continue to do, catches up to her.

• Missing her right eye after an attack on her town. It was during that attack that she came close to death, and likely would have, if not for Dira's intervention.
• There are many Paragons scattered across the world, they have a mild connection to one another, enough that they can sense when one has died or if one is close. 
• The duty of a Paragon is to serve their deity, or to die. Dira requires blood for the earth; her true domain, it is said in old texts, was for Nature alone, but when humans and other races began to take over with their towns and their wars she encouraged death, killing and chaos to make sure they couldn't destroy too much of what she truly loves.
• Had a simpler life before she became a Paragon as a blacksmith and a fighter in the town militia. Not even sure how long she's been alive for now but still has fairly clear memories of what her past was thanks to a diary she keeps where she recorded everything she could still remember when she first turned. Some Paragons become true monsters, but she didn't want to forget who she was, and that's she's human.

Involvement in The Dread Morrows

Pain travels around taking mercenary work when she can get it, or just hunting people who deserve it when there's no one willing to pay. For the first time in years, she'd begun to notice more bounties on monsters, the kind that only village elders would remember and tell stories of to give the children nightmares. Unseelie, eldritch and charming, banished to the Liminal and bound by the gods. Or so it was supposed to be. These creatures were no fey, however, not like Pain had seen before. They were twisted and awful, defying the bounds of reality as they fought their way into a world they were no longer supposed to be a part of. As she hunted one such creature, she found herself crossing paths with Ennis, an exiled Unseelie prince with a lot of explaining to do and not nearly enough time to do it. Hunted by assassins, he found Pain entirely by chance (by fate, he would like to believe, even if she says it's bullshit), and convinced her to help him kill those hunting him so he could deliver an important message to anyone who would listen. The Unseelie were preparing to return with horrific consequences, led by his brother, a madman possessed by the memory of a long-dead god. Not being one for politics, Pain knew of only one place to take him, a kingdom led by a woman who knew the old magics better than anyone - Chariss, home of Queen Aruna, the Unmother.