Name: Amaranthe

Occupation: Has been many things in her life, but mostly a Scholar

Actual Age/Apparent Age: at least 1000, but appears in her mid/late 20s

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Demisexual

Race/Species: Dragon

Appearance:
At first glance, Amaranthe appears like any slender woman might. Flowing brunette hair leading into a slim neck. Slender arms rest next to a slim waist, and over all, she stands at an average height for a woman. Her skin remains sunkissed, even though she often wears a hood. Human forms can be much more fragile than scales, after all. She learned the hard way that the desert sun can burn, and when it does, it makes her scales itch deep down in a way she just can’t reach.

Though, it doesn’t take long for anyone to notice her eyes, a bright pale blue that might be described as silver in the right light, ever watchful, sometimes filled with sorrow or longing, and often carrying a hint of humor for some joke only she might know. Amaranthe carries herself with a certain air telling that she would bow to no one. Unless..that someone is a child. She will not hesitate to crouch down to help or roll around to play, no matter how regal she may appear, often resulting in an imagery of royalty playing in the dirt. Not that she cares.

In her dragon form, Amaranthe stands easily as tall as a house with a wingspan to match. She may seem foreboding at that size, but often chooses that form only when it blends well, night time and shadows, or when the storms rage and most are inside safe from that wrath. Her scales shine in a dark royal blue that matches the night sky perfectly. When spread, her wings shimmer with what some might consider lightning. A storm cloud with wings, some have called her, a description that isn’t too far off.

Even as a dragon, the same silvery blue eyes remain, just as bright, and still with that hint of humor. Still just as expressive. What might be described as sparks of lightning can be seen shimmering down her scales, as if the light touched it just right while she turned in the sun, even if there is no sun to glint off her scales.


Personality:
Amaranthe has been around long enough that she stopped worrying what others might think of her. Though, she is hesitant to divulge her alternate form, being one of the few remaining, a creature of myth and legend herself. She has seen what has happened to her kind, leaving her to times of pure sorrow while she mourns the losses. Through time, she had learned to allow herself one week out of the year. One week to mourn her kind, to give in to the deep longing and loss that comes from outliving everyone, watching generations pass by, knowing she will remain.

During that week, she often hides herself away. Having not found anyone currently to share that burden, to understand where she is coming from and why it hurts so deeply, Amaranthe chooses to spend it alone. Though, in the past, she has allowed another to grieve with her.

Beyond that week, Amaranthe is bright and cheerful. She adores people and the variety they bring, and more than anything, she adores knowledge. Centuries of learning has taught her that there is ever something more to learn, and she hoards knowledge much the same as most of her kind might hoard gold. Though, she can come across as stingy to share said knowledge. Only when the time is right, and never lording it over anyone, often taking those unaware by surprise with just how much she knows.


Abilities/Skills:
        Alternate form: Amaranthe can shift between three varieties, human, dragon, and a blend between the two, though she prefers to avoid the latter, choosing instead to remain between the two.

Immune to heat and lightning: While this is mostly true for either form, Amaranthe is far more susceptible in her human form than dragon. Heat can burn her, but it would take an immense amount to kill her. Lightning, however...one rarely can be injured by something that is so very much a part of themselves…

Controls lightning: While most dragons breathe fire, Amaranthe is unusual in that she breathes lightning itself. Sparks of it will fork from her open maw in dragon form, and even in human form she can control it to a point, sending smaller sparks much like mild fireworks from her fingertips, though it is much less damaging than the full form.

Impenetrable scales: Impenetrable, yes, but not without flaws, weaknesses that she guards from everyone, keeping that knowledge held close as a matter of personal safety.

History:
Amaranthe’s history stretches far and wide. She has seen many come and go, mourning each loss in the given time she has allowed for such things. She watched her own kind hunted out of fear, for sport, for the sheer reason in some places that that was simply what one did. It got to the point that there are now only a handful she could name that still even exist from her once proud race.

Through the years, she has watched time and again as misconceived perceptions have led to the downfall of many things that did not deserve that fate. Amaranthe chose to always learn both sides of a conflict before forming an opinion, for fear of inadvertently treating another the same way her kind has always been treated.

Amaranthe has spent time wandering, choosing to never be in the same place for long, and as such has seen much of the world. She has been to Al Jalasa many times, though is now returning after being away for almost a lifetime. The city has a way of drawing her back no matter how far she roams. She has spent time as a healer, a protector, a traveler, a sellsword, and many other occupations through the years, learning from each one as she went.

The last time she was in Al-Jalasa (about 50 years ago), however, she came far too close to learning something the Dog didn't want her to know. Finding his Guards seeking her out in a darkened street, she fled the city, finding her way to the Naga Tribe and the shelter they offered. It wasn't until one of their smallest pestered her enough that she showed the young Naga girl her scales, thereby befriending the snakeling and eventually earning a place in the tribe as the adopted aunt.


Other information: At this time in the realm, Dragons have been considered extinct for the last 300 years, the handful that remain taking great care to maintain this idea and hide their nature, explaining it away as something else when they cannot. Most full-bred dragons, and those half-breeds that can, tend to remain in a distinctly human-looking form, but those that are unable to shift their form at all, use other explanations for why they look the way they do.

Only full-bred dragons can breathe any sort of fire or other aspects, as well as hold the ability to shift into a full dragon form. Half-breed are either stuck with whatever form they were born as, or a few have managed to shift into a hybrid form, appearing with both human and draconic features.

Anything that threatens the idea of dragons now being extinct tends to draw swift attention of the few that remain, often stolen away and either hidden or destroyed.

***This is meant as a basic run-down of dragon mythos in Al-Jalasa. If you have any specific questions, please PM them to me to sort out. :)