Kára Styrdóttir

PLAYER INFORMATION

NAME: Justine
AGE: 24
CONTACT: faileneume
EXISTING CHARACTERS: n/a

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CHARACTER INFORMATION

TYPE: OC
NAME: Kara Styrdottir
AGE: 1000
MOTIVATION: Survival, both her own and of other supernatural creatures
ARRIVAL SCENARIO: The Tear

HISTORY:

Kara Styrdottir was born in the early 11th century, into a world where legends, gods, and myths are real. Both her parents were warriors and Kara followed in their footsteps, training as a shield maiden. By the time she was in her twenties, Kara was quite an accomplished young warrior, and when a rival clan attacked, she was one of the first to leap to defend her people. The battle was a gruesome one, and although Kara managed to cut down the attacking clan's leader, she was mortally wounded in the process, and died not long after.

This is where things got interesting for her. Not all valkyries are born, some are women who died in battle and were given the opportunity to do more than simply wait for Ragnorak to come. Kara was taken to Fólkvangr, where Freyja offered her the choice to become a valkyrie, and Kara accepted withou hesitation. For a long time, life (or... undeath) was good. Kara missed her parents, but she befriended her fellow valkyries with ease, and did her duty as she was supposed to, leading the slain to Valhalla and ensuring they were ready for the final battle of Ragnorak.

And then monotheism took over.

The growth of Christianity is what affected Kara's own world the most, because as it spread and various 'pagan' religions were being lost in favour of it, the gods of those religions began to withdraw. Power comes from worship, and with their worshippers dwindling, most of the gods decided to cut their losses and close themselves off with the followers they'd already gathered. The gates of Asgard were closed, the beings there given the choice to leave and be cut off from their people, or to stay and be cut off from the world. Similar choices were being made throughout other religions, both in the East and the West, although some gods remained while their people were untouched by Christianity and Islam.

For Kara, the idea of being locked away from the world for an unknowable amount of time was terrifying; it would be like being trapped, and being locked out seemed easier to cope with. If only in part because she hoped that one day the gods would return. Some days, she regrets her choice, but that's a conversation for another time.

In the space left by gods, there was a scramble for power amongst supernatural creatures, that eventually resulted in a council being formed. With humanity expanding and monotheism leaving little room for anything that didn't fit into their world view, the council decided that they should hide themselves away. Thus the Masquerade was born.

Although the balance of power would occasionally shift within the newly dubbed High Council, it was fairly stable, with certain species having more power than others and preferring to keep things how they were to further their own interests. The politics of the supernatural aren't all that important to Kara's life; she works for the council on occasion, but only as a PI/bounty hunter/parole officer, and she's made a point not to get involved in all the inner workings, for her own sanity. She doesn't care who's in charge, as long as she's getting paid and no one's trying to kill her.

For several centuries, life carried. Kara drifted from place to place, tracking down stray creatures if they broke any of the councils rules, picking up work in various countries when the opportunity arose, or simply wasting decades doing nothing but drinking when things got a little too hard to handle. She made sure to keep up with the developments of the world, adapting and adjusting where it was necessary, but she remained more of an observer than anything else.

Things changed again, for everyone, in the 21st Century. Throughout history there had been various pushes to break the Masquerade and reveal the supernatural to humans, but it was always decided against, until it started becoming nearly impossible to remain secret. CCTV, cellphone cameras, and the internet, all made it increasingly difficult for the supernatural creatures to keep themselves secret. That isn't to say that no one knew about them; a number of governments worked alongside an assortment of beings, but the general public was kept in the dark for a very long time.

Eventually the High Council decided to reveal their existence to humanity, thinking it was better to control the information while they still could. It happened in small increments; governments informed more of their workers, those beings who'd created normal lives for themselves told friends or family, a few creatures revealed themselves within the small communities they were in. By the time the media was starting to report on the rumours, the High Council had reached an agreement with the United Nations, and a press conference was held.

People were, understandably, a little shocked. For about two years, there were a lot of protesting and inquiries and, well, witch hunts across the world. The supernatural beings had been prepared for a backlash, and as such retreated to safe places while the storm raged, allowing the High Council and it's new public representative team handle all the problems that arose when humanity found out that the things that go bump in the night are real. It was stressed that no one meant humanity any harm, that they would be self-policing, but would also follow the laws of the countries they were living in.

It wasn't perfect, people were still unhappy, but things started to settle down and life moved on, as it always does. Without any reason to keep themselves secret, supernatural beings began to draw a little more attention to themselves, in some cases using their abilities to their advantages, often for monetary profit. But the High Council watches them closely, to ensure no one steps over any lines and endangers the shaky peace with humanity, and Kara found herself with a full-time job again. Since the Masquerade was abandoned, she's found herself working almost entirely for the Council, tracking down rogue creatures who've been hurting or killing humans in a way that could attract too much scrutiny, and either bringing them in, or eliminating them as a last resort. It isn't a job she particularly enjoys, but she knows that it's necessary to ensure humanity doesn't decide that the supernatural needs to be wiped out.

PERSONALITY:

Kara is, in one word, old. While not necessarily a personality trait, her age does influence a lot of her personality. Being somewhere around 1000 years old means that Kara has been around for a long time, and she's seen pretty much everything there is to see. As a result she tends to be very pragmatic dealing with situations, especially those involving humans. It influences how she relates to people, how she lives her life, how she thinks about the world. A lot of the time, she likes being immortal and appreciates having been able to experience so much. There's a part of Kara that really admires humanity, despite the fact she tends to act as though she looks down on them. Watching how humanity has grown is fascinating to her and she respects it, the same way she respects how much they can pack into their tiny little lives.

Immortality has given her maybe too much time to create a persona for herself. Which is to say that a lot of how Kara acts isn't genuine, or at least not entirely genuine, despite the fact she claims to prefer honesty. She will be honest with people, but only if it doesn't require her to admit anything about herself.

That's partly why her relationships with people are kept purposefully casual. She hasn't had a romantic relationship for an incredibly long time, and doesn't really plan to have one in the future. She also doesn't really have friends, there's just people whose names she happens to remember, or who she'll go for a drink with if they promise to pay, but she doesn't make a habit of forming any sort of emotional connection. Before most of them retreated with the gods, she was close to her fellow valkyries, but it's been a long time since she's seen most of them. It doesn't necessarily bother her, but she does get a bit lonely on occasion, it's just something that she doesn't like to admit to herself. She tells herself she's perfectly happy by herself, which she is most of the time. While she does sleep with people (of any gender), she primarily restricts it to one night stands.

Despite her reluctance to get close to people, Kara isn't cruel. While she can often be blunt, but she's rarely actually mean to anyone, just a bit cold. She shows she cares in somewhat strange ways, often by forcing people to learn hard lessons they don't want to, or telling them point blank to get their shit together. Once upon a time, she was warm and caring and cheeky, but a lot of that has been buried with time.

There are exceptions to everything, and Kara's exception is warriors. She can't actually separate what's part of being a valkyrie, and what's her own feelings when it comes to soldiers/warriors, but she feels herself drawn to them and often ends up being quite protective.

That said, for someone who's so damn old, she can be kind of immature. The thing about the supernatural is that their behaviour can become somewhat 'stuck' in the age they were when they gained immortality, or 'stuck' at a time to reflect their nature. For example, a dryad in spring will be very childlike, due to the association of spring with birth, and in the same way, Kara is still somewhat of a young adult. She can be petulant and a bit of a smart ass, especially if she feels like someone is mocking her. Along the same lines, she tends to talk back to people she shouldn't talk back to, like incredibly old and powerful creatures. To Kara, respect is something earned through actions, not because someone was born into it. Her immaturity doesn't extend to her sense of humour; she does have one, somewhere, but it's more inclined towards dry jokes or sarcasm, (she hates puns), but it is one of the most human things about her.

The other main aspect of Kara's personality is the fact she's a warrior. While she doesn't wade into battle like she used to, she's still a fighter, and it's still played a huge part in who she is as a person, and she isn't sure how to be anything else (or if she even wants to). It's the reason that she's never settled down after leaving Valhalla, and the reason that she works for the council despite not feeling any loyalty to them. Kara just doesn't know what else to do. She's battle hardened, and that hasn't left a lot of room for anything else, so she copes by filling her long life with work.

Kara is wired for battle, so she's incredibly helpful in a fight or anything that requires similar strategy (she's great in car chases, when they happen), but it isn't so applicable in the real world, and that's left her floundering in a lot of situations. It's contributed to her being a little rough around the edges, because whenever she encounters circumstances she doesn't know how to handle, she covers it with bluster. And occasionally tries to provoke a fight just so she'll be in familiar territory again.

Both her age, the period she was born in, and the fact she's a warrior by nature has had a big impact on Kara's morality. While she has adapted as time passed and cultural standards changed, the fact of the matter is that she was born in a time when morals were a little bit different to what people expect in the twenty first century. Combined with the fact that she's old and effectively immortal, Kara tends to think on the large scale rather than small. She won't kill or hurt someone for no reason, she isn't sadistic, but she will if it's for the 'greater good', and is willing to make sacrifices if necessary. She also tends to take a bit of a 'live and let live' approach to what other people do with their lives; while she can be slightly judgemental, and will call someone an idiot if she thinks they're being one, Kara isn't going to go out of her way to change someone's way of life, even if what they're doing is illegal or dangerous. If she spent her life getting involved in everyone else's shit, she'd never get anything else done.

At the end of the day, Kara is functional, but only because she's carefully created the circumstances in which she operates. She has limited contact with people, fills her time with work to keep herself busy, and has found a few hobbies that distract her the rest of the time (music being the main of these). Her life is one of constant movement, because settling down risks making connections, it risks interacting with the world in a way she can't control, and she doesn't know how to do that.

SKILLS / POWERS:

• Immortality/invulnerability: Kara can die, but it's a hard task to manage. She doesn't age, heals quicker than a human, can take harder hits without it damaging her, is mostly immune to poisons (they make her unwell, but won't kill her, and this goes the same for drugs/alcohol), and can't get sick.
• Enhancements: She's stronger and faster than a human, with reflexes and stamina to match, and she has a natural affinity for weaponry (along with having practiced for centuries). Think along the lines of Captain America rather than Superman, in terms of strength and speed; she's enhanced, but not, you know, crazy powerful.
• Animal affinity: For swans, ravens and horses, all animals associated with Valkyries. She doesn't like to talk about it, except to hang out with ravens occasionally. She hates swans.
• Wings: Her wings are a bit over ten feet wide when stretched out fully, which logically shouldn't actually allow flight, even if Kara is on the smaller side. But. Magic. It's also magic that allows them to completely disappear when they're tucked tight against her back.
• Blessings: If someone is going into battle, Kara give them what amounts to a blessing, increasing their abilities a tiny bit, along with giving them a little extra luck. If someone actually believes in the old Norse gods, Kara can straight up choose their fate on the battlefield, although obviously that doesn't happen all that often anymore.
• Senses: There's two aspects to this, the first being a sense of death that Kara has, allowing her to tell if a lot of death has occurred, if it's been violent, etc etc. It's especially strong in a battle field, and she can often get a sense of whether someone has been close to/has died before. The other aspect of this is a general sense of other supernatural creatures; sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, but she can usually tell if there's something else non-human lurking around.
• Supernatural osmosis: Because I can't think of a better term for it. Basically any supernatural creatures tend have a bit of a rub off effect on the mortals around them, whether it's people or animals. Some effects are specific to a certain creature (someone who spends a long time with a dryad will find themselves with a green thumb), while others are fairly generalized, such as a longer life span. This is why Kara's raven is like 80 years old.

In terms of general skills, Kara has a few of those:
• Combat: With weapons (incl. guns) and hand to hand - some of this comes from her gifted abilities, but a lot of it is just due to the fact she's been training for centuries
• Survival: She can hunt, make her own shelter, create a fire from scratch, and do all those fun things that mean she could essentially live in the wild if she wanted to
• Weapon making: While she's no blacksmith, Kara knows the theory behind making blades, arrows, and shields. With the proper tools, she could make her own small armoury, though it would only be serviceable, not brilliant.

NERFING: Kara's powers will be nerfed upon game entry, and I'll spend the 5 points on keeping her sword powered, if that's okay!

INVENTORY: an +VLFBERH+T sword (gifted by Freyja, it never dulls and can cut through anything) with its scabbard, a SIG Sauer P224 SAS with a spare clip, the clothes she's wearing, her wallet, and her "pet" raven, Vinr.

TEST DRIVE LINKS: tdm top level
SAMPLE ONE: top level at another game
SAMPLE TWO: aww she made a friend