Cassia Aquino
Place of Birth : Cavatura
Apparent Age : 30 years old
Actual Age : 97 years old
Race : Lamia
Appearance : Sandy blonde hair, dark blue eyes, lithe figure
Equipment : One-handed sword, relic dagger which can paralyze when stabbed into someone
Childhood
Cassia came from a well off family. Her father owned one of the stone quarries in Cavatura which produced marble that was in high demand throughout the Old World. One night when Cassia was 13 years old, a group of brutes burst into the family home. Cassia and her 9 year old sister with whom she shared a room sat up at the sudden sound. It was only moments before two of the men came into their room. They tied the girls down on their beds using strips of their own bed sheets and had their way with the children. When they were finished, one of the brutes slit the sister's throat while the other decided it would be fun to flay Cassia and began on the right side of her stomach. By the time he had created a fair sized wound, he stopped a moment, hearing something outside in the hall. The other man went out to check. After a few minutes, the one with Cassia decided it was time to finish the girl off, bending down to cut her throat as well when a blade erupted through the man's neck, spraying Cassia with his blood. She could taste it in her mouth. The man's body fell to the side, pushed and the girl saw the face of her saviour, a man she knew only as Uncle Tullio, a distant family member she had met a couple of times in her life. He untied her, bidding her to dress as he turned away. As she did so, he told her that there had been more men in the house and that her parents had also been murdered but he would take care of her. She left that night with him.
Maturing
Cassia grew up, constantly on the move with Uncle Tullio who proved to be a good guardian. He taught her to fight with sword and dagger, how to protect herself and much more. After that fateful night, she had begun to notice very small changes in herself and she knew that her uncle did too but nothing was said between them about it. When she was in her late twenties, the changes became more apparent: pale skin, wakefulness at night and her four canines being every so slightly longer and sharper than was normal. It was then that Tullio told her exactly what he was and what she was becoming. At the age of 30, the traits of being Lamia came to maturity in Cassia. Tullio had given her all the knowledge he could about what they were and then left her, telling her it was better for their predatory natures to hunt solitary. And so for the next 47 years, she stalked the land, attacking and feeding off only men who would hurt the innocent until she decided that she would sleep as Tullio had taught her, an extended sleep as prey was somewhat scarce and fear of a creature attacking people was gaining ground. 20 years later, Cassia awoke, finding a different world, a world taken over by the Imperial Order and full of wicked, terrible men. Men whom she feels an intense hatred, even vengeful towards for all she lost as a child. She still carries horrible scars on her torso from the attempted flaying, scars that remain after her transformation.
Lamia
The Lamia are descended from a group of test subjects from the time of the Great War. Wizards had experimented on them, testing various aspects, some of which had later been used to create Confessors and the Chainfire spell. The trait to become Lamia is rare and does not by itself, bring about the condition. The trigger to become Lamia is tasting the blood of another before the age of 30. The spark of gift in the blood of a common person is enough to wake the dormant changes which mature at a rate connected to how far the person is from the age of 30. By that age, the person becomes Lamia, teeth are ready to feed, blood taken in is stored, the spark of gift in that blood can be used to now power abilities which come into being and in addition to that, regenerative capabilities of the body kick into full swing, healing most but the most fatal wounds through the use of the stored blood and stopping the aging process in its tracks. Lamia become immortal if careful. As such though, Lamia are truly rare. Cassia only knows of three in the Old World currently, including herself, Tullio and one other that he had told her he met on his previous travels. A fully mature Lamia is nocturnal by choice, feeling the pull of the nighttime but not a slave to it.
Many of the Lamia abilities are also weakened or do not function in the daytime. There is only one, mostly defensive power that does function, a power which was later refined into becoming the seat of the power of the Confessors. For Lamia, the power to dominate works much the same, playing upon the spark of potential for love within their target and creating a bond to themselves with it so that their target will protect them with their lives. In Lamia though, doing so takes much of their stored blood, of the gift stored within it. For a small amount, they can seize control of a person for a short amount of time, perhaps 5 minutes. The most they can control is for a span of several days but to do so, it will take their whole store of blood, weakening them incredibly and putting them at risk to enter a frenzy for the need for more blood. Using this ability is very dangerous.
Another power is the ability to move about unseen, a precursor to part of the Chainfire spell. It does not cloak the Lamia but makes any who see them forget that they had seen them though unlike Chainfire, it does not erase all memory of the target and only functions at night. At the lowest levels of this power, any movement or sound can break the illusion and draw attention but can last until morning. At higher levels, only loud sounds or an attack will break it but the duration is variable depending on the skill of the Lamia. At the highest level, the Lamia may vanish from sight directing in front of people and move around silently until morning but this takes much energy to accomplish.
The last known ability of a Lamia is that of a kind of heightened senses. It ranges from a form of night vision and heightened hearing but which only amplifies ambient light, not allowing for sight in complete darkness. A more skilled Lamia can tune themselves to be able to see the heat signatures given out which makes hunting in the dark easier though this can be stymied if the night is too dark. They can see people but not other obstacles necessarily in the dark. Further training allows for the combination of both the night vision and heat vision. At the higher levels of the power, it allows the Lamia to see with a kind of gift-sight, allowing vision even in total darkness and at the highest level, combining such vision with the heat signatures.
