Arinara
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Arinara Tarasim | |
| Player: @Arinara | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper / Controller |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Arinara |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Tarasian |
| Age: | 129 |
| Height: | 5'6" |
| Weight: | 135 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | White/grey |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Tarasian |
| Occupation: | Hero, Freelance Exorcist |
| Place of Birth: | Tarasis |
| Base of Operations: | Talos Island, Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Deceased |
| Known Powers | |
| Teleportation, Soul Binding, Weather Control (minor) | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Martial Training (bladed weapons) | |
| Equipment | |
| Rapier/Scimitar, miscellaneous herbs/arcane devices | |
| No additional information available. | |
Arinara Tarasim is a Tarasian, from a city called Tarasis. Brought to Paragon City shortly before the Malleus Mundi incident, this woman is seemingly the last of her people, now dedicated to protecting the city and its inhabitants from the various mystic threats that seem to press in on all sides.
Contents |
History
The Tarasim
Arinara calls her people The Tarasim, people from a city called Tarasis. While she's vague on the details, it would appear that Tarasis was a place "far from here", plucked from the mortal world and isolated in some distant corner of the spirit world. Formerly human, the people of Tarasis underwent generations of magical enhancement and experimentation on their quest to ascend to godhood. Arinara's current appearance would be the standard for all other Tarasim.
Little is known about Tarasis or the Tarasim. Records of their existence are rare at best, though rumours in demonic circles hint of a past in the time of the war that cast out the Banished Pantheon. They seem to be connected with the inexplicable failure of demonic summonings - some older rituals just don't seem to work, something that shouldn't happen unless that entire race of demons or devils has been wiped out or made otherwise unreachable. They would be considered, at best, a ghost story told to scare young demon-children.
Destruction of Tarasis
Arinara's home is gone, destroyed in a single battle supposedly orchestrated by the Circle of Thorns. Details of the battle come only from Arinara herself. She describes a powerful force of mages and demons, descending upon the city during a national celebration and utterly annihilating the unprepared inhabitants. Arinara herself only survived due to the direct intervention of her deity, Sayela, now bound to her as the sole survivor of the attack.
The ultimate goals of the Thorns remain unclear even today. It is possible they learned that the Tarasim were attacking the demons the Thorns relied on, disrupting connections between Behemoth worlds and the mortal world. It is also possible that they were after Arinara and Sayela themselves, the goddess and her vessel able to manipulate and bind souls on a scale that would allow the mages to reclaim thousands of bodies in mere moments. Considering the silence on the part of the Thorns, the matter is open to speculation.
Arrival in Paragon City
The pale woman arrived in Paragon City on October 15th 2004. Concerned by a mystic disturbance in the area of Eastgate, commonly known as the Hollows, MAGI sent a team of heroes to investigate. Arinara was found unconscious in one of the old stone circles at the ruins near the Skyway City entrance. A number of Circle Mages were also found, horribly burned and mutilated nearby.
Initially concerned that she would be a threat, something summoned by the Thorns to attack the city, Arinara was held in a secure MAGI facility for asessment. Speaking no English and with no other common language to draw upon, Arinara was a prisoner for two weeks before she had learned enough to communicate with the officials. It took until the early weeks of November 2004 for MAGI specialists to determine that Arinara was not a threat and to authorise her release, contingent on regular reports back to Gregor Richardson at the FBSA building in Galaxy City. The man was able to convince Arinara to sign up as a hero, though their working relationship grew somewhat tense when her response to a Circle of Thorns infestation was to blow up the caverns.
Powers
Arinara has several powers on record, her fighting style categorised by the use of one single ability in a staggering number of ways.
Teleportation
Arinara is primarily a teleporter. FBSA classifications register over twelve separate teleportation powers on her hero license, making her one of the most accomplished teleporters on record. Her usage of these powers run the gamut, from basic transportation through to teleporation as a weapon and a defense against almost all forms of attack.
The limits of this power seem only to be that her focus is entirely on this dimension. Arinara can't teleport through different realities or to any place she isn't familiar with. She has to be able to visualise where she is going in order to get there.
Soul Binding
A power that seems to unease anything with a soul, Arinara claims the ability to bind and manipulate spirits and souls of the living and dead. A power granted by her goddess, this ability was originally used to weed out defects and create strong warriors among the Tarasim. It would seem that Arinara has learned to use this to wage a very effective war against the walking spirits of the Circle of Thorns, as well.
Arinara can bind a person's soul to a specific point. Much like a ghost may be unable to leave the grounds of a building it haunts, her victims are unable to move from the object she has specified without a considerable amount of physical effort. Likewise, she can reach out and hold a person's soul in her hands, rendering them completely helpless for a short time. These powerful effects often distort reality at the point of effect, creating areas that act as though under remarkably high gravity and drawing lighter objects to float around the victim. This can also act in reverse, a fact that Arinara has used to generate a small amount of income as an exorcist of sorts.
As a final use of this power, Arinara can give a small amount of focus to a single ally. Bolstering the spirit and resolve of a person, they can fight through pain or other effects that would normally be a distraction. Wounds are not healed, merely ignored, and the pale woman is unable to raise the dead.
Weather Manipulation
Arinara can change the weather in a small area around her, summoning fog or calling down rain immediately around her. This and her other minor abilities are all the result of magical training, and have not been developed to their full potential due to her primary focus on teleportation.
Martial Training
Arinara carries a custom-built sword similar to a curving rapier or scimitar, forged from a variety of materials designed to harm demons and devils above all other things. While the sword initially appears to be unique in design - it has certainly been heavily modified - the basic weapon is just recognisable as "Mystic Blade #307 in Cold Iron", from the back of Paragon Arms & Armour Magazine.
Her fighting style really is unique, however. Arinara seamlessly blends teleportation with elegant, sweeping attacks designed to hurt as many foes in a wide area as possible. Foes who meet her in battle are often hard-pressed to react to her constantly shifting locations, finding that a sword has embedded itself in their chest with a flash of light before they can track her properly.
Personality and Reputation
Personality
"Cold" would be the best way to describe any initial meeting with Arinara. The woman constantly wears a neutral expression, neither happy nor unhappy, and even when she smiles it barely counts, a twitch around her lips more than a real expression of emotion. She is conservative with her words, speaking only when she feels it's necessary, and has no love of small talk or any of the other "pointless" parts of conversation.
She speaks with an accent that's hard to place to any particular geographical area, and with the way she struggles with (or mangles) particular words or phrases marks her as foreign and occasionally difficult to understand. These points together can make people uncomfortable when speaking with her, a constant source of frustration for the pale woman.
Arinara is hardly lacking in emotion, however. While she can be sharp with demons and others she sees as evil, an encounter with the Circle of Thorns quickly reveals the extent of her rage. Completely unable (or unwilling) to express herself in English, the woman degenerates into a stream of Tarasian insults, spitting and cursing in her own tongue with a snarl on her lips, utterly savage.
Between laconic ice-queen and savage warrior, Arinara holds her small circle of friends. She seems to show an affinity for anyone else in Paragon City or the Rogue Isles who she can relate to - the homeless, those who have lost friends or family, anyone who finds the city alien. Her hatred of small talk remains, but for these people she's certainly more willing to speak about pretty much anything.
Reputation
Arinara generally refuses any interview requests and doesn't answer fan mail. A small following has grown up around her like any hero in Paragon City, but overall she stays out of the public eye.
The man on the street doesn't particularly care about Arinara if there isn't a problem she's suited to help with or something they can complain about. She's run into legal problems in the past for collateral damage, usually resolved by MAGI's legal team, and her lethal tactics against the Circle of Thorns have drawn some attention on the moral side, but considering the number of disasters she's averted the city remains generally friendly to her work.
