Ludus Chaos - Vastra

For !! I had such fun drawing this and I ended up experimenting a lot. I'm more than happy with how the fire and the fur turned out uvu But once again, I had the biggest troubles with PNG formating due to using both SAI and Photoshop, which makes everything a bit more complicated for a dummy like me.
But yeah! I hope I get in. I spent a lot of time on this lil' dude, both appearance and background wise.

EDIT: I GOT IN WHOOOOOO ;v; <3
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☩Name: Vastra of tribe Gebbok

☩Gender: Male

☩Age: 24

☩Height: 166cm

☩Race: Ashen ( more info at the bottom )

☩Faction:The Sanctuary

☩Occupation/Rank/Class: Works as a "shop" assistant wherever his tribe sets their selling stand

☩Talents/Abilities/Magic/Enchantments:

|Pyrokinesis| - Pyromancy, Tier 2 Magic. By using his internal quintessence source granted to him at birth, Vastra can control living flames to an extent. He can make them grow, shrink and spread them around at will. Despite knowing the robes after years of studying, controlling larger flames takes time and a lot of concentration, and the flames might hurt both Vastra and those around him.
|Flare| - Pyromancy, Tier 2 Magic. A skill Vastra learned only recently. Using this skill he sort of "scoops" fire in his hands and throws it at the enemy. Despite it sounds like an ideal attack, it takes concentration and mostly works on someone who is almost completely still, since if Vastra won't concentrate, the flames can spread to his hands.
|Novice fire Rune|- Pyromancy, Tier 2 Magic. A skill that came to the tribe through travelling mages. Vastra can draw a small fire rune to the ground or any surface available to make it more vulnerable to fire. It doesn't start any fires, but after this even small sparks can light it.
|Ash eating| - A racial benefit. The Ashen can eat ash and turn it to their own life force without any visible effort.
|Hardened skin| - A racial benefit. The Ashen have hardened, black skin around their arms, legs and neck that can block lighter hits from fists and such.
|Moderate Hunting| - A learned skill. Being an Ashen has taught him a thing or two about traps, tracking and killing the prey. This includes the use of knives and the skill of skinning the prey. His skills are a bit rusty as he almost completely quit hunting when he begun to study under the wisewoman of their tribe.

☩Equipment:

-A bone-hilted knife ( unenchanted )
- A partially burned staff ( unenchanted )
-Cream to treat burns
-A small smoldering piece of coal wrapped in cloth and lichen ( used to light fires )
-A pouch of ash

☩Character History:
Born in the ash plains in the volcano region between Land of Stillness and the borderlands, Vastra was grown to become a survivor from the very beginning. The life of the Ashen is harsh, as food is scarce and the environment hostile, so from the very childhood he was taught essential skills - hunting, knowing where to travel safely, where to find what you need and what to do and what to not. Despite their life was harsh, the Ashen knew their home by heart and while both fearing and respecting it, they also loved it. And so did Vatra, who traveled the plains of ash surrounding the volcanoes with his tribe.

At the age of 16 Vastra was taken as a student by their tribe's wisewoman due to showing skills at pyromancy - their tribe was small and this far none of the other children had shown any. He begun to hunt less and study more, and he helped their wisewoman with things like gathering the rare herbs, generally helping around the old woman who had become slow and almost lost her voice over the years. Soon Vastra begun to see this grumpy old woman as a beloved mentor, and they became very close over the six following years. She probably even planned for him to take her place as the wiseman when the time would come.

But as Vastra reached his 22nd year, the Ordo Exorcista spotted the many monsters living in the close proximity of the volcanoes. It was clear what would happen next - the Ordo Exorcista had promised to purge the world of creatures of darkness, and in these ashen plains there seemed to be more than a few of them to purge. And so they came to the plains, first in few but then the numbers begun to rise as these agents of light begun to truly annihiliate these creatures of "vile darkness" seeking refuge in the forsaken plains.

Due to the Ashen being rather numerous in that area, they were often killed or caught by the Exorcista, despite their superior knowledge of the environment. Many of the tribes perished due to the superior power of the Ordo Exorcista - they had the weapons and the man power over the Ashen - and those who didn't.. well, they left.

And so did Vastra's tribe. They fled over the volcanoes to the Land of Stillness after two years of fighting, then hiding and fleeing, trying to escape from the slaughter. And they were lucky, they succeeded unlike many others.

Wandering the Land of Stillness, seeking for refuge, they finally found a door around a week's walk from the border. It was guarded by creatures, monster, much alike what the Ashen were. After a heated conversation between the two sides, it was discovered that this door led to a haven for all creatures - the Sanctuary - and that these guards were protecting it. Vastra and his tribe told the guardians that their home was now over-taken by the Ordo Exorcista and due to this, the monsters let them pass.

Vastra and his tribe moved to the Sanctuary, grateful of the refuge yet bitter for their loss. Now they sell things wherever they can set their small stand ( as they don't have money for a real shop yet ), selling everything they can get their hands on, mostly meat and old artifacts they managed to take with them. Whenever the need arises, Vastra leaves the Sanctuary to search for items with his fellow brothers and sisters, but sometimes he secretly goes back to his home region, just to see what has happened there after they left.

☩Personality:
+ Loyal
+Quick-witted
+ Indenpendent
- Snarky
- Distrustful
- Unable to let go

Vastra, as an Ashen who grew in the hostile plains around the volcanoes, is very indenpendent to the point of being seemingly untouched by the influence of other people. He comes goes as he wants, and prefers to do most of the things himself. He enjoys being the helper, not the helped.

He's also rather quick-witted and comes up with solutions to problems rather easily, and in a dire situation he can find the way out, which was crucial especially when the Ordo Exorcista begun to hunt them. Both his indepence and quick-wittedness were reasons why his mentor thought of Vastra as a worthy future wiseman for the tribe.

But no matter how quick-witted and indenpendent he is, Vastra's most dominant side is his loyalty to those who he trusts, especially so his tribe. He's ready, willing and maybe even able to defend it to the end. His family always comes first, even in a situation where it's a choice between a friend and his tribe . He's seriously over-protective.

Vastra comes off pretty hot-headed and snarky even to those of his own tribe, let alone those he doesn't know, but his tribe has long since learned to handle him. It's a whole another thing with other people who don't know him, and usually leads only to trouble. It's a side the wisewoman of their tribe has tried to make Vastra grow out of as it isn't a side suitable for a person who's supposed to guide and help their people. However, her attempts have been mostly in vain, as Vastra is rather indenpendent.

Vastra is also very distrustful to those he doesn't know, and it takes quite a while for him to warm to other people. If someone seems even a bit untrustworthy to him, he's sure to keep his guard up around them until proven wrong, making sure that no-one of those who are important to him trusts them. Even in a case where Vastra is wrong about someone, he'll do his best to isolate this someone from those Vastra thinks highly of, until he finally has to back down.

Despite being otherwise rather open about his feelings, he doesn't want to accept one side of himself as a someone from a place where everything changes quickly and adaption to that fleetness is important. And that is his inability to let go. He cannot forget what happened to him and his tribe - his home is now gone, taken over by the Ordo Exorcista, and it's likely that Vastra will never get his home back. To him, old grudges die hard and old losses never seem to be forgotten.

☩Likes:
- Hot places and days
- Ash ( especially ash baths )
- His mentor and his clan
- Glass objects ( they intrigue him, as they were almost sacred in his childhood )

☩Dislikes:
- Water in any forms
- Ordo Exorcista
- The crowdedness of the Sanctuary
- Cold floors ( he unfortunately has no shoes )

☩Other:
* As Ashen don't build permanent houses, Vastra isn't overly fond of having one.
* Vastra chooses, like most wisemen, to not protect his face for most of the time ( despite he gravely wants to ). It's the way of their wisemen and women, as it is believed that they should show their face to their people. This is because showing ones face is seen as a to both sign of courage and trustfulness, as their face is one of the few weaker spots of their body. And the tribe needs to trust its wiseman or woman in order to survive. But when he leaves the Sanctuary and his tribe, Vastra uses a protective helmet of sorts.
* That belly armor of his is monster leather, and it's rather hard and rigid ( he has trouble bending over ahaha ). But because alike most Ashen he's a bit paranoid about his stomach, he has layers of clothing and one layer of thinner leather under it, just in case.
* His "coat" is made of monster fur. It smells a bit stale, but it protects him from water and keeps him warm, as he tends to feel very cold for most of the time.

THE ASHEN

BIOLOGY:

The Ashen are a race that dwells in the region between the Land of Stillness and the borderlands, where there are many volcanos and harsh conditions. Despite being catagorized under the definition of “monster”, they are a very human-like race, with the basic appearence of a man. They have two feet, two arms, ten fingers and toes and the biology to fit either man or woman. However, despite their humanlike appearence, they are clearly their own race and differ from the human physiology.

Best example of this is their skin. The Ashen have a black, almost rock-hard skin in certain areas of the body, leaving only their stomach, lower back and head uncovered. This rock-hard skin of theirs can efficiently block hits from fists, and in the right conditions they can even block light weapons. However, for most of the time the skin cannot block weapons of any sorts, unless they have bathed in ash. The skin can also be a bit stiff unless treated correctly ( more on bathing and treating skin in the skills section )

The Ashen hair is either white or gray, and their eyes tend to be either completely black or have black scleras and ash-colored irises, depending on their heritage. It doesn’t affect their vision in any way, but it’s one of the key features that differentiate them from humans.

SKILLS AND THINGS WORTHY OF MENTION :

The Ashen have a natural affinity with ash, as their name says. They can live off of eating ash, despite normally it would more likely kill its eater rather than heal and feed ( however, they do eat other food ). But it has its downsides. The Ashen tend to have a hoarse and low voice due to eating ash, and tend to completely lose their voice at older age. They are also dependant on the ash, and have to eat it at least once a week to keep their black skin healthy and flexible. If an Ashen won’t eat ash, their skin will eventually turn to stone and then crumble to ash. This happens also a few weeks after an Ashen dies, unless eaten or disposed of. As the saying goes - from ashes to ashes.

The Ashen tend to bathe in ash once a year. It makes their skin a lot more durable yet at the same time a lot harder for the next few weeks. Ashens preparing for battle tend to bathe in ash so that their skin can block even harder attacks. However, no matter how hard their skin otherwise, the pale, almost sickishly white-grey skin areas around their body are very vulnerable. Due to this many ashen wear protective armors of sorts around their belly, lower back and even face since it makes them feel safe. They could never understand how a squishy races like humans or dwarves can just show around their soft parts.

The Ashen, due to their tight affinity with ash and the fire that gives birth to it, tend to be natural pyromancers, with roughly about 30-40 % of the children born showing skills at it at some age. However, only around 10-20 % of those with the skills practice them and only around 3% or less of those can master the skill. Those few who can usually become tribe leaders or wisemen and women. The inexperienced ones can mostly control small flames, make them grow and spread them. At older age, if training is involveld, they can control bigger flames and use even the smallest of spark to their advance.. However, even they cannot create fire. Only rarely Ashen so talented is born that they can also create fire out of thin air. Even this requires years of training.

Despite having such a tight affinity with ash and fire can have its advantages in the harsh conditions of the volcano region, it can also be very bothersome for those who venture away from the it. Due to constantly having to eat Ash, they might have some trouble finding it outside their natural habitat. They are often discriminated against like most monsters, and tend to run in trouble especially with the Ordo Exorcista. The Ashen also have natural fear and distaste for water, and tend to dislike doing anything but drinking it. At its worst, and Ashen who falls in water goes to a deep shock and dies from it.

CULTURE :

The Ashen live in nomadic tribes that travel around, working primarily as hunter-gatherers, gathering ash and things to live off of and hunting other monsters, both feral and non-feral. However, their diet also contains other Ashen - when a tribesmember dies, they are eaten due to scarce ammount of food in the surrounding areas.

They have very deep bonds with their home and have adapted to it surprisingly well, despite all the difficulties. They make weapons and clothes of monster remains and what little they find when they occasionally travel outside the ash plains. And whenever travelers pass their region, the Ashen are sure to stop them and ask what’s happening in the outside world, though they're only interested in anything that might concern them. They also trade with what little they have, giving things like lava stones in exchange for clothes and tools.

Despite their harsh living conditions, Ashen are surprisingly peaceful amongst their own tribes and tend to work together when the need arises. But still, they are vicious to intruders and those who pose any threat to them. This led to big problems with Ordo Exorcista, which is the reason their culture is now slowly dying away, withering now that they cannot continue their old lifestyle. There are very few tribes living in the volcanic plains anymore.