CHARACTERName: Ramalia.
Age: 18.
Species and Gender: Human Female.
Symbol: A desert eagle flying in an empty sky.
Occupation: First Year Shade Student.
Appearance: Ramalia is a true mountain of a woman, standing 6’5 tall clad in layers of hard, thick muscle from life outside the kingdoms. An olive complexion is mostly free of scars, more steel than blue steel blue eyes topped off by a surprisingly well maintained short blond mohawk, Ramalia is almost the stereotypical Vacuoian raider. Tribal tattoos cover her left eye and right arm, three jagged lines over the eye and a maze of lines and solid blocks fully comprehensible only to those who were born among her tribe.
Ramalia still prefers to wear the same clothing she wore when apart of her tribe, finding comfort in its familiar weight, even though it marks her as an outsider in Vacuo. Hard layers of leather worn and tough cover most of Ramalia’s body protecting it from the sun and heat. Reinforced by slabs of scrap metal found in throughout the Great Vacuo Desert to protect against the Grimm as well as augmenting her physical strikes. Although the leather is naturally a bland brown the scavenged metal often has bright coloured strips which can be covered with cloth if stealth is required. The googles Ramalia wears to protect her eyes from the sun are also red. Ramalia rarely wears ‘traditional’ clothing and never formal clothing even the school uniform.
Possessing a rhythmic, sing song tone of speech which contrasts severely with her harsh exterior and slightly hunched posture. This flawed posture only gets worse while sitting or lying down, very much a sprawler, Ramalia can take up a ridiculous amount of room and sees nothing wrong with such. This carries over to her other gestures; Ramalia laughs loud, eats louder, parties loudest and has the stamina and frankly the temper to go from an hours long drinking binge to a full blown fight.
History: Ramalia was born among one of the tribes desperately trying to survive deep within the wasteland of Vacuo’s most harsh deserts. The ‘Ashkhas Formed from a mixture of humans and faunus centuries ago this tribe managed to evolve to mostly survive in the desert alone. Still there are things that even the most resourceful hunters can’t procure on their own as such the tribe took to unsanctioned scavenging, looting wrecks too far inland, too infested with grimm or too recent for other crews. With this they traded for dust, water and food as well as the occasional piece of technology.
This was the hard and harsh world which Ramalia was born into. An amoral mess where the constant danger of grimm was only surpassed by the desert weather with it’s blistering hot days and freezing cold nights. Raised collectively by the tribe Ramalia and her generation had their place designated by their performance in several ritualistic trials with as much vague religious symbolism as actual test at the end of ever year past their fifth birthday. Ramalia performed extremely well in these trials as she grew faster and stronger than the others, she took in the lessons faster and could last longer in the wilds.
The religious leader of her tribe took an interest early on and began drilling the lessons of survival they had learnt across the centuries with a highly ritualised tint on top of her other training. Ramalia adored this high intensity of guidance, constantly pushed to her limit but more importantly being held in such high esteem by her fellows. A rising star among her people apparently destined to lead them all in a few short decades time. This hope for her future only increased as her semblance developed not long before her 13th birthday. Being able to see through the local animals made Ramalia an incredible asset in hunting, gathering and scavenging. In only a few short years this allowed the tribe to blossom immensely, drawing new families in and claiming new land. These families in turn brought new skills as craftsman and animal tamers further expanding the skill set of the tribe and therefore the tribe's power even further increased.
This run of good luck continued until Ramalia’s 17th birthday and final ritual milestone until adulthood. This trial was far more intense than any before it but everyone was confident that she would pass it seemingly without difficulty like all the others. As a part of this ritual the applicant would ingest a mixture of herbs, some hallucinogenic and some poisonous, then climb to the highest point within the ‘Ashkhas’s territory, an immense pillar towering out of the ground then await a vision. The pillar was too hard for conventional climbing tools as otherwise would have never withstood the desert’s wind and sand. Instead the applicant had to use fixed hand holds chiseled into the rock face from time immemorial. This wasn’t a complete positive however as many of these crevices had become home to various poisonous spiders adding to the danger of the trial.
Still Ramalia had prepared for the trial all year, she had taken in all the lessons those who had done it before had to give, and she was still the most gifted of her tribe, she couldn’t fail. She shouldn’t fail. She did fail. The climb was perilous, a thick fog had drifted in from the sea soaking the hand holds. This didn’t stop Ramalia however as her grip was strong and will stronger and in only a few short minutes she reached the top. It was the second stage which she couldn’t accomplish. Here the applicant would meditate on the tip of the pillar, hear the voices of the desert and be given their adult name. On the third day Ramalia run out of food. On the fifth, the water was all gone. By the seventh Ramalia lay dying from exposure, the desert did not speak to her. She would have no place within the tribe.
Luckily for Ramalia. members of the ‘Ashkhas had come to watch her finish the trial. After the seventh day they had grown so worried and believing there was no way Ramalia could have failed went up the pillar to rescue her. Assuming her collapsed form some kind of religious experience rather than simple exhaustion the tribespeople took Ramalia back to their caravans to recover. It took a few days for Ramalia to awaken but when she did she revealed with great shame her failure in the last trial. The tribe formed a council to decide what to do with Ramalia. If the desert didn’t acknowledge her then the tribe believed that if she joined them as an adult that disdain would carry on to them. The desert which almost everyone had lost someone to when it was appeased, none were willing to take the risk of what the desert would do if it grew angry with them.
Although a highly practical people the animistic religious beliefs of the ‘Ashkhas where core to their very being and what outsider may see as wasteful they knew the only solution was sacrifice. Drowning in the sea to be specific so the desert’s rejected daughter would no longer pollute it’s sands. The trip was dark and sombre, no one had expected this outcome and now it had occurred it seemed like a dream. Ramalia, their perfect scion, had been rejected by the forces they worship and now had to be killed. Ramalia response was more determined, she knew the laws of the desert better than any of her kin and she understood the punishments for breaking them even through no action of her own. She was kept in chains but they weren’t needed, Ramalia would meet her death the way the sand willed it. Her bright future which had almost come to take for granted had vanished and now the people she had spilled blood time and time again for had decided to kill her but if this was the plan for her she would accept it.
As they reached the beach the tribe waited for low tide before walking Ramalia out into the sea. Attaching weights and trapping her there and left waiting for the tide to come in and drown her. In the following hours the tribe beseeched the desert for mercy. Ramalia joined in their prayers but the winds howls held no words and no potents were seen. The waves were going over Ramalia’s face before succor arrived. The ‘Ashkhas’ religious leader had found a loophole. Although not being given an adult name clearly meant that the desert didn’t want her in the tribe and exile would be a far worse fate than drowning there are ways Ramalia could serve the tribe without being part of it. As the tribe’s fortunes improved they had more and more dealings with the outside world. They had learnt about; Vacuo, Vale, Mistral and Atlas, how large the world is and so on. They wanted someone they could trust to leave their desert and inform them of the world.
Hunter Schools seemed like the natural fit to form a connection between the ‘Ashkha and the world as a whole. Ramalia did surprisingly well on the academic side of the entrance exams, a sound mathematical mind combined with a lifetime learning passages by heart meant she had refined the basics of learning to a fine edge. The combat sections were easier but Shade’s combat instructors isolated several significant weakness that they want to get around to fixing as soon as possible. Being trained by some of the best minds the world had to offer Ramalia summarises these lessons and sends them home as well as any piece of technology she could spare. As for how she does in school over all Ramalia is very determined in her mission to pass on her lessons to her tribe and as such puts a lot of effort into understanding the subject matter. However that same devotion holds her back in a lot of aspects, the religious beliefs of the ‘Ashkhar makes her stumble a lot in almost all aspects of learning.
Personality: Ramalia can seem very stoic and aloof at first glance or at least while sober. Growing up in an environment where strength and obedience was all, she has had difficulty adapting to a society with a far wider spread of individuals. Ramalia of course doesn’t consider herself aloof, in fact she quite likes the idea of being the wild barbarian queen from the wastes and plays that kind of persona up. There is a degree of self awareness to this persona however with knowing first hand that strength isn’t always going to be enough to solve all her issues.
That still doesn’t mean that strength and directness aren’t her first port of call, being aware of other solutions doesn’t make Ramalia any better at capitalising on them. The only small exceptions to this are in the wild. The ‘Ashkha made their wealth off scavenging and as such Ramalia has a lot of practice in scanning the battlefield for anything that could be useful in the fight now or future.
The most obvious personality quirk of Ramalia is her unorthodox worldview. Firstly she is quite accepting of other people's explanations, trusting their perspective until they give her a reason to doubt it. This does leave Ramalia rather incurious, interested more in what things are rather than why. Secondly living in the deserts outside Vacuo has left Ramalia amoral or at least possessing a relative morality with the highest value placed on the survival of the tribe and everything else in relation to that ideal. The third is although Ramalia is a reasonably intelligent woman particularly concerning weather patterns her ‘whys’ would cause equal parts laughter and disbelief from the meteorological community, pressure systems being the will of the desert, ground water basically being magic and the water cycle being caused because of a pact between the original ‘Ashkha and the desert itself. Although humourous a more impactful example is concerning the laws of Vacuo. Not really respecting the institution itself Ramalia hasn’t bothered to learn the laws above enough to pass civic classes. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand that killing and stealing are wrong but anything beyond that is a grey area.
As for personal relationships Ramalia doesn’t truly understand much of the familial structure of the outside world. Raised communally she doesn’t understand what the point of father, mother and sibling relations are. Even the more casual relationships seem a bit odd. Almost everything has a practical purpose among the ‘Ashkha and as such friendships are based simply shared preferences instead of hunting/scavenging partners. This doesn’t mean that Ramalia rejects requests of friendship she simply doesn’t really understand her role in the relationship resulting her being too personal or not personal enough. As for the relation with her tribe Ramalia often sends personal messages with her lessons but never receives responses. Although at the time an alternative was seemingly completely supported but now many worry it wasn’t enough. Living in such a treacherous land as the Vacuo Deserts death isn’t an uncommon event and there is always the half thought that it was because the desert is displeased.
Aura and Semblance: From necessity the ‘Ashkha had learnt several lessons to do with aura and they passed this onto their children. Ramalia’s natural strength carries over to here as well giving her a massive pool to draw upon. However there is a reason why textbook training is in the textbook and her lack of finesse reduces Ramalia’s effective aural strength to average. Taking on a
steel blue colour Ramalia's aura was just another thing people pointed at to prove her seemingly preordained destiny, sharing the colour of the local Wild Heliotrope, called scorpionweed by most Vacuoians due it attracting the poisonous arachnids favorite meal, a wild flower whose bright colours could be seen for miles and always indicated water was nearby.
Ramalia’s semblance is Wild Eyes, allowing her to ‘look’ through the senses of animals within a large area. She has limited control, acting more like a backseat driver and has an instinctive understanding of how to apply these senses even those without human mirror like a bat’s echolocation. Ramalia can look through one animal without substantially reducing her effectiveness although it is still requires substantial concentration. Anything above that Ramalia’s mind will quickly become overwhelmed from all the information. Recently discovering a way to deal with this Ramalia can enter a meditative state to help process the information allowing her to piggy back dozens of animals quickly forming a detailed map of her surroundings. This results in a massive drain on Ramalia’s stamina to the point she would only be able to use this level twice in a day if she was bed bound for the entire time. A single animal can be maintained for hours before rest is needed. The power is instantaneous to activate and marked only by a flash of white from her eyes often hidden by goggles which remain pure white for the duration of the semblance.
As little control Ramalia has over animals she would never be able to force animals to attack grimm and even human foes are rarely worth it. Instead this provides various perception advantages like a bird’s eye view or a snake’s sense of touch to aid Ramalia in whatever endeavour she is pursuing.
Combat Behavior: As someone would expect from her size Ramalia highly relies on her overwhelming strength augmented by her surprisingly advanced technology. Mostly ranged Ramalia prefers to devastate her foes from afar with an endless barrage with her cannon. The huge firepower of this weapon is balanced slightly by its slow rate of fire which makes it impossible to truly pin down foes if she can’t blast them away. The heavy weight of her weapon as well as her metal plating she wears does slow Ramalia down substantially both in pure speed and manoeuvrability and she is unwilling to resort to ‘rocket jumping’ due to her desire to still have legs. Still Ramalia has tried to offset this by training her stamina and can keep running for hours even with all her gear in the blazing desert sun.
For close combat Ramalia relies on the power fists covering her arms. Mostly these are used to help deal the cannon’s recoil and soften the heat it gives off but they can be applied in combat directly as well. Augmenting her physical strength as well as allowing her to unleash gouts of dust means that Ramalia can be as devastating an opponent in melee as she can at range. Similar weaknesses apply however as for all the incredible strength Ramalia can put behind each blow they are slow and predictable, favouring heavy swings over jabs. This means that melee combat is only implemented in desperation or when Ramalia is confident in her victory, which often doesn’t go how she expects. Ramalia also rarely uses anything outside her arms while fighting, preferring instead to stun her opponents with a robo-boosted hook the move in for the grapple.
Fundamentally the biggest weakness is although her strength and stamina have been built up over the years Ramalia has never been able to seriously improve her dexterity. Lacking any true ability to make up for this Ramalia often finds herself at the mercy of those who can’t who manage either through speed or ingenuity to counter her rather one-trick approach. As mentioned above however Ramalia has very good battlefield awareness allowing her quickly, for her, follow and give orders even the chaos of a full scale battle.
Although not directly relating to her combat behaviour Ramalia keeps several ‘pets’ from her time in the desert to help assist her semblance. A small snake, desert eagle and wolf have all joined the menagerie Ramalia is slowly turning Shade into. They mean that she always has their senses at her disposal even when no other animals are nearby but she has also had more practice controlling these through her semblance and therefore more effective than truly wild creatures.
WEAPON 1Name: Cannon
Primary Form: A long barrel forms the majority of the weapon. A rusted red colouration is only broken up by a series of modifications, some with practical applications while others are more religious. The most obvious is the wings emerging from the middle of the weapon, flaring up when the weapon is fuctional they protect Ramalia against light counter fire as well as further balancing the weapon. Other than that is the large tube which connects the weapon to the backpack Ramalia wears which stores her ammunition and transports it to the cannon when needed. A few switches are on the weapon itself to control which ammo type gets dispensed and they usually work. Other than that some small attempts to reduce the recoil have been made since at Shade, mostly mechanical as any more dust would make the cannon into more of a bomb.
Ammunition: Although the weapon only has one form, minus a storage form which clips onto the backpack and collapses the glass dome, the true variety of the weapon is in it’s ammunition. Traditional cannon shot of course make up the majority as Ramalia’s arsenal, injected with a small amount of dust these can do little more than additional damage. Chain shot is Ramalia’s least common variant as it is very inaccurate and ice dust tends to trap people better but she still carries around a few of this strange ammunition. Grapeshot is the second most prevalent ammunition type Ramalia uses as it helps deal with enemies which have gotten too close and although might do hit as hard as the others is much harder to miss with even at moderate range. The last type are glass rounds, these store a huge amount of dust and can cause massive explosions even if they miss.
Dust Functions: Heavily relying on dust Ramalia makes use of almost every type available to her and is always eager to try a new one out.
Gravity: Draws people and object closer to the ball
Fire: Causes an inferno to erupt after contact
Ice: Freezes foes hit
Electricity: Seems to arc toward metallic objects as well as carrying a charge
Wind: Shot moves faster and kicks up a lot of dirt/sand on impact
History: Although the cannon as been in development for most of Ramalia’s life it only really took anything close to the shape it now does when her tribe expanded bringing in more craftsman. This evolution has continued at Shade although Ramalia insists that it remains… easy to repair even if that means it tends to break down more often.
A trip the Atlas to help out with a series of training missions made clear the necessity of faster pace, more accurate fire particularly against her fellow hunters-in-training resulting in a serious overhaul of it's design. this included massively lengthening the barrels as well as making the design much more sleek for aesthetic reasons. Finally the large wings provide much needed cover while on the move as Ramalia has the tendency to be too busy blasting away at her enemies to worry about silly things like cover.
WEAPON 2Name: Gauntlets
Primary Form: Full sleeve mechanical devices these two weapons may not look like much with their junkyard aesthetic but they get the job done. A series of hydraulics detects muscle impulses and moves with Ramalia’s arms boosting her already massive strength with cold steel. Several metal plates are then built around the weapons to make it more protective particularly around the hand and wrist.
Secondary Form: Although initially simply boxing gloves from hell the gauntlets can modify what exactly is on the knuckle to give more adaptability. Bone saws and claws move down from further up the arm to add an additional bite to Ramalia’s swings. Although initially designed to assist with scavenging operations they have already proven themselves equally effective at fighting grimm and intimidating her fellow students.
Dust Functions: Heavily relying on dust Ramalia makes use of almost every type available to her and is always eager to try a new one out.
Gravity: Allows for the detachment and reattachment of the bone saw and claws, more of an intimidation tactic but can be useful against weak grimm.
Ice: massively cools Ramalia, and her cannon if held, down. Designed more as a shock to ensure the upper hand in grapples or other close combat.
Electricity: Although initially designed as a single damage increase Ramalia tends to save this for recharging devices found on her missions.
Wind: Blasts her opponent away, hopefully lining up a good shot with her cannon.
Water: Performs a similar job, if slightly worse at it, as Wind dust with the additional bonuses of survival implications and disrupting vision.
Earth: Even further increasing Ramalia’s strength for a short period of time. This can also be used to further stabilised the cannon allowing for a short period of faster fire, still far below most other handheld weapons.
History: These weren’t originally Ramalia’s, given to her on the eve of her 17th birthday and that failed trial as an attempt to curry favour among the assumed successor of the tribe. When Ramalia failed the original owner didn’t want any chance of sharing in the desert’s displeasure and refused to accept them back. Ramalia has made good use of them since.