Name: Feana Pantherguard
Age: 29
Race: Wemic
Class: Druid
Alignment: Neutral Good
Deity: None
Appearance
A fearsome beast stands before you, her tall figure is imposing. At the lower half of her body, four large pad-like paws rest on the ground, occasionally one rubs against another, as if to scratch an itch. Powerful muscles protrude from the fur covered lower limbs and you are sure her legs could spring into action at any moment.
At her waist the fur becomes finer and as your eyes travel further it disappears entirely, replaced by human like flesh. Her stomach is toned much like her strong hind legs, and appears tanned, as if she has spent many years basking under the open sun.
Her arms and shoulders are well built, and she looks no stranger to fierce battles. They are covered with intricate tribal tattoos, patterns which intertwine around her muscular limbs.
Strapped to her back is a large wooden shield, covered in tribal markings, and as she walks she holds a long spear in her hand.
Her face is also distinctly feline in appearance. Her nose and mouth are notably protruding from her face and end in a flat muzzle. Her eyes are of a deep brown but appear human like, and seem friendly. Around her face her golden mane-like hair rests, her ears protruding from it. As you look at her, despite her intimidating appearance, she smiles at you warmly and you feel more at ease.
Background & History
Feana’s early life was much like many of her race; calm was so often shaken by the harsh realities of life on the hunt. Yet she bonded well with her tribe, and soon began her druidic training under one of the tribal shamans, her mother. While the other Wemics held respect for nature for the bounty it provided and feared it for the danger it could bring, Feana, like her mother, felt something deeper.
Life itself was beautiful to her and though the hunt was part of her daily life, she never truly enjoyed it as much as her kin. Yet the end of life, her mother taught her, was merely another stage in the cycle, and she came to understand in time that the hunt is law of nature and should not be shunned.
Each day they would spend under the sun, in the days that it was not masked by the great night, Feana and her mother would learn of the druidic path and it was not long before she was considered a notable druid among the tribe in her own right. Together they would heal those returning from the hunt, with salves and herbs from the grasslands and allow them to fight another day. This training continued much the same, and her life was largely peaceful, until the time of her test of adulthood. Her father had always pushed her to hunt, and even though she understood its purpose now, she still would rather tend to the injured than cause injury herself. Yet it was a right of passage for all Wemics and she set out, on the eve of her eighteenth year, to hunt for her challenge. She walked for many days, across the open plains, and few of the animals ran from her as she passed, as if they could sense her warm heart.
Her trek continued until she picked up the scent of a female panther. Following it further she soon came across spots of the blood on the ground. It was then Feana realised her prey was injured. Carefully she paced ahead, the open skies replaced with the gloom of trees overhead. As her eyes adjusted she scanned the area, finding herself in a clearing in the trees, though her sight immediately fell upon the large black mass on the floor, the panther.
Quietly Feana stepped closer, her soft feet padding the ground one after another in a slow creep. As she closed in, she could see the panther’s breathing was laboured. Standing not one length away from her prey she fought against her desire to heal, she had to prove herself, it was the Wemic way. The panther was suddenly aware of her presence and turned its head quickly towards Feana, bearing fangs with all the energy it had remaining, the rest of its body lay limp. Feana knew this was no challenge, but she felt for the panther. She knew it was best to end its life quickly, to spare her from more pain. Drawing her spear high she plunged it into the exposed chest of the panther, it put up little struggle and did not even cry out, with the spear in its chest its breathing simply stopped.
It was then; in the silence of the sheltered clearing she heard a small whimpering sound. Her ears orientated to the sound and her head lowered. Beside the now dead panther, a small cub lay, its eyes still closed. Feana knew it had not long been born, in fact his birth had probably been a troubled one, and his mother had taken the toll for his life. No doubt the mother had found her way to the clearing to give birth safely, and then found herself too weak to move.
Feana looked down at the small cub and in that instant a bond was forged in her unlike any she had known. She knew she would care for the young panther, take it and raise it as her own. Carefully she scooped the cub onto her back and returned the way she had come.
Upon her arrival at the watering hole her tribe had made its way to, Feana was greeted with great suspicion. She had brought the offspring of a rival hunter with her, and stern cat-like eyes watched their approach.
Her father was furious, she had failed her trail. She may have hunted her prey but she was not asked to bring back its kin. Feana’s mother did all she could to stay his temper but he was a stern believer in tribal tradition and would not allow Feana to keep the cub as her own. Not to mention the reaction of the rest of the tribe who scorned her for what she had done.
It was then that the elders intervened. A Wemic who failed her test could not be allowed to stay with the tribe, she was weak. She was outcast at the turn of her eighteenth year and left to roam alone.
It was during these years life became even harsher. Soon after her banishment the skies darkened, the sun blotted by the eternal night that hung like a plague in the air. Plants began to fade, life around her was subdued, yet it was now more than ever she had to survive. Alone, and caring for her cub, she had named Tai; Feana had to provide food by hunting what she could.
Having not earned her own name, and now being a law unto herself, she gave herself her own hunter name, Pantherguard, in honour of Tai who she now cared for solely during his early years. For ten cycles she watched over him, watching him grow into adulthood until the time came he could hunt for himself.
Her task now complete upon his adulthood, Feana once again looked around at the darkness with fresh eyes. She could not allow Tai to bring his own cubs into this barren land. She decided she would leave the grasslands, in search of answers, to seek out more powerful druids than herself.
She knew where the two-legs settled, and where they rode their birds across the water, and while it was a dangerous place for her, she had to find passage to the mainland. Travelling north east she made her way to the River of Depth. It was there, at the very mouth of the river where some of the two-legs mounted their 'water birds’. She and Tai approached carefully, the humans unaware of their presence at first. Though their surprise was evident when they were spotted. Luckily among their number was a human druid, who could speak the animal tongue. The three conversed, in harsh cat-like sounds and in the end the druid nodded. They were given safe passage to a land he called 'Mistone’.
Personality and Behaviour
Feana is a caring soul, and will protect those she bonds with vehemently. She will also try to preserve the balance and protect both animals and plants to do so. However the hunt still lies within her, and she knows all animals must hunt to survive, and so she is inclined to aid those who seek food or shelter from nature.
She will not tolerate killing without a purpose and will come to the defence of nature with all her strength should any 'two-leg’ try to attack it. Though she is warm and friendly to those she knows, trust must be earned, and life on the savannahs teaches any Wemic worth their hunt name to be wary of the unknown.
While Feana has seen arcane magic from the magicians of her tribe she is still very wary of it’s effects. She is likely to either run from such displays, if they are of great power, or at the least keep her distance.
This Wemic also has a deep connection with the land, she will speak to plants and animals and even to the sea, as she believes they are all sentient beings, though she has a great fear of the latter and wide open expanses of water.
Feana also has little experience of human towns and cities, though she has watched and tracked nomadic human tribes, from a safe distance, to gauge any threat they would pose to her on her arrival on the land of the 'two legs’. Her common is limited to words she may have heard those tribal humans speak on the hunt, words such as 'fight’ or 'track’ she understands, though if in complex sentences she will almost certainly loose the meaning.
She has the greatest protective instinct over her adopted panther, Tai, and will stand in the path of danger should he be threatened. She feels great guilt over killing Tai’s mother, and has watched over him ever since her death. Likewise Tai is very loving towards her, having forgotten how his mother died, being very young at the time. Now Tai is older Feana allows him to roam further and further from her side, she understands he must learn to hunt and kill for his food himself, even though her maternal instincts drive her to protect him.
Having spent most of her life on the Isle of Veapra, Feana has no knowledge of the deities the people on the mainland worship; she will most likely find this a difficult concept to grasp, if and when she understands the common tongue.
Though Feana cannot speak common other than the few broken words she knows, she has a well developed sense for how people are feeling and will react accordingly. Her wisdom allows her to understand and often empathise with others even through the language barrier.
Feana feels most at home on the open plains, though forests and deserts are also welcoming to her, though the latter less so given the harshness of the lands. She is content in such environments and prefers them over towns or cities. However if she is to fulfil her personal quest to cleanse the skies she understands she must find allies and friends among the two-legs and their buildings of stone and wood.
*Feana sits, her hind legs resting squarely on the ground, with her front paws stretched out in front of her. She looks ahead, transfixed as she looks into a flame dancing in the night air. Her eyes close after a while and she enters into a trance like meditation, reliving all of her daily events, in some way trying to find meaning*
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