Ryse Azar

Name: Ryse Azar
Pronounced "Reese"

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Year in school: 11th grade in High School

Mastery: Scholar

Dorm: Cobalt

Height:
Hybrid Form: 7' 5"
Human Form: 5' 5"

Appearance:
Hybrid Form:
Due to her strange mixture of blood, she has traits of both a Church Grim and a Phoenix. For the most part, she looks like a Grim; shadowy black fur, long tail, white fangs, dog body. But she has a fair amount of Phoenix traits from her mother as well. She has feathery wings, her back paws are instead hawk feet and talons, and she has part of a beak showing at the tip of her muzzle.

I drew a character design for Ryse, which can be seen below:


Human Form:
Long dark brown hair. Blue eyes.

Personality:
Positives:
* Quiet- Ryse is a quiet and studious girl, not liking to talk out in class or argue with others. But that doesn't mean she won't speak up to defend herself or others.
* Kind- She is kind to everybody she meets, unless if they make her mad.
* Playful- With people she knows well, she can be playful and cheery.

Neutral:
* Hot-Tempered- She can have a temper, especially if someone is making fun of her. This can be a good or bad thing depending on who her anger is aimed at.
* Loyal- If Ryse finds someone who is kind to her, then she is likely to become their friend and ally. She can too trusting of others, though, which can lead her into trouble with the wrong people.
* Shy- At first she is shy around people she doesn't know and isn't that talkative, but over time she grows to be more open.
* Prideful- She is proud to be part Phoenix...... although she wishes she was a full Phoenix a lot of the time instead of only half of one.

Negatives:
* Resentful- She resents the Church Grim that helped create her this way. She doesn't have ill will towards the species, since she's one of them, but she hates that one specific Grim with everything in her being.
* Naive- Ryse can be naive sometimes.

Dislikes:
* Cold weather
* Thunderstorms
* Loud noises
* Sour food
* Nighttime

Likes:
* Playing games
* Naps
* Being out in the sunlight
* Reading
* Flying
* Sweet food

Hates:
* Being called a 'Dog', or treated like one.
* Being made fun of for her appearance.
* Being called a Bastard; an illegitimate child.
* Hearing insults about her mother.

Fears:
* Tight spaces- For a creature with wings, being trapped in a tiny space is terrifying, and for Ryse being raised as a Phoenix and always being able to fly away from danger, it's very terrifying. She's fine in a classroom, but if she's in a place like a cave (or any small space in general) or she feels trapped she will try to escape using whatever means necessary.
* Being cast out of school- She wants to be accepted and to succeed; if she's kicked out of school, she may lose that chance.

Habits:
* She is often found somewhere quiet where she can study, or where she can relax in peace.
* She instinctively rises when the sun does. She's always up at the crack of dawn, no matter what day it is. She simply can't sleep in.
* In her free time she draws or reads.

Foods Toxic to Her:
Even though she has a human form, several foods and drinks are harmful to her due to being a bird/dog.
* Chocolate
* Alcohol
* Coffee
* Caffeinated Drinks- Soda, Teas that have caffeine in them, and coffee
- Some teas do not have caffeine like herbal teas. Peppermint, Chamomile, Ginger, etc.
* Grapes/Raisins
* Avocados
* Onions/Garlic
* Dairy products - Cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.

Miscellaneous:
* Her mother has never told her about Church Grim, or how she managed to be half Grim in the first place. Therefore, she knows nothing about Grim lore or history.
* Even in her human form, she can act doglike at times, despite her best efforts to hide it.
* Sunrise is her favorite time of day.

History:
The Beginning:
Her birth was not what most would call 'normal' by any means. It was not a romance story that ended with her parents living happily ever after. Her mother - who was a Phoenix - didn't fall in love with a Church Grim, nor did her father fall in love with her mother. Instead, it was a series of unfortunate events that would lead to her creation.

Her mother's name was Ariza, and she was a Phoenix who was known to be beautiful amongst her race. Many males tried to woo her and court her, but she wouldn't have it. She was determined to stay single and live her life fully before she decided to settle down. And that she did for hundreds of years. Ariza was a part of the Great War, fighting with her kind against any and all that would threaten her race's way of life. For as beautiful as she was, she was also deadly.

When the war ended, and peace reigned over the lands, the Phoenix settled into a more peaceful attitude once again, as she had been before the war began. Many of her friends she had grown to know (who were not Phoenixes like herself) had perished during the fighting, and were laid to rest in a cemetery near a small city in the Hisakawa region. She made a point to visit her friend's graves twice a year, paying silent memory to the people she used to know.

But unknown to her, the cemetery had been abandoned a few weeks earlier. For there was a Grim guarding the cemetery. Not just any Grim, either, but one that had been bitten by a vampire. The creature had been driven to madness by the venom that had transformed it, leading it to attack any living soul that entered the graveyard and killing them. One lonely night, when the sky was dark and gloomy, Ariza flew into the cemetery to pay her respects to her fallen friends. And it was this night that the Grim stalked her, having sensed another living being in the area that he guarded and called his home. In its invisible state, it saw this fiery colored bird descend from the sky, landing beside a grave and stayed there for a few moments, before leaving one of her feathers in offering to the spirits and moving to the next one. She fluttered from grave to grave, not knowing of the beast that was steadily stalking towards her. Therefore, a low growl was the only thing she heard before the creature attacked.

The vampirified dog sank its teeth into her flesh, tearing into her. Ariza cried out in pain, then with rage burning inside her, ignited into flames, successfully burning it, and raked its pelt with her talons. The two fought viciously, and when the battle was over the Phoenix flew away, heavily injured and barely alive. The Grim, being a spectral, wasn't killed and instead limped back into the shadows. But unfortunately for the Phoenix, her wounds were too great, and she ended up crashing to the ground twenty feet from the cemetery, dying there.

Hours later, as she rose from the ashes of the fire that had consumed her body, she had not been turned into a vampire. Being reborn by fire had purified her of the vampire venom that had been coursing through her. What she hadn't realized, however, was that during the fight, the Grim's blood had entered her bloodstream, which mixed the beast's DNA with her own. She was now a carrier of the Grim's DNA, which would affect her offspring for generations to come.

Childhood:
Ryse Azar was born in a clutch of four, the first (and only) clutch that Ariza had, out of which three of them died within hours of hatching from their eggs. They had been too deformed and misshapen to survive. This left Ryse as the only survivor. Ryse herself had been weak and sickly, barely able to crack open her eggshell, and was expected to die like the others had. But miraculously she lived.

Ariza's mate, disgusted with his daughter's appearance and thinking the Phoenix whom he had taken as his other half was cursed, left both Ariza and his daughter, never to be seen again. Ariza, now alone and not knowing what to do with her daughter, took Ryse to the Bask Council for guidance and advice. The Council advised her to raise Ryse as one of their own, for she undoubtedly carried Phoenix blood in her veins, so she was one of them. The mother vowed to do her best, and so raised her as normally as she could. She taught Ryse their species' lore, language, traditions, everything. She raised Ryse as a Phoenix.

However, despite her mother's best efforts, life was difficult for Ryse. She was unwelcome and unwanted by other Phoenixes due to her strange appearance, and in certain aspects she lagged behind others her age. Flying, for example, was more difficult for her. Due to being heavier than a bird, and not having hollow bones, Ryse had a difficult time learning how to fly. Her stronger sense of smell and her doglike behaviors such as chasing after moving things, wanting to be scratched between the ears, or sense of loyalty to anyone that seemed nice to her led to her being quite different than normal Phoenixes. Her ability of turning invisible - something that Phoenixes cannot do - was also challenging for the mother to deal with. That, coupled with her temper caused her to get into fights.

Ariza taught Ryse all she needed to know about living in the wild, as she raised her in the forests. In order to do so, however, Ariza enlisted the aid of some Magical Wolves whom the Phoenix had befriended. While her mother taught her how to hunt by sight, and how to fly in storms, the Wolves taught her how to use her nose and her hearing. Her strong sense of smell and hearing was a gift, the wolves said, not a burden, and using her senses would help her survive better than she would without them.

Over the years, Ryse learned how to hunt both from the air and on the ground. She learned how to fly in storms, through harsh wind and pouring rain. She also learned how to track prey by seeing their prints on the ground, reading the environment to tell where the animal went, how to move silently through the undergrowth, and using her nose and ears to hunt prey down. She also learned how to identify different plants this way as well, and so can now identify both animals and plants by sight, and by smell. She can fly just as well as any bird.

Due to her growing size, learning how to hunt was especially important, as she would require more energy to keep herself alive. She stopped growing at age 15, and being a very large 7ft 5inches dog hybrid, she had to learn how to take down bigger prey in order to satisfy her hunger. Ryse is now an expert at hunting deer, and any large game animal that is slightly smaller than her size, though anything larger than that gives her trouble.

Ryse was home schooled due to her strange appearance, as her mother didn't want her to be an outcast amongst others. Due to this, Ryse is more comfortable around animals than she is around people, despite having a human form. She's afraid of being made fun of.

Present Day:
After years of homeschooling, however, Ryse's mother finally decided that it would be best for her to go to Eldritch Academy. The other Phoenixes were frequently distrusting of Ryse and made it clear they wouldn't be comfortable with her around, and she couldn't stay with her mother forever. She had to leave the nest at some point. The Academy would give Ryse a chance to be accepted, and to gain a career which she can excel in. Ryse agreed and left for the school. She hopes she will be more accepted for her differences, and maybe gain a few friends. She also hopes to learn about Church Grim lore, as her mother didn't teach her anything about it. She knows Phoenix culture and lore by heart, though, which is something she can say with pride.



Name of Species: Church Grim / Phoenix Half-Breed

Baseline Dimension:
Church Grim: Minimum two feet tall at shoulder, maximum eight feet tall. Average is generally 4-6 feet tall at the shoulder. Length varies.

Phoenix: Any height or weight is possible. It is possible to be aged anywhere between thousands of years before the Ancient War, to freshly born. It's also possible to lose some, most, or all memories in the rebirth process. It is possible for personality to also change in the rebirth process.

Baseline Appearance:
Church Grim: Church Grim are animals, typically dogs, and have black fur, almost any eye color, abnormally long and flowing tails, and white fangs. Their fur is shadow-like in nature and flows unnaturally with a black aura.

Phoenix: Due to the wide range of this species, nearly any physical trait is possible. The only thing that sets them apart physically are their eyes, which are unusually vivid colors, and crazy feathers that stick out of their hair at molting season, which is usually once every month or so. Feathers can be any color, they can look like any flying bird.

Culture/Origin of Species:
Church Grim: As per tradition in some Skiagis cultures, the people of the church were to bury a dumb animal, usually a dog, alive for it to become the designated soul to protect and guard the graveyard. The rule was simple; the first being buried after the opening of the cemetery was fated to protect it for eternity. Their soul would remain alive and bound to the yard as they upheld the duty of protecting the cemetery from demons, gravediggers, trespassers with ill intent, and the like. The task was said to be from an ancient agreement with a god and was a sacred duty for an animal to uphold.

Phoenix: While the species has its roots in mediterranean climates and ancient mythology, the Phoenixes as a whole spread throughout the world and assimilated into nearly every society once able to shape shift into human form. Most cultures have a form of the original pre-war mythos, and thus this species is shaped where the individual grew up. No matter what, though, they are nearly fearless in dangerous situations, making them a fiery, altruistic, and impulsive people. This derives from their disregard for death, since they can be reborn in flames and rise from the ashes once again.

One constant strictly to Phoenix culture is their mecca, hidden away in a secret land simply called Aubade. It's the place where the very first phoenix, Vissarion, still resides with a group of the earliest ancestors. They form the Bask Council and hand down the sun religion and rules for all other phoenixes. While mostly silent, they primarily provide political guidance and orders when needed, as well as the guidelines and rules for rebirth.

The soul of a phoenix after death travels a spiritual world that is different for each individual, but the challenges and choices made there shape the new phoenix they will become. It tests the strength of character and will, and can have impact on anything from personality to retaining memories of the previous life. Vissarion is said to have one eye in the spiritual realm, making sure phoenixes remain a lawfully aligned species.

Rebirth is not to be taken lightly, since being immortal comes with responsibilities to everyone. Those reborn that chose selfishly or failed some aspects during their spirit trial can become chaotically aligned. Suicide is the heaviest taboo, since it is usually used selfishly to get back to the spiritual world and make changes, good or bad. Vissarion will see such things and dispatch enforcers to either force another rebirth as a reset of sorts, or to ensure the offender dies permanently should they be set on becoming a blight on the Phoenix race.


Traits:
Church Grim Traits:
• Faire Chlaidh, the graveyard watch - - Church Grim can walk invisible- unseen, unheard, untouched, and unscented at will.

• Under the cornerstone - - With a new form greatly changed and enhanced from their former, Church Grim have +1 to their Strength Aspect.


Phoenix Traits:
• Immortality: Phoenixes can die, yes, but they are reborn either in a fiery blaze or rise up from the ashes within hours. They have 3 points in vitality.

• Pyromancy: Naturally attuned to flame, phoenixes are more adept with using the element to both harm and protect, and sometimes as a source of spooky divination.


Flaws:
Church Grim Flaws:
• Kilgrim Bridge - - Due to having been once tied strongly to land and duty, Church Grim hold an innate sense of loyalty that is more of a curse than a blessing. They become easily attached to people, places, and things, and if they are away from their cemetery or it has been destroyed, they will feel a constant void and depression within. If they become too loyal to one individual, they can be easily taken advantage of and used.

Phoenix Flaws:
• Molting: Molting happens about once a month, and renders a phoenix exhausted and lazy. It's almost like an illness such as a cold, where they will appear less than healthy and cough ash. This lasts anywhere from 1 to 4 days, but robs them of their flames until the fire is rekindled and burns the molting away.