<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/EDkyjet.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Wandering Name:</strong>Umbra (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1868379)<br/><strong>Personal Name:</strong>Aishe<br/><strong>Race:</strong>Swiftstride Shifter<br/><strong>Class:</strong>Sorcerer (Shadow Magic)<br/><strong>Background:</strong>Urchin<br/><strong>Gender:</strong>Female<br/><strong>Alignment:</strong>Chaotic Neutral<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Backstory</div><div class="spoiler_body">The swiftstride shifter Umbra, known as Aishe to her closest friends and family, was born into a life of poverty and hardship. A shifter in the City of Towers, Sharn itself, she learned of prejudice at a young age. In addition to the discrimination she faced from people in the present day, her family made certain she was also taught the history of their people. In her lessons she learned of the great Inquisition carried out over a hundred years ago by the Church of the Silver Flame against lycanthropes, and how her people were caught up in it. She learned of how pious men slaughtered them wholesale, a campaign of genocide carried out under the banner of righteousness. The lesson was clear, and one she took to heart: Never trust outsiders, no matter what god they worship or creed they follow.<br/><br/>This life taught her many skills, such as how to go unseen, and take things unnoticed. She was never a particularly physically powerful person, but she was quick and nimble, and she made the best of it. She also learned to tell a good lie, and keep a straight face while doing so. Her family was always wanting for something, and it just so happened that other people had those things. It also happened that they were often quite careless with them, and didn't notice they were missing until Umbra had long vanished into the night crowds. As far as she was concerned, the kind of people who could afford to be so careless with their belongings didn't need them nearly as much as she and hers did, and so she was perfectly justified in taking them.<br/><br/>She managed to take care of herself and her family well enough until it all went horribly, horribly wrong. She had been expanding her area of operations, and picked the wrong home to break into. She also made the mistake of getting caught. In the long list of places one wanted to get caught breaking into, the home of a rogue necromancer conducting who knows what mad projects was pretty high up. He took one look at his would-be robber, and decided that no one would miss one half-starved shifter urchin. Over the next few months, she found herself subjected to all manner of experiments, the wizard growing increasingly frustrated as they didn't seem to achieve whatever his desired result was. <br/><br/>This time became a blur to her, a delirious mess of neglect and mistreatment occasionally interspersed with bouts of nightmare-filled sleep, rarely leaving her truly rested, her life lived behind the bars of a cell whenever she wasn't being poked or prodded, having something or other measured or tested, and occasionally being made to drink some concoction or be subject to a spell. She was convinced that each experiment would be the one to finally kill her, and eventually one did. Or perhaps it merely transported her to Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead. Or, perhaps, it did neither, and her visions of the afterlife were merely a byproduct of whatever horrible spell he had cast on her. The truth of it she neither knew, nor truly cared to know. The one thing she did know is that when she awoke once more to the realm of the living, she was different.<br/><br/>The first thing she noticed, was that her skin had become cold to the touch, as though there were truly no life within her form. The next thing she noticed was that she felt... numb. Not physically, but inside. It was like, whatever had happened, a piece of her soul had been left behind. Or perhaps, it was still there, but clouded, muffled by something dark and oppressive. After that, came the powers. She could always see in the dark, but now her vision was sharper than ever in the shadows. She also found herself possessing an unnatural vigor, able to pick herself back up after, by all rights, her body should have given out under her. And magic, she could cast magic. Unlike the necromancer, she didn't need books or formulae, it just came to her, naturally and intuitively.<br/><br/>She didn't bother to stick around long enough to find out if the experiment had been a success. Before the wizard could even realize what he had turned her into, she managed to use her powers to steal the key to her cell, and fled away into the night. Not ever having been a particular fan of the law, she nevertheless did not want to be pursued by her captor, and so left an anonymous note with the Watch before going anywhere else. Of course, she was quickly presented with the reality that she had nowhere to go. Her family had no doubt given her up for dead by now, and she wasn't entirely certain they were wrong. She couldn't face them, not as the abomination that she had become. Still, she had taken care of herself before, and now she had magic on her side. She would survive... if one could truly call it that.<br/><br/>It was only natural that she would eventually find her way to the life of an adventurer. It granted her the freedom she always craved, and the excitement she now needed to feel like she was truly still alive.<br/></div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Personality</div><div class="spoiler_body">Umbra isn't a woman to easily trust or open up to others. If the history of her kind wasn't reason enough, the events of her life have certainly given her plenty. That's not to say she's anti-social, merely that she keeps her cards close to her chest. She's polite and friendly enough, though those who spend enough time with her may begin to notice that her moods can be peculiar. At times there's a certain emptiness behind her smiles, a note of apathy beneath her tone, and a subtle lethargy to her movements, particularly when she doesn't think anyone else is paying attention. In the heat of battle, or while sneaking around enemy lines, in the midst of danger, that is when she seems her most lively. In her off hours, she tends to enjoy whatever excitement there is to be had, quite often games of chance. She is particularly fond of card games.<br/><br/>While she is slow to trust most, she does find a certain kinship with others who find themselves outsiders in human society. This isn't to say she'll open her heart easily to them, but simply that she does find it easier to let her guard down with such people, to some extent or another.  She also has a soft spot for the poor and downtrodden, and has been known to occasionally act against her better judgment out of pity or sympathy. Conversely, she despises those who look down on others for circumstances of their birth. She swore after the ordeal that made her what she is, she would never again be looked down on that way, treated as some kind of animal to be used and expended on a whim.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Aspirations</div><div class="spoiler_body"><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li>Umbra seeks to make money she can send back to her family anonymously. As far as she's concerned, it's all she can really do for them for now.</li><li>Perhaps her greatest goal is to find some cure for the numbness plaguing her soul. She's fully aware that she can't go on chasing thrills forever, and that sooner or later it will get her killed for real.</li><li>She wants terribly to see her family again, but has no idea how she could ever face them, and explain everything to them. In addition to what she's become, she also feels some guilt for already having put it off for so long.</li><li>She has no clue what happened to the Necromancer after she left. She doesn't even know if any of his experiments were <em>technically</em> illegal. If he's still alive, she wants to find him, once she's powerful enough to confront him, and get some answers out of him.<br/></li></ul></div></div>