<div class="floatright">   (http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/220410154717_ciara_1.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Ciara Ferragio<br/><br/><br/><strong>Age:</strong>She is in her mid to late twenties, but looks younger<br/><br/><br/><strong>Class: </strong>Uses Arcane Magic and (secretly) also 'psionic magic'<br/><br/><br/><strong>Appearance:</strong>1.64m<br/><br/>As a Drow, she will look much as she does now, though her skin will be black, her hair glistening white, her eyes a dark red. Her bones and features will become more delicate than they already are, her ears longer and pointed.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i39.tinypic.com/6pnn9x.jpg)   </div><strong>Background:</strong>As red as blood, as white as snow and as black as ebony she had been her entire life, although these colours were not yet organised in the desired fashion. For now, it was her skin that showed an immaculate white, her lips were red and her hair almost black, but soon, she hoped, her eyes might glow the colour of darkest carnelian, her hair would be fair, and her skin as black as onyx. For a human, she came close to ideals of physical perfection, while what others, but not her, no, never her, would deem her greatest flaws, if they could look into her heart as well as into her face, would become virtues overnight.<br/><br/>As red as blood... That sentence from a fairytale her mother had babbled to console her, had had the desired effect, although not in the form the poor woman had imagined. Her loving appraisal of her daughter's beauty had not meant a thing, the story was pure nonsense, but that single line had become her litany, a song of waiting, of promise, of hopes as dark as the life they had sprung from. Not that anybody knew, oh no. Ciara, as she called herself now, had origins none knew. One day, she had come to town, mistress of a nobleman who had never tired of her, but showered her in gifts and riches, right until his death.<br/><br/>Her fortune well invested in diverse enterprises, the one best known being her brothel, she had lived in town for many years now. How old she might be was another question frequently discussed, or what exactly had brought her that reputation of being irresistible, in a town full of women whose beauty was not inferior to her own, who certainly knew how to please a man, many men, any man. Was it some sorcery, did she put a spell on them? But then, there were many who did this, and still, none had quite her fame. She could hold a conversation, sing, dance, entertain - but who could not, in her line of work? And still...<br/><br/>Perhaps her fame did the trick? Who would not want to win for his mistress a woman said to be - rightfully so or not - the greatest lover in town and beyond? What a pity she no longer showed any intention to grant suitors entry to her private chambers. Her exclusive brothel was always open, though, to those who had the necessary means and obeyed its rules, all its pleasures, its many chambers, all the whores at her command would be at their disposal, as well as any they could possibly dream of. She would find and persuade them, for the right price, and make them just what the men desired, which was the greater feat by far. It was said she had never yet not found and provided, eventually, the very thing and service a costumer desired.<br/><br/>Some whispered she not only taught whores and concubines, but that some fine lady or other had sought her advice, to learn how to keep a man like theirs pleased and contented. Perhaps this was why even virtuous women hated her so little, along with her policy of never allowing one of her customers to waste his wealth or future on a whore. A discreet correspondence, a few arrangements later, and the family's fortune and honour was secured, while another little whore's foolish dreams were buried - if it was not the whore herself. And through and underneath it all, she had spun her web, dealing in another good, most precious, rare, and often dangerous. Information.<br/><br/>Her network of spies reached in every corner of the city, or such was her ambition, and far beyond the city's gates. The knowledge she had such assembled in her pretty head was greater than any suspected, just as her wealth, or the number of businesses and shadier transactions she in some way arranged and profited from. Though not the most respectable of citizens, few would suspect just how involved she was in the dealings of the underworld, nor was it largely known that she used arcane magic, leave alone to which extent, while she keept her true mastery, that of psionic 'magic', entirely to herself.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Personality:</strong>Few survive childhood unscarred, far less come out as profoundly crippled as Ciara. Not that it renders her a less able survivor, on the contrary, and it is also the driving force behind her hunger for power. She has been powerless once, seen the worst in people, yes, the worst in them is all she ever sees. For her, love, compassion, scruples or a conscience are self-protective pretences to excuse weakness. Her world is divided into strong and weak, useful and useless. Ciara masters subterfuge, concealment and pretence, however. She certainly appears a strong and successful woman, but one who feels, has warmth, mercy, even, can love and does care. She is so skilled she can will herself into actually feeling what she claims she feels for the necessary duration, which makes her success at hiding her true nature less surprising.<br/><br/>She is a schemer, liar, manipulator, as unhindered by conscience as any psychopath. Patient and controlled, she works towards her goals, and would do anything to achieve them, her survival, her gaining more power, is all she cares about. She knows, in Drow society, she would fit in, and thinks she would be successful, too. Men would have the place they ought to hold, in her opinion, a small bonus, but a welcome one. It might be suspected she has a remnant of an ability to care and love, as she can stir, and pretend to have, such feelings so well she must at least understand exactly how they work. Sexually and otherwise, she is dominant (and sadistic), but will (appear to) submit for as long as the other holds power over her. Once the table is turned, her hour has come, and she will revel in paying back a hundred times and more what she was made to suffer.<br/><br/><br/>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/><br/>The second character:<br/><br/><strong>Name:</strong>C'tholith<br/><br/><br/><div align="center">(http://i39.tinypic.com/15x8oko.jpg)</div><strong><br/>Background:</strong>Unusually beautiful but far too small and delicate, few expected her to live long, but although she never had remarkable skills at fighting and showed a lack of aggressiveness, or direct ambition, for which she was and is looked down upon, she not only survived, but prospered. Early on, it was suspected Lolth must have plans for her, there was no other explanation for her escaping death again and again, by what often looked like mere chance. Some action or other, however erratic it might have looked, always lead to her coming out of danger practically unharmed. With her vivid dreams and her tendency to speak in what others perceived as mysterious babble or riddles, she caught the attention of a priestess, who put her through a first test, which she survived, as she did all following tests.<br/><br/>She likes these tests. She likes poisons. She likes drugs. She experiments with either and excels at this like few others. She spends much of her time in a drug induced state. She sees things. Lolth talks to her through dreams and visions, she is an oracle, she must be quite insane by the standards of most. She is a very useful tool and yet powerful in herself, not powerful in an active way, but enough so, in addition to her usefulness, that the others prefer to spare her, since she oddly seems to survive what is done against her, while her enemies often meet some misfortune. In fact, there is some rivalry among the priestesses as to who may claim and 'guard' her, receive her enigmatic utterances and interpret them into understandable terms, into law, into orders.<br/><br/>She has made the vow of decadence, between hallucinations, trances, horrible nightmares and wonderful dreams, her life flows in no perceptible rhythm, her mind appears to be in chaos most of the time, but when she decides to act, she acts with as much or more logic and consistency as others. She loves to dance and sing for her goddess, and is strikingly beautiful to behold when she does so (in the eyes of and ears of her fellow Drow - although few other races would deny her  beauty or that of her eerie, haunting voice), which renders her public rituals and ceremonies for Lolth's very popular (which again makes her a useful priestess to keep around for the others).<br/><br/>Even for a Drow, she goes quite naked. She loves jewellery, though, especially potent magical one, and that with hidden thorns and many functions (creating a weapon either by itself or when attached to other parts of her jewellery in a specific fashion, for example). Most of her jewellery also has cavities in which a wild assortment of poisons, drugs and spell components are contained. She wears a belt with several pouches and two daggers. Her hair is done up in elaborate styles with pins, clasps and jewellery, much of which can be used as a weapon or to channel divine energy. Her 'spells' appear as unpredictable and chaotic as her utterances. She has perfected the art of crafting and using tiny but effective poisonous blades, arrows and darts which she can shoot, throw or blow.<br/><br/>Some side effects of her drugs periodically throw her into a state of permanent arousal, like a cat in heat, she will seek to mate as often as possible, even to the point of complete exhaustion, with whatever creatures strike her fancy. In this, too, she follows Lolth's guidance. Much which seems careless or vulnerable about her leads to (obvious or incidental seeming) divine protection as it is a direct consequence of her giving herself over entirely to Lolth's will, her tests. She is aware of all the dangers and risks her choices bring, she braves and faces them with few protections, will endure her own weakness, exposure to danger, contempt or ridicule of her fellow Drow if such is Lolth's will. Much of her 'weakness' is a strength (of will, character and faith) few of her sisters possess or could recognise as such.<br/><br/>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>My third character is a human healer, also in her late twenties, and as she spends all her time dedicated to easing suffering, helping, showing kindness and compassion, and has got a profound love and deep respect for life, naturally, she cannot stand Drow at all...