<div class="floatleft">(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4715/nishkalarge.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Nishka<br/><strong>Race:</strong>Human Female (Felid Template)<br/><strong>Alignment:</strong>Chaotic Good<br/><strong>Class:</strong>Bard 8 (Favored)<br/><br/><strong>Character Sheet:</strong>Nishka Character Sheet @ Myth-Weavers  (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=150977)<br/><br/><strong>Appearance:</strong>Unadorned, Nishka is stunningly beautiful, but in a very exotic way. Her face is small and round, with wide green eyes that often exist in a half-open state. There are marks on her pink cheeks that look, at first glance, like delicate scars from a childhood disease. Pale, snowy-white, and barely visible, they continue down her neck and shoulders (and over much of her naked body, including her thighs and lower legs) in a feline repetition. Her ears are also misshapen, long and sleekly triangular, with a hint of hair at each corner.<br/><br/>The girl frequently dons attractive clothing and jewelry to complement her looks. Delicate white blouses, and colorful skirts inspired by the gypsies themselves...she often does not fit in with the more downtrodden and common folk of the misty lands. She usually wears a lavish necklace, dripping with red rubies, around her neck and she's quite fond of bracelets and rings on her long arms and hands. She never wears earrings.<br/><br/>The flash and glitter of the exotic in her garb and jewelry helps to hide her long, sharp nails and the ever-active tail she keeps lashed to her right thigh and knee and leg. Life for Nishka is a balance between accentuating her incredibly attractive, human qualities while trying her best to downplay her more exotic features.<br/><br/>Several years ago, Nishka was given a gift by a noble in Darkon. She often uses her<em>Ring of Chameleon Power</em>to numb down her looks and appear completely human. In this form she still looks stunning, but many of her feline traits are no longer visible. For some reason, though, the ring has never been able to hide her tail; it causes Nishka a great amount of frustration.<br/><br/>Without resorting to disguises, Nishka is very easy to spot in a crowd, and its very difficult for her to do anything without drawing a fair bit of attention. At times she also uses the ring to appear much more common, or simply pretty, for this very reason. However, Nishka's personality and actions cannot be magically altered as well, so most people who see the Felid in disguise will recognize that there is something off, or wrong about her anyway.<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong>Nishka was born to a large, human family in Barovia, and she was almost abandoned at birth and left to die in the snowy winter. Unlike most other little girls in her family, Nishka represented minor, bestial traits from the moment she left her mother's womb. To keep such a child was considered dangerous and unwise in the harsh social climate of Barovia. In a place where the night hunts you and those you love, the last thing you want to do is raise a monster in your midst.<br/><br/>However, Nishka's grandmother had once given up a similar child, and had regretted it. So she took the child and raised her against the family's protests. Nishka's childhood was spent in solitude and mundane service, and while it wasn't a lavish life, it was warm and full of love. Other children harassed her in her youth, and there were nights where angry people would come to her Grandmama's door and argue with her for long hours into the night. But a child? How could a child cause any harm to the villagers.<br/><br/>As Nishka grew, so did her bestial traits. But she did not grow into a monster. Rather, she became more and more stunning as she aged, until she reached puberty and adolescence afterward. Each day she drew more and more attention, until she no longer felt comfortable in public.<br/><br/>And that's when a noble somewhere noticed her. Her Gandmama was told one day by the local magistrate that Nishka was to be made presentable, and that a black carriage would arrive to take her away that very night. But the girls who left in those carriages never returned, and it terrified both the younger teen and her protector. She ran away before that fateful carriage could arrive, fleeing her home and the lands of Barovia itself. She never intended to return.<br/><br/>The rest of her years to present were spent traveling the dark lands of Ravenloft. She has some knowledge of just how frightening and cruel the world can be, but she's hardly an expert. Most of her time was spent in Darkon, where demihumans are much more common and accepted, but she has seen glimpses of many lands. She knows as much as any resident of these dark lands knows: be wary of drawing too much attention, and when the sun sets and the night comes a'calling, bar your doors and windows and never, ever listen to the sounds outside.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>As a sidenote, there is a hushed legend in her family, regarding a woman deep in the family's past. Apparently she tarried outside too late one night, and she was attacked and forcibly taken by something inhuman. Though no child ever came from the union, ever since then, children have been born every couple of generations with Felid traits. That's the story, anyway...<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>During her journeys, Nishka has also spent some time in Dementlieu and Mordent and has developed an intense fascination for firearms and gunpowder. She has learned how to create gunpowder, through much study, and trial and error; she tends to default to the explosive device whenever possible.<br/><br/><strong>Motivations &amp; Personality:</strong>Nishka presents herself as a bard and entertainer, and that gives her more freedom than the average soul in her travels. Inns and taverns welcome the ravishing girl, instead of treating her with ingrained suspicion; it is better to sing for your meals than to be 'the Stranger.' She has taken to this path with glee, and finds much pleasure in the songs and tales she sings. She sometimes augments her performances with magic, but in the Land of Dread, such displays often arrouse too much fright.<br/><br/>She's a bold and excitable girl, but she lives in the prison of her own discomfort. Although she receives much attention, it all makes her uncomfortable. Those who are attracted to her always ferret out her peculiarities; if they should embrace them, it insults the young woman. Worse still are those who spot her exotic features right away. She lives in constant fear of the lynch mob, and she understands what those people wanted to do to her so many years ago, in her home town in Barovia. She has been places, and seen elves burned for the sake of their long ears and their 'unholy' bond with the dark lands; worse yet, she's ventured to the borders of a realm where nonhumans are immediately enslaved. So fear is a natural, and instinctual, part of her being.<br/><br/>Still, while she tries to be cautious, Nishka is a rash and impulsive being, often lacking common sense or perspective on the things that happen around her. She's too quick to give attention, often flees when in danger, and has been known to prematurely resort to violence to resolve a situation. She can analyze herself later, and understand what went wrong, but in the moment she lacks any great amount of self control.<br/><br/>One of her biggest goals is to understand her 'curse.' Although she hasn't done anything that she considers overly evil, she's heard the stories of inhuman creatures that slaughter and kill, and she's always worried that she might be changing into one of them. To that end, she studies and collects lore on shapeshifters and demihumans, trying to find some way to 'cure' herself and become 'truly' human. Her condition, however, is purely genetic, and there's nothing short of powerful magic or the Mists themselves that can remove the Felid's blood from her.