Dain
of the Irradiated Sea
#2
Info
Court: Seelie
sealed By: ???
Original Form: Steller's Sea Eagle (elderly Female]
Date Sealed: 1953 A.D.
Favored Ecosystem: Sea Surface
Title: "Dain of the Irradiated Sea"
Magics
Blessing: "Rad Reap" Lvl 1
Elemental: radiation Lvl 1
Companion Seals: Uranium (Inanimate), Milkfish (Small)
Fairy Ring: "Irradiated Sea" (Sea of Okhotsk)
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50.05909, 148.15513
"Dain, Sea's Ruin" by Sokolva. Pen, marker, acrylic
Original Form: Steller's Sea Eagle
Appearance & Habits
Dain rarely dives or swims through the ocean. Instead, she prefers to use her huge, powerful back legs, which were once her wings, to run with incredible speed across the surface of the water. In her fae form, she is bipedal, though she crawls around on all fours when at rest or moving slowly. The webbing on her huge back feet and her surprisingly light weight allows her to run extremely quickly across the surface of the ocean without sinking. She is extremely fast, but like wings, her legs are ungainly when she is not in a place where she can use them She often tucks them close to her body like wings when she is in a tight space and creeps about on all fours, walking slowly and purposefully.
She grooms herself often with her beak-like mask and the fanged-beak beneath it, and she enjoys playing with and worrying her milkfish companion, tossing it in the air, throwing it about, and diving down and catching it. These old habits must bring her some kind satisfaction, as they were once how she hunted many milkfish when she was alive. Her milkfish, on the other hand, isn't satisfied at all by them.
Milkfish Companion
Mask Seals
Mask Sealed By:
A gentle sea fae of the Seelie Court (More info on NPCs Coming soon!]
Dain Background Summary: Prologue
When Dain was a Steller's Sea Eagle, she was at the top of the pecking order even when she became quite aged. She stayed alive to bear many hatchlings, and showed no signs of her strength waning, until her sea became irradiated due to a terrible nuclear disaster by the shoreline. She weakened and sickened without knowing why, and saw the rest of her kind falling all around her.
Because radiation, much like mercury and lead contamination, is compounded in its effects as it works is way up the food chain to the apex predators, they were all heavily affected over time by radiation. Soon, she was unable to have healthy batches of chicks due to the reproductive harm and mutations that the radiation was causing them. Finally, embittered and exhausted by guarding eggs that never hatched or die too soon, and her mind confused and affected by radiation, the Steller's eagle flew out over the ocean, lost the strength in her wings, and plummeted into the sea.
This is when an ancient, kind Seelie fae of the sea would discover her, floating in a black ocean, her keen eyes blind in the darkness, seeing only the starlight spreading endlessly above her as she died, her wings too sodden with seawater to fly, and her mind muddled with the toxins of encroaching radiation. Yet despite this, she battled the ocean that was slowly drowning her with her massive claws and beak, tearing at it like a final enemy she could bring down with her in death. The sea fae found her like this, amidst the poisoned ocean in which she unknowingly spent the years of her life, unaware of the invisible contamination that destroyed her and her chicks with every fish they successfully caught.
When the fae sealed her Mask and she took on her Masked fae form for the first time, she towered immense, riding effortlessly upon the ocean waves. She never gained wings in her fae form, but instead grew powerful legs that could run effortlessly across the waves at a headlong sprint, carrying her across the surface of even the most turbulent seas like a basilisk lizard ran across rivers and ponds. She spends most of her time above the surface of the ocean, hunting for fish not unlike the way she did as an eagle; staring down into the depths with her sharp eyes and plunging beneath the water at great speed, this time running, just deep enough to catch the fish. Sometimes, when she wants to do battle, she attacks and battles killer whale pods over territory and food disputes.
Beneath her birdlike, sharp beaked mask, hidden well when she is sitting calmly with her head down, his a massive gaping jaw that is a strange and terrifying mix between bird and whale, with rows of crushing teeth and a sharp beak on either side, opening into a cavernous throat. She also has bladed talon-like protrusions that are hidden in sheaths of the rubbery, scaly hide at the bottoms of her feet, which can be extended like hidden blades for her to grasp her prey.
Masks Sealed:
None
NOTES ON DAIN AS A SEALER:
She is unpredictable, cunning, and powerful, and will seal Masks under many different circumstances,
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Dain is most attracted to the strong. She is unlikely to bestow a Mask on anything or anyone who strikes her as weak. Dain is very selective about who she uses her Sealing magic on. She does not view bestowing Masks as an act of mercy to be granted as a way of protecting the weak and the meek from suffering and death. She is far more likely to view it as a gauntlet to be thrown at the feet of the powerful (or once powerful), to give them a chance to stay in the game longer, or as a way to restore a powerful thing whose time, she feels, has been cut short. She does not view death and injury as terrible things that are to be feared, but as natural parts of life, as normal as hunting, eating, and sleeping. Any creature or person seeking mercy or a savior will be very unlikely to find one in Dain. Those who are proud, fight until the bitterest ends, and would not even think of begging for their lives, are far more likely to catch her interest.
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The creatures of Mundis she makes into Masked do NOT have to align with her worldview or follow her goals. Because Dain isn't afraid or intimidated by anyone, and deeply relishes challenges from worthy opponents, she will willingly bestow Masks on even those she knows are likely to oppose her goals. She doesn't think like a pack leader, or the alpha of a herd; Steller's Sea Eagles hunt alone, fight amongst their own kind, and survive by their own strength. She retained these qualities as a Masked, rarely caring to work with an ally to accomplish a shared goal. Instead, she seems to choose to bestow Masks based on the merits or interest she takes in that being's continued existence. If they truly interest her, and impress her, she is more likely to make them into a Masked even if she knows they will view and treat her as an enemy.
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Dain is UNLIKELY to bestow a mask on a human UNLESS she views them as exceptionally strong in a deeply primal way. She disdains humankind due to what she perceives as a growing, cancerous weakness among many populations of humans. For any human to receive a Mask from her, they'd have to impress her a great deal. She doesn't have prejudices against species so much as she has been disappointed with what she has seen of humans she has dealt with. Remember, though, that Dain's idea of strength may not take into account many kinds of subtler strength that others may find in both the natural world and human society.
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Dain does not necessarily favor predators over prey animals. She can feel great respect for a prey animal that fights for its survival in its own way as the predator the hunts it, and is just as likely to bestow a mask on such.
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Dain is MOST LIKELY to bestow a Mask on creatures that have been crippled by or lost due to pollution, contamination, habitat loss, and the many other damages caused by humans. Whether this habit is some strange way of her "passing along" the favor of the gentle Seelie fae that performed her own Mask Seal, or whether it is simply because there are so many strong creatures forced to play against almost impossibly stacked odds in today's world, most of the Masks Dain would bestow are creatures or even humans who have fallen under the scourge of human impacts on the environment
