Sinaci, Ulyn

Face Claim: Joseph Desaulniers - Identity V / Violet Evergarden - Violet Evergarden

Appearance

Ulyn is, at a glance, a wisp. Thin in figure and slight of build, there is no word for her other than slight.

Upon further inspection, Ulyn often wears clothing that hides her figure. Underneath the baggy silk shirts and full length a-line skirts, Ulyn is no less slender, but she has a full chest and wide yet bony hips. Though she would be aghast at wearing anything to show them, Ulyn has small opalescent scales that stretch the expanse of her back, curling over her shoulders, hips, and just under the edges of her breasts. In addition to the scales are a series of scars that snake along her body, wounds from childhood that make it difficult for Ulyn to ever desire showing any kind of skin. Her upper arms are a mess of the silver-pink scars, some criss-crossing like lightning. Her upper thighs and legs bare more of these scars. Though few, there are three predominant scars on her torso - one reaches from her back around the front of her waist, ending at her navel. Another, half as long, sits an inch above that. The final stretches upwards, crossing over those scars from the beginning of her right thigh and ending just before the curve of her breast.

Ulyn has thin, long hair that reaches just below her bottom. It is silver with the softest blonde/rose gold tones in brighter light. It looks healthy enough, though doesn't shine like well-tended hair might. Although clean, Ulyn's point of never standing out has transcended her wardrobe and affects the ragged locks.

For a wardrobe, Ulyn's clothing can be described as functional. A majority of her shirts are baggy, none tailored to suit her frame. They are silk or ruffled cotton, some fashioned to bunch at the elbow and neck, but otherwise allowed to flow freely. She has a select few pair of long, high-waisted pants that she wears when tending various tasks around her estate, though she would never wear them around company. When hosting, or at the very least expecting company or traveling, Ulyn wears floor-length a-line skirts. Most of her shirts are fashioned to hang gently over the edge of the waist, hiding her slender figure with the illusion of additional volume. If there is anything that can be done to hide attractive qualities about her, Ulyn makes an effort to give the illusion she is little more than a mundane waif of a woman.

All of her clothing is silver, white, pale blue or dark faded blue in tone. There are no warm shades or vibrant tones in her wardrobe to speak of. Anything that may be striking upon her figure is forbidden, and employed tailors know better than to try and appeal to a sense of beauty or glamour. She wears little in regards to jewelry or decoration. At most, Ulyn sports an accessory around her neck, tying together a high-necked collar or weighing down a lace jabot.

Formed by magic her species is sometimes known for, Ulyn carries another face. Though there are similarities between the two, Theo stands out where Ulyn shies away.

"Theo" was created not long after Ulyn felt her healing proficiency could be of use to a group like the resistance. Theo could be what she had always desired - strong willed, capable, charming. A beautiful man among a sea of people who would rise to seek assistance. He could be an asset. Where her hair was a platinum blonde, Theo's was a sharp white that bloomed silver-blue in the right light. Where her eyes were an almost lifeless blue, Theo's could outclass any cerulean gemstone in the world. Where her sun-shy skin was deformed and warped, Theo's was a flawless and a healthy peach tone. He may have been pale to some, yet compared to her, Theo radiated sunlight.

Theo's wardrobe sported the deepest of blues - an ocean to match his gaze. He wore black like he owned the colour, a stark contrast with his pale looks. Gold accented his wardrobe, and where those tones faded, his wardrobe what a brilliant white with royalty worthy teal and aquamarine that complimented his gaze. While he curried no favor with greens and browns, even they could fine their place within his closet.


Personality

Ulyn is gentle natured and tame. She would never go against anything her mother wished of her.

Ulyn knows how to behave. She is etiquette defined. She is the picture of a child born into wealth. A proper heir to a small fief.

Ulyn is the type of woman to lead a strict social life. She knows what she wants, what she needs, and how to avoid unnecessary political drama. She keeps a low profile by daylight, attending no social functions of her class unless absolutely required. It's not difficult for her to drive away marriage candidates who her mother tries to secure, as Ulyn's personality is more frigid than a long winter (the only ones who remain in her life, trying to get close are those interested in inheriting the fief). She tends the house, she tends the servants, anything her mother is too poor in health to maintain herself. She keeps a rigid curfew, and she has no complaints.

Or at least, that's what Ulyn has convinced everyone of.

In truth, Ulyn wants peace. She is afraid of family, of romantic commitment to any man or woman or person. She lies awake worrying about the resistance she wants to assist, about the corruption that streaks through the league of Champions and their associates. Ulyn wants a better life, free of her mother, free of the ghost of her father.. one day, perhaps, free of Theo.

Ulyn worries under the weight of the fief her mother partially controls that will one day - she hopes - become fully her own, without a husband to usurp the control that is rightfully hers. While a higher entity controls the region and the Sinaci family, the people here trust her, even if they are against her family. She wants better for them and before secluding herself in the estate to take care of her ailing mother, tried to show them that (and still does, with the little control she has over money and regulations for the dual towns). Ulyn wants better for the world. That is inherently why she chose to join the resistance, and why she would sacrifice her life if it were necessary.

Under the facade her female-born appearance gives, Ulyn is incredibly intelligent when it comes to land and people management. Her skills are next to none and if she had a larger area of control, Ulyn is certain she would be of great asset. Be it mathematics or trade routes, Ulyn shines where the rest of her family has always just barely succeeded. Her people skills are inherently lacking, unlike her family, and Ulyn recognizes that if she had been born outside of her family and their control, the seat she sits in would have likely been unobtainable. That is, perhaps, why it's so important to her that the world shifts and becomes a better place, and that she uses this intelligence and capabilities to make the lives of those underneath her better.

The personality that Ulyn has crafted for Theo is raw. Steadfast, courageous, and unashamed. He is willing to drink anyone under the table, willing to throw gloves for a duel, willing to shout and scream if it means his voice is heard. He would rather die than obey the commands of another that differs morally from him. Theo is every part of Ulyn that she wishes she could unbridle and unleash, and in many ways, is her true personality. In Ulyn's mind the two are not inherently separate identities, just separated feelings that she keeps in check while constrained as 'Ulyn'. She is excellent at keeping these elements of her personality separate.

Abilities

Ulyn, as far as anyone knows, has next to no powers. Because of that, her father and mother both considered her mundane until she was allowed to mentally shine in regards to fief management and as a bartering piece. As a child she would randomly shift her hair colour or eyes, though Ulyn later realized that they would be considered assets of her person to her parents and decided to practice and hone these abilities only in secret. As far as her mother knows, Ulyn might be able to change a tiny bit of her appearance, but it's nothing worth taking note of. Her mother knows nothing about her healing abilities.

Shapeshifting-

Theo - Through years of practice Theo, being a creation of hers since her early childhood, is the one form that Ulyn can maintain as if it were her true form. Every inch of her transitions from female to male - internal and external organs and overall appearance transforming over the span of a minute. It's an almost reflexive action now. As a child, she considered abandoning her life as a fief heiress and living as the vagabond known as Theo instead. While she lives primarily as a woman in her 'day' life, Ulyn considers both her sex and gender to be somewhere comfortably in the middle. If she were to abandon Theo as a persona and embrace the elements of herself she instills into him, Ulyn would likely be a comfortable mix of male and female. Certain magics can forcefully keep Ulyn from transforming into Theo, but she's very good at maintaining this form, and has yet to slip.

Other - On the fly, Ulyn can shift things like colour/length of her hair, her general build (exchanging weight or height for one another), etc, fairly quickly. Other than into 'Theo', full body shifts take time, and can become exhausting. She also can't maintain those changes for long, and the more extravagant the change the less time she can comfortably hold the change, and the longer she needs to rest afterwards. This change must happen from memory, and if rushed can result in messed details or lop-sided changes (such as one green eye, one blue, or hair of unequal length, etc).

Healer's Touch

Ulyn is gifted when it comes to healing. She learns quickly and is extremely intuitive when it comes to reconnecting arteries, pathways, staving off blood loss, etc. There are times where she, as Theo, has put her life at risk to bring someone back from the brink of death. She can't revive anyone - that skill is beyond her. She can't salvage someone who has lost huge swathes of their body beyond staving death as long as she is constantly exerting her healing abilities. If more than a couple organs are damaged, someone's entire body has caught fire and expanses of skin/flesh been seared close to the bone, those wounds are beyond her ability to manage and heal to completion without hour long breaks between sessions -- she absolutely can't save someone's life on the battlefield while trying to survive herself.

With her current skill, Ulyn can heal damaged internal organs over an hour or two. She can patch general wounds to help someone survive until they get to cover or heal on their own quickly, though being too rushed will result in wounds reopening after a period of time.

Ulyn can regenerate a leg given a few hours for bone, a few more for tissue. She needs a break after this, and would take a few more hours to bring someone from having general functionality of that limb to full feeling/use as if nothing had ever happened to it. She imagines that given a couple more decades of healing, Ulyn will be able to completely regenerate limbs within a couple hours. For the resistance as Theo, Ulyn can often be seen regenerated entire limbs. The process is slow and arduous, with bloodied hands tearing into hunks of meat and bread and cheese mid-healing if the damage is serious enough and time is not on their side.

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Regardless of what magic/ability Ulyn uses she must replenish the energy exerted. For her, this is easiest done through consuming large quantities of food - she could quite literally consume half a horse without batting an eye after holding another appearance for a long period of time or healing someone. Healing anything from a paper cut to a small knife would doesn't take much and she might snack after just because. Bringing someone back from pneumonia and other serious illnesses will result in her needing to satisfy a hunger worthy of multiple large plates of food - dense with meats, vegetables and sweet fruits. The longer Ulyn goes without eating post-healing or change, the more likely Ulyn is to feint. The more she resists hunger clawing at her and the light headed feeling that comes with extensive exertion, the closer that Ulyn drives herself towards death.

History

Ulyn was raised as a child to two Mehyior. They wanted a son, but when your soul is cleaved in two with one child, what can you do?

She was raised as the heiress of a fief, governing two small towns within the Veh'sadji mountains - one at the base at either side, with their manor/home between the two. It had been in the Sinaci family for two generations on her father's side. With dangerous land and meager returns in regards to farming, mining, etc, it was never a very coveted position, and allowed to operate freely for the most part.

While there are many parties within the mountain who do not subscribe to the rule of the fief, those who have laid claim to territory there trend towards knowing of the Sinaci family, and their attempt to ensure that the peoples within the domain live their lives free of being attacked by roaming wild animals, are able to survive the long and arduous winters and safe from less-than-friendly travelers, and not easily invaded by those within the mountains who operate outside of the fief's rule. The fief ultimately supports anyone within power at the capital - their loyalties shifting to whoever they say current rules. They pay taxes and send men, women, etc, to war as requested by those in control. For now, that is the Champions.

Ulyn was raised to share these beliefs, to agree that the were any higher up's to order. Although she showed some promise in her teens with shapeshifting abilities, Ulyn quickly realized her abilities were best kept a secret to be used for her benefit if she should ever need to run from her family - malicious treatment by her parents present from childhood into adulthood. Scars from wounds she could have healed remain, arching this way and that upon her body.

With the abuse at the hands of her parents, both willing to run their daughter's body into the ground if it meant a subservient child who would obey their every demand, Ulyn bore a hatred for the rigid system they wanted to uphold (and any belief they might have had). They said she would marry someone of their choosing, who would govern in her place, and who would be able to bring prestige to the Sinaci family name. That was what they cared about, not a do-nothing, no-good daughter with no qualities other than being *somewhat* attractive. As a wife she would run the estate affairs her husband gave her, and he would take care of the rest. She had to be at least worthy enough in that regard, and in the case her husband failed to produce a heir, they wanted her to be groomed to take control until she could remarry. Through their malicious regime, they tried to instill in Ulyn a sense that the land they governed should only ever be loyal to the capitol, and should never become anything but "the Sinaci Fief". In her thirties Ulyn's father passed away on the battlefield. He had been gone for only a year, Ulyn's mother left to run the estate. With the return of his body came her mother's absolute rule over the fief.

Ulyn's mother had always been an inherently cruel person, life taking much from her before she hit maturity. Her parents were wealthy before marriage and that wealth only increased by taxing the people of the mountains so that they were able to *just* survive, while the Sinaci family offered "protection" in turn. Something that, Ulyn felt, should have been a requirement for their position without taking a means of freedom and luxury away from their people. Corruption within the ranks of the Champions was something her parents whispered about when she was young, and became apparent in the social circles they forced Ulyn to run until her father passed away. "They are they stronger party, we must do everything we can to support them. If the uprising aren't fond of how the champions rule, it won't be long before things change for us" - their own corruption, misdeeds, underhanded efforts, etc, would be scrubbed away with the 'rot' of the corruption if the resistance won. After her father's passing, her mother's cruelty only increased. Ulyn was restricted from leaving home, her mother whispering that Ulyn could only trust her, could only have faith in her, could only prepare herself to be a good wife.

Twenty years after her father's passing, Ulyn's mother became too ill to continue attending the estate. Ulyn had been at her side constantly, dealing with the abuse her mother lashed out and the attempts at arraigned marriages with appealing families. Ulyn's mother was effectively bedridden, and remains that way to today. Ulyn has made no effort to heal her, and believes her mother is holding on purely through chi manipulation. The life that Ulyn had been groomed to live fell partially into her lap, her mother handling monetary and social affairs with Ulyn handling more mundane and government correspondence tasks that give her a broad overview of the fief. Although her mother is still legally in charge, Ulyn no longer has to fear a whip to her skin or a rough, calloused hand lashing out at her. Ulyn has a face to uphold until her mother weakens completely or finally passes, but has found a freedom in the night since taking charge. A part of her was fine with being confined to the family estate by day, as it gives Ulyn a reason not to entertain social circles beyond men that her mother wishes to marry her to (who she tends to drive away).

As of the last ten years, under the guise of Ulyn heading to the two towns within the fief or checking in at major cities that require paperwork/etc from her family, Ulyn has begun spending more and more time away from home -- though she returns frequently, and stays for stretches of time.

Her nights are, and always have been, hers. As a child, when she was finally able to make larger changes to her appearance outside of minor changes to hair and eye colours, Ulyn created Theo. The changes she needed to be presentably 'male' were small - little differences in appearance present between prepubescent boys and girls. She didn't have to change her form much, a little taller in height and a little more round than her waifish normal appearance, and she was fine.

Theo was a young boy who used to run around the mountains, Ulyn stealing a horse from the stables and appearing in taverns of the two towns within her family's fief, and random local villages. He was handsome and striking as he aged, fearless, and always quick to disappear into a crowd after making a mess of things. As he got older, he became a little more tame and a bit more jovial instead of a brat, and people considered him a traveler - likely an orphan. Theo began giving medical assistance in his apparent thirties, still young and handsome, and very good natured. He always turned down propositions for romance, and always left towns before morning. He refused to give much information about himself.

It was Theo who joined the resistance, it is Theo who lives a life of 'freedom'. When Ulyn is taking a 'long trip' somewhere, she usually spends half or more of the time spent traveling and dealing with 'business' affairs in the resistance, healing as Theo. While Theo once was only capable of staying on a battlefield for brief periods of time, and only near the mountains or major cities, he has been able to remain for longer periods of time - day to day affairs where he's healing for extended periods of time. He also spends more time traveling, Ulyn taking only hired guards who were contacted by 'Theo' and not Ulyn. Theo never requests payment for his deeds, only a place to sleep, food available for recovery, and to have his comings/goings go without much question.

As far as anyone knows, Theo is a man like any other. He has only a sick mother he must leave the resistance to take care of, and makes money as a traveling healer. He is good company and willing to laugh with anyone. Some people have managed to become closer to Theo, know his likes and dislikes, his food preferences, etc.

Ulyn is still very much a mystery to those within the fief and those who know her personally. She is little more than a marionette controlled by her family, and Ulyn tries to keep that doll-like facade as well managed as possible, feeling free truly only as Theo for now.