Mikain, Ciara

[Dischord]

Name: Ciara L. Mikain
Nickname: N/A
Age: 16 (Appears), 1,816 (Actual) (October 30th)
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Moonveil, Oforai
Family: Ásgeirr Hjördíson (Husband; Deceased), Laith Mikain (Grandfather; Location Unknown), Sierra Mikain (Grandmother; Deceased), Thasrian Mikain (Father; Deceased), Sarasa Mikain (Mother; Deceased)

Trainer Orientation: Chaotic Neutral
Trainer Class: Aura Vampire
Starter Pokémon: None

Florence and the Machine - Breath of Life
Context: Character Theme

Florence and the Machine - No Light, No Light
Context: Character Theme

Ursine Vulpine - Wicked Game
Context: Character Theme


Context: Combat Theme

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To say that Ciara has aged well for a young woman of her advanced years would be a grievous kind of understatement. An immortal in her own right, her body ceased aging sometime after her 16th birthday, leaving her perpetually a teenager. Standing at 5'8" in height, and weighing in at 145 lbs, Ciara is fairly well built for a teenager who never quite made it through puberty. She has silvery white hair that is left to fall loose just above her shoulders, and would be kept trimmed, save that like the rest of her, it never grows past the time where her body ceased its aging. She has a unique heterochromia that she inherited from her grandfather in a sense, with her right eye a shade of blue, and the left eye a shade of red.

Her frame is slender-enough, and her chest is pretty modest for a young woman, but the more noticeable part of her is the toned musculature under whatever clothing she wears, evidence of what physical prowess she possesses, but also of the mentality and requirements of the time in which she was born. Her preferred style of garments varies from day to day, and she's got an extensive wardrobe of modern and period clothing accumulated during her life, and it's always hard to tell what she'll be in. She enjoys the gothic lolita style, and will often play up her vampire nature to give her that gothic appeal. In general, she just wears whatever is comfortable, or at least stylish, tending toward soft fabrics. The one thing that she keeps on with at least half of her outfits is a black eyepatch that usually covers her red eye, the patch itself is black, and there's a delicate looking rose on the patch, a relic of a bygone age, her family crest.

Artwork by Sword Girls Online.

Artwork by Sword Girls Online.

When describing Ciara Mikain, you could write down 'complicated', and that could definitely be considered an understatement. Not the kind of person who falls into the age-old trope of an immortal with a pessimistic outlook on life, Ciara is instead an exuberant individual who embraces her long life and relishes the many opportunities that it affords her. This is something that is reflected in every aspect of her as a person, but really shines when she's playing herself up for those who might end up taking notice of her.

She's got a very snarky kind of wit and a sharp tongue untempered by her years of life, something that influences many into considering her a troublemaker. She enjoys causing a stir, and more importantly, she likes watching people and seeing how they react to the circumstances she drums up around them. She isn't the type of individual who makes friends easily though, instead preferring to flit through life while keeping people at least an arm's length away, especially given how short the lives of most individuals are in comparison to her own.

Being perpetually stuck in the body of a teenager has both its advantages and its disadvantages as far as she's concerned. It affords her certain liberties that others might not have, such as her fashion choices rarely turning a head in whatever age she's in, because the young are simply that way. At the other end of the spectrum, however, there's the disrespect that the young are sometimes given by the old. She tends to take it all in stride however, as she sometimes falls into that trap herself, considering most of those around her to be children.

There's a part of Ciara that she keeps buried and hidden quite deeply beneath her surface, and that is the not-so-subtle sense of loss that she feels for those she has left behind. Every year on the same day she drinks a solitary toast, reciting the names of those she has lost, and lamenting the names of those she has forgotten. Among these names are friends, family, and from time to time, Pokémon.

One of the things that she finds difficult in her day to day life is keeping up the facade that she's just another child of the Mikain family. This also ties into the cover that she uses for herself in terms of a public face, passing herself off as one of the children of her family line. It isn't often that someone can pretend to be their own great great ... well, you get the idea ... grandchild. But it definitely comes in handy when dealing with people, and also explaining away the considerable amount of resources that she has access to. You couldn't exactly call her rich, but she's affluent enough to be considered a spoiled princess-type of individual, something that she often plays up in the public eye when she wants to draw attention to herself, or on the flip side of that, when she wants something she's doing to go way under the radar.

One of the oddities in her personality is her devotion to Dialga, a trait that has been shared in her family line since her grandfather's time. When dealing with people she keeps her longevity and her vampirism secret except from those who are similarly long-lived, and as such, comes off to many as eccentric or simply very strange. Usually people come to the conclusion that she is somehow both, and she enjoys allowing people their assumptions. It just makes it that much more amusing when those assumptions are proven wrong, or more hilariously, proven right.

Ciara Lynnaris Mikain was born in the year 198 CE, to a prominent family in the Oforai Empire, the first and only child of the heirs to the Mikain family. But to understand the woman, you first have to understand her origins. Her father was Thasrian Mikain, a Priest of Dialga, and the son of where her story truly begins, with Laith Talavir, the High Priest of Dialga, and with Sierra Mikain, a High Priest of Lunala. These two would eventually wed, and in time, Thasrian, her father, would be born. But her family legacy is still not so simply explained.

The line of Talavir had long since made a deal with Dialga, in the time of Laith's own distant ancestors. In return for their service guarding and protecting the streams of time, for holding history true to its course, their family would be long lived, and ever pledged in service to Dialga. They were referred to, in their own way, as Timelords, the High Priests of Dialga. Men and women who strode along time, long lived, recording history and guiding the world as they lived. Each had a lifespan that diminished as they grew older. Not truly timeless, but instead living greatly extended periods of time, watching the world develop, and extending their hands in aid only where they were instructed. The line of Mikain however, had its own unique gifts. Those born into the line of Mikain were gifted with Aura, as Guardians of the world. And then in later history, came Sierra. A divergent in the gifts usually granted to her line, instead of the usual gifts of Aura, Sierra's gift took an unexpected turn. She became one of the first Aura vampires, one of the long lived who persisted despite the passage of time, taking from the world around her to extend her lifespan.

But it was no chance that Laith and Sierra ended up together. Brought together by divine providence, by the hand of Arceus itself, Laith and Sierra were part of a wave of people who fought against one of the many early incarnations of the Darkness. And when their world threatened to tear itself asunder, and brave souls stood against the Darkness, Sierra stood alongside those heroes and legends of their age. But in the end, she sacrificed herself to save others - an event that Laith had known was coming and forced himself to walk away from. Of all of Dialga's most sacred laws, and the one that he could not break, was interference in points in time that Dialga dictated as 'fixed'. Those which could not be changed without dire consequence; Sierra's death was deemed one such point.

Sierra's death came only a few months after the birth of their son, an event that they had thought impossible, and though Laith was left to raise the boy alone, he did what he could for him. As one of the last of the line of Talavir, it would eventually be up to Thasrian to take up the mantle of Timelord, and walk the pathways of time as his father did. But as fate does so frequently, it intervened. Instead, Laith met another of the Mikain line, a young woman by the name of Sarasa, during their travels. Eventually, Sarasa would become the woman his son wed. And so Laith once again allowed events to take their natural course. Sarasa's inheritance of the Mikain family blessing, and its inversion as Sierra's had been wasn't a surprise to the man. But his granddaughter was.

No one had expected Ciara to be born because of the unique circumstances surrounding her mother and father. Aura Vampirism often halted the aging of the one possessed of it, and so Sarasa's pregnancy had been against the formidable odds of circumstance. However, when Ciara was born some nine months later, her eyes a bright red, as was common in her family. However, moments after her birth, her right eye turned blue. Laith of course, having experienced the same after he'd entered into the pact with Dialga, knew what this meant. His granddaughter had been marked by the God of Time, entered into the same pact as he before she could ever truly consent to it. But as time was tricky, Laith didn't question, expecting that this was instead a bargain entered with at some point in the future, and reflecting backwards into the past. As time itself was tricky, even without the intervention of Dialga himself, Laith knew better than to question. If the mark had appeared in her eye, it had done so for good reason, even if that reason wasn't immediately understood.

Ciara spent her earliest years at the heel of her grandfather and her father, learning everything she could about the world, and more importantly, about the flow of time. Intelligent to a frightening level, with an aptitude for time manipulation that only Laith had previously matched, and a skill with her Aura gifts, Ciara reached her maturity at around age 16, when the worst happened. As her grandmothers and her mother's had before her, Ciara's gift turned itself, becoming Aura Vampirism, and halting the young woman's aging, instead of merely slowing it as those of the Talavir line usually experienced.

She separated from her parents for a time, traveling the world, though she maintained a steady position in time. Instead, she wandered and learned, watching and listening, picking up languages, sciences, and watching mankind progress. It wasn't long however, before her parents grew tired of their extended lifespans. Wanting instead to travel into their promised reward, they both surrendered their extra years of life to Ciara, passing that very night in peaceful slumber. Ciara had barely made it past her hundredth year when she, along with her grandfather, lay her parents to rest.

For a while, Ciara traveled the world alone, undying and unchanging, watching the world evolve and expand around her. Most of her travel was marked with what one would expect of any of the Timelords. Watching the world progress and silently marking its history, adjusting things where they needed to be adjusted. The passage of history recorded in books that were sent away to the distant future, recorded in vague terms and written to represent her part of the pact she had made with Dialga.  

Though her travels were mostly left undocumented and in each era she changed her name and modified her appearance with minor tweaks in following the fashion, Ciara stayed separate from others. She was primarily left alone by Laith, who had his own travels to attend to, and his own course of history to follow, Ciara managed to hold others at bay enough to limit her friends, at least, until sometime around the 700s CE. During this time, Ciara met a Norse raider by the name of Ásgeirr Hjördíson. The two fought against one another as Ásgeirr invaded the land that Ciara had come into possession of in Ireland. The pair formed a bond during the war, one that ended in what could hardly be called violence. A few years later, they wed. They had only a few years together, with no chance for a child betwixt the two of them, until Ásgeirr's life was claimed in a fight with envoys of the Darkness. Since the day of his death, Ciara has carried around the memory of her husband, marking it as one of the most important times of her long life.

She's formed no long lasting bond since. She's gone by dozens of names over the years, more than a hundred different monikers as she traveled the world, in and out of time where she so pleased. First, to keep her promise, more recently however she has stepped into the fight with the Darkness, using her powers and gifts where she could to prevent others from losing the very precious thing that she had once coveted, and then cherished until death rent it away from her.  Over the centuries, she has established the Mikain line as a powerful shadow family, leading a forefront battle against the basic things which afflict humanity – disease, poverty, illness, war, famine – and more recently, into the fighting field where the creatures of the Darkness have once again raised their head.

In the modern age, Ciara quietly heads the Mikain Corporation, using centuries of amassed wealth and connections to try and better the world. Though she knows that this, in some fashion, should technically violate the rules of the pact with Dialga, the Pokémon god has made no move to stop her, nor has he sent her grandfather to intervene. This leads the woman to believe that these events are necessary. Now, she works through misdirection with outlier groups who want to fight against the Darkness that are now threatening her world, her home. Though she stands apart from the world, she does so as its protector.

To the public however, she's Ciara L. Mikain, granddaughter of the Mikain family, heiress to a fortune and corporate throne, mover and shaker in the world, one of the youngest known graduates of Solaris Academy, and friend to Pokémon researchers everywhere, despite never owning one herself.

Regular Abilities______________________________________
└-Skills, professions, knowledge and talents.

Grandmaster Skills: The following abilities are skills and talents that Ciara has taken to their utmost level that is within the scope of her training and time spent, some taking several human lifetimes worth.

│
├─Classification: Talent, Physical
├─Category: Variable
└─Power Level: Grandmaster

Master Skills: The following abilities are skills and talents that Ciara has taken to a very high level due to extended training and study over the course of a single human lifetime's worth.

│
├─Classification: Talent, Physical
├─Category: Variable
└─Power Level: Master

Expert Skills: The following abilities are skills and talents that Ciara has taken to a level high enough that the margin for error is exceptionally low. This can take a good number of years.

│
├─Classification: Talent, Physical
├─Category: Variable
└─Power Level: Expert

Journeyman Skills: The following abilities are skills and talents that Ciara has taken to a level that allows them for everyday use, but have not quite reached the level required to do them enough to be renowned.

│
├─Classification: Talent, Physical
├─Category: Variable
└─Power Level: Journeyman

Apprentice Skills The following abilities are skills and talents that Ciara is currently still learning, and has enough knowledge to use them in a pinch or a situation that calls for them, but not perfectly.

│
├─Classification: Talent, Physical
├─Category: Variable
└─Power Level: Apprentice

Novice Skills The following abilities are skills and talents that Ciara is just beginning to cultivate, and has only rudimentary knowledge of them.

│
├─Classification: Talent, Physical
├─Category: Variable
└─Power Level: Apprentice

Martial Abilities______________________________________
└-Weapon specializations and fighting styles.

Mixed Martial Arts: Even stripped of her Aura powers, Ciara is a skilled fighter who has spent a great deal of time both traveling the world and learning as she went. She knows a number of mixed martial arts, having picked them up both during her travels, as well as inventing a few fusion styles of martial arts on her own through study and practice meant to spent long otherwise empty hours in her life.

│
├─Classification: Physical
├─Category: Fighting Style
└─Power Level: Master

Swordsmanship (Chain Sword): The chain sword is a unique weapon that saw the greatest use during the height of Oforai. Consisting of a segmented blade along a flexible whip made from the shed remnants of a Steelix, allowing the blade both increased flexibility along the axis within which it moves, and the ability to snap back into place and be used as a solid blade. This weapon fell out of popularity due to being notoriously difficult to master and manipulate, and Ciara's skill with it is attributed to her greatly increased speed and agility from her vampirism enhanced Aura abilities. The sword she uses originally belonged to her grandmother, Sierra.

│
├─Classification: Physical
├─Category: Weapon Proficiency
└─Power Level: Master

Supernatural Abilities_________________________________
└-Psychic, aura or astral abilities.

Aura Projection: A seasoned Aura user, Ciara specializes in positively-channeled Aura and light-based attacks, and is shown to be incredibly powerful once wound up to her full capacities. While her attacks are not considered to have a typed attribute associated with them, as an Elemental skill might, she enjoys making them look bright because its just one more way in which she bucks the image of a modern day vampire. Her positively-charged Aura skills act in such a way that they cancel out negatively-channeled, or regular Aura attacks, making her quite the fearsome opponent, and quite potent against Aura users in general.

│
├─Classification: Aura
├─Category: Aura Projection
└─Power Level: Grandmaster

Aura-Vampirism: Having been an Aura user for centuries, Ciara has long since developed the ability to absorb the latent Aura found in all living beings into her own person. While she typically only takes Aura from humans because of its similarity to her own, she is capable of taking it from all living creatures. Generally, the only negative effect of this ability is a fainting spell for the victim. Ciara is able to use this absorbed energy as Aura energy, or she can break it down into raw force and use it to amp up her physical capabilities. She can also use it to fuel her own life force, lengthening her life span.

│
├─Classification: Aura
├─Category: Aura Projection
└─Power Level: Grandmaster

Unique Abilities_______________________________________
└-Powers unique to the character.

Temporal Leap: An ability that is unique to the Talavir/Mikain family as granted to them by an ancient pact with Dialga, Ciara is capable of stepping forward, backwards, and sideways through time, though only a brief amount of time forward or backwards. Each leap made in this way takes and utilizes her life force, or the life force she's taken from others via her vampirism. In an ordinary individual, this ability would quickly age them to death, though because of her extended lifespan, it merely ticks off minutes instead of years. If there is an upper limit to the amount of time she can travel, she's never thought to look for it, preferring to instead stay within a moderate time-frame of five to ten minutes forward, backwards or sideways, never more.

│
├─Classification: Psychic, Talent
├─Category: Teleportation, Misc.
└─Power Level: Inherent

Coming soon.

Coming soon.