#also your dragon feet? I wish I were you AUGH

[catzgam3rz]

BACK ON MY QSMP CATCH UP GRIND

PLEASE Take the best boy Chayanne! I love him so much.

(Hes based of a magpie which was inspired from @cloudster-the-clown 's design which is FANTASTIC)

[carewyncromwell]

[Previously on “Adventures in Cursebreaking”...]

And now...the next thrilling installment!

Carewyn took the most time to get ready the next morning, even if she did have to dress in the same clothes she’d worn the previous night. But honestly, just because she was preparing to face off against a dragon or two didn’t mean that her hair and make-up couldn’t still be polished!

When she came outside, she found Barnaby, Merula, and Penny waiting for her. They said Bill had told them to meet him at the top of the closest hill -- when they got there, however, Carewyn was taken aback to find Bill there alone. 

She whirled on the others. “Have any of you seen Charlie?”

All three of them looked just as disconcerted as she did, admitting they hadn’t seen him since the previous night. Apparently they’d thought he’d run on ahead with Bill too. A flare of panic flashing through her, Carewyn immediately dashed up to Bill.

“Bill! Bill -- have you seen Charlie?”

Bill looked very startled. “You mean he’s not with you?”

“No -- “ said Carewyn, her heart sinking more and more every minute. “ -- none of us have seen him since last night -- ”

She’d told Charlie last night that he’d just have to prove his naysayers wrong -- what if he’d decided to run off by himself, to prove he could be a real dragonologist?! Why had she said something so stupid -- !?

Bill looked even paler and more panicked than Carewyn. His eyes narrowed very sharply as he urged the four students onward, into the preserve.

The group searched all morning. At one point, they even had to fend off a Hungarian Horntail together with Stunning spells after ending up a little too close to her nest. It was after they’d escaped the Horntail that Carewyn caught a strange sound echoing from somewhere close by -- something that almost sounded like a voice.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me? Please, help!”

Both Bill and Carewyn whirled on each other, their faces both very pale and terrified. It was Charlie!

The five of them dashed down the mountain, toward the jagged, mouth-like opening at the bottom. Bill and Carewyn were making great time in front of the others, Bill because of his long legs and Carewyn because of how she was bouncing down every single ledge like she was a character in an 8-bit video game. She almost ended up stumbling and falling when she landed on a cluster of pebbles at the bottom, and Bill quickly caught her arm to stabilize her before the two dashed into the cave.

It was very dark inside, but in the far corner, beside a nest of eggs guarded by two tiny bonfires, was Charlie, lying in a heap on the ground.

“CHARLIE!”

“Bill!” gasped Charlie. “Carey! You heard me...”

Both Bill and Carewyn ran over to him. His left leg was in terrible shape -- there were several large bite marks tearing through the fabric of his pants, leaving jagged, bloody gashes in the flesh. It was rather like Charlie were a ragdoll that the family dog had gotten a hold of.

When Carewyn reached Charlie, she immediately whipped out her wand.

“Charlie, thank Merlin, we were worried sick!” she scolded him, her voice dripping with anxiety. “Have you been here all night!?”

She’d never wished Chiara was there more in her life -- Chiara would know a better spell to slow the bleeding --

Charlie, however, resisted Carewyn’s attempts to heal his leg.

“Yes -- but forget that, there’s no time! The Horntail will be back any minute -- are the others outside?”

Bill looked startled. “Outside? No, they’re -- ”

But when he and Carewyn turned around to look for Merula, Barnaby, and Penny right behind them, they instead found a large, menacing shape lurching into the cave on all fours. its fangs bared and its horns glinting in the sun.

This Hungarian Horntail was much smaller than the one outside, let alone the one from the Portrait Vault, but it filled Carewyn with no less dread, for no other reason that it was blocking the way out. They were trapped.

Carewyn looked from Charlie to Bill to the dragon bearing down on them. There was no way Charlie could stand, let alone walk in such a state...

There was no other choice.

“Bill!” she said over her shoulder urgently as she watched the dragon lurch forward. “Can you carry Charlie?”

Bill’s eyes widened, realizing what Carewyn wanted to do.

“Carey, no, I am not going to  -- !”

“Charlie’s too injured to walk!” Carewyn shot back fiercely. “Even if we carried him with magic, it’d probably only hurt him worse! And if you’re using magic to carry him, you can’t then use your wand to protect yourself!”

Charlie looked just as upset. “Carey, that’s a young Horntail! Young dragons are a lot faster and a lot more vicious than the older ones -- “

“I can’t lift you, Charlie!” Carewyn shot back fiercely. “I have to be the distraction here! Bill -- get Charlie out of here and go get the others! NOW!”

Blocking out the two Weasley boys’ objections, Carewyn, her legs quaking under her, dashed forward, pointing her wand at the Horntail. The dragon opened its mouth, blasting a sharp, short stream of flame at her.

“PROTEGO!”

Her Shield Charm rebounded the flames just enough that they dissolved away into a veil of red-hot steam.

“BOMBARDA!”

The spell bounced off the dragon’s horns. It shook its head as if the spell had been a meddlesome fly, before swinging its tail around as if to hit Carewyn. She dived to the left, trying to lead the dragon further into the cave -- to give Bill and Charlie a path out --

“INCARCEROUS!”

She successfully muzzled its jaws shut with some magical ropes for about ten seconds, before the dragon opened its jaws wide, making them break apart with a loud SNAP.

“STUPEFY! FLIPENDO! IMMOBULUS! BOMBARDA!”

Carewyn fought the Horntail with everything she had, lashing out at it viciously with spell after spell -- but unlike the dragon in the Cursed Vault, the dragon barely seemed to be weakening. It made her wish all the more she could use the Conjunctivitis Curse or blow some Pepper Breath in its eyes -- but as scared as she was, she tried desperately to keep her head. The dragons at the Sanctuary were protected by law -- Bill could get in serious trouble if she permanently damaged it --

“DEPULSO!”

The dragon once again shook off the blow. With a vicious turn, it swerved its tail around, and the horned spike collided with Carewyn’s side.

“AUGH!”

In an instant, she was thrown off her feet and slammed into the cave wall. She clutched at her side -- her red jacket and sweater were drenched with blood.

Wincing in pain, Carewyn had to quickly roll out of the way to avoid another blow from the dragon’s tail. The beast then opened its mouth, throwing out more flames.

“PROTEGO!”

The dragon’s small jet of fire breath collided harshly with Carewyn’s Shield Charm, knocking her to the ground.

Fortunately, at that very moment, five voices rang out from behind the Horntail.

“STUPEFY!”

The dragon lurched forward, clearly taken back by the force of the attack. It turned its long neck around to look behind it. The Slytherin Prefect hobbled to her feet, trying to see beyond the dragon.

It was Barnaby, Merula, Penny, Bill, and a newly healed Charlie, beating the Horntail back against the opposite wall of the cave with the force of their Stunning spells.

“Cromwell, come on!” yelled Merula.

Still clutching her bleeding side, Carewyn hurried over to them as fast as she could. Seeing that she was wounded, Barnaby immediately dashed forward to help her. His distraction, though, was an opening for the Horntail -- it opened its mouth --

Carewyn leapt fully off the ground, launching herself at Barnaby as she raised her wand --

“PROTEGO!”

She felt Barnaby catch her just as the Shield materialized around them like a bubble, protecting them both from the jet of dragon fire. The collision of dragon fire and Shield Charm made Carewyn lose her balance, but fortunately Barnaby was just barely able to stay on his feet.

“Carewyn, you’re hurt -- ” said Barnaby, visibly upset.

Carewyn looked up at him with a determined expression. “I’m fine -- ”

The other four, still launching Stunning spells at the Horntail, tried to spread out and lash out in turns in an attempt to distract it. Charlie ran off to the left, shooting spells at the dragon’s eyes and nose, calling over his shoulder at Barnaby and Carewyn.

“Carey! Remember what Kettleburn said!?”

Carewyn’s eyes widened. When they visited Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures professor had told them a story about how he’d escaped a Ukranian Ironbelly by shooting a spell into the creature's open mouth -- !

Barnaby’s eyes lit up excitedly. “The Sleeping Charm! Kettleburn used the Sleeping Charm!”

Carewyn’s eyes narrowed. “Then we need to get that thing to open its mouth again -- Barnaby, help the others with the Stunners! I’ll try to get closer!”

Holding her side as tightly as she could, Carewyn dashed forward on her wobbly, trembling legs. As the dragon yowled and gnashed its teeth, Carewyn at points had to close her eyes and cower, her breath and heart racing at a mile a minute --

She was scared to death -- but she charged through all the same. And finally, after weaving around the Horntail’s spiked tail and lashing out with Bombardment and Stunners, Carewyn finally got her chance. The dragon snarled, opening its mouth --

“Levisomnus!”

Carewyn’s Sleeping Charm landed at the back of the dragon’s throat just as all five of her companions’ Stunning spells also collided with its eyes. The Horntail swayed, his eyes drifting around drowsily, before finally collapsing to the ground with a low, resounding boom.

Once the dragon had fallen, the group all stopped stock-still where they stood. Then Penny barreled over to Carewyn, her face very white and scared.

“Carewyn! Carewyn, you’re bleeding!”

Carewyn tried desperately to reassure Penny, but the blond Hufflepuff quickly fished out a familiar green bottle from her robes and shoved it into her hands.

“Wiggenweld Potion?” Carewyn said, startled.

“I brought a whole bunch with me, just in case,” said Penny sheepishly.

“Good thing she did,” said Charlie as he approached. “Wouldn’t have been able to get back on my feet again otherwise...”

Bill immediately swept down on Carewyn too, taking in her chest wound and scanning her face. She could tell how simultaneously guilty and anxious he was.

“I’m okay,” she reassured Bill quickly. “Just a scratch from its tail is all...”

Carewyn quickly downed the bottle of Wiggenweld Potion, and within seconds she could feel the deep cuts in her side sealing up and the pain dissipating.

“Thanks, Penny,” she said. “Thanks, all of you.”

Merula scoffed. “Please. As if we were going to give you the bragging rights of taking down two dragons single-handed.”

Barnaby grinned. “...We did do pretty well, didn’t we? Too bad we can’t convince the dragon to give us a ride, for having beaten it...”

“No dragon rides,” said Bill sternly. “I’ve had enough heart attacks for one day. Now come on...let’s get out of here.”

“Wait!”

Charlie dashed across the cave, over toward the dragon’s abandoned nest of eggs.

“I wasn’t just running off,” he explained to the others. “I thought I could prove myself, so I went looking for the egg -- ”

“Charlie!” Carewyn burst out, sounding both reproachful and dismayed. She’d thought that was why Charlie had left, but hearing it aloud hadn’t made her any less upset with him.

“I know -- it was stupid,” muttered Charlie as he came running back to them, “but I thought I had an idea of where to look -- ”

He showed the others the thing he’d taken from the nest.

So he had. The golden masterpiece of Urguff the Unwise glinted in the rays of the sun just outside the dragon’s cave, letting off a flawless sheen.

Everyone was amazed, none more so than Bill.

The sleeping dragon beside them gave a low gurgle in its sleep. Deciding quickly that it was best not to find out how long a Sleeping Charm lasted, the group left the cave and headed straight back to the camp.

To Be Concluded...

[original-character-archives]

Name: Nalaagura Ep'ha the Warden (I usually nickname her Nala or just the Warden) Age & Date of birth: 908 years, born on the summer solstice (idk what calendar we use yet in her world), so she’s a Leo Species: Demon Gender: Female Orientation: No fricken idea. She gets with a guy demon later but that’s it, so I’m not sure Fandom/Original: Mostly original, but with some influence from Magic: The Gathering. The RP she comes from, Battle of the Grounded Dungeon, also includes some How to Train Your Dragon, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, MtG, FMA and heavy doses of Norse/Viking mythology.

Warning: Murder, demonic posession, mention of fantasy racism, brief mention of suicide attempt, mild gore and body ick

Biography: (Small preface: this roleplay was started as a total joke in the HTTYD fandom because we were sad about a character death and spiraled into an actual story written by thirty different people so some of the names and stuff sound stupid and the plot will be random and weird so like just roll with it I guess?? lmao. also this is like STUPIDLY long sorry. You can totally scroll past if you don’t wanna hear the story. Augh sorry I’m so super nervous about this lol please bear with me ;u;) The Warden was born to a massively powerful demon, H'zola R'nalath the Empress. The Warden has seven other siblings: the Matriarch, the Praetor, the Archon, the Centurion, the Baroness, the Guardian, and the Shaper. She is the youngest of the eight and the most important, according to her mother. Her parents are the Empress and the Shepherd, both extraordinarily powerful beings who used to be a single soul created by the goddess Hel. They split into the soul’s intelligence and brute force, the mother and father being the result, respectively, and then the Empress “gave birth” by shaving off fragments of her soul and cultivating them into new demons. Nala was brought to being in the demon city of Bloedrest, in the far north, but she despised her life there and wished to flee. One day she did just that, hopping from vessel to vessel in an attempt to escape her former life.  She was suddenly snagged one day by a strange, immature force, and when she manifested in front of it, she was infuriated to see it was a young mage by the name of Darien Whiteland. Furious, she demanded he let her go, but he refused, telling her he needed to impregnate a golem with a kind of guardian spirit. For some reason unknown to her, she was unable to break the holds of the summons and was imprisoned inside of his golem. What she didn’t know was that this mage had made a deal with her mother to allow him to capture her daughter and keep her to guard one of his many dungeons. He was part of a triumvirate that ruled over High Central, the self-appointed capital of the land of Aidorin. The people lived in seclusion in High Central, and harbored strong sentiments against part-human part-animals, known as half-breeds (which appear as anywhere from anthropomorphic animals to humans with a few animal features like ears and tails), and those that used magic outside of their jurisdiction, and began imprisoning and executing anyone they deemed a threat to their rule or their race. The Warden’s imprisonment in the dungeon was not a pleasant one. She seethed against her captors and longed for revenge but she was trapped and had no idea of where the young mage might be. She instead turned her attention to the prisoners and began toying with them. One in particular caught her attention: a passionate half-breed cat named Treepelt. The Warden was attracted by her strong feelings of protection towards her friends and her romantic feelings towards the scout, Vox. Craving these impassioned urges, the Warden left her golem and slowly began possessing Treepelt instead. She started having violent mood swings and acting very strangely around the rebels. Eventually they discovered the truth during the rebels’ escape from the dungeon with the help of a massive seadragon, and led by the ruler of the Wilderwest, King Gareth Haddock. She outright declared war on the escapees. They fled to a safe distance where one of the larger half-breeds, an ice dragon, created a home for the rebels to live in. The Warden attacked them over and over with the dragons she had under control and managed to possess several other members of the rebellion before finally surrendering in a battle. The king came to interrogate her, trying to figure out why the Warden was doing this, and when Tree’s lover Vox came to try and talk Tree out of the possession, the Warden made her stab him through the heart, killing him. His soul was caught in Purgatory, the limbo between Valhalla and Hel. Tree later escaped her confinement with help from a strange hooded figure that could teleport through water. He led them out of the fortress and into the Wilderwest, guiding her away from danger and to a lake. The stranger told Treepelt she was going to be able to see Vox again through the water. When he appeared, the Warden was alarmed by Treepelt’s strong feelings, but rather than try and destroy them as she did before, she attempted to assuage them and tried reaching for him. Vox, however, leaped through the water before the Warden could force Tree to touch the surface and he was immediately sent to Hel. Treepelt was absolutely broken and the Warden scrambled to get her vessel back on her feet before she fell apart. She was much slower in her approach of the rebels, but two of the rebels attempted to stop Treepelt as soon as they saw her. The Warden attempted to attack them as well but Kiri the Viking ninja (long story) took Treepelt down and stabbed her in the hip, giving her momentary clarity as the Warden was driven away by the pain.The Warden returned to the surface of Tree’s consciousness later as she talked to King Haddock about rescuing Vox, who was the King’s loyal battle strategist. She lied to the King about what the soul transfer required, simply saying that they needed his presence at the lake in order to get Vox’s soul back, when in reality she was planning to trade the King’s soul for Vox’s. Haddock agreed and the Warden berated Treepelt on her lack of action, telling her that she was taking the reins now.  Haddock returned later to begin the journey to the lake. She took control of Tree the entire time they traveled to the lake. The stranger, Pitch Black, now exposed as Haddock’s old friend and his adopted daughter Akkey’s long-lost father (another long story), expressed surprise at the tag-alongs, and the Warden explained that they’d been insistent on coming and that it shouldn’t affect the soul exchange. The members of the rebellion reacted with shock and outrage, and the Warden responded likewise, threatening to hurt anyone who interfered with the exchange. The king’s bodyguard, Stonegit, registered the threat and threw his ax at Tree, who was saved by the king’s adopted daughter Akkey, a rabbit half-breed, but pushed into the water where both Treepelt and the Warden were sent to Purgatory. The Warden convinced Tree to travel to Hel in an attempt to rescue Vox, but they were stopped just in time by Pitch, who said he would be able to get one of their souls back. The Warden immediately told Tree to go, admitting that she finally understood the pain she’d caused and wanted to make amends for it. But right after she left, she felt a strange pain and vanished from Purgatory. After Treepelt emerged from the lake unpossessed, the rebels assumed all was well and quite forgot about her malignant presence. They let the Warden fade into a bad memory. Unfortunately, she was far from gone. After the ordeal at the lake, Stonegit surfaced, blind and battered, and immediately carved a reaper’s ward into his chest while he was still half-conscious. Throughout the next few days, Stonegit was subtly influenced by an unknown force, able to navigate his way around things and dodge falling objects as though he could see. He also was unable to commit suicide one night after Haddock’s sudden expression of his feelings towards Stonegit, and he assumed it was because of a lack of resolve. Later, he discovered that it was the Warden who had done all of this, as she had been snagged as he passed through Purgatory on his way to Hel. He threatened to kill himself to get rid of her, but she convinced him to let them both stay so long as she stayed alive and whole and he gained sight and access to her power in order to protect the king. Stonegit carved a sigil into his hand marking the contract and the deal was set. The Warden then informed him that the king was currently being attacked by an enraged Pitch Black and he took off, managing to hold off the attack just in time.  Stonegit began attending to the king’s wounds and Haddock was alarmed at the young man’s dexterity, demanding to know why he was acting as though he had his sight back. He admitted to being possessed by the Warden and Haddock flew into a rage, under the impression that she was currently speaking to him. Stonegit went into a panic attack and drew on the Warden’s strength to throw the king to the ground and protect him. Eventually both the king and the bodyguard calmed enough to talk through their feelings. Stonegit let the Warden take control of him and speak to Haddock, and the two traded acidic words, ending in the Warden blaming the king for Stonegit’s descent to Hel and Haddock threatening her with his sword. Stonegit took control again and scolded her, and she retorted unapologetically that it was a bad idea for them to have talked in the first place. Stonegit ignored her and said that if she would like to speak to anyone through him, he would have to approve the conversation first. After their conversation, the Warden approached Stonegit again grudgingly while he was training, demanding to know why he had stuffed her away and what his plans with the king were. Stonegit responded that he didn’t know, only that he trusted Haddock to make the right decision. The Warden suddenly picked up on a stream of thoughts running below Stonegit’s consciousness and realized that he had been craving an ordinary conversation for years. She was faintly amused but also strongly curious about his emotions, and when he broke down and confessed his love towards Haddock and his feelings of hopelessness, she comforted him instead of mocking him. Thus began a tentative friendship between demon and vessel. Stonegit asked hopefully if she would be able to restore his sight and his damaged brain. The Warden regretfully told him that she was unable to perform such a task and he broke a wineglass in a flash of damage-induced rage. Stonegit apologized and was amused by her overreaction to the human pain. She helped him take care of the cut and he thanked her, going off to find the king. Later, Stonegit left to interrogate Skye, whom the Warden had confronted earlier and whom Stonegit suspected may have been harboring another demon. He consulted the demon, who expressed uncertainty over whether she could rid Skye of his curse or not. He then asked the Warden to inspect Akkey. Upon exploring her mind, the Warden drew back in pain and told the bodyguard that it was not Akkey who lay within the half-rabbit’s mind. She resurfaced later when he suggested that the magic surrounding Akkey was similar to that surrounding the library as well. After the Warden confirmed this fact, they both came to the conclusion that Hemlock was somehow in control of Akkey. The Warden also offered to inspect Tezzeret as well, for any resident demons within him. Eventually, Hemlock was found out when both Akkey and Vox suffered immense pain from the events at the lake. With everyone congregated in the sick room, Stonegit finally revealed to the rebels that he had been possessed, and unveiled the truth about Hemlock–that she was not actually a human at all, but an empty shell for a fallen valkyrie, Dust, to wear like a skin while she attempted to retrieve her lover from where she had fallen as well. Stonegit and Dust agreed to duel and the Warden helped Stonegit prepare a stone dagger with a rune that would cause it to explode on impact when buried in the valkyrie’s flesh. The duel began and both the Warden and Stonegit fought Dust together until Haddock suddenly intervened, causing Stonegit to turn and press the brand that marked the deal of possession against Haddock’s hand, and it began to transfer. The Warden was ejected from both of their minds during the transfer and she was unable to help Stonegit as Dust dragged him away from the king and took over his mind as well, turning him on the monarch and using his inherent fire magic to advance on Haddock and kill him with a fireball to the chest. The Warden solidified at this moment and was able to attack Dust in a rage, pulling the valkyrie out of Akkey’s body and fight her in mid-air. Dust was finally killed when Stonegit snuck into the fight and buried the dagger in her head. This created a massive explosion that apparently obliterated the Warden into nothingness, along with Haddock’s body.  The Warden had been assumed dead and destroyed after the events of the duel, and the camp preferred it to stay that way. They heard nothing from the Warden and thought she was gone for good. They were wrong. Again. Both the Warden and Haddock had been suspended in limbo after the king’s death and she had been attempting to heal his gaping wound with little success, for if he did not gain his health back, neither of them would be able to return. She was clumsy in her attempts to heal him and gained help from her cousin Shaxurohm. Haddock awoke in limbo and was shocked to see the two demons standing above him, not recognizing the Warden on-sight. His angry words spiked the Warden’s temper and she spoke roughly to him, announcing that he was now her vessel due to the contract Stonegit had transferred to them. Haddock resisted, but the Warden took him back into the mortal world and a vicious fight broke out to gain dominance over Haddock’s mind. The Warden crushed him with her words and her consciousness and succeeded in possessing him completely. She then walked him back to the camp and made her entrance clothed in his battered body. Everyone could hardly believe their eyes when the king walked back into camp, clearly alive and whole after his very public and brutal death. He ordered for someone to search for Stonegit. The all gathered near and that was the moment the Warden revealed that she was still alive, speaking the ominous words, “Long live the king.” Soon after, the queen approached the center of camp, attracted by the commotion, and upon seeing her husband alive, went to confront him, leaving her children at the edge of the crowd. Nalaagura brutally taunted her with words and the memories of Haddock’s borderline infidelity, but Mera brushed it off as false creations and tried to speak directly to Haddock. Infuriated, the Warden throttled Mera, and Egil became enraged, rushing forward to protect his mother. He was stopped by Greg, one of the soldiers, and the Warden backed off from harming anyone else, momentarily becoming uncertain and confused. She left them in a huff and headed back for the main fortress to decide what to do next. Stonegit soon decided to show himself though, and despite Kiri’s attempts to stop him, he went to investigate the rumors of Haddock’s return. He soon found Haddock, but having been haunted by specters of the king before, and distraught and half-insane from the loss of his soul due to his escape from Hel, he began to fight the Warden within Haddock, and the fight took them to the roof of the fortress. The Warden attempted to use Haddock’s voice and demeanor to break Stonegit out of his craze, and it seemed to work momentarily, but he suddenly fell unconscious, seemingly for no reason. As the camp gathered around, an enormous, dark figure appeared, announcing herself as the goddess Hel, and told the Warden to relinquish Haddock and let him speak with her. The Warden initially resisted, but Hel put her in her place and Nala gave up her possession momentarily. The king was too broken and submissive to speak, however, and a displeased Hel told the Warden in secret that she would return, that the Warden was to take care of Stonegit, and if Haddock was not in an improved mental state when she did, there would be consequences. A frustrated, angry Warden stalked the camp for a few days, ruminating on what to do. Soon, her brother the Archon arrived at camp with Tezzeret under his control, threatening to kill him unless Nala gave him a demonstration of her previously-denied affection towards the rebels. Nala continued to refuse and the Archon created an illusion of Tezz having his throat crushed, shocking and riling the Warden into attacking her brother with her astral form. Satisfied, Kiaama left the camp and revealed that Tezz was alive. Furious, the Warden retreated back into her stalking and allowing Stonegit to waste away. Blunt and Mera attempted to approach Nala about Stonegit in vain, although Nala allowed Haddock a short twenty minutes with his wife for the first time in over a year. Greg grew curious about her and approached the demon peacefully while she was wandering one day, making conversation with her. She resisted at first but then was drawn to his sincerity and admitted a bit about herself and her past and family. Greg took a few of his friends to meet her and while her greeting was lukewarm, they discovered Central had taken them all prisoner at the beginning, and she entrusted them with her name. A while after, the Empress and the Shaper arrived and brought the Warden her new demon-made porcelain body in an attempt at pacification, and she thanked them cautiously, awed by the gift. Igl stayed behind to make sure the body was in working order while the Empress left, and the sisters sparred a bit later to test the body. Nala admitted to the Shaper that she had changed and she did wish to return home. Later, Blunt took it upon himself to “kill” Stonegit in order to motivate her into action. He locked her out of the room and smashed a melon, pretending it was Stonegit’s head, and throwing Nala into a grieved rage witnessed by Clover. When she discovered he was still alive, she quickly gave him water, and Hel paused time to give her a dry congratulations and tell her to continue taking care of him and the king until the king was ready to face her tests. The Warden did so somewhat grudgingly but thoroughly. When it came time for the tests from Hel, both Haddock and Stonegit passed, and Stonegit was returned to normal. The Warden pounced on him lovingly but cringed when he thanked her for keeping Haddock intact while he was “away.” Stonegit later learned that the Warden’s possession of the king had not been gentle and forced the truth of her breaking him out of the Warden. He was upset and quietly refused to talk to her, which shook Nala and she quietly resolved that she would leave the next day. Stonegit brought her to her new synthetic body and Nala gave him her full name as a parting gift and left the camp. Upon leaving the camp, the Warden found another camp, full of soldiers aligned with Odin, not too far away from the rebels, and she approached with angry curiosity, demanding to see their leader. Their leader, Orskaf, entertained her with some amusement, although sternly telling her if she was aligned with Hel, he would tell her nothing. Confused, Nalaagura demanded answers, and Orskaf eventually told her how he’d gone to the king and tried to get him to sign the rebellion over to Valhalla by torturing Stonegit. Nala tried to attack him in an outrage but was injured and thrown out of camp. She went to sulk in the nearby forest, shaken by her new knowledge of the rebels’ alliance with Hel and of Stonegit’s plight. Hel appeared just then and healed her wounds easily, asking for a heart-to-heart, and the Warden reluctantly listened to the goddess’ petition to bring other souls to Hel’s side for Ragnarok as well. Nala hesitated, telling Hel she would think about it before asking Stonegit’s condition, and when Hel told her he was doing okay, she relented and accepted her offer, thus binding herself to Hel’s cause. The Warden then traveled the land for a few weeks, convincing nobility and chieftains alike to commit themselves to Hel, using force when needed. After a while, she ran into Akkey, who was also collecting souls for Hel. Nala entertained her for a moment, but then caught wind of the noise that a group of rebels captured by Loki inside of an incredibly deep pit in the ground, and she quickly possessed Akkey and forced her to create a portal to the pit to help them, leaving her demon body behind. In doing so, she damaged Akkey’s abilities so they were trapped for a few hours inside the pit. Akkey was extraordinarily upset with the new arrangement until Greg volunteered to house Nala inside himself to take the burden off Akkey. The demon enjoyed the transfer and the two talked for a bit, and then Nala brought up the subject of her name and the possibility of erasing it, and when Greg grew tearful she retracted her offer and receded into his mind. When it came time to leave, Akkey quietly informed Greg that she would be sending him to the north. Before Nala could take control of the situation, Greg suppressed her quickly and went through the portal. Once Nala had gotten over her initial anger, the two of them began to travel back south. They passed through a village where they encountered Central guards attempting to expel the native half-breeds, and Nala used Greg’s new fire magic to kill the guards and save the half-breeds. They continued to travel further, eventually reaching the place where the fortress used to be, the aftermath of a witch that had destroyed the home of the rebels. Greg mourned at the apparent death of the rebellion before Nala found traces of their minds, directing him back to the dungeon where they had taken residence. Greg ran there and reunited with his family, and the Warden watched contentedly, but realized she would have to leave if she wanted to avoid trouble. Upon finding her body where Akkey had left it in one of the lower cells, she awakened Greg to tell him she was leaving. The two shared a tearful goodbye and the Warden cut off the possession, regaining her body and tracking down Akkey, waiting for her to open the door.  Akkey felt impressed to check on the body again and encountered the Warden trying to get out. She opened the door for the demon and the two talked for a bit, the Warden admitting her feelings and changed ways to a curious Akkey. She agreed to send the Warden outside the camp with a portal, but as she opened one, an earthquake caused her target to slip and they both fell into the water, emerging far beneath the dungeon and accidentally interrupting a blood oath between the goddess Frigga and the great wolf Fenrir, who had been chained under the Grounded Dungeon for millennia. Frigga attempted to forcefully remove their memories of the encounter, but they fought back, knowing that they had to warn the rebellion of the sudden threat and could not do so with no memories. Frigga succeeded with Akkey, but the Warden managed to escape the goddess long enough to escape back to the surface. By then, Ragnarok had started, and once Akkey had been roused, the two entered the battlefield. Nala immediately tracked down Stonegit’s mind, ensuring that he was safe, and began fighting furiously against the Valhallan army and Frigga’s puppets, protecting those who were wounded and taking down dragons wreaking havoc from above. She came across Vox, who was struggling under Frigga’s army of mannequins, and convinced him to let her possess him, and the two smoothly joined together, trying to fight their way out of the battle in order to tend to his grave wound. However, Nala caught wind of Treepelt’s cry of pain from the dungeon, and she and Vox raced to help her, escaping through the shaking dungeon to safety. One of the seven lesser goddesses known as Eirs aligned with Frigga, Lust, followed them into the dungeon and attacked them. The Warden possessed Treepelt at her urging, splitting her possession between the couple and fighting the Eir all at once. While fleeing, Tree fell over the edge and Vox tried to help, all with the mannequins drawing near. The Warden managed to kill the rest of the puppets and the Eir and helped Vox and Tree back to safety. She fought the rest of the battle doing a head count of the rebellion, frantically keeping track of everyone, but she couldn’t find Stonegit–until it was too late, or so it seemed. Nala approached Stonegit’s unconscious body, he having been knocked out by a tremor from the fighting gods, and saw Haddock with Orskaf’s corpse in the river, assuming he had died in helping Haddock. In a blinding rage, she drew her sword and struck Haddock in the back, unintentionally breaking his spine and paralyzing him. She felt tremendous guilt and sorrow for what she’d done, disappearing for the rest of the battle and only returning after a few days. During the part of the battle where she was absent, the dragon god Midgardsormr controlled the dragons and caused them to leave the rebels, leaving them without their mounts and their best friends. When Nala returned, Greg consoled her and the Warden agreed to deliver a public apology to the rebellion. Later that night, before the meeting, she wandered the battlefield and discovered the fallen remains of her sister. In grief, she called out to her mother, and the Empress immediately began to travel south with Nala’s brother, the Archon Kiaama, in order to exact revenge upon the Shaper’s killer. The next day, Nala confronted the rebellion and delivered her admission of guilt and apology, and while the king expressed outrage at her being there, the rest of the rebels, urged on by Vox’s story of her saving him and Treepelt, cautiously accepted her apology. The king took the Warden in to speak with her privately and admitted that he was actually somewhat grateful for the change in his life, confusing but comforting the Warden. He agreed to share a mental link with her in order for her to do her job as the protector of the rebellion. That night, the Empress and the Archon arrived, and in examining the Shaper’s remains, they found it was the Eir Pride that killed her. They found Pride on the battlefield and fought against her, but the goddess managed to kill the Archon before she died, leaving the Empress in a haze of grief to return back home while Nala stayed with the rebels. Some time after, tremors were felt under the dungeon, and the great wolf Fenrir began burrowing upwards through the dungeon. The Warden protected Akkey as she created an enormous portal to teleport the entire dungeon a few hundred miles north, away from the threat, and coincidentally much closer to Midgardsormr. The rebels decided to confront Midgardsormr and convince him to let their dragons go, and Nala accompanied them. He forced them to undergo a trial of their relationship with their dragons and each other. They succeeded, but at the cost of Greg’s life. Nala was crushed and furious with grief, but then Midgardsormr revealed that he had kept his soul when he died and returned it to his body. The rebels returned home with their dragons and grieved for the rebels lost over the course of the rebellion and Ragnarok, and then finally celebrated the union of Treepelt and Vox. After the rebellion, the Warden became a kind of family figure to the rebels’ children, and they had adventures of their own, including a betrayal of her own family member, the accidental creation of a cult surrounding Nala herself, becoming an archdemon, and birthing her own children. But…I’ve talked on and on and on about the initial story arc so I won’t go into those, haha. Good gods you’re a trooper if you just read through all that. That was way too much info.

Appearance: Oh geez…okay, here we go. Nala is incorporeal to start with. She has no physical form, only an astral one. She’s also an involuntary shape-shifter. In general, her incorporeal forms are tall, feminine, humanoid and graceful to a certain degree, but she changes form with whomever she possesses, taking some of their physical characteristics as her own. Ordinary mortals cannot see her in an ethereal state, but she can alter the minds of those she touches and project herself into their vision, like a forced hallucination. The picture I included is her demon-made body and it’s how I usually like to draw her, and it’s the body she spends the most time in. It’s ten feet tall and made of porcelain and preserved human remains. Her face is a solid mask with only her eyes showing through, and she has two long horns and two shorter spikes on either side of her face. Her hair is reminiscent of space, a kind of astral substance, and varies from deep scarlet to dark indigo depending on her mood. The rest of her body is a sort of simple white porcelain armor, with muscle showing in between the joints (if you know MtG, she’s based on the design of Elesh Norn). I was sort of lazy on the picture above, she actually has a bare ribcage that she keeps her dual swords collapsed inside. She also doesn’t usually have pupils or that shawl, this is her a few hundred years after the main RP story arc ends, but I really liked this picture, so… :P You can actually see all of her various forms here, on her wiki page, same warnings above apply there too. If you want haha.

Personality: Nalaagura is wrath incarnate. She began as the epitome of the demon stereotype. Existing only to cause harm and death (so she thought), she actively sought out lives to ruin and things to gain for herself. Having been born of pure wrath, it came natural to her to be destructive and chaotic. She had a very aloof, condescending attitude towards mortals, viewing them much as a human would view an annoying insect. Bizarrely charming at times, but better off crushed under her foot. If they fought back, she took fiendish delight in toying with them With the events of the rebellion though, it was revealed to the Warden that her purpose was not to cause pain. She was stunned and angry by the revelation that she was meant to care for the mortals rather than hurt them. She spent a good while trying to untangle her benevolent feelings from her malicious ones. She began to care for a few people here and there, becoming fiercely protective of them and more affectionate while retaining her short temper and extreme passion. Her alignment shifts from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Neutral and her MBTI type is ESTP.

Favorite things: Nala enjoys sparring and fighting, both with her body and her mind; it gives her a buzz like no other to wreck her enemies. She also has a sharp, abrasive wit and loves to trade jabs both jokingly and menacingly. Possessing others always gives her a thrill, though she doesn’t do it as much as she used to, only when necessary and convenient, since she uses it as more of a way to be close with somebody emotionally and protect them instead of a way to control them. She likes celebrating and commemorating things like birthdays and anniversaries of both happy and sad occasions (not with parties though, that’s too much, no thanks). She loves her family and her close loved ones. The sky is her favorite thing to watch, whether in the day with the sun burning across the land or massive billowing clouds racing each other in a blue field or a raging thunderstorm shaking with lightning. And at night, she’s captivated by the stars. Least favorite things: Nala doesn’t like being out of control of the situation, or planning ahead of time. She doesn’t enjoy not being the most powerful thing in the area, it unsettles her a lot. Singing and dancing is dumb, don’t make her do that. Traveling for her is tenuous and boring unless it involves fighting mages or practicing magic or something similar.

Strengths: I mentioned above, but Nalaagura has the ability to possess anything with a brain, basically. She sticks to fast animals and humans because she’s impatient and efficient. She can control one person absolutely and firmly, and that is her anchor, and she can possess more people at a time, but the more she stretches her control, the less control she has over someone. She can interact and fight with with other astral forms and consciousnesses, and can alter people’s perception of reality, mostly in the form of sight and sound. Even among demons she is immensely strong, as her mother was created by the goddess Hel and holds a higher position in the demon hierarchy than most. She has fast instincts, exceptional strength and accuracy, and is able to project images, thoughts, feelings, and her own voice into other people’s minds.  Weaknesses: Physical pain, it makes her lose focus and control over her vessel, affecting her more than it would a human. She also can’t interact with the physical world unless she has a body to channel her power into. Other than that, she doesn’t have many physical weaknesses. She has a very short fuse and an explosive rage, sometimes making terrible decision in the grips of her anger. Being a demon, these decisions can have much more disastrous consequences. And it isn’t very hard to inflame her. 

Additional notes: Uhhh…the modern AU version of her is pretty sweet, she’s a hardcore criminal carjacker that likes messing with the local college students whose “family” is a syndicate of other lawbreakers. I love her. The blog I use to roleplay and post art relating to Nalaagura is @demon-in-the-dungeon, if you’re interested at all. She’s got a p cool playlist on there.

Fanart: I would absolutely ADORE fanart or her, in any of her forms. They range from furries to just regular woman with a few demonic features if that’s more your thing instead of faceless spooky demon bodies lol. Gosh I’m a mess. rip. I hope you liked <3