Kaalia


Une détermination solennelle s'installe dans l'atmosphère, tandis que Shae et Kaalia déversent sur une myriade de témoins des portofolios, accompagnés de transciptes et de photographies verbales. Une bibliothèque de preuves a été soigneusement éparpillée à travers la longue table de la salle de réunion avec une grande carte incrustée de Tarcan.
"Selon les rapports, les Perdus ont envahi les villages de l'extérieur ici et ici." Kaalia indique une longue étendue de prairie aride, identifiant les terres périphériques de Tarcan. "Pas dix milles à l'est, c'est la tourbière d'Ish Sah." Son doigt se déplaçait au-dessus d'une tache d'aquarelles sombrement mélangées sur la carte le long de la frontière nord de la mer de Tarcan. « Nous avons moins d'informations sur cette incursion, mais Lost y est également apparu. Des témoins disent qu'une grande créature ressemblant à un serpent est sortie du sol et a dévoré une petite maison entière.
« Le problème le plus pressant est dans la province de banlieue à l'est de l'oasis, ici. » Une fois de plus, sa main dérive vers un autre point, une zone beige mate entre la mer du Tarcan et une petite oasis, qui n'est évidente que par la légende et les annotations de la carte. Au milieu, on avait attiré l'attention sur un « X » rouge foncé, plus grand que les autres points marqués par Kaalia. « Les territoires de Kasmut qui composent cette terre sont juste assez peuplés -- avec des éleveurs et des mineurs de ce que je comprends -- pour que la population subisse la plus grave dévastation. » Des yeux obsédés et inébranlables se sont concentrés sur cet endroit, se penchant sur une possibilité troublante. "Ce salaud de Harp avait raison... d'une certaine façon. Ce ne sont pas des incidents aléatoires. Chaque attaque par les perdus a été contre la chaîne d'approvisionnement de Tarcan. Chacune de ces zones est cruciale pour l'irrigation de la région. J'ai été dans quelques endroits moi-même. Les aqueducs coulent à la fois de l'oasis et de la tourbière, courant l'eau purifiée vers les autres villes.
Elle s'arrêta et se cogna la tête, au sujet de l'énigme avec un regard inlassable. "C'était une attaque coordonnée, mal exécutée, mais coordonnée néanmoins. Ma question est comment? Les perdus ne sont pas assez intelligents pour planifier cela."
Une expression sombre taguée au coin de ses lèvres. Kaalia savait que cela ne pourrait que provoquer un désastre pour Tarcan, si les Perdus n'étaient pas traités rapidement. Le mystère qu'elle lui a fourni, cependant, l'a troublée plus que n'importe quelle autre mission qu'elle avait prise auparavant. Perdus étaient censés être des machines insensées, tordues par la rage et la faim. L'idée même que l'un d'eux ait l'intelligence cruelle de mourir de faim d'une nation de son approvisionnement en eau a brisé ses croyances de longue date sur la nature de Perdu, ce qu'ils sont capables et prêts à faire. Même si les faits avaient été erronés tout ce temps, ou si quelqu'un instigait ces attaques, le « comment » et le « pourquoi » n'étaient pas importants. Tarcanis sera en débauche, si les Perdus étaient laissés sans contrôle: ce sont les faits et Kaalia s'est fermement rassurée que ses craintes étaient impossibles et juste le résultat d'une paranoïa suractive.
Elle s'est tournée vers Shae avec un regard attendu. -- Eh bien, capitaine? Sa voix était claire, mais le 'capitaine' semblait creux et amer. Émphatique. "Il y a beaucoup de terrain à couvrir. Comment voulez-vous gérer cela?"
Dans le passé, Kaalia aurait pu servir de général, diriger des troupes et prononcer des discours convaincants, un officier de carrière d'une époque révolue. Offrant une précieuse perspicacité et un effort concerté pour définir un plan d'action, le dévouement et l'attention de Kaalia au détail n'ont été que les seconds, sauf peut-être... Shae.
Name: Kaalia Sigrund
Age: Roughly 25~26
Race: Bear Feren
Nationality: Barallia
Religion: Native Traditionalist
Role: Tracker, Warrior
Fonts: Being host to three different spirits has warped Kaalia's original Font, causing it to manifest in an unusual way. At first, it merely enhanced her natural senses, but they have since been also cross-wired since her merging with two other spirits. Her eyes perceive scent in a wide array of color; to her ears, each color has its own peculiar sound; she can sense the shape and texture of something she smells. While useful in many ways, it's easy for her senses to become overstimulated, often leading to visual and auditory hallucinations; these illusions, although mild, are disorienting nonetheless.
Her spirits have also granted her a way to project her emotion or basic intention empathicly into a creature's mind. The message itself is often too intrinsic to put into words, but it is readily understood in a general way, such as, Enemy, Danger, Calm, etc.
An old earth spirit resides in her as well, the most powerful of the three, which grants her tremendous strength and the resilience of corundum. However, the power, like the spirit itself is lethargic and slumbers unperturbed. Unlike her other Fonts which are passive or require minimal conscious effort, this increased strength and durability comes gradually when called upon, slowly flooding her body over the course of a few minutes. The change starts in whatever parts of the body are closest to the ground and spreads from those points.
Color: White
Weapon: Two Samoan-style Iron Clubs  Her Iron clubs have a hollow shaft with a special chamber inside filled with Red resonant, allowing them to function as loading barrels for Resonant-based mortar bombs
Personality: Gruff and powerful, yet also sensitive and intelligent, much of her father's Feren traits were inherited, despite her predominantly human appearance. With a natural confidence and a larger-than-life presence, she requires a great deal of personal space, and when she enters a room the tension level rises immediately. Possessing a keen awareness and sharp-mind, Kaalia mostly succeeds through sheer force of personality. Rarely challenged to reach her full intellectual potential, she dominates conversation with her intense single-mindedness. However, she is unwilling to argue from a position that she doesn't truly believe in, which makes her a lousy lawyer.
Background: Kaalia has lived and breathed the Barallian frontier. Her family has guarded the old forest of Vastwood at the roots of Vindrell's mountains since the Archon Resonance. Trapping, hunting, gathering, the Sigrund family has carved out their existence in the Vastwood, where the air is so thick you can chew it. The layers of dead leaves and fallen fruit exude a deep earthy fragrance. Life thrives here under the protection of the Sigrund. Neither human nor Lost have staked a claim on this land unblemished by civilization.
Kaalia may be born of two half-breed Ferens, but she has proven the fiercest ranger of her generation, even among her stronger feren-blooded relatives. Her human appearance belies her predatory ruthlessness. Even her own family recognizes she is not to be trifled with.
Raised without any regard to her diluted Feren blood, she was steeped in the Sigrund family traditions from birth. Sayings like "Live for the land, Die for the land." and "The Sigrund is Vastwood, and the Vastwood is Sigrund" are commonplace. Stories of ancestors whose remains were buried under the roots of ancient trees are told during the annual solstice festivals; and it is the fate of every Sigrund to become one with the forest and guard it even after death.
She has not lived without tragedy. Many times have bandits, raiders, and poachers from Vindrell trespassed against her family and instigating long border conflicts. Her large family has been culled several times by bloody feuds. Having grown up in the midst of these frequent skirmishes, Kaalia was inured to violence and gore at an early age. She secured her first human kill before her coming of age ceremony in her 14th year.
Tensions have always been high along the Vastwoods, and while the skirmishes have always been small, they are incredibly brutal. This spurred Kaalia to join the Barallian Border Guard when she was old enough to leave the family territory. With a unstoppable single-mindedness, she marshaled a movement within the Border Guard to install check points and bolster the outposts, culminating into a large swath of militarized borderlands. While highly effective during her time as the Guard Captain for the Vastwood territories, she attracted the attentions of her political opposition in central Barallia like a blaring alarm that wouldn't be silenced. Being accused of misappropriating valuable Barallian supplies and ignoring legitimate threats in other volatile regions, she was met with overwhelming disapproval from the heartlands and was coerced to resign many times. These stalwart opponents were never able to officially oust Kaalia from her appointed office, but it did strongly polarize loyalties inside the Border Guard with "Brinkers" in favor of Kaalia and the Heartlanders opposing her. The tension within the organization rose to such heights that it threatened the Guard's ability to function as a cohesive group. Begrudgingly Kaalia appointed a trustworthy replacement to restore the fractured administration and left for parts unknown.
Three days after her resignation, she disappeared from the public's watchful eye. While a hot topic at the time, the news of her activities slowly faded from memory, and Kaalia vanished into obscurity for two years. However, she wouldn't stay forgotten for long. She received critical acclaim again when she lead a small resistance force of Hunters and Huntresses against a horde Major Lost in Tarcanis. Despite her group's small size, they were able to destroy the Lost without any casualties. She revealed herself then as a Huntress of Echo; her last two years of obscurity had been spent supporting the fledgling organization in their ongoing mission to combat and destroy Lost wherever they appear. The controversy of her time in the Barallian Guard simmers still, but most don't speak of it within earshot of her.
Now, four years into tenure with Echo, Kaalia is a well-known name, one that invokes a tinge of apprehension in everyone who has met her, but her moniker, "The Kodiak of Vastwood", instills fear in every enemy lucky enough to have survived meeting her in battle.