Athala
| Athala | |
|---|---|
| Image Pending | |
| IC Information | |
| Full Name: | Athala |
| Gender/Sexuality: | Female/Bisexual |
| Species: | Dragon |
| Place of Origin: | Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica |
| Age/Birthdate: | 1056 (November 7, 954) |
| Zodiac Sign: | Scorpio |
| Height: | 6'3" |
| Hair Colour: | Black |
| Eye Colour: | Gold |
| Romantic Status: | Uncertain |
| Romantic Identification: | Monogamous |
| Residence: | Fjord, Falkland Islands |
| Occupation: | Guardian |
| Preferences | |
| Likes: | Nice dresses, flight, macaroni penguins, shark meat, good books, conversation, cold dry spaces, meditation, a good fight |
| Dislikes: | Knights, rabble-rousers, sea serpents, polyamory, Europe, catgirls, beach houses, Atara |
| OOC Information | |
| Source: | Original Character |
Athala was a golden-scaled dragon who lived in Yuriba during late 2004 and into 2005. A somewhat martial creature with a strong personality and an often black-and-white worldview, she's notable mainly for being one of the few dragons to actually last on the island not named Atara.
Contents |
Character
Accustomed mainly to going about in her draconic form, Athala came to Yuriba with little understanding of the trappings of modern humanity. Eventually she adapted, though, albeit to a horribly skewed set of social norms derived from the sexually dysfunctional society still promoted by the Yuriban immigrant population of the time. At her core she's a typical reptile: She's not very subtle and can come across forceful, and she tends to deal with her problems ruthlessly. More often than not she's fairly cold but can practically seethe with anger when her ire is actually raised. By the same token she also tends to pursue her affections with perhaps excessive passion and tends to get emotionally invested in them. Athala holds very long grudges and takes some convincing to forget. When irritated she has been known to respond with violence, which landed her on the bad side of the Yuriban Town Council at one point. Normally, though, she tries to conduct herself with a certain imperial dignity, usually wearing classy dresses and enjoying a hot cup of tea. She does not let people into her confidence lightly. It is very difficult for her to trust others.
Romantically she tends to take a dominant role in relationships with people who aren't dragons, and even then she leans that way. Again, though, it takes awhile for her to let someone in, with the result that most of those she dallied with in Yuriba were little more than playmates to her and discarded when she lost interest. When someone does pique her interest she identifies as monogamous and becomes quite possessive. She has a very difficult time grasping polyamory; as a dragon her impulse is to hoard treasure, including lovers, and she doesn't like to share.
Relationships
Athala was romantically linked to Atara for a period of a few months in 2004. The pair of dragonesses were drawn to each other out of mutual respect for their maturity, averting a territorial clash by effectively shacking up. Their relationship has since disintegrated, and Athala views the white dragoness today with a certain bitter loathing. She had an interest in breisleach during her time in Yuriba but came to view her as the one that got away due to various circumstances. While she maintained a small group of side lovers, none were particularly significant, and she's forgotten most of them, including actively trying to disassociate herself from her time at Nagisa Vendaris's notorious Beach House.
History
Athala was hatched somewhat over a thousand years ago in a frigid ice cave somewhere on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, in a version of Earth five iterations to the left of the prime universe. Her mother, another huge gold dragon whose name has been lost to time, was one of the world's few surviving dragons, charged with serving as a sort of Guardian to various parts of the planet in need. In time the elder dragon passed her responsibilities on to Athala and passed on, but not before teaching her to take on human form.
The duties of Guardianship saw Athala spend much time in eastern Europe during the days of the Crusades, an event which drew in most of the world's dragons to try and keep some semblance of order. Operating out of a quartz-lined cavern in present-day Bulgaria, she busied herself by finding crusading knights committing atrocities, then jumping them and butchering them all. She took to collecting helmets and shields from the dead knights, gathering a sizable hoard for herself. By the Third Crusade she'd built up a reputation, and ambitious noblemen would divert from killing Muslims to seek out "Satan's gilded beast" in the hopes of bringing her body back to Rome. Naturally none of the knights ever succeeded, though a particularly persistent Spanish knight gave her some trouble by dogging her through 1191. Between Athala and the other six dragons involved, though, the winged Guardians managed to mitigate the worst damage of the Crusades, indirectly preventing the mass of Christian soldiers from annihilating Islam.
Afterwards Athala relocated to a series of caverns over the next several centuries, watching from modern Turkey as Byzantium finally collapsed. She occasionally took human form to mingle with humans in some of Europe's major cities, keeping herself current while developing a distaste for Europe in general.
It's not entirely clear why or how she ended up in Yuriba.
Upon arriving on the island Athala was a bit stunned to find all life was female and to discover just how hedonistic the early immigrant population could be. Though she tried to maintain her stoicism to an extent, she was swept up in the sex craze on a couple of occasions, though that moderated when she ran into the island's other resident dragoness - Atara. Normally dragons are territorial creatures, but the two averted a potential struggle by getting romantically involved. Their dalliance lasted a few months in late 2004 before Athala found herself struggling to cope with Atara's affections for another partner - Ophelia. The relationship broke down quickly and the two parted ways, quite bitterly on Athala's part. The bitterness only grew when Atara intervened with Athala's efforts to endear herself to the kitsune breisleach, irritating the golden dragoness all the more. She took to spending much of her time in the Dragon's Brew, hoping to stumble on someone with sense.
For lack of anywhere better to go she ended up taking up residence in perhaps the worst place she could have gone - the infamous Vendaris family Beach House. Despite living on the roof there she scrupulously avoided the orgiastic revelry the House was so infamous for and did not cultivate a particularly close relationship with Nagisa. After a few more half-hearted attempts to make a life in Yuriba work out, Athala finally left the Beach House and took up residence in a small cave on a rocky islet north of the Aysuna Cliffs, visiting the island mainly to try and make contacts with people she had an interest in. She found no real takers and ultimately left the Yuriba area full of resentment towards the island and its people.
Where are they now?
Athala has since returned to the southern hemisphere and taken up guardianship of the Pacific region, specifically most of South America. She resides in a comfortable cave in a fjord on the Falkland Islands. It's been a few years since she's taken human form, and frankly she has no intention of ever doing it again given the sexual atmosphere she encountered among Yuriba's people. Her shame over her time on the island and her anger at certain of the island's residents has assured she's probably not coming back.