Taelia Omanguard and The Omen

Taelia Omanguard and The Omen are a composite character in The Wretched Rite.

Weapons/Abilities:
Taelia is still a young woman. She has all the physical hindrances that come with her age. She has, however, from a very young age, been trained in the arts of the warrior. Harsh training in the wilderness has resulted in her being more mature and adept in the art of combat then most girls her age. Her favoured weapon is the little replica Hand-and-a-half-sword that she was to have inherited when she came of age. It is little more than a large dagger, but she has used it for a good many years and is comfortable with it. She is also rather adept at improvising on the field of battle. Despite all this, however, she has led a (surprisingly) sheltered life. She has never seen real combat, nor ever killed anybody. The events of the following Grand Battle are likely to have a toll on her psyche.

Description:
Taelia is a lithe, elfin young woman. She is in her mid-to-early teens, but looks older due to her height and often serious demeanour. Indeed, she can seem to be a little obnoxious in normal situations. However, as she is still young, being suddenly yanked from her own world and thrust for the first time into the battles she has always been groomed for but is undoubtedly not quite ready for is likely to leave her vulnerable and uncertain. She is still more child then adult. However, there is a dark being residing within her... a demon of such profound evil that many lives were sacrificed to end his evil reign; of such unfathomable power that even then they could not quite finish him, and settled with merely containing him; of such unending determination that even these measures were not enough. He stretched out the tendrils of the influence he had built up over the millennia and settled on manipulating his target.

The Omen on the other hand is a rather unique entity. Named a demon by the people who fought it, it nevertheless does not seem to use demonic energy. The title, in fact, arose from the sheer havoc it wrecked in the world in which Taelia originates. It murdered and pillaged; manipulated and deceived, gaining followers and even worshippers out of their fear for it, and then turning around and killing them mercilessly at a whim. Its reasons were never quite clear. It didn’t need sustenance. It didn’t take much pleasure in shiny things or amassing a wealth and it could simply take whatever it wanted. In reality, The Omen merely acted this way out of a perverted sense of amusement. Its power was unlike anything these people had ever seen, seemingly able to kill at a mere thought. It manifested itself physically in a strange visage of something not quite man. It delighted in the intricacies of subtleness, but once it grew bored with these “games” it would destroy things for amusement. It slowly ravaged its way across the lands leaving a lifeless land in its wake until finally, the last bastion of hope – a small kingdom of humanity united against this unstoppable foe – stood in its way. In The Omen’s unfailing arrogance, he sought to play a game with them, much like a cat plays with its prey...only for this to result in his downfall. Outsmarted by these humans, he was trapped inside an orb for countless ages as the world began to rebuild itself. Even now, trapped inside Taelia’s body, he cannot truly access the great power he once had, but despite this, its cunning mind will find ways to utilise this diminished power to his advantage. It remains an unknown, however – even to The Omen himself – what affect the consciousness of a living vessel will have upon his power.

Biography:
As the above section mentioned, Taelia had been bought up to be a warrior. This was for the very same purpose that the long and proud lineage of Omanguards dating back to the very first – Eluria Omanguard – had been trained. As the name suggests, their purpose was to guard The Omen’s prison, and ensure that the beast was never set free.

Taelia was the first female in a very long time to be born to this line – indeed, the only other one ever to be born was the first one, the great Eluria who had helped imprison The Omen in the first place. The Omen was too powerful an entity to truly kill. His original name is lost to the winds of time, but his remaining title – The Omen – refers to the fact that his very presence in an omen that blood is to be spilled. He once ruled over the earth, terrorising its people and making the world his plaything... until finally, a bastion of hope arose and toppled him from his seat of power, and imprisoned him deep underground in a mystic orb that even its creators could not truly fathom.

However, his spiritual presence, though limited, was too great to truly contain forever, and over the years, as his strength and cunning grew, he began to be able to send a tiny part of his consciousness to forage out in the world. Eventually, the knowledge of the first woman born to that despised bloodline since the wretched wench Eluria herself came to him, and he hatched a plot that was one part desperation, but 6 parts meticulous planning.

Eluria herself had given her life to preserve the power of The Omen within the Orb, and it struck his fancy that his descendant should be the one to free him. Since her birth, he began to spin an intricate web to ensnare her, and – great as his cunning was – he eventually allowed her curiosity to find his prison. Old enough to be able to go about on her own, and yet still too young to understand the consequences: strong enough to make her way to him, but too weak to resist his infallible power, she drew deeper into his prison and finally came to the orb that legends had told her about. The once clear blue crystal of hope had now turned red and wretched with the blight of The Omen’s corruption, and it seemed to her young eyes that a storm brewed inside it.

Despite herself...despite the warnings, and despite the nagging doubt in the back of her mind... a feeling she called curiosity drove her ever closer...without even realising it, she lifted a hand drew her finger closer to the orb – hesitated a little...

...and touched it.

In a flash of light that was more a flash of darkness, she lost consciousness and knew no more: she woke up on this side of the Summons to Battle.

...and deep inside her, a terrible being cursed the fates. His plan to escape had been ruined at the last possible second! And now, instead of being trapped inside an orb, he was trapped inside this fragile shell of a human! Were she to die, he too would dissipate into effective nothingness! He would have to bide his time, hide deep within her and exert his influence only when it seemed that she was likely to die, as such fragile beings were wont to do. If he could find a way to break her spirit and body at the same time, he could truly be free to exert his utmost control over her body and mind, and shape her into a more fitting vessel but until then...

A metaphorical smile erupted on his metaphorical face. Until then, maybe he could have himself a little fun!