Lavi Lannon

Lavi Lannon is a character in MORITURI TE SALUTANT. She was introduced as a late arrival at the beginning of Round 2, Il Maledicta.

Description:
Lavi is a young woman, somewhat shorter than average in height but otherwise medium in build. Her dark hair is long and somewhat unkempt, only kept out of the way by being tied behind her. She is marked by her long face, gray-irised eyes, gangly limbs, and a ruddy, sanguine complexion maintained by frequent time outdoors. In addition to this, she speaks with something of a soft brogue-- her accent tends to thicken when nervous or under stress, however.

While still appearing functionally identical to a human-- and she would be quick to contend that she is human-- a closer examination reveals some significant physiological differences. As a result of an esoteric ritual, Lavi has partially transformed to have some plant characteristics. In places, her skin gives way for a blue-tinged wood, and parts of her are comprised of thin layers of bark-like material. Where her feet are, root-like branches replace her toes, alongside nodules and occasional thin root tendrils across the flat of her feet. When cut, she heals by growing tendrils and expanding bark across the injury. While there is nothing as overt as having foliage for hair or leaves substituting for flesh, close enough observation would expose her as not being fully human.

Much of her clothing is well-worn-- and while sturdy enough to not be reduced to tatters, her attire is still somewhat ragged from a combination of age, neglect, and her active lifestyle. She tends to wear a brown, mud-stained robe that falls down to obscure her bare feet, along with a similarly-drab hood to partially cover her face. She has on her most of the accoutrements of a frequent traveler, from a bag of prepared rations to a collection of journals to an assortment of other oddities.

Lannon herself tends to be youthful in demeanor, marked by a vivacious attitude that has yet to be jaded and eroded by experience. Cruelty is something she finds actively painful and intolerable, and she works wherever possible to avoid contributing to an already ample supply of bloodshed and suffering. She is unaccustomed to physical violence, and behaves in a pacifistic manner-- the thought of grievously harming someone, let alone killing another living being, is beyond her. Despite her benevolent and deeply empathetic nature, she tends to shy away from taking credit for her actions-- Lavi ultimately prefers to avoid the interference heroism brings, and is more than happy to allow someone else glory if it allows her to continue her work.

Items/Abilities:
Lavi has a relatively sharp mind, honed by learning both theoretical and practical, and a body well-practiced in athleticism. She also has a fairly-well trained sense of survival, particularly when outdoors. While being transplanted to an alien environment may dampen her training, she still has some natural instincts when it comes to foraging and scavenging. Her magically-altered physiology provides some benefits, as well-- she tends to recover from injuries relatively easily, able to regrow from most varieties of injuries. The hardened wood and and bark that partially comprises her is noticeably sturdier than flesh, and allows her to cope with staggering blows more easily. While still nowhere equivalent to the defense that armor or other protective measures would bring, she still has a level of endurance past that of an average human.

As a product the transformation she participated in, Lannon is gifted in the magical art of golem-crafting-- she is capable of imbuing a non-living material with an activating spark to produce an animate construct. The constructs she can produce vary in lifespan and capabilities-- while she can hastily animate a collection of inanimate materials to produce a golem, it is unlikely to be reliable or particularly stable and would likely collapse after a short period of time. With more preparation of the vessel to be animated, and more time and focus spent properly channeling her magic into the vessel, she can produce more reliable and more intelligent golems, as well as ones that have significantly longer lifespans. While she has yet to fully know the possible materials and capacities of her creations, her experimentation thus far has yet to show any particular limits.

Biography:
Lavi sat beside her campfire. The flames were oddly disquieting, she had realized. Were once fire was a comforting protector, it had transformed into something primal-- something to be feared. She reached out to prod the flickering conflagration with a stick, taking note of the wooden fibers that stretched across her body as she did. It had been a month since her transformation had occurred-- and she had expected nothing to come of it, certainly nothing as drastic as what had happened. She was partially undressed, her robe and cloak tossed aside as to let her fully examine herself. It was curious, seeing herself like this; her time in the taverns and outposts that marked civilization had not given her a chance to investigate her appearance as she now did. She noted the cerulean strips of bark that covered sections of her skin, the thin tangles of vines that emerged and re-entered, she took in that her appearance had shifted and grown otherworldly and fey.

Lavi realized that under any other circumstances she should have been frightened of her new state-- but she felt exhilarated, delighted in the knowledge that her hunt for this mystery had revealed itself this way. She had never expected chasing this rumor of pure fantasy to manifest itself in her transformation, in her new capabilities. Lavi had learned from a young age that the wilderness was not somewhere where boons were earned so much as it was an unrelenting darkness to be pushed back; that very real threats to civilization hid amongst the thickets and threatened to undo the tenuous grasp of the villages and strongholds humans enjoyed. If anyone discovered what she had done, she would be shunned as an abomination, but she relished her new state. Her attention turned away from the fire now-- there was another reason she had come out here, into the wilderness. As much as it was comforting to be away from others, to enjoy the solitude of the forest around her, she had another reason.

The wooden armature beside her was lifeless, nothing but a dead husk of broken branches and knotted-together twigs shaped into a human form. Her transformation had granted her extraordinary powers, she knew as much from her first awakening. She had seen trees sway unnaturally and rocks roll with nothing so much as her focus on them, and she intended to try her abilities on something designed for them.

Lavi extended her hand, watching the blue sparks of coruscating light dance and flicker around her fingers. She twitched her hand in a smooth motion, watching the sparks fly downward-- and the armature begin to move, begin to stand up as its crudely-affixed joints strained against its rough construction.

The first of Lavi's golems had been made.

And from an unfathomable void, an alien abomination took note-- his blank face already fixed into a grim, self-contented smile below its single eye as it watched the work of an insignificant mote below.