Sarika

Sarika is a character in The Intense Struggle S2.

Race:
For convenience, people usually just call her a 'bird-woman,' which is pretty accurate. There is a certain group of people who share traits with whatever animal they hold holy. Different animal-people tend to coalesce into separate tribes. Sarika is obviously from a 'bird tribe,' though more specifically, her tribe really likes predatory birds, especially hawks and owls.

Weapon:
Usually, it's hard for bird people to pick anything up because wings aren't exactly meant for picking things up. However, Sarika had gotten thin, wiry robotic implants that rests over her small wings that can help her pick things up, such as her staff. It's not exactly very special, but she had made an effort to decorate it with feathers and string and symbols and what-not. It's light enough for her to carry and still able to make her opponents see stars.

Abilities:
Sarika had been chosen by her gods to be their prophet. Because of the gods' blessing, she does not have to deal with a few earthly worries such as hunger and aging and blinking. That last one is important because, as you've probably guessed, Sarika can see the future. She switches between present and future vision by blinking. She can't really fly because those small wings can't support her weight, even with her light bones, but she can jump hella high.

Description:
Sarika has a light down on her body which is a dull brown color. Her arms are indeed wings, though not very impressive ones, and her legs are thin and scrawny. Her eyes are golden and stern, but she covers them up with goggles because she finds that most people don't like to be stared at for very long. Her feet are indeed talons, but she usually wears shoes over them. Her hair is slightly messy and strangely green, but most of it is covered up by a hawk mask that has feathers going all the way down to the middle of her back. It's very heavy. She also wears a large beaded necklace that have white beads that steadily grow as it goes to the center and a large black obsidian disk in the middle. It is also a little heavy. She wears a simple ragged tunic that is boringly tan and used to be a dress. Her pants are poofy and end at her knees and she wears a red sash around her waist. She does have tail feathers coming out the back too. Sarika tends to see the world in muted color except for the very attractive very shiny very bright stuff. She is a very serious woman, sometimes to the point of being impersonal, who sticks firm to her beliefs (one being that the future isn't set in stone, another being that the end justifies the means). She remains faithful to her gods even if she has modernized a little. She doesn't like to just sit around and think all the time, being more of an action girl. She hates feeling useless and can be a little reckless sometimes when she just wants to do something. She's not above using future vision to help her avoid trouble or gain an advantage, though sometimes the vision can be less than helpful. She tends to view them as puzzles and sometimes tries to puzzle out what will happen that would lead up to that event. Sometimes she predicts correctly and gains some satisfaction seeing events play out as she expected. Most of the time she is wrong. She's sharpeyed, observant, flexible, athletic and tends to rely heavily on instinct.

Biography:
Sarika grew up in a forest. During the usual ritual that occurs after everybody's birth, the Nursing Mother gave a sign that she was to be a prophet, and thus she lived a privileged and envied life. She mostly spent her childhood training (that is, meditating and honing her powers, learning important rituals and other crap) until the previous prophet was finally claimed by the gods and she took on the blessings that came with being an all important prophet. What she mostly did was sit in a hut and pretend to be mystical and usually give out dire warnings and advice. However, she was part of the new generation and wanted to do something more. The gods had apparently agreed, for another new prophet was born years later. She trained him quickly and announced that the gods wanted her somewhere else, then left for the city. She found that there weren't many jobs that called for prophets (at least not reputable ones) and struggled a little before eventually joining the police force, where her future visions were at least somewhat helpful in preventing crime. Sometimes she would try to arrest future crooks, but she wouldn't be allowed since many were still rather skeptical about her visions. Eventually she was fired (though she would insist that she quit herself) and she started being a vigilante of sorts, stalking future criminals and stopping them before they managed to do any harm.