*General universe info found here. Read this first: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15763132/

NAME: Nymera
TITLE: The Aspect of Death
-Also represents: disease, famine
SPECIES: Human
SIGIL: A cloaked and hooded figure holding a scythe, circled by thirteen skulls


HISTORY: In Telmarine society, death only marks the midway point of a soul’s journey. The moment life ends is the moment one passes into the hands of the Underlords. Under their unforgiving gazes, the wicked are sentenced to burn, while the good are led to a place of peace and rest. Heaven is nonexistent. All the souls of Stormhold follow the route Saetan has laid out, forever in his grasp. When one dies, they either burn, rest…or try again. Reincarnation is very common, particularly with the souls of the very wicked and the souls of the saintly. A grand experiment in Saetan’s eyes to see if such qualities pass through to the next “generation”. Tracking a soul’s past life is exceedingly difficult but not impossible. There are mages whose sole focus of study is to discover these reincarnations and link them to their pasts. But even the most fascinating soul rarely ever repeats the path of life more than once or twice. Three times is rare. Four times is almost unheard of. More than five…and you have Nymera.

It is unknown why Nymera was singled out to relive her existence over and over again. There was nothing particularly special or interesting about any of her lives, as many as there were. Always born a simple peasant woman, she never made a notable name for herself. The only unique factor in each turn was the method of her death. She always died young, and she always died from a disease. Still, Saetan was only made aware of her at the beginning of her sixth life, when the Underlord Lhamia commented about what he would have to do to get “that one” finally in his grasp. Saetan kept note of her through her sixth, seventh, and eighth lives. At the beginning of her ninth, he began watching her more closely. And by the time she reached life number twelve, every single Underlord was watching along with him, their annoyance at her constantly escaping their judgment replaced by sheer amazement. They followed her every step of her life, and when she lay dying once more, debated amongst themselves about what would happen if they interfered. They decided to see what would happen, and sat amazed as she instantly entered life number thirteen.

Saetan had finally seen enough. He waited until Nymera was full-grown, on the eve of being inflicted with the illness that would eventually kill her, and then he approached her. He told her of all he and the Underlords had witnessed, and offered her ascension. If she was so intimately familiar with death, then perhaps she was the one best suited to serve it. And Nymera agreed, for though her living self was unaware of what she had been through, her soul was deeply weary. And as long as she agrees to remain an Aspect, then she is free of the endless cycle. She too tries to puzzle out why she was chosen to relive her life so many times, but so far, she has found no answers.


PERSONALITY: Knowing the great expanse of her power, which is arguably the strongest of all the Aspects, most people are astonished when they meet Nymera in person. For one, she is a very petite woman, barely reaching 5 ft even. She is plain of face, neither pretty nor ugly, and entirely unimposing. This is why she has chosen to hide her face when she is "working". Her mask would be instantly recognizable by all Telmarines, for it is a death shroud. Every person upon their deaths has a death mask placed over their faces, to "shield" their eyes through the initial descent until they stand in the presence of the Underlords to face judgment. Nymera has managed to track down and collect all twelve of hers, and the one she wears now is symbolic of the one Saetan prevented her from receiving.

Face to face, Nymera is not an unfriendly person. She loves a good conversation, and enjoys spending time doing "normal" things. But she is easily insulted when she sees someone flinch in her presence, reacting to the aura of her power. But as long as she is not "on duty", one needs not worry about suffering anything more than a glare and a cold shoulder. But when her mask is drawn, even the other Aspects tend to stay out of her way. When her power consumes her, she is no longer in the present, but standing on the brink, and she cannot tell the difference between the souls she must claim and those who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Among the other Aspects she is very much respected, and is not considered an enemy to any of them, either because they genuinely admire her or because they don't want to know what would happen if they got on her bad side. She is also the only mortal to know the names and faces of all the Underlords, and in turn she is the only lesser being the Underlords do not look upon with scorn. In particular she is friends with Underlord Lhamia, and it is through him that she received the gift of the service of the Barghests, the legendary sightless death hounds.


POWERS: Vast, far moreso than any of the other Aspects. When her mask is drawn, death dwells in her very fingertips, and with the slightest touch she can pull a soul from their living bodies and send them down to the Underlords. The lantern she bears upon its long staff acts like a beacon, and to gaze upon its light is to freeze oneself in place, unable to move until she reaches them or she passes by. She does not use her power needlessly, however. She only hunts those who are truly marked for death, and if her power claims anything else in the process, it is merely accidental. The only time she can be seen working indiscriminately is when she ventures into a scene of bloody battle. Her passing will leave no soldier alive in her wake, regardless of the severity of their wounds. Telmarines have long learned to quickly retrieve their savable wounded.

When she is not "on duty", Nymera cannot wield the power of death. However, she can still bring to her command any level of disease and pestilence, and on this front there is no limit to how many she can affect at one time. But only once has she wielded this power, sending a plague of mice to spoil the grain stores of a lesser lord. On the other hand, she can also use her power to cure a person or land of a plague. More than once she has cleansed disease from the favored mortals of other Aspects, and anyone else can ask of her to do the same, but the proper prayers and rituals to call upon her are extremely complex.


ARTIST'S COMMENTS: Overall, I am quite pleased with how this came out, save that I might redesign her mask at some point in the future. But it is a part of her character to wear a mask, so I wasn't cheating too much this time. The dog is pretty good too, though I need to learn a few more techniques for drawing depth. The dog has no eyes for a reason.