Tirsiak

Tirsiak is a very minor deity, a spirit of the wild, cold places; the concept of being hunted given form. She suffers not from mortal frailties, resisting the cold, poisons and disease. While she can be hurt, even have her body hewn and torn apart by claw, axe and bow, she cannot actually be killed through mundane means alone. To prevent her from healing, and thereby permanently kill her, requires either powerful magic, expoitation of her mythic themes, or using some substance completely anathema to her. For instance, if she ever finds herself in the role of prey rather than predator, she is at serious risk of true death, and salt and cold iron make very effective weapons against her.

Tiri can float a foot or two above the ground at will, and even enter her 'rest cycle' - not truly sleep, but close - without descending. She can move in the air as fast as an average person can run, although she needs something to 'support' her - she can't float more than two feet above a horizontal surface, and will fall if she floats over the edge of a cliff. She won't be injured by hitting the ground, though, instead just coming to a gentle stop two feet above it.

Tirsiak can rapidly lower the ambient temperature of an area around the size of a city block to below freezing. While an area is so enchanted, any plants or animals will transform into appropriate forms to survive the sudden biome shift - deciduous trees become evergreen, mammals will don their winter coats or even transform into a related species more suited for a boreal forest. The sun becomes weak in the sky no matter what the weather is like outside the area, and it will often cloud over and start to snow. If she's feeling merciful, humans will find their clothes transforming to suit the environment - although, if she's on a hunt, her quarry is not usually so lucky. Other artificial things are not usually given any protection, although most machines and buildings can take the shift in temperature well enough.

Tirsiak can track any living thing. She can track like a human, looking for evidence of her quarry's passing like footprints, damaged foliage or torn-off clothing; or she can track like an animal, with her sharp nose and ears pinpointing prey. She usually does a mixture of both. Once she's found her quarry, she can execute it using her claws and teeth, or she can use her next perk:

This psychic power only works on wild animals and plants - domesticated animals and cultivated plants are a mystery to her. With the wild things, though, she can converse with them with spoken words and recieve an answer in emotional impressions and memories - not accurate enough to have a philosophical conversation about the true nature of reality or anything like that, but enough to ask simple questions and recieve answers. Animals generally can answer questions about anything they've seen or heard or smelled recently, and even plants can answer questions about their immediate surroundings; and plants have very long memories. Curiously, this empathic ability DOES work on sapient animals and plants, and animal- and plant-people, as long as they're not imprisoned or forced into service of others. Answering is voluntary in such cases - she can't force a person to give up information it doesn't wish to give, although she can usually get a general impression of their emotions.

The spirits Tirsiak summons look like shadows, but they are solid and capable of impeding process in massed quantities. Most of them are prey animals like rabbits and moose, but she has hunted other predators in the past. Shades summoned are very short lived, existing only to impede or attack a target for a few seconds before vanishing again. She can also summon humans she has felled, although these shades are free-willed and not under her direct control, so she doesn't do it often unless out of sudden uncharacteristic remorse - these ones last longer, and theoretically would need an update for an NPC perk or be used as a reason for someone else to gain an NPC perk.

Tirsiak's connections to nature and the wheel of life grant her the power to banish injuries from natural creatures. Her touch can fill natural creatures with life and banish wounds, at least those caused by natural means, repairing gaping wounds and broken bones but not reversing absolutely fatal injuries. 'Natural creatures' in this case refers to creatures that evolved naturally in the world - genetic abominations and even gene-tweaked humans aren't valid targets. It also never works on robots, even in the bizarre cases where such lifeforms are natural to their worlds.

Tirsiak is much stronger and faster than her frail form would suggest, capable of bringing down an elephant with a punch and outpacing a car when running on all fours. Her senses are very sharp, as well, letting her see clearly even in starlight and hear a pin drop from a hundred yards away.

Tirsiak has preternatural grace and skill with any weapon used in the hunting of prey - from spears and axes to high-caliber sniper rifles. She doesn't normally carry armaments with her, but she can create them with her hands and appropriate materials, and also generate magical copies of any hunting weapon she knows of in areas enchanted with Embodiment of the Taiga.

Tirsiak eats anything she kills. She considers this her moral duty. When the Hunt takes her, her quarry can very well be a human, and she will persue it just as viciously as any other prey. Naturally, this causes quite a lot of friction between her and humans who know this about her.

Tiri is against wastefulness - killing without eating the prey, discarding materials that could be reused, and such. She makes an exception for killing in self-defense; the prey deserves its chance to live after all. She believes strongly in respecting strength and skill, and will not accept insults, either directed at her or anyone else. She cares more about nature than the world of humanity's artifice, although as she holds that humans are a part of nature she can care about humans without feeling like a hypocrite. She allows herself to favour specific individuals, as long as she doesn't let that hold her back when the Hunt takes her. Tirsiak never lies, and also doesn't expect anyone else to.

The only area of humanity's technology she approves of and understands are its weapons of the hunt and self-defense. Otherwise, she absolutely cannot understand technological marvels, and is incapable of working out how to turn on a light bulb or even light a candle, let alone use a computer or smart phone. She just assumes human technology is a form of magic only they can understand. Her mystical abilities of the hunt and life don't function on technology, even if that technology happens to be sapient.

She's not in 'hunt mode' at all times, but at least once a week she is compelled to choose a target, hunt it down, and slay it. She'll choose whatever is available - if in a forest it's often a herbivore like a rabbit or a deer, but whenever she's in the world of humanity most of the targets around are humans. When hunting, she is also compelled to 'play fair' - she will enchant the land with the Taiga, but otherwise she will not use more effort than is necessary to catch her quarry - mechanically, she will pull her tier down to match her prey. If her quarry elude her for long enough, she will abandon the hunt, her compulsion fulfilled even without catching her prey. Tirsiak is only interested in hunting creatures she can eat - she won't choose a robot or another spirit as her quarry.

Tirsiak cannot cross a line of salt placed specifically to ward out evil creatures. She cannot enter a consecrated area unless invited in by a believer of whatever force consecrates it. She can be held at bay by the Christian cross and horseshoes. Tirsiak cannot hunt the old and feeble, and must hunt young, healthy prey that has a chance of escape. She MUST eat at least a portion of anything she hunts. If she breaks any of these taboos, she begins to sicken and waste away, and must perform a ritual of absolution to regain her strength.

Tirsiak is a wild creature that belongs out in the open, free to do as her nature dictates. She has been confined in the past, collared by eldritch sorcery and dark science, and is absolutely terrified of the same happening again. She tries her best to never be in a position that disallows quick escape, even if she's by far the most powerful being around. She'll never enter a room with no exit, preferring instead to hover in the doorway.