“What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power increases–that a resistance is overcome.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche

RACE: Human

GENDER: Female

AGE: 19

HEIGHT: 5'3"

WEIGHT: 95 lbs

CHA: 17

STR: 14

A lithe, slender young woman of average height, Selis has pale, snow white skin, wavy jet black hair that falls to her mid back when she lets it down, and an athletic yet feminine physique. Her most striking features are her eyes. They are a bright, almost neon shade of green; the sort of dizzying, hypnotic eyes in which some find it easy to get lost. She moves with a sinuous, seductive lilt to her step, and a smug, sly, confident, grin on her face.

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Selis was orphaned at 12, the bastard child of a low born whore named Reela, and unknown client in Windamere. Her mother took care of her, and did care for her, but turned up dead one day in the brothel at which she worked, "The Crimson Dove". under mysterious circumstances. Selis was turned out into the streets, as she had no other family and the brothel's owners refused to support her. She attempted to earn enough coppers by selling flowers to buy day old bread and clean water to survive.

She was assaulted soon afterwards by a ruffian with ill intent, but as she panicked and went into fight or flight mode, her powers manifested, and the brute died screaming with her fangs in his throat, and her poison in his veins.

A passing Archmage of Windamere named Cybalon Tarney saw the altercation, took her to the Academy. She was tested, and it was discovered she had a strong Serpentine bloodline, strong enough to warrant schooling so she could control her power. She was taken in for instruction, and as she had no surname, made one up on the spot for her official records with the school.

Vholuran.

When the clerk at the desk asked her why, she replied "Because it sounds badass!"

Selis paid her way through mage school at first by performing menial labor throughout the academy, so that she could afford room and board. Carrying parcels and messages, practicing her cantrips by casting prestidigitation to clean dirty rooms or materials.

But she eventually grew tired of this. Over her first three years at the academy, she resented seeing highborn girls in their fancy gowns, nicely done hair, and perfectly applied makeup float through school on the money provided by their family, as she barely had enough coppers leftover after a week of work, and paying her dues, to go out and enjoy a meager meal. And hardly the energy to do so, even if she did have the money, because she also had to meditate and practice her spells. She burned with envy. Why did they get things easy? Why did they get to live so comfortably, while she worked her butt off?

Selis thought back to her mother, and remembered some lines of work paid a bit more. And were much more enjoyable. She knew she was pretty. She did not wish to work at some low class brothel like the "Crimson Dove", and meet the same end as her mother. But neither did she have the education or social graces yet required to be a high class courtesan. So Selis stopped doing menial labor. And those of her professors she merited attractive enough, with straying wives, or empty homes, or wandering eyes, found their beds much warmer. And Selis felt her purse much heavier, with the weight of their gold.

The rest of Selis' time at the Academy in Windamere was comfortable and luxurious. But just as it ended, the Voran Civil War broke out. Selis, now having a taste of wealth because of her dalliances, wanted more. And in wars, wealth could be found. . .or taken. So she joined King Reginald's army as a war mage.

It was during the war her true potential as one of the serpent folk's descendants bloomed. As the war progressed, she proved invaluable as an infiltrator and honeypot, not just a mage. She would dress up like a camp follower, and seduce enemy soldiers, and dig military information out of them during pillow talk. She also, due to being caught in several dangerous situations while out of her spells, and unable to fight back, began to learn how to fight with steel, and became a competent, if not stunning, fencer.

As her power grew, so did the innate malevolence of the serpent blood within her. She became more deceitful. Sometimes lying just for the sport of it. She came to enjoy watching her enemies die. . .especially it if was from her fangs. Fortunately for her, the harshness and unpredictability of war, as well as the capacity of her enemies for deceit and cruelty of their own, tempered Selis' oft times spiteful, impulsive, and vindictive personality.

She became paranoid and careful, seeing in nearly everyone the same potential for guile and tricks that was her own. Numerous close calls with more physically gifted combatants made her a defensive and cautious combatant, willing to forgo a quick, violent, victory in lieu of carefully whittling away her opponent's strengths, and bringing them down to her level using magic, while hiding behind her wards.

In time, she began to enjoy this. It became an ego boost for her to defeat larger, stronger, heavier warriors. . .and to relish and prolong their defeat, so that she could enjoy the humiliation and confusion on their faces as their flesh failed them.

She was no longer a raw recruit. She was capable of kicking ass. And she loved that feeling.

When the war ended, Selis had earned enough through both salary and the despoliation of her defeated enemies to purchase top of the line armor and weapons, and set out for the City of Duirt to build for herself the life of power and luxury she felt, after all that conniving and scheming, and butchery, she so richly deserved.