Aliana Merali's page

About Aliana Merali

Using a custom archetype, the Redeemed Enforcer.

Aliana is twenty two years old, with dark eyes and close-cropped brown hair; no matter how hard she tried, long hair would always slip from a ribbon or scarf and get into her eyes or trail into a beaker while she worked at her lab. Her Varisian heritage is apparent not only from her olive complexion, but from the elaborate tattoos she bears on her face, arms, hands, and back. She favors clothing very close-fitting and practical in cut and fit, but riotous in color, favoring reds, purples, and golds.

Aliana is quick-witted and forthright. She is eager to strike up a conversation with everyone she meets, even going so far as to learn all the most common native languages spoken by travelers in order to pick a passerby's brain more readily. Smiles and laughter come quickly to her, although sometimes, when she thinks no one is looking, a more somber look crosses her eyes.

The small alchemy lab in a side room of her mother Zarana's herbalism shop is her personal domain, and she can usually be found here, creating stock for the store and conducting her own experiments. She visits every market day, festival, and public event, however; as she tells her mother, you never know what interesting sorts you'll meet at such a gathering. She has one unusual habit, though; at least once a month, late at night, she can be seen in the Ilsurian graveyard, pouring the contents of a vial of burn salve over the ground in front of a small tombstone and leaving a small bouquet of flowers or herbs or a small glass of spirits on the stone.

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Aliana arrived in Ilsurian at a year old, carried on her mother Zarana's back. They were not always well off, but Zarana plied her skills as an herbalist to support herself and her daughter, and her care and concern in treating her charges did not go unnoticed by Padel Merali, a merchant in town. He soon grew smitten by her compassion and strength of spirit, and was enamored with the childish charm of Aliana as well. Within the year, they had become man and wife, and Padel took Aliana in as his own.

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As Aliana grew, it became clear that her and Zarana were a study in contrasts. Zarana was placid, Aliana fiery and tempestuous. Zarana was content to perfect her age-old remedies and tinctures; Aliana had an insatiable curiosity, and insisted on ever more reckless experiments with her skills and experience in herbalism. One night, Aliana was up into the wee hours of the morning, working on a concoction to try to shrink a pimple that had grown on her chin. As she finished the brew, she suddenly felt energy flow from her hand into the vial she held. She drained the vial, and to her surprise, her pimple shrank - and so did the rest of her!

Aliana soon perfected her ability to pour her own mental energy into her alchemical concoctions. She especially enjoyed learning to channel her adolescent frustrations into compounds that would then explode in a burst of fire or transform her into a stronger, more brutish form. Zarana, however, did not approve. She chided Aliana's foolhardiness, and Padel warned Aliana of the danger that these concoctions would present.

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So Aliana began to hide her experiments. She began skipping work in her mother's shop to hide between two shops and feverishly mix compounds, or sneaking out of the house at night to revel in the ferocity of her mutated form. One night, testing a new mutagen designed to make her faster rather than stronger, she was running up and down the streets and alleys of Ilsurian, when suddenly she heard a chuckle. She stopped and flicked her head around, and saw a young Varisian boy standing in a corner, smirking. "What's it to you?" she half-snarled at him.

His smirk grew wider. "You've got quite the talent for alchemy. If you're happy to spend it on running around in circles, well, whatever suits you."

Aliana was intrigued. "Well, what do you suggest?"

The boy held out his hand. "Varal Kerane. I suggest a real job, if you think you can stomach it."

Aliana saw the glint in his eyes, and was instantly smitten. "I'm in."

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Each night, Aliana snuck from her parents' home and met Varal at his home. At first, the meetings were simple - learning how to throw accurately and carefully and swing a staff recklessly, honing her alchemical skills, learning to mix extracts faster and more easily. But soon, their exploits began to take on a darker tone. They would take turns distracting pedestrians and grabbing small pouches of coin from their belts; they would sneak into a shop at night and raid the till; they would throw rocks through the windows of homes. Aliana was always well-compensated, but never well-informed; Varal always reassured her that their targets had earned whatever they had gotten, daring to oppose the Kerane family.

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One night, however, things got out of hand. Varal and Aliana were asked to rough up a store front, Varal merely explaining that the owner had failed to "pay his protection" again. At first, the hit was simple, throwing stones through windows and kicking down the front door. But then Aliana, caught up in the thrill of destruction, constructed an alchemical bomb and threw it through the gaping doorjamb - right into a barrel of spirits sitting next to the counter. Soon, the entire store was ablaze, and she heard a sound that only increased her horror - shouts and screams from the apartment above the shop.

Each shriek tore at her conscience. She reached for the flask at her hip, a new experimental mutagen designed to increase endurance. Draining the flask in one gulp, she ran into the inferno, hoping it would be enough.

Darting up the stairs, she nearly ran into a woman, attempting desperately to drag a young boy through the hall. Aliana stooped over and threw the boy over a shoulder, then offered her arm to the sobbing woman, and together they made their way out, choking on the thick smoke. But as they reached the waiting crowd outside, the woman took a harried look at each face in the crush and set into a wail. "My husband, he's still in there!" Aliana turned, but could only watch as the ravaged building finally gave way in a harsh collapse.

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Along with his wife and son, Aliana was the first to the grave when the merchant was laid to rest, and she still visits the town cemetery regularly to leave a flower next to his tombstone. Onlookers assume her guilt is that she was simply not fast enough to save the man as well, and they praise her valor and her selflessness. No one knows of her shame but her former employers, and their lips are sealed.

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Now somewhat wiser for her experiences, Aliana still works to improve her craft, but her goals now are much changed. No longer is her research simply aimless, wanton self-gratification; she now researches in order to unlock the mysteries of life itself. Legends speak of a secret lost to time, the philosopher's stone, with the power of bringing the dead to life, no matter the circumstances. Surely such a wonder would be enough to make her past right...