Catina Bon Durati's page

Catina has only vague memories of her early childhood, when everything still seemed normal. She remembers a woman with beautiful auburn curls playing violin while a man lounged on the sofa reading books. She herself would sit by the fireplace - a gaudy thing of brickwork and wrought iron - and hum along to the playing. Everything changed shortly before her ninth birthday. There had been headaches - the early signs of her horns coming to prominence - and one night she had simply burst into flames. The house had burned down with all inhabitants except for herself. She was left alone on the streets, with nothing but the rags on her back, horrible scars on her entire body and a battered violin that she pulled from the wreckage.

In the following years Catina learned to fend for herself on the streets of Westcrown. She fell in with a Tiefling-only gang called the Bastards of Erebus for food and protection, even though she didn't like them all that much. In the spare time she had, she'd rather hang out on the roofs of the Parego Spera, marveling at the Arodennama of trying to get a glimpse of people heading to the opera. When the Bastards were forcibly disbanded, it seemed like Catina was on her own once more. However, she was picked off the street and recruited in the Chelish army. She wasn't deemed suitable for the rank and file, so was put together with four other misfits in a 'special tasks force'. To say this was an honor would be a gross misunderstanding: the group was created for missions that the regular soldiers wouldn't do or that were deemed too risky.

Despite this (or perhaps because of this), the group actually stuck together and became a team. And Catina found that she managed to fit in surprisingly well, with some effort on her part. She'd gotten used to crude and rowdy folk in the Bastards of Erebus, and she'd learned to fight well enough to contribute to the group. Most surprisingly, she felt a sense of camaraderie that had been absent in the Bastards. Through several years the group had some ups and downs, with a reasonably high success rate but an unfortunately high turnover rate.

One night at the campfire while sharpening her blade, Catina was lost in thought and absentmindedly started humming a tune. Challenged by her peers she continued singing, which earned her a nickname: The Bloodletting Bard (along with several more vulgar variants). Wanting to fit in with the group any way she could, the tiefling cultivated this image and stylized herself as a Shelynite more and more, in a mocking way. She'd sing when wading in battle, refused to wield any weapon save the glaive and occasionally performed her practice drills in nothing by undergarments to show off her vulgar scars. "Look at me! Shelyn thinks I'm beautiful", she'd scoff to a hearty round of laughter of her fellows.

Things started to change due to two unrelated events. First, she met a group of artisans while on leave in Westcrown. They were busy doing repairs on one of the city’s opera houses and saw her looking at the building from a distance. Rather than being appalled, they invited her to join them for a simple lunch. Feeling ill at ease, Catina didn't speak much, but she felt oddly attracted to being in a conversation without mockery, strife and the looming threat of violence. Between campaigns with the army she had a few more meetings with this group, learning from their ability to find joy in their craft and simple things in life.

The second event was a particularly disastrous mission for her team, which saw three of them killed and only she and one other making it out alive, barely. The team was quickly filled up back to five, but the feeling of brotherhood she’d felt before was gone. She drudged through a few more missions, but before her next week in Westcrown she informed her captain that she’d had enough and wanted out. He told her to think about it, and give him her decision after her leave. There was a sardonic smile as he said it, but she didn’t expect anything at that time. Things became clear once she arrived in Westcrown and went to visit ‘her’ group of builders. She quickly learned that they’d been rounded up just a day ago, suspected of revolutionary activities and other crimes against the state. That meant they had vanished and would never be seen again. Catina quickly put two and two together and stormed back to the army base to confront her captain. His words feigned ignorance, but his demeanor made it clear that he’d deliberately taken away her safe haven - her new life! - in order to keep her under his command. Hardened by years of violence her first thought was to strike him down then and there, but something held her back: she had already decided she’d had enough of that life, and she wasn’t ready to throw it all away, even for a revenge as just as this one. She stormed off, mumbling that she needed some time to think. She rode east, unsure of where to go but realizing that she wanted to get as far away from as possible. She was confronted by the four other members of her team before the day was through, under orders to bring her back dead or alive. She dealt with them, and by then her course was clear: she’d have to flee Cheliax and create a new life somewhere else.

Catina's status as a tiefling is unmistakable. Two small horns stick out from her forehead among her auburn hair, jutting straight out at around three inches each. Her face, round in shape, is marred by two scars along her cheeks. The scars also show on the rest of her body as obscene writing in Infernal. The final marker of Catina's hellish descent are her fingers, which extend for about an inch beyond what is normal. Catina isn't tall, reaching only up to 5' 2''. Despite rigorous training with the Chelaxian army, she's kept a limber physique: She doesn't rely on muscle power to accomplish what she wants.

How Catina presents herself depends very much on the context. When on duty she dresses in impeccable uniform along with a few garish accessories that pander to her image as a Shelynite. The look isn't spoiled by visible armor; she's found that she can wear her thin mithral chain shirt under her coat. If she wants to inspire fear when out on a mission, she'll opt for a sleeveless waistcoat to fully show the scars on her arms. During her off hours in Westcrown she wears much more neutral clothes, preferring a coat and gloves that fully cover her skin, along with a hooded cloak. Catina used to keep her hair cropped short for many years, both for practical reasons and to show off her horns. However, in recent months she has chosen to keep it longer.

Catina can be callous, ruthless and mocking, has low expectations of people in general and sometimes seems reckless to the point of seeming suicidal. However, she's fiercely loyal to the people she considers comrades (though wouldn't go so far as to call anyone her friend) and still maintains a grim optimistic attitude in life. She can shrug off personal insults and oftentimes comes up with a bit of black humor when things look bleak.

Her gradually growing weariness of violence and the recent experience of meeting with a friendly group of carpenters and stonemasons in Westcrown have caused a shift in her attitude. She's begun to show an actual interest in the teachings of Shelyn, and wonders if she herself could add something positive to the world. However, a lifetime of being a tool of violence in the hands of her army commanders isn't easily forgotten.

Catina's theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPp3Qh-GRqs
Battle hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtRcYMV1DU8