Raven Treadway's page

About Raven Treadway

Concept: An aristocratic undead hunter works to settle the restless dead into their final repose.

Appearance:
Thin and wiry, Raven's frame belies the strength within. Her frame is thin but athletic; zero body fat. She dresses in black with skull notions as clasps and anchors, as is customary with her faith. She favors flowing, gauzy materials when she isn't clad in armor. Even when in armor, her limbs are clad in loose-fitting cloth. Her armor also seems a little loose-fitting, until she shifts then it fits snugly. She wears a thin veil all the time, only removing it when eating or sleeping.
When shifted into her Skinwalker form, she takes on the visage of a black-furred wolf, the fur filling out the loose cloth.

Personality:
Outwardly, Raven shows a melancholic countenance. Focusing on death and repose, she often talks about the finality of mortality. Inwardly, she is a kind and caring soul. The reason she focuses on death is partially the classic "goth girl" motivation, but also because it is an inevitable part of the cycle of life. Her Pharasman beliefs drive a fundamental distaste for undeath, and those looking to circumvent natural death. Her jokes are morbid and humor dark. Ultimately, she cares about those she calls friends.

Positive and Negatvbe Qualities:

+ Hatred of undead - Raven has a history of enocunters with undead and combined with ehr faith, has a drive to eliminate these perversions of life.

+ Student of Death - Raven isn't a scholar in any sense of the word, but she is an avid studier of death and undeath. Much of this is through her faith.

- Fear of Death - Raven fears her own mortality, even when her Pharasman beliefs celebrate the cycle of life. This is a contradiction she will have to confront.

- Melancholy - Raven sometimes can't read the room and will drop dark humor when it isn't wanted.

Important goals and why they're important:

Raven's primary goal is to set all undead into their final repose. Undeath is a perversion of the cycle of life as Pharasma teaches. Once dead, a body needs to remain that way. She actively hunts undead and those who raise them.

Deepest fears:

Beyond the fear of her own mortality, Raven fears becoming undead. Since becoming a Hunter, she is in constant contact with undead creatures, and therefore, the threat of becoming one of them is always at the fore.

Greatest regrets:

Raven regrets not being able to attend Professor Lorrimor's funeral. She was away on Church business, and did not get the letter until recently. Due to this, she is overcompensating her contributions.

Accomplishments pre-game-start, in pursuit of your goals:

She studied undead under Lorrimor, and has furthered her knowledge in the Church of Pharasma. Before joining the party, she has hunted and destroyed undead.

What kind of person does your PC appear to be at a glance? (IC 3rd person - for example: appearance, mannerisms, vocabulary)

"A bit creepy, isn't she? I mean, with the black dress and veil, does she think she's always attending some kind of funeral? Her face looks like a mourner. Maybe she does it for a living? I hear in some villages you can hire them out."

What kind of person does your PC think they are? (IC 1st person - for example: inner logic, self-perception, emotions)

"I'm not just doing this because I have to, but also because it is good and just. The cycle of life is important because Golarion is a limited resource. If nobody died, then food and space owuld run out, leading to untold suffering. Death is a necessary step in the cycle, and I am here to ensure the cycle continues."

What kind of person is your PC actually? (OOC omniscient meta - for example: truths they may not be acknowledging, flaws they may not see, and strengths they're blind to)

Raven is faitful and eager to answer her faith's call, but when push comes to shove, she will hesitate. She eventually pushes past and will triumph, but that initial hesitation will catch her one day. Unless she is able to confront it and discover why, and then move past it.

Backstory:
Raven is the third and final child of the Treadways, an aristocratic family in Caliphas. The Treadways go back centuries, and family lore is deep. There are stories of Dhampir and Lycanthropy in the family tree, as well as even more exotic monsters. Nobody knows for certain, but every third generation or so, someone manifests strange abilities. Raven was the first in four generations to manifest as a skinwalker. When she hit puberty, entirely too much hair begun to appear, to include claws and more... canine looks. She was understandablty panicky, until her mother reached for a dusty tome forgotten deep in the family library. It spoke of the exact thing Raven was experiencing, and how to control it. It took weeks, but in the end Raven learned such control.

This, of course, would never become public knowledge. The monstrous heritage of the Treadways was only rumor outside the mansion; there was no reason to encourage such stories. Else they might end up run out of town by pitchfork. Or worse, strung up on a gibbet. Raven was forbidden to shift in public, though she was allowed space in the basement to... experiment and learn. Which she did with gusto.

Raven's family life was... complicated. Her brother Jonathan gets all the priviledges, and her sister Victoria gets all the attention. Poor Raven is forgotten. She is given everything her station requires, of course... an education, a roof over one's head, and all the food she requires. But beyond the necessities, she is relegated to "the extra one." Even so, her family did care, when they had to. When it was proper of their station to show affection (mostly at hosted soirees), they would do so. Smiling and hugging. But once the doors closed and the last guest left, her siblings took over.

When Raven was an adolescent, her family made a visit to one of the cemeteries in Caliphas to find and visit past Treadways buried there. Theoretically there were three centuries of them, but many of the markers had deteriorated beyond legibility, and nobody had cared to record where anyone was. They were able to find about half, mostly in the recent past.

While trying to make out an inscription, Raven was accosted by a skeletal hand springing forth from the grave upon which she was standing. Her scream rent the night, and her family ran to her aid. Her father beat the hand back into the ground with a shovel, but it was not alone. Before they knew it, a dozen shambling corpses were surrounding them. The crack of an arquebus got their attention, and before they knew it, others had joined the fight. Raven herself picked up a blade and was helping fend off the attack.

At the end, they met their saviours. Professor Lorrimor and members of the Kindler family had come to their aid. They had been investigating the restless dead and were nearby when Raven screamed. Her perceptiveness and prowess in fighting the zombies at such a young age impressed the Professor, and he took her under his wing. Her parents encouraged the teacher-student relationship, finally finding a focus for Raven's restless energy.

Raven studied the undead under Lorrimor's tutelage, and when she got older, went on her own expeditions to investigate undead occurrences. But when she became an adult, she was drawn to the Church of Pharasma, and their utter distaste of undead. The Professor was an academic, not a warrior, and Raven was determined to fight these abominations, so she joined the Church. This was where she discovered her skills with divine magic, leading her to train as a Warpriest.

Raven and Professor Lorrimor lost contact while she was a Pharasman Acolyte. Whether they became too busy with their lives, or the natural drift of separation, Raven couldn't rightly say. Probably both, truth be told. And when word of the Professor's death reached the Pharasman Convent where she had been studying, she was already deep into the River Kingdoms on a pilgrimage to purge a town of the restless dead. She didn't learn of the funeral until she returned to Caliphas many weeks later.

Now, in addition to her quest to rid Golarion of undead, she is seeking a way to recompence her absence from Lorrimor's funeral.