About Zora Julija ZajacVisual reference - Honestly, the icon for this character is nearly perfect. Zora stands proud with criticizing eyes, veiled in colorful cloth and jingling trinkets. A mess of holy symbols hang from her belt, tangled and caught together. Veiled by her scarf are spiral tattoos on either shoulder, the ends running down her arms to circle her wrists. Short, pitch-black hair frames her face, curled and black to match her dark skin. Gold and silver piercings run through her ears, lip, eyebrows, lending an exotic beauty to her Varisian features. Unlike the other carnival girls, when she catches a stare, she doesn't coo or beckon, but glares and juts her chin, wordlessly insulting. Personality:
Zora is a bit elemental, a bit childish and a bit mysterious. Without the ability to speak, things are harder to get across, and in a lot of ways, easier. As a result, she's extremely physical: A hard fist to the shoulder is an easy way to say "stop being a jerk" and a quick flick of the tines is a great way to say "come get some." A tight hug is a good way to say "great job!" and a kiss on the cheek is the perfect "you're handsome." She rarely thinks things through, leaping into action, but never places others in harm before herself. Zora knows she can be high maintenance and can control herself, but sometimes, it's just hard to sit at a dinner table and watch everyone else have polite conversation for hours and not get bored.
Mute Curse:
Mute (Ex) [The oracle's] curse renders her mute—- she can’t speak or use verbal spell components. This same curse, though, grants her the ability to cast all spells as if using the Silent Spell metamagic feat without modifying that spell’s actual level. In addition, [The oracle] can communicate telepathically with any creature she is in physical contact with. She can also maintain a telepathic bond with one specific creature at a time by taking a full-round action to link her mind to that creature during telepathic communication. [The oracle] can change the target of her telepathic link once per day. Omen
--Bonus --Flaw
Backpack -
Wearing:
Consumables
Gold
Spells Cast:
1st - 6 remaining out of 6 Channel Positive Energy - 6 remaining out of 6 Non-Spoilered Resource Block
Gossip Backstory:
Zora's history is almost completely unknown. It's difficult to piece together her history. A Varisian woman graced by the power of the gods, Zora isn't one to speak about herself or her origins... because Zora can't speak. Power comes with a price, and the price Zora had to pay was her voice. Few things are known. Her mother was a fortune-telling Harrower and her father was a holy man of Desna. Some say that her birth was foretold by the cards or by the stars themselves. Others say that it came by surprise. Zora was born healthy and happy. According to the story, she was showing her power as soon as she could walk. Candles flickered with the flail of her hand. Skinned knees are a minor inconvenience to a natural mystical healer. Miracles were performed. Zora never spoke a single word. Creepy, right? It gets better. Somewhere along the line, she lost her tongue. To what, no one can actually say. Mouth-rot from a piece of old meat from a dockside vendor? The heated knife of a Hellknight interrogator? Perhaps she was just born that way? In either case, when asked about her silence, the Varisian girl opens her mouth and points inside-- to what's missing-- as her answer. There's a story there, I know it. Too bad she can't tell it. And how did she end up here? A guy I know told me that her family lived in the Underbridge for years, and she left to Korvosa for a little while. She was making the rounds from church to church, looking for the origin of her gift, and I suppose they have some rather big churches down there that we don't have here-- churches like a Cathedral of Asmodeus. Anyways, she came back, all signs and whistles, and found out that her family had cleared out. None of them were left. The whole house was just empty. What happened to them? That's the thing-- no one knows. They just up and disappeared, her mom and pop, and now the girl's on a hunt to find out where they've gone. Which is a pity-- for all the power she commands at her fingertips and all of the blessings and curses she can wield on a poor bloke, she can't say a single word... which must make interrogating these people harder than a Hellknight's nail. I'd pity her if she weren't so annoying.
The True Backstory:
Zora Julija Narcisa Zajac was born to Ciprian Milojica Zajac, a devout Desnan fisherman, and his wife, Agnes Mira Martina Zajac, a Harrower. Zora has an older sister-- Milana Magdalena Zajac. Before she was even born, her mother broke the one rule a Harrower must never break, and did a reading on herself concerning her pregnancy-- while her reading is something she uses as a parable to warn of the dangers of fortune telling, the results are something she never revealed to her daughter. Before there was anything, there was the feeling of having been chosen. Before she knew what her name was or how to walk, Zora knew that something had asked her a task in return for a gift. Something warm and glowing, just out of her vision, wherever she was, whenever that was. She sometimes dreams of the encounter with the strange light, what words were shared and spoken coming to her in pieces. As far as she knows, there is something she must complete in the future-- a task to undertake for this otherwordly thing. In return, she has been "prepared"-- divine magic comes to Zora naturally. And to weigh the scales of balance, or perhaps to sign the pact, she was struck mute before she had been born. The nature of her task is unknown to her, but on occasion, she finds that the fickle strings of fate pull her one way or the other. It took only a few miraculous healings for Zora's home to become an impromptu doctor's office for whichever Sczarni thug that got himself stuck the night before. Healing others, helping those in need and relieving pain put her at ease. And not just physical pain-- soothing a mind or aiding in solving a downtrodden person's problems seemed to come naturally to her as well. If she had to choose a task that she believed was hers, this would be it. Her inability to speak bred an odd legacy among the people of the Underbridge that she interacted with. Rumors that spoke more like legends rose to explain her divine gift, her oddities and intricacies. Zora lost her tongue to an infection from a self-inflicted wound-- the heresy of thinking that her gift of healing could raise her own ailment. She has never tried again-- and refuses any aid others offer-- for the fear that the magic that gives her gift to her might backlash again, and cause irreparable harm once more. When she turned twenty-three, Zora left Magnimar to search out churches and shrine across Varisia to attempt to understand her gift-- and her task. Visits to a hundred different shrines across the countryside and even in Korvosa taught her the tenets of many different religions, but answered none of her questions. A long visit to a temple of Shelyn taught her a complicated form of "signed" language used by performers to signal changes in act or improvised action. A stay in a temple of Nethys helped Zora to further understand the principles of magic. Pharasmans taught her how to identify the living dead, and the Caydenites taught her how to fight. The Calistrians taught her more than she ever needed to know about things that were... simply too much information. Zora's visit to Korvosa wasn't entirely peaceful. Seeking out a cleric of Desna who had been rumored to work with those 'gifted' by the Gods, Zora discovered an orphanage made up entirely of tieflings. Refugees from Cheliax, these orphans were taken out of the country to avoid discrimination at the hands of the regime. Zora aided the orphanage in two ways: she convinced a group of Hellknights to look over the institution in regards to the laws of their homeland-- because they weren't in their homeland, despite what they believed!-- and pursued one of the errant children into the sewers, where they had been led into a wererat warren by an imp claiming to be the child's mother. After a brief struggle, and luckily, no bite wounds, Zora rescued the orphan and returned to the orphanage disappointed. Her disappointment at not unveiling some great mystery about her own gift was alleviated by the orphans salvaging her clothing by helping their matrons repair the damage cloth and donating a patchwork scarf to her-- one she wears proudly. Returning home before setting out to even further lands in search of answers, Zora discovered her family was completely missing. Asking the community revealed no answers. Strangely, there were no leads, hints or clues helping her to determine where they had gone. She checked with other members of their Varisian family only to discover that they didn't know they had left. There and then, she decided to put her journey on hiatus to find her family and to make sure they were okay. Zora has no idea what to think, and is currently embroiled in attempting to discover where her family is, and what might have happened to them. Her own pilgrimage will have to wait. Her investigations have led her deep into the Varisian frontier, to a place called Turtleback Ferry on the shores of Claybottom Lake. |
