Izula

:Character belongs to Revek, please do not edit. This character's views do not reflect my own.
:Izula was once a brilliant young dragonet, promised her dreams. She thought she could see the flaws no one else did, and she was convinced she knew the way to a better world. Her beliefs grew twisted, drawn down a far darker path than anyone should ever go.
:She builds her mosaics from SilkWing scales.
Description
:Izula is drenched in deep browns, muted and reddish shades. Her underbelly glitters in more saturated reds, lined with darker scales. That same red fill out her slender limbs, flourishing out into teal wings, the translucent membranes quickly fading into mahogony brown at the ends.
:Her body is dappled with pale yellow spots, so stark against the darkness of her scales that they almost seem to glow. The same shade colors her eyes, but they seem dimmer, darkened with secrets.
:She stands proudly with a confident smirk. Her figure is imposing, lined with strong bones and sharp features. She's tall, flaunting impressively twisted horns and hooked claws stained red.
:It's just the dye she uses, she insists.
Personality
:Blinded by her own brilliance, Izula holds herself above others with an intense, unwavering belief in her own superiority. Her mind is sharp and quick, able to trace through logic in mere moments. However she's quick to dismiss concerns, certain that other dragons could never be clever enough to decieve her. She carries little respect for her peers, but has long learned to veneer her words with polite tones.
:Although she'd quickly reject the thought, Izula is selfish. Everything she does is for her own sake, even if she's cloaked it with justifications of a greater good. Bitterness from her early days of trying to improve Pantala sunk deep claws into her heart. She walked away from that fight. She walked away from many things, every dragon that irritated her, every activity she didn't like. She insulated herself with only her mosaics and the occasional servant for company.
:She's very skilled, particularly with literature analysis and logical pursuits. Her passion for her art often overlaps with mathematics when she's designing compositions, and she's usually happy to show off her thought process. If asked to explain it in more detail, however, she scoffs an turns away, her disdain clear in her voice.
:Skill brings with it overconfidence, Izula so set in her ways that nothing could affect her convictions. She strives to be perfect, herself and the world, and others are just means to that end. There is little she wouldn't do if she thought it necessary— including murder. She believes she knows the best for everyone, even if they insist otherwise.
:Izula knows she's different. She sees what's wrong with the world in ways others never could. She revels in it.
History
:Born to middle class parents, Izula grew up in a world of seeming stability. Her father had clawed his way up from poverty, and he refused to let her meet the same fate. From her earliest memories, he was coaching her, teaching her to manage her time and giving her a head start in every field he could think to teach. She was a voracious reader from early on, often dredging her way through thick volumes just to claim the achievement of doing so. Although unaware of it at the time, many of those themes of those stories would take up residence in her beliefs, accepted before their implications could be fully understood.
:She was the stereotype of a typical Mantis Hive resident, excelling at schoolwork. She was sharpwitted and talented, seeming to succeed at everything she touched. Her parents beamed at each piece of praise she recieved, and noting that, she chased the next prize. She participated in the debate team. She learned to fight, to draw, to sing and compose. She was perfect.
:She took a special interest in mosaics halfway through school. Each tile had to be cut and dyed by herself. She insisted upon it, and everything she put together glittered like layered stars. She dove into the sciences, interning at labs to untangle and classify the mixes of chemicals in various HiveWing toxins. Everyone agreed that this was a dragonet that would become something.
:Her interests eventually turned to treestuff and its composition, particularly in the last year of her schooling. The lab focused finding alternatives as the trees across Pyrrhia slowly grew rarer and rarer. There was something that bothered her about that, and she filed that away as something to investigate after graduation. One more year of school, that was all.
:That was the year her life took a turn.
:Perhaps she got too busy, and forgot how to properly balance her duties. The other dragonets could have finally caught up to her level. Maybe it was laziness, or that she genuinely thought the argument was solid. Either way, that year at debate earned her a humiliating loss. Of course she hadn't won all the tournaments prior, but she always broke, at least. She always did, and this time, she didn't.
:She blamed her partner, at first, for not being strong enough. Than the judge, probably some servant the tournament runners picked off the street. He just didn't know what he was talking about. She blamed the source for not properly laying out its argument. It's authors should have worked for more renown before publishing that paper, or at least formatted it more appropriately. All Izula knew is that she was not to blame for this failure.
:In debate, there is no such things as being fully correct. That is the spirit of the sport, that different arguments of a contentious issue may collide. Yet Izula seemed to forget that in her darkest hour. Fuming over defeat that she had never prior tasted, she took it upon herself to prove that her side of the argument was objectively correct.
:It was about treestuff, the policies that surrounded it and its longevity. She had found it funny prior, but now it just made her sick. The source, the paper, it had to be right. SilkWings did deserve better treatment. Property as they were, they were still living creatures. The HiveWings tended towards their gardens and their pets so carefully, why wouldn't the same apply to their servants? The judge had been a SilkWing, so things should have been very much biased in her favor.
:Yet his snout had crinkled. He said he didn't appreciate the comparision to pets. Ungrateful worm.
:That was fine, she didn't need their gratitude anyway. She started championing for their rights, pushing to allow them more leeway and opportunies in life. They would all see. She would succeed, she would be celebrated, and everyone that wronged her would see how she had known what was right all along.
:At the same time, back a the lab, their results were showing a bleak reality. Treestuff wouldn't last forever, with the way the construction of the Hives were going. They would run out of trees. Then of shrubs, then of all the other woody material they could find. She would have cursed Queen Wasp's mandate against trees, if she didn't remember those horrifying tales of LeafWings. Izula opted instead to switch over to a meat diet, for there were plenty of animals in the savannah. She started growing more shrubs.
:She protested, she researched, she gardened. She built mosaics at home, although her schedule left them unfinished and forgotten. Everything was fine. Or was it, when nothing at all was changing?
:The protests met deaf ears. No one cared about the SilkWings, they were all too busy going in circles, and Wasp's omnipresent eyes did not take kindly to Izula announcing her own opinions for the world to see. Every day, the number of trees grew less, and no one seemed interested in finding a way to produce more treestuff. Each passing moon found Izula growing more and more frustrated.
:The slope had long ago slipped beneath her, but it took Izula well into her twelfth year of life to hit that final conclusion she had started towards so long ago. Dragons did not try to change their diet, something that should be so simple, for the sake of the world's longevity. All they did was ruin Pantala's vast bounties, building unsustainable Hives for an unsustainable population until the trees fully vanished and infrastructure crumbled. And the SilkWings! So placated in their suffering, perhaps it would be better for them to die a peaceful death than to suffer in this system of dragons tumbling towards certain doom. She pitied them, like she might an injured, mewling animal. One that hissed and hid from help. She knew better than them.
:It struck her then, an idea that seemed so radiant and dazzling. Euthanize the SilkWings to spare them from the suffering of servitude and poverty, it was the only possible kindness she could offer. Bring down the population, bit by bit, so these swarming hives of dragons could not do as much damage. For some, moving from the theory of such abstract genius to a real plan may have been difficult.
:She took a SilkWing dragonet from the streets and numbed him with her stinger and cooing words before snapping his neck.
:One less suffering child. One less dragon to consume the plants that built their homes. She felt a bright satisfaction at that, and started to plan out disposal when her eyes alighted on the mosaic on her wall, in the same state it had been years ago. His scales gleamed in the same pale pink as that rosy sunrise. She pried them out of his face, curious.
:The hue matched perfectly.
:She found only giddiness in that. They were useful after death as well! She could create art without contributing to the quarrying of stones, a long, expensive, and dangerous process that dragons did for little pay. It was all so, so perfect. Everything she ever wanted.
:She dropped her protesting soon after. She was quick to scoff at her former friends. Look at them, continuing to fight for an impossible cause while she took it into her own talons to solve things. Then went her work with treestuff, until only the mosaics remained.
:Along with the growing number of SilkWings dead at her claws.
:She gained renown for her work. Even Lady Cicada herself had asked for Izula's hand in an art piece for her Mosaic Garden. Many asked her what materials she used, how she managed to make them glimmer so spectacularly. She always smiled, leaning in conspiratorially only to whisper that it was a secret.
:She did not think about her reasoning. She did not question why she felt killing others to be so reasonable. (They did it to the LeafWings, after all.) She was simply doing her part to protect the land that she loved.
:She always smiled as she separated scales from faces, as she whispered gentle soothing words to dragons she was about to free from the suffering of their lives. Everything would be okay, as they joined Clearsight in the moons. Her days sparked with joy becauses she had achieved the life she's always wanted.
:She doesn't pay much mind the fact that the disappearanaces are not going unnoticed. Not until seven years after she began, when the consequences finally caught up to her.
Relationships
:Stylops - Their relationship was once one determined and loving. He supported her, he made her who she is. He brings that up when they fight, but she always snaps back that she made herself. Their disagreements have only strained their relationship over the years, until Izula finally cut him off. She only views him with contempt, all affection forgotten.
:Countess Ossarium - Always absent, always busy. She was the worker of the family, the one that brought in their income and maintained their house as Izula's father stayed at home. Izuala rarely spoke to her mother, and barely remembers much of her. They lived in the same home for over a decade. Neither have cared enough to keep in contact.
:Lady Cicada - Izula's favorite of the royal HiveWings due to their shared love of mosaics. Lady Cicada gets surprisingly giddy about art, a sharp contrast to her usual intimidating demeanor. Izula finds it amusing and conversation with her tolerable. They get along well enough.
:Lady Mantis - Too nosy, too talkative, too much, always insistent and constantly present despite Izula's attempts to dismiss her. She isn't afraid to hold her status over others' heads, much to Izula's frustration. The two do not get along, but their arguments are always disguised under layers of professionalism.
:Sphex - Irritating. Has too many flowery ideas.
:Hyaliodes - Hates his voice.
:Psyche - Haha uh oh.
:Palamedes - May have murdered him. Happens to the best of us.
Trivia
* Izula is named after an ant with an exceptionally painful sting.
* Despite her earlier dabbles with debate, Izula does not typically participate in the larger sphere of politics in the Hives.
* She has personally met most of the HiveWing royals, everyone except Lady Yellowjacket and Queen Wasp herself.
* She taught herself how to cook, and does a surprisingly good job of it.
Gallery
Izula.png|WildLoner
Izulatiny.png|Mezepheles
Now kiss or somethin… don’t actually enigmathehybrid .jpeg|EnigmaTheHybrid
IzulaLinkzac1.jpg|Linkzac1
IzulaShadedMoons.png|ShadedMoons
Category:Characters
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Content (Mezepheles)
Category:HiveWings
Category:Females
Category:Occupation (Criminal)
Category:Occupation (Artist)