Khaliah Al-Palmyra

"I want to prove myself to my family. I want to show them that I'm worth it. I want them to be proud to have me as a daughter"
-Khaliah to Azanna 
Khaliah Al-Palmyra is one of the four protagonists of Dawnbreaker. She is a 16 year old Qatari girl from a wealthy, upper class family native to The Mirage. She is currently a part of Class 1-D's Dawn Squad, alongside Aaron Bright, Azanna Beldier, and Raihan Zoraskaya. 
Her primary goal in life is to step out of her siblings' shadows and finally gain the love from her parents that her siblings receive. Growing up in a family of intelligent, wealthy elites, she has often chafed under the immense pressures put onto her, as well as her own mediocrity. Though determined to improve, Khaliah has major confidence issues and rarely ever stands up for herself when bothered. She will however, be quick to defend others if the need arises. 
== Appearance ==
Khaliah is a 16 year old Qatari Arab human, and 5 foot 4 (162 cm) in height. She has tan skin, freckles on her cheek, and has a generally plain and unassuming appearance. Her eyes are storm gray, and due to her bad eyesight, she wears a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Though Khaliah does not exercise, she is likely skinnier than she should be, a result of under-eating to maintain her appearance. Her hair is dark brown and long, through due to its unruly nature she usually hides it beneath her hijab. 
Khaliah wears a long white abaya dress with checkered rims the color of chocolate, as well as black pants, black and white tennis shoes, and a chocolate colored hijab. Though her clothes looks plain and unassuming, they are made of high-quality fabric, and are designed by Limonium, Qatar's most high-end fashion brand. She can also occasionally be spotted with a tan handbag, though as a schoolgirl, she usually wears a large backpack in which she can carry all her books. 
== Personality ==
Khaliah is as uptight as she is shy: that being immensely. Having lived her entire life in the immensely strict Al-Palmyra household, her methods are perfectionist, her demeanor is plain, and she only speaks when she believes she has something to say. Idle banter does not interest her, and anything vulgar or prude disgusts her. 
Despite this strict attitude, Khaliah has a secret fire within her. She does not know how to show her emotions properly, and thus struggles to express these emotions. In the rare occasions in which they do break through, she can swing rapidly between jarringly manic laughter to violent rage, often confusing those around her. 
Khaliah also feels very underappreciated and used as a member of the Al-Palmyra family, and thus has a great determination to succeed in her goal of becoming a powerful and influential mage. 
== History ==
Khaliah was born in Mirage on November 2nd, 2103 AD, to Rana and Mostafa Al-Palmyra. According to her own testimony, her life has had little of note about it. She spent most of her childhood at home and alone, with only her siblings and parents there to keep her company. Throughout her life, she was often used as the family's scapegoat, and blamed for all things wrong in the family. 
All that changed when she entered secondary school. She was considered too average for the higher-end schools, and so she was assigned to a regional school in Mirage. There she found her first friend, a Junta Arabian refugee girl named Aniita. The two of them would grow inseparable, and when Khaliah's family moved across the city to be closer to the Mirage Technical University, she deliberately chose to continue going to the same school to continue to see Aniita. As part of her school path, she would walk through the Forsaken District, home to the city's poor and refugee camps. There she would be occasionally accosted, though most people tended to stay out of her way. On her way home she regularly stopped by the small restaurant owned by Aniita's father, and would spend time with her before being forced to go home. 
On February 1st, 2120, she would receive her magi-test, and get tested positive for magic. Additionally, she would receive a Blue Letter, an invitation to the Order of the White Cross. This was celebrated by Khaliah and Aniita, and even her father Mostafa surprised her by allowing her to go. When White Cross agent Astrid Kristiansen arrived to file the paperwork with her family, she deliberately avoided talking about which course Khaliah selected (the knights' course) in order to allow her the chance to impress them in the Mountain Academy's hardest course. The following month, Khaliah would board a plane to Nagasaki, which is where Dawnbreaker: The Vaults of Malta begins. 
== Powers ==
* Portal: Khaliah's Blessing. It allows her to summon a pair of aperture portals around her hands, which she can move around. 
== Equipment ==
* Glasses: A pair of glasses that counters Khaliah's vision impairment. 
* Shamsatie LLC. Model 4 Biochip Implant: A cyberware implant that allows Khaliah to securely pay by simply waving her hand over a swiper. Implanted on her right wrist. 
* Shamsatie LLC. Model 2 Holocomputer Implant: A holocomputer Khaliah can pull up to at any time and any place to access the net. IMplanted on her left wrist. 
== Weaknesses ==
* Bad Eyes: Khaliah has bad eyesight, and requires glasses to see. 
== Trivia ==
* Khaliah's favorite animal is the dog. 
* Her favorite smell is Petrichor, the scent of freshly fallen rain. 
* Khaliah is a Sunni Muslim, though also holds some beliefs common in modern Shi'a Islam, such as the equality between men and women, the idea that Arkon and other realities were also of Allah's design, and its emphasis on following the moral spirit of the Quran, rather the specifically its letter. This hybrid belief system is unofficially known as Miragi Islam, and is common in the Qatari Technocracy.
* Though the Al-Palmyra family is through-and-through a member of the Qatari Eutopaean social class, their name hints at a more foreign ancestry. Indeed, Khaliah's family is actually from Syria, a fact they do not try to address. 
* In Dawnbreaker's Alpha Draft, Khaliah was originally Afghan, then Persian, and then Iraqi before becoming Qatari, and had a different personality. Some of these aspects later returned to become Aaliyah Al-Abadi and Prakhya Gokhale. 
Category:Characters: Dawnbreaker