Ver Million

## Ua La Mahali Takatifu Zaidi

*“I'm no good in a balanced fight, but you will find I am exceptional in unbalancing fights.”*— Ver Million
**Vér Million** (Swahili "*Ua La Mahali Takatifu Zaidi*", *A Flower of the Sacred Place*) was a travelling adventurer hailing from the land of Aspizwe. She was highly skilled in botany, alchemy, chemistry, and biology. was one of the five members that made up the Company, and is required to properly utilise chemistry sets.

## Personality

Ver is young, mischievous, intensely sarcastic, and often sees the funnier side of things. This is not to mean that Ver cannot be serious, as Ver is often the more socially aware companion of the Company, but simply chooses to quip away with one-liners and dry humour. Ver and Syntax often get along well thanks to her tendency to embrace the absurd, much to Calligraph's dismay, Lullaby's confusion, and Eight's indifference.

In a way, Ver refuses to grow up. She sees the adult world as having lost its sense of childish wonder, a wonder which drives her to explore and experiment, and interact with the world around her. Calligraph comments that Ver would make a great Librarian, were it not for her flagrant disregard for regulations and protocol. Ver takes responsibility and following orders fine, but harbours personal distaste for assertiveness and imposed order. She refuses to be tied down by any one person, which can occasionally become problematic.

Her eccentric personality, as most people in Cynedom would describe it, is one of the reasons she leaves her homeland of Aspizwe. Ver's desire to see and experience anything and everything puts her at odds with her idyllic and routine lifestyle, which she saw as boring and dull. Ver despises tedium the most out of all of the five members of the Company, and will suggest moving on when they linger for too long.

Ver does all of this to cover up the fact she does not know who to *be*. By wandering and learning, she continually places her time and effort into something productive that can keep her mind from wondering her purpose here, and what kind of person she will have to be when she can no longer live the kind of lifestyle she leads. Ver also desperately wants to belong, and her need to belong drives her to join the Company, whose companionship provides her with a reason to keep on going. She neither felt that she was the kind of person she wanted to be, nor the kind of person who truly belonged in her hometown, catalysing her journey to Cynedom.

## History

### Early Life

Born in the isolationist nation of Aspizwe, Ver enjoyed a childhood in the countryside. Part of a large extended family, Ver spent more time out in the nearby coastal village than she did tending to the household. Often participating in hijinks with the local kids, she learned from a young age how to hide and run from trouble. One particularly close friend of hers was the daughter of a trader from Southern Cynedom. Though their time together infrequent due to being away on trips with her father, the things she'd share from her travels formed a strong bond between the twp.

One time upon returning from a trading trip, she had shared with Ver the practice of Alchemy, which Ver would prepare with each visit by picking and pilfering the necessary ingredients. This was put to task, however, by the changing climate of authority at the time. The divide between the Mazane and Inyathi, the Aspizwean mage and warrior factions respectively, meant that the law of the land was always changing, and often tightening when the powers shifted. This didn't discourage her, and her skill would match that zeal of the people chasing her.

When she'd turned 17, her friend had returned from a long, unexpected absence. To Ver's surprise, she'd come back with a band of interesting people from all around Vista. She'd joined Kaisha Lan's Blue Company, and was crewing with a group of privateers. Jumping at the opportunity to leave behind the tedium of provincial life, she became the crew's doctor. Spending two years on the crew, Ver had embraced the lifestyle of the wandering thief, if only for the experience alone.

Seeing much of the world, Ver had much expanded her knowledge of alchemy and medicine, and became quite prolific. While her friend's small ship flew the Blue Company's flag, they were more opportunists than privateers. The crew itself did not participate in much violence, but did make some money moving fugitives and runaways. This continued until they'd docked in Cobblestone, and were noticed by members of the Cult of Sanctity. As the Cult's philosophy entailed the persecution of heathens such as pirates and alchemists, they plotted to remove them.

## Relationships

### The Company

* Syntax Error: Syntax and Ver both share a childish sense of humour and attitude towards the world which enables them to get along very well. Not only is Syntax an inventor and a scientist, but she also harbours no negative worldview towards the greater advancement of science and human knowledge, an attitude that Ver is not used to from the greater Cynedomian public.
* Calligraph: Ver and Calligraph initially do not get along very much. Unlike Syntax and Calligraph's relationship, which mostly results in playful banter and disgruntled reactions, Ver does not take kindly to Librarians due to the choking restrictions she feels have been placed on the public opinion of science and non-magic progress. Calligraph, on the other hand, feels that Ver is egotistical and even goes as far as to call her cold-hearted. They slowly come to respect one another as the story progresses, the real reason behind the Ordained Vision's warnings against science is revealed, and the two save each other from mortal danger countless times.

## Skills and Abilities

Ver picked up a great deal of skills from her time with Kaisha Lan's group of privateers. Her time as a crew medic gives her great insight into human biology and anatomy, and she is quick to patch up those in need of aid. Her knowledge of herbs and botany also allows her to chemically distil simple ingredients into potents draughts or ointments that can resist disease, cure light wounds quickly, and offer natural resistances to ward off further injury.

In addition to this, Ver has great knowledge of alchemical processes, in particular alchemical distillation. She is integral to the Company being able to utilise chemistry sets, which Syntax admits the delicate process is unsuitable for her.

## Quotes

*“Now that we're all locked up together, does anyone want to get to know each other better?”*— Vér Million

*“The only gifts I receive are verbal abuse and lasting external damage.”*— Vér Million

*“Not to worry. When the Haze arrives, I shall thrash them all very thoroughly with my honey-lacquered words, such so that they shall fall before my vocal might. If that doesn't work, we can always be slaughtered by the dozen, I suppose.”*— Vér Million

*“Were you expecting me to speak in a thick and incomprehensible French accent?”*— Vér Million
*“I would only be a fraction of how misanthropic I currently am if that were so.”*— Calligraph, in response to the above
## Trivia

* Though Vér Million with an accented "e" is the correct way to write her name, *Ver Million* without the accent is often accepted either way. She is often simply called *Ver*.
	+ Vermillion is a scarlet red pigment created from powdered cinnabar and used to dye things red during the Middle Ages. "Vér Million" is a misspelling of the usual word, and the usage of it in her name references her hair colour, as well as her thematic colour, red.

* Ver shares her name with a character from Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea, also named Ver Million (though lacking an acute accent on the *e* in her name.)