Nox

*The images in this page are inconsistent with Nox's canonical appearance. Please excuse this.*

Nox is a Eudian Warden resembling a rosy maple moth. She has a symbiotic relationship with a Pairgyos named Istis and assumes the responsibility of guarding her roost as the first Warden to occur in hundreds of years. She has a chipper, optimistic attitude.

## Appearance

Nox has a slim, tall build and digitigrade legs. She lacks the extra lower arms typical of a Eudian, and instead has two large scars where they would have been. Her left forearm is replaced by an amorphous blue mass, which usually takes the form of a large leonine paw with two spikes on the side. She has large eyes in multiple shades of blue with no visible sclera or pupils and has unusually long, pointy ears. Her tail is long and has two spikes on the end, and she has a set of small moth wings. She has three digits on her right hand and feet, which have paw pads. Her fingers supposedly have claws, though they are only mentioned in writing.

She is primarily bubblegum pink with creamy yellow markings. On her chest, she has a symmetrical heart-shaped spot, and on her belly a rounded mark that continues to the base of her tail. Her arms are yellow from the elbow down and her upper arms have a single yellow band around them. Her legs have similar markings but starts mid-shin and lacks the yellow band. Her snout has a circular mask that ends halfway through her eyes and extends into pointy eyeliner-like streaks. Her antennae are a warmer golden tone, and her ears are yellow.

## Personality

Nox is often energetic and cheerful. She seems to possess a distinct lack of worry for many things, specifically her own physical health, as evidenced by her tendency to leap off of high places in an attempt to fly and being supremely unbothered by having two of her arms ripped off. She is prone to startling and jumps into a "threat pose" when surprised. She isn't bothered by the fact that her peers in the roost often find her annoying or stupid and doesn't understand why she has to do chores when everyone else takes care of them.

After she becomes a Warden, Nox begins to behave more responsibly. She retains her energy and chipper demeanor, but a fiercer, more protective side has emerged. She now experiences very powerful instinctive urges to hunt, kill, and defend her kind, and as such is a formidable warrior. She is also more lively and saucier, giving backhanded comments to some of her peers as a way of showing affection. Despite this, she is considerably intelligent, especially when it comes to surviving alone, and has wisdom far beyond her years.

## History

In her source concept, Nox hatched in one of the last Eudian roosts on Moorheck. When she metamorphosed, she became notorious for jumping off of high surfaces and trying to fly, often destroying things in the process. Highly unhappy with being restricted to the main village, Nox ventured into the forest at 16 years old in search of something new that would impress the other Eudians. A Wraith attacked her immediately after she left the territory around the roost, almost killing her. Nox managed to slip one of her arms free and claw the Wraith's eyes, which caused it to run away, tearing off her two lower arms and half of her left arm. She fell unconscious due to loss of blood and shock.

Nox was found by a Pairgyos named Istis, who kept her alive by replacing her injured arm and dragging her to safety. She returned to her roost, finding that she and Istis could communicate telepathically on the way. Istis taught her about a rare mutation that causes a Eudian with it to become a Warden if they sustain life-threatening injuries, which awakens a Pairgyos to heal their wounds and enter a symbiotic relationship with them. There hadn't been a Warden in centuries due to an unknown cataclysm that killed off most of the Eudians and scattered the survivors across Moorheck into tiny villages.

Nox became a guardian when she returned to her roost.

In *Blood Warden*, Nox's story is much the same, but she left the roost in order to find a remedy for a mysterious new illness infecting the kits. She is found by a pair of Chaos Rainbows after being attacked, who send her to find someone they think could help.

## Abilities

Nox is able to fly for short distances, use her tail as an extra limb, and resist damage. She is able to digest meat and eggs more efficiently than most other Eudians to fuel her aggressive lifestyle. Istis can change its shape to form specialized paws for various uses.

Nox is also highly intuitive and instinctive. When in battle, she is sometimes taken over by her instincts, which causes her to consider her enemy prey and "hunt" similarly to a weasel. Due to this, she is capable of taking down adversaries more than three times her size, but also perceives every nearby creature as a potential threat or meal. She reverts back to normal once the hunt is complete or disrupted.

## Lineage

Nox is part of the Haemotoxi, descended from Haemis, one of the most famous Wardens to exist. Her lineage marks are the V-shaped stripes on her front and the bottom stripe and dot on her wings.

## Trivia

* Nox's name was originally Ham.
	+ The original design for Ham had two tails and weird tufts of hair instead of ears.
	+ Nox's modern design retained Ham's wings, torso markings, and three-fingered paws.
	+ Ham was based off of a Luna moth, while Nox more resembles a Rosy Maple Moth.
* Nox is occasionally doodled with a tiny Madness Combat grunt named Bilgebub II that she found in a box on the side of the road.
* Nox is asexual and demiromantic.
	+ She will never have children, as she has enough responsibilities on her own.
* The nickname "Piss Moth" was given to Nox by a friend of Chokieboe's.
	+ Nox was also used in a fight with the same friend over who had the tallest original character.
* Nox is partially Theriphosidean, and has slightly larger-than-normal canine teeth as a result.
	+ Eudids couldn't usually interbreed with true Eudians, but if both were Wardens then it was possible.
	+ Cate, Nox's "great-great-great-a lot of greats-grandmother", was a Theriphosidean Warden and the only recorded Eudid to have a Lepidopteran Warden as a partner.
* Nox has distinct similarities to a lot of characters from other series. Her abnormally carnivorous tendencies are reminiscent of Uzi from Murder Drones and the Hunter from Rain world, and her modern design was loosely inspired by Madness Combat's Mag Hank.
	+ A doodle in one of Chokieboe's notebooks mentions Nox's resemblance to Mag Hank, stating that "[she] turned Hank into a furry, didn't [she]?"
* Nox's development has taken the longest time out of every character in Apana and is one of the few that has gone through multiple different designs.
	+ Her "Ham" design was the first. Her next iteration was more similar to her current design, but with four arms. Chokieboe decided that it was too hard to draw all four arms shortly after and removed the lower pair before accidentally drawing one of Nox's remaining arms wrong, leading to the creation of the modern design.