Seraph

### Aliases

Sera; Lady Nightmare (in Vektren); Silver-tongue (by friends); Mind-Warper, or Venom (by enemies)

## Application Sheet

Seraph was a black and silver she-wolf with topaz-colored eyes. She was the Lady Nightmare of Vektren, the highest ranking Shade under the leadership of Mistress Hekate after the departure of Sionn. Seraph served as the adoptive mother to Imperia as well. In the midst of a war with Aryn, however, Seraph disappeared from Vektren, on the tail end of the three plagues that struck the pack. Her fate is unknown. Seraph was created and RP'd by C3lestialWolf.

## Personality

* ***Cold*.** Her gaze can be deceivingly warm with her targets, but when it comes to those outside of her pack she comes off as cold and unwelcoming. Although the company of outsiders doesn't bother her--she was a loner at the early stages of her life--she often decides that opening up with a warm greeting will only hurt them in the long run. Her nonchalant greeting and personality tends to be  unnervingly cool and calm.
* ***Her "Bark is Worse Than Her Bite".*** This is the case more often than not when it comes to interactions with outsiders. With minimal practice with physical fighting, she will attempt to avoid a fight with larger and stronger wolves at all costs. Instead, she opts for toying with them from a safe distance, preferring fighting with verbal abuse more so than physical abuse.
* ***Intuitive*.** Through watching wolves and monitoring their emotions as she talked to them, she became very sensitive to even the slightest signs of each mood. So, she is often thought of as intuitive, though she is really more observant than that.
* ***Observant*.** Seraph meets every situation with the care of an experienced negotiator; when she speaks to you, she doesn't miss anything. From body language to shifts in the environment around her, she is trained to be near omniscient over a situation. She can be fooled, but it takes a cunning wolf to do so.
* ***Situationally Submissive (Pays attention to rank).*** This submission usually only comes out when she addresses her superiors; if they are of higher rank, she sees them as a learning opportunity and respectable by way of their apparent experience. If she catches other wolves talking down to her with even a hint of sarcasm, she doesn't hesitate to teach a lesson to the offending wolf. She abhors disrespectful and haughty wolves, but tolerates them if they are of her same rank or higher.
* ***Loyal*.** Unless she has a fair reason to betray those she loves like family, she won't ever think about betraying those she trusts. Trusted wolves hard to come by for Seraph a broken past, and it pains her to see wolves that she cares for leave her. As time draws on, this pain only grows, and she withdraws even further from strangers and closer to those she holds dear.
* ***Self-Reliant.*** Largely due to her past and her neglectful mother and father, she is incredibly self reliant. She doesn't count on anyone but herself to do anything, and often just ends up doing things herself. Although she acknowledges the overwhelming efficiency of a squadron of wolves, she appreciates doing things on her own.
* ***Anomalous*.** Seraph’s decisions, although often logical, can fall into being “strange” in some situations. Unless she's in a party that requires communication, she'll only offer peaks into her plans before setting them into action.
* ***Clever, Intelligent, and Deceiving.*** Seraph never repeats a plan twice in a fight. She is also, at a first meeting or when the situation calls for it, incredibly capable of warping and bending her emotions, and this ability has only grown since her joining Vektren. It's almost like she can take off and put back on masks of emotion to fit any given situation. She'll usually appear quite confident and nonchalant at first meeting, often toying with the opposing wolf's emotions to see what they're like.
* ***Largely Hollow and Repressed.*** Due to recent events, including he death of her parents, Cora (Imperia)'s leaving, and Sionn's leaving Vektren on an extended mission, Seraph's initial and vague playfulness towards other wolves that she carried with her has died off to an extent. She has largely reverted her back to her original, very cold personality towards most wolves. This, in time, will eventually wear off as it did when she joined Vektren, but Seraph will not be the same for a good amount of time past this point.
* ***Skillful With Words.*** As she has taken many months perfecting her words to be like venom, starting from her childhood, she often comes off as linguistically gifted. From being in Vektren, these skills have only been honed.

## Pre-Group History

When Seraph was born, she was raised to be strong. Her parents hadn't been the kindest, even as she was born her mother didn't really take extra care of her. They looked at her as their heir, their way to pass on their family line, but nothing more than that. Every time Seraph did something and looked to her father or mother for approval, they picked out something that she could improve on, just that little tiny thing to be better. Her first kill for a meal, her first time completing an attack, it was all to be approved upon in their eyes. Never an accomplishment. In a way, this made her be more accurate in her work, but at the same time she hardened at a very young age. Sometimes trying to please her parents consumed her, and she would work all day trying to get it right, trying to improve upon the things her parents mentioned, no matter how impossible they were.

It wasn't that she didn't care for others, it's just she didn't know how to react around others in a normal way in most any situation. Being raised in a way of teaching her that she lived to please, it often made her very awkward in social situations. While she would play with other pups, her parents would look down at her for being childish. When she did get the rare moment away from her mother and father, as she played she got too rough. She hadn't grown up knowing how to limit her fighting, and it often lead to others feeling endangered and they would walk away. Looking to her parents for comfort, they gave minimal amounts, though her mother tended to be slightly more compassionate than her father.

As she grew, others would tell her to lighten up, to be more care free, but she didn't know how. Raking her mind, she tried and tried to figure out what was it that she was doing wrong. Why were people trying to tell her to be like them? Was it better? She would often hide behind a fake smile, trying to be what pleased others. Months and months went by, hiding behind this mask of herself. She had enough. This is where the start of her words used as venom for the mind began.

She began to learn that often times words could be used better than teeth or claws. Her parents had used it against her for as long as she had known, to control her, to make her always push herself. Sometimes she would stalk the forests, waiting for a wolf to pass by that she could test herself on.    She would start walking around them, but every time she successfully scared them, she always thought she needed more.

As she grew up, she grew up alone. She split ways with her parents as soon as she could and didn't look for a mate. Seraph didn't want to subject another being to this world, so having pups was not an option in her mind. Developing her words to be her weapons, she found that using the mind was a far more painful weapon than her teeth and claws. Though she learned through practice how to fight with her physical being, she did not want to bring the fight to that. It would be a waste of time and energy if she could manipulate her words into her attacks. She gained the nickname Silver Tongue by her admirers, and just Venom or Mind Warper to her enemies, and her foes tended to out-number her friends.

Though she wasn't good with socializing, she knew that she would need to join a pack soon. For reasons she did not know, she just felt the urge to be constantly improving, and what a better place to do it than in a pack with other wolves. So, she began to roam farther and farther away from where she usually resided. She knew she had to be close to Vektren, after all the land was getting rougher to traverse and she heard it got like that.

Hearing a faint rustle from the bushes behind her, she felt her hackles stand up. Swiftly turning around, Seraph leaped sideways to the nearby bushes. This small clearing was perfect. She began the slowly walk in the shadows around the clearing. Once she got into her pace, she began to speak. She spoke words that she didn't even know if were true about this wolf, but they seemed to do the trick. Slowly she watched as her words tinkered with his mind, and he looked scared and confused. Now was her time to strike. Leaping forwards with all the speed she could muster, Seraph landed on his back, quickly bit his neck enough for it to leave a mark, and leaped off. She took off running with the knowledge that this wolf was on her tail. As a large tree came into her vision, she looked behind her. He was just enough away for her to perform this. She whipped around and slid onto a halt.

**"Have fun,"** she whispered, and side stepped just enough for him to barrel past her, and into a tree. She looked at the hulking ball of fur collapse, and she smirked.

Then out of the shadows behind her, a she-wolf came. Whipping around, she noticed two things. This wolf held her tail high, and her gaze was oddly cool. Was this the Alpha of Vektren? She locked gazes with her, each wolf unwavering.

**"Have you been watching me?"** Seraph growled as she spoke. She thought it impossible. How would a wolf be so quiet? Well, she was making quite the amount of sound as she ran and the male wolf barreled after her.

As the she wolf turned around, she heard the word "come" being uttered, and Seraph followed. **"You may prove useful to us,"** were the next words that came out as smooth as silk from the she wolf.

This was her beginning in Vektren.

## Group History

Seraph was shown the ropes of Vektren by a young male named Veron, and she got to know a bit more about the pack from Sionn, another she-wolf who would be considered a friend to her. She tried her paw at hunting for the pack, accidentally tackling Daithi, thinking he was a prey animal! In spite of the strangeness of Vektren, Seraph was delighted to finally have a place to call home, and wolves to call family, and she passed her trials with ease, joining as a full member of Vektren, as a Shade.

Her first winter in Vektren, Seraph was introduced to a young she-wolf, a puppy named Imperia. She found Perry at the outskirts of Vektren, and beckoned the pup closer, offering her a home where she had none before. Seraph was sweet, patient, and understanding of Perry's nervousness and backstory, and became the little she-wolf's new mother.

Seraph continued her duties as a Shade while serving as Perry's mother, of course. She checked and set the traps at the edge of Vektren territory, and encountered some of her packmates out past the swamps while doing so, such as Anders, searching for evening primrose. She also warned off outsiders who got too close to the borders, such as Le Serviteur - she told him not to come further or he would be trespassing, and then she would be much less understanding, and she swiftly escorted him away from the border. Sometimes she would go past the borders to investigate, and she crossed paths with a she-wolf of similar coloration to her: Muirgen. They debated about whether they'd crossed paths before, but because of how swiftly Seraph had moved from place to place, they agreed that if they had met, they hadn't spoken, and parted ways quickly. Seraph warned Muirgen to keep away from Vektren's borders, and Seraph returned to her pack.

When Vektren got its first *major* contract - with the loner, Renier, to help him take over Vale - Seraph was surprised. She'd heard of the infamous loner when she was living alone, and didn't trust him to make good on his word, but trusted Hekate's judgment. She was equally uneasy when Hekate named Zenith as the acting alpha while she was away on this contract, but Seraph's loyalty to Vektren would not waver, regardless of who was acting as alpha.

Shortly after Renier overthrew Faust, a loner told Imperia about the horrible things Vektren had done, and Perry approached her mother to ask for the truth about Vektren's nature. Seraph was straightforward - Vektreni were hired to fulfill contracts, and the Vektreni had fought the Valerians but Renier was the one to kill Faust. She told Perry that she must not look differently at her packmates because of this, and tried to reassure her.

Seraph spoke to many of her younger packmates when they were growing up, like Aven. She became even more engaged when the number of youngsters in the pack went from one to a dozen! Hekate had three pups with Andras, named Dante, Damien, and Vergil, and adopted a pup named Iris. Stallion and Raven had four pups: Colt, Jay, Annabelle, and Pegasus. Lastly, there were adoptive charges in the pack, Cassandra and Eris. Seraph offered to pup-sit on occasion. She showed some, like Eris, how to make traps.

She didn't spend all her time showing pups the ropes in Vektren, of course - grown wolves who were new to the pack, like Octavia, also had the opportunity to be taken around Vektren by the Shade! Seraph also tried to convince Daithi not to leave Vektren, when he set his mind to going to find his father, but to no avail.

One day, Seraph found her packmate Ruffian in an emotionally vulnerable state. She provided an ear to listen for Ruffian, who explained that he was so upset after running a mission for Hekate and (presumably) fatally wounding a fox named Joseph, after pretending to be an Arynian and sending Nyru away before she could tell an *actual* Arynian about the plight of Vale. He was devastated by killing someone (though Joseph survived the encounter) and cursed about Vektren's ways to Seraph. Seraph was firm, telling him that most of their packmates carried the grief and guilt over actions taken in the name of the gods. Once they'd worked through Ruffian's feelings, Seraph offered to take him on a patrol to clear his head.

Seraph often found herself having the explain the actions of Vektren to her packmates, both brand-new arrivals and wolves who had been in the pack for a while but hadn't *understood.* She approached Klaus one day, and he rudely snapped at her. He asked her if it was true, that Vektren was in the business of killing, and he inquired about what gave them the right to 'play god'. Seraph assured them that was *not* what they did. They only did what best they could, and never considered themselves to act as gods themselves.

She also needed to discuss things with young Cassandra, who was frustrated that she was 'less' of a Vektreni because she had been re-educated and abandoned in Vektren by her parents. Seraph assured her that she wasn't any less of a Vektreni - re-education had made her a *pure* member of Vektren. Cassandra suggested, after Seraph revealed a bit from her own childhood, that Seraph go and find her parents and confront them. Seraph mused on this, keeping it in the back of her mind. Some time later, she approached Hekate and requested permission to seek her parents out and eliminate them. Hekate agreed.

Seraph was successful in her mission.

She returned from this mission, and was promptly sent on another. Hekate had learned that Adrian of Aryn had deceived Vektren, and demanded retribution. Hekate sent Seraph, Heel, and Jerikoh to Aryn, to earn the pack's trust and then steal Adrian's daughter Merrill away. Seraph and her packmates approached Aryn and, after Seraph first encountered Nero and inquired about the pack as if she were a traveler, were welcomed by Athena as Honored Guests. They were friendly, cordial with the Arynians, until the perfect opportunity arose.

And it did.

Seraph, Heel, and Jerikoh were invited to join Merrill, Adrian, Seven, and Eden on Merrill's first bison hunt. Unfortunately for the Arynians, the Vektreni took his as an opportunity to steal Merrill. While Heel and Jerikoh took care of the Arynians, Seraph dragged Merrill away. A posse sent to fetch Merrill failed when Hekate sent a counter-attacking party of Vektreni to protect Seraph and her quarry.

After her return, Seraph sought out Kiero Koi, a Magister, to help with some muscular strain she'd felt since the mission. Seraph also continued her tradition of introducing new wolves to Vektren. She showed Shirubafurea around, and showed Solitaire some of her traps. Shortly after her return, Hekate approached Seraph and asked her to take Sionn's place as the Lady Nightmare, since Sionn was retiring to seek out lost brothers and sisters. Seraph agreed.

She had an admirer, too, in little Epione, one of Hekate's daughters. Eppi wanted to see the Bed of Fangs, and Seraph caught her sneaking out, and offered to escort the little she-wolf, earning Epione's admiration. She would seek out Seraph as she aged to teach her.

Seraph did get involved in an unfortunate situation when she went to check in on one of the pack's Necrolytes: Alizarin. He lived in solitude outside of the Nest, and Seraph had noticed a corpse outside his den. After checking to make sure it wasn't him, she realized, with horror, that he had taken the *heart.* The heart was supposed to go to the gods - why had he taken it? She knew she had to report the theft of the heart to Hekate, and she rushed to track him down.

She encountered Alizarin fleeing the pack with Renae, and though she did her best to try killing him, the match ended in a draw. Seraph warned Alizarin that she was the Lady Nightmare, and not the Reaper, but wolves more suited to killing would track him down. Epione found her walking back to the Nest and offered help. Between injuries obtained here, and injuries obtained when she was ambushed by loners (but, ironically, was saved by Nero of Aryn), she needed to take some time to recover, and spend some more time in the Nest.

Her focus shifted back to the ongoing war with Aryn - in particular, re-educating Merrill. Seraph heard rumors from her packmates (particularly Janus and Miron) that she was ready to be put to good use, and was taken out of the Pits. She had some doubts about Merrill's ability to be a loyal Vektreni, preferring to air on the side of caution.

Hekate had more pups, and, like Epione, one took an interest in what Seraph could teach them. Orpheus approached Seraph and she took him out on a walk, and then showed him how to create a basic pit trap.

Seraph was called to duty again, and her path would once again cross with Nero of Aryn. Hekate arranged to steal a patrol of Arynian wolves. Seraph was a part of the patrol, as well as Morrigan, Janus, Epione, and Ambient. Four Aryn wolves - Raghaalr, Nero, Tzuriel, and Dyana - were lured out by Nimh, and then, the Vektreni patrol attacked. Seraph found herself targeting Nero.

The attack was a success, and three of the Arynians were taken to the pits, while Dyana was left behind due to a conflict between Hekate and her ally, Hedge. But Seraph's mission was complete, and Nero was dumped in a Pit.

It was shortly after this that three plagues struck at the heart of Vektren. Seraph managed not to catch the first illness, from the sulfur in the water. Seraph did get sick when the second plague arrived - suffering severely from the water hemlock poisoning. She was labeled as a hazard, with severe skin afflictions impacting her. The last 'plague' was when the sun disappeared for three days. Several of her packmates went insane, or grew paranoid, at the loss of the sun, but Seraph remained level-headed.

At least, that's what was believed.

Seraph vanished just after the plagues ended, and nobody has a clue what became of her, for she was never seen in the Domain again.

## Trivia

* Seraph is well into her adulthood by this point, but is in her prime in terms of physical health and strength. However, due to a fight with Nero, she has recurring issue with scarring/internal injury of her chest. This was reopened by Alizarin.
* Seraph was the **Summer 2017 Character of the Season!**

## Quotes

* "I suppose we're similar, aren't we? Poisonous without one bit of warning." (musings on a lily of the valley, *Poisonous Beauty*)
* "We don't mean to play god, for nobody can take the place of a being above all. We simply do what we can while we can, and help those we consider threats to our friends and allies into an eternal slumber." (to Klaus, *Playing Gods*)

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* C3lestialWolf's deviantART Gallery