Katryssa Dragunov

**Katryssa Dragunov,** also referred to as **Katya**, or **Saphyr**, is a member of the Basilisk Clan and student at Erebus. Katya is the seventh child of Lord Vlad Dragunov, but is not formally recognized due to being an illegitimate offspring, born to her father's sister. Though she can often be prideful, cold, and even sadistic at times, she is seen by some of her peers as a genuine friend and partner. She has an obsessive rivalry with her classmate, Savannah Haast, whom she (regrettably) considers as an equal.

## Appearance

Katya's most distinguishing features are her avian feet, snake's tail, blue serpentine eyes, and unruly blue colored hair. She is often seen wearing her signature trench coat, with ripped and tattered pants as a result of her claws. Her hair is is short at the front but longer in the back, but she has sideburns that come out in front of her ears. She sports a side shave on the left side of her hair. Katya is implied to be somewhat overweight.

## Personality

Katya is almost entirely self centered, driven only by the desire to prove herself as "not worthless", believing that there are only two types of people in the world, "Those who eat, and those who serve". Because of this belief, and the fact that she could never meet her father's expectations, she has a tendency to view herself and others as worthless when they don't do good enough. Her deep seated fear of being considered worthless to others leads her to feign an air of confidence and pride that defines how she treats the people around her. Although she pretends to be arrogant and confident, she truly believes that she is worthless and puts on this act in order to compensate for it.

As a result of these negative emotions, Katya is noted to have an extremely poor temper, and is often regarded as spiteful and malicious by her classmates. She notably has a sadistic streak, and has a habit of partaking in violent actions to externalize her own anger.

However, Katya is shown to have a softer side, even though it is shown very rarely. She has a very strong affection to her mother, almost never tolerating insults towards her. She also has an amicable relationship with Kazahana, who she is shown to be able to connect with due to their shared status as familial outcasts.

## Biography

### Early Life

Katya was born in the Urian region of Ibna to the wealthy Dragunov family within the Basilisk Clan. She has 4 sisters and 3 brothers, and is the second youngest child in her family. However, she is not always counted among her family, as she is an illegitimate daughter, and a product of incest, born to her father's sister. As she grew up, she was constantly compared to her half-siblings, and was told that, as a bastard child, she was not worthy of holding any stake in her family's business (especially that of PMC Black Dragon), and her own siblings were in fact her superiors. She often struggled with her schooling and relations with others, and was considered a problem child in her youth. Although her birth mother often spoiled her, her father and not-birth mother and siblings had often punished and chastised her for bringing shame to their family name. After an altercation involving attacking a classmate in her high school with her fire breath, she was referred to Erebus School of Demons to retool her negative emotions in productive ways.

### Erebus

Katya is enrolled into Erebus and is sorted into Class 4. She develops a friendship with classmates Kazahana Sasori and Raffica Mosca, but develops an obsessive rivalry with Savannah Haast.

## Demonic Powers

Katya is able to breath fire through her fangs, which is hot enough to burn flesh extremely quickly. Additionally, she has avian clawed feet instead of humanoid feet, which can be used to dig holes and cut skin. However, as a result of her mutated feet, she is completely unable to use footwear.

Due to her selfish personality, she is the first to learn the **Primordial Technique**, which allows her to take a draconic form. While in this form, called the Regulus, she possesses strength that overshadows Savannah in her base form, and her arms are surrounded in a black aura. However, this form quickly drains her stamina and she is not able to sustain it for more than a few minutes.

## Trivia

* Katya was named after a minor NPC (Katja) in the 1997 game Fallout, which the author curiously never played. Katya is an alternative spelling of the name. Her full name, Katryssa, was named after Katrice, a minor character in the mobile game Deck Heroes. Her surname, Dragunov, references dragoons, a class of mounted infantry.
* Some names that were considered for Katya during earlier stages in development were Persephone, and Vex.
* Katya's favorite animal is the rattlesnake.
* Katya's favorite foods are chocolate, and enteledont meat.
* The original inspiration for her appearance was Maki Nishikino from Love Live, which the author notes makes very little sense considering that they never watched or read it.