Taranai

> *Lore of: **Lasta-Tir***
>
>

> "Faceless, a hollow shell cursed with a consciousness, created for a single role in a world where everyone else is their own person- You can't **possibly** know what it's like to agonize over that from the moment of your birth! Who are **you** to deny me my name?!"
>
> ― **Taranai**

**Taranai** (Japanese: **足らない** , "*not enough*") is the guardian and caretaker of Ulcorr Bog as well as a member of Raze. Her main purpose is to carry out the will of what she calls her "Mother", which mostly entails removing any invasive entities as well as ensuring the bog's steady expansion.

Being a member of Raze, her abilities and capabilities have been personally recognized by Apophis, Raze's leader, cementing her status as extremely powerful, even more than most other creatures. She also shares part of Raze's goal, but for her own reasons.

Even though her body is female, Taranai is, in fact, a parasitic lifeform which is completely unique. *(See Trivia for more)*

## Appearance

Currently, Taranai is inhabiting the body of a young adult girl.

Her green hair is quite long in total length, although her natural hair ends at the middle of her back. Past that point and until the beginning of her thighs, her hair is made up of thorny vines with black spikes protruding out of them, carrying mild poison within them.
Red eyes contrast the green of her hair, which also pierce the darkness of the night by glowing ever so slightly.

Growing out of where her ears should be are a pair of horns, curving upwards around her head, then shooting upwards straight and ending in a sharp point. These are usually decorative, but can rarely be used for attacking or parrying a long weapon.

Taranai's body is constantly clad in a corroded suit of armor, showing extreme signs of wear and tear, to the point that some parts have fallen off due to corrosion. The armor itself was deep dark blue in color and had a sleek, glossy texture, but due to corrosion, it is almost pitch black and extremely rough and coarse, save for some small red gemstones in the gauntlets of her forearms, shoulder guards, chestplate, tabbard, leg guards, and boots. While the metal has only deteriorated in appearance and not in functionality, most of the other materials have dissolved, leaving sections of exposed skin, namely: Taranai's hands, elbows, second half of upper arms, neck, stomach, sides, lower back (the remaining chestplate has an inverted V design both front and back), and part of her upper legs. Her boots have remained nearly entirely intact, allowing for knee guards to cover her knees; the same cannot be said for her elbows. Lastly, a piece of cloth hangs down on either side of the armor, made out of a material seemingly highly resistant go acids and corrosion, used to carry Raze's symbol. The symbol has the same appearance as skin suffering from soulburn, giving it a charred and cracked look, with a myriad of colors filling the cracks within it.

Her skin is somewhat pale, but not entirely lacking in color.

## Personality

Taranai is, above everything, protective of Ulcorr Bog. She will treat creatures or outsiders weaker than her as prey, and creatures or outsiders stronger than her as possible predators, displaying a clear lack of mercy to anyone and anything that sets foot in the bog.

Beyond that, Taranai is of a very curious nature, tending to question her sapient victims extensively before finishing them off, even becoming gloomy if they die due to the acid atmosphere of the bog before she finishes asking her questions. She is highly obsessed with **names**, and memorizes every name she hears. Failing to extract a person's name before killing them (if possible) or running away (usually if they surpass her in power) brings her extreme annoyance, and she is likely to throw tantrums afterward.

When interacting with creatures or people she perceives as being **prey** or otherwise weaker than her, she acts in an almost condescending way, teasing her victim(s) with the possibility of escape and generally messing or toying with them until her curiosity is satisfied. If, at any point, she decides to not end her victim(s), she adopts a slightly friendlier personality, more akin to a friendly bully than a sadist. However, when interacting with creatures of people she perceives as being **predators** or otherwise stronger than her, she is quick to become much more defensive, keeping to herself and maintaining a clear distance between herself and her target. She doesn't hesitate to exteriorize her tension and agitation, formulating quick, direct, pragmatic questions instead of her usually drawn out and playful ones.

Taranai has a side to her that she lets absolutely no one see, namely the way she interacts with the other creatures of Ulcorr Bog, which she refers to as "brothers" or "sisters" depending on their biological sex, or "siblings" if they have no biological sex. She exhibits traits reminiscent of an oldest sibling, like being happy and kind in different circumstances, being nurturing and like a teacher in others, even berating them if the creatures behave inappropriately or dangerously.

Lastly, she treats the bog itself as her mother, even referring to it as such; however, her feelings regarding it seem to conflict, in that she both feels the same familial love a child feels for its mother, while at the same time feeling resentment towards it for not giving her a name.

## Abilities & Combat

**Overall Abilities:** Taranai's style of combat is reminiscent of a brawler, with moves that don't necessarily focus on efficiency as much as they focus on sheer speed and power. She throws technique to the side in favor of a more basic, more adaptable style. Taranai displays vastly enhanced strength and speed, as well as sharp reflexes and a honed sense of premonition, allowing her to hold her own against most opponents. Her ability to learn from mistakes and adapt is existent, but not prevalent; she is much more likely to analyze her fights in hindsight and formulate future strategies from past failures, rather than adapt for a fight on the fly. Even so, she is capable of noticing similarities between past fights and current ones, which somewhat makes up for her subpar adaptability.

**Aspects:** Her most important ability, Taranai is able to manifest ethereal, ghost-like sections and segments of the fauna of Ulcorr Bog, which she calls "Aspects", and use them in battle. She can only use Aspects of native creatures of Ulcorr Bog, **not** any creature that wanders into its territory. This ability is magical in nature, and can be nullified by anything that dispels magic, such as Ka'arokrii and their crystals.

**Daughter and sibling:** Taranai has a deep connection with Ulcorr Bog, almost telepathic in nature. As long as she remains within the boundaries of the biome, she can accurately pinpoint the location of anything on the surface of the bog. However, creatures or items that are underground are much harder for her to locate, only able to find the general area in which they might be. Furthermore, she is able to communicate with all creatures of the bog, regardless of their level of sapience and sentience. On top of using this ability to protect and educate her "siblings", she can also order them to help her with fights and hunts.

**Corrosion:** Taranai is able to produce small amounts of highly corrosive liquid from her skin, which she can use for offensive or utility purposes.

**Regeneration:** Due to Taranai being a parasite, damaging her body doesn't actually damage Taranai in any meaningful way, although it does bring her annoyance and anger. Consequently, to remedy the damage that the body receives (both from combat and from the natural acid of Ulcorr Bog), her regenerative abilities are extremely powerful. Slicing into her will reveal an ocean of thin tendrils and spider-like legs, which will quickly grab each other and pull each other tight, closing the wound and quickly healing it, leaving no scars. The exact way in which her skin heals is unknown. This rapid healing factor can only occur while she remains within Ulcorr Bog; outside of it, while her ability to regenerate still exists, its strength is severely diminished, requiring multiple days to heal large wounds or to reattach lost limbs.

**Weaknesses:**

* Her connection to Ulcorr Bog and its creatures, as well as the extreme version of her regeneration, can only be used within Ulcorr Bog. Luring her out and depriving her of a way to retreat, while difficult, is a valid strategy against her.
* Too much damage will still incapacitate her, and extreme damage received to the whole body at once, like being crushed or being blown up, can kill her for good.
* Her curiosity can be exploited; an assassin adept in trickery and sleight of hand can easily surprise attack her once she lets her guard down, usually after she finishes asking questions.
* Items, creatures, or spells which dispel magic can make her Aspects, the most threatening part of her arsenal, much less threatening.

## Relationships

### Ulcorr Bog / Her Mother

The way Taranai feels about Ulcorr Bog is both one-sided as well as complicated:

She never fails to refer to the bog as her "Mother", and clearly shows extreme concern for its wellbeing, to the point that extensive damage to it causes her to fly into a rage, but is, at the same time, hesitant to talk about her intimate relationship with the bog if asked. She displays resentment for her Mother for not having given her a name at birth, and depriving her of any purpose other than the one to protect, oftentimes feeling like her Mother made a mistake in birthing her with a consciousness and biological immortality, and that she would be better off as thoughtless as her siblings. Because of that, Taranai has embraced Raze's ideals, hellbent on purging the world of dangers to the bog while at the same time searching for a higher purpose in life.

### Creatures of Ulcorr Bog

Taranai is shown to be very affectionate towards the other creatures of the bog, always calling them "siblings". This is possible thanks to her innate ability to communicate with them, regardless of the difference in their respective levels of sapience. Because the creatures of Ulcorr Bog are created to need extremely little sustenance, Taranai is quick to break up any fights between two or more of her siblings. Furthermore, she provides the bog and its creatures with outside sources of sustenance, if need be.

Feeling the loss of a creature brings her sadness akin to mourning a deceased family member.

### Luriel

Taranai and Luriel are friendly with each other, both of them feeding into each other's nature, Luriel entertaining Taranai through their active, expressive, and outgoing personality, coupled with many random facts of trivia which fuels Taranai's curiosity, and Taranai entertaining Luriel through her familial mentality, likening Luriel to a sibling.

### Hecate

Another one-sided relationship, due to Taranai almost always pressing Hecate or Luriel for Hecate's real name, which she doesn't know. Hecate, meanwhile, simply doesn't care and usually ignores her. Because of this, Taranai also feels a connection between herself and Hecate, although she can't quite put it into words.

### Vanvaruua

Due to Taranai's somewhat black and white outlook on strength and combat ability, she tends to bully or tease Vanvaruua, since he doesn't fight, and instead acts as pure support for Raze.

Nevertheless, Taranai does in fact feel like the group wouldn't be the same without him, also appreciating his empathetic side, even though she doesn't like to make it apparent.

### Akrasia

Taranai and Akrasia get along somewhat well, in part thanks to their mutual understanding of each other's principles, and in part due to Taranai displaying honed skill in combat, and not just relying on her abilities and allowing herself to be exploited. Taranai keeps interactions with Akrasia on a mostly serious level, sometimes cracking a subtle joke, but always keeping her guard up around him.

In combat, they *can* work together, although that rarely happens. Taranai has never won a real fight against Akrasia, and he has commented on it, saying he'd "rather keep it that way."

### Apophis

Taranai looks at Apophis with mostly reverence, likening her to a savior figure and a master whose level she will never reach. Apophis' impossibly complex style of swordsmanship impressed her the moment she first saw it, and only further cemented Apophis as a true leader in her eyes.

Outside of combat, Taranai feels a connection with Apophis that she described as both familial as well as respectful. Because Apophis was also born nameless, Taranai is all the more fascinated by the fact that she doesn't suffer from the same inner conflict as Taranai herself does. Furthermore, Apophis' choice of abandoning all possibility of a name in favor of what she chooses to be called currently is perplexing to Taranai, causing her to be immensely infatuated with Apophis. Moreover, Apophis was the one who temporarily solved Taranai's conflict regarding her own name. As such, she holds nothing but respect and worship for Apophis, and will readily follow any order she's given. She considers Apophis a master, a leader, and an older sister at the same time; in fact, Apophis is the **only** person Taranai has ever acknowledged as an older sibling.

## Trivia

* "*Taranai*" is what Apophis suggested she use as a way to refer to herself, without considering it a name.
	+ She will refuse anyone's attempts to give her a name, instead wishing for her name to come directly from her Mother.
	+ She is quite alright with nicknames and alternative ways to refer to her.
* The girl which became Taranai's body was named *Vey Maluna*.
* One of Taranai's criteria for choosing a new host seems to be whether or not it's cuter than her current one.
* Taranai's true form has never been seen, and is implied to not be able to survive indefinitely without a host.
* Taranai's hosts are very much dead, from the moment they become hosts.
* Taranai, while lacking a biological sex, does have a grasp on the concept of sex and gender, and feels most comfortable using the biological sex of the body she inhabits. Her current host is female, therefore she considers herself female.
* Taranai's absolute favorite activity is to give names to any unnamed creature. This doesn't mean naming their species; rather, giving them all their own, separate, personal name.
* Taranai doesn't age, and her healing factor stops her hosts from aging as well.