Shiah Bereng

### Allies

Locaster Helios, Shay Hanamura, Yuna Hanamura, Damion Halloreen, Fēng Xu, Hideko Inazuma, Hikage Ishuko, Veena Lu, Nabi Haluška, Shizuka Ikami, Cherry Amana, Windflower Amana, Ashton Khanh, Colbalt Majmua

### Enemies

Crow Watanabe, Snow Owls

**Shiah Bereng** is the co-owner of the Owl’s Grotto, the younger sister of Okem Bereng, a healer and a shadow shard user. She works and is affiliated Colbalt Majmua, her childhood friend who has an infected wing after being shot by a poison arrow. After this incident, she became determined to find a cure for his wing so he would be able to transform once again. After a Snow Owl raid that subsequently lead her brother into being kidnapped, Shiah became depressed and started to isolate herself, finding comfort in music and becoming a flutist at a young age before discovering her shard.

Shiah encounters Team Strelitzia while they were attempting to escape from Crow Watanabe, who nearly killed them because of his advanced powers and manages to save them before the Dark Entity sent in waves of vines out of spite for Locaster not accepting his contract. Shiah later on leads them to Owl's Grotto in order to aid them with a poison that would impact his abilities.

## History

Shiah was born into the Weeping Widows, a large forest within the kingdom of Soraya in a remote village known as Ingriask. Her mother and father died due to being murdered by Snow Owls, leaving her older brother, Okem, to take care of her by risking his childhood to support her. While playing in the woods under Okem’s surveillance, she met Colbalt, another barn owl who was interested in her and became close to her. Though Okem was not pleased with Colbalt at first, he became tolerant of him and allowed her to only be around him because of his good nature.

However, when Shiah was ten, a raid was launched by the Snow Owls, the elite rulers of the Weeping Widows, burning the village of the barn owls down because of immense hatred towards their species. Shiah was evacuating with her brother, but was caught with her when attempting to leave their home. Okem orders Shiah to run, which she reluctantly agreed to and found Colbalt before attempting to search for Okem. However, after she ran off, Okem was kidnapped and drafted into the Snow Owl army.

Colbalt held onto Shiah and attempted to fly away with her, but was hit with a poison arrow that permanently damaged his transformation skills and ability to fly. After the raid, Shiah attempted to heal his wound, but was unable to as the poison reached a certain nerve in his wings that he could not heal. Shiah mourned the loss of her brother and begun finding solace in music, specifically in playing the crystal flute he gave her as a birthday gift prior to the invasion.

Shiah and Colbalt then decide to round up the remaining barn owls from the Weeping Widows and relocate to Ethia, a northern province in Azuren near Misterin. After relocating, Colbalt and Shiah formed the Owl’s Grotto, a safe haven for the barn owls and other refugees who were affected by the Snow Owls. Their safe haven grew exponentially and eventually rebuilt the Owl's Grotto into a larger home with objects to help the barn owls sustain their environment.

One winter, Shiah had discovered her shard buried in the snow when fetching logs for hibernation season. Thinking it was a jewel, she attached it to her flute and shortly discovered its powers. She attempted to use her new found magic on Colbalt’s wing, though the magic was not strong enough to reach the nerve of where the poison was struck, leaving her heartbroken. She, at some point, was nearly killed by Crow, but managed to avoid her fate by using her owl form to fly away before he was able to kill her.

Shiah began looking for other cures to his poisoned wing, but to no avail and had a hard time finding healers that would be able to reach the nerve in his wing. Though, Shiah dedicates her time into assisting Colbalt with day-to-day tasks incase if the pain in his wing is immense and takes him to one of the healers to lessen the pain in his wing.

### Crow's Return arc

While investigating damaged crops caused by black vines, Colbalt notifies her that a group of eleven people were fighting near the grotto, requesting that her and other barn owls investigate the area in order to settle the conflict. Listening to Colbalt, she hopped from tree-to-tree before getting to a close angle, where she saw Team Strelitzia fighting Crow, who had done a contract with the dark entity. The barn owl's asked if they should break up the fight, but Shiah holds them off, saying they should observe more to see what is going on. Shiah then hopped from the tree and blended in with the bark, observing Strelitzia from a closer view and overhearing some of their conversation about the Demon Gems. Curiously and out of defense, Shiah began playing her flute to activate her dark magic, which started to send various black vines towards Crow's path, who was attacking the group, surprising the team.

When Shiah reveals herself, Colbalt appeared by her side and both began attacking Crow, though Colbalt tried settling it diplomatically, he eventually joined in the fight and fought of Crow while Team Strelitzia aided. After managing to shoo him off. Before the team was able to say anything Locaster runs back, saying that he saw the Dark Entity who attempted to entice a contract with him to become the next faceless god. Nabi reassures him that he must have been having one of his trips after eating the brownie Akuji gave him, though Locaster was adamant that he saw the Dark Entity. Colbalt then asks about the Dark Entity, wondering if it was them causing the destruction of crops. Before Locaster could explain further, a surge of black vines came their way, resulting in them scrambling. Because of the vines rapid speed, Shiah transformed into her barred owl form and picks up a majority of the team. Shay assists and turns into his bird form to pick up the rest of the group,

## Appearance

Shiah is a young girl with a petite build, described with having a delicate frame with very little muscle on her arms and legs. She has long, silvery hair that is in braids, though when let down, her hair extends to her back. She has gray and purple eyes, with her gray eye being covered and mute red lips. On her head, she wears a black headpiece with purple jewels hanging down and horns coming from the sides of her head to symbolize her being a barn owl. Additionally, she has two large brown wings that stick out of her back.

Shiah dons a long sleeved shirt with light purple decals and gray gloves around her fingers. Around her waist is a gray satchel with a light gray piece of cloth sticking out. She wears a black cloak that include white fluff on the outer area with purple pants and muter purple boots.

Her barn owl form is a tall owl with a peach outer-fur and brown underbelly with large purple eyes and swirly patterns all over her body.

## Personality

As a child, Shiah was easygoing and friendly, socializing with the other barn owls around her. She is described to have a soft aura, having a soft spot for animals and Okem, her older brother and proves to love him dearly. She was described as clingy to her brother according to Colbalt, often hiding behind him shyly and spending most of her time with him because of Okem being her only family left, and tends to view those close to her as family. When meeting Colbalt, she becomes more open, sharing her passion for arts and music while slowly beginning to view him as family. She could, at times, act brashly whenever provoked, throwing pebbles at a fellow barn owl after they were bullying Colbalt and always comes to the defense of the people she loves when needed.

However, after the raid of the Snow Owls and her brother being kidnapped, Shiah was distraught and became emotionally withdrawn from others. She withdrew from social circles and found music to cope with her missing brother by playing a song he used to sing her on her flute and immersed herself in collecting dolls she used to have to feel closer to her old home. Her cheerful demeanor sulked and transformed into a mellow, earnest girl, never speaking and was often weeping silently in her room because of the loss of her brother. According to Colbalt, Shiah would lose her passion in things she once enjoyed and cherished, opting to isolate herself and staring at walls for hours, only coming out of her room when needing to assist injured barn owls or to entertain them.

As she grew older, Shiah became quiet, timid and socially awkward with those she meets. She has a hard time opening up with others and tramples on her words frequently when attempting to talk to others. She has a hard time opening up with others out of fear of being judged and hides behind her superiors when introduced, though appears respectful and refined whenever being introduced to new people. According to Colbalt, Shiah has a childish nature and enjoys childish things like dolls and sewn animals because of them reminding her of her old home in the Weeping Widows, collecting old dolls she finds buried in the forests and takes care of them as if they were her children. Shiah has a hard time disagreeing with those around her and acts agreeable so she does not get shunned for her own opinions on life and other topics she takes keen interests in. Because of her agreeable nature, Shiah often allows others to take the lead out of fear she would act irresponsibly if she were given a high position.

Being rather sheltered, Shiah is naturally curious and soft-spoken, hardly raising her voice unless provoked or angered. She asked many questions about Locaster and how they managed to discover the Owl’s Grotto without any coordinates from another owl and profusely asked Ashton how life was like as a soldier. She displays a passion for music, often playing her flute while Colbalt plays the metal drum in order to lighten the mood, though worries for his health because of his infected wing.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities:** Little of Shiah’s abilities are known. However, she proves to be both an excellent leader and talented healer, managing to heal Locaster’s back wounds without difficulty. Raising hundreds of barn owls, she proves to be proficient in the field of taking care of wild animals and learned how to read animal signs by their body language or head tilts. Because of her closeness to animals, she proves to be an empath and empathizes with them whenever theyre in dire scenarios or injured, utilizing this by requesting the owls for assistance through whistling and can understand them through body gestures and facial expressions.

**Leadership Skills:** Shiah proves to have excellent leadership skills, being able to soothe a large number of people and owls without difficulty and managing to lead them into a safe haven by using her geographic knowledge. She managed to lead an entire population of barn owls to a hideout she and Colbalt built in order to keep the barn owls safe from the snow owls that were actively attempting to wipe out their species. Co-leading the Owl's Grotto with Colbalt, Shiah experiences no difficulty in leading, though can have a hard time adjusting to her position out of fear she will act irresponsibly.

**Healing Skills:** Being raised as primarily a healer and taught by her older brother, Shiah proves to be an excellent healer. Despite not being a prowess in water magic, she utilizes it by using its properties to heal wounds on her fellow owls and Colbalt and removed a majority of dark magic from his lower arm.

**Enhanced Speed & Reflexes:** Despite her delicate physique and weakened muscles, Shiah proves to be extremely fast, running to Team Strelitzia's aid at an extreme speed and dodging many of Crow's attacks: She is also able to synchronize both her speed and flute playing skills while running, using this tactic on Crow to prevent him from attacking Team Strelitzia any further. She was also able to transform into her barred owl form and scoop up Team Strelitzia and Colbalt to fly back to the Owl's Grotto.

**Flute Playing:** Shiah has proved on several occasions to be proficient in playing the flute, mainly due to it having her shard connected to one of the parts of her flute. She is mainly skilled in playing the crystal flute, being able to play a variety of ancient songs and tunes without difficulty.

## Magic Abilities

**Umbrakinesis:** As a shadow shard user, Shiah is able to manipulate dark magic by playing her flute. She controls it via the beats per minute she plays and can send dark vines and other larger spells in multiple directions depending on the tune she plays. She is able to summon black vines in a certain order from her flute and large blasts of dark energy that was assisted in defending Owl’s Grotto from the Snow Owls.

**Pyrokinesis:** As a barn owl, Shiah is implied to be born with pyrokinesis, as all barn owls are born with pyrokinesis at birth to keep warm during hibernation. It is noted by Colbalt that her pyrokinetic abilities are dormant and she cannot use them as well as Colbalt or her brother once did and opted for hand-to-hand combat instead.

**Owl Projection:** Combining her love for barn owls and her magic, Shiah proves she can make projections of barn owls by playing a certain melody on her flute. The owls being projected are able to send emergency messages by circling around a person for a prolonged time.

**Barn Owl Form:** Being a barn owl, Shiah can transform into a barn owl, which allows her to have the basic abilities of a barn owl. In this form she is able to communicate with other owls around her and can fly at extreme heights, acting as a navigator for the Grotto when they are threatened.

## Weaknesses

**Overuse:** Like all magic users, Shiah is weak to overuse. Because of her shard being placed on an instrument, it would require her to use her flute to utilize the magic abilities. If she overuses her magic to a certain degree, she would experience fatigue and a decrease in speed. Because of being a barn owl, her transformation abilities are mostly limited and cannot overuse them, which can cause both forms to glitch back to one another and a decrease in her barn owl abilities.

## Relationships

### Colbalt Majmua

Colbalt is one of Shiah’s childhood friends, meeting him while playing in the meadows by herself. At first, Shiah was initially shy around him because of her sheltered life, but slowly warmed up to him after he offered to play with her in the meadows. Shiah perceives him as a dear friend of hers and protects him regardless of the circumstances. After he was shot with a poison arrow by the Snow Owls, Shiah was devastated and travelled far to find the best healers, though they were not able to heal his infected wing and had a difficult time finding those who can help him. Shiah sees him as his best friend and, like Okem, concerns about him more than herself, risking her safety to travel far to find healers to help his wing and traveling in danger zones when hunting so the refugees and Colbalt could be fed. Colbalt would assist her in hunting and often enjoyed his company when he was around

Colbalt sees Shiah as his best friend and protects her at all costs, seen when he was hit with a poison arrow by a Snow Owl and shielded her body while he fell, leaving him with his now infected wing. He comforts and supports her through her lowest moments, such as the kidnapping of her brother. Colbalt often sings whenever she plays the flute to bring her comfort of Ingriask and the times of when they were younger. Shiah sees Colbalt as her older brother, despite him being younger. Due to his help and support, she was able to slowly recover and used music as her main coping mechanism to prevent her from slipping in a deep depression.

### Okem Bereng

Okem was Shiah's older brother. As a child, Okem primarily raised her after the death of their parents and was mostly sheltered by him out of fear she would be killed. However, despite this, Shiah showed an immense love for her brother and appreciated him for assisting and protecting her. She enjoyed whenever Okem sung songs to her before sleeping and took care of her most of her life, risking his childhood for her. Despite some of his issues with her Okem attempted to understand her and comforted her when needed and taught her how to take care of herself if he was out collecting herbs. When Okem was kidnapped, Shiah fell in a great depression and had a difficult time recovering, causing Colbalt to be her only support and only finding solace in music after being given a flute for her birthday. She hopes to see Okem once more, though worries about his physical state as she has not seen him for six years.

### Team Strelitzia

When assisting Team Strelitzia after a near death encounter with Crow, Shiah showed her hospitality by offering them food and healing any wound they sustained from Crow's attacks. It is noted by Ashton that she was nervous to heal them because of her fear of being judged by Yuna and Nabi, a herbalist and former medical officer. Though, as she adjusted to their presence, she perceived them as individuals easy to please and serve, despite their diverse personalities and managed to befriend them, though did not join the team because of her duties in the Owls Grotto.

## Trivia

* Shiah's name is derived from hebrew. Though her names definition is not listed, it is the version of the name "Shia," which means "god is salvation."
* Shiah's hair is supposed to be braided in the front, though due to restrictions in Gacha Club, her hair was made straighter.
* According to Colbalt, Shiah is one of three barn owls that can still transform.
* Shiah's hobbies are music, singing, and painting.
* Shiah likes sel roti, sweets and instruments, while she dislikes lantern flies and mosquitoes.
* It is noted by Aury Sona that Shiah was supposed to appear during the Escape from Lyakon arc, along with Windflower and Cherry Amana, though never made the cut due to certain circumstances.
* Shiah is the only shard user who did not join Team Strelitzia.