Aekaitz Helicias

*"If love is a labor, I'll slave 'til the end."- Rise Against, "Swing Life Away"*

## Physical Appearance

Aekaitz is a tall female Ancient dragon, with a moderately plump build and stringy, lithe muscle structure. Her scales are medium grey, resembling a sky full of hazy storm clouds. Her chest plates are a darker charcoal color, simple but effective in their protection of her vulnerable areas. She has generous, swirly white horns and blue striped markings, beginning with a "crown" like marking on her head and down her nose. Her wings are striped as well, but fade into navy blue at the very ends. Instead of fins, she has a long, charcoal grey mane starting at her head and cheeks, down her back and dorsal area, and down her tail to about half way. Her eyes are earthy green.

**Appearance Fun Facts**

- The navy blue stripes along her body crackle to life with blue lightning as a natural, subconscious mechanism when fighting. This effect can be called upon at any time she pleases, however.

- Her horns appear to consist of pure white opal, and while they are not *actually* composed of the gem, it is something she takes pride in.

- There is a small, thin crescent-shaped growth on her right paw that appears to be composed of the same material and color as her horns. It grew back when she tried to rip it off as a hatchling (not to mention it *hurt*), so she just considers it an unchangeable part of herself now. She sometimes likes to think it aids in making her magical ability more potent.

## Personality

Aeks is the embodiment of your wine-drunk mom friend who CLEARLY cares about her loved ones far more than she cares about herself. She is goofy, sarcastic, full of snark, and loves to make people laugh and feel better whether they're feeling down or not. Dark, dirty, and self-deprecating humor is her forte.
She is a fiercely loyal dragoness, though somewhat difficult to befriend, so her circle is small. She is very indecisive because she always wants to make the best decision possible. With her nimble front paws, she is an avid crafter and very creative and intelligent, focused on efficiency and problem solving just as much as aesthetic. She is eager to learn, though does have a hard time responding to criticism, often mistaking it as a personal attack. As a leader, she is kind, fair, and inclusive, though a bit too unsure of herself to be completely dominant and demanding of others. She likes to see her peers as her equals. She does still wear the title with pride, though.

While on the outside, she is a fun-loving and humorous individual, she struggles internally with depression and anxiety that she copes with through the humor. She is often the one to give solid advice and tell others to love themselves no matter what while not really following her own advice. She puts everyone else ahead of her own mental health, no matter how well she knows them. This personal neglect causes her to go through periods of completely shutting down and retracting into herself. Over time, she has slowly begun to get better and begin to become truly cheery inside and out.

She tends to be pessimistic and unsure of a lot of things but tries to see the bright side in other people when she can. She doesn't really care who you are and what you do, as long as you're a good person and have good intentions, you're fine in her eyes. She does have a bad habit of holding grudges and has a very bad temper when you cross her at the wrong time.

**Likes & Dislikes**

Likes: Romance, food, rain/thunderstorms, defeating blight anchors, lairshaping, lava baths, hanging around Dralk with friends, autumn, meteor showers, nighttime

Dislikes: Being mislead, being confused, overbearing/bossy personalities, making mistakes, overly hot/muggy weather, feeling out of control of her own life, letting others down

**Strengths & Weaknesses**

Strengths: Creativity, passion in her craft/job, strong melee fighter, lightning/storm based magic, loyalty

Weaknesses: Anxiety, depression, forgetfulness/disorganization, lack of confidence, poor spellcasting knowledge

## Story

### Biography

Though she was born and raised in the realm of Istaria, Aekaitz is not your standard Istarian dragon.

Her father was the straight-laced picture of a dragon from Istaria, named Michlei. He was a curl-horn; a picturesque silhouette of large horns and striking, large eyes. He was large and bulky, but his gaze was soft. He was among the first dragons who exiled themselves from Dralk in favor of the new city of Chiconis. Ever the scholar, he closely followed the teachings of Helian and was a core member in the building of the new city. Michlei was settled in the new city until the death of its leader. The quake of grief that disrupted the city also shook him, and he left the confines of the city to find a lair elsewhere on the Dalimond Peninsula, now that his great leader was gone. He entered a very unsure time in his life. He became one of the first dragons to build a Helian lair outside of Chiconis, near Heart.

Her mother, however, was from a different world entierly. Shortly after the great migration of the Guardian dragons from their homes on Earth back to Capria, her mother, Cheirle, became unsettled. Torn from her home, and seperated from the perpetual storm she was created to guard, she fell into a crisis. She felt she had no purpose; alongside her chagrin for the greats of the Guardians for pulling them away from Earth, Cheirle fled Capria and traveled the stars to find new purpose. This led to her exile from Capria, considered a traitor, and the exile of any family she managed to find in her travels. Her innate ability to travel from world to world lead her to the realms of Istaria.

Michlei came across a very disoriented Cheirle in late 270 B.R., Istaria time. He had been settled in his new lair 74 years and had finally continued his magic training around 30 years after the death of Helian. He discovered her in the heart of Ashlander's Cauldron while on an errand to collect more Rose Quarts for a lairshaping project. She was weakly battling a golem, covered in the black soot of the active cauldron. Even covered in ash, he knew she was not like any other dragon. He saved her and took her back to his lair to be tended to. After a few days, she told him about herself and how she arrived, and he believed her. How could he not? The proof was right in front of him, from her unusual ears, fur, and lack of wings. She said she had met other Istarian dragons in the "volcanic place" but they had all been rude and kind of aggressive. She ran for a while after a close call with a large, angry black dragon and ended up in the cauldron. She was ready to leave to try and return to Capria before she met Mich and he showed her the real beauty of Istaria. It was love very quickly.

These two stayed together through the destruction of the Sleeper, the creation of the Aegis, the infiltration of Draak and the murders of an entire generation, and fought alongside each other in the great wars against the undead. They moved back to Chiconis to become teachers. Though the Lunus still would not accept her differences, her foreign magic proved very effective against the oncoming blight. They continued as soldiers until, by some miracle, Cheirle became gravid with eggs. The two returned to their lair to care for their new children together. Tragically, due to the genetic differences, when the eggs were born, only one was viable. They used their combined magic to keep this egg alive, doting on it and keeping it in the deepest part of the lair, protected from intruders.

In 76 B.R., the egg hatched, and Aekaitz was born, and the tumultuous Helicias clan was born.

# Early Life

In her first few years, Aekaitz was mostly alone with her mother. Michlei returned to work against the Aegis with a newfound purpose: to protect his child. Cheirle taught Aekaitz how to channel her storm magic in these years together, finding that she had an affinity for it just as much as she did. It almost seemed..amplified, with the inclusion of the inherent primal magics from her Istarian blood. She was powerful, and sometimes a little out of control. Her father returned after the raid of the Bitter Pickle, when it seemed there would be a few years of quiet. The addition of the teachings of primal magic helped Aekaitz control and hone her power more. During this time is when her parents began adopting orphaned hatchlings into their little family. The first to be found was a small, dark black-blue dragon named Kaneq. Though it was strange at first, Aekaitz and Kaneq became incredibly close, deciding that it didn't matter that they weren't blood related, they were sisters all the same.

Soon, the clan grew even more. Next to be found was Rhubine, a fiery red and orange dragon with an oddly opposite demeanor. Though they weren't as close as she and Kaneq were, Aekaitz had a soft spot for the meek little dragon. Eoulet, the earthy bronze and green male, was adopted next. Slowly, their parents began leaving more and more, caught up in the uprising battles against the Aegis with the gnomes, until one day they just didn't come back.

Once separated from their parents, the little Helicias clan searched for months for them. Kaneq was the first to become restless, wondering why they were expending so much effort on a pair who, while kind and loving, were probably dead from some battle with the things called the Withered Aegis. She was also apparently frustrated with the fact that she was the only dragon who had an affinity for ice breath and clearly different from the others. She eventually blew up, flying into a rage at the group of hatchlings and convincing her closest sibling, Aek, to run away on their own. Kaneq then dropped the Helicias surname and became Kaneq Inkfrost, and Aekaitz adopted a self-imposed title as her surname, Aekaitz the Ethereal Thunder.

Kaneq and Aekaitz did their Rites together, Kaneq becoming very angry and cold and choosing Lunus out of these feelings. Aekaitz was not very good at spellcasting other than her own storm affinity since her parents were never able to finish their teachings, so she chose Lunus as well, becoming a renowned fighter with her teeth and claws. The two ascended to adulthood together on the Peak of Storms, and began traveling Istaria together, fighting their way through the Aegis and gaining experience as they went. Both were forever changed by the assumption that the Blight had taken their loving family from them, and vowed to never let the Withered Aegis take anything else from them. This is what sprouted Aekaitz' malicious love for destroying Blight Anchors.

Aek eventually became separated from Kaneq, who disappeared one night while she was asleep. The ice dragoness had slowly descended and disappeared into her bitter internal rage, becoming but a shell of her former self. While deeply hurt, Aekaitz decided that Kaneq needed to find herself again and needed the time alone. Aekaitz spent many years alone, training and becoming a deadly warrior and a great help to the empires of Istaria. Though still mostly untapped, she learned more of her natural magics and harnessed her storm power even more as she trained her primal magics. She rose in social status rapidly. With the eyes of the empires upon her, she completed her Ancient rites and ascended to the hallowed height of Ancient. In her maturity, over time, she became upset with the attention, and went into hiding. Time forgot her first name, and she became known as The Ethereal Thunder, her image engraved into the minds of Istaria as the dragoness who harnesses the power of the storms.

# Now

Lonely of her hermit life, Aekaitz decided to locate and return to her once beloved siblings. The remainder of the torn family, to her surprise and relief, had stayed together more or less. Once reunited, Aekaitz re-adopted her former surname and became Aekaitz Helicias once more, but took Ethereal Thunder and created a guild, where the values strikingly similar to her parents. She treats her guild members like family, as if she has adopted them under her own wing. While her status as a Guild Master again throws her into the limelight, her age and experience has taught her not to fear this, and she lives with a peace of mind she had not found until then.

She uses her power as a guild master to push back against the aegis. As the group grows stronger and she meets her new family, she hopes to one day learn what happened to her parents once and for all, and locate Kaneq to bring her back to he senses and become sisters once more.

## Gallery

By Trioza @ fABy nukerooster on InstagramIn gameIn game 2