Username: [Ms. Steel]

Character name: Dioptasae Vitre (say: dee-OP-tuh-say VITE-er)

Age: She looks to be in her early to mid twenties, but is approximately eighty years old.

Race: Dio is of a race of merfolk heralding from more tropical climes. If you were to ask her to tell you the specific species name, she would produce a shrill clicking sound, then tell you to generically refer to her as a mermaid.

Alliance: For destroying the Twilight Ruby. That doesn't necessarily mean she wants to protect the Prince and Princess's lives, however. She has her own agenda from her own people.

Powers: Only those normally attributed to merfolk-- the ability to breathe under water. She can also transform (see 'History') from bipedal to merform mostly at will.

Weapons: A sleek and corrosion-resistant short sword-- handy in fresh or salt water, as well as on dry land. In addition, she has razor-sharp neurotoxin-barbed fins on her forearms. It can be deadly if one were injected with enough of the toxin and proper treatment didn't follow (she does know the method to create an antidote, however), but it most frequently causes extreme paralysis, mimicking death. It burns painfully if it comes in contact with flesh or mucous membranes. She does have a small dagger, but it has a single purpose, and it is not for defense.

Personality: Dio is quiet and suspicious at first, but is trustworthy once one gets to know her. Unfortunately, she is quite a stick in the mud, driven by duty and a strong ethical code, derived from her homewater's society. She can be judgemental and quite caustic to those she's deemed unworthy.

Her goal is singular: to make sure the Twilight Ruby doesn't fall into the wrong hands. More specifically, she does not want her own kingdom's rivals to harness its power. Ultimately, Dio strives for the unification and protection of all the oceanic underwater kingdoms across the globe.

Description: In bipedal form, Dio stands at a lithe and well-toned 5'10". In merform, she stretches a little over seven feet from head to tip of tail.

Her hair is long, though she tends to wear it in a braid wound partially 'round her head, and it is a combination of silvery blue, lavendar and light green strands, so at different angles, it looks of different colors (think underwater camoflague). The scales of her tail are of a similar color scheme; her muscular tail ends in a single, translucent, aspen-leaf-shaped fin.

Her skin is light tan and creamy, like coffee with quite a bit of milk in it, and it is lightly dotted with freckles, lavendar grey in color, to complement her hair.

Her eyes are a little large in her head, a brilliant and oddly iridescent aqua-blue color.

She prefers to wear knee-length, belted tunics, in case she has to transform. Most of her body, or at least her legs and torso, is also snuggly bound in what appear to be strips of bandages at first glance. Upon closer inspection, one would see that the material is textured with small scales. This is the bulk of her lightweight armor-- made from the hide of volcanic sea-cave dragons. It is quite durable and highly flexible.

History: Dioptasae Vitre, or Dio for short, grew-up training to be a palace guard, like her mother before her, and her mother's mother before that, etc.

When whispers of the Twilight Ruby finally reached the obscure depths of the waters in which she lived, Dio was granted special permission to leave her watery home [more specifically, the Ouanna-Louon Territories of the Far Ocean] to search for it.

She started training on land as soon as she was allowed. Dio's combat abilities are rather sharp, though are sometimes hindered by her inexperience with her legs.

Her accent also poses some issues, as does the use of land-based languages in general. Sometimes she really needs to think about what she's going to say, what words to use, and it still comes out wrong.

Anything else: In order to make the transition from water to land, Dio was gifted a dagger with which she must cut and peel away her tail skin to reveal her legs. It is a painful process, and it leaves her vulnerable for a little while afterwards, so she refrains from transforming as much as possible. She tucks the skin away in her bag on her belt for safe keeping when she's on land, and puts it back on when she needs to go back into the water. She does retain her underwater breathing skills while in bipedal form, though her speed and agility while swimming are significantly lessened.


The Twilight Ruby