Bella (v 2.0!)

Edit: You can view Bella's original profile here: Bella

Name: Bella

Race: Hylian/Immortal Earth Phoenix (explained below)
(NOTE: Immortal does NOT mean she cannot die/be injured. She ages slower and will not die of natural causes)

Age: 25

Gender: Female

Appearance (Hylian): Bella has long, straight red hair with a tint of brown. After her transformation, there is a streak of golden hair near her face, and golden brown streaks throughout her hair as well. She usually has it back in a ponytail, although a few wisps of hair always manage to escape and hang down, framing her face. Her eyes, once bright blue, have turned bright green with golden brown and pure gold flecks. Her face is slightly roundish, giving her something of a childish appearence. Dark green vine tattoos swirl up her right arm and around her shoulder. Small tendrils of the tattoo can be seen on her neck and the side of her face.

Bella wears thin forest-green cotton pants and a loose matching tunic. She also wears dark brown leather gloves. She wears her quiver slung across her back, along with her bow when she's travelling and doesn't need it out. She also has a short sword hanging off her belt on the right side, and a dagger on the left. She wears dark boots made for long periods of walking.

Appearance (Earth Phoenix): Her eyes are deep and golden. Her feathers look like leaves. They fade from the deepest, richest red of fall leaves through golden brown to a deep forest green. She is massive while in this state, comparable in size to a Roc or a small dragon.

Weapons: She has a longbow and quiver of arrows, a silver short sword that hangs in a simple leather sheath, and a matching dagger.

Armor: Bella wears padded leather armor under her tunic (over an undershirt of course). She also has leather gloves that protect her hands and also keep her from losing an arrow or dagger from a sweaty grip.

Skills/Magic: Bella has always had an innate, limited control over the plant-life around her, able to make plants grow and bend to her will. Now that she has bonded with the immortal spirit inside of her, she has total control of the earth elements. She has not tested this much yet, and is not very aware of the limits. She will soon discover that she can make plants wither or shrink as well as grow. She will also learn that she has control over the earth itself – not just what grows on it. She also has uncanny tracking abilities. She can spot trails almost completely obliterated, and her senses have been heightened from years spent in the forests training. These senses have only been intensified by her recent transformation.

When she transforms, Bella has all of her normal magical abilities, as well as the inherent strengths of her new form. She can fly, and is very strong with natural, animalistic fighting instincts. As a phoenix, she has limited regenerative abilities. Rather than being “reborn from the ashes”, as an earth phoenix it is a slower cycle of death and rebirth – so the healing process can take some time. Think of the change of the seasons… no matter how much winter kills, spring will always come again.

Strengths: Bella is most effective in long range and sneak attacks. She can spot a target in very dim light, and is an excellent marksman. She can also move very silently, through years of training as a tracker, and so can sneak up behind an unsuspecting enemy and knock him unconscious before he even realizes she was there. She is also very fast and dexterous.

As noted above, her magic is now much stronger, and definitely would be a strength. Changing into her Phoenix form gives her strength and battle skills she would not normally have, as well as the ability to get away quickly.

Weaknesses: Although Bella has trained with her short sword, she is still not very good at hand to hand combat. She is weak and can be easily overpowered. Her swings lack power and finesse, giving her a distinct disadvantage.

Bella is very new to being an immortal. She does not yet know the limits of her powers, or even that she has certain new abilities yet. Changing into her Phoenix form is extremely taxing, as she has to struggle to keep the Phoenix’s spirit from overwhelming her own.

Personality: Bella is very kind and welcomes most strangers almost instantly. She is not naive however, and is usually an excellent judge of character. She loves to laugh and joke, and can at times be somewhat mischievous. She doesn't like confrontation, and in tense situations will try and break the ice with jokes and light conversation. She isn't easily angered, unless you are threatening someone she cares for. She can snap if pushed too far, but this is rare. Generally though, due to a dislike of conflict, she bottles up any anger she may feel and tries to rid herself of it. Bella is by no means shy; in fact, she's usually the center of attention. She's bold and not easily embarrassed, and if you won't chat with her, she'll usually try and just keep talking until she tricks you into conversing with her.

Bella’s recent transformation has left her slightly unstable, emotionally. She feels much younger now, realizing how small she is in the grand scheme of things. She is also slightly easier to anger, as she has not quite tamed/bonded with the immortal spirit that shares her body.


Explanation of the Immortal Earth Phoenix and Bella’s recent transformation.:
(This explanation [and the entire story of Bella’s transformation] is taken from an IMRP with fire_by_rain)

Immortals share their body with an immortal animal spirit. It is their “core”, as they say. What that animal is varies depending on the person, and on their element. Dragons, Rocs, Gryphons, even Unicorns can all be immortal spirits. The spirit is strong and wild, and can overwhelm a young immortal if they do not know how to handle it. It was believed that immortals and mortals have completely different cores – there was no known way to bridge the gap.

Bella, accompanied by her love Lohiya, and companions Iyasis and Ayalmar (fire_by_rain’s characters – all immortal), recently went on a quest to discover if there was a way she could become immortal and spend an eternity with her love. They discovered that all beings have an immortal spirit sleeping dormant within them. The only difference between an immortal and a mortal is that the spirit within the immortal has been awoken and has bonded with the immortal. Whether the process of awakening the immortal spirit can be achieved rests on the strength of the person’s soul. If the soul is not strong enough, the immortal spirit will tear it apart, and leave behind only an empty shell.

To awaken the immortal spirit requires a journey within oneself. Following is an excerpt that describes Bella’s journey:

Bella didn’t know how long she wandered through the forest. She wandered through seasons, seeing the young buds of spring, the full richness of summer, the elegant beauty of autumn, and the cold solidarity of winter. Each flashed past, again and again. She couldn’t have said if it was a mark of the time she spent, or if the forest changed on its own. Eventually she almost forgot why she was there, she just knew that she had to keep moving. Her body walked instinctively, without any conscious thought. There was only one thing she could keep in her mind, to keep from completely losing herself… a beautiful smile, eyes lit up like the sun, her lover laughing and kissing her, holding her and guiding her. He was all that kept her from withdrawing completely.

She wasn’t sure when she started to notice it. Far in the distance, unmoving, it looked almost like a pile of leaves. Except that it just kept getting bigger. It towered over her, and still seemed a vast distance away. Once she was finally in front of it, it was so large she couldn’t properly comprehend it. The leaves, varied from deep red to the brightest summer green, and everything in between, were actually feathers. And at about head-height, there was an eye, closed.

The mass moved slightly, rhythmically. It was breathing. The tracker’s own breath caught. Was this…? She paused, wondering how to wake it. After some thought, she knelt before it, leaving a few feet between the two of them. In the space between them a tree began to sprout. It didn’t stop growing until it was full grown, and then flowers bloomed throughout it.

As she had hoped, the stirrings of magic awoke the creature. It opened a great golden eye, looking over her and her offering. Why are you here?

“I am Bella… I come to wake you, to create the bond that we were meant to share.”

Meant to share? What makes you so certain? Your greed? Your desire to be immortal? If we were meant to share such a bond, would we not have been born with it?

Bella looked up. “But we were. We are like a seed, you and I. With the right conditions, the proper nurturing, we can grow and blossom. But without those things, without the catalyst, we are nothing but the seed we were born as. You, forever sleeping; and I, forever unaware of the potential inside me.” As dangerous as she knew this was, Bella was completely calm. She knew the words she spoke to be true. And she knew that she would make this spirit, -her- spirit, realize this same truth. They were meant to be bonded. Neither could be whole alone, not knowing now about the other. “I come before you not because of greed. I lay before you, humble and hopeful. I want to create this bond, for us… and for my love.”

For your love? What do I care of your love? Now that I am awake, I can do as I please. This whole world, this wondrous forest, it is all MINE. Why should I share it? The phoenix stood now to its full height, towering high over Bella. Don’t feed me trite tales of potential and love… what use have I for that? It spread its wings and flew, great gusts buffeting the tracker as it took off. Foolish mortal, this realm is mine!

Bella cried out, knocked back by the fierce winds and into a tree behind her. She looked up and the phoenix was gone. “No! NO! Come back!” Tears streamed down her face. “Please….”
Bella waited, but the phoenix didn’t come back. “NO! I will NOT give up!” She ran through the forest, searching furiously. The trees shifted before her, until eventually she was tearing up all of the plant life around her. Leaves flew everywhere, a blizzard of vegetation. “I will tear down this whole damn forest if I have to!” she screamed. “You hear me? You’re not leaving! I can’t leave him!”

And the great spirit was before her again, as suddenly as if it had never left. She stood, hair wild and out of place, her breath coming short and fast, and stared into its eyes. “This is MY soul,” she said fiercely. “You do not own it, you do not own me. And I will not give up. We are meant to bond together. A physical form for you, and a sustaining spirit for me.”

The great golden eyes swept over her. You think you can handle it? If I bond with you, and you’re too weak… your soul will shatter. A hollow, empty shell, will be all that remains of the mortal Bella.

“I am strong,” she insisted. “Because I know what I have waiting for me.”

Very well. And a rush of power swept through her, hitting her harder than anything she’d ever felt before. She cried out and curled up, awash with pain. It felt as if her entire body was on fire. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She held herself, feeling as though if she let go she would shatter into a million pieces. She held consciousness for as long as she could, but eventually it was too much. As she drifted, a final thought crossed her mind, and breathed like a sigh from her lips. “Lohiya… I love you.”

Green eyes opened onto the room filled with the people Bella loved. But they were not the same. Flecked with gold and golden brown, they saw everything with a clarity that Bella had never known. Her hair hung wild about her face, and she could see strands of gold mixed in with the red. She held up her right arm and saw dark green vines running up her skin. She didn’t know it yet, but they ran all the way up her arm, across her shoulder, and up the side of her face. Bella was immortal.

Her eyes, scared and confused, searched the room until she found her love at her side. She repeated her final words, the last thing that she had ever spoken as a mortal. “Lohiya… I love you.” Tears streamed down her face and she collapsed against him.

Biography: Bella lived with her parents a little ways into a peaceful Hylian forest. She was an only child, and the three lived together quite happily. Her mother taught her to cook and clean, and also to read and write. She spent many long hours with Bella, going patiently over her lessons with her. Her father taught Bella all about hunting and tracking. Her taught her how to spot and distinguish common animal tracks, as well as many useful (and not so useful) fauna. He also taught his daughter the art of fighting. He gave her her bow on her 10 birthday, and worked long and hard with her on how to nock and fire the arrows accurately. For her 13 birthday, he gave her her dagger and short sword, and began the lessons of hand to hand combat.

It was the best time of Bella's life, and she thought nothing would ever change it. That was not to be however. One day shortly after she turned 14, she was out hunting for their supper. The wind was chill, and she felt frightened for some reason. She shot the first rabbit she saw, and then hurried home. She was anxious to arrive at her door for some reason, which made no sense to her, as she went out hunting almost every night, and it made her all the more scared.

When Bella entered the clearing containing her house, the air was obscured by thick, dark gray smoke. Orange-red flames leaping high in the air, dancing wildly about. Bella yelled frantically for her parents, but there was no reply. She tried to fight her way through to the house, but the timbers of the house had fallen so much already that she could do nothing but stare in horror.

It took almost a full day for the flames to eventually die down, and that was only accomplished by the coming of a heavy storm. Bella tried to go through the charred remains of her house, but there was nothing salvagable. She collapsed on the edge of the clearing as darkness fell, sobbing until she could cry no more, and eventually falling into a deep and troubled sleep.

The next day Bella left to traverse the forests. There was nothing but painful memories left for her at the ruins of the cottage. She has spent the rest of her life travelling. For the first four years, she never left the forest. She continued her training with her weapons, but although she progressed greatly with the bow, she never really gained much proficiency with the sword, having missed most of the cruical basic training for it.

After she turned 18, Bella took to wandering outside of the forest. At first she would travel only for a little while, then return to the forest where she had grown up. Eventually however, she started going across wide plains to various large cities. She still tries to return to the forest at least once a year, as it is a very special part of her life, but she travels all over the place most of the time, looking for adventure.

I hereby stake claim for this character in the name of Sakume!

So. Let's see. I don't have much to correct here, really. Just a few things that might help clear up a bit.

In your flashback piece, the first paragraph looks like it used to be two? Just a tiny thing, but if you could separate them it makes them so much easier to read. Thanks. : 3 I also wonder if you might expand a little more on the bio portion. You end it with her being 18 and traveling, yet currently she is 25 and you talk about some of the history with her becoming immortal in such, but you leave it out of the bio. A paragraph or two describing her life from 18-25 briefly (if you want to include the immortal bit and pheonix such as a summary, that's fine), as well as maybe a tidbit about how she found her lifelong love and if she's with him now would be nice.