Name: "Duchesse" Nina Duquette
Age: 32
Bloodline: 60% Silkmouse/20% Oro/20% Nayu
Appearance:
Physique: Fit and curvaceous, tall for silkmouse at 4'2"
Silkmouse Racial Abilities: Damaged tails regenerate into perfect copies after a few days, teeth grow constantly and can be used in melee combat, tails are fully prehensile, skin does not scar and fully regenerates at the same rate as normal healing, can fall up to 30 feet without issue, enhanced hearing and smell, high balance, climbing claws, runs at 150% of the average speed of descendants, can swim and tread water for up to 3 days without ill effect, can hold breath for up to 50% longer.
Abilities:
Spells:
Pet: None.
Faction: None
Job: Treasure Hunting Duelist
Experience:
Nina was born to the rape of her mother from a Nayu/Oro when he found her mother gathering berries in the crags near the den. Her father, Nostr, nearly killed her mother and left her permanently mute from the severe beating.
As she grew, Nina and her mother developed an entire sign language due to lacking any formal languages to share.
Once she hit adulthood, her mother sent her to apprentice to the militia guard, at Nina's request. There, she was trained by Lieutenant Risette Durand, who trained her in the basics of being a militia guard but also sparked her interest in duelling. Risette gave her special duel training and survival, riding, and scouting techniques to make Nina into an outrider scout. Nina, in an effort to best the swordmistress, started to wield a weapon in her tail to add a new vector of attack. She has never won yet, but she has obtained a draw twice due to battling Risette to a standstill.
After her first tour of duty, Nina decided not to continue in the militia. She took her skills, armor, and weapons, leaving to begin hunting clues to lead to her father. Along the way, she began to use her skills to obtain treasures to sell for profit and to add to her own collection. Her money usually went into paying people off to find information on her father.
By the age of 24, she had duelled enough people to obtain a moniker of Duchesse, though it was simply a nickname among her silkmice home for prominent duelists. Since then, she has spent all her time treasure hunting and seeking her father, occasionally visiting back home and often writing to her mother when not near home.
Motivation: Treasure, self-improvement, destroying her father
Birthplace: SE Fotia, in the river forest between the mountains separating Fotia and Gaia
Extra Info: The bells on her horns make no noise as they are purely ornamental. She prefers to wear spider silk clothing, finding most cotton or furs prickly. Nina also has a special fondness for jade and emerald. No matter what she does, her hair stays messy, even when wet. Over time, she developed a preference for straight, single-edged swords with thrusting points for her main hands and a straight, double-edged quillion dagger in her tail.
Nina's mother's name: Chantae Duquette
Her name means "sweet little song" and mirrored her beautiful and sweet singing that she did most of the time. After the rape, she can no longer sing. Even if she wanted to date, she is considered "unclean" by the rape and curse, so she would not find a date. She has no interest in it though.
Items: 20 Bronze Pieces
Silkmouse society: 15.000 globally. 10,000 spread roughly evenly among the five non-capital warrens. One warren is on the peninsula SE of Nero and SW of Vrondi. Another is on the coast halfway between Sunfire and Twilight. The third is NW of Flare. The fourth is E of Onyx. The fifth is SE of Tidal. The capital, Veinplenty, is nestled in the forested mountains by the river on the border between Gaia and Fotia, S of Blaze and NE of Pearl. It sits under the river and in the mountains both N and S of the river.
Nina's Warren, Veinplenty: 5000 total pop, 2,000 militia.
Militia: 500 active duty, 1,500 reserves. 500 honey badger cavalry, 1,000 infantry, 500 artillery. This ratio of active duty and reserves as well as infantry, cavalry, and artillery remains consistent among all warrens.
Main exports: precious gems, metals, spidersilk cloth, art, and crafted items.
Main imports: Wine, exotic wood, and sweets.
Government type: Constitutional Tribal Social Demarchy
Society: Non-stratified with socialized services for all needs. Strong emphasis placed upon self-advancement and placing people in the best place for their personal ability and desires. Interests and passions are encouraged, leading to a disproportionately high amount of artists, engineers, historians, scientists, and craftsmice. Currency is useless within the society but can be exchanged for goods as the currency is then used for imports. Economy is mixed between gift, barter, and resdistribution. Public arbitrators and moderators are always available for contracting a deal if needed. All silkmice are educated to the highest tiers available and are constantly kept in access of informational changes. Slavery is outlawed and any slave to enter their territory is considered free and protected by all rights. Any slavers attempting to enslave anyone or catch escaped slaves will be captured and imprisoned. Sex and gender is irrelvant to them in terms of what a person can or can not do. Marriage, love, sexuality, and familial setup is left to those involved in the setup. If the rights or safety of individuals is in question, the government will step in to investigate.
Militia Training: Rigorous training centered on elite units. Any and all weapon types available to the silkmice will be part of training. As such, all militia are trained in most any weapon. All members are required to be proficient at medical and survival techniques. In addition, extra training will be done for specific roles within the militia.
Tech level: Silkmice are at the bleeding edge of most tech due to their high concentration of scientists and engineers. Their easy access to rare materials accelerates their progress due to distribution being handled at the governmental level for research. They integrate Fotian and Tearian advancements into their own tech to accelerate their progression.
Writing and Language: Their written language is a system of symbols representing letters or common concepts. Translation to and from other languages is easy when in silkmouse areas but difficult elsewhere as silkmice guard their written language, leaving only very trusted allies to know it. Their spoken language is French but also involves tail swishes and other body motions, some unique to their physiology. As such, while they can communicate properly with just their spoken language, some nuance is lost when not between silkmice.
Silkmice are encouraged to learn the common tongue and even any other languages desired. The average silkmouse knows 3 languages, with exceptional or well-traveled individuals knowing up to 6.
Magic: The varied concentrations of descendant blood in their society leads to varied magic. However, all silkmice that are capable are trained to move earth with magic, using it to carry and move goods. Beyond that, magical tutoring is provided by the government to meet the needs of each silkmouse's magical ability. Most non-spellcasting is done through enchanting of items.
Kingdom Relations: While generally neutral towards most other societies, Nero is explicitly banned from all silkmouse territory. Individual Nero may enter the territory under heavy scrutiny. Most warrens will post three guards for each Nero to prevent anything odd. Any Nero trespassers will at best be imprisoned and ransomed back to Nero, though many are simply executed on the spot. The hate for Nero stems from their blood drinking, slavery, and tendency to view others as food. Gaians are considered friendly if a bit stubborn and overly enthusiastic about integrating dragons. Fotians are considered a friendly party due to their technological focus, though silkmice often see them as overly militaristic and aggressive. Vrondi is considered neutral but distasteful due to their haughtiness. Tearians are considered friendly due to scholastic bents, but their tendency to act intellectually superior rubs most silkmice the wrong way.
Faction Relations: Silkmice are not overly fond of the Sureiya due to their killing of sometimes sentient creatures, but they do recognize that they do kill problem beasts. The Taxi are seen positively and are treated well as visitors, though they are not trusted with silkmouse secrets. The Magoi are regarded extremely well and have access to all silkmouse magical advancement, though they may not claim exclusive access to it. The Aion, in the rare cases it interacted with silkmouse society, was assisted without issue. The silkmouse aversion and hatred of slavery and the blood trade makes many of their goals align. The Therosi are not tolerated on any level. Any active Therosi found will be instantly executed, no questions asked. Ex-Therosi are dealt with on a case by case basis. Any Dolofon found within silkmouse society will be imprisoned and interrogated for all information they can gather. Afterwards, they are normally executed. Ex-Dolofon are allowed in under elite guard and kept to a high scrutiny but are asked to leave the moment they can.
Clothing: Silkmice wear light and minimal clothing, following tribal patterns. This minimal and light clothing is meant to keep modesty while letting their fur breathe. Silkmice have an innate aversion to most cloth as it causes them to feel itchy and uncomfortable. Only spidersilk or other exceedingly fine threaded cloth avoids this issue. A silkmouse will happily forgo clothing altogether rather than wear anything that causes them significant discomfort. Adornments are normally jewelry and decorative fur coloring. Tattoos on hands, feet, and tails are common as well.
Pets: Silkmice keep various types of pets, though the most common are mustelids and avians.
Other Animals: Large beetles are used as pack animals. These beetles are intelligent and able to be trained to take various tasks and commands. A species of highly intelligent spiders produces the spidersilk used by silkmice. These spiders developed a symbiotic relationship with silkmice. The silkmice make sure they have access to food and safety while the spiders give their silk in return. The spiders, while smart, are not sapient and thus have essentially been domesticated. Silkmice make extensive use of giant ferret-badger species for digging assistance and as mounts. Giant honey badger mounts are used exclusively for military actions as their aggression makes them ill suited to daily mount usage.
Religion/Spirituality: While silkmice are free to believe what they wish religiously or spiritually, most simply do not care or do not believe. Compared to other races, silkmice are exceedingly non-superstitious and have more atheistic tendencies.
Crime: Silkmouse society is low on crime due to the high standards of living for its citizens. The crimes that do happen are punished through imprisonment and rehabilitation to return the individual to normal life and productivity. Those that cannot be rehabilitated will be held safely away from society.
Food: Silkmouse cuisine focuses heavily upon fish, mushrooms, herbs, hunted meats, and noodles. Herbs include some cultivated mosses and lichens that provide extra nutrition and flavor. Fruits and vegetables mostly include berries or other foraged goods and hardy veggies that can grow in shade or underground, usually forms of tubers. Livestock is kept for production, not buchering. A variety of giant ermine produces milk that is made into various goods, including cheese. Drinks tend to be fruit juices, ciders, wines, spirits, liquors, and ales made from the various plants and fungi cultivated. Wine is especially prevalent and foreign wines are popular.
Other: A special item called a gnawstick is made in silkmouse society. They tend to be made of durable materials that can safely be chewed on to keep teeth healthy and sharp. Exotic woods and various scents and flavors are used to produce a wide variety of gnawsticks to make the necessary ritual more pleasant. Silkmice, especially female silkmice, are highly social and will perform social grooming and care. Even non-silkmice will fall prey to this social grooming if the silkmouse feels responsible or close to the individual. All silkmice are skilled at personal grooming, even including usually optional cosmetics like manicures and pedicures. While they clean themselves and may put on light scents to supplement their natural scents, silkmice actively avoid masking their natural scent, rather focusing upon enhancing and supplementing it to be enjoyable by other silkmice and outsiders. Despite their high tech, silkmice love having their animal assistance and prefer to continue utilizing their traditional companions and mounts. Badgers used as mounts and pet avians are often also trained as hunting companions. Due to their elite and unique militia, high tech is not always the norm, and actually most cavalry and infantry still remain melee users. Ranged units almost exclusively use guns of some kind, however. Armor tends to be designed in medieval style and is normally a type of gambeson with scale mail sewn between two gambeson layers. Metals are rarely used in armor as shed chitin from the spiders is more flexible and comparable in durability. It is, however, extremely hard to form and takes very hot forges to flex into the proper shape.