@ethyraia application

[sunmon]

Player;

NAME: tifa
AGE: 18+
PRONOUNS: she/they
CONTACT: protects
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: also applying for yennefer of vengerberg (witcher netflix)

Character;

CHARACTER NAME: alina starkov
AGE: young adult, like 20
CANON: shadow and bone (tv)
CANON POINT: 1.05, after baghra cockblocks and infodumps
BACKGROUND/HISTORY:

In a world where Grisha are witches who can manipulate the matter of the world, and a sea of shadow filled with monsters divides the eastern and western halves of Ravka, people tell stories of a saint. They pray that a sun summoner will appear and destroy the Unsea (also known as the Fold), reuniting Ravka and stabilizing it in the midst of a war with its northern (Fjerada) and southern (Shu Han) neighbors.

Alina Starkov, an orphan, avoids being tested as a Grisha to eliminate any chance she might be separated from her best friend, Mal. But when the two enlist in Ravka's First Army, they are sent across the Unsea on a supplies run to West Ravka. Their skiff is attacked by shadow monsters, and to protect her friend, Alina unleashes an incredible power — the ability to summon light. The discovery of her power separates her from Mal as she is hauled off to become Ravka's saint.

As the sun summoner, Alina is whisked away to the capital of Os Alta, where she is trained in her gifts inside the Little Palace, home to Ravka's Second Army of Grisha, by a woman named Baghra. Though she writes to Mal every day, she never hears back, and she eventually assumes he hates her because he had previous expressed fear and discomfort with Grisha.

General Kirigan, the leader of the Second Army, draws Alina close to him, infatuated with her power because he sees her as his other half — since he is the only Grisha who can summon shadows. Together, he claims, they will change the world — by destroying the Fold and reuniting the nation. But Alina learns from Baghra that General Kirigan is in fact the Black Heretic who created the Unsea, which killed her parents and orphaned her. Alina flees the Little Palace.

PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY: None
PERSONALITY:

Alina is a spirited, charismatic young girl who relies on a dry sense of humor to cope with the harsh realities of living in war-torn Ravka. Many people hate her on sight because she looks 'like the enemy' thanks to her Shu heritage. As a result, Alina has developed a tough outer shell, a codependency with Malyen Oretsev, and a bone-deep longing to be loved and to belong.

Bullied as a child at the orphanage in Keramzin, and continually subjected to racist bullshit as an adult, Alina has learned to never show weakness around others. She tells Mal that one of their biggest lessons from the orphanage is to never let anyone see them cry. She stood up for Mal routinely against the bullies in Keramzin, and on the worst day of her life, when she is separated from him and brought to the Little Palace to be forced to train as a grisha, she waits until she is locked behind the door of her new room to collapse into sobs. Alone. Alina does not trust other people easily and has a hard time letting herself be vulnerable with them because no one but Mal has ever handled that vulnerability well.

This is why she has become codependent on him. Alina sabotages her chance at a better life by evading and cheating the test to see if she is grisha as a child because she fears being separated from Mal. If she were grisha, she would be well-fed, well cared for, and she would have a bigger sense of belonging; yet she wants nothing more than to remain in the orphanage with Mal because he feels safe and certain. This trend continues as she enlists in the First Army with him, and sabotages the maps of West Ravka, dragging her entire cartography unit onto his trip into the Fold and endangering them just so she can be with Mal.

In this way, we can see how Alina can be impulsive and selfish when it comes to getting things she wants. She also holds long grudges; when it becomes clear that Mal isn't writing her back, she assumes the worst of him (that his hatred for grisha has extended to her) and initiates an unhealthy romantic relationship with General Kirigan, her older supervisor, so that she can salve the wound and still feel wanted. This reveals her last key personality trait, which is that above all else, Alina wants to be loved. Her relationship to Mal is as codependent as it is simply because Mal is the guaranteed love and safety net that she has, the only instance in which she has felt confident in that. When that is threatened, she lashes out.

Alina is constantly trying to fill a void that was left in her by her orphan upbringing as an ethnic minority in Ravka. She wants to be loved, she wants to feel special, and at her lowest points, she will do anything to satisfy those desires.

SUITABILITY:

As a member of the First Army, Alina was a skilled mapmaker. She has lived in army encampments and gotten by on very little. In addition, later in the series, shortly after her canon point, Alina goes on the run with almost no resources. She's savvy and able to hold her own.

ABILITIES/SKILLS:

In the First Army, Alina showed herself a capable cartographer.

But as the sun summoner, Alina has the ability to manipulate light. Though grisha only manipulate what matter already exists, it's pretty clear that Alina is capable of creating light sources in dark places, presumably by turning some molecules into photons or whatever.

Right now, her ability is fairly limited. She can create light sources, blind people, and create some kind of protective light shield. However, later, she will be able to compress light energy into the Cut, an ability demonstrated by Kirigan's shadow summoning, and a number of other creative uses of light manipulation (e.g., invisibility).

In addition, one of the items in her inventory is an amplifier created from the antlers of a mythical stag created by the saint Ilya Morozova. It enhances Grisha ability, making them stronger.

Grisha are also especially long lived. A grisha of Alina's power could live for centuries.

INVENTORY:

01. a short, thin knife with a decorative handle — grisha steel
02. A5 journal with a tucked pen
03. blue/gold kefta (these are bulletproof fyi; she's also wearing her black/gold one)
04. white lace nightgown
05. a bag of ravkan sweets

Samples;

SAMPLE ONE: communicates
SAMPLE TWO: thinks
SAMPLE THREE: conflict