Ravenna Dell'atti [none]

MY NAME IS RAVENNA DELL'ATTI, AND MY AFFINITY IS WIND. MY SECONDARY ELEMENTAL IS LIGHTNING. I AM BISEXUAL AND I AM PLAYED BY SASKA.

The most noticeable trait about Ravenna is her attachment to silence. Though perhaps not considered an 'attachment', Ravenna tends to be a very quiet individual, rarely speaking much around both people she is accustomed to and people she does not know very well. This is due in part to her ability to perceive over her ability to interact; like a cat, she is quiet and communicates more via body language and eye contact, not to mention that she prefers silence over speaking. When talking to others, she has a tendency to be somewhat straightforward and perhaps abrupt, choosing not to mince words in most situations should she be required to speak.

Perhaps as a result of her line of work and of her tendency to communicate wordlessly, Ravenna tends to come off as a very cold individual, almost always walking around with a cold shoulder to most people. She is very much against letting people get close to her, particularly humans, as she harbors a strong hatred for them. Even more so, if you carry even the slightest dislike for halflings, it would be nearly impossible to get along with Ravenna, even if the dislike is minor. She hates the fact that humans believe they have a sense of pride and control over halflings and, as a result, makes it her goal to dispose of those who believe halflings are inhuman and can be persecuted. This hatred stems from her past abuse at the hands of humans. She does, however, have a soft spot for halflings.

Despite her hatred of humans, however, Ravenna has a preference for passing as one, and works hard to maintain her visage as a human. Born with very little typical physical traits of being a halfling, such as ears, a tail, or other appendages, and what visible traits she has, such as her eyes and teeth, she prefers to hide. Often times she'll keep her eyes hidden behind sunglasses, and contrasting with her personality, she will almost never smile.

Ravenna is an extremely skilled hunter, one of the traits passed down through her feline halfling heritage. When it comes to moving stealthily through the darkness, Ravenna excels in it; she is extremely capable, both in darkness and daylight, of coming up almost silently behind people, and makes little to no noise when moving. This allows her to avoid attracting attention to herself, something which she revels in. The less attention she is attracting, the better off she is, in her opinion.

Ravenna's history began in the land of Seit, near the Edge of the World in a place known as the Valley of the Plains. There, Ravenna lived within a small village comprised of a mixture of different halflings, though the village only consisted of three, perhaps four families. Humans had a tendency to pass through this village, most of which were travellers and even still, they were a rarity. As a result, Ravenna grew up hardly knowing what humans were like, interacting only within halfling society, and even then, such a small community did not prove useful.

At the age of six, however, Ravenna's life took a turn for the worst. Word had got out that this particular halfling village lived in peace from the humans, and one particular group - a group of slave traders, to be exact, who specialized in halfling slavery - heard about this particular village, seeing it as nothing more than a gem for their trade. Entering the village, a number of the males there were slain, leaving the women, children, and any men too frightened or weakened to fight back enslaved by the traders. Ravenna's father, also a halfling like herself and her mother, was slaughtered in the action, as Ravenna cowered in the arms of her screaming mother. While her mother tried to shield her face from the gruesome horror, it was to no avail; the image, even as an adult, still haunts Ravenna, beginning the fuel to her hatred of humans.

Eventually, Ravenna was brought to Azul during the night, smuggled on to one of the ships with her mother and the remainder of the slaves. Each and every one of them wore shackles on both their wrists and feet, shackles which chafed and cut the skin. Ravenna, being young, learned quickly not to fight the shackles to avoid her wrists becoming chafed, though her ankles were not saved from the horror and bleeding. Some slaves' wounds became infected and, with their captors hardly caring for their safety and nutrition, died from it.

They were shipped off to various places, some being left behind due to incompetency, left to wander the lands and likely perish of starvation assuming the monsters didn't get to them first, others bartered with and sold to various types of people. Many of them couldn't have possibly known their fate when taken from their captors to their buyers, and while some might have ended up in situations where they were far better off and well-treated, others ended up in far worse conditions than being with their captors. Ravenna was one of the few that most didn't look at; she was small, young, not good for physical labour, but couldn't be bothered to be used for much else. For months, she was stuck bending to the will of her captors, her only saving grace being the fact that her mother was still with her.

That, however, was only a short-lived gracious light. Not long after Ravenna's seventh birthday, her mother was bought by a rather raggedy, old group of men who looked up on her win nothing but lust in their eyes. At the time, Ravenna did not understand the look in their eyes; that look of sheer hunger for her mother. Nevertheless, she was mentally and emotionally matured enough to know that not only was she never going to see her mother again, but she would never forget this place. The port. She did not know its name, but she would remember the place where the boats gathered to make trade.

Soon after that, however, Ravenna was eventually bought by a very interesting man. This man in particular did not care that Ravenna was young; she was forced to endure physical labour, tending to the man's crops and picking the various vegetables and sees he grew by hand. This man, knowing that she was a halfling and, eventually, learning that she had panther heritage, set her to tending to his crops at night, as he would then not have to worry about the effects of the daytime sun on her. She would also be able to inherently ward off intruders to the fields as well.

The work was hard, but Ravenna was not entirely opposed to it; her master did make sure that she was well-fed and given proper water, and she was glad that he allowed her to work the fields at nighttime rather than during the day. She could handle the swarms of bugs that came after her, but at nighttime, she was far more awake and able to work, not to mention she became much less dehydrated and needed less taking care of. For years, she worked for this particular man, who was unmarried and had no children of his own to speak of. In that respect, Ravenna was almost like a daughter to him.

Eventually, however, the man realized he would be soon growing old and, as a result, at the end of the harvest around Ravenna's eighteenth birthday, he took her to town and sent her back into the folds of the slave trade. While he was a kind man, he could not simply release her into the world, as that would break whatever oath he had made with the man who'd sold her to him. The young halfling was furious -- he had been so kind to her, yet he had still betrayed her in the end, releasing her back into the folds of slave labour.

She would not have it.

Upon being released to her new captors, Ravenna rebelled, fighting against her captors. She had managed to keep the blade of a pair of shears that had broken due to rust and age, fashioning it into an extremely crude dagger that she kept with her at all times. It was the first time Ravenna drew the blood of another, killing the man who was to be her new captor, just moments after being sold. After that, she darted through the crowds, using the speed and strength she had gained from years of work in the fields as a means to escape. Eventually, she managed to escape into a forested area, where she met a young man who took her under his wing as an apprentice. He could see the potential for this girl and her strong hatred for humans and, being a halfling himself, empathized with her.

This man was a travelling mercenary, skilled in the various arts of fighting, and taught Ravenna every bit of knowledge he knew, from fighting with a knife, to a short sword, to hand-to-hand combat and how to fight weaponless against an armed opponent. He taught her agility and reflex as opposed to physical strength, and taught her to subdue her emotions in battle. Ravenna, however, already had some degree of the last; her constant betrayals built up a shell around her, though it was not completely solidified as of yet. Ravenna found this man to be the first true friend and comrade she'd ever had, allowing her to fill the void her missing mother had left, even if only temporarily.

Soon, Ravenna became his accompaniment on jobs, learning the art of being a mercenary and, more specifically, the art of assassination. While her friend was more adept at mercenary work, Ravenna was skilled in assassination, providing adequate skills in the cover of night and utilizing the darkness to her advantage. Her skills as a huntress came to light as the night matured to its peak, her panther abilities kicking in.

Those abilities, however, could only take her so far. Hearing of their duty to protect a young woman from a group of pursuers - captors which had kept the young halfling girl for years until she had managed to grow the gumption to escape while they were not present - a group attacked them in the middle of the night, with Ravenna keeping watch throughout the nighttime hours. They were outnumbered six to two, and the captors were skilled fighters; even Ravenna, with her ranged abilities with dual-wielded crossbows and a short sword, could not hope to take on three of the adversaries at once. They fought a hard battle, managing to collectively take down five of the six men and still protect their charge.

The sixth, however, proved interesting. After defeating the fifth member, the sixth, who was rather large and physically strong, had her friend captive, a knife to his throat. Exhausted, her companion could not fight back.

Ravenna had once choice: their charge, or her friend. One of them would become the new captive. Looking into the eyes of her comrade, she saw the answer: save the girl. Her friend could look after himself. That, at least, was what Ravenna hoped. Fighting the urge to forget about the captive and save the life of her friend, Ravenna turned and ran, leaving her friend in the clutches of whatever fate would have him.

From then, Ravenna has grown an even stronger hatred for humans, particularly ones who persecute and mistreat halflings. While still an assassin, she works to free halflings from slave labour and mistreatment and give them some sense of freedom.



1. Ravenna's physical halfling traits are more subtle in comparison to other halflings. Her only noticeable traits are melanistic, as per her black panther heritage (dark hair, alabaster skin), catlike eyes, and catlike reflexes. Her eyes, however, are still a shade of bluish-grey. As well, her incisors are slightly more elongated, similar to the jaws of a cat, though she is adept at masking them.

2. Ravenna has night vision similar to a cat, as well as enhanced hearing and is able to move with little sound, making her a suitable assassin.

3. As a halfling she possesses more behavioural traits than physical ones -- she prefers to hunt at night, dislikes sunlight, and tends to sleep during the day. She does, however, make herself visible during the daytime on occasion, indulging in frequent catnaps as opposed to solid sleep like a human might.

4. She does not have ears or a tail like many other halflings.