Frostvein
Name
Palaryx
Age
Adult
Gender
Female
Sexuality
No preference
Type
Ice
Appearance
Palaryx has quite the striking silhouette. Her compact and powerful build emphasises her predatory nature, and if she holds herself upright she stands at around 16 feet in height, though she generally stays much closer to the ground when on land, due to crawling on her wings and short hind legs rather than truly walking. She's much longer than she is tall, particularly when counting her very long tail, with a wingspan almost as wide as she is long.
Her four-limbed, wyvern body structure means she has a deep keelbone, with a lot of muscle loading the front half of her body to support both her large wings and long, arcing neck. In comparison to the stocky muscle of her torso, her wings are large and sweeping, with hooked talons at the front to aid her in walking when she's not airborne. In contrast to her larger front half, her back legs are very short and muscular, only mildly useful for propelling herself along the ground, with large talons designed to grip onto sea ice and stabilise her, rather than being designed for land-based movement. Her tail is long, acting as a counterbalance to her heavier torso and a rudder for steering in flight.
The most noticeable feature of Palaryx is that she is largely covered in feathers. A thick layer of downy feathers cost most of her torso and abdomen, covered by a layer of shiny waterproof feathers for insulation. The feathering along her wing bones, face and legs is much thinner, smaller and sleeker, completely petering out and revealing scales on her feet and snout. The membranes of her wings completely lack any feathering. Most strikingly, a crest made of elongated feathers runs the entire length of her party, from her head down her tail, which is completely covered in these long feathers. These feathers aid in communication, often flaring and settling back down in concert with her emotions, while the feathers on her tail are used for braking and steering.
Her skull structure is overall very sharp and narrow, with a strong, bony upper jaw that acts almost like a beak, though her mouth is still populated by rows of devastatingly sharp, curved teeth. Her eyes contain two nictating membranes - one which is near-invisible and used for reducing the glare from sunlight on snow or water, and the other milky-white that prevents seawater or snow from getting in her eyes - and a tapetum that causes her slitted pupils to reflect light, allowing her visibility in low light conditions. Two sharp, sweeping horns lie at the back of her skull, very narrow and sleek in shape.
In terms of colour, Palaryx is largely pale with an iridescent sheen. She's not quite pure white, though it is very close, with the visible scales on her snout and feet a slightly darker, blue-tinted shade than the feathering. The bases of each of the feathers along her crest, however, are an inky black, reflecting with an oily iridescent - this colouration is not visible when the crest lies flat, but when she's flaring it or steering/braking using it, it becomes starkly obvious. Her wing membranes contain more of a gradient, moving from almost pure white to a stormy grey at the fringes. Her talons and horns are black, as are the fine scales around her eyes, which are a bright, piercing amber.
Her voice is naturally a deep, resonant timbre, usually very soft, though this is in stark contrast to her more draconic vocalisations, which tend to be almost painfully loud screeching whistles and roars, useful for communicating over vast distances but not particularly helpful for close-quarters communication. Due to the cold air that seems to perpetually seep from her, she seems to almost lack a scent entirely - like a crisp winter's morning, she smells like the cold, rather than anything specific.
Personality
Palaryx is happy to socialise and be involved in conversation, in fact even enjoys and seeks out company, though she herself tends to be rather quiet and observant rather than an active participant. It takes her a while to truly open up to someone, though she's perfectly happy to be polite and friendly with them before she feels comfortable with them, but before she's comfortable with someone she's much more likely to only listen to them with occasional words in return, rather than genuinely participating in the conversation with her own opinion. She tends towards being very patient and understanding, an excellent listener.
Since her biology is designed more for flight than for moving on land, she's usually far more cheerful and inclined towards conversation while airborne, and more withdrawn and reserved on the ground, where she feels more vulnerable. Particularly, she has a tendency on land to be overprotective of her food and personal space, whereas in the air she's more tolerant towards intrusions.
Which humans interest you
Palaryx would fit best with someone who's more of a firebrand, willing to speak their mind and act on their beliefs, to complement her more laid-back and patient nature.
Abilities
Frost Breath: Palaryx is able to exhale supercooled air. She can control the speed of the chill, whether allowing it to seep from her open jaws in a visible fountain of mist, or exhaling it more explosively to instantly freeze whatever it comes into contact with.
Cold Aura: Being a creature of ice and snow, Palaryx instinctively draws on the warmth around her, which manifests in a very cold area surrounding her. She can control whether this is simply a slight chill in a small radius or whether she seems to radiate freezing temperatures in a broader area, but she can never fully turn it off.
Frostbitten Claws: Whereever Palaryx's talons or fangs wound someone, the intense cold contained there almost instantly causes frostbite or frostburn. The leaching cold also often causes sluggishness or lethargy in the victim, along with the pain from the frostbite and the wound itself.
Strengths
+ Excellent flier, for both short and long-distance flights. Not super agile, but fast and with a lot of stamina, can glide at high velocity for extended periods of time.
+ Can tolerate extremely low temperatures with no difficulty or discomfort.
+ Keen senses, particularly sight.
+ Excellent at diving or dive attacks, whether that's against something in the air, water or on land, she's used to crashing through thin sea ice to snatch prey.
+ Can glide almost silently, very stealthy in the air.
Weaknesses
- Practically incapable of camouflage in non-snowy areas, thanks to her pale colouration causing her to stand out really obviously.
- Complete intolerance of high temperatures, she overheats very easily thanks to the insulating feathers and the way she absorbs nearby warmth
- No stamina in the water, very bad at swimming - the initial dive is easy for her, but it tends to be a bit of a struggle after that point.
- Not particularly coordinated on land, she can walk for a long time but she's not designed for it and is rather slow, and it tends to cause pain after a while.
- Difficulty taking off and landing, particularly out of water, it's usually a bit of a process to get airborne, even if she's in her element once she's up there. She usually tries to take off from elevated locations where she can drop down into the air rather than actually taking off normally.
Crush
Open
Mate
None
Kin
None
Affiliations
Open
Other