Morbidia Aren

"I yearn for the times when our family was not weak, when the name Aren rang clear and true and struck terror into the hearts and minds of commoner, noble and magician alike!"

- Morbidia Aren Morbidia Aren is an Aren mage of mostly forgotten origins. She has spent decades quietly working on her own matters and studies, eventually resurfacing around year 5 of the Sixth Age, perfectly in time to witness and fan the flames for the beginning of the Second Aren Civil War.

She is an extremely skilled bone mage and laid out the foundations for her own faction in this Civil War, a faction that quickly gained the derogatory byname The Rat, after Beatrice Aren's faction in the first Aren Civil War.

Facial
Morbidia's face can be considered a work of art. It is gaunt, like much of her body, and in the right light can be seen to appear downright skeletal, as if the skin and muscle on her face is merely an afterthought added. Lines on her face suggest that if the skin were less tightly stretched across her bones, she would have friendly wrinkles. The most dominating feature in her face are her bright emerald Aren eyes. They have an uncanny sharpness to them and tend to glow mildly whenever Morbidia undertakes any magical activity.

Her mouth is thin and her lips pale; her nose was probably broken at one point but has clearly healed up very well. Over this spectacle grows a shock of deep black hair, another strongly identifying feature of the Aren family. Morbidia keeps her hair free and loose, though moderately well kept. When it is released from whatever hood she might be wearing, it will flow as if washed and brushed regularly, but allowed to gain a natural mess from frequent- and indeed almost constant- activity.

Bodily
From a bodily perspective, Morbidia shows off several of her most defining traits. She is, as expected of a mage, nowhere near peak physical condition and can even appear weak and brittle. Gaunt, bordering on unhealthily thin, unusually pale, she tends to stand bent over the stick that is her weapon of choice. It is very rare to see her venture out without the stick she uses for walking and leaning on, and for most people it seems likely that were it to be taken away, she would most likely fall over.

Morbidia's fingers and hands are notably well kept and very clean, despite her reputation for being a grave digger and necromancer- occupations that frequently sully the hands of their perpetrators. She tends to wear dark or dully colored robes, favoring dark greens, black and grays in her color choice.

Combative
A reasonably prominent member of the Aren family, Morbidia considers herself to be one of, if not the, best osteomancers currently alive. She is an extremely skilled magic user and well versed in several schools even beyond her field, though her speciality is Galethornian magic, especially the path of bone magic. When it comes to a battle of skill in this field, she is extremely strong as long as she can procure or find any piece of bone in her vicinity- and it is known that she is not above abusing her own body in order to provide such. Particularly worrying is the fact that her mastery of bone magic gives her opportunity to attack from any angle, and puts any foe with their bone exposed to her grasp at significant risk. When it comes to raw magical power, Morbidia can step up to several very powerful mages of history, though she knows very well that there are those she cannot hope to best in a battle of raw strength. In fact, she has repeatedly used this knowledge to her advantage by mentally wearing down more powerful enemies and baiting them into using strong abilities with only a miniscule amount of her own power used.

Throughout a number of battles and duels she has displayed a good grasp of battlefield control, able to use attacks toward her to her own advantage and abusing clever positioning to avoid, block or dodge enemy spells. She also appears to have a decent amount of foresight in her strategic choices, evidenced by some of her carefully calculated movements made in order to put her enemies in strategically disadvantageous positions.

Furthermore, Morbidia should be considered an accomplished necromancer and death mage, able to survive in almost any environment and capable of summoning body doubles of herself seemingly at will. She has displayed moderate control over these doubles, though they are clearly used more as distractions than actual weapons. It is presumed that she may be immune to poison as well.

Non-combative
When it comes to powers beyond the battlefield, Morbidia can care for herself quite well. Though she can hardly be considered a master cook, she is capable of providing wholesome meals for an entire family if necessary and has displayed a particular liking to the harvesting of crops.

She should be considered, by virtue of her magical studies, an accomplished wet nurse and doctor, well capable of curing most injuries. Notably, she appears to be at a loss when faced with regular illnesses or poisoning, both ailments that cannot be easily remedied through the fields of her magical aptitude. In addition, Morbidia has a lucky hand when it comes to embroidery.

Trivia

 * Morbidia's Ravens are called Hugin and Munin.
 * Morbidia possesses an artifact called a life weave, a hanging curtain that contains intricate information about the long years of her life.