rd app II

- A Hard Truth - (CoI, CoF Event)
Dura's purpose has long been for her people, and she has harbored and shared designs with a few to see the whole continent united without divisions of tribe and creed. To elevate them beyond what being on the back-foot against the Void has made them over so many years and to cleanse the corruption that once ran rampant in Kal Azul.

Trying to gain favor with the infamous brigand group, the Black Banner, does not go as expected. This subset of them remains stuck in their ways of wanton cruelty and might-makes-right. When Dura attempts to incite the weaker people under their sway to rebellion, many are slaughtered. Their faces haunt her, even after she kills their leader - the self-proclaimed 'Brass Baron'. It's the first sapient life she's taken.

- Uncovering Corruption -
Oftentimes Dura felt on the fringes of Providence's people, but tried to remain true to her purpose and her post in the Research Division. However when rumors of the Duke's status as a void-touched come to line, she shares concerns with Dagur Castilund of the Court. She shares with him her knowledge of a mark on one Orion Samaras - a close colleague of whom she has a growing fondness - out of concern for his possible corruption.

Dagur invites her to attend a meeting wherein the Duke is to be questioned and tested for his affiliation. It all goes south quickly, escalating to violence once the Duke Luka is exposed for being Void Touched.

Many after blame Luka's corruption simply on the mark, using it as what she sees to be a convenient excuse. She becomes quickly irritated with all members of the current court.

- A Seer's Suggestion -
With the changing of the guard, the leadership of Providence falling now to Regent Demetri Olym, Dura remains skeptical that much will change. She braces herself to leave and continue her work elsewhere, somewhere she views that will be more in line with her thinking while still providing resources that are of value to her final goals.

The Seer of Urosil, Chiriel Enathrae, tries to convince her otherwise. And succeeds. He cites that there are those of weak will that simply need guiding - such as Pascha - and all that is required is for those of greater will to step up and provide direction.

Dura realizes that there is no change without a catalyst. As much as she is reluctant to do so, she informs the newly minted Regent that she intends to take up the posting as Research Division lead. To her surprise, he immediately accepts.

- The Seas of Suu - (CoD)
Astral Sea travel has become a theme when traveling with her colleagues from Boundary. Her long-time allies from the center-settlement, Chuck and Renata, bring her along on their latest voyage. The Land of Su is a world beyond in the Sea, filled with water and surrounded in mysteries relating to the prior convergence.

Though their mission was largely one of exploration, there is always danger when it comes to going to strange worlds such as these. They run afoul of a relic in a long-forgotten reliquary, and more chiefly they run afoul of one of this city's guardians. Though they fight valiantly, and are victorious, Dura takes a first of a few brushes with death as a shark man removes her arm with its teeth. Captain Ka'rimah comes to her aid and they are able to escape with the relic, new answers, and even newer questions about the Land of Suu's origins and the story of its King.

- Beating the Betrayer -
The ceasefire between Providence and Deliverance was once active, if uneasy, and Dura was reluctantly willing to follow it. However, much of that changed on meeting Juniper one day in Boundary's market. A young draconian woman, one which Dura once armed from her own stocks of metal with the finest pistols she could make, Dura hadn't seen her in some time.

The Kal Azulan stopped to make small talk, inquiring as to where she'd been since leaving the Hammer. After Juniper guided her away towards the outskirts of Boundary, she then revealed that she had been a longtime traitor and working for Deliverance. Dura, now *far* less content to brook the forces that willingly serve the Void and Undeath, warns her to leave. Juniper opts to stay and she attacks her at once.

A minor political incident results from the altercation, but she remains firm and unapologetic for what she's done. Silence only lets the fiends fester.

- Building it Better -
The incident in the Land of Suu left Dura without an arm, which naturally had to be remedied one way or another. Able to manipulate crystalline structures, and aided by the help of her best friend and experienced medic Chuck Castilund, Dura contrives a design for a prosthetic fashioned from gemstones and powered with the help of a golem's core.

It is largely experimental, and the design thoroughly untested, but necessity for a working limb pushes her to implement it and use herself as a test subject. This is in stark contrast with her more typically methodical means of research and planning in most other facets of her life.

- The Drowned Legion - (CoD, World Event)
The Undead had come to roost on Sarea's shores, and as a Kal Azulan no longer content to be silent and peaceable in brooking their terrors and the terrors of the Void? It fell to Dura to answer the call to action. Not only by merit of her homeland being what it is but by being a member of Samsara's Boatmen, the Boundary based faction (though she still kept to her personal code to never pay direct homage to any one spirit).

One of the Spirits beneath Samsara's hierarchy had perverted the mana they were afforded, corrupted, and gave rise to legions of the undead that sought out the Pillar of Soteria. She marched with others of the Boatmen, those from Boundary and other places, and helped see the matter to rest once and for all.

- Heavy Is the Mantle - (Active Combat)
Though Dura doesn't believe in fate so much, some particularly cruel twists of it are present in her life. Case-in-point being the death of the Regent Demetri Olym. She'd come to be held in his esteem, invited on a trip of his to Highshield as well as conferring with him on advice for her aims to cleanse and purge extraplanar corruption. In return, she came to trust him and the course he'd set for Providence, even as the war began.

For this reason she declared her willingness to be his predecessor.

She hardly expected to be there to witness his death one evening while training with the soldiers of Providence and the call to alarm arose the tunnels; Deliverance's forces were there, attempting to take those that came and went. Dura and others charged to meet them, and so too did the Lord Demetri. Their forces did not win the day and Dura was there to witness his death at the hands of Anivia.

With the last strength in his limbs he indicated her. With his dying breath he made his declaration:

'Dura. Providence's Future. Take it from me.'

- Kismet -
Whether it was fate or coincidence, this time it worked in Dura's favor. Boundary's people had long been kept from being able to join Providence in fighting against Deliverance due to their accord to keep Shepherd Ostva - Demetri Olym's son - safe from the headsman's axe. This was severed when Shepherd was hurled into the void, and an extraction team from Boundary and Providence's own rankings was assembled to see him back.

Dura, feeling it her obligation as newly appointed Lady Regent, waited for them.

On their return there was a concern; Shepherd was bound by Anivia's magic in the form of a crystal collar, able to potentially able to be killed at any point by her will. It was purely kismet that much of her research surrounded manipulating such things. She was able to see Lord Olym's son freed by her hand, and Boundary officially joined Providence in their efforts to wage war against Deliverance.

- The War - (Active Combat)
The first of the fighting breaks out with Deliverance's advance on Providence's gates. The two halves meet in the open field of battle and, as Regent, Dura sees that it is her duty to stand with them. Researcher or not, the Azulan is faithful to the dying wishes of her predecessor.

Fate has her meet in the scrabble and scree of combat against Nova, an older wildkin whom she at first does not recognize. But, after some battlefield batter from her, Dura comes to the realization of precisely whom she's facing. This woman was once a cultist from the swamps, one that had tried to court her into their camp with promises of knowledge and kinship.

The two clash, and Nova emerges victorious to break past the line she makes at the tunnels of Providence. The Azulan regent is left to fight and fend off the armies of the undead that she brings up to thwart her attempts at defense.

Though Providence doesn't take the day, they are fortunate to have no casualties and only a few injuries amongst their ranks. Dura remains vigilant in her post as Regent. She assists in tending the wounded, counting heads as they return from the field and make their retreat, and overseeing the cremation of corpses in true Kal Azulan tradition.

- Temple of the Mooncaller - (CoD, Event)
Her and Chuck have long shared a desire to seek out Cygnus, each for their own reason. The call of hidden knowledge appeals to both of them, and her wildkin compatriot is one of the spirit's more fervent Sarean worshippers. After they'd found a star chart leading to one of his temples in the care of a lesser spirit, they plot a course to follow the path it leads them to.

A temple hidden beneath the waves rises to meet them when they solve its riddle, but it must have long laid dormant and untrod for a reason. Its greatest guardian, a spirit of gales and winds, resided at its peak and had been corrupted deeply by Void magics. Their group of intrepid souls quelled it, Zayne Hardland cleansing it, and Dura experienced another brush with death.

Despite the Voidic corruption cutting off her access to her evocation magics, and making her more unstable than usual beside, she remained resolute to her purpose and overcame the sickness it afflicted her with.

- The Albatross -
After the first pitched battle against Deliverance, Dura continued her duties as Regent in much of the politicking. Coordinating with other leaders, arranging promotions among their ranks of competent combatants, creating a line of succession among her newly composed court, and ensuring that those she now viewed as under her care were prepared for as many possible inevitabilities as she could envision.

Chuck then came from Boundary, bearing What's Mark from the Devil's Game, and offered it to her.

Knowing full well its dangers, as told to her by Dagur Castilund whom was present, she accepted its burden on herself. To meet the Dragons presents an opportunity to complete all she has ever hoped for - who else would know how to cleanse her home and see it free from ruin than the creators themselves? Potential death is a price she is willing to pay to give her people what they deserve.