Shezmai

Name: Belle “Shezmai” Dempsey
Age: 24
Race: Infernal Tiefling

Appearance:
	-Scarlet red skin, Ink black eyes, Wine red hair (and fur), with black lowlights
	-Emaciated figure
	-Rows of fractured-looking horns, growing in length as they approach her forehead. Ram-like horns just behind her temples
	-Gazelle-like hooves and a spaded tail
	-Slices in her arms, legs and ankles from rope and torture, Leaden bits still lodged in her right shoulder blade
	-The word "Shezmai" is branded into her right forearm

Personality:
	Calculating: Living in constant fear forced her to consider most every action.
	Caring: While she struggles to show it, she empathizes with the pain of others.
	Determined: Both her upbringing and her downfall have reinforced the ideas of “get it done” in Shezmai’s head.
	Stoic: Her heart is icy and her features have been trained not to express true emotions.
	Headstrong: Her infernal instincts have always been strong. While they aren't strong enough to counter her trained meticulousness, in times of stress she tends to become fiery.

Equipment:
	-Travelling outfit (Earthen brown, wool cloak; Forest green, frayed tabard bearing the crest of Newfield; Black knitted tights; Two belts; Simple canvas boots, stained slightly with blood)
	-Waterskin filled with clear scorpion blood
	-Couple of vials for rare blood
	-A sizable leather backpack
	-A simple brass pendant
	-Camping stuff (flint and steel, cast iron pot, bedroll, map, etc.)
	-A steel dagger

Abilities:
	Druidism: Druidism calls upon the elements of nature. While this restricts Shezmai's magic to a specific element, it's far freer than others. However, harnessing the elements is more taxing than other forms of magic, and sacrifices Shezmai's actual stamina and energy as opposed to mana.
	Blood Druidism: Allows for Shezmai to siphon, shape, and control blood. She is allowed to make spells up on the fly through this element.

(Fiendish Blood: Shezmai's fiendish blood allows for her to use her body as a catalyst, allowing her to cast spells without the need of a catalyst)


Background:
	Shezmai was born as Belle, in Almura, an oddity from the moment she breathed her first breath. Her father was possessed by a charming demon, who seduced her mother and impregnated her. When she was born, she was mostly human, asides from small lumps on her forehead. However, since her mother was a handmaiden to Lord Edmund, the Baron of Newfield, she had to be kept a secret.
Edmund kept the birth a secret, for his own sake. Allowing one of his maids to have a fatherless child would have been a disgrace, but he allowed it after she pleaded for him to show mercy. He made a dire mistake, however, when around the age of ten, the young girl grew a long, spaded tail, flicking happily behind her as she played.
	Lord Edmund was furious and threw the girl into the dungeons, locking her away from her mother so he could consult the church on what to do. The church, with malicious intent, realized little Belle could be used to lure more powerful demons in, and having her in the castle, she could be bait for the powerful fiends.
	Edmund accepted this and kept Belle locked in the dungeons. In fits of rage, he would take out his fury on the girl. He bound her wrists in rope and dragged her through the courtyard, kicking and striking her in his anger. He lashed her; he pressed a dagger to her throat on multiple occasions, but trained Belle to be as obedient as she could muster. One day, she broke a single dish, a gift from the neighboring lands, and Edmund grew furious. He had Belle strapped down, and filled a hollow mace with molten lead, smashing the instrument into the girl’s shoulder. The leaden pellets are still lodged in her skin to this day.
	With every day that passed after these incidents, Belle showed more of her demonic nature. Her teeth sharpened slightly into fangs, which were promptly filed down. Her nails into claws, filed as well. Her feet broke and shattered with every step, eventually healing as thin hooves, surrounded by black, cracked flesh. Her strawberry hair darkened into a deep wine, and her skin followed in suit. Her tail grew longer, almost sharper looking, and the transformation was completed when large, ram-like horns sprouted from her head, curling behind her ears. Small rows of more horns erupted as more abuse ensued, creating trails of the bone down her head.
	So that the people wouldn’t panic upon seeing the now thirteen year old girl, Edmund forced her to wear thick cloaks, large hoods, dark clothes, and lit some areas of the castle with only red light, to keep her identity hidden. The torment continued for nearly six years before she was visited.
	In the night, creeping in through her dreams, a shadowy figure promised Belle an escape. It promised her the power to save herself, all for the price of casting aside her flesh. She accepted, and her new name, Shezmai, was branded into her forearm by the foul magic.
	She awoke surrounded by the corpses of rats, cats, birds, and a sheep. All of them were drained of every drop of blood in them, and she sat in a pool of the fluid. She was born anew, a hemomancer and a warrior.
	During Edmund’s next big party, she walked straight towards him, completely uncloaked, dressed in merely a tabard of his own crest. She had two sacks with her, both filled with the blood of sheep and rats. She approached Edmund, and warped the blood into malignant shapes, attempting to strike him down, but was cast out by the clerics and paladins that attended the party, who then hunted her down and out of the castle.
	Sprinting, blood-soaked, and angry, she ran into her mother at the castle gate, fevered religion hot on her heels. Her mother clasped the tiefling’s hands around a simple pendant, a gift from her father. She kissed her daughter on the forehead, and opened the gates, allowing the demon escape from her assailants.
	Knowing what was likely her mother’s fate after allowing her to escape, Shezmai seeks out revenge on Lord Edmund. But to do that, she must master her art of hemomancy, to heal the sick, injure the corrupt, and turn the tides against Lord Edmund.