Damasa

Info
Damasa is a mercenary currently in the employ of Exotech Lopp, and fills the roles of scout, sniper, and infiltrator for the group. Damasa is a skilled marksman and prefers to keep a safe distance, but can make use of a limited selection of shadow magic spells to augment her capabilities in close range. She has a talent for lockpicking, though she lacks knowledge to apply this skill to locks augmented by magic or magitech. She wields a rifle, a dagger, and a pistol, and has hand to hand combat training so she can rely on her claws in a pinch.

Early Life
Damasa was raised under the watch of the Legions as a child, like any cub in the fahrar. She was the runt of her group and never hit a growth spurt, which provoked an undesired attention from the other cubs. She quickly learned that while she might not be as strong as the others she could still outsmart them, and her antics and retaliations made her an easy choice to assign to Ash.

Once old enough to begin proper Ash Legion training, Damasa took quickly to her lessons. She had a natural talent for marksmanship and a small selection of thief magics, however she struggled to learn close quarters combat and other skills useful to a spy -such as disguise and impersonation- and did not focus on developing these skills since she was not immediately good at them. Though she could maintain admirable patience at the shooting range, she displayed a contradictory brashness in other disciplines even when wielding handguns rather than a rifle. This combined with her straightforward nature, aptitude for stealth, and small size lent well to a role as a scout, and soon enough she was placed into a warband of other young charr destined to be Ash scouts. This new Keen warband was sent on assignments behind enemy lines, be they ghosts, humans, charr, or eventually elder dragon minions.

The Dragon Wars
The Keen warband played a valuable, but in no way unique, role in scouting the Orrian lands in preparation for various assaults and in time caravans. Throughout the campaign they suffered very minor injuries until their Legionnaire died, sacrificing himself so the rest could escape, when the warband was ambushed. Not long after his death the competition to fill his position started, and though another was inevitably promoted the process left scars on the 'band. Their new Legionnaire proved to be a less effective leader, a problem made worse by their fracturing connection with each other, but little could happen before Zhaitan was slain and the first war ended. The warband returned to lower stakes missions and all seemed well again.

Until Mordremoth awoke to threaten Tyria, that is. They encountered a few tendrils and mordrem in the world with no problems, but after the Pact fleet was laid low Keen warband found themselves assigned to search and rescue in an effort to aid the Pact's response. Getting into the deep jungle was challenging enough, but the warband managed to be among the first to reach the Verdant Brink. They would also be among the first casualties since the airships fell from the sky. Their Legionnaire led them into a clearing that quickly became a battleground, and a slaughter even quicker. Mordrem, tendrils, and pocket raptors tore the warband to shreds and only Damasa, who had remained on higher ground, lived long enough to flee. She managed to make it back to the growing Pact base where she gave her report: none found, all others lost. The Pact leadership dismissed her services and was sent to rest and await new Ash orders, but the guilt of her cowardice overwhelmed her and she fled again. Not from the dragon, but this time from herself and her legion, after all, what is a charr without a warband.

A Pirate's Life
Damasa fed herself with money from bounties and odd jobs in Lion's Arch until she encountered a new direction to take her life. A human necromancer by the name of Kadira offered her a place with a crew of pirates, and bribed her with a taste of the treasures she could earn: a golden pendant with a blood red jewel in the center strung on a steel chain. Damasa took the offer and her new life as an outlaw began. The crew became the closest thing to a warband she had in a long time, but she could never trust them completely aside from Kadira; not even the captain, a fellow charr, could be trusted. Kadira alone put her trust in Damasa, even the captain of the ship valued wealth above all else. Damasa proved herself a valuable member of the crew despite her doubts, and as her trust with Kadira grew she became more involved with the necromancer's experiments despite not understanding them. She listened to her friend ramble about theories of life force, spirits, and souls but could never grasp the concepts nearly as well as Kadira had, until one day a favor was asked of her.

The pendant Damasa wore since her first day truly outside the law was actually a phylactery, Kadira told her, and it was time to put it to use. The necromancer offered her a new gold chain, more like a collar, with a simple locking clasp on the back, that the pendant could be locked inside. Engraved on the chain were various symbols and sigils that Dama couldn't make heads or tails of, but it was all part of the experiment she was told. If it worked, she would become unstoppable, and if she were unstoppable the two could have their own ship free of the captain's greed. It was an enticing offer, and Damasa took it. The ritual proceeded. Though she cannot recall what happened during Kadira's ritual, she can speak of the results; Damasa felt stronger than ever, particularly with her magic, then everything went hazy.

Betrayal
Damasa's memory truly returns when she has put a knife in the captain's stomach. She didn't know why the coastline was only desert, or recognize the large pyramids, only bits and pieces could be recalled. Or why the rest of the crew was standing idly behind her. She couldn't make out the captain's words either, but she could make out the tone of disbelief between shaking breaths. Damasa could feel Kadira's hand on her shoulder as the light left the captain's eyes, and after the other charr went silent the corpse began to move. Like the rest, the captain joined Kadira's fleet of undead. She thanked Damasa for her help, her grip moved to Damasa's necklace, and released the phylactery from its place in the chain. As soon as it was removed Damasa was released from her haze, but instead of freedom it was replaced with wracking pain and a draining weakness. She roared, pleading for it to be returned, but that was not part of Kadira's plan. Again she demanded, and again her relief was denied. Damasa lashed out, still begging for the pain to end, and the undead closed in around her. She brought claws to dead flesh and tore one apart, and for a moment the pain was less and her head was clearer. She did it again, and this time her twice-over victims began to fight back.

By the end they all lay dead again and Damasa had cornered Kadira in the ship's hold, a pistol drawn on her former friend. Damasa made her demand one more time, to give her back the pendant. She was told she would never understand the phylactery or its unique bond, flawed as it was. The sound of gunshots filled the ship until her pistol was left empty. She reclaimed the pendant and locked it back into her chain, itself still locked on her neck, and with it the pain and weakness finally subsided. Even the haziness failed to return. With her mind finally returned Damasa made her preparations, readied the dinghy, and set alight a fuse for the powder kegs. It was not a large explosion but it was enough, and the ship sank off the Elonian coast as Damasa rowed towards the shore on the horizon.

A New Rise
Though freed from Kadira's control, she found that the pendant had a new, more sinister purpose after its creator's death. It now had to be fed with the life force of others or else it would start to drain her own, and at times she could swear she heard Kadira's voice. This inevitably led her to hunt for food, a necessity either way in Elonia, but when defending herself from a lone thief raiding her camp she found that killing people had a greater effect at satiating the pendant. Soon she took up bounty work again, only for war to overshadow her life once more. The chaos made finding an escape from the southern Elonian lands hard, but she managed to carve a path through the thinnest parts of Joko's undead and Balthazar's constructs back to Amnoon. She finally caught a refugee ship back to Lion's Arch just as news of Balthazar's defeat reached the city, but even so she took the chance to go home. It was not a short journey, however, and she had to feed the amulet. She would wait as long as she could stand, but it wasn't long enough. She felt guilty for sacrificing the life of an innocent, but the whispers said it was for her own good. For the greater good.

Once back home in Lion's Arch Damasa returned to her life as a bounty hunter, though she developed a more ruthless reputation this time. She made sure to take every dead or alive contract she could, despite capture usually paying more. It was not a wealthy life she lived, but it was stable, and she almost started to forget what it was like to be under the control of another, be they Legion or tyrant. Then an usual job offer came her way, an asura looking for a crew for a job. She had been alone for so long she actually thought about the offer. It probably couldn't provide her the sustenance she needed, but it was a chance to be part of a team again. She debated with herself for a few moments. Then she took the job.