Cypress Deocei

"Give me a good battle with vicious Wylds over dinner with petty aristocrats any day."

Name:	Cypress Deocei
Candidate At:	?
Homeworld:	Mythicalae
Species:	Equita, Arabian variety
Age:	29
Sex:	Female
Height:	5'1" human formed, 13.6 hands equine formed
Hair:	Black
Skin:	Tanned olive
Fur:	Black
Eyes:	Dark violet
Residence:	Shivran Aerd
Position:	Hunter and warrior by choice, Heir to the Herd Lady by birth
Description:	Cypress is, in a word, stunning. In human form, a robust, well-curved, and well-muscled beauty with a heart-shaped face, exotically angled eyes, dusky skin, and tendrils of wavy black hair curling down her back. In equine form, a magnificent Arabian mare with a glossy black coat, silky mane and highly flagged tail, cleans lines and a smooth gait, her only marking a white sock on her right hind hock. Not even the grace, speed, and strength-- not to mention scars here and there-- that mark her as a warrior count as a blemish, but rather a badge she bears with honor. Though her preferred form is centauran, Cypress is perfectly capable and comfortable with every other form she can possess, be it goat-footed, human-footed, or hooved. Her clothes are generally black or violet when indoors, black or brown leathers when outdoors: solemn colors for a serious, earnest nature. Even so, when she is not actually out in the field, she does have a love for gold jewelry and gauzy silks. When she really wants to dress to impress, often-times her every-day acquaintances don't recognize her at first.
Personality:	Though devastatingly beautiful and capable of charming the fur off a cat should she choose to, Cypress is mostly disgusted with the social scene. She makes forays into it now and again, for political reasons and with a vague hope that somehow her peers might change and find means to impress her, but every time she returns to the Aerd and her "safe haven", frustrated by the pettiness of the upper classes, the dishonesty of the middle classes, and the hopelessness of the lower classes. Most of her kind say she has no herd instinct, and look down on her for it even while they respect her status and abilities, but she does, simply having a different idea of "herd" from the rest of her kith and kin. For those she respects or pities, she will fight to the death-- and she will fight, and fight well. The two things that save Cypress from living the life of a terribly cliché warrior princess are these: her sexual life, or lack of it, and her penchant for trying to get into situations which will get her killed. For the former, though she could have the bulk of the stallions of her species, and males of many other species for that matter, trailing after her hopefully, Cypress has only ever bedded one man, and she hated it. If anything, her preference runs to women, but she keeps that secret from most people so as to not "shame the family name", as her grandmother puts it; thus, she remains mostly chaste. The latter could be deemed a kind of passive suicide: Cypress is the queen of lost causes in that she will take up any supposedly impossible mission, more often than not entirely alone, as if she actually would prefer it if she were killed. Whether or not that is actually the case is impossible to determine, even to herself, so she doesn't trouble herself over it; up until now, anyway, the habit hasn't killed her yet.
Abilities:	First and foremost in skills is Cypress' physical fighting skill: she spent very little of her adolescence doing anything other than learning how to fight, and she learned her lessons well. Nearly any hand-to-hand combat weapon or pole-arm weapon she knows, though she has horrid aim with projectile weapons and is well aware of the fact, and she is deadly with her hooves and, in full equine form, her teeth. Her favorite weapons are axes of all sizes, the largest of which she uses Earth Majyck to bolster her strength while using so she can toss them around like feathers. Without the additional power of the Majyck, she can still use an axe, but not with nearly as much speed and accuracy. For Majyckal and psionic power, Cypress can access Earth powers for defense, the occasional offense, the rare healing, and the more common strength-enhancing. She is not primarily a mage, however, and very rarely relies on any Majyck but the strength-boosters. Her telepathic skill is minimal, useful only in very close range, but more effective for secrecy than a whisper, at any rate.
History:	Even though it sounds terribly overdone, it would be quite appropriate to call Cypress a "warrior princess", or at least warrior nobility. She is one of a very rare family of Equita Fleshshifters, one recognized by humans, other shifter species, and the bulk of the Equis people as leaders, royalty in a way, for their extreme purity of lineage. Her official title is Herd Lady Cypress and she is considered of the line bred closest to the Horse Ancestor, but she hates being called a lady and so refuses to introduce herself that way unless she can help it. When Cypress was younger, in her early teens, the bulk of her family was assassinated by a mixed group of rival Equita, prejudiced humans, and mercenaries. She was not the only one left alive, but she was one of a very few which included her grandmother and two cousins, one of whom lived at Shivran Aerd with her dragon and petitioned to take her in. She learned the bulk of her weapons and fighting techniques, as well as the core of her morals, from her cousin there, who was more of a working mare than nobility. She passed away from fever and old age in the endless winter of the Aerd a few years ago, though her Geperna-breed dragon has lingered on to continue Cypress' tutelage in magic. Having grown up at Shivran Aerd, the rather strange place is more of a home to her than the ancestral manor and herd on the plains, and so every time she is called away for her duties as tititular heir of her family name and political leadership, she hurries back as soon as she can. She has friends there, her own "herd" in a way, and some of them are quite odd indeed, such as Lucan Tarchia, a friendly but delusional human man, and Furbaide Vanvelt, a tiger-formed Felisian ranger.