Neva Umbrazi

Description
Neva is a scrawny wizard with a sweet and sunny disposition.

She stands at about 5’ 7” and is a skinny little thing with no real curves or muscles to speak of. She is an albino with extremely pale skin and freckles that pepper her nose and the tops of her cheeks. Neva's eyes are a pale but vibrant sea-glass green, slightly reminiscent of those of a snake. Her hair is a silvery white with a loose wave and her long, choppy bangs often hang around her eyes. She usually keeps her hair half tied up into a little bun and sometimes adds a little braid here and there (lately she's kept a few feathers from a party kill braided into her hair). She has full lips and a prominent gap between her two front teeth.

Neva has several piercings in her ears (7 in her right, 4 in her left) which she fills up with stud and rings. On her left earlobe, she wears a fang shaped green gemstone earring that was given to her by her mother when she came of age. She has a small gold ring piercing on right nostril and her fingers are usually covered in many small gold rings. There are black and white tattoos all the way down her back to her hips, across her shoulders, arms, and hands. They are done in traditional Pyrian design and designs that are significant to her family. The most recognizable one is of two snakes, one white and one black, intertwined on her back.

Her clothes generally consist of very light and opulent linens and silks, perfect clothing for the dessert climate of Pyrias. At the moment, she wears loose black pants and a long-sleeved lavender tunic that reaches just past her hips. The tunic is heavily embroidered with small pearls and gold thread. She's never worn a bra in her life (high fantasy guys). Neva has given up her usual sandals and slippers for fur lined boots since traveling farther north and has become quite fond of her dark purple winter coat and white fluffy hood. If you look closely, you might catch a peek at her snake familiar, Valerian, tucked into her hood and curled around her neck.

Neva tends to be very positive and kind, if a bit shrill, and isn't the biggest fan of being too close to battle. She's skittish and has always lacked the inherent strength that her family prizes, so she tries prove her worth through magic. While Neva may not enjoy killing and hurting others, she enjoys power and is comfortable flaunting it due to her upbringing. She's feels just as at home casting fireballs as she does playing silly pranks with minor illusion.

History
The Umbrazi family have been a prominent military institution since the founding of Pyrias. Neva’s parents, Sala and Marina Umbrazi, have been functioning as commanders for the military as well as participating in foreign affairs due to the emperor’s disinterest. Their sigil is that of the poisonous white snakes that hide in the pale sands of the dessert. They have a barracks in the capital city called The Serpent’s Hold where the city guards are trained. The Umbrazi are also in charge of selecting the palace guard. Their family home, the Pearled Oasis, is a little ways out from the capital city. It’s one of several grand estates built around small oases in the desert between the capital and the palace.

Her father and mother are both regal and tough, constantly pushing their children to be as graceful and as strong as they can be. Neva was close to both of them and they went back and forth between coddling her because of her weakness and aggressively trying to get rid of it through training. Neva grew up with a great sense of pride in her family and country, knowing that she was loved, but also knowing that she was a disappointment. Her older brother Yaleni “Yali” was always kind and warm to her, if a bit protective. They remained very close despite him often being away as a part of the palace guard (and later the head of it). Her little sisters, the twins Zasha and Zima, often made fun of her and played pranks on her for being smaller and weaker even though she was older, but they still loved each other. They started interning at the Serpent’s Hold in order to take over there when they come of age.

Neva was born in midsummer, and was immediately considered to be a very auspicious child. Being born in midsummer was considered a sign of strength and so was being born with the “Serpent’s Blessing” (ye olde fantasy albinism kind of) like her mother. Being the only child to resemble the white snake of their family sigil was a great honour, but Neva never lived up to expectations. She was expected to become head of the family, like her mother before her, but it became obvious that it would never happen. She spent most of her life in leisure at the Pearled Oasis and was educated very well, but was always very obviously adverse to athletic feats and especially violent confrontation. She quickly began training with her parents and older brother, but nothing helped. At sixteen years old, they decided she should stay in the capital, at the Serpent’s Hold, to go though bootcamp with the new guards. But by the end of the first week, the commanding officers were all convinced she’d get herself killed if she continued. Her parents backed off her combat lessons at this point, letting her study instead. She didn’t spend much time at court because she was embarrassed of her failure and didn’t want it to reflect on her parents, especially now that her older brother was so established and her younger sisters showed such promise.

When she was eighteen, her family started hosting a prominent family from Aspal for several months out of the year as a show of diplomacy during peace talks. This was when she was introduced to Viggo. Neva knew her that parents and the Nazarov family were hoping for a marriage, but they simply became best friends. As a Half-Siren, Viggo had some magic and got Neva interested in it, though he could not teach her his kind of magic. They would write letters when he wasn’t in Pyrias and one day, he sent her the instructions for a beginner spell he thought she’d like. Eventually, she learned Find Familiar and summoned a Celestial in the form of a white snake, naming it Valerian. This was when she decided that she could be strong like her family wanted (and her country needed) by using magic instead. She would practice secretly, not letting her family know. Her mother had instilled a fear and hatred of magic in her and her siblings since she was young. The last time an Umbrazi had dabbled in magic, it had lead to the death of her great grandfather when he was still in his prime.

When the dragons came, her family fought and she felt useless, only being able to conjure a snake. Her sister Zasha almost died during one of the battles, and was left with burn scars covering her left arm and climbing up to her jaw. Neva felt more and more guilty every time she saw her, feeling she was not doing her duty to protect her younger siblings. She spent the war either hidden away in the Pearled Oasis with battle plans and death tolls, or out giving the bad news to people who had lost family or livelihoods. After the Pyrian stars defeated the dragons, Neva was more convinced than ever that she needed magic to become a great warrior.

Because the country was still recovering from the damage of the attacks, Neva’s mother and father decided that she should go to Aspal instead of the Nazarov family coming to Pyrias that year. Neva was excited, thinking she’d get to stay with Viggo, but her family was intent on one last ditch attempt at toughening her up by sending her on an exchange to the military academy in Aspal. They sent her on her way with the strongest escort they had, a Goliath Barbarian named Vlad. So she had concocted a plan with Viggo. She would trick her low intelligence companion into bringing her farther North, to Glimmerwell Magic Academy, instead of the Willowfell Military Academy. Viggo would write letters from Aspal, pretending to be the officials, while Neva would write letters pretending she was at the military academy.

Neva spent a year at Glimmerwell, excelling in her courses and making friends at the academy. But it was all over when the headmaster of Glimmerwell sent a letter of progress to the Umbrazi household along with a request for next year’s tuition. Viggo got busted, they knew immediately that he had to have helped her, and went straight to Aspal to interrogate him. Viggo sent Neva a letter to warn her that her parents were furious and that they were coming for her as fast as they could. Neva panicked. She hadn’t had enough time to become a powerful wizard yet, she’d only managed to learn the basics so far. Desperate for more time and the means to get more power, she stole the biggest and oldest grimoire she could find in the library, packed up her things, and disappeared into the city of Feypass - running into new friends almost immediately.

Matthew Dunn
Matthew snuck up on Neva. She made a conscious decision to try to make friends and cheer him up when she realized how sad he was, and their friendship kind of grew. She managed to figure out his love for head pats and has tried to take care of him as much as she could (“no, you can’t have the bacon tea”) and explain things to him (“Matthew no, a sheet isn’t formal wear”). She’s still not sure why he doesn’t seem to like hugs, but is hopeful for the day he might accept one. Even though she knows the danger he’s in (and the rest of the group by extension) because of the cult and the demon inside him, she refuses to entertain the possibility that he won’t be ok. She often feel inadequate because she doesn’t know how best to help him without hurting him.

Katya Uminska
BIG LORGE STRONG GIRL! Katya was the first person in the group that Neva gravitated towards. She’s Pyrian, strong as hell, and reminds her of her family very much. The feelings are complicated somewhat by how much she idolizes Katya’s abilities. On the one hand, she’s in awe of her strength and stature, on the other, Katya reminds her of everything she was expected to be but could never fulfill. She feels safe with Katya, realizing how soft and sweet she is on the inside. She’s amused by her low intelligence, bold attitude, and love of cats. Seeing her reunite with her lost father made her want to return home or at least let her own parents know that she’s alive. She felt a few scars from the war heal just seeing her have a part of her family back.