Cerise

Gender: Girl
Pronouns: She/her
Place of Origin: The Shimmering Shallows Isles, Churnscar Wharf, Sea Of A Thousand Currents, Sornieth
Occupations Held: Nomad, divine interpreter, clan leader

Physicality:
Cerise was an imposing figure. She could stand still as a statue and just watch you, but the intensity behind her eyes would freeze you too. The warped constellations painted across her wings were almost hypnotic when she slowly flapped them, drawing attention to her the same way light gets sucked into a black hole. Her spines are sharp and solid, well groomed for effectiveness rather than vanity alone. Her silhouette was unmistakable to those who knew her and the power she commanded with every breath.

Personality:
Cerise is certainty. When she believed something, it was not opinion, but fact. To contradict her was to make one's self a fool, and to choose to be a fool was tantamount to madness. She had little patience for such things. She was a visionary who sought to find an order to all reality, and keep things in their place for the betterment of everything. She would speak first, and everyone would listen. She had no time for idle chatter, she would not allow herself to be bothered by idiots and their prattling on. She knew what she was doing, and no one would get in her way.
She was an extremely self centered person, and she really didn't know it. She loved others, but this love was mostly a reflection of herself; she would find someone who could be a blank slate and write what she wanted to see onto it. She was intimidating and gave no ground. She didn't have much in the way of a traditional sense of humour, but she could find things amusing for their novelty.
She had a deep seated need for purpose in her life, and was willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of such. Things were either useful to this or not, and the same went for other dragons. But despite everything about her, Cerise lived certain of her belief that she was not only right, but perfectly normal, and in fact the standard by which others should be judged.

History:
Cerise came to the clan out of an interest in Mephistopheles, whose quietness she took for thoughtful solemnity. Finding there was little going on in his head, she was still more endeared by him, and followed him to his home.
There she met Droseran, and heard their theories and stories of their time as a retix. Coming to understand this breadth of experience in a religious light, Cerise felt a flame lit within them. Considering the potential lightning in a bottle of being present at the start of something so potent, she decided to stick around and become a loyal student and devotee of the ideas presented. She would goad Droseran into distilling their understanding of things into a quasi-doctrine, and would write it down. She would soon pride herself as a scribe, and seek to raise her and Mephistopheles' children to be faithful.
She wanted to grow their little trio into a full clan to worship Droseran and the concept of retixs. She believed that, like retixs grew more powerful through receiving more attention from higher deities, dragons could becomes more powerful through the attention of retixs. She sought to claim that power. She and Mephistopheles had a brood, and int hat first brood came her daughter Yvel, who's dreamy nature she considered a sign of divinity, reading into her daughter as a reincarnated retix. She didn't spend much time on her other children, Ebrejia and Anto, putting her energy instead into trying to trigger memories of past life from Yvel. She adored her daughter, and as the clan grew made sure she was worshiped as well.
Cerise initially pointed to Droseran as a figurehead leader, but it was obvious to all that she was the real power in charge. What Cerise said would always go. She had a ceremony performed every night to praise the resident retixs, and a communal feast afterward; no one ate without attending.
Her other children, Ebrejia especially, were mere irritants to her. She scolded or outright ignored them, keeping Yvel away from them so as not to corrupt or waste her potential. She was much the same with her second brood, bothering herself little with her daughter Madeleir, and using her son Pheredon as was convenient due to his loyalty to her and her ideas.
Over time, Cerise became disenchanted with Mephistopheles, and with Droseran. She came to understand that the original retix thought little of her plans, and mostly just humoured her. She recognised Droseran had no great ambition- they held the keys to power, to another world, and were still content just to play around in the mud with their sprouts. Cerise felt a certain rage that she had wasted as much time waiting around on the pair as she had, and wanted to move forward. But she was concerned about her ability to move the faith the centre solely on Yvel, considering her favourite daughter had found a mate in a skydancer named Medarel who proved determined to lessen the totality of Cerise's control over her.
Just as her frustration was reaching its peak, a new retix appeared to Cerise, taking the form of an aberration. Her name was Pashitrix, and she was willing to actively work with her. She wanted nothing more than something amusing to be at the centre of. Cerise felt uneasy with her lackadaisical nature and such, but was content to use her regardless.
The two crafted a plan; they would grow the clan to include two of every species of dragon, a male and a female. Then, they would repair the spaceship Droseran came to Sornieth on, and increase it's size enough to take the whole Droseran Domain aboard it. Then they would ascend to the heavens and from there transition into The Theoretix Plane, becoming retixs and thus immortal, making the clan an endless place for dragons beyond the physical world.
To achieve the power to leave this plane of existence, and to fuel their ascension, there would need to be sacrifices made. When a member of her own family, the founding family of the Droseran Domain, began spreading lies that the clan was facing an invasion of outsiders, she punished him by transferring his soul into the body of a common podid. Madeleir, being his mother, was furious- Cerise locked her away after her outburst.
In the wake of this, though, Cerise became interested in the idea of transfering souls more generally, and sought to experiment with doing so further.

Current Situation: She is a powerful force of personality, sure of herself and commanding by nature. Every tiny movement emanates certainty and control; weak-willed people are drawn to her as someone to lead them. Casting aside the focal position in name alone, shirking such to Droseran, she acts as the true clan leader, manipulating without a second thought even without meaning to. She sees her own perceptions in others and simply assumes no one else could see things another way, strong arming them by presumption alone, her conviction persuading them to recontextualise their own actions and beliefs.

Character Interaction:
Ebrejia: The mother and daughter were always more foe than family, truth be told. Ebrejia saw Cerise's 'faith' for what it was; a need for control. And she never could keep her mouth shut, not about that or anything much else, so she was consistently in the **** for it. It didn't help how much Ebrejia thrived under a spotlight, and Cerise was far too concerned with Yvel to pay her any mind whatsoever. Her hatred brewed at a young age, and her mother soured on her in turn. Ebrejia would act out for attention, Cerise would yell at her or ground her or put her to chores and then scold her if she didn't get them done, on repeat.
They never really had a nice moment, the both of them were too strong willed to let things slide for even a moment. Ebrejia once caught Cerise humming a tune, and thought to add a melody of her own. But Cerise hadn't been coming up with a song from nothing, but remembering something from her youth, and sneered at the interruption.
Ebrejia's hate of Cerise, with how Cerise's ideas permeated the whole Domain, bred to hate of the whole clan. As such Cerise not only considered Ebrejia a failure as a daughter, but a dissident to be quelled. Only in her decision to spend as little time in the Domain as possible, and the potential she had as a means of acquiring materials from outside the Domain, did Cerise ever see any value in Ebrejia.
Anto: Cerise payed Anto little notice as a child. She appreciated that he was obedient in nature and stayed out of her way, but she never really praised him for this, or for anything. She didn't see how he inherited her smarts more than the others of his brood, and she wouldn't really have cared if she did. She simply had her attention elsewhere. If anything, she was annoyed by him due to his association with Ebrejia- whenever she was playing a trick on someone, he was probably also around, after all. When he was little, Anto kind of hoped for a while that his mother would acknowledge him eventually... but seeing how she treated Yvel, he didn't take long to become disillusioned with her entirely. Being her favourite didn't seem like his cup of tea, either. Still, he couldn't bring himself to truly hate her, or even resent her much. She seemed so much the person that she was, all strong will and self aggrandising fantasy, that it seemed out of her control. Like she couldn't be a better mother, so there was nothing to hold against her for not being. Still, he wouldn't call her a good person by any stretch.
Mephistopheles: Cerise and Mephistopheles have always had a relationship built on misunderstanding. She was first interested in him because of his muteness, mistaking it for an intriguing choice. He meanwhile had never seen a dragon that looked like her, having grown up isolated from the world except for his parent. He was curious about her, and she found him easier to project what she wanted to see onto than anyone. They were happy together for a time. She took his passiveness in the face of her parenting and leadership styles to be his assent to them, but he became more and more guarded to her; less affectionate and willing to spend time with her. He had it in his mind that she still loves him and would want to hear him out if he was able to convey his feelings... but in reality, as soon as she picked up on his being less than eager to agree with everything she said and did, she became disillusioned with her fantasy of what he was like. Seeing how easily he too could be cast aside, Mephistopheles became afraid of her, and started spending as much time as possible apart from her.
Pheredon: Pheredon adored his mother, and sought to inherit her position of clan leader after her time. She played into his belief in this, but in reality felt he lacked the intelligence and imagination such a role would require. Instead, she planned for him to lead the guards; a role he eventually took on, at her request. She considered him too obedient to turn against her, so knew he'd stay loyal even if she did eventually pass on leadership to another. Honesty, Pheredon's indifference towards the rest of their family, aside from treating Yvel with the grave respect of an idol, was off putting to Cerise- even despite it being so similar to how she treated them herself. There was something different about seeing it in another, as if only she was allowed to view others as she did. She found him... an unfortunate child. But useful.
Nicht: Nicht was Cerise's assistant. His duties often included taking care of business Cerise did not want to be witnessed doing herself, like spying on people, bringing people to see her, and arranging things to appear 'naturally' the way she wanted them to.
He was loyal to her, since she was in power. He knew she was the person who had the most control in the clan, and sought to secure himself in comfort by staying loyal. He never wavered in this, as there was no real challenge to her authority. As such, she saw him as a truly loyal clan member, misidentifying him as a true believer, and considering his behaviour admirable through that light. He played up whatever she wanted to see, and did so well enough to convince her, so she never hesitated in keeping him in her confidence.
Pashitrix: Pashitrix and Cerise had a... complicated relationship. Pashitrix found Cerise to be a self serious, self aggrandising, absolute fool of an excellent opportunity. What a better way to gain divine attention for herself than to place herself at the apex of a strange faith like the one Cerise was creating? She used Cerise, saw her as a tool, and didn't really care what happened to her so long as she could have fun along the way and keep using the Droseran Domain for her own ends. Cerise was in no way unaware of this. The pair of them both saw to use one another, making deals and trying to manipulate the other into assisting with various goals. Cerise hated Pashitrix's hyena laugh and lack of care and stupid face. She utterly despised her, but knew she had so much to gain from her, so put up with her nonsense. Not that she wouldn't occasionally snap and try to squash the pest, only for Pashitrix to take spiritual form and rise up to laugh at Cerise even closer in her face.

Extra:

• She liked to have incense lit.
• She is a skillful enough artist to craft beautiful diagrams in the scripture she writes, but she does not pursue it as a hobby.
• Despite having found her purpose in the Droseran Domain, she misses music from her homeland. She'll sometimes hum it, soft and low, without even noticing.