The Beast

The Beast, also known as Kefara, is a red fox with magical mutations. She is the second most powerful creature in Ankouvian history, only surpassed by the Gryphon Mother. She is immortal and has a high level of magic, although most of it is not controllable. She was born in The Beginning, and lived until The End; she dedicated her final decades to writing a complete and thorough history of the planet.

Appearance

The Beast appears as a red fox, with towering brown antlers and glowing white eyes. Her ears and legs are darker brown; her underbelly, muzzle, inner ears, and tail tip are creamy off-white. Her fur is very faintly striped with darker brown. She stands approximately thirteen feet tall at the shoulders. Pre-immortality, she had the build and stature of a normal fox, with leaf-green eyes.

Despite being immortal, the Beast is able to die; when she does, she is sent to Eternity for a single day before her soul is returned to her body. As such, the Beast has no scars or long-lasting injuries, as they are healed the next time she is reincarnated. This system is similar to the Gryphon Mother's immortality, as it was meant as a copy of her own, but whereas the Mother reincarnates into a new body each time, the Beast is simply returned to her own, now healed of whatever ended her life. Like the Gryphon Mother, the Beast's blood is bright blue, and her tears glow white; beastvine grows from wherever they land.

Personality

The Beast's personality has changed quite a bit through the years. When she was younger, back when she was simply Kefara, she was daring and adventurous, frequently getting into trouble with her sister Rhali. The two sisters enjoyed teasing each other, which continued into their adolescent years.

As they grew older, Rhali matured, while Kefara retained her childlike energy. After being granted immortality, she stopped physically aging, and was far slower to mature as well. It wasn't until after Rhali's death, and then the deaths of Rhali's children, that Kefara began to sober up, realizing that immortality was perhaps not as much of a blessing as she had originally thought it was.

History

The Beginning

The Beast was born in the middle of Spring, y402, and given the name Kefara. She was the younger of two; her older sister was named Rhali. The two grew up together, forming a close bond early on. They were raised by their mother Mira alone; although they both knew their father, Xaru, he did not participate in their raising, and so he was treated more as a friend than a family member.

When Kefara was two years old, she saw the Gryphon Mother for the first time, just glimpsing her briefly through a crowd while on a day trip to the Mother's City.

In y408, she met the Mother a second time. She found herself enthralled with her, not because of the Mother's power or status, but because of her personality and her kindness. She did not see the Mother as a being to worship or fear, but as an individual. And in return, the Mother loved her, more than she loved any other of her creatures.

The two soon formed a genuine connection, and then a deep bond. They became very close over the next several years, eventually to the point of falling in love. Although Rhali teased Kefara about her relationship, Kefara knew that she fully supported the two of them; their mother Mira, however, did not approve. She believed that no good could come from a relationship with a deity, and that Kefara was getting in way over her head.

As Kefara grew older, the Mother became concerned about losing her. In the mind of an immortal, the two had only just met, and it would be a blink of an eye before Kefara had reached the end of her natural lifespan. So, the Mother proposed a plan to Kefara, a plan that would make the young fox immortal, so that the two need never be parted. Kefara accepted wholeheartedly, and the act was done: in y429, Kefara was given immortality, at the same level of the Mother Herself. This action made her the second-most magical creature in all of Ankou, and caused her eyes to become pure glowing white, and her blood vivid blue. Although she had such a high amount of magic within her, she had no control over it, in the way a magic-born creature would. This was an intentional choice

Over the next several years, the effects of such a high quantity of magic began to show on Kefara's physical form. She grew bigger, far larger than a fox should naturally grow to, towering over her friends and family. Antlers sprouted from her head, adding to her imposing figure.

She spent the next few decades living with the Mother, her body and her antlers growing larger every year. She frequently returned to her birthplace to visit her family, especially Rhali, who had found a partner and had three children. Kefara loved her niece Sakra and nephews Moril and Taphren, and found great joy in being with her family. However, her mother Mira still believed that it was a mistake for her to be in a relationship with a deity, and that this immortality was a horrific curse. She and Kefara got into an argument on one visit in y439, resulting in Kefara refusing to see her any longer.

Kefara's father Xaru died in y441. She had been slowly growing apart from him as time went on, and she hadn't seen him in several years. Kefara returned to her birthplace to stay with Rhali and her family for a while, longing for the comfort of relatives. Although she saw Mira briefly from a distance, her mother continued to actively avoid her, and the two did not interact.

In y447, Kefara heard word that Mira's health was declining, and so Kefara went to her birthplace for a visit. It had been quite some time since the two had seen each other; while Kefara was eager to see her again, Mira was quite horrified by what her daughter had become. Although she had seen Kefara's immortal form before, she hadn't expected her daughter to be twice her size, with towering branching antlers and glowing eyes. Believing that Kefara had become a monster, Mira swore that she no longer recognized her as her daughter, and told her to leave. Heartbroken, Kefara did; this would be the last time the two saw each other, as Mira passed shortly after.

As the years went by, Kefara still continued to grow and change, eventually reaching her full height of nearly thirteen feet. Each time she returned to the Mother's City to visit her family, she was startled by the size difference, as she now towered over Rhali and her now-grown children. Kefara remained close with them as Rhali aged and become elderly, and her children had children of their own. Kefara was happy to serve as the caretaker for the family, using her immense stature and strength to ensure they were protected and secure, though she found herself growing distant from her sister as the intense difference in their lives became more and more apparent.

In y499, the Mother told Kefara of her plans for the future of Ankou, including how she would now be entering her cycle of reincarnation. Although Kefara did not understand why the Mother would want to do such a thing, she trusted in her judgement, and so instead she promised to find her. When y500 began, the two traveled to the Silverwood Forest, where the Mother let her physical form peacefully pass away. Kefara stood guard over her body for the next day, alone with her thoughts, until the Mother was reborn elsewhere in the world and her previous body faded into magical energy and disappeared.

Age of Kingdoms

Kefara spent the first few decades of the next era largely following the Mother around. She heard rumors that she had been reborn on the southern end of the continent, and left the Silverwood Forest in search of her, eventually finding her as a young lynx in the newly-formed territory of Akix. Despite having had the reincarnation process explained to her, the vulnerability of the Mother shocked her, and she felt obligated to stay nearby to protect her, and oversaw as hundreds of creatures journeyed to her in order to view the Mother in her first reincarnation. Despite the Mother's assurance that there was nothing that could permanently harm her, even while mortal, Kefara felt immense relief when the first year had passed and the Mother resumed her True Form. She alternated her time between living with the Mother, constantly on the move, and returning to visit Rhali's family, which was now settled in the Kupanda district of the Mother's City.

In the winter of y503, while Kefara was with the Mother on the northern end of the continent, a messenger reached her with news from her niece Sakra that Rhali's health was rapidly declining. Kefara rushed back to the City as quickly as she could, but found that Rhali had passed shortly before her arrival. Devastated, Kefara remained with the remainder of the family for the next several seasons, grappling with her grief. For the first time, she began to feel an inkling of doubt in her decision to accept the Mother's immortality, realizing that she was never truly going to grow up and complete her life in the same way Rhali and her family would. She went to visit the Mother again, seeking comfort in her beloved, and was startled by the ethereality of the Mother as if she was meeting her for the first time again, and realized that this must be how other creatures see her now. Nonetheless, she did find solidarity in knowing that the Mother experiences time in the same way, and she felt less alone in her presence.

As the decades and then centuries passed through the Age of Kingdoms, Kefara found little homes for herself across the continent, though never could settle in one place for very long. Her visits to her family in the City and surrounding areas dwindled as Rhali's children aged and died, and then their children aged and died, so on through the generations until Kefara felt very little familial connection to the now-sprawling family of creatures. The older she grew, the shorter a year felt, until entire creatures' lifespans passed in what felt like days to her. She spent much of her time with the Mother, finding her steadiness comforting in a world that felt like it was moving too quickly for Kefara to keep up with.

In the second half of the second millennium, she took it upon herself to explore the entirety of the continent, to give her something to focus on as the time passed. Time and time again, she found herself questioning and at times regretting her choice to accept immortality, beginning to wonder if she had made a mistake, and thinking about the eight thousand years she still had to live. She watched kingdoms rise and fall, creatures live and die, and the years stretch ever onward. Her visits with the Gryphon Mother grew fewer and further between as her anxieties and despair threatened to overwhelm her.

Age of War

Once the War began, Kefara did not see the Gryphon Mother much; the Mother was constantly being hunted by the natural side, and was often captured as she made no effort to defend herself from her beloved creatures, even those that sought to destroy her. Kefara was often a target of the War too, though not as severely, as many natural creatures empathized with her as a fellow natural creature that was cursed by magic, while magical creatures saw her as proof of the Mother's benevolence. Kefara was not sure which interpretation she believed herself.

In y2150, while staying in the western pine forests of Sayari, Kefara was ambushed by a band of natural soldiers who had been tracking her for some time. She found herself suddenly surrounded by a dozen warriors, well-trained from the nearly half-century of ongoing war and carrying bladed weapons that Kefara had not imagined could exist. Despite her size, she had never before experienced a true battle, and she was caught off guard; the creatures managed to wrestle her to the ground and restrain her limbs, and the leader of the group cleaved her head from her shoulders with a powerful swipe.

She emerged in the ethereal realm of Eternity, her memories fuzzy, awash in a sense of peace. She had no concept of time passing, or even of who she was, until the light began to fade and she began to fall through the endless sky. She awoke with a start back on the forest floor, her body knit back together exactly one day after she died, the ground still damp with her blue blood. Any lingering remnant of Eternity's peacefulness was gone immediately, and she lay still for several hours as she attempted to process the experience of dying and being resurrected.

Kefara sought out the Gryphon Mother, desperate for companionship and for an explanation. She eventually found her in the grasslands of Khairel, having just reincarnated herself into a wood mouse. The Gryphon Mother attempted to placate her by explaining Eternity, and how she herself experienced this process whenever she reincarnated, but Kefara could not be soothed, especially with how she towered above the Mother's current form. For the first time, she began to realize that the Mother was fallible, and that it was entirely possible that she had made a mistake, which shook her worldview to the core. Feeling even more rattled than she had before, Kefara left Khairel and headed north again, her mind too scrambled to make any sort of plan.

Without intending to, she found herself retracing her steps, winding up back in Sayari near where she had been attacked, which only served to increase her panic.

[hunters find her again, kefara panics, defends herself, makes her first kill]

On the second-to-last day of y2310, the Mother came to visit Kefara after some time apart, knowing that she was struggling with her immortality and intending to reconcile before things worsened; instead, the conversation resulted in a fight that became the tipping point for Kefara as she fully realized the horror of her life - of the "gift" that the Mother had given her - and she fled from her former beloved, disappearing into the depths of the Silverwood Forest.

Age of Harmony

[alone in the silverwood forest, wild and feral, cruel and mindless. she earns the nickname. the mother mourns her. finally, reconciliation]

While the world around her was rebuilding from the Age of War, moving into a new era of peace, Kefara was losing herself. She ran into the depths of the vast Silverwood Forest, coming across the united tribes of militaristic unicorns that had controlled the area for centuries and driving them out entirely in order to make the vast swathes of dark woods her own isolation chamber. She found herself turning her anguish into violence, finding relief from her pain by laying waste to the tribes. Despite the unicorns' ferocious nature, her size and power alone made them no match to her, and the forest floor became littered with bodies every time the tribes sent patrols in attempts to reclaim the land. The attacking groups dwindled in size over the next several seasons until their chief Leikur led the charge himself in y2312. Barely conscious of her own actions, moving out of blind instinct, Kefara wounded him severely, and this near-death experience was enough for him to finally concede the territory to what he referred to as "the Beast of the Silverwood", until Kefara was truly alone.

Seasons passed, then years, and then decades, the self-improved isolation driving her mad. The few creatures that mistakenly wandered into the forest met a swift death at her claws and teeth; she felt less and less remorse with each kill until she felt nothing at all. She sustained herself on fish, insects, and plant matter, becoming a feral creature of instinct. When there was no food to be found, she slowly wasted away until she starved to death, but as before, this resulted in nothing more than a brief stay of Eternity before being abruptly returned to her repaired body. Her memories grew foggy and her sense of self all but disappeared.

Age of Spirits

[slow recovery, remembering who she is, learning to be ok without the mother. accepting her reality, falling back in love. making up for lost time and poor choices. reconnects with rhali's distant descendants]

Age of Discovery

[her golden years. happy once again, so deeply in love but confident in who she is without the mother's influence]

The End

[writes ankouvian history. at the mother's side until the end.]

Relationships

The Gryphon Mother

The Beast's history and relationship with the Gryphon Mother is long and complex. Depending on the era, Kefara either loved Her with all her heart, or despised Her very being. During their good years, she considered the Mother to be her better half; during the dark years, she cursed the Mother for turning her into a monster.

Rhali

Rhali is Kefara's sister. They were extremely close when growing up, and started to drift apart as Kefara began spending more time with the Mother. While Rhali aged and matured, Kefara did not - growing larger but not noticeably older. Still, they maintained a relationship throughout all of Rhali's lifetime, with Kefara remaining close to her children and grandchildren as well.

Mira

Mira is Kefara's mother. Although they had a good relationship when Kefara was growing up, Mira never approved of Kefara's later relationship with the Gryphon Mother. Mira saw Kefara's immortality as a curse, and eventually disowned her entirely, fearing that she had become a monster.

Xaru

As Kefara's parents separated before she and her sister were born, she doesn't really think of Xaru as her father. He was treated as a family friend while she was growing up, but she never felt particularly close to him. He was more supportive of her relationship with the Gryphon Mother than Mira was, but they still were not close, and she eventually drifted away from him altogether.

Image Gallery

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  with the Gryphon Mother
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  pre-immortality, with the Gryphon Mother