Nalia Stonevein was born under the jagged peaks of the Goliath Highlands, where the wind howled like vengeful spirits and the ground trembled with the footsteps of ancient behemoths. At seventeen summers, she stood taller than most men, her lithe frame belying the raw power coiled within her grayish-blue skin, etched with tribal tattoos of swirling runes that glowed faintly when her blood ran hot. Unlike the broad-shouldered brutes of her clan, who wielded axes and clubs to crush foes, Nalia's body was a study in elegant lethality—slender yet unyielding, her muscles honed from years of scaling sheer cliffs and evading the snapping jaws of subterranean horrors. Her face, strikingly attractive in a wild, otherworldly way, held a single eye that mesmerized all who beheld it: the left half a deep, stormy purple, the right a vibrant verdant green, split as if the gods had quarreled over her fate. She wore practical leathers dyed in earthy tones, reinforced with scales harvested from basilisks, and a cloak woven from the silk of giant spiders, its hem frayed from endless trails. At her belt hung a war pick, its head etched with merchant sigils, a tool for both harvesting and defense, while her spellbook masqueraded as an ornate quill tucked into her boot, its feathers shimmering with latent arcane energy.
The youngest of three siblings in a nomadic merchant family, Nalia grew up trailing her parents across the wilds, harvesting monster parts—tusks, hides, venom sacs—to trade in bustling frontier markets. Her brother Karg, a hulking warrior twice her age, embodied the Goliath ideal of strength, leading hunts with thunderous roars. Her sister Lira, sharp-tongued and cunning, handled the bartering, amassing their wealth. But Nalia, ever the odd one, shunned the brute path. It started five years ago, during a raid on a mimic-infested cavern. As the beast latched onto her brother's leg, draining his life, a surge of instinctual power erupted from Nalia. With a whispered incantation she didn't know she knew, she conjured ethereal chains that bound the creature, saving Karg. The air hummed with magic, raw and untamed, revealing her gift for conjuration—summoning forces from the ether rather than relying on muscle. Why spells over strength? Because in her keen mind (sharper than any blade, with an intellect that unraveled puzzles others smashed), she saw the world's monsters as puzzles to be solved, not just slain. Brute force was fleeting; magic was eternal, a merchant's true currency.
Now, she adventures not for glory, but for the grand ledger of her ambitions: to harvest the rarest beasts, amass a fortune that would eclipse her family's, and uncover the secrets of her divided eye, whispered to be a mark of draconic blood. Her tamed infant mimic, disguised as a coin pouch and named 'Nibbles,' clings to her waist, its toothy maw gently nibbling coins as affection—a quirky companion that startles the unwary. Yet conflicts shadow her path. Goliaths mock her as 'the weak witch,' her siblings resent her rising independence—Karg sees her magic as cowardice, Lira envies her discoveries. Deeper still, the arcane hunger gnaws at her; each spell risks unraveling her control, drawing predatory entities from the void. She presses on, conjuring gates to other planes for exotic hunts, her war pick slick with ichor, driven by a vision of a trading empire built on summoned wonders. In the end, whether she forges that legacy or succumbs to the chaos she wields remains unwritten, but Nalia Stonevein walks the edge, her mismatched gaze fixed on horizons no Goliath has dared.