"I am one with the elements, and they are one with me
Their song guides my steps, yet the dance remains my own.
Someday they will guide me to the one I seek
Though I know not what answer I will find."
Rahna grew up among the shifting sands of the desert - part of a nomadic tribe of cheetah catfolk that had called it their home for longer than the storytellers knew. What she lacked in strength, she made up for in reflexes and quickness, and it was as a young scout for a hunting party that she found a strange human, nearly dead from thirst, and unlike any of the others they occasionally traded with.
This man was from a distant land, seeking to cross the desert for some reason he would not share, but that did not concern the Sunwalker tribe elders. Cooperation was the order of the day to survive among the hostile, burning sands, and so they nursed him back to health over several months.
Rahna grew fascinated by his strange dance-like routine that he began to practice as he regained his strength, and proved a quick study of the stranger's "martial arts". While she preferred a spear to the sword, the fundamentals remained the same, as did the serenity and discipline required to master those first techniques.
Eventually, his health was fully restored, and he felt he had to resume his aborted journey, before some ill he refused to elaborate on might find him there and bring ruin to the Sunwalkers. Gifting Rahna a polearm purchased from some passing traders, he vanished once more into the night, leaving her to continue her lessons alone.
Without a teacher, she was left to work out her own path forward in her martial studies. Leaning into the dance-like aspects of her techniques further over the next couple years, she made a breakthrough: she found that she could hear the songs of the elements themselves, and even call them forth for a moment with her strikes. While her people always had worshipped the elements(with fire reigning above all others), this was something new to the young cheetah woman; utterly different to their shaman's magical ways, or those of the human mages that sought the seemingly worthless blue crystals the tribe collected among the sands.
While proud of her discovery, at the same time, a restlessness began to grow in her heart. She found she had come to miss her former teacher, and he was the one she really wanted to show what she had discovered. Gathering her things, she bid farewell to her tribe and left to follow in his footsteps. He was out there somewhere still; he HAD to be! And until she found him, she would travel the world. Whether as a caravan guard, a seeker of lost treasures, or simply a dancer performing her arts for coin, she would keep looking, and honing her own abilities, so that when they met again, it would be as equals.
And then what? That is one question she still refuses to answer; perhaps out of a fear of what that answer might actually be. There are some things one finds difficult to admit, even to oneself. For now, she has a swordmaster to find, techniques to master, and many miles ahead of her. Until then, the future could take care of itself.
Finally, a referance sheet for the last of my current major OCs, Rahna.
She was inspired in large part by Thunderbolt Fantasy, between Juan's spearwork in season 1 and Shang's journey across the Wasteland of Spirits(and no, her teacher is NOT Shang, just inspired by him), and the poem at the beginning is meant to emulate the character poems that go with each character's introduction.
She also owes her existence to the Polearm Dancer feat in Pathfinder 1E just as much, however. Take the feat's ability to allow one to finesse a polearm, the very name of the feat itself, and then combine that with a background trait to use Dex for Performance and use it in place of Acrobatics....
Design-wise, besides leaning into a more fantasy tribal look, I also wanted to lean into how cheetahs are typically thought of as lithe and long of leg rather than buff or large of chest, and how well that fits with a warrior whose fighting techniques are essentially a form of dance.
One other fun fact before I wrap this up: the marking on her polearm blade is painted on to honor the Sun, the Lord of Fire in the Sunwalkers' stories.
Art is by Wolnir!
Their song guides my steps, yet the dance remains my own.
Someday they will guide me to the one I seek
Though I know not what answer I will find."
Rahna grew up among the shifting sands of the desert - part of a nomadic tribe of cheetah catfolk that had called it their home for longer than the storytellers knew. What she lacked in strength, she made up for in reflexes and quickness, and it was as a young scout for a hunting party that she found a strange human, nearly dead from thirst, and unlike any of the others they occasionally traded with.
This man was from a distant land, seeking to cross the desert for some reason he would not share, but that did not concern the Sunwalker tribe elders. Cooperation was the order of the day to survive among the hostile, burning sands, and so they nursed him back to health over several months.
Rahna grew fascinated by his strange dance-like routine that he began to practice as he regained his strength, and proved a quick study of the stranger's "martial arts". While she preferred a spear to the sword, the fundamentals remained the same, as did the serenity and discipline required to master those first techniques.
Eventually, his health was fully restored, and he felt he had to resume his aborted journey, before some ill he refused to elaborate on might find him there and bring ruin to the Sunwalkers. Gifting Rahna a polearm purchased from some passing traders, he vanished once more into the night, leaving her to continue her lessons alone.
Without a teacher, she was left to work out her own path forward in her martial studies. Leaning into the dance-like aspects of her techniques further over the next couple years, she made a breakthrough: she found that she could hear the songs of the elements themselves, and even call them forth for a moment with her strikes. While her people always had worshipped the elements(with fire reigning above all others), this was something new to the young cheetah woman; utterly different to their shaman's magical ways, or those of the human mages that sought the seemingly worthless blue crystals the tribe collected among the sands.
While proud of her discovery, at the same time, a restlessness began to grow in her heart. She found she had come to miss her former teacher, and he was the one she really wanted to show what she had discovered. Gathering her things, she bid farewell to her tribe and left to follow in his footsteps. He was out there somewhere still; he HAD to be! And until she found him, she would travel the world. Whether as a caravan guard, a seeker of lost treasures, or simply a dancer performing her arts for coin, she would keep looking, and honing her own abilities, so that when they met again, it would be as equals.
And then what? That is one question she still refuses to answer; perhaps out of a fear of what that answer might actually be. There are some things one finds difficult to admit, even to oneself. For now, she has a swordmaster to find, techniques to master, and many miles ahead of her. Until then, the future could take care of itself.
Finally, a referance sheet for the last of my current major OCs, Rahna.
She was inspired in large part by Thunderbolt Fantasy, between Juan's spearwork in season 1 and Shang's journey across the Wasteland of Spirits(and no, her teacher is NOT Shang, just inspired by him), and the poem at the beginning is meant to emulate the character poems that go with each character's introduction.
She also owes her existence to the Polearm Dancer feat in Pathfinder 1E just as much, however. Take the feat's ability to allow one to finesse a polearm, the very name of the feat itself, and then combine that with a background trait to use Dex for Performance and use it in place of Acrobatics....
Design-wise, besides leaning into a more fantasy tribal look, I also wanted to lean into how cheetahs are typically thought of as lithe and long of leg rather than buff or large of chest, and how well that fits with a warrior whose fighting techniques are essentially a form of dance.
One other fun fact before I wrap this up: the marking on her polearm blade is painted on to honor the Sun, the Lord of Fire in the Sunwalkers' stories.
Art is by Wolnir!
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Cheetah
Gender Female
Size 3156 x 1167px
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