Name: Vastella

Setting:  Modified Ravenloft

Age: 21

Eye Color: blue

Hair Color: bluish black

Skin Color: mocha

Height: 5'8"

Race: Vistani exile.  Vistani are a race of magical gypsies in Ravenloft

Personality:  Vastella does NOT like to show emotions to people outside of those she trusts.  Being that Vistani are most often viewed with fear and/or disgust, she's learned to keep a level head when faced with the prejudices of the world.  Being an exile, she feels rather bitter when someone lumps her with "Vistani" as a race.  Its a pet peeve of hers when people refer to her as "the Vistani" instead of by her name.  Generally cold and distant, to those  that can get close to her, she's very friendly and outgoing.  The truth is, sometimes she just wants to be a normal, carefree twenty-something.  However, since the loss of her fiancé, and then exile from her tribe, she's put up an emotional wall.  It takes a while for her to "open up."   

Distinguishing marks:  Her dark skin and dark skin give her away instantly as a Vistani, even if she's not dressed in her typical garb.  Other than that, she doesn't have any noticeable scars or other marks.

Build Description:  Vastella is tall, busty, hippy, and oozing of femininity.  She's near perfect, physically, and she's not afraid to flaunt that, or use that fact to her advantage.  She's very toned, but not overly muscular. 

Clothing Style:  Like most female gypsies, she's very proud of her body, especially their upper body.  Gypsies believe that female top halves are considered "clean," while a woman's bottom neither-regions are considered "dirty."  Because of this, Vastella will often wear very tight-fitting, revealing tops (with lots of cleavage), but usually wears flowing, billowy skirts under her midriff.  When travelling and riding, she wears leather pants and a low-cut, off-the-shoulder blouse ("peasants blouse") and a corset-bodice. 

Magical Abilities:  Like all female Vistani, she can give the "evil eye" to anyone who annoys her.  She's gifted with an ageless body, which means she doesn't age physically, but is still venerable to damage (she's not an immortal, she can be killed).  She has a special connection to horses, but its unclear if this connection is magical or just uncanny.  Vastella's personal gift is her tie to the Taroka.  The Taroka are a set of magical cards that can be used to read insights into the future or current events (similar to a Tarot deck).  While the Vistani are known to be apt Taroka diviners, Vastella's gift seems to go beyond that a of a typical VIstani reader.  Vastella believes 100% that her cards speak the truth, and only the truth.  They seem to have a connection to her, or vice versa.  They will often heat up in her hand when they need  to "tell" her something.  She can also manipulate the magic in her cards to cast spell-like abilities in combat, though she's still developing this talent.

History:  Vastella was a very up-and-coming young woman in her tribe of Vistani.  Her gift with the Taroka was obvious form a young age, and by the time she was 15 she was known as the best reader in the land.  She was engaged at age 20 to a young man named Vasile, and they were to be married on her 21st birthday.

Vastella loved Vasile with all her heart.  One night, the day before Vasile and many others in her band were to travel into the city for performances and business, she had a horrible premonition.  She knew something bad was going to happen, but she couldn't decipher what by the vision she had.  She felt drawn to her Taroka, but it was strictly forbidden to read Taroka for a fellow Vistani.  She tried to resist the temptation, but she finally gave in.  She did a reading for Vasile, and the cards said he would die the next day.

Terrified, for Vastella puts full faith and credit to her cards, she pleaded for hours the next day for Vasile to stay away from the city.  Everyone protested, even Vasile, but he finally gave in.  He stayed behind while most of the band went into the city.  Vastella was overjoyed, and immediately felt justified for her breaking the rules to save Vasile's life.  Tragically, no more than a few hours later, Vasile was chopping firewood for the camp when the axe got away from him.  He ended up cutting his leg badly, and,  despite Vastella's best efforts, Vasile died right there in her arms.

Heartbroken and ashamed, she realized that the cards were right... Vasile did indeed die like they predicted.  When the elders of the Band came back and learned of what happened, they were furious.  They believed if Vasile had come with them to the city, he would still be alive, and since Vastella was the one who help him back, she was responsible for his death.  They believed  the reading cemented Vasile's fate.  Consequently, she was banished from the Vistani.