Adaya

Appearance: From the waist up, Adaya appears human, with olive-brown skin and long, silky black hair. They have one yellow and one green eye, each unblinking and with a vertical slit-shaped pupil. Below their eyes are a smattering of white scales. These scales match the ones of their lower half, which is entirely snake-like. Commonly mistaken for a lamia, Adaya is a Sacred Nagaji. She typically “stands” at 6 feet 4 inches, though she would be a bit shorter if she had typical legs. Her lower body is lithe and could extend to roughly 15 feet long, though it is usually coiled when she is standing.

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Backstory: Adaya grew up in a small enclave of Nagaji in a predominately human populated city. The Nagaji emigrated many generations ago and adopted many of the local customs. Not because they felt they had to, but more due to the circumstances surrounding their emigration.

Adaya’s mother is a doctor and her father is a ship pilot for the docks. While many Nagaji felt Nalinivati abandoned them, her parents seemed to keep some of the practices alive and well. She is the middle of 5 children, and now that most of   have left the next, her parents are considering fostering kids.

Adaya had a mostly happy childhood. She was able to make friends pretty easily and had a way of disarming those that lashed out due to their own insecurities. She decided to help kids in an orphanage both as a nurse and counselor, and spend a decade of her adult life helping others.

However, her plans changed after a zombie outbreak ravaged the city. She threw herself in danger to save a child and was bitten and badly injured. The outbreak was eventually quelled, though she was so nervous she would change (not knowing it was a mere shambler that bit her). Partially due to her own survival and also because no Nagaji and no oprhans were lost, Adaya was convinced Nalivivati protected them. She sought to learn as much as she could about her goddess from the more devout members of the enclave, including an elderly priestess.

Warned against traveling to her ancestral homeland, Adaya instead set off for the New World in search of new magic, poisons, and snakes.