(Please note Aliasi does not typically sport wings... yet.)

DESCRIPTION

The manticore is a beast of legend that had the body of a tiger, the head of a man, four rows of teeth, and a barbed tail like a scorpion.

 Some legends are true. This great beast of a woman is fairly human in her face, save for vertically-pupiled green eyes, slightly pointed ears, and a nose too broad and too blunt, like a cat's, all framed by dirty blonde hair, shoulder-length and tangled. The rest is much less so.

 She stands twelve feet tall, fur that matches her hair covering the rest of her body, her legs digigrade like the rear limbs of a cat, and a vicious-looking stinger in place of a tail. She certainly seems like a fierce customer, yet somehow the inhumanity is pleasing, not monstrous.

 A green silk wrap-around covers her chest, with a loincloth of similar material serving to give her a semblence of modesty. Still, neither her powerful form nor the shapeliness of her body advertise any need for it.

BACKGROUND

Aliasi was made as a commoner oath-child. She was promoted to a noble after long service and set out to investigate Creation. Fascinated by the concepts of worship, love, and adulation, she resolved to become a benevolent protector goddess - love being harder to inspire, longer lasting, and thus more of a challenge. That's all it was for her at first, but then she found herself truly caring for those who chanted prayers in her name...

NOW

Aliasi saved a town and outlying villages from the predations of bandits. (That she beguiled the bandits to attack so that she'd be able to save the town, well, that's just details.) Her acceptance was at first rooted in equal parts fear, awe, and beguilement, but after a year the town now known as the Tigress' Den genuinely accepts the "goddess" as their protector... and Aliasi, for her part, has had the first real taste of affection in her life. While her expression of it can be mystifying to humans, she has genuinely adopted the town and is quite willing to be fierce in its defense.

She's grown closer to the town, even daring (if failing to conquer) the savagery of goblin tribes and the very wrath of Vir Sidus. At present, she's made a deal with Wue Xi to continue the same vassalage she oathed to her father, although for different reasons - the raksha not much impressed by blood relation, but very much impressed with shiny golden caste marks. She's also managed to aquire something in the way of a retinue - a commoner 'rescued' from the wrath of the Zera - and even something of, if not an ally, at least not an actively hostile Lunar, Zera herself.

In attempting to formally petition Heaven for legitimacy, Aliasi has made a deal with Burning Feather, the lady of intoxicants. Aliasi provided a new dreamstone with a memory of a turn of the Games of Divinity in exchange for Burning Feather's support of her petition. While it is likely to take years for it to wind through the bureaucracy, the raksha can at least say she's tried to do it honestly.