Meliora

Meliora
Player: @Bluhman
"If this is what you call progress, then I don't know what to tell you!"
Character Build
Class Focus:	Support/Healing Fountain (PRE/Sentinel/Sentry)
Power Level:	40
Research & Development:	Science
Biographical Data
Real Name:	Meliora LaPianta
Known Aliases:	The Dryad
Gender:	Female
Species:	Dryad
Ethnicity:	N/A
Place of Birth:	Gargano National Park, Italy
Base of Operations:	New York City
Relatives:	Unknown
Characteristics
Age:	69
Height:	5'9
Weight:	154 lbs
Eyes:	Black
Hair:	Brown
Complexion:	Moderate
Physical Build:	Slender, Light
Physical Features:	None
Status
Alignment:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Chaotic Neutral
Reputation:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Reputable
Identity:	Known
Years Active:	7
Citizenship:	None
Occupation:	Activist
Education:	Unknown
Marital Status:	Single
Known Powers and Abilities
Rapid regeneration and growth, Life manipulation, Earth Manipulation
Equipment and Paraphernalia
None

Attributes
	Strength	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Endurance	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Agility	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Speed	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Fighting	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Projectiles	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Durability	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Resistance	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Intelligence	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Psyche	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Intuition	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Charisma	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
ReldinBox Template

Meliora LaPianta is a dryad vigilante within the New York City area. Having had her homeland invaded by ARGENT goons, she now seeks to claim direct vengeance on them for their mistreatment and ruination of the woodlands she hailed from.

Origins

The Dryads of Gargano

Dryads, by nature, are not particularly outgoing or bold creatures. They have been living within the southern part of Italy for several centuries now, many of which whom had originally made their way from Greece thousands of years prior. In any case, their presence has hardly been felt; even despite the rapid expanse of human territory and culture, Dryads have still managed to maintain their secrecy from them.

Today, many Dryads have taken refuge in national parks and reserves within southern Europe. Thanks to the protected nature of the national parks, the Dryads can mostly rest soundly knowing that they are most unlikely to have their homeland tampered with. With that in mind, however, many of the newer generations of Dryads began to grow more and more carefree, knowing that humankind was not in the immediate area.

Meliora, resting nearby a spring in Gargano.

Enter Meliora LaPianta, a Dryad within Gargano National Park. Meliora had been born on the far western edge of the national park, right at the edge of villages within the province proper. The discretely defined borders of the park meant that this was still a safe place for learned, elder dryads to live. But a newly formed sapling, without prior knowledge of human customs or behavior, could potentially spell doom for the Dryads of Gargano. After all, if they revealed their presence to the citizens of Italy, who knows how they would respond?

Day after day, Meliora proceeded to make herself more familiar with the surroundings. She would often wander deep into the forests and plains, seeking out springs, fruits, or rivers where she could gather resources. Meliora was proving her worth, and for 40 years, she continued to mature into a learned member of the Gargano society. Yet, ever since she had first foreseen the distant lights of San Giovanni Rotondo, she had grown more and more curious as to what they signified. Soon, even despite the dissuasion of the elders, she couldn't handle the uncertainty anymore, and decided to head for the city. This had effectively forsaken herself from the rest of her kind and also put them at great risk - of course, from her perspective, she simply saw it as another scouting trip.

Much to the surprise of the elders, Meliora was welcomed into the city warmly, thanks to her helpful demeanor and natural charm. She began by sharing some of the secrets of dryad cuisine, bringing the citizens all sorts of fruits and herbs that humans had never even seen before. As Meliora became more and more familiar with the humans, she began to bring a few back to some of the lakes and streams she had found to relax. Despite how intimate she had become with them, the elders began to discount the threat that humans were posing, and soon agreed to have a formal meeting with the people of the nearby city. By 1985, a fey craze had began in San Giovanni Rotondo. Soon, outside parties began to take notice of the huge variety of new natural phenomenon that being discovered in the area.

AGRENT's greed

Meliora infiltrating ARGENT grounds.

Soon, the multinational corporation ARGENT took notice, themselves, and struck up a deal. For $185,000,000 down, they were permitted to set up a biological research facility deep in the heart of the national park. ARGENT wasted no time, sending their goons to clear the flora of the forest to give ample area to set up their station - not to mention the roads, gates, and lights throughout the forest.

This obviously was a problem - Dryad physiology works in such a way that a dryad's life is directly tied to the tree they are born from. If said tree is destroyed or chopped down, the dryad's lifespan is severely compromised, sometimes to the point that elders will flat out die. What with the rapid deforestation of patches of the park, this was exactly what happened. Meliora's superiors, whom she had begrudgingly respected, were now gone.

This wasn't the only thing. After ARGENT had gotten set up, they began to head out and 'gather' samples of flora and fauna to examine in the facility. This entailed any number of acts, ranging from picking rare fruit trees bare, to syphoning mystic springs dry, to outright brutalizing and kidnapping young nymphs for research. The lifestyle of the Dryad was quickly becoming something resembling a nightmare.

Meliora was quick to claim responsibility for her actions regarding this. In the untimely demise of the elders, she had managed to take charge of the rest of her remaining kin (albeit with much conflict), and had set up an elaborate plan to counteract ARGENT's operation - raze the facility, and ensure that they would never be able to strike their home again.

While the coup was a success, resulting in the absolute evacuation of the quickly-overgrown facility, it had made for quite a bit of negative press. Whereas the Dryads had once been an object of interest and respect by the human locals of Gargano, this hasty attack had made way for widespread fear for what could happen to those who had come in contact with these highly-capable and volatile creatures of the wild. ARGENT would take a while to recover their resources to get back to work, but now they had the full backing of the local government to do so.

At this point, Meliora had all but lost the faith of her remaining followers. All she had managed to do with her coup was dig themselves into an even deeper hole, now doomed to face unanimous destruction at the hands of humans. At the same time, Meliora was distraught and caught off-guard by the local's reaction to her attack: she had expected them to condone her retribution! After all, she was defending what was rightfully hers. Still, the ordeal had made her realize that she needed to take a much different approach - especially considering her vastly reduced resources.

Go West

Meliora, wearing her Civilian/Human wear in Millennium City

Being in a locale where basically everyone hated her and where she would most likely be stifled at every given turn, Meliora decided to start with a clean slate. She put together a disguise, using spare clothing that some of her old human friends had left behind (by accident, clearly), and arranged to get out of the country as soon as possible. Using funds she had obtained by selling the last of her grove's harvest to researchers and shoppers online, she was able to buy tickets to get a flight to New York City. Despite arranging a new, more humanoid look for herself, she still retained her Dryad name.

Her first course of action was to spread the word to people about what had taken place in her homeland. Not that this was particularly hard, given that the dryad attack on ARGENT property was global news, but she was determined to inform people about the other side of the story. The initial reaction of her statements about prior dryad life and previous relations with the Italian citizens was that of ridicule. As far as the people of New York were concerned, this was just some crazy hippie who was ranting some crazy stuff about trees. ARGENT, however, took her statements a bit more seriously, and sent their soldiers to terminate her.

Part of the reason she had managed to become temporary leader of the dryads back in Gargano was because she was motivated by her responsibility to do so. Another reason, perhaps even more important, was because she was easily one of the strongest fighters among their kind. Decades of exploring the wild, honing her ability to effectively siphon and maintain life in the woods, proved to make her extremely difficult for the soldiers to take down. As ARGENT began sending more units to try and subdue the Dryad, they simply ended up causing more collateral damage - Meliora managed to simply regenerate and mend any damage they managed to do to her. Had it been any other situation, she would have gladly stricken back, but she knew better. She couldn't be the aggressor in the situation, and she was prepared to prevent another ARGENT Coup publicity fiasco from happening.

The plan worked. ARGENT, convinced that Meliora was a cosmic threat, began throwing everything they had at her. It became so chaotic that the NYPD stepped up to try and stop their attack, only for ARGENT to personally overrun them with their superior technology. After other local heroes began to stand up to ARGENT's assault, Meliora took this as the green light to show people her true nature and abilities. Soon, ARGENT troops were routed, and all that was left were several blocks of damaged buildings and injured civilians. Meliora proved her worth here, providing her mystical regenerative abilities to help mend the wounds of those caught in the crossfire.

ARGENT's assault, which had happened in 2002, was one of the first major public outbreaks about ARGENT's true nature. Combined with several other uncovered scandals and criminal records uncovered in the following years, ARGENT soon went on to be recognized as a villainous force. Conversely, Meliora's reputation had handily recovered; so much, to the point that several citizens of San Giovanni Rotondo sent letters of apology to Meliora for having doubted her, stating that she and the dryads were welcome to return at any time.

Meliora, however, was now driven. ARGENT may have been rooted in infamy, but that certainly did not mean they were gone. To this day, she believes she has a responsibility to stifle their efforts whenever possible; to prevent their gross mistreatment of indigenous people and nature, and spread the word of how to help recover and preserve the state of the planet.

Detailed Info

Personality

O - ■■■■■
C - ■■□□□
E - ■■■□□
A - ■□□□□
N - ■■□□□
An explorer by nature, Meliora is notable for her high curiosity, as well as her bravery in most situations. Though not particularly gregarious by most standards, she is extremely outgoing for a Dryad, and is perfectly willing to make conversation with anyone she meets. Finally, Meliora is also defined by her high degree of responsibility, and she is perfectly content to try and work out solutions to any mistakes she might cause.

On the downside, even though she is quite charismatic and polite, she ultimately is rather uncompromising and critical of other's plans and abilities. Stubborn and perhaps overly-confident, her biggest shortcoming is her tendency to make further mistakes when trying to make a perfectly earnest attempt to rectify a past one. Quite simply, though she is by no means inept, she is responsible to a fault, and can be shortsighted to her own weaknesses.

Despite her high intelligence, shown by her aptitude at using mobile technology, computers, cars, and cookware, her favorite leisure activities and foods are strictly Dryad in nature. She is multilingual in Latin, Italian, and English.

Combat Specifications

Meliora generates a rejuvinating aura all around her - which can be further powered by directly siphoning life from an enemy target!

Dryad's aren't exactly famed for their amazing strength and agility. That said, she is quite energetic, with quite a bit more physical vigor than most humans. Her main way of transport is by using Earth Manipulation to carry herself along atop a floating stone. She can propel herself at a speed of 49 miles per hour this way.

Her earth manipulation is not made for direct combat. Instead, Meliora prefers to use her Life Manipulation abilities, enabling her to constantly exude a regenerative aura about her. She uses this aura to mend nearby allies, as well as preserve the life of any nearby plants and animals. She can instinctively prevent this aura from affecting targets she is not on friendly terms with, and also uses Life Manipulation to suck the life out of targets from afar, as well as use lashing vines and toxic seeds to poison, lock down, and tangle up the enemy.

Her regenerative aura's abilities extend to herself, allowing Meliora to perform rapid regeneration. This, combined with her tough body, make her quite hard to take down. Meliora is, quite literally, as sturdy as a tree. Still, this doesn't make for much defense in the long-run, meaning that her regeneration picks up most of the slack when it comes to her survivability.

ETC

• Note: Darkness makes a pretty convincing plant set when colored green.
• Her gimmick: stack a million AoE passive heal effects. Using Life Drain + Vampiric Sympathy, she basically is fighting while also healing her allies.
• The word "Meliora" is latin for "Ever Better", and has absolutely no specific significance to me.
• Alternate Musical themes:
  • (old)
  •