Windwalker
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History
- February, 1995
- Force Station Steelhead is socked in for most of the month by a blizzard that was only rivaled by the storm caused when Rakshasa attempted to awaken Kigatilik. The storm was later rated a Category 5 blizzard. One of the station's researchers, a xenobiologist named Martha MacDougal, vanished during the storm.
- November, 1996
- Martha MacDougal reappears at the gates with a baby in her arms. The baby is a white-haired, blue-eyed girl, less than a month old, with claws that can slice through steel, a body temperature that chills the air around her, and whose wails can flay flesh from bone. Martha announces that her name is Taylor and she's her daughter. Along with her daughter, Martha has acquired a pendant and a belt made of skulls and medicine pouches, both of which make Ravenspeaker wince and mutter wards against curses whenever he looks at them.
- 1996 - 2016
- Taylor grows up at Force Station Steelhead, attends classes with the other children of the Mounties and civilians stationed there, and soaks up knowledge at a rate that, once she's old enough to be considered an adult, inspires Wally Thompson to advise her to travel to Millennium City and hone her skills there. He also suggests she consult with the experts at the Magic Lantern Bookstore for advice on how to deal with her non-human heritage.
- December, 2016
- Taylor arrives in Millennium City and registers with PRIMUS and UNTIL as a full-time hero.
On Being Half-Human
Taylor's father is an alien being named Ithaqua. This being is one of those that are commonly referred to as the Great Old Ones. Ithaqua is known among nearly all the northern American nations, as an evil spirit of wind, ice, and all-devouring hunger, and each nation has its own name for him, from Ithaqua to Wendigo.
Ithaqua is a gigantic humanoid creature, with white skin and glowing red eyes, that stalks the frozen wastes and slays unwary travelers in gruesome ways. Every so often, he steals away humans to worship him among the frozen wastes of his home, and when one of those he steals away is female, he mates with her, always producing daughters who inherit his powers.
The myths of Ithaqua's cult say that he mates with humans in an attempt to produce offspring that are not subject to his limitations, and so can free him from the bonds that prevent him from entering fully into this world. To date, every known daughter of Ithaqua has turned against him, including Taylor.
Abilities
- Taylor can freeze the world around her, cold enough to cause the air itself to turn into snow and fall to the ground.
- She also directs wind like a conductor directs an orchestra, producing everything from a light breeze to a tornado-force gale.
- She walks through the air atop a whirlwind as easily as if she were walking on solid ground.
- As the half-human offspring of a Great Old One, she is empathic and (with effort) able to exchange mental communication telepathically.
- She has learned the basics of shamanic rituals from Ravenspeaker, and is continuing to learn ritual magic from the teachers at the Magic Lantern
- She is able to summon creatures of ice to aid her in emergencies
Appearance
- Under normal circumstances, Taylor looks like a pale-skinned, white-haired woman with ice-blue eyes. When she's using her powers, on the other hand, her eyes glow an eldritch red. No matter what, though, she's always surrounded by a light fall of snow, as the very air around her freezes into crystals and falls to the ground around her.
- To anyone who is able to see magical auras, Taylor's aura is a powerful one, of inhuman and eldritch power. In fact, when looking at her with magical sight, it's hard to tell she's human at all.
- To anyone with divine background (from demigods to avatars to divine servants, even some demons or devils whose origins are in the divine realms), her aura is one that produces an instinctive response that ranges, depending on the nature of the deity in question, from "that creature that looks like a woman is a very bad influence" to "Bad Evil Kill It With Fire!".
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