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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hellcow" data-source="post: 5208629" data-attributes="member: 15800">Just to throw out a few random thoughts...First, I've never thought that the powers of the Mark of Death would be anything like slay living or inflict wounds. There is a mark that inflicts wounds - an aberrant dragonmark. My personal intention was that the pure marks were constructive in nature, while the aberrant marks were destructive. It's easy to understand why people would be afraid of aberrant marks when they carry powers like burning hands and charm person, while someone being able to heal the sick isn't quite so disturbing. If the Mark of Death was all about destroying life, I'd have expect its bearers to have been persecuted more quickly. As a result, I've always seen the Mark of Death as being connected to life and death, but in ways that aren't directly hostile. Spells that create undead. Spells like deathwatch, command undead, speak with dead, false life, and the like. The line of Vol excelled at the arts of necromancy because of their mark, but this wasn't about slaughtering the living. With that said, my opinion is that Erandis Vol's mark was unlike any ever possessed. She was a half-dragon specially bred to unlock the full potential of her mark, and as a result, with was something beyond even a Siberys Mark. She was, in essence, a living eldritch machine - capable of doing whatever the plot requires. Perhaps she could open gates to Dolurrh and call forth an army of ghosts. Perhaps she could kill hundreds by waving her hand, even if that's not what the normal mark did. These powers could stretch well beyond combat action to be more about her ability to perform rituals that don't exist on paper, to summon allies, to block other forms of magic. So you might feel the impact of the mark before ever reaching her. However, the other idea of Erandis has always been that whatever her mark can do, she never fully mastered it. This is one way to play her as a tragic - or at least maniacally obsessed - figure. Her entire family was exterminated because they created her - and she never achieved her destiny. Personally, while I don't see her as a child, based off this I tend to see her as a young adult, still in late adolescence when she died; again, she was the treasure of the house, but never mastered her potential in life. As such, one option is to say that while she's in the scene and gets killed, she's not actually the solo of the scene. Instead, you could use her father - The namesake of the Emerald Claw - who as a unique green dragon should be a solo, with the girl as one of his sidekicks. It's only when you meet her in the present day that you realize just who she is and was, and what was set in motion.</blockquote>

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