Syldra Vance

Syldra Vance (萬斯 Bansu wàn sī) is a Bivalvia Mage of the Phoenix Grave guild, wherein she's partners with Minako and her familiar, Panino. She's part of a rare race known as Cat Sithe. Her people are easily identified by their cat-like ears, tails, and slitted pupils.

Appearance
Syldra is a slender, well-endowed, curvaceous woman. Her size is also petite, with a height only reaching 5'4", a size native to her kind. She is also very lithe and lean, due to her love of climbing and running. Her agility is doubled because of her perfect balance from her tail, able to tumble and do all kinds of somersaults. Syldra's hair is a whitish-pale blue, and short, stopping at the bottom of her neck. Both sides of her hair are put into medium length miniature pony tails held by ribbons. In addition, Syldra has a pair of actual cat ears that often display her emotions. Flattening back when she feels threatened, perking upright in excitement, and flattening to the sides when she's sad. Another feature of hers is her pale blue tail that often waves to and fro when she's happy, and curls around things subconsciously, as it seems to have a mind of its own sometimes.

Her manner of dressing consists of her donning an emerald green and black trimmed hooded cloak clasped together by a leaf-shaped clip. Underneath she seems to have no upper attire, leaving her black and green trimmed bikini top uncovered. Syldra's bottom part consists of a short white skirt accompanied with a black and silver studded belt. Wearing thigh-high light blue socks and knee-high black boots with silver studs in the side.

Personality
Syldra is often a very outgoing and cheerful person. She has a lot of self-confidence in her worth and abilities, sometimes appearing quite vain. True to her nature, she is very curious at heart and loves getting her nose into things to snoop about. Most times it lands her in trouble, but she always manages to slide her way out of it easily. She is wary of most strangers due to her past and when she's feeling down, will put on a mask of happiness, afraid of other people thinking of her differently. Much of her actual happiness is derived from making other people laugh or smile. She's naturally a people pleaser, and often times unknowingly does something that makes people want to laugh. Despite her bright outlook on life, she has seen some pretty grim stuff in her past, but is willing to put it behind her and move forward. Retaining her optimistic charm.

Shiny things and exploration seem to go hand-in-hand when it comes to her. Adventure to her is like candy to a toddler. She adores going new places and finding neat stuff on her travels, often taking them back home as souvenirs. Family and Friends are important to her, as having not known one before. Her heart is warm and she's sympathetic with beings less fortunate than her. Although at times, she has trouble connecting on an emotional level with those that she doesn't see fit of deserving anything.

History
When Syldra was no older than four years old, the Rune Knights came into her clan and took her parents hostage for a crime they never committed. A group of Rune Knights had been singled out by a rival clan's leader and paid with a handsome fee. Syldra and her brother-Reyine, made it their goal to retrieve their parents back. After finding out by the elder that they both possess magical ability, they left the Vance clan and traveled to Fiore where their parents were awaiting further punishment. From there, Syldra located a teacher who taught her Shadow Manipulation, and Reyine learned Snow Magic. Thinking that was enough, Syldra became the infiltrator and found a way to bust her parents out of jail. Together, Syldra and Reyine broke their way in and began their escape route. In the process, Reyine sacrificed himself in order for everyone to escape. His sacrifice, however, was in vain as the Rune Knights eventually snagged Syldra and her parents gave themselves up in order for her to live. They knocked her out afterwards and tossed her battered body into the sea.

It was a few days before Syldra woke up to find that a siren had saved her life. The siren explained that she was from Bivalvia, the plane of sirens, and that she accessible through a pearl. The siren felt bad for Syldra and formed a pact with her to protect her life. It wasn't long before Syldra became full of hatred and remorse and longed to get revenge for her family. She traveled back to her clan and sought out the rival clan, obliterating their whole town and killing the clan leader. Mistress Tarana of the Silver Crest guild soon found her and convinced Syldra to join.

It wasn't long before Mistress Tarana stole Syldra's Bivalvia pearl in order to acquire all of the pearls and locate the Abyss Pearl. So Syldra spent five years getting close to the Mistress, enduring all kinds of punishments and crimes, before finally being able to re-steal her pearl back. She soon ran away and was on the run for three years before finally being convinced to join Sabertooth.

Magic
Bivalvia Magic (雙殼類 Shuāng qiào lèi): Syldra uses a type of Spatial Magic, Bivalvia Magic which allows her to summon Sirens, magical beings with beautiful voices that reside in the Bivalvia realm, using the specific pearl of which each Siren resides within. It is a kind of Holder Magic, only that they are used to harbor a living creature in a vessel similar to a Lacrima. When summoning a siren, the caster must sing a very short spell verse and then the pearl is bathed with a glowing blue light. Once a pact has been made with a siren, they want a fight whether the new owner can control them or not. After the owner is proved to be worthy, a bilateral pact is concluded that lasts until the death of a contractor or the breaking of an alliance. The pearls the sirens reside in are known as "Bivalvia pearls" or "Siren pearls".

The Bivalvia Sirens had varying levels of power and a structured hierarchy based on such. Their possession magic is what makes them really dangerous, if Syldra wears a pearl much longer than her magic power allows her to. She will then gain the hair and eye color of the said siren and her clothes will change to match the siren who has taken over her body.

Bivalvia Mages have the potential to obtain extremely rare Rainbow Pearls, which open the gates of higher powered sirens, and more common, beach-found solid colored pearls. There are a large number of Solid Pearls, but there are only 8 Rainbow Pearls. So far, Syldra has obtained 5 Rainbow Pearls and 3 Solid Pearls, a considerable amount of pearls for a single Bivalvia Mage. Syldra's ability to summon her Sirens is limited by how much Magic Power she has to sustain them; the more Sirens she summons and the more powerful they are, the more Magic Power she exhausts. She has also demonstrated the ability to summon Bivalvia Sirens by simply singing their verse instead of touching the pearl.
 * Siren Soul (警笛靈魂 Jǐngdí Línghún): This spell allows one of the sirens to take over Slydra’s body to which she then gains attributes of that particular siren. Only the Rainbow Pearl sirens are capable of taking over Slydra's body without her telling them.

Tamer Magic (馴魔 Xún mó): This type of magic isn't used for offensive or defensive purposes. It simply allows Syldra to tame a beast, monster, or animal and become her familiar. Such as the case with Panini, her feathered little dragon familiar.

Shadow Manipulation (操縱影子 Cāozòng yǐngzi): With this type of magic, Syldra is able to physically manifest into a shadow as long as light is present, making this not very effective in dark places. This gives her lots of easy maneuverability, and allows her to move swiftly, dodge efficiently and make surprise attacks. She is also able to fade into other people's shadows and use it to manipulate her target's bodies.