Niamh Allmhuran

Night Raven College ~ ☆~ Student 2nd Year ~ ☆~ Ignihyde Dorm

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"Come away, O human child.
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
W.B. Yeats

🐚Headcanon🐚

Niamh is a selkie, an aquatic fae/merfolk that can shapeshift at will when they shed their pelt. With a fondness for music, they carry an ocarina made from a large seashell wherever they go but are quite reluctant to play anything in front of others.

Their Unique Magic, Ocean's Serenade, can only be used once a day and depending on the song, it can either heal a target, bolster a target's defense or manipulate the closest body of water around them as they see fit. Once used, it cannot be used again until the next day. There's is a slot within their ocarina that holds their magestone in order for them to use their Unique Magic.

🐚Background🐚

Niamh attends NRC on the behest of their family. Many young selkies have decided to find a life above the sea, thus the decline of any young selkies remaining in the ocean. Having been born to one of the few families/communities left living in the sea and having such a natural gift for magic, Niamh was chosen to become the next leader of their people. At the age of 18 (AU)/ 15 (Twst canon), they were told to apply to a human mage school, Night Raven College, to take advantage of the knowledge offered there, in hopes that that they return to lead their kind with strong magic.For Niamh, however, they didn't want to go to the land above; they wanted to be close to their family and in familair waters. Reluctantly, they headed off, spending one year with distant family in Briar Valley to get used to living on land, before departing for NRC. It was difficult adjusting to everything, but they knew that their peoples' hopes hung on them.Niamh had been placed in Ignihyde, in stead of Octivanelle, away from anything that remotely resembled an ocean. Since the ocean wasn't near them, they decided the next best thing would be to make something that could resembled the sea within their dorm to ease their homesickness. Thus began a long and tedious task of building a tank in their dorm room that could mimic the movement of the ocean. Most of their 1st year consisted to them dedicating time to this endeavor while also going to class.For Niamh, this provided the perfect way to avoid talking anyone, mostly. Their reasoning; if he had less contact with others then they wouldn't form any attachments to this world above. It would be easier to leave this place when the time came. It's why no one, except maybe Crowley, knows of what they really are. It was safer that way. However, after completing their tank, they wondered if there might be a way to develop a techno-magic device that could successfully enhance the power of the ocarina that was given to them. So far, he's only been able to create a slot for his magestone to sit, which helped him develop his Unique Magic. They still want to enhance it more, hoping their newly found technomantic skills can help preserve their kind's way of life.Despite doing their best to distance themselves from others, Niamh developed a fascination with human folk instruments and ended up joining the pop music club (due to school requirements) in order to be around music more, even though they're just a glorified stage hand.Even though Niamh heeded the warnings from their family, and followed the limitations they put on themselves in regards to getting closer to others, Niamh cannot help but feel isolated and envious of other students' relationships with one another....

🐚 Additional Headcanons 🐚

•They age like fae but don't live as long as the fae in Briar Valley (max age would be 600). Niamh is technically a very young selkie. When they turn 25, their aging is immensely slowed down.•Merfolk/Fishfolk can tell that Niamh is not like them. Whether it's due to a selkie's unique magic of shifting effortlessly from human to seal, or that their magic is reminiscent of fae-like magic, merfolk/fishfolk can tell that there's something off about Niamh. This is the same with fae as well.•Selkies used to be found off the coast of Briar Valley. Now, they reside up north in waters past Briar Valley. Niamh assumes that they had always lived where their community currently resides; the elders have kept this information away from Niamh and everyone else.•Because the selkies migrated to such a remote part of Twisted Wonderland, most historical documentation considers them to be either a rare species to encounter or having been wiped out due to...over hunting.•TW: Death, maiming and spoilers for Ch. 7:
During the war between fae and humans, the human army found that a selkie's coat held vast amounts of magic. Thus, their coast were considered prizes for generals and higher up, and even just regular foot soliders came to covent such an item. Some humans, who were much more versed in alchemic/potion making, found that pieces of the coats could be used as strong components for panceas and elixirs. This, unfortunately, lead to an overabundance of humans taking the lives of selkies and then then taking their coats. It forced what little of the population residing off the coast to flee and find refuge in the cold waters further north. Nowadays, selkie coats held by humans is considered a myth or an incredibly rare 'magical artifact'.•Niamh' "distant relatives" in Briar Valley are, In fact, actual descendants of selkie that had their coats taken from them during the war and left behind by humans, never able to return to the sea. These desendants carry with them the old stories, history, music, and songs of their kind. They were the ones that helped Niamh get used to their human form and helped them blend in with humans and learn, as much as they knew, about the surface world. They also vehemently told Niamh to never get close to humans, merflok, beastmen ect., least they risk losing the most important thing to them (their coat).•Niamh's shell ocarina, an ancient nautilus shell past down from leader to leader, is given to the selkie who is next in line to lead their people. At the age of 10, the elders in the village chose Niamh to be their next leader due to his natural gift for magic. It is a ceremonial and historically cultural magical item to Niamh's kind.