Saphira Creore

Name: Saphira Creore

Age: 20

Bounty: None

Species: Mermaid

Occupation: Archaeologist with specialities in diving

Allegiance: None in particular.

Home Village/Ocean: Saphira's island of birth was Fishman Island however she was raised on a small island in the East Blue.

Appearance: Saphira is a young African- Cichlid-species mermaid who measures 6ft from the top of her head to the very tip of her lowerst set of fins. She has long hair that falls to her mid back, though while the top layer of her hair is black and poker straight, the bottom layer of her hair is electric blue and wavy. She also wears a small braid in the front bangs of her hair, wrapped with coloured threads and finished with a gold bead. Like the African-Cichlid fish, Saphira has a long tail that is bright blue in colour and heavily outlined with silver scales. She has three sets of fins, two vestigial, gossamer silver and one set of main, dark blue fins with which she does most of her swimming. Her skin is pale and her eyes are a sharp blue colour, normally heavily outlined with black kohl dust, while her lips are a soft, pale pink, blending with the rest of her pallor. Her breasts are covered by a traditional silver seashell bra and she wears a set of black fingerless gloves that cover her arms from knuckle to elbow as well as a black string belt around her hipbone area for attaching objects to. Her ears are pierced with silver metal studs.

History:

Saphira was born on Fishman Island to a member of the fishman pirates and a waitress who worked in the mermaid cafè. Her mother died in childbirth and her father was forced to take her to sea with him as a mere infant. He soon realised that life as a full-time pirate at sea conflicted mercilessly with life as a full-time father with a baby daughter. However, in a cruel twist of fate, the fishman soon did not have to play either role anymore.
When the baby mermaid was only a year old, the fishman pirate crew got involved in a coup d'etat on a small island in East Blue. Though the villagers had nothing to do with the battle between nobility and pirates, they suffered.
Saphira's birth father was killed in the battle, but he managed to save his daughter by taking her from the ship in the room where he kept her safe and running into the forests of the island with her. He placed the merbaby in an inland koi pond and fled back to the battle, only to be shot mere minutes later.

Luckily however, the koi pond was part of a forest garden owned by a family of very kindly villagers called the Creores. Mr Creore was a historian while Mrs Creore ran a village jewellery shop where merchants often came to trade. She had always had a high interest in jewels and as such, their three daughters had names that stemmed from precious stones- Pearl, Ruby and Esmeralda. Pearl Creore was shocked when clearing up after the battle upon finding a baby mermaid in their koi pond and none of the family had a clue how she had gotten there.

However, caring and noble in nature, the Creores immediately decided to adopt the little one as one of their own. Mrs Creore named her "Saphira" after the precious stone "sapphire" and due to the baby's bright blue eyes.
They raised her completely as one of their own and Saphira loved her mother, father and older sisters without question...however a mermaid being raised by an all-human family <i>did</i> present difficulties. Saphira had to adjust very quickly to moving around on land as easily as she did in the water and her parents had to take her down to the seashore every day to allow her to gain exercise and swim. They also had to respect her aversion to eating any kind of seafood and despite not being a family of strong swimmers, had to teach her skills as a young child- such as how to use her fins effectively.
Despite it all, Mr and Mrs Creore never resented their adopted daughter for anything.
Her sisters, in turn, did all they could to prevent her from feeling left out and played with her in the water all the time- delighting in playing the "sunken treasure" game in which one of them would drop a metal ball down a seashore cliff into the water and they would see how fast Saphira could dive down and return it to them. Saphira had a lot of fun playing this game and also bringing up whatever interesting things she could find on the sea-bed to show her sisters.

Unfortunately, though, a human family raising a mermaid also raised questions. Saphira quickly became confused as to why she wasn't born with legs like other children, why she had to stay at home and be tutored or work in the jewellery store while her sisters went to school and why she didn't seem to look like any of the dark-skinned, brown eyed Creores.
Murmurs of affairs with mermaids and fishmen started to circle the island and though these did not upset Mr or Mrs Creore, they eventually told Saphira the real circumstances surrounding her birth when she was 11 years old.
Needless to say, this was soul-shaking for her and for a long time, identity was a lost thing for Saphira.


She threw herself into her studies, poring over her father's history books every night and reading tales of mermaids and fishmen- others of her species- whom she had never met in person before. By the time she was 15, Saphira was quite a savant when it came to history and due to the number of merchants coming into the shop, presenting her mother with ancient treasures found on the sea-bed, she soon took a strong interest in archaeology and the origins of these treasures.
Her mother was delighted at her daughter's new interest as it meant that merchants would now find it hard to come up with a fake backstory for some of their "treasures" if Saphira's knowledge of history and which hoardes the treasures should belong to conflicted with them.
In turn, Saphira learned from her mother how to check objects for flaws, how to date them and how to determine how long they had been submerged underwater by means of testing their condition.
At 17, Saphira took the position of co-manager of the jewellery store and became a full-time apprentice to her historian father, helping him with his notes whilst he finished writing his book on great lost relics of the sea.

This suited her siblings perfectly- who had no interest in taking up either of their parents' careers.
Pearl wished for a quiet married life with children, Ruby was studying to become a doctor and Esmerelda was set to enter the Marines on the year of Saphira's 19th birthday.
Though the girls felt that they had gotten too old for their "sunken treasure" game, Saphira continued to test herself, seeing how deep she could dive down into trenches, how much of a temperature drop she could endure and how much pressure she could put up with. Eventually she became highly used to diving deep down below the waves, collecting shining objects from the seabed even if they were deep within trenches and returning to the surface once more in a matter of mere minutes.
She also fashioned a spear for herself from natural materials one day, after almost being attacked by a common octopus on a reef, deciding that she needed to learn to protect herself. Using a history book for reference, Saphira eventually managed to teach herself how to attack and defend with the spear and how to wield it with relative ease and confidence.

Mr Creore became concerned with the amount of time that his daugher/apprentice was spending out in the small seawater cove ever evening, diving under the water and training with the spear. His wife noticed his worry, admitting to sharing it and the two soon eventually admitted to themselves what they both really knew all along: "A small village with only a pond and a confined cove to swim in is no place for a mermaid to grow up."
They knew that she eventually needed to go out to sea and be with others of her own kind.

On the eve of her 20th birthday, Mr and Mrs Creore had a long talk with Saphira. They weren't asking her to leave, they maintained, but simply telling her that she was welcome to come and go as she pleased- welcome to go out and have adventures of her own for real and to answer the call that the open sea would always have for her.
At first Saphira was extremely reluctant to leave, having never been outside the boundaries of that small village's coastline. However, after time, the prospect of meeting others of her kind, her fantasies about finding great underwater bullions and seeing pirate ships up close and the idea of the open water in front of her without restriction became too tempting for her and she gave in to her own ambitions and desires.

A fortnight after her birthday, Saphira packed a small satchel full of archaeologist's tools, took her spear in hand, bade her parents and sisters goodbye and took a ride from a merchant ship to the furthest neighbouring isle.
Having given herself a chance to rest, the young mermaid then swam out into the wild blue yonder of the western horizons, eagerly anticipating what was in store for her.



Personality:

Saphira is a relatively cheerful young woman with a high level of curiosity towards all that she encounters- even if she doesn't initially show it. Her "I-can-get-by-on-my-own" nature built up by years of being the only mermaid in an all human village and having to study and her pursue her interests alone, has given her quite an introverted personality.
She loves challenging, in-depth conversations and is a natural debater (thanks to years of haggling lessons from her mother) but will become shy around large groups of people, often becoming extremely anxious timid when questioned in front of many people or when forced to deal with too many people at once.
Saphira also has a caring streak and despite her destestation of large groups, will gladly assist anyone providing that their goal is a noble one (as she has helped her older sisters before). Saphira tries not to judge people and after growing up with humans, will certainly not behave in a racist manner towards anyone outside of her own species, however having only grown up in a small village, Saphira will behave in a distrusting manner towards strangers until they have proved themselves trustworthy to her.
Despite her introverted, quiet disposition, Saphira also loves to have a good time and particularly enjoys exploring, swimming races and playing underwater between reading history books or profiling relics.

Ship: N/A

Ship Flag: N/A

Devil Fruit: N/A
type: N/A
effect: N/A

Special Abilities: Has extremely high levels of endurance for pressure and freezing cold water due to years of diving experience and a highly efficient knowledge regarding historical relics and the value of certain treasures. Can also identify areas of possible treasure hoardes from the look of the water's surface as well as the locations of possible trenches and reefs that might be of danger to passing ships or swimmers.

Learned Techniques (Keep it 1-25):

Typhoon Harpoon: Saphira will throw her spear at her underwater opponent at full force through the water. The airpocket that forms around the spear in mid-flight creates additional pressure that serve to knock the opponent into confusion before the spear makes impact. Saphira can perform this same attack on land, however this is minus the additional pressure that the spear generates when thrown underwater.

Spiral Deflection: A defensive action that Saphira will take when fired at. She will spin her spear between her hands and deflect the fired objects back at her opponent. This action will only be of decent effect if Saphira has sufficient time to create a spining momentum with the shaft of the spear.

Javelin Joust: Saphira will drive the spear directly into the stomach of her opponent without taking her hands from the shaft, putting all of her strength behind it.

Whiplash Strike: Saphira will swing the shaft of her spear around and strike her opponent in the back of the neck or stomach in order to disorientate them.

Weapons/Items: A simple wooden spear shaft, about 4ft long with a sharply carved flint head, tied with sinew ropes. Saphira also carries a small satchel for collecting interesting objects in that contain's an archaeologist's kit- which in turn contains: a small hammer, a small chisel, a small scissors, a small paintbrush, a small sanding brush, a hankerchief, a tinderbox, a measuring tape and a magnifying glass.

Goals:
(1) To survive life on the seas.
(2) To collect relics and various treasures while exploring as many underwater environments as possible, all over the Grand Line.

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