Profile: Yara Marrella

PROFILE

"I'm not my dark thoughts... I'm a good person. It's just that sometimes I can't help but enjoy inflicting pain on others. It makes me feel better, but I'm a good person. That I know for certain." - Yara Marrella  

Art by Nyacoii

Name: Yara Marrella

Age: 121

Birthplace: Humson Island

Race: Human

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Hazel

Skin Color: Vanilla 

Height: 5'7”

Weight: 112 Pounds

Powers: Tree Magic + Healing Magic + Manchineel State

Allies: Desmond Mateo, Trixie Meringue, Psyke

Likes: Her teammates, arcades, sour candy, fishing, walking through the forest, protecting the innocent

Dislikes: Her past, demons, witches, pornography, red meat, alcohol, the smell of cigarettes or marijuana, murderous thoughts 

Backstory

Early Life

Born during the summer in the month of July, Yara Marrella was the first child of Gyles and Marisa Marrella. Shortly after her birth, her parents conceived Yara's younger sister, Mona. Yara was born and raised on Humson Island, a vibrant island that was smack in the middle of Mayland and Canada, and the home to thousands of citizens who referred to themselves as Humsonians. Life was fairly normal for the Marrella family until one evening while Yara was fishing alongside her mother. A demon appeared and caused trouble for the mortal fishermen. Marisa, being an overzealous brave soul, engaged the demon in combat. While her tree magic was impressive, the sage soon discovered that the demon was too much for her to handle. Overwhelmed by the monster, the demon dug its hand into Marisa's abdomen, killing her instantly. It then began feasting on the dead woman's intestines while Yara watched in absolute horror. 

Help arrived moments later and the Humsonian sages managed to chase the demon away, but the damage had already been done. Not only did Yara have to witness her mother's gruesome death right before her eyes, but the fact that she was powerless to do anything to prevent her mother's death caused her immense trauma. Thankfully, her father and sister were able to console Yara until she was seemingly back to normal. The three of them visited Marisa's grave on her birthday every year and always told her how much they loved and missed her. Yara carried on her mother's legacy as one of Humson's best fishers and by learning Tree Magic. Unbeknownst to anyone, even herself, a darker alter ego began to awaken within the young girl.

Final Days Before Yara's World Crumbled Yet Again

Over seventy years passed since Marisa's untimely death. Yara and Mona grew up to be fine young women. They were the spitting image of their beautiful mother with shades of their father. Over the years, Gyles became lonely, believing he would never find true love again after losing Marisa. Surprisingly, Gyles met a fellow Humsonian; a dark-skinned male by the name of Ramel. After hanging around each other awhile, they ended up falling in love. Ramel was closer to Yara and Mona's age than their father's, yet the girls were happy to see that their dad found love again and they welcomed Ramel. Eventually, Gyles married Ramel and Ramel became step-father to Yara and her sister. Life on Humson Island was relatively good, minus the occasional nightmares Yara had of murdering, which she kept to herself for fear of being seen as some sought of psychopath. Yara enjoyed her family and believed the worst life had to offer was long behind her. 

Sadly, an evil god named Akodomal soon ushered in an event known as The Five Year War. Akodomal desired to eradicate all life on the Mortal Realm. One evening while Yara was fishing around the Cinnamon River, which she normally did mainly because it reminded her of the time spent with her mother, the young woman sensed something evil arrived on the island. Within seconds, Yara heard screams from miles away. She immediately began to panic. Using her tree magic to hurry back to shore, Yara ran as fast as she could to reach her family. Along the way, she encountered several demons and she instantly used her tree magic to bind and crush the repulsive creatures. Yara was beyond terrified that such madness was happening in her homeland. Akodomal had sent two of his minions named Type, a male witch from Thailand with a foul attitude and hatred for his own kind, and a demon named Meitan Hotfeller who was responsible for bringing forth the horde of demons to invade Humson Island.

Yara eventually reached the village where her family resided. To her horror, she saw the sight of many deceased Humsonians. Tragically, her father, stepfather, and sister were among the dead. Having completed their task before Yara's arrival, both Type and Meitan returned to Akodomal and awaited their next orders. Many Humsonians lost their lives during the unexpected assault on their land. The surviving Humsonians defended themselves against the demons and even managed to kill some of them. 

Yara, who never really recovered from her mother's death, now had to suffer the grim fate of having her father, sister, and stepfather dead as well. All this proved too much for Yara's psyche and the woman snapped. Unleashing her rage against her fellow Humsonians, Yara summoned Strychnine Trees, Manchineel Trees, and Sandbox Trees. Yara used these deadly trees to wreak havoc until she was finally subdued. Feared by her people after her outburst, they decided to send her off to Mayland, and the young sage ended up in a psych ward located in California. As Yara began her rehabilitation, Akodomal and his cohorts, sans Ares, Bubblegum Sevencolors, and Bathory, received their just due as they were all slain and defeated by the heroes of the Mortal Realm; thus bringing an end to The Five Year War. 

Despite the efforts of highly skilled doctors and telepaths, Yara spent a few more years being rehabilitated. Yara constantly went into fits of rage and needed to be subdued. Eventually, she was released from the psych ward, but the reason for her release was unclear. Rumor had it that the doctors deemed Yara incurable, and decided to just let her out onto the general public and she'll become someone else's problem down the line.

I Get A Sense She's A Lost Cause

Yara joined the Hero Syndicate located in the Royal Lands, the capital of Mayland. She used her unique magic to aid in various missions alongside sages who were short on manpower. Despite her unknown instability, Yara proved more than helpful to anyone she aided. She received rave reviews from every sage she fought alongside, even the ones who were known to be pricks within the syndicate. All of this assisted in the Hero Syndicate's decision to give Yara a team of her own to lead. Yara was in charge of the newly reformed Fallen Stars alongside young sages Desmond Mateo, Steven "Psyke" Cambrian, and Trixie Meringue, with other young sages expected to join the guild in the near future. Yara took to her leadership role perfectly and managed to balance dealing with the variety of personalities of her younger teammates. However, Yara had a dark side that emerged when she least expected it. 

For the past two years in Mayland, there had been numerous unsolved murders of witches and demons that even the strongest of telepaths had yet to uncover. Of course, telepaths the caliber of King Onyx, Hellin Strongs, and Othello Strongs were either too busy handling other matters or simply had no interest in dealing with mortal affairs. Those murders were committed by Yara. She sought out sinister sages and used her tree magic to murder them in the cruelest ways imaginable. This side of Yara was called her Manchineel State; a state where Yara gave in to her dark desires of wanting to hear the screams of those she deemed unworthy. Thankfully, before any investigation into these murders, Yara seemingly ceased falling into her Manchineel State and behaved like a normal human living in Mayland. As of now, Yara has proven herself to be a role model for not only her teammates but to other sages, both veterans and newcomers alike; unaware of the monster that lurked inside the beautiful sage's mind.

TRIVIA

1. Yara, along with Cecelia and Trixie, is an AI adoptable I purchased. Like any AI adoptable that I purchase, Yara is 100% my character, but because her artwork was done originally in AI, I had to commission a professional artist to draw her to my liking.

2. Yara is easily one of the most tragic characters in FORBIDDEN.

3. My thought process when creating Yara's backstory was to create the complete opposite of Yara's very warm and approachable appearance. Basically, "don't judge a book by its cover".

4. Originally, the name of Yara's magic was called "Wood Magic," but I wanted her powers more related to trees themselves and not simply wood. Thus, I changed to "Tree Magic".

5. The inspiration behind Yara's psychotic state "Manchineel State" was because of how dangerous real life Manchineel trees are.  I felt it was a perfect name for Yara's broken side.

6. Yara's tragic backstory also takes inspiration from a lyric in singer SZA's song "Kill Bill". The lyric: "I get the sense that it's a lost cause".

7. Originally both Yara and Psyke were going to be co-leaders of the newly reformed Fallen Stars. However, in the process of making Yara easily a century older than her teammates, I decided that Yara would be the actual leader of Fallen Stars while Psyke (a character that will be introduced properly in the future) will act like a leader who somewhat undermines Yara's authority.

8. Yara originally did not know Healing Magic until she joined the Hero's Syndicate. During a mission with Team Morning Moon, one of the members was injured in battle. Despite everyone being okay and the mission a success, Yara felt bad that she couldn't do anything to aid the injured sage. That prompted her to learn healing magic. Yara is still learning as she's only able to heal intermediate injuries. Anything life-threatening is still above her capabilities for now.

9. The telepath/doctor responsible and reasoning for letting Yara out of the psych ward will be a character I visit in the near future. No exact time frame, but it's something I desire to do, if possible.