Originally created for a Pathfinder campaign with some close friends, Ayana has grown to feel like a part of me, alongside my other fursona/avatar characters. She's a very different sort of character for me, because she's a shapeshifter, so this character description section will be a bit longer and more involved than my usual character descriptions.

As a basic introduction, Ayana is a 20-year-old kitsune (one tail), so she can appear as either a human or an anthro fox, but she also has the innate ability to appear as an ordinary feral fox as well (the Fox Shape feat). This is the norm for all kitsune from her village, and she considers this feral form to be her "true" form, finding four paws more comfortable than two. She's an accomplished martial artist, specializing in the unique fighting style of her people, which blends mastery of simple weapons with druidic magic and animal allies (dual-class druid and weapon-adept monk). Given her small stature, her fighting style is extremely kinetic and focuses on speed and agility more than raw strength, making her a very hard-to-hit blur of fur in combat, and she relies on ambush tactics to catch opponents off-guard. Combined with her general aversion to interacting with humanoid society, this essentially makes her a cryptid: Few have seen her clearly enough to identify her and lived to tell the tale, and even fewer have actually interacted with her as equals.

Core Details (All Forms)

These details apply to all of Ayana's forms described below.

• Name: Ayana (no last name)
• Age: 20 (approx.)
• Gender: Female (she/her)
• Species: Red fox
• Eyes: Golden brown, common for foxes but striking and unique in human form.

Anthro Fox and Human Forms

Anthro fox is Ayana's go-to form when she needs to do something that's better-suited to an anthropomorphic creature, or at least having thumbs - primarily fighting, but not exclusively. She very rarely takes on a fully human form, but like all kitsune, she's able to do this if needed, generally only when she needs to interact with human society and pretend to be one of them. She's not very good at pretending to be human, though - basically San from Princess Mononoke, including riding a wolf (see the Animal Companion section)

• Height: 4'8" (1.42m)
• Build: Lean and athletic, but not overly muscular
• Outfit: Usually little more than a crudely-made bikini (albeit a full-coverage one, somewhere between a two-piece swimsuit and a professional track running outfit), to keep her movement as unconstrained as possible, though her top acts more like a sports bra - in anthro form, she relies on her fur coat for warmth and covering, and in human form, she just sticks with the bare minimum because she doesn't really understand human society. She also wears a pair of leather bracers on her wrists (magical armor), and a modest braided leather headband.
• Hair: Dark brown, straight, very long (all the way to her waist/tail base), usually free-flowing other than her headband, but she'll occasionally put it in a loose ponytail.
• Fur (Anthro Fox): Fairly standard red fox coloration/pattern (no specific markings), very soft and fluffy.
• Skin Tone (Human): Medium-brown.

Feral Fox Form

This is how Ayana prefers to exist and interact with the world, and considers it her "true" form. She's unable to speak human languages in this form, but she's pretty skilled at communicating via pantomime using her paws when she needs to. However, when interacting with humanoid creatures in this form, she usually pretends to be just an ordinary wild animal, albeit a very curious one, and she's highly skilled at playing the role of "just a normal fox".

• Height/Build: She's unambiguously an adult red fox, but a young adult, so she's a little smaller than a fully-grown adult fox.
• Clothing/Accessories: None; to an outside observer, she's functionally indistinguishable from any other wild fox.
• Fur: Fairly standard red fox coloration, no specific marking preferences. Her fur in this form is very soft and fluffy, more than one would expect for a wild animal.

Animal Companion - Mise (Wolf)

As a druid, Ayana shares a deep bond with her animal companion, a grey wolf named Mise. They chose each other as "packmates" when Mise was an older pup, and trained together for years, making them a highly effective duo in both combat and day-to-day life, and very close friends. Ayana also often rides Mise wherever they go, and especially in combat since Mise can run much faster than Ayana. But Ayana sees Mise as an equal on all levels, and even respects her more than most humanoids.

• Name: Mise (MEE-say)
• Age: Undecided, but she's a young adult.
• Gender: Female (she/her)
• Species: Grey wolf
• Eyes: Gold, very similar to Ayana's eyes, but a little lighter.
• Size/Build: Big and muscular, and even a little large by normal wolf standards, but not supernaturally oversized (though she looks bigger than she is when anthro-Ayana is riding her or standing next to her, since Ayana is so short).
• Fur: Brownish-grey with a lighter underbelly, fairly standard wolf coloration, but more brown than grey. She blends in with forests very well. And her fur is very fluffy, and softer than one would expect for a wild animal.
• Personality:
  • Big and a little bit clumsy, she sometimes seems like she's still trying to get used to her own body.
  • Cautious but perceptive about the intentions of others, usually following Ayana's lead about who is and is not a threat, but she's a bit cold and standoffish toward anyone Ayana hasn't explicitly introduced to her as a friend.
  • Very warm, playful, and affectionate toward Ayana, and anyone Ayana has told her is a friend (though Ayana is the only one outside the village who Mise fully trusts).
  • Very skilled at coordinated combat with Ayana, and also at intimidation when needed.