Mergo

Mergo has green eyes and shoulder-length, messy light auburn hair. She also has a pair of goat-like horns, 4 arms and 3 legs, with a symmetrical middle foot (centered big toe).

Mergo was born in the village of ██████, near the city of ████. Her parents, Belio (he) and Cyrelin (she), were respectively a blacksmith and a tailor. Mergo had a reasonably happy and unremarkable childhood, though her parents were quite busy and couldn't provide her with as much guidance as she would've hoped.

Around 10, Mergo started to get interested in magic and its practice; she quickly envisioned herself as great sorcerer, and subsequently studied the basics of magic from 17 to 19, after spending most of her childhood helping her family's business.

On the verge of completing her first two years of sorcery studies, Mergo and her classmates were to find a master, and study under them the practical applications of magic abilities. But due to a lack of mages in the region, many students, including Mergo, were desperate to find anyone to help them finish their first cycle of studies.

In what appeared as a rare stroke of luck, Mergo and 5 other students that were nearing the deadline to find a master were all approached by the same one; a reclusive Human alchemist by the name of Gilmer (he), apparently in need of "young and motivated assistants". All too grateful, everyone accepted the offer without so much as a single question about the nature of Gilmer's work.

When the group arrived at Gilmer's laboratory, the alchemist gave them a quick tour, before offering them some food. However, it had been added a sleeping drug, and soon enough all 6 students would awake in cold, humid cells next to Gilmer's true laboratory; a large basement fitted with operating tables and surgical instruments. Gilmer also turned out to already have an actual assistant, a Human by the name of Darlid (he).

As Mergo and her comrades discovered from their conversations, Gilmer and Darlid belonged to The Viper, a secret organisation of scientists and mages performing all kinds of unethical, sordid experiments on captured people. The two of them specifically researched novel types of surgeries, in order to create chimeras and augmented soldiers.

As 2 weeks that felt like years went by, the surgeons tested a number of "treatments" on the captured students. One of them, who had lost an arm in an accident, had it regenerated; albeit with the wrong skin color. Another had animal features, like claws and a tail, added to them. But Mergo, as the test subject for combined experiments and Darlid's "personal favorite", was the most gravely altered; she gained an extra leg, another pair of arms and animal horns.

From the very start, all hope seemed lost. One student had attempted to flee on the very first day, but was rapidly caught and killed. By the end of the 2nd week, another had managed to steal a scalpel from the surgeons, but used it to kill themself rather than attacking their captors.

However, this suicide provided Mergo and her comrades the opportunity they needed. Because that student had killed themself the day before their last "treatment", Gilmer and Darlid had to quickly improvise (perhaps under pressure from superiors or colleagues?), and hastily went to Mergo, who had managed to retrieve and hide the scalpel in the meantime.

With a quick stab in Darlid's shoulder, she was able to get out of her cell and run to the cell keys in the laboratory. After freeing up part of her companions, a brief but violent fight ensued, during which both Darlid and yet another student perished. Gilmer was severely wounded, but managed to flee with incriminating documents. Mergo and the 2 students that were still alive quickly reached a nearby town; but by the time the local guard realised they weren't monsters and actually listened to them, Gilmer's laboratory had already been destroyed by fire, leaving behind no evidence tying them to The Viper.

As Mergo gradually adjusted to her new body, she soon started facing unease if not outright disgust from villagers. In a matter of weeks, everyone was muttering about "Belio and Cyrelin's freak daughter". This eventually culminated into a shouting match between Mergo and her parents during which Belio, whose family reputation directly affected his business, ended up admitting it might've been best if his daughter "hadn't come back".

Broken by such words, Mergo left her family's house, never to return. She set out to find a sorcery school that would accept her, but none did, pretexting her appearance would "disturb other students".

Mergo would finally reach a remote establishment, specifically dedicated to martial magics; the isolated School of Solud. At this point, she was fine with pretty much any place of study that taught magic to some degree; she needed it to prove to herself that the trauma she suffered could be surmounted. It first seemed she was to be rejected here as well, but a teacher by the name of Estorion (he), who saw potential in her, convinced the schoolmaster to let her in; though being unable to pay tuition fees, Mergo would have to work for the school on her free time in return. She accepted.

Mergo's first year at Solud was both difficult and exhausting, in no small part because of bullies that mocked her appearance every chance they had. Teachers were rigorous enough not to let this slide under their watch, but didn't care much for what students did outside of class; save for Estorion, who was both patient enough to partially adapt training and exercises to Mergo's anatomy, and severely punished those who bullied her.

By the end of this first year, Mergo had become fairly strong; much more than she thought she could be, even. She slowly regained self-confidence, and started to accept the unwelcome changes she had gone through.

Someday, between classes, Mergo was approached by a group of no less than 4 bullies, this time determined to "make an example" of her. Though she suffered a couple nasty hits, she was able to fully knock out 2 of them, making good use of her extras, before the fight was interrupted by Estorion. The bullies were quickly dismissed and Mergo, asked by the teacher to discuss with her, was terribly anxious at the idea of angering the one person she looked up to, or worse, being thrown out of the school.

To her surprise, Estorion wasn't angry; quite the opposite. Witnessing his protégée's moves against this many opponents, he asked her if she'd like to undergo personal training with him, in hopes of developing techniques for her unusual physique. Mergo gladly accepted, and traded the menial works the school had requested of her so far for intense but rewarding exercises with her newfound mentor, who proved a strict but deeply caring father figure.

As school years went by, Mergo's extra training made her into one of the most skilled students of her class, with overpowering grappling moves and robust defense. She also specialised in two different ways of martial magics; the Hummingbird's Flight and the Sea Snake, which respectively focus on increased mobility and the use of pressure points.

After completing her studies at Solud, Estorion gifted Mergo with a few useful items she would treasure for the rest of her life; one of these being an enchanted costume to hide her unique appearance when needed. As Mergo left Solud and decided to travel to find her personal purpose, she promised her adoptive father to return with knowledge to share with him and the school.

Mergo is actively traveling in search of new types of martial arts and techniques to learn, in hopes of compiling this knowledge into written texts for her former master.

Making full use of her extra limbs, Mergo is formidable at close combat. Being a tripod gives her greater stability than most, and her many arms allow her to comfortably block conventional strikes. She excels in overwhelming opponents with fast blows, and disabling them with complex locks and grappling techniques.

As an adept of the Hummingbird's Flight, Mergo can greatly enhance her mobility with magic-powered dashes, jumps and acrobatics.

As an adept of the Sea Snake, she also knows the location of pressure points in known creatures, and how to detect them in new opponents. She can infuse magic in precise strikes to briefly heal or buff her allies, or partly disable her enemies. The downside of these versatile techniques is that she can't apply them to her own body.

Mergo borrows her name from a major enemy in Bloodborne.