While talking in a Discord server about characters in fantasy with disabilities, a nWoD character that I played many, many years ago popped into my head.
Tacita is not really her name but, that's what she uses. She was a mage, and... she was mute. She did have a familiar, a little black rat, and he could speak for her, but he was also kind of a dick.
I decided to redraw her, after she hadn't been drawing in 13 damn years.
I wanted to bring her back in some way, and maybe set her up for a game ~somewhere else~ (yes, this is a hint for a thing I'm working on... yes, another one). So, here's her new canon!
Originally, Taci was just a human. But after the nWoD game ended, I tossed her into my novel's world, as a delphin. She was just a horse type, but with changes to the world, only horned delphin have magic (and maybe some avizon, and occasionally delphin hybrids). So, I had to make her a horned type. Also, I removed humans from the setting of the novel.
Mage!Taci also had a ceremonial knife made from bone with her, acting like a focus for her magic. "... What if that was her horn?" my brain went.
Once a delphin's horn is broken, there's not a way to put it back. Filing the remainder down, so one can have a false horn made is about it. However, a false horn is will effectively seal their magic away. Breaking the horn will reduce the magical ability regardless... unless one has the remainder of their horn as a focus.
Breaking the horn is also incredibly traumatic. Trauma can lead to... oh, idk, someone losing the ability to speak.
See where I'm going?
Somehow, Taci is sent to a world with humans. During this, or shortly before, her horn is broken. She manages to grab the broken part, and uses that to change herself into a human. Eventually, she turns her horn into a ceremonial knife and (something something mage life). And she eventually will get pulled back to D'Amantru, and will have to start off by figuring out how to return to her delphin form. Because if you shape-shift too long, changing back can be difficult, at best.
