Zenobia al Zabba

Physical Description
Zenobia’s human form is a willowy, dark-skinned (Egyptian) woman with chin-length black hair and deep gold eyes. She has white tattoos of protective runes that wrap around her arms, shoulders, back, the sides of her torso, and her collarbone area. She also can take the form of many animals, but no matter which animal she turns into, the fur/scales/feathers is/are always black and the eyes are always deep gold, even if that’s not natural for the species she currently is. When she is in her animal form, protective runes cover the body of the animal in glowing, gold markings. Their placement depends on the species of animal, and aren’t necessarily equivalently consistent to the placement of the runes on her human form. Not all of the runes are the same, either. When alone, visiting Kononu, or in private conference with Suvaa, Zenobia is barefoot and wears a white kalasiris. She also wears a gold circlet adorned with amethyst and carved with arcane runes, a caricature of an eye hanging from the front by a golden chain to hang above the Sahasrara, or the spiritual Third Eye. When being summoned to the Council of Knowledge, on formal occasions, or when visiting her daughter, Koenani, she generally wears a deep purple cape or drape over this, in addition to Roman-style sandals.

Personality
Likes to read a lot, and is very up-to-date with what’s going with humanity. She experiments with various types of magic, taking notes and developing new ways to use it (she’s in denial about how similar this is to the study of science). Usually she spends all her time doing this research, but she leaves if she’s summoned or if she needs to solicit information or assistance from her allies. She also sometimes visits her daughters of her own volition without them having to seek her out. She also allows Chak to be her apprentice, but otherwise, she mostly keeps to herself. She’s usually quiet, since she’s alone so often there is rarely a need for her to vocalize her thoughts. She comes across as the type to be organized, but her research is generally strewn everywhere, and her notes are scrawled down in messy scribbles that sometimes even she has a hard time deciphering. She prefers to keep to herself, but not because she’s shy or socially awkward, but because there are better uses for her time than casual conversation. The exceptions to this are her daughters, her apprentice, and also Kononu, all of whom she regularly visits.

With the growing place for science in the world, magic has found a rival for its place in the world. Neither can replace the other, and others know this, but the goddess of magic and the god of science seem to be oblivious to this as they compete against each other, constantly trying to outdo the other. This increases motivation for the progress of both fields, so none of the gods have, as of yet, attempted to intervene.