Tia Matte

Tia Matte (also known by the stage name "Shoque") was introduced in “Tia Matte: The Light Through the Prism.” She was created using Spacekase's prompt, "A Dragonkin bard who wants to be an idol."

Personal History
Tia was the bronze dragonkin member of Dragon's ten-dragonkin idol girl group called Prism. They blended an electro-pop and party-rock sound with heavy synth beats. Their acts were renowned for their elaborate choreography, as well.

Tia served a backup role in Prism; she was not particularly outgoing. Even when encouraged by others to assert her presence, Tia claimed to be too nervous. She simply wanted to make music and see people be happy. This was in stark contrast to the other members of Prism, and Tia was probably the one real musician of the group. During a war with another pop group, Tia was considered a casualty when she was encased in ice and left among the wreckage. Approximately five hundred years later, she thawed out in an elven museum; the elves had preserved her without really knowing much about Dragon's culture or who Tia herself was.

She soon discovers that the other races have populated Fantasy and that dragonkin have become a rarity. Tia wanted to resume her career as a musician, but she didn’t feel right without Prism. It was around this time that she awoke one morning and heard elven music. Picking up her keytar, Tia began playing along in a jam session, pairing perfectly with elven music and creating a beautiful harmony. The elves were delighted. No one had heard anything like this before.

Tia began to front her own solo musical act and started to get the recognition she deserved. She was writing her own music and song lyrics, choreographing her own performances, and functioning as her own operations manager. Tia was no longer getting lost in the hundreds of other dragonkin music groups and was on the road to becoming an idol in her own right.

This was when the elven museum staff stole her stone keytar; they wanted to study the device because they didn’t fully realize the instrument was simply a medium for Tia's innate magical powers. Tia was able to retrieve her instrument by rallying a mob and holding a small, hardcore concert using a newly-forged, finely-crafted mythril keytar. This was not an entirely noble endeavor. Tia held a genuinely spiteful concert to rouse the people into defiance of the old elven guard. She used her bardic magic to inspire a revolution to ensure the elven civilization was damaged.

Afterward, however, Tia worried that she had recreated the errors of the past and brought back the wars of Dragon. She decides to begin travelling in an attempt to gather the races of Fantasy and start a new version of Prism.

Tia's primary obstacle was that no one in Fantasy had considered this sort of goal. The overt prejudices each race held against each other often led to constant feuding between the races. Tia essentially had to invent the idea of diplomacy to bring people together.

As she traveled, Tia saw that things were worse than she thought, and there was too much of Dragon in this world. The people of Fantasy were limiting themselves to surface-level magic and using their powers without putting themselves into the art they created.

Tia wanted to encourage something deeper and more personal. During her journey, she persuaded the best scholars of each race to join her new iteration of Prism. These former historians and intellectuals were willing to use their full creativity for others rather than fame or validation. Through a mixture of historical preservation, allowing the past to guide the future, and the creation of fresh ideas, Tia used this new Prism to demonstrate how intersectionality could to lead to growth.

After one particularly powerful concert, Tia's magic opened a portal that summoned AM-E to Fantasy. The two hit it off, and their meeting opened up the next chapter of Tia’s life. With AM-E's help, Tia succeeded in bringing the people of Fantasy together in a golden age. Each race was always good at a particular thing, but now they realized that they could share more than just music.

Looks and Personality
As a bronze dragonkin, Tia's scales are literally metallic bronze. She also shares the good nature common to most bronze dragonkin.

Thanks to her experiences in Dragon and her time wandering Fantasy, Tia knows a story relevant to almost every situation and has anecdotes for everything.

Tia firmly believes that the world is in need of new ideas and bold action. She aims to spread positivity in the process. To that end, she encourages people to embrace their feelings and be their truest selves.

Tia is willing to do anything to gain fame and renown, and this has led to some of her concerts turning violent.

Powers and Abilities
Like other bronze dragonkin, Tia can exhale a lightning breath attack. She has been known to use this lightning to power her instruments.

Tia's personal wellspring of magic is so bountiful that her music channels the excess. When others hear her songs, the magic in the music inspires others to create art of their own.

Because of her role in the original Prism, Tia is a talented planner and coordinator. She is also capable of playing a variety of instruments and is an accomplished songwriter

Tia's preferred instrument is the keytar. In Dragon, she used a stone keytar that doubled as a battle axe. In Fantasy, her mythril keytar has a brass scythe attached to it.