Physical description:
Arya is a beautiful woman with green eyes; long, brown hair; and typically wears a white dress when acting as the Mother Confessor. Her brown hair brushes her lower back, the length of which is a symbol of her authority and position as the Mother Confessor and naturally grows the longest in Thandac even if she cut it. She is almost as tall as Marek (who is described as taller than most men). She typically wears the white, square-necked dress of the Mother Confessor. The cut of this dress is iconic and specific to Confessors and is widely recognized by the citizens of the Midlands, with the dress's white color signifying that the wearer is the Mother Confessor. The weave of the fabric is fine and smooth and bears none of the lace or frills of more conventional dresses, with no print or colors. She wears boots of leather. When not dressed in her Mother Confessor garb, the length of her hair and her bearing speak of what she is and the power she has regardless.

General characteristics:
Araya is a person of magic known as a Confessor. A Confessor has the ability to 'touch' a person with her power. Once 'touched', that person is no longer who they used to be, but now eternally devoted to the Confessor. The purpose of which is to take the voluntary confession of those who have been sentenced to death, so that all may know their innocence. As does every Confessor, she needs time to regain enough strength to use her ability again. However unlike most Confessors, she only needs a couple of hours to do so. Araya speaks every major language in the lands and most of the minor ones. She is strong and quick, rarely does anyone need to slow on her account while traveling. She also has a gift for knowing and reading people and realizing why they do what they do even if the person himself does not know why. She is courageous and determined, full of intelligence and wit. Nevertheless, she is terrified of the underworld and the boundaries, due to her time spent crossing one and the things she saw inside. She is also uncharacteristically afraid of snakes. She is an extremely modest person.

Arya can recover the strength of her confessor's power with unusual speed, in about one to two hours after she releases it, as opposed to anywhere from half a day to a full day and night for other Confessors. A Confessor's recovery speed is also an indication of her power. Due to the way the power of Confessors works, people touched by Araya are able to perform far beyond their normal strength or human limits; they may even fall dead instantly at her request. Even the slightest application of the Confessor's power permanently obliterates the free will of a victim and replaces it with complete devotion and subservience. A Confessor's power latches onto the love inside the person and expands it until it entirely consumes their being. Marek, however, is untouched by Araya's powers due to the love that they share for each other.

She fights against the Imperial Order, Araya declares war against the Queen and Bastion's Drakelords and Mord Syths, with no quarter given.

Confessor's magic:

As a Mother Confessor, she is a great healer and like all beings of Thandac is close to being immortal but can receive near death injuries that take a day or so to recover.

As with all Confessors, Araya possesses the magic of love. With but a touch, Araya can cause a person to become fanatically loyal to her, to the point that he or she no longer possesses a sense of self. However, whereas a typical Confessor would be incapacitated for up to a day after having used her power, Araya requires only hours to recover. This in particular highlighted her as an unusually powerful Confessor.

Araya's power over those touched by her magic was seemingly limitless. Indeed, she even possessed the ability to cause a subject touched by her power to die at her command. At one point she is even able to cause a man to die simply by making him see the full injustice of his actions.
Con Dar:

Araya also had the ability to invoke the Subtractive side of her magic, the Con Dar or the Confessor's Blood Rage; though only on behalf of her true love, Marek. The Con Dar allowes Araya the power to use her traditional Confessor's magic without touching a person, and causes her not to need time to recover from its application afterwards. In addition, whilst in the midst of the Con Dar, Araya can summon immensely powerful blue lightning. Araya is also able to invoke an ability called the Con Dar. The Con Dar enhances a Confessor's power by decreasing recovery time to zero and also gaining ranged use of their ability, as opposed to 'touching' a person. However, the Con Dar may only be invoked by a Confessor to protect the one she loves most, Marek. Normally this ability is taught from the mother to the daughter, but Araya's mother never had a chance to pass this knowledge down due to her death early in Araya's life. However, when she believes that her love Marek has been murdered, she invoked the Con Dar, literally meaning "blood rage," intuitively. This is likely due to her innate strength with her power and her incredibly strong will. She also invokes a weaker, temporary version of the Con Dar that allows her to hurl blue lighting bolts.

In addition to her magical abilities, Araya is a master linguist, having mastered every major language of the lands, as well as a majority of the minor ones. As the Mother Confessor, Araya is naturally a skilled diplomat and well versed in all matters of state. Araya also has a strong knowledge of principles of magic, having been tutored by the wizard Zedd from childhood, though she herself does not possess powers beyond her Confessor's magic.

Having been taught all manner of combat styles by her father and later her foster father, Tius Dragonleaf, and in much greater depth by Marek, Araya was a skilled physical combatant. In particular, Araya proves more than capable as a swordsman and archer. As the Mother Confessor, Araya is well versed in military strategy, and is a tactician comparable to High Lord Commander Marek Blud and High Lord Commander Bastion Blud.

*What is a Confessor?*

It's a power, magic power, that's passed down from mother to daughter, going back almost as far as there have been the lands, back before the dark times.

Created 3000 years ago during the Great Wizard's War, Confessors are an ancient order of women. The purpose of Confessors is to ascertain the truth, beyond doubt, in certain situations. The way this is accomplished is by means of their power, Confession.

*Confession*

Once touched by it, you are no longer the person you were. You are changed forever. Forevermore you are devoted to the one who touches you, to the exclusion of all else. What you wanted, what you were, who you were, no longer means anything to you. You would do anything for the one who touches you. Your life is no longer yours, it is hers. Your soul is no longer yours, it is hers. The person you were no longer exists

The power of confession is the power of love. To confess someone all a Confessor must do is touch them and release her magic. A Confessor can touch someone without taking them but she must always keep a tight hold on her power lest she confess someone unintentionally. The only time this isn't possible is when Confessors make love. In the throws of passion a Confessor's hold on her magic will relax and her mate will be confessed. This is why Confessors never choose a person they love for a mate. They will instead choose a mate based on qualities they find desirable for their offspring.
The power of confession moves at the speed of thought. This means that, once touched, you cannot possibly move fast enough to avoid confession.

When someone is confessed their personality is erased completely and replaced with an undying and unwavering devotion to the one who confessed them. The touch of a Confessor is final. Once touched, there is no going back to the way you were. No matter how strong your will is, there is no fighting it.  The only way to break the power of confession is to kill the Confessor and even then, if the Confessor's power is strong enough, the confessed may die soon after the Confessor.

The devotion the confessed feels depends on the power of the Confessor. While the devotion is absolute, stronger Confessors can make their victims do things weaker ones cannot, such as die on command.

After confessing someone, the Confessor is left physically drained and will need time to recover their power. During this time they cannot use their power again. In most Confessors it takes a day or two to recover completely. However, the stronger ones recover more quickly with the strongest requiring only a few hours.

It is possible to confess more than one person at a time. If you are touching someone who is being confessed, you will be confessed as well. There is no known limit to the number of people that can be taken in this manner.

There are certain people who react differently to confession than most.

-Mord-Sith-
The touch of a Confessor is universally fatal to Mord-Sith. Once touched, the Mord-Sith will suffer in agony for hours before finally succumbing to death.

-Someone who loves the Confessor-
If the Confessor touches someone who already loves them unconditionally, that person will not be affected by the Confessor's power. Since that individual is already devoted to the Confessor, there is nothing for her power to do.  The only drawback to this is that neither the Confessor nor her love can know about this in advance. That foreknowledge would create a grain of doubt in the victim. The Confessor's touch would latch onto that doubt and the victim would be destroyed. (This works with Marek and Araya)

*Araya, The Mother Confessor*
The Mother Confessor's word is law in Thandac. When the presiding Mother Confessor dies then her daughter will carry on being the Mother Confessor.  The Mother Confessor is distinguished by the dress she wears who wears white.

*The Con Dar*

It's called the Con Dar. The Blood Rage. It's something only the Mother Confessor can do.

While confession is the power of love, the Con Dar is it's opposite, the power of vengeance and hate. Only the strongest Confessors possess the ability to enter the Con Dar.  A Confessor cannot use the Con Dar on her own behalf, such as to protect herself. It can only be summoned on the behalf of a loved one.  Once in the Con Dar the Confessor can take someone even if she is not touching them. The Con Dar also removes the necessity to rest in between victims, meaning that the Confessor can take as many as she chooses.  The magic of the Con Dar is so powerful and requires so much of the Confessor that it is rare for a Confessor to survive it.