Post by alara on Apr 27, 2008 19:47:20 GMT -5
Okay, so I really do hope that this didn't get messed up since I put it together so sporadically, but anyhow, here it is (finally). If anything sticks out as wrong or doesn't make sense, etc. do tell me so that I can fix it. I hate inconsistencies and other such errors in my characters. ^.^
Name: Alara of Endarn
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Race: Eslantian/Astorian
Magic Ability or Creature: Alara is pyrokinetic, as is her father, but unlike her father, she is not so keen on using it. The nature of her power is reasonably strong, settling at approximately a strength of four, surpassing her father’s meager two, though he is far more skilled in the implementation of his power. To be honest, the sheer magnitude of her ability frightens Alara, and she refrains from using it as much as humanly possible (a trait that her father has of late begun blaming on her mother’s Astorian ancestry). Not particularly skillful in wielding this power, Alara’s pyrokinetic abilities are rather unpredictable when she does use them, and have gotten out of hand on more than one occasion.
Personality: Alara is a quiet person by nature, and when she does speak she measures her words very carefully, making sure that her meaning is clear and concise. She rarely speaks unless spoken to, and if the person speaking is giving an order or request she might not speak at all. This quietness of hers could be taken as synonymous with shyness, or meek nature, but Alara is neither. A strong-minded, strong-willed young woman, Alara prefers to use her actions and a very few choice phrases to say what she wants to say, determining that to be a far more effective way of getting her meaning across than to go on forever in a long-winder speech that wends about and doesn’t get to the point until the very end, if at all.
However, juxtaposed with her near silence is an underlying anger that simmers just below the surface. Not a mean or malicious person inherently or by habits learned, Alara was not always subject to this hidden fury that she chose to keep almost entirely to herself. This darker side to her persona only began to appear after her mother’s untimely death. She blames her abilities to an extent, and even though she can’t prove that they had anything to do with it they became a scapegoat so that she would not have to face the true cause, would not have to face herself and how it had everything to do with her mother’s death.
But all that anger is hidden beneath the thin veneer of a ‘lady’ that Alara presents to the world. Of course, she soon figured out that she could not play a meek young woman, and that her un-faced anger needed a more realistic cover. So, with that in mind, she twisted her quiet attitude so that the ‘quiet’ came across not so much as quiet but rather as imposing and dangerous, which as it stands isn’t all that far off from the truth.
Unfortunately, even with this act that she puts on for the benefit of all, there are times when the spidery cracks in her nearly perfect character split wide and her darker side shows through. It’s times like that when she has the least control over her abilities, and one of the reasons why she blames her powers for her anger.
Underneath her act is a very insecure young woman, terrified by the man she no longer calls ‘father’ willingly, unnerved by her abilities, haunted by memories of her mother and how she died. Alara is in no way a nice person, and could never be described as kind, at least not with her current disposition, though in the right circumstances it is not inconceivable that she could change. Goodness knows that she wants to change, more than anything in the world, though she won’t admit it to herself. Secretly, she hates what she has become, and wishes that circumstances could have been such that she wouldn’t have been put in a position to change as she did in the first place. But that would be selfish, and if there is one truly good thing in Alara it is that she is not a selfish person, and will help others if given the chance, whether or not she feels empathy toward the person or persons. It’s one of those ‘right versus wrong’ ideals when one just knows in his or her gut that a situation is right or is wrong.
Some might say that her whole right-versus-wrong mentality means that she is too trusting of others, but that is not the case. In fact, she is less than trusting of others unless she knows the person very well, and that has been a problem for her over the years, earning very few friends (though the ones she has are people she would trust with her life) and more than a few enemies, for lack of a better word to describe those people who were more than a little put off by her distrustful nature. However, the good part of this is that those people she does become close to her loyal to one another, and though it takes a long time to earn Alara’s trust (liars beware, for years of dealing with her father after her mother’s death have taught her the marks of a liar) it takes an act of true betrayal to break it.
Appearance: Alara is no ravishing beauty, but nor could she be called ugly, rather she falls into what some might call average. Very little about her sticks out, with the exception of her eyes, the one aspect of her mother that she inherited without flaw. Smoky blue-gray in hue, her eyes are ringed by long dark lashes, coming into stark contrast with her pale skin; skin that never tans, only burns.
Her hair is dark; a brown that borders on black but is not so dark that it cannot be recognized as brown in color. It falls in thick waves a point just beyond her shoulders, and she rarely wears it down, preferring to keep it tied back in a braid. The paleness of her skin makes her hair seem even darker than it actually is, and she has had friends tell her that she resembles a wraith at night when the moon is out, and sometimes just a head bobbing about in the darkness.
Everything about her is small, from her meager height of five foot three to her equally unimpressive weight, and from her thin nose to her petite feet. Alara actually likes being small; coupled with her very unobtrusive looks it makes it easy to just blend into the crowd when she really wants to and sometimes when she doesn’t want to.
In terms of clothing, Alara wears what custom and occasion dictates that she should. For instance, for a more formal event, her attire would be correspondingly formal, whereas if she were out riding her clothing would be of a hardier nature, made to cope with the stresses put on it. Of course, on her own she tends to shy away from the really flowery, and in her opinion overdone, garments, preferring more conservative attire (i.e. lacking copious amounts of embroidery and insets) generally in earth tones and the occasional blue or gray.
History: Alara was born and raised in Eslantia; she has never seen her mother’s native land of Astoria, though as a child she oft dreamt of traveling there one day. She grew up as any young girl would, learning her letters and figures, and being tutored in various other subjects of necessity. It also became apparent to her parents that though she had inherited her father’s abilities with fire, those abilities were stronger than those of Marin. It was not a cause of concern for quite a few years, and they made sure she received proper tutoring in the use of her ability, however one day made all the difference. It was that one day when, at five, Alara nearly turned her father’s library into an inferno. Fortunately the servant who took care of the library had substantial hydrokinetic powers and was able to put out the flames. Unfortunately, little Alara absolutely refused to use her ability with fire, not even in her lessons. Her parents decided to give her time to come to terms with the extensive nature of her power and did not press the issue. Later Alara wished that they would have if only so that she would not be a danger to herself and others.
As a child, she thought that her family was perfect, and that nothing would ever give them cause for woe. She was wrong, as is usually the case. It was just after Alara had celebrated her ninth birthday that the unexpected occurred. Her mother died. Now, this was not due to any illness or injury sustained in the normal way. She was murdered. Worse, Alara saw the entire episode, something that has scarred her evermore, something that she still has nightmares of and wakes up screaming. If that were the whole of it the situation would have been bad enough, however there was one component that made it all so much more heinous and terrible. Ilrea was not killed by some common ruffian or hired killer: the deed was done by Marin, Ilrea’s husband and Alara’s father. This shocked the young Alara more than anything. Why would her father kill her mother, the woman he loved and found a way to marry even though others disapproved? What reason was there for such violence? Her mother hadn’t done anything do deserve such an end! No one spoke of it, no one else knew. Marin knew that Alara had seen, that much Alara knew, but there was no point in arguing against her father’s word. The official verdict was that Ilrea had surprised a thief; it was such a weak story that Alara could have laughed, and years later, thinking of it, she did.
It was just barely a year later when her cousin Caven of Darik came to live with Alara and her father. Caven was the only cousin that Alara had met; if she had any relatives on her mother’s side of the family she had never known and now she never would know; at least she didn’t think she would. Caven was nice enough, albeit a bit quiet, and Alara liked that. His presence was of no consequence to her, but the fact that he didn’t go out of his way to strike up a conversation suited her just fine. Caven’s mother, Farlai (Alara’s aunt and Marin’s sister) was ailing and his father, Rilul, had thought it best to send the boy away for a while. Eventually, Farlai’s health returned and Caven left for training in the Eslantian army and it was just Alara and her father again. Ever since that night a year earlier, Alara had been distrustful of her father and his motives. She still didn’t know why he had killed her mother, and because she was only the daughter she had no grounds and no evidence to challenge his story. It infuriated her.
Plots: The biggest one for Alara would be the mystery surrounding her mother’s death (i.e. Why did her father do it? Who else was involved? What purpose was it to serve?). Lots of people could be involved, or a few, but her father is the key person in this storyline.
Possessions: There are few items that Alara holds dear. One is a silver chain with a pendant in the shape of two diving falcons; an animal that her mother once told Alara was dear to Ilrea’s side of the family. A second is a book from her father’s library that her father gave to her as a child; it has no name for it is too old to have been given one (and if it did it has long since been forgotten) and it is penned in a dialect that has not been used for many centuries, so Alara will sometimes spend hours on end trying to puzzle it out – it is the only possession of hers that was a gift from her father that she will bear to look at; all the others she has locked away out of sight and mind. The last item that she treasures above all is not really an item at all, but a being: her horse, Kedlin, a big bay with a mind of his own and wicked sense of humor that usually involved some item of clothing being ripped off forcibly. It was rather funny to watch, especially when the horse tried to look innocent after the fact.
Family:
Marin of Endarn – father – living – 42 – Eslantian
Ilrea of Yngen and Endarn – mother – deceased at 30 – Astorian
Rilul of Darik – uncle – living – 46 – Eslantian
Farlai of Endarn and Darik – aunt – living – 41 – Eslantian
Caven of Darik – cousin – living – 20 – Eslantian
Halveth of Endarn – grandmother – deceased at 68 – Eslantian
Uran of Endarn – grandfather – deceased at 70 – Eslantian
Name: Alara of Endarn
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Race: Eslantian/Astorian
Magic Ability or Creature: Alara is pyrokinetic, as is her father, but unlike her father, she is not so keen on using it. The nature of her power is reasonably strong, settling at approximately a strength of four, surpassing her father’s meager two, though he is far more skilled in the implementation of his power. To be honest, the sheer magnitude of her ability frightens Alara, and she refrains from using it as much as humanly possible (a trait that her father has of late begun blaming on her mother’s Astorian ancestry). Not particularly skillful in wielding this power, Alara’s pyrokinetic abilities are rather unpredictable when she does use them, and have gotten out of hand on more than one occasion.
Personality: Alara is a quiet person by nature, and when she does speak she measures her words very carefully, making sure that her meaning is clear and concise. She rarely speaks unless spoken to, and if the person speaking is giving an order or request she might not speak at all. This quietness of hers could be taken as synonymous with shyness, or meek nature, but Alara is neither. A strong-minded, strong-willed young woman, Alara prefers to use her actions and a very few choice phrases to say what she wants to say, determining that to be a far more effective way of getting her meaning across than to go on forever in a long-winder speech that wends about and doesn’t get to the point until the very end, if at all.
However, juxtaposed with her near silence is an underlying anger that simmers just below the surface. Not a mean or malicious person inherently or by habits learned, Alara was not always subject to this hidden fury that she chose to keep almost entirely to herself. This darker side to her persona only began to appear after her mother’s untimely death. She blames her abilities to an extent, and even though she can’t prove that they had anything to do with it they became a scapegoat so that she would not have to face the true cause, would not have to face herself and how it had everything to do with her mother’s death.
But all that anger is hidden beneath the thin veneer of a ‘lady’ that Alara presents to the world. Of course, she soon figured out that she could not play a meek young woman, and that her un-faced anger needed a more realistic cover. So, with that in mind, she twisted her quiet attitude so that the ‘quiet’ came across not so much as quiet but rather as imposing and dangerous, which as it stands isn’t all that far off from the truth.
Unfortunately, even with this act that she puts on for the benefit of all, there are times when the spidery cracks in her nearly perfect character split wide and her darker side shows through. It’s times like that when she has the least control over her abilities, and one of the reasons why she blames her powers for her anger.
Underneath her act is a very insecure young woman, terrified by the man she no longer calls ‘father’ willingly, unnerved by her abilities, haunted by memories of her mother and how she died. Alara is in no way a nice person, and could never be described as kind, at least not with her current disposition, though in the right circumstances it is not inconceivable that she could change. Goodness knows that she wants to change, more than anything in the world, though she won’t admit it to herself. Secretly, she hates what she has become, and wishes that circumstances could have been such that she wouldn’t have been put in a position to change as she did in the first place. But that would be selfish, and if there is one truly good thing in Alara it is that she is not a selfish person, and will help others if given the chance, whether or not she feels empathy toward the person or persons. It’s one of those ‘right versus wrong’ ideals when one just knows in his or her gut that a situation is right or is wrong.
Some might say that her whole right-versus-wrong mentality means that she is too trusting of others, but that is not the case. In fact, she is less than trusting of others unless she knows the person very well, and that has been a problem for her over the years, earning very few friends (though the ones she has are people she would trust with her life) and more than a few enemies, for lack of a better word to describe those people who were more than a little put off by her distrustful nature. However, the good part of this is that those people she does become close to her loyal to one another, and though it takes a long time to earn Alara’s trust (liars beware, for years of dealing with her father after her mother’s death have taught her the marks of a liar) it takes an act of true betrayal to break it.
Appearance: Alara is no ravishing beauty, but nor could she be called ugly, rather she falls into what some might call average. Very little about her sticks out, with the exception of her eyes, the one aspect of her mother that she inherited without flaw. Smoky blue-gray in hue, her eyes are ringed by long dark lashes, coming into stark contrast with her pale skin; skin that never tans, only burns.
Her hair is dark; a brown that borders on black but is not so dark that it cannot be recognized as brown in color. It falls in thick waves a point just beyond her shoulders, and she rarely wears it down, preferring to keep it tied back in a braid. The paleness of her skin makes her hair seem even darker than it actually is, and she has had friends tell her that she resembles a wraith at night when the moon is out, and sometimes just a head bobbing about in the darkness.
Everything about her is small, from her meager height of five foot three to her equally unimpressive weight, and from her thin nose to her petite feet. Alara actually likes being small; coupled with her very unobtrusive looks it makes it easy to just blend into the crowd when she really wants to and sometimes when she doesn’t want to.
In terms of clothing, Alara wears what custom and occasion dictates that she should. For instance, for a more formal event, her attire would be correspondingly formal, whereas if she were out riding her clothing would be of a hardier nature, made to cope with the stresses put on it. Of course, on her own she tends to shy away from the really flowery, and in her opinion overdone, garments, preferring more conservative attire (i.e. lacking copious amounts of embroidery and insets) generally in earth tones and the occasional blue or gray.
History: Alara was born and raised in Eslantia; she has never seen her mother’s native land of Astoria, though as a child she oft dreamt of traveling there one day. She grew up as any young girl would, learning her letters and figures, and being tutored in various other subjects of necessity. It also became apparent to her parents that though she had inherited her father’s abilities with fire, those abilities were stronger than those of Marin. It was not a cause of concern for quite a few years, and they made sure she received proper tutoring in the use of her ability, however one day made all the difference. It was that one day when, at five, Alara nearly turned her father’s library into an inferno. Fortunately the servant who took care of the library had substantial hydrokinetic powers and was able to put out the flames. Unfortunately, little Alara absolutely refused to use her ability with fire, not even in her lessons. Her parents decided to give her time to come to terms with the extensive nature of her power and did not press the issue. Later Alara wished that they would have if only so that she would not be a danger to herself and others.
As a child, she thought that her family was perfect, and that nothing would ever give them cause for woe. She was wrong, as is usually the case. It was just after Alara had celebrated her ninth birthday that the unexpected occurred. Her mother died. Now, this was not due to any illness or injury sustained in the normal way. She was murdered. Worse, Alara saw the entire episode, something that has scarred her evermore, something that she still has nightmares of and wakes up screaming. If that were the whole of it the situation would have been bad enough, however there was one component that made it all so much more heinous and terrible. Ilrea was not killed by some common ruffian or hired killer: the deed was done by Marin, Ilrea’s husband and Alara’s father. This shocked the young Alara more than anything. Why would her father kill her mother, the woman he loved and found a way to marry even though others disapproved? What reason was there for such violence? Her mother hadn’t done anything do deserve such an end! No one spoke of it, no one else knew. Marin knew that Alara had seen, that much Alara knew, but there was no point in arguing against her father’s word. The official verdict was that Ilrea had surprised a thief; it was such a weak story that Alara could have laughed, and years later, thinking of it, she did.
It was just barely a year later when her cousin Caven of Darik came to live with Alara and her father. Caven was the only cousin that Alara had met; if she had any relatives on her mother’s side of the family she had never known and now she never would know; at least she didn’t think she would. Caven was nice enough, albeit a bit quiet, and Alara liked that. His presence was of no consequence to her, but the fact that he didn’t go out of his way to strike up a conversation suited her just fine. Caven’s mother, Farlai (Alara’s aunt and Marin’s sister) was ailing and his father, Rilul, had thought it best to send the boy away for a while. Eventually, Farlai’s health returned and Caven left for training in the Eslantian army and it was just Alara and her father again. Ever since that night a year earlier, Alara had been distrustful of her father and his motives. She still didn’t know why he had killed her mother, and because she was only the daughter she had no grounds and no evidence to challenge his story. It infuriated her.
Plots: The biggest one for Alara would be the mystery surrounding her mother’s death (i.e. Why did her father do it? Who else was involved? What purpose was it to serve?). Lots of people could be involved, or a few, but her father is the key person in this storyline.
Possessions: There are few items that Alara holds dear. One is a silver chain with a pendant in the shape of two diving falcons; an animal that her mother once told Alara was dear to Ilrea’s side of the family. A second is a book from her father’s library that her father gave to her as a child; it has no name for it is too old to have been given one (and if it did it has long since been forgotten) and it is penned in a dialect that has not been used for many centuries, so Alara will sometimes spend hours on end trying to puzzle it out – it is the only possession of hers that was a gift from her father that she will bear to look at; all the others she has locked away out of sight and mind. The last item that she treasures above all is not really an item at all, but a being: her horse, Kedlin, a big bay with a mind of his own and wicked sense of humor that usually involved some item of clothing being ripped off forcibly. It was rather funny to watch, especially when the horse tried to look innocent after the fact.
Family:
Marin of Endarn – father – living – 42 – Eslantian
Ilrea of Yngen and Endarn – mother – deceased at 30 – Astorian
Rilul of Darik – uncle – living – 46 – Eslantian
Farlai of Endarn and Darik – aunt – living – 41 – Eslantian
Caven of Darik – cousin – living – 20 – Eslantian
Halveth of Endarn – grandmother – deceased at 68 – Eslantian
Uran of Endarn – grandfather – deceased at 70 – Eslantian