          |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Text in brown is in the process of being revised, although chances are I'll revise anything in this profile, regardless of whether its text has been yellowed. XD |
||||||||||||||||||||
| ystadegaeth . cofrestri . eiliw . personoliaeth . cefndir . marchog . draig | ||||||||||||||||||||
| YSTADEGAETH | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Name: Salix [Seileach] Arabim Adhamh. Meaning: 'willow' (from Latin), also 'willow' (from Scots Gaelic), also also 'willow' (from Hebrew), 'of the red earth' (either from English or Hebrew, and Gaelicized). Overall, it could mean 'twice a willow from the red earth'. The reason for 'Salix' and 'Seileach' is because 'Salix' is easier for Actavians to pronounce than 'Seileach' and Salix was honestly getting pissed with people mispronouncing his name upon reading it. Pronunciation: Salix and Arabim are pronounced as they are written. Seileach: SHEH-lyach, with a guttural 'ch' (as per 'loch' or 'chutzpah'). Adhamh: Properly EYE-iv (think of it as a weird version of "Ive" [but more like "I-yiv"]), but usually any of ADD-am, ADD-ham, or AD-hum. Nicknames: When he was named as per his religion's traditional naming ceremony, he was given a sort of 'sacred' magic-practicing name to be used in spells and sometimes in signatures. That name is 'Saille' (pron. SYLE-leh), and is another repetition of 'willow'. Of course, there're also the inevitable 'Sally' and 'Sal', both of which are in common usage, if not in common appreciation... Age: 23. Birthdate: September 23. Zodiac Sign: Salix sits on the cusp of Virgo and Libra and he does tend to exhibit personality characteristics of both signs. Homeland: Iberna, a fairly large and sparsely-populated island nation some distance to the west of Actavia. Salix will not claim his Ibernan citizenship first, instead claiming to be from a place called Enor, generally recognized as a province of Iberna, as opposed to its own country. This is for political and racial reasons to be explained later. (He comes from a tiny village in Enor called Almna, to be most specific.) Occupation: Salix is a doctor and field surgeon, the majority of whose education, from approximately the age of ten, has been centered around medicine. He is also a talented gardener (the rest of his education, not spent on learning basics like history and language, was given over to botany), who incorporates a large number of herbal cures and remedies into his regimen as his answer to the synthetic medicines used in more scientifically advanced cultures. |
||||||||||||||||||||
| CORFRESTRI | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Likes: Writing, watercolours (he can’t paint worth a damn, but he sure likes watercolour paintings), gardening, working as a functioning and necessary part of a group, feeling needed, knowledge and its pursuit, libraries (big or small, there are always treasures to be found in them), magic in general, aspirations to greater things, simple things (such as rough-cut jewelry, unbleached linens, whole-grain bread, wooden floors, hikes in the woods, no air conditioning...), cool weather, deep ‘impenetrable’ forests, cats, plants and trees, old Aristean pop music (he is embarrassingly fond of old popular music and has a surprising number of songs memorized, to the point that he could probably hop up to do some karaoke and embarrass himself just enough. of all the technology he could invest in, he’d buy a tape player to stick in the infirmary and just play music), incense, candles, his job, the middle of nowhere, quiet but not silence, rain, rubber bands (SO useful!), baths, being clean, dolls (the nice stuffed soft kind, not the creepy real-looking ones - stop laughing they're for decoration), sleep. Dislikes: Furniture, loud noises, people in his ‘space’, taking risks (mostly having to do with his health), any type of fluid exchange (although as much for reasons of inexperience as for reasons of personal hygiene and vows of chastity), the dark, overcomplex and/or unnecessary technology (he very much believes that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), most Actavian technology, cities (the larger, the worse), urbanization in general, the corporate entities responsible for this urbanization (and its accompanying sprawl, pollution and encouragement toward self-centered behaviour), fire, tropical heat, loss of control, drugs (because of loss of control), looking stupid, lightning storms, wasting time, not having anything to do (days off for him are full of frustration because he has no idea what he’s supposed to be doing), Surrean accents (they remind him of home). Quirks: Salix is well-desensitized to blood and injury, and has absolutely no problems cracking joints back into place, removing arrowheads or bullets, doing impromptu surgery, or using needles to perform injections. However, he’s extremely sensitive to plant life being harmed. Forest fires make him totally ill and seeing people chopping down trees makes him very uncomfortable; though he’s aware the wood is needed, he’d prefer to take it from trees that have died naturally or in accidents. Though Salix is smart, he has problems with the commonly-used Actavian alphabet and tends to stumble, due to the differences, when reading. His spoken accent is very thick but his conversational grasp is very good, although he uses some unusual constructions at times, mostly having to do with reversal of subject and complement (instead of saying “she is pretty”, for example, he might switch it and say “pretty, she is”). Linguistically, he’s getting better and better, and the occasions upon which his accent is completely impenetrable are fewer and fewer. He only needs five-some hours of sleep a night and very, very rarely sleeps in, usually waking up at the crack of dawn or earlier. The cold tends to make him sleepier than usual - in winter months his average total sleep time goes to six hours. Salix is ridiculously flexible, body-wise. His joints are very loose and allow him to do some pretty wacky things with his limbs. Hobbies: Calligraphy, doing magic (whatever that may entail), growing plants (orchids, tomatoes, creepers, a shrubbery, another shrubbery...), taking walks before work, caring for trees (he takes a day here and there to actively seek out fungus-afflicted trees and take care of them), sleeping outside, reading magic or science-related books (although he’s started looking at Actavian history, too), hanging out with his dragon (because he seems to have just as good a rapport with Libytheidus as most people would have with very good friends; he visits every day, talks to him, and play-wrestles a little [Libytheidus is just a nipper and has only caused Salix to bleed a few times]. Libytheidus has even gone so far as to learn his name, but he doesn't always respond to it). Strengths: Highly developed magical skills, not easily tired by spellcasting, capable of leaping tall mountains of arcane magical trivia in a single bound, academically strong (history, mythology and ancient, dead languages especially, and that’s not including the sad amount of herb lore and pathological information he’s got stored up there), stoic, aware of what he should be doing even if he’s not doing it, prudent, temperate, non-judgmental when it comes to healing people (and he has good judgment skills when it comes down to ‘who needs healing first’), unfazed by blood and gore, level-headed, sticks to his morals, problem solver, takes orders well, knows what war does to people, compassionate, honest, direct, in tune with his environment, long attention span, acts in a self-sacrificial manner. Neutral Traits: Passive, reserved. Weaknesses: Has difficulty communicating with others, private, poor leadership skills, needs the ‘okay’ before doing anything in the field, emotionally isolated, can be quite cold to people he doesn’t know well, not terribly trusting, will not strike until the target is entirely confirmed to be bad, feels obliged to provide healing to everyone (bad guys included), technologically impossible, shy, waits to be spoken to before speaking, requires very very precise orders and answers to questions, overworks himself to the point of sickness, socially impaired, humour-repressed, self-repressing leads to slight self-hatred, excludes himself from group activities for the sake of various credos and codes he has been sworn to following, easily ashamed of his own behavior, sets his standards much too high, can be something of a control freak, is not innately self-sacrificial (he has to force himself to be). Fears: Fire. Lightning. Magic death. Suffering any more physic burn than he’s already got. Empire Corp winning. The dark. Losing what powers (i.e., the crutch) he's got. Being high up. People getting inside his head. Sickness and disease (rather, the risk of him catching one; he is a doctor and is used to seeing them both, so on other people he is fine, but he desperately is frightened of getting debilitatingly ill, as he knows what the effects could be). Missing one of his purges. Losing control of his routine. Cities for overlong periods of time. City people (well, they make him nervous; this is more of an irrational fear than anything else). Cars. Aspirations: To do his duty for the order and see Empire Corp crumble. To go back home with something for his mother to be proud of. To learn what he can and become the best mage he can. Bedroom: Salix's bedroom is a pretty bland one, consisting of:
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| EILIW | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Salix isn't big, but he's long. He is only about five feet, four inches tall, but carries himself in such a way that he appears taller than he is - shoulders back, spine upright. His proportions favour his arms and legs, making him look even skinnier. Flexible and delicate all at once, Salix looks and is very physically weak thanks to some major damage to his immune system caused by a superflux of magical energy (called a 'physic burn' in arcane terms). He weighs one hundred twenty pounds, has poky knees and elbows, long, bony hands, and a long neck.
In terms of colouring Salix is extremely dark, his skin a golden-olive base that has gone a deep, even brown-bronze shade under the sun. Because he works with his hands, they're very callused, on the palms as well as on the fingertips. The same goes for his feet; he walks around barefoot a lot while gardening or walking around normally, although certainly wears shoes while on missions or while in the infirmary. The pointed chin, small triangular wedge of a nose, high cheekbones that stick out somewhat, small ears with a bit of an angle in them, and fine dark eyebrows give him this angular, very serious look which, while it is very beautiful, has a certain cold aspect to it. His mouth provides a contrast to all the angles, being wide with firm, smooth lips. There are two piercings in the cartilage of his left ear, which sport identical pewter rings, each made to look like an intricate rope. Salix's almond-shaped eyes (in Earth equivalents, he's vaguely Filipino-Indonesian in appearance) are a muted gray-lavender colour, sitting on a slant on his face. The sharp contrast between the pale gray of his eyes and the dark bronze of his skin is shocking and kind of difficult to get used to. Salix's blue-black hair is surprisingly long, reaching to well past his hips when down, board-straight normally but constantly wavy thanks to his everpresent tiny braids, lightly feathered around his face. He rarely wears it down, as when it is down it is incredibly girlish and unwieldy. Every morning it gets pulled into his religion's traditional hairdo for doctors: handfuls of tiny, thin braids, which are further twisted, along with the rest of the unbraided hair, into a tight bun. A single strand of his hair has been bleached to a yellow-white colour; it is usually strung with colourful wooden beads. Often individual braids are decorated, too, with beads, or feathers, or even leaves; there may even be 'unintentional' decoration, such as little branches or leaves getting caught in his hair. He always seems to have some form of vegetation accidentally caught in his hair, usually in the form of leaves. He'll pull this braid in with the others when he pulls his hair back, but leaves the beaded part to hang. As his hair has a religious as well as an aesthetic purpose, he takes very good care of it, washing it daily. One of the most noticeable features about Salix's appearance is the creeping black vine tattoo he has, which crawls all over his skin. Where is it? It makes that decision executively. The tattoo doesn't stay stationary, moving around Salix's body wherever it wants to, blooming and receding with Salix's moods and the seasons. There seems to be more of a correlation between its shape (flowers? thorns? rose or ivy?) and Salix's moods than there is between the shape and the season, although as Salix's mood is sometimes related to the season (winter brings sleepiness and depression, for instance), this can change. The tattoo is black, although its leaves change. Its favourites are variegated leaves (à la wandering Jew) and ivy leaves, and clematis-shaped flowers. Salix tends to wear very robey, flowy clothing, in white or subdued earth tones. All his over-robes are snow-white with very subtle green, gold or lavender embroidered trim, with second-layer robes, a tad longer, in gray or light brown. He has several lengths of robes for different uses. He belts them not with sashes (as is traditional for formal wear), but with silk ropes, wrapped about the waist and hips several times and tied on the left hip. Pants are comfortable, wide-legged things that sit firmly on the hips, usually made of plant fibres. Many pairs of his pants have drawstrings or ties in the ankles so that he can pull them over his knees - he does a lot of walking barefoot and gardening on hands and knees, neither of which would do well for pale-coloured or overlong pants. He also really likes Thai fishermen's pants (seen here Additionally Salix owns a whole whack of white lengths of cloth, which he will explain are healer's garments, although they just look... well, like big pieces of white cloth. When he's on 'healing duty' or out on a mission, he'll wrap one around his shoulders or pull it up over his head. The best thing about big aimless pieces of cloth, though, is that they can be wrapped about the human body in any way at all, and on warm days that's often what Salix does. As well, in coming to Actavia he's discovered a lovely fashion trend called the 'pareo' or 'sarong', which someone tried to explain to him was a trend for girls and failed; he now owns two or three guiltily hidden-away pieces of bright multicoloured cloth, which he occasionally wears on his days off. He's also affectionate toward jewelry carved from wood and can sometimes be caught wearing a necklace with wooden beads on it or bracelets in similar style. For colder weather Salix has invested in some fitting Actavian long-sleeved shirts in muted tones, which he generally wears underneath his robes. Someone bought him a pair of jeans a while ago, and he wears these occasionally (but often finds the fabric too rough or the cut too snug). Otherwise, he tends to avoid Actavian clothes, more because he feels he has enough clothing as it stands. Salix's soft voice hits a deep bass. People tend to be shocked by the depth of his voice, mostly because they don't expect it from such a small, gender-ambiguous (he has been confused with women, in many parts of Actavia) person. To Earth ears, his accent would sound very, difficultly, and thickly Welsh. (For reference, here's the wikipedia article on Welsh English; I'll try to incorporate more distinctions of his accent into his speech.) |
||||||||||||||||||||
| PERSONOLIAETH | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
This is a temporary list until I actually paragraph all this. Which will be soon, I promise. Conditioned from his youth by a community that put heavy emphasis on a meditative, sacrificial and contemplative lifestyle, Salix gives the appearance of an immovable ice block, level-headed and cool. Given that he considers it socially proper to keep his feelings to himself and inject wisdom and balanced judgment into any situation he can, he can be a very blank, unresponsive person. More accurately, he doesn’t always react to people the way others expect someone should; sometimes he will choose to ignore others completely (although he usually saves this for strangers or people he finds particularly unsavory). He does his best to maintain a cool head at all time, as emotion is one of the most notorious impairers of judgment. So he’s very used to trying to look at things objectively, attempting to act as the balance. Additionally, he’s entirely desensitized to the sight and smell of blood and gore. He’s very good at putting up a cold front toward something, ‘shutting down’ in the face of things that he knows otherwise could really disturb him. (He just happens to have seen so much in the way of sickness that he’s used to it, in particular.) . stoic . unfazed by blood and gore . level-headed Despite his ability to ‘shut down’, Salix maintains a very honest mode of thought. He has taught himself (he was always told never to lie, but he believes in it, personally, as well) never to lie in conversation, although he does have trouble expressing his feelings honestly, and communicating in general. However, when asked a question, he will do his best not to soften any blows, nor to over-exaggerate; he will give as point-blank and accurate answer as he possibly can. Just don’t ask him how he ‘feels’ about something, because he’ll spend about a half hour treading around it trying to weigh the pros and cons and trying to figure out where he stands given his current moral position. His way of ‘feeling’ involves ‘logic-ing’ the hell out of a situation, so that he can be as balanced on a topic as he can figure out. Unfortunately this usually involves ignoring how he REALLY feels about a situation, which leads to a lot of repressed emotion and self-ignorance – meaning while he’s being completely honest with other people, he’s lying a lot to himself. Although in general he tries being logical, Salix has a base framework from which he works – that being, a set of morals and principles he was raised under. These include temperance, prudence, chastity and love, as well as the aforementioned honesty. Thanks to these very set, well-defined morals, Salix has a sort of code by which he tries to live, which means that in a lot of situations the decision for him is clear. He won’t drink if offered drinks, he won’t gorge himself if put before a feast, he won’t kill a person except out of mercy (which is, in fact, one of the principles he set for himself, rather than one set for him by his upbringing). . honest . sticks to his morals and principles . non-judgmental when it comes to healing people (and he has good judgment skills when it comes down to ‘who needs healing first’) . direct . knows what war does to people – tries to be a very clear demonstrator and teacher, because he has a deep fear of major mistakes being repeated and that transfers somewhat to minor ones . capable of leaping tall mountains of arcane magical trivia in a single bound . academically strong (history, mythology and ancient, dead languages especially, and that’s not including the sad amount of herb lore and pathological information he’s got stored up there) . technologically impossible . requires very very precise orders and answers to questions . problem solver . incredibly dedicated: once you commit to something, you should follow through with it “finish what you start” . takes orders well . poor leadership skills . long attention span . overworks himself to the point of sickness . shy . socially impaired . waits to be spoken to before speaking . emotionally isolated . can be quite cold to people he doesn’t know well . not terribly trusting . humour-repressed . private . reserved . has difficulty communicating with others . passive . needs the ‘okay’ before doing anything in the field . will not strike until the target is entirely confirmed to be bad . feels obliged to provide healing to everyone (bad guys included) . aware of what he should be doing even if he’s not doing it . prudent . temperate . self-repression leads to slight self-hatred . has a very deeply critical view of himself . excludes himself from group activities for the sake of various credos and codes he has been sworn to following . easily ashamed of his own behavior . sets his standards much too high . can be something of a control freak . acts in a self-sacrificial manner . is not innately self-sacrificial (he has to force himself to be) . is incredibly generous . compassionate Salix is someone who was born into a self-centered family but raised in a selfless community where teamwork and medicine were held in the highest regard. The conflicting result - an honestly good person who has selfish desires keeping them feeling guilty for so many things - occurs in every single one of his siblings, as well as himself. His own interests, desires and curiosities, often immature thanks to his not-particularly-worldliness, always lie right beneath the surface of his selfless behaviour. Essentially, he tries being the best person he can be, but constantly feels the guilt and shame that accompany having to force himself to be moral for the sake of others. He really loves other people and wants everyone to do well, but his underlying wants, etc., are always there, and always burning at him because they are constantly left unsatisfied and he has no real way of eliminating them. It’s like going on a diet: he desires things more because he does not allow himself to have them, and makes himself all the unhappier in not doing so, but is happy knowing that the results are him being a better person. He wants to be good and tries to be good, and these feelings are totally honest; it’s just that he’s ashamed he has to force himself. Really it’s all about discipline. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| CEFNDIR | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
He was never the healthiest child, that sickly second son of the Adhamh family, and he brought worry to all in the community of Cerrynt, what with having brought the strong General Bettula to a near-breaking point. The family had never experienced problems in childbirth and did tend to worry at the slightest chance of failure, however, and so, in the end, it turned out that stories of Bettula’s sickness during labour were somewhat exaggerated. The baby was small, certainly, and sickly, to be sure; but certainly more emphasis should have been placed on his state than on his mother’s. At any rate, more attention was paid to the fact that the great General had had another baby, than to the fact that the baby had a name – Seileach, Shylock, like his father's father - or that he had eyes like the morning mist or that he had ten cute little toes to match the ten little fingers. He was one baby in six. Nothing to get excited about. As such Seileach was hugged and cuddled until he turned about three years old, at which point his care was shifted to the school he attended, the residents of Cerrynt, and his sister Typha (already a midwife by the time her brother was born). The military Adhamh matriarch had little time to spend softening her children. Destined for a life in the military as they were, they had to learn from an early age that it was not their welfare that mattered as much as that of the great Enor, country-to-be, magical reservoir to be protected and cherished and certainly not shared with the Ibernan invaders pushing at the southern border. --and all at the expense of a childhood, of course. The father, a great teacher, had little time for his children, something he regretted but felt was required for their development – after all, there was school for them, there were histories and counting systems for them to learn. If they were to even begin following their own Paths, they would have to learn their scriptures first. And they all did. They were all bright children, and each had a particular talent or quality which differentiated him or her from his brothers and sisters. Sweet motherly Llafrwynen, stern strategizing Briallen Fair, belittling moralist Lili Mai, military historian Rhoden Aur, martial artist Trwyn. All awaited Seileach’s particular talent anxiously, hoping for another excellent potential contributor (or contribution) to the already strong military family pool. What they did get was a little unexpected. . Nemorosa: moves from NNW of Actavia to NE (Surrean roots). Closer than it was, to better facilitate intercontinental travel. . father: Acer Adhamh, formerly David Sforno, Actavian. Aristean of Cappadocian and Surrean descent. Teacher of The Path. 5'10", skinny build, olive-skinned, gray eyes, black hair. Deeply religious, very serene, provides a counterbalance for his wife Bettula; acts as the leveling energy in his children's lives; wants to be a provider. Very generous and adherent to the Path's traditions, but not pushy, instead nurturing. Can be quite blind to the intents of others. . mother: General Bettula Adhamh, nee Labhraidh (LAV-rah). High-ranking commanding officer, Enorian Separatist Front. 5'1", slim/muscular build, dark-skinned, almond-shaped violet eyes, black hair. Stern, cool, calculating, domineering, very deeply dedicated to her cause. A very strong leader but a poor mother figure. . sister: Typha Adhamh . sister: Lythra Adhamh [deceased] . sister: Convallaria Adhamh . brother: Libytheidus Adhamh [deceased] . brother: Solidago Adhamh . sister: Lonicera Adhamh . Salix is born to an Actavian converted father and an Enorian separatist mother and so is raised into the culture of Change: Enorians are trying to protect their magical resources, but Ibernans want the magic not necessarily for themselves, but to be shared because there are children being born with magical potential who are not receiving proper training and are causing problems, as well as not having their ‘differences’ appreciated the way they probably should be. . he is basically a military child from the get-go, and so is raised with very little familial interaction, and sent into medical training at the age of ten. although he is extremely intelligent, his personal feelings are often ignored in favour of furthering the Enorian cause. joining The Path is a natural step for him because 1) he was raised in a Path-following community, and 2) it is a sort of healers’ guild/union. . as he grows older, realizes that a lot of the base principles of The Path are ridiculous and, in diverging from those particular principles, becomes a ‘deviant’, and joins a group of Path-followers with similar feelings weekly to discuss. not only do they have very strong religious differences with the current norm, they also have strong political opinions, believing that love and sharing are more important than the ridiculously self-preservationist tactics – “we’ll die before we quit”, sort of attitude – currently being employed by the reigning separatist Enorian government. this is a sort of underground splinter faction, although he doesn’t realize it at first. when he does, he feels no remorse whatsoever, because this is just as natural a step for him. he feels he is right, after all. why should he feel guilty for doing what’s right? . eventually he is found out. his cell is discovered; he is not caught, but he is on the run. he stays with his family, who in saying they will protect him actually call the authorities to have him dragged out. when he hears of this plan of theirs, exits the house by hidden means and makes a run for it. . very, very luckily (seeing as most of the other members of his cell got arrested and taken in for questioning about terrorist activities) manages to escape, climbing aboard a freighter traveling to Actavia. he makes his way through until finally he… I don’t know. . he catches Acacia’s attention somehow and is initiated into the Knights. he doesn't really seem like a tournament kind of guy to me, but maybe he needs the money or something? can't travel without it? |
||||||||||||||||||||
| MARCHOG | ||||||||||||||||||||
Armour: Starting with the bottom layer, Salix wears a form-fitting, high-collared, matte black layer of clothing presumably intended to act as padding between Salix's skin and the armour he wears on top. This layer is very slightly padded in the vicinities of the major muscle groups in his chest, abdomen, lower back, and butt, with extra reinforcement in the crotch just to... you know, make sure that stays safe. Over this he wears a cropped-tank-style scale armour, ending just below the ribcage, which is mottled blackish-green, dark brown, and muted black-blue to match his dragon's colouring. The scales are each shaped like little leaves, and so despite the armour's being made of a very light metal, it ends up looking very leafy and delicate. (If he chooses to go the whole way, he owns an extension to this short armour that he can add on before leaving on a mission; mostly, though, he chooses just to leave it off, because the extra weight will wind him faster.) Over his forearms are two odd bracer-like pieces of armour, both a reddish ebony in colour. They behave rather like his vine tattoo in that they behave of their own will. Parts of them wrap around and up his upper arms; parts wrap down and over his fingers. One thing's for sure: if a part of his arm needs protection, the armour will reach up to protect it. The bracers are made of a very tough, very well-varnished wood that bends with his body and grows complex little floral/arabesque patterns here and there when it feels like it. Pinned about his hips with a little silver brooch in the shape of a knot is a length of green-black cloth that reaches to just above the mid-line of his calf. The bottom hem is decorated in a delicate leafy pattern in a brighter grass green. Salix's legs are protected by a reddish ebony-coloured set of armour, also made from a tough wood, same as his bracers; these ones, though, don't stray from their preset place. There are two large pieces to each leg, one for the thigh, and one for the calf and knee; each of these pieces is further made of smaller pieces. The calf armour is made of pieces that, when overlapping each other, point to Salix's ankle in downward chevron shapes. The last piece of armour above the foot is half-moon-curved upward so that his foot doesn't get stabbed. There is a cap, marquise-shaped, to cover the knee; this is overlapped by a thick band of armour, which overlaps the next piece, which overlaps the next, etc., until the ankle is reached, at which point a curve is formed in the last piece to accomodate his foot. Over the entire outfit, Salix wears his traditional healer's wrap. It's bright white against the darkness of his outfit, and wraps so that one end hangs onto his chest, one down his back. Generally, he wears it like a high cowl in front of his neck, with some wrapped slack hanging down his back so that he can pull it up over his hair. Weapon: Salix wields a three-piece staff, which consists of three extremely strong, light rods of wood about a foot and a half in length each, attached together by chains. Special Abilities: Salix’s abilities, like most sorcerous abilities, are frequently based on proportionalities; his spells are not so ‘absolute’ in their result, and usually depend on how much effort he’s able or willing to put into the construction of the spell. Same goes for special abilities - the more effort, the better the result. In light of the constant presence of proportions I’ve added an ‘Equation’ section to the end of each power (for my own sake more than anyone else's) he’s got that has a proportion related to it, just to help define the terms of a spell. General Equations: (1) The more energy Salix puts in, the more he’ll get out. (2) The more careful the casting/the more time he takes to use a special ability, the more reliable the result is. Floral Communication Salix can communicate with plant matter. Though he may speak out loud to a plant when communicating with it, he doesn’t technically need to, as the ability is, most often, based on an empathic connection. Plants don’t have the same type of intelligence as other life forms, so ‘talking’ to a plant is like speaking an entirely different language using an entirely different mouth: pretty weird. Salix speaks much more easily with temperate forest plants than any others, as he’s most familiar with them. This rule of familiarity applies to all plants he tries to ‘talk’ to, that is, the more familiar a type of plant is, the more accustomed Salix will be to its way of communication, and the more easily he’ll be able to get across to it. Plants he’s never encountered before, or of which he’s never encountered relatives, are harder for him to understand. Also, generally speaking, the larger and older the plant, the more intelligent it will be. Equation: The more closely-related to the forest a plant is, the easier it is to communicate with. The older/larger it is, the wiser; the wiser, the easier. The closer to the plant, the easier it is with which to communicate. Severely Limited Faunal Communication: Although this ability is severely limited by his focus on flora, Salix’s immersion in forest-based magical energies has, over time, granted him the power to communicate with temperate forest fauna. Forest animals are generally friendly and receptive to his presence, even attracted to him, although they never take orders from him except to act upon favours, exchanges or contracts he’s established with them (e.g., “I’ll give you half of this piece of pizza if you grab that mistletoe for me.”). He’s made a few such friends since moving to Ayrton, so anyone hanging around the greenhouse learns to expect little woodland birds, mice, and a particular very large red squirrel to be waiting around expectantly if Salix is inside. Equation : The more closely-related to the forest a creature is, the easier it is to communicate with. The more agreeable the animal, the easier it will be to communicate with. The more attractive the collateral (if collateral is involved), the more agreeable the animal will be. Magic Abilities: White Magic Spells Purge: Whereas in previous editions of Salix purge was a by-Salix-for-Salix spell, it here refers to a package-deal spell type with the ability to eliminate unwanted matter from a body, be it a toxin, a poison, a disease, a status effect, or an infection. Salix can cast a total purge which acts as a sort of burning sweep of the body, effectively incinerating any alien matter it comes into contact with, but that is at once much too energy-consumptive to be used too often, and potentially harmful to the target if they are unaccustomed to having their body purged. Seeing as Salix’s particular brand of self-tailored purge entirely based on his own physiognomy, there is a chance that any bacteria (for example) native to someone else’s body may be eliminated or harmed in the process of Salix's purge, causing physical (although repairable) damage. (Part of the reason Salix’s immune system has consistently remained so poor is that he purges many good bacteria from his body as well as the bad ones, and he frequently gets physically ill immediately after his nightly purge because although he is accustomed to the feeling, his body still doesn't like it.) For those reasons (and probably a couple of others), casting a total purge is often much too impractical for his uses, which is why specifying a type of matter to be eliminated is a very good idea. If he knows the specific disease he needs to eliminate, then using the purge is fairly simple; same if he knows the specific poison, or that it's alcohol he's sweeping from the body, etc. If he knows that it's disease he needs to eliminate, he can do that, too. Equation: The more general the terms of the purge are, the more difficult it will be to perform. The more difficult the purge, the more energy it will require. Green Magic Spells Spontaneous Extravasation: The most versatile spell Salix has access to, this spontaneous rapid-growth spell causes plants to grow out of little-to-nothing and at a hyperaccelerated pace. Salix determines the speed at which the plant grows, although there are certainly limits; he can’t just will a plant to exist, pop out of nothing. He also determines the size. This factor isn’t predetermined, as he can allow a plant to grow to any size his energy can take. The plant’s size is proportional to how much magical energy he’s willing to inject into it. If he’s on natural plant-accommodating ground, such as a forest floor or a grassy lawn, the ‘root’ (not necessarily physical roots; more like origins) of a plant are already there and as such the growth isn’t so much spontaneous as terribly overblown and accelerated. Plus, the seeds may be there, or he may choose to increase the size of a preexisting plant – both of which help greatly and use up less energy. If, however, he’s on non-natural ground, such as concrete, he needs to use seeds he’s carrying with him to generate any form of life. He can break that concrete using a tree’s roots, but he needs to carry the tree with him to do it. Any plant thrown onto a non-natural floor will immediately begin to seek soil or earth, so as much as Salix may be seeking for the plant’s foliage to grow, he can use roots to his advantage as well. Should he wish to seek water, a plant does that very effectively. Finally, different plants have different properties (such as the water-seeking properties above, or maybe they have barbs on the vines which they use to climb, or maybe they have concrete-breaking roots…), so he always carries a number of seeds on him, of wild and normal plants as well as cross-breeds he’s developed himself. If he doesn’t expect or desire too much out of a specific species, he can throw a handful out onto the ground and make several plants grow at once. Also, some plants are easier to cause to grow than others, but as plants respond more readily to Salix anyway, that’s not saying much. Using this power Salix can do a range of interesting tricks, from very quickly breeding super potatoes with awesome water reclamation abilities, to encouraging a sickly maple sapling to grow just a little more in the right direction, from making seeds germinate a touch more quickly, to growing walls of thorns. I won’t say this power is limitless, especially given Salix’s lack of experience with growing walls of thorns or huge water-reclaiming potatoes, but it is easily his most valuable and most developed power. (It’s also probably his most battle-ready one.) Equation: Expended energy is proportional to size and speed of result. The more forceful Salix is with his energy, the more a plant will be coaxed into growing, the more tired Salix will be by the effort. Florakinesis: Florakinesis is what allows Salix to use the spell spontaneous extravasation to his battle-related advantage. Using this spell, he can manipulate plants to work in an attack-based plane, get them to build a wall for him (as opposed to just growing willy-nilly), or make a frustrating patch of gardenias behave. It’s pretty simple: he prepares and casts the spell, and, using it, he can create a sort of magical IV between himself and a plant. The ‘IV’ will draw power from him as time passes, and in exchange he will have control over the plant’s actions (as well as its growth, if he’s cast extravasation on it). Generally speaking, the amount of energy drawn from him is constant and independent of the ordered actions themselves. More complex tasks don’t take more energy, just more concentration. Although florakinesis is a newer spell for him, he has taken to it easily because he knows how to talk to plants, and they seem to be okay with him. There are always the bad plants, though, that refuse to agree with him no matter what, and need a much tighter rein; those are the ones that will sap his energy more quickly, mostly because he'll be fighting with them. Undomesticated vines are a huge problem for him, for example. Very delicate floral plants will also be quite disagreeable, mostly because they're more geared toward looking pretty and less toward being useful in battle. These are just examples, of course. Equation: The more complex the task performed by the target, the more concentration required (power doesn’t enter into it). The longer the manipulation, the more power required. Plant Mimicry: Easily the least developed of the spells Salix knows to cast, mimicry is (for him, anyway, and we all know he’s a geek anyway) probably the coolest spell he knows: it allows him to temporarily adopt the attributes or properties of a given plant. Salix needs seeds, leaves, roots or some other specimen sample to perform mimicry, and as far as he’s practiced it, he can only cast it on himself. He’s probably the only one who’d want to have it cast on him, anyway, as it involves cutting some skin open (usually on the corner of his palm, if it’s just a seed, or maybe his wrist – at the risk of sounding REALLY emo-goth, it’s more convenient to cut a wrist than a foot, which takes time to get in contact with, or a throat, which could kill him – if the sample is larger) and closing the wound over that same plant matter. Not particularly pleasant-sounding, is it? The resulting effects are worth a little cut, though. After he’s got a seed (or something similar) freshly under his skin, Salix can cast mimicry, which will disperse the properties of that eventual plant throughout his body. (Seeds are best, just for reference, because they’re so small and convenient.) This doesn’t sound super-useful at first (especially not at its current stage, given that the floraforms Salix can presently take on are few), but imagine the possibilities. He could adopt the poison ivy’s ability to secrete that nasty substance that gives it its name; he could take the seeds of an ironwood tree and grow tough bark over his skin; he could take some large, broad-leafed green plant – say, a hosta – and actually become photosynthetic, taking in water and sun instead of food (if he needed to survive on a very literal nothing, or needed a huge power boost fast). Usually Salix just focuses on one trait to mimic, as outlined above, but with time, practice and concentration he could adopt a couple of traits at once, depending on the plant. (He could be photosynthetic and poisonous, for example.) That would probably also take more power to do. As it stands, it isn’t particularly developed as a power, but luckily only takes a one-time power injection to cast, instead of relying on an energy draw; the spell lasts (on average) about three and a half minutes. He may only be able to focus on one property, currently, but the benefit of that is focus, pure and simple. The fewer things he has to focus on, the less divided his attention will be, and the more concentrated he can make those few things. He can enhance those particular properties well beyond what they normally would be in the plant itself, distilling them into more battle-useful versions. For example, that poison ivy? Yeah, he could make it act faster, be more harmful. He can sometimes adopt mystical properties as well as physical ones (such as the healing-enhancing property of cowslip, outlined below), but those are harder for him to mimic and take more concentration. Finally, his physical appearance can change slightly (aside from the obvious effects of having his skin turned to solid bark) based on which plant he's using. Most often those particular flowers or leaves will suddenly grow in profusion from his hair, and his eyes will become either green (for trees and green plants) or intensely violet (for flowers) in colour. Physical changes may intensify as Salix's power grows. Again, at this stage in the game he has to choose ONE property of a plant to replicate; for some plants he has the ability to replicate more than one property. Regardless, he can't do them simultaneously. The plants Salix has studied enough to adopt the properties of (and the properties themselves) are, at game start:
Other Magical Abilities Minor Conjurations: Can make small amounts of things (such as water, light, or little pieces of wood), fix small tears or breaks, cause small bursts of steam or light, create colourful dancing lights, move or lift things very short distances, cause small sounds, warm or cool things, change flavours or smells, clean things, dirty things, make objects glow with a clear, bright light, and other minor spell effects. These are standard spellcaster’s abilities which require little energy input and skill. Any spellcaster can learn to do any of these things with magic, given a little attention, some time, and some creativity. Many of a wizard’s or sorcerer’s first experiences with magic come in the form of such small, simple tricks, and they are often used for practice. Fighting Style: r3v1z3 Strong Against: Salix is very difficult to affect with magic in general, but in particular he's strong against mental effects, psionics, illusion, etc. Earth-based magics are also a big strength of his; in an earthquake he would stay standing. He's nimble and a quick sprinter. His calmness in stressful situations keeps his hands steady at all times, and his acute senses make him difficult to surprise. Whenever possible, he makes himself as invisible as he can to improve his evasion. Weak Against: Everything else. He can't fight or be hit without suffering (unless he's cast a defensive spell over himself, but he doesn't bother to do that if he can stay on the sidelines enough), he can't defend himself, he has very little offensive magic at his disposal, and he has no endurance. Easily winded and easily made ill, a trace of disease in the air or some kind of health-affecting spell or ability would hit him hard and take him down quickly. His ties to earth and magic make it harder for him to fight near or within the limits of big industrial cities; if ever he's on pavement, for example, he finds it difficult to cast because he isn't able to draw as much energy from the earth. After a while within city limits he gets accustomed to the thinner draw, much like a person cuts down their diet gradually, but the sharp decrease he feels upon entering for the first time is often painful for him. If he were to be cut off from a source of magic completely and for an extended period of time, however, he would be a pathetic creature indeed, with no immune system, no power, no redeeming strength... nothing. Without some small trickle of magic, Salix is, battle-wise, worse than useless. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DRAIG | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Name: Libytheidus. (Salix named his dragon after his late brother Libytheidus, just as a memorial, because Libytheidus was always kind to him in life and had nothing but support for him. Also, it's a very pretty name. It comes from the scientific name for a family of butterflies called Libytheidae, following the same pattern that Salix's name does, his being from the willow genus Salix.) Description: Libytheidus is incredibly long and lean, two thirds of his length taken up purely in whiplike tail. He is a dark creature, mottled with blacks, greens, blues and browns, and reflects very little light, having a matte finish to his scales. He has no fringes of any kind, his skin being the one feature unique to him. In underbrush, he is considerably invisible; his skin has a barklike quality, every scale looking to be made of a tough bark - rather like oak bark, which, scale-like, overlaps itself. His underbelly is banded along the head-tail axis, from a tapering point just below his chin to about a sixth of the way down his tail. It has a more muted, dark gray-brown mottle pattern and a softer texture than the rest of his body, but is still made up of the same overlapping scales in terms of pattern. It is not nearly as tough as the stuff over the rest of his body. He's a long-snouted creature with a face like a pangolin (excepting his eyes, which are huge, slanted, take up a huge portion of his face, and are black with a swirling rainbow finish, like an oil spill on a slab of obsidian) and big marquise-shaped ears which sit straight on fine-jointed extensions. They can move independently of each other to catch sound from any direction in his anterior plane. His head is supported by an extremely flexible, extremely long neck, almost the length of his torso, which he often keeps folded down in an overturned u-curve. Libytheidus' batlike wings, which match the colour of his belly, are smaller than average, making it easier for him to move quietly in small spaces, but making flight a little more awkward; he tends to bob in the air while flapping to get where he's going. They're slightly tattered and flimsy along the lower edges and tend not to be very good for hovering purposes. He needs to pull the Hummingbird Trick when trying to 'float' in midair. His forelegs are skinny with visible muscle at the shoulder joint, then flaring into a heavy, large, hand-like appendage with retractable, catlike claws. His hind legs, which sit at the normal angle (as in, the hips are aligned more horizontally, whereas in humans the legs naturally come straight down), are massive compared to his lean torso, with extremely powerful thighs and calves and knobbly knees. They taper into thin ankles and end in huge clawed feet, much larger than his head; they have round claws and are three-toed excepting the dewclaw, which sits up closer to the heel (Libytheidus walks on the flats of his toes, so that the heel is raised) and protrudes raptor-like into a sharp sickle easily useable as a weapon. Libytheidus walks upright, but can easily fold himself flat against the ground, catlike. Not being very fat, he can press himself close to surfaces and is easily hidden. In terms of torso mass he is smaller than the average dragon, which has the advantage of making him quicker and a smaller target as well as much easier to beat in hand-to-hand terms. Temperament: Libytheidus is the Problem Child, when it comes to humans. He is paranoid, untrusting, violent, bad-tempered, feral, rude and, as far as anyone can tell, rather insane. Spontaneity seems to be the name of the game when it comes to other dragons - he is not incredibly territorial when it comes to others of the species, but he is very jumpy and capricious, going from agreeable and affectionate to confrontational and irritating depending on the dragon and the situation. The only certain thing about Libytheidus' behaviour is that you have absolutely NO idea what he's going to do next; even slight provocation can send him into a long tirade of Crazy. The only current foil to this quirkiness of his, of course, is his loving papa Salix, who already has that weird connection with natural life that green mages do. Salix has this influence over him, plus five to make up for the insanity in Liby's brain. Call: A sort of deep, rumbling cross between a donkey's hee-haw and a cow's moo. Mostly Libytheidus just sounds like a foghorn, although he does purr. Abilities: Libytheidus has the power to wink, meaning he can quickly, almost instantaneously, teleport himself and his rider short distances. He can teleport up to fifty feet, but generally saves winking for battle situations where close-quarters fighting might require him to come up behind someone. This ability makes Libytheidus incredibly useful in a fight, much more so than would be assumed upon first impression. Armour: weep XD |
||||||||||||||||||||
| &c. | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Art:
For anyone who hasn't heard spoken Welsh before, here's a link to a great BBC site with a recording of a story being told in Welsh: http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/cymru-nanhyfer.shtml And another recording, this dialect slightly gentler: http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/cymru-pwllheli.shtml I find the following one very pleasant to listen to. The recording is on the wrong page; follow the recording link, then go to the bottom of this page for the transcript/translation. I love the thickness of some of these accents, they've got the right soft, musical quality I imagine Salix's accent should have. Listen to how softened the consonants, how elongated a lot of the vowels are. 'London' is pronounced kind of like 'Lunzen': http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/voices/pages/bonymaen.shtml |
||||||||||||||||||||
| CONNECTIONS | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Brushes: amadaun.net. Texture: painted-passion.org. Font: Um. I'm pretty sure I got it at dafont.com, since that's where I get a lot of my fonts, but if anyone knows the name or author of the font used in the header please let me know. Unfortunately it no longer exists on my computer. 83;;; Character: Most certainly mine. |
