Josiani Nikua
Shaol Tuseo
Nikolia Shantro
Ashli McConner
Kiluki Northwatch
Kynisha Jalansi
Loukai Risian
Nuilor of the Northwood Clan
Robyn of the Whitehawk Clan
Varik Tsoru
Jessamyn Lacora

Josiani "Wildcat" Nikua
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Species: Half human, half Wylraen Elf
Loyalty: Unity

Appearance: She stands at a lean, tough 5’2” with slightly pointed ears showing her lineage. Don’t let her size fool you, Jo has been known to bring down men half again her height and twice her weight. She looks almost Greek, with high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes that are hazel usually, though have been known to favor one of the three colors dominantly according to mood and seem nearly walled off as far as mirroring her soul goes. She has brown hair that shines with red and copper highlights in sunlight. It hangs just past her shoulders and is usually kept up in a loose roll. Her body apparently chose lithe over curvy, because she ended up with a medium-sized bust and a slightly hourglass shape that might catch someone's eye but otherwise only just attests to the fact that yes, indeed, she was meant to be feminine no matter what her personality thinks. Jo wears comfortable, casual clothing whenever she can get away with it and she expects that being a 'lesser' royal, she gets away with it more often than the council royals.

Guild/Rank: Land Queen's Own, Apprentice Patroller

Personality: Jo might come across tough, cold, to those she doesn't know well and may the gods help you if you make yourself her enemy because only the gods could. She is extremely slow to trust under most circumstances, though not so much anymore as she was, has a blunt manner, and isn't afraid to speak her mind, but if you earn her friendship you won't meet a better one. She is intensely protective and loyal to those she cares about, but quiet when it comes to her past. This little fighter has mellowed out some, learning to roll with punches rather than holding rigid against them. She's starting to figure out that she doesn't have to keep herself so guarded anymore, but that wall in her eyes will be slow to come down if it ever does. 

Jo is no longer illiterate, thanks to her two years at a high-class academy and now her Patroller training, and she is clever. Her upbringing put her at a disadvantage to those of higher classes, but she has a quick mind and something of an innate magical quality which stems from her Wylraen blood. She is known for her talent in treating sick animals, and while a bit less accurate, people as well, though horses are her love and over the years she has learned that she can communicate with them, if only on a basic level, a talent that the Wylraen Elves used to practice widely but is now only present in a few, and recognized in still fewer.

Family

Father: Shan Co'nell - human - thief - 47 (deceased)
Mother: Marau Brasho of the Water Hawk Clan - Wylraen- barmaid at the Mad Dog Inn - 41 (deceased)
Siblings: Mikal - 6 - male - rank n/a (deceased)

Background: Marau had been disowned by her clan when she left to work in the city. Jo's father was a frequenter of the Mad Dog Inn where Marau worked as a barmaid with other "services" on the side to make a little extra coinage and the two became… close. When it was found that she was pregnant, Marau insisted on marriage. That year brought Jo and the halfling grew up left to herself mostly. She liked it that way. She respected her parents out of fear as Shan was not against using his belt or anything close to hand in the pursuit of discipline. He insisted on strict and instant obedience.

Marau's next two pregnancies were stillborn, not that the two reluctant parents wanted them anyway, but their last child came and Jo took over his instruction in the ways of the world very early on. Mikal became the only person Jo has ever truly been devoted to and she grew to be very protective of him.

At a very young age, Jo learned to hold her own in a fight through somewhat less than accepted "fair" rules, but when it came to her father's punishment she quickly learned that fighting made it worse. When Mikal was born, Jo began to feel something she had never experienced before: compassion. She was only ten, but she realized that Mikal would grow up in the same environment as she had and Jo recognized it as a hard life. Slowly, the tough exterior began to chip away and by the time he was old enough to play outside, Jo had developed an almost violently protective streak.

By the time she was twelve, Jo was protecting herself and baby brother from the neighborhood rogues, finishing fights with anyone started one. It didn't take long for her to earn the name 'Nikua' meaning "little tigress" in Wylraen, which she used instead of her own last name. Within weeks, the word had spread through the district that you didn't torment Mikal Co'nell unless you wanted Nikua to show you a thing or two before leaving you in the alley to wallow in your own cowardice and tend to your injuries, if there was anything left of you to tend.

Though Jo came across as cold and silent toward people, she was soon discovered to have the uncanny knack with animals that only a few Wylraen elves still possess and she was hired on the spot at the age of twelve to the Caparison Livery Stable in the heart of Cascadia Falls when she identified a horse's cough as an allergy to timothy hay, just by touching the gelding. Though heavily questioned, Jo insisted that she had had no formal training in the ways of a healer and she began working for the stable that day, earning her own horse as part of her payment over her three-year term of employment. At the age of fifteen Jo found herself alone in the world when a house fire took her parents, and baby brother. It was that night that she met a very special friend.

After two years trying to learn to work within the system, Jo realized that Lecruse was no place for anyone who didn't have a family business or hold to run. She might be getting the best education the Realms had to offer in etiquette and horsemanship, but that wouldn't prepare someone like her for the manual labor she'd have to return to afterward. She left Lecruse and worked for awhile under Valerin at his ranch, pitching in as a stable hand and trainer there until the winter's off-season when he let her go. She was eventually forced to sell her two horses and anything else she brought with her of any value, including a horse she hand-raised. Losing Piper was the greatest wrench she'd had yet.

A lucky find in the ruins of her home produced the reason for the Thieves' Guild order that her father be executed, a small metal box containing several interesting artifacts of value. After attempting to repay Opal Wolf and her "benefactor" for helping her, she was able to make life a bit better for herself in small ways. She used some to help out someone she met along the way who happened to be in worse straits than she, until a bounty hunter caught up with Jo, demanding payment for her family. She had two options, metal or blood. She gave up the money and found herself once again penniless... and when everything else is gone, your last resort looks like a glimmer of hope. She ended up prostituting herself for close to a year at a place known as As You Like It, where she met two very special friends, her romantic interest, Aluka, and a good pal, the lupenon Kiole, and ended up caught in circumstances that landed her a position as a Patroller apprentice to Patrol Master Nikado.

The gods have proved over and over that they have a sense of humor, and apparently even the more or less even-keeled Tyrea does as well from time to time, or so Jo believed when, not too long ago, a kyushi broke shell and claimed her as a royal bonded to the Land Realm. Jo's life will never be the same.

Pets

Pet name: Piper, Wing
Species: Piper - half Arabian, half Saddlebred - tricolored paint; Wing - breed unknown, part Arabian - grey

Shaol "Code" Tuseo
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Species: Cougar Changeling
Height: 6' 2"

Appearance: In human form, standing evenly, Shaol hits an easy 6’2”. The problem is that he can’t stand evenly, so he seems a bit shorter. His build is almost lanky, and age has not yet taken his strength. He is quite strong and agile in human form, thanks to the heritage of a changeling- most definitely stronger than he looks like he might be, and, when he wishes, possessed of a curious kind of catlike grace and delicacy of touch which is likely not very apparent to most. His features, while not what he would consider handsome are at least no eyesore, though careworn and rugged, with high cheek bones and deep-set eyes that tend to give him a forbidding look. His gait is uneven, an injury to his left leg requiring use of an ironwood knob-handled cane in human form, but when situations call for it he can move much faster in cougar form where he doesn’t need to favor the leg so much, the weight being then more evenly distributed on the remaining three. He is surprisingly adept at getting about with his cane, though – he’s had a long time to practice, and is most often good enough at it that other than the fact that he can’t move too quickly as a general rule, his natural grace has smoothed out a good bit of the awkwardness of his limp into something most people can almost overlook after a moment or two of acclimation.

He has a relatively fair complexion, or would have if he hadn’t spent so much of his life out in the weather. His hair, though it has started to recede some, is rather sandy brown with its share of mid-life graying streaks, and is kept tied back at the base of his skull, otherwise about shoulder-length. He prefers clothing that allows freedom of movement, and, thanks to his profession as a patroller, he can wear mostly whatever he likes. Whatever he likes tends more often than not to be some kind of a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up out of the way of his wrists, a pair of faded kirlath pants, and sometimes a long coat or cloak over it all in cold or inclement weather. The loose-fitting nature of his clothes serve to hide the deep web of scarring along the outside of his left thigh, and is therefore a feature he won’t do without. No one will ever catch him in formal wear if he can help it, though he has been cornered into it now and again. The pendant around his neck proclaims him Code of the Patrol and he has taught himself a way to retain that pendant in cougar form, as with his cane – though that took much longer to learn. His weapon of choice is a 7’ lash whip of braided leather that he keeps coiled at his belt. It has decent range and a number of latent uses as well as requiring limited actual movement. He is also proficient in the use of a thin, 8” dagger, both for throwing and in close-combat, but he normally uses it only as his secondary weapon when there’s a choice.

His eyes, in either form, are mostly a deep golden with a paler ring of the same color around the outside of the iris and a calculating gaze generally inhabiting them. His feline form is everything a well-built cougar should be, every inch rippling tawny and white coat over toned muscle under perfect coordination and control… or it was until the injury. Now he does what he can as best he can in that form. While decidedly more mobile than his human form, the cougar shape has been forced to accommodate for the loss of muscle and control of the left hind leg as well, which can leave him at a disadvantage in the wrong situations. He has learned to deal with it and give a good account of himself anyway, most of his Patroller training having taken place after the injury, and he doesn’t like to draw attention to it. His fur is tawny and always well-groomed; his coloring is typical, except for the ripple in the coat surface and jagged lines of white denoting heavy scarring beneath.

Guild/Rank: Knight Guild - Master Patroller, Codebreaker, Master to Aluka Bex

Personality: Shaol has a penchant for keeping to himself. He is anything but social, often calculating and downright cynical. Constant pain from nerve damage in his leg, added to a hearty dose of guilt, has chipped the fairly even-keeled if curious young man he started out as into a miserable, rough, jagged edge that he makes no effort to conceal.

He loves a good mystery, finding pieces and putting them together, picking out patterns in things, which makes him a very good observer as well as a good code-breaker, which is what he did before being remanded to the “remedial muit”, the Dralks. This natural curiosity makes him pretty good at solving case mysteries as well. He does his best thinking while doing something that he says frees his mind. Really, all that means is something to distract most of his innocuous thoughts while the rest concentrates on the problem. Often this behavior could be misconstrued into a lack of interest, or perhaps negligence, but nothing could be further from the truth. Intelligent but sarcastic, with a wit as sharp as his mind, Shaol tends to rub people the wrong way.

He prefers working on his own, remains in solitude more often than not, and resents authority when authority noses in where he thinks it doesn’t belong. He can come across as abrasive and arrogant, though whether he intends it to merely seem that way or he is actually a bit too confident is something most people don’t know. Largely, his confidence and “bravery” stem from a deep-rooted guilt that he’s lived with for nearly twenty years. That long with that much pain and regret has given him a faux courage that really is only a belief that his life now is worthy of nothing but penance. He’ll sell his life at great cost if necessary, but he’s not afraid to lose it, making him possibly less cautious than is prudent.

Sha likes neatness, order, and punctuality, and while it might be a reaction to his misfortune under the reign of Chaos, more than likely it comes from his heritage as a feline changeling. He is generally quiet in his habits as far as not troubling anyone else much with his own peculiarities unless something they do intrudes upon him or circumstances put him into working with others. He does enter from time to time into fits and spurts of tireless work and lethargic depression. For the most part, he leads a precise life, but he does have a taste for liquor when his thoughts get to be too much for him. He also relies too heavily on painkillers from time to time. He has a fearful distaste of rain and barely tolerates water at all, though his best friend is a mercentaur. The worst mistake anyone could possibly make about Sha would be to dismiss him as “just a cripple”. Anyone that foolish deserves to be the object of Shaol’s considerable temper. There is a good deal he knows about certain subjects he has focused his interests upon, ciphering for one and history for another, which he knows forwards and backwards (quite literally sometimes), but there are other subjects of which he knows very little. He is generally gracious enough with these points to let others with more experience lead if needs-be. All in all, he is quite secretive about himself and is not terribly easy to draw out into anything but meaningless surface conversation, though he can be quite communicative when he feels like it.

Family

Brother-in-law – Holin Mereno – 36 – Master smith-mage – human

2 Nieces, 1 Nephew: Misa – 14, Jasine – 11, Rilvan – 8 – half human/half cougar changeling – mage-tested: no changeling abilities

Background: At the time of Shaol’s birth, the Tuseo pack was headed by his grandfather, the eldest of the bloodline and name. He grew up in a mountain home just east of StarScape. His family, regardless of the protective, rather fierce nature of hunter changelings, raised him Unitarian, yet offered no resistance to the Chaotic regime of the king. They knew of the rebellion operations and supported the idea of overthrowing the government, but to them it seemed futile. So, when a ciron barracked in the nearby city caught sight of a healthy young lad with the promise of a powerful form and the strength that would come with it later on, his family did not refuse the demand that Shaol be placed into training as a knight in Cascadia. He was nine when they sent him to the guild hall as a page.

Shaol was a willing student, never caused much fuss or trouble, kept to himself a lot. His instructors intended, and were fully expected, to convert him to Chaos, but they let him move at his own pace as far as that went. Forcing the process of a change in loyalty seemed more often than not to alert the previously unaware and unwary student to the pressures drawing him toward a new loyalty, so they moved slowly with those coming from Unitarian families. Shaol remained naively oblivious to the intentions of his superiors until, partway through his training as a squire, he realized that the codes they were setting to him as assignments felt too real in content to be mere tests and assignments. Early on in his training, his instructors had pegged Shaol for a natural curiosity and skill for pattern-recognition and deciphering coded messages, and so were making use of this natural talent.

Once he realized that these were actual correspondence upon which actual lives depended, Shaol recoiled in horror, but his superiors quickly brought him around to unwilling obedience with threats to his family's welfare should he refuse an assignment again. He continued to decipher resistance codes, every day cursing his own helplessness, his weakness. Though he was saving the lives of his family, the knowledge that these decoded messages, maps, and instructions all meant lives lost, chipped at him with an unshakable guilt.

Shaol was allowed furlough home just after he gained mastery. During the weeks he was given, his family, sensing something not right with the young man, asked his grandfather to speak with him. Vanril called him out on a hunt in the mountains. After a good deal of accepting silence and little actual hunting, Shaol finally told all. After some thought, his grandfather’s reply was simple, but it cut deeply. His family supported the idea of the rebellion and none of the family wanted to see any of those brave fighters come to harm…

His patriarch’s response was that Shaol should return to his guild and refuse further assignment at whatever cost. The codes broken had and would continue to mean the deaths of possibly hundreds and the pack could not live down the shame of it. He gave the only answer possible. In the hope of a free Unity and the saving of rebel lives, Shaol was given an irrevocable command by his patriarch, something no pack member could refuse. Though he never dreamed at the time he was given the order by his grandfather that the guild would go so far in its attempt to force his cooperation, Shaol would eventually be forced by that binding command to sacrifice his pack to the Chaosians. The young knight was brought along with the detachment sent to carry out the guild’s promised consequences. Shaol watched, bound and helpless to save or seek forgiveness, as his family was slaughtered and his home burned before his eyes. For all these years, he has not allowed himself the vain hope that some of his clan may have escaped the wrath of Chaos, and there are yet nights that he awakens from nightmares in cold agony and continuing guilt.

Shaol himself was brought back to Cascadia and given one last chance to comply with their orders. Numb, and with no further motivation to do so, Shaol refused. The anger of his superiors, and perhaps worse, their malicious love for inflicting pain, translated into days of blood that the guilt-stricken young knight welcomed as penance for unforgivable actions. He bears many scars still. The final attempt to break him left Shaol nearly unconscious and wishing for death. Instead, he found himself bodily thrown down the steps into the section under the main guild hall that housed the remedial unit, the Dralks. Orders were shouted after him that if they could keep him alive, they could add him to their numbers.

He was placed in the care of a mercentaur by the name of Semian who, with the help of others, took him to the Healer hall and watched over the young master through four days of an induced coma as the healers worked to save as much of him as they could. When all was said and done, beyond a few of the deep scars which twinge still now and then, the only casualty was the full use of his left leg. Infection had set deeply into flesh shredded by a jagged blade, and while the healers had fought off the sickness, they could not restore dead muscle and damaged nerves. At twenty-one years, Shaol became a cripple.

Semian became his partner and, though he will rarely admit it, Shaol deeply admires him. Quite possible, Sem is the only person Shaol will actually listen to, or at least listen to and not needle at the same time. The two became close and even though they aren’t working as partners anymore, they are often seen together. Sem is possibly the only person who understands well enough and is willing to put up with Shaol’s abrasive manner and ways.

Shaol works on his own now, taking on the occasional code-breaking assignment as knight and patrol intelligence picks up new ones that they can’t figure out or don’t have time to solve. He lives for puzzles, things to figure out, and often will interject ideas where he has no business being, but he’ll take on his share of cases too, if he finds them interesting enough. He recently discovered that his younger sister survived the attack, but she believes him a traitor to the family and he has made no move to dispute this, likely because he believes it himself.

Nikolia "Niko" Shantro of the Greystone Clan
Age: 244
Gender: Female
Species: Three-quarters elf/one-quarter human Height: 5' 2"

Appearance: Slim but toned, with her mother's finer elfin features, Niko is quite obviously someone who is no stranger to a full day's work - no resting on the laurels of leadership for this queen. She is a dark brunette, with a few gold and copper highlights from summer suns. Her eyes are a sharp green, almost teal but not quite. She is light on her feet and a force to be reckoned with when it comes to magic, though she carries a small belt dagger most of the time just in case. Niko will dress in anything she can get away from her attendants with, her preference being anything that does not involve a skirt. Most often, she can be seen in shades of blue, preferring the darker tones, anything on the grayscale, and her native realm color - green.

Guild/Rank: Former Air Queen, bonded to Kaelith and  master "violet" telepathic mage

Personality: Niko has a soft-spoken manner, but that is usually because she likes to bide her time and choose words carefully. She doesn't mind social activities as much as some of her fellow royals, especially when she can get away with wearing something less than strict formal clothing - something that does not happen very often when one has attendants with eyes like hawks. She has a gentle personality for the most part, though she's not quite so mild-mannered as her predecessor, Jessamyn.

Never quick to judge, she believes in giving people a chance to change. Should you push her too far though, she might just unsettle someone's idea of her and fight back. A word to the wise: Don't get on her bad side. It isn't easy to do, but some have and found themselves waking up about three days later with a roaring headache to discover that they have been pinned to the ground in a dark alley somewhere with time-release magic. She loves music and trained for a bit under a bard to learn how to play the lute. A natural counselor, she is no empath but she can usually pick up on the subtle hints to determine a person's mindset and then react accordingly. She hates heights, or did, can't cook to save her life, and is absolutely terrified of spiders and most bugs. She loves cats but so far has none of her own, as Kaelith prefers to be the center of her bond's attention.

Family

Background: Niko was born and raised in the outlying forests around Cascadia Falls, in a small village near the cover of the mountains. Her mother Seira was not rich, though she provided for Nikolia as best she could. As soon as she was old enough, her mother taught her to play the lute as well as helping her train her natural elfin singing voice. She was taught both the language of her people and the common language of the Realms. Nearing her 120th nameday, Niko and Seira decided that the best life for her lay in learning a trade she began to make her way as a minstrel at certain inns and taverns, earning money to train for her newly chosen guild while Seira worked harder to pay up the deficit of what Nikolia could not. The Mages Guild welcomed her and she settled comfortably into the training schedule, traveling morning and evening from the Hall to her home in the forest outside Cascadia.

Finding herself in a skill she excelled at, she ascended through her apprenticeship and is now a master violet-aura telepath. She still lived in her home village until about half way through her wanderer rank, when she realized that in order to give herself the best chance of passing the mastery tests, she would need to finish the rank in the city where she could practice and learn all she needed to without worrying about the long walk home.

Once she obtained her mastery, she found herself a niche in the Mage Guild, working on commission doing research, helping with the Healers from time to time, or anything anyone needed from spelling coin molds for the smiths’ guild to overseeing classes of apprentices from time to time. She stayed out of the wars as much as possible, not having much of an inclination to fight, so instead, she found work in setting up refugee villages, helping to provide food and care to those who were fleeing the war zones in hundreds.

Her bonding to Kaelith several years after the founding of the Council was unexpected and a bit frightening, but Niko has never and would never consider giving up the bond she has with her ryuuki. Jessamyn stayed on as her mentor and teacher until Nikolia's coronation when she passed on the title of queen and Nikolia was crowned on a Firstday a few years ago. Jessamyn still remains her closest friend and confidante. Nikolia doesn't think she will rise any further in the ranks of the telepath and doesn't really want to try. For now, she is content where she is, helping her Realm in any way she can with the position she holds.

Bond

Bond type: ryuuki
Bond Name: Kaelith
Already Bonded, Royal Bond

Appearance: Born white-furred, Kaelith did swap to black fur two winters ago, leading healers to believe that royal ryuuki sometimes change from black to white and back due to a combination in the reproductive genes. Her summer scales have always remained softly golden and blue-violet eyes as as searching and curious as ever. She has a lithe build and the finely sculpted features of any ryu, two golden horns sweeping back from just above her ears.

Personality: Calm and quiet for the most part unless someone riles her. She would much rather just be next to her bond listening to the music of the lute than almost anything. She can be protective, temperamental, and sometimes downright bossy and selfish, but what's queen status for if you can't order people around? She knows her place though, minding her tongue to the other royal bonds, and would never attempt to hurt anyone unless they threatened her or someone close to her.

Ability: Disguising… both can change their colors and appearances, but not gender. In extreme circumstances, Kael can make herself look like a small fire dragon and Niko can look like a human or mer, but the basics have to remain the same. (Kael must retain draconic shape and have wings, for instance). This is also very short-duration though they've never tested it out to see how long they can keep assumed shapes.

Kynisha "Ky" Nareyo Jalansi
Age: 26
Gender: female
Species: human

Appearance: Stands at about 5'4”, weighing in around 135 pounds of muscle. Ky is fast and agile, but prone to absolute economy of movement both in her fighting style and in day-to-day living. She has sandy-blonde hair with a slight wave to it that she often keeps tied back in a pony tail. This keeps it out of soft grey-blue eyes that hold a wistful look. She can be most often seen in the Ctsu uniform of black skin-tight pants and boots with a cream-colored shirt and the traditional grey robe that falls generally to mid-thigh, or mid-calf if more formal, trimmed in silver to show her rank as a member of the Circle of Light. Her mystabre, which calls itself Wind Spirit, has gone through a "change" four times and is among the more powerful of the mystabres currently in use.

Guild/Rank: Ctsu-Klarn Master and LightMaster of the Circle of Light

Personality: Kyni is quiet by nature with a love for adventure and a strong sense of justice. She holds compassion for the underdog, having been one herself for many years as she fought her way to the title of "Master". She appears to have an independent nature, but in truth she is afraid of being alone, desperately wanting someone to love her. She never knew her father, but she was told he had been a Ctsu master. Her mother died when she was young and she was raised by her uncle and his wife, neither of whom really wanted the orphan, what with four children of their own and their sites on full rule of the hold, perhaps contributing to the insecurity she has felt.

Over the years, she has gained a confidence and a healthy self-respect that might sometimes border on an unhealthy arrogance, but she keeps it in check most of the time. Ky resisted at first, then only reluctantly followed the path set out for the Chosen One of the Goddess, but now that the whole ordeal is over, she has become reserved and quiet, trying to keep her profile as low as possible, perhaps even a bit embarrassed at the attention her role in recent times has drawn.

Family

Mother: Shensi - weaver - deceased (fever)
Father: Krest - Ctsu master - deceased (negotiation with centaur tribe)

Background: At the age of six, Kyni's mother died of a fever that spread through the hold claiming many lives. After this, she was raised by her uncle and his wife, neither of which really wanted the girl, having several children of their own. However, they were obligated as the next of kin to care for her and provide her with anything she needed, due to the fact that she was the daughter of the oldest son in the family. Her uncle had inherited the Holding when Kyni's father died, though Kynisha herself should have legally held the rights to the land.

When she was ten, Master Shayne Y'Darrin of the Ctsu-Klarn passed through Lliomech, noting the number of promising lads to perhaps be apprenticed when he happened upon Kynisha out on the coast, at perfect harmony with nature. He was somewhat startled by this and made an opportunity to speak with her and became impressed that Kynisha, girl or no, would be an excellent candidate for apprenticeship. However, the Council of the Masters and the other apprentices at the training compound did not share his sentiment. She has come by her rank honestly, no matter what people might say, practicing long hours to pass up her male yearmates both to prove to herself that she could, and in the hopes of following her father to Light status.

At the age of 22, Kynisha stood to bond a gryphon and came away from the caverns with Ryshtae. Not long afterward, the full fighting force of the Ctsu turned out to defend Cascadia Falls from a Chaosian army which proved only to serve as a diversion as the rogue order of the Maugh Klarn struck at Nivoh, their home. Kynisha and her Lights teleported back and fought to hold off the misguided Maugh Klarn invasion of Nivoh and actually was killed in the battle, though Irotana put a stop to the fighting and resurrected her, minus a good deal of her memory which put her at a tremendous disadvantage for several months until her Cenomani, Inula Shimitan discovered the Star Stone, which restored the missing pieces to her memories.

Several months later and a battle with Irotana's brother, Void, and Irotana herself went missing. The magical energy She was accustomed to supplying the Klarns with ceased and no word of her came for months. In this time, Kynisha found herself having difficulty sleeping due to recurring nightmares and was accused, tried, and convicted of neglecting her duties as Lightmaster and expulsed from the Ctsu Klarn. Taking Deligere with her, the two returned to her home, Lliomech, only to discover that the hold she'd grown up in was under Chaotic rule. She, along with the help of the Maugh Klarn's K'th Na an elfin hunter, a Ranger, and a good many of Lliomech's citizens, the hold was brought under Unitian rule again and a new Lord Holder was appointed. Kynisha became a member of the Maugh Klarn and was allowed to return to Nivoh under their colors.

A quest brought a contingent of Maugh and Ctsu to the Temple Island where Irotana was revived. She returned to strength under the watchcare of the Lightmaster and the Klarns until strong enough to again take on the rule and providing care of Her Orders and the lands She'd created. Kynisha is now more than willing to continue with the duties of LightMaster, preferring to forget that the prophesies named her the "Chosen One." Now that there's no need for that title and that purpose has been fulfilled, she's content to live the life the Ctsu requires of her, though she is considering resigning her post as LightMaster to become simply a Light, though since there are no "decent" prospects in the Lights to fill her post, she probably won't until Inula is old enough to take it.

Pets

Pet Name: Ronaico, Solar
Species: Friesian gelding, Morab mare
Description: Ronaico is a steady, strong friesian and as such is entirely coal black. In his day he was strong enough to lead a charge in full armor, but at his age of 14, while still quite capable of doing as much as ever, Kynisha is more careful with him and is looking for a younger mount so she can put him on pasture. Solar is a graceful chocolate bay Morgan-Arab cross. Kynisha brought her from the Maugh citadel and now uses her as a saddle horse.

Bond

Bond Type: Gryphon
Bond Name: Ryshtae
Already Bonded, Common Bond
Sire/Dam: Tristae and Lirae

Appearance: Rysh is mostly black, though anyone looking at him can instantly tell he is not royal. Rysh has a light grey belly and grey tipped feathers. His eyes are sharp and gold-yellow as are his beak and claws. He is large and muscular, well built and sturdy. He is large as gryphons go, his shoulder coming to Kynisha's elbow.

Personality: Ryshtae is what he is. A fiercely loyal and protective gryphon, he rarely speaks to anyone other than Kyni or another bond creature. He doesn't tend to trust strangers much, and first impressions are everything. His manner is stern to those he doesn't know well, but he can sometimes be close to friendly and even gentle. Terribly proud and prone to strong emotions.

Ability: To see into the present, past or future; indefinite limitations and mostly uncontrollable. If Kynisha tried to see the past, she might see something that happened a minute ago or 100 years ago. It's usually quite vague, short clips, or unclear images if anything - leading her to think it might have been a mistake. She's only attempted to use it a handful of times and has yet to get much in the way of useful information from it.

Ashli McConner
Age: 267
Gender: Female
Species: Dragoon
Height: 5'2"

Appearance: She is small and slim but very quick. Ash has dark brown hair cut to just below her chin and grey eyes that tend to change shades anywhere from white to black and everything in between. People who know her well can usually tell how she's feeling by watching her eyes.
She has a small chin, hard jaw-line and a set look about her that makes people think twice about messing with her. She can stare down just about anyone because her eyes are piercing and penetrating. Her wings measure about five and a half feet at full spread, each, and are a dark grey, almost black.
Dark colors are all you'll ever see her in, basically black trousers and a dark shirt with black leather boots and a sword belt is what she wears on a general basis. Her sword, which she seldom carries anymore, is not long, but it is thin and extremely dangerous. She had it specially made for her by a dwarf smithy. Its hilt is the likeness of a dragon, the silvery-steel blade jutting from the dragon's mouth, wings making the cross-guard, body and tail making the grip. It is beautifully crafted, a work of art both at her side and in action.

Guild/Rank: Fighter - no realm loyalty, not recognized by Knights' Guild

Personality: Is inclined toward the introverted, more of a secluded person. She tends to withhold judgment and does not trust quickly. She is somewhat insecure, having grown up more or less on her own, and is constantly on the alert. Ash is still relatively naive in the ways of social life, but most definitely not in the ways of the knight and wandering warrior. She is not a killer or mercenary, but was forced to become street-wise very quickly. Now that she's been married, Ashli has had to learn to cook and clean and has become quite adept at household chores. So far, she's learned quite a bit, with a good deal of help from Berek's mother who taught her most of what she knows of housekeeping. She is content where she is and that's good enough for her.

Family

Mother: Morei - barmaid - died in childbirth, Ashli does not know much about her
Father: Tirach - skilled theif - killed by Theives' Guild for betrayal

Background: Ashli's mother died during childbirth and Tirach raised her alone to the best of his ability. She soon learned to support herself on minor thievery, but when she was seven her father was killed by the Thieves' Guild for betrayal. He confessed to Knights that he knew the location of a place where frequent transactions were made by members and assassins killed him for it, leaving Ashli to survive the only way she knew how. She was a free-lancer, though careful to keep the Thieves' Guild from knowing that and now tries to make her way honestly. The Knights however, believe her an integral part of the Guild for whatever reason and she was constantly dodging them up until a few years ago. Her marriage to Knight Berek Halfhand has cut down on the suspicions around her. Since her one-time capture and punishment by the Knight Guild several years ago, Ashli has fallen in love, bonded, been married, and has begun a family. Berek is the love of her life, Lyreth, the ryuuki, has tied inextricably to her soul, and her young daughter, Keilianlei, won her heart. She's content now to live the quiet life with her husband and daughter.

Bond

Bond type: ryuuki
Bond Name: Lyreth
Already Bonded, Common Bond
Sire/dam: Marcath and Ceranilth

Appearence: Winter-(fur) smoky-grey ryuuki with a black muzzle, claws, tail tip, mane and wing tips, summer-(scales) darker grey with black points.

Personality: She is almost as reserved as her bond, though a little more social. She tends to trust more easily but is extremely protective. She considered rising to mate once, with her chosen partner being Shanteth, Berek's bond, but so far has not attempted it. It is theorized that, even though she takes the herbs most common females use, Lyreth truly is sterile.

Ability: Blending into surroundings, camouflage.

Robyn of the Whitehawk Clan
Age: 194
Gender: Female
Species: Wylraen Elf
Loyalty: Unity

Appearance: Sturdy build and strong. She carries herself in a way that lets others know that they had best mind their own business. She has light brown hair that falls a bit below her shoulders and is often pulled up into a braid or ponytail. Her eyes are a soft brown and her ears have the standard points of the elves. She has one scar tracing across the back of her hand from the base of her thumb, diagonally across the back and into her wrist. This sometimes makes closing her left fist difficult. She dresses in whatever is most comfortable, and that often means a simple outfit of black cloth breeches and a loose cotton shirt dyed a dark indigo blue with a hawk embroidered and on the right sleeve. She carries a hunting knife with an eight-inch blade and a leather-wrapped hilt. The pommel is embossed with the hawk symbol of her clan, along with several things she uses. The tack for her bond is also etched with the clan's crest, and her falconry equipment.

Guild/Rank: Expert falconer

Personality: Secluded and of few words like most of her people, but doesn't mind the company of others. She can be sociable when it suits her, but at times she can be almost cold in her mannerisms. Robyn is prone to quips and sharp remarks if annoyed and feels much more at home with animals and nature than with people. She's gifted with a rare quality that the elves have termed "speech" over the centuries. She can "speak" to many animals and though they do not answer, they often obey.

Family

Mother: Yonia - bard - 482
Father: Brayon - hunter - 504

Background: Robyn grew up in a large elfin village among the crags of the Seirac Mountains, a bit south of Cascadia Falls. She was reared with the hope that she would join a guild someday, but as luck would have it, she began to develop the Speech and took to spending more time with the animals than with her people. It wasn't long before the craft of falconry, kept alive by an old elf in the village that everyone else pretty much ignored on the basis that he was insane, began to intrigue her.
She hit it off with Stalen right off and he readily began to teach her the art of raising, training, and caring for her own falcon, which came to her willingly from the wild. Elsu, as she called the peregrine, learned quickly, but died of unknown causes one summer morning after a successful hunt and left three speckled eggs in Robyn's care. She did her best to keep the eggs alive and ended up losing all but one, the falcon she is training now, Tawny.
Robyn bonded to Marlonn soon after and, taking her falcon and her belongings with her, set off on her own with the traveler's urge to see what lay beyond her home...

Pets

Bond

Bond type: equine
Bond name: Marlonn
Already Bonded, Common Bond
Sire/Dam: Serinn and Jass

Ability: Locating creatures (sentient and nonsentient) within a fifty-mile radius

NPCs

NPC name: Stalen
Relation: Teacher
Location: Whitehawk Clan village

Kiluki Northwatch, patroller codename: Illusion, thief nightname: LoneWolf
Age: 297
Gender: Female
Species: Half demon, half arctic wolf anthro
Loyalty: Unity

Appearance: In her Trueform, Luki stands at about 5'4" a self-explanatory mix of white arctic wolf and humanoid characteristics. All but her eyes. The pupils are neither slitted like a demons, nor round like a wolf's, but a diamond shape and solid golden in color, surrounded by royal-blue irises. As half demon, she can change shapes at will and often did so in the pursuit of her duties to military Intelligence and the Unity itself. The form she assumed for her last mission, the form she now feels most comfortable in, is that of a large black wolf anthro with the gold and red eyes of a full Chaosian – the only part of her disguise that is no longer a disguise, but real, now that her loyalties have shifted.

Guild/Rank: Master Patroller/Unitarian spy, now personal bodyguard for Demonlady J'hara

Personality: Quiet and reserved by nature, Kilu has never really opened to anyone, as no one has really cared enough to hear. She is strong-willed and independent. Those traits, combined with her unique abilities, made her the perfect candidate for Patrolling once her loyalties shifted enough to the Unity to have herself “transferred” into the Dralk Muit as a lost cause to Chaos. Over the years, she became even more solemn, not given to conversation in any form other than a report to her superiors or that required in fulfilling her duties. Since her mission on Chaos Isle for the Patrollers began, she has begun to exhibit signs of a massive paradigm shift. Where once she was horrified by what she saw rampant on the Isle, she now takes as much pleasure in the screams of underlings as any other might. She is no longer afraid to utilize the strength endowed to the form she has chosen and has again become, in essence, a full-fledged Chaosian both in belief and practice.

Family

Mother: Rikka Northwatch – arctic wolf anthro - 49
father: Kurov Unai – demon – 2,827 – Hand of the Goddess

Background: Kilu has been a knight for quite some time, serving the Chaotic government of Shadow Star faithfully for many years as a muit leader. She had not made an effort to control the darker tendencies her blood made her prone to, considering that such things were encouraged in her line of work at that time. During the Cleansing Wars, she realized that just maybe, her mother had the right of it, Rikka having been a constant but gentle pressure on Kilu to change over to the “good side”.

She eventually did become Unitarian, though the withdrawal process was horrible. She fought against her former comrades in the wars after being demoted and transferred into the Dralk Muit some forty years earlier. The Muit slowly became the Patrollers and she changed along with it. Her shape-shifting abilities made her a prime candidate for undercover work... up until her appointment as an undercover agent on Chaos Isle. That was a mistake on the part of the mostly unstructured Patrollers, sending a half-demon with an identity crisis into enemy territory, though they probably have no idea what’s happened. Most likely, Patrol records are that she is simply MIA. She never announced her intentions to defect, so when her reports stopped coming… well, Kilu is willing to deal with that when or if it becomes a problem.

Kilu has been undercover on Chaos Isle as personal guard to Demonlady J'hara for over a year now, with her partnered demonsteed, Linxus. In that time, both have actually defected to Chaos, though neither is particularly eager that their Chaosian superiors find out that they are defected Patrollers and so have yet to mention it to anyone. Both continue in their given tasks. Luki has remained in her wolf-anthro form all that time and is likely to continue to do so.

Bond

Bond type: demonsteed
Bond Name: Linxus
Already Bonded (no class), Common Bond

Appearance: The typical demonsteed, Linxus is a dull steel grey with blazing red eyes. His wingsails and sides are accented here and there with lighter grey scars from fights and war. He is large, standing at perhaps 17 hands, powerful but rather lanky looking. His build is somewhat reminiscent of a half-starved Clydesdale who has not yet grown into his height.

Personality: He is rather even-tempered for a demonsteed, with a definite protective streak in him somewhere. He is quite fond of Kilu, though would be hard-pressed to admit it. Linx has a controlling, almost manipulative side when he needs it, otherwise he just resorts to his size and strength as means of procuring respect.

Background: Linxus had been bonded to a young demon who had defected to the Unity just as the wars began. His bond was killed in the fight, and, rather than attempting to take his own life, he volunteered to be of use to the Knight Guild. He was partnered to Kilu when she was sent to Chaos Isle, posing as her bond, with a druid-created link between them indistinguishable from an actual bond link to complete the ruse. Linx had grown very fond of Kilu before finding himself truly bonded to her some 10 months after their mission began. It amused him that it took Kilu herself much longer to figure out that this change had occurred, but kept his silence on the subject until she asked him about it. For now, he is content to continue with the job they’ve been given, protection of J’hara and her bond, Raidius. He actually has something of an interest in Raidius, though he’d never admit it, even to Kilu.

Ability: With their newly-formed bond link, the pair can influence others' perception. For instance, they can force someone without much mental shielding to believe that something has not happened.

Nuilor, son of Thailan, Northwood Clan
Age: 226
Gender: Male
Species: Full-blooded Wylraen elf
Height: 6'1"

Appearance: He is tall and willowy but there is no doubt as to the innate power and poise given to elf-kind manifested within him. Sinewy grace and a quiet strength within belies his youthful appearance and is the envy of several of the clan older than he who have not yet come into those qualities after the falling away of childhood and coming of age at two-hundred and ten. Dusty blond locks fall just below his shoulders when he lets them, but he mostly keeps his hair tied back and out of his face. Dark brown eyes hold a warmth that indicates something more to him than his assumed character of typical Wylraen arrogance. His clothing is mostly a woodlander's style. A smoky grey tunic falls to his mid-thigh, belted at the waist, with dark, close-fitting breeches beneath and cuffed hunter's boots of deer-skin leather rising to just below his knees. He carries a well used and equally well crafted but plain bow and a quiver over his shoulder with a curve-bladed knife on his left hip.

Guild/Rank: Freelancer, hunter, wanderer, tracker, archer

Personality: A wanderer, hunter, skilled archer and accomplished woodlander, but he knows very little of what lies beyond his forest home outside of Kiridia, due mostly to his people's general disdain for the so-called 'lower' races. He is however, completely devoted to the will of his goddess Tyrea and the spirits of the land he loves so dearly. He will do anything to protect that land and do it without question or hesitation. He is a Whisperer, possessing a strange, rarely discovered ability to speak with animals, listening to them, connecting to them. He is one of few who understand anymore that all creatures are of the same goddess and all deserve the same respect as anyone.

Family

Father: Thailan - hunter, clan elder - no declared guild - deceased
Mother: Inwe - watcher - no declared guild - 517
Siblings: Step-sister Relinde

Background: At the impressionable childhood elf-age of 164, Nuilor saw his father challenged for the right to a seat in the clan's council and lose, tragically slain in the battle that such a challenge called for. It was the young man's first but certainly not only brush with mortality and something he never forgot, forever burned into his memory.
At the loss of his father, Lor took to the wandering life as never before, keeping to himself though he clearly felt a need to understand more of this cruel world he had been born into, a mortal world of pain and inevitable death, something he still doesn't understand.
All his life, Lor had been used to living without truly understanding want or need. His father's position as a clan elder provided well for his family. But after the remarriage of his mother, Lor found himself not surprisingly shunned and generally ignored. His younger step-sister Relinde was adopted by his mother after her remarriage to, of all people, his father's challenger, Mathoric. Something had never settled well with him about how that change of vows came about, the exchange of one husband -now deceased, granted- for his successor, but it was nothing Nuilor had a place to speak against.
Before his death, Thailan had passed on much of the woodlore to his son, training the boy to take his place when his age would begin to take its toll in the next four centuries or so. Part of that training taught Lor the importance of always remembering that every creature on the land belonged to the goddess he was born to serve. Traditionally, upon the death of his father, Nuilor was to have taken possession of the ornate Thuic bow that had long been passed down through the generations, out of the past, and rightfully belonged in Nuilor's hand, but Mathoric claimed ownership of it as the winner of the challenge.
Nuilor had long been planning to retrieve what rightfully belongs to him: his nameright to succeed his father in council when he is old enough, and his father's bow as soon as possible and when he finally succeeded, the fact that he had challenged an Elder at all put a stipulation on the win. He had to leave the clan and if he ever returned, he would face the stripping away of his own immortality... a death sentence.
The elf found himself bonded to N'raehann, a tall grey equine, not long before leaving his home and so had a traveling companion. The two of them stumbled upon Kynisha's force to oust the Chaotic rule in Lliomech and offered their skills. In gratitude, the new Holder gave both Lor and Elessar a pair of wyvern eggs, which is how he ended up with Duatha.
Since then, Nuilor has stayed near Elessar, offering his help in any way the Ranger might need it, feeling something of a guilty conscience for the fact that the Wylraen folk stayed out of both the resistance against the Chaosians during the dark years, and the Cleansing Wars. Lor seems to feel that if he can help out a blood relative of Ryntan that he can somehow make up for lost time... 400 years of lost time.

Pets
Pet name: Duatha ("Dawn")
Species: Wyvern
Description: Nuilor and Elessar were both given wyvern eggs after the battle for Lliomech and his hatched his little black wyvern. She has blue wingsails and eyes, like the coming of dawn, hence her name in Wylraen. She's begun to make herself quite useful in some ways, bringing down small game like a hunter's falcon, carrying messages, though she can be a nuisance from time to time.

Bond

Bond type: equine
Bond Name: N'raehann
Already Bonded, Common Bond
Sire/Dam: Rhikann/Minacc

Appearance: A tall grey, N'raeh is built like an Arabian. He is almost white, but not entirely yet, retaining something a bit lighter than iron grey points.

Personality: He is somewhat aristocratic and a bit arrogant at times, though he is developing a soft spot for Jaxrae and is intensely protective of his bond and Elessar, now Jax as well.

Varik Tsoru
Age: 357
Gender: Male
Species: Demon
Loyalty: Chaos

Appearance: Varik, in his preferred dragoon form, is quite an imposing figure, though not in a way most would consider imposing. Perhaps it's just the atmosphere he seems to project. He reaches the mid 6" range easily and while a bit wiry looking, he's as strong as they come. He's had to be. His face is forbidding, with a deep scar across his left eye, which has become a murky white color, though he still retains partial sight in the form of light/shadow differences. The other eye is clear and sharp as an eagle's, but solid black, reflecting no light at all. This contrast between a milky white eye and a solid black one has been a disconcerting feature to many, a fact Varik finds rather amusing. He is tanned and his features are rather craggy and hard, with a few wrinkles settling into place to accommodate his most frequent expression, one of carefully controlled focus. His hair is straight, black, and usually kept tied back in a leather band. Varik is seems almost too thin, but this can be deceptive.
He wears nothing that is not both functional and providing ease of movement, which is why he is rarely found in any form of armor, though he will wear it when there is no alternative. He can use a variety of weapons, though he is never without a thin but rather jagged, sharp-edged sword. He wears no jewelry, no baubles or anything that might get in his way, though he does sport a cloak during the winter season.

Guild/Rank: Chaos Trainingmaster

Personality: He is a quiet individual, very reserved, and preferring to keep his own counsel. He does not generally anger very easily, but once heated, his temper is fierce. He is as strict a taskmaster as you'll find, bordering on torture to some degree at times. He has no problem at all with working a student of his to death. If they can't stand the training, they're not of any use to Chaos' defense and not worth his time. He is harsh in manner if he takes notice of you at all, and not one to be crossed easily.

He has only one servant, who is charged with all the menial duties Varik doesn't wish to take on himself. He is a man of means, but not of much outward arrogance. He considers himself one of his Goddess' best fighters and will not hesitate to spell out exactly how insignificant a student of his is compared to his record, but he is not a man to show off much when there is no need. He is confident in his superiority. He has no need for torture as he rarely if ever utilizes magic beyond his bond abilities, so blood magic is not an issue.

Family

Biography: Varik was the rather unwanted product of a one-night stand, but once his father knew of him, the mage kept tabs on his new son, though he never married Varik's mother. Once the demonling was weaned, his father sent one of his guards to kidnap Varik from Dhara, who never came looking for him and, to his knowledge, never even made an attempt to find him. The young demon was raised by his blood father then, believing himself to be a ward of the older demon and not knowing till much later his true kin relationship.

He was trained rigidly, with absolute and instant obedience earning grudging praise, anything less earning days of hunger and beatings. Varik learned with a skill that comes only under the accelerated curriculum of a driving whip or anything else near to his "master's" hand. His skill grew and he became an accomplished and adept fighter, but as he learned, Varik began to wonder about things.

Eventually, these idle wonderings turned to action and in the attempt to take over Mactlan's estate for his own, receiving near-blindness in his left eye from the fight, Varik was told all he had never known. Varik's father still died that night, but the younger demon never attempted to take the hold and its wealth. He left the area, moving to Dralche and hiring on as a guard in the service of the palace.

Several years in that service saw him stationed at a bonding where three voices joined his own. This put the demon into confusion - he did not want a bond, let alone three. He saw bonds as potential weaknesses. It wasn't until he learned to find his own voice in the four that he gained some control and the calm exterior he projects now. Had he not found it, Varik may have suicided eventually.

As he learned about his new threesome, Varik came to an understanding about the weakness that a bond could be. Until his bonding, Varik had never heard of a training master, but he began to realize, as he taught himself to live with it, that there was a real need for training of new bond pairs. Bonds could be utilized as effectively as the Unity used theirs, but only with the right training. Left to their own devices as they were, it was little wonder bond pairs were seen as so weak. They had no idea how to truly work together and make the most use of their own mutual strengths.
Varik spent years learning as much as he could about his bonds, their strengths, weaknesses, uses... He intends spoke with the High Demon Lady about instituting a plan for the training of Chaos' bond pairs and is currently training the first Chaos bond class - the Touched.

Bond

Appearance: Demonsteed - Kholrus is built heavily, tipping the scales to nearly draft-horse proportions. Kholrus is a charred, smoky grey color like metal blackened in a fire, with a darker shade in his mane and wingsails. His eyes are black, devoid of light-reflection or sparkle of any kind, as are the eyes of the other two bonds - a feature of a Chaotic tri-bond.
Raivus - Raivus is an average size for a gargoyle though he is undoubtedly as densely built as Varik, his size belying the strength within. His coloring is a muted greyish-green of a shade so dark that the green hue can be seen usually only in well-lit areas in which case he looks something like the sky before a tornado. Otherwise, Raivus appears to be merely an uninteresting near-black grey.
Locandrac - Zantus seems to have followed the color scheme of the other two though he has a few undertones of murky blue here and there, something like the deep water caves of the rocky Chaos Isle he prefers to open sea. Zantus is large as locans go, and more streamlined in appearance than most.

Personality: Kholrus - definitely the brain of the lot, he can be controlling, manipulative, and arrogant. He is fiercely protective of Varik, as are they all. Though he displays an ability to think problems through and solve them, Kholrus has difficulty getting the other two bonds to listen to his solutions unless Varik steps into the conversation.
Raivus - a combination of brains and brawn, the gargoyle is less of a thinker than Kholrus and prefers simply destroying who or whatever is causing a problem to solving it any other way. Varik is working with him to improve his patience with others and there is a difference in his behavior now toward those who don't understand something the first time they are told versus the years ago that they first bonded.
Zantus - slower than the other two, but not likely to plague anyone with a lot of questions if he can't understand something. The locandrac follows orders only if they are given by Varik and mostly keeps apart from Khol and Rai. He is quiet, and quite definitely the brawn of the lot, with trouble grasping broad concepts at times and a relatively poor short-term memory but a powerful long-term memory. He has been known to surprise his counterparts with detailed instant recall of things that happened years ago.

Ability: Kholrus - lie detection ; Raivus - creating a defensive forcefield-like barrier that varies in strength depending on its size (smaller = stronger) ; Zantus - amplification of a sense (can see greater distances, clarify sounds underwater...)

Jessamyn Lacora

Age: 28
Gender: female
Species: human
Loyalty: Unity

Appearance: Jess is of average height and a healthy build from all the exercise she ends up getting each day whether she likes it or not. Such is the life of a healer, requiring one to be on one’s feet a good deal of the day. She keeps gold-highlighted brown hair cut neatly and in a neat braid that hangs to her shoulder blades, for sanitation mostly. She prefers to let it loose in her free time. Her eyes are a bit slanted, irises a vivid shade of violet, perhaps due to her healing gift and perhaps not. Jess is fairly pretty, and while she’d never win a pageant, she does have rather endearing features. She is most often seen with a healer’s bag in one hand, dressed in the neutral blue and white robes of her rank. These two symbols of her trade combined can get her almost anywhere in Shadow Star and where those can’t, her reputation as healer to the palace in Cascadia will. A pale gold band on her right hand holds a setting with two very small pearls on either side of a brilliant sapphire - the air colors, but it has much more significance than just the colors of her realm. She doesn't speak of it though, and no one besides perhaps Tyrona, former Fire Queen, knows what it means.

Guild/Rank: Master Healer

Personality: Jess is the kind of person who couldn’t care less about her own needs and would work herself to death if Lua and Ashalle would let her. One never knows where they’ll find her, as she is constantly on the move in the effort to be wherever she’s needed. She would love to be in more than one place at once if it meant she could help that many more people by doing it. Her bond ability, empathy, served to greatly accentuate an innate talent she already possessed, and allowed her to be more of what she wished to be. Jessamyn is not the type to be a blood-and-guts medic though she can when necessary, and while she does the work of a general-practitioner, she prefers the line of mind-healing and counseling. This is where her ability is allowed to show its full strength. Jess will listen to anyone and everyone, and do it gladly.

When not consciously engaging her empathic talent, Jess is only superficially aware of the basic mindset of those around her, which allows her to react accordingly. At full power, her gift allows her to hear surface thoughts, and in some cases see memories. She rarely uses it to that extent, though. She is fun-loving and a gentle person, a firm believer in avoiding violent measures until all other methods are exhausted. She is very loyal to the realm she still considers "hers" to some extent, and above all, the Unity. She will deal honestly and fairly with anyone, unless provoked beyond her tolerance. She can be angered, but it takes some doing.

Family

Background: Jessamyn was born and raised on one of the smaller estates outside of Cascadia Falls, born during the second year of the reign of King Zurach in the Age of Darkness. Jess was raised under fairly normal circumstances, her father a knight. She attended classes in the guild hall from her eighth year till her twenty-first and achieved her mastery of the healing arts.

That year, the year that Prince Ryntan became king of the island, she had decided to travel about the island, but then she heard that Shaytenelle, a royal white air dragon had laid in the capital. She changed her plans and made tracks to Cascadia Falls to stand for the clutch. Jess remembers vivdly that morning, gazing in horror at the charred shells of the once beautiful clutch after the fire swept through, hoping with the rest of the island that the eggs had survived. The night of the hatching, she was made Queen by the small white air dragon, Ashalle, the only hatchling to live past the first week, and that due mostly to Jess' healing skills.

After her linking to Ryntan's mind in the first of what would become the Council links, Jessamyn and the king became fast friends and more, finally planning to marry just after the bonding of Tyrona Starfyr to Kylranal. Jessamyn saw him fall in battle and while she threw everything she knew of the healers' arts into play, she couldn't save him. His death scarred her badly and she has still never removed the engagement ring he gave her.

Years later, the white (along with the rest of the air dragon race) was called to a large continent by a powerful force and killed there as no more than a lab rat in experiments to genetically alter the species into killing machines that could be used by Chaos against Shadow Star. Very few dragons lived through the experience, two of them Ashalle's parents. They returned to Shadow Star with two people from that land and a pouch of stones, each containing the spirit of a lost air dragon. Ashalle was one of them. Now the bond pair is reunited, albeit in a different way than ever before.

This past winter, Jessamyn found another mind in her own, that of a very weak phoenix chick. It was quite a shock to the healer to be bonded again, for while she knew it was possible, she hadn’t considered it an option. As healer on-call to the bonding though, she was there and Luanal found her. Named after one of Calacia’s moons, Luanal was found to be mute, so Jessamyn named her for her slightly bluish-white feather down. Ashalle is slowly getting over her initial jealousy for the chick who took her place in her "bond's" mind.

Bond

Personality: Lua has proven herself quite intelligent, her disability notwithstanding.

Ability: Empathy, same as Ashalle--the ability to sense emotions in others.

Loukai Risian
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 195

Appearance: Loukai is tall, broad-shouldered, and sturdy, and while he may look about as graceful as a bull, he is surprisingly agile. He has a fairly tanned complexion and keeps himself clean-shaven. His hair is a dark, nut brown and his eyes, which seem to be in perpetual shadow beneath a strong forehead that gives him a bit of a forbidding look, are hazel, though tend to favor either green or brown predominantly. His face gives the impression of someone with honesty and strength of character, but also of one who keeps his own council- there is very little openness in his expression.

There are several deep scars that cross his wrists from an encounter with a Light during the first years of his mastery, and many tracing across his back from a brief capture by Chaosians trying to discover the location of the Klarn HQ, along with several here and there of varying degree from training or battle. The scars across the backs of his hands and circling his wrists aren't terribly noticeable, being thin but very deep, but the internal damage beneath them was largely irreversible. He does not have full use of his hands without tremendous pain, but he keeps them wrapped when in battle or training, with small amulets sown into the bandages he uses, keeping them protected from overexertion and keeping some of the pain at bay. He is as good with a weapon as ever, for now, but it is inevitable that eventually the continued use and continuing damage will lose him the use of his hands almost entirely.

Guild/Rank: Ctsu Klarn – Light

Personality: Loukai is a quiet, almost passive individual as far as speaking his mind or even really speaking up at all. He keeps his own council and is generally looked upon as being reclusive. For the simple reason that not much is known about him by the general population of Klarn members, many look on him with a kind of reservation. There are rumors about him, doubtless, but he has earned a good deal of respect through his performance both in training and in battle, through his moral character for which he has occasionally broken his self-imposed silence, and through his unflinching stand against the corruption that seems to have taken root in the Klarns. What he says, he says once, and while he generally says very little, what he does say is widely known in a matter of hours. His opinions are generally kept to himself and due to this fact, a simple nod in someone's direction indicates higher praise than many will ever hear him speak.

While he keeps himself as something of an enigma to most, there are a select few who have touched his heart. This is difficult to do, as he chooses those he cares for by as strict a standard as he holds himself to. He is not a forceful teacher, but he will relentlessly correct faults in those he trains. He doesn't ask perfection – he demands the best they can give. And nothing less will do. He is not a lazy man, often seen getting up at first light to begin with a morning training session, and he everything he does is done with vigor. He leaves nothing half finished and holds himself to strict standards of quality in every aspect of his life.

Family

Father: Kmial Risian - Ctsu Light, retired – 68
Mother: Shaiya – Nivohen glasscrafter - 57

Background: Loukai's father was sent north of Cascadia on an errand for the Klarn nearly 40 years ago now. This small village, characterized by a rather strange dialect of Common, was being used as a place for stockpiling supplies for the then-Chaosian government and his task there was to keep an eye on shipment routes and times. He was stationed there for a year, and in that time, he fell in love. Now love, while not encouraged in the Klarns, is not forbidden. Kmial married Shaiya and they had a daughter together. The baby took sick though, and she was seven months old when she died. The pair were grief-stricken, but some of the pain ebbed when Shaiya again discovered that she was pregnant. Once again, they lost the child, only this time, the boy was stillborn.

They had been married some five years when Loukai was born. He took sick at a young age as well, but the village's healers were able to spare him the fate of his sister. They raised their son properly, instilling a sense of justice and right that most of the island seemed to have forgotten by now with the reign of the Chaosian government. They tried to have more children, but failed every time after Loukai and eventually decided that the heartache was too much. They took steps to make sure that they would not have to endure the death of another child.

When Kmial was recalled to Nivoh, he brought his family with him, purchasing a small house in the main village for the three of them to live in. Loukai, wanting to follow his father into the Order, was given the green robes of a hopeful who is not Nivohen born, and began the tasks of a page. He learned the temple and training complex quite well by running messages and the workings of the Order through his other duties. He also ended up losing much of the odd ways of speech he had learned as a child in the northern village.

Once he was old enough, Loukai was inducted into the Ctsu in the dark blue robes of an apprentice. At the induction ceremony, the customary time for a master to select the apprentice for individual training, Master Shayne Y'Darrin spoke up The pair began the next 8 years that day and never once did Loukai regret his placement with Shayne.

Shayne Y'Darrin was not a man to stay in one place for long. It was one of the reasons he took the position of wandering the island's roads in an attempt to mark and find a pattern in the movement of troops and supplies within the government's infrastructure. On one of these trips, Loukai found himself unwisely separated from his master and captured by a small scouting group of Chaosians who somehow found a way to see through the disguising enchantments on the lad's clothes and weapon to discover his identity as a Novice in the Ctsu Klarn. Several days of torture failed to see Loukai divulge the information they sought – namely the location of Nivoh. His confidence that his master would find him and rescue him never failed. Four days after his capture, Shayne proved his faith. Though Loukai himself received a good tongue-lashing for that episode, he knew his master had been worried sick about him. The wounds healed quickly under the attention of a potent salve, leaving only scars behind after a very few days. The two of them rarely spoke of that incident again, both having been a bit too shaken by it for comfort.

Loukai grew to love Shayne as a second father and to this day, though he does acknowledge that everyone has faults, will hear very little criticism of his old master. So great was Loukai's respect for Shayne that, when the Master was killed, some four years after his own induction as a Ctsu Master, he took on Y'Darrin's last Cenomani who otherwise would have been left to the classes given in the Temple to those not selected, or – Goddess forbid – to the training of someone less willing to see her succeed. So it was that Loukai became master to Novice Kynisha Jalansi. It took him awhile to see for himself the potential that Shayne had detected in the girl, but he took her on in faith that his old master had known what he was doing. Loukai couldn't have lived with himself easily knowing that he'd allowed another master to discourage Kynisha and destroy her chances at mastery, not when Y'Darrin had shown such belief in the girl's abilities.

The two of them developed a special bond, soon regarding one another more and more as siblings rather than master or Cenomani, and Loukai became as protective as any older brother. This stance between the two of them has never changed since, and though Kynisha never would have stopped respecting him as her master, he has since come to respect her as well, as his equal and in some areas, his better. No one was prouder of her than Loukai when Kynisha took up LightMastery.

It was during her apprenticeship to Loukai that the newly full-fledged master obtained a life-changing injury. Khalio, then a Light and master to Joril Graven, had opposed Kynisha's training as a Ctsu Klarn and one day let his own Cenomani seize the opportunity offered by the fact that Loukai was nowhere in sight to try and provoke Kynisha. She refused to defend herself, smart enough to realize that retaliation could only be used against her, and probably would have been hurt quite badly had not Loukai stepped in to break up the one-sided brawl. He hadn't counted, however, on Khalio's rush to defend Joril. Loukai, knowing himself to be outmatched against a full Light, used a simple but powerful spell to bind his hands to his mystabre's hilt, insuring that he would not be disarmed.

Khalio's use of a powerful disarming spell and some harsh attack moves caused a conflict of magic and skill that slowly strained, then severed or shattered tendon, bone, and sinew. Loukai might have been worse off, but others were called by the commotion and Khalio could not continue his attack. The Klarn's healers were able to restore most of his use and flexibility with a mixture of magic and physical surgery, but every move he makes with them slowly continues what damage they could not reverse and he has not had full use of them since. Loukai is resigned to the fact that eventually, the damage will become too great and he will lose their use entirely, but for now, he can still handle himself quite well with several weapons and is a force to be reckoned.

Several years after seeing Kynisha into her mastery, he was sent back to his hometown on errand for a little over a year, where he again picked up the odd manner of speaking he had all but forgotten in his years away. This time it stuck and he hasn't been able to shake it since. Loukai doesn't mind it though, his strange speech pattern only serves to further the rather enigmatic image he has made for himself.

He has followed and supported Kynisha's career every step of the way, even becoming her Lightsecond in order to better accomplish this, and her hardships over the last several years pained him greatly, none more though than the period of time when she could not remember the bond they'd once shared. That has returned though, as if it had never ended.

He gladly took on Inula's training for her when Kynisha was forced to leave, though he took the whole happening harder than he ever admitted. So far, he still trains Inula and he knows that when Kynisha is ready, she'll ask and he'll turn over his second Cenomani back to the care of her rightful master. For now, though, he is content to do what has been asked of him and though Kynisha has once asked him if he would consider the Lightmaster position, he is happy enough as Lightsecond. He likes where he's at and does not really want to rank any higher. He might make Lightmaster or even Council Master someday, but for now, he's content.

Bond

Personality: Dash shares his bond’s dependable, rock-solid nature. He’s more open and willing to talk than Loukai himself, often clarifying something his rather cryptic counterpart says. Dash will embrace the life of the Ctsu as readily and wholeheartedly as his bond, and all in all will prove himself a perfect match to Loukai – though willing to think on his own and sometimes even intervene in something if he believes the Ctsu isn’t taking enough of an initiative. He’ll keep the Light on his toes, no mistake there, and will likely show more outward emotion.

Ability: Low-level telekinesis. This will allow him to save the use of his hands for more important things than writing letters or polishing his mystabre.