Player name: Rinjii Age: 30 Contact: Plurk: MissRinjii Other characters: Seimei
Character name: Maledysaunte aka Azhi Dahaki, Vasuki, "She For Whom The Earth Trembles", Lady Lockclaw, "The Sleeping One"
OC info: Maledy hails from a world of powerful magic, knights noble and ignoble alike, piracy, adventure and fantasy. Wars are constant and territories are ever in flux in The World, a place with no name but that. Countries are described by the names of villages that the smallfolk settle, such as Sarsbury, Arnot and Coast Town or the races that control the area, such as Elf country or Orc country. The most powerful people are those with the will and knowledge to control the ebb and flow of magic, drawing on the leylines throughout the enchanted realms and manipulating the energies around them, for good or ill. Wars are often fought by vast armies of soldiers, with a single spellcaster at the center of it all, eager to control more land or fight over a powerful artifact. The clever ones bide their time in isolated fortresses and towers, gathering more knowledge and creating loyal armies out of monsters and constructs instead of men and mercenaries. Here and there, nations have begun to rise up lead by councils with mages and knights and kings all working together trying to make a civilized world. Rumors have arisen that a new power, called science, is being studied and may be even greater than that of magic. What's more, it can even be used by folk with no magical talent at all. It is a fantastic world of magic on the cusp of great change, where science is beginning to compete with sorcery.
Summary:
History: Born of an unholy union between a vile sorceress and an ensorcelled basilisk, Maledy has never had an easy life. Where her mother had expected a powerful beast to be born that she could command, she was instead given a rebellious, spiteful child who was largely immune to most magical forms of control and worse still, had an uncanny knack for trouble. In her youth, Maledy was almost petite, if such a thing could be side about a massive, half-reptilian creature. Built more like a slender gecko back then, she was prone to climbing walls, scaling her mother's tower and traveling too close to human villages, where she would watch knights joust and soldiers do combat. Before long she herself was inspired to take up arms and learn the arts of war.
Since her mother had forbidden it, still believing she could somehow shape the girl to her will, Maledy took it upon herself to find an instructor. It was no easy task. Often attacked on sight or chased off with torches and pitchforks, the young girl soon came to understand just what sort of abomination the world saw her as. Distraught and puzzling over what it would mean for her future, it finally came to tears. While alone in the woods and sobbing, she was chanced upon by a handful of robbers who set immediately to attacking her, intent on her death and the rewards they could reap either from the goods she carried or turning over the corpse of a monster to the nearest village. While the young Maledy was possessed of a partial paralyzation ability, it lasted only a few moments, and was avoided easily enough. Her death was upon her in her folly.
It so happened that a veteran knight of the last war had chosen to house himself nearby and heard the screams of a young woman. Rushing to aid from his solitude in a tiny cottage, he was upon the brigands in a thrice, dispatching them with a graceful dance of blades that instantly entranced the girl. Here, here was the sort of person she needed!
When at last the men were dead and the girl safe, the knight sheathed his blade and turned to Maledy. He was handsome, if older than she by many years, with thick, wavy hair the color of chestnuts and a generous mouth that bore a constant smile with which he later often dazzled the child. What struck her, and was the most important element of their friendship, was a thick, cruel scar across his face that had clearly robbed him of sight.
Maledy had never met a blind person before, though she understood the concept. Keeping her distance as the knight paced the area and checked the fallen men, she watched him and thought, mind running like wildfire before he drew her attention.
"Are you wounded?" he asked, moving towards her.
"No," she replied, shifting to back away and prompting him to pause.
"You are a girl child, yes?" the knight ventured, brows furrowing, a hand resting on the hilt of his sword in a relaxed posture.
"Yes..." she replied, voice low, meek out of fear. He had killed all those men. He could easily kill her, given then desire to do so, and her paralyzation wouldn't work at all on the blind.
"What are you doing out here? Don't you know how dangerous these woods are?" the man demanded of her, gesturing impatiently with his free hand.
"I was...I was..."
"What? You were what?"
"Trying to find someone that could teach me to protect myself," Maledy finally answered.
The knight fell silent, his expression surprised, then thoughtful as he turned his face away. Eventually he shrugged and waved with his hand.
"You'll find no one like that out here. Just forgotten, broken playthings of greater men. You should run along home child. Ask your father to teach you."
"I have no father."
"Then ask your mother."
"She hates me."
"I doubt that."
"She thinks I'm ugly. And stupid. I won't do what she wants."
"A disobedient child? You should listen to your parents, always. Go home, girl," the man grunted, turning to leave for his home.
"She wants me to do bad things," Maledy replied, giving the knight pause. He sighed deeply, turning on his heel and raising his chin, frustrated by his own reluctance to let it go and leave, regardless of curiosity.
"What sort of bad things?"
"Eat people, mostly."
"I beg your pardon?" he choked, shaking his head with a laugh. "Child, you should not lie about such things."
"I don't. She wants me to eat people she doesn't like. And learn from her silly books. She wanted me to be more like my father, but she can't make me listen. She tries. She whispers in my head sometimes, but I just ignore her. So she beats me, and I run away. But then no one else likes me either. They think because my mother is wicked, I must be too. And I'm ugly, so I can't make them like me by being pretty."
The knight clucked his tongue softly and raised a hand, rubbing the back of his neck. What, he wondered, had he stepped into? Then a thought occurred to him, raising his face to Maledy, expression cool, unreadable.
"You're that witch's girl, aren't you. The one in the tower East of here, that's always causing storms and killing anyone what comes her way?"
"Yes, sir."
"I never heard she had children."
"You wouldn't. She doesn't have children, she has pets. That's all she thinks of anyone as...pets. Things. Not people."
"You've got a bit of wisdom for someone whelped and raised by that bitch," the knight grunted, then coughed softly. "Pardon the language."
Maledy giggled and shook her head. "No, you're probably right. She kind of is, you know. A bitch."
They shared a soft, nervous chuckle, perhaps both worried that too much talk of her might summon the evil woman. Finally, the knight nodded and raised a hand, motioning Maledy closer. She she didn't move, he frowned.
"Come here girl, I want to see you, such as I can in this state."
"But...you will hate me, too," she whispered.
"Nonsense. Anyone that hates a child is a fool. Now come here..."
And she did. He touched her face after removing his gloves, held her hands and brushed her shoulders lightly, frowning in puzzlement. She felt like a frail, tiny thing, but when she moved she sounded to be quite overweight.
"Child, lift your foot," he ventured slowly.
"Which one, sir?"
"The right."
"Which one, sir?" she asked again.
The knight leaned back slowly, propping his hands on his hips and arching a brow as he nodded. And there was the crux. The witch had made some sort of creature out of a little girl. Turned a child into a monster and left her to fend for herself in a cruel world of bias and injustice.
"Go home, child. Pack your things, and return here on the morrow, before first light. Never let you mother know about this plan. I will teach you to defend yourself as I was taught. Beyond that I promise you nothing. If you do not obey, you will die, do you understand? I will not suffer a monster to live, so you will decide before you come here if you are a monster, or a lady. Go on. Off with you."
Maledy ran as fast as she could, which considering her abundance of limbs, was fairly fast. Her mother often ignored her comings and goings, rather enjoying the fact that Maledy's monstrous appearance terrorized the villagers, so it wasn't hard for the girl to pack her things and leave.
After that night, her life changed forever.
She and the knight traveled ever further away, moving by night, sleeping in barns and stables until they made it far enough from the tower that there was no way her mother would find them. From then on, the aging knight taught her everything he knew. It was never easy, for either of them. He was used to teaching men, and then, men with only two legs and two arms. they learned from each other, and in time, the aging warrior came to think of her as a daughter, and she thought of him as a father. She learned many things besides combat. He taught her court manners, how to behave like a lady, the names of the countries and the histories her mother had never bothered with. And he insisted she practice the basic arts of magic that her mother had taught her, pointing out that in life, people would use magic against her, and the only way to resist magic, was to have it yourself.
By the time Maledy reached her seventeenth summer, she was a fine swordsman and a passing good mage, if only skilled at basic craft and cantrips. The handsome knight was older, gray smears of hair at his temples, wrinkles defining his smiles. Even so, he wasn't withered or frail, and could take Maledy hand to hand more often than not. It was on her seventeenth name day that he proposed they venture into the city.
While both anxious and afraid, the young woman was eager to see the world, hopeful that somewhere, people wouldn't run in terror at the sight of her. Fortunately they had run far enough, for long enough, that the realms they entered were old place, where monsters and magic were familiar things and the horror of a half-beast was hardly interesting. The small, primitive villages were wary, and people would not talk to her, but for the first time in all her years, no one tried to hurt her. Maledy was availed use of the streets and allowed to browse the markets like anyone else. And when she spoke with a human tongue, people listened. It was a start.
It was also an end.
Another year passed, and the knight came to Maledy on her eighteenth name day bearing the gifts of a sword made for someone of her stature, light leather armor suitable for her shape, and a blow to her heart.
"I'm leaving. So are you."
It was that simple. He brooked no argument and when asked to explain, he laid it out simply. He was old and wanted to settle down again, and she was young, and needed to go out. He wasn't about to protect her from the world her whole life and she had no business playing at being a victim. She would go out into the realms, make herself a name and Gods be willing, she'd be seen as a woman instead of a monster someday. But, he said, one couldn't expect respect from hiding. She needed to go out, commit great deeds, acts of charity and honor. She needed to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. He'd taught her what it meant to be a knight, and she needed to exercise those morals, -make- people see her for who she was instead of what she was. And if she died, rest easy in the knowledge that the Gods would give her a better life the next time, so long as she honored herself with her actions.
No longer a child, and never one to wail over things that didn't go her way, Maledy struck out into the world, traveling with the knight for a time, escorting him much of the way home, until they parted ways. To this day, she does not know what became of him. She has never returned to her homeland, fearing a confrontation with her mother, or worse, news of her adoptive father's death.
Maledysaunte | OC
Player name: Rinjii
Age: 30
Contact: Plurk: MissRinjii
Other characters: Seimei
Character name: Maledysaunte aka Azhi Dahaki, Vasuki, "She For Whom The Earth Trembles", Lady Lockclaw, "The Sleeping One"
OC info: Maledy hails from a world of powerful magic, knights noble and ignoble alike, piracy, adventure and fantasy.
Wars are constant and territories are ever in flux in The World, a place with no name but that. Countries are described by the names of villages that the smallfolk settle, such as Sarsbury, Arnot and Coast Town or the races that control the area, such as Elf country or Orc country.
The most powerful people are those with the will and knowledge to control the ebb and flow of magic, drawing on the leylines throughout the enchanted realms and manipulating the energies around them, for good or ill. Wars are often fought by vast armies of soldiers, with a single spellcaster at the center of it all, eager to control more land or fight over a powerful artifact.
The clever ones bide their time in isolated fortresses and towers, gathering more knowledge and creating loyal armies out of monsters and constructs instead of men and mercenaries.
Here and there, nations have begun to rise up lead by councils with mages and knights and kings all working together trying to make a civilized world. Rumors have arisen that a new power, called science, is being studied and may be even greater than that of magic. What's more, it can even be used by folk with no magical talent at all.
It is a fantastic world of magic on the cusp of great change, where science is beginning to compete with sorcery.
Summary:
History: Born of an unholy union between a vile sorceress and an ensorcelled basilisk, Maledy has never had an easy life. Where her mother had expected a powerful beast to be born that she could command, she was instead given a rebellious, spiteful child who was largely immune to most magical forms of control and worse still, had an uncanny knack for trouble. In her youth, Maledy was almost petite, if such a thing could be side about a massive, half-reptilian creature. Built more like a slender gecko back then, she was prone to climbing walls, scaling her mother's tower and traveling too close to human villages, where she would watch knights joust and soldiers do combat. Before long she herself was inspired to take up arms and learn the arts of war.
Since her mother had forbidden it, still believing she could somehow shape the girl to her will, Maledy took it upon herself to find an instructor. It was no easy task. Often attacked on sight or chased off with torches and pitchforks, the young girl soon came to understand just what sort of abomination the world saw her as. Distraught and puzzling over what it would mean for her future, it finally came to tears. While alone in the woods and sobbing, she was chanced upon by a handful of robbers who set immediately to attacking her, intent on her death and the rewards they could reap either from the goods she carried or turning over the corpse of a monster to the nearest village. While the young Maledy was possessed of a partial paralyzation ability, it lasted only a few moments, and was avoided easily enough. Her death was upon her in her folly.
It so happened that a veteran knight of the last war had chosen to house himself nearby and heard the screams of a young woman. Rushing to aid from his solitude in a tiny cottage, he was upon the brigands in a thrice, dispatching them with a graceful dance of blades that instantly entranced the girl. Here, here was the sort of person she needed!
When at last the men were dead and the girl safe, the knight sheathed his blade and turned to Maledy. He was handsome, if older than she by many years, with thick, wavy hair the color of chestnuts and a generous mouth that bore a constant smile with which he later often dazzled the child. What struck her, and was the most important element of their friendship, was a thick, cruel scar across his face that had clearly robbed him of sight.
Maledy had never met a blind person before, though she understood the concept. Keeping her distance as the knight paced the area and checked the fallen men, she watched him and thought, mind running like wildfire before he drew her attention.
"Are you wounded?" he asked, moving towards her.
"No," she replied, shifting to back away and prompting him to pause.
"You are a girl child, yes?" the knight ventured, brows furrowing, a hand resting on the hilt of his sword in a relaxed posture.
"Yes..." she replied, voice low, meek out of fear. He had killed all those men. He could easily kill her, given then desire to do so, and her paralyzation wouldn't work at all on the blind.
"What are you doing out here? Don't you know how dangerous these woods are?" the man demanded of her, gesturing impatiently with his free hand.
"I was...I was..."
"What? You were what?"
"Trying to find someone that could teach me to protect myself," Maledy finally answered.
The knight fell silent, his expression surprised, then thoughtful as he turned his face away. Eventually he shrugged and waved with his hand.
"You'll find no one like that out here. Just forgotten, broken playthings of greater men. You should run along home child. Ask your father to teach you."
"I have no father."
"Then ask your mother."
"She hates me."
"I doubt that."
"She thinks I'm ugly. And stupid. I won't do what she wants."
"A disobedient child? You should listen to your parents, always. Go home, girl," the man grunted, turning to leave for his home.
"She wants me to do bad things," Maledy replied, giving the knight pause. He sighed deeply, turning on his heel and raising his chin, frustrated by his own reluctance to let it go and leave, regardless of curiosity.
"What sort of bad things?"
"Eat people, mostly."
"I beg your pardon?" he choked, shaking his head with a laugh. "Child, you should not lie about such things."
"I don't. She wants me to eat people she doesn't like. And learn from her silly books. She wanted me to be more like my father, but she can't make me listen. She tries. She whispers in my head sometimes, but I just ignore her. So she beats me, and I run away. But then no one else likes me either. They think because my mother is wicked, I must be too. And I'm ugly, so I can't make them like me by being pretty."
The knight clucked his tongue softly and raised a hand, rubbing the back of his neck. What, he wondered, had he stepped into? Then a thought occurred to him, raising his face to Maledy, expression cool, unreadable.
"You're that witch's girl, aren't you. The one in the tower East of here, that's always causing storms and killing anyone what comes her way?"
"Yes, sir."
"I never heard she had children."
"You wouldn't. She doesn't have children, she has pets. That's all she thinks of anyone as...pets. Things. Not people."
"You've got a bit of wisdom for someone whelped and raised by that bitch," the knight grunted, then coughed softly. "Pardon the language."
Maledy giggled and shook her head. "No, you're probably right. She kind of is, you know. A bitch."
They shared a soft, nervous chuckle, perhaps both worried that too much talk of her might summon the evil woman. Finally, the knight nodded and raised a hand, motioning Maledy closer. She she didn't move, he frowned.
"Come here girl, I want to see you, such as I can in this state."
"But...you will hate me, too," she whispered.
"Nonsense. Anyone that hates a child is a fool. Now come here..."
And she did. He touched her face after removing his gloves, held her hands and brushed her shoulders lightly, frowning in puzzlement. She felt like a frail, tiny thing, but when she moved she sounded to be quite overweight.
"Child, lift your foot," he ventured slowly.
"Which one, sir?"
"The right."
"Which one, sir?" she asked again.
The knight leaned back slowly, propping his hands on his hips and arching a brow as he nodded. And there was the crux. The witch had made some sort of creature out of a little girl. Turned a child into a monster and left her to fend for herself in a cruel world of bias and injustice.
"Go home, child. Pack your things, and return here on the morrow, before first light. Never let you mother know about this plan. I will teach you to defend yourself as I was taught. Beyond that I promise you nothing. If you do not obey, you will die, do you understand? I will not suffer a monster to live, so you will decide before you come here if you are a monster, or a lady. Go on. Off with you."
Maledy ran as fast as she could, which considering her abundance of limbs, was fairly fast. Her mother often ignored her comings and goings, rather enjoying the fact that Maledy's monstrous appearance terrorized the villagers, so it wasn't hard for the girl to pack her things and leave.
After that night, her life changed forever.
She and the knight traveled ever further away, moving by night, sleeping in barns and stables until they made it far enough from the tower that there was no way her mother would find them. From then on, the aging knight taught her everything he knew. It was never easy, for either of them. He was used to teaching men, and then, men with only two legs and two arms. they learned from each other, and in time, the aging warrior came to think of her as a daughter, and she thought of him as a father. She learned many things besides combat. He taught her court manners, how to behave like a lady, the names of the countries and the histories her mother had never bothered with. And he insisted she practice the basic arts of magic that her mother had taught her, pointing out that in life, people would use magic against her, and the only way to resist magic, was to have it yourself.
By the time Maledy reached her seventeenth summer, she was a fine swordsman and a passing good mage, if only skilled at basic craft and cantrips. The handsome knight was older, gray smears of hair at his temples, wrinkles defining his smiles. Even so, he wasn't withered or frail, and could take Maledy hand to hand more often than not. It was on her seventeenth name day that he proposed they venture into the city.
While both anxious and afraid, the young woman was eager to see the world, hopeful that somewhere, people wouldn't run in terror at the sight of her. Fortunately they had run far enough, for long enough, that the realms they entered were old place, where monsters and magic were familiar things and the horror of a half-beast was hardly interesting. The small, primitive villages were wary, and people would not talk to her, but for the first time in all her years, no one tried to hurt her. Maledy was availed use of the streets and allowed to browse the markets like anyone else. And when she spoke with a human tongue, people listened. It was a start.
It was also an end.
Another year passed, and the knight came to Maledy on her eighteenth name day bearing the gifts of a sword made for someone of her stature, light leather armor suitable for her shape, and a blow to her heart.
"I'm leaving. So are you."
It was that simple. He brooked no argument and when asked to explain, he laid it out simply. He was old and wanted to settle down again, and she was young, and needed to go out. He wasn't about to protect her from the world her whole life and she had no business playing at being a victim. She would go out into the realms, make herself a name and Gods be willing, she'd be seen as a woman instead of a monster someday. But, he said, one couldn't expect respect from hiding. She needed to go out, commit great deeds, acts of charity and honor. She needed to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. He'd taught her what it meant to be a knight, and she needed to exercise those morals, -make- people see her for who she was instead of what she was. And if she died, rest easy in the knowledge that the Gods would give her a better life the next time, so long as she honored herself with her actions.
No longer a child, and never one to wail over things that didn't go her way, Maledy struck out into the world, traveling with the knight for a time, escorting him much of the way home, until they parted ways.
To this day, she does not know what became of him. She has never returned to her homeland, fearing a confrontation with her mother, or worse, news of her adoptive father's death.