Character name: Trisana Chandler, normally called Tris by her 'family', or 'coppercurls' Series: Circle of Magic / Circle Opens / Circle Reforged Canon point: The Will of the Empress, page 475 (A little under two week after "Your friend has a broken collarbone, dislocated shoulder, two small cracks in her skull, broken cheekbone, one arm broken in two places, a broken wrist, five broken ribs, a dislocated hip, three breaks in her right leg and a broken ankle on the left. She also has several broken fingers and toes." So basically right after she got on that horse with Chime.) Summary: Here is Tris's history because YEAH IT WOULDN'T BE SHORT IF I WROTE IT OUT. Six books as a major character? Hahaha.
Trisana Chandler, due to growing up the way she did, is still incredibly wary about trusting others. This also comes from repeated rejections from boys, and snide comments from fellow girls. Currently, Tris has no problems with her body, but when she was younger she learned the hard way that people would use her looks to hurt her. She has given up finding any positive feelings that are returned, because of past experiences with crushes. Her lack of willingness to trust has been reinforced by the events of Tris' Book, where her cousin Aymery—the only cousin who was nice to her—was in the employ of the pirates attacking her new home. She has slowly gotten better at this, but mostly her trust is earned by her sibling's trust. If all of them trust you—including the street thief—then she is likely to slowly get comfortable.
Part of her growing up has her biased: Tris is a wealthy merchant's child, so she absolutely hates thieves and the poor at first. It has taken her some time, but she is well past this due to the efforts of her family—and learning that the people she looked up to were not always as fortunate as they are currently, and that status can change. This is how Briar, who was the person she wanted to avoid most in her new home at age 10, ended up was the closest person and the first that she reconnected mentally with at 18. She insists that she is of a proper family, and proper girls wear skirts and peticoats.
Something that she has continued to work on since she learned about her powers, Tris has anger issues. When she was first in Discipline, these things would result in air tension the other three could feel, and all of the 'curse' events that her family thought were signs of her being possessed, or unlucky, were really her magic reacting to her anger. This is likely because at that point, her magic was wound a great deal into who she was. Even at 18, she mentions that sometimes she calls stuff up to "run them off", but never anything dangerous (unlike the uncontrolled hail, lightning, or severe winds that she would accidentally cause when younger). "When she loses her temper, she damages property, she sinks ships." Small, uncontrolled things still happen—when woken by a man yelling insults, she sheds sparks and her hair whips around her in a wind—while they were inside. When angered over Sandry being kidnapped in Namorn to be made someone's bride against her will, she is once again shedding sparks while waiting. This still comes up, less forcefully, when she is tired. She tries hard not to bite the nose off of everyone she meets, although when she is tired or scared, she snaps and uses sharp words with no care. Because of this thorny habit of hers, it is usually best to deal with her using your own thorns.
Tris wants to go to a mage school, under an assumed name, simply so she can learn magic that doesn't have monarchs and rulers looking at her as a battle mage. One of the easiest things for her to do is produce lightening. At a little over 10, she nearly singlehandedly—although definitely rage empowered—destroys a pirate fleet. There are few things she would not be good at in terms of combat magic. However, she hates blood, hates fighting. hates getting hurt, a rather big sign that she would do poorly a war mage. She learned how to fight—physically (like a street rat, so the fairness of this fighting is debatable)—in exchange for teaching reading—simply because she didn't want to rely on others. She wants to be able to support herself, which for her means learning a different kind of magic simply so she can sell that. This is again her merchant background coming into play; she refuses to not be able to help her 'family' with the house. A bit of this explains her actions after the earthquake—without Sandry's help, they would not have survived. But Sandry is terrified of the dark, and so to thank her, they make her a permanent light source. She doesn't like owing favors.
Part of her reluctance to fully explain her powers, or even use them terribly often, is the reactions she gets. When she learned to Scry the Wind, something that is mentioned to be a "once in a generation" gift, people began to think she thought she was better, because she managed it. People shrink back in fear from someone who takes a hurricane, spins it into fine thread, and makes a ball of yarn out of it. When she was younger, she was uncertain as to what was her magic, and what was the madness that her family had told her was clearly everywhere. Learning that people actually do hear conversations on the wind, and they are not words of madness, had her stumbling and looking feverish with shock. Even before she learned to scry the wind, her powers were so broad in air, earth and water that most didn't believe she had all that she said she did. Even the Namornese Empress discounted half of the tales that her spies uncovered, even though this was not all they were capable of.
For the longest time, Tris' only friends were animals. This ends up broadening to other 'hurt or scared' people, so long as they weren't hurt or scared by her. This is why she will go out of her way to help an animal that's injured or abandoned, even if it means a case of 'every hour, feed the starling', which will fly off and never care a whit about her. This ends up with her helping—and correctly diagnosing Zhegorz as a scryer—when she meets him in Namorn. Animals are the few things she will help without expecting something in return, or using that as a means to pay off a greater debt to her or hers. Most of the time, she isn't interested in 'helping for free'. There are a few cases that don't fit this—when she stabilizes the bridge in The Will of the Empress, it is to both prevent a loss of life, and to stop the bridge from collapsing and clogging the river in the future. She isn't likely to just go out and help you bake bread, unless she gets to keep some of the loaves. Clearly the obvious exception is for her 'siblings' and teachers—if they need the help, they need the help, and with a question for her sibs, she'll give it.
On the other hand, when Tris does something, she will do it right. This is most obvious during Briar's Book, when she takes over a secretarial job and goes over the notes of the previous one. She was able to catch what was done before and didn't work, to the point where Crane—hard to please—was insistent that he needed her to stay. This is likely so important to her since her magic, if done improperly, is terribly dangerous. Once she decides she's responsible for someone, no one else can frighten them, or scare them terribly. This is most clear with Keth in Shatterglass, where she promises to bring a building down if they try to torture her student—who has only been her student for a few hours. She learned from Rosethorn, Lark, Niko, and Frostpine how a good teacher treats their students, and she is determined to live up to their example—whether she wants to be a teacher or not.
Tris is fully aware that her past is something that shouldn't be inflicted on anyone; no child should be constantly uprooted. This is one of the reasons that she keeps Glaki so close—the girl had just lost her mother, then her aunt, and the remaining 'aunts' were just as likely to ignore her or hit her to shut her up. This reminded Tris too much of her own childhood, so she worked around several things in order to give Glaki a stable environment, even if it was already fractured. The alternative was more passing around, and likely eventually kicked out onto the streets, which were already terribly unsafe for adults. This would be similar to Briar's growing up, which no child ought to have either, so Tris did her personal best to safeguard against both.
Trisana Chander | Circle of Magic | OU (I am not sorry for how long this is)
Age: 22
Contact:
Other characters: Lady!Duke
Character name: Trisana Chandler, normally called Tris by her 'family', or 'coppercurls'
Series: Circle of Magic / Circle Opens / Circle Reforged
Canon point: The Will of the Empress, page 475 (A little under two week after "Your friend has a broken collarbone, dislocated shoulder, two small cracks in her skull, broken cheekbone, one arm broken in two places, a broken wrist, five broken ribs, a dislocated hip, three breaks in her right leg and a broken ankle on the left. She also has several broken fingers and toes." So basically right after she got on that horse with Chime.)
Summary:
Here is Tris's history because YEAH IT WOULDN'T BE SHORT IF I WROTE IT OUT. Six books as a major character? Hahaha.
Trisana Chandler, due to growing up the way she did, is still incredibly wary about trusting others. This also comes from repeated rejections from boys, and snide comments from fellow girls. Currently, Tris has no problems with her body, but when she was younger she learned the hard way that people would use her looks to hurt her. She has given up finding any positive feelings that are returned, because of past experiences with crushes. Her lack of willingness to trust has been reinforced by the events of Tris' Book, where her cousin Aymery—the only cousin who was nice to her—was in the employ of the pirates attacking her new home. She has slowly gotten better at this, but mostly her trust is earned by her sibling's trust. If all of them trust you—including the street thief—then she is likely to slowly get comfortable.
Part of her growing up has her biased: Tris is a wealthy merchant's child, so she absolutely hates thieves and the poor at first. It has taken her some time, but she is well past this due to the efforts of her family—and learning that the people she looked up to were not always as fortunate as they are currently, and that status can change. This is how Briar, who was the person she wanted to avoid most in her new home at age 10, ended up was the closest person and the first that she reconnected mentally with at 18. She insists that she is of a proper family, and proper girls wear skirts and peticoats.
Something that she has continued to work on since she learned about her powers, Tris has anger issues. When she was first in Discipline, these things would result in air tension the other three could feel, and all of the 'curse' events that her family thought were signs of her being possessed, or unlucky, were really her magic reacting to her anger. This is likely because at that point, her magic was wound a great deal into who she was. Even at 18, she mentions that sometimes she calls stuff up to "run them off", but never anything dangerous (unlike the uncontrolled hail, lightning, or severe winds that she would accidentally cause when younger). "When she loses her temper, she damages property, she sinks ships." Small, uncontrolled things still happen—when woken by a man yelling insults, she sheds sparks and her hair whips around her in a wind—while they were inside. When angered over Sandry being kidnapped in Namorn to be made someone's bride against her will, she is once again shedding sparks while waiting. This still comes up, less forcefully, when she is tired. She tries hard not to bite the nose off of everyone she meets, although when she is tired or scared, she snaps and uses sharp words with no care. Because of this thorny habit of hers, it is usually best to deal with her using your own thorns.
Tris wants to go to a mage school, under an assumed name, simply so she can learn magic that doesn't have monarchs and rulers looking at her as a battle mage. One of the easiest things for her to do is produce lightening. At a little over 10, she nearly singlehandedly—although definitely rage empowered—destroys a pirate fleet. There are few things she would not be good at in terms of combat magic. However, she hates blood, hates fighting. hates getting hurt, a rather big sign that she would do poorly a war mage. She learned how to fight—physically (like a street rat, so the fairness of this fighting is debatable)—in exchange for teaching reading—simply because she didn't want to rely on others. She wants to be able to support herself, which for her means learning a different kind of magic simply so she can sell that. This is again her merchant background coming into play; she refuses to not be able to help her 'family' with the house. A bit of this explains her actions after the earthquake—without Sandry's help, they would not have survived. But Sandry is terrified of the dark, and so to thank her, they make her a permanent light source. She doesn't like owing favors.
Part of her reluctance to fully explain her powers, or even use them terribly often, is the reactions she gets. When she learned to Scry the Wind, something that is mentioned to be a "once in a generation" gift, people began to think she thought she was better, because she managed it. People shrink back in fear from someone who takes a hurricane, spins it into fine thread, and makes a ball of yarn out of it. When she was younger, she was uncertain as to what was her magic, and what was the madness that her family had told her was clearly everywhere. Learning that people actually do hear conversations on the wind, and they are not words of madness, had her stumbling and looking feverish with shock. Even before she learned to scry the wind, her powers were so broad in air, earth and water that most didn't believe she had all that she said she did. Even the Namornese Empress discounted half of the tales that her spies uncovered, even though this was not all they were capable of.
For the longest time, Tris' only friends were animals. This ends up broadening to other 'hurt or scared' people, so long as they weren't hurt or scared by her. This is why she will go out of her way to help an animal that's injured or abandoned, even if it means a case of 'every hour, feed the starling', which will fly off and never care a whit about her. This ends up with her helping—and correctly diagnosing Zhegorz as a scryer—when she meets him in Namorn. Animals are the few things she will help without expecting something in return, or using that as a means to pay off a greater debt to her or hers. Most of the time, she isn't interested in 'helping for free'. There are a few cases that don't fit this—when she stabilizes the bridge in The Will of the Empress, it is to both prevent a loss of life, and to stop the bridge from collapsing and clogging the river in the future. She isn't likely to just go out and help you bake bread, unless she gets to keep some of the loaves. Clearly the obvious exception is for her 'siblings' and teachers—if they need the help, they need the help, and with a question for her sibs, she'll give it.
On the other hand, when Tris does something, she will do it right. This is most obvious during Briar's Book, when she takes over a secretarial job and goes over the notes of the previous one. She was able to catch what was done before and didn't work, to the point where Crane—hard to please—was insistent that he needed her to stay. This is likely so important to her since her magic, if done improperly, is terribly dangerous. Once she decides she's responsible for someone, no one else can frighten them, or scare them terribly. This is most clear with Keth in Shatterglass, where she promises to bring a building down if they try to torture her student—who has only been her student for a few hours. She learned from Rosethorn, Lark, Niko, and Frostpine how a good teacher treats their students, and she is determined to live up to their example—whether she wants to be a teacher or not.
Tris is fully aware that her past is something that shouldn't be inflicted on anyone; no child should be constantly uprooted. This is one of the reasons that she keeps Glaki so close—the girl had just lost her mother, then her aunt, and the remaining 'aunts' were just as likely to ignore her or hit her to shut her up. This reminded Tris too much of her own childhood, so she worked around several things in order to give Glaki a stable environment, even if it was already fractured. The alternative was more passing around, and likely eventually kicked out onto the streets, which were already terribly unsafe for adults. This would be similar to Briar's growing up, which no child ought to have either, so Tris did her personal best to safeguard against both.