Ariadne (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
demonicbeauty) wrote2019-06-14 09:52 am
demonicbeauty) wrote2019-06-14 09:52 am
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OOC INFO;
Player Name: Wizera
Contact Info: PM this journal or![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
wizera
Current Character: N/A
IC INFO;
Character Name: Ariadne of Valeria
Age: Nineteen
God Houses:
Option A: Sigyn
Ariadne grew up in a forest and, as such, as a great affinity for plants. Her intimate knowledge of the smells and uses of flora came with her to Valeria, a place settled and "cultivated," where the forests didn't run wild. A culture shock, to be certain. Missing the wilds of her youth, she took to gardening as a hobby, quickly becoming a favorite among the kitchen staff (and making up for her utter inability to cook anything). She understands soil and moisture, and deeply respects the natural processes of nature. She loves her plants so fiercely that she names them. And sometimes talks to them. Actually, talks to them quite a bit. Had she not become a thief for the rebellion, she might have made a decent healer and gardener.
But, of course, her affinity for Sigyn goes beyond the harvest. Just as Sigyn is a font of kindness, so too is Ariadne. You might argue there's not a single cruel bone in her body. A slight exaggeration, but grounded in the truth. When asked if she's a thief, Ariadne will insist that she isn't. Thieves have bad intentions, she never does. What she takes goes to the cause of goodness and righteousness. She treats everyone she meets with love and respect. Even enemies. Ariadne would never take a life. And although she can fight and fend for herself, she always uses the least lethal of weapons and the aims for the least lethal of targets.
Option B: Njord
Ariadne is a liar. There's no escaping that fact. Her intentions may be the purest of the pure, but they also aim for survival in an incredibly dangerous world. As a thief, she'll play a variety of roles to get what she wants. Sometimes, she's a dignitary's secretary. Sometimes, she's a minor noble. She'll sneak behind closed doors, scale rooftops, even dig small tunnels under fences. If caught, she'll make up plausible excuses, leaning heavily on the fact that people perceive her as a frail girl who doesn't know a thing about the world.
She's also a storyteller. Even when she's in Valeria, in the company of the people she knows, she's still lying. She's created a biography for herself that hides her Alastrian blood. To everyone but her aunt and Princess Amanda, Ariadne is a simple Human girl. The losses she's endured, the fear of being hunted for her hair, and even her family have been blurred away, hidden behind a more pleasant fiction. And while Ariadne doesn't necessarily believe her own lies, they come to her so naturally that she barely has to think.
Additionally, Alastrians have a deep love of language, often capable of picking up new tongues very, very quickly.
World Information:
Ariadne hails from a fantasy realm, consisting of fourteen kingdoms, along an open and seemingly endless sea. She was born in a smaller kingdom, called Deleo, which produced the majority of the lumber for the rest of the realm (more on that below). Originally, each of the fourteen kingdoms acted as an independent monarchy, existing in a relatively stable peace. Inhabitants included three different classifications of lifeforms; humanoids, demonoids, and incorporeal creatures. Among the humanoid races were the industrious Humans (in D&D terms, rangers and rogues), the mystical Elves (clerics, monks, warlocks, and wizards), and the honorable Darucs (druids, fighters, and paladins). Each race claimed domain over certain arts and sciences: the Humans masters of mechanics and engineering; the Elves the rulers of magic; and the Darucs the great warriors and laborers. The humanoid races were not monoliths, of course. Within each, there were exceptions to the rule. But stereotypes existed for a reason.
Little could be said about the incorporeal races because little was known about them. They were magical in nature, their secrets known only to the highest ranking Elvish scholars. Incorporeal creatures included gods (for more on the realm's religions, see this page), angels, ghosts, avatars, and spirits.
The term "demonoid" was used as an umbrella for any sentient race that had more than the basic two arms, two legs, and single head of the humanoids. It would be misleading to believe that they had much in common with each other, however. In fact, demonoids could be drastically different from each other. Examples included trolls, centaurs, and, most critically (as far as Ariadne is concerned), Alastrians.
Often referred to as "Alastrian demons," the Alastrian race evolved from parts unknown. They were forest-dwelling creatures, built to survive high in the trees, with green skin the color of leaves and pastel hair, the color of flowers. They developed abilities linked to hearing in order to survive, including heightened senses, enhanced linguistic processing, the ability to emit a deafening scream, and strong cognitive skills related to rhythm. They also grew long, black retractable claws, to use in climbing and black, feathered wings to use in flight.
Unlike with most other races in the realm, it was the male who bore and gave birth to children among Alastrians. Alastrian litters usually consisted of twenty to twenty five hatchlings. Because of their enormous size, two or three families would often join together to travel in a roving pack. Each pack would only have two or four mating adults. All the other adults would serve as hunters, gatherers, and protectors of the young. Males would sometimes clash over dominance, but ultimately, females could choose any mate they so desired.
Alastrian hair became a luxury good, akin to elephant ivory. Even after it was determined that Alastrians were sentient beings, hunting of them persisted, many monarchies turning a blind eye to the atrocity. Over the course of millennia, perhaps from intermingling with Elves, some Alastrians began to develop the ability to camouflage their appearance, secreting certain pheromones which allowed others to see them having Elvish skintone and hair color. By the time of Ariadne's birth, about one in three Alastrians (including Ariadne herself) were born with this ability.
For some sorcerers, Alastrians served as familiars. Most of the time, this was involuntary, the Alastrian bound to the mage by a spell or ritual. But sometimes, it would be a voluntary arrangement, in exchange for protection of a pack.
About a year before Ariadne was born, trouble began to brew in Calatia, one of the most central and most stable of the kingdoms of the realm. The Elvish king suffered some kind of horrific psychological trauma. Some say he murdered his own sister in a drunken rage. Others believe he copulated with his mother. In any case, his split with reality led him to grow ambitious. He reasoned that the Elves were far superior to the other races of the realm and ought to be in control. To that end, he invaded his southern neighbor, a kingdom ruled by a Human king, and used magic to destroy the land. Most of the royal family was executed. The power-mad Elf took on the name of the Red Dragon. Drunk and bitter, when the other kingdoms condemned him, he vowed to take over the entire realm.
Few saw him as a truly dangerous threat. Surely one man couldn't possibly rule all fourteen kingdoms. But the queen of Valeria, an Elvish woman named Amanda, took his threat very seriously. She realized that the remaining kingdoms would have to join forces in order to stand against him in the long run. Her initial diplomatic endeavors with the other monarchs were met with resistance. But the leader of a roving Alastrian pack, named Lysia, heeded Amanda's warnings and offered to lend her services to a resistance.
Ariadne--or Airy, as she'll tell you to call her--was born in the kingdom of Deleo, a smaller kingdom in her realm, known for its lush forests. It was one of the leading producers of lumber. And, more importantly, it was home to dozens of nomadic tribes of Alastrians, including the pack of Lysia's brother, Tahafra. Ariadne was born in the middle of a litter of twenty, to father Feofan--the pack's storyteller--and mother Rotspine. Being one of twenty made Ariadne something of an unremarkable child, with two noteworthy exceptions. The first was that she learned, at a reasonably early age, to secrete pheromones that could make her appear Human, a trait she shared with her mother and several other siblings. The second was that she had a talent for disobeying her mother's strict rules, often wandering just a little bit too close to the Human villages of Deleo for comfort.
Rotspine and Feofan had left their original family group years before Ariadne's birth. The nature of their departure was mysterious to Ariadne, but it meant that they often received visitors from far-away places, such as the kingdom of Valeria, one of the bustling centers of commerce and culture. Ariadne's favorite visitor was her Uncle Tahafra, who would often bring little trinkets and wild tales about the way that the humanoids of the realm (Humans, Elves, and Darcus) lived. Like Rotspine and Ariadne, Tahafra possessed the ability to appear Human. He'd even gone a step further, severing his own wings in order to pass for Human. His stories often filled Ariadne's little head with the idea of someday living and passing as a Human herself.
As it was, the Alastrians were ill-treated in the realm. Sorcerers would sometimes bind them as familiars. And hunters often illegally hunted them down for their hair. Most hunters outright killed Alastrians and scalped them. But there were some who settled for simple humiliation. When Ariadne was seven, one of her brothers, Lief, crossed paths with such hunters. They stripped him naked, shaved his head, and left him alone in the forest. Ariadne's family found him two days later, shivering and scared senseless, unable to speak or make eye contact for weeks. And the incident taught Ariadne, for the first time, how deeply dangerous it was to be Alastrian.
Strangely, it didn't dampen Ariadne's curiosity the way her mother hoped it would. Instead, it led her to the conclusion that she ought to be ashamed of who and what she was. She therefore dedicated as much time to learning how to control her pheromones as possible. Soon, she was able to maintain the spell even while sleeping. Her disgruntled mother was tempered by her gentle father. Feofan believed that not all Humans and other humanoids were dangerous. He passed this optimism on to his daughter. The two of them had a special bond. Feofan loved each and every one of his children, but Ariadne was the apple of his eye.
Rotspine was the disciplinarian of the family. Of all the Alastrians in their pack, she was the most aggressive. She'd also had the most experience with humanoids, having spent a great deal of her life trying to pass for one, although she refused to give up her wings. Life with them taught her cruelty and pain. It drove her to worship the most powerful and warlike of gods, a faith she tried--with varying degrees of success--to pass on to her children.
Most of Ariadne's childhood was spent in the forest, living from day to day. Alastrians didn't believe in formal schooling or apprenticeships. Rather, the adults in the pack taught the children of the litter various skills and the children naturally divided up the labor, according to their aptitudes. Lithe and spritely, Ariadne was often charged with the task of climbing up into the canopy to fetch various fruits and nuts and also to look for signs of danger. When the day was plentiful, nights would be spent listening to Feofan sing songs of the ancient times, of the times when the Alastrian people had a home of their own and feared no one. If the day was meager, the family would make due, sleeping up in the branches.
Ariadne's skill in climbing and moving from tree to tree served her well. At the age of ten, a forest fire ravaged Deleo, one she would later learn was set by the Red Dragon. As it happened, Ariadne was up in a tree, sulking over her latest quarrel with her mother when the blaze started. Every child in the litter had been taught, at the first sign of danger, to run. Or if possible, fly. When Ariadne smelled the smoke, she did just that, moving through the canopy and cutting up into the air, high above the trouble. She screamed out the names of her brothers and sisters, but was unable to find any of them in the ensuing chaos. For three days, there was nothing but fire and smoke and ash. It was longer than she'd ever dared to stay up in the air, leaving her vulnerable and exhausted. On the fourth day, turned around and confused, Ariadne came upon Uncle Tahafra, who'd just arrived for a visit. Finding only devastation and a very frightened little girl, Tahafra decided to take her to Valeria with him, giving her the strictest of instructions to look Human, no matter what.
In Valeria, Tahafra brought Ariadne to his sister, Lysia. Ariadne was baffled. She'd never seen an Alastrian who lived in a house before. Nor one who wore shoes and jewelry and plaited her hair. Tahafra and Lysia had been passing for Humans for years, making lives for themselves in Valeria. But there was one person who knew their secret. The reigning Elvish monarch of Valeria, Amanda, employed Lysia (who had sacrificed her wings as well) as a court translator. At least on the surface.
The true story was much more complicated than anything Ariadne had seen in her life. Amanda and Lysia had both spent the larger part of Ariadne's lifetime watching the growing threat of the Red Dragon. As it was, he'd already marched his army into five other kingdoms, meeting almost no resistance and easily taking them over. The monarchs had been publicly executed. There was a constant stream of refugees, trying to escape. And the Red Dragon showed no signs of slowing. Since, at first, no one had taken him seriously as a threat, now it seemed too late. He appeared unstoppable.
Lysia adopted Ariadne, raising her as her own. Judging the girl old enough to make her own decisions, she asked Ariadne if she would be willing to trade her wings for a Human life. Ariadne barely hesitated. While the process of losing her wings was painful, she decided it was well worth it. For the first time, she was treated as a Human girl. She was given shoes and dresses and sent to school where she excelled in mathematics and languages. Although friendly and well-liked, she had a hard time adjusting at first. All of her classmates could tell there was something strange about her, but they couldn't put their fingers on what. For that matter, Ariadne didn't understand that some of her own habits were off-putting. Where she came from, it was perfectly natural to drop down to your haunches when threatened or to burst into song for no reason at all, just because the muse struck.
When she was fourteen, Lysia caught sight of her in a tree. Impressed by her ability to move, even without her wings, Lysia decided that the time had come for Ariadne to join in the effort to slow the Red Dragon's progress. She began with little tests here and there, encouraging Ariadne to try to snatch a handkerchief out of her pocket without her noticing, or slip a bracelet off of her wrist. With her light touch and dexterous fingers, Ariadne was a natural and was quickly being tested against some of Amanda's guards. Her talent was too good to put to waste. Soon, Ariadne was being sent over the border into neighboring kingdoms, some controlled by the Red Dragon, for papers and other items.
She was never caught. For someone who'd grown up to be so beautiful, she was entirely too easy to overlook, when things went missing.
While her efforts were useful on a small scale, in the greater scheme of things, Amanda and Lysia were fighting a losing battle. Eventually, it became too dangerous for anyone to leave Valeria. The kingdom was very slowly coming under siege. Hoping to attempt some new tactics, Amanda and Lysia began to assemble small tactical cells to sabotage the Red Dragon's efforts. Ariadne was put on a team with seven other young people, none of whom knew who or what she was. To them, Ariadne became something of a light in the darkness, eternally optimistic despite the losing battle.
And it was a losing battle. They knew that any day, the Red Dragon would begin his final assault on Valeria and the realm would inevitably fall.
Personality:
Ariadne might be considered a Chaotic Good sort of character. She has a strong set of beliefs and convictions and follows them with all of her heart. In the end, she has the sweetness of a Disney princess, but the respect for the laws of men of a Robin Hood.
Heart don't fail me now...
The key motivation behind everything that Ariadne does is her heart. While she understands the value of tactical analysis and instinct, her emotions lead her action most of the time. Her life has been exceedingly difficult and she has often been the outsider and the receiver of misfortune. Because of this, her empathy is strong. Ariadne has a singular ability to put herself in the position of others and understand how such a position makes them feel. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it means that she can easily earn people's trust. But on the other hand, she can also be taken advantage of. The members of her Alastrian pack were always exceedingly open and honest with one another. Ariadne's limited experience in the world of humanoids means that she can often misinterpret those who lie and deceive. She's especially vulnerable to actors, to those who can feign an emotion. And this vulnerability ties into her altruism.
She demonstrates a kindness that has little place in her world. She would have done well living among the Merry Men, as she's constantly motivated to help those in need, whether it's with a kind word or a smile, or with a coin that she's conveniently liberated from a magistrate's pocket. And truth be known, if there are no convenient magistrates available, Ariadne is usually willing to part with her own last coin.
A part of her altruism comes from her sense of optimism. If Ariadne's more than willing to part with a coin, it's generally because she can see a way of things working out for the best. After all, why should she use that coin to buy a pound of berries when she can just go pick them for herself? Why spend it on a pint of ale when she can just as happily drink water? Raised in an Alastrian pack, Ariadne was constantly surrounded, quite literally, by love. She's transferred this sense into the universe itself, believing that there is good and love and kindness all around, in spite of the darkness that sometimes rises. And she believes that love can defeat hate. It can be a little hard to stomach, it's so saccharine.
It should also be noted that Ariadne's kindness extends to her style of fighting. Her weapon of choice a sling. Far better to knock a foe unconscious and run away than to cause permanent damage. (Never mind that you could cause brain damage because, shhhh, fantasy setting.)
Courage don't desert me...
In a way, it almost goes without saying that Ariadne is brave. One has to be brave to hold on to the belief that love will conquer it all in a world that so often demonstrates the opposite. But while she would never admit it, Ariadne is very much her mother's daughter and possesses a warrior spirit, even if her intentions are almost never violent.
Ariadne possesses an incredible amount of fortitude. She's suffered an incredible amount of trauma, from losing her family (although she doesn't actually know their ultimate fate) to allowing herself to be mutilated. None of this has broken her. None of this has shaken her central belief in love. And she shows every bit as much unwavering belief in the people who mean the most to her. Once a friend, forever a friend. And a friend is a member of her pack. She will rise to the occasion and stand against anyone who threatens one of her own. Which isn't to say she's a leader of men. Ariadne generally prefers playing a supporting role in the greater scheme of things. She likes to blend into the background. But blending isn't the same as disappearing.
Her courage ties into her optimism. She often acts because she believes things will work out for the best. And Ariadne has experience in tactics and probabilities. But she's not perfect. And sometimes, courage leads her to situations where she's in over her head. There a slight tendency to leap before she looks.
Don't turn back now that we're here...
Ariadne is the sort of person who lives in the present. Her past misfortunes don't hold her back and she's never really had much in the way of a plan for the future.
The most noticeable way in which she lives for the moment comes from her curiosity. As someone who's spent much of her life isolated from others, every day brings on an endless supply of new experiences, whether it's a new sort of song or a new way of solving mathematical problems or an animal she's never seen before. Ariadne has an almost insatiable need to experience everything and to know everything and to understand everything. There are times when she'll ask more questions than a toddler who's just learned how to say "why?"
What does it do?
What is it called?
How does it work?
Can I touch it?
Her curiosity can be something of a dangerous trait for her. It inevitably leads her to ask questions about things which would be common knowledge for any humanoid. She's in constant danger of exposing herself as an Alastrian. And she knows it too, but she just can't help herself.
Writing Sample: Ariadne brings Agent Washington some plums
Player Name: Wizera
Contact Info: PM this journal or
Current Character: N/A
IC INFO;
Character Name: Ariadne of Valeria
Age: Nineteen
God Houses:
Ariadne grew up in a forest and, as such, as a great affinity for plants. Her intimate knowledge of the smells and uses of flora came with her to Valeria, a place settled and "cultivated," where the forests didn't run wild. A culture shock, to be certain. Missing the wilds of her youth, she took to gardening as a hobby, quickly becoming a favorite among the kitchen staff (and making up for her utter inability to cook anything). She understands soil and moisture, and deeply respects the natural processes of nature. She loves her plants so fiercely that she names them. And sometimes talks to them. Actually, talks to them quite a bit. Had she not become a thief for the rebellion, she might have made a decent healer and gardener.
But, of course, her affinity for Sigyn goes beyond the harvest. Just as Sigyn is a font of kindness, so too is Ariadne. You might argue there's not a single cruel bone in her body. A slight exaggeration, but grounded in the truth. When asked if she's a thief, Ariadne will insist that she isn't. Thieves have bad intentions, she never does. What she takes goes to the cause of goodness and righteousness. She treats everyone she meets with love and respect. Even enemies. Ariadne would never take a life. And although she can fight and fend for herself, she always uses the least lethal of weapons and the aims for the least lethal of targets.
Option B: Njord
Ariadne is a liar. There's no escaping that fact. Her intentions may be the purest of the pure, but they also aim for survival in an incredibly dangerous world. As a thief, she'll play a variety of roles to get what she wants. Sometimes, she's a dignitary's secretary. Sometimes, she's a minor noble. She'll sneak behind closed doors, scale rooftops, even dig small tunnels under fences. If caught, she'll make up plausible excuses, leaning heavily on the fact that people perceive her as a frail girl who doesn't know a thing about the world.
She's also a storyteller. Even when she's in Valeria, in the company of the people she knows, she's still lying. She's created a biography for herself that hides her Alastrian blood. To everyone but her aunt and Princess Amanda, Ariadne is a simple Human girl. The losses she's endured, the fear of being hunted for her hair, and even her family have been blurred away, hidden behind a more pleasant fiction. And while Ariadne doesn't necessarily believe her own lies, they come to her so naturally that she barely has to think.
Additionally, Alastrians have a deep love of language, often capable of picking up new tongues very, very quickly.
World Information:
Little could be said about the incorporeal races because little was known about them. They were magical in nature, their secrets known only to the highest ranking Elvish scholars. Incorporeal creatures included gods (for more on the realm's religions, see this page), angels, ghosts, avatars, and spirits.
The term "demonoid" was used as an umbrella for any sentient race that had more than the basic two arms, two legs, and single head of the humanoids. It would be misleading to believe that they had much in common with each other, however. In fact, demonoids could be drastically different from each other. Examples included trolls, centaurs, and, most critically (as far as Ariadne is concerned), Alastrians.
Often referred to as "Alastrian demons," the Alastrian race evolved from parts unknown. They were forest-dwelling creatures, built to survive high in the trees, with green skin the color of leaves and pastel hair, the color of flowers. They developed abilities linked to hearing in order to survive, including heightened senses, enhanced linguistic processing, the ability to emit a deafening scream, and strong cognitive skills related to rhythm. They also grew long, black retractable claws, to use in climbing and black, feathered wings to use in flight.
Unlike with most other races in the realm, it was the male who bore and gave birth to children among Alastrians. Alastrian litters usually consisted of twenty to twenty five hatchlings. Because of their enormous size, two or three families would often join together to travel in a roving pack. Each pack would only have two or four mating adults. All the other adults would serve as hunters, gatherers, and protectors of the young. Males would sometimes clash over dominance, but ultimately, females could choose any mate they so desired.
Alastrian hair became a luxury good, akin to elephant ivory. Even after it was determined that Alastrians were sentient beings, hunting of them persisted, many monarchies turning a blind eye to the atrocity. Over the course of millennia, perhaps from intermingling with Elves, some Alastrians began to develop the ability to camouflage their appearance, secreting certain pheromones which allowed others to see them having Elvish skintone and hair color. By the time of Ariadne's birth, about one in three Alastrians (including Ariadne herself) were born with this ability.
For some sorcerers, Alastrians served as familiars. Most of the time, this was involuntary, the Alastrian bound to the mage by a spell or ritual. But sometimes, it would be a voluntary arrangement, in exchange for protection of a pack.
About a year before Ariadne was born, trouble began to brew in Calatia, one of the most central and most stable of the kingdoms of the realm. The Elvish king suffered some kind of horrific psychological trauma. Some say he murdered his own sister in a drunken rage. Others believe he copulated with his mother. In any case, his split with reality led him to grow ambitious. He reasoned that the Elves were far superior to the other races of the realm and ought to be in control. To that end, he invaded his southern neighbor, a kingdom ruled by a Human king, and used magic to destroy the land. Most of the royal family was executed. The power-mad Elf took on the name of the Red Dragon. Drunk and bitter, when the other kingdoms condemned him, he vowed to take over the entire realm.
Few saw him as a truly dangerous threat. Surely one man couldn't possibly rule all fourteen kingdoms. But the queen of Valeria, an Elvish woman named Amanda, took his threat very seriously. She realized that the remaining kingdoms would have to join forces in order to stand against him in the long run. Her initial diplomatic endeavors with the other monarchs were met with resistance. But the leader of a roving Alastrian pack, named Lysia, heeded Amanda's warnings and offered to lend her services to a resistance.
Ariadne--or Airy, as she'll tell you to call her--was born in the kingdom of Deleo, a smaller kingdom in her realm, known for its lush forests. It was one of the leading producers of lumber. And, more importantly, it was home to dozens of nomadic tribes of Alastrians, including the pack of Lysia's brother, Tahafra. Ariadne was born in the middle of a litter of twenty, to father Feofan--the pack's storyteller--and mother Rotspine. Being one of twenty made Ariadne something of an unremarkable child, with two noteworthy exceptions. The first was that she learned, at a reasonably early age, to secrete pheromones that could make her appear Human, a trait she shared with her mother and several other siblings. The second was that she had a talent for disobeying her mother's strict rules, often wandering just a little bit too close to the Human villages of Deleo for comfort.
Rotspine and Feofan had left their original family group years before Ariadne's birth. The nature of their departure was mysterious to Ariadne, but it meant that they often received visitors from far-away places, such as the kingdom of Valeria, one of the bustling centers of commerce and culture. Ariadne's favorite visitor was her Uncle Tahafra, who would often bring little trinkets and wild tales about the way that the humanoids of the realm (Humans, Elves, and Darcus) lived. Like Rotspine and Ariadne, Tahafra possessed the ability to appear Human. He'd even gone a step further, severing his own wings in order to pass for Human. His stories often filled Ariadne's little head with the idea of someday living and passing as a Human herself.
As it was, the Alastrians were ill-treated in the realm. Sorcerers would sometimes bind them as familiars. And hunters often illegally hunted them down for their hair. Most hunters outright killed Alastrians and scalped them. But there were some who settled for simple humiliation. When Ariadne was seven, one of her brothers, Lief, crossed paths with such hunters. They stripped him naked, shaved his head, and left him alone in the forest. Ariadne's family found him two days later, shivering and scared senseless, unable to speak or make eye contact for weeks. And the incident taught Ariadne, for the first time, how deeply dangerous it was to be Alastrian.
Strangely, it didn't dampen Ariadne's curiosity the way her mother hoped it would. Instead, it led her to the conclusion that she ought to be ashamed of who and what she was. She therefore dedicated as much time to learning how to control her pheromones as possible. Soon, she was able to maintain the spell even while sleeping. Her disgruntled mother was tempered by her gentle father. Feofan believed that not all Humans and other humanoids were dangerous. He passed this optimism on to his daughter. The two of them had a special bond. Feofan loved each and every one of his children, but Ariadne was the apple of his eye.
Rotspine was the disciplinarian of the family. Of all the Alastrians in their pack, she was the most aggressive. She'd also had the most experience with humanoids, having spent a great deal of her life trying to pass for one, although she refused to give up her wings. Life with them taught her cruelty and pain. It drove her to worship the most powerful and warlike of gods, a faith she tried--with varying degrees of success--to pass on to her children.
Most of Ariadne's childhood was spent in the forest, living from day to day. Alastrians didn't believe in formal schooling or apprenticeships. Rather, the adults in the pack taught the children of the litter various skills and the children naturally divided up the labor, according to their aptitudes. Lithe and spritely, Ariadne was often charged with the task of climbing up into the canopy to fetch various fruits and nuts and also to look for signs of danger. When the day was plentiful, nights would be spent listening to Feofan sing songs of the ancient times, of the times when the Alastrian people had a home of their own and feared no one. If the day was meager, the family would make due, sleeping up in the branches.
Ariadne's skill in climbing and moving from tree to tree served her well. At the age of ten, a forest fire ravaged Deleo, one she would later learn was set by the Red Dragon. As it happened, Ariadne was up in a tree, sulking over her latest quarrel with her mother when the blaze started. Every child in the litter had been taught, at the first sign of danger, to run. Or if possible, fly. When Ariadne smelled the smoke, she did just that, moving through the canopy and cutting up into the air, high above the trouble. She screamed out the names of her brothers and sisters, but was unable to find any of them in the ensuing chaos. For three days, there was nothing but fire and smoke and ash. It was longer than she'd ever dared to stay up in the air, leaving her vulnerable and exhausted. On the fourth day, turned around and confused, Ariadne came upon Uncle Tahafra, who'd just arrived for a visit. Finding only devastation and a very frightened little girl, Tahafra decided to take her to Valeria with him, giving her the strictest of instructions to look Human, no matter what.
In Valeria, Tahafra brought Ariadne to his sister, Lysia. Ariadne was baffled. She'd never seen an Alastrian who lived in a house before. Nor one who wore shoes and jewelry and plaited her hair. Tahafra and Lysia had been passing for Humans for years, making lives for themselves in Valeria. But there was one person who knew their secret. The reigning Elvish monarch of Valeria, Amanda, employed Lysia (who had sacrificed her wings as well) as a court translator. At least on the surface.
The true story was much more complicated than anything Ariadne had seen in her life. Amanda and Lysia had both spent the larger part of Ariadne's lifetime watching the growing threat of the Red Dragon. As it was, he'd already marched his army into five other kingdoms, meeting almost no resistance and easily taking them over. The monarchs had been publicly executed. There was a constant stream of refugees, trying to escape. And the Red Dragon showed no signs of slowing. Since, at first, no one had taken him seriously as a threat, now it seemed too late. He appeared unstoppable.
Lysia adopted Ariadne, raising her as her own. Judging the girl old enough to make her own decisions, she asked Ariadne if she would be willing to trade her wings for a Human life. Ariadne barely hesitated. While the process of losing her wings was painful, she decided it was well worth it. For the first time, she was treated as a Human girl. She was given shoes and dresses and sent to school where she excelled in mathematics and languages. Although friendly and well-liked, she had a hard time adjusting at first. All of her classmates could tell there was something strange about her, but they couldn't put their fingers on what. For that matter, Ariadne didn't understand that some of her own habits were off-putting. Where she came from, it was perfectly natural to drop down to your haunches when threatened or to burst into song for no reason at all, just because the muse struck.
When she was fourteen, Lysia caught sight of her in a tree. Impressed by her ability to move, even without her wings, Lysia decided that the time had come for Ariadne to join in the effort to slow the Red Dragon's progress. She began with little tests here and there, encouraging Ariadne to try to snatch a handkerchief out of her pocket without her noticing, or slip a bracelet off of her wrist. With her light touch and dexterous fingers, Ariadne was a natural and was quickly being tested against some of Amanda's guards. Her talent was too good to put to waste. Soon, Ariadne was being sent over the border into neighboring kingdoms, some controlled by the Red Dragon, for papers and other items.
She was never caught. For someone who'd grown up to be so beautiful, she was entirely too easy to overlook, when things went missing.
While her efforts were useful on a small scale, in the greater scheme of things, Amanda and Lysia were fighting a losing battle. Eventually, it became too dangerous for anyone to leave Valeria. The kingdom was very slowly coming under siege. Hoping to attempt some new tactics, Amanda and Lysia began to assemble small tactical cells to sabotage the Red Dragon's efforts. Ariadne was put on a team with seven other young people, none of whom knew who or what she was. To them, Ariadne became something of a light in the darkness, eternally optimistic despite the losing battle.
And it was a losing battle. They knew that any day, the Red Dragon would begin his final assault on Valeria and the realm would inevitably fall.
Personality:
Heart don't fail me now...
The key motivation behind everything that Ariadne does is her heart. While she understands the value of tactical analysis and instinct, her emotions lead her action most of the time. Her life has been exceedingly difficult and she has often been the outsider and the receiver of misfortune. Because of this, her empathy is strong. Ariadne has a singular ability to put herself in the position of others and understand how such a position makes them feel. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it means that she can easily earn people's trust. But on the other hand, she can also be taken advantage of. The members of her Alastrian pack were always exceedingly open and honest with one another. Ariadne's limited experience in the world of humanoids means that she can often misinterpret those who lie and deceive. She's especially vulnerable to actors, to those who can feign an emotion. And this vulnerability ties into her altruism.
She demonstrates a kindness that has little place in her world. She would have done well living among the Merry Men, as she's constantly motivated to help those in need, whether it's with a kind word or a smile, or with a coin that she's conveniently liberated from a magistrate's pocket. And truth be known, if there are no convenient magistrates available, Ariadne is usually willing to part with her own last coin.
A part of her altruism comes from her sense of optimism. If Ariadne's more than willing to part with a coin, it's generally because she can see a way of things working out for the best. After all, why should she use that coin to buy a pound of berries when she can just go pick them for herself? Why spend it on a pint of ale when she can just as happily drink water? Raised in an Alastrian pack, Ariadne was constantly surrounded, quite literally, by love. She's transferred this sense into the universe itself, believing that there is good and love and kindness all around, in spite of the darkness that sometimes rises. And she believes that love can defeat hate. It can be a little hard to stomach, it's so saccharine.
It should also be noted that Ariadne's kindness extends to her style of fighting. Her weapon of choice a sling. Far better to knock a foe unconscious and run away than to cause permanent damage. (Never mind that you could cause brain damage because, shhhh, fantasy setting.)
Courage don't desert me...
In a way, it almost goes without saying that Ariadne is brave. One has to be brave to hold on to the belief that love will conquer it all in a world that so often demonstrates the opposite. But while she would never admit it, Ariadne is very much her mother's daughter and possesses a warrior spirit, even if her intentions are almost never violent.
Ariadne possesses an incredible amount of fortitude. She's suffered an incredible amount of trauma, from losing her family (although she doesn't actually know their ultimate fate) to allowing herself to be mutilated. None of this has broken her. None of this has shaken her central belief in love. And she shows every bit as much unwavering belief in the people who mean the most to her. Once a friend, forever a friend. And a friend is a member of her pack. She will rise to the occasion and stand against anyone who threatens one of her own. Which isn't to say she's a leader of men. Ariadne generally prefers playing a supporting role in the greater scheme of things. She likes to blend into the background. But blending isn't the same as disappearing.
Her courage ties into her optimism. She often acts because she believes things will work out for the best. And Ariadne has experience in tactics and probabilities. But she's not perfect. And sometimes, courage leads her to situations where she's in over her head. There a slight tendency to leap before she looks.
Don't turn back now that we're here...
Ariadne is the sort of person who lives in the present. Her past misfortunes don't hold her back and she's never really had much in the way of a plan for the future.
The most noticeable way in which she lives for the moment comes from her curiosity. As someone who's spent much of her life isolated from others, every day brings on an endless supply of new experiences, whether it's a new sort of song or a new way of solving mathematical problems or an animal she's never seen before. Ariadne has an almost insatiable need to experience everything and to know everything and to understand everything. There are times when she'll ask more questions than a toddler who's just learned how to say "why?"
What does it do?
What is it called?
How does it work?
Can I touch it?
Her curiosity can be something of a dangerous trait for her. It inevitably leads her to ask questions about things which would be common knowledge for any humanoid. She's in constant danger of exposing herself as an Alastrian. And she knows it too, but she just can't help herself.
Writing Sample: Ariadne brings Agent Washington some plums
Power Set
Player Name: Wizera
Character Name: Ariadne of Valeria (
Canon: Original Character
Power Set Justification: From Ariadne's perspective (even if the powers are ICly random), this is an ability absolutely critical to survival. Being Alastrian is her biggest secret. It has to be. Nature won't allow an Alastrian to survive. And it is a power of lies. Nature's lies.
Power Set:
Level Two: Adaptation - This ability allows Ariadne's body to adapt to its surroundings to benefit her survival. In water, she can develop gills. In a fire, she can extend a filter over her mouth and nose. If falling, she can form a membrane between her arms and legs that allows her to slow her descent. All of these changes are temporary and disappear as soon as they are no longer required in the environment. She cannot cause them to appear at will.
Level Three: Evolution - This ability is similar to the Adaptation ability, except it doesn't require environmental circumstances. Instead, Ariadne can select an evolutionary change to her body at will (such as wings, talons, a third eye, etc.).
These traits will last for about an hour, although she can end them sooner. They immediately vanish if she is knocked unconscious. They can also be injured, similar to any standard limb, and she has full sensation in them, so she will feel the pain.
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