Post by seyennaathenial on Jan 26, 2010 16:04:39 GMT -7
The Handler
Name: Seyénna Etera Athenial
Nickname: Ennya, Seya, Etera (the last her grandparents call her.)
Classification: Fantasy Hybrid (Technically Half elf, half human)
Gender: Female
Age & Birthday: Her birthday is on September 13, and she looks 21. Her real age is 212.
Appearance: Seyénna is an odd mix of both human and elf. She has the softer, slighter looks of her mother, who was petite and human, but her eyes are that of her father, who is an elf. She is not extraordinary in height; standing at 5’7, (5’8 if you are to test her height with shoes on,) and her body is a reflection of her parents. She is 135 pounds, curvier up top (a C cup at least, though she would never discuss that, as it is not in her nature,) and a smaller waistline that widens out at the hips. She is not overly muscular, as she is used to “the American” way of living, (she has a strange affinity for burgers and greasy foods,) but neither is she entirely fat, because she is regularly active.
Her skin is smooth and pale, she is a medium size nose that is ascetically arranged, (neither too big nor small,) and her skin has a light trace of freckles on it that can’t be seen unless she has been in the sun…though if she has been in the sun, they might still be hard to find, considering she burns easily. Upon first inspection one would see no markings that would indicate elven heritage. She does have them, but they are very light, and only on the right half of her face, on her forehead, usually covered by a swoop of brown hair.
Her eyes are more topaz in nature, or a burnt bronze one might say, and her hair cascades down the middle of her back in rich bronze or russet colored curls…though said curls do not stay perfect at all, and have a mind of their own. Often she will have to run a comb through them with goat grease (a concoction that smoothes her hair, but is unpleasant to touch) just to get it manageable.
Attire: She wears more modern clothing, as she has always tried to blend in with humans. Her mother was a human, and her father (though he loved his people) left the elven world so to speak, so she could be more comfortable. Because of that Seyénna was raised human, and her clothing resembled theirs. Of course, her clothing could never quite match up to the humans…there was always something a bit off about it, always something a bit more regal that seemed to make the humans look down on her, or sense she was “different.”
She is quite fond of the color lavender, as it was her mother’s favorite color, and her second favorite color is blue, as that reminds her of her father, not because he wore it a lot, but because he was an explorer, and often set sail on the ocean. Seyénna feels most comfortable in jeans and a sweater, but unlike her human counterparts/friends, she never wears immodest or low cut pieces. She is simply too shy for that. Even jeans make her a bit wary. Any clothing that is loose fitting and comfortable, yet still enables moving, she will wear. Things that are tight she stays away from.
The Creation
Name: Seyénna Etera Athenial
Power List: Telekinesis, Elemental magic , and healing, but not of deep wounds.
Detailed Power: Seyénna is not the type to talk about her abilities. She is quieter in nature, as I said, and so at first glance one might think her a delicate hybrid with no ability to defend herself. They might also think she has little to offer the human and elven world, or that she has nothing to say because she is silent. This is not true, and to think such things about her without getting to know her would be a grave mistake.
Since she was a tiny girl, she has had the ability to have telekinesis. The web definition of telekinesis is, “the power to move something by thinking about it without the application of physical force,” (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) but for Seyénna it goes a bit farther than this. She uses telekinesis in many ways. Sometimes she has to meditate a great deal in order to move things, and other times, (like if she has a deep emotion, like fear, hate, love, joy, etc,) she will be able to move things easily. She will especially move them if she feels threatened, so attacking her is not a good idea.
However, there are weaknesses about her telekinesis. She can lift lighter objects easily, but usually the heavier the object, the more she has to concentrate, and that drains on her, both emotionally and physically. (Unless of course there is an underlying emotion as I mentioned before, like fear or hate. Then she can lift them easier.) This means if she wanted to throw an apple there would be no problem, but a person (especially a well built person,) would take a great deal of concentration, and if she is distracted in any way while trying to do this, she will drop whatever she is holding, which holds potential risks, because if she dropped something/someone important to her.
The second thing that she has been very good at making things grow/renewing things. Because she loves the Earth (and is saddened by what has happened to it,) she often makes flowers grow, and dirt become rich in soil and nutrients. Growing things takes concentration, like her telekinesis. It goes on a scale from 1-10, basically, and the more extreme the need, the greater of the concentration.
She mostly makes small things grow, as she doesn’t want it to be totally noticeable, and the second part of her ability is a weakness actually. There must already be vegetation growing for which she adds more. She can’t simply call it up out of nowhere, (she tried and wound up very frustrated,) and depending on how much is needed to grow, she can get drained, similar to her others abilities.
Sometimes if people distract her, she won’t watch what she is growing and where she is growing it, and that can cause problems as well. She once grew a row of Venus Fly Traps in Chicago near a local hotel…and the owner, needless to say, was not pleased.
The last skill worth mentioning is her ability to heal things. Unlike the first two, this is a smaller magic, and it takes a lot out of her even to heal small things. She can touch people, and a blue light will surround her hand, and a gentle feeling of heat or cooling (depending on what will feel better for the person’s individual needs) will come over the area, and then it will reverse the wound…if it is small enough. If it is larger, trying to heal it could kill her, and so she doesn’t attempt it.
The Potential
Alignment/Occupation: unaffiliated
Weapons: She has a small dagger which she keeps on her at all times
Personality: Seyénna is shyer in nature. Her father was charismatic and outgoing, but she is not. Her mother was shyer in nature as well, which is probably where she gets it from. She is more of an introvert, happy to stick her nose in a book than to meet people and be around them.
Perhaps this is because she hasn’t met many people, because her father felt he had to protect her, as she seemed to have a more fragile nature that constantly reminded her father of Katerina, her mother. Still, even as shy as she is, she is extremely kind and compassionate and will try to befriend others even if she has trouble talking sometimes.
She is extremely knowledgeable once you get past that shy, quiet shell, and her eyes will fill up with light if you bring up Shakespeare or Thorough. She is also fiercely loyal to the ones she cares about, especially since the family and friends she has left in this world is few – only her father and a few acquaintances in fact. She can discuss things intelligently, and she doesn’t have much of a temper, and she definitely does not have the personality to be a fighter, although if you back her into a corner and try to hurt her, she certainly can and will defend herself – she just uses it as a last resort.
When making any decision or talking about something, she takes a long time. She thinks before she speaks and acts, and this can irritate humans and others around her. She is saddened by the fast paced world the humans have created, so a tiny part of her wants to crush them, but then she remembers her mother and how she tried very hard to teach Seyénna to be kind and never take anything for granted, and it makes Ennya back off on that thought.
When it comes to anyone she is extremely shy, but especially men. She usually won’t make eye contact with them, and if it is an elven male, then she will bow or curtsey, and lower her head. Her strengths are that she is a brilliant friend, and she can be quite playful and funny once you get to know her, but her main weakness is her insecurity over being a “cursed abomination,” as her Aunt Helda once called her.
Skills: She can speak many languages because she and her father constantly traveled. She is comfortable with very little, as there were times when they were poverty stricken, and is grateful for even the smallest of things. She tends to be talented in the arts, but also loves archery, fencing and horseback riding. (Her father at first did not want her learning some of the things an elven male would learn, but upon seeing how dangerous the world was, especially for an elf, he finally taught her.) She is able to talk about many things because of her life experiences, and usually can be calm and cool and slightly detatched about things.
Strengths: She can speak Elvish, English, French, Spanish and German, and many other languages. She has an ear for music, she loves poetry and dance, loves archery as well as the arts, she writes constantly, and she often paints in her free time, and she also loves fencing and horseback riding. Her father gave her a formal education – something that was unheard of back in her day, when women were considered subservient to men – and so she is able to intelligently discuss a large branch of topics from politics to the vegetation status in Peru.
She also has the uncanny ability to tell if someone is trying to deceive her. It’s not a supernatural gift, more like a sense of intuition. Last but not least, despite being able to appear put together and used to a comfortable lifestyle, there was a time in her life when her parents and she were threatened, and had to survive off of the most basic of things, and so as a result, she is good in an emergency. She can keep a calm head, and she knows how to survive off very little.
Weaknesses: Psychology could also be considered a weakness to her. She is fascinated by it, and will delve into it and not come out until she understands it. In this manner, knowledge is her seduction and weakness. She needs to know why something happened, and how it happened. Also her father could be considered a weakness to her, because he is the only family she has left, and she loves him dearly. Lastly, she earns others trust but her own insecurity about being a hybrid makes it hard for her to trust anyone. She doesn’t know where she belongs, and that makes her alliances shaky at best.
The Story
History:
To understand Seyénna, one must understand her parents, and their lineage. The Athenia family (the elven side of her family tree) had been known throughout the Fae world as sensible people. Daughters of the house of Athenia (pronounced Ath-then-ee-ya) always married profitable young elves of respectable families, and the males of the family – if not military material – were expected to become doctors, lawyers, (or the equivalent of a lawyer, in elven terms,) or something that contributed to their society.
Anything that would risk the family name was strictly forbidden…so when Kendarnometh Ategus Athenia was born, his mother had no way of knowing her son would grow up to defy everything she and her family believed in.
He went to school, got along well with his classmates, and never made a fuss about schoolwork or his teachers. In fact, Kendarnometh excelled easily in academics, and perhaps that is where the trouble began. Unlike his siblings or relatives, the academics weren’t enough for him. No, Kendarnometh wanted more, much more in fact.
He did not tell his family, but he began to pine for an explorer’s life…to see every “nook and cranny” of their world and the humans. At first he sought to suppress such wishes, but soon they overpowered him, and he went to his family and begged them to let him go out on his own. At first they staunchly refused, but after a series of long and drawn out arguments, they relented and told him he had six months to “get it out of his system.” Kendarnometh agreed, gathered a crew, (which was harder than he thought,) and then set out.
His exhibitions/journey started in 1796 (he had just turned twenty four,) and he quickly found out that reading about sailing was one thing, but to actually do it was quite another. He was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of an educated cave troll, (a rarity in the Fae realm) who comfortably took the role of first mate, while secretly educating him on how to be a good captain and run the ship. With Gargodon (the cave troll) at his side, Kendarnometh and his crew set sail for Peru, and ended going all the way up to Russia. This obviously took more than the six months that his parents had allotted him to explore, and so when he returned they were both shocked and angry that he had disobeyed. Their anger increased thrice fold when they found he had left a mortal wife and a half breed child behind, so much so that they not only blackened his name off the family chart, but bid him never to return. This obviously hurt him, but Kendarnometh obeyed, and went back to Russia to collect his new wife and infant child – Seyénna. He decided to take his family to New Zealand.
For Seyénna, this was a wonderful decision. New Zealand had (and still has) a beautiful, almost ethereal quality to it that helped her grow up healthy and strong, and safe. It shielded her from the world, their mountain home, and gave her time to learn and grow at her own pace and and explore her “corner of the world,” without stumbling into harm’s way. Of course, her childhood was not perfect. At three years old, she watched Katerina (her mother,) die of tuberculosis, (though they hardly knew that’s what it was back then,) and when a school was formed and she tried to enter it at age five, they accepted her as a student, but not as a person.
They called her the “little witchling,” and the “foreigner’s daughter.” As a cover story, when they first arrived, Kendarnometh had said they all came from Russia, and for a while it seemed to work, for it explained why they didn’t know New Zealander’s customs and why they were so awkward in town…but still people raised a brow, and were suspicious, and controversy grew, forcing them to move once more. They began to head back towards Russia, but Kendarnometh found this too painful, and so they changed course, and found themselves heading towards America, the land of opportunity.
By this time Seyénna had had a formal education, (something most women didn’t have,) as well as expertise in fencing, horseback riding, painting, sewing, and music. She liked America a great deal, for there were many freedoms there, but at the same time she was frustrated women did not have the same rights as men. Still, she managed to make good use of her talents regardless. America was so wide that if she and her father sensed suspicion about their cover story, they could simply move elsewhere. It was also a very independent nation, so people didn’t have time to investigate them and the validity of their story, which made life a lot easier on Seyénna and her father.
She did respectable things no matter where they went in America, for if there one thing Katerina and Kendarnometh taught her, it was to be polite but also to have good morals. First she was a governess, then she was a librarian, an author for a while, (under a man’s name, of course,) and finally at forty-six in 1844 she earned enough so that she didn’t have to work full time, but only part time, as a salesgirl in Chicago in a trendy hat shop. For a while this contented her, but like her father, she wanted to explore, and not just the human world. No, no. Her father had taught her a great many languages, including Elvish, and now she begged him to let her explore the Fae realm. Ironically enough, like his parents before him, he staunchy refused, and would have never cracked had Seyénna not brought her mother up.
“And what of Katerina, my mother? Had you not followed your heart, you would have never found her!”
“Curse you, curse you child, to bring up such a name! I told you never to speak of that woman to me! Can you not follow this one simple request?”
He would then groan, but it was too late. Hearing Katerina’s name would soften him, and he would let her go back to his homeland. He himself actually longed to return, but dared not. After all, he had once tried to return with Seyénna when she was four, right after Katerina’s death, and Seyénna’s Aunt Helda called her “an abomination,” upon looking at her. To make matters worse, the founders of the family tried to have him and his daughter assassinated, and even when they escaped the realm for the human one, they still lived in fear for over a year.
It was 1845 that she actually left for the Fae realm, taking with her only a cloak, a pack of food and essentials, and a Russian wolf she had befriended named Souka (meaning “soul” in Russian,) who helped her track down the city.
She quickly located the house of Athenia, but was wise enough not to introduce herself as Kendarnometh’s daughter. Instead she gave her middle name as her first name – Etera. They assumed her to be a pure blooded elf because of the name, and took her in, and for the first time in nearly forty three years, she saw her grandparents… and for the first time in nearly forty three years, she saw her grandparents act like grandparents. She would later record:
They were warm and kind, generous and loving, and all because of blood! Oh what irony, If only they could see their foolishness…but of course they cannot, or surely, surely our relationship would come undone!
~ Seyénna
She, despite writing this, was in awe of all the elven culture she had missed out on, and actually went through a very angry period in her life. She wrote of feeling deprived, as well as confused, as though one side of her was alive and well, and the other side paralyzed, or worse yet, dead. She reflected in her diary:
I felt it was not fair that he should want more than my grandparents offered him. Did he not think of his future children when he married my mother? It seems he did not, but acted solely on impulse and desire…and now I am left to pick up the pieces! I, who feel so torn in two, have to mend his mistakes! It does not seem fair! I have been cheated of a normal life and I see that now. Perhaps that is why he kept me away from this place: because he knew I would discover I had been cheated…
So time passed and she did not go home, but stayed with her grandparents and embraced the elvish way of life for the next ten years. Had Kendarnometh seen his daughter, he might not have recognized her – the russet curls were straightened and braided, and smoothed to the side, and her clothing reflected the station of the house of Athenia – a noble house indeed. To add to the irony, they ended up adopting her formally. Even though she was secretly already one of their blood, she said nothing of this, not even after the adoption papers were through. The year was 1855.
Now settled, at fifty six but looking in her early twenties, Seyénna took a job as a scribe and librarian. She then began the task of looking for a husband. None seemed to please her, however. Perhaps it was her gut instinct telling her that she could never be happy with merely an elf or merely a mortal, but that she needed a mix of both to make her happy. If such a thought ever crossed her mind, however, she stamped it out, and instead finally settled on marrying a portly elf 120 years her senior, with plenty of health problems. (Most elves did not have health problems, to her knowledge, but this elf was so very rotund, he somehow managed to be very unhealthy indeed.) They never had intercourse, (thankfully, or she probably would have been schmoozed to death,) and he died a year later, a giant pile of rubble on their kitchen floor.
She quickly discarded him, and by this time she had had her fill of the Fae world. It had lost much of its charm and appeal, and her temper had also begun to cool towards her father, and she longed to see him again. She left her elf family then, and found her father residing in New York. From 1856-1905, both she and her father moved constantly, but never again where they separated. She let go of her anger and resentment, and realized he had done what he had done not to hurt her, but to help her. It was the first time period in which they just lived, and weren’t constantly on the run.
The world was growing more civilized and centralized, and as it did, Seyénna grew a bit bolder. She begged and pleaded her father to let her enter the French Salon which, despite sounding like a tacky hair school, was actually the most sought after art school in France. He feared she might draw too much attention to herself and him, but at the same time because he was her father and he loved her, (and he knew her stubborn streak,) he supported her. Excitedly, she submitted her first painting to the Salon in 1907, only to have it rejected. Determined to win them over, Seyénna and her father moved to France then, and she began to take private art lessons with an artist by the name of Jaimes Knox Betour. With his help, after four years of training, in 1911 her work was accepted and she joined the school, but still continued to flower under Jaimes’ tutelage.
That was not all she flowered under however. In the Spring of 1916, after courting her secretly for six years, (for he was a very shy fellow,) Jaimes and Seyénna announced their engagement to the world, and for the first time in her life, she knew love - pure, sweet, unconditional love that had absolutely nothing to do with blood. Her father, meanwhile, was both thrilled and saddened by the news. He was thrilled because she was happy, but saddened because he knew if she went through with the marriage, she too could be in danger. He was torn on whether or not he should voice his concerns, and when he finally did, (for it bothered him deeply,) Seyénna did the unthinkable and broke off the engagement. Worse yet, she quit painting, and the father and daughter found themselves in poverty from 1917-1923.
In 1923 however, Seyénna found enough strength and “muse” to start painting again. At first she barely had time to paint, because of her factory job, (she worked in textiles,) but over that year she saved enough to buy a small canvas and one set of paints. Her painting, entitled, “From Salon to Slums,” was gritty and passionate, and sold for the equivalent of $14,000. That might not seem like much, but back then it was more than enough for Seyénna to buy herself a small flat, (which she shared with her father of course,) as well as some more art supplies. Then, most surprisingly of all, she pulled herself back together (without Jaimes,) and went back to the Salon, quitting her job at the factory permanently.
From 1923-1983 she lived as a successful artist, writer, and lyricist. (Most of her success came from her art, however.) Tired of being poked and prodded at by suspicious humans, however, she was careful to keep her name “Clay James.” She did this for two reasons. One, name clay means to be flexible and moldable, and by using this name she was silently speaking of how she survived. Secondly, she also chose the last name “James” in tribute of “Jaimes,” whom she never forgot, even after she left him.
Despite her happiness, however, eventually she found that no matter how many friends she made, she always wound up feeling a bit numb, because they kept aging and dying, and she did not. Of course she was not immortal, but she aged much slower than her human counterparts, and that meant she found herself saying goodbye to and having to grieve over friends again and again.
In 1984, at 186 years old, she realized her father was slowing down much faster than he should have been. She begged him to return to the Fae realm (under a strong glamour if possible, so his family wouldn’t kill him,) and seek treatment. He refused, but ended up compromising with her by allowing her to buy him a small cottage in New Zealand, (all the people who wanted them dead were dead themselves,) which reminded him so of his home. She moved with him, and took her entire studio with her as well.
The mountain air seemed to restore him to his former glory, miraculously enough, and it inspired Seyénna to write her first book of poetry. Happily, unlike her first painting, it was received with high praise and in 1986 she began her second book. This however, was never to be published, and instead was lost in a house fire that consumed both elven and mortal artifacts alike.
Fall came in 1987, and the house was finally fixed up, but Seyénna did not write. Now in an odd twist of irony, her father was once more the “breadwinner,” and became a historian for New Zealand. She however, lay day after day in bed, depressed, unable to get up. She wrote:
I cannot understand it. For so long it is I who have had to have strength for him, (my father,)but now he rises from the mist like some unseen soldier and takes on the role of hero, while I am lame and cripple, lying in a pit of darkness that eats away at me. Humans call this depression, but I do not think there is a word that can describe my pain! A half a book and more than a century’s worth of memories was swallowed in that fire! Oh were I water, I would put out fire forever!
~ Seyénna
In 1988 she still felt depressed, and it was a year of no great significance, other than extreme solitude, which did nothing to improve her mood. Left to her own devices, she lay in misery and perhaps always would have, had she not discovered something wonderful and unexpected – her mother’s diaries. Miraculously, they were not burned, because they had been tucked away in the cellar, which was made entirely of stone! Through reading them, Seyénna found her mother’s strength, courage, and love of life, and by 1990 she was up and running again.
Now both she and her father were working again, and with that kind of money, their little cottage became a larger, more attractive home. In 1995 they bought a significant amount of land, and native New Zealanders jokingly called it the “Athenia Reserve.” Their jokes gave Seyénna the idea to really make the land around their home a reserve however, and in 1998 (after three long years of paperwork and pleading,) it became just that – a natural reserve. This was quite a blessing, because increasingly she saw the pollution and carelessness of humans towards Earth, and she did not like it.
She continued with her father to work and build up the awareness of nature and how it needed protection, but with all the “social dramas” and wars and scandals, no one seemed to have time for one little elf-human hybrid and her dream of restoring the world back to its former glory. Even though she sensed this however, she continued to buy land and fight for her dream from 1998-2007. At this point she was growing hopeless that anyone saw the damages the humans were doing to the Earth, and then 2008 came, and the tensions between humans and elves especially seemed to explode.
Of course she knew the elves had a royal family, she had just been so busy she had never investigated them before. In 2008 however, she was forced to. After all, the events that happened rocked both human and Fae world. Seventy plus deaths – that was the deciding factor for her. Though her father’s bloodlines were strong within her, she could not side with the Prince because she saw him as a murderer, regardless of his motives. Neither however, could she side with the humans, for in her mind they were equally guilty, for what they had done to the planet. Knowing this, she declares herself free of either party, refusing to take a side.
