Alyssum Crow [Approved]
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 10:55 pm
Alyssum Crow
Details
Full Name: Alyssum Estella Crow
Nicknames and Monikers: Lys, Lyssum, Black Dog, Hemlock
Race: Rathari (Neoalt, Sharvalain)
Sex: Female
Age: 60 Years
Height: 5'3
Weight: 109 lbs
Birthdate: 80th of Glade, Year 60, Age of Steel
Birthplace: Atinaw, somewhere in Raellon territory
Profession: Researcher
Housing: A Vardo
Partners: N/A
Titles: Initiate (Scholia Arcana)
Factions: Scholia Arcana
Fluencies: Vithmi, Common
Conversationals: None
Ineptitudes: None
Appearance
Like any Rathari Neoalt, Alyssum has three primary forms she shifts between at will. Throughout all her forms she maintains a kind of youthfulness which can come off as childish at first glance. Though, for someone who pays attention, it's easy to notice the lack of some childish features and instead more mature features which indicate her age.
Her Faunis Form is essentially that of your average Sharvalain. She's bit average when it comes to size for an adult female, standing about 4 feet at the shoulder, and weighing in at 160 pounds. While lengthwise she appears as an average Sharvalain, her tail is longer than that of the average Sharvalain. Much larger. Most Sharvalain tend to have a tail that's about a 3/4th as long as they are, while Alyssum's tail is approximately 1/4th longer than she herself is. This is a feature that's only well and truly noticeable in her Sharvalain form, and while it can cause some issues it's not too terribly detracting of a feature as long as she's mindful of where her tail is. That being said, for the unwary it's fairly easy to step on.
Her coat itself is a deep shade of brown and solid over her entire body. The occasional scale dotting her body acts as an accent of white, alongside her wings which are also white. Her horns as a deep shade of black, with the slightest redish tint to them. Sharvalain don't display things like vitiligo, but they do display hetero chromatic eyes so the one thing shared by all of her forms are her eyes. One is blue while the other is a dark shade of purple.
In this form, Alyssum shares all of the positive and negative straits of the Sharvalain. This means physically she's very fragile. In this form she can be more easily hurt, and her True Form shares this problem. Hence why, like many other Sharvalain, she runs avoidance tactics when she runs into danger or hides behind someone with a bit more oomph to their blows. In addition, her vocal chords form themselves in a similar matter to the Sharvalain. Meaning that while she has a very large frequency at which she can vocalize, her voice is exceptionally quite to the point she needed to constantly be yelling (it sounds like normal talking to anyone else) to be heard. This applies to both her Faunis and her True forms.
Her Humanoid Form is an interesting thing to Alyssum. It displays her hetero chromatic eyes and also displays her version of vitiligo. While it doesn't show up on her face and torso, it becomes very obvious on her arms and legs. Alyssum herself is fairly pale, so it's not as noticeable as it might be on a darker skinned Rathari, but it's present enough that someone can still easily take note if they see her bare arms or legs. On her legs the marks are a big bulkier, patchier even. Splattered around with care. Her arms are interesting though. Her arms seem to noticeably curve and curl in something similar to a pattern, like a beast of some kind curling around the skin.
In her human form she doesn't cover up as much as in her True Form, so if you're going to notice these markings it'll probably be while she's in this form. Like any other Rathari, her transformation isn't necessarily perfect. Even in her Humanoid Form there's a distinct wildness, especially to her eyes which don't look completely like a human or tori of any facet or function. This form noticeably doesn't share the same fragility as the Sharvalain nor does it share her inability to vocalize at higher volumes. Because of this, Alyssum often very easily makes the mistake of talking far too loudly whenever she's in this Humanoid Form. She must be reminded multiple times to please be quiet and it isn't helped by the fact this is the form she spends the least amount of time in, often making her look out of place or uncomfortable in her own skin.
Her True Form is the form that Lys spends the most amount of time in. This is the form she prefers and so it's the form she takes the most. In this form she has all the typical things shares with her two forms. Vitiligo in the same pattern, hetero chromatic eyes, the inability to talk too loudly or take a powerful hit.
This form is the one where she can truly express what she believes she is. Half mortal and half beast. It's in this form that all the aspects of her truly become evident. As a Neoalt, her traits as an animal are still limited. On her physical form the most noticeable things she retains from a Sharvalain are her wings, ears, horns, and her tail. Though, there is a line of fur and scale going all the way down her back from the base of her spine and right to her tail. There's also a small patch of scales on each shoulder.
In this form she tends to cover up the most, wearing her Arcana cloak and more often than not a hooded cape/cloak creation that sits over her shoulders and has no sleeves. The robe has holes for her tail and wings while the hood has holes for her ears and horns. Her tail, being as long as it is, tends to get under foot so she's built up a habit of either raising it up or curling it around her body. That being said, she often forgets when she grows relaxed which can result on her poor tail get stomped all over.
Personality
Alyssum can be most strongly characterized by the fact she doesn't act like she's 59. This is a large part of why people often mistake her for being much younger than she actually is. While her physical features hold the notation that she's probably a bit older, it's masked by a layer of a child-like aura, which accentuates those aspects of her that seem childish. By default, this is how she often acts. With a sense of childish wonder, glee, and over all optimism. It's the core piece of her personality that in all of her years has never truly changed. While pieces have been added and discarded, this is the one aspect of her personality that has always remained and when the going gets tough it's what she falls back on. At heart, she has a strong sense of realism, but she prefers to be idealistic whenever the situation allows. She tries so, so very hard to act this way, to protect this piece of her personality. She refuses to let it go.
While innocent in a lot of ways, she isn't naive. Optimistic and stupid are two very different things, and a lot of people forget about that. A lot of con men in this world tend to target those who seem young and innocent because often times it's a lack of experience which makes them so easy to trick. People often see kindness as a sign of weakness. Alyssum resents that. She resents that idea with every fiber of her being and part of her exists to rebuke it. So she does her best to uphold her kindness, her innocents, because it isn't a sign of weakness to her. Quite the opposite, it's a sign of strength. She saw the world turn cruel and she decided she wasn't going to follow in its footsteps. She was going to be strong and kind instead of being old and jaded like she easily could have become by now.
All of this stems from a very strong sense of empathy beholden to Isra, one that had been implanted into Lys at a very early age. These are the aspects of her nature that she so carefully has maintained over the years. The ones that are important to her. The ones that have always been there. If anything, Alyssum will tell you that this is her truly personality, even if the way she views existence has shifted over time and the lens through which she views the world has matured, her ideals and her core responses to certain issues hasn't changed.
She can act like an 'adult' if necessary. She fully possess the ability to be realistic if a life is in danger, but she still maintains a sense of idealism that she can save everyone. This actually comes from her Trial of Judgement when she tried to become a part of the Scholia Arcana. While she passed, she personally considered herself as having failed. Like the Red Robe she is, she believes in neither binding herself to one path over the other. But she believes in always trying her best to try and do both. Serve both others and serve herself. She served herself during that trial, and did her best to try and serve others. Ultimately, she didn't do as well as she could have. Years after the pain subsided, the Trial finally solidified at the core of her being as an idea. That idea was that she wasn't strong enough during the trial. Not knowledgeable enough, not powerful enough, she needed more knowledge. After that it became a fixation for her. If she was only a little stronger, maybe she could have saved one or two more people. A little stronger than that and maybe it could have been three or four! She figured out how to reconcile realism with idealism, and she decided that she'd have no part in letter the world be evil to her and her fellow mortals.
Naori, the one the Rathari believe to be their protector against Malgar, internally became Alyssum's patron and parent figure for a reason.
It's very rare to see Lys well and truly 'break'. When all is said and done, emotionally she's probably one of the toughest people you'll ever meet. It's still not impossible though. And when she breaks, she breaks hard. It's ugly and painful and it takes her days to get over. Eventually though, she's the kind of person who always stands back up.
Her Purpose in her own words is a bit of a complicated one. She knows that her purpose is to the gods, but she isn't quite sure the full extent of what that means or what she actually has to accomplish in order to finally complete her Purpose. That being said, she herself feels like she's at some kind of tipping point, so she takes that purpose very seriously. She is loyal to all the Dragon Gods, but favors Naori, Thiovan, Aedrin, and Velar the most, with Naori sitting at the top of that list. Since her Purpose is an unclear one, she's chosen to live her life in ways that best symbolism the beliefs of each God, as well as give honor to them.
There are two minor fixations she has in her life that other Rathari might accidentally mistake for a Purposes even though they're personal goals. The first is a lust for knowledge. Alyssum needs to know everything she can so that she can use that knowledge to the best of her abilities for the benefit of others. The second is a fixation on money and material goods. She tends to hoard money like there's no tomorrow. She isn't greedy so much as she's saving up for something special. She wants to buy a large, no, giant house one day that she can settle in and stay in whenever she doesn't feel like traveling. Somewhere that'll have servants and guards and it'll be their home too. As well as the home for anyone she deems a friends. Any who she's come to love and adore will be welcome in her doors and it'll be a safe place. A happy place. A solid home for once.
History
Alyssum was born at the breast of change. In the year 61 of the Age of Steel, the Kingdom of Geleros started its expansion into an Empire, and with it a long war began. While it wouldn't be for a great many years that this war reached Atinaw, other things ensured that changed tailed the birth of Lys. It's uncertain how, but between her birth and the age of two she was rendered lost to her parents, the likes of which were never able to find her again. Somewhere in that time, she was taken care of by an elderly Sharvalain that was able to recognize her as at least being similar to it as well as a child in need of care. In those two years she metaphorically changed 'paws' a number of times. Her care was traded off between Sharvalains in the local area. Her caretakers always kept her just out of reach of the people of Atinaw. While she ended up being taken all over Atinaw during this time, it can be assumed that she was born in the Raellon territory which had suffered a catastrophe of sorts around the same time as her birth.
Most records call it was a 'War with Geleros' but a more accurate description would be a border battle with one of the smaller kingdoms that would be gobbled up by Geleros when they eventually began their conquest.
Regardless of the cause or her actual birthplace, it didn't really matter much to a child under the age of two, constantly being kept just out of grasp of other creatures. Eventually, someone finally set a trap for her current caretaker and Alyssum was taken by a woman who called herself a traveler in the lands of Atinaw. The woman had originally set out to capture the creature with the intent of retrieving Alyssum and dumping her on the first random stranger she could find. She found something about the child endearing, however, so she decided to hang on to Lys for a couple years at least after becoming extremely uncomfortable with the thought of leaving this baby in the hands of a stranger that technically couldn't be trusted. This new caretaker of Lys' went by a number of different names depending on what cities in which they wandered. Sigrun, Sable, Nerezza, and Ebony just to name a few. The one name that always stuck without question though, was Isra. When they were alone this is the name that Lys was allowed to call her new caretaker.
In the short time following Alyssum's new adoption, she and Isra traveled the good majority of Atinaw as well as traveling some of the lands outside of it. They never stayed in one place for too long. Change, it was always change. Something always needed to change in their lives, even if it was a small thing. Isra was perfectly happy to stay somewhere for extended periods of time, but there always needed to be change. The easiest thing to change was always leaving, so it was what the pair tended to choose. Lys was about the age of 12 when Isra realized that this probably wasn't the best thing for the child. Rathari were used to traveling and seeing the world, it was a massive part of their culture, but Isra tended to avoid cities and large settlements as opposed to a normal Rathari parent. As much as Isra tried to take care of her strange new charge, it was obvious that Lys needed social interaction with other people, lest she turn out feral.
It took the pair two more years to actually track down someone Isra was willing to trust with the child she'd since grown deeply attached to. This someone was a very old Rathari by the age of Rúnar. Rúnar was a simple wolf Rathari, but he was a member of what had once been a well established Kinship that often traveled between Raellon and Hopsfel simply because of what their work entailed. Despite being part of a very old and once powerful kinship, Rúnar's kinship had fallen to its last member. Rúnar himself. The wonderful thing about him in Isra's eyes was that he was an old friend and because of that could be trusted. Not to mention he was looking to adopt a child. At the age of 250 give or take a couple years, he was pushing the upper age bracket, even for a Rathari. It was unlikely he'd ever had a child, so to ensure his kinship survived it was necessary he'd have to adopt.
Rúnar and Isra quickly came to a deal of sorts. Alyssum would be well taken care of, finally belonging to an actual kinship and she'd learn all the tricks of Rúnar's trade. Not to mention she'd get a level of stability that she hadn't had up until that point and the ability to interact with other people. Rúnar would get an heir who could carry forward the Crow kinship. Isra would finally get her freedom back, and she was free to come visit the pair anytime she so wished. Rúnar was still a Rathari. Travel was in his blood as much as it was in Isra's. Unlike Isra, he tended to stay in towns whenever possible.
Rúnar and Lys got along in a manner that was similar to fire and oil. Quick and often times explosive if left unsupervised. The older Rathari was something of a powerful mage, and a member of the Scholia Arcana to boot. He did all he could tutoring Lys in the arts of World Magic for a great deal of her childhood. In addition, the Crow family had originally been a family of Runeforgers and Smiths, hailing from Hopsfel and slowly expanding outwards to build into Raellon where they'd have access to better magical resources. Smithing, well as the recipe for Atvalthal Steel, was something he taught her as a very young pup.
Things went well for a while. Rúnar, being a Rathari, was able to offer a lot of things that Isra couldn't. Isra looked like a human, but growing up, Lys couldn't never quite be sure. Isra of course made sure to visit often. She made it very obvious to the young Alyssum that she was adopted. They were no her parents. And that was fine to Alyssum because she was a Rathari. Everyone she said was family was her family, regardless of blood connection. She decided the title of aunt and grandpa was probably the most appropriate. Every important Rathari-centric ceremony that was held, like Lys' coming of age, Isra made sure to attend.
It was only after Lys' coming of age that things really started to change. Dramatically change. While travel had been in her blood for all of her childhood, it was only after she turned 18 that Rúnar and Isra started taking her far past the borders of Atinaw and traveling the world at large. Going past the region of Ailizane even and showing Alyssum there was a world out there. Sometimes she traveled with Rúnar and sometimes it was Isra. They each taught her different things.
Rúnar continued to teach her magic, but branched out to other crafting skills. For her 20th birthday he branded her with the Rune of Semblance. He told her that it wasn't going to be fun. That it was going to be painful. That if she wanted the rune they were going to have to be back in Atinaw. At home. Where he could watch her. Alyssum was insistent though. For the majority of her childhood, he'd told her that he wouldn't pass down the Rune of Semblance marking his own body. Threshold sickness could be dangerous, even deadly, and she was a child. She could do World Magic just fine without a Rune of any kind, and he'd provided her with good quality Dragonstones alongside any other materials she wished for to better her craft.
it was her 20th birthday when she finally forced him to cave. Rúnar agreed. He took her home, immediately contacted Isra, and the moment the older woman arrived they commenced. Painful really didn't even begin to describe the feeling. The world painful couldn't have ever prepared her for the sensation that was getting a Rune. It was that day Alyssum realized that magic wasn't something to toy with. It was that day which put that thought into her head that magic could be deadly and dangerous in ways she'd never experienced because up until then Rúnar had been ever so careful and throughout in his instructions that he'd never given her the chance to mess up. It was at that point she realized that magic was something that she should probably fear. Not fear in the tradition sense. Not fear it enough to avoid it. But fear in terms of respect.
It took days for her to get over her threshold sickness, though it felt like months if not years. She'd never experienced quite such a pain. At least, not in any memory from this life. Perhaps as a Rathari she'd felt such a pain once upon a time. But that wasn't even a distant memory as much as it was a feeling printed to her soul that would occasionally flair up. No, this was present and real and it was torture. She tossed and turned for days, the Aetherium in her own body churning and shifting and changing. Something in her feeling like it was being ripped open. it was all too much, an assault to the senses as she became aware of something she'd never known before. Semblance, a new sense that gives a person the awareness of Aetherium in the world around them. Semblance as a kind of threshold sickness usually showed illusions, but for someone as empathetic as responsive to the world around her as Lys, these illusions caused a strong physical effect. Her body responded to these illusions and thought they were real. In turn, it tried to fight off the illusions, tricking itself and making Lys very, very ill. This was what she asked for, so it was the Rune that Rúnar gave her. And it hurt. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt. it hurt so much she thought she was going to die.
The only thing that kept her grounded was the feeling of fingers in her hair and humming. Isra. The woman who raised her. The woman intentionally or not allowed Alyssum to realize her Purpose.
While Rúnar taught her magic, Isra was focused mostly on survival skills. Could she keep herself alive in the wild? In a city? It wasn't just field craft, it was also knowing the politics of the local area so that Lys could aptly protect herself. On top of that, Isra was the one who taught her Faith. In particular, the Faith of the Dragon Gods. it was an inevitability really, she was a Rathari. Most Rathari learn of and become loyal to them at some point. But Isra was through, and Alyssum took to them like each one was an old friend or a hero to look up to. She didn't deify them in the traditional sense, really. Instead she came to treat each one like a guide.
Of course, she became fond of the Dragon Gods most Rathari typically come to worship. But the one that called her the strongest was Naori. Queen of chaos, change, darkness. There was something about her which drew in the young Rathari. There was something in the idea of Naori, her make believe or very real presence, something to her that just made Alyssum feel safe.
While over time she slowly gave ever Dragon God the moniker of a different family member, like uncle or aunt, it was Naori who to Alyssum became a mother.
it was that mother figure which kept Alyssum sane during the process of her body trying to accept the Rune of Semblance. Mother, she'd cried out over and over. She had no mother, not really, and she probably wouldn't ever have a real mother. But it didn't matter because Naori was her mother as far as she cared and she'd swear on her life that those pathetic please were answered. That it was the Goddess who the Rathari saw as a protector against Malgar who gripped Alyssum's hand that wasn't wadded up in her bedding and grounded her, saved her.
Alyssum eventually survived. She was told that she was lucky, that the reaction her body had was mild. She didn't believe Rúnar, not for a moment. He was probably just trying to make her feel better.
Ultimately, she did survive. It took a couple weeks but she went back to the 'normal' Alyssum and her training in Semblance officially began. Her two family members, her two teachers, they continued to instruct her as best they could. Life would have been perfect if it just stayed that way. Never changed. But Alyssum was a creature of change and time is never stagnant. The Dragon Gods made sure of that. It became painfully obvious that the time on Rúnar's clock was slowly running out.
At the age of 24, he took her to Norther Wilds where the seat of the Scholia Arcana sat. She would join, but not as a student. She was to take her test immediately. Rúnar was running out of time. He wanted to see her become a member so that she'd have access to the resources provided by the school. He also believed she was ready for the endeavor that was Trial of Judgment. Alyssum didn't believe him, but she agreed because she didn't know what else to do.
The test was arranged after she settled on trying to become a Red Robe and declared what magics she was proficient in. The first thing that came to her tongue was Alchemy since that was the first thing she ever learned. It was the one magic she actually took true pride in. So that was what the Trial ended up being theme around. The powerful illusion was cast and so the test began.
They aren't joking when they call it a trial, seriously. A test of who and what you are, right down at your most basic elements. That's what the Trial is supposed to be. And it really succeeds in that regard.
Alyssum's trial was simple on the outside. She and ten other people were infected with a magic based malady. A disease that would kill them if she ran out of time. She had access to all the alchemical ingredients in the world! And she needed to synthesis a cure. As easy as that might sound, it wasn't easy for Alyssum. The problems for her started early. The biggest being the symptoms.
To synthesis a cure, one must first be familiar with the symptoms. Unfortunately, all the symptoms just happened to be internal. It was really either take a shot in the dark at that point, wait for someone to die, or speed up the process herself so she could do an autopsy. The entire time the other ten people were wailing. Crying. They didn't wanna die! They didn't wanna die! Children and the elderly alike. It was a diverse group to say the least. She decided that she didn't have enough time to wait. So she asked for volunteers.
Obviously, no one wanted to volunteer to be chopped up for science. Taking a shot in the dark would just ruin things later on. So she did she only thing she could do, running out of time as they all were. She picked. She picked an old man first, someone who was probably going to die soon anyway. She very carefully avoided the old man that acted and looked vaguely like Rúnar, picking the one that triggered no memories for her. What needed to be done needed to be done. So she pulled out a small dagger, and she killed him. It wasn't even about the lives of the many mattering more than the lives of the few, it wasn't about her own life being in danger. It was just that she was 24 year old who wasn't equipped for something like this, and she panicked.
The screams of all the other people, they were just so loud. They didn't wanna die. They didn't wanna die. They didn't wanna die. She couldn't sit around and wait! She couldn't just do nothing. Fix, fix, she needed to fix the situation or at the very least try because sitting around would do nothing. So she changed something. She looked for the quickest and the fastest change which could inevitably result in positive effects. She just needed something. Some kind of change.
Of course, she'd have to deal with those consequences. The consequences of which she could deal with. The moment she killed the old man, the other nine responded very negatively. Some started screaming, some crying, some yelling at her. But it was change. Something was different. It rippled outward and she decided she could deal with people screaming in hatred or fear better than she could handle the anguish of people begging pathetically for their lives. Best of all, now she had symptoms to work with.
She analyzed them as best she could, and began the process of trying to craft some kind of cure.
Her first attempt at a cure, she again asked for a volunteer, to which someone at least responded positively. It didn't work properly the first time though. The man who'd tried her cure grew sicker faster until the disease overtook him, and the panic only grew. But this was different, this was change, which was good. She could keep working as long as she didn't get stuck, as long as things didn't stop changing. She watched the results, trying to keep herself distanced. Trying not to let the bile build up in the back of her throat because there were other people to save, including herself. She would deal with her emotions later. That was a promise, she knew that there's be a lot to deal with later, but she needed to stay strong for the time being.
The second cure she got no volunteers, so she picked. She closed her eyes and picked at random, carefully avoiding the portion of the room where the man who looked like Rúnar was standing. This time a woman. Alyssum administered the cure. Again, the results were poor.
She kept up this process until the room was down to three people and herself. Trying cure after cure while her fingers shook and her body started to ache with the emotional stress and turmoil bubbling under the surface, but she continued to work. Finally, finally, the cure worked. She replicated the process, making three more vials of the cure. One after the other. She made sure that the other two people left uncured got their cures first, even though she was running out of time. It was a bit last minute when she finally took the cure herself, nearly fumbling and dropping it in the blind panic of those last couple moments.
She hated it, she hated it so much. And maybe it was just her imagination, but the make believe cure tasted like bile and blood and the looked like the black rot which had overtaken the bodies of her failed test subjects. The people she failed to save.
She passed...
When the test ended she jolted to the realization that it had just been a test. That being said, the dagger that was the trail had left its mark. She went through the rest of the process of becoming an initiate in a daze of sorts. She was given her robe, made an official member. She made her oath. And then she was sent along on her way to deal with the damage the trial had caused, a trial that she really wasn't as prepared for as she should have been. Could have been. Sure, she was magically prepared. But emotionally was an entirely different question.
Rúnar took her home quietly, and when they got home, she collapsed. If gaining a Rune had been the most physically painful endeavor of her life, this was the most emotionally taxing thing she'd ever done. She cried, wailed, and retched about for days after they got home because that emotional pain caused a deep sense of physical pain which manifested itself in stomach aches and general ills. She could barely handle the chaos in her own head. And just as she was starting to feel a little better, the one thing that shouldn't have happened finally happened.
Rúnar died.
This time there was no Isra to console her pains. No Rúnar either, his soul claimed. The local Rathari helped her with the ceremony as she was too deep in the throes of emotional taxation to so much as function like a normal person might. There was no use so much as trying.
It took a while but the pain finally settled and she was able to function again. She'd had a good life. While the last couple months had been a mess, she'd recover. She was young. Strong. Barely a through a fraction of a typical Rathari's full lifespan. She was officially made the leader of the Crow kinship, the likes of which she could do with as she pleased. She took a couple days to think things over. That turned into weeks, which in turn became months. She needed to time, she knew that. She needed to time to mourn and adjust even if the fresh mourning period was finally over. It wasn't good to walk on a broken leg, and a broken heart was pretty similar to that.
Isra didn't visit. Alyssum came to assume that she'd also lost Isra, though she wasn't sure about the how or why. The compounded pain had no affect really. She'd gone past the raw emotional reaction to just being numb.
In the end she decided to sell everything. Maybe it was a sudden decision, but she decided to live how Rathari were always supposed to be. How Isra and Rúnar had taught her. She'd spend the rest of her life traveling until her Purpose told her she didn't need to travel anymore. She'd live by her whims, she'd be unapologetically a mess as no creature is perfect, and most importantly, every day something would change. As long as something changed, she'd never have to linger on one thing for too long. She could change whatever she pleased, be it a big thing or a small thing. Even if she eventually settled down and bought a house and never left it again, she'd make sure that something always changed. That way she'd still be living the way that her teachers had taught her. And as long as everything kept changing , there wasn't ever going to be a reason to be sad over change.
It probably wasn't a healthy philosophy at the time, but it was the one scrap of hope she had and could cling to.
The young Rathari, just now passing the age of 24, set out on a grand journey into the world at large. She learned a lot of new things over her travels, working where she could and sharpening her skills. She got good at convincing the local businesses to let her use their tools in exchange for the ability to see whatever she created. If she was lucky, she'd get a small cut. As long as they were able to sell her creations, she was usually able to find someone willing to let her use their forge and give her materials after she'd proven herself. She didn't confine her travels either, wandering wherever she deemed fit. She kept going, for years and years.
Throughout the years, much like Isra, she started to build up various names and monikers for herself. Completing deeds and creating stories to earn herself the titles.
Where she ends up next, no false fates or deceiving destinies quite know.
Character Secrets: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=135