Sidhe
09-21-07, 04:46 PM
Name
Sidhe
Race
Human
Age
30
Height
6’1”
Weight
180 lbs
Appearance
Sidhe bears evidence of a life spent outdoors. He has a muscular build that demonstrates him to be a man who can take care of himself, though he tries to avoid appearing outwardly intimidating most times. A self-made red leaf hair tie often restrains the long mane of black hair growing past his shoulder blades. His eyes are a soothing and amiable grey, captivating to look upon. His skin has been tanned a fair brown and has scratches throughout.
As for his wardrobe, Sidhe wears tanned leather garb of his own fashioning. All of it, even his shoes (which are more akin to moccasins), was made from the skins of animals he felled and ate himself. Though simple in design, he wears his creations with profound pride and often refuses wearing blacksmiths’ handiwork. He’s often seen carrying a small leather pouch hanging from his waist. It keeps his gold coins and glass vial.
Personality
Sidhe is a devout acolyte of the church of nature. Having grown up in Salvar’s massive capital city, he is no stranger to civilization. However, he prefers a lifestyle that is more in harmony with all living things around him. Sidhe now prefers thriving environments with vegetation and wildlife, such as the expansive Concordia. Stone streets and cold lampposts hold little attraction for him. This detachment from what others claim to be ‘normal’ life sometimes reflects quite starkly in his demeanor and attitude toward certain situations. For instance, gold as a currency to him is but a small detail in the back of his mind, having no ambition to amass great wealth.
Sidhe respects life. He will not kill another being he does not feel obliged to and goes to great lengths to avoid fatal confrontation. He is a peaceful person, but can be roused to feats of great fury by the right combination of factors. Sidhe does not abide senseless violence against any living form. This is not to say he always sides with the underdog. He simply defends nature’s creations for the sheer magnificence of their being.
Possessions
Knowing full well that one does not take their belongings beyond the grave, Sidhe has always limited his worldly property to that which he finds essential. He’s not known to purchase things for pleasure. Unfortunately, this makes him as bad a haggler as they come, seeing as he’s so out of the loop in the social value of a gold coin.
Staff – Sidhe has an oak staff that measures seven feet from tip to tip. One end, which he lets meet the floor when he walks with it, has a steel cap. The other end has a steel spike that is somewhat blunt.
Dagger – This is a five-inch steel blade that Sidhe keeps sheathed and hidden under his pants. It is strapped to the side of his right shin, but easily unsheathed when the need arises. This dagger is kept thin and sharp.
Glass Vial – A deceptively common-looking crystal vial and wood stopper with astonishing abilities. It fits within the palm of Sidhe’s hand and can contain roughly twenty drops of water at a time. Each drop, however, has the power to sake Sidhe’s thirst for an entire day. It must be refilled by Sidhe’s hand to sustain its blessing and cannot be used on others.
Thea – Though Sidhe would never refer to his travel companion as a possession, Thea is a black spider no bigger than half an inch at the body with inch-long legs. She’s poisonous, but has never attempted to bite Sidhe. In any case, her venom would have a hard time killing a human, more often leaving them with a bad fever and numbness of the limbs. She doesn’t strike at command and is content to hide in the folds of Sidhe’s clothes as he continues to study and feed her.
Gift of the Mind
As an avatar of nature, Sidhe’s mind is blessed with certain capabilities that far surpass a regular human’s. Honed through hours of meditation, these abilities work far better when Sidhe is calm and free of duress. If Sidhe were being physically assaulted, for instance, he’d be hard-pressed to conjure the mental clarity for these skills. Meditation is key for advancing in this field.
Telepathy – Sidhe can transmit short mental messages that manifest themselves in the sound of his voice in the mind of the recipient. It takes some concentration, so he can’t really pull it off more than thrice an hour.
Gift of the Body
Envied by most as nature’s greatest gift to its avatars, Sidhe has the ability to transform his shape into that of other living animals. The list of his forms is essentially limitless, but he must first commune with a given animal before he can take its shape. This involves closely studying its behavior over a span of at least several weeks to better understand each being’s place in nature. Finally, he must lock eyes with the animal and tacitly request use of its form. Transformation only occurs from or to his human form and takes about five seconds during which Sidhe is quite vulnerable.
Crane – First animal form Sidhe ever acquired, this statuesque bird of Concordia stands four feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan and weight of five pounds. Unfortunately, this shape is extremely frail, seeing as a well-aimed rock could cease its life. The bird’s feathers are all white except for the upper half of its head, which is a brilliant red.
Wolf – A timber wolf from the Salvarian tundra, this great beast stands three and a half feet off the ground and weighs a considerable hundred and forty pounds. Its coat is mainly white with streaks of grey along his face and back. Though not the most powerful of animals, it is ferocious and quite adept at tracking a scent.
Gift of the Spirit
Third of the set of blessings granted to all avatars of nature, the gift of the spirit consists of allowing Sidhe to wield certain magic bound to the natural world. This is a double-edged sword, however. These abilities are boosted by the presence of thriving life, but weakened considerably when Sidhe is surrounded by wanton death and destruction. Though trivial now, this skill set will grow with time.
Growth – Limited to plant life, this power allows Sidhe to make vegetation grow at an accelerated rate and in a direction he has limited control over. His current proficiency lets him make seconds pass as days for one plant at a time. He can sustain the spell for a total of five minutes a day.
History
Sidhe’s story is simple. Here was a young man brought up in Knife’s Edge, among the largest cities Althanas has to offer. Apprentice to a leatherworker and son of a merchant, Sidhe went by the name of Alexander Rowle in those days. Though diligent and kind-hearted, young Alex had a difficult time keeping friends. His peers liked him well enough, but he was unenthusiastic in joining in their activities. Since he was a teenager, Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that it was his duty to do more good in the world than what a simple leatherworker can accomplish. So it was at the age of eighteen that the feeling could no longer be suppressed by the repetition of idle chores or feigning interest in drunken celebrations at the corner pub. Alexander bid goodbye to his family and friends in search of some way to do his part to better the land, leaving only a letter pleading for them to understand that he was doomed to feel unfulfilled if he stayed a second longer.
This took many by surprise, but as Alexander was halfway out of the continent with his meager savings before anyone found the letter, their dismay left him unaffected. He was bound for Corone, that whirlpool that attracts the dregs of all Althanian society. Fully intending to seek out a life in Radasanth, he was instead detracted by the beauty of Concordia. This forest had rich, green undergrowth such as he had never seen in Salvar’s climate. The vibrant, serene sensation that overcame him upon encountering its fauna and flora could be equated to a spiritual revelation. City life had been all he knew. The forest’s calm seemed to quench a thirst he had never noticed he had. Here, he decided, was a subject worth the devotion of his short lifetime.
Two years later found him still in Concordia, living off nature’s bounty and aiding anyone he could in his wanderings. He was distressed to notice an under appreciation of the gifts of nature by many a being, however. Humans killed deer for so petty a thing as the gold they could get for their skins. Thieves in the forest were more than willing to kill for a few precious rocks. It seemed everyone around him had lost sight of the realities of their existence. Such imbalance in powers and passions among sentient beings threatened the life of Althanas as a whole. But Alexander seemed powerless to affect any meaningful change. It’s said it was this very thing that preoccupied him as he meditated in a clearing one fateful moonlit night.
As he recounts it, the spirit of nature itself appeared to him, traveling on a moonbeam and casting an aura of brilliant white light around him. It had no specific form, somehow, but its voice rang clear and magnificent in the night air. It charged Alexander with the duty of being a soldier in its name and fulfilling the destiny he had been molded for. The calling was referred to by the spirit as being an avatar of nature, a position of implicit prestige. Cultures through time have had stories of spiritual encounters with the well of life or some other variation of nature’s being. These individuals were the chosen few deemed worthy to take up defense of nature with its very powers.
So it was that Alexander joined their ranks and accepted the call. He adopted Sidhe as a new name for himself, feeling it was right that he begin his new life with a new name and identity. By keeping his mind, body and spirit in balance, Sidhe was granted the boons of his new post quickly and began working on how to master them. To better serve his new purpose, Sidhe began a pilgrimage across Althanas that would take up a decade of his life and grant him invaluable experience with varied cultures. He detested Alerar and its cities of dead stone, sweat under Fallien’s harsh sun, relished returning to Salvar with new eyes, and lost himself in the beauty of Raiaera’s woods.
Having done what he could here and there in this time, Sidhe recently began to feel the time had come for him to step up and use his talents to effect an actual change in the world. He’s been living in the Red Forest for a time and is once again finding himself willing to do good but at a loss as to how exactly he should go about it for the large scale. Sidhe’s growing impatience has been affecting the performance of his abilities. Time will tell what the future holds for him.
Sidhe
Race
Human
Age
30
Height
6’1”
Weight
180 lbs
Appearance
Sidhe bears evidence of a life spent outdoors. He has a muscular build that demonstrates him to be a man who can take care of himself, though he tries to avoid appearing outwardly intimidating most times. A self-made red leaf hair tie often restrains the long mane of black hair growing past his shoulder blades. His eyes are a soothing and amiable grey, captivating to look upon. His skin has been tanned a fair brown and has scratches throughout.
As for his wardrobe, Sidhe wears tanned leather garb of his own fashioning. All of it, even his shoes (which are more akin to moccasins), was made from the skins of animals he felled and ate himself. Though simple in design, he wears his creations with profound pride and often refuses wearing blacksmiths’ handiwork. He’s often seen carrying a small leather pouch hanging from his waist. It keeps his gold coins and glass vial.
Personality
Sidhe is a devout acolyte of the church of nature. Having grown up in Salvar’s massive capital city, he is no stranger to civilization. However, he prefers a lifestyle that is more in harmony with all living things around him. Sidhe now prefers thriving environments with vegetation and wildlife, such as the expansive Concordia. Stone streets and cold lampposts hold little attraction for him. This detachment from what others claim to be ‘normal’ life sometimes reflects quite starkly in his demeanor and attitude toward certain situations. For instance, gold as a currency to him is but a small detail in the back of his mind, having no ambition to amass great wealth.
Sidhe respects life. He will not kill another being he does not feel obliged to and goes to great lengths to avoid fatal confrontation. He is a peaceful person, but can be roused to feats of great fury by the right combination of factors. Sidhe does not abide senseless violence against any living form. This is not to say he always sides with the underdog. He simply defends nature’s creations for the sheer magnificence of their being.
Possessions
Knowing full well that one does not take their belongings beyond the grave, Sidhe has always limited his worldly property to that which he finds essential. He’s not known to purchase things for pleasure. Unfortunately, this makes him as bad a haggler as they come, seeing as he’s so out of the loop in the social value of a gold coin.
Staff – Sidhe has an oak staff that measures seven feet from tip to tip. One end, which he lets meet the floor when he walks with it, has a steel cap. The other end has a steel spike that is somewhat blunt.
Dagger – This is a five-inch steel blade that Sidhe keeps sheathed and hidden under his pants. It is strapped to the side of his right shin, but easily unsheathed when the need arises. This dagger is kept thin and sharp.
Glass Vial – A deceptively common-looking crystal vial and wood stopper with astonishing abilities. It fits within the palm of Sidhe’s hand and can contain roughly twenty drops of water at a time. Each drop, however, has the power to sake Sidhe’s thirst for an entire day. It must be refilled by Sidhe’s hand to sustain its blessing and cannot be used on others.
Thea – Though Sidhe would never refer to his travel companion as a possession, Thea is a black spider no bigger than half an inch at the body with inch-long legs. She’s poisonous, but has never attempted to bite Sidhe. In any case, her venom would have a hard time killing a human, more often leaving them with a bad fever and numbness of the limbs. She doesn’t strike at command and is content to hide in the folds of Sidhe’s clothes as he continues to study and feed her.
Gift of the Mind
As an avatar of nature, Sidhe’s mind is blessed with certain capabilities that far surpass a regular human’s. Honed through hours of meditation, these abilities work far better when Sidhe is calm and free of duress. If Sidhe were being physically assaulted, for instance, he’d be hard-pressed to conjure the mental clarity for these skills. Meditation is key for advancing in this field.
Telepathy – Sidhe can transmit short mental messages that manifest themselves in the sound of his voice in the mind of the recipient. It takes some concentration, so he can’t really pull it off more than thrice an hour.
Gift of the Body
Envied by most as nature’s greatest gift to its avatars, Sidhe has the ability to transform his shape into that of other living animals. The list of his forms is essentially limitless, but he must first commune with a given animal before he can take its shape. This involves closely studying its behavior over a span of at least several weeks to better understand each being’s place in nature. Finally, he must lock eyes with the animal and tacitly request use of its form. Transformation only occurs from or to his human form and takes about five seconds during which Sidhe is quite vulnerable.
Crane – First animal form Sidhe ever acquired, this statuesque bird of Concordia stands four feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan and weight of five pounds. Unfortunately, this shape is extremely frail, seeing as a well-aimed rock could cease its life. The bird’s feathers are all white except for the upper half of its head, which is a brilliant red.
Wolf – A timber wolf from the Salvarian tundra, this great beast stands three and a half feet off the ground and weighs a considerable hundred and forty pounds. Its coat is mainly white with streaks of grey along his face and back. Though not the most powerful of animals, it is ferocious and quite adept at tracking a scent.
Gift of the Spirit
Third of the set of blessings granted to all avatars of nature, the gift of the spirit consists of allowing Sidhe to wield certain magic bound to the natural world. This is a double-edged sword, however. These abilities are boosted by the presence of thriving life, but weakened considerably when Sidhe is surrounded by wanton death and destruction. Though trivial now, this skill set will grow with time.
Growth – Limited to plant life, this power allows Sidhe to make vegetation grow at an accelerated rate and in a direction he has limited control over. His current proficiency lets him make seconds pass as days for one plant at a time. He can sustain the spell for a total of five minutes a day.
History
Sidhe’s story is simple. Here was a young man brought up in Knife’s Edge, among the largest cities Althanas has to offer. Apprentice to a leatherworker and son of a merchant, Sidhe went by the name of Alexander Rowle in those days. Though diligent and kind-hearted, young Alex had a difficult time keeping friends. His peers liked him well enough, but he was unenthusiastic in joining in their activities. Since he was a teenager, Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that it was his duty to do more good in the world than what a simple leatherworker can accomplish. So it was at the age of eighteen that the feeling could no longer be suppressed by the repetition of idle chores or feigning interest in drunken celebrations at the corner pub. Alexander bid goodbye to his family and friends in search of some way to do his part to better the land, leaving only a letter pleading for them to understand that he was doomed to feel unfulfilled if he stayed a second longer.
This took many by surprise, but as Alexander was halfway out of the continent with his meager savings before anyone found the letter, their dismay left him unaffected. He was bound for Corone, that whirlpool that attracts the dregs of all Althanian society. Fully intending to seek out a life in Radasanth, he was instead detracted by the beauty of Concordia. This forest had rich, green undergrowth such as he had never seen in Salvar’s climate. The vibrant, serene sensation that overcame him upon encountering its fauna and flora could be equated to a spiritual revelation. City life had been all he knew. The forest’s calm seemed to quench a thirst he had never noticed he had. Here, he decided, was a subject worth the devotion of his short lifetime.
Two years later found him still in Concordia, living off nature’s bounty and aiding anyone he could in his wanderings. He was distressed to notice an under appreciation of the gifts of nature by many a being, however. Humans killed deer for so petty a thing as the gold they could get for their skins. Thieves in the forest were more than willing to kill for a few precious rocks. It seemed everyone around him had lost sight of the realities of their existence. Such imbalance in powers and passions among sentient beings threatened the life of Althanas as a whole. But Alexander seemed powerless to affect any meaningful change. It’s said it was this very thing that preoccupied him as he meditated in a clearing one fateful moonlit night.
As he recounts it, the spirit of nature itself appeared to him, traveling on a moonbeam and casting an aura of brilliant white light around him. It had no specific form, somehow, but its voice rang clear and magnificent in the night air. It charged Alexander with the duty of being a soldier in its name and fulfilling the destiny he had been molded for. The calling was referred to by the spirit as being an avatar of nature, a position of implicit prestige. Cultures through time have had stories of spiritual encounters with the well of life or some other variation of nature’s being. These individuals were the chosen few deemed worthy to take up defense of nature with its very powers.
So it was that Alexander joined their ranks and accepted the call. He adopted Sidhe as a new name for himself, feeling it was right that he begin his new life with a new name and identity. By keeping his mind, body and spirit in balance, Sidhe was granted the boons of his new post quickly and began working on how to master them. To better serve his new purpose, Sidhe began a pilgrimage across Althanas that would take up a decade of his life and grant him invaluable experience with varied cultures. He detested Alerar and its cities of dead stone, sweat under Fallien’s harsh sun, relished returning to Salvar with new eyes, and lost himself in the beauty of Raiaera’s woods.
Having done what he could here and there in this time, Sidhe recently began to feel the time had come for him to step up and use his talents to effect an actual change in the world. He’s been living in the Red Forest for a time and is once again finding himself willing to do good but at a loss as to how exactly he should go about it for the large scale. Sidhe’s growing impatience has been affecting the performance of his abilities. Time will tell what the future holds for him.