3 posts from February 2007

Again, in no particular order (briefer than before, but likely to be fleshed out later):

Master Rowan - youngish Master Druid who has been very much in the thoughts of Mistress Crystal lately.

Prince Edyn - Sovereign of Caernovon; elementalist of fire, earth, and water: 7' tall; slim; dark haired; strong noble bearing; soft-spoken and patient, with an appreciation for poetry.

Mia - Novon serving girl assigned to Princess Catrina's quarters in the Ducal ring within the Noble Quarter of Caernovon.

In no particular order:

Master Druid Barnabus Boltagon - second or third ranked Druid at Whitetower (if the Druids marked such things) and organizer of the quest for the Unseelie Heartstones; Uncle to Catrina Maximoff: looks 50ish but probably older, with short honey-blond hair fading fast and slowly becoming shot with gray.

Pan - diminutive fire Fey; messenger for the Druids; connoisseur of the arts (especially fire dancing): only a few inches tall, with red and orange hair and butterfly wings; leaves behind pleasant smelling smoke when he's in a hurry.

Young Master Amelia - teaching assistant; research aide assigned to Sir Ardrau: quiet, pleasant; very disappointed in herself for not being more accepting of Sir Ardrau's "condition".

Darius Wordsmith - bard and poet; one of a handful of experts on Unseelie poetry in Easterlee (although there are many dabblers and aficionados): dark hair with an artistic touch of gray; long, lean build; dark eyes and an easy smile; good conversationalist.

Lady Grivane - fallen knight; comrade to Sir Ardrau on his last quest who died before reaching the Angel's Heart; slave to Lord Jaulvor: mummified corpse in blackened armor, typically riding a rabid worg.

Young Mistress Crystal - adopted mother of Catrina, mother of Luna, wife (estranged) of Ranger Pietro Greatwood; former elementalist instructor on family hiatus: Auburn hair; youthful, athletic figure; smoky blue eyes that turn gray or green to suit her mood or the magic she's channeling. REVISION: Young Mistress Crystal's real name is Crystalia, but she prefers the diminutive.  She took the married name of Maximoff, changing it to Lencher when her husband's lineage was revealed, and then dropped all surnames when she became estranged from her husband a few years ago.
 
Rimeaea - dancer for Romgald's Company, a group of traveling performers; Air (Ice) Elementalist; perhaps the only survivor of attacks on Greatwood Road caravans by strange creatures: about 5'4", with short, dark hair and a gymnast's build; pleasant and kind, but "allergic" to Shen Wu Ji because of their elemental sympathies.

Erik Lencher, Prince Magnus of Easterlee - Descendant of pre-Druid noble houses; one of eleven sitting "Princelings" of the Easterlee Council; Air Mage of nearly unrivaled power; Grandfather of Catrina Maximoff; Magocrat: 6' tall and solidly built, with white hair cut in noble style (pageboy); rarely walks, since flying requires an insignificant fraction of his power and perhaps less concentration on his part.

Master Brink - Elder (and elderly) Druid; seer and diviner of the first rank; toymaker and chess piece carver: stooped well below 5' tall, with little hair to speak of, and gray eyes that spend too much time focused on something other than what is before him.

Cleopatra - Cheshire Siamese; Familiar of Whitetower; "knowledge collector" and trader in secrets: dark furred, with amber eyes, and a playful-and-wicked-by-turns smile that seems to expand as she disappears; approximately Dex-sized, but a tad heavier, since she merely clings to walls and ceilings instead of flying.

Luna - soon to be Druid Initiate; 8 year old daughter of Crystal & Pietro; sister (half- and adopted) of Catrina: brown hair; dark eyes that sometimes seem wise beyond her years; plump and energetic little girl who just happens to be able to read and manipulate earth and stone.

Senior Ranger Pietro Greatwood - first Maximoff, after his adopted father, then Lencher, after his real father, Prince Magnus, changed to a generic Ranger surname after an explosive falling out with same; "Master" Ranger; Father of Catrina and Luna; estranged husband of Crystal; son of Prince Magnus, Erik Lencher: white hair and dark eyes (sort of a silver-headed Viggo Mortensen); weapons master with mystically backed combat talent - superhuman speed and skill; remote, withdrawn and temperamental; rarely seen in Whitetower of late, and never in Easterlee.

I'm at the end of my blogging rope here, as I know very few bloggers other than the one who tagged me.  The challenge is to reveal ten weird habits or odd things or little known facts about myself.  The first six people who read this blog get to do the same (not counting Jennifer, since there are no tags-back).

1) I've had nightmares and night terrors since I was three years old.  As a kid, I would wake up, scared $h!t-less, turn on my closet light, and play quietly until morning came, too shaken up to even attempt further sleep.  Every now and then, I still wake up shaking, but adulthood has dimmed... whatever it is that's been going on with me all this time.

2) I become physically ill when I get angry.  It gets a lot easier to be easygoing if you know you'll give yourself a migraine or end up throwing up if you don't let things roll off you.  (Gosh, do I sound well-adjusted so far?)

3) I am a Socratic Taoist - and yes, I made that up, but I had to because nothing else seemed to fit.  I apply Western Dualistic Philosophy to Eastern Mysticism about the unknowable world.  Basically, I believe only people - specifically individuals - can be changed.  I am responsible for everyone I touch, or can touch.  If I let you do something that we both know will bring you to harm, I have failed us both.  It leads me to be nosy, argumentative, and judgmental... concerned, open-minded, and compassionate.  As for how I arrived at this world-view / faith / belief....

4) My father was Catholic and my mother Lutheran.  I was raised Lutheran.  After their divorce, my father became Baptist, while my mother traveled through Unitarianism to arrive at some... Southern Charismatic thingy.  I have been Lutheran, Atheist, Agnostic, Gnostic, Pagan, Wiccan, and several flavors of non-practicing before arriving where I am now: relatively happy, fairly centered, and as "at peace" as someone of my complex temperament can hope to be.

5) I still go to Christian Bible classes and prayer groups every once in a while.  I've even been mistaken for a biblical scholar, a life-counselor, or a philosopher a time or two.  And no, I don't do it to "twist Bible-Thumper's tail".  If what I believe cannot stand the company of other faiths, I have to find something else.  I've been pretty good lately, and maybe even helped a few people along the way.

6) My hands and feet are the only parts of me that aren't functionally hyper-mobile.  However, I've dislocated fingers and squished them back into place, little worse for wear.

7) I believe I was born with some kind of psychic ability or abilities, but they didn't survive my journey into adulthood.  That said, I think most "psychic powers" are hallucinations, delusions, scams, or - most likely - extensions of senses that we haven't been trained (biologically or socially) to make use of, rather than magical or supernatural abilities.

8) In the last few years, I have come to define every woman's attractiveness by how much she resembles my wife.

9) While shopping, walking through public places, or waiting in line, I will pick out people at random and try to come up with a sentence or two that would be a good lead in to a story about them.  Women usually get romance or romantic-comedy type leads, while men usually are described as action movie principals (heroes or villains), but I'll even flip that around if I'm bored enough, or I spot a woman who looks particularly fierce. ;-)

10) I tend to mistake the size of a person's personality for their actual physical dimensions.  Tall, shy people seem shorter than me, while I still feel like I'm looking up at outgoing people.  For the record, most days I still see myself as 5' 7" tall and 110 pounds: small and puny, like my Junior year of high school... and the days I think otherwise aren't necessarily the better times in my life.

As I said at the beginning, I tag the next six non-Jennifers to read this.  What ten things do we not know about you?