Chaeli Snowsong

[Chaeli Snowsong]

Chaeli Snowsong [In Life] Born 61 Spring 469 [Appearance] At 5’2” and 140 lbs, she was not as thin as most of her peers, but neither was she committed enough to do anything about it. She wore her body with a patient smile and an enthusiastic eye. Her dark Vantha hair, tinged with red-violet hues, was cropped in a hard line above her omni-colored eyes. She combed it long and straight in the morning, but it was inevitably tangled by noon. Whenever possible, she painted her face and dressed to the fashion of the season. She wore Morwen's mark conspicuously on the front of her throat. [Demeanor] She was restless, wild, and effusive. A girl of the moment, Chaeli was as much an artist as anything else. She was never any good at carving or playing instruments, but she was passionate about her voice and was not afraid to practice often and in public. Still, she neglected that passion in favor of many other, more fleeting obsessions. Between fishing, cooking, swordplay, and reimancy, Chaeli began a thing more often than she ever finished it. She only pretended to go out into the woods to find herself among the singing pines; mostly she escaped one group of friends to talk to another or, in her later years, travelled to her only love’s Hold. She was raised to appreciate art and look forward to a family, but she would not accept any future that would keep her from her passions. [In Death] Died 53 Winter 485 [Appearance] Chaeli depicts herself as thinner than she ever was in life, sometimes even as emaciated as the bodies of her sisters in death where they lie in Kalinor’s forgotten pits. If she materializes at all, she appears mostly in relevant fragments. Even then, she only reveals her upper body, preferring a skirt of vague soulmist to hide the shame and suffering beneath her waist. The unforgotten Vantha piece of her paints her soulmist with every emotion, but it is a futile attempt at coloring Kalinor’s darkness. [Demeanor] Her life’s caprice manifests in unrelenting volatility in death. She is as quick to anger as she is to cry, and she might even smile easily, if she ever found a reason to. Not only does she mourn the life she never got to live, she endures with the guilt of betraying her love in Avanthal and secretly yearns to know the child that killed her. In its absence, she has come to resent the Symenestra race. More than that, she wishes to see snow again, and to listen to the musical pines which she had never learned to appreciate. But she does not know the way, and she would prefer the company of abhorred strangers than the loneliness of wandering. Her only consolation is in whispers of haunting songs. [History] Chaeli lived without consequence in Avanthal, as content as a teenager can be. Her parents were musicians and her friends were many. She was happily typical until she met a young Whitevine man who convinced her that she was perfectly unique and remarkably beautiful; after many stirring discussions of her songs and his magic, he asked for her hand in the Summer of 482. She made plans to move to the healer’s hold to raise their family. But the wedding was planned for the Winter and Chaeli was restless. On one of the few nights she spent outside of her fiancé’s embrace, a striking man with pale skin and long fingers inspired her to betray her commitment. To this day, she cannot recall whether drink or magic or her own petty weakness brought her to him. Whatever the circumstances, the guilt settled in her almost instantly. The man remained for weeks, a silk merchant. He avoided Chaeli, at her request, until the day he came with terrible news. Her body’s changes confirmed what she did not want to believe from him: she was pregnant. He knew of a safe place, he had said, where she could have the child in secret. And when her term was over, it would be given to a caring family and she could return to Avanthal. Chaeli quickly agreed, escaping away with the stranger without telling a soul. She did not anticipate how far away his so-called haven was, and her constant requests to turn home and face her shame were refused. As the child grew in her, its father became distant and Chaeli became withdrawn. Even when greeted with the comfort and courtesy of the Nest, she could only think of home. Confining herself to her bed, she moped in self-imposed loneliness and filled it with hope and regret. She clung to the false optimism which her one-time lover had instilled, ignorant to the kind clarifications of strangely-shaped women. She wrote a song for Avanthal, and sang it often so that it would be perfect for the day when she could return to him and apologize. Chaeli’s death was only pain. She could not feel her life slip away through the agony of venom that engulfed her womb and reached out past her fingertips; long after her body was used and disposed of, the soulmist that remained burned with the memory of it. In her final moments, she thought to endure the pain by thinking of him, by escaping the corporeal world for the thought of his embrace. But her mind’s eye saw only his disappointment, and her heart broke. She was sixteen years old. [Skills] Singing: 15 [15] Soulmist Projection: 17 [15 2] Songwriting: 10 [10] Materialization: 14 [10 4] Storytelling: 10 [10] Intimidation: 3 [3] Philosophy: 1 [1] [Languages] Vani (Fluent) Common (Basic) Symenos (Poor) [Lore] Vantha Culture Seduced by Symenestra [Possessions] None [Ledger] 600 gm [Thread List] [A Devastating Blow] Erasmus; 51 Winter, 511 [Body and Soul] Macabre; 3 Winter, 511 [Etude] Ssafirarhysati; 10 Fall, 511 [Just Listen] Laszlo; 78 Fall, 510 [Beware the Abandoned Districts] Devero; 45 Winter, 503