Khiara Snowsong

[Khiara]

"My heart goes with you, Goddess willing you return it." Basic Information Race: Vantha Birthday & Age : Season of Winter, Day 2, 488 AV (21) Gender: Female Physical Description Khiara stands about 5'4" and weighs about 145lb, with thick straight black hair that falls to her shoulders. In certain lights, her hair seems to shimmer a luminescent violent and a golden yellow, depending on where your standing. Her eyes glimmer a rich violet intermingled with gold like molten liquid, that change colours and intensity with her mood. Her face is softly rounded, much like her frame, giving her a more girlish appearance than he twenty one years. Her skin is a soft olive colour and a small button nose. On the right hand side of her neck, just below her ear, is a chevas mark. It consists of a spear and an axe crossed over top of a vanthan stylized snowflake. Character Concept Khiara is a calm and gentle person, with an old soul. She has spent most of her childhood around her elders, listening to the stories of Morwen's Lights and the history of the Vantha. When spoken to, she finds people often open up to her kind nature and tell her their problems, making her somewhat of a comforter in her Hold. A loving person and a free spirit, she has yet to find a husband, something her parents have become close to solving for her - fearful people will think she is an icemaiden and they will never live to see grandchildren. Khiara enjoys storytelling and carving, and a little dancing when the wine is right. Khiara married Vanator in the fall of 511, becoming second wife under Kashik. She desperatly wants to have a child of her own, and is struggling to concieve. Character History Born to the Snowsong hold, Khiara grew up listening to the stories of her people, loving the history and magic of times long since passed. Even as a young child, she would often retell the stories to the smaller children with rich animation and movement, her eyes shining a bright violet as she spoke. Taking to the skill of storytelling, she incorporated it into her carving and even dancing. In the quiet months, when visitors from outside of the Great Ice City would come to visit, Khiara was often found in the local taverns sharing stories for coin. As Khiara blossomed from a child into a young woman, her mother and father began to take note of the young men taking an interest in their daughter. In particular a young man called Eliac. The young Eliac had eyes of ever shifting green and gold, and his hair shimmered with a green tint. Strong and kind, he was quick to smile, and often brought Khiara small trinkets from his hunts. The girl was touched, and quietly her parents began to plan for the wedding, contacting Eliac's parents to discuss a bride price. As the days went on, Khiara began to find her heart stolen by the sweet Eliac, and every time the boy went away with the men to hunt the great beasts of the sea, she would whisper in his ear, "My heart goes with you, Goddess willing you return it." However, this was not to be the case. Whispering in his ear, standing in the deep snow, Khiara felt a deep sense of dread. She pleaded with him to stay, pleaded with the other men. But it was laughed off, young love fearful of nothing! With panic in her stomach, the girl watched them set sail, unwilling to leave until they were completely out of sight. Khiara paced the snowy shoreline, thick fur rimmed parka pulled close against the biting icy winds. She waited, and waited. Bells passed, it felt like days, till finally a small dot appeared on the horizon. As it came closer to shore, more of the women gathered around Khiara, laughing and preparing for the haul. But something wasn't right. The boat wasn't the one they'd left in. It was a lifeboat. The women fell silent as it pulled closer, close enough for them to see that there wasn't any haul on the boat. And there were less men then had started. Khiara felt her heart sink, and ignoring the biting cold water, she ran out to meet them as they pulled into the shore. Looking at the men who fell out of the boat, wet and shivering, she shook her head, calling out for Eliac. Blankets and furs were thrown around the men as she searched. A tall, shivering man with dull blue eyes looked at her sadly, putting a hand on her shoulder. He explained that during the hunt, things had gone horribly wrong. They had found a pod of orca, and with harpoon in hand, the blue eyed hunter had taken the first throw. He hit one, burying the weapon deep into its flesh. In pain, the creature had dived, only to resurface right under the boat. The medium sided hunting craft had capsized, snapping the mast as it crashed to the water. The men swam to the surface, gasping from the cold and trying to free the lifeboat. Eliac had surfaced, swimming over to help with the lifeboat, when suddenly he had disappeared under the water. Panicked, the other men quickly scrambled into the boat, watching helplessly as the orca swam away, their injured pod member trailing blood behind in the water. It would surely die further on, but their eyes were not watching the whale. They scanned to Eliac, calling his name over and over. But there was no trace of the young man, and the hunters couldn't stay to wait for his body to rise. So with heavy hearts and chattering teeth, they had returned home. The blue eyed man believed the injured whale may have taken the young man, and with tears in his eyes, he apologised to Khiara. Struck with grief, the young woman pulled into herself, no longer the happy and gentle soul. She no longer listened to the stories, no longer entertained the travellers. She stayed in her room for months, before her parents trying to coax her into living her life again. One evening, she picked up a smooth piece of whalebone, running her thumb over the creamy surface. Taking up her carving tools, she shaped it. For weeks, she worked, till finally she had made the carving of an orca, with Eliac riding its back. Coming out of her room, she was finally ready to face the world again. Carrying around the carving, and wearing a fine beaded necklace Eliac had given her, Khiara slowly found herself again, began to talk and share the stories of their people. The young woman learned to smile and listen again, but part of her was forever closed away. Her loving parents, trying to sooth her soul and often suggested suitors for her, but Khiara's heart was forever with the hunter she'd lost to the ocean. Unable to stay where everything reminds her of Eliac, Khiara has taken Vsenri, once Eliac's horse now her own, and left the great ice city, travelling the roads of Mizahar, taking her where Vsenri's feet may roam. Stumbling up on Pygmy in the sea of grass, Khiara chanced to meet Vanator. The drykas man shared her sorrow over Eliac with his own tragedy, and for months the two struggled against their passions. When Vanator married Kashik, the young vantha fled Endrykas, unable to bear it. Whilst heading toward Riverfall the girls stallion was fatally injured, and it nearly destroyed Khiara. By pure luck, Kashik found her in the great city and aided her to seek Kavala to help Vsenri. Vanator confessed his love to both women, and eventually they married. Khiara now lives with Vanator and his first wife, caring for their newborn baby as though her very own. But the want for her own child aches inside, and Khiara is having thoughts of home. Training (Skills, Arcana, Gnosis, Lore) Story Telling 30/100 (30pts - 20pts from starting package and 10pts racial bonus) Carving 10/100 (10pts - starting package) Riding 11/100 (10pts - starting package, 1pt - xp) Dancing 5/100 (10pts - Starting package) Cooking 5/100 (10pts - starting package) Tracking 1/100 (1pt - xp) Compassion 2/100 (2pts - xp) Lore: Survival in Avanthal (starting package) Lore: Classic Vantha Literature (starting package) Lore: Perils of The Sea of Grass (xp) Equipment and Possessions Eliac's necklace, leather tunic and breeches, thick fur lined parka, warm fur lined boots and gloves cheap leather riding dress (bought in Endrykas) water skin backpack containing toiletries, food for a week, eating knife, flint and steel carving of Eliac on the Whale (less than 50 mizas) Ledger 100 gold mizas Roaming wanderer housing - 1 large tent, large tarp, 100 ft of rope, flint & steel, 2 torches, bedroll, blanket, fishing tackle & hooks, Frost March called Vsenri

[Khiara]

Faithful companion to the wandering vantha, Vsenri is a Frostmarch born in the deep of winter in Avanthal. His life started with Eliac, and once the young fisherman died, the stallion was wracked with grief. Beautiful and white, strong and spirited, the frostmarch faded as he kept to his stall. His coat began to dull and he refused to eat. It was only Khiara's love and familiarity that brought the stallion around. She represented everything the horse had remembered about the young man, and with fervour Vsenri bonded with her - perhaps in someways more than Eliac. Grief brought them together, and together they travelled Mizahar. They toiled across barren rocks and grassy hills, all the while both suffering from the swelling heat. On the way to Riverfall, after meeting Vanator and the drykas, Vsenri slipped and fell, breaking his foreleg. Khiara forced the horse to continue on, refusing to loose the stallion after everything they had already been through. It was sheer luck that he made it, and luck that presented Kavala - a healer of the Konti. She saved his life. And so, onwards he travels with Khiara, where ever the vantha walks.

[Khiara]

Adelita is Khiara's strider, having chosen her in the summer. It was a chance meeting across a stream whilst Khiara collected water. Faced with a glassbeak, Khiara fled for her life - and when all hope was about to be lost - Adelita saved the young vantha. The mare is a proud creature, and wise beyond her years. Whether she holds the soul of a departed ancestor, this is yet to be revealed. She is of an even temerament and plays with Vsenri as though they'd been companions forever. Fast as a lightning bolt across the Sea Of Grass, when one closes one's eyes, you could almost believe you were flying. All Within Our Stride