Subira
of the South Winds 
Basic Information
Race: Eypharian
Birthday: Day 60 of Spring, 483 AV
Age: 29 years old
Gender: Female
Physical Description
Tall and athletic in build, Subira is a robust Eypharian woman with firm shoulders, rounded hips, and six limbs: four sinewy arms and two long, well-muscled legs. Standing at 5 feet 10 inches in height, she carries herself with a straight-backed, forthright bearing and just a hint of a haughty swagger in her stride. The contours of her figure tend to follow shapely curves and sturdy muscles than slender angles, signifying her comfortable, privileged upbringing full of rich food and creature comforts, as well as her active lifestyle. She moves as if she were used to a swaying deck beneath her feet, her calloused hands and agile feet flowing with the steady, fluid rhythms of the sea.
Cut relatively short for an Eypharian woman, Subira's jet-black hair falls to the middle of her back when loose. Typically, she wears it bound in a thick braid interwoven with fine chains of silver and gold. Her complexion is a warm, deep olive, setting off her strong, high-boned features. Though she generally eschews elaborate make-up or precious jewelry except on special occasions, Subira is no stranger to Eypharian vanity. Every day she applies an array of skin creams, lotions, and unguents to keep her skin smooth and unwrinkled by constant exposure to the sun and wind, as well as kohl to line her eyelids and balm mixed with red ochre to moisturize her lips. Edged with faint hints of crow's-feet despite her best efforts, her wide-set eyes are the chatoyant golden-brown hue of tigers'-eye gems, with a sharp glint that bespeaks a strong will.
Character Concept
Raised within the noble House of the South Winds, in which the skills of sailing, seamanship, and shipbuilding were considered just as important as the games of politics and power, Subira possesses an incurable fascination with the sea and an equally insatiable taste for adventure. Like many members of her noble house, Subira values expertise above elegance and prefers cleverness to courtesy or ceremony. While she is Eypharian enough to appreciate beauty, luxury, and sensual pleasures, she lacks the patience and guile to wade successfully through high society and inter-House politics, where she often founders like a galleon in shallow waters. Instead, Subira dreams of becoming a ship's navigator. She is happiest charting stars and ocean currents, performing mathematical calculations, and reading the works of her idol Kenabelle Wright, the legendary Zeltivan sea captain who first circumnavigated Mizahar.
Though not as hot-tempered as many of her fellow Souths, Subira's personality does tend toward two different extremes depending on where she is and what she's doing there. At sea, she is disciplined, dutiful, and utterly devoted to efficiency. Keenly aware of the importance of the chain of command on a ship, she throws herself headlong into her work and obeys orders without question or delay. No matter how distasteful or menial her duties may be, she carries them out without complaint. Aboard a ship, Subira feels a deep, abiding pride in everything she does, from charting a course and guiding a crew to swabbing decks and mending sails, and she loves the sense of purpose, activity, and freedom that comes from working on a ship.
On dry land, however, Subira's straightforward, pragmatic approach leads her to look down on anything she considers frivolous or idle, which includes just about anything outside of mathematics, astronomy, geography, sailing, and Kenabelle Wright. She will ramble passionately and happily about maps, the sea, latitude and longitude, calculations, theories, and observations until her audience is thoroughly bored and glazed-eyed from too many numbers and facts. On almost any other topic, though, she is dismissive and brusque to the point of rudeness. With the haughty arrogance of the noble-born and well-educated, Subira firmly believes that the only things that matter are the things she cares about; everything else is beneath her notice. She is fiercely, almost fanatically devoted to mastering both the rigorous academic studies necessary for navigation and the physically demanding, firsthand experience of sailing a ship and leading it from port to port. As for everything else, like art, marriage, intrigue, wealth, politics, and all the rest...what does it have to do with her?
Character History
In the spring of 483 AV, Subira was born to Senet, a son of the House of the South Winds, and his wife Sitra, four years after the birth of their studious, sharp-witted son Iriei. Two years after Subira was born, her parents had a second daughter, Teshrshan, who was fiery and quick-tempered even in childhood. In contrast, though a clever and spirited girl, Subira seemed to have inherited little of her father's scholarly intensity or her mother's ambition and drive. Like all South Winds children, she learned to swim as soon as she could walk and spent nearly as much time aboard the Souths' ships and pleasure boats as she did within the alabaster and golden confines of Ahnatep. To her parents' disappointment, though she was clearly comfortable and at home aboard a ship, Subira at first showed no particular aptitude for either the mechanics or business of seamanship, nor did she display interest in any particular aspect of sailing.
That all changed on Subira's eighth birthday, when she received a copy of Kenabelle Wright's classic work, An Account of the Circumnavigation of Mizahar. She devoured the book in a matter of hours, her imagination captured by the thrilling account of the daring and dangerous voyage. Wright's heroism in guiding her caravel from harbor to harbor through storms, pestilence, ferocious savages, and turbulent seas around the entire continent deeply impressed and inspired the young Subira. She knew for certain that she too wanted to become a great navigator. The day after her birthday, she imperiously demanded lessons in navigation and cartography. Subira's parents breathed sighs of relief and sent her to become an apprentice to one of her uncles, Harpenres, who was widely considered a master navigator and sailor with the bearing and discipline of an admiral.
Under his tutelage, Subira studied endless maps, star charts, ocean current diagrams, and sea manuals until her mind was crammed with geographic and nautical data. When her uncle was away on voyages, other tutors taught her about history, politics, etiquette, and leadership. Four years after she was first apprenticed to Harpenres, he judged that Subira was ready for a more practical education and took her along with him on his voyages. Initially, she served as a deckhand and common sailor during these voyages, forcing her to learn patience and become familiar with all the functions that keep a ship running. At age fifteen, Subira was given her first official position as the navigator's mate. After her sea baptism -- a solemn ceremony in which she knelt in Ahnatep's estuary while sand (for Ahnatep), salt water (for the sea), and a handful of powdered pearl (for the House of the South Winds) were poured over her head, followed by a lavish feast aboard one of the South Winds' flagships -- she took her place at her uncle's side aboard the Desert Wind, a swift trading vessel that sailed from Ahnatep to Yahebah and Black Rock.
For five years, she assisted her second uncle and learned firsthand the intricacies of finding latitude according to the constellations in the night sky or the positions of the sun and moon, avoiding reefs and shoals, and reading the telltale signs of fair and foul weather. Subira also learned to utilize and relish the speed and maneuverability of the Souths' ships, which could sail even with low tide, no wind, and other adverse conditions. Her hardworking, disciplined attitude, lack of aristocratic airs, and willingness to obey orders won the respect of her fellow sailors. At age twenty, Subira was appointed navigator for her very own ship, the Sweet Lark, which sailed between Ahnatep and Abura and was the first vessel to bear her father's topsail and mast modifications. She nearly burst with joy over her first real command.
Subira guided and navigated the Lark without incident for three years, working closely with the captain, another South Winder and a distant cousin. During a winter voyage, though, the Sweet Lark encountered a violent storm off the coast of Akvatar that tore down their mast and tossed the ship across the massive, raging waves like a chip of wood. As the sea towered above the ship and the sailors caught sight of a dark reef straight ahead, Subira and the captain fought with the wheel and the rudder to turn the vessel toward safety. Believing she saw a gap in the reef, Subira committed the swerving, reeling Lark to squeeze through it.
Perhaps the rain, or hope, had obscured her vision and made her see a gap where there was none. The ship's keel scraped against the jagged reef, and suddenly her timbers burst apart as the rocks pierced the Sweet Lark's hull. In a daze, Subira watched as the captain took over, calming the panicking sailors in the teeth of the storm and patching the breach. Mercifully, they caught sight of shore and managed to make an emergency landfall before the ship fell apart beneath their feet. Exhausted, the survivors collapsed into a deep sleep as soon as they reached dry land. They awoke to find themselves surrounded by vengeful Drykas natives who roamed the Sea of Grass, where their storm-blown ship had landed, and saw them as trespassers to be intercepted and killed.
Their entire crew seemed poised on the brink of death before the horsemen's bows and spears. Subira attempted to intercede with them, only to be jabbed in the arm by a Drykas' spear. It was the captain, fatigued and shivering with cold, who managed to overcome the barriers of language and culture. Using gestures and broken Common, he convinced the Drykas that they had arrived in the Sea of Grass purely by accident and had no intention of staying and that they should be allowed to leave in peace. Whether the horsemen were awed by the many-armed Eypharians and the riches they offered in exchange for a quick departure, or simply tired of hearing the captain hour after hour laboriously explaining their plight, the Drykas withdrew, and the entire crew at once began repairing their damaged ship. Using a spare mast and mending the hull breach with improvised pitch, the ship managed to limp its way along the coast back to Ahnatep within a week of the disastrous storm. Upon arriving at Ahnatep's port, the captain of the Lark succumbed to a terrible fever that, though not fatal, left him with a weak chest and frail constitution ever since.
Once Bahhet, the head of the South Winds, heard of the Lark's difficulties and of Subira's failures during the storm and the negotiation with the Drykas, Subira has not been allowed to navigate another vessel since. In the fierce competition between family members and Houses, a single costly mistake that lost all the ship's cargo and half its sailors was enough to lose Subira her position and besmirch her reputation as a navigator and ship's pilot. Since then, Subira has had to work tirelessly to regain the trust and respect of the South Winds elders in order to keep her dream of becoming a famous navigator alive. Even if she accomplishes this difficult feat, she may not get another chance to pilot a ship, for her mother has been hinting at making a noble marriage for her disgraced daughter ever since the disastrous accident with the reef -- a prospect that never fails to fill Subira's heart with misgivings.
Post-Creation
By far the most memorable occurrence before the great Djed Storm of Spring 512 AV in the subsequent years of Subira's life was the Swan Parade the winter before. Though at first it promised to be another tedious social gathering on the banks of the estuary, the rehearsal boat parade alone nearly cost Subira her life. Paired with a beautiful West Winds noblewoman named Izdihar aboard their wadj boat, Subira and a human servant named Andrick were determined to win an informal challenge to see which boat would reach the Librum's dock first. Though they won the challenge handily due to skillful, aggressive maneuvering, the joy of victory soon became terror and shock when a shark attacked their boat and tore it apart. Andrick managed to save Izdihar's life, but he sank into the deeps while a stunned Subira did her best to carry herself and Izdihar back to shore. It turned out that lovely Izdihar was in fact her childhood friend Izzy, with whom she had been estranged since age eight.
They managed to win entry into the Librum, thanks to the unexpected reemergence of Andrick, who apparently had either defeated or escaped from the shark. As both the scars beneath his torn sleeves and the deference of the Librum student revealed, Andrick was no mere butcher or servant, but a Counterweight of the Ano Cult, one of the highest-ranking members in the Librum. Subira and Izdihar were conducted within for their wounds to be healed and to meet a mysterious green-eyed Eypharian man named Rezon. These events and the following parade hinted at an intricate, unusual web of intrigue within Ahnatep that has since puzzled Subira to no end.
However, the great Djed Storm of on the first day of spring 512 AV quickly put the puzzle out of mind. Manifesting first as a massive sandstorm that turns the sky black, followed by an earthquake and a tidal wave, the storm wrecks incredible damage upon the city. However, from the destruction arises a new opportunity for Subira, who survived the storm along wih her family. She volunteered to help rebuild the South Winds' private docks, which were destroyed by the raging water, hoping in this way to show how motivated and determined she was to assist the House in even the most menial and labor-intensive tasks. With her help, fumbling though it was, the docks are reconstructed and both her House and city slowly recover from the storm's devastation.
Since then, however, Subira's life has taken quite a different turn from the path of being reinstated on a South Winds ship. Instead, as the city's ordinary existence resumed, so did her mother Sitra's efforts toward finding a noble marriage for her blunt, independent-minded, and socially graceless elder daughter. The fall of 512 AV saw Subira reluctantly embarking on a tentative courtship with a man whom she considers far below her station, a half-breed West Winds noble named Sahreni, whose mere two arms and impure blood would normally disqualify him from notice, let alone consideration. However, in their desperation to see her married, her parents have sweetened the offer to the West Winds with a sleek new khnor, a quarter of whose price will form part of Subira's dowry and which Subira has been promised to navigate should she marry Sahreni. Thus, Subira reluctantly follows the forms of courtship, while privately judging this most recent and by far most unconventional suitor for herself on whether she can envision sailing beside him through the turbulent, uncharted waters of married life. |
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by Subira on December 31st, 2011, 2:01 am 
