Name: Aneira Haimati
Race: Mixed Blood - Vantha & Human
Age: 24; born Season of Winter, 485 AV
Gender: Female
Aneira's features are delicate and sharp: from a slender, aquiline nose to the long, narrow chin beneath it. She is not beautiful in any traditional sense, but is quite small instead, appearing to have never quite shaken off the last vestiges of childhood as far as height and weight go: a mere 5'1" and 110 pounds. A slick, pin-straight fall of black hair overwhelms her frame, dark in comparison to the twin lapis-lazuli hues of her eyes, which shift colour as quickly as the passing of each moment. Her skin is snow-smooth and absent of imperfection, aside from a single inking etched around her left fingers and wrist. She dresses as a canvas for the trinkets and baubles she crafts, often adorning strings of them through her intricately wrapped and braided hair.
Deeply spiritual, Aneira finds meaning in her craft, carving and creating intricate masks and costumery. Her heritage instilled in her the value of family and history, and the significance of myths and tales passed down through generations. For Aneira, the past holds so much wisdom, and all in the present must respond to a divine calling to honor and learn from their legacies, shaping their identities around these lessons. She believes that all gifts given - dancing, music, and storytelling - must be used to pay respect. Aneira finds a connection to lost histories and spirits in the masks she crafts and the treasures she collects. Her attachment to her collection and the trinkets within it often seems unearthly or even odd, precisely because there is more there than meets the eye.
Inquisitive and passionately interested, Aneira sways from being excessively talkative to deeply introspective and spiritual. She is not shy, but carries a vibrant air of energy about her, and often seems to be either ignorant of ordinary social customs or just uninterested in practicing them. She regards many courtesies as a waste of time, but isn't impolite. Nor is she impatient, content to wile away the hours with any task that pleases her.
Aneira follows her instincts and her interests without shame, and finds herself either quickly engaged by or hurriedly shunned by others. This has taught her to be very accepting: she can shrug most anything off, and has an "it is what it is" mentality. While these traits keep her emotions from going to one extreme or another too often, she's mellow in a very genuine way, and not afraid to speak her mind. When she -is- inspired to anger or some extreme emotion, the result broods and crackles beneath the surface for days, weeks, or even longer; leading to passionate outbursts, eventually.
Her father's fanciful tales of other lands and cultures inspired Aneira to be quite unsatisfied with the here and now. To Aneira, where she is is never enough. No matter how fascinating or interesting a place or person might be, she is constantly seeking more. In everything, she finds life and fuel for imagination - all good things - but she often seems to be perpetually distracted by fantastical ideas: places, people, and stories that do not truly exist, but occupy her mind.
That is not to say that she does not find pleasure in her travels or in her company. Much to the contrary, she loves to learn about other people and to pursue deep relationships, and to soak in rich, new environments. It is simply that, no matter how much she comes to love a place, she can never seem to settle. She believes in what cannot be seen beyond the horizon. She believes in hidden corners in twisted streets and in lost treasures in locked chests. She believes in connections to lost souls.
All of these reasons lend heat to Aneira's passion for her masks. When she crafts or wears a mask, she can more fully express a facet of herself or some faraway life that she might otherwise never experience. She can bring to life so many of the stories she knows; so many of the long, lost tales and souls she feels she knows so well. She can feel connected, and she can give a voice - whether hers or someone else's. She can flit from one life to another - lives she believes she has lived.
And so she travels from place to place with her cart of masks, always setting up her makeshift shop for a short time, seeking homes and kindred spirits for her masks. And, too, she never leaves a place without finding something new to add to her beloved collection - be it a piece of jewelry, a doll, or a stone. Each piece has a story: one she will eagerly tell, if asked. And in the end, she always returns to Avanthal, back to her studio, in the place she feels closest to home. |
by Aneira Haimati on February 10th, 2010, 5:41 pm 
