Basic Information
Race: Chaktawe
Birthday & Age: 92nd Day of Winter, 491 AV. 19 years old.
Gender: Female
Physical Description
Japikoa has the typical coloring of her people - silken black hair, smooth copper skin, long legs, and the trademark eyes of unrelieved black. It is not her beauty that makes her stand apart from the rest of her people, but the arrogant tilt of her chin, the twisting sneer of full lips when she thinks you're doing something particularly stupid.
She still wears the white-clay paint of her parents' tribe as a sign of her continued strife within the Tatsuwaat clan. She has been forced, though, into wearing the scarlet and vermillion pelts that the Red Crow Clan have simply because of convenience.
Character Concept
Japikoa is perhaps the most aptly named of her generation. She was, nearly from birth, a precocious child. By the time she'd reached the time of naming, most people were already calling her this in reference to the old stories of one of Eywaat's wives.
It was said that Eywaat wooed the youngest daughter of Suli's Wayhali, coming to Japikoa as an old warrior crippled with the painful disease of the joints that sometimes struck men who'd fought their whole lives. Uncaring of his appearance, she fell deeply in love with him. When he revealed his nature, she was wroth with him for the deception, and forced him to woo her for another thirty years while her own beauty faded. Only when she deemed the blossom of her youth passed did she finally succumb to Eywaat's charms, and he - enraptured by her unbending spirit - took her as a wife for the rest of her days, loving her until he released her spirit to Lhex.
What began as a gentle teasing and honor of a namesake was solidified in adulthood. Japikoa is one of the most stubborn women ever born to the Chaktawe, often disagreeing with others just to see if they have any sensible reason for their opinions or actions - and if she doesn't find their reason worthy, not even the gods themselves can convince her to their side.
Character History
The youngest daughter of her parents and first cousin of the Suli's Wayhali, and later blessed by such an auspicious name, many in the fierce Vulture Clan thought she would grow to be a great influence among their people. But as she got older, the high expectations set for her only seemed to make failure that much easier.
Her mother is an Abayla, and it was thought that she too might have the gift - but her memory for stories was bad enough that even she, at seven years old, suggested that it would be dishonor for her to try and continue. Neither could she master the names and uses of the herbs and medicines used by the healers.
Finally, when she was ten, one of her uncle's best trackers brought her out to the desert and began teaching her the basics of how to track a beast through the dusty, dry stretches of the Burning Lands. She took to it with the soul-deep relief of a person who's found their calling. It was, quite literally, the only thing she was any good at.
Tarahekip trained her to be a tracker, as well as to wield the deadly spears the the hunters used against the beasts of the sands. Because of her constant physical activity, she came to womanhood without the usual gawkiness, her long limbs honed and responsive. She was proud of her accomplishments, of her fierceness, of her independence. She helped the others of her tribe track the Eypharians who encroached into their territory, did battle as any young warrior would. At night, she dreamed of marrying a warrior as fierce as Tarahekip, who she idolized, of raising a clutch of strong, bold children...
That dream ended when she was fifteen, and her Searching shattered all her hopes.
She didn't speak of what she saw. When she dragged back into the camp a week later, nearing the end of her water and exhausted, she simply went to her mother's tent and collapsed, and didn't move for another week.
She soon returned to the tracking that she'd been so good at, but there was something more bitter about her now; she was quicker with a harsh word, more disagreeable, would contradict people simply because they'd given an order instead of requesting her aid. It wasn't long before even Tarahekip sent her back to the Wayhali in what should have been shame - but she went with her head high and her shoulders back, and instead of hiding in her uncle's tent she sat proudly before it for all to see her. The only one who could earn a soft word or smile for Japikoa during this tumultuous time was her cousin's new wife. But even though the warrior-girl was kind to her, she refused to let any friendship blossom between them, gently rebuffing any of her attempts as if to protect them both from some unknown disaster.
A year later, the now insufferable teenager was married to the eldest son of the Wayhali of Tatsuwaat. Perhaps Nayati was simply trying to find a peaceful place for his poor cousin to be happy. Perhaps he was glad to be rid of her. Or perhaps the other Wayhali had simply made a good enough offer. Whatever the reason, she was married and moved to the peaceful, easy-going Red Crow Clan at the end of Spring, just in time to bask in the shade of the cool keerdash trees.
She
hated it. The fierce warrior within her chafed at the gentle, artistic ways of her new husband's family. Her only consolation was that her heavy-lidded husband would one day be the Wayhali, which would give
her a measure of power.
A few weeks later, when the tribes attended the Summer Gathering, the Kalanue brought with them some fever that they'd acquired trading with the Benshira. It took a few days for the healers to get a lock on what exactly was going on, and how to treat it. By that time, more than thirty people had been killed - one of whom was Japikoa's new husband, still a virtual stranger to her.
She took it with surprisingly stride, as if she'd expected that the marriage were too good to be true. When enough time passed to confirm that she was not carrying her husband's child, the Wayhali named his second son heir to his position. And Japikoa was left alone in a tribe that thought her strange and arrogant, aggressive beyond any necessity, a baral among them.
Training (Skills, Arcana, Gnosis, Lore)
Abilities: Sense Motion
Can go 10 days without water
Skills:Starting Package:Camouflage: 10/100 (Racial Bonus)
Tracking: 30/100
Spears: 15/100
Riding (Horses): 5/100
Experience:---
Lores:Geography - Burning Lands
(waiting until after Searching scene to choose the second)
Chevas: Mark shared with Nala
Equipment and Possessions
Starting Package:1 set of daytime clothing, 1 cloak painted to aid as camouflage in the sands
1 waterskin
1 Backpack: Toiletries, various dried foodstuffs, a small knife, flint & steel
1 large tent (4 person)
Various embroidered pillows and a few rugs (traded for lantern, torches, tarp, and rope in Starting Package)
1 bedroll
1 blanket
Desertbred Horse with a full set of tack
1 large set of saddlebags.
Purchased:LongspearRaven pendant on a necklace
Rider of Le'achka (Fireheart)
Family heirloom:
The dress that was given to her by her mother for her marriage. The top is made of nearly transparent black linen, and the skirt is woven out of hundreds of oil-black vulture feathers.
Ledger
+100 gm (Starting Package)
+10 gm (Price of fishing kit from Starting Package)
-5 gm : 1 lb. Paints/Dyes (Unusual) [SP]
-5 gm: Holy Symbol, Copper
-5 gm: Longspear
_____
100 gm, 0 sm, 0 cp
Thread List
by Japikoa on April 13th, 2010, 1:24 am 
