Saffra Floxglove

[Saffra Foxglove]

Saffra Foxglove Race: Symenestra Gender: female Age: 19 dob: Spring 17, 493 A.V. Physical Appearance: Saffra is a tall, willowy individual with the elongated arms typical of her race, and a very frail looking frame. She wears her long, straight, silvery hair down in a very plain style, and also dresses in a plain fashion, wearing shades of white and grey and black. She favors pants and blouses over skirts or dresses. Her eyes are slightly almond shaped and a light shade of amethyst. The thick, black talons of her race at the tips of her long, delicate fingers stand in sharp contrast to the pallor of her skin. Character Concept: Saffra is a curious, intelligent young woman who has very mixed feelings about the dilemma her race faces, regarding reproduction and the use of surrogates. Being raised in Kalinor, she grew up surrounded by those who had no reservations about the need for surrogates to ensure the survival of their race. She and her sister and brother are the product of such a practice, so it’s hard to reconcile the thought of her biological mother being anything other than a walking uterus, necessary to propagate new generations of Symenestra. As she grew to a better understanding of the arguments for and against the practice, and the Harvest, that some said was just racist anti-Sym propaganda, the seeds of doubt were planted. Her older sister has fully gone over to the Esterian camp, and is now totally alienated from their parents, calling their father a vile murderer and their true mother even worse, a collaborator, for allowing her husband to partake in such a racist, arrogant, horrific practice. With her sister’s refusal to undertake the Harvest, the role seems to have fallen to Saffra. But she has requested instead to go on a Gleaning, and her parents have given permission for this, as Saffra is far from skilled at any type of deception. She is a candid, rather blunt, bookish young woman who has spent much more of her time studying than interacting with others. She isn’t shy. She simply prefers books to people, usually. What her parents don’t know is that Saffra’s true intent is not to go find someone to bring back to the Cribellum, at least not right away. She has decided to go first to Sahova, to offer herself as a research assistant, in hopes of honing her alchemy and philtering skills in an attempt to conduct a little research of her own. She also wants to have access to the Great Library, to scour the ancient tomes to see if there could possibly be anything that others have missed, regarding the cause of the Symenestra reproductive woes. Better yet, she hopes that she might uncover a clue as to how to solve the problem, with magic, or otherwise. To this end, which has been at the back of her mind for several years now, she has studied all she can get her hands on written in the ancient tongue and can now read it at a very basic level. Saffra isn’t deluded enough to think that she will succeed where so many have failed. But she is too stubborn to admit defeat without even giving it a shot. Plus the time spent in Sahova will perhaps allow her to decide how she truly feels about this complex issue. Character History: Saffra is the product of her Symenestra father’s breeding with a surrogate of Vantha origins. There are varying accounts to explain how this pairing came about. Suffice it to say that the Vantha died when giving birth to Saffra, a direct result of her newborn daughter’s poison already circulating through her system. This didn’t seem to bother her father too much, and it can reasonably be assumed that her Symenestra mother, her “real” mother, was quite happy to have both a second daughter and her own life still intact. A few years later, before Saffra was old enough to understand any of this complex dynamic of parasite and host, a son was born as well, rounding out the number of children to three. Saffra and her siblings had pleasant, unexceptional childhoods, the girls learning primarily from their mother all about proper female Symenestra pursuits. Her parents were not fabulously wealthy, her father being a respected member of the Ochya, the city guard, and her mother being a teacher of sorts, one who specialized in the history of their culture. Saffra enjoyed her studies more than any mundane domestic duties and she became quite bookish, hiding herself away in order to be able to read in peace. She was intelligent enough to begin reading many of the more complex works held in the Cribellum by the time that she was twelve or so. She was especially interested in both the archaic and the arcane, and was fascinated by the transformation her own race had undergone, after the Valterrian. When her older sister was seventeen or so, the family’s peaceful existence was torn to shreds, by inner turmoil. Their father had asked his brother to take Saffra’s older sister out on a Gleaning. The girl had come back shocked and angered with her uncle, who had actually used the foray into Kalea as an opportunity to kidnap a young Lhavitian woman. There was no hiding the truth anymore, and the younger two children were made brutally aware of exactly how they had come into existence. The Gleaning was a farce, Saffra’s sister said, as she packed her things and made ready to abandon the family home. It was only an indoctrination into a far harsher, crueler quest to come. She wasn’t having any of it, she yelled, and Saffra shouldn’t either, she added in a strained undertone. Not if she had any sense of decency and moral purity. The infamy of kidnapping, rape and murder by pregnancy was only compounded by the ongoing mongrelization of the race. The Esterians were right! If a race could not survive by its own genotypes, perhaps it didn’t deserve to exist any more. Murder of innocent women was not a viable reproductive strategy! With the departure of her older sister from the home, things settled back down. But Saffra was left profoundly troubled. She had heard her parents’ side of the argument. She could not help but hear her sister’s, as loudly as she had been yelling it. She could see both sides, and she saw flaws in both. Saffra did not feel any great moral repugnance over the use of surrogates. After all, there were many such examples in nature and natural order said those who could strategize the most effectively flourished. On the other hand, it also seemed inevitable that, sooner or later, there would be no “pureblood” Symenestra. The mixed bloods were sneered at for being “impure”. But even Syms such as herself were really hybrids. And her father probably was as well, and possibly his father as well, with a co-occurring line of virgin Sym ‘mothers’ and ‘grandmothers’. With each successive generation, the strain of true blood grew more and more dilute. The Symenestra, as they had once been, were already a dead breed. With the use of surrogates, it was simply a matter of time. That in and of itself might not be such an awful thing, Saffra considered. Just like parasitism, extinction of species was something of a natural process, as were adaptation and hybridization. But of course, for her family and the others in Kalinor, this particular natural result would be a disaster. For a girl like Saffra, answers could usually be found in books. But though she looked, and looked, and looked, she found nothing of use. This wasn’t completely surprising, for obviously many, many of her race had already tried to discover the cause, and the cure, of their bane. It was a physiological problem, assuredly. But medical procedures and approaches hadn’t seemed to help. Turning her brain this way and that, Saffra began to think more and more about magic. She had heard of the amazing research facility in Sahova, a place most of those who still drew breath did not care to venture. Part of the facility was an immense library, with works going back well past the Valterrian. Most were in the ancient tongue. As her mind tumbled these ideas over and over, it seemed logical to the girl that there at least was one place one might seek some answers, some solutions. Saffra began to seek out any who possessed skills in philtering, and alchemy. These seemed the most likely fields of magic to be of use to her plans. She found some volumes in the Cribellum that allowed her to learn the basics of the ancient tongue. She studied as hard as she could, and practiced her skills, and waited. It had been made clear, when her sister left, that the traditional role of first born now would fall to her. Saffra made no verbal protests, for which her parents were entirely grateful. But she did ask to be allowed to at least set out first on a Gleaning. Her parents, thinking this would be an excellent opportunity for their slightly anti-social child to come out of her shell a bit, agreed to her request. And so it was that Saffra prepared to travel clear across Mizahar, to the far island of Sahova, to put what she had learned to use, hopefully, and to see if she could learn more. With a scholarly appreciation of the complexity of the problem, Saffra was quite looking forward to the chance to stretch her mental muscles and see what she could achieve. Possessions: 1 Set of Clothing -Silken Shirt -Silken Pants -Silken Undergarments -Silken coat -Simple Boots 1 Waterskin 1 Silken Backpack which contains: -Comb (Wood) -Brush (Wood) -Soap -Fruit Rations (1 Week’s Worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel Heirloom: (50gm worth) 600 Gold Mizas (100 SP + 500 Housing Exchange Allowance) Housing: To be assigned upon arrival on Sahova - cost free per Mirage Ledger Purchase Cost Total Starting +100 GM 100 GM Housing Excgange +500 GM 600 GM Skills, Lores, Magics, Gnosis, Languages Skill EXP Total Proficiency Acrobatics 10 RB 10 Novice Alchemy 26 SP 26 Competent Philtering 24 SP 24 Novice Fluent Language: Symenos Basic Language: Common Poor Language: Nader-Canoch Lores: Lore of The Purpose of the Gleaning Lore of the Importance Of the Harvest Thread List A New Life Fall 5, 512 AV; Vick