Cynthea Wode

[Cynthea Wode]

Cynthea Wode Appearance Race: Human Gender: Female Age: Twenty-five Birthday: 19, Summer, 489 AV. Birthplace: Syliras Appearance: Cynthea has long hair, a dark, glossy brown in colour, and light nearly almond-coloured eyes. She has clear, smooth skin and tends to wear elaborate, elegant clothes, and enough makeup to elevate her from beautiful to flawless. Underneath her finery, Cynthea has scars, most of which are on her back. Huge, ugly things that turn most of the skin there into white scar tissue or old, puckered burns. She tends to keep them covered up. Her Ranuri gnosis mark is situated just next to her pubic bone, and the deep wine-coloured chain shaped mark is something she passes off as a birthmark or tattoo to the few who see it. Character Concept Cynthea is beautiful, and she knows it. If someone else happened to think otherwise she wouldn't care because, in her mind at least, they would have to be wrong, lying and quite possibly blind. To say she is a confident woman would be quite an understatement, and while her words tend to be blunt, with a complete disregard to how anyone else thinks of her, she can be quite charming when she puts her mind to it - mainly when she either likes someone a lot, or wants something from them. Arrogant and vain are also words used to describe her, and with the amount of time she takes working on her appearance - and the amount of time she spends admiring herself as she walks - neither would be inaccurate. If she had a choice between starving for a night or having to wear rags for a day, she would choose the former without even the barest pause - then probably at least try and flirt her way into getting a meal. She's very materialistic, and values clothes and her possessions more than she should. Despite her confidence, Cynthea has a deep hatred of being touched, especially without being asked first. This is partly due to her gnosis mark making every skin-on-skin contact difficult, but she also dislikes the intimacy of being in contact with other people like that. A simple handshake between new associates is only alright, in her mind, when she's wearing gloves, and she would only go further than that under rare, or extreme, circumstances. Cynthea is, at her heart, a compassionate woman. Not good, definitely not selfless, but while she pretends that the only things she cares about are her appearance and her own wellbeing, in that order, other people's welfare rates somewhere slightly higher. She's stubborn too, and fiercely independent; fine with asking for help, but only if she feels like either she's manipulated the other person into helping her, or else they've agreed that she'll owe them in the future. Underneath her beauty, Cynthea is filled with a burning desire for vengeance. Not just to find and rescue her family and lover, although that is also one of her long-term aims, but to find and kill every person responsible for their slavery, and she has no qualms whatsoever about killing slavers, or anyone who benefits from their work. Character History Cynthea Wode grew up in a wealthy family. Her parents were merchants, Isabel and Sebastian Wode, and Cynthea was their first child. They traveled a lot, and for the most part took their children with them - for the first two seasons of her life, and the two seasons following each of her siblings' births the family would stay in whatever city they were in at the time, her parents taking the time to develop new business arrangements. Cynthea's first sister, Cara, was born four years after her, and her brother, Mathias, came three years after that. Dana, the last of the Wode siblings, was born four years after Mathias, and was completely unexpected. Cynthea had her doubts that her brother, with his black hair and too-pale skin, was actually her father's son, but any issue her parents had with that was sorted out without her, or her siblings, knowledge. By the time she was twelve, the only time Cynthea wasn't helping her parents was when she was looking after her siblings. Sometimes she'd go with her mother to the shops and negotiate new arrangements with shops, other times accompany her father as he planned routes through the cities, or checked his calculations - more for her own benefit than his - as he tallied the numbers up and counted out their profit. It was generally agreed, although rarely mentioned, that Cynthea would be taking over the family business when she became old enough to do it, and one of her siblings would be expected to look after their parents when they became old enough to need it. These plans, and any others that Cynthea had not been privy to, were brutally blown apart when slavers attacked. It was late at night and Cynthea only realised something was wrong when men pushed into her tent and dragged her, kicking and screaming, out of it. The caravan guards fought, as did Cynthea's parents, and only surrendered when the children were threatened. After being disarmed, most of the guards and Cynthea's father were murdered, and the others were taken captive. Cynthea watched as her mother was sold into a brothel, but did not see what happened to her sisters and brother - given their ages at the time, she often worried that they had not been sold at all, and simply killed. Cynthea herself was sold to an unpleasant older man who wanted her for her beauty. Most of the time he would simply touch her, but sometimes, often when he had been drinking, he did a lot more. She was sold again when she was seventen, less than a year later. The man who bought her this time had paid a ridiculously large amount, simply because finding a healthy, young 'specimen' was difficult, or so he told her on the ride back to his house. The man, she never did learn his name, sold poisons, and he needed someone to practice on. His experiments were mostly done on her back, with her strapped face-down onto a table beforehand, because he intended to sell her afterwards and, as he was fond of saying, she wouldn't be bought by anyone interested in her back. One day, two weeks after she became nineteen, Cynthea lay on the floor, unemotional and unmoving, thinking about her sisters and brother and hoping (doubting) that they were somewhere safe, when Nikali appeared in front of her, and gave her the Ranuri gnosis mark. As is often the case with the marks Nikali bestows, it wasn't long before Cynthea's life took a swift, sudden jump upwards. She started taking an interest in her master's work, to the extent that she helped him with it, carefully cataloging the damages inflicted upon her, and even going as far as describing what the different poisons felt like, to help. Four months into her new lease of life, good fortune struck again. A brothel owner heard about Cynthea's mark and, after seeing it for himself, paid her master handsomely to buy her. He agreed - not realising what it was he was giving up - and Cynthea was sold for the third, and last, time. Unlike before, at the brothel Cynthea had a value, she was the only person there with a Ranuri gnosis mark, and one of two with a gnosis of any sort. The other gnosis-bearer was a Konti, a former healer, named Nia, and it was she who was assigned the task of helping Cynthea adjust to her new life, and heal her back. There was little that could be done to improve her back's aesthetics, but Nia's work at least made Cynthea able to lie down without pain. Due to her scars, the brothel owner decided to make Cynthea a masseur, not a prostitute, and Nia agreed to teach her. In the years Cynthea worked there, she and Nia grew close. Very close. Most of the other slaves distrusted them, as they were treated better than the others due to their marks, and as they shared a room and, when clients paid enough, a job, they spent more than enough time together to become friends. Eventually, when Cynthea was in her early twenties, they became lovers, too. The two women plotted to run away together, return to Nia's home and out their lives peacefully. It was a fantasy, and inside they both knew it would never happen, but they planned it all the same. However, when Cynthea was twenty-six, Nia was sold. Cynthea was never told who bought her, although she knew they must have been rich and influential. Alone again, Cynthea spent nearly a year passively obedient but inwardly despairing before finally taking matters into her own hands, and using the trust she had slowly garnered to escape the brothel. The first thing she did when she was free was return to her former master, the poisoner, and poison his cup. The second thing she did was watch him die. After that, Cynthea walked until she found a caravan, seduced her way onto it, and left that part of Mizahar. The caravan, she discovered, was heading towards Lhavit, and so Lhavit was where she went. Language Fluent Language: Common Basic Language: Konti Poor Language: Fratava Skills Skill EXP Total Proficiency Massage 15 SP, 15 RB 30 Competent Poison 20 SP 20 Novice Seduction 15 SP 15 Novice Lores Lore of Human Anatomy Lore of the Root Poison Family Gnosis One positive mark of the Ranuri Gnosis Possessions 1 Set of Clothing -Simple Shirt -Simple Skirt -Simple Undergarments -Simple Coat -Simple Boots -Gloves 1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Comb (Bone) -Brush (Bone) -Soap -Razor -Balanced Rations (1 Week's worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel -Toilette Kit -Hair Kit 45 GM Heirloom: A cheap bracelet made from various coloured strings intertwined together. It was a gift from Nia, and something Cynthea wears constantly. Housing Location: Lhavit House: Solar Wind Apartment Ledger Purchase Cost Total Starting +100 GM 100 GM Toilette Kit -25 GM 75 GM Hair Kit -25 GM 50 GM Llama wool gloves -50SM 45 GM Thread List Fall, 514 AV Day Thread Participants Graded Rewards 9 A Town Called Lhavit Sal Mander X X