Post by Venus on Sept 12, 2009 7:57:44 GMT -5
Name: Leander – full ceremonial title reads ‘roar of the tiger, limitless hope’. Family name is Taisha.
Nickname: None, but Venus sometimes names him with the fond diminutive '-in', which occasionally has an 'r' added for pronunciation purposes. It is used in varying degrees of formality: the most proper attached to his full family name, 'Taisharin'. A step down is a contraction of the family name, 'Tairin'. And the least formal - almost an endearment - would be the use of it with his first name, 'Leanderin'.
Age in Moons: 76 moons
Clan: Shantari
Physical description: Naturally sleek and well-proportioned, Leander sports a covering of flat teardrop scales, each one shining almost blindingly silver. When caught by light the colour splinters, each shard a different shade – from mellow blues to crimson, golds and macabre black. He has a certain amount of control over which colour emerges; the magic is instinctual, a side-effect of the spell used at his naming ceremony to imbue the Shantari tattoos into his skin. However, when he isn’t consciously controlling the reflections, they often fall back to default protocol and mirror the movement of his moods rather than his whims. The necessary chest armour blends perfectly with the rest of his body, composed of overlapped silver plates of toughened scale. His eyes slant above curving cheekbones, forest green shot through with traces of sapphire. The fin running along his spine is sharp-edged and as changeable as the reflection of his silver hide; the translucent colouring can shift both with and independently of his scales, but it takes more concentration to perform the latter, whilst the former is the natural reaction. His claws and the pair of horns sitting at the top of his skull are ivory; his horns have a single twist in the centre, but otherwise they are a perfect reflex curve. Strangely enough, each of his claws also carry this trait: just before the sharpened tip, they corkscrew once and return to a normal stabbing point. The theme continues with the weapon sitting at the end of his tail, where skin and scale toughens into something more resembling metal than hide. A seamless twist leads into the serrated edges of a flexible blade, sharp enough to cut whilst still retaining the ability to move as the tip of a tail usually would.
Personality: Leander wants to be a hero; he really does. His whole psyche remains tuned to the Shantari ideals of family links, protection and the importance of blood and status, and he would rather die than break the vows he made as a juvenile. But despite his attempts to remain as the stereotypical optimist, jovial and smiling and not falling into the trap of asking the fatal question, ‘What happens if I fail?’, life as a wanderer has left him jaded. He hides it well beneath his banter, but as time wears on and his confidence in his beliefs begins to waver it becomes more and more obvious. And so he fights with this indecision splitting him in two; the determination to be a proud warrior for a clan that wavers on the brink of extinction battling against his new, darker world-view. What impact the internal conflict has on his ability to be this strong warrior, this hero, remains to be seen.
History: Being born into one of the primary Greater Noble families placed responsibility on Leander from a young age; he allowed it shape him into a proud and upstanding example of what a Shantari warrior should be, making the Taisha family proud and elevating their status in the clan at large. Interestingly, he was an anomaly compared to his relatives: the usual colouring of the Taisha lay in the spectrum of reds, browns and bronzes – always accompanied with the tiger-like stripes which give the family its derivative name. When Leander hatched as a silver amd stripeless, he was received with a mixture of wonder and scepticism. It didn’t take him long to prove his critics wrong, both when his clan tattoos manifested as his missing tiger stripes and the fast progress he made during training. He was in the latter stages of his apprenticeship when the war began. His survival in the final ambush was more a stroke of luck than skill on his part; injured and bleeding, he was struck down from the sky and plummeted into the sea. The salt-water served as a natural antiseptic, keeping him alive long enough for him to be washed up on the mainland. He was discovered by a passing healer, who used magic to seal his wounds and restore his strength. It took him a full week to wake up from the healing sleep – and instead of continuing to rest, Leander left immediately for Shantari territory. He arrived to find the island empty; absent of the bodies of his family and clan, but also with no sign of the destructive power of their enemy, once again sealed in the catacombs. Lost and questioning himself, he left – searching far and wide for some explanation of what happened after he fell into the sea, for any evidence that his clan were still alive. During his wanderings he faced many hardships, saw and experienced many things that began to twist his single cherished hope and the long-held optimistic perceptions of the world. After many years, answers to his questions about the last battle were given in the form of Venus. But old wounds still festered, and Leander was far from untouched by his experiences in those long years of solitary travel. His resolve is now beginning to waver, his convictions failing. How this will affect him in the future is unclear…
Other: Skills-wise, Leander is an able fighter. His magic is of a moderate level and inclines itself towards the manipulation of air over the other elements, but he can be versatile if necessary. As a Shantari, he has the innate ability to read auras and possesses some mind skills, but not to the extent of Venus’ ability with manipulation. Currently Leander is conducting an investigation beyond the bounds of the mainland under her request, but he would normally try and stay as near to his last remaining clan-mate as possible – both as her childhood friend and for protection purposes.
Nickname: None, but Venus sometimes names him with the fond diminutive '-in', which occasionally has an 'r' added for pronunciation purposes. It is used in varying degrees of formality: the most proper attached to his full family name, 'Taisharin'. A step down is a contraction of the family name, 'Tairin'. And the least formal - almost an endearment - would be the use of it with his first name, 'Leanderin'.
Age in Moons: 76 moons
Clan: Shantari
Physical description: Naturally sleek and well-proportioned, Leander sports a covering of flat teardrop scales, each one shining almost blindingly silver. When caught by light the colour splinters, each shard a different shade – from mellow blues to crimson, golds and macabre black. He has a certain amount of control over which colour emerges; the magic is instinctual, a side-effect of the spell used at his naming ceremony to imbue the Shantari tattoos into his skin. However, when he isn’t consciously controlling the reflections, they often fall back to default protocol and mirror the movement of his moods rather than his whims. The necessary chest armour blends perfectly with the rest of his body, composed of overlapped silver plates of toughened scale. His eyes slant above curving cheekbones, forest green shot through with traces of sapphire. The fin running along his spine is sharp-edged and as changeable as the reflection of his silver hide; the translucent colouring can shift both with and independently of his scales, but it takes more concentration to perform the latter, whilst the former is the natural reaction. His claws and the pair of horns sitting at the top of his skull are ivory; his horns have a single twist in the centre, but otherwise they are a perfect reflex curve. Strangely enough, each of his claws also carry this trait: just before the sharpened tip, they corkscrew once and return to a normal stabbing point. The theme continues with the weapon sitting at the end of his tail, where skin and scale toughens into something more resembling metal than hide. A seamless twist leads into the serrated edges of a flexible blade, sharp enough to cut whilst still retaining the ability to move as the tip of a tail usually would.
Personality: Leander wants to be a hero; he really does. His whole psyche remains tuned to the Shantari ideals of family links, protection and the importance of blood and status, and he would rather die than break the vows he made as a juvenile. But despite his attempts to remain as the stereotypical optimist, jovial and smiling and not falling into the trap of asking the fatal question, ‘What happens if I fail?’, life as a wanderer has left him jaded. He hides it well beneath his banter, but as time wears on and his confidence in his beliefs begins to waver it becomes more and more obvious. And so he fights with this indecision splitting him in two; the determination to be a proud warrior for a clan that wavers on the brink of extinction battling against his new, darker world-view. What impact the internal conflict has on his ability to be this strong warrior, this hero, remains to be seen.
History: Being born into one of the primary Greater Noble families placed responsibility on Leander from a young age; he allowed it shape him into a proud and upstanding example of what a Shantari warrior should be, making the Taisha family proud and elevating their status in the clan at large. Interestingly, he was an anomaly compared to his relatives: the usual colouring of the Taisha lay in the spectrum of reds, browns and bronzes – always accompanied with the tiger-like stripes which give the family its derivative name. When Leander hatched as a silver amd stripeless, he was received with a mixture of wonder and scepticism. It didn’t take him long to prove his critics wrong, both when his clan tattoos manifested as his missing tiger stripes and the fast progress he made during training. He was in the latter stages of his apprenticeship when the war began. His survival in the final ambush was more a stroke of luck than skill on his part; injured and bleeding, he was struck down from the sky and plummeted into the sea. The salt-water served as a natural antiseptic, keeping him alive long enough for him to be washed up on the mainland. He was discovered by a passing healer, who used magic to seal his wounds and restore his strength. It took him a full week to wake up from the healing sleep – and instead of continuing to rest, Leander left immediately for Shantari territory. He arrived to find the island empty; absent of the bodies of his family and clan, but also with no sign of the destructive power of their enemy, once again sealed in the catacombs. Lost and questioning himself, he left – searching far and wide for some explanation of what happened after he fell into the sea, for any evidence that his clan were still alive. During his wanderings he faced many hardships, saw and experienced many things that began to twist his single cherished hope and the long-held optimistic perceptions of the world. After many years, answers to his questions about the last battle were given in the form of Venus. But old wounds still festered, and Leander was far from untouched by his experiences in those long years of solitary travel. His resolve is now beginning to waver, his convictions failing. How this will affect him in the future is unclear…
Other: Skills-wise, Leander is an able fighter. His magic is of a moderate level and inclines itself towards the manipulation of air over the other elements, but he can be versatile if necessary. As a Shantari, he has the innate ability to read auras and possesses some mind skills, but not to the extent of Venus’ ability with manipulation. Currently Leander is conducting an investigation beyond the bounds of the mainland under her request, but he would normally try and stay as near to his last remaining clan-mate as possible – both as her childhood friend and for protection purposes.