Password: “Rats,” only 4-5 letters. *Sigh* I wanted to use ranunculaceous…
Name: Asrai De Dannan though nicknamed “Jynx”
Age: Approximately two hundred years in Faerie. She is very young to the practically immortal Sidhe and is in essence a teenager. She appears about 17 or so.
Race: Sidhe, a.k.a. Tylwyth Teg, Tuatha De Dannan, etc, etc...
Appearance:
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/6391/asrai3he.jpg
Asrai has long pale blonde hair and violet eyes. She has a slender frame, typical of the sidhe, but due to some pixie ancestry, she is small in stature, unlike the normal tall and willowy Fae. The Sidhe have a unique presence and are a race of extreme beauty that may at times literally mesmerize. It affects the more mortal races more severely then others. Having been around Sidhe who are unaffected by this, Jynx is completely oblivious to the effect when she leaves Faerie.
Bio: In some of the most remote sections of Liandra, the Sidhe, the Faery Folk, dwell. They used to be the favored people of the goddess Liandra until some fight or another led to the division of Faerie. Separated into two courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie, they violently warred since the time of that division. In all of Lindrea, there were few animosities as fierce as those between the two Faerie courts. Though once a true immortal race, untouched by death, after repeated fighting with no consequences since no one ever died, the goddess grew angry and after particularly brutal battle, she punished them by making all injuries permanent and all deaths final. Unfortunately, the fighting never really stopped. War was widespread through all of Liandra and the Tylwyth Teg were embroiled in outside politics as well. Unseelie wights, not Sidhe, but under their control, were a scourge on the land. Both courts of the Sidhe were fearsome in battle. There was very little as frightening as being chased down by the Sluagh of the Unseelie Court, to finding oneself the prey of the Wild Hunt, and to cross the Seelies was just as bad. The war took a severe toll on both courts, the Seelie court had always been more inclined towards peace and by this time, recognizing that if they continued this path Liandra would be destroyed. Even the Unholy host did not want to see the world destroyed, so participated as well. The Seelie Queen, Finbheara, was one of the twelve to sing the final ballad to Liandra. Seelie and Unseelie alike were touched by the ballad and ashamed of their actions, both retreated to the faerie mounds and remained cut off from the rest of millenia (aside from the occasional mortal who wandered into a faerie ring) for the next few millenia. The courts remained separate and there was some interaction between them, but for the most part they were merely civil if not peaceful. To the rest of the world, the Sidhe were just a faded memory, fairy tails for children.
Centuries passed, before old animosities began to stir once more. The sidhe lived long and never forgot. They remained quiet during the time, in respect to the goddess, but strange things began to affect Faerie, causing trouble between the Unseelie and the Seelie. The Sidhe were not like mortals producing frequently, but the incidents of Sidhe having children grew increasingly rare, until hundreds of years had passed and yet no child was born. A strange sickness began to affect the Tylwyth Teg, even killing a few. This was unthinkeable. As hostilities turned into bloody battles once more between the Seelie and Unseelie courts, the sidhe and all manner unseelie and seelie wights began to leave the boundaries Faerie into the rest of Liandra. The Sidhe began to believe that somehow there was a lost Ballad, one which would cure the Sidhe. Both courts wanted it and would fight hard to get it.
The Unseelie Queen, Finbheara, died shortly after the first Ballad Light Festival, suceeded by Maeve, who came to be considered one of the greatest of the Unseelie rulers. She led them through a golden age, but as things fell apart in the rest of Liandra, Faerie was no different. No child had been born to the Sidhe in some time and Maeve knew that she was dying. In order to retain the throne, typically the king or queen must have a child as a successor. There was squabbling among the Seelie and very few with the capacity to rule, furthermore the sickness was affecting the older Sidhe and there was some panic that the race might be wiped out entirely. In an effort to preserve the Seelie court as well as the species as a whole, the seelie performed a song of power, utilizing the few remembered notes from the Ballad of Light, in order to try and enable children to be born to the Sidhe once more. The plan seemed to fail and the Sidhe were beginning to lose hope. Then ten years later coinciding with the festival, Maeve became pregnant. She was unfortunately the only one and a daughter, Asrai, was born to her nine months later.
Asrai had no friends growing up, the other Sidhe, even the ones still considered to be quite young, were all over a millenia older. Though Maeve’s daughter as the only child left, she was doted upon as she grew up and sheltered as much as she could be during the war that was quickly spiraling out of control. Asrai seemed to attract trouble, the unseelies considered her existence a deliberate flaunt, and worried that the Seelie court would prosper as they died out. She also wasn’t always the graceful Sidhe that they were all so used to and was even downright clumsy at times, having a knack for causing things to go wrong. She wasn’t yet three before she earned the nickname Jynx as a result, and has been called that ever since.
Jynx possessed the talent for songcraft and was schooled in magery through song. She had a beautiful voice said to rival even Finbheara’s. She learned about the other races and places of Liandra and has always been curious about them and not as disdainful as most of the sidhe view some of the mortal races.
Soon the fighting turned extremely brutal and the Unseelie attacked the seelie court directly, with frightening numbers that they had managed to conceal from the seelie. Meeting with her mother one final time, she was told to leave, to find that ballad that would save the sidhe. Escaping into the forests, her departure did not remain secret for long and Jynx found herself the prey in one of the Wild Hunts. She ran faster than she ever had in her life, she reached a river and probably would have been caught, if her own clumsiness hadn’t saved her. Tripping, she fell into the river and was quickly swept with the current away from the hunt. The unseelie want what Jynx is looking for and have sent out people of their own to search for the source of the trouble or a cure and to stop Jynx from doing the same.
Jynx knows that the seelie can hold there own against the seelie, it was far more important that she do what her mother requested and look for a way to help the sidhe race as a whole. Having never left her home before or encountered some of the races, aside from a dragon and an elf who on separate occasions visited the seelie court, almost everything is unfamilar. She’s been traveling, posing as a bard, looking for anything that might help and trying to blend in. Unfortunately, Jynx isn’t the type to blend in and she is completely clueless as to just how miserably she fails at this. Though she knows her “mission” is important, she loves the opportunity to travel to these places she’d only before read about.
Personality: Intelligent but naïve, curious and guileless. Unlike the sidhe which have lived since the time of the first Ballad of the Light Festival, who are utterly impossible to read, Jynx is young and wears her heart on her sleeve. Though kind-hearted, she is sometimes clumsy. It’s difficult to tell whether she is extremely lucky or extremely unlucky, at times her mere presence seems to cause trouble and other times it ends it.
Weapon/s of Choice: She does not like weapons, but is skilled in archery. Mostly she relies on her songcraft magic.
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Tying her pale blonde hair into a braid, Jynx surveyed the small room of the Broken Adder, an inn located at the Aquila wharf. Oblivious to the somewhat ominous name of the inn, Jynx had chosen it because she was considering booking passage to one of the nearby islands. She was somewhat dismayed at the rundown condition, but she supposed it would do for a night or two. Jynx did not have any really good clue as to where she should search. For now, she was just traveling wherever the wind took her, so to speak. Time passed much differently here than in Faerie. That was why in the past a mortal might wander into one of the Faerie rings which served as direct links to Faerie and stay there for a few hours only to come out again and find everyone around him long since dead. There were theories as to why this would be true in that part of Liandra, but nothing confirmed. It mattered little to the Sidhe. Jynx had never seen any of the mortal races such as humans until a month ago (standard Liandra time), when she had left her home to look for a cure for the Sidhe. It was kind of exciting, she hoped she hadn’t been staring too much when she’d hit the first town. Ironically, Jynx hadn’t even noticed the looks she was drawing. Now while she wasn’t exactly a seasoned pro in the way everything worked in the rest of Liandra, it was in fact nothing like her home, but she had her bearings now. She didn’t have many belongings, she did not take much with her when she left Faerie and had not acquired much when she left, merely essentials. There had been problems at first because of coin, she could create money, but it would fade. That was why she earned money as a bard now. The meager items she had, Jynx decided, she could leave in the room. Jynx would bring her bag because she planned on getting more supplies and also her lyre, not because she’d need it, but simply because she took it everywhere. Picking it up, she plucked one string once, frowning slightly because the note sounded off.
Humming softly to herself, in order to test the tune, she walked out of the room and shut the door firmly behind her before turning to head down the hall. She had only gotten a few steps when a shady looking character, appeared at the other end, his gaze immediately focusing on her. Jynx had an other-worldly air about her, that drew attention, but most likely that was not what caught the man’s eye. Instead it was likely her rather nice attire and the pendant around her neck. Jynx kept on walking, intent on the instrument in her hands. As Jynx passed the man, still not looking up from the lyre, he bumped into her, his hands skillfully lifting her purse. Jynx looked up, her gaze focusing on the man.
“I’m terribly sorry.”
Their gazes locked for a moment and the man froze then tripped over his own feet, hitting the ground with a thump. By this point Jynx’s focus was on her instrument once more as she continued on down the hall, not even noticing the man fell. When she reached the stairs though, she decided to check her purse to make sure she had enough money for a meal at the tavern next door. “Marlon’s Crest” it was called. Jynx frowned when she realized she didn’t have her money purse. She must have left it back in the room. Walking past the man again, she walked over to the door to pull it open, as the man moved towards her once more with a different purpose. Paying him no mind, she yanking the door open, unwittingly hitting him hard in the face. The man dropped the purse on the ground and curious as to what the thump was, Jynx closed the door to reveal the man on the floor with his hand over his eye and her purse lying on the floor.
“It’s my purse. You found it, I must have dropped it. Thanks!” Jynx said, reaching down to pick up the money purse. She didn’t bother to consider why he was on the ground, assuming it was because he was going to pick it up. The man grumbled, angry and about ready to attack her at this point, but when Jynx whirled back around, her back clipped him right in the side of the head and he decided to cut his losses and run as Jynx went down the hall to the stairs.
Managing to pass through the main floor of the inn without incident, Jynx left the building and went to the tavern next door, hearing the sounds of shouting as she pushed open the door. She wasn’t entirely positive if the fight had ended or was just about to begin, she was guessing on the latter though. Jynx took a step into the tavern, not yet decided on whether she should just leave before it got worse or try to help calm things down. As she moved forward, she stopped jerking suddenly when she realized that her cloak was stuck, giving it a yank, it pulled out abruptly, the momentum propelling her back a step just as a man stood up from his table to head towards the main bar where all the trouble seemed to be. Jynx smacked into him, not hard enough to knock him over, but hard enough so that the contents of the drink he was carrying flew into the face of another patron. The situation in the bar was already tense, all it took was something small to make them all snap. Temporarily blinded by the drink, the man reacted and threw a punch… in the wrong direction, hitting another man in the face. She seemed to have caused a chain reaction as people began to fight less discriminately and all hell broke loose.
Oh dear…