Name: Valera (VUH-lair-uh) and Seaella Tathron (TAY-thron)
Nicknames: Val or Lera. Shae or Bunny. Though both only like being called their nickname by the other and their parents when the couple was still living. Especially Seaella with “Bunny.” NEVER call her Bunny unless you’re Valera. It’s for your own good.
Race: Elves
Age: Valera: 14, almost 15
Seaella: 9
Relationship: Seaella is Valera’s adopted sister, though they may as well be blood-related the way they act.
Appearance: See above picture. Valera has silvery gray eyes, while Seaella’s are a golden red. Note: Valera’s ears are not as long as in the picture and are easily concealed by her hood, while Seaella’s are a bit more pointed. They both have fair skin, and look deceptively fragile.
Clothes Wear: They favor the outfits and colors above. They both have a cloak, Valera’s a grayish-green and Seaella’s an orange-red.
Valera has made a habit of dressing in her light armor--designed by her father to be thin and light, but stronger than human-made armor--since scarcely a day goes by without training or adventuring in the woods she called home.
Seaella usually wears a single cuff made of a reddish-gold metal, is never seen without a small stone phoenix hanging around her neck, and usually wears an ornate belt on which she keeps her small weapon because, “you never know when it’ll come in handy.”
Weapons: Valera: She has an ornate sword forged by her father, who was the most revered blacksmith in the land. The blade takes the shape of a narrow sword, with a section of exaggerated serrates near the center that consumes about a foot and a half of the silver blade. The crossguard is formed into two fierce wolf heads, and the pummel is a baying wolf. An inscription is engraved on the length of the blade (half on one side, the other on the opposite) in the swirling letters of ancient elvish, and set apart in pale green: “Life to him who mercy will. Death to him who wishes ill. Mercy given, or mercy gained; think upon the lives you’ve slain.” She keeps this at her belt at all times in its black sheath inscribed with the same rhyme wrapping around it. Her other weapon is a staff, which she grabbed during their escape. Made of the most solid wood in the land, vines are carved and painted into it. A large stone of swirling silver and green is wrapped by the wooden vines at the top.
Seaella: She most often uses a small dagger with a blade tinted the glorious orange, yellow, and red of fire. Its crossguard forms flames, and the pummel is made from a fire opal. However, she also has a bow and arrows crafted, according to her father, by the finest bowyer and fletcher in the land. The bow, made to be adjustable as she grows, has a narrow phoenix with its wings stretching over the wood, its vibrant painted feathers looking ablaze. Flames spiral up the shafts of the arrows, and the feathers are a fiery orange and red. The arrows go in a hip quiver of brown leather which hangs on the opposite side of her belt from her dagger.
Abilities/Powers: Valera: Valera, having been trained vigorously, is quite the capable fighter with both her weapons and fists, and better at close-combat than long-range. However, as skilled as she may be, she was never quite as good at her combat skills in general as she was with magic. From a young age, she showed a talent in magic, and found she had a few innate abilities: 1. Control and conjuring of light. 2. With her voice as sweet and beautiful as it is—more so than any of the elves she has ever encountered—if she puts forth the effort, she is capable of enchanting with just her voice. This only works on those with weaker wills or if the listener is intentionally receptive of it. She can only hold one “enchantment” at a time for around two minutes unless the emotion she is trying to induce is already seeded inside someone (such as lulling a tired person to sleep, which can hold until someone stirs the sleeper) before the effects fade, she begins to feel the emotion she was trying to induce with overwhelming intensity, or her energy begins to deplete. 3. Argokinesis. 4. Spellcasting. She is better at it than most others her age, especially with her natural abilities combined with the channeling power of her staff.
Seaella: She is extremely quick and hard to catch. She is also one of the most agile elves anyone in their village had ever met. Though she has had less training than Valera, she is already excellent with a bow and throwing daggers. Opposite of her sister, she is better at long-range fighting, but rather horrible at close-range. Magic-wise, she has had little patience to learn many spells, though she can cast a couple basic ones most other elven children in their village can cast. However, with the aid of her stone phoenix pendant, she is capable concentrating her natural ability to summon fire. The pendant glows whenever she uses it. Without the pendant, she can currently only summon about a baseball sized amount of flames.
Both: Because they are elves, they have a connection to the earth and can all but hear the cries and mummers of nature, even, on occasion, feel what can only be described as the emotions of the plants. They are both excellent trackers and quite agile, though Seaella is more agile than Valera. They have both been well educated, and can, to an extent, speak various common languages. They both know English, Elvish (current and a decent amount of ancient) quite well, while Valera knows Draconic, and Dwarvish, with Seaella only just beginning and struggling with Dwarvish. However, while Valera can understand much of the gruffer languages, they are considerably more difficult for her to vocalize. With the races who often speak these languages residing in the nearby mountains of their village, it was necessary to at least be capable of understanding them, especially if the girls were to someday be the overseers of the village, as their parents before them.
Personality: Valera: Being older and having grown up in a relatively strict elven society, she has a great sense of ceremony and duty. While she does have a fun side, it tends to only emerge around Seaella and a couple other close friends she had around her age. She is usually a go-getter, and was the leader in her group of friends. Before tragedy struck, she was rarely seen off her feet, either doing tasks around the village, hunting, or training both her body and mind. She often seems cold and distant to others outside those she considers family. She would gladly give her life if it meant keeping her loved ones safe.
Seaella: Even though she lived with Valera’s family for over half her life, she has not quite shaken the fun-loving looseness her parents had taught her. She is a spritely, fiery girl in both body and mind. She can never sit still, and loves a good joke. She is normally a bright and happy person, and, even after the great tragedy, has tried to keep her chin up for Valera’s sake, if nothing else. She would do anything she could to keep her sister safe.
Quirks: Valera: She often either hums or sings to herself when she doesn’t think anyone else is within earshot, which occasionally escalates to dancing. She tends to walk with long, quick strides, and maintains a perfect posture. Because of current happenings, she has rarely smiled or laughed, her few songs taking on a sorrowful tone.
Seaella: When not in mourning, she has the habit of giggling at almost everything, and often mimics others. She also does not quite understand the concept of “personal space,” and has an obsession with smells, so she can often be seen sniffing at anything new or interesting smelling, whether it be food, a person’s perfume, or anything between or beyond… within a fair amount of reason, of course.
Other: Valera: Even when she is not using her verbal ability, her voice is sweet and musical.
Seaella: She loves to listen to Valera’s singing, and often begs her to sing for her, especially before heading to bed.
Bio: Valera grew up in a small, well-hidden village of elves nestled near a river. What the village lacked in size, it made up for in beauty, their homes made of the finest, natural materials they could find and crafted by expert hands. Even so far isolated from most others of their race, they still held firmly to their traditions. Among the villagers, her parents were thought highly of, with her mother, Reaina, a great spellcaster and her father, Elissar, a warrior and blacksmith known throughout the land before he “disappeared,” moving to help establish the village nearly twenty years past.
However, this small, secreted village was more than what met the eye. Hidden within the Tathron homestead, was a crystal orb entrusted to the family. This orb had long since been the cause of one war after the other. For this orb, as the many legends state, could tell which decedents of the original rulers of the land had similar important traits as the first rulers of the land. It and it alone can reveal who these children are, and even seek them out once it decided the time had come for them to rise.
With Valera the next heir to the duty of guarding the orb, and rumors of yet more wars already whispered in the darkest corners of pubs, her parents set to teaching her in the ways of both a warrior and, when she showed a talent with magic, a mage, from the moment she could read and walk.
When Valera was around nine years of age, her father, who had gone to sell some of the weapons he had made under an assumed name, returned home, worse for wear and with a young child clinging tightly to him. According to him, he had stumbled upon a tiny village under attack. A village of a mix of humans and elves, even with his help, they fell to soldiers. He managed to escape, taking the young child, Seaella, with him. When he returned, he found only death and destruction, the girl’s parents long dead.
The Tathron’s happily took the girl into their home.
Seaella and Valera grew quickly close, Valera’s sweet tunes calming Seaella and taming the tears the younger child often shed. Despite their difference in age and personality, the two became as thick as thieves. Seaella often tailed Valera, staying close to the older girl.
Over about the next five years, Elissar and Reaina tried to train the younger girl in their traditional ways, but the lessons of her true parents, the lightheartedness and ease they had adapted after living among humans for many years, refused to fade, and they soon gave in, accepting the girl for who she was.
Alas, the happy family was not to last.
After being alerted by the trees that something was wrong, the two children hurried home from a hike through the woods, taking the back way into the village. It was all but deserted. When they arrived home, they found Reaina on guard, protecting the crystal. She explained that they were under attack by a massive force, a force after the crystal.
When the opposing forces penetrated the city and made their way to their home, Reaina gave the crystal to Valera and Seaella, telling them to protect it with their lives. She forced the children to leave, and the two fled through the forest.
Valera thought about seeking help from the nearest town, to get aid to drive the invading forces out and save the people of the village, but thought better. They would only believe her insane. After all, to the rest of the world, the village did not exist. That part of the mountains was uninhabited. Only the neighboring dwarves knew of the place, and that was by little more than an accident.
They pushed on for hours, the trees warning them that people were on their trail. That night, when they stopped to rest, exhausted and of the belief they had lost their pursuers, a small platoon of warriors clad head to toe in armor tinted green and gold caught up with them, led by a man in flowing robes with an intricate blue crest instead of armor.
The man displayed magic beyond anything the girls had ever seen. He tried to get the crystal, which one of his men had seen them leave with, but Valera and Seaella managed to escape through sheer will, though not unscathed.
With Valera injured from defending Seaella and the crystal, which she kept well-hidden on her person, they ran through the night, passing near villages and towns, but never entering. They rested for no more than an hour here or there, and took less-traveled roads. However, during one of these rests, while Valera examined the thing they were risking their lives for, it revealed her as a well-matched descendant.
Valera did her best to keep them shielded from the sorcerer with what few spells she knew on the matter, while Seaella carefully covered their tracks, the child in much better shape than her sister.
Even with dawn’s light on the horizon and her body begging for rest, Valera didn’t let them stop. That man had found them once. Who was to say he wouldn’t catch up with them again?
That day, the electric feel of an impending storm hung in the air, and the plants emanated excitement at the prospect of drinking the clouds’ manna.
Wounded and on the verge of collapsing as the storm raged around them, Valera knew they needed to find shelter, but as lost as they had become,
where became a question both girls feared would never be answered...
