An odd storm has appeared near Windward Island. It is unnatural and may be caused by some ancient device. Windward Island hereby requests any divers brave enough to travel to Gullspire Rock and to end this unnatural storm. Payment: 500 shelma, plus any artifacts found.
"I don't understand a word of it, but oof did all these fellows get up and outta there in a hurry." Terhikki groaned, staring at the doodles on the paper in front of her. "For all I know this is one big prank and I'm the butt of everyone's jokes again." She crumpled the note in her hand and tossed it aside on the ship she rode in on, leaving it littered on the deck. She looked at the crowded docks and piers of Windward isle, and frowned as she rubbed her jaw.
"I...am definitely not waiting to get off this boat." She concluded, before nodding to herself and leaping up onto the railings of the ship she was on and doing a rather precarious tight-rope esque walk along the docked ship. She laughed as she did so, not caring whose way she got in, not caring who saw her or stared at her- she knew she stood out and she didn't care one bit about it. Her revealing attire- little more than a ragged skirt and vest, her bow slung about her shoulders, her quiver at her hips, and her various climbing tools hooked upon her belt and backpack save for the long knife on her thigh- did little to hide her, and the bright, floral, tattoos she wore only made her stand out all the more.
She then did a comical salute to the crowd of people on the docks-
before the Frozen Sea-lander hopped backwards off the ship and into the waters, sinking into the waves with laughter. Terhikki allowed herself to be pulled to-and-fro by the waves, before she surfaced and smiled brightly at those who watched her somewhat childish display. She then almost lazily swam up alongside to the shore and strode out of the waters and onto the island proper.
"Ah! That felt great! This heat is gonna kill me!" She called out as she stretched. The threat of storms and uncertain weather hadn't seemed to intimidate her at all, and as the soaked woman tossed her hair and wrung it out she looked about idly. She knew there was trouble of some flavor, but she didn't wanna eavesdrop or ask for help on reading the note. All she'd grasped so far was that there were bad storms and they wanted Divers to fix the problem. Terhikki was quick to answer the call- but now that she was here on Windward and she saw the relatively sizeable group of Divers assembled, she felt a bit disheartened.... There were so many people to compete against for the loot, for the adventure!
She fixed her hair in quick motions, crushing the disheartening feelings within her breast just as quickly.
"Alright Terhikki, you've got the will but who has the way- Bah, I'm sure it'll all work itself out." She stopped her worrying and simply moved to get away from the sea and the crowds, giving herself some personal space as she got her bearings on the dock of this small island. She didn't seem all that interested in being in the crowds- the openness of the Frozen Sea had left a distaste for being in hot, sweaty, masses in her mouth. She simply observed the docks for a few moments, before setting her mind on absorbing the area about her.
Ultimately she found her gaze drawn to the storms in the distance, and she set her jaw.
"...Yeah those look nasty, but you'll be fine. Get a good ship and a good crew, then find something amazing to take home for the Snow Hares. You got this."
She would never break that habit of talking to herself, it'd seem.
“The Frozen Sea makes us tough- tough enough to break the ice. I won't let warmer waters stop me now.”
Name Terhikki Vepsäläinen
Age Eighteen
Gender Female
Home Sea The Frozen Sea - Snow Hare Tribe
The tribe of the Snow Hare is a tribe dedicated to survival and nomadic lifestyles. The tribe of wanders makes their living by diving and climbing across the Frozen Sea's ice shelves, and are rudimentary sailors at best. Due to their affinity for swimming in the sea and walking the most dangerous parts of the ice shelves with relative ease, the Snow Hares are one of the largest and most well known tribes of the Frozen Sea. Much of the sea's sub-aquatic plunder falls into their hardy and ever-searching hands.
Tattoos and other forms of body art are significant to the Snow Hares not only for the survival aspect of it- if someone is lost in the snow, it's easier to see someone with bright red marks on their face or arms, etc- but also as a way of expression. Terhikki, for example, has many tattoos of the first flowers she's ever seen on various parts of her body. She intends to add more tattoos for particularly beautiful flowers she encounters in her explorations.
Aether Sign Sun
Aether Abilities Nope
Personality "'Survival of the fittest' was the first rule of the Snow Hares. Tch. Guess I'm the fittest, huh?"
Terhikki is an unbearably confident lass, her time spent as an ice-climber and ice-diver hardening and toughening her up quite a bit. She's strong beyond her age- incredibly so- and has stared down some of the nastiest creatures of the Frozen Seas without so much as batting an eyelash in the name of fear.
She feels as if she could take on the world by herself and come out on top- but everything worth doing, is worth doing with friends! The tribal mentality of 'All for One' has lead the girl to becoming lonely very easily, making her extremely outspoken in an attempt to garner friendship with those she meets. She is an innately trusting and friendly individual, welcoming newcomers with open arms- but to those who mean her or her friends harm, she swiftly becomes as cold and unforgiving as the Ice she calls 'Home'.
History
"My name means 'Flower'. I think that's kinda dumb, but hey- it's my name, so only I can make fun of it. Everyone else has to like it!...I'm not sure what my last name means, though. Think it's just a name. Blech."
The Frozen Sea is an unforgiving home. The peoples here are hard, strong, and tightly knit. The Snow Hare tribe is no different from the other peoples of the Frozen Sea in these aspects. Where the Snow Hares stand out is their unwavering resolve to conquer the snow and ice, rather than just eke out a survival on its surface.
The Snow Hare tribe has attained a reputation for being the masters of the ice and frigid waters of the Frozen Sea; they are most well known as independent divers who break the ice, and nomads who wander the surface of the snow rather than take to the sea unless they have to.
Terhikki was born to this tribe, this tribe of hardened survivors and explorers, with an immense amount of crying. This overbearing amount of sound that the infant produced caused both its mother and clan chieftain to laugh, and the chieftain expressed a particularly amusing thought after hearing the child's unbearable crying; "Well, at least it won't be quiet on the ice anymore."
Little did the Snow Hares realize their Chieftain's comical quip would turn out to be a prophecy for the girl's entire life. All through her childhood and youth, Terhikki was relentless in her curiosity to understand the world around her- and her energy seemed limitless for sprinting through the snows, or climbing across the ice. The only task forbidden to her as a child was to dive into the sea- and, naturally, this one forbidden task turned out to be the one that fascinated her the most.
As a small child, she would often sit on the edge of an ice shelf and watch as the older divers bravely launched themselves off the shelf and into the sea below. It was such an exciting and spectacular thing- watching her brothers and sisters of the Snow Hares submerge into the frozen waters and re-surface with glittering treasures, or beasts from the hunt to feed the tribe.
She swore that, one day, she would become the greatest diver in all the Snow Hare tribe. But until that day, she would practice her climbing and running ceaselessly while taking care of her other duties.
The Tribe was fond of the young girl- her questions brought light to a bleak world, and her excitement was refreshing. Children often had this effect on the hardened survivors of the cold, and many were glad to have this 'Flower of the Snow' in their tribe.
Terhikki was fourteen. Finally old enough to officially join the Divers of her tribe. When she received her climbing gear she squealed with delight- but soon find that her childhood excitement was no longer welcome.
"Teacher was the best. He was the tribe's most experienced diver and warrior. When I screamed at having my own gear at last, it was also my first time experiencing the cold waters of my Home. I jumped up and down in excitement, only for him to suddenly push me off the shelf and into the sea. I remember that cold to this day- no other cold even compares. Some nights I still feel that chill in my bones, but after I got over my anger I realized what teacher had done.
Teacher had taught me to respect the sea with one simple gesture. Ugh, teacher was so cool. I wish I could do things like that. When I pushed someone in the sea, I got my rations cut for a week. Goes to show how cool of a guy he was, yeah?
Terhikki had to grow up- fast. What she always found so exciting to watch and observe, she now had to live. And for a Snow Hare, diving is almost uniquely tied to 'survival'. Terhikki found herself being the one the tribe blamed if there wasn't enough food, or enough to trade, and she finally understood the weight of the burden divers suffered.
She didn't bend, however. She stood up straighter, held herself high, and refused to let the weight of her tribe hold her down.
She began to swim harder, faster, go deeper than she ever had before. Pushing herself harder and harder for the sake of the tribe. As she turned fifteen, Terhikki had become one of the tribe's best swimmers- second only to her own Teacher.
She had one thing she could never do, however. Something critical to the Snow Hare Divers; Breaking the Ice.
----
"The traditional way of breaking the ice is hard work, but effective. Most divers carry a long harpoon with a great weight on the counterbalancing end- making it into both spear and mallet. The standard process was to embed the Ice Knife into the layer of ice you wished to shatter, then take the mallet and smash the knife down until it cracked the ice and you could pull it apart. Makes sense, yeah?
Well I don't carry no mallet. Don't need one, because I'm the best at breaking it."
Terhikki struggled at breaking the ice for the better half of her fifteenth with the Snow Hares. She swung the mallet, hit the knife, and just couldn't get the job done in a satisfactory manner. Even her teacher was astounded at her lack of ability to do this relatively simple task- She had always been incredibly strong, comparatively to the rest of her tribe, and her unwavering fervor for the Diving had always fuelled her to succeed no matter what.
So for Terhikki to fail at the most important part of Ice Diving... It was disheartening. To both Terhikki and her Teacher. Terhikki nearly gave up on ice-breaking entirely after her repeated failures, but one night while walking on the ice- deep in thought, worried about her own failures- something horrible and beautiful happened.
The Ice Broke beneath her feet, sending her plummeting into the frozen landscape below.
"Oh boy you bet I remember falling in the ice like that. If I hadn't been locked up in my own head, I would've heard the faint cracks of the ice under the snow. No problem, right? But I was dumb, looking back on my failures rather than forward to my successes, and i wasn't paying attention. When I hit the waters, I thanked my Teacher deep in my heart for pushing me in the sea at the very beginning- the shock of falling in right then didn't knock me out."
Terhikki swam down, avoiding the ice falling above her- thusly blocking her way back out the same hole she came down. It was a terribly cold night, and the ice was already freezing back over into a horrendously thick layer; the thin-ness of the section now freezing over the thicker chunks she had broken down.
She didn't have her rebreather. She didn't have her ice hook. All she was carrying that evening was her Ice Knife. She wasted precious moments thinking about how she was about to die because she broke the ice and fell through, when she could never break the ice when she wanted to.
A pounding in the ice a small distance away shook her from her reverie; the other divers heard the ice break and had sprinted over to break through in a new spot, to give Terhikki a chance to survive. The fact they hadn't given up on her lit a fire in Terhikki's heart, and she surged up to the ice from below. She didn't have a mallet, but she had her ice knife and a newfound feeling of determination blazing in her soul.
Her lungs screamed at her as she stabbed the knife into the ice above her in futility, feebly forcing her chilled limbs to move.
After about a minute of this, she realized that those above her weren't going to be able to break the ice in time. Despair entered her heart, but she didn't let it take root. The overwhelming determination to survive swallowed that seed of hopelessness and blazed ever stronger in her heart.
Even as her vision began to grow dark, she gripped the Ice Knife anew and reared her arm back in the water...
and when she swung up this time, her knife smashed through the ice and broke all the way through to the surface. Her arm only had to rise for a moment before familiar, strong, hands grabbed her and pulled her from the ice.
Terhikki, for her part, was already unconscious before she rose from the sea. She didn't learn she'd broken the ice by herself until later when she woke up and was told the parts of the story she missed.
When she was finally able to return to Diving, she found that she could break the ice with just her knife- no mallet needed. This emboldened her immensely, and for the next few years of her time with the Snow Hares she became increasingly more ambitious as a diver, as she could always break a new hole in the ice to resurface whenever she needed, rather than relying on finding one already broken-in.
After a few years, Terhikki found herself...empty. Not depressed or hopeless, but dissatisfied with her current lot in life. She loved diving, loved her tribe, but... knowing that there were six other seas out there, full of monsters and treasure and exploration to be had, made her want to leave behind the ice and snow of her Home.
"When I sat on the Ice Shelf at night, I'd look up into the stars and wonder if these stars that I was looking at were the same in other seas. I would see the moon, the sun, the sky, and every day I'd begin to see more and more in it that I recognized. Constellations, movements, small things that used to amaze and astound me that now left me...Empty. It wasn't new anymore, it was commonplace- everyday- something that the others found comforting in our world of shifting ice and rolling waves...
But for me, it was painful. Seeing the sky become...boring. It's what triggered the wanderlust at first. I could no longer look in the sky and find something new to wonder about. What really pushed me was when my tribe finally stopped at the capital of the Frozen Sea- I'd never been there before in my life, so it was...a wondrous experience.
When the Snow Hare tribe returns to Windkeep, it's a time of massive trade. The famed divers and explorers, when returning, bring with them immense wealth in the form of salvaged goods, and in return trade for the supplies and tools they can't salvage or replicate themselves for their travels.
This was Terhikki's first time at Windkeep, and her brief stay changed her forever. She witnessed, firsthand, peoples from other seas bartering and trading- Imperialists sneering over the hard peoples of the Frozen Sea and striking hard bargains, mysterious figures from the Dragon Sea peddling secrets and wares she couldn't imagine, and so much more.
It was like looking at a brand new world, a new night sky if you will. It sparked a fire in Terhikki's gut that she couldn't just let simmer until it died- it was like the fire that drove her to become a diver in the first place. She wandered Windkeep aimlessly- but not recklessly or restlessly. She used her seemingly endless amount of energy to ask traders about their home seas, about what the sky looked like outside the Frozen Sea, asked them questions about their families, their lives, their work-
she asked them every question she possibly could until most of them got tired of entertaining her.
"Tch...I was such a little girl. I was so fascinated by all this...newness, by these things I'd never imagined. Heck, I still am- it's why I left. Talking to all those folks and hearing all their stories made me realize I wanted to leave. It was a hard decision, don't get me wrong. Few members of the Snow Hares ever considered leaving, and the ones that did never returned.
But me...I love my tribe, more than I love myself. But I also love the sky, and the sea, and all the little treasures and monsters hidden deep down below the surface...and well, if there's more to experience out there...I have to find it, y'know? Find it and bring whatever i can back, to show the tribe that the world outside the Frozen Sea is just as fascinating as the world below it."
She approached her Teacher before the tribe left, presenting him with her desire to leave the tribe and the Frozen Sea. Her teacher didn't even hesitate to encourage her to leave- he reassured her that the Tribe would be okay without her, and that they'd await her return one day.
She hugged her teacher tightly and thanked him a thousand and one times, before packing all her things and heading out on a ship of traders to experience the rest of the Seas.
She was going to start on the far opposite end of the world; the Southern Sea.
"I headed out with fire in my heart, secure in the knowledge that one day when I returned I'd have a home with the Snow Hares. But for now? For now I would explore every inch of the world I could, and I would bring small parts back with me. Small things about the world, about its people, that I can bring back to the Frozen Sea to show my people and teach them about the outside world. My only complaint about the outside world?
HOW CAN PEOPLE HANDLE IT BEING SO HOT ALL THE TIME? AHHHHH-"
Gear 2x 'Snow Hare' Ice Axes [Climbing tools that Terhikki multi-purposes uses as melee weapons]
1x Snow Hare Hunting Bow + Quiver of Arrows - A bow and arrow set used by the Snow Hare tribe for hunting the few creatures who live on the Ice Shelves. Strong weapons, if rudimentary and basic.
'Snow Hare' Ice Knife - A Survival blade of Terhikki's tribe, a serrated knife for a wide variety of uses. Its long, extremely hard, blade comes to a triangular point for use in ice-breaking.
'Snow Hare Ice Hook' - Essentially a grappling hook, the Snow Hare Tribe developed this heavy-weight hook to latch onto ice or ships with relative ease [for those who can throw it properly] so as to save oneself from the frigid waters.
Snow Hare climbing gear + Snow Hare Tribal Clothes - Terhikki clings to her old tribal clothing and gear, for one day she may return to the Frozen Sea and need them to not-die in the cold!
Current clothes - Terhikki can't handle the heat of the rest of the seas particularly well, and her current outfit is a rather revealing-yet-secure outfit she wears constantly
Diving Rebreather - Standard Issue
Other -Terhikki possesses immense physical strength beyond her age, and she claims it comes from having to break the ice with the Frozen Divers- a task she claims to have been a master of. The truth of the matter is that she has always been extremely strong.
-Terhikki possesses a rather extreme 'danger sense' due to growing up in the Frozen Sea, and she's hyperaware of her surroundings. Growing up in a land where one false step meant the Ice falls from under your feet required this skill.
-Terhikki is entirely illiterate. No real books out in the ice shelves.
Thanks for the quick response. I just wanted to see what you had in mind for her limitations with it since others had more clear boundaries. I don't hold any sway or anything, but curiosity killed the cat, as it were. (Satisfaction often brings it back, to finish the adage)
Edit: I'm still lazy and added Charlotte to the list
Fysallidakinesis: Marina tends to use Fysallidakinesis in combination with her hydrokinetic barriers. It’s good to be able to breathe underwater – especially if your diving gear isn’t with you or is compromised.
Hydrokinetic Barriers: Marina’s primary focus when it comes to her aether abilities is the creation of a “hard” water fields that can be used as shields, deep dive barriers, and containment fields.
Pressure Manipulation: Manipulating the water pressure around her can aid Marina when she is surrounded by pirates, raiders, or other sorts of antagonists. Requires focus and can exhaust Marina quickly if she’s not careful.
Purification: In certain situations Marina can focus on purifying any form of liquid she comes into contact with. She’s had to use this in certain parts of the ocean where ancient corruption magic has tainted the water to the point it is too dangerous to swim in.
Regenerative Water: The most difficult aether technique that Marina knows and probably the most valuable when things look the most dark. Similar to her purification techniques, but allowing to apply a transformative water to another person to reinforce their immune system and healing faculties.
My personal opinion on them, Ink, since you asked is that the pressure manipulation seems a little vague with what you specifically mean for it.
Can she just outright crush other divers? Make their suits implode? Push them away in an uncomfortable manner? All of the above? It's just a little unclear.
Or I'm too used to using an overanalytical way of thinking and it's way simpler than I'm thinking.
Been working on the opening post whenever I have free time. As of this moment, it is 5 pages long with two different POVs. I still feel that I have more to add. I really want to establish the world, the island and some of the characters in this post.
Lurking Krog,
Guardian Angel Haruki,
tadcfnaf,
kalanggam,
rush99999,
Sister Sable,
Lunamaria Hawke,
Alisdragon911,
Hibachi90,
DraconicDespair
