Elexa
Full Name: Elexiana Del’Anwynne
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Race: Avarel
Physical Description: Like all her race, Elexa is very slender, with almost translucent skin that has a golden touch to it. Her wings are a faint blue or translucent like her skin, unusual for her race but due to prolonged periods of starvation resulting in colouring from veins taking precedent over her natural grey original colour. Very tiny, Elexa is small boned and very short. Her face is heart shaped with prominent cheekbones and startling eyes that vary from blue to green to amber-green when she is very angry. Her eyes, by result to her small face, look even larger than usual for her race and are accented by faintly deep-purple touched lashes. Her long, wavy hair is streaked with different colours. Originally it was a deep blue-black, but, due to lack of nourishment, some was lost and grew back in shade of amber and deep red. Due to lack of food as a youngster, her lung capacity is very much reduced which makes her unsuited to life in the Roof of the World. Elexa dresses in layered, light fabrics of blending shades of the same colour; primarily she wears blue, green and purple. When angry, she tends towards black with silver or deep red.
Background: At age five, Elexa was training her muscles to take a trip with her parents, Terethil (the Avarel who trade with the other peoples), when a sudden ice storm drove her wildly off course. Unable to direct her flight or land safely, she followed the air currents until the storm abated. Exhausted, her wings damaged, she landed in the first cover she found and collapsed. Waking up, she found herself the prisoner of a Samaran trader, on his way back to his home country. Recognising the famed, elusive race, never seen by the Samaran peoples due to the Samaran climate, the trader saw Elexa as his way out of travelling trading. Making a deal with a sorcerer to maintain the Avarel child in the high temperatures during their journey to Samaran, he took her back to his home country where he sold her as a slave to a rich merchant for a not inconsiderable fortune.
The merchant used her for his own pleasures and then sold her ‘services’ to other rich men, quickly regaining the price he had paid for her (as well as the money he had had to pay a healer to restore her when first bought. She had been more than half dead from the heat, despite the best efforts of the trader and his sorcerer.). With her wings damaged by the ice storm and healing only slowly, she had no means of escape. Due to her intolerance of the hugely differing temperatures, the merchant dug out a cavern beside the oasis and filled it with a pool where Elexa was quartered when not in use. She was maintained by the merchant’s when not in her cooled chamber. Often refusing food for protracted periods of time, Elexa’s natural colouring altered dramatically, already effected by the heat of her journey.
After two months of ‘usage’, she was discovered by a Samaran noblewoman, Redel, a powerful sorcerer, who bought her from the merchant. (Redel had been about to carry out sentence on a wealthy guest, whom she had found assaulting a servant. Offering him reprieve, she had asked for information on other men of his ‘tastes’. A former victim of a rich uncle, whom she had killed and inherited from, Redel wanted to ease some of her own pain by helping other children. The man, trying to save his manhood, offered her the information in exchange for being spared. He was not.) Taking the Elexa into her care, she tried to help the child, paying for healers, but it was quite clear that, from her abuse and having been trapped in an underground room, she was never going to recover mental stability.
After reading from Redel’s library and discovering the Samaran law system, Elexa slipped away and castrated her abusers, slipping past the guards by aid of barely-controlled magic and her wings, which had healed enough to allow her limited flight. Redel quickly started teaching the young Avarel control and, after that, started to lead her towards recovery. This was achieved in part. Elexa would regularly suffer bouts, which she called ‘Sharend,’ when she would become catatonic for a period of up to six hours. Painfully shy around most people, she learnt to act more controlled for brief periods of time, but this only came across as arrogance. Very quick to anger or tears, she remained exquisitely sensitive. With a violent and destructive temper, seldom allowed to take over after Redel’s initial teachings, Elexa grew to be impatient in impotent anger at her situation. She took to creature comforts, and suffered a period of mourning as she realised she would never be able to return to her home due to her limited ability in flight.
She gradually somewhat recovered mentally, though she would never be stable, reacting to the slightest mention of something that triggered a memory by withdrawing. But, for the most part, she was sweet, very openly caring and considerate of her mentor. Her dependence for support and emotional stability were trying, which she tried to remedy and succeeded up to a point. Liking the company of few people, of which Redel was mother and friend, Elexa was drawn to reading and solitary pursuits. As she could not venture outside of her suite because of the Samaran temperatures, Redel took her to Melanos less than a year later where she enjoyed more liberty, liking to ride and walk.
Her lessoning continued in magic until the point where Redel could no longer aid her in her considerable powers. Probably the most powerful mage Redel had ever seen, Elexa’s power was counterbalanced by her instability, making it all the more dangerous. (Though the Avarel are essentially magical in a lot of cases, this does not manifest itself in many cases, and when it does, it is mostly in those handicapped physically or, in rare cases, in a situation of great danger.) Her access to her ability was as variable as her unstable psyche, dropping to an almost imperceptible level when she was depressed and sparking when she was in Sharend or angry.
Most would describe Elexa as fae. A wide-eyed, half-child, she would switch constantly between frightened child and arrogant adult. The servants at Redel’s house regarded her as half wild, and indeed she did look fae and act it, as well as having a natural affinity with animals, particularly cats--of which one, an orphaned grey, was by her side constantly.
Magic training: Redel made a study of the different magic disciplines of the world, and, though her real power remained only in her Samaran magic, she practised the basics of the Shenmiri discipline of cryomancy. For the beginning of Elexa’s training, she led her in the the theory of the discipline of pryomancy, hoping to help her pupil gain control over her firestarting abilities. Along side this she taught her student a few select Aleron abjuration spells, hoping that this would also teacher her control and also to help her feel safer.
Soon after settling on their estate in Melanos, Redel took her ward into the city to buy suitable clothes. The expedition ended in disaster when Elexa took one look at a passer-by and killed him- burning him alive, as she sensed empathically that he was a child abuser. Terrified, the town-square had emptied and the guard had come out in force to deal with the threat. Fearing reprisal as the man had been a middling wealthy tradesman of good repute, Redel tried to flee but was cornered. Elexa’s fear resulted in a fire ring springing to life around them, on the dry cobbles. The soldiers were about to try to subdue offenders, who thought they were about to be killed, when they were stopped by an aged sorcerer, much respected in the town. With his help, Redel managed to calm her ward until the old man could approach. Redel explained what she knew and then asked the child if it had been an accident, which she greatly feared. Elexa replied that the man was a child abuser. The sorcerer, believing her, said that it was an accident, to prevent outcry and denials of the accusation, and due to untrained talent. The townspeople, fearing for their lives, were clearly in favour of killing the child until he said that he, himself, would take on her training. Worried, but respecting the old man’s decision, they were allowed to leave the city and stay at their estate unharmed. Elexa was forbidden from the city until she was trained.
The Melanan mage quickly discovered that Elexa had a strong ability in Illusion and Sorcery, but that her gift was very unstable. Elexa also posessed the Talent of white healing, albeit very specialized--she was unable to heal, possessing only large amounts of empathy. Her gifts were very polarised--all or nothing, and when present extremely powerful though terribly unstable in their power level.
For the most part the only gift that Elexa could control and that was constant, was her empathy. Her other gifts were often very unreliable being very powerful on occasion, but often not accessible to her at all. Therefore, she was unable to rely on her magic because, though powerful when it manifested itself, it was often dormant.
One serious by-effect of her ever-changing power levels was that she often started fire unintentionally, probably because of the sudden change in her aura’s energy when her power peaks. Luckily it remained, on a day to day basis, a quite ordinary level gift.

Keleos
Full Name: Just 'Keleos'. Formerly Keleos Kanari.
Gender: Female
Age: Around 30.
Race: Human
Nationality: Shenmiri
Background: Keleos is, or was, the eldest daughter of a small, moderately wealthy family. She was chosen by a venerated warrior of her area to train as a blade-dancer, and also trained a bit in electromancy, though she never attained Mastery of that magical discipline. She did become an honored warrior, and pledged to the local Lord to fight for him at the age of seventeen. She remained in the Lord's entourage for several years, continuing her training and acting as the Lord's guard and soldier, until the day when a young boy was caught stealing and brought before the Lord, who judged him guilty and ordered Keleos, the nearest at hand of his guards, to cut off the boy's hand. Keleos, who believed very firmly that she should never attack or harm an unarmed and helpless opponent and who was reminded of her younger brother by the boy and had sympathy for his plight, refused, thereby breaking oath and dishonoring herself. She was beaten, her head was shaved, and she was stripped naked, tossed into a small boat, and set adrift.
She ran aground on the shore of the mainland three days later, weak from dehydration. Determined not to let herself die, she got up and walked until she came across a small house, where she knocked on the door and--when confronted by a very shocked fisherman's wife--asked politely and faintly if there was food, water, and clothing to spare for her--then collapsed. The fisherman and his wife, being kindly souls, promptly took her in, and cared for her until she regained consciousness. Keleos, taking stock, declared the couple had saved her life and that honor bound her to repay them--they attempted to demur, until she pointed out that besides, she had nowhere else to go, so she could at least do them some good in return for their kindness. Very much impressed by her maturity, they agreed, and for a little more than a year she worked for them, helping with fishing, cooking, cleaning, what-have-you, and becoming something of an adoptive daughter.
Upon returning from one of their regular journeys to the nearest town to sell their latest catch, both of fish and of shells and other ocean-borne bits and pieces to be used for craftwork or sold as novelties, the 'family' was attacked by a quartet of bandits, who were fought off and slain, largely thanks to Keleos's blade-dancer training. Keleos, satisfied that the fisherman and his wife were prospering and happy, declared that her honor was satisfied and it was time to move on. With a knife, a little money, and some basic supplies, she set out, promising that if she passed nearby she would visit them.
Judging that of all her (admittedly limited) skills fighting would be the most likely for her to be successful at selling, Keleos sold her services as a guard or mercenary--sometimes accepting an offer she was approached with, a bit more often approaching someone she judged needed her services--never taking a job that violated her personal code of honor. Despite what many other mercenaries and potential employers considered a very picky attitude, as Keleos grew in skill she became very comfortably successful and rather comfortably wealthy, gaining a bit of a reputation in certain areas although she traveled about too much to ever gain any real amount of fame.
Description: She is small, just slightly over five feet and very slender, sometimes almost too thin, and carries herself with self-assurance and trained-in grace. Keleos tends to seem refined and vaguely exotic, having the milk-pale skin, razor-straight blue-black hair and slightly slanted, dark blue-purple eyes of her people. Her face is vaguely angular and completely controlled, usually only showing emotion when she wishes to. She wears her hair long, almost to her waist, usually braided tightly or bound up in a knot at the nape of her neck. Keleos favors cool, dark colors of clothing, often wearing fine silks or cottons in flowing Shenmiri designs. Mostly she wears black and white, midnight blues, deep, rich purples, and dark, mossy greens... sometimes, not often, she chooses paler shades of those colors. In battle she wears a suit of fine Shenmiri armor, blued steel and black lacquer in an unmistakable Shenmiri design. She wields a pair of Shenmiri swords, both light and slightly curving blades of blued steel with unadorned ebony hilts and sheathes; she usually wears these wherever she is, crossed on her back with a hilt showing above each shoulder. She is also liable to carry a black-hilted dagger, a long black-lashed whip, and a small collection of blued-steel Shenmiri shiruken (throwing stars).
Keleos is a very stubborn woman, and can be rather caustic, though she's more apt to be quiet and, if she is moved to harass someone, will do so with subtly cutting words rather than coarse insults. She is very competent, very proud, and very much a loner; she doesn't like to get too close to people--emotions are messy. She still adheres very much to her code of honor, which hasn't softened much (if at all) since the day she left the Ring of Tears, and though she still works as something of a mercenary she will never, ever take a job which violates her sense of honor, and will walk out of a job that requires it without a backward glance. Compromise is not an option. She relies mostly on her fighting skill, which is considerable, but continues to practice electromancy, which remains somewhat unreliable. Her greatest faults may be her stubborn refusal to depend on others and her tendency to work too hard, ask too much of herself.
She carries a great deal of somewhat pessimistic longing for her homeland, knowing that she can never return there. She does not bear a grudge, but she still struggles with the unfairness of her situation, believing strongly that she was in the right, regardless of her pledge to her Lord. Her one gesture of defiance is that she wears her hair long--it has not been cut since it was shaved when she was outcast. She satisfies her longing for the Ring of Tears and for Shenmiri by acquiring Shenmiri-made objects--her armor and most of her weapons, and a large amount of her clothing, are all of Shenmiri make, and she keeps some Shenmiri jewelry and art objects.

Aubrey
Full Name: 'Aubrey' will do nicely, thank you.
Gender: Male
Age: 113
Race: Ilear
Description & Background: Aubrey, like a great many Ilear, has traveled the world in a variety of forms. Not long ago, however, he chose the form he will keep for the rest of his life, and it has caused him a large amount of trouble.
Aubrey's chosen form is that of a horse. He stands almost seventeen hands, but is built along the sleek, graceful lines of a Ronin steed--long, slim legs, a deep heartgirth, a somewhat lightly built but compact body, and a long, high-crested neck, with the large eyes, small muzzle, and slightly dished face found only in horses of Samaran and Ronin breeding. He is built for speed and endurance, and beauty as well; his coat is a gleaming ebony that seems to shimmer blue in the right light, and his mane and tail are long, rippling, and shiny. The only white place on him is the slightly off-center star on his face.
Not long after taking this form, Aubrey was captured by a man who sold him for quite a bit of money to a trader of horses, who took him for Ronin-bred and attempted to break him. Unable to muster the energy to shapeshift to some other form, Aubrey was unable to break free, though he tried many times. He deemed it wise to pretend to be the horse the trader thought he was, guessing (correctly) that if he revealed he could speak he would become a faire amusement and he'd never be able to get free. Instead he bided his time, amusing himself by throwing and often injuring anyone foolish enough to try to ride him. The trader hasn't been able to sell him yet, and is becoming desperate, willing to about give him to the person who's willing to take him.

Obsidian
Full Name: Obsidian Mercile
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Race: Human
Nationality: Not known.
Background: Though posing as a mercenary, he truly is - or was - a spy. His father died by the time he was born and was raised by his mother until he was hired as a spy and and became an assassin. Not long after that, he was hired to assassinate the High King of Aleron, and got caught. So, naturally, he's been on the run ever since.
Description: While his eyes and hair are piercing raven black, his face is pale, nearly as white as the clouds in the sky. He reaches about 5'8 in height and is slight. He is very dark and closed off and is usually seen in a black cloak. He is very good at arrow and bow, and could take to a sword when needed.

Mia
Full Name: Mia
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Race: Human
Nationality:
Background: Mia was raised in a family that dealt with herbs and potions, so naturally she showed the same interest from the beginning of her life. She is adept at herbs and healing, and would have become something of a healer had she not gotten interested in exploring the world. By the age of 15, she set out to explore, becoming light of foot (by walking all the time), and strong.
Description: People would normally consider her exotic with her fiery red hair and purple eyes. She stands about 5'5 in height and is considered small. Though she deals with herbs, she's quickly mastered the technique of sword-fighting. You don't see her much anywhere without her silver sword at her side. She usually dresses in purple or dark colors. At times she can be nice, but has a quick temper and can turn deadly at the slightest provocation.

Muranog
Full Name: Muranog Kachar the Red
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Race: Human
Nationality: Shenmiri
Description: Muranog is of about average size and build for one of his kind, standing perhaps 5' 5", with the milky-pale complexion typical of the Shenmiri. His straight waist-length hair is naturally the glossy black of his people, but a single flame-red streak is dyed into it, running across the crown of his skull, wide on the left side and tapering off to a point on the right side; the mark of his profession. His eyes are slightly slanted and a deep violet hue. Unusually for a Shenmiri, Muranog tends to wear bright flame colours, reds and oranges, usually in the form of silken robes. When he dons armour, it is a set of red lacquer and steel plate of Shenmiri crafting; his sole weapons are twin scimitars of folded steel with lacquered flame-red hilts, which he usually wears over his shoulders.
Muranog Kachar tends to be a little reserved for a pyromancer, slow to allow people close to him. It is fairly clear to those who do get sufficiently close that he has suffered some traumas in the past. For those who penetrate his outer reserve, however, there is a warm and loyal nature inside.
Muranog is a fairly gifted pyromancer of many years' training -- though not yet a Master -- and has some limited geomancer talent. He is also a fair swordsman and quite well educated in the languages, history, geography, customs and culture of several nations.
Background: Muranog Kachar was born to a family of warriors, the fifth of nine siblings (three older and two younger brothers; one older and two younger sisters), and was initially expected and trained from the day he could walk to follow his father's and older siblings' path into sworn service to the local Lord. However, as he entered his teenage years, his natural talent for pyromancy first manifested itself, and destructively so; in a sparring session with the local town swordmaster, using wooden practice blades, his power flared up, burned both blades to ashes and badly burned the swordmaster too. In a less enlightened nation, Muranog might have been killed or driven out as a demon or a trafficker with dark powers.  Fortunately the Shenmiri are wiser than that, and instead he was packed off as swiftly as possible to study with a notable Master Pyromancer, Kyril the Red, who resided a few days' ride away. Kyril was not only a Master of pyromancy but also a gifted weaponsmaster, teacher and philosopher, and gathered a circle of students about him; most of these students, including Muranog, began to wear red and dye their hair red or partly red in honour of their Master who already did so.
 From the age of thirteen onward, Muranog studied under Kyril the Red, learning to control his powers over Fire and also continuing in his swordsmanship studies and his studies of the history, geography and cultures of the world. The academic work was intense, but still not as demanding as the task of keeping the Fire safely controlled, as some of the students of Kyril learned the hard and fatal way; by the time Muranog attained his eighteenth year, he had helped his Master to bury several fellow students or to send their bodies and effects back to their families, some of the dead students even younger than him. At eighteen, some students would leave Kyril's estate and return to their families or make their own way in the world, but Muranog was one of the few whom Kyril invited to remain, to study further toward the eventual accolade of Master Pyromancer's rank. Fire being the difficult and capricious element it is, such advanced study requires several years and much hard work, and few are up to the challenge. Master Kyril evidently believed that Muranog was one of the few.
 In Muranog's twenty-first year, disaster struck. His family's home burned down mysteriously one night, with both his parents and all of his siblings inside. Both Muranog and Master Kyril sensed the conflagration from afar, and hastened to the scene, but arrived too late, finding only ashes where there once was a home. Muranog blamed himself bitterly for not being there when his family needed him most, where his power  could have calmed and absorbed the flames. Master Kyril's insistence that the flames were the work of another pyromancer, not of natural cause, fueled his student's anger even further - but the family of Kachar had no enemies that Muranog knew of, certainly none who would go to such lengths to assassinate his kindred. Failing to find the cause behind these murders, Muranog threw himself even more thoroughly into his studies of the higher pyromantic arts, hoping that by mastering them he could trace the killer of his family.
 Four more years passed as Muranog trained under Kyril the Red, slowly edging his way toward Mastery, while continuing also to maintain studies in the academic arts and in swordsmanship. During this time he also began to manifest some limited power in Earth, for which Kyril called upon the services of a friendly Master Geomancer, Caldan, to help with training, though Muranog never reached any great power with Earth. Then, once again, disaster struck, this time at Muranog's Master. Kyril the Red was old, and had made enemies, among them proponents of other disciplines, jealous of Master Kyril's popularity and the fame of his teachings, both magical and philosophical. At last, a Master Cryomancer arrived uninvited and unheralded at Master Kyril's home, ostensibly to debate with him. But the debate turned to violence, and the powers of both Fire and Ice were unleashed. Master Kyril was constrained by the trappings of his own home, and could not unleash his full power. His cryomancer opponent had no such compunctions, and defeated him in a chilling blast of deadly ice magic, freezing the Master Pyromancer, his Master Geomancer guest, a few students and their home alike to a block of ice and then shattering them. Once again, Muranog arrived too late to help; all he and the other surviving students could do was salvage what very little remained from the wreckage of the academy. Some of their personal possessions remained intact, but the vast majority of both Master Kyril's and Master Caldan's books of magical and philosophical lore were destroyed, together with other items of power and treatises of great wisdom.
 The remaining students and student-adepts fragmented, each returning home - those that had homes to go to - or setting off into the world. Muranog, in search of a destination, remembered that both his Masters had mentioned that the teaching and form of magic was very different in each land, but that in the land of Torrigan it was the closest to his own paths. Being adept enough by now to control his disciplines well - though still a little way off Mastery in the path of Fire - he took ship from the Ring of Tears in order to explore Torrigan, perhaps to find new teachers and new teachings, perhaps simply to see the world at last.

All of these characters are the property of their respective players and not to be copied or used for any literary endeavor without the players' express permissions.

Copyright © 1999 Abigail Laughlin and the members of the Circle of Stone.