Post by Rivyka on Aug 29, 2015 17:08:43 GMT -5
Name: Rivyka
Species: Beastman
Class: Wolf Prowler
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
Age: 28 at start (Roughly a year younger than Siric of the Deep Howl)
Appearance: While shifted into humanoid form Rivyka is tall for a woman of her tribe, standing at just under six feet in height. Being raised in the north doesn't typically bring about softness, and Rivyka is no exception. Plenty of hunting and sparring in her homelands burned away any excess, leaving behind a lean and lithe figure. Considered a beauty by many, Rivyka wore an alluring but distant charm. Like many of her family, she bears canine ears, able to swivel and turn as needed, in both humanoid and beast forms, and her eyes shine brightly in the night if exposed to bright light. Her deep black hair falls straight to the middle of her back, though it often bears a bit of a ruffled and wild appearance. She frequently keeps it tied back in a simple loop at her shoulders, keeping it under limited control.
Rivyka's expressions carry well on her features. Most would hesitate before calling her features delicate, and describe them as sharp instead. Whether touched by a frown or graced by a smile, it isn't hard for her to let you know that those expressions are directed at you. That being said, she can also take care to mask where exactly the source of her feelings is coming from.
In wolf form, Rivyka takes on the shape of a black furred wolf with lighter tones running up her belly. Her body is seems a little longer on the average wolf, making her able to twist and turn a bit past what most would expect. She's not quite three feet at the shoulders when shifted.
Notably visible is a large tattoo that run down her right arm in a whorling pattern of blues, blacks and greens. These seem to twist and turn back onto themselves as the viewer follows the pattern. As for scarring, Rivyka has not escaped completely. A few nicks are visible on arms and legs, and a slice or two cross her side. Her knuckles look to have taken several beatings over the years, but that looks more like she was the one dishing it out than receiving it.
Clothes:Rivyka tends towards browns and greens for her clothes, and despite living away from her people, the clothes she wears still bear a great deal of similarity to what she was raised in. Leather sandals with plenty of straps to fasten them on feel far more natural and comfortable to her than any of the heavy boots of the Southlands she's seen or tried. Free flowing clothes which allow plenty of mobility suit her better than hardened leather or heavier and more restrictive garments. Loose fitting pants gathered around the ankles and a sleeveless tunic of a lighter color. A long cloth wrapped around her waist several times serves as girdle, giving her a place to stash things in a pinch, as well as accentuating her shape. She had to learn some of the talents of a tailor while living in the south for convenience, as most humani and evlorei hadn't the slightest idea how to craft a simple tail slot.
On her travels, it's common for her to pull a hood up or cover her ears by tying a cloth back to cover her head. The bushy black wolf tail is similarly concealed with a simple cloak or robe worn over her garments. She only does this when actively trying to avoid trouble though, and is not ashamed to openly show who and what she is when traveling with friends or in places not actively opposed to beastmen. The only thing that she can't find a way around are her reflective eyes, and her pronounced canine teeth. Taking care when speaking is usually enough to be able to hide her fangs from open visibility though.
Born in: Calirce
Story: Rivyka was born to a tribe of nomadic wolf beastmen in the north named the Deep Howl. Her father being an elder to the tribe, her entire family was held to a high standard, and she along with her older brother, Siric always did their best to fill those expectations. Among the Deep Howl, there were only a few things that were essential to their way of life. Support the tribe as the moved through the lands from camp to camp, and support your family when they needed help. Each were things that she was happy to do, and yet life seemed a little... simple. Caring for younger siblings was balanced with daily chores, learning to fish, setting traps, and plenty of play fighting with her fellow youngsters. At the end of the day, if she was lucky, some of the hunters would tell tales of their pursuit that day, or maybe an elder or their wisewoman would tell of the deep history of the Deep Howl, and the great deeds from a forgotten time.
Years passed, and the youngsters began learning to hunt. She did well, learning to hunt and fight as well as any of the cubs, but there were a few who truly pulled away from the rest of the cubs and started to distinguish themselves as truly talented hunters for the Deep Howl. Of these, the two most talked over were Ajel, the Chief's son, and her own brother, Siric. She was proud of her brother, even if his excessive pranking and teasing made her mad.
As time passed, the rookies grew into the next wave of hunters. Siric's reputation grew to be one of the fastest hunters in the North, and he started learning to show off. It was great that Siric had done so well with himself over the years, but his constant success rankled on her. She knew that she'd put more time into practice and careful study than he had. She'd been told that she could guide her prey along a path of her choosing as well as any of the senior hunters and could bring it down cleanly. And yet it didn't seem to matter. Always, it was Siric that received the praise at the end of the hunt. Siric or Ajel, and the few enough times that it was her or someone else were far enough in between that they meant little to her.
The tension building up in Rivyka wasn't lost on the brother. Siric continued his boasting and showing off, and she continued to try to catch up to what he managed with apparent ease, growing more frustrated all the while. It culminated into a head one day when Siric tracked down his sister and asked what the problem was.
"Come on. Whatever the problem is, I can fix it! Someone bothering you? Want me to run them off?"
Rivyka felt a glare coming on, and didn't bother containing it this time. "I know Siric. You'll fix everything. You know why? Because there's nothing the greatest rookie hunter the Deep Howl has ever seen can't do!" She threw her arms up, at the puzzled expression his face took on at the bitterness in her voice. He only thought of himself!
"Siric will handle it! He's so talented that he can steal the fish out of a hawks beak as it flies. He can track crickets by the sounds of the grass they disturb! Oh!!! He's so fast that he can do the spring trap run, and three young ladies before the afternoon meal!" Somewhere, a full rant had found its way into slipping out, and now she couldn't seem to stop her venting.... Even if as she went on, it did begin to seem unfair to her.
Siric looked completely taken off guard by his sister, but was trying to play it off as though it wasn't a big deal. Hey, he had everything in hand! "I've never actually tried that last one, but it-"
"SIRIC! SHUT UP!" Siric shut up pretty quick when he heard her voice. His sister seemed caught somewhere between a vicious fury and a wracking sob, and for once, he had no idea of what to do. He just stayed silent and waited, hoping that everything was going to work out ok.
"Siric..., I'm tired of eating nothing but the dust in your wake. I can't do it." Her voice broke, and it was under the weight of expectations and tradition, she saw now. Things that had been placed on her, either by herself or by her tribe. And since she couldn't measure up to it, now she felt broken by these weights. She found a place to sit down on a broken log a few steps away. She felt like she never wanted to get up again right then.
"Come on, Sis. Don't talk like that. You're a great hunter, and there's not a hunter in the tribe who wouldn't want you at their back." He sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort her. Rivyka listened, unsure whether she was more angry at her brother or at herself now.
Siric spoke up again. "Tomorrow, we can go on the long trail. I know we'll need a few good hunt guides and it'll feel good to just run for awhile. You'd be a good choice for it. I'll get you a spot, and-" He shut up again when she shoved him off the log they were sitting on so hard that he hit the ground, and looked up at her where she stood glaring down at him.
Once again, it had been "him" doing something for everyone else. If she was sick enough of being buried under all his exploits, then she wasn't about to take his favors either! "I can't stay here. Just leave me alone, Siric. I'll take care of this myself!" That's what she told him and herself, but she really didn't know how that was going to happen. They didn't speak over the next few days, uncomfortable silence reigning whenever they were around. It was when their father tried to help set things straight that Rivyka decided that she really ought to leave. Both had been reluctant to speak of it, but one day while Siric was away Trevic decided to push the issue.
Feeling like she was being targeted now for something that she had no fault in, shifter woman declared her intent to leave. They argued long and hard, Trevic telling her that they needed her here. That it was foolish to say that she didn't meet their standards, because she was one of the most talented and dedicated young hunters they had. She knew the truth though. There was one expectation that she didn't meet, and that was the one she had to flee from. As long as she was here in the tribe, her own expectations would hang over her, unmet. When she finally made he father understand that, he was sad. He didn't agree with her, but he understood that she vehemently believed it would be better if she were to leave. He announced the news to his family that night, and she left the next day, with only an old walking stick given to her by her father and what she could carry on her back.
When Siric returned from the long trail hunt, he didn't know what to do. He felt a good deal of anger, but even more loss over this, and spoke to his father at length. Some knowledge of what had happened filtered out to the rest of the tribe, but it remained unspoken for the most part. To this day, Rivyka's family still hope for her to return. It's a quiet hope though, perhaps never to be realized.
From the Deep Howl's nomadic path, Rivyka spent almost a year living as her tribe had, but alone, only pressing into the Southlands before the winter season came. There she found a vast world of which she knew only a little. She'd heard the words "city", "castle", and "king", but didn't truly know what they were. She marveled at the size of a simple town, thinking it a city, and found the nature of money to be confusing at first. She'd had little training on how to get by in the Southlands, never expecting to journey there. She couldn't understand how the little minted coins of these vast lands in the south could equal out to the worth of the skins she could get off of her prey. It was a trade caravan she met up with that showed her the dos and don'ts of these foreign lands. She was slow to trust at first, but one of the guards in the caravan named Garnet seemed to take it upon himself to look out for her. He showed her about how kingdoms were like tribes greater than she could imagine, and about how the King was like their chief. A good King received tribute in exchange for protecting those under him. Or so the plan went. These days, it fell mostly to the local lords to look after their lands. The entire Kingdom rarely came together for one purpose anymore. She stayed with the caravan for awhile, and he started showing her how to fight as he did, favoring a spear and sometimes a shield. She demonstrated her shifting abilities and how she could break bones with a snap of her jaw, and while impressed, he warned her against this. People in the Southlands would be more likely to fear her, he said, and what people feared, they normally hated. So she took up training with staff and spear with him, and taught him some of the forms of hand to hand combat that he could manage when they needed a break from that. Soon enough she joined into the caravan proper, signed on as a scout and guard. She rarely shifted anymore though, hiding her ears and tail under a hood and robe to blend in better. During their travels, they made it from Gunert all the way back to Calirce. All the while, she picked up more Southlander skills. She told Garnet that she was starting to feel positively native to the Southlands, and he laughed. Saying that if he hadn't met her back when she'd traveled south, he would have thought her a native.
Several years had passed since she headed south, but then the caravan took a job traveling to and from Sparathens. Sparathens needed its traders as much as any other country, but they were highly xenophobic, particularly against the beast tribes. They would still have her, they said, but she was warned that it might be safer if she sat this one out. Garnet even offered to set her up with a friend of his that ran a trade route back and forth from Southern Gunert ports to Lupercallia's capital of Opus City. Rivyka considered her options. It was only supposed to be one run into Sparathens and then back out. Just once shouldn't cause any trouble, and these traders had become like family to her over the years. A few members had come and gone, but there was a reliable core of them still here. And they'd accepted her when the rest of the world had given her empty hands.
"Just one run? It should be fine, right?" The caravan master agreed. He just had wanted to offer her the chance to stay behind, if she was concerned. Going in proved as harmless as had been expected. The timing on getting out was proving a little difficult though, as the Sparathens Army began its march out of the country just before they were scheduled to leave. Just a minor delay, they were assured....
Stats-
Strength: 5
Intellect: 1
Speed: 15
Defense: 7
Resistance: 2
Species: Beastman
Class: Wolf Prowler
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
Age: 28 at start (Roughly a year younger than Siric of the Deep Howl)
Appearance: While shifted into humanoid form Rivyka is tall for a woman of her tribe, standing at just under six feet in height. Being raised in the north doesn't typically bring about softness, and Rivyka is no exception. Plenty of hunting and sparring in her homelands burned away any excess, leaving behind a lean and lithe figure. Considered a beauty by many, Rivyka wore an alluring but distant charm. Like many of her family, she bears canine ears, able to swivel and turn as needed, in both humanoid and beast forms, and her eyes shine brightly in the night if exposed to bright light. Her deep black hair falls straight to the middle of her back, though it often bears a bit of a ruffled and wild appearance. She frequently keeps it tied back in a simple loop at her shoulders, keeping it under limited control.
Rivyka's expressions carry well on her features. Most would hesitate before calling her features delicate, and describe them as sharp instead. Whether touched by a frown or graced by a smile, it isn't hard for her to let you know that those expressions are directed at you. That being said, she can also take care to mask where exactly the source of her feelings is coming from.
In wolf form, Rivyka takes on the shape of a black furred wolf with lighter tones running up her belly. Her body is seems a little longer on the average wolf, making her able to twist and turn a bit past what most would expect. She's not quite three feet at the shoulders when shifted.
Notably visible is a large tattoo that run down her right arm in a whorling pattern of blues, blacks and greens. These seem to twist and turn back onto themselves as the viewer follows the pattern. As for scarring, Rivyka has not escaped completely. A few nicks are visible on arms and legs, and a slice or two cross her side. Her knuckles look to have taken several beatings over the years, but that looks more like she was the one dishing it out than receiving it.
Clothes:Rivyka tends towards browns and greens for her clothes, and despite living away from her people, the clothes she wears still bear a great deal of similarity to what she was raised in. Leather sandals with plenty of straps to fasten them on feel far more natural and comfortable to her than any of the heavy boots of the Southlands she's seen or tried. Free flowing clothes which allow plenty of mobility suit her better than hardened leather or heavier and more restrictive garments. Loose fitting pants gathered around the ankles and a sleeveless tunic of a lighter color. A long cloth wrapped around her waist several times serves as girdle, giving her a place to stash things in a pinch, as well as accentuating her shape. She had to learn some of the talents of a tailor while living in the south for convenience, as most humani and evlorei hadn't the slightest idea how to craft a simple tail slot.
On her travels, it's common for her to pull a hood up or cover her ears by tying a cloth back to cover her head. The bushy black wolf tail is similarly concealed with a simple cloak or robe worn over her garments. She only does this when actively trying to avoid trouble though, and is not ashamed to openly show who and what she is when traveling with friends or in places not actively opposed to beastmen. The only thing that she can't find a way around are her reflective eyes, and her pronounced canine teeth. Taking care when speaking is usually enough to be able to hide her fangs from open visibility though.
Born in: Calirce
Story: Rivyka was born to a tribe of nomadic wolf beastmen in the north named the Deep Howl. Her father being an elder to the tribe, her entire family was held to a high standard, and she along with her older brother, Siric always did their best to fill those expectations. Among the Deep Howl, there were only a few things that were essential to their way of life. Support the tribe as the moved through the lands from camp to camp, and support your family when they needed help. Each were things that she was happy to do, and yet life seemed a little... simple. Caring for younger siblings was balanced with daily chores, learning to fish, setting traps, and plenty of play fighting with her fellow youngsters. At the end of the day, if she was lucky, some of the hunters would tell tales of their pursuit that day, or maybe an elder or their wisewoman would tell of the deep history of the Deep Howl, and the great deeds from a forgotten time.
Years passed, and the youngsters began learning to hunt. She did well, learning to hunt and fight as well as any of the cubs, but there were a few who truly pulled away from the rest of the cubs and started to distinguish themselves as truly talented hunters for the Deep Howl. Of these, the two most talked over were Ajel, the Chief's son, and her own brother, Siric. She was proud of her brother, even if his excessive pranking and teasing made her mad.
As time passed, the rookies grew into the next wave of hunters. Siric's reputation grew to be one of the fastest hunters in the North, and he started learning to show off. It was great that Siric had done so well with himself over the years, but his constant success rankled on her. She knew that she'd put more time into practice and careful study than he had. She'd been told that she could guide her prey along a path of her choosing as well as any of the senior hunters and could bring it down cleanly. And yet it didn't seem to matter. Always, it was Siric that received the praise at the end of the hunt. Siric or Ajel, and the few enough times that it was her or someone else were far enough in between that they meant little to her.
The tension building up in Rivyka wasn't lost on the brother. Siric continued his boasting and showing off, and she continued to try to catch up to what he managed with apparent ease, growing more frustrated all the while. It culminated into a head one day when Siric tracked down his sister and asked what the problem was.
"Come on. Whatever the problem is, I can fix it! Someone bothering you? Want me to run them off?"
Rivyka felt a glare coming on, and didn't bother containing it this time. "I know Siric. You'll fix everything. You know why? Because there's nothing the greatest rookie hunter the Deep Howl has ever seen can't do!" She threw her arms up, at the puzzled expression his face took on at the bitterness in her voice. He only thought of himself!
"Siric will handle it! He's so talented that he can steal the fish out of a hawks beak as it flies. He can track crickets by the sounds of the grass they disturb! Oh!!! He's so fast that he can do the spring trap run, and three young ladies before the afternoon meal!" Somewhere, a full rant had found its way into slipping out, and now she couldn't seem to stop her venting.... Even if as she went on, it did begin to seem unfair to her.
Siric looked completely taken off guard by his sister, but was trying to play it off as though it wasn't a big deal. Hey, he had everything in hand! "I've never actually tried that last one, but it-"
"SIRIC! SHUT UP!" Siric shut up pretty quick when he heard her voice. His sister seemed caught somewhere between a vicious fury and a wracking sob, and for once, he had no idea of what to do. He just stayed silent and waited, hoping that everything was going to work out ok.
"Siric..., I'm tired of eating nothing but the dust in your wake. I can't do it." Her voice broke, and it was under the weight of expectations and tradition, she saw now. Things that had been placed on her, either by herself or by her tribe. And since she couldn't measure up to it, now she felt broken by these weights. She found a place to sit down on a broken log a few steps away. She felt like she never wanted to get up again right then.
"Come on, Sis. Don't talk like that. You're a great hunter, and there's not a hunter in the tribe who wouldn't want you at their back." He sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort her. Rivyka listened, unsure whether she was more angry at her brother or at herself now.
Siric spoke up again. "Tomorrow, we can go on the long trail. I know we'll need a few good hunt guides and it'll feel good to just run for awhile. You'd be a good choice for it. I'll get you a spot, and-" He shut up again when she shoved him off the log they were sitting on so hard that he hit the ground, and looked up at her where she stood glaring down at him.
Once again, it had been "him" doing something for everyone else. If she was sick enough of being buried under all his exploits, then she wasn't about to take his favors either! "I can't stay here. Just leave me alone, Siric. I'll take care of this myself!" That's what she told him and herself, but she really didn't know how that was going to happen. They didn't speak over the next few days, uncomfortable silence reigning whenever they were around. It was when their father tried to help set things straight that Rivyka decided that she really ought to leave. Both had been reluctant to speak of it, but one day while Siric was away Trevic decided to push the issue.
Feeling like she was being targeted now for something that she had no fault in, shifter woman declared her intent to leave. They argued long and hard, Trevic telling her that they needed her here. That it was foolish to say that she didn't meet their standards, because she was one of the most talented and dedicated young hunters they had. She knew the truth though. There was one expectation that she didn't meet, and that was the one she had to flee from. As long as she was here in the tribe, her own expectations would hang over her, unmet. When she finally made he father understand that, he was sad. He didn't agree with her, but he understood that she vehemently believed it would be better if she were to leave. He announced the news to his family that night, and she left the next day, with only an old walking stick given to her by her father and what she could carry on her back.
When Siric returned from the long trail hunt, he didn't know what to do. He felt a good deal of anger, but even more loss over this, and spoke to his father at length. Some knowledge of what had happened filtered out to the rest of the tribe, but it remained unspoken for the most part. To this day, Rivyka's family still hope for her to return. It's a quiet hope though, perhaps never to be realized.
From the Deep Howl's nomadic path, Rivyka spent almost a year living as her tribe had, but alone, only pressing into the Southlands before the winter season came. There she found a vast world of which she knew only a little. She'd heard the words "city", "castle", and "king", but didn't truly know what they were. She marveled at the size of a simple town, thinking it a city, and found the nature of money to be confusing at first. She'd had little training on how to get by in the Southlands, never expecting to journey there. She couldn't understand how the little minted coins of these vast lands in the south could equal out to the worth of the skins she could get off of her prey. It was a trade caravan she met up with that showed her the dos and don'ts of these foreign lands. She was slow to trust at first, but one of the guards in the caravan named Garnet seemed to take it upon himself to look out for her. He showed her about how kingdoms were like tribes greater than she could imagine, and about how the King was like their chief. A good King received tribute in exchange for protecting those under him. Or so the plan went. These days, it fell mostly to the local lords to look after their lands. The entire Kingdom rarely came together for one purpose anymore. She stayed with the caravan for awhile, and he started showing her how to fight as he did, favoring a spear and sometimes a shield. She demonstrated her shifting abilities and how she could break bones with a snap of her jaw, and while impressed, he warned her against this. People in the Southlands would be more likely to fear her, he said, and what people feared, they normally hated. So she took up training with staff and spear with him, and taught him some of the forms of hand to hand combat that he could manage when they needed a break from that. Soon enough she joined into the caravan proper, signed on as a scout and guard. She rarely shifted anymore though, hiding her ears and tail under a hood and robe to blend in better. During their travels, they made it from Gunert all the way back to Calirce. All the while, she picked up more Southlander skills. She told Garnet that she was starting to feel positively native to the Southlands, and he laughed. Saying that if he hadn't met her back when she'd traveled south, he would have thought her a native.
Several years had passed since she headed south, but then the caravan took a job traveling to and from Sparathens. Sparathens needed its traders as much as any other country, but they were highly xenophobic, particularly against the beast tribes. They would still have her, they said, but she was warned that it might be safer if she sat this one out. Garnet even offered to set her up with a friend of his that ran a trade route back and forth from Southern Gunert ports to Lupercallia's capital of Opus City. Rivyka considered her options. It was only supposed to be one run into Sparathens and then back out. Just once shouldn't cause any trouble, and these traders had become like family to her over the years. A few members had come and gone, but there was a reliable core of them still here. And they'd accepted her when the rest of the world had given her empty hands.
"Just one run? It should be fine, right?" The caravan master agreed. He just had wanted to offer her the chance to stay behind, if she was concerned. Going in proved as harmless as had been expected. The timing on getting out was proving a little difficult though, as the Sparathens Army began its march out of the country just before they were scheduled to leave. Just a minor delay, they were assured....
Stats-
Strength: 5
Intellect: 1
Speed: 15
Defense: 7
Resistance: 2