Nahuat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlwNDGDqjrs
Race: Chaktawe
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Appearance: Like a flash of copper and raven on the desert horizon; his youthful effigy haloed in a sweet-falling nimbus of dune. Shoulders marked of a lean and slim Chaktawe, healthy in build, and while untrained and untried by blood, battle, and depravity, he surely appeared capable of rising to the occasion as the boys' step strode toward an adults path. Nimble, strong legs begged that he might be a dancer, but suspicions coaxed that cattle theft had tempered those corded muscles. Some of the tribe elders and their venerate tracker knew otherwise. Easy to smile and free to be footloose, the young chaktawe still bore the expression of youth, and a hunger for things not yet understood for their gravity. Innocence was present in his obsidian eyes, even if it was innocence poorly represented by the harsh environs of the desert.
Long locks of midnight had been drawn back like a ravens wing, or bound up in several fanciful braids if swift travel and unobstructed observation called for simple practicalities. Ceremonial gatherings often afforded him a chance to while the days away, etching and abrading sea shells plucked from a lazy walk along the northern gulf, or whittling the fallen boughs of a sacred acacia to make beads for adorning those raven tendrils when tradition called for customary raiments.
His rough hands demonstrated an eagerness to be active, and the grin he often wore showed others he took a certain pleasure in being of service with those hands, especially those most in need and least likely to expect it. Freckled fingertips wove a delicate sandstorm of specks from his finger pads to the edge where his digits and palms meet. Oft times his hands could dance as his legs could, perceiving a multi-faceted layer of motion beneath the subtle surface.
The ash char, pitch resin, and spit mixed with precious animal fats wound undulating swathes of curving spirals that covered the length of his body in bold black; distinct of his Kalanue ancestry. He appeared everything of the desert, and more.
Clothing: His torso was clasped in banded leathers, strung taut to form a web of simple braids over his chest. Dress at suns rise took time, and to apply the leathers was a deliberate practice that urged the young chaktawe into his day. He would often weave them over his shoulders, around his neck, under his arms, and through the bridges at his chest to lash them at the junction 'round his waist, carefully clutching his chest and arms in decorative knotwork. The simplicity of protecting ones flesh from blistering sun and whipping sands was just one more opportunity to make a ceremony of the day's moment, and find a reason for gratitude amidst a desert that, from the outside appeared thankless, but from his perspective gave more than a baral's share of the meal when there was so very little to go around as it is. The desert taught him that practicality could still be beautiful.
Carefully carved beads of fallen acacia gnarls, a baral tooth, jackal backbone, and carven bowback goat horn illustrate a varied tapestry of handmade chaktawe artistry in the form of a breastplate, which he wears for celebration and ceremony, enjoying its rattling sound as he pounds foot to sand in honor of Semele, Eywaat, Mikutsi, or Zulrav.
On the boiling days there is not but the black paint and bare flesh as the best choice for practicality.
Hide skins and lattice sinew cover his shins for warmth when the suns go down, though his leathery webbed feet are best suited on the bare dunes, close to the heart beat of the earth.
Of all the pieces, the sheets of leather that drape from his back and front, knotted at the waist, appear to breathe a certain grace and billowing plume to his movements. His legs swish as sable bat wings, making his war skirt an intimidating flash of darkness during the twilight hours of the desert. Dyed ebony with pitch and charred wood speckle, and offering another layer over his loin cloth.
Home Region: Eyktol Desert - northeast - easterly region near Yahebah and the Red Rock Formations
Character Concept: All omens point to a tracker, inherent in the hunger he has for mysteries, and where those mysteries wander off to in the lonely and wide desert. Life seldom reveals itself in the barren lands, but when it leaves a piece of its memory behind the hands of the gods seem to command the eyes, ears, nose and fingers of this young Chaktawe, begging him to wonder about the world beyond his limited perception. It has become a consolation to him during those trying times, and remains as a beacon to remind him that no matter the emptiness, loneliness, and quietus solitude of the desert, there is always life.
He's lived a life where his needs and wants are nearly matched, and the chaktawe could ask for no more than the chance to experience new things and relish the freshness of life as one might take a moment to worship the first bite of a fig, or sip the first drop of water after a long sojourn had ended. Tracking and travel are both embraced as passions to the chaktawe; passions he is certain will transform into life-long affairs.
Merely mechanics-- these inclinations toward study and possible mastery are merely the outcomes of a carefree, footloose and curious life that took itself far less serious than the professions of desert survival and tracking might require of a nomad. The young chaktawe was often at his best when he was laughing from the bottom of his heart, and it was in those moments when the chief concerns were dance, the rattle of beads in a gourd, the stomp of foot, and the clap that beckoned revelry. He loved to move as the wind.
Stories rivaled the dance, and like all chaktawe, he was prey to the immense awe any desert nomad felt for a great story. To let his mind's eye transport him from this realm to another was as a sweetness all too beautiful to be real, but even awake he could learn to dream by the melody of a true storyteller's murmur.
Family, service, easy days, warm, but not blistering sun, cool winds and a soft breeze, and watching snakes wriggle over the sand; all these amounted to daily treasures, and the few things he'd often hope to encounter each time he rose from sleep.
Training:
+15 Tracking SP
+15 Wilderness Survival (Desert Specific) SP
+ 10 Camouflage RB
+ 5 Stealth
+ 4 Leatherworking SP
+ 3 Spear
+ 3 Throwing Spear
+ 2 Woodworking SP
+ 2 Toolmaking SP
+ 1 Cordage Craft SP
Possessions:
1 Hide Satchel:
- goat butter and clay (toothpaste)
- abraded rag (tooth brush)
- manzanita sickle (body scraper)
- 2 vials of jojoba oil (body wash)
- seasoning rag (for oiling wood and bone weapons/tools)
- hide bedroll
- stone tool variety (abrader, carver, skinner, knapper, hammer, pins and needles, scrapper, spearheads, several knife experiments, and two functional knives)
- bone fishing hooks and snares
- twist of yucca fiber cordage (10 ft)
- several carved sticks
1 quiver
- 20 wood throwing spears (10 wood tip/10 stone tip)
1 stone hatchet
1 hide tent
1 Eyktolian Desertbred (Named: Ah Washti)
Character History:
Still working on that...
Nothing unusual of a chaktawe band of families. Just normal desert nomad life thus far. Working on tthe blanks as we go. Feel free [Storytellyer] to insert personal lore of Nahuat as we go. He's never met other races, or gone too far beyond the periphery of his tribe, so everything can be explored IC to make it easier.