Dinviel Tiarella

[Dinviel]

Race: Symenestra Gender: Male Age: 18 years DoB: 2nd day of Spring 595 AV in Kalinor bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat The equivalent of quality lacework in flesh and bone, Dinviel is all improbably fine contours guided by needlelike features, a delicate skeleton threading under-flesh, his complexion milky as raw cotton. Dinviel's eyes, near burgundy in color, seem darker against his translucent pallor and hoary mop of hair. Even the irregularities in his slight body--the gap between his front teeth, a cave-dimmed smattering of freckles, or those inappropriately unruly curls--fold into Dinviel's well-orchestrated appearance. But he's frail, and that vulnerability carries into his physicality. When in motion Dinviel notably lacks the characteristic grace of the typical Symenestran; his own movements falter too frequently to seem effortless. He has had a lifetime to wrestle with his clumsiness and entertains more nerve than his faltering would suggest, but still cannot weather arduous work without exhausting himself. Where he struggles in dance and acrobatics, however, Dinviel excels in art--particularly sculpture. Dinviel's willowy claw-tipped hands are certainly large enough, by human proportion, to house the nimbleness lacking in his every other limb. In clothing, his choices are all quite typical of Kalinor. Dinviel does prefer not to cut his toenails, and in lieu of light sandals chooses to begin his leg wraps lower--around the instep of the foot, covering all but the fore of his feet and heels in silk. Up until the turn of his 13th year Dinviel also sheathed himself regularly in body armor despite the relative safety Kalinor provides. Aesthetically, he prefers filmy, almost diaphanous, silk garments in deep indigos, greens, and blacks. His affinity for pearl grey and the offwhite colour of undyed silks is usually foregone for the more typical colors, as Dinviel prefers to blend. Height: 5'10'' Weight: 102 Ibs Where his physical weakness shames him, Dinviel's manner does the Symenestran archetype proud. He is an introverted boy, mute in his covert yet knowing glances. While his eyes are always turned outwards with company, Dinviel's observations feed into an internal line of questioning and, as a result, his manner is habitually distrait. Listening, not speaking, is his greatest joy, and he has learned that certain twists of the lip or absorbed stares can fuel a conversation as well as words. Dinviel finds people captivating, especially Symenestra. Solemn, sickly, and swept up in wonderings as a child, Dinviel never formed close bonds with classmates or peers. He does, however, enjoy the company of his fellow Symenestra despite being too timid to seek them out. Other races interest him as well, but they frighten in equal measure. Their beauty displaces him, confounds him, and most foreigners would likely find him highly xenophobic. He always has been an investigative child, easily enraptured by quiet things, and prone to romanticization. At times he is all but overwhelmed by emotion, and relief for a boy with no friends comes in the form of art. Oftentimes religious in nature, Dinviel's work exhibits all the signs of a devoted, but unrefined, practitioner. He has a special affinity with sculpture, and oftentimes speaks of (and to) rocks and other inanimate objects with a fondness befitting pets. Plants and animals, however, garner additional tenderness on his part--Dinviel's nurturing streak runs deep, deep enough to sometimes blind him to danger. His faith in Viratas and the Viratassa has guided his life, but Dinviel's understanding of blood is more abstract than Lysonis's. His empathy leads him to find a form of blood in the veins of rock or the sap in plants just as surely as in sapient beings and, as a result, Dinviel is perhaps gentler than might be expected of a Symenestra. That Dinviel should simultaneously be so faithful in his fellow Symenestra and so mistrustful of other races, however, may speak to the isolationist streak in Kalinor's culture. Tentative as his grip on good health has been, he has rarely left the floating city, and never unattended. What few non-Symenestra Dinviel has met were guests in Kalinor, and as such their conduct guided at least in part by the expectations of the cave-cradled society. He fully intends to leave Kalinor in the upcoming harvest, but Dinviel is wary of the surface world. In the darkness, with the intrinsic safety of other Symenestra close about him like a protective shawl, he is free to remain enraptured with the floating city's beauty and generalize other races as queer strangers rather than think them members of the community. The Tiarellas take their name from the medicinal herb, a creeping plant colloquially known as foamflower for its spires of delicate flowers. This name was most likely adopted after the Valterrian, during the Symenestran exodus from their traditional home, a trip that would have brought tiarella into closer proximity. Dinviel's father Yrevesin, like so many Tiarellas before him, honored the plant's healing properties by devoting his working life to applied herbalism. It was during the final years of his apprenticeship that Yrevesin, then a young man, met Lysonis Valerian. Only 16 at the time, and suffering from a lifetime of poor health, she found in Yrevesin a friend before a caretaker. Their courtship was gentle but speedy, and before the year ended they had undergone the vezanya. Lysonis's health burgeoned, briefly, but both elected to continue in their studies before marrying. When they wed, the occasion celebrated their bond as well as their fresh adulthood, and the first years of their marriage were happy ones. Yrevesin's skill as an herbalist allowed him to ease Lysonis pain in sickness, and her insightfulness deepened Yrevesin's spirituality. However, they suffered disagreement on one point: surrogacy. Lysonis, youthful and weak of body as she was, still wished to carry their children herself. Her own name, Valerian, was older than her husband's and the sweet-smelling plant itself frequently served as food for the Ranekissra larvae. Lysonis had always been intensely religious and her understanding of blood's physicality was couched in her bodily suffering and the hours of bedridden contemplation poor health afforded her--as valerian nourished the next generation of moths, she wished to incubate their children. But Yrevesin knew her frailty, and tried to convince her of surrogacy's merits--his convincing went to begging and to pleading before her unwavering determination. When he appealed to her as the father to the child she would leave behind, Lysonis finally reconsidered--on the condition that Yrevesin find a surrogate of surpassing quality himself. He departed during the Winter of 592 AV, and their reunion following the two years apart was bittersweet, with sweetness outdistancing the bitter, and the surrogate impregnated before Chemah no Ranek. But Lysonis had waned in the years Yrevesin had been gone, and ceding her lifelong wish to become a mother in body pained her dearly. Unlike the Ranekissra, Lysonis would not enjoy a long life in exchange for motherhood; she died only a handful of weeks before Dinviel's birth, leaving Yrevesin to grieve and plan for a future without her. When his child was delivered, the babe was small and sickly, and would demand much of Yrevesin's time. Within the following two years he would remarry out of pragmatism, and so his son has never wanted for a mother. Dinviel was raised believing that Lysonis had given birth to him, sacrificing her life to forge in him the link of blood between Valerian and Tiarella webs. He may as well have been her blood: from birth he suffered chronic ear infections, and proved susceptible to minor yet taxing sicknesses through all his formative years. His parents' over-protective tendencies were justified by Dinviel's unhealthiness, but nevertheless he suffered as a child from limited social interaction. When his health finally began to stabilize, a new and much more worrisome problem had arisen. Yrevesin sought the opinion of medics on the cause of and treatment for Dinviel's attacks of vertigo, but a decisive remedy couldn't be found. The unpredictability of these balance-inhibiting paroxysms, always couples with nausea and nystagmus, sentenced the young Symenestra to more years of alienation. Nunaky, his father's second wife, became his closest friend. Where Yrevesin often excluded both children from his work, Nunaky informed Dinviel in the art of tapestry weaving as she completed commissions. Dinviel, in turn, watched over Velorij, a brother three years his junior, with all the tenacity of an older sibling. Insightful and caring, Nunaky nurtured his artistic skill by organizing an apprenticeship with one of Kalinor's sculptors. The relative autonomy of adolescence came with a slow abatement of his struggles with vertigo, but Dinviel's ability to travel in the floating city remains stunted by the unbidden rush of fear his own tenuity taught him. His life plans have been willingly sacrificed to his mother's desire for a third child, because his father is too old for the harvest, and Velorij too young. Dinviel's desire to join in the Symenestran practice is fueled by a fierce desire to see Nunaky happy, and Yrevesin has been instructing him in the use of certain plants and wiles to lure this surrogate.   Skills Sculpting 20/100 Novice Carving 18/100 Novice Drawing 7/100 Novice Weaving 5/100 Novice Acrobatics 10/100 Novice (racial bonus)   Lores Lore of Religion: Viratas Lore of Artistic Observation   Languages Fluent in Symenestra Conversational in Common Dinviel has recently moved out of his childhood home, wherein his immediate family still lives, and into a smaller apartment. His residence's walls are already speckled with bas-reliefs, all of them studies, but the subjects varying. Anatomical observations in hand, face, and foot sit alongside half-finished dandelions brought from the surface or hasty images of Gryzh in her sleep. Several etchings represent flows of silk or architectural abstractions, and already some are being strategically deepened to serve as shallow hand- and foot-holds. The most premeditated are beginning to form a wreath of decoration around the hearth, while the apartment's only chest holds his material possessions. Housewarming gifts of silk cushion his bunk and line the floor, but as of yet Dinviel's new home is quite bare. inventory : 1 Set of Clothing -Silk shirt -Silk Pants -Silk Undergarments -Silk Cloak -Exoskeleton Armor Shirt 1 Waterskin 1 Silken Knapsack which contains: -Bone Comb -Bone Brush -Soap -Fruit Rations (1 Week's worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel 100 Gold Mizas Heirloom: Dinviel inherited from from his mother's side of the family an opalgloam in cabochon cut, about the dimension of a pheasant egg, one face decorated with an intaglio of valerian flowers. The etching, while fine, has been softened by long years of handling. spending history : Purchase | Cost | Total Starting | +100 GM | 100 GM Yrevesin father Nunaky adopted mother Lysonis mother figure, more of an abstract character to Dinviel. Velorij younger brother Gryzh a "pet" pallid bat n/a