[Plotnotes] Seisyll

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[Plotnotes] Seisyll

Postby Seisyll on September 19th, 2014, 10:08 am

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Seisyll
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[Plotnotes] Seisyll

Postby Seisyll on September 19th, 2014, 10:10 am

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Seisyll


For anyone interested, here is a detailed history for how Seisyll ended up in Taloba...


There was nothing particularly unusual about the first half a century or so of Seisyll's life. Like many other Freshwater Ivyess, she was fostered around another sub race of the Dhani family in the Spires. Before learning to morph into their Dhani forms, Seisyll and her clutchmates lived purely on instinct, hunting and living as normal snakes might. After two decades, the younglings started to learn how to morph into their Dhani forms, and life became just that little bit more complicated. For Seisyll the form felt more natural, but the siblings still preferred to remain in the form they had known for the longest.

It wasn't until her mother returned some fifty or sixty years after she left that Seisyll and her siblings learnt of their true heritage. They were told of Makutsi, the Goddess of rain and freshwaters, whom had blessed them each with the gift of calling rainwater forth. They were told of a third form, one they would not learn for another many decades, and it was in that form that they would be able to use the gift from Makutsi. They were also told of a history, or fragments of a history that her mother could recall from her own mother - a shared heritage of all Freshwater Ivyess, who now were nomadic, travellers without an identity.

It was this history, this story of a jungle land blessed with monsoons and heavy rain, that prompted a few of the young Dhani to venture south, following streams and rivers south of the spires until they met with the sea. From there, they headed back inland, upstream. They hunted and survived as they needed, living nigh on exclusively in their snake forms. To any who might have seen them, they would have thought nothing more of them than seeing mindless animals.

Without any concept of seasons, it would be hard to say how long the siblings' travel took, but by the time they arrived in a late lake in the centre of the jungle province, Seisyll and her siblings were well into their seventh decade. Their journey was by no means rushed, and now that they were there, they weren't sure what to do. So they continued life much as they had when they lived near the Spires: they survived. Life revolved around hunting and digesting their large meals, and for years they basked in the moist region that Freshwater Ivyess had once called their home. The exotic jungles of this new land were beautiful and thrived because of the heavy rainfall, which felt like a blessing from Makutsi, whom Seisyll was beginning to adore.

Given the nature of the lands, it wasn't often that Seisyll would see any native inhabitants of the region, and when she did, she didn't realise it yet but was fortunate enough to have been in her snake form, unseen, beneath the undergrowth. She saw the olive skin, sometimes so dark that they could blend with the brown and green of the well-watered trees. It was the form that Seisyll one day knew she would be able to take, and she wondered how they managed to traverse the land with a body that split itself down the middle. Only a few times was she brave enough to trail them, silently using the water to her benefit, and it was on one of these occasions that she learnt of the location of their home, a city called Taloba.

But the Ivyess had unknowingly arrived in an area already at war, and it was not long before the small group added to the growing list of casualties. One of Seisyll's siblings returned alone when three had left to hunt, fishing in the north end of the large lake, as they had in the past. Maybe ventured too far, maybe they crossed some unspoken boundary, or maybe they were just unfortunate enough to happen upon another hunting party. Spears pierced their hearts before they had had a chance to react.

The remaining Ivyess returned to where the two had fallen, and found that the bodies had not been taken. In their Dhani forms, it first occurred to Seisyll and her siblings that it was the form that was hated. They were killed not for sustenance, nor hopefully for sport, but because of hatred. Executed for the crime of being born, had been her mother's explanation of how she watched some treat others on her travels. The humans of Taloba hated the snake-people, though they didn't even know them. Maybe it was fear of the unknown, or a feud that was so old no one could remember how it started, but Seisyll learnt that the Myrians hated the Dhani, and vice versa. The young Ivyess could not understand it, however, and as she slowly matured, her doubts over these bipedal creatures grew.

It was this confusion that lead Seisyll to further develop the curiosity shared between many of her Freshwater brethren. She needed to learn more about these cold-blooded killers, and why they had murdered her brothers. Her siblings thought her mad, but she would not see reason, and remained behind when the others left in search of more welcoming lands. But, as with learning of her Dhani form, Seisyll was again last to learn of her human form, some number of seasons after the first. By this tim, one or two of the others had ventured, in their final forms, into civilisation, and had either stolen or worked in exchange for clothing and other human necessities. The final material object that Seisyll had been gifted was a small harp, which could accompany the stories that Seisyll loved to share.

The siblings also took pains to practise some of the human tongues that they heard. Their accents were not perfect, but they might at least be passable as foreigners. Then, and only then, did the siblings take leave of their sister, knowing that she had a chance of survival, and she finally was ready to walk amongst the ruthless jungle-folk. Trying to remember the route that she had learnt long ago, Seisyll made sure to morph and dress far away from where she thought the city was. From there, she trekked across the land, not venturing far from where she knew water was, until the city came into sight.

Remnants of this supposed war was plain to the Ivyess girl, who was instantly hounded with questions by the cautious guardsmen. She kept her answers short, and endeavoured to adhere to her sister's advice; she had picked up on the biggest divergence between their accent and the Myrian tongue - the sibilance - so Seisyll was to try to avoid using that sound. To the city, she had decided to become Tae, in an attempt to preserve her identity. But she first failed, and the first word she uttered could have instantly given her away. "
S-sstoryteller..."

But she was lucky, this once, seen as nervous. Let into the city, Seisyll endeavoured to remain silent, and truly think over what needed to be said. When she sang, or recited a piece, any accent she had slipped away, which allowed her to perform without fear of discovery. Her relatively pale skin and accent left no one to think that she was a native, and she was never treated as such. But Seisyll never contradicted those who made the assumption that she was human. The tavern that she came to call home was somewhat of a safe haven for many foreigners, but even there she never revealed her own identity.

Only when Seisyll left the city to hunt for game did she risk changing her form, and even then, she would travel some distance before doing so. As the days turned into seasons, she grew used to eating her food cooked for, although her stomach could digest that which was raw, humans could not, and she had to maintain such a guise. Once, soon after she had first arrived and had eaten raw mean publicly, she had rushed to furtively find a plant which she knew would cause her to vomit, so that she might feign food-poisoning.

The only way in which she truly felt at one with the city was through their shared patron, Makutsi. She gained the trust - or what could pass as trust - of the Myrians (who apparently knew nothing of the Ivyess to make the link) by sharing the tales that her mother had passed on to her of the Goddess, and dedicating songs to her glory. There could be no doubt of Seisyll's devotion. It was how she learnt what she wanted about the peoples, through her guise of a Minstrel. She could turn their stories into epic tales and songs, which could then be passed throughout Mizahar in all their glory. And all the while, she honed her ability to lie, keeping her secret from all she conversed with, securing her life.

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User avatar
Seisyll
Player
 
Posts: 27
Words: 20264
Joined roleplay: September 15th, 2014, 9:37 pm
Race: Dhani
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets


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