Post by Sythnia Novallas on May 19, 2014 18:32:11 GMT
[attr="class","icoco"] | [attr="class","icoco"] | [attr="class","icoco"] |
[attr="class","qty"]"I'll be an out-and-out, born again from none more cynical."
[attr="class","bxy"]
Sythnia was born into a world of darkness on a cold night in Umbralis, the only child ever born of a senate magister of Tevinter named Neretis Novallas. Her first memories were of nursemaids teaching her how to explore her world safely, despite her lack of sight, as well as the hushed whispers discussing her 'deformity'. She didn't understand at the time, of course, that being blind wasn't a typical human condition – and flaws in the sole heirs on magisters weren't well looked-upon. Another distinct memory was the time she posed the question to her favorite nanny about mothers – a term she'd heard from the other children who often came with their own influential parents – and why she didn't have one, too. She had been unsurprised to be met with the answer of 'I'll tell you when you're older'.
Not a significant answer, but the memory stuck with her, as she would ask periodically if she was old enough to hear it yet. Between that question, her childhood was a noisy haze that consisted of lessons of proper manners and respect, the sporadic visit from her esteemed father, and the occasional test to see if any magical ability had emerged in her. That was the other thing she remembered vividly – the day she accidentally caused a magical bubble appear around herself because she didn't want to go to bed yet, and a nursemaid had cornered her in a closet – she remembered her father sounding pleased for the first time when he was brought to see the occurrence, followed by the apparently strenuous task to extract the young girl from the closet, as her bubble left no maneuvering room in the small space.
When she was ten, she was finally told that her mother was the reason she was blind, and so her father had sent her away shortly after Sythnia had been born. This was a far more romanticized version of reality, for course, as she figured out later in life – being the only heir of a magister of her father's esteem was a bit odd, after all, so she had to look into it. It wasn't hard to fit out that her father had a fit of rage when his only ever conceived child was born blind, an accident to be sure, but he blamed her mother, who more than likely had been thrown in the dungeons for...well, likely her life, if she hadn't suffered an even worse fate. She supposed she should have been more appalled when she came to realize it, or perhaps even distraught, but it was hard to sympathize with a person she'd never known.
She was fifteen when her father came to her with a tone of enthusiasm in his voice she'd never heard before, informing her that there was a small chance he would be able to give her sight. Many a time people had attempted to explain to her what things looked like, but it was impossible for her mind to comprehend – she knew shapes by touch, food by smell, her family by their unique voices, she'd never known anything else, and while she was curious, she had no idea what she was even missing. So, she tried to be excited for him, as well. In time, however, she became genuinely excited as he would discuss with her the vague details of some of his experiments and research he'd been doing for many a year, and it became an anticipation for the day when she could see what all this fuss was about.
From that day until she was almost nineteen, her days were filled with political, history, and magic lessons, rapidly adjusting to social graces with all the practice she received from all the high-ranked visitors her father hosted, and the occasional visit to the room attached to her father's study (which carried a smell she couldn't even describe it was so terrible, though she never complained considering all of this was for her) where he was conducting his attempts to 'cure' her, most the time for simple preparations or checkups for what he planned, though there was the occasional painful procedure she'd rather not think too hard about – of which there was six in total.
The day her father attached the first version of her miracle headdress, she'd cried. She'd been certain it had been a fleeting dream, and that she'd been hyping herself for nothing, but she could indeed see, and boy was there a lot the world to see. She'd been told the images that fed into her mind were less than ideal, according to her father's other test subjects – the colors were dull and the edges of the vision blurred horribly (not unlike a trip into the Fade, apparently), but Sythnia didn't care – when you had had nothing but pure darkness to compare to, everything she saw was beautiful. She never fully realized how much she had been missing in her life before then, and in that instant, all the time spent and painful procedures were well worth it.
That wasn't the end of the road with that, however – her father worked on improving it and attempting to make it less bulky over the next couple years, all while showing her off to the rest of his esteemed friends to show the fruits of his labors from the past few reclusive years. During that time, Sythnia began to show herself more in public, now that she didn't have to risk running into walls of a building she didn't know the layout of, and made quite an impression on many of her father's associates with how easily she could manipulate a crowd in her favor. Her years listening to her father's parties and political chatter had allowed her plenty to pick up on, and as soon as she was able to venture into the world, she had the social graces and political savvy as if she'd been doing such a thing for years.
It was this, among other reasons that he dare not specify to his daughter, that caused her father to put forth the suggestion to the magisterium that they appoint her an ambassador. They were rather short of them at the time, seeing as they kept 'mysteriously disappearing' while in the other countries, and while they considered many of the places not worth the effort of such a position, they did need them to avoid potential disasters – after all, when a Tevinter managed to make a 'mess' in another country due to not conforming to their idea of 'human decency', someone had to be there to appease the aristocracy before they sent the Chantry on a witch hunt after them once again.
She spent a couple years under evaluation for the position, placed under the scrutiny of the ruthless politics of Minrathous, which she not only survived, but thrived in. She managed to repair ties between several families beneficial to her father (and with a debt to her, they also begrudgingly owed him), set a feud between two that had always been her family's rivals to keep them busy with each other, and managed to talk the Archon's heir into marrying in to one of the said allies of her family. Her charm and grace were matched only by her ruthlessness, and it was clear her weapon was never going to be her magic, but her ability to work the floor. She found the intrigue she was placed into absolutely fascinating to boot – even as a child, she had always been nosy, and with her keep hearing was always able to eavesdrop – and now her job was to get into people's business? She couldn't think of anything more ideal.
So, she was naturally quite ecstatic when she was approved and grated an official ambassador’s emblem and seal. Her father set her up with some of his own people to go with her, the newest (and slightly less atrocious) version of her headgear (which she had been delighted to find the view was more colorful than the last one), and sent her off to play her role...away from the magisters who would eat her alive the more they discovered her less than impressive abilities with magic. For about two and a half years now she's been almost constantly away from home, settling in one big city or another temporarily so long as she's not needed specifically anywhere – often favoring Orlais for it's infamous politics that she can spy on. Despite being Tevinter, she manages to make good impressions where she can, and makes it particularly difficult to dislike her – unless, if course, she wants you to, and that often means she's also out to destroy you.
Sythnia's poise and grace on the socialite battleground can only be matched by the upper crust of Orlais, and the merciless way she destroys her enemies speaks to her Tevinter heritage quite well. It's a dog eat dog world, and she refuses to be at the bottom of the chain no matter what country she'd visiting. She's well-spoken and deliberate in everything she says, setting up all her pieces to ensure that the worst outcome she could ever come in contact with was a draw. She's the image of a high-born lady in body language and manner – years of having to move carefully to ensure she didn't fall led to a literal grace to match her metaphorical one.
She has a wit as sharp as a dagger and a sense of entitlement the size of Tevinter itself, but does well to hide both in most instances. She's a formidable ally and a dreaded enemy, and can deface a reputation within a week, all while keeping a smile when she talks to you. She knows how to pull all the attention in the room if she needs to, and just as easily disperse it. She's composed, decisive, and absolutely refuses to give ground on matters she's passionate about. Sythnia is probably a better public relation outlet than Tevinter realizes it even has, keeping far more positive ties than negative ones, even if she does often overcritical others behind their back to her dear trusted personal entourage.
Most people believe her to be simply eccentric when they first meet her – oh those crazy Tevinter maleficars and their nonsensical headgear, only Orlais can compete with that level of over the top – and she does rather enjoy the reaction when they finally ask about it, and she can serenely state that without it, she can't see. It's always quite the conversation starter. She, of course, has no qualms discussing it, as it's actually a point of pride for her – her father, through his horrible, abhorrent magic, managed to make it so his daughter could see the world after years in complete darkness.
This often times flawlessly weeds out who will and won't associate with her simply because of her heavy approval of magic. She's no fool – she knows better than to lay favoring praise onto mages in the company of the aristocracy of other countries, but the fact that she never openly speaks against them, and is always willing to tell the tale of a father who saved her from her from her birth defection, says a lot to them for certain. There's also the matter of her pride when introducing herself as a Tevinter ambassador – her loyalty to her home is always clear, though she is careful to never mention her own magical aptitude (or lack thereof) in polite company – most of rank in Tevinter are mages, but despite that, it's never good to advertise it outside of those borders.
For all her good image, however, she is certainly a daughter of her homeland, and her callousness towards many matters will show it. She shows no sympathy for the lower classes struggling to simply make a living, the people of the countries she visits, while she does adore being among them, she deems as lesser than her and her kind, and elves are barely second-class citizens. She views the Chantry as a novelty at best, though she dare not speak that aloud – after all, she's out to repair and build bridges, not burn them, and she knows how dear so much of Thedas holds its silly Andraste. She's managed to hide her mental degradation of others to herself, however, so very few actually realize she is, most certainly, the image of a magister's heir.
An all-out one, only one street-level miracle.
Her magical abilities are lackluster at best, so to make up for her lack of power, she was put through vigorous training to make her into a passable healer – after all, even Tevinters need proper healers, making her useful by default. Her offensive spells often end in disaster, and it's better for her to stick to defensive and healing. She's been trained for staves as well as some close combat with lightweight, short swords as a backup.
Seeing as toting about a stave admist all the nervous Chantry folk would create a bad image for her, she instead favors her lightweight blade as her last line of defense. She's actually quite hard to spot out as a mage, which makes her job as such a public figure of Tevinter much easier – don't ask don't tell, right?
LIST OF TALENTS:
LIST OF SKILLS:
SPECIALIZATION:
[attr="class","jigs"]Twenty-Six • Tevinter Ambassador • Tevinter • Human
[attr="class","noccio"]SYTHNIA NOVALLAS
[attr="class","bb"]Sythnia was born into a world of darkness on a cold night in Umbralis, the only child ever born of a senate magister of Tevinter named Neretis Novallas. Her first memories were of nursemaids teaching her how to explore her world safely, despite her lack of sight, as well as the hushed whispers discussing her 'deformity'. She didn't understand at the time, of course, that being blind wasn't a typical human condition – and flaws in the sole heirs on magisters weren't well looked-upon. Another distinct memory was the time she posed the question to her favorite nanny about mothers – a term she'd heard from the other children who often came with their own influential parents – and why she didn't have one, too. She had been unsurprised to be met with the answer of 'I'll tell you when you're older'.
Not a significant answer, but the memory stuck with her, as she would ask periodically if she was old enough to hear it yet. Between that question, her childhood was a noisy haze that consisted of lessons of proper manners and respect, the sporadic visit from her esteemed father, and the occasional test to see if any magical ability had emerged in her. That was the other thing she remembered vividly – the day she accidentally caused a magical bubble appear around herself because she didn't want to go to bed yet, and a nursemaid had cornered her in a closet – she remembered her father sounding pleased for the first time when he was brought to see the occurrence, followed by the apparently strenuous task to extract the young girl from the closet, as her bubble left no maneuvering room in the small space.
When she was ten, she was finally told that her mother was the reason she was blind, and so her father had sent her away shortly after Sythnia had been born. This was a far more romanticized version of reality, for course, as she figured out later in life – being the only heir of a magister of her father's esteem was a bit odd, after all, so she had to look into it. It wasn't hard to fit out that her father had a fit of rage when his only ever conceived child was born blind, an accident to be sure, but he blamed her mother, who more than likely had been thrown in the dungeons for...well, likely her life, if she hadn't suffered an even worse fate. She supposed she should have been more appalled when she came to realize it, or perhaps even distraught, but it was hard to sympathize with a person she'd never known.
She was fifteen when her father came to her with a tone of enthusiasm in his voice she'd never heard before, informing her that there was a small chance he would be able to give her sight. Many a time people had attempted to explain to her what things looked like, but it was impossible for her mind to comprehend – she knew shapes by touch, food by smell, her family by their unique voices, she'd never known anything else, and while she was curious, she had no idea what she was even missing. So, she tried to be excited for him, as well. In time, however, she became genuinely excited as he would discuss with her the vague details of some of his experiments and research he'd been doing for many a year, and it became an anticipation for the day when she could see what all this fuss was about.
From that day until she was almost nineteen, her days were filled with political, history, and magic lessons, rapidly adjusting to social graces with all the practice she received from all the high-ranked visitors her father hosted, and the occasional visit to the room attached to her father's study (which carried a smell she couldn't even describe it was so terrible, though she never complained considering all of this was for her) where he was conducting his attempts to 'cure' her, most the time for simple preparations or checkups for what he planned, though there was the occasional painful procedure she'd rather not think too hard about – of which there was six in total.
The day her father attached the first version of her miracle headdress, she'd cried. She'd been certain it had been a fleeting dream, and that she'd been hyping herself for nothing, but she could indeed see, and boy was there a lot the world to see. She'd been told the images that fed into her mind were less than ideal, according to her father's other test subjects – the colors were dull and the edges of the vision blurred horribly (not unlike a trip into the Fade, apparently), but Sythnia didn't care – when you had had nothing but pure darkness to compare to, everything she saw was beautiful. She never fully realized how much she had been missing in her life before then, and in that instant, all the time spent and painful procedures were well worth it.
That wasn't the end of the road with that, however – her father worked on improving it and attempting to make it less bulky over the next couple years, all while showing her off to the rest of his esteemed friends to show the fruits of his labors from the past few reclusive years. During that time, Sythnia began to show herself more in public, now that she didn't have to risk running into walls of a building she didn't know the layout of, and made quite an impression on many of her father's associates with how easily she could manipulate a crowd in her favor. Her years listening to her father's parties and political chatter had allowed her plenty to pick up on, and as soon as she was able to venture into the world, she had the social graces and political savvy as if she'd been doing such a thing for years.
It was this, among other reasons that he dare not specify to his daughter, that caused her father to put forth the suggestion to the magisterium that they appoint her an ambassador. They were rather short of them at the time, seeing as they kept 'mysteriously disappearing' while in the other countries, and while they considered many of the places not worth the effort of such a position, they did need them to avoid potential disasters – after all, when a Tevinter managed to make a 'mess' in another country due to not conforming to their idea of 'human decency', someone had to be there to appease the aristocracy before they sent the Chantry on a witch hunt after them once again.
She spent a couple years under evaluation for the position, placed under the scrutiny of the ruthless politics of Minrathous, which she not only survived, but thrived in. She managed to repair ties between several families beneficial to her father (and with a debt to her, they also begrudgingly owed him), set a feud between two that had always been her family's rivals to keep them busy with each other, and managed to talk the Archon's heir into marrying in to one of the said allies of her family. Her charm and grace were matched only by her ruthlessness, and it was clear her weapon was never going to be her magic, but her ability to work the floor. She found the intrigue she was placed into absolutely fascinating to boot – even as a child, she had always been nosy, and with her keep hearing was always able to eavesdrop – and now her job was to get into people's business? She couldn't think of anything more ideal.
So, she was naturally quite ecstatic when she was approved and grated an official ambassador’s emblem and seal. Her father set her up with some of his own people to go with her, the newest (and slightly less atrocious) version of her headgear (which she had been delighted to find the view was more colorful than the last one), and sent her off to play her role...away from the magisters who would eat her alive the more they discovered her less than impressive abilities with magic. For about two and a half years now she's been almost constantly away from home, settling in one big city or another temporarily so long as she's not needed specifically anywhere – often favoring Orlais for it's infamous politics that she can spy on. Despite being Tevinter, she manages to make good impressions where she can, and makes it particularly difficult to dislike her – unless, if course, she wants you to, and that often means she's also out to destroy you.
Sythnia's poise and grace on the socialite battleground can only be matched by the upper crust of Orlais, and the merciless way she destroys her enemies speaks to her Tevinter heritage quite well. It's a dog eat dog world, and she refuses to be at the bottom of the chain no matter what country she'd visiting. She's well-spoken and deliberate in everything she says, setting up all her pieces to ensure that the worst outcome she could ever come in contact with was a draw. She's the image of a high-born lady in body language and manner – years of having to move carefully to ensure she didn't fall led to a literal grace to match her metaphorical one.
She has a wit as sharp as a dagger and a sense of entitlement the size of Tevinter itself, but does well to hide both in most instances. She's a formidable ally and a dreaded enemy, and can deface a reputation within a week, all while keeping a smile when she talks to you. She knows how to pull all the attention in the room if she needs to, and just as easily disperse it. She's composed, decisive, and absolutely refuses to give ground on matters she's passionate about. Sythnia is probably a better public relation outlet than Tevinter realizes it even has, keeping far more positive ties than negative ones, even if she does often overcritical others behind their back to her dear trusted personal entourage.
Most people believe her to be simply eccentric when they first meet her – oh those crazy Tevinter maleficars and their nonsensical headgear, only Orlais can compete with that level of over the top – and she does rather enjoy the reaction when they finally ask about it, and she can serenely state that without it, she can't see. It's always quite the conversation starter. She, of course, has no qualms discussing it, as it's actually a point of pride for her – her father, through his horrible, abhorrent magic, managed to make it so his daughter could see the world after years in complete darkness.
This often times flawlessly weeds out who will and won't associate with her simply because of her heavy approval of magic. She's no fool – she knows better than to lay favoring praise onto mages in the company of the aristocracy of other countries, but the fact that she never openly speaks against them, and is always willing to tell the tale of a father who saved her from her from her birth defection, says a lot to them for certain. There's also the matter of her pride when introducing herself as a Tevinter ambassador – her loyalty to her home is always clear, though she is careful to never mention her own magical aptitude (or lack thereof) in polite company – most of rank in Tevinter are mages, but despite that, it's never good to advertise it outside of those borders.
For all her good image, however, she is certainly a daughter of her homeland, and her callousness towards many matters will show it. She shows no sympathy for the lower classes struggling to simply make a living, the people of the countries she visits, while she does adore being among them, she deems as lesser than her and her kind, and elves are barely second-class citizens. She views the Chantry as a novelty at best, though she dare not speak that aloud – after all, she's out to repair and build bridges, not burn them, and she knows how dear so much of Thedas holds its silly Andraste. She's managed to hide her mental degradation of others to herself, however, so very few actually realize she is, most certainly, the image of a magister's heir.
An all-out one, only one street-level miracle.
Her magical abilities are lackluster at best, so to make up for her lack of power, she was put through vigorous training to make her into a passable healer – after all, even Tevinters need proper healers, making her useful by default. Her offensive spells often end in disaster, and it's better for her to stick to defensive and healing. She's been trained for staves as well as some close combat with lightweight, short swords as a backup.
Seeing as toting about a stave admist all the nervous Chantry folk would create a bad image for her, she instead favors her lightweight blade as her last line of defense. She's actually quite hard to spot out as a mage, which makes her job as such a public figure of Tevinter much easier – don't ask don't tell, right?
LIST OF TALENTS:
★ Creation: Heal
★ Creation: Rejuvenate
★ Creation: Glyph of Paralysis
★ Spirit: Spell Shield
LIST OF SKILLS:
★ Improved Coercion
★ Improved Herbalism
SPECIALIZATION:
★ Spirit Healer
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