It begins in a fog... vague images of brush, twigs and mulch ground between little toes, and slender, grubby fingers searching in the growth for sustenance. The memories become more clear with the fleeting animals, the fresh tracks in the wet soil, the branches arching into a roof and the leaves gathered as bedding. A simple bough, bent with a taut vine and stretched to let fly a short stick sharpened with stone-- and squirrels become food. This was life, for Ryll, until the thickly bearded face with cheerful red cheeks appeared out of the trees and gently coaxed her to a home on a farm at the edge of the woods.
The days were simple, and flowed together monotonously. The young Ryll adopted the speech and society of her foster parents, and found life as a farm worker natural and rewarding. Time passed unnoticeably for years, and she saw her foster siblings grow up, get married and breed. It wasn't until her human parents passed away peacefully in their old age that she realized she had outgrown her pastural life and needed to mature.
And so, kissing her adoptive family goodbye, she left towards the nearby city of Twist, with only her pet badger and some old weapons found in the barn. In the process of looking for work she stumbled upon an adventure that would ultimately not only kill her but SAVE THE WORLD.
One year later...
Until Ryll had learned of Vell, she'd rarely questioned her heritage. She acknowledged the difference between her and her adoptive family, but life had been so comfortable that it was rarely a problem. However the way she was received by the citizens of Vell shocked her; she had never before been so easily accepted by people that did not already know her. Intrigued, she located her birth mother. Fear, curiosity, sadness, excitement and other conflicting feelings welled up within her. Ryll never before sought answers, but now, here they were, waiting to be addressed.
Having already died once, life became very different for Ryll. She doesn't know for sure if she was really dead, or even exactly HOW dead; all she knows is that something monumental and tremendous occurred and she somehow survived. She realized she was suddenly more comfortable with taking risks, with pushing her own limits of comfort. A year ago, flight was an unachievable dream, but today, she is soaring over the dense wilderness of the woods of her birth on a great owl. The owl is Mehve, and what she lacks in size she makes up for with feistiness.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
A life in the year of Olly Sykes
Here's a thing I wrote about Olly. Why don't you make one too? About your character though, not mine.
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Oliver Wendell Sykes was born in the bustling town of Trope some sixty-odd years back. His parents owned a tailor and haberdashery, and as such, young Olly spent a great deal of time in the market sector. There he was exposed to a great number of sights, sounds, people, and experiences. Olly took to this environment, being able to recall the stories, names, and events just as well as the people he heard them from. But he didn’t like everything he saw. In particular, Olly took a keen dislike to how fat, snooty, rich folk stayed fat, snooty, and rich while the poor and hardworking were humble shopkeepers, their employees, the average customer… pretty much everybody else. It didn’t seem fair.
Olly used his innate magic, general sneakiness, and the power of words to wage his own private, quiet class warfare. A noble’s outfit would turn neon pink when he made his big entrance at the ball. The merchant who mistreated his workers would suddenly find their goods missing, soiled, or falling apart. Public officials’ indiscretions frequently made the morning gossip rounds. But as expected, Olly eventually crossed the wrong person. One day Mather Gorram, a visiting bishop of St. Cuthbert, arrived with a procession too pompous to ignore. A conspicuous bulge in the lower half of the bishop’s robe earned much laugher, but Olly’s involvement was quickly discovered. The bishop personally dragged Olly outside the walls of the town and placed a Mark of Justice upon him, saying “Thou shalt not set foot in this town again!”
Banished, alone, and, to be honest, pretty much on his own outside the city for the first time, Olly was at a loss. He wandered to the nearby town of Image to drown his sorrows in an out-of-the-way tavern. There he heard a dwarven bard play a most peculiar form of music. It was all about feeling bad, but hearing it somehow made you feel good. Olly asked the dwarf, Blind Muddy Mortars, just what this magical music was. "Ach, aye, sonny. Tha's nae thin' but the blues." And those somehow both Scottish and Southern words changed Olly's life. Olly apprenticed with Mortars, learning soulful songs and even how to make a fellow tear up hearing them. The work took much of the wind out of Olly's precocious sails. While he still felt a grudge against the rich (and now the clergy), he found pranks unproductive and unsatisfying. Simply living life and learning was enough; magic and music were as much an art as a craft. It was in this apprenticeship that Olly earned his first nickname. Mortars actually was blind, and Olly earned the nickname Thingfinder for always being able to find things for him. After a year of service Olly was sent out on his own, to learn the meaning of the blues and spread its joyful sorrow. On this occasion Mortars made him an honorary Blind, giving him his second nickname.
It is on this journey that Olly came to Twist, and we know how that ended up.
Olly briefly remained in the area, learning a little from the elves and playing a bit at Saucy Dan's. But as bards do, he eventually resumed his wandering lifestyle. He moved from town to town, playing songs, exchanging stories, and making connections. He would sing of the events in Twist sometimes. Not the grand world saving, but the little tragedies: a mother exiled for saving her daughter, a town ravaged by an unexplained curse, a pompous noble brought down by his greed getting him into more than he could handle, and a working man vomitted on by a mysterious elf. Olly made his way playing shows and the occasional quest. When you've saved the world, what's a dungeon or two? Olly grew in power and skill, even learning to blend his magic and music. He paid to have the Mark of Justice dispelled, but did not return to Trope. He didn't feel the time was right, for him or the town. Ever guided by fate, magic, and music, Olly stumbles blindly into the future...
_____
Oliver Wendell Sykes was born in the bustling town of Trope some sixty-odd years back. His parents owned a tailor and haberdashery, and as such, young Olly spent a great deal of time in the market sector. There he was exposed to a great number of sights, sounds, people, and experiences. Olly took to this environment, being able to recall the stories, names, and events just as well as the people he heard them from. But he didn’t like everything he saw. In particular, Olly took a keen dislike to how fat, snooty, rich folk stayed fat, snooty, and rich while the poor and hardworking were humble shopkeepers, their employees, the average customer… pretty much everybody else. It didn’t seem fair.
Olly used his innate magic, general sneakiness, and the power of words to wage his own private, quiet class warfare. A noble’s outfit would turn neon pink when he made his big entrance at the ball. The merchant who mistreated his workers would suddenly find their goods missing, soiled, or falling apart. Public officials’ indiscretions frequently made the morning gossip rounds. But as expected, Olly eventually crossed the wrong person. One day Mather Gorram, a visiting bishop of St. Cuthbert, arrived with a procession too pompous to ignore. A conspicuous bulge in the lower half of the bishop’s robe earned much laugher, but Olly’s involvement was quickly discovered. The bishop personally dragged Olly outside the walls of the town and placed a Mark of Justice upon him, saying “Thou shalt not set foot in this town again!”
Banished, alone, and, to be honest, pretty much on his own outside the city for the first time, Olly was at a loss. He wandered to the nearby town of Image to drown his sorrows in an out-of-the-way tavern. There he heard a dwarven bard play a most peculiar form of music. It was all about feeling bad, but hearing it somehow made you feel good. Olly asked the dwarf, Blind Muddy Mortars, just what this magical music was. "Ach, aye, sonny. Tha's nae thin' but the blues." And those somehow both Scottish and Southern words changed Olly's life. Olly apprenticed with Mortars, learning soulful songs and even how to make a fellow tear up hearing them. The work took much of the wind out of Olly's precocious sails. While he still felt a grudge against the rich (and now the clergy), he found pranks unproductive and unsatisfying. Simply living life and learning was enough; magic and music were as much an art as a craft. It was in this apprenticeship that Olly earned his first nickname. Mortars actually was blind, and Olly earned the nickname Thingfinder for always being able to find things for him. After a year of service Olly was sent out on his own, to learn the meaning of the blues and spread its joyful sorrow. On this occasion Mortars made him an honorary Blind, giving him his second nickname.
It is on this journey that Olly came to Twist, and we know how that ended up.
Olly briefly remained in the area, learning a little from the elves and playing a bit at Saucy Dan's. But as bards do, he eventually resumed his wandering lifestyle. He moved from town to town, playing songs, exchanging stories, and making connections. He would sing of the events in Twist sometimes. Not the grand world saving, but the little tragedies: a mother exiled for saving her daughter, a town ravaged by an unexplained curse, a pompous noble brought down by his greed getting him into more than he could handle, and a working man vomitted on by a mysterious elf. Olly made his way playing shows and the occasional quest. When you've saved the world, what's a dungeon or two? Olly grew in power and skill, even learning to blend his magic and music. He paid to have the Mark of Justice dispelled, but did not return to Trope. He didn't feel the time was right, for him or the town. Ever guided by fate, magic, and music, Olly stumbles blindly into the future...
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