Lysander Yirkim
Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:08 pm
Name: Lysander Yirkim
Age: 32
Race: Human
Height: 6' 2”
Weight: 200lbs
Physical Description: Lysander has blue-black hair that falls to his shoulders, but it is kept neatly tied back most of the time. At each temple, his hair is streaked with grey, from root to tip. His eyes are a pale brown, and sparkle good-naturedly, with faint laugh lines at the corners of both. His face is not overwhelmingly handsome by any stretch of the imagination, but his appearance isn't hideous, either. However, he has a calm presence about him that usually leaves a favourable impression on people so that they remember him handsomer than he is.
He is normally dressed in a variation of the same outfit; brown trousers, a brown leather belt with a silver buckle, a crisp white shirt only loosely laced at the throat, a black jacket, or a lot black overcoat, and tall, leather riding boots.
Possessions:
As a travelling crafter, Lysander has a decorative wooden case with his crafting supplies. The outside is exquisitely carved with (if one was so inclined as to really examine it) a variety of Fae carving styles. Within, he has the small picks, hammers, various other implements, for the carving of the crystal figures he makes. There is a heavy bag within, full of, presumably, the rocks he uses to carve the crystal out of. He often carries a variety of finished products, crystal figures, some of them normal, others more “sophisticated”, still others are a work in progress.
He owns a horse, named Trivein, who is a black stallion with a grey mane and tail.
He has a rapier he wears in a fine scabbard on his belt, as well as a dagger, kept in a special sheath in his boot.
He also has a beautiful wooden music box. When it is opened, there is a crystal figure that seems to come to life and really dance, at least until the box is closed again.
Powers or Strengths:
Lysander not only uses the tools of his trade to carve his crystal, but also a form of Fae magic he was once taught. The magic is very limited in scope. He can use it to turn any rocks into crystal as he carves them into shape. He can use it add colour to the crystal he is shaping, or music. While he can fuse carvings together, he is very limited in the size he can make his carvings, because the large they are, the more brittle, until air is enough to shatter them. The longer he spends concentrating on a carving, the more detailed and “magical” his skill becomes.
The most magical part of what he was taught to do is to make a craving “live”, so to speak. For example, he can carve out a bird, and if given enough time and concentration, he can make it so that it will sing (possibly even fly for a short time) like a bird on command. This kind of detailed carving requires not only a large expenditure of his own energy into the making, but also the sacrifice of a bird to give “life” to the carving. The figures are never really “alive”, just animated, and only briefly a few times a day.
Once they are created, even if they are animated, the figures don't actually have an magical aura about them. Lysander, himself, never learned how or why this was so, but the tribe of Fae that created this art would, presumably, know.
The music box he carries is a version of this type of magical creation, but it wasn't made by him.
He has lived and travelled long enough to pick up some basic fighting skills. He can dual with swords “artistically”, but prefers to fight with a dagger, low and dirty street fighting style; but only when hard-pressed and there are no other options.
Weaknesses:
For all his good-nature, Lysander has a raging temper that can flare when faced with certain types of crimes; anything that harms children, or the innocent, and even many types of racism and prejudice, have seen him, historically, become so enraged, he'll kill. He doesn't always have control during these times.
He also is fanatical about his music box, and has...a history of going to great lengths to protect it.
The more intricate the carvings he's working on, the physically and emotionally weaker Lysander becomes, as he uses his own energy to help create them. He can become very vulnerable if he gets too caught up in his work.
History:
There is a saying among the Odisk tribe of Fae that goes “The child born with blood in his mouth will know nothing but tragedy. Thus, their greatest curse goes: “Let your children be born with the taste of blood on their tongue.” Such a curse was shouted to Lysander's father; a brutally sadistic land owner that revelled in causing hurt and pain and humiliation to any born lesser than his 'high degree'. For all that he was an evil, truly evil, man, he was deeply and obsessively in love with his wife. When she died to give birth to Lysander, their first child, he lost whatever sanity he actually had. He raged and killed all the servants and most of the tenants of his lands, then himself.
The Odisk were not evil people. They did not mean any true harm to the man, as evil as he was, nor did they truly believe that his newborn son should perish of neglect. Lysander was rescued by the Fae, and raised by them. It was never meant to be permanent. He was not raised to believe he was anything other than human. It was thought that when he reached manhood, he'd be sent to make a living in the human world. However, as time went on, a Fae girl named Shishara fell in love with him, and he with her. When she was told that he'd be sent away from the tribe, Shishara started to lose her will to live. To prevent her death, her father agreed to teach Lysander his trade of crystal carving.
Lysander was sixteen, smart and kind. Despite their outward coldness, most of the tribe enjoyed his company and were not all that upset that he would be joining them. He worked very hard to learn the art and small magics involved crystal carving. It took five years before he was truly sufficient enough to make his own pieces so that he'd be able to support a family with his craft. No sooner than he was ready to make the offer for Shishara's hand when a small party of human refugees running from another warlord came into their camp.
Shishara was trained as a healer and she helped nurse the humans back to health. However, they passed along to her a disease they carried, and she fell deathly ill shortly after they left. Lysander was beside himself. He began to swiftly lose his mind as it became more and more obvious that Shishara would not survive. In desperation, he turned to his teacher and begged him to do something. Begged him that if they could craft a big enough vessel, couldn't they give Shishara a new form?
His teacher, Grisharan, told him that there was no power that could maintain the stability of such a large creature, and even if they put her soul into a crystal figure, it would be nothing by an echo of life. Lysander begged, losing his grip on reality. Finally, when it was determined that nothing could be done to save Shishara, her father consented to construct a crystal vessel for his daughter's soul, on the condition that Lysander leave and never return to Odisk lands. Leave and travel as far away from the tribe as possible.
What was crafted was the music box that Lysander keeps, and protects, as reverently as if he held in his hands his beloved Shishara, alive and well. For the last decade, Lysander has constantly travelled from place to place, making a small but tidy living off his carvings, even the most mundane. What he does doesn't truly seem like magic so much as a carving skill, as the further he got from Odisk lands, the less likely it was that anyone had ever heard of them, even other Fae. He tried not to spend too much time in one place or another, trying to find a land far enough away from the tribe that the madness that pursued him over the loss of his beloved wouldn't force him away.
Age: 32
Race: Human
Height: 6' 2”
Weight: 200lbs
Physical Description: Lysander has blue-black hair that falls to his shoulders, but it is kept neatly tied back most of the time. At each temple, his hair is streaked with grey, from root to tip. His eyes are a pale brown, and sparkle good-naturedly, with faint laugh lines at the corners of both. His face is not overwhelmingly handsome by any stretch of the imagination, but his appearance isn't hideous, either. However, he has a calm presence about him that usually leaves a favourable impression on people so that they remember him handsomer than he is.
He is normally dressed in a variation of the same outfit; brown trousers, a brown leather belt with a silver buckle, a crisp white shirt only loosely laced at the throat, a black jacket, or a lot black overcoat, and tall, leather riding boots.
Possessions:
As a travelling crafter, Lysander has a decorative wooden case with his crafting supplies. The outside is exquisitely carved with (if one was so inclined as to really examine it) a variety of Fae carving styles. Within, he has the small picks, hammers, various other implements, for the carving of the crystal figures he makes. There is a heavy bag within, full of, presumably, the rocks he uses to carve the crystal out of. He often carries a variety of finished products, crystal figures, some of them normal, others more “sophisticated”, still others are a work in progress.
He owns a horse, named Trivein, who is a black stallion with a grey mane and tail.
He has a rapier he wears in a fine scabbard on his belt, as well as a dagger, kept in a special sheath in his boot.
He also has a beautiful wooden music box. When it is opened, there is a crystal figure that seems to come to life and really dance, at least until the box is closed again.
Powers or Strengths:
Lysander not only uses the tools of his trade to carve his crystal, but also a form of Fae magic he was once taught. The magic is very limited in scope. He can use it to turn any rocks into crystal as he carves them into shape. He can use it add colour to the crystal he is shaping, or music. While he can fuse carvings together, he is very limited in the size he can make his carvings, because the large they are, the more brittle, until air is enough to shatter them. The longer he spends concentrating on a carving, the more detailed and “magical” his skill becomes.
The most magical part of what he was taught to do is to make a craving “live”, so to speak. For example, he can carve out a bird, and if given enough time and concentration, he can make it so that it will sing (possibly even fly for a short time) like a bird on command. This kind of detailed carving requires not only a large expenditure of his own energy into the making, but also the sacrifice of a bird to give “life” to the carving. The figures are never really “alive”, just animated, and only briefly a few times a day.
Once they are created, even if they are animated, the figures don't actually have an magical aura about them. Lysander, himself, never learned how or why this was so, but the tribe of Fae that created this art would, presumably, know.
The music box he carries is a version of this type of magical creation, but it wasn't made by him.
He has lived and travelled long enough to pick up some basic fighting skills. He can dual with swords “artistically”, but prefers to fight with a dagger, low and dirty street fighting style; but only when hard-pressed and there are no other options.
Weaknesses:
For all his good-nature, Lysander has a raging temper that can flare when faced with certain types of crimes; anything that harms children, or the innocent, and even many types of racism and prejudice, have seen him, historically, become so enraged, he'll kill. He doesn't always have control during these times.
He also is fanatical about his music box, and has...a history of going to great lengths to protect it.
The more intricate the carvings he's working on, the physically and emotionally weaker Lysander becomes, as he uses his own energy to help create them. He can become very vulnerable if he gets too caught up in his work.
History:
There is a saying among the Odisk tribe of Fae that goes “The child born with blood in his mouth will know nothing but tragedy. Thus, their greatest curse goes: “Let your children be born with the taste of blood on their tongue.” Such a curse was shouted to Lysander's father; a brutally sadistic land owner that revelled in causing hurt and pain and humiliation to any born lesser than his 'high degree'. For all that he was an evil, truly evil, man, he was deeply and obsessively in love with his wife. When she died to give birth to Lysander, their first child, he lost whatever sanity he actually had. He raged and killed all the servants and most of the tenants of his lands, then himself.
The Odisk were not evil people. They did not mean any true harm to the man, as evil as he was, nor did they truly believe that his newborn son should perish of neglect. Lysander was rescued by the Fae, and raised by them. It was never meant to be permanent. He was not raised to believe he was anything other than human. It was thought that when he reached manhood, he'd be sent to make a living in the human world. However, as time went on, a Fae girl named Shishara fell in love with him, and he with her. When she was told that he'd be sent away from the tribe, Shishara started to lose her will to live. To prevent her death, her father agreed to teach Lysander his trade of crystal carving.
Lysander was sixteen, smart and kind. Despite their outward coldness, most of the tribe enjoyed his company and were not all that upset that he would be joining them. He worked very hard to learn the art and small magics involved crystal carving. It took five years before he was truly sufficient enough to make his own pieces so that he'd be able to support a family with his craft. No sooner than he was ready to make the offer for Shishara's hand when a small party of human refugees running from another warlord came into their camp.
Shishara was trained as a healer and she helped nurse the humans back to health. However, they passed along to her a disease they carried, and she fell deathly ill shortly after they left. Lysander was beside himself. He began to swiftly lose his mind as it became more and more obvious that Shishara would not survive. In desperation, he turned to his teacher and begged him to do something. Begged him that if they could craft a big enough vessel, couldn't they give Shishara a new form?
His teacher, Grisharan, told him that there was no power that could maintain the stability of such a large creature, and even if they put her soul into a crystal figure, it would be nothing by an echo of life. Lysander begged, losing his grip on reality. Finally, when it was determined that nothing could be done to save Shishara, her father consented to construct a crystal vessel for his daughter's soul, on the condition that Lysander leave and never return to Odisk lands. Leave and travel as far away from the tribe as possible.
What was crafted was the music box that Lysander keeps, and protects, as reverently as if he held in his hands his beloved Shishara, alive and well. For the last decade, Lysander has constantly travelled from place to place, making a small but tidy living off his carvings, even the most mundane. What he does doesn't truly seem like magic so much as a carving skill, as the further he got from Odisk lands, the less likely it was that anyone had ever heard of them, even other Fae. He tried not to spend too much time in one place or another, trying to find a land far enough away from the tribe that the madness that pursued him over the loss of his beloved wouldn't force him away.