Throne of Shadows app

[divinemagus]

1. Player Information
Name: Mirr
Username: TheMirr (on Plurk), themirr
Current characters in ToS: none!
Reserve: here

3. Original Character Information
If your character is a canon character, skip this and move on to the fourth section.
Name: Arun Sajah
PB: icons drawn by me
Journal: divinemagus
Age: 18
Appearance: Arun is tall and lean, his features what people from modern Earth would think of mixed between African and North Indian descent. His skin is paler than most of his countrymen, but still rich medium-dark, with a warm bronze undertone. His long hair hangs straight, ending at his waist. The upper part of his hair has gone white from being possessed by his world's sky-god, fading into his more natural dark brown halfway to the ends. His eyes, too, have changed. Where they were once dark brown, now are changed into an eerie sky blue with a soft glow. Probably the most telling feature of Arun right off, however, is the pair of horns growing nearly vertical from either side of his head. In his world they're identical to that of a kind of ox known as an auroch, a beast sacred to the storm and fertility god, Sinnan.

Speaking of Sinnan, when it is the god that speaks from Arun's body, his eyes go completely white, glowing bright enough to be impossible to look directly at them, and electricity arcs across his body and between his horns. This current doesn't harm him, but can give anyone who gets too close a nasty shock. Of the magical variety. He has taken to wearing simple and plain fabric to try to distance himself from the Kor-Sinnath royalty as much as possible, but makes the mistake of selecting rarer colors that make him stick out like a sore thumb, like violet. He's almost never seen without the headscarf that covers his hair--the only times he'll remove it is in private. In his world, noble men are expected to wear their hair long and cover it when in public--another thing that Arun clings to despite the threat of it giving him away to his pursuers. This scarf is different from the rest of his clothing...it's woven from fine wool, embroidered with three knotwork horses, a design that's more organic than the more geometric patterns of his cloak pin and the apron that covers half his outer robe. His mother made it from material and symbols she took with her from her homeland, and he's very attached to it.

When nervous, Arun tends to find a bit of fabric to worry between his fingers. Which is technically whenever someone he doesn't know is speaking with him in a directness he's not used to. He will pull away from strangers in all but movement, his body language closed off, his eyes elsewhere. It's a subconscious gesture, but it can't be mistaken for anything but a strong desire to be left alone.

Home World: Arun's world used to be one that was dying. The native gods that created it left in ancient days for reasons unknown, and without their power to support the land, it began to wither and die. The story goes that three new gods from parts unknown heard the wailing of mothers whose children had died and brought the land back to life. These gods were Sinnan, the horned god of storms and fertility of the land, the Lord of Stags (who, as the name suggests, takes the form of a giant white stag), and the Rianno, technically three goddesses who are all aspects of the same entity, who take the form of three black mares or three women dressed in black. The Rianno took stewardship of the snowy north, the Lord of Stags the untamed wilderness of the western continent, and Sinnan watched over the desert continent that would one day become Kor-Sinnath. Sinnan brought rain to the desert, and fertile land, as well as advances like agriculture, architecture, writing, art, and gunpowder to the people there. Kor-Sinnath became a bastion of learning and the arts, home to towering stone spires to mark the graves of kings and demi-gods, prosperous mines in the mountains to the south and east of the continent, vast tracts of arable land and beautiful white sand beaches to the north and west, dotted by fishing villages that profit greatly from the bounty of the sea. The inland forested area is home to a tight-knit community of millers and woodworkers, supported by a freshwater lake large enough to be an inland sea.

Things were good for many centuries, and Sinnan would even take human vessels to interact with his people directly. These vessels had immortality and a tremendous amount of Sinnan's power. It was this power that attracted the attention of five dark sorcerers from Kor-Sinnath's underground. These men were attracted to the power that Sinnan held, and so devised a way to imprison his vessels and drain their power to make themselves immortal. It was only later that they realized they could also make themselves rich beyond imagination. Secretly, they formed a pseudo-priesthood that banned all magic from the borders of Kor-Sinnan to prevent being found out, and began systematically withholding the rain from certain areas to extort tremendous tithes from the common people. This went on for centuries, Sinnan too weakened by his mortal antagonizers to shake off their sadistic yoke. In a last-ditch effort to free himself, Sinnan incarnated part of himself into a man named Sanat and made him sensitive to the flow of magic to allow for easier communication. He told Sanat of his origins and his destined role and begged the fisherman's son to help him, to join the priesthood and volunteer for becoming the next vessel in order to free him. Sanat agreed, but after the possession, and the true burden of his destiny became clear to him, Sanat balked. The man committed suicide to escape his fate, and split his soul in two yet again. He was reincarnated as the two crown princes of Kor-Sinnath, leaving Arun with his sensitivity to magic and his twin brother Adri with his memories.

So while Adri was enjoying the good life that he had never experienced as Sanat, Arun was learning the secrets of magic from their northern mother, Queen Varinka. This resulted in their father completely shunning Arun as a son and even refused to acknowledge him as the next in line, even though Arun was older (granted, only by fifteen minutes). As a result, Arun stayed by himself most of the time, with only his mother and his servant Iri as companions. When his father was poisoned by the immortal priests in an attempt to force a new vessel for Sinnan to step forward during the Heaven and Earth festival (an occasion during which both a new secular king and the new vessel are acknowledged), Arun realizes that he can no longer stay in the palace. Adri was the chosen for the throne, but his knowledge of magic could be used against the both of them. The night before the Heaven and Earth festival, Arun is summoned to the temple of Sinnan through his dreams, where the god possesses him in a last-ditch effort to avoid another century of captivity. At first Arun attempts to have the god exorcised from his body, but Sinnan outright begs him for help. The emotional petition moves Arun, and he agrees to help Sinnan throw off the yoke of the priests. Though he is still reeling from the revelations Sinnan has confided in him, he absorbs the power of one of the ancient vessels' ashes that were entombed in the city temple. The action triggers the priests themselves getting involved, who send their zealot warriors to arrest Arun under suspicion of necromancy. Sinnan takes over and with a tremendous show of power, incapacitates their pursuers and flees into the wilderness. En route to the next vessel's tomb, Arun is met by his mother and Iri, who are determined to help him with his task.

It doesn't go especially well. The cabal knows where Arun needs to go in order to regain Sinnan's power, and has done all it can to ensure that he never gets even close to the spires. It sends its zealot warriors out to guard the spires. Arun and his two companions are able to avoid them, and Arun absorbs Sinnan's residual power from the ashes of the former vessel entombed there. However, the third and fourth spires are even more heavily guarded. On the third, when it looks like Arun and Iri will be discovered, Arun's mother selflessly creates a diversion and lures the zealots into a trap. ...Said trap involved her drawing so much magic power into herself to turn her body into a living bomb. Arun doesn't learn of this until after he has drawn Sinnan's power. Understandably, he is left in a state of shock for quite some time. He blames himself for his mother's death and refuses to continue on. It's Iri that pulls him out of his grief, granted in a...very unconventional way, by Kor-Sinnath standards. Iri makes a rather bold advance, revealing a five-year hidden infatuation for Arun. Same-sex relationships are very taboo in their country, but after all that has happened, the resulting interlude is more than welcomed by Arun. At least, until the next morning.

After telling Iri that they would both be better off pretending that it never happened, Iri becomes furious and leaves Arun on his own. Arun is devastated at being completely, utterly alone for the first time in his entire life. But between his conflicting ideas of his own sexuality and his anger at Iri's flaunting of convention, he convinces himself that he can continue on his own. Instead he is captured and dragged to the temple of Sinnan, and the inner cabal. Arun is bound and locked up in a hidden chamber deep within the temple. There, the five priests drain Arun and Sinnan's power, rejuvenating their bodies and making them young again, while severely weakening Arun's body. Iri manages to sneak into the temple and free Arun, but the cabal is not willing to part with him so easily. Iri is shot with a mortal wound, and in his anguish and fury Sinnan takes over Arun's body, killing the zealots that pursue them and teleports Arun and Iri near the last spire, in a wasteland devastated by lack of rain. Iri urges Arun to take the power from the final spire, and expresses a desire to join Sinnan in the "Hall of Heroes" once the god has resumed his power. Both god and mortal make their promises, and Iri finally gives up his clinging to life. Truly alone now, Arun makes his way to the final spire. ...which is where his journey is rudely interrupted.

Powers/Talents: Arun knows a bit of magic from his mother, and the power that he has gained through Sinnan's possession is considerable. He can freeze the moisture in the air into a protective wall of ice, ignite small flames from thin air, and by Looking (a combination of telepathy and clairvoyance, designed to see through illusions both magical and psychological), he can read minds to some degree and discern the nature of spirits. Looking is by far the most important talent a wizard in his world can have. Wizards are encouraged to be sensitive to the Flow of magic, to let it move them instead of trying to keep a stranglehold over it. Those that do try to force magic to bend to their wills are more susceptible to the whims of the Shadow, the embodiment of evil.

Despite the meager bit of magic that Arun knows on his own, Sinnan's power more than makes up for it. The god's power is that of rain and lightning. Sinnan can "ride the rain" in a form of teleportation that involves dissolving the body into vapor that rises to the clouds and reforms elsewhere on the ground. This may not seem much on its own, but it's the lightning that can be deadly. Arun can't wield that power himself, but when Sinnan takes over his body, their enemies had best beware.

Not directly tied to magic but a considerable talent of Arun's is his penchant for alchemy. Not anything flashy or instant--the long, slow, technical kind of alchemy that is more like chemistry. With time and the right equipment and materials, he is able to create a wide variety of medicines useful for everything from common aches and pains to infections and eye problems.

Personality: At first impression, Arun seems to be your average reclusive, anti-social wizard locked up in some tower conducting mysterious magical experiments of some kind or another. And that observation wouldn't be far off the mark. Arun vastly prefers to be alone. He doesn't want to get involved with people, especially those he doesn't know. The petty dramas and burdens of others have no interest to him. He is content to be alone with his spells and his alchemy projects, unbothered by other human beings. He's used to being shunned by others because of his fascination with magic.

In his world, magic is outright banned. Only his status as a prince protected him and his mother from facing the brutal justice handed down by the priesthood's zealots. It has made him somewhat paranoid about being around others, especially non-mages. He's not exactly the best at hiding his nervousness around strangers, so he comes off as cold and detached. Nor is he the best at hiding his emotions, though he certainly seems determined to keep them to himself. To be honest, he's nervous about showing any signs of attachment to people he cares about. Intrigue at court has taught him that any sign of weakness or affection towards someone can be used against you. To him, it's far better to avoid any semblance of emotion towards anyone, for his sake as well as theirs. A healthy paranoia to have for a crown prince with more ambitious half-siblings than he can name.

But despite his reputation of being a distant hermit at the tender age of eighteen, Arun is anything but. He actually craves close companionship...though he would still rather have only a few close friends than surrounded by too many people. Arun can't stand being entirely alone, isolated from human contact. Sinnan's presence within him doesn't count. The god is distant himself, traumatized from centuries of being imprisoned in vessel after vessel, drained of his power to fuel the immortality of five mortals. Their relationship is strained and tenuous--after all, Sinnan didn't even ask for permission before possessing Arun. The changes enacted on his body (the horns, his hair nearly going white, the change of eye color) and being a sudden target of the zealots don't exactly help to smooth things over.

Not only does Arun bear the physical signs of being possessed by the storm god, his libido has grown tremendously, from only the occasional stirring to near constant urges. It's closer to Sinnan's own--he's first and foremost a fertility god, after all. To Sinnan it's intrinsic to everything he is and represents. To Arun, it's an extreme annoyance. Everything about his situation feels like the most disturbing intrusion in existance, to his body and his mind. He's desperate to complete his mission as soon as possible and be rid of the god entirely. In reality, he's not all that different in personality from Sinnan. To be honest, Arun sees far more of himself in the god that he is comfortable with... And wants very much to deny the feeling of wholeness he feels with the god within him. He doesn't know anything about his true origin as an avatar of Sinnan, but its effects are still strong.

Aside from his shunning from the royal court, Arun has lived a life of privelege and status. He has never truly wanted for anything...he's always had healthy food to eat and the best clothing to wear. He could even afford to have an extensive library of stories and magical texts on beautifully illustrated scrolls. As a result, he doesn't have a grasp on the everyday challenges of his own people. His escape into the wilderness has left him having to fend for himself outside the shelter of the palace for the first time in his life. The fact that he doesn't know how to survive on his own is an embarrassing one to him--trying to identify edible plants from poisonous based on memory of a botanical drawing has left him with more than one stomachache.

Despite all his flaws, Arun is a very compassionate young man. He readily agrees to help Sinnan once his initial shock has worn off even though he doesn't know the entire story. He has strong convictions instilled in him from reading about heroes in times past--a bit of the mark of a child, true, but Arun's isolation left him with few role models--and they are convictions he holds to dearly. His desire to know the truth lends itself to his power of Looking very well. He aspires to follow the Code of Law for Kor-Sinnath's kings even though he has given up his right to the throne, far more than his fun-loving, responsibility-dodging twin brother Adri. The Code includes our own world's Seven Virtues, as well as admonishments against their corresponding Sins. Arun willingly handed the kingship over to Adri in accordance to this Code--he knew that as a wizard, he would never be accepted as king, opening his family up to assassination attempts. Before Sinnan's possession, he had even planned to leave the palace entirely so that Adri could not be the subject of a coup under rumors of bewitchment.

He may be overly self-critical and he may go out of his way to avoid conflict with others, but at his core Arun is every bit a true king and a true wizard. He only needs to be able to see that for himself. ...It might be best if he remained in the dark about the whole avatar thing for a while, though. At this stage in his journey, after having lost the only two people he's felt strongly about his entire life, Arun is very destitute. He will be more withdrawn than usual and prone to bouts of depression. Because of his night with Iri, he will also be a little more defensive in regards to his sexuality...although he is certainly attracted to both men and women, because of Kor-Sinnath's social taboos surrounding same-sex relationships, he's still in a fierce denial, even after Iri's death. It will take a long time to move past these things, but they won't hold him down forever. What will be far more lasting is his paranoia of being held captive again. His imprisonment by the immortal priests in the temple of Sinnan has traumatized him so badly that small spaces and being held against his will--by whatever means--is prone to making him lash out to defend himself.

Why would your character be chosen? Arun is a prince in his own right, so he has the status that might justify him being grabbed. There's also the fact that he's inherited the power of a god, and serves as that god's living vessel. These would be the two immediate possibilities that Arun would think of. What he wouldn't think was immediately obvious is his incredibly generous spirit and his courage, and the fact that he, too, is very lonely...

How much does your character know about nonhumans? Through the god dwelling within his mind, Arun knows quite a bit about nonhumans, spirits, and the nature of his universe, as well as how the veil between worlds can be very thin. The god Sinnan was one of three in Arun's world that came from elsewhere after the native gods abandoned it...so if not Arun, then Sinnan himself could know quite a bit about the Nysgods.

Why this character: Arun is the main character in the novel I am currently writing, The Eye of the Storm. (A tentative working title if there ever was one.) It will help me keep a firm grasp on his voice and personality over the course of writing, and in writing I'll also be able to keep an active voice for him in the game! (Knock on wood. Hard.)

4. Samples

First-Person (Text): I never thought that there could be a way to write to someone without ink and parchment. Then again, I never thought there could be a way for an entire community to see it firsthand. Hopefully I'm doing this right.

My name is Arun Sajah. I've heard that we're all more or less trapped by whatever the Nysgods have used to bring us here. This isn't exactly a time to mince words, so I apologize if I seem blunt. I'm perfectly willing to help anyone who's looking to find a way out of this place. I know quite a bit of magic, and have access to some information that might come in handy.

If anyone is willing to help me in this, please don't hesitate to respond.

*...what isn't apparent from this particular Network post is that it took Arun thirty minutes to pick over his words. And another ten spent contemplating whether he should actually post it or not.*

Third-Person: A musebox voicetesting post. There are some discrepancies on history and events on account of not having a complete outline of events at the time it was posted, but it does illustrate Arun's personality at his current canon point well.

Third Sample A knock at the door, several. Once, twice, then once and twice more. Adri's trademark. Arun nodded to Iri and stood up, tying his scarf back on, smoothing out his mourning clothes. He was as presentable as he was going to be this late in the evening.

Adri had already changed back into his red and gold silks. He swept into the room with scarves tied around his neck and wrists trailing behind him like the tail of a firebird. Even his eyes were full of fire. He gave a dismissive gesture to Iri, who looked briefly at Arun before he left the room. Once the door closed behind him, Adri approached Arun and stood in front of him, his gaze fixed on Arun in an attempt to emulate their father.

It wasn't a very good impression.

Arun didn't even cringe. What will it be this time, Adri? Hm? Will you cry that I left you behind? Come to guilt me into going to dinner after all? Go ahead, try to convince me that I would really enjoy eating my dinner in the room next to where our father's ashes are cooling.

“Why don't you want the crown?”

Oh. That's what this was about. “It's not a question of me wanting it. I can't take it, Adri.”

“You're older than me by an hour. That makes you the next in line. It's the eldest son--it's always the eldest son!” Adri's breathing was becoming erratic, his fists shaking. Arun realized that it wasn't just his hysterics. He was afraid. But why?

“Not in this case.” Arun lifted his hand and closed it into a fist. When he opened it again the air closest to his hand shimmered and froze, making another orb of ice. “This is nothing. If it were fire, I could blow up every barrel of black powder in the armory and maybe destroy the entire palace. I know spells that can cause every nobleman's daughter to fall in love with men of my choosing, or even myself. If I Look hard enough at someone, I can read their thoughts. Do you really think they would let me live if I took the crown?”

Adri snatched the orb of ice out of Arun's hand and threw it at the mirror. It cracked the glass, leaving a mark like a disjointed, monstrous spider before bouncing off and shattering on contact with the stone floor. He grabbed Arun by his overshirt and yanked him closer.

Arun grunted in surprise, scrabbling at his twin's fingers to loosen their merciless grip. “Adri...”

They stood chest to chest, nearly nose to nose. Adri drew his lip back in a gesture reminiscent of a cornered, feral dog. “I don't care. You hear me? I don't care. But don't you dare shove this off on me!”

Arun didn't even attempt to fight his way out of his brother's grip. “Is that what you think I'm doing? Running from my duty? Father chose you, Adri. He wanted you to succeed him. He recited the Law to you, I heard. Did he talk about what he wanted you to continue in his stead? Praise you when you killed your first lion?”

Adri pulled away, his fingers slipping from Arun's shirt. “I'm not the oldest.”

“You were to him. He certainly never praised my skill in alchemy or congratulated me on mastering a difficult spell.” Arun clasped his brother's wrists gently. “You won't be king alone. I'll still be here. If you need me.”

“You don't have to lie to me, you know.”

He let Adri's wrists drop. “One accusation of bewitchment. That's all they would need.”

Adri's smile was more of a grimace. “Politics...”

“Politics.” Arun smiled. “I'm not going to become some hermit living out in the middle of the desert. Don't worry so much.”

“Right. Because winds know you're not already a hermit to begin with.”

The bitterness stung, but Arun said nothing.