New Character Submission - Ember Beau

[Rowana]

Character: Ember Beau
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Class: Cleric
Race: Half Elf
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Deity: Xeen
Domains: Water Plant

Biography:

**As she stood before the two priestess she called friends, a memory took hold of her. She remembered standing in a graveyard outside of Katherian. She'd worn her hair partially drawn back into a twist upon her head revealing the small point to her ears. The rest of her long ebony hair brushing at her ankles. She had worn a coat with a mandarin collar, buttoned all the way to her neck, and pants that drug to the ground, covering all but the tips of her toes. She even remembered the way she had stooped to lay the carnations, pink and white, on the grave. How her sadness had mingled with mirth. How she had started speaking to the air as if another stood nearby, despite there being none but herself and those that slept under the ground. Her feelings echoed in her mind as if it had been yesterday....**
Well mother, you are gone now, and I remain here... Alone. I hope where ever you have wandered after this life you appreciate what I have given up for you. I hope that you finally found the peace from me that you had searched for in life.

**Her bitter words had been coated in sweet intent, as though she was not able or simply unwilling to hide her conflict. She had sung to her mother, the child's lullaby that had been a strange comfort of her young life. Her voice had only broken in the beginning. A twisted expression had settled across her face as the song carried on. It spoke volumes, though nothing specific. Likely release from misery was the most recognizable. She left the coat there on her mother's grave, as if shedding her life, revealing a oval cut neckline cut into a shapely bodice and short sleeves. Her pitch shifted to a flat tone and then halted all together, having decided her mother's tribute had gone on long enough. With that jacket she'd left everything, from her name to her absent father to her aspirations of becoming a performer. Wordlessly, she had turned and walked out and into Katherian, straight into the temple of Xeen.


Initially she was there only to make inquiries about the faith, having made the appointment before her mother even lay in the ground. She never left the temple, however, making her decision to stay immediately. It was partially due to her strong rebellious streak, even then pushing against what her mother would not have let her be any part of. It was as if the need to go against her mother was so great it had to be untrained after her mother's passage from this world. However, the temple strangely seemed to offer a safety that she had never had, an important factor at such a critical time in her life. She had not realized it at the time. The temple afforded her instruction and a way of life she found suitable, she was allowed hobbies that fascinated her and allowed time to make friends. These things she had never had before, kept cloistered away from the real world as much as her mother could possibly manage. It had been miserable trapped there in a tavern way of life yet not being able to actually experience anything due to her mother's fears. The temple had freed her of all that, in time allowing her to shed her repressed anger, fear and hate. The Xeenites had given her something back and it was not a gift she had taken lightly. She chose to repay Xeen by devoting her life as a priestess. Maybe it was growing up in Katherian, maybe it was the traces of her forced life style, or maybe it was just truly her nature, but Xeen's ideals thrilled her.


Her mind came back to the present, the two priestesses eyes on her still. One auburn and simple, Mai she was called. The other raven toned and meticulous, Bree. Her best friends for well over five years. In the beginning of things the only friends she had ever had. She looked back at them, with a strange expression left over from her memories.**
I never really understood my mother's need for 'modesty' or her strange inhibitions. She dressed as though the light touching her skin would kill her. She always kept her hair pinned back so tightly I am surprised her eyes did not fall freely from her skull. She always blamed father and sometimes me for her situation and status. I didn't find it all so awful, the status anyway. After her family turned her out and she could not find my father..... **she shrugged**She settled here in Katherian where a lone woman with a child would not look so out of place. I suppose it must have been a form of the Pits for her. Something she insisted I share in. I thought I loved my mother then, but perhaps not. She clung to me too tightly, as though I was all she had. A constant reminder yet the thing that would never leave her in peace.....


**Bree smiled sweetly at her.** You? Drive someone to seek peace? Never! **Her sarcastic tone obvious, and the three shared some private joke.**


**Ember continued as if the purge was necessary** We were a good team when we were pleased with one another, though I suppose that was rare. She always the flower and I the wet blanket. **she laughed, an echo of her left over sadness tinting the sound of her voice**


**Mai squinted at her and shook her head.** I don't think you could have qualified as a wet blanket then, and certainly not now!

Today is the anniversary of her death. Seventeen years ago.... **Ember smiles** So much has transpired, so much learned! My training here a blessing and to make friends such as you... **she pauses trying to find the right words to share with her friends** Now I have the world at my touch, as I had always wanted. It is a shame mother would not let me enter the temple years before. It was the colossal taboo, as if even speaking of the Xeenites would bring them tearing down our door to take me away! **She laughs, her voice a contra alto and resuming it's normal mirth. She looked at her two friends** Somehow it was good timing I suppose, if I had entered before I would not have met you both! **She looked at the two women and for a moment hesitated. Both of them the epitome of the Xeenite faith to her. Both of them irreplaceable to her personally.** I am a realist, I know this drive to wander is in my blood, but I think it would be to my betterment to understand what Xeen would have of me. I have never been outside of Katherian. I wish to see these places we've learned of! I wish to, discover more of what pleases me. My time here has been fulfilling, I have learned much, but I feel there is more I would discover, **she waves her arm widely before her and the other two smiled at her as if to note the familiar speech** out there. **She embraced her friends tightly in silence for a few moments. Then she draws back and looks at each of them with a bright smile.* Besides! Were we not told that absence makes for fond returns? **She winks** We all know I'll be back in these walls again, I can't ever seem to leave the two of you for long! **All three of them shared a last laugh. Before it had always been a dream, or supposition, now it was real. Where she had entered as Lilliana Devenpar, now Ember Beau stepped out of the temple into the world beyond**



//
1. I have read the dogma and understand the expectations of the Xeenite clergy.


2. As she leaves the temple, Ember desires to learn more about what is out there to be experienced. She plans to widen her palette for adventure, expound upon her brewing knowledge, and to offer the understanding of Xeen to others in a time that is filled with misery and uncertainty. She also dabbles in tailoring to make sure that her own clothing (and the clothing of others if they allow it!) fits their form exactly as it 'should.' Eventually she may stretch out to create her own works of art to wear.


3. Ember clings tightly to that which Xeen loves. Her preferred method of dress is in silks and gentle cottons, draped over her body. However traveling can be dangerous, so she -sometimes- seeks out the protection of leathers, ornately tooled if possible and cut in flattering style for her figure. If she is forced to defend herself, she likes the small cuts of the whip, as pain can often be a good deterrent, such that she is not always forced to be in the position of killing outright. The one variance to most priestess of Xeen is that she carries a bow. Though it began for her more as a hobby of target shooting.

[osxmallard]

Sorry this was overlooked... very well written bio.

Approved.

- osX