sand_dance | Entries tagged with meta: profile

When Crisauda grew tired, she rested her head on her folded jeweler's hands, closed her eyes, and dreamed she was an enormous bird made out of glittering beads that exploded beneath the heat of the sun.

See also:
Alassand

nijibug

The Mystery of Adalance opened its doors to everyone. In return, it offered nothing more than what one could give to oneself. And therefore Aaya was already a genius when she first stepped into its halls.

Aaya is a musical child prodigy. She was raised by her mother and grandmother, and they traveled along the frontier of the Water realm as migrant workers. An applecart, a rainy day, and an accidental encounter found Aaya's family a new home and new opportunities. Aaya is rarely seen without her trusty fishing pole and gourd-shaped vielle. She goes on a quest to find Eirendi because the older girl promised that they would meet again.

Artist's notes on Aaya's design
Build: Tiny
Coloring: Apple Jacks (tm), you know... like the cereal

Author's notes on Aaya's character
Pizzicato Rain (Aaya's theme. Temporarily external Youtube link. I will eventually get around to uploading the music of Sand Dance to this archive as well.)
The naming of ~~cats~~ foxes

See also:
Woodelfs and wood-kith
The Water realm
Eirendi

nijibug

Lord Shigatse smiled. “So Sir Ailanthus is his own man.”

“What do you want from me?” Ailan asked indecorously.

Shigatse held up a placating finger. “As it stands, you need somewhere to go, and I need you to go somewhere. I think that, the old Badger being our mutual friend, we can consider our purposes equivalent, if not identical."

I'm still teetering between calling him "Shigatse" or "Rikaze". It's essentially the same word — the name of a Tibetan city.

Shigatse never asked to be the Archbishop, but since the choice was preordained and out of his hands, he took what power was in his hands and made the best of it. Charismatic and wise beyond his years, Shigatse has a talent for delegation. He puts little investment in appearances and a lot into loopholes. His good-natured manner belies an inborn mean streak. His favorite part of the house is the windows.

Artist's notes on the Archbishop's design
Build: Tall, spare frame
Coloring: Silvan (his robes of office are green, white, and purple)

Author's notes on the Archbishop's character
Forthcoming...

See also:
The Vale
The Bear, the Bat, and the Snake

nijibug

A child-sized sword gleamed merrily in the wood-demon’s four-fingered hands. Time returned and the entire camp went mad with bandits brandishing weapons and shouting oaths. There were so many of them, and only one little old fox. Ailan closed his eyes, but the wood-demon barked, “What’re you thinking, boy? Run!”

A grizzled fugitive harbored by young Ailan's family. Foxtail has a guilty conscience, a proclivity for stealing things, and a sweet tooth for apples. Once a swordsman of some renown. Foxtail is not his real name.

(If you write "Botarus" in the Royal Script of Riftgard, it looks like it spells "Foxtail".)

Artist's notes on Foxtail's design
Build: Skinny old man the size of a pre-teen boy
Coloring: Russet, oxblood, off-white — think apples and foxes

Author's notes on Foxtail's character
Foxtail's relationship to Ailan briefly mentioned

See also:
Woodlanders
Sir Ailan

nijibug

( The Bear )

( The Bat )

( The Snake )

See also:
Archbishop Shigatse
Alassand
The Vale

nijibug

Eirendi was born one silent winter morning in the Year of the Owl as her parents traveled down a road thickly cloaked with snow in search of shelter. Rou had slipped into his age-old form — a badger of colossal girth. In this shape, he plodded tirelessly through the snow with his wife and newborn riding, huddled warm against his bushy fur. So her father’s back became Eirendi’s first cradle and the journey, her first lullaby.

Eirendi is the old Norse word for "a message or tiding".

The child of a zodiac creature and a schoolteacher, Eirendi is of neither sex. But for all practical purposes, she chooses to identify with the female gender.

Built like a boy, Eirendi is energetic and irrepressible. She has inherited her father's love and gift for storytelling. For some reason, Eirendi is dyslexic. However, she has mastery of any spoken language because she communicates on a purely semantic basis. Her lack of sexual differentiation may be the root of her childlike disposition.

Artist's notes on Eiri's design
Build: Husky
Coloring: Dusky

Author's notes on Eiri's character
A girl

See also:
Rou the Badger
Sir Ailan
Eirendi's family

nijibug

Sir Ailan was a knight of the Water realm. He had been but a callow young squire when he befriended the Badger; now, after many years as Rou’s traveling companion, Sir Ailan could only be called young by the Great Badger’s singular estimation. Answering his old friend’s summons, the graying knight came down from his capital city in the north in the pithy company of a thought-speaking mare and a charmed sword.

His full name is Ailanthus Vorce. "Ailanthus" means "tree of heaven"...and I think it's Latin, because it's the scientific name of a bonsai plant? Ailan's surname, Vorce, was chosen in honor of an old friend of mine.

I like to think of Ailan as a very inward character, someone who has withdrawn into himself in order to be strong in face of all the sadness that life has forced upon him. At the same time, Sir Ailan is a very brave and honorable person who always strives to be a dutiful guardian and a dependable friend.

Ailan has a talking horse, a magic sword, and plays the violin very well. He was kidnapped by bandits as a child, and since then Ailan has had a phobia of deep forests, especially at night.

Artist's notes on Ailan's design
Build: Average, but drying out like a husk with age
Coloring: Blue, white, and gold motif as a boy/young man, pale and low-to-no saturation as he grows older
* It is worth noting that Sir Ailan is primarily featured in the story in his 60's

Author's notes on Ailan's character
The revolution never happened
Ailan's relationship to Rou

See also:
Foxtail
Rou the Badger
The Water realm

nijibug

"I want to fly again," Ceru told him, and the old abbot listened. "I want to be able to rise off the ground and be up in those trees. I know I can do it; it was so easy." Once.

The abbot gazed at the boy without wings. "We cannot teach you to fly," he said at last, "because we ourselves cannot fly. However." He bore Ceru's slight weight up in his arms. His loose-fitting robes fluttered as he sprang. The two alighted high on a walltop overlooking the forest temple. "We can help you to remember. We cannot give you wings, but you can have the air again, if that is what you desire.

"You are very light, little life. Built like a bird, I daresay."

His name is derived from my favorite color, cerulean (sky blue).

Ceru is, in my mind, represented by a single white arrow of purity. He is light and hollow-boned, clear-minded and openhearted, kind but never affectionate. He is, after all, not so much a person as he is an earthbound bird, insentience struggling with the dichotomy of escape and belonging.

Ceru practices a special martial arts technique that enables him to move as though he were weightless, so while he can't fly anymore, he can leap to and from extraordinary heights. Eirendi is his only friend.

Artist's notes on Ceru's design
Build: Small but not thin
Coloring: Off-white

Author's notes on Ceru's character
Forthcoming...

See also:
Pallasia
Aotaihana
Eirendi

.:earthen vessel:.

Home of Sand Dance

Entries tagged with meta: profile

Princess Crisauda

Aaya the Fiddler Fox

Archbishop Shigatse

Foxtail

The Bear, the Bat, and the Snake

Eirendi

Sir Ailan

Ceru

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