An in character blog for Horizon Elovir, a windwalker monk, hybrid combatant and drifter on MG and WrA. Other character blogs: salix-silversky, marius-blackwood, ary-zeth
Hair Color: Raven haired, streaked with glowing, Void-lit strands
Eye Color: Eclipsed; dark sclera that bleed into deep blue with glowing, bright irises/dark pupils sharded with Void light
Height: 5’8
Build: Lean, athletic swimmer's build with a sailor's wirey muscle; slightly larger hips than most men
Distinguishing Characteristics: Sharp slice scar through left side of lips, lash scars decorating back, shackle scars around wrists and ankles.
Tattoos: Kraken tentacles from right middle finger to right upper shoulder along clavicle, kelp twisting around left leg over hip
PERSONALITY
Positive Traits: Goofy, aloof, charismatic, sarcastic, quick witted, clever, curious, relaxed, warm, simultaneously the smartest and dumbest man in the room
Negative Traits: Far too self indulgent, addictive personality, substance abuser, can be cold and calculating, easily shuts off emotions, avoidant of asking for or accepting help, quick to judge, serial emotion squasher downer, nosey
Goals/Desires: Make it a day at a time, care for his found family, make a name for himself, beat back the imposter syndrome, live up to his dad's name, wants to make his husband proud, raise their daughter as best he can together with Horizon
Fears: Mildly afraid of the dark for reasons he doesn't talk about. Spiders, silence, sobriety, death of loved ones, dying again
Hobbies: Reading, napping, writing and playing music for his fiddle, swimming, shipwork, (recently) knitting, alchemy, smoking and tobacco/weed blending
Likes: Alchemy, friends, his family, music, tea, good food, the ocean, rainy afternoons and evenings, sleeping in late, his pet moth Aethril
Dislikes: Asking for help, silence (leaves him alone with his thoughts), sobriety, really shitty writing, pompous assholes, 'proper elves'
FAMILY
Spouse: Horizon Elovir
Child(ren): Saoirse Elovir (Pending birth)
Father: Birth father unknown
Adopted Fathers: Jim Ravenwood (Deceased), Oliver Amberbough (Living)
TMIT: The year is coming to an end soon, does she have any favorite memories from the past year?
A few!
The most recent is getting to meet her forever partner's new boyfriend! One, because she got to hold and kiss and laugh with Horizon again. Two, because she got to see what he's like in a fresh relationship after casually dating him for near two decades (considering time jump).
Her time at the Wonderlight Ball during ToA. She spent much of it with a very fun, attractive man that seems to enjoy her just as much. It felt like she was floating through a dream.
Her first time traveling to the Isles was a wonderful adventure. She always holds first time seeing a new place close to her heart, and she did it while meeting new people!
(( Thank you @theconstructsworld! Mentioned @elovir by name. Others know who they are ;) ))
A guitar case of all black. Simple. Somber. Elegant. New. It didn’t scream out for attention, but rather sat in stark contrast to the flurry of colorful fabric surrounding it.
Kav sat on the decorative rug in the entertainment room she had been renting for some time in Falcongwing Square. Though there were plenty of lounging couches and pillows, the elf seemed to prefer the floor at that moment, her eyes fixated on the case before her. With a gentle movement, Kav’s hands went for the locks and popped them open with a click that echoed in the vaulted ceiling above. She glanced around, attempting to tame her quickly beating heart.
Curtains were hung on every wall, mostly purples but a couple reds to accent where doors might be. Though the bay doors were shut the sound of a fountain in the square below seeped into the room with the sunlight. The light was red from the sheer fabric, causing the room to glow and strange shadows to appear along the couches. In the far corner a bottle of plum wine sat upon a small drink counter with a cabinet for storage under it; the bottle was open and almost empty, hinting to recently being drank from.
Exhaling slowly, Kav returned her attention to the unlocked case before her. Without another thought she pulled open the top and let it lay flat on the opposite side. The vision inside still made her gasp, though she had looked at it a few times already.
Each piece of the instrument radiated from recent polish and little use. Tuning pegs a silver piece, head a bold amber color, fretboard of a darker stain with each fret a shimmering contrast. The bard’s unpolished fingernails moved slowly from the top to the soundboard. It was here that the beauty was at its peak. The same amber of the head bounced the unnatural red light of the room in many directions, accenting the gorgeous color. A rosette finely made of liles and vines circled the sound hole, broken only be the nylon strings which stretched atop it. Tracing the thinnest string down to the bridge and saddle, she paused. At the bottom was another lily design made from splinters of dark wood and polished over to be flesh with the amber.
“Thank you,” Kav whispered, “You’re perfect, my Kaihua.”
(Throwback Thursday is bringing this piece of little writing back. It has been 8 beautiful years since Kav really drove to go big with her performances thanks to this lovely gift.)
@eldriwolf sent me this, and I immediately thought of the Indian bagh nakh “tiger-claw” weapon, which isn’t usually articulated or as realistic - for a given value of realism - but was a very nasty piece of kit.
The basic version was a steel bar with two rings for index and pinkie fingers, and four steel claws for ripping into an enemy’s soft parts - probably neck and stomach, where there were no awkward bones and the result would be more effective.
These simple versions had an extra advantage of being easy to conceal…
…and sometimes the finger-rings would be gilded and decorated with gems as if they were just jewellery.
Okay, maybe quite a lot of jewellery.
I bet that if timing and location were organised properly, political assassination could be passed off - in honest belief or for convenience - as the victim having encountered a real tiger.
“But where are the marks of the tiger’s teeth?” That too could be arranged:
These double daggers have proper flattened-diamond blade profiles, and their points are too close for a full-grown tiger or leopard - but (fiction-writer imagination at work) there’s no reason why a special-purpose one couldn’t have been made with realistic separation and correct tooth-spike shape.
The modern era has seen plenty of convenient “accidents” and “suicides”(what writer Len Deighton calls XPD or Expedient Demise) so how good was Mughal-era CSI?
Or more correctly, when required by Certain Circumstances, how bad did it need to be?
If an Important Person announced: “Clearly a tiger did it. How sad. Too bad. Long live the new maharajah, my Dear Little Nephew”, the best way for doubters to maintain good health would be agreement…
*****
There was another version which - if the “attacked by a wild beast” excuse was still used - came with a suggestion that tigers in that particular region were getting disturbingly smart. (Though pointing this out may not have been wise, see above…) :->
These are bichuwa bagh nakh, “scorpion-sting tiger claws”, the dagger name deriving from its recurved blade shape resembling the business end of a scorpion’s tail.
They were sometimes carried in combat, bichuwa bagh nakh in the left hand and a talwar (curved) or khanda (straight) sword in the right.
During close-quarter grappling the claws could rake and the dagger stab, while the finger-rings meant less risk of dropping it.
In the same way that many Indian weapons had “tacticool” add-ons - miniature pistols, axe-gun combinations, concealed daggers and so on - there were bagh nakh with more than just one extra blade…
…bagh nakh with extra folding blades and a knuckle-guard…
…and this articulated contraption which (IMO anyway) was for defence as well as attack.
*****
It was, like the much simpler two-ring-no-blades version, a lot less obvious than the first photo suggests…
…and since many Indian helmets were open-faced while others had face-protection only of mail…
…a surprise slap across the face might spoil any warrior’s day.
The reason I think it also had a defensive purpose is the fairly thick metal palm and that little spur low down on it, almost certainly meant to stop a palm-blocked blade from sliding any further.
I’m not sure there’s enough articulation for such a blade to be actually gripped tightly, but once trapped between spur and claws it could be twisted aside for long enough that a weapon in the other hand could attend to its wielder.
*****
Yet again: when creating a fantasy weapon for writing or RPG, do a search for whatever you have in mind, because it may well have been made for real a couple of centuries ago by an Indian weaponsmith demonstrating what he could do to advertise his skill, or just making some oddity in steel to see if it was possible… :->
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