ahhhh i love your oc page 😍😍 PLS tell me something about ravathlan!!!!!
AAA hello there, it's so nice to see you!! And thank you!! I quite like it too :) I have to add my baldur's gate characters back onto it someday though haha 💜💜💜
omg where do I even start... I could probably talk about different bits of her forever. She got a bit of a rehaul when I started writing Finny so hehehe. Here's a bunch of stuff I could think of off the top of my head. Thank you for asking too, I'm so delighted to talk about her for you 💜!!
Story Relevant:
Okay so her blurb says she's "part of Avallac'h's breeding program" but not what role she played or which one. So, as she is a natural born sage & navigator she volunteered to help with the original "selective breeding" program for making more navigators. I don't think she or her descendants ever produced a powerful specimen like Caranthir, but she gave it a good old college try before she returned to being a Navigator for the Wild Hunt full time (and she remains one until the events of tw3.)
Speaking of which, Avallac'h & Rava do have a son at some point before she goes back to the Wild Hunt. Their son is not magically inclined (huge disappointment all around) but he is part of Ge'els' diplomatic entourage, so. Win some, lose others?
During her time in the Wild Hunt, she got stranded in Skellige due to injuries incurred during a skirmish her unit wasn't winning & it made it impossible for her to sustain a portal after a last ditch effort retreat. A man from clan Brokvar happened upon her in distress and ... well. He took her home and nursed her back to health despite better judgement. The rest is history, I suppose.
Now, with that context... Finny is Ravathlan's experiment baby.
Part of why she looks at it like that is the aforementioned experience with Avallac'h's program, but it's also because of her personality. She was stranded & bored, and it dawned on her that she kinda wanted to know what all the fuss was about when it came to humans and oh look! The opportunity presented itself. (She's... how do I say... not extremely impressed with her results...?)
Ravathlan leaves when Finny is about 10 or so, having not gotten much of anything out of the whole ordeal. They don't cross paths again until the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
(She's such a dead beat mom I don't know what else to call her LMAO)
Other factoids:
She's about as old as Avallac'h, if not a half-century or century younger.
Is from a very prolific family, I think. Close to royalty without being royalty themselves/herself, likely knew Lara herself... but in any case, her natural talent as a magic user and navigator does bring a lot more "new" prestige to her existence than any of her forebearers had.
(Thus, I imagine that she can be stupidly high maintenance at times.)
Ravathlan is very curious about literally everything around her but also... very flighty. A seeker of new sensations. She does not have a very strong record with following through with her own self-determined/lead projects. She functions much better under the thumb of someone else, when given deadlines, reminders, etc. etc.
Honestly, she just likes to collect knowledge for the sake of knowing things. For the sake of having collected it and categorized it rather than having any real desire to use what she's collected to make changes in her behavior or anyone else's, nor to make changes to the world around her. She is quite happy leaving the "Why does this matter?/What does this mean?/How does this benefit me or us?" to others (like Avallac'h LOL they can be such a good team on occasion)
(Side note because I loveee talking about Rava in the context of Finny, but: Finny 100% inherited that insatiable curiosity and intellect from her mother. She just has 1) wayyy more empathy/sympathy & 2) A better sense of using it/knowledge for something beyond her own personal gain.)
It could be due to Ravathlan's exposure to the White Frost & her time with the Wild Hunt, but nonetheless, all of her magic is flavored with some kind of ice or cold effect.
The way she holds herself/personality wise is definitely not warm (Finny describes her memory of her mother as being "like a living statue") , but she's not "cold" as in dull, grim or sad. Cold as in "uncaring" or "callous" perhaps, and she can be prim and snobbish, given her background, but she's... I don't know? Generally delighted by existing even in grim circumstances and will tell you all about it at length. She's very passionate and deceptively bright, at times, at the very least.
Her beastly giant Wild Hunt horse is named Wraith (eventually it's ownership is passed on to Finny). She keeps those beastly ice dogs as pets too and names them accordingly... While she's curious about other animals, I don't think she "loves" them in the same way she loves her weird icedog-things and evil horse.
Due to her association with Avallac'h, she has acquired the semi-ironic nickname of "Vulture"... most of those who know her could get away with calling her Rava in a private setting, though.
