Olennya, the counterpart to Tonka in Seothes. Shes lived her whole life underground and now she’s run away from home and is seeking a new life on the surface. She’s unsure and feels very unskilled and unprepared, but she hopes to find her place above.
Cut for species lore and stuff:
So Olennya is Luyvonei (Loo-ee-von-yay) or Vonei (Von-yay). They’re a species that live in vast mines and build and invent. For a few ages, they very rarely leave the mines and are often never seen by other species except for on rare occasions. They’re basically cryptids for a long, long time.
They’re known for tinkering and being very hardy (in a later age they’re responsible for inventing plumbing and sell installations.) Since they also mine very successfully, they’re monetarily the richest species by far (though gold is useless to them and they view gems as tools rather than pretty things).
They’re feral and rough. They’re natural fighters and while they’s not quick to anger and violence (unlike other species) they’re not easy fights despite their small stature. Even their courting habits can be construed as a bit ‘barbaric’ and brutal (wrestling and biting and general ‘foreplay’ with competitions and viscous verbal barbs). Because of this ferality, they sometimes put off the other species, but overall they’re harmless and polite.
Olennya specifically struggles with this culture because she doesn’t feel right. It’s too harsh for her and she feels like a fish out of water. She’s put off by everyone’s aggression and often misinterprets people’s intentions because of it. She doesn’t navigate the difficult social cues of what threats to make to be polite and when to show obedience and submission. It’s too complicated.
She ends up getting set up with a bachelor with a similar problem, but she doesn’t like him. She gets a bad feeling from him and no one else seems keen on hearing her out, so she leaves. No one leaves the mines and she has no idea what she’s doing or what danger’s she’s going to face, but she can’t risk staying home anymore.
