Warforged: Application
Mar. 21st, 2014 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roadstotheriverNAME: Gail
CONTACT: cacopheny @gmail
PERSONAL JOURNAL: Lirael’s journal.
OTHER CHARACTERS: NA.
CHARACTER NAME: Lirael
CHARACTER SERIES: The Old Kingdom Trilogy (The books Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen)
SPECIES: Human of Free Magic descent; she is descended of two of the Nine Bright Shiners, immortal magical beings from before humanity began to ascend, with a lot of human generations in between.
AGE: 19
CANON POINT: Shortly after the end of Abhorsen, by about a month or two, and several months before the events of Across the Wall.
CLASS/ABILITIES:
The class I chose for her is Mage, as it is the closest to her canon abilities. Her canon abilities are as follows:
A Death-Sense: As the daughter of the previous Abhorsen, Lirael can sense the presence of death, whether it be recent or aged, and the undead. If someone died there any time within the period of several weeks, she will be able to tell, and if something is walking around that should be dead, she’ll feel it even more strongly-- and be motivated to destroy it. Death Knights will not get along with her :)
A Entering Death: She can also enter Death, as if it were a separate plane of existence, made up of a flowing River that carries souls to the world beyond. When her spirit is in Death, her body is still in Life, frozen in place-- literally: her body becomes covered in frost, and a chill fog rises around it. The longer her spirit is in Death, the more the frost expands. As there are hostile spirits in Death, this is not a necessarily safe passtime, and not one to be done on a whim. Given this is a different universe where “death” is probably quite different, will function as a dimensional shift into the aspect of “death” there is in Azeroth, a black-and-white mirror realm where live the spirit healers.
A Bells: As part of her office as Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Lirael has a bandolier of seven magical bells that is worn across her chest. When rung, these bells have particular spell-like effects, particularly on the undead and creatures of uncontrolled magic, but they also can be used on the living. The bells can be rung more than one at a time-- but only if one has two hands free. Each bell has a name and a power:
* Ranna (the smallest) brings sleep, stillness, and peace. It is the most forgiving of all the bells of an inexperienced or clumsy ringer, and thus the least likely to actually cause her harm because she didn’t ring it right.
* Mosrael wakes the dead, pulling the spirits into Life as long as there are bodies or spell-space prepared for them, while sending the ringer into Death. This bell does not function in Azeroth.
* Kibeth creates movement to the ringer's will, usually in a walk in some direction or another, but is also tricksome and can make the ringer walk, as well.
* Dyrim can restore speech to the mute, or still speech in one who speaks too freely, with some other subtle usages also aligned with communication, such as the revealing of secrets or even the reading of minds in a skilled hand. It is considered the most musical of the bells, but it likes to hear its own voice and often tries to ring of its own accord, making it dangerous to the ringer, as well. Lirael’s hand is not particularly skilled, so she will not have access to the more subtle aspects of this bell’s powers.
* Belgaer affects the mind, both restoring memories and independent thought in someone without either, or erasing them, and covers the lifting of bindings. It is a delicate and tricky bell that must be used carefully, because playing with the mind is a difficult thing.
* Saraneth binds the dead or-- more rarely-- the living and forces them to follow the ringer's will, but it can also scatter the will of the ringer if rung improperly. It is the best friend of an Abhorsen, and is usually used to send spirits on out of the bodies of the dead they inhabit.
* Astarael (the largest) sends all who hear it into Death, and while it is not necessarily permanent, it is usually permanent for the ringer. This bell has been lost in the transition to Azeroth.
A Charter Magic: Blessed by the magical Charter at birth, Lirael can mentally access the never-ending flow of that Charter-- structured, ordered magic-- and cast spells by stringing together symbols: drawing them, saying their names, or even infusing the marks into a whistle. As this is a different world with a different magic system, Lirael will not be able to “feel” the Charter, (which will actually be of great distress to her), but her expression of the local magic still uses the marks, since that is how she views structured and safe magic.
A Remembrancer: After exploring a cave underneath the Clayr Glacier and finding The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting, Lirael has that book always on her person along with a small, hand-held mirror called the Dark Mirror through which, if she stands in the river of Death and donates a drop of her own blood, she can see into the past. This ability functions poorly in Azeroth, given the different nature of the realm of death.
A Charter-skins: As a benefit of studying the book In the Skin of a Lyon, Lirael can create a Charter-skin, or a magical "fabric" that, when she fits herself into it, lets her "wear" a shape not her own. Creating skins takes at least four hours of spell-work, each skin can only be used once, and she can only wear a skin for a maximum of three or four hours before it starts becoming uncomfortable and fraying at the seams. The shapes she can make are that of a barking owl, a russet bear, and an ice otter.
A Sword: Non-magically, Lirael has an enchanted sword that she used to break and bind the spirit Orannis, created from the remains of a magical blade named Nehima and a set of magical panpipes. She has some training in swordwork, but she also spent a lot of time dodging those lessons when she could. Mostly the skill to use the blade comes with the blade itself, part of its magic. The blade itself is specifically powerful against the undead, against creatures made of magic, and constructs, and it is nearly impossible to break. Since she only has one hand at this point in her canon, her left hand, she is rather less skilled than even her usual lack of ability, but she still keeps the sword on hand just in case.
A Archery: When she has two hands, Lirael is more skilled with a bow and arrow than with a sword. She used to shoot rats (and other nasty things) in the Great Library of the Clayr. Her aim isn’t perfect, and she’s better with a shortbow than a longbow, but it’s still a skill she’s practiced enough to be comfortable with. If she ever gets a second hand again, she will revert to this weapon rather than the sword.
HISTORY:
Lirael grew up in the Clayr Glacier in the Old Kingdom, not knowing her father and barely remembering her mother, feeling vaguely abandoned by the lack of both. While her earlier childhood was relatively happy despite this-- playing with all the younger children, taking lessons, and anticipating the day when she would join the ranks of the future-Sighted Clayr-- she still stood out from her peers in many ways. It was around when she turned eleven that she realized how different she really was: in appearance, she was pale, dark-haired, and slight while her cousins were tanned, blonde, and beautiful; in interests, she thought about death and darkness and was serious in nature rather than sunny and cheerful; and in powers, for all the other Clayr had the Sight, the magical ability to see into the future. Lirael, despite doggedly growing older while the Sight woke in her younger peers, never had it. That was the start of her first spiral into depression, and of her feelings of worthlessness. Without the Sight, she was not a proper Clayr; without the Sight, she didn't belong, and she had no way to relate to anyone around her.
On her fourteenth birthday, still without the Sight while girls of eleven and twelve were gaining it themselves, Lirael's depression and morbid nature led her to nearly kill herself, stopped partly by fear, partly by chance, and partly by a lack of proper opportunity. While she got herself help from the Clayr who caught her at her not-quite-death, a new job as a Third (and later Second) Assistant Librarian in the Great Library of the Clayr, and eventually a new friend in the Disreputable Dog, it didn't make her feel any more accepted, and her low self-worth never rose. She didn't speak to anyone but the Dog, avoided social gatherings, even avoided making eye contact and took to hiding in her own long hair, so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone who had the Sight or who might take her for as alien as she felt. Whenever she could, she communicated by written note.
Being shy doesn't mean she was never brave, though. Before summoning the Disreputable Dog (on accident, while trying to create a magical creature called a sending, to be a friend for her), she used her magical skill and great curiosity to explore a room in the Great Library and (equally accidentally) set free a monster called a Stilken-- a shape-shifting Free Magic creature of terrible hunger-- from its binding magic. In facing down the creature, with the help of a borrowed magical sword and the silent support of the Dog, she learned how to be brave. After that, she took it upon herself to protect the other, proper Clayr from potentially dangerous creatures or rogue magic lurking in the library, to the best of her ability and often at great risk to herself. Given how dreadfully curious she is, as well, she wound up in that position rather often while poking around the Library.
Only at nineteen was she given a purpose outside the life of the Clayr, a reason to live as it were. On the day after her nineteenth birthday, she was sent away from the Clayr Glacier where she'd lived all her life, out into the Kingdom itself, to save a young man from himself and stop the end of the world... though all she knew at the time was she was out in the world, alone, facing more monsters than she could imagine, with a new ability as a Remembrancer-- a "gift" that the Dog led her to find the same day she left home-- and a very whiny Prince she didn't know how to talk to. Thankfully, from him she learned of (and read) The Book of the Dead, was given the bells of the Abhorsen-in-Waiting-- weapons with which to fight the Dead and Free Magic creatures. She learned the identity of her father, the previous Abhorsen and Prince Sameth’s grandfather, and of her calling: to put the dead to rest, to protect the living, to walk the path she is set, as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, or the second in line for the position of Abhorsen should anything happen to the current one.
At the end of that "adventure", Lirael and a small group of friends, family, and magical beings of various kinds vanquished a great evil on her world, the Bright Shiner and powerful spirit from the Beginning known as Orannis the Destroyer: a manifestation of all that is evil and bitter and destructive in the world, with the power of a sentient atom bomb. They defeated him in the country of Ancelstierre, with unexpected help from Mogget and the unexpected loss of the Dog, and retreated again behind the Wall into the Old Kingdom. The loss of her right hand in the battle was also pretty unexpected, but she’s slowly getting used to it. Slowly.
PERSONALITY:
All in all, Lirael is a very serious person, taking duty and responsibility seriously, and she is very practical. She doesn't really take teasing well. On the rare occasions she even realizes she's being teased and doesn't simply take the joking seriously, assuming it to be meant entirely in earnest, she is likely to get flustered and exasperated with the teaser. Even when teased by her dearest and only friend, the Dog, it put her on edge. She doesn't handle stupidity well, either, and while she might not say much to the offender, being generally one for avoiding inter-personal confrontations, she will be silently judging up until the point where she can step in and right the situation herself.
Knowledge is important to her, as a Librarian and a clever girl, and she's perfectly happy to spend most of her time either reading or exploring when she doesn't have something else to do to keep her busy. She has an active sense of curiosity, which has and will again send her places she really ought not to go, and has always the mind and strength of magic to work out how to get there. Lirael found places and things in the Great Library of the Clayr that had long been forgotten, that had become dangerous, and that a Second Assistant Librarian should never have gotten to see, all because she worked out how to make the magical “key” work for more places than it should have-- within her first six months on the job. She can easily (or just stubbornly) pick apart spells to find what makes them tick and how she can make them work for her. Throw in that curiosity, and if you put a magical puzzle in front of her, she’ll be busy for hours. Days, even.
She still doesn't think much of herself, though, no matter how learned she might be: she can even admit to being a strong Charter mage, but without much of a sense of pride. That was nothing to her compared to not having the Sight. All her life, she has considered herself less important than the other Clayr, and if ever a need should arise for a sacrificial lamb to protect the greater good, she automatically assumes it should be herself. Having a new purpose in life, being the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, might help her along towards wanting to stay alive for its own sake, but it wouldn't be hard to bring thoughts of worthlessness and unbelonging to the surface again.
Even so, Lirael’s sense of responsibility is very strong, and a deep part of who she is: the Abhorsen, but also a good and helpful person, if a bit standoffish. It is what leads her to put herself in harms way again and again to help others, usually with magic and sword. In any typically dangerous situation she has long since learned to work past and beyond the fear for her own life. While she believes others might be more worthy than she is, and worth more in other ways, she trusts herself to actually do what is needed in a physical or magical situation, so she can take command and control of a situation in an emergency, showing the strong will all Abhorsens are born with. That strong will shows up when she has to deal with the dead, as well. Fighting those is instinctive. Even though she is no necromancer in Azeroth, she still has the mindset of someone who fights them and puts down the walking hungry dead.
Outside of that arena, Lirael is generally less effective. Communicating is not her strong point. After almost a decade of hiding from social interaction in general, she is very shy, to the point of being completely asocial. Large groups of people and strangers make her severely uncomfortable, unless she has a job to do among them. Lirael is used to working on her own, rather than with others, depending only on the Dog and her own wits, and even then the Dog often suggested she deal with things on her own when she could. So, in anything where she doesn't have to make split-second decisions to save someone's life, she really would prefer to keep herself in the background and not talk to anybody. It still makes her lonely and uncertain how to even reach out, much less make a friend, and gives her no confidence whatsoever in dealing with people. The minute one confronts her in a social context or insults her, she is quick to back down unless there is simply no other choice. She’d rather duck her head, shut her mouth, and hide in her hair.
FIRST PERSON SAMPLE:
Lirael’s one and only video post in her last game (she usually texted). No special circumstances, aside from the fact that the city they lived in was just completely flooded.
THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
C. The Assassin You are milling about in the safety of your sanctum when you stumble upon the corpse of a dragon, hidden carefully behind one of the nearby formations. Upon further inspection, you notice some shed scales near the corpse -- since they match your brethren's color, you think nothing of it. Just as you are about to stand, you find a knife at your throat and notice that its owner is one of your fellow Dragonsworn and that the knife is coated freshly in thick dragonblood. "Keep quiet and let me take care of it," they say. Other than the blood, you have no immediate way of proving that this person is killing your allies, your benefactors and your protectors. There is a possibility that this assailant has just come from killing the murderer, but the assassin does not appear very keen on talking to you. It is possible to defeat him in combat, but there is an even greater chance that they will kill you if you can't attract attention fast enough.
Lirael lifted her chin instinctively at the sharp thing pressing at her throat, swallowing and holding very still, more out of confusion than fear-- but there was a little fear there, too. Facing down another person was nothing like facing down the dead, weapon or no weapon. “What happened here?” she demanded instead, voice only a little shaky. She was pleased at that, a little.
“None of your business,” the familiar voice growled back, holding her in place. Lirael was not particularly good with physical combat, and her sword was of more use as a letter-opener than a weapon when she still wasn’t used to only having one hand anyway. Getting her bell from the bandolier across her chest would be far too conspicuous, not to mention likely to get her in as much trouble as him if she wasn’t careful with them.
So that only left one option. She couldn’t reach the Charter… but the marks came nonetheless. It wasn’t something she’d been able to figure out yet, but it chilled her every time she tried it. Even now-- but not enough to keep her from doing what was necessary. Quick, sharp marks-- “Anet, cerlew, ferhan!” she gasped the names of three bright daggers of magic-- flew from her fingertips and up against the arm holding her still. These, simple and without needing to be chained together in any kind of complicated string, came quickly. He yelped and released her, smelling of burnt skin, hair, and leather.
Lirael took her chance and ducked and bolted around the fallen dragon. His alarm, and batting out the flames on his sleeve, gave her time to call up a string of protective Charter marks, an arrow ward, the only spell she knew for creating a shielding, one she’d learned from Sameth. Here in her own flight’s sanctum, she hadn’t expected to need to have anything half-prepared for protection. But perhaps she did. That was a nerve-wracking thought. Lirael knew how to tread carefully and be prepared for trouble, but not from mortal men and women… and not from supposed allies.
As the older man-- she recognized his face, now that she could see it, as one of the others in her flight-- came charging around the body towards her, two knives drawn now and arm still smoldering a little, she asked again, her voice loud and ringing and hopefully able to be heard by someone of more use in this situation: “What-- what happened here? Did-- did you do this?”
“Shut your mouth, bitch!”
Lirael cringed at the shout-- and the epithet-- but held her ground, trying frantically to pull up more marks for another spell, her fingers tracing them hastily in the air. A spell of binding, to hold him still while she called for help. They were harder to form now that they needed to stay put long enough to join up with another, it was slow going-- and he was close enough now to attack. One knife hit, and the dagger vanished, the way an arrow would-- confusing her attacker briefly into pausing in his attempt at silencing her. But he had another knife, and the ward couldn’t take that many hits. The strength of will to hold it was already making Lirael sweat.
There! Lirael spoke the master mark she needed to tie it all together, then threw the shining collection of marks at him, as the second knife strike hit and collapsed the ward. She staggered back, bleeding from a gash in one arm, but the marks had done their job: they wrapped tightly around him, arms and legs both, and he toppled to the ground with a holler. If none of this thus far had brought attention on them, that certainly would.
Lirael took a step back, then another, then turned and fled around the body again in search of help. Surely someone else would know what to do here. And with any luck, she’d even get the words out before turning into a nervous, stammering mess.
CONTACT: cacopheny @gmail
PERSONAL JOURNAL: Lirael’s journal.
OTHER CHARACTERS: NA.
CHARACTER NAME: Lirael
CHARACTER SERIES: The Old Kingdom Trilogy (The books Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen)
SPECIES: Human of Free Magic descent; she is descended of two of the Nine Bright Shiners, immortal magical beings from before humanity began to ascend, with a lot of human generations in between.
AGE: 19
CANON POINT: Shortly after the end of Abhorsen, by about a month or two, and several months before the events of Across the Wall.
CLASS/ABILITIES:
The class I chose for her is Mage, as it is the closest to her canon abilities. Her canon abilities are as follows:
A Death-Sense: As the daughter of the previous Abhorsen, Lirael can sense the presence of death, whether it be recent or aged, and the undead. If someone died there any time within the period of several weeks, she will be able to tell, and if something is walking around that should be dead, she’ll feel it even more strongly-- and be motivated to destroy it. Death Knights will not get along with her :)
A Entering Death: She can also enter Death, as if it were a separate plane of existence, made up of a flowing River that carries souls to the world beyond. When her spirit is in Death, her body is still in Life, frozen in place-- literally: her body becomes covered in frost, and a chill fog rises around it. The longer her spirit is in Death, the more the frost expands. As there are hostile spirits in Death, this is not a necessarily safe passtime, and not one to be done on a whim. Given this is a different universe where “death” is probably quite different, will function as a dimensional shift into the aspect of “death” there is in Azeroth, a black-and-white mirror realm where live the spirit healers.
A Bells: As part of her office as Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Lirael has a bandolier of seven magical bells that is worn across her chest. When rung, these bells have particular spell-like effects, particularly on the undead and creatures of uncontrolled magic, but they also can be used on the living. The bells can be rung more than one at a time-- but only if one has two hands free. Each bell has a name and a power:
* Ranna (the smallest) brings sleep, stillness, and peace. It is the most forgiving of all the bells of an inexperienced or clumsy ringer, and thus the least likely to actually cause her harm because she didn’t ring it right.
* Mosrael wakes the dead, pulling the spirits into Life as long as there are bodies or spell-space prepared for them, while sending the ringer into Death. This bell does not function in Azeroth.
* Kibeth creates movement to the ringer's will, usually in a walk in some direction or another, but is also tricksome and can make the ringer walk, as well.
* Dyrim can restore speech to the mute, or still speech in one who speaks too freely, with some other subtle usages also aligned with communication, such as the revealing of secrets or even the reading of minds in a skilled hand. It is considered the most musical of the bells, but it likes to hear its own voice and often tries to ring of its own accord, making it dangerous to the ringer, as well. Lirael’s hand is not particularly skilled, so she will not have access to the more subtle aspects of this bell’s powers.
* Belgaer affects the mind, both restoring memories and independent thought in someone without either, or erasing them, and covers the lifting of bindings. It is a delicate and tricky bell that must be used carefully, because playing with the mind is a difficult thing.
* Saraneth binds the dead or-- more rarely-- the living and forces them to follow the ringer's will, but it can also scatter the will of the ringer if rung improperly. It is the best friend of an Abhorsen, and is usually used to send spirits on out of the bodies of the dead they inhabit.
* Astarael (the largest) sends all who hear it into Death, and while it is not necessarily permanent, it is usually permanent for the ringer. This bell has been lost in the transition to Azeroth.
A Charter Magic: Blessed by the magical Charter at birth, Lirael can mentally access the never-ending flow of that Charter-- structured, ordered magic-- and cast spells by stringing together symbols: drawing them, saying their names, or even infusing the marks into a whistle. As this is a different world with a different magic system, Lirael will not be able to “feel” the Charter, (which will actually be of great distress to her), but her expression of the local magic still uses the marks, since that is how she views structured and safe magic.
A Remembrancer: After exploring a cave underneath the Clayr Glacier and finding The Book of Remembrance and Forgetting, Lirael has that book always on her person along with a small, hand-held mirror called the Dark Mirror through which, if she stands in the river of Death and donates a drop of her own blood, she can see into the past. This ability functions poorly in Azeroth, given the different nature of the realm of death.
A Charter-skins: As a benefit of studying the book In the Skin of a Lyon, Lirael can create a Charter-skin, or a magical "fabric" that, when she fits herself into it, lets her "wear" a shape not her own. Creating skins takes at least four hours of spell-work, each skin can only be used once, and she can only wear a skin for a maximum of three or four hours before it starts becoming uncomfortable and fraying at the seams. The shapes she can make are that of a barking owl, a russet bear, and an ice otter.
A Sword: Non-magically, Lirael has an enchanted sword that she used to break and bind the spirit Orannis, created from the remains of a magical blade named Nehima and a set of magical panpipes. She has some training in swordwork, but she also spent a lot of time dodging those lessons when she could. Mostly the skill to use the blade comes with the blade itself, part of its magic. The blade itself is specifically powerful against the undead, against creatures made of magic, and constructs, and it is nearly impossible to break. Since she only has one hand at this point in her canon, her left hand, she is rather less skilled than even her usual lack of ability, but she still keeps the sword on hand just in case.
A Archery: When she has two hands, Lirael is more skilled with a bow and arrow than with a sword. She used to shoot rats (and other nasty things) in the Great Library of the Clayr. Her aim isn’t perfect, and she’s better with a shortbow than a longbow, but it’s still a skill she’s practiced enough to be comfortable with. If she ever gets a second hand again, she will revert to this weapon rather than the sword.
HISTORY:
Lirael grew up in the Clayr Glacier in the Old Kingdom, not knowing her father and barely remembering her mother, feeling vaguely abandoned by the lack of both. While her earlier childhood was relatively happy despite this-- playing with all the younger children, taking lessons, and anticipating the day when she would join the ranks of the future-Sighted Clayr-- she still stood out from her peers in many ways. It was around when she turned eleven that she realized how different she really was: in appearance, she was pale, dark-haired, and slight while her cousins were tanned, blonde, and beautiful; in interests, she thought about death and darkness and was serious in nature rather than sunny and cheerful; and in powers, for all the other Clayr had the Sight, the magical ability to see into the future. Lirael, despite doggedly growing older while the Sight woke in her younger peers, never had it. That was the start of her first spiral into depression, and of her feelings of worthlessness. Without the Sight, she was not a proper Clayr; without the Sight, she didn't belong, and she had no way to relate to anyone around her.
On her fourteenth birthday, still without the Sight while girls of eleven and twelve were gaining it themselves, Lirael's depression and morbid nature led her to nearly kill herself, stopped partly by fear, partly by chance, and partly by a lack of proper opportunity. While she got herself help from the Clayr who caught her at her not-quite-death, a new job as a Third (and later Second) Assistant Librarian in the Great Library of the Clayr, and eventually a new friend in the Disreputable Dog, it didn't make her feel any more accepted, and her low self-worth never rose. She didn't speak to anyone but the Dog, avoided social gatherings, even avoided making eye contact and took to hiding in her own long hair, so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone who had the Sight or who might take her for as alien as she felt. Whenever she could, she communicated by written note.
Being shy doesn't mean she was never brave, though. Before summoning the Disreputable Dog (on accident, while trying to create a magical creature called a sending, to be a friend for her), she used her magical skill and great curiosity to explore a room in the Great Library and (equally accidentally) set free a monster called a Stilken-- a shape-shifting Free Magic creature of terrible hunger-- from its binding magic. In facing down the creature, with the help of a borrowed magical sword and the silent support of the Dog, she learned how to be brave. After that, she took it upon herself to protect the other, proper Clayr from potentially dangerous creatures or rogue magic lurking in the library, to the best of her ability and often at great risk to herself. Given how dreadfully curious she is, as well, she wound up in that position rather often while poking around the Library.
Only at nineteen was she given a purpose outside the life of the Clayr, a reason to live as it were. On the day after her nineteenth birthday, she was sent away from the Clayr Glacier where she'd lived all her life, out into the Kingdom itself, to save a young man from himself and stop the end of the world... though all she knew at the time was she was out in the world, alone, facing more monsters than she could imagine, with a new ability as a Remembrancer-- a "gift" that the Dog led her to find the same day she left home-- and a very whiny Prince she didn't know how to talk to. Thankfully, from him she learned of (and read) The Book of the Dead, was given the bells of the Abhorsen-in-Waiting-- weapons with which to fight the Dead and Free Magic creatures. She learned the identity of her father, the previous Abhorsen and Prince Sameth’s grandfather, and of her calling: to put the dead to rest, to protect the living, to walk the path she is set, as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, or the second in line for the position of Abhorsen should anything happen to the current one.
At the end of that "adventure", Lirael and a small group of friends, family, and magical beings of various kinds vanquished a great evil on her world, the Bright Shiner and powerful spirit from the Beginning known as Orannis the Destroyer: a manifestation of all that is evil and bitter and destructive in the world, with the power of a sentient atom bomb. They defeated him in the country of Ancelstierre, with unexpected help from Mogget and the unexpected loss of the Dog, and retreated again behind the Wall into the Old Kingdom. The loss of her right hand in the battle was also pretty unexpected, but she’s slowly getting used to it. Slowly.
PERSONALITY:
All in all, Lirael is a very serious person, taking duty and responsibility seriously, and she is very practical. She doesn't really take teasing well. On the rare occasions she even realizes she's being teased and doesn't simply take the joking seriously, assuming it to be meant entirely in earnest, she is likely to get flustered and exasperated with the teaser. Even when teased by her dearest and only friend, the Dog, it put her on edge. She doesn't handle stupidity well, either, and while she might not say much to the offender, being generally one for avoiding inter-personal confrontations, she will be silently judging up until the point where she can step in and right the situation herself.
Knowledge is important to her, as a Librarian and a clever girl, and she's perfectly happy to spend most of her time either reading or exploring when she doesn't have something else to do to keep her busy. She has an active sense of curiosity, which has and will again send her places she really ought not to go, and has always the mind and strength of magic to work out how to get there. Lirael found places and things in the Great Library of the Clayr that had long been forgotten, that had become dangerous, and that a Second Assistant Librarian should never have gotten to see, all because she worked out how to make the magical “key” work for more places than it should have-- within her first six months on the job. She can easily (or just stubbornly) pick apart spells to find what makes them tick and how she can make them work for her. Throw in that curiosity, and if you put a magical puzzle in front of her, she’ll be busy for hours. Days, even.
She still doesn't think much of herself, though, no matter how learned she might be: she can even admit to being a strong Charter mage, but without much of a sense of pride. That was nothing to her compared to not having the Sight. All her life, she has considered herself less important than the other Clayr, and if ever a need should arise for a sacrificial lamb to protect the greater good, she automatically assumes it should be herself. Having a new purpose in life, being the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, might help her along towards wanting to stay alive for its own sake, but it wouldn't be hard to bring thoughts of worthlessness and unbelonging to the surface again.
Even so, Lirael’s sense of responsibility is very strong, and a deep part of who she is: the Abhorsen, but also a good and helpful person, if a bit standoffish. It is what leads her to put herself in harms way again and again to help others, usually with magic and sword. In any typically dangerous situation she has long since learned to work past and beyond the fear for her own life. While she believes others might be more worthy than she is, and worth more in other ways, she trusts herself to actually do what is needed in a physical or magical situation, so she can take command and control of a situation in an emergency, showing the strong will all Abhorsens are born with. That strong will shows up when she has to deal with the dead, as well. Fighting those is instinctive. Even though she is no necromancer in Azeroth, she still has the mindset of someone who fights them and puts down the walking hungry dead.
Outside of that arena, Lirael is generally less effective. Communicating is not her strong point. After almost a decade of hiding from social interaction in general, she is very shy, to the point of being completely asocial. Large groups of people and strangers make her severely uncomfortable, unless she has a job to do among them. Lirael is used to working on her own, rather than with others, depending only on the Dog and her own wits, and even then the Dog often suggested she deal with things on her own when she could. So, in anything where she doesn't have to make split-second decisions to save someone's life, she really would prefer to keep herself in the background and not talk to anybody. It still makes her lonely and uncertain how to even reach out, much less make a friend, and gives her no confidence whatsoever in dealing with people. The minute one confronts her in a social context or insults her, she is quick to back down unless there is simply no other choice. She’d rather duck her head, shut her mouth, and hide in her hair.
FIRST PERSON SAMPLE:
Lirael’s one and only video post in her last game (she usually texted). No special circumstances, aside from the fact that the city they lived in was just completely flooded.
THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
Lirael lifted her chin instinctively at the sharp thing pressing at her throat, swallowing and holding very still, more out of confusion than fear-- but there was a little fear there, too. Facing down another person was nothing like facing down the dead, weapon or no weapon. “What happened here?” she demanded instead, voice only a little shaky. She was pleased at that, a little.
“None of your business,” the familiar voice growled back, holding her in place. Lirael was not particularly good with physical combat, and her sword was of more use as a letter-opener than a weapon when she still wasn’t used to only having one hand anyway. Getting her bell from the bandolier across her chest would be far too conspicuous, not to mention likely to get her in as much trouble as him if she wasn’t careful with them.
So that only left one option. She couldn’t reach the Charter… but the marks came nonetheless. It wasn’t something she’d been able to figure out yet, but it chilled her every time she tried it. Even now-- but not enough to keep her from doing what was necessary. Quick, sharp marks-- “Anet, cerlew, ferhan!” she gasped the names of three bright daggers of magic-- flew from her fingertips and up against the arm holding her still. These, simple and without needing to be chained together in any kind of complicated string, came quickly. He yelped and released her, smelling of burnt skin, hair, and leather.
Lirael took her chance and ducked and bolted around the fallen dragon. His alarm, and batting out the flames on his sleeve, gave her time to call up a string of protective Charter marks, an arrow ward, the only spell she knew for creating a shielding, one she’d learned from Sameth. Here in her own flight’s sanctum, she hadn’t expected to need to have anything half-prepared for protection. But perhaps she did. That was a nerve-wracking thought. Lirael knew how to tread carefully and be prepared for trouble, but not from mortal men and women… and not from supposed allies.
As the older man-- she recognized his face, now that she could see it, as one of the others in her flight-- came charging around the body towards her, two knives drawn now and arm still smoldering a little, she asked again, her voice loud and ringing and hopefully able to be heard by someone of more use in this situation: “What-- what happened here? Did-- did you do this?”
“Shut your mouth, bitch!”
Lirael cringed at the shout-- and the epithet-- but held her ground, trying frantically to pull up more marks for another spell, her fingers tracing them hastily in the air. A spell of binding, to hold him still while she called for help. They were harder to form now that they needed to stay put long enough to join up with another, it was slow going-- and he was close enough now to attack. One knife hit, and the dagger vanished, the way an arrow would-- confusing her attacker briefly into pausing in his attempt at silencing her. But he had another knife, and the ward couldn’t take that many hits. The strength of will to hold it was already making Lirael sweat.
There! Lirael spoke the master mark she needed to tie it all together, then threw the shining collection of marks at him, as the second knife strike hit and collapsed the ward. She staggered back, bleeding from a gash in one arm, but the marks had done their job: they wrapped tightly around him, arms and legs both, and he toppled to the ground with a holler. If none of this thus far had brought attention on them, that certainly would.
Lirael took a step back, then another, then turned and fled around the body again in search of help. Surely someone else would know what to do here. And with any luck, she’d even get the words out before turning into a nervous, stammering mess.
