(no subject)

[flawless_genius]

Player Name: Plantress
Player LJ: Plantress
Email and/or AIM: plantress2001@yahoo.com / Plantress
Timezone: Pacific Standard -8 GMT
Other Characters: Shun, Yuri, Dino, Shion

Character: Firesong K’Treva
Series/Fandom: Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series of books
Deviance: D1

Age: 23-24
Gender: Male
Species: Human

Canon Used: The Mage Winds trilogy

Appearance: Firesong is an androgynous, almost flawlessly beautiful individual with golden tan skin, silvery eyes and long white hair. He’s usually dressed in very elaborate but elegant robes and wears numerous crystal beads and feathers braided into his hair. Most of the time his pure white firebird can be seen perched on his shoulder.

Psychology:
When most people meet Firesong, they quickly come to the conclusion that his a vain, shallow, ego centric show off who likes being in the center of attention and is far to attached to his creature comfort. This is exactly what he wants them to believe. He wears his mask proudly.
Some of it is true. He is a beautiful, powerful individual who has been lauded as a genius since early child. This has given him an ego, and he truly believe that there is nothing he cannot do as long as he has time to study a spell or think of a solution. He loves nothing more than to be in the center of attention and will use his natural charisma to play up to the crowd any chance he get. He is vain, endlessly charming when he wants to be, and can be petty at times, but he is not as shallow as he pretends to be. Firesong is a healing adept, someone who can sense when something is wrong with the earth. Because of that sense between right and wrong he can actually be very compassionate. Once he does feel something or a person or thing, he feels it very deeply. He might be reluctant to get involved in things that threaten his comfortable existence but ultimately his own conscience will force him to help others. Once he does agree to help, he throws himself into things whole heartedly, holding nothing back.

Because of the strength of his abilities, Firesong has always stood a little apart from his others. He was far younger than most of his peers in powers, and his advanced powers set him apart from most of those who are his age. For years he was caught between the two. Although he had many lovers and friends, he didn’t develop any close ties to anyone aside from his father and his bond bird Aya. This lead to him being rather curiously sheltered. As the rarest of mage, a healing adept, he wasn’t allowed to put himself in direct danger the way some other mages and scouts did. He witnessed violence of course, but only at a distance. He only learned true compassion for others once he went into Hardon and saw first hand the suffering of others. He still retains that sense of compassion although he only shows it to very few. The rest of the time he seems to take a certainly delight in teasing and occasionally annoying others. He never does anything that is truly harmful, but he does enjoy the attention more than anything else.

Because of his beauty and charisma, Firesong has never lacked for lovers. He a tracks the interests of both males and females…and in his case it is only the men he is interested. Among the Tayledras there is nothing negative about preferring your own gender. Firesong tends be amused or annoyed with those who do choose to make a big deal out of his preferences. Tayledras culture is very open and lax about the partners a person takes. They don’t really care how many partners a person takes as long as both parties are of age and willing. As a restful, Firesong is not discrete with his affairs even though he is considered one of the representatives of the Hawkbrothers at the court of Haven. This caused a stir at first, but people soon grew at least tolerant of Firesong’s doings.

Lately however, he has not been seeking lovers. His focus has settled on a man called An'desha. An’desha was once a member of the plains people called the Shina. For years he was possessed by an evil Adept called Falconsbane, a mage who changed his body and was responsible for countless cruelties. Firesong was able to destroy Falconsbane and with the help of the Goddess, An’desha was given his original form back, but he was still mentally scared and weak from his possession. Firesong took on the task of trying to heal An’desha of the damage that had been done to him, and in the process they ended up as lovers. Firesong knows that An’desha is still very fragile and clings to him because he knows nothing else. Part of him does love the attention but he knows it’s not healthy. He’s slowly trying to heal An’desha’s mental wounds, trying to make him become more independent and wield the massive amount of magical power he has at his disposal. There is a rather selfish reason behind Firesong doing this. He genuinely does want to help An’desha but beyond that he wants to bring the other mage up to being his equal in the hope that An’desha is his life bonded.
In Valdemar, a lifebond is basically a soul mate. It’s two people who have such a close link, they feel everything the other feels. It’s very, very rare to find your lifebond, but Firesong cherishes a secret desire to find his.

Firesong is more or less in love with the idea of finding his lifebond. To him, it is the ultimate expression of love. He’s held off creating any permanent attachment to any of his lovers since he was waiting for his soul mate to find him. In his heart, Firesong is sure that real love cannot exist outside of a lifebond. He isn’t aware of how deeply he feels this, or even that it has affected his previous relationships. Ever since he heard the tale of his ancestor Vanyel and his life bonded Stefen, he has been waiting for his own life bonded to come along. It goes back to his childhood and is a dream he never, ever shares with anyone. He’s half convinced himself that An’desha is in face his life bonded. What he feels for An’desha is strong and it’s the first time he’s allowed himself to truly love someone ones so it’s an entirely new experience for Firesong. For the very first time in his life he’s been put in a position where he has to gently court someone rather than having someone courting him. It unnerves him, and he doesn’t know quiet what to make of it. He still tries his best, in the hopes that one day An’desha will prove to be the life mate he has always wanted.

A special note should be made for Aya, Firesong’s bond bird. All Tayledras have bond birds, which are magically enhanced birds of specific breeding that are two to three times as large as their wild counterparts.. Most of have birds of prey but Firesong is unique. Thus he opted for a firebird. But no matter what species of bond bird is, they all have the same ability to bond mentally with one single person. A Hawbrother will get his first bird when he is old enough to be able to care for it. It is a bond that is very important to every single Hawkbrother. It’s a source of unconditional support and love. Firesong considers Aya his first and oldest friend. Aya might not have the ability to communicate with telepathically with Firesong the way some of the bond birds can with their bondmates, but he can send his feelings through their link. Aya has always been a source of comfort and support for Firesong, one he loves and cherishes.

Other Skills/Abilities:
In Firesong’s world, different abilities are given the label Gift and describe what that person can do. Firesong has Mage Gift, Earthsense and Mindspeech gifts.
Oversight/Magesight: Different names use for what amount to the same ability. Mages in Firesong’s world have the ability to see and manipulate the magical energies that slowly flow from all living things. This energy gathers in streams called ley lines. Where two ley lines meet a pocket of magical energy called a node is formed. The rank of a mage is determined by how much magical energy he can access. The lower ranked mage can only harness the magical energies from within themselves, while the higher ranked mages can pull in magic from the surroundings. Master rank mages can tap into the ley lines, but only Adepts like Firesong can tap into the nodes themselves. Any mage that can draw on the outsides forces isn’t restricted by only being able to use their personal energies anymore. The only limit to their abilities is how much energy their body can handle.
Earth Sense: This is what makes Firesong a Healing Adept. He can sense when there is something wrong with an area, and will instinctively move to correct it.
Mindspeech: An advanced form of telepathy that can allow a person to influence and mess with another persons’ mind.
Connection with his bond bird Aya: By using this connection to Aya, Firesong can see through his firebirds eyes.
Aya’s abilities: Since Aya is always near or perched on Firesong, this seems the appropriate places to put this. A firebird like Aya has a bit of magic of it’s own. Aya will glow softly when he wishes to. When he starts to get agitated, he will start to spend off small ember like sparks and if he is truly frightened or startled, he will set things on fire in self defense. Also, he’s a big bird. He might only eat seeds, fruit and flowers but his beak and claws can still cause a good bit of damage.

Other Weaknesses:
Firesong is human and has all the weaknesses a regular human would. Also, he’s a mage with no physical fighting abilities.
There is also a finite amount of energies he can use at a time. If he tries to take in too much energy, he’ll burn up from the inside out. Over use of his Mindspeech will also result in a splitting headache.

History:
Firesong was born in the Tayledras vale of K’Treva . It was discovered that he was born with the ability to see the energies of the world. He was already playing with minor energy flows when he could barely walk. By the age of ten, his hair had already been bleached white by the power he was using. Shortly after he truly began to master his training, there was a massive disturbance in the web of magical energies of the region. The K’Treva clan quickly traced the disturbance to the home of K’Sheyna. a clan near them and made a horrific discovery. Their heartstone, the artificial node that powered all of the magic in the homes of the Tayledras, had shattered and gone rogue. Worried for their fellows, the mages hurried to K’Sheyna. They arrived to find many injured and several mages dead. The clan had been in the process of moving from one vale to another using magical Gates. As they filled their heartstone with power in preparation for the move, it had suddenly shattered. The magical backlash that caused had been devastating, and most of the clan was trapped on the other side of the Gate, in the new vale. The mages that had come to investigate offered what help they could but their help was rejected. Worried, they returned home.

Years passed as Firesong grew in power and ability. K’Treva never stopped worrying over their kin in K’Sheyna. Then, finally, the received a message from K’Sheyna. They had finally decided that they would never be able to fix the heartstone on their own and were requesting help in dealing with it. Firesong, now the strongest, most innovated adept anyone had ever seen, volunteered to go. He used a Gate of his own to move close to K’Sheyna vale, then made his way to the vale on foot. Upon arrival he was greeted by a small group, including Darkwind K’Sheyna and Elspeth, the heir to the throne of Valdemar. Both of them were Adept strength but were lacking in skill. Firesong took on the task of teaching them while he tried to work out what to do with the heartstone.

Firesong had not been there long when an attack was mounted. By an enemy of K’Sheyna who went by the name Falconsbane. It was him, working through an adept he had captured and broken, who had shattered the heartstone. Now he struck again, trying to channel a magical attack through the Adept he had broken. At that moment, Firesong had to make a choice. If he didn’t shield the Starblade, the adept would die. If he didn’t shield the heartstone then Falconsbane would shatter it, result in a backlash of energy and explosion that would level most of the Vale. He didn’t have a choice really. It was the lives of many or the life of just one mage. He shielded the heartstone and manage to stop the attack towards it. He thought he would not be able to save Starblade. But a visiting shaman of the Shin'a'in people named Tre’valen sacrificed himself to stop the attack directed at Starblade. He save the adept, but it cost him his life.

Firesong blamed himself. He hadn’t though to shield the heartstone from Falconsbane’s meddling before this. He had been overconfident and not bothered to find out more about the enemy K’Sheyna had faced before he had arrived. The blood of the shaman was on his hands, and he grieved over the loss for several days as he tried to find a way to finally deal with the heartstone. It had to be soon, or Falconsbane would gain enough strength to try again. With the helps of the more power mages in the Vale, he pulled the power from the stone and looped it back on itself form a kind of proto-Gate that went nowhere and could safely store the energies they were dealing with. This was to be moved to the place that had been made ready to be a new heartstone in the new vale. The mages would work in teams to move it to it’s new location, using magic to move it over the great distant. This required most of the mages to work in teams of two in four hours shifts. However, because Firesong was the one who had managed to create the proto-gate, he had to do the majority of the guiding. The meant he worked in eight hour shifts stopping only to eat and sleep.

Shortly after they started the move, it became obvious that Falconsbane had noticed what they were doing. He was subtly trying to steal the power for himself. They decided that something had to be done. After locking the magical energies in place, they held a war council to decided how they would deal with Falconsbane. At this point when they turned to two mages, a pair of gryphons, for help, the learned something surprising. The gryphons were actually the advances scouts for a group called K'Leshya. K’Leshya were considered a mythical clan that had been sundered from the people that would one day form the Tayledras and the Shin’ai’ni long ago. They had simply been in the far south, and now were preparing to return. They would assist in getting rid of Falconsbane, but only in K’Sheyna agreed to turn over their vale to the newcomers after they left. There was a moment of hesitation, but this was agreed to. The K'Leshya, not very far out at all, soon arrived. As they held another war council with all the people in the vale present, more representatives of the Shin'a'in arrived. They declared their goddess had sent them to help and that all the scattered peoples had been sent here to help each other. With the aid of these new allies, the plan quickly fell into place.

Nyara, Falconsbane’s daughter who had chosen to side against him, along with Elspeth’s friend Skif and the sentient magic sword Need headed towards Falconsbane’s stronghold in order to assassinate him. Elspeth and Darkwind went around the edge of Falconsbane’s territory, making targets of themselves by triggering and disabling the mage traps Falconsbane had set. The other Gryphon mages left at the same time. They would destroy the web of magical energies that Falconsbane had build, in the hope the breaking of the web would cause the energies to backlash and temporarily stun Falconsbane. All this was to distract from the fact that Firesong and the other mages that had arrived were now moving it away. They moved slowly, not revealing just how fast all of them could move the gate by working together just in case Falconsbane made another try for it again.

The plan worked, almost to perfection. Distracted by the sight of Elspeth and Darkwind, two who had defeated him before, Falconsbane didn’t noticed Nyara sneaking into his stronghold. Falconsbane became so focused on attacking them, that Nyara was actually able to sneak straight into the room he was in and shatter the giant crystal he was using as his focus after the gryphons had shattered his power web. The combined back shock slammed into Falconsbane warping his powers back on him and sending him into the void, the energy realm all magical Gates linked through.

But it was not a complete victory. As Firesong and the other mages tried to move the proto-gate, something struck from out of the north and wrenched it away from them to fast for them to react. It settled very far north, in Haven, the capital of Elspeth’s homeland, Valdemar. It had become a heartstone, exactly like it was meant to. It was just in the wrong place. They had no idea what had wrenched the Gate away, although Elspeth remembered that there had always been particular tales about the Forest of Sorrows, the area the pull had come from, ever since the Last Herald-Mage Vanyel had died there.

Since that had alerted Elspeth to the fact that she had come here to get mage training since there were no mages to train her in Valdemar. Firesong told her that he had taught her everything she needed to know, the rest of was just practice for her to come to full power. Face with this, Elspeth and Skif decided to head home. After some thought, Darkwind and Nyara decided to accompany her back. The gryphons elected to go with them, at least as far as Firesong’s home of K’Treva. Since her homeland was so far away, it was decided that they would travel back by a series of magical gates. The first one they would take was suppose to take them to K’Treva. Firesong created the gate, saw it open on his home veil and they entered it.

Only instead of crossing over to K’Treva, something yanked the destination of the Gate away from it’s intended location and far, far to the north. They exited in the woods deep in the Forest of Sorrows. This shouldn’t have happened. Not was it simple was it thought not possible for anyone to send a gate that far, but a gate could only be sent to a place the Mage knew. Firesong did not know this place.

All that was explained when the spirits of Firesong and Elspeth mutual ancient ancestor, Vanyel, the Last Herald-Mage, appeared before them. It was he who had pulled them here, and he was the one responsible for pulling the proto-gate into Valdemar. He explained that he had pulled them there because he needed to talk.

Valdemar had been at war with a country called Hardorn for a while now. He employed mages who used real magic, something that the people of Valdemar had all but forgotten about. Vanyel admitted that he, and his life bonded, the bard Stefen, had been responsible for making Valdemar. He felt they were coming to rely to much on magic. He used a compulsion on the people of Valdemar to forget about magic, and then constructed a defense so that they wouldn’t be totally defenseless. Only now the defense against magic is breaking down. He’s going to bring down the defenses in a controlled manner, then send them all to the capital. Firesong was not happy about being yanked away from his intended destination but after some convincing he agreed to go with Elspeth. Since Valdemar was lacking in mages ,they would need someone to help find and train the new mages. Who better than a mage than someone of Firesong’s strength? Besides, King Ancar of Hardorn was draining his very land and people in order to giant power for his spells. He was perverting the natural order of magic, and as a healing mage Firesong could not let that go on.

Shortly after they agreed to this, Vanyel opened the portal to his old home on the border of Valdemar. The group raced through, and into the teeth of a storm. Their journey to the capital was plagued by massive storms. The storms were caused by disturbances in the flows of energies, which had disturbed the weather patterns. Some of it was caused by Ancar’s medaling, but most of the storms were due to the massive blob of power that had been set down in the capital. It had sent out disturbances along the ley lines causing storms to form over every node in Valdemar. Firesong was reluctant to try changing the weather without knowing what the regular weather patterns of the area were suppose to be. Clearing up the weather and would have to wait.

After their arrival at the capital and dealing with the dance of manners and introductions, they all got to work. Firesong keyed Elspeth and Darkwind to the newly created heartstone so they would be able to draw on it’s power then went to work finding those who had mage-gift and locating work rooms for the mages. As they located those with mage gift, the Gryphons took over training the lesser mages with Firesong in reserve for anyone that was to strong for them to teach.

As this went on, bad news arrived in Haven. A spy in Ancar’s court revealed he had a new mage. From the description, it was Falconsbane. The dark adept had altered his appearance to be half cat and half man. There was no other person it could possibly be. Stunned that that he had managed to survive, the group started pushing themselves and their students harder. It was revealed by Kero, a former mercenary captain, that other mages would soon be coming in to help them with the war against Hardorn. It still mean frantic work over the next few weeks in order to maker sure their own mages had at least a bit of training. Everyone was tense, waiting to see what Ancar’s next move would be with the barrier down and Falconsbane at his disposal.

When the blow finally fell, it was a devastating one. Ancar was attacking the border heedlessly with mage controlled shock troops. These were just farmers, ordinary civilians that had been pulled from their field to be made puppets. Ancar didn’t care how many of these men died, he only cared about wining the war. He knew that Valdemar cared about it’s troops and would be demoralized. He started to gain ground.

In an emergency meeting it was decided that the quickest way to end the war and save lives was to send a small group into Hardorn to assassinate Ancar, Falconsbane and their ally Hulda. Firesong, Elspeth, Darkwind, Skif and Nyara all volunteered to go.

They hid themselves in a group of traveling performers. Firesong pretended to be a mere charlatan of a magician named ‘The Great Pandemonium’, while Nyara danced. Her father Falconsbane had given her cat liked qualities and instilled a magical sexual attraction she could not control. They hoped that word of her would spread and her father would here of it, then come find her. They told the other perfumers they were looking for lost family members and no one questioned them to closely.

Firesong tried to remind himself that Nyara was the one suffering the most out of all of them. The land they rode through was depressing. Ancar had abused his people and most were barely getting by. Even to normal senses it was draining but Firesong was a healing Adept and could sense the drain that Ancar was putting on the land.

Still they traveled on unmolested for the most part until they started nearing the capital. As they did so the number of tropes station in the towns began to increase. Finally, the reached a town where they were so many soldier they felt uncomfortable. The soldiers had a tendency to just take what they wished and the troupe was worried they would go after the women performers. It was decided that it was probably going to be safer for the women if they were kept out of sight.

Things were calm for a time, but then the soldiers, drunk by now and mad there were no women to be had, cornered a young man and decided he would do. No one else in the trope was aware of what had happened until they heard screams. Firesong managed to knock all the soldiers in town with a spell but it had taken precious time in order to make sure the spell only targeted the soldiers and not anyone else. The damage had already been done.

As the members of the trope took the boy away to care for him, Firesong followed. He spent the night with them, doing what they could for the victim. It helped Firesong see how those were suffering were affected by
The trope moved out that night, not wanting to risk being around when the soldiers woke up. As they neared the capital the real trope began to relax. This near, the soldiers were actually under better control than they were else where. But the assassination team began to tense, knowing they would soon have to fulfill their goal of coming here.

When they reached the capital, the sword Need revealed that she had been talking with someone who had insight into Falconsbane’s mind in the most literal sense. She explained that Falconsbane was actually far older than he looked, in fact this wasn’t even his first lifetime. Thousands of years ago he had been an adept called Ma’ra. He had learned to cheat death my hiding his soul somewhere when he died, then waiting for an untrained descendent of his direct bloodline with mage gift to use that gift to try the simplest of spells - calling fire. Years ago, a Shin'a'in youth had tried just that. His name had been An’desha. Normally that would have been the end of him as Falconsbane’s personality overwhelmed and crushed his own, but this time something different happened. Instead of trying to fight Falconsbane, An’desha ’fled’ and hid in a corner of his mind. Now An’desha is helping them. He’s been affecting Falconsbane’s subconscious and is going to make him come to them. They have to be read for him and find a way to kill Falconsbane without killing An’desha if that is possible.

After several hours of waiting, Falconsbane did creep down amongst the tents of the performers. Using a quick shadow puppet, Skif convinced Falconsbane that gryphons, his ancient enemy that he hated above all others, were in the tent with them. Falconsbane burst through the fabric of the tent, only to be confronted by Nyara. Before he could react, she stabbed him through the chest.

As Falconsbane’s spirit fled the dying body, Need started trying to heal the damage she had caused using her own formidable powers. Firesong, sensing his chance, sent himself way from his body and pursed Falconsbane’s spirit, finding it hiding in a small pocket of the void. Forming his own soul into the shape of a firebird, Firesong tore his hiding place apart and then ripped Falconsbane to shreds, purifying the fragments with his own power. Doing this released massive amounts of power which Firesong released as very physical fireworks in the physical world. This was the signal for Elspeth and Darkwind go after the remaining two targets.

After a long fight, they did manage to kill both Hulda and Ancar. It left Darkwind very badly injured and the two in chaos. They managed to steal a cart for Darkwind and the now free An’desha and fled. But the chaos was spreading through the countryside faster than they could travel. They only waited until Firesong had regained his strength before building a Gate and riding through back into Haven.

Once there they learned that the war was over. Ancar’s army had turned on itself and was retreating. Reports started to come in that the Eastern Empire, largest and oldest of all the empires, was marching on Hardorn’s eastern border intent on conquering the country. Not wanting to star another war, Valdemar was just letting them do it.
As they were talking about this, Avatars of the Goddess that both the Tayledras and Shin'a'in followed appeared. In thanks for helping to destroy Falconsbane and as reward for his bravery, the Goddess granted Nyara and An’desha back their original forms as well as making An’desha the age he was when he was first possessed.

Firesong promised a scared An’desha that he would always stay by his side.

As the clean up started, Firesong decided to stay in Valdemar as an ambassador of the Tayledras. He eventually grew bored and dissatisfied with the guest rooms he had been given and decided to have something better build. Using the excuse that it would be better for An’desha to recover away from the main population of the castle, and shamelessly taking advantage of the fact that he was a war hero, Firesong got Queen Selenay to constructed a very elaborate enclosed ekele in a corner of Companions field. This was completed a month ago, and now Firesong is finally settled there with An’desha.


Canon Point:
A few months after the ends of the Mage Winds trilogy but before the Mage Storms trilogy starts.

Reality Description:
Firesong lives in your basic medieval fantasy world. One with magic Gifts, and gryphons. The various groups of people that Firesong concerns himself with are the Tayledras, the Shin'a'in, the K'Leshya, Valdemar and Karse. Since Hardorn is having troubles of it’s own, he ignores them.

Tayledras: Firesong’s people. Known as Hawkbrothers to most of the world. They aren’t a nation as such, although the Pelagir Forest is considered ‘theirs’ because no one else wants it. They were given a divine order by their goddess to cleanse the forest of all the traces of twisted magic in it. They live in magically protected areas called vales, in tree borne dwellings called ekeles. Most have hair that’s been bleached white by the magic powers just from living in the Vales.

Shin'a'in: Sort of a ‘sister people’ of the Hawkbrothers. They live on the planes and have been charged by the goddess to never use magic. Only Shamans or the Goddess’ chosen are allowed to use it. They protect the magical devices buried in the Dhorishia Plains.

K'Leshya: The spirit clan. Thought to be lost forever but was really up north. The only tribe that has Gryphons with them.

Valdemar: Where Firesong currently is. It’s run by a queen and her Heralds. The Heralds are a group of people chosen by the Companions for their pure hearts. Companions are guardian spirits in the shape of white horses. Some are reincarnated former Heralds.

Karse: Theocracy that borders Valdemar. Used to be bitter enemies with Valdemar until the war with Hardorn when Ancar decided he wanted them dead too. Then their god Vkandis came down, burned up the corrupt priests in charge, made a woman his chosen speaker and told them to play nice with the country next door. Firesong has never been to Karse, nor does he really care about it, but there are a few people from there wandering around Haven ambassadors of Karse in court.