Shinorah nightsbane
"Of course I'm a threat. Why? Did you think for a moment I wasn't?"
- Emma Frost, Astonishing X-Men
"I will not fail this time."
- Lulu, Final Fantasy X, At the Calm Lands and Cavern of the Stolen Fayth.
Family / Notable Relationships:
- - Father, Andreas Nightsbane (very limited contact)
- - Mother, Karinn Nightsbane (very limited contact)
- - Older brother, Jossen Nightsbane (status unknown)
- - Younger brother, Jeffron Nightsbane (status unknown)
- - Younger sister, Mihane Nightsbane (deceased)
- - Iris Delaroche, close friend
- - Yumi Akimori, friend
Religion/Philosophy:
Norah abandoned any faith in deities when Ala Mhigo collapsed to the empire and then her sister passed away. She'd previously followed the deity Nymeia, the Spinner, though paid lip service to Rhalgr as well. Faith had never been a strong suit for Norah, even living in Ala Mhigo - she is a logical and rational-minded individual, always seeking for explanations and facts rather than things she cannot observe and must accept on faith alone. However, in her anger at losing first her homeland (and by proxy, most of her family) and then being unable to save the one family member who accompanied her, she turned her back on any and all deities, choosing instead to believe only in science and the rational world. When she speaks, she'll usually refer to the Fates, rather than deities - basically what she conceives of as as random luck in the universe's pattern. Her view of the world, and her general approach to understanding it, is very heavily basic on logic, rationality, and reason; any problem can be solved with enough resources, time and data, and any person's behavior can be predicted if you understand what motivates and drives them.
- Height: Just under six feet
- Build: Strong but slender, with reasonably defined muscles for a mage.
- Hair: Black, with midnight blue highlights. Most of the time, she pulls it back into a very neat ponytail that hangs halfway down her back.
- Eyes: Blue-green, and arguably her best and most striking feature
- Skin: Medium and usually fairly well tanned from her years on the road and the time she spends adventuring and researching terrain.
- Clothing: Varied. She tends to dress fairly modestly and without too much flash when she can - a long, simple skirt and blouse when in the city, or traveler's pants and leather boots. She's fairly shy about exposing too much skin, and favors neutral colors - whites and ivories, blacks, greys, and sometimes darker blues and purples.
Contents
Appearance & Personality
Appearance: - Shinorah is a pretty woman, though not especially beautiful - she has high cheekbones and striking eyes, but her jawline is too square and her nose a little bit too large to be a true beauty. She has long, dark brown hair, almost black except in very bright sunlight, which is typically dyed with brighter marine blue highlights and pulled back from her face in a neat ponytail. Her skin is fairly tanned and there are slight lines around her eyes, hinting at her age. She wears a fair bit of eyeshadow at times, outlining vivid aqua eyes, halfway between blue and green. Her right fingertips are often stained with dark ink.
Distinctive Markings: - There's a scar below her left scapula on her back, about an inch and a half long. On her right side, just below her collarbone in the front, is an unusual and intricate blue knotwork tattoo of some sort.
Personality: - Norah is polite almost to a fault, gracious and courteous as much as possible. She's very slow to anger, though once she does become angry it is very difficult for her to come down from it. Her emotions run very deeply, and anything beyond her usual polite and kind demeanor is very difficult to recognize except to those who know her very, very well. She still is very protective, especially of young women or the sick and injured, those instincts that helped her try and keep her sister safe for so long, but she sometimes lacks empathy - especially for those who complain about minor inconveniences. She has a significant amount of trust issues, and is actually quite a loner at this point. She's friendly and welcoming, but getting her to really talk, especially about herself, is difficult, and she gets especially uncomfortable talking about emotions.
Her best friend has often remarked that she's polite and kind, but also rarely forms attachments or lets anyone in beyond the civil and friendly walls to get to know the real woman behind them - that she actually uses manners as a shield between her and the rest of the world. Norah's response at the time was to shut Iris out for a while, until she came around to recognizing the truth in her dear friend's words...though it's one thing to recognize something in yourself, and another thing entirely to change it. She's also very stubborn, but that stubbornness also manifests itself as absolute blind loyalty to those rare few she truly calls friends.
Once you get to know Norah, she can be a fairly warm and charming person - to those patient enough to look past the the polite aloofness of the "Queen of the Slums", as she's been derisively known in and around Ul'dah. She has a warm laugh and a ready smile for her friends, and a habit of acting like an older sister or a maternal figure to many. When she's feeling especially cheerful or in a good mood, she often hums or even sings a bit, in a rich, clear mezzo-sorprano - most often while she's cooking or making something, but also when tending to her beloved chocobo Quee'kweh, working in the garden, or otherwise in an especially happy mood. If she's really comfortable - or just trying to diffuse tense situations between other friends - she'll crack jokes and even do impressions, often making herself the butt of the jokes. It takes quite a lot to get her this at ease though, the sort of person she might have regularly been if she'd grown up in a more stable environment. Too often though, something will come up that reminds her of unpleasant things, and the wall of manners and politeness slams down all too quickly again.
Personal History:
Childhood:
Shinorah is the eldest daughter and second eldest child of the Nightsbane family, a prominent military and political family in Ala Mhigo. Her father served in the military many years, and upon retirement turned to a career in politics, serving as an advisor and a diplomat. Her mother also served as well, though left the military once her children were born and split her time between raising them and advising the government on social and diplomatic affairs. Growing up in a fairly upper-class home, she was schooled from an early age in the finer points of both politics and social graces herself, and has an extensive education in the liberal arts, including economics, literature, music, languages, and history. Though her family was well to do and of minor nobility, they were very close-knit and had strong bonds of genuine love and familial affection for each other. While some of their peers used governesses to care for their children, Norah's mother insisted on raising all of her children herself; her father was also a very prominent figure in her early life, always putting time aside to listen to his children when they had questions or stories to tell and taking an active role in their education.
Teenage Years/Early 20s:
When Ala Mhigo fell to the Empire, most of Norah's family stayed behind - officially and as far as anyone outside of the immediate family knows, the Nightsbanes pledged service to the conquering Empire, becoming traitors in many Mhigans eyes. The real truth of the matter (for OOC use only, as you would have to know Norah INCREDIBLY well for her to ever breathe a word of this) is that her entire family is heavily involved in the Mhigan resistance, and the only reason her family stayed behind was to run spy networks and supply lines from the inside of the city, using their political connections and knowledge of the surrounding lands to work towards undermining the Empire. Her father judged that he would have better access and more leeway if he formally affiliated with Garlemald, thus the family openly "betrayed" Ala Mhigo when the city fell. Their true work is a closely guarded secret, as it would mean the death of the entire family if anyone knew. Both brothers are also heavily involved in the resistance, her older brother taking a position in the Garlemald Army but using it to help send messages to like-minded individuals in conquered lands and target senior key figures in the Garlean Army for assassination, and her younger brother helping to run a black-market supply line and information network to keep vital supplies and arms channeling into the city.
Norah and her younger sister were sent away along with some other family friends when Ala Mhigo fell, to get the girls to safety at least while the others stayed behind in the underground resistance. A group of about twenty or so people set off together, composed of two other families, long-time allies and friends to the Nightsbanes who also fought in the civil war, along with their children. They made it to the Shroud safely enough, but there, things became difficult. The underbrush grew thick and heavy, making passage impossible, and the canopy seemed so heavy that even the adults couldn't get their bearings. It's like the forest itself did not want them there, and slowly but surely, the group became separated. They took measures, left marks on trees and tried using signals, but nothing worked - and eventually by the time they made it to the edge of the Shroud, it was only Norah and Mihane left of their group, the others all having gone missing or becoming lost in the dense and dark forest.
Life on the road was hard for Mihane, and unfortunately within six months of leaving, shortly after the girls emerged on the Uldahn side of the Shroud, a group of borderline bandits robbed the two girls of most of their possession and all of Mihane's medication to sell on the black market. Though Mihane was a skilled healer, her condition made casting spells difficult when she had one of her breathing attacks, and the dry heat and the dust of the Uldanian desert only worsened the frequently and severity of her attacks. Eventually, the dust and hardship of life on the run proved too much, and she had an attack from which she could not recover, suffocating as she couldn't get enough air into her lungs. ((OOC note, basically asthma - something easily treated and barely an inconvenience in an urban environment with medicine and doctors, but can be fatal left untreated or in primitive conditions.)) Norah railed against the gods for this final loss, the enormity of losing everyone she loved within a year crashing upon her and hardening her heart both to strangers and the gods.
Adulthood (through to the present):
Norah spent her early adult years moving from camp to camp, trying to pick up useful trade skills and learn to survive on her own. Norah became a master of survival, learning basic skills in just about anything and everything she could - swordplay, defense, gathering skills such as fishing, collecting edible plants and herbs, weaving, leatherworking, and rudimentary smithing. She'd by this point learned to neither trust nor rely on anyone - because people can leave you, either through death or war, so she pretty much taught herself to do anything she could for herself. It's left her a Jack (well, Jill) of all trades, though a master only of the arcane arts. Times were hard and her plight grew increasingly desperate, as her upper-class education left her with few to no practical skills for surviving in a trade-based economy in the middle of the Thanalan desert. She was bright and resourceful, but wits only allowed her to get by so long - and she came uncomfortably close to making some very difficult choices for her path when luck finally turned in her favor and she overheard a group of brigands plotting to rob a merchant caravan heading into the city of Ul'dah. Seizing the opportunity before her, Norah snuck out from that camp during the dead of night, taking up a position earlier on the caravan's route and making a bargain with the merchant - she warned him of the attack and could lay out an alternate route into the city, but only if he agreed to take her with and smuggle her through the Gates. The merchant, Brennan, agreed, and once inside Ul'dah she made her way to the Thaumaturge's Guild. There, her aptitude for both theoretical spellcraft as well as practical ability earned her a place on the guild's roster, and thus free passage in and out of the city.
Still lacking a true home, Norah did settle for a time in Little Ala Mhigo once it was established. There, Norah was taken under wing by a blacksmith named Valkoinan and his wife Shandrilarr. They had lost their own daughter in the years after Mhigo fell, and saw in the headstrong woman reminders of their own beloved girl. For about five years, they and their son formed a sort of family unit in Little Ala Mhigo, Norah taking odd jobs to help support them as she could while she studied spellcraft on the side. Eventually her studies in Ul'dah required too much time for her to travel back and forth between Little Ala Mhigo and Ul'dah each week, so she stayed in the student dormitories at the Guild until she could begin affording a room of her own at the Quicksand Inn.
When she was around 24, she met a fellow former noble-turned-adventurer named Iris Delaroche out on a job near Crescent Cove. They became fast friends, both identifying with each other's backgrounds and losses of family at the hands of the Garlean Empire - Norah of her parents and siblings, Iris of her daughter's. They both also shared a desire to improve the plights of those who couldn't, and pooled their very meager resources to buy a ramshackle and decrepit abandoned building. This, they turned through hard work, their own labor, and sheer determination into a sort of safe house for anyone truly in need - runaways, escaped slaves, abused and beaten women and children, or anyone else who seemed to have fallen through society's cracks and appeared in danger of winding up on the streets without any options. Some stayed only for a few nights and moved on, others for longer periods - some even eventually staying on to help Iris and Norah run the place, providing cooking, helping with cleaning and upkeep, or providing security as needed. Yumi Akimori was one of the young women they found in an alley one day, badly beaten and in rough shape - they took her back and managed to fix her up, and she became a loyal and devoted friend to both women. Due to her studies in the Thaumaturge's Guild and other demands on her time, Norah no longer spends as much time directly involved in the halfway house's affairs on site, but she contributes the lion's share of any of her salary and wealth to its continued upkeep and operation. The shelter itself is currently administered by a no-nonsense Roegadyn Sea Wolf named Angharrad Brytehaemer, a navigator and boatswain who gave up her life on the seas to take over the shelter in Norah and Iris's absence.
At this point in her life, she's spent as long on the road or in refugee camps as she did in Ala Mhigo - fifteen years as a citizen, fifteen as a refugee. She's had her fair share of tough knocks and scrapes, but each one has taught her more self-discipline and survival - skills she prides herself on. She keeps a careful journal that she uses to express herself, all those thoughts and dreams and emotions she has trouble expressing to people, and also tends to enjoy drawing or embroidery to calm her thoughts after a long day's work. In private when nobody is watching, she also often sings, dances, or both - another outlet to allow some of those bottled up emotions to express themselves - but does not perform in public nor let others see this. The closest one might find to getting her to sing is that she'll sometimes quietly sing or hum to herself when doing something enjoyable - cooking, gardening, caring for Quee'kweh, or embroidery.
Basic Info
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Miscellaneous
Recent Events
Shinorah joined an adventuring company called "Aeon" in August, and spends much of her time at their house Cliffperch. After a month or so assisting in odd jobs and keeping a room at the Quicksand, Norah finally settled into the house at Cliffperch herself, claiming room 13 as her own and hanging a neat placard on the door. She's saved up whatever resources she has left after paying for the operations of the Crescent Cove house, and has managed to furnish her room with an assortment of second-hand furniture or pieces she made herself. It's nothing remotely as elegant as what she herself was raised in, but it has a cozy and warm charm nevertheless. At present, both Iris and Yumi stay with her, the three of them coming and going at various points throughout the day. Some evenings if one listens, you'll hear laughter and talking well into the wee hours of the night.
She's kept regular company with her companions in Aeon at Cliffperch, and is also often seen traveling throughout Coerthas astride Quee'kweh, both of them bundled in furs. Unlike most, she loves roaming about in the cold, mountainous regions and will do so for hours or even days at a time. She finds the cold air invigorating, and the snow-covered peaks remind her of her former home in Gyr Abania. She seems to be more at ease as of late than she has been in some time, perhaps a combination of finally putting down roots and starting to feel like less of a nomad, along with starting to make a few friends in her travels.
Norah recently set up a workspace out in La Noscea, in an abandoned building attached to an old lighthouse. The site has been refurbished with a fully functioning stove, multiple shelves, a number of tables and work benches, and she's been steadily stocking the shelves with any number of compounds, reagents and glassware for experimentation. The bookshelves are filled with any number of an odd assortment of books - there are a number on aetheric studies, elemental arcanometry, and a few on astronomy. Many others are on subjects such as alchemy, poisons and antidotes, a couple on various types of bladed weapons, a few on anatomy and biology, and one on various types of ships. A few people seem to know what she is working on, and periodically others may come and go from the workshop, but otherwise the door is kept tightly locked and warded when Norah herself is not in residence. When she is in residence, periodically strange noises and explosions can be heard if one is especially close by, but the long expanse of seaward-facing cliffs to the lighthouse's northern shore, the steady sea breezes, and the sound of the surf pounding on the rocks seem to muffle the worst of the noises or acrid smells from any neighbors or wandering persons.
Sexuality: Heterosexual, though major trust issues. While I probably won't work out the full details ICly (because frankly, I'd rather not), the bottom line is after spending 15 years living in refugee camps, I'm figuring Bad Things have probably either happened to her, or come close enough to happening to her, that casual flings would be impossible at this point. It's not something she'd ever want to talk about anyway ICly, so - /handwave, don't look too closely other than to realize the first few years were probably somewhat unpleasant for her. That said, she also remembers her parents and their marriage, as well as close family friends, very fondly and somewhere deep down inside clings to some vague notion of a true partner she could trust and rely on and spend whatever life she manages to build with. But after all those years on her own, she doesn't know how to get there...
Slowly filling this in. Please feel free to add your own rumors under PC Rumors, as you like! Thank you. ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard)
◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear)
◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard)
◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players)
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