A B O U T . C H E L L E Custom: 
Full
Note: For her apprentice stage, the artist can pretty much do whatever they want with her, so long as the hair is long and the general coloration matches the tektek (pale hair, purple eyes, golden scales). For her adept stage, I'm pretty set on the hair style and color and the blue scales and eyes. But the clothing and other details like that can also be up to the artist. The artist is also welcome to pre-draw Chelle's adept stage, if it makes life easier. I don't plan on changing anything.
Character Name: Chelle
Race: Dovaa
Gender: Female
Clan: Aiskala
Class: Civilian
Appearance: See first post. Note: While Chelle's hair in her apprentice stage appears white (thank you, tektek), it is probably closer to a very pale blond. Exact shade details can be discussed with the artist. The blond will get even paler after she chooses her clan, to look closer to the white in the example image.
Personality: Note - Chelle will start out as a very weak character. Most of the personality aspects addressed will come more into play after she has chosen her clan and left her family. Before these events, she will seem to be fairly one-note, bordering on totally boring and pathetic.
Submissive - Chelle begins life as a people pleaser. She is surrounded by strong personalities who place a great deal of pressure on her and she feels as if she has little recourse other than to try to be the person others expect her to be. She rarely speaks her mind, and people tend to think of her as obedient and malleable if they are kind. Those who are less kind consider her to be weak and dependent. What Chelle really seeks is acceptance and love, but neither her mother or her grandmother seem willing to provide either of those things without piling on heaps of conditions, expectations and pressures. Chelle keeps trying to earn their approval by trying to be whatever girl they want her to be at the time.
Angry - Spending your whole life trying to garner the approval of people who never quite seem to get there had created a seething pot of anger and hostility deep down in Chelle's subconscious. To make things worse, she spends the first part of her life ruthlessly suppressing all of her pain and frustration which only causes a greater build-up inside her. Chelle therefore has a tendency to lash out, act defensively, or be flat-out hostile for no seeming reason. While Chelle learns how to channel her anger into productive outlets, she can still be a fairly abrasive person to be around.
Empowered - After Chelle hits her breaking point and makes the first purely selfish decision of her life - to abandon her family, choose a clan out of the blue, and run away with Gypsies - she discovers that she has a personality and opinions of her own. And as she begins to learn how to express them, she begins to see her own value and worth as an individual. This gives her a sense of empowerment and confidence she has never known before. Coupled with the skills and knowledge she learned from her mother and paternal grandmother, Chelle discovers that she is a rather unstoppable force.
Reckless - Perhaps it was because all the details of her childhood were so rigidly decided by others. But once Chelle discovers the excitement of making her own decisions and choosing her own fate, she goes a little bit overboard. Chelle likes adrenaline, she likes risk, she likes to feel impulsive. She will do things without thinking them through very well, and then thrill at the chance to get herself out of sticky situations. Her recklessness also occasionally translates into romantic relationships - She sometimes moves faster than good sense would allow.
Biography/Background: Chelle is the product of youthful hormones and an utter lack of forethought. Her father, Eristu, is a Kiandri who loves strong attacks and brute force. Her mother, Lessa, a Peisio who appreciates skill and subtlety. The two met when each unwittingly targeted the same dragon, and they fought together to victory. The excitement of their triumph led to a brief but intense tryst, during which the two young Dovaa were both utterly convinced they were soul-mates who would be together forever. However, their true natures soon overcame their twitterpated brains and they were left with bitter feelings and a pale-haired, golden-scaled problem.
Eristu had little interest in being a father, not turning out to be the nurturing type. In fact, he turned out not to be the faithful type either, which was one of the issues that had begun to crack his relationship with Lessa. His mother, however, a prominent Kiandri scholar, fought tooth and nail to have access to her granddaughter. After all, who knew if her useless son would ever provide her with any other grandbabies. Lessa wanted nothing to do with Eristu or his family, but she was offered generous compensation in exchange for fifty-fifty custody of the child. Lessa herself had no family, and struggled to provide for herself. The offer would provide her and Chelle with a comfortable lifestyle and would mean that Lessa would not have to take on distasteful tasks just to scratch out a living.
Chelle has grown up having to adapt to two very different lifestyles. Her grandmother encourages her in the scholarly pursuits, and takes great pains to educate the young Dovaa on the history of Magesc. Erama believes that knowledge is power and wants Chelle to have a keen understanding of the world that she lives in. All things are worth knowing - this is the lesson that Erama would have Chelle understand above all others. When she is with her grandmother, Chelle only occasionally sees her father. Eristu tends to avoid the youngster, feeling awkward and slightly resentful towards her. But sometimes interaction between the two simply can't be avoided, and when that is the case, Eristu is distant and chilly to his daughter.
In stark contrast to her time with the Kiandri, Chelle's time with her mother revolves around action. Physical fitness, sharp wits, muscle memory - these are the things that Lessa would train her daughter in. Not believing in falling back solely on magical ability, Lessa is versed in a wide variety of weapons as well as offensive and defensive magic. Chelle's days with her mother are filled with physical challenges. Her relationship with her mother is somewhat strained. Lessa also feels some resentment towards her daughter - she got pregnant while she was very young, and the circumstance could have been pleasant if Eristu hadn't turned out to be a lousy guy. Lessa found herself struggling, and unable to do many of the things that she had always planned on. She has pretty much given up on finding any sort of lover who will stick around, and the only real thing she believes she has left is her battle prowess. So she pushes herself, and her daughter, mercilessly. She believes that if she can raise Chelle to be a strong and famous battler, then she will be able to justify the mistakes of her youth. Lessa's intensity towards combat appears to be primarily focused on defeating dragons and gaining honor that way. But some of the comments she makes regarding the "lesser" races (i.e. the Oblivionites and the Orderites) seem to indicate hidden opinions that are decidedly combative.
Chelle spends her apprentice stage trying to please whoever it is she is with at the time. She develops a love for learning, as well as skills in both archery and knifework. But living your life merely to please others proves to be just as empty as it sounds. The overwhelming stress to choose between her mother's clan and her father's clan, as well as the pressure to choose between scholarly pursuits and the path of the battler finally snaps Chelle. She realizes that her whole identity hinges on the influence of others and that is not what she wants for her life. So when it comes time for Chelle to choose her clan, she breaks from her family entirely - choosing the Aiskala clan and then running off with a Gypsy caravan to learn a different side of life.
Thoughts on the Great Engagement: Chelle's grandmother is a historian who is more interested in facts (though her "facts" are all from a Dovaa perspective) and Chelle's mother is an absolute racist. Chelle believes that the Great Engagement is the ultimate example of everything that is wrong with the world. She thinks that the individuals who engage in the war (namely the Oblivionites and the Orderites) are foolish pawns of the mighty leaders who refuse to get their own hands dirty. She doesn't have the outright hatred of them that her mother exhibits, but she does tend to view her own kind as superior. This is an outlook she will be forced to re-consider once she breaks away from her family and begins to develop her own point of view. At that stage, Chelle will begin to take people on an individual basis, trying to base her opinions on the merits and flaws of the person before her, not their race.
Thoughts on the Dragons and Drakeins: Chelle has respect and appreciation for both Dragons and Drakeins. She will fight them if they are aggressive towards her, but as a rule she prefers to live and let live. She will certainly collect all the dragon orbs and tears that she can get her hot little hands on, but she won't initiate violence to obtain them.
Reply
☆ The Gypsy Caravans ☆