Notes~ ~The world of the Shalants is named Shalan-Cie, which means "shifting key" [shalan means "shifting" and cie means "key"] ~Shalants is the real name of the true-born shapeshifter race, as it literally means "shapeshifters" ~Shalantee ["shifting tongue"] is the name of their language, and it can only be spoken by shapeshifters as one must literally shapeshift ones tongue to speak it ~Shalan is also the name of the most powerful family in all of Shalan-Cie, as they descend from the man whom created the dimension - Lord Shalan ~It's not common for Shalants to form family ties, and actually breed, as exchanging blood makes them related to eachother.
The aging of a Shalant:
~The average lifespan of a Shalant is aproximately a thousand years old - their powers start to burn them up when they reach that age The age of a Shalant is counted in cycles, and one cycle is basically the same as a year as it relates to the cycle the sun makes around Shalan-Cie. 9 is an important number to the Shalants - when they reach 9 cycles (nine years old) they are considered old enough to run around without supervision. (a 9 year old Shalant is at the same level as a 11-12 year old human, and a 14 year old Shalant is considered the same as a 16-17 year old human) When Shalants reach 18 cycles, they are considered adults and are sent off to work or to school (basic schooling is done at home up until that age), and their aging starts slowing down (an 18 year old Shalant is at the same level as a 20-21 year old human) Once a Shalant passes 18 cycles, their aging is significantly slowed, almost stopped, and they stay looking the same until they reach 90 cycles (a shalant between 18 and 90 years old is the same as a human in their early twenties) (a Shalant between 90 and 270 years old is the same as a human in their early thirties) (between 270 and 810 years old, they are considered the same as a human in their late forties to early fifties) Once a Shalant passes 810 cycles, their life force starts to be drained by their powers, and their aging starts to go faster.
Although one year in Shalan-Cie is longer than a normal year on earth, Shalants have a different relationship to time and aren't as affected by it as humans are. A decade to them is nothing, really, and it's almost like a couple of years to their senses.
~All the cities/towns/villages in Shalan-Cie are considered nations of their own, and has a city leader - titled High Lord - that is almost considered a king ~The High Ruler rules over Shalan-Cie as a whole, with the High Lords as his/her councils ~Spira is the name of the capial city in Shalan-Cie, and is where the High Ruler and the entrance to the Palace of Souls can be found
~the race known as Magi is a race that was born from magic itself, and their origin is in the 1st world.
Characters~
Cyraina's Mother
(just remember to add the pregnant belly, haha)
Cyraina, 9 cycles of age ~ & ~ Yuleina, 10 cycles of age
(Cyraina's hair is of a much, much lighter blue colour - like ice! And so are her eyes~)
Cyraina, 14 cycles of age ~ & ~ Yuleina, 15 cycles of age
(Again, Cyraina's hair and eyes are of a much lighter blue colour. Also, her dress is also of a much lighter blue colour.)
Cyraina, 18 cycles of age [coming soon...]
Cyraina, 72 cycles of age [coming soon...]
Cyraina, 72 cycles of age - wedding dress [coming soon...]
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 5:34 am
Daughter of Snow~
From the very beginning, Cyraina was different. Very different.
The Shalants didn't "breed". It was very much above them in every way. When they wanted children, they'd mix their essences together and create a new life from it. So when Cyraina's mother appeared out of nowhere, walking into the town of Irashan straight out of a blizzard, and quite obviously pregnant, she caused quite the commotion. A pregnant woman? A pregnant Shalant? And, by the looks of it, long overdue. Of course, they welcomed her with open arms, despite the confusion, and insisted that she'd stay at the nearby inn where they'd help her deliver the child.
However, they never made it that far before the woman collapsed, uncapable of walking any longer, and the birth began. It was a chaos unlike anyone of the inhabitants of Isharan had witnessed before - women running back and forth to get the help needed - and people gathering around the woman and the ones helping with the birth, in hopes of sheltering her from the cold, harsh winds that howled around them. Hours passed, filled with anxious chatter and shuffling footsteps as people were running through the snow, doing their best to help, and every now and then the pained cry of the woman pierced the howling winds. Then, finally, the sound of a whailing child could be heard instead, and the chatter turned into soft murmur as everyone moved in closer to see.
"I am a Shalant, but most importantly; a Magi of the 3rd World. My time in this world is over, so I give to you the most precious thing I have; my daughter. I name her 'daughter of the snow' - Cyraina. Please watch over her." The woman held out the newborn child to the people around her, and as the shaking hands of the midwife reached out to take her, the woman drew her last breath and fell to the ground.
~
Cyraina was different. She had been born, which in itself was highly unusual among the Shalants. But what was even more unusual was that she had been born a girl. When Shalants were created, and even if they were born, they had no gender. For the first years of their lives, they did not even have a concept of gender, as they were just children. Around the age of four or five, most of them started to find their gender identity, and their bodies changed to adapt to that identity. Some were early, finding their gender as soon as at the age of three, while some could become as old as six or seven before they knew. And then there were those who went their entire lives without finding their true gender identity. That was the nature of the Shalants. In all of history, no one could ever remember a Shalant being born with a gender.
Cyraina was different. She had been born a girl, and an Icebound. All Shalants came into life, blessed by an element, but very few came into life bound to one. Threw hard training and devotion, one could learn how to bind oneself to ones element, and gain powers you normally wouldn't gain, but to have been bound from birth. That was indeed different.
KeyJester Captain
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KeyJester Captain
Shapeshifter
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 6:56 am
Cyraina~
Small, bare feet ran lightly through the snow-covered field, and the sound of giggling filled the air.
Cyraina had just passed her ninth cycle, and was considered old enough to run around without supervision, and she was loving it. Her skirts gathered in her hands, and her icy-blue braids flying behind her, she ran around in circles and enjoyed the feeling of the cold wind on her face, giggling loudly with joy. She stopped for a moment, just letting her bare feet sink down into the snow, and let out a sqeal as she felt the cold tickle her, before she gathered her skirts again and started running towards the lake. The cold had never bothered her - she was icebound, after all. To her, the cold and the snow was her home, and her family.
She didn't really have a proper grasp on what family truly was, as families were rare in Shalan-Cie. Bonds were formed through the trading of blood, and some people chose to bind their souls through marriage, but forming large families were considered unusual, and almost frowned upon. But, oh, she had this feeling inside her. This feeling that a family was something important - and something she wanted. Sure, the people that had raised her - a strict, but kind midwife, a slightly absent-minded innkeeper, and a oddly round, but cheerful, woman who ran her own resturant - were nice people that she looked up to, and she loved them dearly, but they weren't family. They were just sort of... Placeholders.
She had a longing in her.
-
The sound of commotion reached her ears just as she had made it quite a way out on the lake, the water freezing beneath her feet as she walked, and she stopped as the noises tickled her curiosity. Blowing a strand of hair out of her vision, she narrowed her eyes as she looked over in the direction of the town, her mouth slowly forming a tiny o, then gasped. Visitors! Gathering her skirts again, she quickly ran back, her small feet drumming against the icy surfaced - a sound that quickly changed to shuffling as she got back on land - and dove between a couple of houses standing on the outskirts of the town. She slalomed between a couple of more houses, darted through a garden, leaving a nice trail of footprints through a snow-covered flowerbed, and came to a hault next to a large tree as she heard someone call out for her.
"Cyraina! Up here!" She looked up and saw the hand of another little girl - almost the same age as herself - perched on the roof right next to the tree, and she grinned widely as she quickly jumped up to grab the lowest branch of the tree and climbed her way up. Jumping over to the room, she took the hand of the other girl, and they quickly ran to the other side of the roof and plopped down on their stomachs to peer over the edge.
"What's going on, Yuleina?" Cyraina whispered to the other girl - a blonde-haired girl with brilliant light purple eyes - and Yuleina looked at her with wide eyes. "You didn't know? The High Lord of Stoshan is visiting today!" Cyraina blinked and returned her gaze to the commotion down below - a large crowd of people gathered in the main square. Stoshan? The large city far to the south-east in Shalan-Cie? She didn't know much about it, other than that it was where the main army of the Shalants were stationed, and that the family that descended from Lord Shalan himself lived there. She rested her chin on her crossed arms in front of her and made a puffed face. "Is that such a big deal?" She blew another strand of hair from her face as Yuleina gave her another shocked stare. "Of course it is! Don't you know who the High Lord of Stoshan is?" Cyriana just shook her head and Yuleina let out a dramatic sigh. "You don't know anything, do you?"
The crowd gained a murmur to it as a man came walking out of a nearby building, followed by a dozen guards - and the High Ruler of Irashan - and with a gorgeous woman on his harm. Her brown hair blew lightly in the breeze, and her brilliant laughter followed the wind as it blew past her and disappeared against the blue skies. She let go of the man for a moment to arrange her hair, but got distracted by a child by her side - maybe ten or elleven cycles of age - and she crouched down beside the young boy to straighten his outfit. Cyraina looked to her side as she heard her friend let out a long sigh. "Oh, it's him. They brought him with them." Cyraina blinked confused and looked between her friend and the crowd below. "Him, who?" Again with the shocked stare. "The son of the High Lord, of course! Oh, would you look at that dreamy hair of his!" Yuleina was resting on her perched hands, a dreamy look in her eyes, and looking down at the boy that was partially hidden behind the beautiful woman. Cyraina just puffed her face again.
"What's so special about his hair?" "Oh, my gosh, Cyraina! It's brown!" "So? Lots of people have brown hair."
"Wow! Are you clueless or what?!" Yuleina sat up and looked down at her friend and let out a dramatic huff. "The brown hair you've seen isn't natural. It's shifted. No Shalant is born with brown hair. It's unusual!" She plopped down again and rested her face on her hands. "But Lord Shalan himself had brown hair, and every one of his descendants are born with it. They're the only ones in all of Shalan-Cie whom has natural brown hair!" She sighed dreamily again, and stared down at the boy, and Cyriana just rolled her eyes. "You're so weird." Yuleina stuck her tongue out in response, then pointed down towards the couple that was now heading into the main tavern - probably for a feast of some kind. "That's Lady Shalan, and her husband, the High Lord of Stoshan. Their son is heir to that title! Oh, when I grow up, I wanna marry him." She let out an excited sqee, and Cyraina rolled over on her back to stare at the sky instead. "Ew, why would you want to get married?" She held her hands out and started forming ice crystals out of the air, then dropped them on her face as Yuleina gave her a shove. "I don't want to get married! I want to get married to him! And become High Lady of Stoshan! Ah..." Cyraina just rolled her eyes as Yuleina let out yet another sigh, then got to her feet and ran over to the other side of the roof. "You're still weird!" She yelled back at her friend before jumping over to the tree and climbling down.
Leaving her friend, and the commotion behind, Cyraina ran through a couple of more gardens, intent on making it outside of the town again. The commotion hadn't been as interesting as she has thought, and now she would rather go play with her ice instead. Duking under a clothing line filled with clean sheets - now that the sun was out and the weather slightly warmer, people took their chance to dry their laundry outside - she aimed for a nearby fence with a small hole in it and smiled as she knew she was nearing the outskirts of the town. She pressed herself through the hole and ran through the back alley, then came to a full stop just as she was passing the opening to the backyard of the tavern. Her eyes widened as she met the eyes of a young boy, and for a moment the world seemed to stop.
Those eyes.
Brilliantly dark blue like sapphires, and almost hidden behind the brown hair hanging down in his face, those eyes of his chained her gaze to his, and for a long moment they just stood there and stared at eachother. Then she turned and fled, her skirts in her hands, and her heart racing like never before.
Those eyes.
They'd haunt her. She was sure of it.
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 8:43 am
Sapphires~
"Oh, come on, Cyraina!" Yuleina was dragging her friend by her hand, and Cyraina was very dramatically trying to get away. "Ugh, Yuleina, you know I don't like stuff like that."
Cyraina had passed her 14th cycle a couple of moonturns ago, and during the past couple of years she had changed from an unusally pretty child to a breathtakingly beautiful young woman. Wherever she went, heads turned - and people walked into things - and yet she seemed completely oblivious to it all. To her, appearance wasn't really all that important, at least not when it came to people. And not being one to care much for appearance, she had absolutely no fondness for jewelry.
"Stop being difficult!" Yuleina gave another pull and nearly made Cyraina trip over her own feet, and pointed towards a nearby building. "They just opened up. The owner has been studying magic outside Shalan-Cie! Rumour has it that she's the best jewelry-maker in the entire worlds! Come on, we must go see. Ple~ase!" Cyraina sighed and rolled her eyes, but let her friend drag her all the way over to the jewelry store, followed by a small group of girls - all friends of Yuleina, of course. Once inside, all the girls let out various wow's and oh's and dreamy sighs as they looked around them.
"Please, look around all you want. The owner herself is currently in the backroom, tending to another customer, but she will be out shortly." The man behind the counter smiled at the girls, earning himself a round of giggles, and they all promptly followed his advice and started browsing what the store had to offer. Yuleina was already drooling over some rings - gold, with elegant and excessive patterns, and decorated with various precious gemstones - and Cyraina just huffed. This was definitely not to her taste.
"Oh, oh, look at this one, Cyraina! Isn't it beautiful?" Yuleina sighed and pointed at a particularily heavily decorated ring, with large vines in gold twisting around it. "Wow. That's... Swirly." She didn't know what else to say, and just shook her head as she left her friend to her drooling and walked over to a different part of the ring section. She was just mindlessly browsing - she wasn't really looking at all, just pretending that she was - when something caught her eye. It was a simple silver ring - the only silver ring she'd seen so far - without any swirling patterns or over the top decorations, though it had some kind of setting as if there was supposed to be stone it. "Do you like it?" She wirled around at the sound of the woman's voice, then nodded carefully. The curtains leading into the backroom were still moving about, giving away that the woman had just come from there. "It's.. It's very pretty." The woman smiled at her and opened up the class door in front of the rings, carefully taking the ring out. "It was the first ring I ever made when I got my magic, actually. Then I realized that people here prefer gold, so I immediately went on to creating golden rings instead. Here, try it on." The woman gently took Cyraina's hand and placed the ring on her left ring finger - and the ring revealed itself to be a perfect fit. "But, there's no stone in it...?" She looked at the woman, whom smiled back at her. "Indeed there isn't. I made it so that the customer itself could decide which stone would fit best. I can show you examples. What would you like?" Cyraina looked at the ring, chewing on her lip. "Well, I like white and light blue colours, as you can see." She chuckled and gestured down herself, showing off the light blue gown she was wearing with the white details, and the woman smiled and nodded. "How about a... Aquamarine, then?" She waved her hand over the ring, and a brilliant light blue stone appeared in the setting. Cyraina couldn't help but smile as she held her hand up and admired it. It was indeed pretty. Yet, for some reason, it wasn't right. Her thoughts drifted off for a moment, then she bit her lip and looked at the woman. "How about... How about a.. Sapphire..?" The woman seemed surprised, but quickly hid it and waved her hand over the ring again, revealing a brilliant dark blue stone. "You've got great taste, my dear. Sapphires are rare in Shalan-Cie." The woman let go of Cyraina's hand, and she held it up in front of her to inspect the ring. "It's... It's beautiful." Her voice was almost just a whisper as she stared at the ring. It was such a simple ring, but the silver was pretty - prettier than the gold - and the sapphire just made it so complete. She just stood there, staring at the ring, lost in thought, when she suddenly got the odd feeling that someone was looking at her. She looked to her side, and her heart stopped for a second. He was standing in the doorway leading into the backroom, holding the curtain to the side, and looking at her with those brilliant sapphire eyes of his.
Those eyes!
She felt as if she was falling - long and deep - and she almost had to gasp for breath. She swallowed and quickly looked back at the woman, removing the ring from her finger and placing it in the woman's hand. "T-thank you, I have to go." Then she turned and fled, out of the store and around the corner, and stopped there, her back pressed against the wall, while her heart was racing as she was gasping for breath. She had recognized him in an instant - who else had that brown hair and those sapphire blue eyes. What was it about those eyes? Why did they make her feel like this? Why did they make her heart beat so fast? She held her face in her hands as she felt a strange tingling warmth spreading through it, and let out a small whimper. What was happening to her?
She had no idea how long she stood there, trying to calm herself, but as she heard the sound of a door opening and closing, she carefully moved over to the corner and peeked around it. He was standing there, giving a light wave to someone inside the store - probably the shopkeeper - and holding a small package in his hands. So he had been the customer she had been tending to in the back? Oh, had she only known! Then she would have gotten out of there before he had seen her. She chewed on her lip as she watched him - he seemed to be admiring the little package in his hand - and desperately tried to calm her heart. Then he suddenly looked up, and to his side, and she quickly jumped back and pressed herself against the wall. Had he seen her? She couldn't take that chance. Gathering her skirts, she quickly made her way down the alley, her bare feet making little to no sound in the snow, aiming to get out of the town and into the nearby woods - her favourite place to hide.
