So... just who is Tanager Skydancing?
You see a petite dark elf who stands five feet plus a couple inches tall and weighs less than a hundred and forty pounds. She looks as ageless as any of the elvenkind, though a shrewd eye might judge her to be in her mid-thirties. Dark bangs curl over her forehead and brush against the rim of the black-tinted spectacles concealing her eyes. Her face is oval; her nose is small; her skin is dark and smooth. Her features are no less refined and graceful than those that the most pureblooded Faendryl may claim. The rest of her long ebony hair has been gathered into the slender braids cascading across her shoulders and down her back, although a few straying tendrils have slipped free to trail along her neck. A shimmering crimson flamerose has been secured among the braids and rests behind her right ear. A fluted golden-scaled lizard sleeps on her right shoulder.
She dresses demurely but expensively. The raven black lysard case slung over her back attracts the eye, but the rest of her garb is primarily red and gold in tone, with a few touches of silver. Her cloak is of particular note; it flows from her shoulders in a cascade of flame-hued watered silk that alternately clings to her form and sways away in a dance as graceful as a leaping flame. A silver clasp etched with a singing bird silhouetted upon the symbol of Jastev clasps it at the throat, while a strip of silver brocade woven in a twining rose-leaf pattern protects the silk of the hem from wear and tear. An exquisite silver and opal signet ring glitters among the fingers of her right hand; her other hand is bare of such adornment.
She is briefly surprised at a visitor, but she greets you calmly and graciously. She offers you a drink, guides you to an inn and an empty table, and sits down across from you. If she had not cast Presence no less than four times in the course of five minutes, you might never have seen the shadows of fear flickering across her face-- if the matter would be mentioned, she smiles and brushes it aside, but something is clearly, desperately wrong.
She removes her spectacles at the table, blinks briefly and winces against the dim light, and turns toward you as her vision adjusts: thus revealed, her eyes are a disturbingly bright shade of emerald green that seems quite misplaced against her dusky skin. She speaks....
For a long time, I sought to rewrite these notes into something I could point to and say, "This is who I am; this is where I came from; this is who my companions are; this is who my family is." I cannot. There is too much to say, and, every time I seek to weave the words together, they fragment again. I change with the wind, with the course of passing days, and my words require reweaving again, and again, and again... a constantly fraying tapestry. I will merely state a few facts here, which will serve to sum what my spun words would detail.
I am known to the cities of Wehnimer's Landing, Icemule, Solhaven, River's Rest, Zul Logoth, Ta'Illistim, and Ta'Vaalor as Tanager Skydancing, and known sometimes as well as the Firebird. I claim these names as my own and as part of me.
By adoption, I am the daughter of Orinkar CorFine and Dawners deWilder.
All those that they claim as family, I claim as well.
By blood, I am the daughter of Bevan Ravenswing.
By blood, I am descended half from the blood of House Faendryl and half from the blood of House Ashrim.
I do not speak Elven, and my Faendryl is extremely poor, for I was not raised in the culture of nearby lands.
Jacinto Quetzal is my First Guard, my dearest-held friend, and the sworn protector of my body and my soul.
I have been wedded once, but I stand alone now, outcast by the Lady Rose.
I am a Dragonsib of House Aspis.
I am the founder of the Elanthian Rose Workshop.
I am a Mentor in good standing among the Order of Lorekeepers.
I am among the proud performers of Lord Dagor's Travelling Minstrels.
I am a member of the Liberator's Order, and I battle against the Serpent in those tasks and any others that I may.
I strive against the Jackal in equal measure with the Serpent, for crimes committed and for vendetta sworn.
The Bardic Lord and the Somber Lord have blessed me with Their gifts, and I seek to walk in the path of Tilamaire, the Lithe.
I bear the lysard of Celiwyn, the lute of Terrwyn, and the blade named Honor until such time as a more fitting possessor is revealed to me.
A selyan spirit travels with me and companions me as well-- many are the wonders of the Rift, and dangerous are their secrets.
Beneath two vows, I strive to seek completion: to speak truth alone, and to harm no adventurer.
By these things you will know me, and, by these things, I know my existence.
By my hand, heart, and soul,
Tanager Skydancing CorFine
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