PCs:Seavien Dana

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Seavien Dana

Character Basics

Vital Statistics

Full Name: Seavien Dana (SAY-vee-ehn DAH-nah)

Affiliations and Titles:

Research Interests



Character Traits

  • Beautiful but vain
  • Dilettantish
  • Outgoing and friendly
  • Brutally honest
  • Flirtatious
  • Capricious and occasionally moody

Description

Appearance

"Seavien, you have a hair out of place." -Archibald Thel

Seavien is, by almost any measure, a stunningly beautiful specimen of his race. Tall, lithe and androgynous, he moves with a practiced grace, and can seem almost effeminate at times. He has thick shoulder-length, carefully and precisely tousled hair of a rich dark brown. His skin is fair and clean, and his eyes are a piercing azure with silvery speckles and long lashes. His lightly-muscled, slender body acts as canvas to his most striking physical aspect: intricate, winding tattoos in pearlescent white cover most of his body; a curling, shimmering arabesque of stylized arcane runes and sigils.

Seavien dresses in expensive clothes, preferring darker and unsaturated colors. He can often be seen carrying a stuffed goat he found named Percival

Personality and Beliefs

"He's a pill, but he means well." -Thienna Relimon-Hurst

Vain, flirtatious, and excitable, Seavien is an aesthete and bon vivant through and through. He lives for the pursuit of beauty and sensual pleasures, be they gourmet food, fine art, joyous music, expensive wine, or those of a more intimate nature. He loves to make people feel welcome in his presence, and relishes in helping women feel beautiful. He is most at home in a fine inn or restaraunt or an art museum, with friends. To Seavien, the world is a place of beauty, and people exist to share that beauty with each other and preserve it. And avariel are, to him, the pinnacle of all that is beautiful in a people.

Seavien's outgoing nature is apparent upon meeting him. He approaches even strangers as if they were old friends, and always seems legitimately pleased to meet new people. He is seldom shy and always speaks his mind, even (especially) when it may be to his detriment. Overall, he tries to be a decent, caring person, and expects others to do the same, but is occasionally dismissive or even malicious towards people or things he doesn't care about. He also has a temperamental, flighty side to him, as quick to anger as he is to love. Many people have come to tolerate his quirks and moods. None have come to understand them.

For all his vanity, for all his flirtatiousness, bravado, cheer and sybaritism, Seavien has never known happiness.

Deep inside, the ghosts of an unbelievably traumatic childhood haunt him constantly, and are the lens through which he unintentionally views the world. The fleeting joys and sensual pleasures he seeks are nothing but a temporary salve for those old, scabrous wounds, a way of running away from pain he's never truly confronted. He forms attachments readily, sometimes too readily, but love and friendship are, on some fundamental level, inscrutable, even frightening to him. In his mind, every person who claims to care for him has a hidden agenda, or will cease caring once they find out who he really is. Every person he invests his feelings in will eventually hurt him. Even though he desires nothing more than to love and be loved, his damaged heart can lead him to reject or sabotage relationships before someone gets truly hurt. On some level he honestly understands this about himself, as it is a pattern which has repeated throughout his life, but he does not possess the willpower or presence of mind to stave it off. He is instead woefully and fearfully resigned to the assumption that, no matter what happens, he will somehow ruin everything. Recent events in his life have torn the scabs off those old cuts. He has begun to understand the true scope of the tragedy of his family and childhood, and he has, perhaps, not been dealing with it well.

History

Heritage

"You are family. Welcome home, cousin." - Adathi, queen of the avariel

Seavien is still seeking answers to his questions about where he comes from and his place in the world, but several figures have shared with him stories of his past.

In Toostan-of-the-Clouds, the Dana family was well-known and loved. Lord Timeas Dana, Seavien's father, was a Champion of the Winged Guard and a powerful spellsword. Kind, strong, proud, and incredibly handsome, with dark hair and sky-blue eyes, he was Toostan's most eligible bachelor. All the unmarried noble daughters strove for his attention. Cousin, compatriot and friend to Lord Theo Edding, Timeas was the head of House Dana, vassal to House Edding. Together they stood guard over the King and state, and led the armies of Toostan.

One day Timeas did not return from a mission. Two weeks after he was expected back, search parties were formed, but none were successful in finding him. They assumed Lord Dana lost, perished somewhere in the wilderness. However six months later he returned to Dana Manor with a stranger on his arm, an alluring avariel sorceress and druidess, belly already swollen with child. Her name was Selooya, and nobody knew who she was or where she came from. Timeas refused to discuss it, even with his closest friends - the issue caused a falling out between him and Lord Edding. It also broke the hearts of all the young noblewomen of Toostan to see their dream husband with some nobody from outside Toostan society. Timeas and Selooya were quickly married, and soon they gave birth to Danielle Dana, a beautiful child who shared her father's dark hair and azure eyes and her mother's sorcerous gift.

Around the same time a princess named Adathi was born to the King and Queen. Danielle and Adathi were raised together and became close friends and co-conspirators. They often got into mischief together, stealing pastries from the kitchen or hiding from their caretakers, and always sharing the tales of their exploits with each other. The beautiful young Danielle was loved by all Toostan.

Her mother, however, was frequently the target of scorn and ridicule. Her presence was offending to the nobility, especially the unmarried noblewomen, as not only was she an outsider, but she also stole the hand of Timeas out from under them. Even more troubling to Toostan society were her strange ways. She studied all sorts of languages and runic magic, conducted druidic rites, and even prophesied terrible events to come. None believed her, thinking she was slightly mad, no matter how insistent she was.

After a few decades, a second child was born: a son, named Seavien on his day of birth. All Toostan celebrated the birth of Lord Dana's male heir, with banquets and a cask of wine on every street, music and aerial dances, and a stunning fireworks display. Lord Edding would later remark that it was the only time he ever saw Lord Dana cry, shedding tears of joy. Like his father and sister, Seavien had azure eyes and beautiful dark hair. Like his mother and sister, his eyes were flecked with glinting silver. But the joy of his coming was not to last. He was one of the last Avariel children born before a curse rendered the race incapable of reproducing.

And then, a few short weeks after Seavien's birth, the drangonari attacked. Like a wave, they swept through Toostan, toppling the marble and gold spires and leveling majestic mansions, slaughtering avariel like cattle, burning and destroying everything in their path. They assaulted like they knew every in and out of the city and its defenses, and were already well on their way to victory before any meaningful resistance could be mustered. The Dana Manor was one of the first to be crushed beneath a dragon mount's claws. Timeas despaired, as his wife and children were thought to be inside, but turned to his duty and stood with Lord Edding to fight at the King's side. As the drangonari forces closed on the palace, the King gave Lord Edding the order to escape with the princess. Edding obeyed, reluctantly, while Timeas stayed behind to defend, and die, with the King.

Unbeknownst to all, however, Selooya was somehow able to escape with Seavien, fleeing the city on wing. Southward she flew, as fast and as far as her wings could take her, her wracked body eventually collapsing and falling in a field on the east coast. Someone rescued them, and gave them shelter in Le'Or, where Seavien spent what would pass as his childhood.

Childhood

"You will be a vindicating angel of destruction, a glorious burning fire! The children of deceit will flee before you or be turned to ash! The choir in the walls sings it, my son, do you not hear?" - Selooya Dana

The story of Seavien's childhood is one he only shares with his closest friends.

Seavien somehow still has a few vivid memories of those first days, or perhaps dreams constructed from the terror of those days; disjointed visions which hold no narrative. Blood and fire and feathers, pillars of acrid smoke, terror and heartbreak in his mother's eyes as she held him close to her chest, gleaming marble spires crumbling, and sky, so much sky.

Selooya's mind was broken by the loss of her family, her home, and the curse placed upon the race. She began to have strange visions, conversing with people who were not there, laughing and crying through the night, tearing at her clothes in delirious ecstasies of madness. She became paranoid and agoraphobic, and never left the house nor allowed young Seavien to leave. Worst of all, she suffered the delusion that Seavien was some sort of messianic figure, who would grow to become the greatest arcanist Avlis had ever seen, reunite the Avariel race and rebuild Toostan, getting revenge on Grantir in the process. She began teaching him magya as soon as he could speak, and started him memorizing and casting cantrips at a tender age. He showed a talent for wizardry, even so young, which only lent credence to his mother's delusions. She started scribbling seemingly nonsensical runic patterns on every flat surface in the house, refining and refining them to meet some unknown standard. When she was satisfied, she transferred this final design, pin-prick by pin-prick over the next several years, onto Seavien's body, using a mysterious agony-inducing transparent ink that turned a shimmering white as it slowly seared into his flesh.

Adolescence and Young Adulthood

"Bring on the next course... and a round on me! This will be a night to remember!" - Seavien Dana

It was a miracle that some Avengers of Dru'el found him when they did. A trembling adolescent boy, malnourished, unable to walk, and bleeding from his skin. They took him to the orphanage of Dra'Nar and kept his mother away. The clergy took a liking to Seavien as he proved to be as gentle as his mother was sadistic, and soon brought about in him an understanding that the world outside was not to be reviled or feared, but that there was beauty in it. He came to know that his mother was very sick and probably not a prophet, and that he had to find his own way, and not let her exhortations influence him one way or another. As he was rehabilitated, he began to play with the other children, and quickly found that the young ones loved shows of magic. Around this time, be it from latent ability or something his mother did, he began finding himself able to occasionally cast his favorite cantrips without memorizing them. He hid this revelation from his mentors, and practiced sorcery alongside his wizardry.

Eventually he grew old enough to go out into Le'Or alone and find his own way. Living in a small apartment and doing odd jobs for merchants gave him the first taste of security and freedom he'd ever had. He quickly found ways to capitalize upon his strange and alluring appearance, leveraging it into friendships with various children of upper-crust socialites and artists around the city, where he acquired his tastes for fine elven wine and fine elven art (not to mention fine elven women). He practiced archery and swordplay with nobles' sons, learning those martial arts favored by the elves. He wrote poetry (love sonnets, mostly) and painted portraits (hurried abstract sketches of nudes), discussed philosophy and theology, and generally lost himself in the finer things available in the canopies of T'Nanshi. A war somewhere south ground to a halt, dangers to the city came and went, but Seavien like many was inured to the quickly changing world on the forest floor and beyond. Beauty and truth became his foremost pursuits.

Yet he did not find lasting joy in these things. And the one constant that always kept him enthralled, if not happy, was his burgeoning understanding of the art of mortal magic.

So, as he is wont to do, one day he decided on a whim to venture out into the world and involve himself in ongoing affairs.

First Forays into the Trust

Seavien found the world outside Le'Or to be a much more diverse and dangerous place than he'd ever imagined. He immediately got it in his mind to see everything he could see and learn everything he could learn about the broader world and magic's place within it. Touring the south, he most often found himself in Elysia, where work was easy to find, as well as M'Chek and Visimontium. He sought out mages of all stripes and learned everything he could about magic, absorbing the details of arcana with a quick and clever mind. One day he found his sorcerous ability to have become fully fledged, and on that day he converted to worship and veneration of Andrinor. He started looking into the orders of the Trust, finding where he fit in.

Flirting and gallivanting across the south, he met many famous mages and adventurers. He began to study under Vintrinia Carnen, who became his sponsor when he declared he'd chosen the Red Order. He also met a beautiful avariel sorceress by the name of Thienna Relimon, and they enrolled in the Academy of Mortal Magic together. He went out of his way to court the young woman, lavishing her with gifts and sincere flattery, sharing with her the beautiful worlds he'd so recently discovered. He was taken by her beauty, and she perhaps, was taken with his joie de vivre. Things were going swimmingly, and it seemed Seavien might find a place in this new world of magic, and perhaps, even, a lasting love. But then he made an egregious mistake.

On a whim, he hopped a boat to see the Seven Cities, and neglected to tell anyone.

Stranded

Soon after he arrived in the Seven Cities, a cutpurse made off with Seavien's small savings. He was unable to afford passage back south, and with no one to know where he'd gone, had no recourse but to try to start over in a new city.

((work in progress))

Return

When Seavien returned to the south he found that much had changed. Many of his old friends were gone. Of those that remained, most were completely different. Vintrinia had become an archmage and then left for the Ebony Order, and something had horribly burnt and scarred her beautiful form. Thienna had become a famous and respected member of the Trust, mastering fatespinning and marrying Aleksandr Hurst, a necromancer from a powerful family. Gubblebub was the new archmage, Flenken was semi-retired, the Red was full of unfamiliar faces... nothing was the same.

It took a while for Seavien to get his feet under him again. Thankfully Thienna, Kassha Fireheart and Archibald Thel took him under their wings and helped him get reacquainted with things in the south.

As he gained his bearings, Seavien began hearing stories about avariel that wanted to turn their backs on Cha'reth and move to other planes, or even who claimed that Cha'reth's undoing of Angadar's curse was a lie. Seavien had never been overly invested in the prosperity of his race (perhaps even avoiding concerning himself with it because of his mother's illness), but the ongoing events in the world somewhat galvanized his opinions, especially after hearing of the tragic massacring of over 500 avariel associated with the "Provisional Toostan Army" in Elysia. Elysia, which had seemed a home, thereafter seemed a bit unwelcoming, its alliance with Grantir and strong Angadaran presence unsettling to him given recent events.

Seavien revisited the mage orders and retook the first-year Academy classes as a refresher, and has joined as a full member of the Red. However it has been relatively informal, with little ceremony, and slow going.

Today

Seavien continues to study wizardry, and his sorcery continues to improve without him putting much effort into it. He has made new friends and seen new places, and is currently hunting an alchemist who has been making clones of him in Ferrell. He also recently had a run-in with some troll shamans and their minions... after the entire rest of the party had fallen, he managed to slay the monstrous shaman in single combat. Shortly after saving the day, Seavien received the Mark of Andrinor.

Seavien also is working with others to gather more avariel together to work for common causes.

Out of Character Information

Played by megamegamega
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