View Single Post
Old 12-18-2003, 12:38 AM   #4
Child of the 7th Age
Spirit of the Lonely Star
 
Child of the 7th Age's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 5,135
Child of the 7th Age is a guest of Tom Bombadil.
Sting

Name: Ráma

Age: 19

Race: Skin-changer (Mannish)

Appearance:

In outward appearance, Ráma looks much like any young woman of the Mannish tribes whose home lies in the desert east of Umbar. Few would suspect that she was actually a Skin-changer, one of a legendary race said to possess a natural gift of taking on different shapes and hues.

Ráma has warm brown eyes flecked with gold and skin that's tanned to a honey brown from long exposure to the sun. Dark brown tresses frame her delicate features, cascading down her back. An active person who can not bear to sit in one place for more than a few minutes, Ráma is small and lithe and moves with easy grace.

Ráma prefers breeches or skirts with deep slits that make it easier for her to run or sit astride a horse. Yet she also delights in brightly colored clothing and richly embroidered vests. Like many of the desert women, she wears gold and silver chains, bracelets, and necklaces that jangle as she walks.

Weapons: dagger and bow.

Personality/Strengths/Weaknesses:

Ráma is a physically attractive woman, but it is the warmth of her heart and her impetuous spirit that draws friends to her side. With her genuine concern for people and her gentle teasing ways, she is well liked by many in her clan.

Yet, beneath this pleasing exterior, she harbors real concerns. Most Skin-changers acquire the ability to take on one or more forms as soon as they reach adolescence. Although Ráma is eighteen years old, she has not yet been able to do this. She watched friend after friend go through this transformation and be welcomed into the tribe as adults. Yet she is still locked within her body, something she can not easily understand or accept.

Her mother Ayar, who is the clan's matriarch and chief, has counselled her to be patient: that it is not unheard of for a young man or woman to develop some abilities later than the others. Ráma loves her mother deeply, but feels these words provide little consolation.

Feeling inherently different from her peers, Ráma stubbornly drives herself to master tasks that are usually reserved for men or for those older than herself. With her mother's encouragement, she has become an accomplished horsewoman and a student of the bow and dagger, while also learning the skills needed to trade and negotiate with the Haradrim and act as an envoy for her people. Still, she is uneasy about her predicament and secretly wonders if someone as powerful as the wyrm leader could possibly remedy her problem.

Family and Clan:

Ráma's twin sister Narika already has the ability to take on four separate forms, including that of the eagle. Although physically identical, the girls are different in many other respects. Narika is introverted and studious, showing all the signs of developing into an expert loremaster and singer; Ráma was always accounted to be the wild one, racing through the desert on the back of her silver mare Kyeleka.

The two girls live with their mother, since their father Liki was killed several years earlier when the followers of the wyrm invaded their encampment. Although very close as children, Narika and Ráma now find their relations strained with Ráma envious of her sister's burgeoning ability to shift and control her form.

Ráma's own clan is known as the Clan of the Eagle as this is the final form that many of her kin adopt. The men and women make their livelihood by raising sheep and camels, and breeding fine horses. They trade these beasts to the Haradrim in exchange for money and needed goods.

Most members of the clan wish to be left alone in peace and to have as little to do with the outside world as possible. But increasingly, Wyrma's influence has invaded their lives and made it difficult to stay aloof.

With rumors flying rampant about a possible attack to be launched by supporters of Wyrma, the Elders are using Ráma to travel to the city of Umbar both to trade and gather information. In this work, she is under the protection of her older cousin Falasmir who has secured a position in one of the wealthiest households in Umbar. This is the situation in which we find Ráma at the beginning of the story.

*********************************************

Rama's first post appears earlier on this thread.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 4:18 PM January 11, 2004: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]
__________________
Multitasking women are never too busy to vote.
Child of the 7th Age is offline