OOC: My momma taught me to never pass up an infodump
The Witch:
Surreal is fifteen and angry.
If you own a copy of Daughter of the Blood, flip to page 65, section three, and continue until you hit page 75. That, right there, is exactly when Surreal is coming from in canon.
Surreal's mother, Titian, was kidnapped from Kaeleer and broken by her father, Kartane SaDiablo, but Titian refused to abort the baby, since she knew that doing so would mean she could never have another child. Kartane was known for forcing his conquests to abort, so Titian took off and raised Surreal alone until she was ten, supporting them both by turning to prostitution. Surreal herself is half Hayllian (Kartane) and half Dea al Mon (Titian), although her mother has never spoken of where she came from, and won't discuss why they won't go back. Kartane continued to hunt for them, but they stayed on the move and under the radar.
One day, Titain brought home a mad Black Widow, Tersa, who stayed with them for a week before vanishing. Shortly thereafter, Tersa returned with the man Surreal would come to know as Daemon Sadi in tow. Tersa informed Daemon that Surreal had the talent and the right to wear jewels, and he agreed. Titian and Surreal moved to a quiet flat in a nicer area of town with discreet tutors, paid for by Sadi, on the condition that Tersa always be allowed to stay with them whenever she turned up.
And so, raising Surreal with occasional help from Tersa and Daemon, the next two years passed. Mother and daughter were both relatively happy until Titian was brutally murdered around Surreal's twelfth birthday. Surreal came home to find her mother with her throat cut, and the walls screaming for her to run. She quickly packed-up what she could carry, grabbed her mother's knife, and ran. Titian was twenty-five.
Unable to contact Sadi or find Tersa, Surreal then took up prostitution to survive, spending her Virgin Night with a customer barely a week later. While she came close to being broken, she was stubborn and angry enough to hold on, and made it through with her power intact. Of course, being a maladjusted teenager, she set about bringing her own justice to the streets and back alleys of Terreille, killing men who wanted to use her and break her with her trusty stiletto knife. "It became commonly known that a wise man paid Surreal in advance."
It was three years before Sadi found her, and when Surreal tried to run, he picked her up and hopped the Winds, dragging her to another part of the realm and dumping her at a table where Tersa fussed.
He ignored her swearing and attempts to shock him, and instead laid out a plan - a woman with an education could spend more time sitting on a chair than on her back, and alongside subjects like literature, languages, and history, were skills more suited to the knife.
Surreal doesn't object to that at all.
She has dark skin, long black hair, delicately pointed ears and gold eyes, with a hint of green. She would be capable of passing as Hayllian, were it not for her pointed ears, easily covered up by her hair, or the hint of green in her eyes. And she hates her body. She loathes the parts of her that mark her as part Hayllian, as that reminds her of her father. Every kill she makes is one step closer to patricide, to avenge her mother.
Her Powers:
Surreal wears the Birthright Green, with all the powers incorporated therein. HOWEVER. Unlike damned near everyone else in the series, she is NOT a Queen. Or a Healer. Or a Black Widow or anything like that. While Titian was a Queen and a Black Widow, castes don't always get passed down. A few more years and she'll mature to the Grey and be a threat to be reckoned with, but she doesn't exactly have the nurturing instincts that some of the Fandom witches do.
She can speak mind-to-mind with people and intelligent animals. Calling items and vanishing them, walking through physical objects, creating illusions, fireballs and offensive magics, walking on air, shields of different sorts, etc. As Nuance put it, "There doesn't really seem to be a limit with what Jewels can do, other than limits imposed by the strength and depth of the Jewel."
Here's the thing: Surreal doesn't use her magic even a fraction of what Karla or other dark-jeweled Blood do. She doesn't rely on it, and would rather resort to physical violence. Her greatest asset is people underestimating her, and Surreal is going to exploit that for all it is worth.
She's been training with a blade since she was ten, courtesy of her mother. Titian was good with knives, and Surreal still has her mother's blade with the carved handle. Some adult - preferably female - will need to explain she can't wear it during class; which is fine, she'll just vanish it, but it's never far from Surreal.
Surreal has also just started training in poisons, despite not being a Black Widow. When Tersa is determined to teach you something, you sit down and do it and don't argue. She has a huge soft-spot for the mad witch, and will cut anyone who looks at her funny.
Unlike most witches her age, she's already been through her Virgin Night, and survived intact, so she doesn't have the powers-hangups that some of the others do. She's still twitchy during her moontime, because while she's not AS vulnerable as those who can be broken, she still can't do more than basic Craft during those three days. Of course, that's where being handy with a knife comes in.
Her Canon:
AHAHAHAHAHA. CRACK. THIS CANON IS CRACK.
Ahem. Black Jewels is a series of fantasy novels by Anne Bishop. Originally conceived as a trilogy and published in that form at least until the prequel The Invisible Ring was published in 2000. She's kinda the Anne Rice of high fantasy. Fantasy porn with unicorns and Rings and all sorts of kinky shit.
In Blood society, women rule, and men protect and serve. An individual’s standing in Blood society generally depends on three attributes: the social standing, the caste, and the Jewel strength. For the Blood, magic is measured by the jewels one wears.
There are (traditionally) 13 Jewels, with a White Jewel being the lightest and a Black Jewel being the darkest. The darker the Jewel, the stronger the magic and the deeper the reserves; a White Jewel can be compared to a cup of water, whereas a Black Jewel is a hurricane. Not only is the magic more powerful, a darker-Jeweled Blood can use their magic longer, because there is a much deeper reservoir of power. During their life, most of the Blood wear two Jewels. At sevenish, they undergo the Birthright Ceremony and get their Birthright Jewels. Later, at twenty-one(ish), they make the Offering to the Darkness, and come away (hopefully) wearing darker and more powerful Jewels.
SURREAL IS PRE-CANON FOR ALL THE WITCHLINGS AT FANDOM HIGH. It'll be another three hundred and fifty years before the events that take place in Daughter of the Blood.
The Player:
Is going to murder Nuance for convincing her to give these books another try. I'm Ahddie, I'm on CST, have an unholy addiction to Lucky Charms, Fun Dip, and margaritas (but not all at the same time) and I work multiple jobs. I bounce from computer-to-computer a LOT, and so sometimes forget to hit 'post' on a ping. If I do that, just kick me in the shins. It's not you, it's me.
Questions? Comments? Pie? NAKED?
Surreal is fifteen and angry.
If you own a copy of Daughter of the Blood, flip to page 65, section three, and continue until you hit page 75. That, right there, is exactly when Surreal is coming from in canon.
Surreal's mother, Titian, was kidnapped from Kaeleer and broken by her father, Kartane SaDiablo, but Titian refused to abort the baby, since she knew that doing so would mean she could never have another child. Kartane was known for forcing his conquests to abort, so Titian took off and raised Surreal alone until she was ten, supporting them both by turning to prostitution. Surreal herself is half Hayllian (Kartane) and half Dea al Mon (Titian), although her mother has never spoken of where she came from, and won't discuss why they won't go back. Kartane continued to hunt for them, but they stayed on the move and under the radar.
One day, Titain brought home a mad Black Widow, Tersa, who stayed with them for a week before vanishing. Shortly thereafter, Tersa returned with the man Surreal would come to know as Daemon Sadi in tow. Tersa informed Daemon that Surreal had the talent and the right to wear jewels, and he agreed. Titian and Surreal moved to a quiet flat in a nicer area of town with discreet tutors, paid for by Sadi, on the condition that Tersa always be allowed to stay with them whenever she turned up.
And so, raising Surreal with occasional help from Tersa and Daemon, the next two years passed. Mother and daughter were both relatively happy until Titian was brutally murdered around Surreal's twelfth birthday. Surreal came home to find her mother with her throat cut, and the walls screaming for her to run. She quickly packed-up what she could carry, grabbed her mother's knife, and ran. Titian was twenty-five.
Unable to contact Sadi or find Tersa, Surreal then took up prostitution to survive, spending her Virgin Night with a customer barely a week later. While she came close to being broken, she was stubborn and angry enough to hold on, and made it through with her power intact. Of course, being a maladjusted teenager, she set about bringing her own justice to the streets and back alleys of Terreille, killing men who wanted to use her and break her with her trusty stiletto knife. "It became commonly known that a wise man paid Surreal in advance."
It was three years before Sadi found her, and when Surreal tried to run, he picked her up and hopped the Winds, dragging her to another part of the realm and dumping her at a table where Tersa fussed.
He ignored her swearing and attempts to shock him, and instead laid out a plan - a woman with an education could spend more time sitting on a chair than on her back, and alongside subjects like literature, languages, and history, were skills more suited to the knife.
Surreal doesn't object to that at all.
She has dark skin, long black hair, delicately pointed ears and gold eyes, with a hint of green. She would be capable of passing as Hayllian, were it not for her pointed ears, easily covered up by her hair, or the hint of green in her eyes. And she hates her body. She loathes the parts of her that mark her as part Hayllian, as that reminds her of her father. Every kill she makes is one step closer to patricide, to avenge her mother.
Her Powers:
Surreal wears the Birthright Green, with all the powers incorporated therein. HOWEVER. Unlike damned near everyone else in the series, she is NOT a Queen. Or a Healer. Or a Black Widow or anything like that. While Titian was a Queen and a Black Widow, castes don't always get passed down. A few more years and she'll mature to the Grey and be a threat to be reckoned with, but she doesn't exactly have the nurturing instincts that some of the Fandom witches do.
She can speak mind-to-mind with people and intelligent animals. Calling items and vanishing them, walking through physical objects, creating illusions, fireballs and offensive magics, walking on air, shields of different sorts, etc. As Nuance put it, "There doesn't really seem to be a limit with what Jewels can do, other than limits imposed by the strength and depth of the Jewel."
Here's the thing: Surreal doesn't use her magic even a fraction of what Karla or other dark-jeweled Blood do. She doesn't rely on it, and would rather resort to physical violence. Her greatest asset is people underestimating her, and Surreal is going to exploit that for all it is worth.
She's been training with a blade since she was ten, courtesy of her mother. Titian was good with knives, and Surreal still has her mother's blade with the carved handle. Some adult - preferably female - will need to explain she can't wear it during class; which is fine, she'll just vanish it, but it's never far from Surreal.
Surreal has also just started training in poisons, despite not being a Black Widow. When Tersa is determined to teach you something, you sit down and do it and don't argue. She has a huge soft-spot for the mad witch, and will cut anyone who looks at her funny.
Unlike most witches her age, she's already been through her Virgin Night, and survived intact, so she doesn't have the powers-hangups that some of the others do. She's still twitchy during her moontime, because while she's not AS vulnerable as those who can be broken, she still can't do more than basic Craft during those three days. Of course, that's where being handy with a knife comes in.
Her Canon:
AHAHAHAHAHA. CRACK. THIS CANON IS CRACK.
Ahem. Black Jewels is a series of fantasy novels by Anne Bishop. Originally conceived as a trilogy and published in that form at least until the prequel The Invisible Ring was published in 2000. She's kinda the Anne Rice of high fantasy. Fantasy porn with unicorns and Rings and all sorts of kinky shit.
In Blood society, women rule, and men protect and serve. An individual’s standing in Blood society generally depends on three attributes: the social standing, the caste, and the Jewel strength. For the Blood, magic is measured by the jewels one wears.
There are (traditionally) 13 Jewels, with a White Jewel being the lightest and a Black Jewel being the darkest. The darker the Jewel, the stronger the magic and the deeper the reserves; a White Jewel can be compared to a cup of water, whereas a Black Jewel is a hurricane. Not only is the magic more powerful, a darker-Jeweled Blood can use their magic longer, because there is a much deeper reservoir of power. During their life, most of the Blood wear two Jewels. At sevenish, they undergo the Birthright Ceremony and get their Birthright Jewels. Later, at twenty-one(ish), they make the Offering to the Darkness, and come away (hopefully) wearing darker and more powerful Jewels.
SURREAL IS PRE-CANON FOR ALL THE WITCHLINGS AT FANDOM HIGH. It'll be another three hundred and fifty years before the events that take place in Daughter of the Blood.
The Player:
Is going to murder Nuance for convincing her to give these books another try. I'm Ahddie, I'm on CST, have an unholy addiction to Lucky Charms, Fun Dip, and margaritas (but not all at the same time) and I work multiple jobs. I bounce from computer-to-computer a LOT, and so sometimes forget to hit 'post' on a ping. If I do that, just kick me in the shins. It's not you, it's me.
Questions? Comments? Pie? NAKED?