APP
Name: Vanyel Ashkevron
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Fandom They Come From: The Last Herald-Mage (a part of the Heralds of Valdemar publications); Mercedes Lackey has now allowed use of her characters - article here.
What part of the storyline are you taking your character from?: After his death, at the end of Magic’s Price.
Personality: Vanyel is upright, honourable, and a true model of a man with the Herald’s need to use his skills to help people in danger. He carries a certain level of snark, and an appreciation for the finer things in life that he can drop easily when out on the circuit or living on the road, as necessary. He is an introvert by nature, despite his outward self-assurance and strong leadership ability. When off duty, he always appears personable, his odd, young-old smile always honest. He shows tremendous restraint in the face of temptation. He works to make the lives of those he cares for happier. He is an excellent tactician, and his Gift of Empathy has made it much easier for him than for most to understand the needs of those around him. He is, to put it finely, a good man.
But that is, of course, only the beginning. Van is capable of delving to the deepest depths of despair and rising to the highest levels of personal strength imaginable - and, of course, carries within him the greatest kinds of love Valdemar knows how to name.
Much of his personality was shaped by the significant events in his life, and how he had to deal with them. When he was young, Van had no friends nor interest in finding any, and hid the result of years of emotional abuse behind metaphorical walls of ice, protecting himself from hurt - but also locking himself in. Those who would have liked to help him were pushed away out of his own fear, and Van came off as snooty, arrogant and vain to most of the people who knew him. His only ally for the first fifteen years of his life had been his older sister Lissa, and when she left their home in Forst Reach to become a soldier, his emotional walls became so thick as to suffocate him. It was only after meeting Tylendel, after his move to Haven, that he stopped having nightmares about the cold in which he had enveloped himself. He became very much the follower to ‘Lendel’s leader, content to be second-in-command and to be taken care of.
After ‘Lendel’s suicide, Van tried to kill himself as well - twice. He sunk in a depression of such power that it destroyed furniture with its force, nearly killed a man who tried to Touch Van’s mind to calm him, and had the entire Collegium campus in tears, even those who had no idea why. He was unable to function properly on the anniversary of ‘Lendel’s death for years, even decades afterwards, always entirely overcome by grief. But his years fighting for the peace and for his country have centered him, and he has matured greatly - including having lost some, if not all, of his old vanity, and he has barely any remnant of his old penchant for wearing decadent clothing left. There is still much hurt in him, but though the scars haven’t faded, he is able to make it feel as though they don’t sting nearly so much.
To this day, Vanyel has his old tendency to retreat behind personal walls; his ‘official’ Herald demeanour can appear cold and very direct with his words, especially when he’s under duress. He’s also quite reluctant to act upon his feelings, and he still tends much more towards sadness than happiness. And even now, at forty years old, he carries his eternal self-doubt, this sense that the good things in life can’t possibly be coming to him, and that everything he has that’s of any emotional value would all too easily either fade or shatter right before his eyes.
Van is (and always has been) a veritable fount of emotion, an honest man of thought and feeling behind a generally calm exterior. Oh, man, can this boy angst. He is wonderful at it.
And last, but certainly not least, he is capable of a love the likes of which is rarely ever seen in Valdemar. He possesses a Lifebond, a love that forms a tangible mental connection between the two people involved - and as such, of course, can be a great weakness as well as a strength. (People can love just as powerfully without a Lifebond, but once the connection is made between the few who have it, it is nigh impossible to resist. It is simply a different, and rare, breed.) That Van forms a Lifebond twice in his life is not only a statistical marvel, it is a testament to his ability to feel, as well. That on top of that he is able to share a bond with his Companion Yfandes (think of a magical white horse with the communication skills of a human - though she can only speak mind-to-mind) is absolutely staggering.
Link To Background: There is a Wikipedia entry on Vanyel here, though it’s not particularly in depth, so the synopses for the three novels are here: Magic’s Pawn, Magic’s Promise, Magic’s Price.
(Also, as a note, simply because it's not written anywhere else in this app: Tylendel was Van's first Lifebonded, Stefen his second. His bonding to Stef did not occur until twenty-four years after 'Lendel's death.)
How did your character die?: Using his Final Strike against the mage Leareth, defeating him and defending Valdemar.
What non-magical items did your character have with them before dying?: He’d have the amber focus-stone - a necklace bearing a pendant that would normally focus his magic - with him, but it broke with the force of his suicidal attack; the pendant (should he be allowed to have it) would be cracked, burned, and quite useless.