Temair
| Temair | |
|---|---|
| Temair. | |
| IC Information | |
| Full Name: | Temair |
| Gender/Sexuality: | Female/Lesbian |
| Species: | Salamander |
| Place of Origin: | Underhill, Yuriba |
| Age/Birthdate: | 88 (July 28, 1923 - March 18, 2012) |
| Zodiac Sign: | Leo |
| Height: | 5'6" |
| Hair Colour: | Blonde/white |
| Eye Colour: | Clear blue |
| Romantic Status: | ??? |
| Romantic Identification: | Polyamorous, Open, Disclosed |
| Residence: | Varies |
| Occupation: | High Priestess of Inishie |
| Preferences | |
| Likes: | Hot weather, good books, history, bonfire settings, swords, flavoured coffee, conversation with smart women, making shy girls uncomfortable, Inishie-san, others' pain, any time she can come across as imperious |
| Dislikes: | The Lady, jokes for jokes' sake, small-minded people, beachcombing, dishonest women, very young personalities, chiskii, pointless small talk, being immersed in water |
| OOC Information | |
| Source: | Original Character |
Temair is a native Yuriban Salamander who arrived from Underhill in mid-April of 2011. A former Priestess of Kaika once involved with meting out justice, she has since revealed herself publicly as a high-ranking priestess of Inishie and likely one of the masterminds behind the tremors that have wracked the island and the construct attacks that have been carried out in the north since 2011.
Temair died just before the Spring Equinox in 2012 after being brought down by an army of Yuriban citizens on the shore of the Yuriba Lake, saving the island from certain doom.
Contents |
Character
Though not especially old compared to the kitsune or even the fae, Temair carries herself with a profound, dry maturity that gives her a vaguely well-traveled air of cynicism. The salamander is no-nonsense and not prone to taking guff, and it shows. She's an extremely serious personality with a dry wit and is seldom seen smiling. At a glance she can seem distant, yet behind it all she seems to hold a perpetual restrained intensity, and it usually comes through in her tense posture and the fact that she rarely seems to blink. Temair is generally restrained and dignified outwardly but has a very low tolerance for nonsense and stupidity, and people behaving poorly are likely to draw her ire, often in the form of a distasteful stare or a cutting remark. She keeps her emotions well in check, viewing them as a sign of weakness. As a result her smiles are rare and usually laced with bitterness. In that vein Temair is incredibly cynical and views the world through the jaundiced eye of a career judge, seeing people as inherently bad and prone to foolish decisions and criminal leanings.
Perhaps as a byproduct of her rarely needing to blink, Temair tends to be a steady observer of the world. She prefers to sit back and watch much of the time rather than actually approaching people, unless of course her interest is genuinely piqued.
Temair is an avid reader and can often be found at libraries, and her own home under the hill contains an expansive collection of books, most of them historical texts on the more ancient periods in Yuriba's history. She's fascinated with the Lily Civilization from an academic standpoint and has made a study of that period in Yuriba's past. A few historical artifacts can occasionally be found in her possession. Beyond academics she places great importance on physical fitness and makes a point of working out daily. Though she is a talented duelist, she seldom fights. As a former Priestess of Kaika she's trained in the art of ritual dance but doesn't really put it to use anymore. These days she's actually quite cynical about her faith and doesn't consider herself especially close to any of the island's goddesses anymore.
Relationships
Temair doesn't cultivate close relationships readily, but she seems to have at least an understanding with her housemates, Mikazuki and Agrona. They're by far the three people she's most open with, though that's not saying much given that she tends to be extremely reserved even among friends. Of the three she seems to be the least talkative but most authoritative. Her social circle has expanded a little in her time on the island, though. She's begun to count Eimi Kozuka among her group's hangers-on and can occasionally be found in conversation with Gael. More curiously she seems to have caught the attention of the young baker Cinnamon despite their wildly divergent personalities, and she has a hard time deciding on whether she should be put off by the girl's apparent affection and trusting nature or accept her approaches without comment.
History
Early life
Temair is the only daughter of two salamander mothers. Her life circumstance is a little unusual in that she was memetically conceived during a night of drunken sex between the pair, at that point friends, neither of whom turned out to be especially prepared to raise a daughter. By the time she was actually born, the two had stressed and clashed over being mothers, and they'd grown apart so much that Temair really only saw her birth mother, Mirailne, with any sort of regularity. She went through a relatively standard upbringing but was negatively affected by the tension between her mothers, and as she grew older she started to resent it. For Mirailne's part she did the best she could, but with the other woman, Ary, continuing to meddle in their lives, both wound up stressed out. Mirailne ultimately ended in the arms of two oreads who treated her more or less as a possession, exploiting her vulnerability through mind games. The young Temair held on to her resentment of the pair and closed herself off, clashing with the pair of rock women.
She left her family home as soon as she could, apprenticing herself to a priestess of Kaika at age fourteen. By twenty, she'd begun to dance in ritual ceremonies, and by 26 she'd taken on the role of a minor judge, a role she relished in the hopes of preventing people from doing to others what the oread women did to her mom.
It didn't turn out that way, of course. Over the next fifty or so years, Temair dealt mainly with countless frivolous complaints about stolen cloaks, unreturned favours and the like. She didn't mind at first, even enjoying the task of setting errant young women straight, but over time the cases began to wear on her. She found them frivolous and discovered few women bothered to talk about abuse, or really what she saw as people's negative natures in general. Her guardedly positive attitude began to decay to an air of bitter cynicism, still capable of smiling, but usually not with much feeling. She grew to resent most of the women who would come to the flame with such trivial concerns compared to what she went through.
Her path changed completely when, at age 81, her studies led her to ancient texts on the Lily Civilization - particularly Inishie. She gradually began to piece together what she could about Inishie, finally coming to a firm belief that the inanity of Yuriban society - and the talk from above the hill of a new village full of humans who did nothing but have lewd sex - were practically an insult to her. How is it that she could have suffered so much when the rest of the world seemed to come to her with only the most banal concerns?
Vulnerable, she eventually let her own hatred get the better from her. She set aside her priestesshood, ostensibly to go into retirement. In fact she faded into a distant reach of Underhill and communed deeply with Inishie. Her bitterness quickly escalated into a slow-burning hatred and a conviction that it was time for the island to end. Most of her time was spent in isolation, learning the ways of Inishie, meticulously marking herself with elaborate scar patterns, occasionally discreetly probing others for signs they'd be interested. She found few takers beyond a few inane little cultists. At one point she had her eyes on Brysaihe but never so much as met her in the end. At another point, she had something of an apprentice - a rather fierce-minded native kitsune by the name of Ceinwin - who ultimately vanished without a trace, having cut herself off before falling too far.
That changed with Mikazuki, of course. Then Agrona came along.
The Doom Trio
- Main article: Eruption of 2012
Collecting Mikazuki and Agrona to her side, Temair began to actively move during the onset of a heretic human cult's activities in the village proper. With the Guardians distracted dealing with activities ultimately settled by Mirabelle O'Shea, the trio began gathering up black marble - and a couple of incidental sacrifices - with the intent of gathering enough negative energy to ignite Inishie-san. Their efforts were bolstered when they cornered Soled, killed her, sacrificed her heart to the volcano and sent a taunting letter to Merin.
Sometime thereafter, Temair sealed a final, spiritual compact of sorts with Inishie, donning the mantle of High Priestess.
The three struck in earnest in 2012, distributing black marble talismans to the populace to begin collecting negative energy. That led to a series of attacks by constructs of the volcano, ultimately culminating in the turning of a vulnerable Eimi to Inishie's side. The effort led to a massive eruption that could very well have annihilated Yuriba if not for Eimi returning to the side of good at the last second and reining in her spell. With Eimi and Agrona dead and Mikazuki having fled, Temair gathered the last of the black marble energy and attempted to end the island by killing breisleach, but was brought down by a force of 20 or more Yuriban residents fighting in concert. One of her swords was recovered; the other remains unaccounted for.