Dorchadas/BrokenDream
Contents
Appearance
Broken Dream is an extremely attractive man. He has finely sculpted, delicate features (though without the predatory grace of the Fair Folk). His hair is a dark jungle green and falls down to nearly his waist, and his skin is much paler than the average Haltan's--a light brown instead of the deep bark-brown of most of the inhabitants. His eyes are a chaotic swirl, the irises composed of every color of the rainbow. The other sign of his heritage is his ears, which are obviously pointed (though, again, not to the same degree that the Fair Folk's are). He has a criss-crossed scar on his neck. Dream wears black hunting leathers most of the time, even though he rarely does any of his own hunting.
((note: the inspiration for Broken Dream's physical appearance is Uriel from Angel Sanctuary)): http://assiah2.free.fr/noir/uriel.jpg
Statistics
Broken Dream's Character sheet
History
"Why won't the other children play with me, Mommy?"
Emerald Morning sighed as she looked at her son. He was already growing to resemble his father. Not in specifics--the Fair One's hair and eyes had been the color of water--but every time she looked at him, she knew. Everyone else in the village did as well.
"Dream," she said softly. "You know why. "You-"
"I'm different," Broken Dream said bitterly. "You always say that! Different different different! I don't want to be different!"
Emerald Morning looked at her son, who had clenched his fists and was staring at her with his odd, multicolored eyes. "Sometimes-"
"No!" Dream shouted. "I'll show them I'm just like they are! They'll see!" Before she could stop him, he ran out the door of their small hut. She made no move to go after him. He would be back--he always came back. He didn't understand just how different he really was.
Broken Dream is the son of a Fair Folk Noble, a heritage which has colored every aspect of his life. His mother, Emerald Morning, was the shaman/thaumaturge for the village of Eight Stones, in the Republic of Halta. The village was small by Haltan standards--only a few hundred people--but it was located only a week's travel from Chanta, so there were quite a few visitors who passed through. One of those was Foam, who spent the night with Emerald Morning. Nine months later (and long after Foam had travelled on), a boy was born to her. She was skilled enough to know what the boy was, and so she named him Broken Dream.
As he grew, it became obvious that he was, indeed, different. If his eyes and ears hadn't given him away, the terrible nightmares he experienced every night would have--nightmares where he saw the depths of the Wyld and the Fair Folk, calling to him to join them. As he grew older, he became more and more isolated from everyone but his mother, and his mother also became isolated from the village. She was the most powerful thaumaturge within easy travel's distance, so they could not abandon her, but they did put her at a distance. It obviously affected her, though to what degree Broken Dream would not discover until much later.
After his manhood ritual, his mother took him in as an apprentice. He had not studied for very long, learning only how to call animals and some rudimentary knowledge of warding (and a ritual to prevent fertility which Emerald Morning insisted he learn) before she disappeared. He went to sleep one morning, and when he awoke, she was gone. All his attempts to discover where she went have so far come to nothing, and he has mostly given up hope.
Emerald Morning had told him what he was, and by this point Broken Dream knew just what being different really meant. He had some Glamour that he had mastered by dint of secret practice, but his mother's disappearance made him turn to the study of thaumaturgy with renewed vigor. It was then that he met Whisper, an ata-treepard who woke up Dream from a sound sleep one night by licking his face. A possibly fatal misunderstanding was averted when Whisper spoke to him understandably, and they have been companions ever since. Broken Dream isn't sure quite why the treepard would pick a distrusted Fae-blood as a bonded partner, but every attempt he has made to learn the information has failed. It is one of the few subjects that Whisper simply will not talk about.
Broken Dream isn't well liked by many of the villagers because of his blood, though some of them are friendly towards him. A disproportionate number of the village's young women will go out of their way to talk to him, which doesn't increase his reputation among the rest of the village. He remains in his mother's hut, in his mother's position, because he knows of no other life, and because he is desperate to win acceptance on his own terms. This is the reason he took up woodcarving as well as thaumaturgy. Whether he will ever find it, caught between his mother's legacy and his inhuman father's power, remains to be seen.
Whisper
Whisper is a treepard, one of the green, spotted leopards native to the Haltan treetops. Long ago, the Solar Exalted used their magic to enhance certain animals, making them as intelligent as humans. The descendents of those animals still live in Halta, where they have the rights of citizens. Since only the ata-baboons have opposable thumbs, however, most ata-beasts have to choose a human to aid them in daily life. Whisper chose Broken Dream, and the two of them have been together ever since then.
Whisper is normally quite talkative, though he's not a big fan of drama. As such, he is content to bask in what little sunlight comes down through the trees, speak to Broken Dream when he isn't suffering from too much angst, and convince him to summon animals so he doesn't have to hunt. He puts up with Dream's occasional rants and fits of silence as only a cat can, interjecting the occasional observation that life cannot possibly be as bad as Dream says it is. He knows that at least some of Dream's problems are of his own creation, but is too smart to mention it to him.
For his own employment, Whisper is one of the village's scouts. He doesn't like hunting because he's off in the trees all the time anyway. He spends a lot of time out with his scouting buddies as well. Though he obviously cannot participate in their dice games or drinking sessions, he'll attend just for time to hang out with people who don't spend 90% of their waking time brooding.
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