'''Name:''' Ela Amrita Harney
'''Age:''' 20
'''Race:''' parse (wick x wick)
'''Place of Origin:''' Surwood Isle
'''Occupation:''' Merchant, Musician




!!!Backstory

Ela grew up on Surwood Isle with the tribe Tall Tree, of which her father was born. Her parents met during the annual Wick Festival on the Isle, where Ela’s father met Ela’s mother, a storyteller from the Laughing Sky tribe. It was easier for Ela’s mother to leave her tribe, knowing she would always be welcomed back without resentment, so she came to live on Surwood Isle, where they had Ela months after meeting and quickly marrying.

Despite the fact that Ela eventually found out that she was a parse, she grew into the feeling that the reality shouldn’t decide who she is. Her childhood before that evolution of thinking, however, was different. She was a fairly quiet child who grew into her voice on account of much coaxing from family and caravan members. She was afraid that something about her was “wrong,” but her grandmother assured her that she had been born this way for a reason, and not to question it. “We might not understand the reason, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

Ela latched onto this phrase and used the thinking behind it as the catalyst of her maturity through puberty. Instead of focusing on her lack of magical ability, Ela sought mentors with a keen hunger for knowledge. She would ask her father to show her how to hunt, she would ask her mother to show her how to cook, and her grandmother how to make tea. And at the annual Wick Festival, she bonded with members from Lost Moon and her mother’s tribe, Laughing Sky. One summer, when she was 15, one of the better riders from Lost Moon taught her how to ride, and let Ela help him take care of his mare, Chini. They became close enough that the man told Ela he had brought horses to sale, and that Chini’s son, only a green mount then, was up for sale. If Ela and her parents put down a base price, he would bring the horse back the next year, with almost all of his training done. Ela and her family agreed, and the next year she saw her horse, and named him Doda, for the intoxicating powder that is made from ground poppy husks.

With Ela’s skills growing, she began to focus more on the things she spent the most time enjoying: tea-making, playing music, and riding Doda. She decided to leave with a small group from Laughing Sky after the Wick Festival the year she turned 18, knowing that she could always return to Surwood Isle for the Festival to see her parents.

Currently, Ela travels with a small group of artisans from Laughing Sky, sometimes staying at ports after departure to explore the area and sell wares. She doesn’t think about becoming employed in an area and settling down because she assumes no one will want a potentially dangerous passive around the workplace, but if she was ever offered the opportunity she might consider it for a little while.




!!!Personality

Ela is a nice person. She doesn’t agree with emotional extremities. For her, there is no bad act that is greater or lesser than another: all are equal, though not all consequences are recognizable. Family and personal ethics, for sure, are Ela’s top concerns. The closest friends she has are family members, or people who feel like family (caravan or group members.) Ela usually tries to find the “middle way” in all situations, preferring not to take sides but instead bridge gaps between them. Ela best tries to find the solution to a conflict. Situations without resolution or closure are most painful to her, and she’s never lost a friend. She tends not to have to deal with conflict specifically related to her, rather, she more often than not is solving conflicts for other people.

Ela loves drinking tea, being with horses, being with family, and spending time alone. She hates being in large crowds of people, because it is a conscious effort to be more sociable and amiable, and the fact that it is a conscious effort makes her feel fake, even though her intentions are honest and kind. She’s jealous of people who aren’t appreciative of what they have, because she usually feels like she could do better in their position.

She scratches at her arm even when it doesn’t itch, usually at a lull in conversation or when she’s waiting for something to happen. When her hair is down (which she only ever does alone or around animals) she shuffles through it with her hands a lot. She sometimes traces her tattoos absentmindedly. She loves to smile, sometimes not even noticing she is. She laughs at almost anything, she has a broad sense of humor. She rarely tells jokes, and hides her wit. When she decides to talk in order to say something humorous, she usually elicits plenty of laughter, although sometimes her jokes fall flat because she isn’t always good at gauging social interactions.

Since Ela is a parse she has a strange, what some would call non-existent, relationship with the mona. This is the most painful part of herself for Ela, because she very much believes in Vitanism, and wants to believe there is mona around her, even though everything about the popular belief tells her she has no field. To her, as dangerous as her diablerie is, it’s almost like a small bit of hope deep inside; she just can’t consciously dig it out and utilize it. Sometimes she feels like magic is best that way; it chooses to manifest itself when its needed most, and she trusts that Vita keeps the balance in things.





!!!Physical Description

Ela tries not to stand out in a crowd. She wears occasionally colorful, but very simplistic clothing, choosing functionality over appearance. Despite this fact, she has developed a wardrobe that, due to her choices in quirky utility things, somewhat functions as stylish. She wears jewelry, but has only her ears pierced once. She tends not to wear showy earrings much, rather preferring to put in simple studs so that they don’t get in the way of everyday business.

Her clothing is homemade for the most part, although she sometimes splurges on clothes for herself in order to look less noticeable and more native wherever she is travelling. For this reason she owns fancy hair fixtures and some nicely constructed dresses. Her typical day-wear is a circle scarf which she usually uses to cover up her thick, curly hair, a long-sleeved simple one-color dress, thick leggings of a different color, and worn black wrap boots that function well because of their flexibility. Her boots are more frequently than not dirty from travel and working with Doda, and her clothes are often covered in horsehair. She tries to cover the smell when going into town by rubbing rose or peppermint water on her body.

Ela has what might be considered a “normal” accent, although she sometimes picks up on speech habits if she stays in a place for too long. On occasion she’ll forget she’s not at home and switch to Tek without realizing it in the middle of a conversation. She tends not to display her wide vocabulary range unless she’s in a proper setting that calls for it, instead opting for basic communication, in which she injects her tendency for original wit and humor.

Ela is of average height, and has a fit body due to the light labor she works at during travels. Her legs are muscular and incredibly strong from years of riding, and she has fairly clear skin as a result of her simple diet, which usually does not include meats. Her face is a squarish oval, with a jaw-line that tapers to a pointed chin. Her nose is small in comparison to her other features. She has thick, smooth eyebrows, wide eyes, thick dark eyelashes, and bushels of freckles that span across her cheekbones, nose, and lips. Her hair is long and thick, wavy at the top and tapering into ringlets at the ends. She is considering shaving her head. She does not wear make-up of any kind, other than lip balm.

Ela's back is covered in tattoos, mainly textual, including the names of the three tribes she finds most important to her: Tall Tree, Laughing Sky, and Lost Moon. She has “VITA” tattooed on the back of her neck in thick block letters, and her full name, “Ela Amrita Assam-Harney,” tattooed across her shoulders (pronounced “Elam-rita-sam-harney.”)




!!!Inventory

Mount:
*Horse: Stallion: Doda

Misc:
*Bamboo tea whisk
*pen and ink
*flint and tinder
*Pouch of jewelry
*Cloth drawstring tea bags
*Glass-and-metal tea canister
*Thick circle scarf
*Simple long-sleeve mid-length dresses
*Worn, black wrap boots
*Tin Cannister belt
*River rocks
*Taper candles
*Incense
*Rolling Papers
*Yarn and thread (consequentially, needles)
*Misc. Instruments
*Leather, cloth




!!!Skills
*good knowledge of plant and wildlife
*good horsemanship (good seat in riding)
*cooking delicious food
*crude tattooing
*sewing clothing
*crude shoe-making
*tea connoisseur (brewing, selecting, etc.)
*musically adept (wind, string instruments)
*literate

Merchant
*good at selecting tea
*good at bargaining
*good at making people feel comfortable
*knows how to buy directly from growers

Musician
*plays ocarina
*plays double mijwiz flute
*plays mandolin, violin




!!!Goals

*Sell tea
*Make more clothing/shoes
*Travel around (in order to learn more, in order to possibly find a home)
*Find a sturdy, light cart to fit Doda
*Possibly buy a second animal

Hi, Ela, welcome to Thorns!

The mods will review your sheet then get back to you ASAP!

In the meantime, would you mind adding an extra space between your paragraphs? It will make things easier to read and we can get back to you faster!

Sure thing, thanks for the reply (=

Thanks, luv, but between your paragraphs, not sections. So, for instance, add a space between:



and



Et cetera.

Woops sorry D': Fixing!

Hi, Ela, thanks for waiting! We have some edits for you to take care of, and we'll see about approving you for play!

1) Because of how a field develops, most people don't know if someone is a parse/passive until about age ten. If you can make edits to reflect that, we would appreciate it. As it is, it seems that she and her family knew she was a parse before that point.

2) Please remove the smilie face.

3) Please change all instances of "passive wick" to "parse." We know what a parse is, so it reads better if you simply use the proper term.

4) Only galdori passives have the passive-mark tattoos. Wicks do not mark parses in any way. If she wanted to feel closer to other passives, or something, she might have elected to get a tattoo similar to the passive mark, but she would not have one otherwise.

5) Please remove the notation on Hindi speech, as it has no bearing on the Thorniverse. The simple pronunciation guide is enough.

6) Unfortunately, Arabia does not exist in Thorns, therefore the Arabian horse is a no-no. You may describe a horse similar in appearance to an Arabian (the high tail, etc.), but it would not be called "Arabian."

Thanks so much for your patience, and thanks in advance for your edits! Post again when you've made your changes and we'll see about your approval!

Edited.

Thanks, love! Looks good! You're approved! Go have fun.