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| Ariel Oceantear | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 2 2008, 09:42 AM (119 Views) | |
| Ariel Oceantear | Sep 2 2008, 09:42 AM Post #1 |
Shipwright
  ![]](http://209.85.117.197/static/1/pip_r.png)
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Name: Ariel Oceantear Age: Late twenties Gender: Female Species: Sea Otter Appearance: Ariel is a light tan colored sea otter with brown eyes and a medium build. Generally uncomfortable unless she is at sea, Ariel is normally found wearing black leather seaboots and (unless the occasion demands otherwise) a cream colored tunic and dark blue cloak. Regardless of where her recent wanderings have landed her, she continues to adhere to the standard Fleet dress of Fort Ruddler, her longtime home. There are few things remarkable about her appearance, which is very typical for a southern sea otter. Slightly thicker fur and a sleeker build are the main points that differentiate them from native river otters. She has dark brown eyes, several scars (barely noticeable), and a tattoo of the oceantide and moon blazed across her left shoulder (rarely visible). While skilled and very adept with a harpoon, her weapon of choice, she is not particularly graceful unless she is on a ship, near a ship, or in the water. Personality: Ariel is thoroughly a sea-loving soul, true to her species. She has an obsessive, nearly perverse love for sailing and everything related to oceanic wandering. Having spent most of her young adult and adult life in positions of authority, Ariel's temperment is outwardly more reserved than most otters, though never shy to give orders. She is generally level-headed, but her temper (while rarely seen) can turn dangerous. She is very capable of assuming a leadership role in nearly any situation and has years of experience behind her. After seeing Fort Ruddler through raids, war, espionage invasion, and long ranging missions, there are few things that she hasn't seen both as a commander and as an individual. A deeply ingrained sense of responsibility has landed her in many positions of authority throughout her life. Despite this, she is happiest on the open ocean, captaining a ship in the company of close friends as she wanders into the horizon. She has a bit of a flair for storytelling, and on the rare occasion she has time to enjoy a mug of cider in the company of friends, the otter's boisterous seafaring temperment does shine through. History: Ariel was born into a civilian sea otter holt in the Southern Seas. Her parents, a Lord and Lady within the social ranking, oversaw trading ships and merchant commerce on the open waterways. They led a profitable, well structured life and were busily grooming their daughter for her position within the family structure: managing a portion of the family's fleet. From an age near infancy, everything familiar to ships, navigation, and the open ocean was at her doorstep. The holt was very structured, and while she enjoyed the freedom of playing with her many cousins in the surf, her future profession loomed large in her day to day life. There are few (if any) who can rival sea otters when it comes to the open water, and her family had indeed mastered the craft. In addition to a thorough grounding of everything pertaining to the ocean, she was schooled in principles of leadership and trade economics. Mapmaking and cartography were also staples in her education. The Southern Seas were a warm, comfortable place to live with miles and miles of open, sand-swept beaches and very few military conflicts. The only aggravation was the constant nuisance of piracy, but a coast guard kept the threat at bay. Ariel was irrationally curious about the pirates, and while she had witnessed many scuffles and trials resulting from their interference, she never developed the same disdainful attitude toward corsairs as the rest of the otter holt. As she grew into adolescence, Ariel had perfected the arts of watercraft care and seafaring. Her parents were thrilled, and she seemed ready to fill the position she had been bred for. However, as the skills needed for daily life became less and less challenging for her, her mind wandered more and more. She became prone to spending days at sea, either alone or in the company of her cousin and close friend Merklen. The day trips turned into half-weeks, and the tolerant elders began to suggest, quite firmly, that she settle down, find a suitable mate, and take her place in the holt's hierarchy. The thought of living as her parents did, secure and happy, was unappealing. Though she dearly loved the sea, there was something about the horizon that never stopped calling her name. Two seasons before she would have been considered a full adult member of the holt, Ariel packed a few things into a canvas pack and took off into the surf in a small, narrow craft built for one. Since she had seen many sunsets over many different lands, she decided to head in the one direction she knew nothing of: North. Despite her abrupt departure, she remains on good terms with her family and occasionally visits them. Living life on a day-to-day basis was both exciting and very challenging. As soon as she entered the southernmost tips of Mossflower country, she struggled with a growing sense of discomfort. The dunes and brushlands turned to dense forest and thick brush. Ariel paddled upriver, sticking to the waterways and never venturing far into the underbrush. Several run-ins with marauding foxes and miscellaneous vermin forced her to adapt rather quickly. Her seafaring and academic talents were quite useless, and she broadened her horizons out of necessity. Her holt had little use for weaponry, but harpoons were used on a daily basis by those who ran the docks, fished, and snagged lines, ties, and the occasional loose sail. What had previously been a benign tool for her turned into her weapon of choice, which remains so to this day. While fully capable of finding her way around a fight, she takes no pleasure in death. With this principle in mind, Ariel has always tried to instill a sense of morality into everyone she has ever instructed. While she travelled, she spent every free moment obsessing over a design for her dream ship. She poured every bit of knowledge accumulated over her lifetime around the water into its layout, since it had always been her heart's desire to captain her own ship. Arriving in central Mossflower Country, Ariel stumbled across Camp Willow. She was welcomed and accepted in like family, and the wild diversity of creatures, personalities, and talents fascinated her and she decided to stay almost immediately. The whirlwind of activity, training, and fun pastimes enjoyed by the inhabitants of Camp Willow appealed to her immensely and she dove headlong into a mad attempt to see everything, learn everything, and meet everyone. Her exuberance and apparent zest for everything landed her a plethora of friendships, many of them life-long. She worked upward through the rankings and was extremely proud of earning her own way. Although she always felt a certain level of homesickness for the open ocean, she grew to respect and enjoy the woodland Mossflower lifestyle. She met her dearest friend, Sunswirl, who was her perfect compliment and excelled in every way that Ariel struggled. Sunswirl was a healer, something Ariel never had the patience for, and she was more sympathetic and fun-loving. Sunswirl appreciated all of the simple things in life, while Ariel's mind was often wandering and she mistook the forest for the trees. After several years, two creatures she had become quite close to (Thrugg, an otter and Guimuss, a neutral minded fox) started to share their wanderlust dreams with her. They were developing plans to head north and found a fort on the outskirts of the wild northland tundra, an edgy place where there were few strongholds against the vermin hordes and outposts. The idea appealed to her, and the three of them debated and discussed their way to a rough plan of sorts. By this point in time, the itch to move on had consumed Ariel's thoughts and the simpler, happy life of Mossflower had lost its initial appeal. She has ready to head north, and in the company of many friends, ventured out to found Fort Ruddler. Along the way north, she was finally able to turn her dream into reality: she commissioned the construction of her ship, her dream vessel, and her pride and joy: the Wildshadow. Truly a beautiful craft, designed by sea otter paws, few have seen its equal. She was, indeed, worthy of her role as flagship of the fleet. Few details about the ship are known to anyone other than Ariel, as she was crafted by a rather controversial individual. Fort Ruddler became the most crucial factor that shaped Ariel's life. From the ground up, she planned, built, and shaped the Fort with the help of Thrugg, Guimuss, Sunswirl, Windstar Bluescross, Nightcry, Orinara Slingblade, Rook Scarbin, and several other key individuals. She threw herself wholeheartedly into its development, and in turn discovered that she did, indeed, have the nature of a leader inside herself. Thrugg and Guimuss wandered away to other pursuits, but for the first time, Ariel stayed behind and took on the full role of commander. From its rough and ragged beginnings to its intimidating final towers, she knew every detail, inside and out. As the size of Fort Ruddler grew beyond her reach, she was joined by Sandfur Dunerunner (formerly of Camp Willow). His arrival allowed her to relinquish control of the Infantry Division, and focus all of her energy on being Fleet Commander. And Fleet Commander she was.... Captain of her beloved Wildshadow. Through many seasons, both good and bad, she governed Fort Ruddler and developed a nearly insane level of devotion to the fort itself and those who lived within it. Despite all of her best intentions, as the years passed, she found herself spending more and more time down by the docks. A young lifetime of losing friends, co-commanders, soldiers and crewbeasts weighed on her mind constantly. The loss of one of her fleet's ships, the Whirlwind, nearly drove her over the edge. At that point, she started to feel the familiar irritability with land and those who dwelt there. Ariel desperately tried to stomp out these emotions, still convinced that her loyalty was to Fort Ruddler and there she would live and die. Once again, that wasn't in the cards. After spending years fighting back the encroaching mercenaries, hordes, armies, and roving vermin from the northern shores, the use and purpose of the Fort slowly began to dwindle. The attacks were fewer and farther between, as for some unknown reason, the enemies began to shift elsewhere. When thoughts and worries about Fort Ruddler ceased to consume her every waking thought, her mind wandered. Years after its founding, Ariel left the fort in the hands of gatekeeper Teltoli Riverbuck, and departed her memory-laden home on board the Wildshadow. Skills and weaponry: Ariel carries a simple dirk with her on a daily basis, as well as her primary weapon, a harpoon, which she typically wears strapped across her back for traveling purposes. She is very experienced and can find her way around nearly any fight, although her true interests lie outside the battlefield. Current Story: After Fort Ruddler, Ariel wandered the coastline for several years, in the company of Sunswirl, Nightcry and miscellaneous others along the way. A large burden of guilt rests on her shoulders, that perhaps she never should have abandoned Fort Ruddler. She spent a considerable amount of time visiting her southern homeland, but the discovery that all of her cousins had since settled down and had dibbuns of their own made her feel awkward and quite uncomfortable. Her stories of the violent northlands, battles and lost friends seemed foreign and inappropriate in the sunny, brightly lit corridors of the Holt. As her friends and crew grew homesick, they all left the Wildshadow's seemingly endless wandering one by one. Ariel was joined (briefly) by an ex-corsair Captain, Cahlistair, but their morals were constantly at odds, and this too fell apart. Sunswirl in turn departed for her own reasons, and Ariel was left alone. Without her best friend and crew, the joy of the voyage was lost on Ariel. She left her ship in the care of Rysma, its maker, and turned her wanderings inland. Searching for the companionship, friends, and closeness that she misses, she has no true destination in mind. Ariel has very little interest in pursuing a regimented military career; she lived that life once, and her recent losses are still painful. At present, she is offering her services as a watercraft designer and shipbuilder, in exchange for a place to stay for a while. |
 Any ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. | |
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| Lady Admin | Sep 3 2008, 01:41 PM Post #2 |
Level One Writer
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Beautiful. :} We're very happy and honored to have you here, Ariel. Your character application is sound and heartily accepted. Accepted and moved to the Character Listings. Welcome to Black Arch Fort. |
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maybe it is them maybe it is me or maybe it's Maybeline | |
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5:39 PM Nov 8
