Post by Emma on Nov 11, 2010 13:22:18 GMT -5
Name:
Mnemosyne (nee-moh-zah-nee) Megara Ramsey. Due to the length, she just goes by Nemo Ramsey.
Age:
131
Race:
Elven Rider
Occupation:
Junior Rider
Allegiance:
The Riders
Appearance:
Nemo is very far from most people’s concept of an elf. For one, she reaches a maximum of 4’11” standing at her tallest due to a severe lacking of food when she was young, and second, nature has not quite gifted her with womanliness. Though not an unattractive woman, she isn’t half as beautiful as most of her kind. Her body is impossibly slim and wiry with firm, small breasts, the curvature so coveted on females has been mostly killed off by her working out, and her hips are barely noticeable. As a plus, Nemo has a handsome face, fit arms and long legs. Her muscles also carry that difficult balance between muscle and agility- lean and toned.
Nemo also has tattoos, although they’re rarely visible- done in blue, they cover the left of her neck and her entire left arm and shoulder in blue Celtic-style knot-work. The tattoo hides several severe scars along those areas, and they’ve almost been rendered invisible. However, Nemo does also have uncovered scars. From the base of her neck to the small of her back, she is covered with scars of varying degrees of severity- some are white, some are pink, and some are still red and new. These scars are the result of one too many whippings by irked soldiers from Nemo’s pirate days. Nemo’s one and passionately prized weapon is her warhammer- though decent at swordsmanship, she was never particularly skilled with it, and she much prefers bashing. The hammer head is made of brightsteel coloured steel blue, and has a spike on one side. It is mounted on an ivory pole, and the jewel pommel is a steel blue star sapphire. Nemo carries this weapon in a leather strap on her back, and is almost never seen without it.
Nemo’s face is the most striking thing about her- her unusual bone structure has her referred to as exotic, even for an elf. She has very distinct, noble features with an arched brow, an oval face, a prominent nose, and full lips. From her father, her skin is very dark- chocolate brown, and her weathered face, height, and face shape makes her handsome as opposed to beautiful. While most people of her skin tone would have dark hair and dark eyes, Nemo has her mother’s colouring in this respect- her eyes are a sharp jade green and her hair is bright orange. Untied, it reaches her waist. She constantly keeps it tied up, whether in cornrows, braids, or a tight ponytail, and tucked into a rimmed black felt hat that she holds near and dear to her. Old and weathered, it is her most treasured possession.
Nemo also has no clothes whatsoever. She wears two sets of armour and nothing else. Both armour sets are both very light, being made out of thick, boiled leather. The first set she wears at night, and is entirely black- the pants are tight and form-fitting, and the shirt covers her from neck to thigh. She also has a short, thick pair of gloves to match. The second armour set is almost identical, but is much thicker and not dyed, and therefore better for daytime. This armour is harder to move in, as Nemo usually depends on staying invisible and unmoving if she happens to be in danger. The design is generally similar to the black armour aside from a few texture differences. She never shows off her body or wears jewellery. Nemo has two sets of boots- one pair is thick, for traversing in the wilderness and also for casual wear, with platforms. The other pair is black, but with four-inch heels for her constant need to appear taller.
Personality:
In Nemo’s fifty years as a Rider, she has come to light as one of the oddest hopes of Ilirea of them all, not to mention the most difficult to work with. A polar opposite from her dragon, she is infamous for her ferocity and almost constant fury, her ill temper being her most notable trait. Nemo is often possessed by the desire to thrash anyone who steps in her way, either with her fists, her hammer, or a slew of colourful language- and being raised at sea, her verbal arsenal, though crude, is quite capable of slaughtering those who stand against her. She speaks quickly, with a thick accent often peppered by insults and oaths, both of which she tosses around like candy, as well as a surprising knowledge of large words that she also uses in her constant bombardments.
Her brash attitude, stubbornness, sharp tongue and hair-trigger temper rarely give people a good first impression of Nemo. Her preference of brute force over peaceful negotiations and lazy grammar give by far the most popular misconception that she is stupid. Though Nemo does indeed have moments when her anger clouds any sort of judgement, conscience, or decency, let alone smarts, she is highly intelligent, which naturally only becomes obvious during her quieter moments, rare as they are. Her greatest strengths are her perceptiveness and intuition. Nemo also has a reputation for being a vicious killer, and though she is indeed vicious, she has a very high sense of honour and loyalty, and will never kill anyone who doesn’t have a weapon in their hands.
Naturally, that rule does not apply to beating them silly. Nemo’s social skills are limited- she spent her childhood with one crew whose hearts she had to win over with cooking, fighting prowess, and holding her draught, not charm and pretty words. She is very bossy, and rarely uses tact when talking to others, insulting and hazing them, or at the very least, being condescending. Her raw determination and spiky personality often leaves others annoyed, clueless, or mildly amused. Nemo’s socializing is best seen in action with her dialogues with Ikehr- she hates the little dragon with a passion, blaming him for her becoming a Rider and all the unwanted attention and responsibilities that came with it.
Obviously, Nemo’s position as a diplomat usually serve as making sure the debaters don’t kill each other rather than actually participating in the debate. She is unquestionably too intense for such a thing, but takes her profession very seriously, and is by no means no good at it- few things can stop a violent aggressor like her warhammer can.
However, beyond those spikes, Nemo has a worry, an insecurity. In her very early childhood she was treated like nothing, and after her entire crew’s death that she was unable to stop, that feeling of being nothing returned. Even now, as a Rider, she is their weakest, with little to no magical skills and a small dragon. Though no one knows of this but Ikehr, naturally, Nemo’s tigress personality is because she believes that she is unimportant. She shouts because she thinks no one is listening. Another deeply hidden trait is a well of compassion, and a powerful sense of right and wrong that Nemo will whip out when push comes to shove. Though loyal as a dog, if something feels wrong to her, she will refuse to do it no matter what is expected of her. She is also deeply chaste, highly protective of her virtue and willing to murder anyone who threatens it, whether they actually meant to or not. She is solidly asexual in orientation.
Nemo’s relationship with Ikehr is difficult, to put it mildly. She never wanted to be a Rider, and though she is not against developing close friendships, she is sorely against having one with him. His passive-aggressive, sarcastic nature is totally at odds with her fiery emotional rollercoaster, although his influence does go a long way to smooth over dampened relations made by this rollercoaster. Comparable to a melancholic husband and his nagging wife, it’s considered a good day if one tries to kill the other and doesn’t succeed. However, Nemo has come to respect Ikehr’s high intelligence and stealth abilities, albeit grudgingly. She dislikes dragons as a whole, as well, which is mostly due to her distrust of magic.
History:
Born as Mnemosyne Megara Ramsey, Nemo was the daughter of a woman hailing from far-off western lands and an unknown father that was physically similar to the Nomads of the Hadarac Desert, but was a full-blooded elf. She remembers nothing of either parent, as Mnemosyne was taken from her mother shortly after she learned to walk, and was given to a woman named Pele Lahela Serowë to raise and care for. Pele was an elf that resided in a port city called Stormhold. She was obsessed with books and magic, and knew little of raising a child. Despite her having the best intentions, Mnemosyne's early years were unhappy ones.
This lonely childhood continued until she was twenty, when Pele had a tragic accident while practicing her spells. The explosion levelled the house, injuring several people. Mnemosyne fled on instinct when the house began to collapse, running through the streets of Stormhold without looking back. Once she had calmed down, she found herself lost, never having been out of the immediate area around her house before. With nowhere else to go, Mnemosyne wandered the streets for nearly a year, surviving on begging and stealing. On one fine day, she managed to stumble onto Stormhold’s docks, where she attracted the eye of two pirates. Though she was filthy and emaciated, the way she carried herself as well as the ruined, though finely made clothes she wore gave her status away as the daughter of a rich man.
Mnemosyne was promptly stuffed into a potato sack and dragged onboard the ship Virtuous Harlot, where she was held for ransom. When Mnemosyne explained her story, however, and no one reported a missing girl for several days, the smugglers figured they could use her and she was given a job as a cabin ‘boy’. Her name was shortened to Nemo, due to the hardships of saying ‘Mnemosyne’.
Nemo came alive on Virtuous Harlot. The sea and its endlessness became her home, and she sprouted like a weed, even though she only served as the cook for thirty years. After several failed recipes, she managed to put a proper meal together and proved to be a decent cook. It was a refreshing change from maggoty bread for the crew, which earned her a good deal of warmth from them. However, a drawback to being raised on a smuggler vessel was that Nemo received no proper schooling. The captain, Salyn Sarethi, was the only educated person on board, and between teaching her basic swordsmanship, beating her ruthlessly when she misbehaved, and disciplining his crew, he only had time to teach her math and reading. To this day, Nemo is decent at math and has no trouble with reading, but can write very little besides her own name.
Nemo was first allowed to participate in a raid when she was forty-five. Her primary weapon was a sabre, which she was neither gifted nor terrible with, until she was sixty, when she plundered a massive warhammer and proved to be quite adept at swinging it. With the warhammer, eventually becoming Nemo’s pride and joy, she achieved delightful collateral damage, and it became her primary weapon. However, Nemo’s happy lifestyle took a severe turn when she was in her late sixties. The Riders, being rather irritated at Virtuous Harlot’s constant raids, dispatched two powerful mages to wipe them out. The mages were placed on a merchant ship used as bait for the Harlot, and the smugglers took it. They tore apart the Harlot’s hull, capturing all those who weren’t able to board the other ship in time, and murdered several pirates, including the captain. In a fit of rage, Nemo managed to kill several people. However, she suffered two broken legs, a concussion, and ended up in the water.
She clung to a piece of the hull and managed to wash up on a tiny island not far from Teirm’s coast, where she lay, hoping for rescue, for two days. She was found by soldiers instead, but was sent to a healer instead of jail. Nemo’s injuries were mended magically, at which point she made her escape. She hid out in the back country for several days, but had nothing besides the clothes on her back and her hammer, and didn’t know what had become of her crewmates. She wandered the wilderness, and after days of no water and being nearly half-blind from starvation, she collapsed somewhere in the Spine and was found by a Rider patrol, who recognized her and took her to Ilirea.
When Nemo awoke, she was told that due to being so young, she would be spared punishment. However, she would have to work for the Riders. She became a peddler and spent most of her time in the library, which eventually led to her intense hatred of books. Miserable and certain that all her crewmates were dead, Nemo was trapped for many months and resorted to alcoholism until one fateful night.
Angry and drunk, she stumbled into the Sacred Font where, just for laughs, she was let into the egg hatching chamber. Having no clue where she was, she almost tried to make off with the eggs, but was interrupted and forced by Bid’Daum to try each and every egg until she passed out. She awoke to find a small, sarcastic, and duly annoying steel blue dragon sitting on her chest, declaring that she was his new Rider. Nemo went through an entire ‘Welcome, New Rider’ celebration while hung over and disoriented, and once she was herself again, she regretted everything. She and her dragon were polar opposites, and she didn’t even want to name him. The dragon suggested ‘Ikehr’, meaning ‘visitation’, and she accepted, although she never learned why he suggested that particular name.
The next fifty years were ones of great struggles for both Nemo and Ikehr. Neither of them wanted each other, and initially, their relationship was mostly hostility, animosity, and even trying to kill each other on several occasions. But as time went on, both were forced to admit that they were bonded, and separation was highly uncomfortable, and each became greatly upset when the other was in danger. Their relationship dissolved into one-upmanship. Though they both recognized the importance of each other, that didn’t mean they had to like each other.
Naturally, Nemo and Ikehr have not gotten far in Rider hierarchy. On top of their constant bickering, Ikehr grew very slowly, and Nemo could do little more than light a candle with magic. However, as the years passed, they inevitably became closer. Ikehr picked up many traits from Nemo such as her asexuality and superiority complex, and she eventually gained traits from him or caused by him such as her ever-constant fury and surprising stealth abilities. Their complete dissimilarities have surprisingly made them known as a very powerful force.
