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Full Name: Tai'ka Ior Kyorl'solenurn [English Pronunciation: Tai'ka = Tie-ka; Ior = Eye-or]
Species: Drowussu
Gender: Female
Mana Skill: Empathy
Age: 250
Rank: Medium
Clan: Kyorl'solenurn
Occupation: Inquisitor
Faith: Fanatical
Starting City: Raveran
Weapon: Single Knife/Dagger, hidden on person; maintained but hardly used.
Armour: Spiked leather collar, spiked armbands. [More a fashion statement and used as a psychological tactic than intended as actual armour]
Equipment:
-One travel/overnight bag.
-Two bandage rolls
-One bedroll/blanket.
-One water canteen.
-Three days worth of travel rations.
-Owns a black blindfold/headband.
-Twenty-five Ada.
-A shall/hooded robe
-Leather knee-high boots
Appearance:
Physically, she is an attractive taller woman with dark blue eyes, smooth grey skin, a slim and toned body. She has a slightly larger than average chest size but that doesn't matter to her; beauty to Tai'ka encompasses all of her body, including her mind.
As for her clothes, originally she first wore the ceremonially black and white robes as most of the clan had for their sacred duty. Over time, Tai'ka has taken a literal meaning of the reputation of an Inquisitor as something to be revered and feared. Her line of clothing consists of something unique and which represents herself at the same time.
On her own choice, she wears a spiked leather collar, spiked leather bands on her upper arms, and on her wrists; there is also a arm guard on each forearm. Normally she wears a halter top which covers her skin from the neck to her midriff only, keeping her abs bare in showing her six-blue triangle tattoos. Wears half a robe-like dress from the waist down. Her hair is dyed blue with light blue highlights. There are pink tips at the ends from a bad experiment when first trying to color her hair.
She has no tattoo on her forehead, only a personal grouping of tattoos on her abs.
Ior House History:
The House name is derived from its ancient empathic roots from the Moons Age: Ior considered itself the unofficial spiritual guiding eyes of the clan with their skills and numbers whom were able to utilize empathy.
The Ior sub-house is one of the longer surviving Houses in the Kyorl'solenurn clan. At its current state, it is a small sized family line which prides itself in empaths, particularly female. Most females were born empathic, so it was rare for an Ior female not to be an empath. Males born were very rarely empaths but it has happened. Most of these males become crusader militia or templars/blades to Wardens in the clan, or the less adventurous venture out to be merchants or traders, willing to become militia should the need to perform their duty for Sharess was necessary.
The Ior line has been and is led by Judicator Andrues Ior Kyorl'solenurn, a second generation female whom is the descendant of the original Ior house members. Herself an empath, many consider her wise within the Ior family for her ability to temper the moderates with the fanatical who reside within its walls. She keeps close to her house while not in council with the other Judicators.
Why many consider her a wise leader in Ior is because of the strict breeding guidelines imposed by Andrues for many years. A major part of the code outlines that males who are officially chosen by females of the house as mates, are to be screened and thoroughly background checked before being allowed to mate. Ior males do not have as much screening in choosing their mates, as long as their choice in mating is a drowussu, then these males can mate any female they wish. But for both genders, to not adhere to this rule is tantamount to becoming an outcast in the House.
Females are expected to uphold this tradition of the screening process because providing empathic members to the clan is considered an honor in Ior, and among its members is sometimes seen as an unofficially an item of prestige. Over the generations, the prestige which grew with making empaths for their sacred duty only grew. But with the prestige in such productivity also came an internal strife not known to outside houses or the Orders.
This strife created rivalries and at one point, the numbers of the Ior House declined suddenly. There was a culling inside the House, as one family and her supporters wanted nothing more than her own empathic-rich bloodline to be the main members of the family as they only mated with males with a good background in Kyorl beliefs. This led to the House almost being destroyed because of its own selfishness from its members. It took a day to wipe out half the population, and a full generation to get its numbers to even half of what it was in its original state.
In rebuilding the House, the requirement for stricter breeding with males was incorporated so that all family wishing to have children would be considered equal and no attempt to future bloodshed would be made. While not a welcomed idea at first, the rule became mandatory and became tradition. This rule has helped to maintain a lower population and currently is a shadow of its former self with no more than twenty members populating its halls.
Age 0-8:
Tai'ka's mother was one of these non-empathic children, who grew up in a world that those who were not empathic had to work twice as hard in their own House to get the same kind of recognition as anyone with trained empathy did. She was one of the rare females in the bloodline who did not have empathy. This made it harder for Reika'serti, yet she worked hard under the conditions and became a scholar at the drowussu section of Orthobbae. However it was not easy because she knew there were others who intentionally ignored her from her family in Ior, if she happened to come home to her House after any day of teaching. Many a time there was a hubris which inwardly made Reika'serti a bit more isolated from the general populace; this however made her feel more independent. This kind of thinking would lead to trouble for her daughter in the future as Reika moved out of Ior to take up residency in Orthobbae sector. She decided that helping to teach the latest and youngest for the clan was best and to let her house all but forget about her.
Except, the leader of the house, Judicator Andrues did not forget. While Reika might have thought no one welcomed her, it was a little known fact the leader of the house had another mandate ordered among all empaths of Ior to not go out of their way to mistreat non-empaths. This rule passed by the Leader would be put to the test as Reika fell in love with a male who was not checked out by the House at all.
Since she did not feel welcomed at Ior, Reika'serti had put the rule of Ior's screening of males mating on the back-burner. She had fallen in love with this male, and mated with him. It was on a chance encounter a couple of months later when one of her teaching colleagues saw a bulge in her belly, did the news and gossip finally spread to her house about the pregnancy.
Reika'serti was recalled to a urgent meeting with the leader of Ior, upon whom had to discuss the implications of what could, would and what was suggested to happen. In short, the Judicator informed her that members of Ior wanted the woman banned, or her fetus killed for the abomination of an unchecked, unknown male mating with a member of Ior. The suggestion that Reika be killed for ultimate purity of the house was even suggested.
When all was said and done, Reika was allowed to keep her growing baby, keep her life and limited status within the house but had to take a mandatory leave of absence from teaching to take care of herself, but also to undergo counseling, as to be made aware once again of the rules of screening males in the house. Not all those times were pleasant because of the harsh bias some of the female members gave the scholar, for *lack of foresight and flagrant misuse of the rules.*
Of course they were countered by Reika for having been isolating the teacher in the first place, but there was still the underlying ignorance by most empaths in the house because Reika was not empathic herself.
About nine months came and went; Reika giving birth to a baby girl. She was fearful on the day and first weeks of having given birth. Despite being technically family, there was always the underlying fear that someone would do something murderous just to uphold the rule of the house. It was a terror filled time for Reika'serti as she took care of her new baby girl, whom she named Tai'ka.
When Tai'ka was old enough to stand on her own two feet, at about the age of 8 years old, she and her mother was involved in a internal House inquisition. The fanatical members of the House had waited long enough before acting on their own and had taken Reika and her daughter to a cleansing room to purify Reika of her sinful ways, and to convert her daughter, or killed if Tai'ka was unable to be taught anything of extreme Ior values. Reika'serti challenged the questions of those who tried to brainwash her, focused with anger to slow down their attempts in trying to cleanse her to purity. To her shock, she learned the Judicator herself ordered these members to conduct the inquisition but would not say why they were ordered to do so. Not wanting to endanger her daughter, despite her shock and fear, Reika did not resist their attempts so much anymore but kept begging that her daughter would be left out of their brainwashing.
Not separated from her mother, during the process Tai'ka was kept in the same room but with empaths keeping them seperated from her mother. Fearing for her Mother young Tai'ka began asking questions, first out of apprehension as much out of fear of what might actually be happening.
"Why are you doing this to my Mommy?!" She asked first, then again when no one answered her the first time. "Because the Goddess demands it!" Was the reply she had gotten, but something was off with the answer, to which the young daughter of Reika returned with, "No it's not. You.. You're lying.." She said, not sure why she said it, but knew her statement was true, despite feeling fear growing inside her.
There was a moment of silence, then the group of empaths who had started the cleansing ritual on Reika paused and all looked at the young girl who went pale and silent, her lip quivering in fright at possibility saying something wrong.
"How do you know it was not the Goddess, young one?"
Not sure how to respond, Tai'ka went with her gut feeling which seemed to be telling her something, yet just was not sure how to put her feelings into words. "I just.. feel like she is lying. I don't know why. I ju..just know it is not the G-Goddess who ordered my mother to go through what you are putting her through!"
"You are just a youngster, you do not know what we do." Stated another, with much less caring. "Your mother committed a sin, now she will pay." One of the empaths started to do the ritual again before being interrupted by that same youngster. "You are trying to cleanse my mother to your...to your will! T-this has nothing to do with the Goddess. We all serve the Goddess.. why do you continue to convert my mother to your ideals? Not everyone likes them.."
"Shut up little girl!~"
That frightened Tai'ka, but there was only one who was any degree of verbally hostile now toward Reika's daughter, to which Tai'ka was not understanding why but she continually felt curious, despite the intimidation, condescension and fear she was feeling. She was about to speak again when the cleanser glared at her. "It is not like the Judicator gave these orders, it was Sharess who demands your mother be cleansed of her deviant thoughts! End of story." That made Tai'ka's eyes water, saddening her further.
"No.. " stated Tai'ka, immediately making the one arguing with her even more angry. The child was sure she was on to something, not taking any interest in the others who were observing the exchange of heated words. "The Goddess does not demand she be cleansed... it.. it was the Judicator, wasn't it? She...." -Tai'ka gulped; it was a tremendous accusation, to accuse the leader of her own House in something like this, yet,.. she still thought this was the right answer. Although she was increasingly nervous as all eyes seemed to be glued to her. "W-why did the Judicator order you to do this?" She half shouted, and was half on the cry.
Reika interrupted then, having still most of her senses before any real damage could be done. "Why would the Judicator order this!? She said she would keep your fanatical kind away from me!" Testing the theory of her daughter wasn't the plan here, Reika was amped up on fear of the empaths and her own anger. It had the unexpected results of the truth actually coming out. "Why would the Judicator keep a deviant like you protected?! It was time to see it done that you were taken care of!"
"At least..” Started the young girl, through tears, “That.. that you seem to .. tell the truth,.. .. I think." Sniffling and crying, she tried to go to her mother, when she paused to the new figure inside the room.
"I believe the test is complete." The new visitor had arrived during the argument, to whom many had taken a step back and allowed entry to the incident taking place. It was the Judicator, Andrues whom looked first at a shocked Reika. "It had to be determined if your offspring had the talent Reika'serti. This cleansing attempt will halt now that she has revealed her potential."
The grownup's were making Tai'ka confused with all the arguing, and she went to a remote section to try and escape the overall negative emotions from new swearing and bickering. During the end of the day, an uneasy truce between Tai's mother and the rest of the House was reached. In this truce, Tai'ka would be sent ahead of time to Orthobbae on the conditions that her mother would be reinstated as a scholar, as long as she was allowed to help teach her own daughter there. The catch was, House values had to be at the forefront of her learning as much as any other study area.
For in her questioning of the one who would cause harm to her mother, Tai'ka revealed she had the growing sorcery of Empathy.
Age 9 – 60:
School was a new experience for her just as it would be for anyone else of her age. Upon entering she found support for her growing ability, and slightly easier time of the subjects taught for the simple fact that the atmosphere in the school was less angst-filled than it was home, at Ior.
Tai'ka got to see her mother every day in conjunction with the other teachers now that she was back as a teacher, teaching her daughter about the world they lived in, in which was bigger than the House would lead her to believe.
During break hours Tai'ka would also get to enjoy evenings with her mother, thankful that Reika'serti was still all there and not brainwashed. Of course, there were friends of Judicator Andrues who were asked to keep watch on Reika, to inform her of influencing her daughter too much while away from Ior.
So during every month for the next 20 years, Tai'ka was sent home for a day during each break per month to be with the members of Ior to check on progress at school. She also met more of the house, and sat in on House meetings, and was taught about sexuality, how it should be limited, and told about Ior's strict screening and abstinence system from the Judicator herself. This was all done without her mother however, since Ior wanted to make sure that Tai'ka received an education from them as well as getting one from Orthobbae.
Where her House taught her topics of extremism, she was taught moderation when it came to her individualism. However, Tai'ka was finding her trips to Ior just as enlightening as the lessons about how to use her empathy at school.
She was nearing 60, the point of maturity in any drow or drowussu where her feelings about her body were starting surface to the point she could not stop thinking about her sexuality. But for once in her life, she was confused about what to do. Should she consult her mother, who was considered the deviant of the house? Or seek advice from her Judciator? Not wanting to be another outcast after working so hard to get support from both her mother AND her house, Tai'ka sought out only Judicator Andrues on her latest trip home, wanting an expert's opinion on what to do when getting emotions and such about sex.
It was reconfirmed to Tai'ka that sex without purpose, such as the sluts of the Sullisinrune would do often was ill-advised; it was slightly worse than what her mother had done. Reika'serti was compared to many things bad as far as giving in to feelings of lust and mating were concerned. Despite training with empathy Tai'ka did not want to be an outcast to her house, as she thought that because she was a daughter of Reika'serti, she still sought to not be singled because of giving in to her body and not following screening procedures like her mother had failed to do. Tai'ka asked what she could do to avoid the mistrust of the House, the Judicator and to feel confident when out in society doing her duty for the clan, she was introduced to the concept of chastity.
For another hour, the Judicator explained that she should perform an act of chastity, to remain abstinent for a mandatory 150 years of service to the clan before allowing herself to mate with anyone. It would allow the House to trust her completely, and dissolve any shadow of doubt of possible deviancy lingering from her mother's reputation.
The Judicator said it would be a voluntary thing to do, but it would go a long way in building trust with the other members of the House. Later that day upon returning to school, Reika had made inquiries as she usually did when Tai'ka returned from her excursions home. Her daughter explained what she was feeling and what the Judicator suggested.
A loud and bad argument ensued between mother and daughter. Reika accused the Judicator of trying to separate Tai'ka from her, that her daughter's body is hers and no one else's. That Tai'ka is her daughter, and that a House should not have to dictate what it wants on its individual members. Tai'ka grew furious, that her mother would insult their house leader like she was, and more angered to hear about the insinuations that the goals of the individual were paramount to the goals of the House. She told her mother off, making Reika tearful at seeing her daughter side with her House instead of her, to see one of her greatest moments of her life become more distant with each angered word. Finally, Tai'ka came to the realization that she was more in line with the beliefs of the House than of her mother, and that her judicator was right. To avoid the stigma of suspicion from her parent, Tai'ka would voluntarily deny herself by abstaining from sex, so that she could build her own, strong trust with Ior and show that she was not the deviant like her mother was.
Age 61- 190
Because of the always present strain and tension in her home, Tai'ka decided to request immediate transfer to Val'Raveran for her first assignment as an Inquisitor. Her House would not give approval and as such, the clan as a whole denied her request since she was an in-experienced Inquisitor.
She knew the real reason though; her mother, more importantly, her House wanted to keep an eye on the young drowussu, to make sure that she stayed the path she agreed to. She understood their reasons however she did not like it. To compensate for the continued strain she had from living in Ior, she moved to another part of the clan's living quarters, so that her mental well being could recover from the constant negative emotions her family had about her, or her past.
Given her first assignment with an experienced Warden-templar pair a couple days later however helped to forget her House and allowed Tai'ka to experience true Chel life such as it was. Young as she was, she relied on her training once in the fae populace and managed to weed out those corrupted upon which Kyorl's suspected of losing their way, drow or drowussu alike.
Over the course of the next 130 years, she's learned to appreciate the teachings taught to her in Orthobbae and gained invaluable insight from the various Warden-Templar teams which she had the opportunity to work with in the Kyorl'solenurn. Over her years working for the clan, she had been temporarily assigned to a few Orders amid the clan, providing guidance to younger drowussu who needed a more experienced clan-member in their midst, or to help aid in cleansing a few of the members of those Orders who had walked off the path. However, Tai'ka felt that she could never stay at only one Order at any given time, always choosing to leave and forge her own path with everyday Wardens and Templar teams patrolling the city.
On a personal side for her, as always doing her duty and faithfully serving the Clan Tai'ka has never really found time for her personal life, so in the end, ensuring her body had remained pure all this time was not as hard as she had thought. Although her few personal friends she had always told she was a work-a-holic, and that some personal fun should be allowed from time to time.
Age 190 – 234
It was not until a return trip and bringing back some drowussu commoners who needed cleansing at the Kyorl fortress, was Tai'ka informed she had a new sister. She was overjoyed at a new sibling, but that quickly turned to fear because of her mother's previous history when she was born.
Returning to Ior for the first time in over 170 years [174 to be precise], Tai'ka actually felt welcomed and felt herself not only the joy of new life radiating through the halls, but appreciation from the rank and file for adhering to house rules, and ultimately upholding clan policy to the letter over the past one and three-quarter centuries. Contact might have been scarce but Tai'ka was never far from their thoughts.
Eventually the inquisitor and mother came together again, with the House leader in the same room with them to help mediate the hurt between family, house, and other details. Details such as Tai'ka's new sister, upon which she had not seen yet. To alleviate her fears about her mother, Reika'serti spoke to her first daughter initially, putting those fears to rest after professing that rules were kept this time, the male she mated with was checked out, had good blood, and a dedicated clan-member.
With Tai'ka's return, the daughter of Reika'serti was asked if she would stay home for a while, to spend time with all her Ior family. Reika', wishing for a stable relationship with her new daughter, also asked, not ordered, for Tai'ka to take up responsibility of taking care of her new sister until the age of adulthood. Seeing as she put in a large amount of time to the clan, this 'break' Tai'ka allowed herself and would take herself out of service to help with raising her sister. For in one way, to measure her abilities she would take on the challenge of raising her sister, whom, despite not being a twin, was given the name of Aika.
In caring for her sibling also at an early age, Aika was discovered to have empathy too during a guessing game she was playing with her big sister. After it was confirmed, Aika was sent to school soon thereafter, Tai'ka received word that her mother was given apology from her House leader, Judicator Andreus. The treatment incurred from Ior over the years was not warranted since Reika'serti produced two empathy-born girls despite not being an empath herself.
This sort of thing is what Tai'ka made to want keep a better relation with her mother, because if her house was able to apologize, then she could find a way do right by her Mother for walking out on her so long ago. Although, her relationship with her mother is still a rocky one.
Age 234 - 250
In the days of helping to take care of her sister and helping to educate her when Tai'ka was still home, she had received word of disturbing reports coming to the clan about members of the city practicing a forbidden art, known as nether summoning and tainting. Upon the upcoming crisis within Chel'el'ssusoloth of this new threat, Tai'ka received training in the ways to detect and tract tainted sources of mana and aura. She was also taught now to cleanse anyone who have been mislead into believing the abomination of tainting is okay.
When the Kyorl'solenurn clan finally did enter the war as a clean up force, Tai'ka was part of the force sent out into the city to help tract and kill all the tainted energy. It felt sickening to her to feel all the demonic aura, from the Nidrachaal warriors to the demonic commoners used as cannon fodder.
After the war was officially over, Tai'ka had a sense of relief yet a more steadfast belief in Sharess. This was because now she had a clearer reason why Sharess sacrificed herself, so that garbage like the Vloz'ress and abominations such as a tainted Vel'Sharen would ever happen again.
She returned to her House a wiser, more steadfast Kyorl'solenurn, hardened in her belief about destroying tainted. Although her relationship with her mother is still rocky, caring for her sister has brought Tai'ka a measure of understanding as to why her mother thought her House was being too strict in their lives. But she also understands why the House is always striving for a strong Empathic population.
Upon her return, a request of transfer has finally reached the Inquisitor; upon duty and steady service to the clan before, during and after the Nidrachaal conflict, including the continued perseverance of attempting to keep Chel streets clean of corrupted, tainted and preventing other crimes, her request to transfer to Raveran had been granted.
Seeing as now that her sister was well supported and her mother treated better by her peers, Tai'ka has opted to go on a pilgrimage to Raveran. This time, her want to go is to experience more then Chel'el'ssusoloth and perhaps see what a tainted free city looks like. It is also an opportunity to maybe seek out a little time for her own self, duty permitting.
[[Time Zone: -3.5 GMT. I'm in school with a busy schedule, along with a real life too. I will try to post whenever I can.]]
