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(UPDATED 2020) Cairistona App- Sybal-Heim

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Name: Cairistona Cordell

Nicknames: Carrie

Age: 29. Cairistona arrived to the city in 1891.

Physical Age: 23

Height: 5'8"

Hair: Dirty blonde

Eyes: Blue-grey

Faction: Disciple
Cairistona, as expected, has been dragged into the City’s turmoil. She has been caught thrice now in Insurgent uprisings, and both times fought to stop the rising tide.

Occupation: Dockworker for the Ambrotos Merchant’s Guild
As she couldn’t stay away from the water forever, Carrie now works right on the river’s banks, putting the skills from her time at sea back to good use. You should see her biceps, too!

Sybal Form: The Siren Sublime
Cairistona's sybal form appears to be a mix somewhere between a dragon and a harpy, with powerful leathery wings that imitate feathers. She stands only slightly taller than her day form, at about 6', with an 18' wingspan. This form stems from her superstition as a sailor, resembling the Greek myths told around the galley tables, but was developed due to her strongest desire- to save both herself and others.

Her Sybal underwent slight changes when she ritually laid her late husband’s spirit to rest in the Aionios Woods, but mostly in heart. Now, she’s as tempestuous, protective, and Old Salt as ever, but holds her head high and finally accepts her Sybal as a part of herself, her better half. She sings some sunnier songs now, as well.

Sybal Power: Abhorred Wail
Cairistona's sybal power is a shrill, damaging screech that can stun an aggressor or adversary for several minutes. Not very long, maybe 3-5, and is best used in close-quarters fighting, and most commonly when she is outmatched or overwhelmed. Of course, this only works on hearing sybals, and it will start to damage her vocal chords if used too frequently (more than a couple times), and in worst case scenario will render her near-mute until they heal.

 Docile or Feral: Docile
Cairistona has full awareness and control of her sybal form. Her sybal experiences emotions intensely, and she’s full of passion. The Siren is fiercely loyal and protective.

Personality:
Cairistona is a headstrong, spirited young woman. She's stubborn to a fault, and would follow the ones that she cares about to the ends of the earth if that was what it took. She’s grown quite a bit emotionally since her arrival, and is stronger than ever. Carrie values the bonds she’s made in this city more than anything, and is sure of the person she was meant to be, even if she’s a little more unconventional than she first expected. After the riots, and the attacks, she walks a line between fierce and friendly.

 

History:
Cairistona's parents were originally Scottish Protestants, but had immigrated into Northern Ireland during the colonization of Ulster under James VI of Scotland. She was born in 1636, just before the Irish rebellion in 1641. During which, her mother fled with Carrie back to Scotland, while her father stayed to defend Ulster.

From a young age, Cairistona learned to see the sea as a sanctuary. It led her and her mother to safety, but she never saw her father again.

Her mother found work sewing textiles, and remained a widow. Carrie took up work, too, when she was 14. It was there at the shop where she and her mother worked that Cairistona met Aindreas Connor, a boy of 17. His family was well off, and he worked down at the docks, training to become a sailor and explore the open seas and sail to distant lands and all those romantic dreams young lads' heads were often filled with.

Three years later, the two were married, and they were as in love as any of the heroic couples depicted in fairytales. For a year and a half, it was perfect. Carrie became a housewife, and a darn good one, and Aindreas was the sailor he'd always dreamt of being. And his family, being a long line of seamen and British military, was proud. Cairistona's mom likely was too, that Carrie would be financially stable, but the stress of single motherhood had finally taken its toll. She died months after their wedding.

 But at the end of that year and a half, the British Empire went to war (again) with Spain, over trade disputes in the Caribbean. Aindreas received word from his mother that his father, a veteran naval officer, had fallen too ill and feeble to fight for the crown he served, and his mother urged her son to go to war in his father's place. For the honor of the family. For glory. For a mother that reared him from boyhood and expected to soon be grieving the loss of her husband. How could Aindreas refuse? But, when he brought the subject up to his wife, Cairistona put her foot down. She would not live like her mother, widowed in the name of glory. She didn't trust Aindreas with his own life, he was far too giving, too kind- he would easily sacrifice himself for someone else. But she didn't care about them, only him. The decision was hard, Cairistona could not hold back Aindreas from doing his family's duty, yet she could not allow her father's empty glory to continue to haunt /her/ family.

So she and Aindreas hatched a sort of unorthodox plan. They'd become privateers together, and Cairistona would fight by her husband's side. If Grace O'Malley could do it, she could too. The two signed on to a privateering crew as "brothers", Aindreas and Christopher Connor. And somehow, it worked. Carrie, or, "Chris" cut her hair and dressed as a man, and the occasional suspicion was easily deflected by an insistent (and intimidating) Aindreas.

The con worked for a long time. The crew thrived, pillaging Spanish merchants left and right. But the Spanish fleet turned their attention to protecting their commerce, rather than attacking English holdings. On a regular job, in 1658, the privateering ship was boarded by Spanish soldiers. In the subsequent battle Cairistona could only watch as across the deck, a Spanish soldier shot Aindreas in the heart. He was dead before she could even get to him. The rest of the crew massacred the Spanish, and their ship remained in working condition, and the battle was considered among the crew a victory. But to Cairistona, it was the greatest tragedy of her war-torn life. She ended up just like her mother, in some form of cruel irony.

There was now a problem, however, with her deceit- and the job as a privateer. Aindreas had been well-respected among the crew as first mate, but he'd also been their conscience. He kept them naval, not pirates. But now that he was gone, weeeell, now they weren't so selfless and honorable. The voices that had agreed with Aindreas were now quiet, or praising the other side. This terrified Cairistona, but she couldn't leave. She was in too deep now, if she tried to leave, they'd learn her secret, she was sure of it. If she spoke against the captain's wishes, they'd probably just throw her over, skinny as a rail as she was. Aindreas commanded attention, and respect. Cairistona was just good enough of a sailor to stay on the crew, and to defend herself, but nowhere near her husband. So she'd stay.

But, that'd change, just like the intentions of the crew would. As they turned towards true piracy, Cairistona got better with a pistol, and a sword. She used the anger of what the Spanish had done to her husband to drive her forward, to keep her fight going. Soon she was just as good at skewering a Spaniard as the rest of the crew, if not better. "Christopher" Connor became the new first mate of a ruthless crew of pirates, and they spent a good four months hunting down every Spanish ship they could find.

But you can't win battle after battle forever. Eventually, in a routine nighttime raid, they were finally outmatched. A smaller boat of Spanish men had caught them by surprise, boarding the pirate vessel while it was under fire by the main enemy ship. The pirate vessel had become so haggard that it couldn't dodge the cannon fire, taking severe damage to the hull. The Spanish set fire to the deck as the ship sank into the brine, and the fires ate what stayed above, killing the infamous ship for good. Most the crew died. As the fires broke out, and the ship broke /apart/, Cairistona jumped into the sea, the falling mast barely missing her as the sea took it. She swam as far as she could, away from the sinking currents around the vessel and the cannon fire of the enemy and just as she gave in, resigned to drown, her knees scraped against great roots. She beheld a tiny island, no more than a pebble in the sea, choked with lush forest, strong roots grabbing into the water like fishermen. Cairistona clambered ashore, the forest much deeper than it had appeared from the water, and crawled into the Traveller's wood, waterlogged and bedraggled, but very much alive.

 Additional Info:

    -       Eloped with Saul Cordell!

    -       Tired of fighting to fit into feminine standards, Cairistona’s wardrobe is varied and without regard to the gender roles of any time.

    -       Cairistona trained to regain her swordsmanship in recent years.

    -        

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Comments17
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GodessFae's avatar
ok hello how did I miss out on this babe. 
//waves hello
Deyri: Independent ladies represent! (they actually have a fair amount in common now that I think about it, though dey's a pacifist)
hmu if you ever wanna rp!