Tennesta
(Cathak) Tennesta of The Lap
"I am not your Master. I still but a student."
"I am not your Master. I still but a student."
Age: 23 years
Alliances: The Scarlet Empire (and House Cathak, but only nominally)
Gender: female
Sexuality: hetero (although not averse to the idea of finding women attractive, she has yet to meet one that she does)
Aspect: Earth
Anima: A yellow-white aura, swirling with dark, razor-edged shards of obsidian and flint
Hair: black, cut short enough to make it difficult to grab
Eyes: brown
Build: six and a half feet tall, looks as if she could carry the Imperial Mountain upon her shoulders (about 220lbs.)
Clothing:
- Tennesta is a military officer, and generally dresses the part. Raised by a monk, she wore nothing but cotton robes throughout her childhood. Thus, she regards clothing as a mostly utilitarian concern - and finds her military uniforms appropriate for most situations.
She favors clothing that allows freedom of movement, and does not interfere with her swordwork. Sleeveless garments and loose skirts or pants are therefore preferred. She wears her white jade breastplate, a badge of her office, with great pride. When propriety demands that she dress differently, she does so, but is always reluctant to remove her sword, which she wears upon her left hip (in the manner of a samurai). It is not her particular sword to which she is attached, but simply having a sword at hand that matters to her. She feels naked and vulnerable without one. And she is, in fact, a much less skillful combatant when forced to go without a suitable sword.
General Appearance: Cha 3, Man 2, App 3
- Tennesta stands out among Dynasts, for her mother was a native of the Lap, and her Southern heritage clearly dominates her appearance. Her skin is a dark, rich brown of the most fertile soils of the Verdant Triangle of the Lap, where she was born. Although she was a slight girl, since her Exaltation, she has grown into a great tower of a woman, standing six and a half feet tall, and with arms and legs as strong and straight as pillars of stone. When she expends her essence, the first sign is the odor of freshly turned earth, and the dark soil that falls from her short, black hair. With greater expenditures, the sound of an earthquake can be heard, and her aura shines yellow-white, swirling with dark, razor shards of flint and obsidian.
Habits & Quirks:
- Tennesta often grips her sword tightly when under stress or when her patience is tested. She is also very reluctant to part with it for any reason. It is a source of comfort to her. She tends to speak too loudly (for most contexts - it works quite well for her in military settings), and has an explosive laugh, that often comes quite unexpectedly. Although she in fact has quite a strong tolerance for alcohol (as most Earth Aspects do), she allows it to affect her behavior quite readily. This effect is mostly psychological.
Tennesta's High Realm is accented, further betraying her Southern heritage, but perfectly fluent. She is much more comfortable with the Flametongue. No matter what language she speaks, she tends to do so loudly, sometimes forgetting her surroundings and allowing her volume to rise to impolite levels. She rarely chuckles or grins, but instead has a broad smile and a full-bodied laugh that erupts like a volcano when something strikes her fancy
Hobbies:
- When she has the time, she will have her "students" collect large pieces of wood and arrange them in a circle. She practices her swordwork upon these. This is her primary hobby, and she spends most of her "spare" time doing this. When circumstances do not allow her to practice her swordwork, or when she is simply too tired, she enjoys woodcarving, scrimshaw, and drinking.
Personality:
- Tennesta's father, while ostensibly a monk, was not a very good one. He was the sort to ask borderline heretical questions, to think too deeply about things that people ought to simply accept as fact, and to value individual freedom over hidebound tradition. Tennesta, as a result, is quite the opposite: she rarely asks questions, thinks deeply, or challenges her superiors. She has a great respect for the monks of the Immaculate Order, but is often surprised at how different they are from her father.
Moreover, Tennesta has spent all of her adult life at Pasiap's Stair, in military training. As a result, she is the archetypical soldier. She works hard, obeys her orders, and cares deeply for the men and women under her command. Mission accomplishment is always her top priority. Troop welfare is a close second. Thus far, she has served her unit mostly as a combat instructor, which she actually enjoys a great deal, although she regularly insists that she is not a master or sifu of any kind, and will correct anyone who refers to her as such (excepting her henchmen, who do it so regularly that she's given up).
Connections of Importance:
- Tennesta's only real community as a child was her father. Though she was always with him when he tended to the spiritual or medical needs of the field workers in the area, she never interacted with them much - mostly just watching quietly. She had few friends. At Pasiap's Stair, she was much more social, and her swordwork made her something of a minor celebrity there. Many students there, even upper- and underclassmen, know of her, and some instructors remember her fondly, as well. Thus, because Pasiap's Stair is almost exclusively a training ground for the Legions, most of her connections can be or will be found there. She has not yet earned any enemies, but like most students of the Stair, she holds graduates of the House of Bells in polite disdain, thinking them mostly soft, pompous, and overprivileged . . . at least as compared to alumni of her institution.
Occupation: Scalelord
Fighting Style/Weapon(s) of Choice:
- The Jeek-Il Style.
The Jeek-Il Style is a two-handed, offensive style of swordsmanship, focused on aggressive, linear movements and powerful attacks. Although the Style is not dependent on any specific kind of sword, Cathak Tayiver's (Tennesta's father and instructor) Sword of the Jeek-Il is a thick-bladed, single-edged design, and worn at the hip, and so that is Tennesta's preferred design. All of the Jeek-Il's techniques require the use of both hands, and so it cannot be used in conjunction with a shield or with a secondary weapon. Moreover, the various techniques and kata clearly assume that only one edge of one's blade is lethal, and so practitioners cannot use double-edged blades without some difficulty.
More than a Style of swordsmanship; however, the Jeek-Il is a way of life. It is said that the final secrets of the Jeek-Il will only reveal themselves to one who has mastered the Fourfold Virtues. These Virtues are Compassion, Control, Conviction, and Courage. Compassion is respect for the rights and dignity of others, and to treat them as they ought to be treated. A compassionate swordsman knows that not all are equal, but that all sentient beings are alike in a way, and that they must not be harmed, degraded, or diminished unjustly. Control is respect for the rights and dignity of oneself. A controlled swordsman knows his limits, and does not pursue anything to excess. Conviction is the will to do what one must, and to keep one's word. A convicted swordsman does not make promises lightly, and understands the true meaning of "duty." Courage is the will to overcome one's fears, and to exceed one's expectations of oneself. A courageous swordsman is always testing himself, and seeking to become a better person, even when the penalties for failure are harsh.
These are the Foufold Virtues of the Jeek-Il, and none who have not mastered them, in addition to the art of swordsmanship, may call himself a Master of the Style.
History:
- Tennesta of Lap was born, presumably to mortal parents, in the city whose name she bears, but she knows the Immaculate Cathak Tayiver as her only father. Cathak Tayiver, rather uniquely and more than a bit heretically, denied the Five Glorious Dragon Styles of his Order, and practiced a little-known style of swordmanship called the Jeek-Il as his means to enlightenment. When he wasn't practicing his swordsmanship, he maintained a small temple in the Verdant Triangle of the Lap, seeing to the spiritual needs of those who labored in the fields and orchards there.
One day, a small family of Laplanders, all of them field hands, came to the temple, dragging their youngest daughter, a woman of only 15 years, behind them. The girl held an infant, no more than a week old, in her arms. The family accused Tayiver of having impregnated their daughter - an accusation that the 45-year-old monk answered only with "Is that so?" They hadn't the resources to raise the child themselves, and their daughter was engaged to be married to a man of slightly higher station, and so they insisted that he take the child and never bother them again. Tayiver agreed, silently taking the child from her arms, and the family left him. Neither Tayiver nor the child would see them again for over a dozen years.
Tayiver named his "daughter" Tennesta, and raised her as an adherent to the Jeek-Il Way, stressing the Fourfold Virtues of Compassion, Control, Conviction, and Courage, and, of course, making her a more than capable swordswoman. By the age of 10, she could best most men twice her age, although she never knew it, since her only sparring partner had been old Tayiver, the man she called her father.
On the day of her thirteenth birthday, a foreman came for Tennesta, so that she might serve her first five years of indenture in the fields, as all Laplanders do. Tennesta had been prepared for this day, and had meant to silently accept her fate, but as the foreman grasped her by the hand to take her away, she could not stop the tears. She pulled away from the foreman and ran back to Tayiver, embracing the monk more tightly than she ever had before. The foreman only stood and watched - he had experienced such resistance before, and expected Tayiver to handle it.
As Tayiver reassured the child that five years was not a terribly long time, and that he would visit her often, something none of the three could have expected occurred - Tennesta Exalted. As her yellow-white aura gleamed around her, and the ground rumbled without shaking, Tayiver offered an apology to the foreman - Tennesta was a Lost Egg, he explained, and therefore could not remain a citizen of The Lap. She would be returned to the Realm for a proper education, and to take her place within the Dynasty. The foreman accepted Tayiver's explanation, glad to be absolved of the responsibility for dealing with a young Exalt new to her powers, and left to two alone.
Tayiver spent the next several days arranging Tennesta's travel to the Blessed Isle, where she would receive the education to which all Dragon-Blooded are entitled. The blessing was a mixed one. On the one hand, Tennesta would not have to endure the 30 years of indenture that awaited all Laplanders. On the other, she would be thousands of miles away from the place she'd called her home, and from the man she'd called her father.
It was the day that Tennesta was to depart The Lap, a retinue from the Realm having arrived at the Fold the day before, when the family that had left her there thirteen years before returned. Rumors of the child's Exaltation has spread, and they returned to Tayiver with an apology. Their daughter, whose husband had died two years before, had lied to them. The child's father was not Tayiver, but a young Outcaste who had been visiting the city in search of ancient treasures. They insisted that the child was rightly theirs, and that it was only right that, as her family, they travel to the Blessed Isle with her. Tayiver only answered, "Is that so?" and invited them for tea, while they awaited the retinue from the Realm.
Of course, the Dynast who had been sent to fetch Tennesta had been sent to fetch only her, and refused to take any others with him. Moreover, Tennesta was old enough to testify as to her own parentage, and she insisted that Tayiver had been her father. Tayiver said nothing in response. Thus, the family returned to the fields empty-handed, and Tennesta was taken to the Realm, and to Pasiap's Stair, where she would be raised as befits an Ivory Dragon.
From her upbringing in The Lap, she brought with her only four things: her dark complexion, reminiscent of the richest, softest soil of the Verdant Triangle, in which she was raised; a wooden practice sword, carved for her by Tayiver, and her weapon of choice; her loyal, intelligent, and always-hungry companion, Ravis - a rare snake-headed vulture; and her memories of and love for Cathak Tayiver, the man who called himself her father for thirteen years.