the phoenix ❚ red birds.
player informationName: Ness
Personal Journal: candlejack
Contact Info: E-Mail: mininessy @ gmail | AIM: theinsultmachine
Other Characters: N/A
character informationCharacter Name: The Phoenix ("Birdie").
Age: Unknown [ 6 months since rebirth ], as time itself is not an important concept to her as to humans. Physically, in her early twenties. Mentally... she acts like a baby bird.
Appearance: As a human, Birdie is a fragile looking girl in her late teens/early twenties, with short, light blonde hair, which rather fluffy and flow-y (much like feathers). She has big lips, quite reddish, and big golden eyes that seem to shine like fire when the sun reflects against them. She's of average height, about 5'5" feet, and a bit thin, but she weights a lot less than what she looks like since her bones are hollow. As a phoenix, she is of the size of an adult dove, though she is clearly a youngling. She still does not have all her red feathers, but she already has very long tails (three of them). Most of her plumage is white with some fire-coloured feathers at the tip of her wings and tail. If anything, she looks something like this, if a little whiter. ( PB: Annabelle Horsey ).
Setting: Generally speaking, this sort of setting is very similar to "ye olde tale" kind of story. With Western-medieval influences, this world is set in a fantasy land where the horse is the fastest method of transport, though is set apart by the fact that while magic exists and it's alive in every being, it has been forbidden by the Emperor. Humans are also influenced by magic and the ones able to channel it are called Sealed Ones; magic imprints itself upon their skin, either in the shape of a birthmark or curious hair colour or any other peculiar feature. In fact, many albinos were thrown into the dungeons, mistaken for Sealed Ones.
Many creatures of myth exist in this world (mostly of Western origin) and there is no exception to what may or may not exist, but while humanoid creatures such as elves or orcs as we today perceive them are unheard of, faeries and the more magical inclined creatures are very much alive, though hiding, since most of them have been murdered by the Emperor's soldiers, the Echoes.
The Emperor reigns the Known World, which means, yes, there is more to the land that is on the map. Those places are called the Edge of the Land. Which are exactly that because this particular world is not round like the Earth but flat, so there really exist the end of the world. Step out of the borders and you will fall forever.
Magic is a sentient thing. While you could not call it a being, it is a sort of live organism like bacteria. To control magic is impossible, but if trained, a Sealed One can learn how to properly channel it. The Seal magic imprints in these people can be taken away from them by wicked rites practised by very few as it consumes much of their spirit. To take the Seal from a person is to take their soul.
Magic first appeared from the Five Stars, which, again, are not beings but rather things that metamorphosed into tactile creatures. The Five Stars were lost in the world and basically the plot revolves around a little magical bird finding them so magic can be freed from its chains and the Emperor overthrown. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Emperor is actually one of the Five Stars turned corrupt - in the end, a new Star must be born so magic is again free to roam the world.
History: In a world where magic was forbidden and forgotten, enchanted creatures were forced to hide from human eyes to ensure their own survival. Although some still believe in magic, believe that it is all around them, everyone kept quiet. The Echoes, an elite force of disciplined hunters created by the Emperor Tseran, take their mission with a severe sense of justice. They are the guarantee that any trace of magic is silenced and extinguished. But for the Emperor, the extermination of every magical beast encountered was not enough. He ordered his Echoes to search for all men, women and children born with the Seal of magic and then send them all to the Dungeons of Mandril. There, they were to be executed.
There was only one survivor amongst the Sealed ones: Bernard the Yellow Eye. He has survived not because he had been shown mercy nor because was he had been fortunate, but for the fact that he had been able to discover how to destroy the Seal inside people, having tested it upon himself first. He bottled each taken Seal inside a vial made of dragon skin and kept it hidden in the Emperor's safe house. This, of course, was kept secret by the Emperor himself and the commander of the Echoes, for there was a need for an insider to capture all those that were born with the Seal. Onias Kubo, the leader of Echos. Her mere name made skin crawl. A fearsome warrior with the iron fist of a tyrant, Onias was the Emperor's left hand, the one used to execute all of the dirty work. Much like her forefathers, she quickly occupied the rank of commander, raising among all other Echoes. As the tradition dictated, she shaved her head, the little hair left dyed black to show the markings of an Echo.
As time went, the Sealed Ones were thrown into the dungeons and Bernard kept taking their magic, extinguishing life itself out of them and eventually sending them back as mumbling fools - spiritless people with no longer a will or a thought of their own. But Bernard was no fool and was not willing to give up on magic entirely, like he pretended to. His intentions, those of becoming the most powerful Sealed - the only Sealed one - were cleverly hidden.
What nobody knew was that his yellow eye was not a mark of a Sealed One, but the mark of a Cursed One. When he was but a young boy, he had the misfortune of falling into a lake which was the home of a selkie. Though Bernard managed to kill it, it cursed him upon its death with blindness during the day (and hydrophobia). This encounter was the reason of his transformation of a young boy into a hateful man, loathing all those chosen by the Seal and too why he wanted to become the only Sealed One, planning on concentrating all the magic in the world inside of him to avenge his wounded pride. To become this man, sacrifices were to be made - and he was perfectly fine with that. The eradication of magical creatures and Sealed Ones were just the beginning of a vile end.
But even if magic was being extinguished bit by bit, there were still brave survivors. A family of phoenixes, living far away from the Emperor's reign, had built their nest at the top of a sleeping volcano, the only place warm enough so the egg the mother phoenix had laid would hatch safely. Unfortunately for them, during one of Bernard's night walks - the time when both phoenixes went to hunt - he heard a strange, melodious cry of a baby bird and went to investigate it. When he found the newly born phoenix, he stole her from her nest and took her home with him. He kept her existence secret and made sure she was protected and well fed, although it was quite hard to cage such a bird as a phoenix. In fact, he had to use of of the vials of magic to turn her into a fragile looking human girl. Clumsy with her body at first, the phoenix slowly became used to it and as she learned how to run, she would be constantly running from Bernard, which drove the man insane.
As she grew, the phoenix learnt of the truth regarding her real nature (for you cannot lie to a creature of magic about herself) and slowly became aware of her powers. The baby bird was smart and she kept quiet about the burning magic inside so that Bernard would not try to take it. It was short lived; he caught her turning into a phoenix, breaking the magic of the Seal he had used to turn her human and scolded her, then forbade her to ever use magic, ever, ever again.
Years went by. The baby bird kept running from the Yellow Eye and hiding from the Echoes, even if she eventually had to come back to him. He had power over her, he had learnt, for once you steal a baby phoenix from its nest, "it will forever be yours until it is found again". Those were the words he had read from a forbidden book about magic. He would always summon her to him, but she would stay away until she could no longer stand the deafening bells his call made in her ears, like a wail of a million chimes.
One day, as she ran from the Yellow Eye, the little bird ended up stumbling upon Onias arresting a mother and child, both Sealed Ones. Angry at such display of cruelty (and anguished at the sight of magic being found vile), the phoenix turned into the red bird of fire and rescued the mother and child. However, she was deadly wounded and part of her wing broken, feathers ripped by Onias's hand. The mother tried to nurse her, but the arrow that had been fired through her heart was embedded in venom of a bolla.
And so, the phoenix erupted into flames and under her ashes, a new egg was laid, her cocoon of rebirth.
She was reborn not in her world, but in a hole in time and space where many worlds connected, a parallel ripple. There, she met the Black Dog, a servant of Death, that somehow took a being of Life such as the phoenix under his care, giving her a name, something she had never earned. A playmate as well, Jast, a bird of Spring, and the warden of fire.* She spent many months with them and learned about everything she was forbidden to back home - not that back there was home. She never really had one, nor home nor nest. As always, though, the time the chimes rang in her ears came and she was forced to go back to Bernard as he summoned her, and though blinded by the sound, she found her way back to him. And she found him in a dungeon. Onias had made the connection of the phoenix to him and he had been deemed traitor. But the man had a plan and Birdie was to play a big part in it. He forced her to call forth magic and used it through her, blasting open the door and walls of the prison, escaping with her laying half-dead in his arms.
He hid in the woods, much to his ill luck, for there reigned a forgotten creature, so old that it had turned into a physical creature, something not quite describable: it was a man and a woman, a tree and a deer, the sea and the sky and the mud and the earth. The creature expelled Bernard from its woods and took away his right over the phoenix, unbeknownst to both him and her. It kept the little bird, taking good care of her until she was ready to fly again. It told her she should find a way to free magic once more, to break the silence. She should bring back the stolen Seals of the Five Stars, a story she had never heard and but eagerly listened to. It went something like this:
Once upon a time, five stars gave birth to magic. They vowed to keep it alive through their own lives and through humans that would later be called "Sealed Ones". One day, the Five Stars got very angry at each other and left the land for a long, long time. Except two: one became old, ugly and uncaring, the other became powerful, vicious and cruel. The cruel one decided to eat up all the magic in the world because it did not agree to humans being given the gift of magic and the ugly one made sure all magical beasts were safe. But the ugly one was weak and lost the battle and then was forgotten as the cruel one kept eating and eating all magic. The three missing stars got lost on their way back to the land and so magic is slowly disappearing like sand in the wind...
Birdie did not understand immediately what it meant, but she was willing to do what the creature was asking of her: find the three missing stars and guide them back home so that the ugly one could win over the cruel one and restore magic back to its place, inside every dream, every tale, every heart.
* This is the only plausible explanation I could find to give mothdeath a meaning of sorts in her story. The reason why I chose to keep it in her canon is because the relationships she formed there are extremely important to what she is now.
Personality: To compare the baby phoenix to an actual bird is a accurate way of analysing her attitudes and most of her reactions. After all, Birdie is a little flying animal and she will approach a situation like one. On the other hand, she has been used to humans and civilization (though not by her own will) so many things won't scare her as much as they would scare an actual bird. However, loud noises will startle her to the point where she is going to look for cover, sudden movements will make her flinch and step back and new people will be approached carefully, even if curiously - because, boy, she sure is the inquisitive little bird, always eager to learn new things, especially if they are stories. She adores them, drinks up the words of a storyteller just like a child. You will have her undivided attention if you want to tell her about a story she has never heard, teach her about a game she has never played or sing her a song she has never sang. She seems to be both curious and afraid of everything that surrounds her, as if re-discovering all that she sees every time. Even in her strange speech pattern, in which she repeats her words here and there, as if she's learning them again and again.
Not unlike a bird (or any other animal) Birdie is not the kind of creature to hold grudges or anguish over something terrible in the past. In fact, you may end up noticing her attention span is either too short or that she simply cannot be bother to bind herself to things such as revenge. It's complicated, the way she views things, since it is not a human approach, but rather her nature as a phoenix. She's also quite the energetic thing, tends to be all over the place at once, rarely stopping to rest - she doesn't need it. However, because she has spent a lot of her life in a society bound by human law and order, there is a sort of understanding about those types of emotions. While she is not a creature that feels the need to form bonds, she understands them. One cannot say that she is a loyal person, not because she doesn't love people, but because of the freedom she is eternally (ironically) chained to. And while she isn't exactly a coward, she will rather hide or run than face danger, even if she has learned that friends are important and worth standing your ground with her playmate, Jast. This same playmate, however, has pampered her quite a bit and while she is a little bit spoiled and, yes, she is vain (she is a phoenix and they just love to hear compliments, even if this particular one is quietly happy with them), she is a self-sufficient creature. She likes to keep close to people who are naturally warm and people who she thinks that can protect her from eventual harm (which is why she always kept close to the Black Dog of Death). This does not mean she has friendships strictly by interest, but she does tend to be curious about a person rather than have no intentions behind her desire of getting to know someone.
She has a sort of skittish attitude about everything, much like what you would expect to see in a bird, but unlike a common animal, she is not the sort to be attracted to food but rather to warmth. Because of this, she is sometimes unnecessarily and awkwardly physical, not really grasping the concept of proxemics. It's interesting to see this constrast when she's usually such a shy, wary little bird but when faced with warmth she becomes so very close. Birdie is a very impressionable and gullible person, very innocent in a way you don't see much these days. In the end, though, she's a chirpy little thing, all smiles and laughs and giggles once she gets past the shyness and wariness.
Abilities: As a phoenix, Birdie has the mythological abilities these birds of fire have. While she can be killed, she can be reborn. Her tears can heal even the deadliest wound and her song can inspire the heart of the brave and dissuade the will of the wicked. Unlike the myth, in this world there were two phoenix, male and female, but they only met per pure chance - the phoenix symbolizes freedom in the most chaotic way for it cannot be bound by no cage nor chain. Birdie is the second born phoenix, the first one having been lost during the eruption of a volcano where the nest lay.
Additionally, Birdie can make her body temperature so high that her skin can burn, although she is too young to make magic. In her phoenix form, she can produce flames from her wings and tail. On the downsize, she has maintained some of her weaknesses as a bird and she is very easy to break, with hollow bones and all.
Birdie understands animals to an extent. It isn't a Disney's film where they all talk perfectly good English, however, but more of a mute understanding. Animals don't talk for a reason: they don't need to. They have basic signs that can indicate hunger, pain or some other primal sentiment and Birdie can both read and show them. Her empathy is far beyond human, too, as she can sense when one is sad or happy, which does not mean she will care. Curiously, she cannot tell lie from truth nor she is able to grasp the concept of and evil like humans, though she can tell if a person is good or bad.
Because of her unfortunate encounter with Bernard, the vial she was forced to take has made her partially human, so she can alter her shape of bird to human at will, although she will spend most of her time in her human form out of habit, having to hide all those years from the Emperor and his Echoes.
Sample | ( video feed ): [ Hands and cheeks pressed against the mirror, the image one would get through the vine would be of a blonde girl all squished against it, before she pulls back, though only barely. She tilts her head and blows against the mirror, looks up, looks down, in a very skittish nature, very energetic, almost. Like a bird trying to find her way out of a closed house.
She knocks on the mirror softly and waits. When nothing happens, she pouts, puffs her cheeks out, then seems to stare directly at the viewer. ]
Lost, lost, Birdie's lost. [ She says in a little wail, pressing her forehead on the mirror again with the saddest look. ] Lost like the Stars. Must find my way back home, yes, yes, I do, must find the Stars again, too, also, yes.