Print Page - Toama Sor'inyt - Sand Sisters

Name: Toama Sor'inyt
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Tribe: Sand Sisters
Occupation: Mercenary
Title: Confident nomad

Appearance:
Height: 1 Ped, 2 Fores, 1 Palmspan, 8 Nailsbreadths
Weight: 1 pygge, 4 hebs
Hair colour: Brown
Eye colour: Dark brown
Physical appearance: Toama is taller than the average Sarvonian woman, though her height is average for her own Aeruillin tribe. She is obviously used to long days under a battering sun, with darkly tanned skin and brown hair. She either wears her hair loose, or with two small braids encircling her head, which come together at the nape of her neck. From there, her hair is bound together, sometimes in a braid and other times in a tail. Worn loose, it reaches the small of her back. Braided it comes a little higher. When she has worn it loose for a couple of days, it is quite straight. When it has been braided for a while, though, and she loosens it, it will be slightly wavy.

The one thing that will make her stand out more than her height or her colouring, is the tattoo she has on her face. It is even darker than her already tanned skin, and shows a pattern of leaves on her forehead, extending beside her eyes, one curl resting on the bridge of her nose. Below the tattoo, two adlemirene brown eyes look into the world, framed by long lashes. Her expressive eyebrows are drawn in a fine line, and are very often used to convey her feelings, even if she does not put them into words. Her nose is straight and rather small, ending above her full lips, which are lighter in colour than the rest of her face.

Toama's neck is long and slender, curving down to graceful but somewhat broad shoulders. Her arms are muscled, as is her well-toned abdomen. Although her breasts are not very big, she is still quite obviously a woman. Her left hand is missing the ring finger and the little finger. The rest of her fingers are long and dexterous, still allowing a good grip on her weapon. She keeps the nails trimmed short and immaculately clean at all times. Crossing her body front and back are a few scars from her time as Canit'pa and later as a mercenary, but they are usually covered by her clothing. The only scar that is often visible is a white line which runs from her elbow down to her wrist.

Her legs are long and strong. They are straight, allowing her to take long strides as she walks. As she usually wears long pants, the skin is noticeably lighter than the skin on her face. However, not many people will get to see this.

Clothes: When Toama is working as a mercenary, or travelling for long distances, she wears the traditional armour of her tribe, namely hardened leather pants and a leather chest-guard over a sleeveless top. In the relatively colder climate of Sarvonia, she often replaces the sleeveless top by a long-sleeved one. She also has leather bracers. On her feet she wears toughened boots the same dark brown colour as her pants. They are made specially for comfort during long travels, and fit her feet perfectly. When she travels she does not wear any jewellery.

When she stays in the same location for a while, she likes wearing the brightly coloured dresses of her tribe, but only when she is indoors. She has a few of the long pieces of cloth that are wrapped around the body, and one or two traditional skirts of the Tor'iti, even though she was never part of this group. She wears three small silver bracelets on her right wrist and on the ring finger of the same side a simple gold ring, inscribed on the inside with the name her son would have had. She has a pair of sandals, but only wears them when she considers the weather to be warm enough – which is rarely, unless she's close to the Rahaz-Dath desert, which reminds her of her homeland.

Personality: Toama is a Sand Sister, and she will always be true to that heritage, despite choosing to leave the tribe. Because of this, she knows who she is and what her place in the world is. It makes her very self-assured. As a result, she has her own mind about things and doesn't let the opinions of others influence her. She will listen to solid arguments, though, and if they make sense she adjusts her opinion accordingly. However, she will not change her own mind only because everyone else thinks differently. Another result is that she does not usually care what other people think of her, she always acts true to her nature. It is quite difficult to offend her due to this self-assurance.

The Sand Sister values her given word and will never willingly break it, almost treating it as a blood oath. Her honour is the most important thing in her life. She places it so highly because she feels that if she were to lose it, she would have effectively severed the last bond she has with her tribe.

She usually does her best to be polite to everyone she meets. However, her lacking knowledge of Tharian is often a problem, as she might unintentionally sound much ruder than she intended. When people look past the sometimes blunt choice of words, though, they find a caring woman who is interested in many things. She asks many questions about various topics, wanting to know much about the culture and style of living in the various southern Sarvonian tribes and comparing it to her own. Another motive behind the questions is to learn to speak Tharian better, something she is always trying to do. The more she hears the language the better she will learn to speak it, so she often starts a conversation just for the sake of hearing Tharian spoken.

Toama is fiercely loyal to her god, Foiros. She doesn't steer a conversation to the topic of religion, but when that does happen to be the subject, she will not back down from a confrontation. She doesn't expect everyone to follow the same faith as her, as she is convinced that people should decide for themselves what they believe in. For herself, her faith has helped her through the difficult days in her life, and she will always turn to it, whether she is in trouble or not.

She's more likely to make friends among women than among men. There's no conscious attempt to exclude them, it's just that she's been ingrained since birth with the belief that she doesn't need them, except for one thing... Still, some men are able to come into her circle of friends. When they do, she'll treat them like she treats all her friends.

Strenghts:
-Toama is a decent archer. She can hit a stationary object from a few peds away, up to fifteen peds if she's in good shape, although in that case she wouldn't hit it dead center. For a moving object, she needs to be a few peds closer by. She rarely participates in tournaments, knowing that she cannot compare to the best. With this skill, she is able to hunt for food. Seated on a horse she is still a fairly decent shot, although not as good as when she's standing with both feet on the ground.

-She is also quite proficient with a scimitar, which is her preferred weapon. She has trained with it since her Gorda'ta. She can hold her own in a fair fight, certainly when she's fighting against the sort of common thug that is attracted to the easy prey of a caravan. She used to be able to fight with both hands, but this has become impossible since she lost two fingers on her left hand.

-With her self-assured attitude, Toama is confident of her place in life. She always feels that she will find a solution to every problem, and she is not easily confused or scared. She knows when she’s going too far in any situation, and can stop doing it, whatever it is.

-Her obviously caring nature helps her in making friends, even if she's made a wrong first impression because of her speech patterns.

-Toama has spent almost all her life travelling, first with her tribe and later alone. This has made her a decent cook. She'll never prepare culinary wonders, but she can keep herself and others she travels with reasonably fed.

Weaknesses:
-During one fight while she was still with her tribe, the Sor'Inyt lost the ring and little finger of her left hand. Since then, she can't use that hand to fight anymore, and in every day life it is hard for her to grab anything. She has taught herself to still use her bow, but she can't hold it still for very long, because she has to hold it without her full hand.

-Having spent but a year in southern Sarvonia, she is not at all proficient with Tharian. She hired someone to teach her the basics of the language, but it's still at times hard for her to make herself completely understood. She often involuntarily offends people by the wrong use of words. Dishonest merchants are often able to scam her because of her poor knowledge of the language.

History:
Toama was born on a very hot day in the Aeruillin desert. She spent the first years of her life with the Tor'iti in the O'pit. She learned the things that all Sor'inyt girls had to know - some basic fighting, cooking, ... - the necessities for survival in the desert. In those years she didn't feel very close to her mother, who was a Rash'ida and as such not often in the O'pit. The other girls sometimes teased her, as they did everyone, but in general she had a good relationship with them. She really felt herself to be part of the tribe thanks to the other girls.

Her first moon-cycle started when she was fourteen years old. The next month, the Sper'itua returned to the village and three days later her Gorda'ta was celebrated. As a profession, she chose to be a Canit'pa, to protect the Sper'itua. So when the Travellers left again to harvest Totit, she went with them. She was trained in the use of the bow, the preferred weapon of the Sand Sisters. She reached a decent level of proficiency, but she didn't really enjoy fighting with this weapon.

That is why she went to the elite warriors of the Sper'itua and asked them to train her in the use of a scimitar. She had seen them fight with it and liked it better than archery. She really liked watching the graceful movements of the women who fought and practiced with the curved sword, and she wanted to be as elegant.

They agreed to train her, although they warned her that it would not be easy. They were right, but the more she practiced with the weapon, the more she liked it. So she kept going, practicing and fighting with the scimitar to the best of her ability. Eventually, she reached the same sort of elegance that the other swordfighters displayed.

During her years with the Sper'itua she grew much closer to her mother than she had been before. Many an evening did they spend chattering, making up for the years that they had missed. Toama could now honestly say that she loved her mother, something she had not been able to get over her lips in the time that she'd only seen her twice a year. It made the bond that she felt with the tribe even stronger. It was also from her mother that she really learned about Foiros. It is from many of these nightly conversations that she keeps her absolute faith in her god.

One day the Rash'ida were gathering Totit and the Canit'pa were practicing fighting techniques nearby, when they were attacked. The fighters spread out and intercepted the enemy, but one of them managed to slip through and reach the Gatherers. He managed to kill one of them before Toama reached him and engaged him in a real fight. Her comparative lack of experience put her at a disadvantage, which she only partly overcame thanks to her ability to use her scimitar with both hands. When her right hand grew tired, she switched, a move that her opponent hadn't expected. However, he quickly brought down his blade in an attempt to recover. It cut deeply into her lower fingers, causing her to drop her blade. She was convinced then that she would die. However, the attack was all but over, and one Sister saw the trouble Toama was in, so that she came to her rescue.

It was then that the Sor'inyt discovered that the Rash'ida killed was her own mother. The shock that the discovery brought about, in combination with the pain in her hand, caused her to faint. When she came to, her hand was bandaged. She still felt all her fingers, but when she looked at it she could clearly see that two of them were missing.

In the following weeks, she healed and mourned. She had been taken to the O'pit so that she could take the time to heal, but as soon as her hand was better she returned to the Travellers. She pushed herself to be as good a scimitar-fighter as she could be. She also taught herself anew to fight with the bow. Instead of holding it normally, she steadied it with the palm of her hand and held it in place with her index and middle finger and thumb. She never reached the same level of archery that she'd had before the fight, mainly because she had to aim and shoot very quickly. Her three remaining fingers weren't strong enough to hold the bow for very long, though after a time they did gain in strength a little to make up for the loss.

When she was twenty years old, she had her first encounter with a man. She'd seen men before when they'd stopped in certain towns and villages, but always from a distance. She knew what the women did when they went into the towns, she had talked about it with her mother, but she hadn't gone with them. This time, however, she did go with the other women. Although a bit nervous, she was mainly excited. She felt her heart beating in her throat.

That feeling multiplied a hundredfold when she spotted a tall, handsome young man that she found rather attractive. She watched how the other Sisters went about it for a while, and decided on the same straightforward approach. The young man was glad enough to be chosen by a Sister. Toama found the experience enjoyable, though not something she'd ever feel an incredible yearning for.

The following years saw her prove herself as a warrior. When she was 23, she received the Wani’toia, the tattoo on her cheeks. She will never forget the pride she felt as the tattoo was drawn. Now she really was part of the tribe, even more so than she'd felt herself to be previously. Little did she know that it would change soon - and by her own choosing.

Not long after she received the tattoo, the Travellers stopped in a town again. For Toama, it resulted in a pregnancy. For the third time in her life, she returned to the O'pit. Six months later - the first three months of her pregnancy she had still been with the Sper'itua - she gave birth. To a baby boy. Her heart was wrenched when they came to take him away as soon as he was born, but she was too much a Sand Sister to object. If he had lived, she would have called him Joshua.

After this, she couldn't settle down in her old life again. Everything reminded her of the child that she would never see grow up. None of the other sisters understood, but in the end, she took the hardest decision she had ever had to make, knowing that she wouldn't be able to forget. She called a meeting with the Wo’di’on and Do’wi’on and publicly stated her desire to leave the tribe. When they reminded her that she could not return, she answered that although she would always remain a Sor'inyt at heart, she would not come back.

In the one day that she was granted, she said goodbye to her friends. They gave her gifts that she would need when travelling alone - things like extra bowstrings, a cooking pot, clothing, and so on. They were sad to see her go, though many shook their heads for her reason. She shrugged her shoulders, though. They could never understand what it was like to give birth to a child just to have him be taken away and killed. They all either hadn't given birth yet or they'd had a baby girl, who was allowed to live. She just said her goodbyes and went.

She made her way to the north of the continent. From there, she took a ship that went even further north, landing at Strata. She crossed the Rahaz-Dath with the help of a Shendar guide. During this time, she still felt at home. As soon as she reached the greener parts of southern Sarvonia, that feeling changed. Everything was very different, not in the least the language. She soon found someone willing to teach her the basics, but even now she is struggeling with it.

It happened a few times that people asked her name. They always seemed to expect something after that. Last names were not usual in her own tribe, but to accomodate the people of her newly adopted homeland, she chose 'Sor'inyt' as her last name, in remembrance of her tribe.

When she is in need of money, she sells her services to those who need it - most often a merchant who hires sellswords to protect his wares, at times a noble who wants a bodyguard while travelling. If they are attacked, she usually has the time to fire one arrow before the thugs reach them, at which point she relies on her scimitar. More often, she uses her bow for hunting than for defending. When her pouch is full again, she travels on her own, or sometimes with a companion who she's met, and who is travelling in the same direction.

Belongings: She has a few possessions, which she stores in Desert's saddlebags. These are her clothes, a bedroll, a cooking pot, a tinderbox, a waterbag, a brush for Desert, and a pouch for her money.

Weapons: Toama has two weapons. One is a bow made of bone, inlaid with a simple design in gold which resembles the tattoos on her cheeks a bit. In fact, she chose the tattoo based on the designs on her bow. The quiver is usually hanging from the saddle of her horse, because she usually needs the bow while riding.

The other weapon is a scimitar. This is her main weapon, and she will use it far more often than the bow. She relies on this curved sword to provide her with money, by selling her skill with it to merchants.

Familiars: She travels on a mare which is the colour of her homeland. She aptly named it 'Desert'. It stands at 16 hands at the withers. The creature is rather docile when she's riding it, but it doesn't accept a different rider. Desert had been her mount while she was with the Sand Sisters, and she took it with her when she left.

Adventures of Caelereth

Archives => Approved Characters 2007 => Topic started by: Toama SorInyt on November 20, 2007, 10:40:17 PM