Ascension of the Drow

🦋 OOC Information

Name: Sugar
Contact: plurk: goddessofsugar, discord: akausa
Age: 30+ club
Other Characters: N/A
Invitation: Invite
Permissions: Permissions

🦋 IC Information

Character Name: Kolnatha Shavval
Age: 70
Canon: Forgotten Realms
Canon Point: 1491 DR
Character History:
Born to a lesser noble house who had long since fallen out of favor of the Spider Queen, life started out hard. Usually in drow traditions a twin birth was celebrated. Was a sign of fertility and power for the Mother Matron. A good omen her house sorely needed. However, no feast was held that night. Once Kolnatha entered the world, her younger brother, Rhyle, followed shortly after. A male. Inferior blood. Blood which she shared with him. It would forever be a dark mark that Koh would carry for the rest of her life. Despite all judgmental stares and foul rumors that circulated about her, Kolnatha was very close to her brother as they grew up. She's heard all the stories about how males paled in comparison to their female counterparts. It was not a sentiment she shared. Rhyle and her were one, equal. Birthed from the same womb. They were connected, a bond so deep that only other twins could understand.

From the moment either of them could walk, they were trained by the blade. Life as a drow living in the Underdark was cruel by most standards of the land above. Most kids her age all they had to worry about were scraped knees and runny noses. Koh went to bed with bruises all over her body and callused hands. One had to learn how to fight and fend for yourself or it could mean death down in the dark. Not just from the vile creatures that called this place their home, but from other rival drow as well. This constant dance for power was one Koh had to learn, though she lacked the tenacity typical of her kin. There had always been a tenderness to her, in the way she spoke and how she held herself. Love and compassion are seen as weakness amongst her people and had no place in the pursuit of ambitions. Again, they blamed the impurity of her birth for these flaws. Her brother was a bad influence on her. No matter how they tried to separate them, they would always find each other, drawn like a magnet. Rhyle was her world, the one thing that kept her grounded. No matter what happened, they would have each other to lean on. That was until they both started to show a tendency to wield magic. Her talent wasn't fully nurtured but Rhyle had a gift. It had caught the attention of another matron and a deal was struck.

Awoken one night drenched in sweat, Koh felt something was wrong. Running to where her brother was kept, she found the room empty. He had been sold to an unnamed matron to an unknown place beyond her reach. It was like a part of her soul was torn from her that night. Their separation was all a part of her matron's devious plan to slice out Kolnatha's perceived weakness as well as gaining more politician power in the sale. Though her plan only half worked. Since the day her brother was taken from her, Koh's resolve hardened. They would not break her. Not with her brother out there lost somewhere. After countless years of trying to reforge her into the blade they wanted to smith, it became clear that no matter how much they hammer her, she was unyielding. So, her Mother Matron devised a plan. To send Koh out on a solo mission in which the stakes were high. A suicide mission. If she refused, her House would kill her or even worse… turn her into a drider. Either way, Koh’s hands were tied. Choosing to flee the Underdark was the toughest decision she had to make. With all its danger, it was her home. And the thought of leaving her brother tore her heart to shreds.
Facing the perils of the Underdark alone took every ounce of her strength and cunning to survive. By the time she clawed her way out of the dark, it was nightfall on the land above. Koh found herself in a dense wooded forest and she thought she heard…. Singing? As a child she had been told horror stories about never following songs at night. But exhausted, if it meant finding help, she would take that risk. Stumbling through the brush Koh found herself in a moonlit glade where the most beautiful drow maiden she had ever seen was dancing naked in the pale light. It was the goddess Eilistraee and from there, she took the lost drow in. For the next few years, Koh would learn to adjust to life on the surface living that the temple. Surrounded by others like her, a new purpose blossomed within her. Before living under the cruel will of the Spider Queen, Koh would not have been one of faith. However, as she learned of the Dark Maiden's teachings something in her stirred. From there, the rest is history. For several years Koh called the monastery her home, learning about the Surface and her new faith. Finding a new purpose under her devotion to Eilistraee, Koh eventually sets off to wander the lands of Faerun in search of leads to find her brother, and to help those in need along the way.
Canon Abilities: Full list of her spells is here.
Inventory:
*Chainmail with blue surcoat
*Engraved Longsword
*Shield
*Venture’s bag with night clothes and one set of normal wear
*Music Box
*Misc Books from her travels

🦋 Personality

Option 1: Answer the following questions. Elaborate on the answer, especially your characters thoughts and feelings surrounding the answer. For Canon Characters, you can choose four questions. For Original Characters, you will need to choose six questions. Keep the word count to 150-400 per question.

1. Has your character always believed in magic? Do they have something influencing their perspective on the supernatural/metaphysical/spiritual from their past? How do they feel about magic?


Koh has always believed in magic. Coming from a world where magic is quite common and her twin brother growing up to show talent to entune himself with the Weave, the pure magical source of her world, how could she not? While not the same as Rhyle, Koh can also use magic through the power of her faith. Koh has a love-hate for the metaphysical-spiritual side of things. Growing up under Lolth, she has seen the darkness that comes through faith under cruel forces. It wasn’t until she fled the Underdark and ran into Eilistraee that she learned that faith can also be healing. Besides all that. Koh loves magic, mostly due to her brother being a wizard. Seeing the joy in his face when he would show her new spells filled her with warmth. That’s why she loves to read texts about magic even if she doesn’t fully understand how to use magic like wizards. It makes her feel close to him.


2. What mythological creature would your character most like to be? Which do they identify with? Which would they dread being? Feel free to use our Bestiary for reference.


If there was one mythological creature that Koh would like to be something with wings. Though not a dragon. She has had a bad run in with them in the past. More in the vane of a pegasus or a griffon. Even though she does have a fear of flight, being able to fly would be different. To her, the idea of flight is freedom. Being trapped underneath the Surface for almost all her life, being able to bask in the sunlight in the sky is the ultimate symbol of freedom. However, if we’re talking about which creature she would relate to the most it would be any creature that people assume to be bad or evil, simply by what they are. Like the giant cave spiders from back home. She’s grown up around spiders all her life and she has seen them used as tools, much like her own people. But also to that point, she would hate to be one. More due to that one of Lolth’s forms that of a half-woman, half-spider and Koh wants nothing to do with the Spider Queen. Being turned into a drider is a common threat aimed at drow who don’t fall in line or are seen as weak.


3. If your character could ask for one wish, and it's going to be magically granted without any consequence, what will it be and why?


No brainer, she would ask to turn back time to the night she lost Rhyle. In drow culture, family ties aren’t strong, as mothers don’t show affection for their children. They are born to serve their House, their Matron, and most of all, the Spider Queen. So Koh and Rhyle were unusual. Growing up, they grew close to one another, not knowing who their mother was. They were the only family each other knew, besides the Matron who led their House. Rhyle was her everything, her rock. But males are seen as lesser in her culture, a belief she never grew to share being his twin, his blood. When they were growing up, she tried her best to protect him from the other females of her House. When he started to show that he could use magic, they hid it. But it was found out about his ‘value’ and he was secretly sold to a different House. She would do anything to get her brother back.


4. What song would a siren sing to your character to lure them closer? Why?


Ha! The funny thing is, Koh has sort of done this already. Though not a siren, the goddess Eilistraee is known for luring lost drow through song to lead them back to the light. Which is why there are drow bedtime stories warning little drowlings to never follow singing at night under the moon. This is how Koh stumbled upon her. So, if a real siren was singing a song to lure Koh, its message would be one of hope. Or a song of finding something that has been long since lost after a long journey. Two things that she actively holds dear. What drives her forward is hope, hope that she can make a difference, to help her people, to find Rhyle. If they really wanted to be cruel, whisper promises that they had found her brother. If there was even a sliver of a chance she would find him, she would chase it.


5. If there's one person your character would follow to another realm, who would it be and why? If there's no one, state that and explain why.


There would be two people that she would follow into another realm without question. First one would be her twin Rhyle. If it's not clear by now, Koh shares a deep love for her brother. He is the only living soul that she considers her family. The one bright spot in her life when she was living in the Underdark. When he was sold, her light was stolen. If she ever finds him again, even if it was a trick of the light, Koh would blindly follow anything that looks like him. Even if all the nerves in body were screaming ‘it's a trap’, there will always be a part of her holding on to hope that it was real. It wouldn’t matter where it was taking them, as long as they were back together. The other one would be her goddess Eilistraee. Koh believes wholeheartedly in Eilistraee’s vision to free her people from her mother’s grasp, Lolth. In all her years following the Dark Maiden, she has never led her astray. If she was going to a different realm, she would follow with an open heart.


6. Your character gets to return home, but when they do they learn that they've been gone for hundreds of years. How do they react?

Oh man, if she returned back to Faerun to find out that hundreds of years had gone by? Koh would be beside herself. Even though her kin are long lived, much like the elven relatives, it is rare to see drow above the age of 300 due to their brutal lifestyle. Her thoughts would go to Rhyle. She is a young drow, only being 70, but she has been torn away from him at the age of 18. If by some miracle that it was still alive, would he be the same? Would he be alive? Would they have broken him to the point where he wouldn’t even know her? Already she bears the guilt of not being able to find him when she was there. Took her around 50 years to get out of the Underdark. And even when she was free, she couldn’t search for him right away. She needed to adjust to life on the Surface. So knowing that all that time he has been alone and is most likely dead… I think this would be the thing that would completely shatter her hope. She wouldn’t know what to do with herself. She would be a hollowed out husk.

Option 2: You may instead choose words from the following list to expand upon as your personality section. Elaborate on what this word means to your character, specifically their thoughts about it. For Canon Characters, you can choose five words. For Original Characters, you will need to choose seven words. Keep the word count to 100-300 per choice.

• Green

To Koh, green was once a foreign color, absent in the Underdark’s cold palette of slate. Or at least the various different shades of greens that didn’t come from the glowing fungi. It was the hue only read about in stories. Green is that of forests that danced in sunlight of the Surface sun. The first time she saw it, truly saw it, the moss beneath her bare feet, the trembling leaves overhead, it felt like breathing for the first time in that moonlit glade. Green is not just a color to her. It was the start of something new. Something fresh.

• Friendly

To be friendly, for Koh, is not a tactic. It is an offering. A soft hand extended in a world that had taught her to be cold and suspicious. In the Underdark, friendliness was used as a mask for manipulation. Showing any compassion was seen as weakness. Those foolish enough to fall for it were easy targets. WHich she almost fell prey to once right after she lost Rhyle. For a while, she hardened her heart, trusting no one. But on the surface, she learned it could be genuine. That she could allow herself to be warm and inviting. After she joined the church of Eilistraee, she uses her friendliness to rebuild burnt bridges her kin have made. To be the perfect example of what her Sisters and Brothers could be.

• Dance

To dance is a sacred act for a cleric of Eilistraee. She is the goddess of song and dance. Dancing is how Koh communes with her Dark Maiden. Every night she dances as a form of prayer, regailing her goddess with the day’s events in song. Often, you will find Koh dancing barefoot under the moon in a nice wooded grove. Not only is it important to her on a spiritual level, but as a form of self expression. In the Underdark, she had to hide much of herself in self preservation. Things like music and dance, the arts, her culture does not have. Also dance is a core principle of Eilistraee’s teaching to spread joy to the other races. So she might drag others to dance with her.

• Pride

Pride is one drow trait she heiritied from the Underdark. Though her pride was gentler, rooted in survival, in choice. She had chosen compassion in a world that worshipped cruelty. Pride is the soft lift of her chin when she sings Eilistraee’s hymns in a land that once feared her kind. That pride that made her tattoo her face to show her devotion to the Dark Maiden knowing it would forever brand her as a traitor to her kind. It is the steady strength in her spine as she faced Surface prejudice with patience. Her pride is knowing who she is, not in spite of her past, but because of how fiercely she rose from it.

• Sin

As much as she tries to be a model drow, she is not without sin. In the Underdark, sin was obedience to the wrong god. In the pursuit to stay alive, Koh has done things that she is not proud of. Things she tries not to speak of, to keep hidden. Things that went against her beliefs. She carries those sins with her, to never let herself forget. They fuel her to do good, to undo some of the pain she helped put into the world. She believes in redemption because she has to. Because sin, to her, it is not the end. It is a place where healing has to begin.

• Child

Koh never really had a chance to be a child. In the Underdark, childhood was brief and brutal. There were no lullabies sung by caring mothers, no play, only the sharpening of instinct and obedience to Lolth. Yet sometimes, the soft grip of Rhyle’s small hand in hers, she would hum a soft song when no one was listening. On the surface, she often watches children run barefoot through fields, laughing without fear, and something in her aches. Not out of envy, but with quiet yearning for what might have been, for what she wished she could have with Rhyle when they were little. But now, she can fight for the chance for future drow children, to give them a brighter tomorrow. She can help build a world where they might never have to learn what she had.

• Flower

The first flower Koh ever touched was already wilting. Its petals were curled and its color was fading but it was beautiful all the same. Fragile, yes, but strong in its softness. In the Underdark, there were no flowers. Only fungus that fed on rot, though eerily beautiful in their own right. But also dangerous. On the Surface, Koh started to see herself in them. Not in the delicate kind that wilted at first frost, but in the wildflowers that grew through stone. The hardy ones that fought to survive in the hardest of places. A symbol of new growth, even in the harshest of places.

🦋 Fae Court

List your top three choices for your characters adoptive court. The mods will choose the one out of those three options that seems the most fitting based on your app.

• Summer Court


• Autumn Court


• Spring Court

Ability: Do you want your character to gain the ability of their court? (Delete the other two options.)
1) No, they will retain their canon abilities.

🦋 RP Samples

Samples