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| Jael: not the exact look I was going for, but the old-ish but still strong man in a cloak is somewhere close to what I was thinking. The feathers also tie into an idea that I've been toying with for a while, though they would likely be a cape rather than shoulder ornaments. |
Jael: Kaiya's father. He was once a powerful political figure in Khaios but was driven out by opponents and had to make his way on his own. He was taken in by the village of Secra, where he was initially spurned but later gained respect and garnered a strong following among the local villagers. At his behest, groups of Resistance members and refugees began exploring the ruins of the western canyon city, Shibboleth, and ten years later, the city had been born anew, a haven for Khaios's outcasts and enemies. As news of the city's revival spreads, more and more people flock there from all different cultural backgrounds and climes, a reality that serves as a constant source of conflict and worry for Jael, who serves as one of Shibboleth's nine elected councilors and who sees the success of the city as his personal responsibility.
Jael remains adamantly opposed to the use of the Founder technology and has a general distrust of Technis and Onim technology because his wife (Kaiya's mother) died from injuries sustained during a protest against Khaios's use of the Onim. Jael is driven in part by vengeance, though he has a soft side and a tender place in his heart for the castaways of Khaios and for Shibboleth itself. Jonah at one point catches him high atop the cliffs, pensively gazing out at the vast city, and it becomes clear for Jonah at this point that Jael's fervor is more than just hatred toward the plutocratic oligarchy of Khaios's leaders. It is motivated by a fierce resolve to help the people of Shibboleth live and thrive.
Jael's strengths--his passion and energy--ends up likewise being his weakness, his primary flaw. He is so blinded by his hatred, so caught up in his vengeful machinations, that he fails to foresee the coming invasion of Shibboleth and refuses to heed the warnings of the city's elders and of Jonah, whom Jael sees primarily as an outsider and a meddler.
Essential Faults
Jonah: idealistic, naive
Kaiya: lets pain cloud her vision
Jael: angry, vengeful
Simeon: selfish, amoral, unrestrained
Scout: won't let people in, vengeance
And now time for rant-writing: not pretty, not refined, probably not entirely intelligible
The exodus from Secra should probably take Jonah and Kaiya past Sahd, where they can talk a bit more about the history of the Founders and their eventual fall. Speaking of shadows in the very shadow of the mountain. The Founders invented the Onim as a way to subdue the elements, to control the things that they couldn't control in life. The problem was that over time the Onim came to possess their hearts--they began to see people just as they saw the Onim, as tools to bring about their personal desires and to gratify their vain ambitions. Unable to continue on in unity, some left for the plains, forests, and hills of [Ashmir] to begin life anew--without the Onim. Those who remained in Sahd were unable to settle their differences, so they used the power of the Onim to construct the four great cities, one at point of the compass from the forsaken paradise of Sahd.
It was their hope that by separating themselves, the different bloodlines might preserve some manner of peace among themselves. History would have it that this peace would be but short-lived.
Jonah gazing out over Shibboleth from Jael's lookout. Couldn't understand Jael's love for the dusty city. Feels like an outsider. Doesn't understand people or customs, doesn't fit in. Never thought he would miss the trains of Khaios. Never really thought about them. As he's thinking, he notices a smudge on the horizon. Uses an occulis sphere to magnify and sees that it's soldiers from Khaios. Runs to warn the council of elders.
Jonah has trouble learning Old Tongue and mispronounces certain words (can lighten up a tense situation at some point by having him mess up a word and say something funny). One day wandering around Shibboleth and asks directions from a man standing on the side of road. Jonah mispronounces one of the words, and Kaiya goes to correct him. The man smirks and then begins in Common Tongue. "She just doesn't understand, does she? I thought you might be one of ours when I first saw you, but they told us not to let anyone in without the watch word, and you can't be too safe in things like this. It's just not very often that you see young Khaiosians here. In any case, the meeting is starting soon, so you'd better hurry downstairs." He slid open the heavy door behind him, revealing a stone staircase leading down into the darkness. Jonah and Kaiya started forward toward the passage's entrance. "Woah, there. She's going to have to wait here. Can't risk having any extra ears around with things being so touchy right now."
"She doesn't understand. She won't be any trouble."
"Yeah, but at the end of the day, I'm the one who takes the heat if there are any problems. No way I can let her go in."
"There's gotta be some way... Wait, I can pay you!" He extracted a wad of folded bills from his bag and pressed it into the man's hands. "Three thousand Khaiosian credits, and there won't be any problems." The guard hesitated for a moment and then pocketed the credits.
"Left hand to the wall, then, and follow it 'til you see the light." They stepped down into the dark, and the door slid shut behind them with a resounding thud, plunging them into absolute black.
"Jonah, are you still there?"
"Where would I have gone?" he asked, chuckling.
"I don't know. It's just hard to know you're there when I can't see you."
"Well let's go. Take my hand."
"What's going on?"
etc.
[walking]
"Jonah, did you see that man's hands?"
"What about them?"
"His fingertips, they were stained red. Like a spice trader."
...
They finally see the light, hear voices, at last they step into a low, torch lit room lined on all sides by massive stone blocks. They are in the back of the room, and in the front is a long table at which two of the five chairs are filled, one by a thin man in formal Council attire and the other a ranking Legion Commander whom Jonah recognized from his classes at the Academy. There are thirty or so chairs set up in rows in front of the table, and an audience of Shibboleth traders and merchants as well as Khaiosian businessmen is seated in the rough wooden chairs. The Councilman is speaking: "...is simply not within the scope of this initiative."
Rotund businessman, sweating heavily and, from the look of his attire, obviously from the Uppder Districts of Khaios: "I'll tell you what's not within the scope of this initiative," he spit out. "Nine hundred men! I'm providing nine hundred of my finest Enforcers, and you dare toy with me? I was promised that the mines would be untouched and that I would assume control just as soon as our positions were secured."
"You will have your mines when the time comes, but there are bigger things at stake here, more important matters to concern ourselves with." He looks up at Jonah and Kaiya, his voice floating through the smoke and ringing off of the close walls. "I'm afraid we haven't met before."
Mara's eyes swell in terror as everyone looks back at them. "We have to go, now."
"We're..." Jonah's mind raced to come up with something--anything--that would take the attention off of them and let them slip away. "We're here to deliver a message. To Jabul."
"Jabul the importer of spices?" A flurry of whispers had erupted at the first mention of the name.
"No, Jabul the... the poet."
"There are no poets here, boy. What do you think this is, a book club? You'll have to look elsewhere for this poet Jabul."
"On quiet nights, there is a hill beyond the city wall where I recline in the desert grass and trace the city in the stars."
mistake memory for understanding
The destination of man
Part I: Doubt
Part II: Knowledge
Part III:
Man as tree
Limbs bound to an iron trellis, the foreign flesh of foes grafted on to steal my strength and steal my soul
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