About Alivia, the Sapphire SorceressAlivia Granuaile (lvl 2)
Astrolabe
Background Summary
After that her mother took Alivia back to the city, to live with her mother's parents. There, her mother met a merchant, and they were married. Alivia grew up in her step-father's house. She's manifested sorcerer powers like her father and she's trained to be a sea witch. On the cusp of manifesting her witch powers, she is travelling to Port Peril to seek her patron and finally become a full witch. Her second purpose is to explore her family's history and her pirate heritage. She's descended from a long line of sea witches and one of her ancestors, Grace Granuaile, was a famous pirate queen. The real life Grace O'Malley (aka Granuaile) Personality Summary
Background Story
Wreathed in the comforting lavender smell of mama's perfume, I smiled as my eyes closed and I murmured, "I love this story mama. Especially the part where you and papa fought the..." "Hush child," mama admonished, "we have a long way to go before that part..." The ship crashed into a particularly nasty wave and jostled me out of my drowsing reverie, eliciting yelps of surprise and pain from the other passengers. Outside, the stormy winds howled and the rain lashed the ship, while I again wished I was snuggled up in that big, comfy chair near the fire back home, rather than being slowly battered to a pulp in this cold, wet, drafty ship foundering in the waves on the way to Port Peril. I fingered the gold astrolabe necklace that now hung around my neck and wondered if mother was right and I'd find what I was looking for in Port Peril. My brown, leather bag sat on the sea stained wooden dock, the smell of rotten fish and seaweed assaulted my nose while seagulls cried and swooped around the ships nearby trying to pluck a meager meal from wherever they could steal it. Mother fussed over me and brushed my long golden blond hair away from my face as I waited to board the ship. A few large raindrops splattered down on the dock and made wet splashes with ephemeral ripples in the water. "I have something for you my precious jewel," mother looked up at me, took the golden necklace from around her neck, reached behind my neck, and fastened it. We both looked at it for a moment and a small sigh escaped her lips. "I can't take this, it's yours mother. Grams gave it to you." "Nonsense," mother reproached me, "When I was your age and setting off to look for what I knew was out there for me, my mother gave it to me. And I too didn't want to accept it, but she told me it was tradition for the oldest daughter to take it with her as she went out seeking. Now, it's your turn. I've seen it when I look into the future, you'll find it by going to Port Peril." A sudden, nearby lightning strike shook me out of my day-dream and briefly illuminated the interior of the crampt, wet cabin in stark, lurid detail. The long, taciturn face of the merchant sitting across from me was outlined in deep, dark shadows and bright, white relief. His dark eyes were barely visible except as tiny glimmers in the inky, black hollows. It made his face look lke a skeleton's. A skeleton, however, looked happier than this man, whose long, glum face reminded me of my father. Father was taciturn and dark, a stark contrast to my vague memories of papa, a tall, blond, eternally laughing elf. Father's eyes were inky black with a glimmer, while papa's were like mine, sparkling blue and faceted like sapphires. I didn't have too many memories of him, he went away while I was little. After that mother and I moved back to the city, with grams and pop-pop, wandering in the wilds was no longer a place to raise a small child. Mother married Father and we moved into his large, stone house near the docks. The day I went through the large, iron-bound doors for the first time, mother announced we were home. I didn't speak to her for days, angry that she betrayed papa by marrying this dour man. I was angry at father for trying to replace papa and I refused to call him father for a long time. I began to wear dark clothes, write morbid poetry, and rebel at every turn; anger was my constant companion. I even tried to dye my blond hair black, but for some reason, it quickly turned blond again. Once, I purchased a minor potion to change hair color from a merchant in the market, and that failed as well. The ship plunged into another mountainous wave, we all cried out in surprise again. Across from me, the woman in the expensive blue dress dropped her bag on the floor, its contents spilling all over the floor and in the dark, unseen valuables rolled noisily into every nook and cranny. She muttered a few choice expletives a woman of her evident breeding shouldn't even know and began to feel around on the floor, gathering her valuables back into her bag. "Here, let me help with that," I volunteered. I blew into my cupped palm and a ball of light welled up in it, Hanging it in the air, I could see the other passenger's eyes go slightly wide as their looks at me turned wary. As we put the last bauble from the floor back into her bag, she smiled at me, "Thank you so much, I appreciate all the help and I can't imagine we would have found everything without your light," The first time I made light in my palm, I ran throughout the house calling to mother excited to show her what I could do. When I showed her, I almost missed the look in her eyes because I was so happy I could do magic. Fear, concern, and finally sadness flickered across her face before she regained control and smiled at me, "It seems you have quite the talent, I should start teaching you how to harness and channel it. We start tomorrow." After that, every day mother and I worked together, she taught while I avidly tried to soak up every last word. My magic was the best thing that happened to our family, or rather, to me. Mother and I grew very close, all my anger at her over papa drained away as she told me I'd inherited his natural talent for magic and she would help me control it. Father too was very happy for me and asked everyday to see what new trick I'd learned. The first time I saw him smile, it was tinged with pride as he saw me cast that first spell for him. Slowly, we grew closer as I came to realize he wasn't a horrible, glum man preying on my mother and that he didn't want to replace papa. When my powers continued to grow, mother told me about papa's powers and his natural talent. Stories I'd never heard before about him and mother, their adventures, and eventually the incidents. I learned that his talents came tinged with problems - his family was incredibly talented with magic, but the magic came tinged with madness. Mother told me she started to teach me her form of magic in the hopes that the control it provided would counterbalance the turmoil that papa's magic would cause. My journey to Port Peril, my mother assured me, would provide the last keys to fully awaken the powers she'd been teaching me. |
