Description
Jibril Johan Sameh stands tall, maybe six feet, but is lithe with the muscles of a marathon runner. He has the presence of a boy waiting to be noticed dressed in a man’s clothes. There is some ancient rust coloured tattoo on his forehead barely legible.
It’s as though someone made a full sized doll in the likeness of an elf and stuffed it sparingly with straw. His long beige hair is like straw. His eyes are too small and dark to show off the glamour of the elven people. This doesn’t so much make him look ugly as it offends people’s expectation of what an elf should be. He looks like an elf … with the magic turned off.
He wears poor threads that are well fitted. Perhaps they were worth something once but now they are torn and unimpressive - isn’t it funny how that tear in his cloak is the size and shape of a bear’s claw? Over the torn cloak things are tied to his body … a clinking pouch, what looks like a curved rod ending in a sheath, a small leather roll, a large leather roll and a larger canvas roll.
Two defining life events
1) When Jibril was five his mother, Ealani, woke him early. She didn’t look worried, she looked proud. He dressed, she kissed his head, gave him a tiny copper medallion and walked him outside. Two men were waiting. No, not men, too tall for men, elves. He had never seen an elf before. On their cloaks were elaborately embroidered images of the sun. He left with them and never saw his mother again.
When he arrived he was introduced to a radiant elf - Jibril’s father. An excited group of young elves with tattooed faces welcomed him and offered to give him his elvish tattoo. When they were done he rushed to show his father who looked greatly dismayed. The tattoo was the symbol for ‘wasim’ the elven word for hansom.
2) Jibril had lived with the family tribe of elves for twelve years under the austere eye of his father, Hadthadalim. He discovered that his people are sun worshippers who are learned in the respectful rites of the dead. While out night-hunting with his father, Jibril was attacked by a ghostly elven rider. Hadthadalim saved his son and, after a lengthy battle, ‘becalmed’ the spirit he latter called a revenant. Within seven days Hadthadalim grew colder and colder until was gone.
The tribe saw this a terrible omen and banished Jibril. He has been on his own for the last twelve years trying to join groups of travellers and surviving off of the wild.
Three quirks
When Jibril is unconfident, embarrassed or unsure he grabs the straw like hair above his forehead. He is unconsciously hiding his tattoo.
Jibril will talk/introduce himself to peoples pets before he talks to the owners.
Jibril often forgets to tell people what he is thinking and assumes that they ‘just know’.
Three people tied to Jibril
Related: Jibril’s uncle (Ealani’s brother) Jaska had been looking in on Jibril through messengers since Jibril started living with his father. Jaska doesn’t know where his sister is and is now worried that he has lost track of Jibril after the banishment.
Friendly: Ri’dwan, Jibril’s father’s best friend, took a chance on teaching Jibril archery and has been the only advisor of Jibril’s youth, aside from his father. He helped Jibril retain some of his father’s things - now part altered to suite him or sold to pay for the entry fee.
Unfriendly: The tribe of his father are deeply suspicious of him - especially the leading council of the tribe - and, of that, especially the son of the tribal lore keeper.
A secret known to Jibril
Jibril discovered a worn ballot for The Game amongst Ri’dwan’s things. His father’s best friend was once a contestant but hid it.
A secret unknown to Jibril
Jibril’s last name is not his family name but another given name chosen by his mother. It is also his father’s ‘taboo’ name, a name chosen by an elf at the age of adulthood and only told to the most intimate of friends. Hadthadalim’s best friend, Ri’dwan, also knows it.
Jibril’s main goal in entering The Great Game
He thinks he is joining The Game to make a name for himself and to show the elves that rejected him that he is somebody but really he is looking for connections, friends, a surrogate family.
