Rhiannon Silverflame
It's kind of like this: as a child, you're unreasonably afraid of the monster under the bed. There is no monster under the bed. But you're afraid there *might* be. The wild regions outside the city "pick up" on this fear, and depending on how strong the local reality perception is and how well-grounded and well-protected your city is, something happens. Bed-monsters might appear outside the city walls. The wild regions might start to look like your bedroom. In an old, well-established city, not much happens; it takes a really strong fear idea for something to change there. But in, say, a newly colonized area, or somewhere where no one has a very clear idea of what constitutes "reality," you might start getting actual monsters under your actual bed. So weird things happen near wild regions: arachnophobic people cause giant spiders to eat down the walls, people like me cause orbs of red light to fly through the streets at night, reigning destruction (I have this odd phobia of red lights. Don't ask) and the like.
Anyway, Rhiannon's job is to protect the city-state from this sort of odd thing. She's mainly a warrior, and her job lies in actually fighting these things off, as well as defending against any remnants of the forces of evil. Other members of the guard, however, include mages, artificers, healers, and even something like psychologists - since monsters are born from fear, understanding peoples' fears and being able to stop them is a useful skill.
As a member of this elite guard, Rhiannon's weapon is something more than an object, but less than a sentient being. It's something known as a spirit-bonded weapon, or simply a spirit-bond. It's a powerful magic weapon that is bonded to its owner in a magical ceremony. The bond cannot be broken except by the warrior's death. The weapons are shaped by the conscious and unconscious thoughts of their wielder. Rhiannon's weapon is known as Silverflame, from which she takes her name as is the custom after being bonded to such a weapon. The weapons sometimes seem to have "a mind of their own," warning their wielders or doing something the wielder didn't expect, although whether these weapons can really "think" or whether they are simply responding to unconscious, unrealized thoughts or intuitions of the wielder is still under debate. They are made from moon-forged silver, and can take any shape.
The bond has some interesting consequences. Rhiannon can physically feel everything that happens to Silverflame. Since weapons are intended to be used as, well, weapons, using Silverflame as a sword doesn't hurt Rhiannon. But if the sword were to come in contact with iron, Rhiannon would get burned (iron counters magic). If the sword were somehow destroyed, Rhiannon would very likely die. If someone else holds Silverflame, Rhiannon cannot act against that person's will. Fortunately, it's impossible to take a spiritbond without the wielder's consent. Anyone who tried would probably end up dead.
Rhiannon usually wears Silverflame as a vambrace when not it use, or as a bracelet or other piece of jewelry when she's trying to be inconspicuous. In battle, Silverflame generally takes the form of a sword, sometimes surrounded by an aura of silver flames if Rhiannon's particularly angry. It can be other things, such as a bow (although Rhiannon's not much of an archer) but it can only be one thing at a time and can't separate itself. For example, it can be a rapier *or* a dagger, but not both, so if you fight with two weapons, you'd better get the second one yourself. It can be a bow, but it can't produce arrows.
At about 500 years old, Rhiannon is the average age for an elite guard. She was fairly new at it when an unfortunate accident occurred. During a routine patrol, she and several others were ambushed. Rhiannon, being new and still somewhat insecure about her position, rushed into the situation and was caught in a trap. Her partners were victorious, but at the battle's end, Rhiannon was nowhere to be found. After years of searching for her, or at least her body or sword, her disappearance was declare an unsolved and unsolvable mystery. Since Silverflame never returned to the armory, as spiritbonds do when their wielders die, the optimists assumed she was still alive somewhere. The pessimists assumed that Silverflame had been destroyed or had discorporated with Rhiannon's death, as spiritbonds tend to do after they've had ten to fifteen owners.
In reality, Rhiannon had been trapped inside an unfinished spell that was supposed to create some kind of gate--precisely what, she never discovered, as the sorcerer casting it was killed. With both "ends" of the gate blocked off, Rhiannon was trapped inside forever. But since she was in an interrupted state, she did not experience the passage of time. A fortunate occurrance, since it was several millenia later that she was finally released. The fact that she survived at all is a complete fluke, and probably not possible to duplicate.
Personality traits:
Physical description: Rhiannon has knee-length silver-blond wavy hair. For her, having long hair is a subtle way of bragging; as a warrior, having long hair in a fight is a disadvantage, and by leaving her hair long, she's saying that she doesn't need small advantages. (Of course, that's the kind of attitude that got her thrown out of time for a few millenia...) If she's expecting to be involved in a fight, however, she will put her hair up or braid it to keep it out of her way. She's about 500 years old, and looks about 30-35 in human terms. Her eyes are green, with slit pupils. She wears a dangling crystal earring on her left ear only; the crystal can be used to store spells for later use, since she's not much of a mage herself. For example, she keeps a language translation spell stored in it, which she uses to understand English after meeting Fiona.
Dress: Rhiannon's taste in clothing is a lot like the typical elven fantasy-type stuff, but a little more practical. She rarely wears dresses or skirts unless a formal occasion calls for it: since for most formal occaisions, she can get away with wearing a fancy version of her armor, that's not often.
I don't really like the current design I have for her armor, so I'm working on a new one. ^^
She wears a lot of green or other earth-tones, but more of a bright-green than a foresty, camouflage-ish green. She also wears some silver jewelry; not an excessive amount, more like a few rings, or a simple pendant. Most of it has some magical use, like her earring.
Images:
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