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Original: Yes
Origin: N/A
Race/Nationality: Centaur
Age: 21
Height: 2.21 metres
Weight: 493 kilogrammes
Appearance: A beautiful kentauride, even including her horse part, not only within her own race but even through the perspectives of other races, perhaps even approaching that of female elves, and has an almost wild, un-tamable quality. The horse part of her is built like a light riding mare, large and strong enough to support a rider, the colouring of her fur is a brown, like a bay or chestnut, with a glistening golden tint. Her tail is unusually long, but not unheard of, for a centaur, going down to her hooves and has long, black fur. The human part of her has quite light (Mediterranean) skin and is well endowed. Her hair is black, the same colour as her tail, glossy and long enough that it goes down to her lower shoulders. The way she moves has such elegance and grace that she makes being a centaur look natural.
Strengths: Taught in different forms of archery, and is skilled with both the longbow and crossbow. Highly intelligent and educated, and has a strong sense of curiosity. She can run fast for a centaur, and her gallop rivals that of some horses. Like most centaurs, she is friendly, trusting and loyal, and has a strong horse kick. Unlike most centaurs, she may let someone mount and ride her like a horse.
Weaknesses: Proud of herself for being a centaur, to the extent that she looks down on other races, particularly humans, and often pities them for not being centaurs, although she won't go as far as act violently towards them. She is far too trusting, and is friendly to those who would be enemies. Sometimes unaware of how large her body is, and will often try to fit in places that are too small for her. Finds places that are built smaller than centaur dimensions to be claustrophobic, and has a problem with crowds. She is mostly non violent, the archery was mostly for sport. Can sometimes be naive, and too much of a dreamer.
Bio: During the time of chaos after the fall of the Kinaari Empire, a young centaur, named Eutropios, already a renowned intellectual, returned to his homeland, a largely rural area in Tindar, in the Trohar Grasslands. Previously, he had travelled throughout the former empire, working as an advisor on the courts of many different local rulers, but after the collapse his homeland was one of the few places that had relative stability.
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As many new countries were formed during this time, many centaurs felt they should have a more important role in the world, perhaps considered even one of the civilised races, and began to have many gatherings to plan for the future of their race. Eutropios was one of them. Most of what they planned was kept in secret, but one thing they decided was to turn their main settlement, into a centre of art and learning. This settlement, originated as a trading post along an important route now linking Tindar with the countries of Golar and Kvot, which grew into their only major settlement. Eutropios agreed to be a part and began work on several projects, among them a book detailing the centaur race.
To concentrate on his work, he moved to a new stable close to the wilderness on the border. This home could be considered an idyllic villa by other races, surrounded by vast plains and grasslands among gently rolling hills, far from any settlements, with a stream running through coming from a nearly lush, green woodland.
After several years, a young, beautiful wild kentauride, lost and alone, came to the lands near his home. At first, she remained at a distance, but over time slowly approached the young stallion. Originally it was curiosity, but later she started to become affectionate of him, and tried to spend time with him. Like most wild centaurs, she couldn't speak, but did try to find ways to show her affection. Eutropios at first did try to resist, trying to concentrate on his many projects, but at the end he fell for her. After spending several months together, mostly in secret from the herd, they conceived a child, and later she gave birth to a daughter. Not long after the daughter was weaned, the kentauride's herd came for her, and the mother couldn't stay behind. Eutropios was left with the daughter, and he named her Sophia.
Sophia never found out much about her mother, and Eutropios would rarely mention her, mostly trying to concentrate on his projects again. To him it seems that Sophia had inherited her mother's beauty, and even some of her wildness. It seemed initially that Sophia was an unwanted centaur girl. Although while Sophia was still young, Eutropios would spend most of his time with her, almost as soon as she was confident at reading her father returned to his projects, and any time spent with Sophia was more of acting as a teacher than a father. The projects, for the most part, were done in private, keeping them secret from Sophia.
Fortunately for her there was a lot of space around the house to roam around in. Although there was a limit, she was mostly left to wander the fields surrounding the home, including the nearly woodland. She loved running through the long grass, developing a fast gallop over time, splashing about in the stream and even trotting through the woods. Her father, however, preferred that she would spend more time inside, reading in the library within the home.
The library of the house contained many books that Eutropios collected over the years, including a couple that he wrote over the years. Several of them contained stories of the history and deeds of centaurs, often used as research for his definitive work on centaurs, and were the ones that he wanted Sophia to read. However, as Sophia was mostly learning about her race from her father, especially talking about their greatness compared to other races, and through this Sophia had inherited a strong sense of pride for her race from him, but not quite as strong. The books in the library that interested Sophia were stories of adventure, exploration in strange lands and romance. After reading these stories Sophia would go outside and imagine that she is a part of the story, often acting out scenes as her favourite characters, or sometimes as how she imagined herself if she was in the story. Eventually she would make up her own stories of adventure, and act them outside, usually in the woods that she began to love and spend more of her time within. Later she took up archery, inspired by the stories that she read. It was taken up as a sport, firing at targets from both a distance and while galloping, and from reading in her books, made her own longbow. She never intended to use her longbow for combat or even hunting, only for target shooting. If she ever needed to defend herself, she began to develop her kick, both with her front legs and her hind legs. Eutropios never took an interest in her activities, unless it involves something he taught her, or if it's a good example of centaur behaviour.
Being in the woods did help Sophia learn that perhaps centaurs aren't as great as her father made them out to be. Spending time there helped to make her more agile than a regular centaur, but learned through trying things like climbing and trying to fit through small gaps that, despite what her father thinks, other races could do things that a centaur will find hard.
Growing up at the home, most of the time it was just her and Eutropios, and as she got older he spent more time on his projects. Sometimes, usually once a month, a visitor may come to the home. These visitors were usually post couriers, carrying a letter or package for Eutropios. They were not always a courier, but always something to do with him, like an emissary from someone's court asking to employ him as an advisor, or one of his acquaintances. These guests were a curiosity to the growing Sophia. Like his work, any discussions between them and her father were done in private, away from her, which probably helped fuel her curiosity. Never knowing the reasonings behind their visits, she would often imagine why they came, or if it's a letter of package, what it contained within.
One thing that she never had when growing up was friends. Being by herself most of the time, especially as she got older, she often longed for a companion, or someone to play with. The various guests over the years didn't help, they were much older than her and only concerned with her father, so she wasn't involved with them. She often wondered what it would be like to know someone her own age, or even just other centaurs. Reading her books never helped. Many of the books, that she read dealt with centaurs and their culture, including traditions, sports and festivals. All it did was make her want to join in and meet other centaurs more.
She often wanted to visit a centaur settlement to meet other centaurs. Her father never let her, even though he would often promise to take her. This did seem strange to the growing Sophia, considering how much her father thought of their race. and began wandering what other reasons there are for not letting her visit any settlements, even the small ones. She wasn't allowed to travel far from the home. All of the lands that belonged to her father's home she could roam, including the nearby woodland, but she wasn't allowed to go any further. Her father never left the home, any important business went to him Maybe her father never liked to travel, despite that it seemed like a centaur thing to travel.
Most of her childhood was spent by herself, with Eutropios' primary role as a teacher and then as a father. She grew up to become a beautiful kentauride, often dreaming in some sort of romantic adventure or as a wild kentauride living in the woods. As time passed the visitors began to change, maybe because of more peaceful times. At first the visitors were centaurs, but as the years passed people from other races came to visit. Before these new guests came to visit Sophia only encountered other races when reading about them in books, or what Eutropios told her about them. From his descriptions she expected them to be lesser creatures,
The first non centaur visitor was a human, an envoy coming from a the court in Wesorte, who came riding on a horse. At first from a distance Sophia though she saw another centaur, but as he came closer she could see he was a human rider on a horse. She read about humans in books, but never expected to see one, thinking that the existence of other races was almost a fantasy. The previous centaur visitors she mostly left alone, but this with this new human visitor, being of a different race, was a curiosity to her and wanted to know more about his kind. The human was surprised when he first saw Sophia, wondering how a centaur could have such beauty and grace and look so natural. Even though his purpose there was because of Eutropios, Sophia attempted to talk with the human after visiting her father to find out more about them and the outside world. Although he was told by her father not to say his reasonings for coming, he did try to describe his kind as much as he could, the land where he came from and his travels. One thing she found interesting was the horse. Centaurs do feel a certain closeness to horses, perhaps closer to any other creature. Sophia was fascinated by them, but unusually for a centaur, wondering what it would be like to carry a rider on her back like a horse would. The human guest didn't stay for long, less than a day before returning to his homeland.
Most of the guests were still centaurs, but as time passed an increasing number of them were of different races, usually human but even individuals of rarely seen races came to see Eutropios. Sophia would ask some of them about themselves and where they came from, especially if they're from a race she hasn't encountered before. It seems like she has inherited some of her father's pride for their race, not necessarily feeling superior, but feeling sorry for them for not being a centaur. One race that she found more interesting than others was the satyr race, as they appeared to be closer to centaurs, although not as close in her mind as horses, and liked their pointy horse ears. Many of the visitors often commented about Sophia to her father, usually about her appearance and behaviour. An occasional one will question why Eutropios decided to keep Sophia isolated from others in a remote land.
Not every visitor did talk to Sophia, as she was spending an increasing amount of time outside, running through the fields surrounding the home, and inside the woods. She often dreamed of herself being a wild kentauride, or at least in a more romantic form, and began to behave more like one. While in the woods she would try to frolic with the other animals, often feeling that she herself is one. She liked spending time with the animals of the woods, and believed the animals thought the same about her. Occasionally she wanted to sleep in the woods, but her father wouldn't allow it.
Eutropios didn't like that she was beginning to behave more like a wild kentauride, probably thinking she inherited more from her mother than he thought previously. He expected her to follow a path similar to his own, involving a need for a high intelligence and what a good example of what a centaur should be like, and believed that centaurs have gone beyond their wild origins. Despite what he thought he never did intervene with what she did, only limiting the extent that she could roam, and spent most of his time on his projects.
There was one unexpected surprise awaiting Sophia in the woods. By the time she was out of her mid teens teens she had explored all of the fields and the woods of her father's home and thought she knew every corner of it. However, one time while playing by herself in the woods, something unexpected happened. Within the woods there is a pool fed by a waterfall and flows into the stream, and Sophia often bathes in the pool. This time, while bathing in the pool, she was greeted by a shadow elf.
Being greeted shocked her, especially while in the pool. She never expected anyone else to be in the woods. From what she knew about shadow elves, he could've been living in the woods for years, hidden out of sight. Why he didn't introduce himself before she didn't know. Although still young by elf standards, she guessed him to be probably much older than her father, and the elf never spoke of his age. The elf never said much about himself, only that his name is Valandil, and that he watched Sophia enter the woods over the years. He never said anything about why he lived in the woods or his occupation, although Sophia guessed he might be some kind of trapper or a thief, and seemed to be planning something for a long time. She never told her father about Valandil.
Over the next few years she began to see more of this elf. At first Valandil kept to himself, seeming to plan something. As they saw more of each other Valandil began to open himself to Sophia, accompanying her wherever she came into the woods, and it led to her first friendship, or at least as she thought. She was already quite skilled at using the longbow, but Valandil began to teach her how to use a crossbow, including how to make one of her own. Valandil never spoke of himself much, but did speak of his many adventures he had throughout the different lands. He seemed like someone from the stories that Sophia read when she was younger, and she did like hearing about them. Sophia told Valandil of her desires to go on adventures, and to live in the woods as a wild kentauride. She even told him about how she wanted to know what it's like to carry someone on her back like a horse, and wondered if he would try. Valandil, thinking of it as a strange request, agreed, and at first it was awkward, Sophia enjoyed having a rider on her back, and wondered why most centaurs don't let riders mount them.
By the time she reached the age of 21, Sophia spent more time in the woods and try to get closer to Valandil, and when travelling through the woods together, he would ride on Sophia. He told Sophia that she should leave her father and go off on some adventure, like in the stories she read. Sophia was unsure if she could leave her home she lived in all her life, despite wanting to explore the outside world, because of what her father would think of it. She asked Valandil if he was going on an adventure, and that she could join him. All Valandil said was that he had be planning something and that he wasn't finished yet. That night, Valandil managed to convince Sophia to sleep in the woods. It was something she wanted to do for a long time, and now that there was someone else with her that she can trust, felt she could finally do it.
When she woke up the next morning, she found herself alone in the woods. Valandil had disappeared. After searching the woods for him it seemed he finally left the woods, possibly finishing whatever he was planning. After spending a while by herself in the woods, Sophia returned to her father's home. To her surprise she found that Eutropios wasn't there. His study was empty, nothing of what he worked on all of those years, except for a note. The note never revealed much, not even where he went or what happened to his projects, but it told her that the stable now belonged to her and there would be no more visitors to see him. Now without her father, but curious as to what happened to him and Valandil, it seemed she can finally leave and explore the world.
Edited by Chukchi Husky, 06 February 2009 - 05:54 PM.
