Drathir's Anaren (Moon Dancers)

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Celessarel
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Drathir's Anaren (Moon Dancers)

Post by Celessarel »

[b:2tr8njv1]OT:[/b:2tr8njv1] Celessarel, a young moon elf, came to the temple of Eilistraee to become a servant of the Dancing Maiden. Lymeiara, a priestess, is teaching her the ways of the goddess.

Anyone who wants to join our RPG is welcome to do so. I have only one little request: Please make your character a resident of the temple or its surroundings. It doesn't matter whether you are priestess, acolyte, novice, knight, faithful, or if you have another reason to be there, but your character should have arrived at the temple before the start of the game. It's a bit difficult to roleplay daily life when we're busy receptioning newcomers to the temple all the time.


[b:2tr8njv1]IT:[/b:2tr8njv1]

"Oh, I'm going to be late again," Hastily, Celessarel rummaged through her things, desperately searching for her writing quill. She knew she had put it somewhere, but that had been before breakfast and those delicious pancakes had wiped everything else from her mind.

She grapped her small leather pouch and stood up from the breakfast table. Outside it was a sunny, but chilly October morning, the ground covered in colorful leaves from the many trees in the temple courtyard. 'I have to take a walk in the forest later,' she thought, wrapping her warm cloak closer around her and throwing back one of her long braids.

Hopefully the lesson wouldn't take all day. And hopefully, the teacher wouldn't be so strict.

She knew she had a lot to learn. Many of the other young moondancers had lived in the temple all their lives and had already started their training in early childhood. Their mothers were faithful of Eilistraee, some of them priestesses. So, they had a headstart in singing, dancing, cooking, fighting, playing musical instruments and helping at the sacred rituals of the Lady. Celessarel, who was nearing adulthood, had absolutely no idea how she would ever be able to catch up with that.

However, there were others as well. Followers of Eilstraee that had fought their way out of the Underdark to be here. Celessarel had not heard any of their stories firsthand yet, she had only arrived at the temple a few weeks ago.

She crossed the courtyard and entered the other side of the main building, rushing through the hallway and hoping that nobody would catch her running in here. She jumped up the stairs and stopped in front of the last door inside a small tower.

Taking a deep breath, she turned the doorknob.
Last edited by Celessarel on Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Lymeiara
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Post by Lymeiara »

Inside the room, a temple servant put a carafe of water on the little table near the seats.
He filled a glass and looked up, when the dark voice corrected him softly.

"Two glasses today, Darian. I' ll have a guest this morning."
The voice was friendly and filled with warmth.
"Xas, malla Lymeiara!", he answered, following her request immediately.

The priestess, who stood by the window, turned around and gave him a little smile. "Thank you."

After another glance out of the window, she added: "She's a little late."

The next moment, the door opened.
Just for a second, Darian made an attempt to reach for his knife, but a single glance of the priestess made him hold his movement.
"Not in the temple, Darian. There's no danger in here. The Lady will look after her maidens."
Celessarel
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Post by Celessarel »

Celessarel opened the door and peeked nervously around the corner to see a beautiful Ilythiiri woman standing by the window. Her age was difficult to guess, but she seemed to be quite young.

"Usstan tlun taudl, Usstan tlun gajen," Celessarel apologized as she opened the door completely. "I'm sorry, I'm late."

Her tongue still stumbled over the unfamiliar sounds of the Ilythiiri language.
Lymeiara
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Post by Lymeiara »

"Siyo, dos phuul. Doer wun, eldalie dalninil.", the priestess answered. "Yes you are. Come in, elven sister!"

She beckoned to the seats in the middle of the room.
"Darian, if you would excuse us now."

The servant, a young half-drow, nodded and left the room. After the door closed, Lymeiara looked to her elven student.
"Have a seat."
Last edited by Lymeiara on Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Celessarel
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Post by Celessarel »

"Thank you." Celessarel sat down, putting the leather pouch with her things on the table next to her.

"If I may introduce myself, my name's Celessarel. " She gave a small bow to the other woman as it was customary among most elven peoples during formal introductions. "Thanks for teaching me."
Last edited by Celessarel on Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Lymeiara
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Post by Lymeiara »

"Ussta kaas zhah Lymeiara, yatharil d'Eilistraee. Usstan al'doer dos wun lil da'rex d'lil salkin wenress", answered the priestess and gave her student a little smile.
"My name is Lymeiara, priestess of Eilistraee. I welcome you in the arms of the dancing maiden."

She sat in front of Celessarel and looked at her for a few moments.
Her purple eyes were calm and bright.
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Post by Celessarel »

Celessarel's own blue eyes looked curiously at the priestess.

"Pleased to meet you," she answered automatically, though she had to admit that she had understood the sentence only partially. Her De'Shineth was still rudimentary, although it was getting better. Her new friends took every chance to practise with her.

"Would that be allright with you if we do the lesson in Common?" she asked, hoping that it wouldn't be impolite. "It's only... I just started learning De'Shineth a few weeks ago."
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Post by Lymeiara »

"Well, it is , in fact, a difficult language," the priestess acknowledged, "but we'll try to do it mainly in De'Shineth, if you don't understand something, you can still ask me."

She took a little sip of her water and smiled.

"First, I want to get to know you better, Celessarel. Maybe you tell me something about you, your life and your background. I wonder, why a moon elven girl wants to become a yatharil of the dancing maiden."
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Post by Celessarel »

More De'Shineth. Oh well, I should have expected that...

Celessarel sighed. But she knew that Lymeiara was right, she needed to practise the language.

She wondered how much she should tell the priestess about her past. She couldn't possibly talk about everything that had happened in her life, but it wasn't easy to sum up either. Finally she started to talk, trying to speak De'Shineth, but switching back to common whenever she ran out of words.

"Well, as you know, my name is Celessarel. I grew up in the city of Suldanesselar. It's mainly a town of the Sy'Tel'Quessir, the wood elves, but some moon elves live there as well. When I was about sixty, however, we left Suldanesselar and moved to Waterdeep. You see, I have an older sister, Celebara, and she has a talent for magic. But there were only a few mages in Suldenesselar and none of them had the time to take another student. In Waterdeep there was an elven mage who could teach Celebara and we wanted her to be able to develop her talent. That's why we moved."

She paused a little, surprised that she didn't feel the old sting of jealousy anymore. Celebara had always been the talented one, the beautiful one. But now, so much had changed...
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Post by Lymeiara »

"You were jealous of her," Lymeiara added soflty, looking in Celessarel's eyes to see any reaction.
As the moon elven girl looked back confused, she sighed.

"I was once a younger sister, too. I know, how it feels like."
With a gentle smile, she nodded.

"Please... continue..."
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Post by Celessarel »

'There's a lot more to her than meets the eye.' Celessarel thought to herself. The young Drow woman looked so calm and gentle, but she probably had experienced difficult times in her past. The moon elf was curious, but she thought it impolite to ask. Maybe she would find the possibilty to throw in a few questions later.

"You're right, I used to be jealous of her when we were younger. But now I understand that she has her way and I have mine," Celessarel continued. "But to be honest, a fight with my sister was the reason that I ran away from home one night. I ended up walking through an interdimensional portal and had quite the adventure, but let's save that story for another time. When the adventure was over I came home at once and made up with Celebara. We can't really bear being mad at each other for long.

"Anyhow, it wasn't going to stay the only adventure I had. My parents didn't really like the idea of me going out adventuring, but as long as I traveled together with friends they knew and trusted, they permitted it. I made a few travels with my best friend Celiriel and her sister, Glanwen Himmelslied. You might have heard of Glanwen, she's a pretty famous bard, although she's not from Faerûn, she's from Aventuria."
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Post by Lymeiara »

The priestess shook her head.
"I didn't hear that name before. A bard? Interesting. Bards are very fascinating people, they always look pale on first glance, compared with warriors, wizards and priests, but they often know more, than you can ever imagine."
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Post by Celessarel »

Celessarel wholeheartedly agreed with Lymeiara's words. Many of her friends and travelling companions were bards and she hoped that maybe at another time, she could tell her teacher about her adventures with them.

But Lymeiara had asked her why she wanted to become a priestess of Eilistraee and this wasn't very easy to explain. Although there were some surface elves in the service of the dancing maiden it was a rather unusual choice.

"Basically you could say that everything started with dancing," Celessarel began. "As a child in Suldanesselar, I absolutely loved to dance. During my years of adolesence in Waterdeep I didn't dance for years, - there just wasn't any opportunity for it. There were no rituals for Rillifane or Angarradh, the Three in One that I knew of, there was no open space or sky like in the forest - I felt contained within the city walls. I know that Waterdeep is a beautiful place, but it just wasn't my home."

"I rediscovered the joy of singing and dancing when I was on the road with Glanwen and my other bard friends, especially when we spent some time at [url=http://www.airikas-traum.de/:8ig9ehab]Airika's Traum[/url:8ig9ehab] an academy for bards. Some friends of mine, including Glanwen, study and teach at the academy. I visited it only for a few days, but it showed me how the power of music can build a bridge between people. Although I didn't know it at that time, that's exactly what Eilistraee teaches us as well, isn't it?"
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Post by Lymeiara »

The priestess kept silent and listened to the words of her student. As the moon elven girl told about music and bridges between people, she sighed and, just for a second, her eyes filled with pain.
Then she shook her head and smiled again.
"Yes", she added, when Celessarel finished, "that is, what our lady wants us to do."
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Post by Celessarel »

There was a strange look in the eyes of her teacher, but Celessarel couldn't place it. For a moment long it appeared as if Lymeiara was far away.

Then she smiled and everything seemed back to normal.

"It was this summer that I started having those dreams," Celessarel continued. "Usually they began with me dancing on a moonlit clearing in the forest. Or sometimes I was walking through the forest until I reached said clearing and someone invited me to dance with her. She was a stranger to me, but I felt comfortable in her presence. You can imagine how scared I was when after a few months I suddenly discovered that this dancer was an Ilythiir, d drow as I called them back then. "

I wanted to run away, but she spoke to me and I felt an urge to listen to her words, although I didn't understand the reason for this. She said that I had been walking her path and that she felt her spirit within my song and dance. And she also told me her name, Eilistraee. I asked her to explain me all of this because I didn't understand, but all she said was that I had to find out for myself. That was the last time I had this dream. She had told me that I would have to find her in the real world now."

The images of her dream came back to Celessarel's mind as she spoke about it. She rembered everything clearly, the light of the moon on the trees, the fresh smell of the air, and the gentle voice of the woman.

It had been a full moon, in her dreams as well as in reality.
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