Helena Everlight

About You
Name: Marlee
Age: 15
How did you find us: Google
Rules Password: [Password Accepted ~Cara]

Character Basics
Name: Helena Everlight
Alias(es)/Nickname(s): None
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Race: Human
Status/Title: Apprentice blacksmith + Stable hand
Affiliation: Archenland (Or, since Archenland is currently affiliated with it, Telmar. Basically, wherever Archenland goes, Helena follows.)

Character Appearance
Hair:Dark brown
Eyes:Blue
Distinguishing marks: Nothing worth mentioning
Portrayal: Alexis Bledel

Character Personality
Likes:
   Nature
   Her job(s)
   Mythological creatures ? namely unicorns
   Practicing with her swords
   Her homeland
   Competition
   Exploring
   Good company
   Improving
   Succeeding
   Choices

Dislikes:
   Limitations placed on her by others
   Waiting
   Sudden changes
   Pessimism in others
   Failure
   Impoliteness
   History
   Solitude for long periods of time
   Violent conflict
   Recklessness

Strengths:
   Is an enthusiastic learner
   Is naturally talented/skilled with various tools and equipment
   Has experience/knowledge about caring for animals
   Has adequate skill with the sword
   Has good hand-eye coordination
   Is fiercely loyal

Weaknesses:
   Has little knowledge outside her homeland
   Doesn?t take well to stress or shock
   Easily becomes distracted
   Is impatient
   Worries about others
   No actual combat experience
   Protective of others

General Personality:
Helena is an individual with a need for time to herself every once in a while. Since she works in an environment that can get particularly busy and noisy, it is easy for her to get distracted, which, to the dismay of her family, she is remarkably good at.
Due to this, Helena needs to take regular breaks to refocus herself and relax for a while. Her favorite place to go is to a lake which lies a few miles west of the edge of her town. Helena will often be found lying in the grass watching the clouds, daydreaming, or even napping. Other times, she sits among the rocks on the shore, or on the dock and watches the boats on the horizon. During these moments, Helena does not take well to any interruptions, and will usually respond sourly towards unwanted intruders, beginning with the silent treatment, and progressing onto physically moving away if she continues to feel bothered. She will only break willingly from these moments when she is called back to work by her mother, although it is usually with a sigh that she returns.
   Despite this regular desire for solitude, Helena is not an introverted or cold person, in fact, when she is not in the mood to be alone, she is pleasantly outgoing and sociable.

One of Helena?s most noticeable traits is how motherly she tends to be. The minute she feels close to someone, she begins to care for and worry about them in a fashion reminiscent of a mother. She will likely become protective of the individual, and may have a tendency to become too protective. She does, however, make an effort to control herself, to prevent this from happening.

Helena sticks firmly to her values and beliefs. The things she values most strongly are freedom, loyalty and prosperity. Helena will not easily take part in something which violates her beliefs or values.
   Although she doesn?t always do things the ?proper? way, she will follow rules and guidelines that she agrees with. She is mostly faithful to the rules and guidelines she sets for herself, such as not stealing, respecting those who deserve it, and never settling for a partial effort when performing a task. In summary, Helena tries her best to be a good citizen, while stretching the limits just enough to make room for extra personal freedoms, and to add a touch of adventure in her life.

Helena is an adventurous young woman with a strong spirit. Her life?s dream is to travel to every corner of the land and see unknown and unfamiliar creatures - especially unicorns. She wants to explore many wonders, while gaining interesting skills, and using her talents to their fullest potential along the way. Helena wants to lead a life of adventure and discovery, with rarely a dull moment. She dreams of telling fantastic stories to her family, and showing them unique souvenirs of the places to which she travels. Helena often dreams of this, and of the places she will travel to in the future. She has a complex imagination which she constantly exercises, both in her dreams, and in her everyday life.

Helena is a natural leader. She is a person who much prefers to take matters into her own hands, rather than go along with someone else?s plan. Even when she does agree with someone else?s leadership, she is most comfortable when she is able to express her ideas, and contribute to the situation. In her opinion, one of the worst feelings a person can experience is to be stuck in an unfavourable situation, while being unable to do anything about it. Is a situation where she is a leader, such as teaching local children to ride horses, she is generally understanding, motherly, and just to those under her.

Character History
Parents: Tamyre Everlight (Mother, 49); Nathaniel Everlight (Father, 49)
Siblings: Kieran and Dimitrio (Twin brothers, both 20)

General History: (at least 3 paragraphs)

Prologue to the Past

Nathaniel and Tamyre Everlight were a newly married couple, who made their home in a small town just west of the castle Anvard, in Archenland. They were starting a new life, with the ranch and smithy that Nathaniel had inherited from his father. They were kind pair, who were well thought of in their community for their willingness to help out others, despite their already busy schedules. They made a decent living, but, as many of their neighbours said, deserved far more than what they earned. They were a content couple, satisfied with their home and their jobs, and even their wages.
   If ever Nathaniel was asked about wages or wealth, he always said the same thing:
   ?Were we to be paid highly, I have doubts that we would be so community-minded, or happy for that matter. With our income as it is, we have not the ability to be conceited or selfish, nor can we think that we are any better than our neighbours. And frankly, we find the very concept of an attitude like that to be abhorrent.? He would say with a chuckle. ?We are equal to our neighbours, and we wouldn?t have it any other way.?

The couple rarely complained about any troubles that might have arisen in their land, but rather looked to the future and hoped for better. As Tamyre, the wife, always said, ?Optimism is the ideal route to happiness, for though the pessimist may find much satisfaction in complaining about what is wrong in the world, it is he who misses out on the true happiness that comes from focusing on what is right.? And that is exactly how the couple lived.

Tamyre?s first pregnancy brought she and Nathaniel a pair of lovely twin boys. Kieran came first, and Dimitrio second. He boys were five minutes apart. Both boys had their mother?s blond hair and their father?s bright green eyes. When in public, they were both quite shy and clung to their mother most of the time. Dimitrio, the younger twin, though still clingy, was a tad bit more outgoing than Kieran. When playing with his brother, Dimitrio had a tendency to pick on Kieran at times. Despite this, the boys were inseparable from the start.
   When the boys were three years old, their mother presented them with a beautiful baby sister, Helena. She had her father?s dark, wavy hair, and her mother?s sky blue eyes.

The Games We Played

Growing up with two older brothers was not easy to do, especially since both Kieran and Dimitrio grew out of their clingy, shy stage, and became a pair of mischievous troublemakers. They would constantly play tricks on poor Helena, or make jokes about her whether she was within earshot or not. But from early on, Helena had become remarkably tolerant of her pesky brothers. She found ways to avoid their tricks, sometimes even discovering ways to make them backfire on the boys. She never fell for the same trick twice, which kept the twins busy, always trying to come up with new pranks to play on their sister.

   Despite the twins regularly pestering Helena, the three children did get along famously when they played nicely together. Throughout their early years, the lake near the ranch was the children?s second home; their escape from the bustle of life on the ranch. In spring and autumn, they would frolic in the forest that bordered the shore, and jump off the dock to cool off in the summer. In the winter, they would slide around on the frozen lake, or build snowmen on the shore. There was always something new to do by the lake, something interesting to be discovered, or an unfamiliar area to be explored. The lake provided Helena and the twins with an early sense of wonder and imagination, that perhaps other children could not experience.

In their play, there was always a sense of competition between Helena and her brothers. She was always out to show that she could do everything they could do and more, even though she was a girl. They would engage in mock swordplay with broken branches, always creating characters and scenarios, places and creatures of impossible fantasy. Impossible?or so they thought.

Beginning to Blossom

By the age of nine, Helena had developed an interest in the art of blacksmithing, which happened to be her father?s area of expertise. He eagerly took his daughter under his wing, and began to teach her the basics. Even at her young age, Helena showed potential and natural talent in the area. She was good at working with her hands, a skill which her father put to use quickly by charging her with the duty of setting jewels in the hilts of ceremonial swords that were ordered by noblemen. This was a duty which the young girl thoroughly enjoyed, for she took a plain sword, and made it beautiful. The patterns in each jewel fascinated her, but only for a short while.
   After roughly half an hour of placing jewels into sword hilts, Helena?s father noticed that his daughter would begin to exhibit certain behaviours. She would begin bouncing her knee with evident impatience, or she would look absentmindedly about the room. Sometimes she would even watch with interest as a spider or an ant scurried across the floor. Gradually, it emerged from the unknown depths of Helena?s personality, one of her worst qualities. And it was not long before her parents realized it: that their daughter had a dreadfully short attention span.

After some experimentation, just to make sure that Helena wasn?t simply tiring of her job, Helena?s parents confirmed their daughter?s problem. To help her, Helena?s parents began to change her chores every so often, and gave her regular breaks so that she could relax for a bit and regain her focus. Out of this emerged Helena?s second occupational interest: working in the stables.

Where Dreams Begin

Being a stable hand was something that Helena quite enjoyed. She had much more opportunity to be social when she desired to, since her brothers helped out in the stables, as well. She gained experience in handling and caring for various animals, and was normally in charge of the family?s three horses.

Work in the stables, along with the assistance she gave her father in the smithy was a satisfying, rewarding job that Helena greatly appreciated, but by the age of twelve, she was beginning to desire something more in her life. She wanted to get out and see the world, to travel to places unknown to her and explore different lands. This became her dream.

One fateful night, when Helena was twelve, Helena had put the horses in the barn, had supper with her family, and gone up to bed as was the routine. She was awoken in the middle of the night by strange noises outside her window. Gazing out, Helena couldn?t spot anything unusual, so she quietly slipped outside to investigate more closely.
   She checked in the barn, and found that the youngest of the three horses, the foal, was missing from his pen, the gate of which was wide open. Berating herself, thinking she must not have closed the latch properly, Helena lit a lantern, grabbed a rope from the store room and set out to find the foal.

Having no luck finding him in the farmyard, she reluctantly thought about searching the forest. It was a dangerous place at night, as Helena was well aware from the any stories she had been told. The woods were alive with creatures both familiar and unknown. But, it was her duty to ensure the animals were safe, so taking an old sword from her father?s store room just in case, she strapped it to her belt, and set out into the trees with courage.

When she was just inside the forest, Helena followed a trail of small hoof prints. They led to a clearing, where a stream lay. In the dim moonlight, she could make out a large, dark shape on the bank across from her. As she edged closer, the shape separated into two, and the silhouette of the lost foal emerged. The other shape was that of an adult horse, but something about it was different.
   As the moon fully emerged from the cloud that was hiding it, she could see the colours of the mystery horse. Its silvery coat seemed to shimmer subtly in the moonlight; its hooves appeared as if they were made from metal, and from its forehead, a long, pointed horn extended. She had only ever heard of such creatures in folk lore and fairytales. Surely it couldn?t really exist.

Eager to get a better look, she took a step closer, trying to be silent. But as she set her foot on the ground, it rested on a brittle twig. A sharp snap broke the silence as the twig splintered, and like a deer startled, the great horned horse shot its gaze towards Helena for the briefest moment, then took off swiftly into the woods beyond the clearing.
   Staring after it, frozen with astonishment, she didn?t notice when the foal loped towards her, not startled by his owner?s presence. Feeling him nudge her, she broke out of her trance, and absently tied her rope loosely around the foal?s neck and led him back to his pen, making sure to lock the gate. She did not sleep the rest of the night

This experience was the start of a new fascination to Helena. She poured over books of mythology, and reread childhood fairytales, trying to learn more about the horned horse. Every night, she would sneak away to the clearing, no longer intimidated by the dark forest, and sit for a while, hoping that she would see the creature again. This routine continued for two years, until Helena finally decided that she might have a better chance of seeing it when she was not looking for it. So far, it hasn?t returned since that night.

Only the Beginning of the Adventure

Now that Helena is seventeen, her parents have allowed her to begin living out her dreams of travelling the world. She intends to venture very far, and to have many stories to tell when she returns home. Currently, Helena is staying with some friends of the family in Telmar.
   Her interest in mythology and its creatures hasn?t dwindled a bit since the night she saw the unicorn, and she hopes to encounter many unfamiliar creatures on her journeys. Helena is determined to discover more about the world that she now knows is not just made up in fairy tales.

Other/Notes:
At some point, if it's feasible, I would like Helena to at least encounter some of the old Narnians, since she will be doing a lot of exploring during her travels.

Sample
RP Sample:

(From a Tolkein-based RP)

The day broke with pale orange light, gently sweeping over the hills, gradually transforming into the pure sunlight that gazed upon the hills that morning. A gentle breeze busily made its way through the trees, carrying with it the fragrance of fresh blossoms from the fields.
It was quiet, save for the calming ambiance of small streams and birds going about on their business. Occasionally, the silence would break briefly as a horse and cart pulled into the village square, a weary traveler behind the reins, seeking a drink and light conversation at the Kaima Inn.

Not far from the Inn, an elven woman by the name of Farienthiel (Farien by those who knew her) emerged from a quaint little shop, stepping onto the worn cobblestone path leading from it. She wore a blissful smile as she looked up at the sky and absorbed the fresh sensation fully, into every crevice, both shallow and deep, of her mind, body and soul.
The shop, which was entirely welcoming in its nature, had a certain air about it; that made it seem as if you could see with the naked eye the care and passion that was put in to constructing it. Its appearance gave off the impression that it had many tales to tell, hidden within its peculiarly dustless old wooden beams and boards. It was clear that Farien took great pride and care in keeping it tidy.

The spring atmosphere created a serene feeling around the tiny shop. The wooden sign above the doorway, which read ?The Herb and Lily Boutique? in graceful carved script gently swung back and forth in the breeze, creaking as it moved. As she took a deep, relaxing breath, Farien traipsed down the pathway a little further, before turning to gaze proudly upon the tranquil shop which she had devoted her time and effort to for so many years. Gazing upon it seemed to transport her back into her most precious memories, both the blissful and the miserable kind. Her memories played through in her head, as if they were the gentle notes of her harp songs; memories of her past lover, Arathas Erestir, and her parents, about her peaceful childhood, and the smiles of her past friends and her family. She reflected upon the tragic fire which had destroyed the previous shop, and had taken her parents down in flames with it.

As she grazed the shop top to bottom and back again with her eyes, she was reminded once again of her happiness here, and of her passionate love of the things around the village that gave life and spirit to her home. The elf walked back into the yard, and soon disappeared behind the small glass door that served as the entrance to the ?Herb and Lilly?. Before long, she re-emerged from the doorway, carrying with her a harp, and made her way down the short flight of steps leading from the porch. Farien sat down in the soft grass and calming shade beneath the single blossoming apple tree beside the pathway, and began to play an old tune.

The harp?s carefully polished surface glinted in the few rays of sunlight that managed to peek through the green leaves of the tree. Farien's fingers moved with ease across the strings, over a hundred years of experience within them. As she sat and played, she watched the travelers and villagers pass by, each one going about their separate businesses as the sun neared its highest point in the sky, a sign that noon was drawing near?