Vehlayra Aeroris
Name: Vehlayra Aeroris, Shortened to Ve
Age: Twenty-Eight
Hometown: Atlygaea
Current Residence: Unknown
Occupation: Pirate Captain, Terror of the Seas
Talents/Skills: Navigation, Distilling, Marksmanship, Thievery
Birth order: Only Child
Spouse: “What is a spouse and why would I want one?”
Grandparents: She genuinely cannot remember their names; only her immediate family is remembered as she shrugged off the Aeroris line some time back.
Significant Others: Nothing to speak of. Outside of getting an itch scratched (and none of those are significant), she’s no one to include.
Relationship skills: Where she doesn’t tend to tie herself to anyone, be it romantically or otherwise, her skills are lacking. The woman is brash, crass, and very self-interested so she’s a great listener if it benefits her. Ve has a habit of making you feel as though the rest of the world doesn’t matter given how focused on you she’ll become if you have something she wants. To the few that she does hold close, though those are very far between, she’ll throw herself in harm’s way to try and save them from a perceived threat.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 140lbs
Race: Human, through and through
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair Color: A deep and dark brown
Glasses or contact lenses? None
Skin color: A slight natural tan that is tempered and sunkissed from hours out on the sea.
Distinguishing features: Outside of the piercings that she removes when she’s on a job, she keeps her features unremarkable. It’s easier to disappear in a crowd that way.
How does she dress? The woman is provocative in her dress as she’s confident in her looks, along with providing a distraction. More often than not, she has some form of corset, skirt and thigh-high boots. If not that, she is also known for wearing tight pants and coats, but what remains the same is the sword and pistol on her hip.
Mannerisms: Ve is a very touchy person. Personal space and the like aren’t something she often observes unless she doesn’t like you or doesn’t deem you worth her time. Not that she’ll cross the line, but she’ll likely toe it. Otherwise, she’s known to chew on her lower lip, inside and out or the inside of her cheek.
Habits: Drinking is her vice. She’ll wake up with an ale and go to bed with an ale. If she’s thirsty, water won’t suffice; give her alcohol.
Health: Despite her affinity for spirits and her inability to cook properly for herself, she’s in good health. Athletic from all the labor on ships and running from guards. Nothing remarkable to report.
Hobbies: Reading and singing, if she’s not exploring, but she’s always exploring something somewhere. Also, brewing her own ale.
Favorite Sayings: “Fuck”
Speech patterns: Very blunt, more often laconic in her shorter answers unless she’s being a smartass. However, her sighs often speak louder than words if she gives you more than a look.
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): Does Functional Slutty count as a style?
Greatest flaw: Her selfishness and lack of emotional attachment. If it means leaving someone behind with the aftermath of her chaos to further her own agenda or save herself, she’ll do it in a heartbeat, no questions asked. Everyone is expendable, a means to an end. Given this, no one would be coming to her aid, and she’s too prideful to ask for it anyhow.
Best quality: Stubbornness and perseverance, if only because she’ll continue on even the most difficult path so as not to admit she’s wrong. No matter how much it hurts, the job will get done so she can rub it in everyone’s faces that she’s thriving.
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background: Her education was limited to a degree, as women in Atlygaea were to be seen and not heard, more of an accoutrement than an actual person. With the gender divide being as large as it was, her mother and father taught her to read and to write, but needlepoint and dance were more stressed by society. Navigation and distilling were learned later.
Intelligence Level: She knows a little about a lot and it’s afforded her the ability to fake her way through most conversations.
Learning Experiences: Ve is still working on remembering that other people matter more than what she can get from them, that they’ve thoughts and feelings akin to her own. Even if they seem far removed from herself and her needs.
Character's short-term goals in life: Survive wherever it is that she’s ended up.
Character's long-term goals in life: To regain her pirate infamy and to properly inventory the riches she’ll surely have accumulated before begrudgingly passing the torch to her successor.
How does Character see herself? An entitled bitch who deserves the world.
How does Character believe she is perceived by others? See above. She’s aware of how she comes off and leans into it.
How self-confident is the character? Confident to a fault, bordering on cocky.
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? Logic-Based, able to make decisions other people would balk at with apparent ease.
What would most embarrass this character? Talk involving deeper emotions. She’ll balk at the L-word especially, so she prefers to keep the conversations surrounding what she needs, information about other people, or light to fill a void.
Emotional Characteristics
Strengths/Weaknesses: Her ability to delegate, her charisma and speech has saved herself more times than she can count. However, in the same breath, she lacks the ability to connect and those that she uses are discarded which makes for a lonely existence and a fair amount of enemies. People don’t take kindly to being used for the whims of another.
Introvert or Extrovert? Decidedly extroverted
How does the character deal with anger? She drinks and quells the rage by finding her solutions at the bottom of a bottle. Or, by being petty and vindictive.
With sadness? There hasn’t been much sadness in her life as she’s fairly stunted in her emotional growth. Opting to ignore, deny and evade until it’s no longer a problem. Or she’ll drink. Most problems are solved with drink.
With conflict? She’ll go on the offensive and show them exactly why she’s not one to be trifled with. And when it’s through, she’ll sip on a smoother brew as she gloats.
With change? This change is the largest yet, so that’s yet to be determined. But, in most cases, she looks for a way to utilize that change to her benefit.
With loss? Loss isn’t something she’s ever really dealt with. The only notable loss she handled since striking out on her own, she pushed down deep and willed herself to move beyond. Instead, it’s a subconscious chain that keeps her weighted down, the voice popping into her dreams, seeing the occasional vision of them in the corner of her eye. One day, she’ll have to manage it, but until then, as far as she’s concerned, it’s over with.
What does the character want out of life? Everything of value the world has to offer.
What would the character like to change in her life? At present, she’d like to get out of this forsaken land and find her way back home.
What motivates this character? Greed. The need to possess, collect and own drives her forward.
What frightens this character? Death. First and foremost, she’s afraid of her own mortality. And heights, but that is because, again, she’ll die.
What makes this character happy? Alcohol. Possessions. Sex. Sailing the open seas. She’s a very simple person.
Is the character judgmental of others? Extremely, and her opinion will not be swayed.
Is the character generous or stingy? Stingy. Her possessions are hers and hers alone.
Is the character generally polite or rude? She considers her honesty as polite, but most would consider it rude and they’d be in good company.
Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God? No
What are the character's spiritual beliefs? She’s of a mind that there is nothing else beyond this life, be it a god or any mighty beings. This life is only what you make of it, not held to the woes and wiles of another.
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life? Not in the slightest.
How the Character is Involved in the Story
Character's role in the story: Main character
Scene where character first appears: Washing up on the shore of the new lands with her small goat as her only companion.
Relationships with other characters: Rahl Morguer. The buzzing of a gnat by the ear he just can’t seem to rid himself of.
Background:
Compared to most, Vehlayra had far more than the average child. Her family was well off, catering to the whims of their only daughter, not to the point of spoiling, but surely enough to make sure that she had what she desired to be happy in the world. At the time, she’d not understood why they’d been so kind and focused on her, but eventually, she learned.
Her mother died in childbirth leaving her with a bereft father unable to take care of her or even look at her for the resemblance she bore to his lost love. Struggling to keep her fed and healthy as he warred with his own grief, he left her with two kindly Elves and the understanding that she would grow up to know them as her mother and father in his stead; he would take up the role of her Uncle.
Raenisa and Ardreth Aeroris were doting, kind, and attentive parents, working to make sure that she was the happiest and healthiest child in Antea. Their home was a sprawling one, with a small staff that maintained the grounds, with marble floors and pillars, beautiful lamps that lit the rooms, plants scattered throughout to keep it feeling organic and light. Her own room was decorated with the finest linens, silks, her windows holding a clear view of the pristine oceans glittering in the sun.
For years, Ve didn’t know there was a difference between herself and her parents. Her own mannerisms held the same grace and nonchalance that their own did, but her appearance was never quite as refined. Where they had high cheekbones, pointed ears, stood taller than herself, it never really registered. When she looked at her reflection, she saw much the same as her skin remained pale from staying inside, and her ears she reasoned would grow in the older she got.
Then came the visits from her Uncle. He was always jovial, bringing gifts and stories of his travels every time he graced the Aeroris household with his presence. Stories of the various people, the different races, the fine jewels and treasures he got to see; stories that a young Vehlayra found herself holding to and dreaming about. Would she be able to go on adventures? See the world? Everything he spoke of was far more interesting than her schooling allowed her to consider, given the gender roles Atlygaea held: women were demure and meant to be looked at versus heard, and the men were the travelers, adventurers, warriors.
Her mother had often told her that she’d find her joy in life one day, but if her joy was meant to be stifled, held captive in a home away from everything she found interesting in the world, she didn’t want it.
But, those visits from her Uncle became fewer and far between. He wouldn’t send as many letters, and those times he did visit, he didn’t linger, not like he used to. Instead of spending weeks at a time, she’d be lucky to see him for a day, a few hours, before he moved on.
The last time, he didn’t even bother to come in person to see her. In his stead was a letter addressed to her, one that she read as the pieces fell into place. Within the scrawling script of his resigned writing was the truth, how he was her father, the fate of their mother, and the pain he’d harbored for so long while seeing her face and missing her. How, over the years, he’d tried to maintain some semblance of a relationship with her but it’d become increasingly harder as she grew into her looks and he saw her mother’s face staring back at him more and more.
Worse still, he’d tried to move on and start another family, and his constant tie to the past: her. This letter would be the last she ever heard from him, and he hoped beyond hope that she’d have a long and happy life.
As her parents watched her outward reaction, her face remained unfazed by the information, taking it in as best a thirteen-year-old could, her hazel eyes reading over each and every word carefully. After a couple reads, she merely shrugged and threw the letter in the trash and went about her life. Despite that information, it didn’t change anything in how she viewed herself, him, or her family...but perhaps that was because she’d not really given much weight to those blood ties.
That was when they began to notice her lack of attachment to people and more to objects. Her value came from what she possessed and nothing was ever enough, always on the lookout for something more and something better. No matter what her parents brought home for her, she would go out looking for more and if she had nothing on her that day to pay for those wants...she’d take it. Those that were considered friends, family, strangers...it didn’t matter. If she saw something she wanted, she’d take it.
At first, her sleight of hand wasn’t fast enough not to draw attention, but she held enough feminine wiles and enough standing with the Aeroris name behind her not to receive any consequences. Her father would speak with her when she got home and he’d always manage to procure what it was she’d found and wanted, but she wanted to get it her own way. Her methods, no help.
And that was when she started to disassociate from their lineage. Carrying herself as her own entity, disregarding the Aeroris name and keeping things simple with just her first, using her charisma and aptitude for holding someone’s attention to learn about what they had that she could want. Finding new ways to get what she wanted without them knowing, striking without them even feeling her hand gracing their pocket. Becoming a more physical person to make sure that the distractions were enough...which led to her finding how good things felt, providing distractions on days that she felt were too taxing for any other methods.
When she reached the age of announcement, to say that she was of age and available for courting and proposals, she instead let her parents know she’d be leaving. Both stood in shock and confusion as she packed her things, stopping her at the door to try and convince her to stay, but nothing worked. And in her final moments there, Vehlayra made certain they knew she’d never come back, that she no longer acknowledged them as her parents.
That she was shedding the name of Vehlayra Aeroris altogether to find her own life and identity elsewhere. Stowing away on a merchant vessel, she struck out on a quest to find something that excited her.
It took her time to find a calling that really struck a chord with her, traveling aimlessly and getting by on her looks and the promise of payments that never came. Then, one fateful day, she was in a port that was under siege...from pirates. Watching as they worked, pillaging and taking what they wanted for themselves, she realized she’d been thinking on too small a scale. If she truly wanted to take the world for all it had to offer, she needed a crew, she needed mobility, she needed more.
After talking her way aboard the ship and making herself useful, she planted the seed of mutiny and the crew did the rest. From there, she assumed control given her ruthless bitch demeanor and her no-nonsense facade. If anyone spoke up and rebuked her, if they so much as looked at her wrong, they were removed, her ship running tight like clockwork until the heat became too much. Then, like refuse, she tossed them aside and made herself at home on another vessel.
Wash, rinse and repeat.
Soon, Captain Ve was known throughout Atlygaea and the neighboring kingdoms for her exploits, unable to be apprehended by the knights or guards. Her crew changed in and out over the years with only two that remained constant for any duration of time, until the day it all went south.
An attack. She’d been in the harbor with her crew, making an escape away from the chaos when a familiar figure was being hauled away on a ship. Unwilling to risk her own life to linger and help, the woman made the decision to fire one shot. One cannon ball to rock the ship and stop it before it could break for the open ocean, but even she didn’t see the results. Rain, waves, winds beyond what her ship could handle, a storm had blown in and obscured everything from view. Land, the other ship, even her own as she was thrown overboard, struggling to stay above water...eventually washing up on shore alone, save for the little goat she’d come to keep as a pet.