![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[sticky entry]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
A Koranian girl whose family's reputation suffered due to the actions of her older brothers nearly a decade ago. Saved from an early death in an unexpected way for reasons that none will tell her, she now travels with one of her saviors, seeking to learn her place in the world around her.
setting introduction this section can be expanded
The setting as a whole is a fantasy world, largely inspired by a small handful of JRPGs and ultimately based on an old ZZT game made by Espilan back around the year 2000, which is no longer available due to file corruption and the fact that 3½" floppy disks are nice but also completely terrible. Incomplete and non-corrupted builds of what was intended to be a sequel to the game in question do still exist but will not publicly (or privately) released as a considerable amount of the original plot has since been invalidated by setting-wide retcons in the years that followed.
The plot that April is a part of focuses on the island nation of Korani, which includes the smaller islands of Diasa to the east and Kidana to the south. It is mostly populated by humans, though some of the settings other races make their home there as well, notably the angel-esque Bringers found in the southwestern Lunascen Tower, the diminutive Sprites—elementals in humanlike form—primarily on the island of Diasa, and the Demons that are found in a sprawling underground network of caves collectively known as Hreth.
Korani functionally has three—possibly four—known systems of government. The majority of the land, Diasa and Kidana included, is an aristocratic republic in which representatives from each town and city regularly meet to discuss business and make decisions in regard to Korani as a whole, while the Lunascen Tower as well as the underground city of Domain—which is not considered part of Hreth itself—are both self-contained autocracies independent of Korani and of each other. Previously, the entire island was under the control of the Bringers; why they allowed the rest of Korani's population to establish their own system, nobody knows for certain, and the Bringers themselves won't say. It is not clear if Hreth has any system of its own in place, much less if its residents live in any sort of structured communities to begin with.
For a fairly significant length of time, Korani as a whole rarely interacted with the rest of the world in any significant capacity (save for Lunafeld, the continent immediately north of it), due to a centuries-old agreement that the world's other nations would not interfere in Koranian affairs without being explicitly requested to do so. As a secondary effect of this agreement, the majority of Korani's trade occured within itself, between the mainland and its two smaller islands, and it was mostly otherwise uninvolved in anything on a worldwide level, but this does eventually change.
For further information regarding the setting, please refer to the reference links provided above; a glossary is included in the 'Estlein' document in the case of any unfamiliar terminology.
character history up to canon point this section can be expanded
April Elizabeth Fiore was born to an average-sized family in the Koranian port town Arendith. She had two brothers, Allen and Enzo, seven and nine years older than her respectively. Her early childhood was somewhat rough due to her family's financial situation—her father was the owner of a small business that had ultimately proved to be a failure—but it was otherwise largely uneventful for the first several years.
When she was nine years old, both of her brothers were lost. The two were involved in a robbery attempt that went far worse than intended, and had been killed in self-defense by their intended victim, Alentar Édren from the city of Zyndar. As the brothers were easily identified by the port town’s Guardians, and considering the very high reputation of the Édren family, the Fiore family’s own reputation almost immediately shot straight down into the dirt. While her parents certainly felt the worst of it as their sons were seen as their responsibility, April herself was not spared and found herself continually being treated as if she were not wanted in the town; it was probably assumed that making life miserable for her would convince her parents that it was time for the family to leave. The family refused to budge, though, and soon enough found themselves largely shunned by the community and given no real opportunity to make amends. This treatment very quickly pushed April into caring only about herself and her family.
With most of Arendith’s locals refusing to interact with the Fiore family in any capacity with the apparent intent to drive them out, April’s father Emilian took up hunting as a means of providing for his wife Evelyn and their remaining child, and not terribly long into this he offered to teach April to hunt as well—and was subsequently embarassed by the fact that his daughter looked to be a much better shot with a bow than he was. As to not be left unprotected in a town that seemed all too eager to be rid of them, Evelyn began to study some forms of magic, using tomes that had been purchased by the family in the years prior to the mistake made by Allen and Enzo. For the following eight years, the Fiore family got by on its own in this way, asking for and receiving little to no assistance from any of its peers.
On one particular hunting trip when she was seventeen, April and her father found themselves separated while pursuing different quarries. Under normal circumstances, she would have turned back and made her way home as she had been taught to do, but circumstances became anything but normal when she found herself face-to-face with a trio of monsters unlike any she’d seen before. Her hunting tools and her bow, while certainly effective on ordinary animals, didn’t do much to faze these beasts, and she soon found herself surrounded by them.
She may not have expected any help—she was a Fiore, who would help her?—but help did come anyway, in the form of a group that was cutting through the forest on their way to their own destination. These strangers seemed to be completely prepared to fight whatever these creatures were, as the monsters were dispatched with relative ease. She nearly ran from her very saviors when she learned who they were, however, as among them was a young man that she had been in no way prepared to meet: Nalis Édren, the older son of Alentar. Other members of this group included the Chronomage Bronera Hisako of Ilstar and her (surprisingly young) personal Guardian Zain Renault; the sisters Sara and Lauren Aripi-Lumina, the former a troubled girl who considered Zain her only friend, the latter her older sister who had become something other than human as the result of a curse; the brother-sister pair Jason and Brooke Eirichu, who both looked rather out of place compared to everyone else; and a Hunter who identified himself simply as Sol, who for some unexplainable reason made April feel particularly uncomfortable, however unintentionally.
According to Bronera, what they were all seeing now was the beginnings of an invasion from the underground realm of Hreth, and she and the others were searching for ways to prevent it from worsening. April quickly expressed a desire to return home and made every attempt—every impolite attempt, anyway—to convince the group to let her go so she could return to Arendith, but at Brooke’s insistence, she was to remain with them for her safety until they were to travel to the port town themselves. She really didn’t understand why a complete stranger was insisting on her safety, but honestly it was pretty infuriating.
On a suggestion from Sol, the group—including a mostly-unwilling April—then traveled north, passing by a small village and entering a cave that was said to lead into the underground city of Domain. Here, he said, it was possible that the group would start finding some of the answers that they had been looking for, or at the very least a proper lead; an acquaintance of his who made their home here was often a reliable source of information. The trek to and through this cave was largely uneventful, but no single member of the group saw it as any real cause for concern, although Sara certainly complained a lot, mostly about having to walk so much.
Upon their arrival at the underground city, they were met with a Frostsprite named Crystal—Sol's aforementioned acquaintance. Crystal, for reasons unknown and left unexplained, was somehow already aware of what most of her visitors sought, and as such she gave them a single piece of advice: the place they needed to go was within the caves of Eternity, a singular mountain named for the winding and seemingly-endless paths of its now-abandoned mines. It also looked like Crystal recognized April from somewhere despite April having never set foot into Domain even once in her life before now, but April had no chance to ask about this as the group chose to depart shortly afterward. With this new piece of information, and seemingly forgetting that April was still traveling with them, the group followed this lead, and while she had considered splitting off from the group, April chose to remain with them, knowing that they—or Brooke, at least—wouldn't allow her to go alone. At multiple points during this particular journey, Sol would stop and glance around as though he thought they were being followed, but when questioned he dismissed it as nothing.
When the group finally reached its destination, they discovered that the impending invasion was in fact a real thing, headed by a man named Alex Elnaeus, and that his actions were in part due to both a long-standing rivalry and a particularly intense disagreement with his sister Hazel—the very same Hazel that happened to be the woman in charge of Domain—over an issue not known to any of the group's members. Noting a single mark shared by Brooke, Jason, and Bronera, and referring to this mark as a “scar”, but not elaborating on what significance it may have carried, Alex immediately assumed the group to be in direct opposition of him and his goals. Wishing to remain without interference in his vendetta with his sister, he opted to attempt to destroy them right then and there. First directing his attention to Brooke, mistakenly believing her to be the leader of the group, his arms began to crackle with reddish lightning. Recognizing the danger the girl was in, Bronera shouted for her to fall back, but the warning came too late as a crimson bolt of light tore through the air after her and...failed to hit its intended target; Nalis had jumped in the way with the intent to shield Brooke, but then April shoved him out of the way, taking the hit herself and quickly ceasing to exist in a clear demonstration of the destructive power of Ruby.
It had been a moment of excruciating pain followed by complete silence and total darkness, and it should have been her death.
When April next awoke, she found herself in a wholly-unfamiliar place, in the company of a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Sol. Fully understanding the cause of April's confusion, as the magic that had struck her couldn't have done anything but kill her, this woman—who identified herself as Koria—went on to explain that they were now in the Lunascen Tower and that she had managed to save the girl by casting a Darkbringer curse known as Abandonment upon her, separating her spirit from her body in the moments before her death, then later having an aqcuaintance—a Lightbringer woman named Elia—use her Sapphire to create a new body for April as her old one no longer existed.
Being provided with a mirror to do so, she looked over her new body. It was still recognizably her, despite looking slightly younger than before, and she could almost swear that her left eye—her green eye—was a fair bit brighter than it used to be. Something else felt different as well, but she couldn't quite figure out what exactly that something was.
Being largely convinced that she was undeserving of the act, April then pressed Koria for answers, demanding to know why exactly she was saved, and the response she was given only served to confuse her further: Crystal—the Frostsprite that she met in Domain—had asked Koria to follow the group without their knowledge, and to protect April specifically if anything were to happen. Why exactly Crystal had made such a request was unknown even to Koria, but the woman did note that the Sprite had her trust and typically didn't do or say things without good reason.
If April truly wanted answers, she would need to return to Domain to get them directly.
For the lengthy trek back to Domain—it and the Lunascen Tower were on opposite corners of Korani after all—April and Koria opted to take the shortest possible route, heading almost directly northeast, past Cansycia, and cutting through the same forest that Nalis and the others had first found April in. Shortly after entering into this forest, the duo were set upon by a group of monsters not unlike the ones that had ambushed April before. Koria, being a wielder of Ruby, was easily capable of fighting back against these creatures, but it didn't take long for April to notice that every casting of Koria's magic was apparently causing Koria herself some amount of pain as well. What was more, was that there were enough of the monsters that Koria alone wouldn't be able to deal with them all.
Acting without so much as a single thought, and not at all understanding what had driven her to do so, April motioned toward the monsters, and struck down those that Koria hadn't dealt with already with a barely-contained wave of Light. Emerald Light. Koria was fortunate enough to see this in time to move out of the wave's range, else it would have likely brought her down as well. When April realized what had happened, though, it raised even more questions that she would need answers to; her parents were both ordinary Humans as far as she was aware, and as such she should be an ordinary Human as well. Why, then, was she able to use Light? Was it something Elia did when making her new body, or were her parents keeping a secret from her, or was it something else entirely?
When the duo did finally arrive in Domain, they made no unnecessary stops and went directly to Crystal. Upon seeing April, the Frostsprite immediately recognized what was done to save her life, and just as immediately warned Koria that what she had done was incredibly risky; an Abandoned fragment, spirit or otherwise, requires a vessel to contain it, whether some kind of object or even another living being, and having no other options when she cast Abandonment upon April, Koria had chosen to use herself for the vessel. With April's Light being the opposite of Koria's, this was an especially-dangerous choice and could have quickly killed both of them. Elaborating further on how things could have gone wrong, Crystal then mentioned something strange: that April was "already fragmented", and that even without the risk of it killing both of them, subjecting her to Abandonment could have shattered her completely with no hope of recovery.
What exactly did this mean? Crystal wouldn't say; this as well as her reasons for wanting to see April safe were both part of a personal matter that she wasn't ready to talk about. Since no answers were coming yet, Koria suggested returning to Lunascen; after the incident in Eternity, she had overheard Nalis suggesting that the group travel to Ilstar and then to the tower themselves, and she believed a reunion was in order. Plus, she had her own reasons for wanting to meet them. April still wanted to eventually return home to Arendith, but agreed with the suggestion, having a feeling that this reunion needed to happen.
Eventually arriving back at the bridge leading to the Lunascen Tower, April and Koria did meet with the group as intended. Brooke and Nalis in particular were surprised, immediately recognizing April and having expected not to see her again, considering the circumstances that had resulted in April being removed from the group in the first place. Before they could begin to ask how she was standing there before them, Koria offered an explanation, telling them about how she had followed them in secret and acted to save April's life before it truly was lost. Hearing this, Sol remarked that it really was no surprise to him—he had suspected that she was following them ever since they left Domain—then proceeded to introduce her to the rest of the group as his half-sister.
With the tower's guardian permitting them to pass—allowing April and Koria specifically, and the rest of the group as their guests—the group then proceeded into Lunascen. There, they met the twins Sveta and Senka, the two Bringer women who were currently in charge of the tower, who both appeared to recognize April themselves, but as with Crystal before, April herself couldn't see why she was being recognized by people she had never met. Nalis then proceeded to explain the reason the group came to the tower, to find help in stopping Alex from sending his Demons across Korani in his feud with Hazel. Sveta responded by admitting that she and her sister were already aware of Alex's actions and his dispute with his sister, but that they personally needed to remain uninvolved if possible; this was part of a greater conflict within Bringer society, one that neither of the twins could be seen taking sides in without risking the situation being worsened for all involved. A frustrated Bronera protested this, arguing that doing nothing at all would all but guarantee harm to the rest of Korani, while a risk of something happening as a result of their involvement was only that—a risk. Senka began to tell her that the twins would consider their options, but Bronera was already leaving, telling the group that they would look elsewhere for assistance.
After crossing the tower's bridge back onto Korani proper, April requested—not demanded—that the group pay a visit to the port town Arendith; she had been missing from her home for some time now, long enough that it was probably assumed that her life had been taken by a Demon attack, and she needed to at the very least show her parents that she was alive and well. While making this request, she did also state an intent to remain with the group at this point, as opposed to leaving them upon arrival at her home; she owed a debt to Koria and would see it repaid one way or another.
During the trek back to Arendith, the group discussed its next coure of action; as Bronera's original plan had all but fallen apart, they needed alternatives, and in addition to the Demons, they needed to be able to deal with Alex as well. A properly-experienced Creation wielder of either sort would do, but Brooke was still fairly inexperienced, April even less so, and while Bronera herself was capable of wielding Emerald, she had never actively used it and thus had no experience with it at all. Any Amethyst wielder would be similarly effective due to Amethyst being stronger than Ruby, but with Telin still missing... They needed to find her, and soon. Where could she have been taken?
It was just before the group's arrival at the port town when they were ambushed by a trio that Sara recognized as the ones who had taken Telin. While they had been able to easily trounce a single Bringer, however, they did not have such luck with a larger group such as this, and it wasn't long before two of them fled, the third having been struck down. Having recognized the trio for themselves, Sol and Koria both had a strong suspicion as to where Telin had been taken, and suggested that after April took care of her business in Arendith, they begin making their way north to the forest—the same forest that Telin and Sara had been attacked in.
It wasn't long after that when Sara began to show signs that she wasn't as normal of a girl as anyone in the group believed, signs that the girl was, conveniently enough, capable of wielding Amethyst herself. However, this also represented a new danger that the group would need to deal with, as Sara had a tendency to lash out when angered, and there was an immediate concern that were she to be sufficiently enraged, she could inadvertently destroy them all then and there. In order to address this, it was decided that before they proceeded on their quest any further, some time would be spent with Koria—not an Amethyst wielder herself, but the closest thing the group had to one—teaching Sara how to use her newly-discovered power, but also how to manage her anger as well.
Once Koria felt that they were ready to move on, the group continued to the forest as planned. With Sol leading the way, they eventually found themselves at a well-hidden cave entrance, and entered it to find that the siblings' hunch was correct, Telin was in fact being held there, and her captor was a demon known by the name 'Mod'—immediately revealed by Sol to be the father of both Koria and himself. Engaging his father in battle to give the others the opportunity to get to Telin, free her and leave, Sol told the group to continue on without him to make up for the time that had to be spent on Sara, that he would catch up later.
Rushing back to Eternity to face Alex and the threat that he represented a second time, the party was not prepared for what they found: he was not there. Worried that this meant he had chosen to go confront his sister Hazel, they changed course and hurried to Domain as quickly as they could. Upon arrival, they found Alex just outside of Domain's entrance, in an apparent standoff against an oddly-familiar woman with blue hair and a gray cloth around her head that covered one of her eyes. Aware that he had suddenly gone from a one-on-one to being very outnumbered, he quickly made his escape. The woman made as if to pursue him, but paused when April audibly noted the strange sense of familiarity that she was feeling.
With little more than an apology for reasons April did not understand, the woman then departed, even quicker than she had already intended.
Meeting with Crystal and Hazel shortly afterward, the group informed the two that in addition to Alex, Mod appeared to have some involvement in what was going on as well. To this news, Hazel made a face of revulsion before noting that Mod was far more dangerous than her brother ever would be, and that if he were planning something, whatever that something was would need to be stopped as quickly as possible; Alex could be dealt with later.
April then tried to ask about the woman that the group saw outside, once again noting the odd familiarity that she felt, but was not at all surprised when Crystal and Hazel both responded that they were not ready to answer any questions about her just yet. It was frustrating, and she couldn't stop herself from demanding to know when she would start to get any answers to her questions.
character personality this section can be expanded
Being part of a family that has a poor reputation, April frequently expects to be treated poorly and is unsure of how to really act when she's actually treated well instead. However, because she expects to be treated poorly, she tends to be somewhat-unpleasant toward people she doesn't know, expecting that they won't like her much anyway no matter how she acts. She is also fairly slow to trust others, but those who have earned her trust will find her to be extremely loyal.
April doesn't hold much in the way of grudges, except for the worst of offenses; abuse of trust, in particular, sets her off rather hard and anyone who lost her trust by taking advantage of it will find it very difficult to gain that trust again.
Whenever she does interact with others, April doesn't have too much of a filter; she can be pretty blunt and offensive, intentionally or not, with what she says. She is also fairly uncomfortable with large social situations or around people she doesn't know well, and prefers smaller groups or to be left alone entirely. She hates being pushed into leadership roles and is practically guaranteed to protest against it if anyone tries it, and will only accept such roles if there are no suitable alternatives.
April used to dislike helping people, expecting it to get thrown back in her face afterward. She has gotten better about that following certain events in her life, but she still usually expects some sort of favor in return. If she is the one being helped, she will repay her own debts as quickly as possible provided she is given the opportunity to do so.
April dislikes being kept out of the loop, and can get very frustrated by the idea that some people seem to know her better than she knows herself.
The spirit that is bound to and becoming part of April has a fairly strong desire to help the people around them and will frequently urge April to do so, but an aversion to conflict makes them less likely to try if they have reason to think that the help would be unwanted, and they also aren't likely to push it if it feels like April is deliberately ignoring them.
character abilities and relevant notes this section can be expanded
Before her 'death', with only the hunting skills that were taught to her by her father and natural skill with a bow, April is a largely unremarkable ordinary human in comparison to nearly any members of the group that had rescued her, as she lacks the training, the experience or the powers that the other members of the group have. While she knows fully well what magic is and has a general idea of how it works, she has made no attempt to learn any as she feels that doing so would only cause Arendith’s locals to redouble their efforts to force her family from the town if they were to learn of it; her mother making an effort toward learning to use magic (having not been taught during her own childhood or teenage years) is enough of a risk itself.
Shortly after her revival, it is seemingly-proven that April is at least part-Bringer. Her affinity is Creation, particularly Emerald, enabling her to act primarily as a healer, though the power of Creation does have other uses as well. Due to the way the different kinds of Light work, this also gives her the ability to fight back against Destruction-aligned Bringers (such as Alex), or against Demons from Hreth (such as Mod). However, she has no real experience with it whatsoever, with most of her understanding as to how it works being based on how she has seen Brooke Eirichu use it.
While it does not happen in what is provided for April's history above, it is eventually revealed that she is in fact just a regular Human, and that the source of her Light is the spirit of a Bringer who had been subjected to the Abandonment curse in the past. April is the current host for this spirit (a completely-unaware Evelyn was the previous host before passing it to her daughter), and due to inadvertent effects of the means Koria and Elia had used to save her life, April and this spirit are now permanently bound and gradually becoming aware of each other, as opposed to April being a temporary and unaware vessel for it. Spiritually-sensitive characters may be capable of detecting the spirit's presence, and should they actively focus on it, they may be able to discern its nature or possibly the fact that it seems to be gradually fusing into April's own spirit as the barrier that had been keeping them separate slowly crumbles away.
This unusual relationship between the two allows April to wield the spirit's power as if it were her own and with a gradually-increasing level of comfort and familiarity, and if circumstances permit it, it will also be seen that it has also granted her the Bringers' natural regeneration, accelerated healing rate, and significantly slowed aging—she won't look any older than she is now for a very long time.
someone's hazy, broken memory this section can be expanded
I don't know when it all began; all Mother ever told me about when it started was that it was long before my time, that someone in the past had unintentionally driven a wedge into our family and home, dividing them into the fragments that we know now. I had a feeling that she and my aunt Senka knew who it was, and that they both knew this person personally, but I never thought that it was my place to ask.
Arael thought that we could try to fix things; talk to the people who left Lunascen, tell them we didn't want things to be this way anymore, and hopefully convince them to come back; Caliga and her followers had done nothing in recent years, so maybe it was finally possible. I thought so, too, but Arael's little sister Meilora wasn't so sure, so she didn't come with us when we journeyed to Domain to try to meet with Hazel.
Arael and I, I think we both came to regret our decision. Something happened when we arrived at Domain; we were attacked, but was it both of us or was it just me? I can't remember. What I do remember is the most excruciating pain, as if my spirit were being torn to pieces, before everything went completely dark.
That darkness, it lasted for days, then weeks, months, maybe even years, until it all bled together and I stopped trying to think about how much time had passed. Eventually, at some point, I felt something wholly-uncomfortable, before I began to see the small cracks forming in the darkness that I had been trapped in for so long, and if I tried to look hard enough, I could see Seamstress Elia standing over me with an unfamiliar woman beside her.
Red eyes. A Demon? Or perhaps a Shadow instead? She looked like Hazel in some ways, but... Who was she?
Then the cracks got bigger, and I felt myself moving, but not of my own volition. My body walked toward some part of the room I was now in, and I stole another glance through the cracks in the darkness to try to see what was going on. What I saw was a mirror, and reflected in that mirror was a girl who looked both familiar and not.
I realized, at that moment, exactly what had happened to me.
trivia this section can be expanded
• April's being noted in 'Character Abilities and Relevant Notes' as having skill with a bow is in reference to how she was originally one of Espilan's player characters in the MMORPG 'FlyFF' (where she was named 'Apreire'). In said game, she was an Acrobat (that never reached the required level for the second class advancement, due to an eventual loss of interest in the game) that used bows.
• When she was first added to the Estlein OU (or rather, to the OU that the island nation of Korani was a part of at that time), April used her original name of Apreire. As part of the setting-wide retcons and rewrites that came with splitting Korani off into its own standalone setting (and later building that setting into the world of Estlein), she was renamed to April and had her character merged with an older existing character within the OU that was also named April. The merge in question is a very literal one, as the original April is the identity of the spirit (mentioned in 'Character Abilities and Relevant Notes') that is bound to the current April.
• The 'Someone's Hazy, Broken Memory' section above is written from the original April's POV.