the snowflake project

Name: Aryenne sa’Tabine

Age: 17

Height, Weight, Body Type: 5’5″, 120lbs, slender

Eye Color: Golden brown

Hair Color, Style: Honey, often worn up in an elaborate headdress

Skin Tone: Deep tan, but naturally white

Physical Condition: Fit but not prominently muscled

Distinguishing Features: A wider than normal smile and too small ears, freckles on her cheeks.

Physical Imperfections Most Likely to Change: None

Gestures: Touching her face in different ways to signify emotion

Ethnic Group: Saaltivan

Family Background: The Tabine family is an old noble house, once close to the royal family of Saaltiva. The Tabines betrayed the Saaltivan royal house in order to preserve their nobility once the Empire took over.

Religion: Follows The One God via the staunch religion of the Empire, where the role of the Dragon has been stolen by a power-hungry priesthood.

Parents: Aryenne’s mother died when she was young of a wasting illness. Her father is the official representative of the imperial governor of Saaltiva.

Siblings: Aryenne has twin older brothers who spend their time competing as joint heirs to the high seat of house Tabine.

Neighborhoods: The palace of house Tabine, the high district of Saaltiva, The Imperial Palace

Income: Aryenne receives a monthly stipend that covers all her necessary and discretionary expenses. She wisely tucks much of it away.

Growing Up: Aryenne grew up without a mother – and was raised by a governess. Little was expected of her except to know how to look good in court and how to display social graces befitting her station. It was always expected that she would marry some minor imperial noble as a sort of tribute to the empire from house Tabine. Aryenne had different ideas from the beginning, however, constantly running away from her governess and playing with her brothers. When they didn’t want her, she began spying on them. Her curiosity grew and she spied out other things in her home and beyond, learning things that provoked further questions in her. By the age of 12, she had become an avid student of politics.

Education: Her formal education focused mainly on courtly grace and being a good wife, as well as basic history, arts and maths. Her real learning was all self-guided (see above).

Skills, Talents: Aryenne is very sneaky and very observant. She’s able to leverage what she knows to have other accomplish things on her behalf. She’s an accomplished musician as well.

Short and Long Term Goals: Learn the secret of the Empire – who is really in charge? Rescue Kos from the doom of the Blood Pits.

Short and Long Term Wants and Needs: She wants to be with Kos, but it seems like an impossibility.

Introvert/Extrovert: Extroverted, people oriented

Eccentricities: Fondness for elaborate dress that conflicts with her major passions in life.

Type of Temperament: Patient – a slow burning, intense flame. Very purposeful.

How He/She Handles Anger or Rage: Stoically – she reacts to anger with purposeful action. At times she can be bitingly spiteful however.

Admirable Traits: Kindness, pacifist.

Negative Traits: Manipulative, scheming.

Habits: Views everything with too calculating an eye – tries to see through everything. Thinks out loud, but incompletely.

Prejudices – Good and Bad: Has a hard time trusting anyone. Prejudiced against the Empire because she knows it has a secret.

Things that Irritate: Being interrupted while in thought.

Things that Make Character Uncomfortable or Embarrassed: Talk of loyalty.

Most Painful Things in Life / Traumas from Past: Horrible governess (abusive, etc.)

Political Leanings: Republican (or at least representational nobility with a monarch who acts as a watchdog to make sure all citizens are being treated fairly)

Sense of Humor: Enjoys innuendo. Quick to laugh at wordplay.

Fears: Marrying without love – the unquestioned power the Empire represents.

Phobias: Sickness, even if not catching

Friends: Kos, Dwarf (the one who helps Kos in the capital – he and Aryenne become correspondents early in the story, and he feeds her suspicion that the empire is more than it seems)

Enemies: Achi, brother

Major Problems to be Solved (At Least Three): Save Kos from execution; Solve the mystery of the Empire’s secret; Deal with Achi.

Solutions to Problems (At Least Six): Appeal to the law, organize an escape; Use Achi to get into the inner circle, spy in the Imperial palace, piece together little hints and clues; Suffer his advances (she doesn’t solve this one really, it gets solved for her)

Lessons Learned: Secrets are not always dark.

Chronology of Actions from Beginning to End of Story (One to Twenty):

• Listens in on a conversation between her father and an imperial official
• Asks entirely the wrong sort of question of her father, is overheard by her brother
• Starts corresponding with the dwarf, learns that her suspicions are well-founded
• Sees Kos fight in the arena
• Visits Kos in the dungeons of the Blood Pits
• Meets Achi at a party
• Tries to get Kos released by appealing to the law
• Tries to get Kos released by appealing to Achi
• Orchestrates a massive prison break
• Helps Kos and the other gladiators escape from the Blood Pits
• Decides to stay and use Achi to learn more about the empire; a painful decision for her and Kos
• Moves to the capital and takes up residence in the imperial palace
• Is betrothed to Achi
• Spies around the palace, learns of the secret library
• Learns of the threat and the reason for the empire’s expansion, sends a message to Kos
• When Kos comes back, learns of the dwarves involvement (her informer reveals himself)
• Uses her knowledge to rescue Kos from imprisonment again
• Researches in the secret library (which she now has access to) and learns that this foretold attack from the west is just the beginning