Profile
"Colomin sonu, myte."
Ravenna Mare is an aspiring mage living in the medieval Sular Empire.
Born in 103 NE, her travels would eventually take her all around the island of Nesilene. She was unwillingly thrust into the heart of the explosive changes Nesilene underwent during her lifetime, becoming both a pawn and key player in a much larger political game.
Appearance
Ravenna is a blue-skinned Jari woman, roughly five feet in height and 25 years of age. Her hair is a traditional pink, kept short on top but allowed to run longer behind. Her eyes share a color with her hair, as does the heart-shaped blush on her cheek.
For outdoor attire, she prefers a blue cloak over a white gown, brought together by a heart brooch that defiantly displays her uncommon choice of spell class. Her hands are traditionally covered with long white gloves, and her shoes are the same shade of pink as her brooch.
In public, she follows Sular regulations by wearing a head covering. In this case, she chooses a simple blue hood, and allows her eyes to illuminate to draw attention to herself.
When resting in the privacy of her shared home, she often wears a sleeveless white gown.
Story
Childhood
Ravenna was born in the port city of Crystal Cape. In contrast to the rest of the island, Crystal Cape was a colony of the overseas Vellen Empire. Belonging to the wealthy Mare family, her father, Charles Mare, had been sent to the island in order to set up a new branch of their trade business.
Unfortunately, the rest of Nesilene was too self-sufficient, too hostile to foreign businesses, meaning said foreign businesses and merchants had trouble breaking into the island's economy.
To resolve this, Charles desired a son who could become a wealthy baron within the island itself.
After over 20 years of trying to produce a child, Charles' wife Maria finally bore a daughter. Accepting that this would likely be his only child, Charles began to prepare the young Ravenna to expand family ties by marrying into some wealthy Nesilene family. To that end, he invested heavily in her education.
The young Ravenna was taught Jari, the language of the Jarine people (which included the Mares), and Sular, the primary language of Nesilene. Being bilingual in a medieval society was a great benefit, but there was a hidden cost Charles had failed to consider. Ravenna was not taught Vellen, the actual language of Crystal Cape. Being unable to understand almost anyone around her for the first 12 years of her life, she became isolated and easily lost. At the encouragement of her father (and without much else to do), she began to exhaustively read any book put in front of her.
The ability to read Sular quickly led her to discover Sular literature on Runes, spells, and all things magic. In fact, this became an obsession that would last her entire life. Hearing that the Sulars had a College of Runes, where one as young as 13 could study magic, at age 11 she requested that she travel to study there. Her intentions were twofold, not only did she want to study magic, but she wanted to be around others who would speak a language she did.
As mages often became highly influential individuals due to their relatively short supply, Charles jumped at this opportunity, using his wealth to help get her accepted. At age 12, she said goodbye to her family and home, and made the trek across Nesilene to the Sular Empire.
Education
Arrival
In 116, she formally began her studies at the College of Runes.
Having previously been unavoidably isolated on account of her language barrier, she was unprepared for how to act in a rough social environment. Her poor control of her mouth got her into many avoidable fights she had no chance of winning. In other words, even though she could now understand those around her, she still remained isolated. Or at least, mostly.
Ravenna's choice of spell class to study was Protective Magic. This was a class of magic specifically focused on self-defense and endurance, but it was very unpopular on Nesilene. The Nesilene Rune, the most common Rune on the island, emphasizes aggressive spells while providing weaker results for defensive ones. Protective Magic almost exclusively uses defensive spells, meaning Ravenna would have a harder time using her spells compared to others. And yet, she not only chose this challenge, but rose to it with all of her determination.
Settling In
In addition to Protective Magic, Ravenna was also educated in a wide variety of more general spells. But it didn't stop there, she was also given an extensive general education, all from a Sular perspective. She learned the most up-to-date science possible, read the latest literature, and was instructed on the lengthy history of the island (with particular respect to the former Sular supremacy).
Unfortunately, she never quite felt like she belonged. The College of Runes had become more and more hostile towards foreign students in the years since the collapse of the Sular Supremacy.
The Shooting Star
In 123 NE, the annual pilgrimage to the Rune Spring was interrupted when a falling star impacted the ancient center of campus, destroying the Rune Spring and the surrounding area. The xenophobic students allowed their superstition and bigotry to mix, and they turned against the foreign students within the city. When the local authorities attempted to protect them, they too were chased out of the city.
Ravenna was trapped inside the city when this happened.
Personality
Ravenna is reserved and patient, but dependent and slow to respond. She tires easily of nonsense but will be reluctant to take action against it, a direct consequence of the lessons learned in her early years in Runia. That is, unless it's standing in the way of a goal she is determined to reach.
She has often felt forcibly isolated by her environments. Furthermore, she tires of people assigning labels to her, labels she never agrees with. The Sulars call her a Vellen, but she feels no connection to a birthtown she felt totally isolated in. Due to her education, those opposed to the empire call her a Sular, but she obviously has no loyalty to a people that sideline her. Everyone calls her a Jari, but her species doesn't necessarily make her feel anything for the long-gone Kingdom of Jarine. And finally, she is later compared to an Algollen, but she wants nothing to do with their harassment.
Sexuality
Ravenna is a lesbian. However, she would never use this label herself, with neither her nor Cara ever coming to understand what a sexuality actually is during their lifetimes.
Her opinions of her own attractions have evolved over time. She first began to notice strong feelings toward the same sex during her final month in Crystal Cape. At the time, she ignored them and chose to focus on preparing to move.
When these feelings reemerged at Runia, she became truly concerned. Like all around her, she believed these feelings to be nothing more than perverse arousal, and she was obligated to correct them back to the "proper" path. When she failed to do this, she struggled against her own mind.
Eventually, she settled into a very rough acceptance of herself. She reasoned that so long as she kept these feelings to herself, they could never hurt anyone. She remained in this uncomfortable status quo until growing out of it with Cara's assistance.
Connections
Cara Lan
"Give me back my Ven, you creepy old cad!!"
Cara is Ravenna's girlfriend, with neither being able to imagine life without the other.
They are the same age, both meeting during their second year at the College of Runes. The two quickly formed a strong friendship, becoming housemates after just a few months.
Overtime, their swift friendship grew into secret romantic attractions. They both believed they were freaks, but handled these feelings differently, owing to both a lack of understanding on what was going on and their own internal issues. Ravenna chose to believe the feelings were fine, so long as she kept them to herself and never acted upon them. Cara on the other hand, came to believe she could potentially be dangerous simply for having those feelings. She essentially cycled through the first four stages of grief endlessly, trying desperately to control her own mind, but never wanting to separate herself from Ravenna.
Eventually, the two were somewhat abruptly forced out to each other, allowing them to finally enter a romantic relationship.
This development felt like a huge relief for them both, finally creating a small bubble of safety for them both to live in. They both knew that they had someone they could reveal anything to, without fear for their safety. They no longer had to live a good portion of their lives in their own heads.
A core aspect of Cara's bold personality is an illusion of strength she projects as a form of protection. With Ravenna, she feels comfortable lowering this veil, revealing her more sensitive side. Ravenna likewise feels secure being drawn out of her reserved isolation around the one person she trusts the most.
Magic
General
Ravenna has been trained to use a variety of spells from different kinds of magic classes. However, as learning one class of magic is a potentially decade-long process, students at the College of Runes are only trained to use weaker, easier, specifically practical spells from anything other than their specialization.
Specialization
Ravenna's preferred class of magic is Protective Magic.
Development
Ravenna was first conceptualized in early 2019 as part of a separate project. At the time, she was a completely different character, sharing virtually nothing with her current iteration. Cara and her were written as friends, and nothing more.
In 2020, in connection to that separate project, a side story was written involving Cara and Ravenna. It was while writing their dialogue that clear romantic subtexts began to emerge.
In early 2021, she underwent multiple rewrites as she and her four friends were separated into their own project. The romantic
subtexts were made a key focus of these rewrites, as this new project was combined with a historical setting concept known as "The Isle of Eternity." The historical capital and name of the island of Lesbos, Mytilene, was chosen as the name for this new combined project.
Hearts were used to guide the shape of her design, resulting in bizarre clothing shapes that were later dropped. She originally had segmented limbs, but these were replaced with joints as the project became more grounded.
Her name is taken from Ravenna, Italy, which at one point was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. The name "Mare" is Latin for "sea," the word famously used by the Romans in "Mare Nostrum" or "our sea" in reference to the Mediterranean.
The key theme of her story is what being "invisible to history" entails. This direction was chosen as to make history itself into somewhat of an antagonist in her story.
Quotes
"This campus has been our home for the last eight years, she must want to die here too."
"Mhm. And the last thing I fear are the soldiers."
"If we’re stuck, better it be in two minds, not one!”
"We have to find out own limits, nobody else can do it for us. But we will find them! I promise."
"It's a Sular proverb, "The spell you refuse to believe in is one that can never help you."
"My only home is wherever she goes."
Trivia
- The glow of Ravenna's eyes is not entirely under her control, they can also be triggered by strong emotions. The extent to which this happens varies from Jari to Jari.
- Oftentimes she internally refers to herself as "Little Mare", a familial-given nickname, although this habit decreases over time.
- She hates the Nesilene Rune, for it weakens her defensive-oriented preferred style of magic.
- Her favorite book is "The Archive of All."
Recent Images
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