Marcelina Antonia-Mariette Celestial
Appearance
The Dauphina of The Nyndalls is a true beauty. Like a majority of her race, the appearance of Marcelina is almost ethereal, heavenly some might say. Her dark skin appears to glow and shimmer, a common characteristic of her people. In fact, it is what really sets them apart from others. During the day, the young woman’s skin will sparkle and give off a gold tint but as the night approaches, she will almost appear like a dimly lit candle. Many compare her to a halo since her dark skin will produce a small ray of light; enough to see her but not enough to light up an entire room. That is to be said about not just her but all of her people.
Other common characteristics of the Palominian people include their elvish like ears and of course the constant change of color of their finger tips. Since it is common for Palominians to take certain aspects of their father, it can be said that Marcelina’s people have inherited their small yet pointed ears from the Elf-king. Nonetheless, that does not make them a subrace of the elves. There is a huge difference between the two. Now, the color of the finger tips will always depend on the mood. The color of one’s mood is different for each individual. Marcelina’s fingers are often a teal color, meaning that she is very happy. They will sometimes turn purple if she is feeling stern. Green is often associate with being sad and red is for when she’s mad.
Marcelina has a head full of long, gorgeous locks of black hair. The hair smells of rose petals and it is most often that her hair is slicked back and out of her face. She has almond shaped eyes which are a blue, similar to a bright sky. She inherited her eyes from her father much like her wide nose and lovely skin.
She is said to have the body of a natural human woman. Marcelina is slender yet curvy in some places considered attractive to men. Yet she is not just some piece of meat. Marcelina has spent a good part of her life learning to fight and therefore, she has built up muscle stronger than any chunk of armor. If you were to see the Dauphina naked, you would see how large her thighs are and bulging with muscle. You would see how tough her abdomen area truly could be. She is no weakling despite her beautiful face.
Skills and Abilities
Sixty is relatively young for her kind and it is still not enough time to learn everything you need to know in order to survive. But what she has learned will always stick with her and help the young woman in life:
Persuasion: There is no better skill than the skill of persuasion. In her young years, Marcelina was once told that if she wanted to succeed at court and keep people in her favor, she must learn the do’s and don’t of persuasion. It is almost a tactic for any great ruler who wants to hold their place as the alpha. Marcelina would like to say she is fairly good at it but some might say she is quite competent. Sure, she knows how to butter up a man; they’re all fools. Yet when it comes to her own kind, she could use just tad more work.
Intelligence: No palominian is a true palominian if she does not possess the wisdom needed in the long run. Often, the noble is underestimated and that almost always gives her the upper hand. Name a subject and you will often get the answer from Marcelina who can be said to hold more information in her head than a library. She has mastered this skill and well aware of that too. Marcelina is a cocky little thing when it comes to her wits too.
Leadership: The girl’s entire life has been leading to this. She was never a natural born leader like her mother or any Dauphina before her. It was not until she became a diplomat for her country that the Dauphina could finally say that she is a successful yet competent leader.
Negotiation: This is a necessary skill that she uses often. Traveling to different cities in order to create peace treaties is not easy and therefore, she must learn how to negotiate in order to make the members on the other end happy. Nonetheless, she will not give up her own people’s happiness for a stranger’s own. The palominian is very good at making ends meet if she does say so herself.
Politics: It is all but a game and Marcelina has realized this before she was a mature young lady. Politics is nothing more but debating and solving conflicts that sometimes do not include your land but could possibly affect it. It is nothing more than concerns that rise with other states and people. Marcelina has very much mastered politics and in the future, this will make her a great empress.
Seduction: The boys love it. She loves it. Marcelina knows how to make a boy’s heart stop in place and hang on her every word. She knows how to play with one’s sympathy and seem much more appealing.
In’yta (weapon): It is what the humans call a dart-rope. In’yta is a fine weapon a majority of palominians use. It is made of both silk and very thin yet sturdy metal with a large blade attached. It is often used by the palominians to keep their attacker away, but in dire situations it can be used to strike the opponent. Marcelina is very good at protecting herself with a in’yta yet she does not have the heart to really strike someone with it.
Truthism: A harmless magic discipline originating from The Nyndalls, truthism is the practice of knowing one’s truth. It used to be exclusively used by truth seers. Now, many people outside The Nyndalls have grown fond of it. Marcelina is able to stare directly in the eyes of a person and tell whether or not they’re lying when they speak on something. If someone is telling a story and it is fabricated, she will be able to tell. It is useful yet very straining on the eyes. If she uses it for more than two minutes, her eyes will feel a sharp pain and her stamina will seem drained.
Shielding: The enemy of truthism, shielding is yet another strong magic created by the palominians. One starts to learn shielding first by protecting their own thoughts from outsiders. If a truth seer tries to see whether or not you are lying, they will hit what feels like an invisible wall. As the person wielding shielding becomes stronger, the invisible wall that protects the mind will extend and become a wall great enough to protect an entire person. Marcelina is able to protect two to three people at once but that is only if she is unharmed and her mind is clear. This magical discipline will only last ten to fifteen minutes and you can expect the user to be almost physically tired to the point they cannot move.
Personality
Biography & Lore
It is said that Palomia was the daughter of one of the first deities of Arethil. Some say she sprung out the very veins of the pantheon while others says she was crafted from his very hands. Regardless, Palomia had come about and unlike other deities, she very much enjoyed mingling with mortals. As a goddess of virtue, she seemed to only bestow herself upon only the nobility of the world— for the goddess only found them worthy at first. However, as the goddess of intelligence, she did find herself around scholars too discussing philosophy and theories. The goddess was quite the traveler and never lingered in one domain for too long. That was until she met an Elf King who she took interest in.
Nyn’dalth was the Elf king’s name and he was wise beyond his years. The Elf king was a successfull king as well—he was young when the goddess met him and despite his age, he had conquered two cities and a majority of the land which surrounded it. Nyn’dalth was indeed a great king and it appeared to the goddess that he could do almost anything. Palomia loved the Elf and he had loved her. The goddess knew she would outlive him, however, she did not mind becoming his queen. The tale tells of the two having a total of four children — each a girl due to the blood of the goddess being almost too good for her husband’s own. While the children and the future generations to come will take on certain feature of their father, they would never grasp his gender.
In the eyes of man, this would cause quite a stir. But when the four children of Palomia and Nyn’dalth would enter womanhood, they would soon learn how to work everything out. Each daughter would take a responsibility of a King as their own. Then pass it down to their child.
The first daughter, Celestial, had sat on her father’s lap during diplomatic encounters and pleas and she even learned how to properly run a kingdom in the eyes of her father. So she decided to handle the political matters of their land.
Celestial would pass this role on to her daughter and her daughter would pass it on to her daughter once she is old enough and so forth. Centuries would pass and Celestial’s role will be fulfilled by her descendants, whom would call themselves the house of Celestial. The house would run an entire city-state occupied by the descendants of the very first Palominians.
The city-state of Nyndalls would be successfully ran for thousands of years until the most recent conflict known as the Great House War. The Great House War began with Crisynthia of House Delmiria, the house which dealt with trade. Crisynthia was a very wise sage and she felt her wisdom could grow beyond trade. Crisynthia believed she was more fit to run The Nyndalls than the current leader at the time, Empress Calimia Celestial. During a gathering of the great houses, Crisynthia once voiced this and it appeared she had not been the only one. Palominians of other houses felt the same way. The discussion had become heated and before you knew it, the four great houses turn on each other.
A civil war began and each house took the part of land they governed and proclaimed themselves the Empress of it. The war lasted years. Empress Calimia would die and her daughter, Nathylia would continue battling it on her behalf. It would not end until Nathylia would start to make treaties with the lesser houses of the opposing side. Treaties were made and eventually Nathylia would bring the houses back together and put them in order. There would be tension, however, peace would reign.
Empress Nathylia was lucky enough to end the war while she was still young. When the war finished, she would marry her lover, a fierce Nazrani warrior. They would have four daughters, the respectable number for a Palominian.
The first daughter was born in the Summer of Palomia’s firstborn on the third day. She would be given a Palominian traditional name, Marcelina, which was the name of the fifth Empress of The Nyndalls. But being of one of the great houses, her name would be extended to honor her great grandmothers. So the first Dauphina (meaning princess) of The Nyndalls would be addressed as Marcelina Antonia-Mariette Celestial. Titles are very important in The Nyndalls.
Anyway, the firstborn child of Empress Nathylia was born in the castle of the east on the most stormiest of nights during an important diplomatic conversation between a human king and the empress. However, nothing is more important than the birth of a Palominian child.
When Marcelina was born, immediately belles across the land were rang to assure the entire race that a successor was born. A healthy baby girl too who, like most Palominians, took the pigmentation of her father. Eventually, she would take some of his personality traits and native tongue as it is common for her kind.
After her birth, she would be taken back to Swanlake Palace, her home and learning grounds. Unlike her sisters, Marcelina would be under the careful watch of her mother as well as other women who will guide her to a safe future. Marcelina would spend her infant years latched onto her mother’s bosom but once she learned how to walk and talk, the Empress would quickly pass her on to the finest Palominian governess whom would be tasked to give Marcelina a run down of her culture and other important skills such as arithmetic, reading and writing. While a majority of children of other races do not learn such skills until they are much older, the Palominian culture drill important lessons into their children’s head much earlier due to their long lifespan. Marcelina would be considered very intelligent compared to the simple Palominian and mortal children. This cannot be considered luck at all nor can it pass her as a gifted child. It is just simple Palominian genetics (Aunda as they call it) with the combination of a Palominian’s hunger for knowledge. For years, House Celestial has been seducing and choosing only the right men to create offspring. Marcelina’s dad was not only headstrong but he grasped new concepts very fast. The Empress saw that his Aunda were strong and she just knew her daughter would benefit off it.
The period in which she would be under the careful watch of her governess would be short-lived— Marcelina’s lessons would be touched on by her mother every now and than. Marcelina would begin combat training afterwards. Palominians are not usually known to fight and if a war ever knocked on their door, they are more than ready to hire mercenaries. But despite their fighting reputations being less than commemorative, the race does have a unique fighting style which only involves thin, rope-like weapons and agility. Marcelina would learn from her mother and head of the royal army. She would fight well yet not good enough for a young Palominian of twenty to twenty-five years. It would take years upon years until she masters her people’s fighting style. But eventually, she would get it along with native magic disciplines such as Truthism and both internal and external shielding. This is all a young Palominian needs to survive in her city-state and of course, attacks imposed on her by the world.
When Marcelina came near and dear to her fifties, considered the teenage years of a Palominian, she would begin taking place as the true Dauphina of The Nyndalls. She would begin traveling the world and rubbing elbows with nobility. Some would grow to hate her and some loved her flirtatious and witty behavior. Marcelina would misbehave as a Dauphina, however, her people would grow to love her all the same and so would a few nobles.
Now sixty, Marcelina will begin slowly taking her mother’s place by tending to important matter outside of The Nyndalls.