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Keywords: reclusive, loyal, proud, outcast Name: Teliu Atrell-Ptarmigan Age: 26 Gender: female Occupation: Rakkel Minister of Science, inventor Height: 5' 3" Weight/Build: 115 lbs; hourglass figure, much to her chagrin Hair: dark brown; long and held up in a ponytail of bun with long bangs framing her face Eyes: dark blue Skin: medium pale Face: oval face, a bit babyish, with average oval eyes, average lips, nose not too thin but maybe a tiny bit long Personality: An outcast genius, introverted and reclusive, naive, reacts badly to pressure, ruthless, selfish, very spontaneous, has at least fifteen very distinctive ways of laughing, each worse than the last. She's extremely loyal to her friends and very proud of her work. Other Details: Teliu wears glasses which she made herself. They're half-rim with round lenses. Though she's a scientist, most people think she's a witch. She inherited the position of Minister of Science when her father disappeared. Outfit(s): Generally, heavy blue dresses, long-sleeved and high-collared, often with gold accents. Unfortunately, her clothes aren't very well-kept and are usually a bit dirty, wrinkled, or worn. In the setting, her fashion sense can be described as business sloppy. Her clothes are respectable, but messy. Relationships: ____ is her (---) - Daerinnid de Soto (friend), Torvwyn Eprinmaierson (friend) Caerden (friend), Rikard Prowley (friend), Meepo (friend), Sebastian Sedona (husband), Talos Sedona (son), Kendal Atrell-Pait (uncle), Emowyn Atrell-Pait (cousin), Hraewn (friend), Izak Seltimbar (boss) Draw With: Daerinnid, Rikard, Hraewn, Sebastian, Talos, Kendal

Art by Em Art by Others

Long Story
Please note that spoilers are divided into sections. You don't need any of the spoiler sections to understand Teliu's character or draw her. Each section adds another chapter to her life that will eventually be written out in the story. I would highly recommend that you NOT go past the [biggerspoilers] section as it will completely, totally, and utterly ruin the story. Also, if you do end up reading a spoiler section PLEASE do not reveal the information to anyone else. If you want to illustrate anything from the spoiler section, that's okay (it's why the spoilers are included!), but please don't reveal the spoilers in any image description, or if you must, protect them with spoiler warnings and keep the info as minimal as possible!

Teliu is the only daughter of Miryam Gosburg and (forgot his name XD) Atrell-Ptarmigan. ______ was the Rakkelian Minister of Science, a very fair and even man, who was well-respected by the people of Rakkel and idolized by his daughter. ____ went on a research excursion to another island and was never heard from again. To this day non one knows for certain what happened to him. Teliu was only twelve at the time.

Teliu took after her father in her interests and began tinkering with inventions around age six. She helped her father out in his workshop and learned everything she could from him and his books. After his death, she was devastated. She began to grow distant from her mother, who she saw as not grieving long or hard enough, and threw herself into the one thing left to remind her of her father: her inventing. At age sixteen, the position of Minister of Science was still unfilled, so Teliu asked the Duke to give it to her. She was without a doubt the most qualified person to follow in her father's footsteps and the Duke, in large part out of respect for the memory of her father, appointed her to the position.

Unfortunately, Teliu's gift with mechanics was not tempered by any social graces. Within her first year she had ostracized almost all the other ministers. By her second year, she had ostracized the entire city of Rakkel and the rumor that she was a witch who had tricked the Duke into appointing her at such a young age began to spread. Teliu essentially locked herself up in her tower at the castle, which only served to increase the rumors.

For many years she stayed within Castle Rakkel and her workshop, venturing out only in disguise to buy materials she could not have delivered. The duke allowed her to keep her position, again for the sake of her father's memory, and gave her a monthly stipend for her supplies. Teliu reciprocated by helping solve the castle's many problems, upgrading the defenses, and designing new weapons of war which to date have not been implemented since the duchy is in a time of peace (though several of her designs have been built and tested). Her inventions range from the very mundane (she has designed a pen which holds ink and improved the design of the castle's door locks) to the needlessly complex (a system of balances and weights she designed allows the castle cats to open the kitchen doors to let themselves in and out).

Up in her tower, Teliu had no friends save for the flock of crows that frequented the castle roofs. Teliu began to feed the crows, resulting in a huge boom in the castle crow population. Crows from miles around began to come and perch on her tower and circle it throughout the day. This obviously didn't help the rumor that she was a witch. The crows will even eat out of her hand, though they are not welcome inside her workshop due to the droppings. She has designed several self-dispensing birdfeeders for their benefit, and several of them have learned various tricks.

Over time the uproar over her supposed witchcraft died down. Everyone assumed she was a witch, but not a malevolent one. She continued her work undisturbed.

[spoilers]Then things changed at the castle. Daerinnid de Soto arrived. The Duke died shortly after naming Daerinnid his heir and Daerinnid became the new Duke of Rakkel. One of his first orders of business was to meet his ministers, but the Minister of Science was mysteriously absent from the assembly, so Daerinnid was forced to go and find her. He ascended Teliu's tower and informed her he was the new Duke. Teliu, who hadn't been out of the tower in a while, didn't believe him. It was only after a very long argument and definitive proof that she finally accepted he was in fact the new duke and her new liege. Unlike most of Rakkel, Daerinnid did not view Teliu's inventions or crow taming as witchcraft. He was very accepting of what she had to offer and even impressed. He realized the potential she held and decided to use it. Teliu merely was glad to find someone who took such a great interest in her work and didn't write her off as insane. She made herself as useful to Daerinnid as possible, even leaving her tower more often to give him counsel. Daerinnid liked Teliu's company, for she was always frank and honest with her opinions and was very loyal. Teliu liked Daerinnid's company, for he was more intelligent than the majority of the castle's ilk and listened to her. They became friends.[/spoilers]

[biggerspoilers]When the fairy princess Alonriel presented Daerinnid with an offer of diplomatic marriage and Daerinnid refused, Teliu was frustrated. She saw this marriage as potentially very beneficial to the Duchy of Rakkel, her home, and couldn't understand why Daerinnid wouldn't accept it. She then learned that Daerinnid had poor memories of his own parents' "diplomatic' marriage. Her mother had just that day approached her with a marriage prospect -- Teliu, at 26, was her socialite mother's worst nightmare and she had long been pressuring Teliu to marry and bringing gentlemen to the castle to meet her daughter (for none would agree to marry without actually seeing the girl first). Teliu announced to Daerinnid that she would marry the man on the spot no matter who he was and prove to Daerinnid that not all arranged or diplomatic marriages need be miserable affairs. If she married this man and stayed married to him for a month, Daerinnid would marry Alonriel. Daerinnid, thinking there was no way she would stay with it, agreed, offering to annul the marriage if Teliu later asked.

The man turned out to be a carriage maker named Sebastian Sedona who had only come along because he was hoping to make Miryam Gosburg his customer. He never expected anything to come of it; at thirty-nine he was a confirmed bachelor. Duke Daerinnid ordered him to marry Teliu (or else!) and poor Sebastian was basically blackmailed into it. The only other option was to lose his job, his holdings, and possibly even his life. (Daerinnid was still so new as a duke that no one yet knew what to think of him.) Teliu also told him that the marriage would force Daerinnid to marry Alonriel and Sebastian secretly knew better than most that this marriage would be beneficial. He also had a few secret reasons of his own.  He reluctantly let them bully him into it.

Immediately after the ceremony Daerinnid told Sebastian to "make sure she regrets [the marriage]." Sebastian was absolutely horrified. As luck would have it, he was a gentlemen throughout and treated Teliu very kindly. He even felt bad for her, since he knew he wasn't a man of great looks or means. Teliu quickly discovered he was uncommonly intelligent, well-read, and didn't believe for a moment that she was a witch. They got along very well, particularly when Sebastian showed he respected her and said he was fine with waiting until Teliu was ready to consummate the marriage. They celebrated their first month anniversary by doing just that and Daerinnid, forced to agree Teliu was right and secretly starting to fall for the beautiful, charming, compassionate, and sweet Alonriel, agreed to the marriage.

Afterwards Sebastian told Teliu that he was actually a warlock, part of an important group of them, and had used her as much as she had used him to force Daerinnid's hand. Sebastian's group had needed to place someone close to the new duke to learn more about him and keep a close eye; their previous operative had been canned by Daerinnid. Teliu was slightly horrified but admitted it was only fair. Rather then destroy their young marriage, Sebastian's double life instead became a whole new area of interest for Teliu and they actually grew closer as Teliu learned more of what real witches and warlocks were like (though she did not pursue any magic herself).[/biggerspoilers]

[morespoilers]Eventually, Daerinnid and Alonriel's marriage resulted in a pregnancy. Not long after, Teliu's marriage to Sebastian did as well. For Teliu and Sebastian, this was a thing of joy, but for Daerinnid it was a source of incredible terror, as Alonriel began to die. Desperate, Daerinnid embarked upon a quest to try and save his wife. He wanted Teliu, now one of his closest friends, to accompany him but she was unable to due to her pregnancy.[/morespoilers]

[yetmorespoilers]Teliu unfortunately miscarried. Alonriel died after giving birth to a son of her own, Villam Agrippa de Soto. Daerinnid did not return in time for her death. When he finally did return he was devastated by the news and relied heavily on Rikard and Teliu for support. It was extremely difficult for Teliu, who was still grieving over her own loss. While she managed to get over it eventually, Daerinnid never got over Alonriel's death and continued grieving much as Teliu had grieved for her father. Teliu then became pregnant again. She finally gave birth to a son, Talos Sedona, who immediately became to light of her life. She also oversaw the education of Daerinnid's son and his (supposedly) bastard daughter Clover. She and Rikard were the two who counseled Villam and Clover to embark upon their eventual quest to save Daerinnid, who had at that point basically devolved into insanity. Talos, several year younger than then both, remained at home with his parents.[/yetmorespoilers]

Teliu & Rikard: Teliu and Rikard are very close friends, a friendship that first started out of their mutual friendship with Daerinnid. Even though they don't get along perfectly all the time (they both have slightly explosive natures) they do love and respect one another (not romantically!) and look out for each other. It's not mentioned much above because Teliu's friendship with Rikard hasn't made as much of an impact on her life as her friendship with Daerinnid, but I encourage you to consider them if you're drawing a pair! They really are good friends.

Teliu & Hraewn: Teliu and Hraewn have a very strong bond that has sadly not greatly impacted impacted Teliu's life, though it has definitely impacted Hraewn's. Hraewn first met Teliu as a crow. Teliu was surprised and then positively enchanted to find out Hraewn was in fact a fairy. She is very affectionate towards the little fellow, treated him like a cross between a pet and a child. You should definitely also consider Hraewn if you're drawing a pair.

Teliu & Torvwyn: Teliu and Torvywn have known each other a long time; it was Torvwyn who led Daerinnid to Teliu for an introduction and Torvwyn who convinced her that Daerinnid was actually in charge. That said, their relationship isn't particularly close. They're good friends, nothing more.

Teliu & Caerden: Teliu and Caerden are friends by mutual association with Daerinnid. It's not a close friendship.

Teliu & Kendal: Kendal is Teliu's uncle who lived on another island for most of her life. She didn't meet him until after she met Daerinnid. While they are not terribly close, they are family and treat each other as such, so do consider them if you're drawing a pair. Kendal looks a lot like Teliu's father.