Puppet Master: Cretey
Character Name: Inteus "In" Haelliar
Character Age: 17
Gender: Male
Rank: Commoner
Hair: Inteus' hair style would be described, in modern terms, as 'emo';
Eyes: A light blue, almost grey.
Build: In is a bit shorter than average, though not enough to be incredibly
noticeable in a crowd; about the average *female* height for his age. But with
this, he’s also fairly skinny; not even close to unhealthily so, but no
closer
to chubby. He’s lightly muscled
Face: Inteus has a pretty nondescript face of average attractiveness;
he’s pale,
with a few freckles. His nose is medium length, though a bit crooked; his eyes
are slightly large and even more-slightly too far apart. His overall face shape
is fairly round; perhaps with a different hairstyle it would look more
heart-shaped. If anything, In looks a little young for his age.
Dress: In dresses simply, usually in loose dark trousers and a light-colored
tunic with short, full sleeves; he tends to forget to wear a belt unless the
pair of pants he’s wearing is particularly large. Yes, sometimes he doesn’t
realize that he needs a belt to keep them up until after it is too late to put
a
belt on. He has a pair of short leather boots that he generally wears, though
he
is also prone to going barefoot out of laziness. Amaranth weather seems
incredibly hot to him in comparison to his native Treban, and he hates the heat.
Personality: In follows the basic Treban religious philosophy, and his
personal
deity is a young god named Ceredar. Traditionally, he is the twin of the goddess
Gine, who is older than him by a few minutes. Ceredar gave her a necklace of
beautiful glass beads on their birthday near the beginning of time; but later
Gine grew disillusioned with Heaven. Possessing a fierce temper, she shunned
the
other Gods, and left the home she and Ceredar shared with their family; for a
short time she lived as a mortal among her followers. When she left, she left
behind the necklace; Ceredar assumed partial responsibility for her unhappiness
and mourned this, sending her the necklace again to try to make peace. She
received it as a gesture of good will, but before they could reunite, her time
(or so Ceredar’s followers believe; Gine’s followers tell a different
story) as
a separate entity ended and she dissolved back into the ultimate pervasive mass.
Ceredar is, oddly enough, seen as the god
of mistakes; whether justified or not, he sees Gine’s fate as his own mistake,
admits it, and takes responsibility. His followers see this as raising him above
the other gods who, even if kind, do not generally admit to faults if they even
have any, which is also rare; Ceredar’s followers wear small necklaces
to
represent this main story of Ceredar. Inteus’ necklace is tight, like a
choker
or a collar, and of woven twine with four small round stone beads on the front.
Inteus is fairly temperamental, making a quantum leap from ‘relaxed
and joking’
to ‘pissed off’ almost instantaneously after a certain point is
passed. He
doesn’t shy away from confrontations that happen impulsively, but does
if he has
time to think about it; he won’t hesitate to punch someone with whom
he has
gotten into a spontaneous argument, but he won’t want to meet so and
so at a
certain time to discuss something sure to lead to argument. He also doesn’t
have very strict guidelines for himself as to who is appropriate for him to
argue with and who is not; if they seem capable enough to take care of
themselves and anger him, why should he hesitate from fighting back? At the same time, he has a fairly strong self-preservation instinct; he’s
not
likely to make the situation harder for himself until he gets angry and stops
thinking. When he takes issue with people, it’s not really matters of
pride; if
someone ranking higher than him orders him to, for example, sit down, he’s
not
likely to stand up just as an act of defiance. It takes more personal insults
to
push him over the edge- or personal insults to anyone he considers a friend.
One
of his fastest buttons to press is hinting that he shouldn’t really be
a part of
the troupe at all, or that his ‘guard’ position is just a charity
case; if He forms opinions on people rather quickly, and gets deeply attached to those
he
likes. In tends to view strangers as parts of their group entity; in other
words, he ‘lumps people in together’ until he’s interacted
with them personally.
Of course, his opinions about the group that he stereotypes people from are
not
always negative; just stereotypes. He seldom regrets things he has done, though; he doesn’t waste his time
wishing
he hadn’t done it or thinking about how it would have been different.
This isn’t
completely natural for his personality, though, and he has spent years reminding
himself of it. In likes his privacy, and needs a daily dose of it; he’s
prone to
wandering off by himself without warning people, not even out of anger or hurt
(that’s more likely to lead to him yelling at them) just because he feels
like
it. It’s very easy for others to read In’s emotions, as he usually
makes no
attempt at hiding them. He also likes to spend time alone just reading,
especially after a particularly boisterous audience. As far as the current world issues are concerned: Slavery he doesn’t
like or
agree with, and it makes him uncomfortable; if anyone he knows is in danger
of
it, he’ll throw a fit, and if anyone he already dislikes happens to express
unappealing views about slavery, he’s not going to let it slide. But
in some
ways, it’s just not applicable to him personally. It’s not a common
practice in
Treban; while children do hear an occasional story of someone being taken by
foreigners, this is seen more of a cautionary tale against strangers than as
true, immediate fact. When it comes to Istroban’s control over Treban,
of
course, In has strong feelings: they need to get out, pure and simple. This
has
almost brought him trouble before when the troupe has performed in Istroban,
but
only in the manner of street fights between a few citizens who feel as
reluctant to get the law involved as In himself.
Talents: In is fairly good at reading, and loves it. And, while he is
bad at
official combat with any opponents actually trained or just plain taller than
him, he’s not bad at catch-as-catch-can wrestling against opponents his
own
age/size/situation- punch where it hurts, grab on to them and don’t let
go. He
can usually hunt around until he finds a few odd jobs to do to earn extra money
for the troupe. Inteus is capable of riding a horse, though he doesn’t
often.
Faults:Inteus can have a quick temper, getting angered easily; and
if he gets
too angered, he’ll hit the person responsible almost without thinking.
He also,
um, is not a very good guard; he tries, but he’s not physically strong
enough to
overpower most of his opponents, and is not that talented with weapons of any
kind. He can’t write at all, which sometimes aggravates him, but he doesn’t
ever
make himself learn. In also has fairly bad eyesight- he can see things up close,
and general shapes at a distance, but he can’t see details very far away,
can’t
recognize people until after they’re a bit closer than other people require,
and
sometimes squints to see things. And, of course, he has relatively no
performance skills.
History:Inteus was born in a small settlement of Treban to Ryad Haelliar and Hada Simalen; but Ryad, his father, was killed shortly after his birth of a sickness and fever. Hada raised her son alone but well. When In was eleven, Hada became involved with a traveling musician, Tomas Feruson; he stayed loyal to her despite the amount he traveled. The two considered marriage, but Tomas couldn’t give up his position with the players group as a source of income; so they merely lived in a relationship as close as if they were married. After a year, however, while Tomas was in a distant country with his troupe, Hada became sick and shortly died. Inteus was taken in temporarily by a neighbor family. When Tomas returned to the village and was informed of Hada’s death, he was devastated- but, even though they had never officially married, he adopted Inteus as his own son. So at age thirteen, Inteus found himself traveling with his adoptive father’s performance troupe, even though he had no interest in any of the performance skills whatsoever himself.
For a few years, he merely tagged along with them, making himself useful whenever possible; but then he began taking up the unofficial position as guard for the caravan. He also does odd jobs for people to bring in extra sums for the troupe, especially if the weather or other circumstances scare crowds away from the performances.
As far as Tomas went, Inteus immediately became extremely devoted to him, fully accepting him as his father, not adoptive father. Many people don’t realize that they are not blood related until something causes the fact to come out, or they notice the discrepancies in Inteus’ and Tomas’ appearances. When Inteus was 16, Tomas retired from the active troupe life; he now lives in the large city nearest to the small village where Hada and Inteus had once lived. Inteus is incredibly glad to see him when the troupe makes their rounds there. Inteus actually occasionally calls himself both ‘Inteus Feruson’ from his adopted father- when he’s in a situation where Tomas is well-known- and ‘Inteus Simalen’ from his mother who raised him- when he’s in his mother’s native areas-, but Treban tradition leads him to use Haelliar most often.
flopping into his eyes, uneven fringed bits all around, and a bit of a fwoosh.
Lucky for In, it usually stays out of his eyes by itself; but when it droops
and
gets too frustrating, he's likely to just pour water over his head and smooth
it
back. (This works well, too, because it usually only droops during the
oppressive heat!) And it's a red color, neither dark nor light, just... red.
anyone in power threatens his removal from the troupe, it just makes him even
less likely to comply, and he’ll be hurt into the bargain.