Characters / Spindrift

Characters for Spindrift

Main Character

Morwenna Agenar

• The Apprentice: Until she had to flee Aureate in the middle of the night, she's been her uncle's apprentice at the smithy.
• The Blacksmith: The profession in which she's been trained since she was old enough to walk and talk, and she loves it.
• Happily Adopted: Her maternal uncle raised her as his own daughter, and her childhood, though harsh, was pleasant, and she was content.
• Heroic Bastard: Her parents were never married and she's not only the protagonist, but a good and kind woman.
• Hidden Backup Prince: The daughter of Neburas Rogan, one of the top Ildrei aristocrats. He only recently learned he had a daughter.
• In-Universe Nickname: Is often called "Wenna" by close friends and family.
• Living MacGuffin: Is the target of two Jerkass Gods, one an Absolute Xenophobe who wants her dead, no matter the cost, the other who sees her as a pawn to exploit, at best.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Half Alar, Half Ildrei.
• People Puppets: Gets her body controlled by her father Neburas, who wanted the secret of Alar wings for his people.
• Tomboy: Far more comfortable in blacksmith's garb than fancy dresses.
• Winged Humanoid: Briefly. She does manage to gain for herself Alar wings shaped with Spindrift, but then Alarina shows up, enraged, and strips the wings of everyone in Aureate, telling the clergy "kill the half-breed if you even want to think about getting them back!"
• You Can't Go Home Again: Chased out of Aurete by decree of Alarina, she goes anywhere near home, and she's facing near certain death.

Alar

Neva Aregar

Morwenna's mother

• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Pawned off her daughter, Morwenna, unto her brother Cimos because her lover, Neburas, had already left, for parts unknown, unaware he had sired a child, and she could not raise a child by her lonesome, in exile.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: She and Neburas are, or were, deeply in love, but being from societies whose patron gods are at each other's throats, their romance would have never worked out, though they sired a daughter...
• Wandering the Earth: Exiled from Aureate, she wanders to and fro, exploring the world. So much so that it took Neburas's best scout and tracker decades to find her.

Cimos Agenar

You at least gave the child a name, right?

Morwenna's maternal uncle.

• The Blacksmith: His job after retiring from the Aureate military, due to having to raise his son when his wife died in childbirth.
• Mentor Archetype: Is the one who taught Morwenna everything she knows about smithing.
• Papa Wolf: Does his best to protect Morwenna from Alar Fantastic Racism, even helping her escape when Alarina demanded she be executed for "defiling her ritual" and briefly sporting wings.
• Parental Substitute: Is the closest thing Morwenna has to a parent while growing up, and he did a damn fine job.
• Plausible Deniability: Exploits this when Neburas's pack chances upon him and Morwenna. He claims fighting The Crow is the reason why Morwenna escaped his grasp and the city of Aureate. The guard captain's corpse, crossbow bolt to the heart, helped, as did The Crow's dagger in his own shoulder.
• Retired Badass: Formerly a high-rank soldier in Aureate's army, turned blacksmith. Still a powerful fighter who can be matched by few and beaten by none in single combat, unless ambushed by an expert scout and tracker while distracted speaking with the high guard captain of Aureate.

Hyaden Agenar

Ha! I can become lieutenant any time, my little sister is more important!

Morwenna's elder cousin and adoptive elder brother.

• Big Brother Instinct: Mess with Morwenna and he will come after you, damn the consequences.
• Follow in My Footsteps: He very much wants to be like his father, an Aureate elite soldier.
• Hold the Line: Held off the pursuing Alar to allow Morwenna to escape, but meeting Neburas's pack gave him some Plausible Deniability to escape getting a bounty on his head too.
• Hot-Blooded: Quick tempered, and slow-witted.
• In-Universe Nickname: Is often called "Den" even in his character sheet.
• The Prankster: Is known to often play pranks on his fellow cadets. This does not endear him to his superiors.
• To Be a Master: Ever since he was old enough to walk and talk he's dreamed of becoming an Aureate elite soldier.

Kimur Charis

I can't believe you, Neva!

An advisor in Aureate, captain of the guard, and family friend of Neva.

• Only Friend: After Neva got herself pregnant with Neburas's child, she's the only Alar that's still on speaking terms with her.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Her lover? Chevez, the Alar exile who set up shop in Broken Vale, as an Information Broker, and is responsible for smuggling Morwenna out of Aureate when Alarina declared she must die.

Eibert Cheves

I'll find you a teacher, Morwenna.

An Alar exile that helps Morwenna get her bearings in the port town of Broker's Vale, after fishing her out of the river, following her escape from Aureate.

• Delinquent Hair: In-universe. Sports a mo-hawk, which would be seriously frowned upon in Aureate.
• The Exile: Unlike Neva, his exile was not voluntary. His wings were stripped from him and he was driven out of Aureate.
• Faking the Dead: Makes it look like Morwenna fell off a cliff.
• Friend in the Black Market: He is very well connected in Broker's Vale, and can even get Morwenna in touch with an Ildrei Spindrift teacher. For an Alar, this is mighty impressive.
• Noodle Incident: The reason he was exiled has yet to be revealed.

Ildrei

Neburas Rugon

I wish there was another way.

Morwenna's father.

• Accidental Hero: More justified than most examples. He was leading his pack to sneak into Aureate and infiltrate the temple of Alarina, using the Spindrift to track Morwenna, so they could all gain Alar wings. His pack bumps into the troops sent by Alarina to capture and kill Morwenna. The resulting fight allows Morwenna to escape and gives Cimos Plausible Deniability.
• But Now I Must Go: After laying with Neva, she pleads, begs and cajoles him to stay with her, even just one more hour. He sighs and tells her that as much as he would like to stay with her, forever, that it's simply not possible. Much, much later, he would learn he sired a daughter that day...
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He didn't realize he sired a daughter until decades after the girl had been born.
• Forced into Evil: When his pack learned he sired a half-Alar daughter, his sister Inez greets him in his tent. She first states that he will be stripped of his title as pack leader, violently, if he doesn't kill said daughter. After getting pinned to the ground, threat of being burned alive, Inez proposes an alternative, use Morwenna to steal the secret of Alar wings, so he can pass off the daughter's existence as a sleeper agent, and if he doesn't, she will.
• Horned Humanoid: Has horns atop his head.
• I Did What I Had to Do: He's not proud, and in fact deeply regrets exploiting Morwenna the way he did, but he felt he had no viable alternative.
• Papa Wolf: Threats to his daughter will make him murderous. He even once came damn close to setting his own sister, Inez, on fire for this.
• Parents as People: While he considers his daughter's love very important, his people's needs come first.
• Playing with Fire: He has a glove composed of spindrift that allows him to summon and control flames. He was able to single-handed (no pun intended) hold off an entire battalion of Alar archers by himself to allow the rest of his pack to flee under Inez's direction.
• Princess in Rags: Gender bent. He used to be one of the top people among the Ildrei, but a coup, run by uncultured barbarians, has stripped him of power. What's worse, said barbarians have provoked the Carmione Empire, dooming them all. He's desperate to regain his rightful place among Ildrei aristocracy and save his people, if he can.

Inez Rugon

That girl is also my kin. Find her, or I will.

Neburas's sister.

• Crazy Enough to Work: Her plan to exploit the fact that Morwenna was in Aureate to steal the secret behind Alar wings was indeed quite bold and clever, even after Neburas points out the inherent pitfalls and logical flaws, but even he has to admit it's their best option.
• Fantastic Racism: Calls Morwenna an "abomination" for being Half-Alar. This pisses off Neburas.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While she is a valuable member of the pack, nobody likes her, not even her brother, Neburas. Should Crow even have to address her, his tone is downright frigid.
• Horned Humanoid: Has horns on the side of her head.
• Pragmatic Villainy: She's clearly not Stupid Evil. When she saw that Neburas was wiling to fight to the death to protect his daughter, she proposed an alternative that would be palatable to even the most racist of the Ildrei, state that said daughter was sired as a Deep Cover Agent to infiltrate Aureate and steal the secret of Alar wings. It almost worked!
• The Starscream: She may be loyal to Neburas, but she's not blindly obedient. She will happily chew him out if she doesn't agree with how he does things.
• Token Evil Teammate: The most morally problematic of the pack Neburas holds.

The Crow

I have found your bird, Neburas

Neburas's top scout and seer.

• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": He's only referred to as "The Crow." His real name, if he has one, is never mentioned.
• Flight: One of the few Ildrei who can fly, but nowhere near as good as someone with Alar wings.
• Seers: Aside from being a scout and tracker, he's an Ildrei seer. This makes him able to use spindrift to see through the eyes of other Ildrei, and transmit what he sees to them. As a scout, this serves him well.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: His job. It may have take him a couple of decades, but he found both Neva and Morwenna despite not knowing that the latter was the daughter of the first. Especially impressive is that Morwenna was near the heart of Aureate, where he can't easily go...

Bramer

Leave? And give you the pleasure of hunting me down? Not a chance!

Serves as the alchemist and apothecary of Rugon's pack.

• Genre Savvy: Is well aware that Inez gave him permission to leave just so she could enjoy hunting him. They both have a bit of a laugh about it.
• The Medic: As an apothecary, he provides medicines and cures.
• Servile Snarker: He may be loyal to the pack, but never misses an opportunity to snark at them.
• Token Human: Everyone else in pack Rugon is 100% pure blood Ildrei. He's the only human.

Gods

Alarina

"Somebody has to make you see sense!"

The patron deity of the Alar.

• Absolute Xenophobe: Commands the Alar to squirrel themselves away in an eyrie and have as little contact with other races as possible. Failure to comply results in exile, at best.
• Catchphrase: "Somebody has to make you see sense."
• Condescending Compassion: She loves to make herself look superior to Ildrus in her own eyes by "pointing out his mistakes" with a smug, pitying tone, proclaiming that if he doesn't start to micro-manage the Ildrei, they will go extinct, since she sees them the same way she sees the Alar, as nothing more than mindless puppets that can only live at the direction of their founding gods. Ildrus is never pleased at her self-proclaimed "benevolence."
• Covert Pervert: She loves to pass herself off as a goddess of purity, but when Ildrus retorts that there was absolutely no rape involved in the siring of Morwenna, Alarina wants to know if he was watching, with a perverted smirk. He does not dignify such a question with an answer.
  "For a self-proclaimed goddess of purity, you have a remarkably vulgar mind."
• Deity of Human Origin: According to Alarina’s priests, their goddess ascended to the divine realm of Basion from the very peak upon which Aureate was later built, and subsequently gave life to their people. This tale has never been either confirmed or denied by Alarina herself.
• Fantastic Racism: Enforced. She commands her people, the Alar, to treat half-breeds as second-class citizens, if said half-breeds are lucky. This would turn around to bite her.
• Faux Affably Evil: She speaks in polite tones only when she thinks she's being praised and things are going her way. The rest of the time, she's vicious, overbearing, self-aggrandizing, petty, and cruel, with a harsh and icy tone to her speech, even shouting at her followers when even the tiniest little thing doesn't match her "pure and perfect ideal."
• Jerkass Gods: She's such a narcissist that she's incredibly abrasive to just about everyone.
• Narcissist: Has the entirety of the Alar population focus its efforts into building shrines to her self-perceived beauty.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Is a totalitarian Absolute Xenophobe who insists her blonde, blue-eyed people are the "superior race" without merit, and responds with extreme rage to whoever dares counter her assertion.
• Pure Is Not Good: Calls herself "the goddess of purity" and is a complete narcissist who demands racial purity from her people, having as little contact with other races as possible, and treating half-breeds as inherently inferior.
• Psychological Projection: Since she micro-manages the life of her people, the Alar, she presumes Ildrus does the same with the Ildrei. He doesn't. Ildrus actually respects their sovereignty and lets them face the consequences of their actions, for good or ill, rarely, if ever, intervening in their affairs. She can't bring herself to believe it.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Her stance against half-ildrei half-breeds is not without merit. Ildrus can use the eyes of anyone with Ildrei blood to spy on the world, and one of the gifts of the titular spindrift allows one Ildrei to control the body of another. She is completely unaware of this, however, so her stance is just pure racism.
• Seven Deadly Sins:
  • Pride: She is the most beautiful, intelligent, and wise god in existence, and her people are "perfect." Disagree and "someone has to make you see sense."
  • Sloth: She spends her time doing little to nothing aside from flitting over to Ildrus and insulting him, and praising her own self-perceived intelligence and beauty.
  • Wrath: She flies into tantrums for the flimsiest of reasons, and the consequences are always dire for the targets of her rage.
• Villain Has a Point: The Ildrei are spread too thin and are doomed to extinction if Ildrus doesn't do something about it.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Look at Ildrus's list of Evil Virtues. Alarina is well aware of them and honestly calls them "mistakes" that she frequently points out, coining her Catchphrase. By page 103 of Chapter 2, Ildrus has grown quite tired of it and strongly intends to give her a taste of her own medicine, even making an Ironic Echo of her catchphrase.
• Volleying Insults: She flies over to Ildrus's domain purely to hurl verbal abuse at him. He gives just as good as he gets, which only serves to irk her until she flies away, unsatisfied.
• Winged Humanoid: Sports wings with a span that matches her height.

Ildrus

I don't think the precious girl's mother was complaining.

• Affably Evil: Unflinchingly friendly and polite, even when delivering insults to Alarina, though he sometimes sports a harsher tone when he's alone and nobody can hear him.
• Beard of Evil: Sports a goatee and is a genuine villain.
• Deadpan Snarker: Delivers insults to Alarina in an even tone, laced with sarcasm and snark. The most famous being the quote under his page image, which is what he uses to retort to Alarina accusing him of defiling her followers with a half-breed.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Unlike his main rival, Alarina, he is pointedly not racist. As long as you serve him faithfully, he cares not a whit about your bloodline. Your rewards are based entirely on the merit of your actions. Even a fraction of a percent Ildrei blood is still 100% Ildrei to him. He is even shown welcoming humans and other races with absolutely no Ildrei blood into Ildrei "packs" without issue.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Make no mistake, he is clearly villainous, but when Alarina brags about doing something to "discipline" the Alar, he's horrified, and when he later learns that said "discipline" involved arbitrarily and indiscriminately stripping away their wings without warning, causing many to fall out of the sky, and the rest to struggle having to navigate their eyrie on foot, he's shocked and outraged.
• Evil Virtues:
  • Diligence: He spends his time building powerful Spindrift constructs that serve to protect his temples, and rescue his people, should the need ever arise.
  • Empathy: True, he may have bragged to Alarina that the Ildrei were responsible for the extinction of three other races, but that was only to counter Alarina's pompous declaration that her people were "perfect" and the best race on the planet, despite having no martial accomplishments to speak of, and so rarely interact with other races that they're considered mere myth. When he looks upon other races with his own eyes, he does genuinely show concern for their well-being, even if they are enemies to his people, as long as they're not in active conflict.
  • Equality: He cares not a whit about birthplace or bloodline. He praises the Ildrei for running their society on a meritocracy, and lets his followers face the consequences of their own actions, for good or ill. They can boast of any accomplishments they get because they've earned them.
  • Self-determination: He lets races seek enlightenment on their own merits, even his people, the Ildrei, rarely, if ever, directly interfering in their affairs, without an engraved invitation, that is. Alarina considers this "a mistake" as she honestly believes it will result in the Ildrei scattering and inbreeding to extinction.
• Fangs Are Evil: Has very profound incisors, and he's a clear villain.
• Fantastic Racism: Subverted. While there is that infamous line where he boasts that the Ildrei are responsible for the extinction of three other races, and some of the Ildrei are racists, he's not. He only boasted of the extinction of those races because they apparently picked a fight with the Ildrei and lost, not because he considered them inferior due to their race.
• Hidden Depths: He's not a brutal conquering warlord, only obsessed with weapons and martial strife. He does indeed appreciate fine art, and is quite adept at making floral arrangements with the Drift, whenever he's got a free moment, but he dares not let Alarina see it. This is showcased in page 98 of Chapter 2.
• Horned Humanoid: Sports large horns atop his head.
• Jerkass Gods: While he does value people, he only does so by considering how useful they are as pawns, but compared to Alarina, this is a marked improvement.
• Lean and Mean: He's considerably thinner than Alarina and he's particularly vicious.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He is villainous, but compared to Alarina, he could pass for almost heroic.
• Sore Loser: He hates to lose so much that he will secure his victory in anything by any means necessary.
• Villain Has a Point: Alarina's micromanaged her people to a disturbingly crippling degree and put all her eggs in one basket. Stripping away the Alar's wings in a tantrum does not help her people's welfare in any way.
• Volleying Insults: Whenever Alarina shows up on his doorstep to insult him, he gives back at least as good as he gets, causing her to get frustrated and fly off in a rage, to his amusement, save for one time...
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: He has yellow eyes, and his villainy is subtle...