ℭ𝔦𝔯𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔯𝔞 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wiedzminka) wrote2024-04-07 11:53 am
wiedzminka) wrote2024-04-07 11:53 am
❧ Herald of Infinite Constellations
HERALD OF INFINITE CONSTELLATIONS
APPEARANCE & LORE
The Herald of Infinite Constellations appears generally human, of average size; it's not her stature that is striking, after all, but her presence. She steps into the world from anywhere she pleases, walking through the unseen doors between space (some say even time) and carrying the scent of ozone, frost and florals. Most often, she wears leather and silver armor with engraved motifs of wolves, lions, birds and flowers. Her hair is long and silvery-white, shining like starlight when she moves. If she's not wearing a helm, she may wear a cloak with the cowl up, so few can say what her face looks like -- except the eyes that shine from beneath, a vivid green that evokes the first tender leaves of life poking up through a stark white field of snow.
She will always carry a sword on her back (or in her hand, for those unlucky enough to make her draw it), but has over the years been associated with other weapons, including the bow, with which it's said she shoots the stars into the sky to create the paths between them.
As a goddess with a reputation for sharp duality, like the twin edges of a blade, this Herald may be as quick to righteous anger as she is to sympathy for those deemed deserving. A champion for the trapped, lost and hunted by circumstances beyond their control (especially women), she is a guardian of opportunity -- for better or for worse. She opens doors; the choice to use them must be taken by those who will step through.
MORTAL NAME
Cirilla; Ciri
CURRENT NAMES
Lady of Space & Stars; Keeper of Doors; Lady Belleteyn/Beltane/Bealtaine; Zirael the Armored Swallow (in association with The Wolf & the Swallow)
On her own, Ciri continues to refer to herself and is known amongst god-friends as Ciri or perhaps Zirael
On her own, Ciri continues to refer to herself and is known amongst god-friends as Ciri or perhaps Zirael
SYMBOLS
swallow; silver she-wolf; alder and birch trees (both in spring bloom and charred); the first flowers of spring: snowdrops, white hyacinths, white crocuses; the first day of spring (Belleteyn being a festival adopted in her honor among followers)
HISTORY & CONNECTIONS
— YEARS 100-300 —
❧ Some involvement in the events that led to the Velan Republic's formation in assistance to Yennefer. During this time, Ciri has a prophetic vision that Yennefer is in great danger and attempts to intervene by offering her help toward Yennefer's endeavors (the fact she's not fond of Thorne certainly helps); unfortunately, Ciri realizes she's no more able to prevent a vision from coming true now than she was in the past. She spends the next few years sticking close to Yennefer.
❧ Leaves the desert to follow Geralt when able, making her home in the forests north of Lake Circinus, but traveling the continent much of the time. Frequently visits the Free Cities, the Lunae settlement, the Nether, and the Velan Republic. Rarely goes to Thorne or the Feywilds; avoids the Isle of the Lost. During this time, her relationship with Hilda deepens, and she becomes closer to Claude and Sylvain. Able to easily travel now as her powers grow stronger, she also deepens her bond with Aloy, and the two of them begin seeing each other regularly. Ciri takes casual lovers more freely, enjoys her freedom wandering across the continent, and begins to seriously develop her powers.
❧ Commissions a new sword from Hilda for Geralt, and one for herself with matching elements of wolf motif decorations on the crossguard. Hers has a lioness head on the pommel; his has a wolf. Each weapon is skillfully enchanted and melds silver and steel into one. Engraved on the blade in Elder runes are the words Duettaeánn aef cirrán Cáerme Gláeddyv, meaning "The Sword of Destiny has two edges."
❧ During this time, Ciri is coming into her powers and feeling stronger and more confident, no longer afraid of the forces she'd been so terrified would try to use her for their own means, such as the governments of Abraxas and the Wild Hunt. Emboldened to get her own world-hopping abilities back and help those who feel trapped in Abraxas open doors home, Ciri joins Viktor in his research into the old Summoning Ritual, which the mortals of Abraxas have abandoned by now. They work together off and on throughout the first couple of centuries, experimenting with portal magic. Others lend their assistance, research and support, including Thancred and Julia. Believing strongly in the need to let people choose whether or not they stay in Abraxas, Ciri ignores warnings from Istredd and others about the dangers of endeavors.
❧ Over the next few years, due to her attempts trying to figure out a way out of Abraxas, Ciri's powers become more and more unstable and dangerous. She spawns several powerful Demigods in the Witchwood, and accidentally opens doors for these monsters to wreak havoc on native settlements, causing significant chaos, death, destruction -- and a blow to her godly reputation amongst mortals for some time.
This causes a rift in Ciri and Viktor's friendship, as he withdraws due to his role 'allowing' such an outcome, and Viktor and Ciri blame each other for how far their risks have taken them.
Cid's village in the Witchwood is badly affected; Ciri helps him drive back the monsters, and gets thoroughly scolded by her dad's friend
Her actions alienate some of her friends and lovers, including Aloy and Hilda.
— YEAR 300-400 —
❧ Roughly 300 years in, Geralt suffers a significant loss of memory, resulting in his forgetting Ciri for nearly a decade. During this time, driven by the pain of this circumstance and her desperation to actively help Geralt, she journeys seeking the aid of other gods both old and new who may be able to restore Geralt's memories and their connection. This is a dark period in Ciri's history, during which time she is more volatile, likely to pick fights and take offense at small slights; places that have begun to hold the Herald of Infinite Constellations in their beliefs suffer a lingering frost and late spring, especially toward the end of the decade when she begins to lose hope as Geralt seems to regain more and more of his memories without those most important to her.
Ciri's interference with the natural order causes further cracks in her relationship with Aloy. During one particularly unfortunate incident involving an utterly demolished section of forest in the Lunae Settlement, Aloy confronts Ciri and the two fight; they are evenly matched for the most part, but Aloy successfully drives Ciri back. Ciri leaves feeling more isolated and reckless.
Ciri approaches various people for help with Geralt's memory loss, including: Julia, Alucard, Crane, and Sabine. Though some of Geralt's memories have been slowly returning, those connected to her remain elusive. Ciri learns that his memories aren't lost; they're still there, but remain out of reach no matter what they seem to do. She begins to grow more and more frustrated, angry and desperate.
❧ Jill, a close friend, accompanies Ciri to ask a boon from the Cardinal God Nikodaemus, hoping his association with 'clarity of vision' will either be useful to Geralt, or at least give Ciri some insight on how to proceed. Instead, Nikodaemus grants Ciri a vision of a god he claims may 'help' -- Sannleikr, whose ability to make people forget faces and familiar souls is believed by many of his followers to also work in reverse. The vision suggests Sannleikr will not be easily summoned and must be convinced through a display of power over his followers in a small village. Though these are mortal beliefs and Ciri knows they may not be completely accurate, she takes the risk. She and Jill find a small group of Sannleikr's followers in a remote village somewhere in Solvunn, working together to frighten them and cause enough disorder to draw Sannleikr out. Unfortunately, Ciri's emotional state is too volatile to let her retain fine control over her powers; she unintentionally displaces some villagers through unstable portals and calls one of her demigods through an accidental rift, wreaking wanton destruction and angering the very god she meant to supplicate.
Sannleikr attacks both Ciri and Jill in a show of dominating force, seeking not to destroy them but rather to remind them of his strength. They fight but are severely outmatched by the Old God.
Ciri is badly wounded, losing most of her left arm in the process, and Jill is forced to keep her in stasis using her ice powers, while they both retreat.
Jill brings Ciri to Jaskier, who takes her to Nadine's domain in the Horizon, where she spends some time recovering. Between the injury and loss of strength due to expending so much energy trying to defend against Sannleikr, Ciri's god powers are diminished.
❧ Viktor assists Ciri with a prosthetic to fix her injury, but she finds out that he's intentionally removed his own memories of someone close to him. While she's still struggling intensely with Geralt's continued inability to remember her, Ciri lashes out, rejects further help from Viktor, and refuses to talk to him for a very long time.
❧ Though most of her powers have slowly returned and she's healed enough to function, Ciri continues to struggle with her lingering loss of powers, weakness from her injuries and unfinished prosthetic. This is a period of time spent sticking close to Geralt, with Geralt protecting her in her weakened state; this brings them closer and his memories of her finally return fully.
— YEAR 500-600 —
❧ Eventually, her relationship with Viktor improves and he improves her prosthetic, as well as some protective armor while she returns to full power. Her reputation as a god is slowly restored as Ciri begins to take her responsibility of answering Echoes more seriously. Begins teaming up more and more with other Ecesis gods to do so, including Aloy, Hilda/Claude/Sylvain trio, Clarisse, Jill & Clive, Cid, Jo & Dean, and others.
❧ She begins to develop a winged form, with a mix of silver armor and blue swallow-themed colors.
❧ Spends some time clearing demigods from the Witchwood, since she feels belatedly responsible for causing a bunch of problems the first couple hundred years.
— YEAR 700-800 —
❧ Ciri has settled into her calling as a god of renewal and opening doors, and on a more personal level tries to offer protection and new opportunities to those she feels empathy for based on circumstance; it's rare that she responds to offerings from mortals. She doesn't have much desire to be worshiped by humans, but accepts some celebrations and festivals in her name. Overall, Ciri tries to keep close to those who she considers part of her family, friends or lovers, and in the last century or so has mellowed out quite a bit, wandering the continent during the warmer months and generally spending winters with Geralt or her lovers.
❧ Some involvement in the events that led to the Velan Republic's formation in assistance to Yennefer. During this time, Ciri has a prophetic vision that Yennefer is in great danger and attempts to intervene by offering her help toward Yennefer's endeavors (the fact she's not fond of Thorne certainly helps); unfortunately, Ciri realizes she's no more able to prevent a vision from coming true now than she was in the past. She spends the next few years sticking close to Yennefer.
❧ Leaves the desert to follow Geralt when able, making her home in the forests north of Lake Circinus, but traveling the continent much of the time. Frequently visits the Free Cities, the Lunae settlement, the Nether, and the Velan Republic. Rarely goes to Thorne or the Feywilds; avoids the Isle of the Lost. During this time, her relationship with Hilda deepens, and she becomes closer to Claude and Sylvain. Able to easily travel now as her powers grow stronger, she also deepens her bond with Aloy, and the two of them begin seeing each other regularly. Ciri takes casual lovers more freely, enjoys her freedom wandering across the continent, and begins to seriously develop her powers.
❧ Commissions a new sword from Hilda for Geralt, and one for herself with matching elements of wolf motif decorations on the crossguard. Hers has a lioness head on the pommel; his has a wolf. Each weapon is skillfully enchanted and melds silver and steel into one. Engraved on the blade in Elder runes are the words Duettaeánn aef cirrán Cáerme Gláeddyv, meaning "The Sword of Destiny has two edges."
❧ During this time, Ciri is coming into her powers and feeling stronger and more confident, no longer afraid of the forces she'd been so terrified would try to use her for their own means, such as the governments of Abraxas and the Wild Hunt. Emboldened to get her own world-hopping abilities back and help those who feel trapped in Abraxas open doors home, Ciri joins Viktor in his research into the old Summoning Ritual, which the mortals of Abraxas have abandoned by now. They work together off and on throughout the first couple of centuries, experimenting with portal magic. Others lend their assistance, research and support, including Thancred and Julia. Believing strongly in the need to let people choose whether or not they stay in Abraxas, Ciri ignores warnings from Istredd and others about the dangers of endeavors.
❧ Over the next few years, due to her attempts trying to figure out a way out of Abraxas, Ciri's powers become more and more unstable and dangerous. She spawns several powerful Demigods in the Witchwood, and accidentally opens doors for these monsters to wreak havoc on native settlements, causing significant chaos, death, destruction -- and a blow to her godly reputation amongst mortals for some time.
— YEAR 300-400 —
❧ Roughly 300 years in, Geralt suffers a significant loss of memory, resulting in his forgetting Ciri for nearly a decade. During this time, driven by the pain of this circumstance and her desperation to actively help Geralt, she journeys seeking the aid of other gods both old and new who may be able to restore Geralt's memories and their connection. This is a dark period in Ciri's history, during which time she is more volatile, likely to pick fights and take offense at small slights; places that have begun to hold the Herald of Infinite Constellations in their beliefs suffer a lingering frost and late spring, especially toward the end of the decade when she begins to lose hope as Geralt seems to regain more and more of his memories without those most important to her.
❧ Jill, a close friend, accompanies Ciri to ask a boon from the Cardinal God Nikodaemus, hoping his association with 'clarity of vision' will either be useful to Geralt, or at least give Ciri some insight on how to proceed. Instead, Nikodaemus grants Ciri a vision of a god he claims may 'help' -- Sannleikr, whose ability to make people forget faces and familiar souls is believed by many of his followers to also work in reverse. The vision suggests Sannleikr will not be easily summoned and must be convinced through a display of power over his followers in a small village. Though these are mortal beliefs and Ciri knows they may not be completely accurate, she takes the risk. She and Jill find a small group of Sannleikr's followers in a remote village somewhere in Solvunn, working together to frighten them and cause enough disorder to draw Sannleikr out. Unfortunately, Ciri's emotional state is too volatile to let her retain fine control over her powers; she unintentionally displaces some villagers through unstable portals and calls one of her demigods through an accidental rift, wreaking wanton destruction and angering the very god she meant to supplicate.
❧ Viktor assists Ciri with a prosthetic to fix her injury, but she finds out that he's intentionally removed his own memories of someone close to him. While she's still struggling intensely with Geralt's continued inability to remember her, Ciri lashes out, rejects further help from Viktor, and refuses to talk to him for a very long time.
❧ Though most of her powers have slowly returned and she's healed enough to function, Ciri continues to struggle with her lingering loss of powers, weakness from her injuries and unfinished prosthetic. This is a period of time spent sticking close to Geralt, with Geralt protecting her in her weakened state; this brings them closer and his memories of her finally return fully.
— YEAR 500-600 —
❧ Eventually, her relationship with Viktor improves and he improves her prosthetic, as well as some protective armor while she returns to full power. Her reputation as a god is slowly restored as Ciri begins to take her responsibility of answering Echoes more seriously. Begins teaming up more and more with other Ecesis gods to do so, including Aloy, Hilda/Claude/Sylvain trio, Clarisse, Jill & Clive, Cid, Jo & Dean, and others.
❧ She begins to develop a winged form, with a mix of silver armor and blue swallow-themed colors.
❧ Spends some time clearing demigods from the Witchwood, since she feels belatedly responsible for causing a bunch of problems the first couple hundred years.
— YEAR 700-800 —
❧ Ciri has settled into her calling as a god of renewal and opening doors, and on a more personal level tries to offer protection and new opportunities to those she feels empathy for based on circumstance; it's rare that she responds to offerings from mortals. She doesn't have much desire to be worshiped by humans, but accepts some celebrations and festivals in her name. Overall, Ciri tries to keep close to those who she considers part of her family, friends or lovers, and in the last century or so has mellowed out quite a bit, wandering the continent during the warmer months and generally spending winters with Geralt or her lovers.
ABILITIES
❧ ABILITY: sword slice thru space, makes portal? cool visual
❧ ABILITY: big scream, flattens things oops
❧ ABILITY: premonition
❧ ABILITY: summons familiars thru portals
❧ ABILITY
❧ ABILITY: big scream, flattens things oops
❧ ABILITY: premonition
❧ ABILITY: summons familiars thru portals
❧ ABILITY
INVOCATION
BLESSING ✴ Blooming Seed
✴ Creation of new and wondrous things
✴ Bringing forth the wondrous and unknown; prophecy and reading the stars
✴ Opening new or hidden pathways and doors
✴ First thaw of spring, blossoming and flourishing; rebirth
✴ Connection, chosen bonds; belonging as part of a whole
✴ Creation of new and wondrous things
✴ Bringing forth the wondrous and unknown; prophecy and reading the stars
✴ Opening new or hidden pathways and doors
✴ First thaw of spring, blossoming and flourishing; rebirth
✴ Connection, chosen bonds; belonging as part of a whole
AFFLICTION ✴ Flaming Seed
✴ Salted earth and fiery destruction
✴ Lingering frost and delayed spring
✴ Constrainment; being trapped by circumstance, obligation or fear
✴ Unwanted, unknown doors; opening the way for danger to trespass
✴ Loneliness; running, lost, the feeling of being alone in infinite worlds
✴ Salted earth and fiery destruction
✴ Lingering frost and delayed spring
✴ Constrainment; being trapped by circumstance, obligation or fear
✴ Unwanted, unknown doors; opening the way for danger to trespass
✴ Loneliness; running, lost, the feeling of being alone in infinite worlds
When invoked, Zirael appears most often as an armor-clad maiden wearing a winged helm. Beneath her armor, mortals cannot fully see the ethereal form of her that seems formed of shadow and light; the white hair that spills from beneath her helm shines like starlight. Often, she appears alone, but occasionally she may be seen riding a large black horse with a long, flowing mane. Zirael is notably capricious and difficult to intentionally call, even harder to keep in one place. She may be seen riding across the sky on occasion alongside The Wolf, Guardian of the Torn. It is said they are an omen -- though exactly what kind must be left to those who glimpsed them to decipher.
