Satyan Windblown
Satyan Windblown
Sometimes, those who are closest to you are furthest from you.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Satyan was born on board Threebl's Inspiration, the second child of Queen Ellia and King Darian. He came a scant seven years behind his older sister, Shiv.
From the time he was born, the two eldest royal children were nearly inseperable. Even as the royal family continued to expand, the head start on childhood trouble that Satyan and Shiv shared could not be beat. They were each others' confidante, comrade-at-arms, and alabi.
That was, undoubtedly, what made the separation imposed by their acceptance of Guardianship so much more miserable.
Gender Identity
Satyan bears the quiet, sure masculinity of a fine poet or great artist.
Sexuality
There is a story that is told around the campfires amongst the new apprentice scribes and their older counterparts every year at the Summer Solstice Sage Sprint. The particular location is always different -- usually it is the teller's own home island. The details of the story vary wildly from there, but the beats always follow Satyan as he applies for something and needs to fill out some form to accomplish his goal. Whenever the form inevitably offered an open box to identify one's sex -- in the old context meaning 'gender' -- the story always ends with Satyan entering 'yes, please!' Thus why the term 'gender' was divided from 'sexuality'.
Education
Guardianship's cursed passion bond keeps Satyan both alive and roaming, ever seeking the horizon for the next new experience. Because of this, he has spent time at literally every educational facility across Argentii, expanding his experience of the world and it's cultures, and finding rare and unusual things for Shiv.
In recent generations, he has employed his education in close work with Shiv on a theory that it might be possible to recover the Caldera. It is to this end that he has since dedicated the remainder of his existence until the job is done, operating carefully in his guise as an eternal scholar and scientist.
Employment
He has had almost every job imaginable! From sailor to soldier, scholar to professor, artist, doctor, farmer, tax collector, pirate, inventor, architect, thief. And those are just some of the interesting ones!
In the beginning, it seemed the only just way to spend the seeming forever of his life, especially as there became less and less about life and the world for him to learn in Argentii's schools, academies, and universities. Later, much, much later, he began to suspect that his incessent need to use his endless time was less to do with his wandering nature, and more to do with evading his own trauma.
In fact there's only one job he hasn't had, and it's rather embarrassing.
Accomplishments & Achievements
All of the degrees from all of the colleges, universities, training centers, institutes, and academies. Certification as a master or grand master in every guild, trade union, and skilled collective. Every achievable military rank and almost every attainable government position. Every artistic award, sporting award, really, it does get so frightfully old after a while. When one has all of the time in the world, one can get as good as one cares to be!
None of it compares to the memory of the last time his mother told him she was proud of him. He had just received his acceptance into the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was so excited. In those days of his youth, he had dreamed of becoming a stone mason and architect, of expanding the castle and designing amazing bridges across the Division River.
Queen Ellia died the next day.
Failures & Embarrassments
All of these, too. Every social taboo, every faux pas of etiquette, every rude outburst, every too silent moment, every unfortunate word vomit, every loud fart in a very quiet room, every slip, slide, trip, fall, skid, stutter, stammer that you could ever imagine making, he has made a thousand times before, and will likely make a thousand times over again.
However, the worst by far are the nineteen individual times he's tried to become a licensed surgeon, the only job he's never been able to have. And while it is not one he wants, what with his apparently permanent condition of fainting at the sight of blood, the fact that he's been unable to achieve this status is galling at a deeply personal level.
Mental Trauma
He would never admit it to anyone other than Shiv, but his sleep is still plagued by regular nightmars of the Conflagration. Whether he actually remembers the sound of his mother screaming doesn't matter; in his nightmares all of the screams are her screams.
Morality & Philosophy
If one must be burdened with eternity, then it is one's obligation to make the most of it. To enjoy life, to pursue the experience and knowledge on offer. Do everything, go everywhere, be everyone. Live, laugh, love, and lose.
Relationships
Commonalities & Shared Interests
They are both desperately fascinated with the possibilities of orbshrooms and their orbs. This is so important to them that they are willing to overthrow the government of an entire island in order to make sure their research goes unhindered. Well, that and to free the enslaved people and make life better for all of Argentii by moving each island toward self-sufficiency.
History
Satyan tried to be a good older brother, but Jirs was having none of it. He was too enthralled with his own fantasy of being a brooding loner. Accepting Jirs's rejection was one of the most difficult things Satyan ever had to do, and Shiv suspects that running from that memory is what curses Satyan to wander.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
As siblings, they were never close to begin with. After so long as opposing sides of a silent war, even shared parents aren't enough to bring them together.
Shared Secrets
Their relationship as siblings.
All of them. Even Ancient Argentin. It's rumored, he can even talk to Dragons.
What would he say is his greatest academic or physical accomplishment? Talks a lot about what he can and learned but I wonder what he remembers and how much value he puts on them after he learns them. Love the complex family structure, your world is fascinating.
Thank you! Satyan would say that his greatest accomplishment is yet to come. He's a meticulous note-taker and a committed correspondence partner with his sister, Shiv. Does he remember all of it? No. he only actively focuses on what he's learned that will help make each island -- or at least small groups of islands -- more self-sufficient. He spends a lot of time writing letters, reading letters, and "brushing up" on this, that, or the other that will help in this circumstance. That's definitely a drawback to Guardianship. In no way does it make you particularly exemplary. You don't have indelible memory or super strength. Sure, you can travel pretty far pretty fast (if you're not Passion Bound to a specific place), and there's nothing that can really hurt you, physically. But you still have to work at not being a shitty person, and you still have to work to maintain a connection to the world, which are things every Guardian struggles with. (Shiv's struggle with this is, in fact, a large character-development point in the novel.) But, more directly, if he and Shiv can successfully restore the Caldera, then he will call THAT his greatest achievement. In the meantime, it is hands down being trusted with a written copy of Nan's recipe for Stuffed Orbshroom Caps (a real article, and a real recipe; give them a try).
Haly, the Moonlight Bard