Rhys Shik-Hymn
Rhys Shik-Hymn (a.k.a. Rhythm)
One of the many Vita-Touched who appeared during the Fourth Age, Rhys is an excellent example of the more mundane form Vita-Touched have taken in this Age. Unlike the Vita-Touched of the Second Age, the aloof magicians the galaxy is familiar with, Rhys is more... down-to-Earth, so to say.
Though she has long intended to leave Taskke to travel the galaxy, Rhys often finds herself distracted in pursuing this goal. One of the most powerful Vita-Touched on her homeplanet, people always come to her with requests for aid, to help them fight back against the dangerous planet on which they live. And if she chooses to go, knowing there were people hoping for her help... wouldn't she be responsible for their fate? Even if she wanted to leave to learn more and then return, can her people really wait for such a thing?
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Though she looks slim, Rhys is quite muscular, as all ihkts are. She is in excellent health, and has no visible links to her Vita-Touched nature.
Body Features
As an ihkt, Rhys has a long tail with a tuft of wavy hair at the end, as well as big horns. Though she looks rather slim, she packs the strong muscles that characterize all ihkts. She also possesses especially hard black nails on both hands and feet, and tufts on hair on her elbows, all traits which are normal among ihkts.
Facial Features
Having reached full maturity, Rhys has a fully grown set of horns on her head, which curve up and outwards from her head. Her ears are pointed but relatively short, barely longer than those of a human. She has pointed teeth, with larger canines, which may poke out of her lips and which are especially visible while talking or smiling; her tongue is thick and black with a split end. Her eyes are almost entirely silver, the sclera not visible and the pupil slit and cat-like.
Identifying Characteristics
Rhys can most easily be recognized by the shape of her horns, the shortness of her ears, and the jingling jewelry with which she adorns herself. She also has no scars, a rarity among ihkts, especially those living on Taskke; her Vita abilities have healed injuries which would've caused scars on any other.
Special abilities
As a Vita-Touched, Rhys has incredible magical abilities, though her lack of education in this topic both aids and hinders her. She has found ways to express her abilities that others wouldn't have thought of, but has also failed in pursue topics not knowing she could do such things.
Apparel & Accessories
Rhys often wears a plethora of loose jewelry, preferably metal. She finds the jingling and tinkling sounds inspiring, and simply moving her tail or shaking her head brings music for her to focus her magic with.
Specialized Equipment
Though her exact equipment varies depending on where she's traveling and what her intentions there are, Rhys typically carries a variety of musical instruments. She enjoys learning new ones from wherever she has gone, and is familiar with a lot of Taskkian instruments, though she leaves most of her spoils in safe places while she travels. She always keeps simpler instruments with her during these times, which are easy to carry and which can easily bring sound.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born on the homeworld of the ihkts, Taskke, early during the Fourth Age, Rhys was one of the many Vita-Touched to be born in this Age. Like many of these newborn magicians, she found different applications for her magic than those of the Second Age, in part due to her homeschooling. Unlike most of the Fourth Age Vita-Touched, who could find schooling, Rhys had access to few people with such training on Taskke, and instead set out to learn herself. Via this process, she managed to find an affinity to using sound to wield her power: spreading hope and power through her words. Though she uses music to channel along this process, the true magic lies in her words: Rhys is, above all, a story-teller.
Gender Identity
Rhys, like many ihkts, has fairly little interest in differentiation in gender, be it for herself or for others. She presents herself as female, and goes by matching pronouns, mostly as a default. It has never really come up to her to be anything different, and she doesn't particularly care to be, either.
Sexuality
As an ihkt, Rhys has always had a very serious outlook upon relationships. Uninterested in pursuing something so intense, she hasn't dabbled into them much. Like with her gender orientation, Rhys has little interested in sex or gender, and thus has no preference in partner. However, like all ihkt, she values a partner who can meet her as an equal: if she can overpower them too easily, she will become too uncomfortable to pursue the relationship.
Education
Rhys' education may not be particularly formal, but she has learned plenty via practice or via her own hard work. Though her skill with instruments is so-so, especially compared to the musical tastes of most of the galaxy, she has the base knowledge needed to learn more, and the eagerness to learn if the opportunity presents herself. Her schooling in Vita-use is less concrete, being formed entirely from the few stories her people could scrape together and her own experience, but it has worked out for her.
Employment
Having found an affinity with channeling Vita through words early on, Rhys has always worked as a bard: a professional story teller and oral historian, a format which has always suited the ihkts well. Though she also writes and tells poems and verses, and uses music to support her tales, it is her words which carry Rhys' career as a bard, not her musical skills.
Accomplishments & Achievements
One of the more experienced Vita-Touched on her homeplanet of Taskke, Rhys has a long list of work she has done. Using her words, she can heal injuries, undo damage wrought by the world they live in, and even delay an eruption to allow more people to evacuate. Though few have heard of her outside of Taskke, Rhys hopes to change this one day, traveling into the galaxy to learn more of her skills.
Failures & Embarrassments
As a self-taught magician, Rhys has had her failures and troubles. Though they have lessened over the years, as she grew more and more experienced, and became better at judging her abilities, she still slips up from time to time. Especially when she was young, she often overestimated herself. However, as a whole, her help--no matter how good or bad--never worsened a situation. However, the reminders of her mistakes and faults often haunt her as embarrassments.
Mental Trauma
Taskke is a rough planet to grow up on, and Rhys' career has exposed her to some of the worst sides. Being able to use her magic to help fight back against natural disasters, Rhys has thus also seen the direct result of what such events can do to a person. Even if her power is not endless, and having done something is better than what would've happened without her, the guilt of every failure and every death haunts her.
Morality & Philosophy
Most of all, Rhys wants to help. She has these incredible powers, and even if she doesn't know how to use them, she should, right? She has them for a reason. For this reason, she also strongly pursues education in any form she can find, especially regarding either Vita abilities or music: being able to perform better music may aid her in her Vita use, after all.
Music
Though Rhys' words always take presence over her music, it is an undeniable part of both her career as bard, as well as her magical abilities. Trained with many different musical instruments found on Taskke, her musical taste is... odd. Taskkian music, and musical instruments, are strange compared to those found in most of the galaxy. As such, Rhys has a big interest in learning more off-planet instruments and forms of music, but is also worried about how they will see her. After all, ihkts are typically seen as brutes, working as muscle in the greater galaxy, not as musicians. While there are many cultures among the ihkts of Taskke, there are similarities in their styles of music. To humans--and many other species--ihkt music sounds like a cacophony. Little sense of tone goes into it, and among some no attention is paid to rhythm, either. Instead, it focuses mostly on producing a large amount of noise, preferably along a large spectrum of noise. A skilled musician can dive from high pitches barely audible to their audience to low rumbling tones, and waver between them with little care for how it may hurt their ears.Rhys is trained in many of these forms of music, asking the people she aids to teach their own forms of music. As such, her entry into the greater galaxy will prove that she has quite a bit more to learn.
Current Status
Traveling the world.
Current Location
Species
Conditions
Age
25
Date of Birth
Fourth Age
Birthplace
Taskke
Children
Pronouns
She/Her
Gender
Female
Eyes
Silver, upturned
Hair
Long, wavy, wine red
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Muted red
Height
210 cm or 6'11"
She seems like an interesting character especially do to her learning magic on her own. What is actually the most common method to do magic by those who manged to get schooling?
Thank you! As for the method of magic, it depends strongly on the Era, the desired effect of the magic, and the way the user was taught. Sigils and other drawn imagery is often used for 'set' magic, spells which always perform the same sort of function regardless of the circumstances (summoning a weapon, protection against a certain sort of harm, noise-cancelling barriers, etc.). Spoken word is often used for more flexible spells, but is usually combined with gestures, as well as (sometimes) sigils and/or other materials. Rhys stands out for using only words and music, not even for 'set' magic that others would use sigils for.
Oh that is an interesting system. Yeah if someone can do that they must really stand out and have some great skills.