She became a bard because her mum's horse doesn't like red hair
Bard-Chieftess Gaela Himmet (a.k.a. "Stringbird")
Mental characteristics
Personal history
She grew up in a Hami tribe that was in distant contact with the Branch People. Her mother was Hami, but her father was one of the Branch People. In an unusual twist for a story where a child has a step-parent, her ma was more of a problem for her growing up.
Her ma was a warrior and hunter of the tribe, and viewed her eldest daughter as a failure because she couldn't bond with Hamikos, the horse-like carnivorous creatures that Hami use in hunting and warfare.
Gaela taking up interest in a string instrument she found in a cabinet above her mum's bed, apparently a gift that Gaela's biological father had given her mother, also really pissed off her ma cos 1: snooping through her shit and 2: being interested in "branch people stuff" instead of being a proper Hami. Gaela's response of "you were certainly interested in that Branch Person's stuff" got her slapped across the face.
As a result of this and the failure on the part of anyone else in the tribe to step in, including her step-father, Gaela eventually left the village to join the branch people in the hopes of being accepted by them and maybe even meeting her biological father.
She was welcomed into the Branch People community, and learned to play the string instrument and what it was called from an old guy. It had a name in their language that wasn't guitar but it was basically a guitar.
Having developed curiosity about the world from the Branch People's stories of their old homelands and the homelands of their parents and grandparents, she decided to travel around the known world using ships with monster repellant seaweed, meeting all sorts of people and, as her talents grew, even being offered places as the personal musician in the courts of powerful people.
She was even allowed to perform in Lamara, a horrifically xenophobic nation that normally enslaves or kills foreigners, albeit with a bit of a "uh my Branch Person half is totally Lamaran lol".
Years later, she was on her way back to her village of birth because she'd gone through some development and wanted to make up with her mother. A lot of this was because that old guy who taught her who play told her that she's only got the one mum, and that unless her ma is so awful that it's legitimately not worth it she should make sure they're on good terms before one of them dies, as the afterlife is no place for grudges.
She was tricked by some slave traders into going aboard their ship, as they were going upriver to a town near her village. They held her captive, but she was able to break free.
She could've escaped from the boat right away, but instead went for her guitar first. As a result, she was stabbed before she could get off the ship.
She swum to shore and went under a tree for shelter from wind and rain, as well as to hide from the slave traders. She tried to treat herself, but it quickly became clear she'd bled too much.
Her last moments were spent singing and playing a song. The song wasn't written by her, unlike most other songs she played, as it was the old man who taught it to her. When translated, this song's lyrics roughly translate to a song that exists here on Earth.
Current Status
Dead.
Current Location
Ethnicity
Age
17
Children
Current Residence
A hollow under a tree, with the butterflies and bees.
Pronouns
She/her
Gender
Female
Eyes
Dark reddish-brown
Hair
Dark reddish-brown.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Light grey
Height
5'9
Weight
160 lbs
Belief/Deity
The Hami religion, but she also believes in the deities of other cultures/religions
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Pretty long title but it got me intrigued :p But could she really not bond because of her hair color or was it because it was not really her thing to be able to bond with them ?
Hair colour. The Hami evolved a whole ass colour palate to trick the "is a baby of my species" part of the brains of the highly predatory carnivorous often sadistic horse thingies, and so Gaela's reddish hair not fitting into that palate means her appearance doesn't trick that part of their brains.
Too Short, Need Lore: Hamikos are the horse thingies. Their name means "friend of the Hami". Look up what a thestral is. Now make it roided and muscular as ***. Remove the wings. Thicker neck. Bigger, almost crocodile-like mouth. And then a layer of wolf-like grey fur. Last, but not least, give them chimp-like intelligence and the sociopathic behaviours such as engaging in sadism and actively making the deaths of helpless prey more painful seemingly just for the fun of it. Also they're like twice as big as modern horses. Hamiko fowls, the baby ones, also have light grey manes. These trigger a part of a Hamiko's brain basically going "is baby of own species, don't kill them even if they're annoying". Part of why this evolved, especially considering that good old gang violence over territory and kills between packs is pretty normal so you'd expect them to at least kill fowls from other packs, is probably the fact that Hamikos are both very prone to losing their own kids and kidnapping fowls from other packs to raise as their own to fill the void, like those penguins but without the part where penguins get bored of the adopted chicks and let them freeze to death. Basically "lol there's a good chance that's actually your kid, or the kid of one of your relatives, so no hurty dababy". Hami are an ethnicity that evolved from another human ethnicity that went into the Black Forest (big mistake), or a mix of multiple ethnicities that did so... still a big mistake. Hami evolved a whole colour palate to trick that part of their brains and get these things to stop hunting them. That finally made it possible to start domesticating them, leading to Hamiko that Hami can bond with, as well as the fact that modern Hamiko aren't particularly sadistic and so will only hurt a normal human if that human touches them or the Hamiko is hungry. The wild, sadistic variant can mostly only be found in the Deep Forest, parts of the Black Forest where no or few people live, as they were wiped out by Hami riding domesticated Hamikos in the more populated parts of the Black Forest.Thanks for the explanation :) Now I understand why they don't like it :p