Post by Xenosa Alaoui on May 4, 2020 2:05:37 GMT -5
Face Claim: Nyane Lebajoa
OOC Name: Lux
CHARACTER NAME: Xenosa Jane Alaoui [pronounced (zen-oh-sa) (al-uh-wee)]
NICKNAME(s): Xen, Z
AGE: 26
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Aralore
APPEARANCE: Standing at 5'6" and weighing in at 132lbs, Xenosa is a woman with curves in all the right places, even if her body isn't what catches the eye first. Her honey bronzed skin creates an alluring contrast to her doe-like, bright grey eyes and naturally white-silver hair that falls in waves to the small of her back. Often times pulled back from her face or tied into braids, her hair is typically the first thing to catch people's attention.
Along both of her hands - and up to her forearms on her left - are tattoos that seem to resemble both henna and mandala style, no doubt a permanent reminder of the lands in which she is native to.
Xenosa is more often than not seen in a dark grey cloak that covers her to her knees, hood pulled over her head as to not draw unwanted and unnecessary attention to herself. A monotonous look is worn like a mask over her face to cover her otherwise soft, kind expression with freckles claiming the space along her cheeks and nose.
MARITAL STATUS: Single - barely escaped a forced marriage
FAMILY MEMBERS:
Mother & Father have not been seen in 20 years. It is unknown whether they are alive or dead.
Her betrothed - wanted ad for him coming soon
POSITION/OCCUPATION: Healer
GRAMARYE GIFT (if any): Xenosa possesses the ability to identify and treat any ailments (be they injury or illness) swiftly and with uncanny precision, even if she's seeing the injury or ailment for the first time. The chance of success for treating more severe injuries or ailments (those considered lethal) is significantly higher when compared to the chance of success of others who have had to study for years to do what comes naturally to her.
PERSONALITY: Xenosa is a quiet, timid girl. She doesn't say much and tends to only speak when spoken to. She's careful, always keeping her head down to avoid unwanted attention. It's also why she's always cloaked. After all, it would be difficult for a dark-skinned, white-haired woman to go unnoticed in any part of the world.
Xen is even-tempered, often times taking mental and physical abuse with a dignity that most could never achieve. While not confident in herself as a person, she is confident in her ability to be good and honest. Level-headed, poised, rational; all of these traits make Xen the perfect doormat to the world around her. She has trouble telling people no, and lies are lost on her as she is a terrible liar, but also terribly naive to the lies others may tell her. Her naivety, it seems, knows no bounds. Despite how clearly intelligent she is, it's not difficult to groom the poor girl into believing anything and nearly everything.
Despite being a victim in many ways, Xen does not have a 'victim mentality.' Instead, she finds a way to justify the constant abuse and neglect that she has suffered and manages to do so with a smile on her face. Perhaps that is the biggest testament to who she is as a person. Always so cheerful and kind, no matter the terrible hand she is dealt. Truly, it's even more a testament to her resilient, loving nature. Xen is always there to help others, to uplift them and encourage them to do better; be better. Even so, she could never seem to take that advice for herself.
She's the type that doesn't seem to know when to quit. Even if the world knocks her down time and time again, she is always determined to rise back to her feet and become stronger than the forces that oppose her or wish to do her harm. Though shy and kept to herself, there is an underlying strength that continues to propel her forward; to prevent her from ever giving up on herself.
HISTORY: To truly appreciate Xen's story, one must travel all the way back to her homeland of Dunmoor, a wild and mostly uncivilized place that had always been keen on keeping to itself. Small and more or less located in the middle of nowhere, those who stumbled onto the remote island never made it back to their ships to tell the tale of the things they saw. For the people, it meant that their home never made it to a map and they were therefore safe from outsiders who may do them harm.
Many of the people were hunters or gatherers, with only a select few becoming healers. The people of the island, as uneducated on the rest of the world as they were, were superstitious, believing heavily in witchcraft and curses, leading many a citizen to be publicly murdered if such allegations were made against them. It would be easy to call the citizens barbaric, and barbaric they were. Punishments were severe, no matter the crime committed, and each punishment, like many of their customs demanded, were made public. They were to be a statement to the others of the single tribe, to keep the rest of the population in line with what was deemed right and just to the islanders. Everything from their housing to their clothing was made using what the land provided. Hide from their kills were used to create clothing, blankets, and water skins. Clay mud and stones were used to erect housing that could withstand the heavy rainfalls that plagued the island. Wild board were captured and farmed, not only for their meat, but also for their tusks that were used to create weapons such as daggers and bows and arrows. The people worshiped several deities, each one with their own stories to accompany their name.
There was a chief who ruled over all people, his staff passed down through the family to sons that were deemed worthy of being called a chief. Women were not permitted to make decisions and instead were forced to do as they were told. Those that could not bear sons to be hunters or protectors were shunned by the rest of the tribe and often times outcasted and forced to live on their own the best they could. Without the tribe backing them, survival was difficult, as those banished from the tribe were not allowed to hunt or gather in areas the tribe believed to belong strictly to them. As well, they were not allowed to take advantage of the healers on the island meaning ailments and injuries were a definite death sentence. It would be easy to compare their ways of life to that of Native Americans and it is rumored that indians of a far away land is where the ancestry of the island began.
It is here that Xenosa's story begins. At her birth, she was deemed a cursed child; a witch. Her grandmother on her mother's side, who Xenosa took after the most, was renowned for being a witch all across Dunmoor before her murder shortly before Xenosa was born. While there was no physical evidence that witches even existed, it didn't stop the people of Dunmoor from believing in such.
Xenosa's life was a difficult one. For the first 6 years she was raised with her family, it seemed her parents were always at each other's throats. Allegedly, her father had been involved in an affair that resulted in pregnancy a few months prior to Xenosa's birth. The woman in question birthed a stillborn, which was when the affair came to light to Xen's mother. To save face, her mother remained in the relationship, not wanting to be pitied by the rest of Dunmoor, and certainly not wanting the shame that came with divorce. So, she pretended everything was fine and lived her life as best she could, though Xen's father appeared to remain disloyal to his wife.
It was rumored that since her mother was the daughter of an alleged witch, she must be a witch herself. Once people found out about the infidelity of her husband, it was easy for them to assume that Xen's mother had cursed the other woman's child, and that Xen being cursed was her karma. Nothing was ever easy again for the family after Xenosa was born, but whether that was truly the result of a curse or her family's cynical and depressive attitude seemed to be left in the air for debate.
Deciding that they could no longer continue the marriage, and neither wanting to keep the child (her mother refused to keep the "cursed spawn of a cheating man" while her father was not capable of raising a child himself), her parents made a deal with a captured man who'd made the mistake of landing his ship on Dunmoor. If he'd purchase Xenosa, they'd see to it that he escaped the island. Xenosa's life only spiraled out of control from there. She was given to the man's son, a mean little boy that bossed her around and made her live more or less as his personal hand maid. The awful treatment she received became even worse when they discovered her unique ability to heal the injured and sick. She was used as a circus act of sorts, being put on display in their homeland with the intent of pocketing coin. However, she was fed, clothed, and given her own space to sleep, so she did the only thing she knew to do; she made the best of a bad situation, dreaming of the day she would be old enough - and brave enough - to leave.
It was during this time that her abilities came to full fruition thanks to the hours upon hours the man and his son forced her to practice on wounded animals, and even themselves when they were sick or injured during hunts. In her first act of defiance, she refused to heal the son after he was attacked by a cougar that had recently began attacking their town. The man beat her senseless, breaking bones she didn't need to use to heal and causing severe head trauma that may have put a weaker soul into a coma. Miraculously, she managed to flee under the cloak of night, but her freedom was short-lived. She ran for days, doing her best to tend her own wounds before the man sent one of his older children to find and return her. He'd paid a pretty penny for her after all.
Upon her return, she was locked away in a room with no windows, nothing that would show her the outside world. She was never allowed to leave and quickly became lucky if she were afforded one meal a day. But, even still, the now sixteen year old did the best she could just to survive and maintain her sanity, even though that meant catering to the man and his family of sons as best she could.
She lived like this for the next 10 years, until the man decided that she and his son should be wed. Fearing for her life, she quietly did as she was told and dared not object. The son, during this time, became even more abusive, often time belittling her or hitting her, with no sense of guilt for any of it. He forced her to move with him to the next town over after buying his own place with his father's help. All of this was so that the soon-to-be husband and wife could have some "privacy" to produce children of their own. However, all that came with the privacy was more severe abuse that left her broken and submissive. That is, until one night when the son came oh, so close to killing Xenosa after she refused to bed with him. He stabbed her in the ribs, twisting the knife as Xen screamed in pain. But as he pulled the blade from her ribs to strike her again, this time aiming for her chest, Xenosa's quick reaction aided her by some miracle to grab the knife and shove it through the man's hand, effectively tacking him to the wall. As he struggled to free himself, she fled, stowing away on a ship in search of someplace far away where she could finally be free.