Canon is Tales of Kolmar

[akhorishaan]

I believe, littling, that if you are so concerned that this Gedri face you have chosen will be mistaken for that of another, you must either decide on another or resign yourself to confusion.

[I think I'll go with confusion. I really like Gabriel Mann's looks.]

So you find him attractive? I am not yet well able to tell one Gedri from another, much less identify you by the traits that you assign to yourselves, but you are so marvelously varied, I cannot but think it will not take long.

These hands are a marvel. You cannot know how long I have envied you your hands, that can feel the very passage of air...

Comments

[rhinemaid]

Who are you going to be mistaken for?

[akhorishaan]

There is a Gedri mage who wore this face for a time, three years gone, in a saga called "Legend of the Seeker".

The child who has chosen to try me as a muse dost know little of him or it, only that she is most drawn to images of that episode. The man who portrayed this mage has portrayed others before and hence, but she finds them to fit me less.

[rhinemaid]

I'm sure no one will mind you borrowing it. I met a friend of mine once when she mistook me for a sociopath.

[ --welp. ]

[akhorishaan]

Truly? How strange that must be.

Thank you, littling. Perhaps I shall experience the like, should the child be faithful to me.

[rhinemaid]

Ilde, and you're welcome. Usually as long as you're interesting, they're interested; most people here don't seem to want the attention.

[akhorishaan]

Ilde. [he'll bow and almost fall over and pretend that didn't happen. Being human is hard.] And I hight Akhor of the Kantrishakrim, what your kindred calls the True Dragons. Or perhaps I shall take another name, as my form is that of a Gedri? I must consider this.

I have long found Gedri fascinating. The child who has chosen me knows this, and that if I am taken before certain events, I shall not be as concerned for what I am missing as otherwise.

[rhinemaid]

[ points for effort! Ilde takes a moment to figure out what he means by her kindred, and clarifies just in case-- ] I'm not human, either; I don't know what fae call dragons. Probably whatever dragons want to be called, since you're bigger than we are.

[ she's acquainted with one, though, who tolerates with great patience her tendency to use him as a footstool. tiny water monster's chihuahua reaction to great big water monster. ]

I think that's what you mean?

[akhorishaan]

Yes. We are the Kantrishakrim, or the Kantri. Many of my kindred consider "dragon" to be an insult, a relic of the darkest days of our kind. I care little; it is the tone which is uppermost, and Gedri language changes swiftly.

Fae are not among the four Kindred, but if thou hast a people... Then there are other Kindred, beyond Kolmar.

[rhinemaid]

Almost anywhere you can go here has more than just four sorts of people. Where I am, 'xenian' means anyone who isn't human-- [ which is an interestingly indicative bit of etymology, but XENIAN POLITICS!!! is not currently the subject at hand ] --and the possible alternatives and variations are almost infinite, I think.

Fae is a broad category, as well. Lots of different species count, and some of them are different from world to world.

[ nerd. ]

[akhorishaan]

The Gedri - humans - are short lived and small, but it is they who inherited our world. It seems it is the same elsewhere, that categories are made so to indicate who is not... human.

I should like to see that. Among the Kantri there is a pain called ferrinshadik, a great longing to speak to those of other kindred, to see through their eyes. The Trelli are long gone from the world, the Raksha are our mortal enemies. Communion with trees is limited. But to know there are others...

[rhinemaid]

Humans think they're very important. [ this is an incredibly diplomatic version of what she would have said if she weren't behaving herself. for the record. ]

I like Baedal for that; there isn't anyone like me, exactly, but I can go places where there aren't any humans, either. Gedri. [ language: it is interesting. ]

[akhorishaan]

They have surprising power. In Kolmar, when the Kantrishakrim chose Order, the Raksha chose Chaos, and the Trelli made no choice, the Gedrishakrim chose choice itself. Such a strange Kindred.

Ahh. Gedrishakrim is Old Speech for the Silent People. We call them thus because they cannot speak or hear truespeech. What is this Baedal?

[rhinemaid]

[ it's probably for the best Ilde doesn't say why she finds the explanation of 'Gedri' funny; her sense of humour tends towards the bleak. ]

Baedal is the market of spirits - it's a city and a self-contained world. It takes people from other worlds, so even people who've lived there all their lives are descended from people who came from somewhere else; there don't seem to be any true natives.

Most people don't like it there as much as I do.

[akhorishaan]

Ah. Never have I seen a city. My kindred number fewer than two hundred, and we live far from the Gedri. I am aware that they exist.

The child is looking to the home of the knights of legend, an order of a silver dragon.

[He smiles and feels the expression with the knuckles on the back of his hand. Human faces are just so delightfully weird.] In my form as one of the Kantrishakrim my hide is silver. I am told that in my future I become a Gedri by the will of the Winds, rather than the coaxing of this child. Such is the setting that some memories are obscured or lost. Thus I could occupy that form without the troubles that are to come with it.

It seems she is less willing to have me in my true form. Truly, these games are made for those with Gedri bodies, and as a Kantri I am very large.

[rhinemaid]

[ human toes are weird; Ilde enjoys that they're optional for her. ]

Cities aren't really equipped for enormity. Even regular big has trouble with doorways. Hellboy is-- [ there is some bouncing involved in trying to mime this height, because Ilde is 5'3" and basically a tiny person ] --and he doesn't fit everywhere.

[akhorishaan]

It is a concern. In my own form I could walk over this body as it stands and barely miss touching it. [He's about six feet tall as-is. Kantri are long bodied and semi-Eastern, though winged.] I do not need shelter as Gedri do, but a lack of dexterity is also a concern.

My hands in my true form are meant to capture prey and rend our foes. We have use of them as tools, but not to such an extent as the Gedri children.

[rhinemaid]

Claws and things. [ is the miming neces-- yes it is. because fairy. ]

[akhorishaan]

[Dignified Akhor looks at his hands, palms up, and quirks his fingers in the same way.] Yes. The most sensitive parts of our bodies are the palms of our hands, and even there the skin is thick.

[and he presses his hand to the side of his face.] Even water is not so soft as this...

[rhinemaid]

[ baedal's women: stripping dignity from men in hilarious new ways since forever. ]

Water would feel different again.

[akhorishaan]

I cannot imagine.

[rhinemaid]

Water is better.

[ --a completely unbiased opinion from the naiad, yes. ]

[akhorishaan]

I am a creature of Fire and the Winds. I am able to swim, in my true form - it is enjoyable in the summers - but I confess, I do not see how it would work in this shape.

[rhinemaid]

Humans do swim. Not as well as me - and breathing is an issue - but they do. They just have to learn, and be careful about where.

[akhorishaan]

Surely it must involve the arms, long as they are. Absent a tail, however...

[rhinemaid]

Legs instead. They aren't as good, but in a pinch they do get the job done.