Biography

[runicsecrets]

about

NAME: Runah Gravis
AGE: 19
DATE OF BIRTH: April 28

MARITAL STATUS: Single
SEXUALITY: Heterosexual

OCCUPATION: Reader of Runes
BIRTHPLACE:Iclingas
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Wanderer
PARENTS: Unknown
SIBLINGS: Unkown

ooc

NAME: Jennie
AIM: neilinor
CONTACT: nealinor@gmail.com
STYLE: Flexible
TIME ZONE: EST

{ Runah Gravis

Girls you've got to know when it's time to turn the page
When you're only wet because of the rain
-Tori Amos

personality

QUIRKS: Practical, dry wit, forward
LIKES: Men with beards, ale, teasing Elm, and cold
DISLIKES: Summer, showing skin, beating around the bush

Runah Gravis is a young woman who can be oft described as harsh as the land in which she was born. Often considered cold and aloof, she is one to keep a formal distance between herself and other people unless they are very well known to her. Still, there is an air of confidence about her, a surety that is a solid as the subtle mystery that lingers in the vivid coloring that sets her apart from that which is typical of her homeland. She is a woman of few words; which are almost always well chosen and many times, laced with a subtle sarcasm that only those quick of wit can catch.

A long time diviner; Runah is practiced in reading the rune stones and telling fortunes, and is well used to being in strange lands around people that are strangers to her. She is always armed and quick to defend herself using lethal force if necessary. She tends to be far more comfortable with fleeting encounters with humanity at large, reserving any close relations to those whom are well known to her. The only exception to this is when it comes to men; she has a tendency of taking one when the urge strikes but never stays. She is forward with her wants and does not shrink from any topic.

In the Vardo group, she sees herself in the role of the protector, despite her young age. Although there are older members, Runah is comfortable around weapons and feels that she is best suited to make sure the rest of those in her impromptu family are kept safe from the dangers of the world at large. Of course, this is a particularly squishy emotion, so she doesn't talk about it.

appearance

HEIGHT: 5'0
WEIGHT: 100 lbs
HAIR: Red
EYES: Green

Well used to the frozen temperatures of Iclingas; she finds any other region to be too warm to her liking, but despite this she is almost always covered from neck to toes in long skirts; long sleeved, high necked blouses, or the odd pair of trousers as it suits her. She cares very little for fashion and is utilitarian in her style of dress; her hair is typically braided tightly or kept up out of her way. She is slight in build and shorter then most people; being slim hipped and flat chested is something of a sore spot for her.

history

The winds were bitter as Runah turned her back on the city that had been her home for as long as she could remember. She guessed that she had been born there; that was what had been told to her by those that had raised her. She often doubted there word after a long while among those that followed the teachings of the All-Father; above all they were the keepers of secrets. All in all, she had very little knowledge of herself; what she did know was not very promising. Her mother had been brought to the priests alone, heavy with child, and raving with fever by men who had no clue to who she was or where she was from; they had only seen fit to bring her as far as they had because she had been found in an out of season blizzard. There was strength in the woman's persistence to survive that had won some respect, at least so far as to turn her over for the shaman to deal with. She was delivered of one girl child and died shortly after; leaving a child with hair as red as the burning sun; an anomoly in this frozen land. Anywhere else; the child would have been killed. The runes were thrown and read; once, twice, and thrice. All were in agreement that she had been claimed by the All-Father and there, in their midsts, she stayed.

They gave her the name Runah, which meant secrets, so they filled her head with them; the mystic writings, the ceremonies and traditions that had been kept for centuries among the Iclingas. Every with a watchful eye as the lesser clans fell to the sway of the every encroaching monastery. It was an odd home; a place of silence, reflection, and rites; but it was hers and she was used to it. Until today; her twelfth birthday. The runes had been cast, as they were every year on this day, and they were read, as they always were. Once, twice, and thrice. They all agreed that it was time for her to go. Runah had looked herself at the stones that had fallen; and later, when she packed her things, again she drew the stones from her own bag and saw the same signs and omens. If there was magic in this, she did not know it; it was merely something she had been taught and had grown with. Always the stones, smooth under her fingers and cold as ice; the blazing blue lines worn into their smooth surfaces by her own hands, to guide her path and to give direction. If she had one gift; it was this.

Because she knew so well how to read the stones, she did not argue as she was bundled into fur lined cloaks and walked in the center of the priests that had raised her through the guarded gates of the city where so many nobles dwelled. They stood around her for a moment, then ashes were sprinkled on top of her bright hair and the eldest of the priests drew a symbol on her forehead in the blood of a freshly slain animal. It was hot when it touched her skin, but cooled rapidly as the wind chapped her cheeks and her nose. The shape he drew was as familiar to her as her own skin; reid, a rune of riding or journies, but also of rights;:choices, or justices, or judging. A blessing for her journey and her life, perhaps. They turned from her and went back into the city. She turned from them and journeyed across the snows, following nothing more then direction of the wind; for if it was at her back, it hurt less.

It took days to reach the first village by the path that she took; still, on arrival she was dismayed to see the markings of the monastery so soon. Somehow, she hadn't expected to see them so close to the heart of Iclingas, and yet, there they were. She went to the market place with her hood up and her head down in search of food. She paused here and there to browse the goods offered, her pouch was full of coins from her departure and she could afford a little now; after all, she had no idea when she would find the next village. She wandered the stalls, trying to make up her mind as to what would be the best to purchase and keep for her journey; a feat which was made more difficult by the rumbling in her stomach. Finally, she gave in and stopped at a stall that sold baked goods because the smell of the bread was tantalizing and fresh. There, she picked out two loaves and began to draw coin from her pouch, when the proprietor, a woman of middle age with streaks of grey in her blonde hair, waved the money away. It seemed that the woman was one of her ilk and like recognized like; all she wanted in exchange for the food was a reading of the runes and a tatoo for her son. It was an easy way to earn dinner and Runah agreed; she was treated to hospitality and got to know the son (who was a trifle older then her) a great deal better before she left again that morning.

This became of theme of her journey, she read runes and marked those who noticed she followed the old ways; and this took her all the way across Iclingas and to the port city. She bought passage on one of the ships that crossed the sea between Iclingas and Osterreich seemingly at random, and yet fate smiled on her here too. The captain of the vessel was well familiar with the ways of her homeland and spent a great deal of time currying her friendship. In return he taught her how to navigate life in the country in which she would be disembarking. He was kind and quite handsome, but being in his late twenties, she thought he was far too old for anything more then a passing crush and moved on when they landed in the port. Her path was the same in Osterreich and she had an easy journey for a time until finally she lost her way.

She had no notion of how this happened; perhaps she poorly selected a road or wandered away from Odin's guidance, however, near the end of her second year of journeying, she found herself in an unfriendly territory. Her money stretched thin and ran out; the whether turned foul and it began to rain ceaselessy. The longer the rain persisted, the more miserable she became as the days stretched by, until finally one day she sat in the mud and contemplated her options,. She had no clues what she looked like, a mud splashed girl of indeterminate age who was as skinny as a rail and soaked to the skin. Surely it must have been pathetic, for a cart stopped and she was offered a dry spot by the driver. At this point, Runah was beyond questioning the motives of the man who offered aid, she was too wet, cold, and hungry to care. The man, and his wife. Sunaina, were a great deal like her; people of a faith that differed from the monastery and drove from their homeland. Runah expected to be there for only a short while, particularly since Sunaina seemed to wish her to go and yet, the days wore on without counting, until it seemed natural for Runah to follow the young married couple,, like some gangly, adopted waif.

At the very least, she did not starve and could be warm inside the cart, which was called a vardo. Moreover, she found that she had skills she could add to earn her keep, either casting the runes or offering tatooes. Three years passed in a blinking of an eye, until this seemed quite a normal arrangement somehow, as if Odin himself had will her to this point. If that were the case, then the gods had more in store for all three of them.

The trees were dressed in burning colors of oranges, reds, and yellows and the brisk wind drove the brightly colored follage from the branches overhead to the road beneath their wagon and as they rolled down the wood lined path, she could hear the crinkle and crunch of a world preparing to sleep. The seasons fascinated Runah still, for she'd only heard of them in tales as a child, and in when faced with the magic of a changing world, it seemed almost unreal to her, no matter how many times she saw it. She was sitting on the back of the wagon while they rolled along when she smelled the faint scent of something burning, then from the corner of her eye, she thought she saw movement in the bushes. She called for a halt, and scrambled around the cart to the opposite side from where she sat fearing that there may be an attack in store. It wasn't necessarily paranoia so much as an understanding of how people sometimes reacted to those who were different from themselves. She made her way towards the drivers bench and told the other two what she had seen, but at this time, a tall man stepped from the woods and greeted them.

They were each wary of them at first, however, as they learned more about the others, it turned out that once again the three of them were much like these people who called themselves druids. Once again, fate twisted and they fell into step with the druids and stayed with them, because there was safety in numbers. There group became lively because the druids had two sons, a little one named Oak and a boy near Runah's age named Elm. Runah found Elm fun to poke at and Oak good to spoil. She was treated like family by the druids and as the years passed; three of them, she found herself thinking of them as family. It made what was to come next all them more heartbreaking.

It was a day like any other; the holy season at the turning of the year had just passed and the ground was cold with frost as they woke and began to pack the camp up while breakfast was prepared. Runah was chasing the chickens with Oak, both laughing as they tried to catch a wayward hen that had escaped it coups and was being persistent in it's efforts to evade them. She was unaware that anything was amiss at all as she wave Oak towards her. That was what she recalled when she remember that day, the smell of feathers and laughter dying on her lips as a scream split the air. Who the attackers were, she did not know, only that there were men with swords on the far side of the clearing. She was armed as she always was; a knife in her boot and a bow on her back, and yet, when she saw the spreading stain of crimson on the snow, she didn't draw her weapons to fight; there was too many of the men and someone was screaming. The words pierced her mind and she snatched up Oak from the ground, squeezing him tight enough to contain any wiggles as she ran, full speed towards the Vardo. It was hitched and the horse was rearing in fear. The next events happened in a jumble , but she knew she put Oak in the back and she seemed to remember Elm, grabbing him maybe or him pushing her. It was all so unclear, how they got in the wagon and drove away; but Runah did remember swinging the back door shut as they pitched down the road at a speed much faster then she'd ever seen the vehicle go. Her last sight was someone being cut down; a body falling into the dirt and then the sound of arrows striking the door as she latched it tightly. Her memories only truly became clear when the vardo finally stopped that night; she was in the back corner huddled together with the others; Oak in between in the place of greatest protection. The shock of that day and learning to live with the aftermath of it could have split them apart; but instead bound them together more tightly.

Only four had survived; Runah, Elm, Oak,. and Sunaina and these four remain together to this very day but none have forgotten that day. In her own time, Runah contemplates a way to change their fates and to loosen the grip of the monastery.

CODE BY TESSISAMESS