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Table of Contents
…some of you have made known your disagreement. I understand. What I claim is not that the Unchosen are incapable of sympathy or help for us; indeed, I myself have experienced both. But the nature of the problem remains: whatever the inclinations of individuals, the Unchosen, as a group, fear us and mistrust us, and they do the same to any among them who question this state of affairs. To undo this mistrust would take a thousand cycles, for all of which we would be at risk… no. The gods have made the future for our use. If we are to live long enough to reach for it, then the Unchosen must be removed as an obstacle, though I say it in sadness.
Dlyss' First Sermon
Basic info
- Common name: Dlyss
- RP status: RP character, played by Shyriath
Biographical data
- Full name: Dlyss
- Date of birth: 78 Cloud 21:15
Gender and sexuality
- Biological sex: Female
- Gender identity: Female
- Sexual orientation: Androphilic in choice of partners, but her actual level of attraction to anyone is unclear
Heritage and identification
- Race: Highland
- Ethnic origin: Velestric
- Current ethnic identification: Ghyezramsi
- Native language: Velestric
- Other languages spoken: modern Imperial, Ghyezramsi
Other
Physical
Overall description and build
Dlyss is largely blue-violet in color, shading to purple on the underside of her neck and chest. She is a fairly typical representative of the Highland race of takmar in terms of shape, with a wide head, a short, blunt muzzle, and a thick chest, though for a Chosen of that race she is slightly tall. She is heavyset, and has some padding around the stomach and thighs resulting from motherhood, but is nonetheless remarkably trim and a healthy weight for her size.
Facial description
Dlyss has a wide face with prominent cheekbones, a well-defined jawline, and a relatively short, blunt muzzle. Her eyes, which are icy blue, are surrounded by facial markings in the form of concentric arcs, somewhat like ripples on the otherwise calm surface of a pond.
Apparel and accessories
Dlyss habitually wears a rough, fleecy white robe, which she is rarely seen without, and resembles the garb of an Imperial priestess, though it is also provides warmth in the sometimes chilly weather of the highlands. She is even more rarely without her marriage-chain: around her neck is a thin silver chain with three charms attached to it, one for each husband.
Mentality
Motivation
Dlyss is driven by the aim of the dominance of the Chosen over Avishraa, and the extermination of all other takmar, though it is unclear whether either the xtauh and the orghysh are similarly targets of her mistrust. All of her actions are, ultimately, devoted toward these intertwined ends, which she believes are the will and intention of the gods.
Virtues, vices, and flaws
In many ways, Dlyss is a genuinely selfless person; she is strongly concerned for the welfare of her fellow Chosen and is willing to personally intervene to promote it, not merely pulling strings with others but spending her own time and resources to do so. She is also brave, and will risk her own life if the need is there and the cause is just. (If there is a dark side to this, it is that she is also quite willing to risk others' lives and fortunes as well.)
Having superior knowledge of the future, and what she feels is a superior knowledge of the will of the gods, Dlyss long ago came to the conclusion that she is best placed to direct the Chosen to their destiny individually or as a group; others are acting on imperfect information, flawed reasoning, or both, and their opinions and needs are secondary even when they are reasonable. As a result, she has strong autocratic impulses and has no qualms about issuing orders to those who she is able to have obey them. She prefers willing cooperation and understanding, but will resort to deception, fear, or violence as the situation requires.
Her ability to see various futures does not free her of her own biases in choosing which ones are desirable. Peace with the Unchosen takmar is a dream of many Chosen of the Citadel, but Dlyss has done much to minimize the possibility of it, to the extent of deliberately underestimating its likelihood as a future.
Intellectual characteristics
Dlyss espouses, and indeed preaches, a form of the Imperial religion that is not organizationally affiliated with that elsewhere on the continent, and would be considered rather heterodox. Firstly, and rather unsurprisingly, she teaches that the gods not only do not disapprove of the Chosen, but were responsible for their creation and made them to be the heralds of Their will: an improvement on, and replacement of, the takmar who had been Their first children.
Secondly, she emphasizes that the Lamnar, the inscrutable gods of nature and cosmic forces, should be revered and worshiped just as the Siathar are. Clearly, many aspects of the Chosen - their powers in Lamna domains, their division between Srian and Kaean - echo the Lamnar, who must therefore have played a role in their creation and should be honored for it. As there are too many gods altogether to worship them all efficiently, she has chosen as her patrons, and holds a special reverence for, the Diarchs, Seluurin and Khezri. Regardless, she invokes other gods frequently during her speeches, and often pauses for a moment of respect when passing by temples or idols. While she will reprimand impiety, she does not, oddly enough, seem to consider following a different faith to be a sign of impiety in itself - so long as it has some god or gods governing it. When asked about this, she will tend to reply that “the gods wear many guises”.
Morality and philosophy
The twin pillars of Dlyss' worldview are religion - specifically her own interpretation of the Imperial religion - and the manifest destiny of the Chosen. She believes that the gods have created the Chosen to inherit the world over their nonmagical brethren, and that it is the duty of the Chosen to accept that mantle.
She has argued that this requires the Chosen to act both toward each other and toward the Unchosen. In the former case, it is incumbent upon them to pull together and support one another against a hostile world and a hostile species; this is the stated motivation behind Dlyss' charitable work and sponsorship of the 'rescue missions' sent out into the world to bring back Chosen to the Citadel. In the latter, she argues that - ultimately - peaceful coexistence with the Unchosen is neither possible nor desirable. In the end, the Chosen must either sweep them away or be swept away by them, and while it is not yet possible to do the one, preventing the other must be the short-term priority.
Dlyss is willing to subordinate much to the above goals, to die for them and to kill for them, and she encourages others to do so as well. The survival and the destiny of the Chosen go hand in hand; to embrace one is to embrace the other, and to reject one is to reject the other. And what, in the end, could be more important than survival?
Religious views
Dlyss espouses, and indeed preaches, a form of the Imperial religion that is not organizationally affiliated with that elsewhere on the continent, and would be considered rather heterodox. Firstly, and rather unsurprisingly, she teaches that the gods not only do not disapprove of the Chosen, but were responsible for their creation and made them to be the heralds of Their will: an improvement on, and replacement for, the takmar who had been Their first children.
Secondly, she emphasizes that the Lamnar, the inscrutable gods of nature and cosmic forces, should be revered and worshiped just as the Siathar are. Clearly, many aspects of the Chosen - their powers in Lamna domains, their division between Srian and Kaean - echo the Lamnar, who must therefore have played a role in their creation and should be honored for it.
As there are too many gods altogether to worship them all efficiently, she has chosen as her patrons, and holds a special reverence for, the Diarchs, Seluurin and Khezri. Regardless, she invokes other gods frequently during her speeches, and often pauses for a moment of respect when passing by temples or idols.
While she will reprimand impiety, she does not, oddly enough, seem to consider following a different faith to be a sign of impiety in itself - so long as it has some god or gods governing it. When asked about this, she will tend to reply that “the gods wear many guises”.
Social aptitude
Dlyss is introverted and prefers to have periods of solitude in which to refresh her thoughts. That said, she is not shy and will speak to someone if she feels they need to be spoken to, whether it be one person or a crowd of them.
She is capable of considerable eloquence, but is not a passionate speaker; the air she projects is generally one of serene certainty. Though occasionally seeming distracted, to those aware of her abilities this often comes across as ethereal preoccupation. During these times, she speaks quietly and vaguely.
Dlyss has little aptitude for idle conversation; she is only erratically interested in disclosing information about herself, and her powers afford her the ability to learn much of what she cares to know about others. Indeed, being able to foresee the potential future courses of conversations, actually holding the conversation can seem like something of a pantomime to her as a result. Suppressing her impatience with social interaction is a constant struggle.
She cares deeply about the fate of her fellow Chosen; she prefers not to be unnecessarily cruel even to her enemies in the Citadel, and her humility and civility are matters of public record.