Yasmin was born in what is known as the Eastern Jungles, to a mother who resided deep in the rainforest by a strangely straigth river without any off branching creeks, lakes or water streams, called the “Lonely River”.
She was known simply as the Witch of the Lonely River, and made a living by selling her help to the jungle dwelling tribes for favors and provions, except to Yasmin who simply knew her as “Mother”. She was a woman whose entire life was shrouded in mystery, and despite being raised solely by her she never ever got to know where she came from, or even what her name was.
Her father she never even knew, or even knew who he was. Whenever she asked her mother about him she only got the answer “He is irrelevant”.
What made Yasmin special however, was the gift she was born with. Her mother seemed to know everything about it, and even before the gift manifested she was already teaching her daughter about it and how to use if. It was as if she had been preparing for it.
The gift? Visions.
Visions of things that have passed, of current events, or that which will happen. They often manifests as scenes within vivid dreams or hallucinations, and Yasmin made a note of the dreamlike segments being “tied” together with silvery tendrils which her mother referred to the “Seer Tears”.
She became so adept at her gift that she learned how to manifest these visions on command.
It didn’t take long however before the word of this special girl spread beyond the jungle tribes and reached the ears of the self-proclaimed King of the Junglelands: Maranthus Serpentsbane. An unusually large jaguar who saught power to bring order to the feral junglelands, no matter the cost.
He sent for the witch and her gifted daughter, and at first only seemed interested in Yasmin helping him to interpret a set of dreams he had. But after that, he asked her mother to buy her so he could use her visions to aid in his wars.
Her mother, who had no love or care for rulers, leaders and authority figures, especially not male ones, immediately refused and returned home with Yasmin. But a few nights later Yasmin had her most terrifying vision yet: she saw her mother burning alive in their hut, with Maranthus and his men surrounding them.
Fearing that it was a sign of what would happen if she didn’t serve the King, she ran away from home to join King Maranthus as his seer. Giving him a serious advantage as she could see the outcome of every battle, and allowed him to always stay several steps ahead of his enemies.
For years she remained at the King’s side. He valued her more than any of his soldiers and generals, and showered her with gifts and riches as well as always made sure that she was protected at all times. She was living a good life as his seer, but not a day went by that she wasn’t thinking of her mother, and wishing she could see her again.
Maranthus’ family consisted of his wife, Queen Naressa, his son and two twin girls. His son was just as adept of a warlord as his father, and Maranthus’ pride was hard to exaggerate when it came to his son.
He was even determined that one day, when he finally rules the jungles and the feral lands have been tamed, he would let his son marry Yasmin.
While she didn’t really think ill of his son, and even liked some of his attributes, the thought of being forced to marry him one day made her worry. She obviously opposed it, but Maranthus refused to take no for an answer.
However, after five years as his seer, everything would take an abrupt end. Thanks to her, and a grave error she made.
She saw a vision of Maranthus’ son and his troops falling prey to an ambush on their way back home after securing more territory for the King, and immediately relayed the information so the troops would have time to turn around and take another way back home.
But what she had done was forget to take account of the surroundings and the road they were on. So instead of steering the troops away from the ambush, they were instead sent on the very route that lead them straight into it.
It was a massacre, and only a handful lived to escape. Maranthus’ son wasn’t one of them.
Something in Maranthus broke when his son’s body was brought before him, and he snapped. To him, it was an open and shut case: Yasmin hated his son and the idea of marrying him one day so much that she decided to kill him, and willfully sent him and his soldiers to their deaths.
It couldn’t have been further from the truth: when faced with the consequences of her lapse in attention and her failure, Yasmin was devastated.
She prided herself on her visions and her ability to read them and prevent future disasters, so this was already a hard blow on her. And it would only get worse when Maranthus, blinded by pain and rage, decided to take out all his pain on Yasmin. Punishing her.
He would’ve killed her with his own hands if it hadn’t been for her mother.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Yasmin’s mother arrived and took Queen Narissa hostage, holding a dagger to her throat as she forced him to let go of her daughter. Letting Maranthus know that if he hurt Yasmin further she would make sure the Queen followed their son.
He reluctantly let Yasmin and her mother run, still dragging the Queen along as their hostage until they made it far enough into the jungles so they could let her go.
But once they made it home Yasmin’s mother wasted no time: she told Yasmin to flee from the Eastern Jungles, and made sure to send her most important items along with her; money and provisions to let her survive, but also many of her books, studies, recipes and discoveries. In particular, a very special book bound in black leather and written in an unknown, mysterious language. A book Yasmin’s mother had forbidden her to even touch in the past, but now she was sending it away with her. It was as if she knew what would happen…
She sent the still traumatized Yasmin away, just in time for a raiding party to arrive. Lead by none other than King Maranthus himself.
Yasmin was too far away to see what happened, but the fires rising above the trees from their hut, and her mother’s blood curdling screams as she died a slow, agonizing death, told her everything. Yet again, she had misread a vision, and those she had tried to protect were paying the price…
So Yasmin had no where else to go but to do as her mother had told her. She fled from the jungles, and has never gone back since.
She headed to the west, reaching the Desert Lands. A unfathomably massive area of dry, hot and mostly desolate climate, made up of nations which were split between, and each ruled by, a descendant of an old warlord known as Shomari the Chimaera.
There she went into hiding, constantly moving to the west, and made her living as a traveling soothsayer. Letting her honesty and genuine gift, as well as her healing potion and salve makings that actually did what she promised it would do, be what set her apart from all these fraudster fortune tellers.
Witchcraft was met with mixed reception depending on where she found herself, people like the Solar cult and the grounded Earth Clan regarded her with skepticism and outright hostility, while the barbaric cannibals of Sons of the Sands and the fierce matriarchy of the Painted Clan were some of her best customers.
For a few years she not only managed to survive like this, but she was even thriving. She enjoyed the new life she was living, even if the tragedies of her past constantly haunted her, and she knew that Maranthus’ spies were never far behind her.
However, then she noticed that her visions changed. She began to have dreams and sights of the same person time and time again. She seemed to be shown glimpses into his past as well as what she assumed was the present and future.
This was something her visions had never done before, at least not to this extent. While working as a traveling seer as well as working alongside her mother as a child she would only see visions of the people in the nearby villages, which allowed her to seek them out and offer them her advice. As Maranthus’ seer she put effort into almost exclusively gazing into the future, focusing entirely on his battles and victories.
But this…
The male featured in her visions was a large wolf, possibly a dire wolf. His fur was solid pitch black, his eyes were two different colors: one golden yellow, the other bright green. At some point in his life he had gotten two red markings under each of his eyes, markings of a slave.
She saw his life in snippets that seemed to hop from place to place so it took her months to piece together a chronological timeline, all of which she even decided to write down and document so they would be easier to keep track of.
What she saw was a tragic, unfair life of a young wolf, most likely the son of some kind of king. How he went from an heir, loved by his parents and raised to become a strong, intelligent and just ruler, to having it all taken away from him by his father’s murderer. Similar to the khan system of the Sons of the Sands, it appeared like the king’s position could be challenged at any time, and competed for in a duel.
Unfortunately, the usurper fighting the pup’s father was a coward, and his father fell to a poisoned blade. Yet, his victory was still legitimized and he was crowned the new king, and as his right took the queen and the son of his enemy as slaves.
The things she had witnessed the poor pup and his mother endure at the hands of the usurper
made Yasmin cry and scream. She could never understand the cruelty of some people, especially not those capable of inflicting it upon a mere child.
But she had seen the pup freeing himself from this abuse, after his mother was murdered by the usurper’s hands as well he stood up and challenged the adult wolf to reclaim his family’s throne and get revenge for his family.
However the usurper’s cowardice knew no bounds, and despite already having an advantage over the much younger pup he still made him fight with nothing but a broken blade. Despite the disadvantage, and that it appeared that he would meet with the same fate at first, the black pup managed to slay his parent’s murderer with the broken blade, and emerge as the victor.
But this time, his people refused to recognize his victory, and instead of being allowed to reclaim the throne he was exiled while the usurper’s son took the throne.
At that point it was clear to Yasmin why she was given the visions: she was meant to help him reclaim what was rightfully his. But she had a few problems to solve first, as these weren’t the only visions of his life she had seen.
She also saw him at a point when he was a little older than the time he was exiled; training for a female lynx, who seemed to be some form of warrior herself. She saw him as an adult, fighting battles on behalf of others. She saw him even more years later, fighting someone who could impossibly be someone other than the usurper’s son.
She even saw him, older still, back on the same throne his father had sat upon.
All of this confused her.
What was truly the point of these visions? Had he already reclaimed his birthright, or was he even born yet?
Maybe he was still a pup, and she would have to hurry to find him before the usurper slays his father?
Was he even still alive?
And most importantly: where, and who, was he?
All she had to go off of was that he was a large wolf, pitch black fur, his differently colored eyes, his red eye markings. From the details in the locations around him she managed to deduce that wherever he was was somewhere further up north. In the lands the Solars referred to as the Cursed Lands.
With that, she decided to follow her visions and see where they lead her. It was obvious that whoever this strange wolf was, she was meant to find him. And if possible, help him.
The journey lead her further up north than she ever thought she would go, spending the next few years just trying reach her destination and find the mysterious wolf.
The dry, desolate desert lands were replaced by fertile hills, fields of flowers and grain, and she even saw the great, sapphire blue sea.
But her visions kept pulling her further away, and soon even the tempered woods were left behind her, and she entered a cold, unforgiving land.
Winds that chilled her to the bone swep across fields of grass and stone, through pine tree forests and crystal clear lakes. In the distance, snow covered mountains loomed like the massive walls of a giant’s fortress.
She had entered the Realm of the Dire Wolves.
She spent almost a full year searching, and every here and there she had caught snippets of the story she was following, and a surname kept popping up: the Kellhounds.
Now, she also had a name to go after. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to be willing to talk about the Kellhounds with her, even less about the one specific young, black wolf.
Then, the fates seemed to intervene, at a tavern fittingly called “Fate’s Crossroads”.
Yasmin was low on money, cold and hungry, and the innkeeper seemed in no mood to haggle for lodging.
But just as she was about to try her luck elsewhere, someone stood up for her and let her sleep in his room for the night, and she almost didn’t believe her eyes when she turned around and came face to face with those familiar yellow and green eyes, pitch black fur, and unique marks. He was definitely a fighter by now, only a few years older than her, and even bigger than he had appeared in the visions.
She even got his name, Alric.
So, now she had found him. Then just came the truly hard part: telling him that she knew almost everything there is to know about him and get him to trust her, without coming off as a psychopathic lunatic stalker.
She took the chance while they were in his room, and understandably so, she got the feeling that he immediately regretted his kind gesture.
But the more she told him, the more Alric seemed to believe her. After all, there were somethings that nobody but him would know about, that she seemed to know the full details of.
But then, to her surprise, it turned out that Alric had no intentions to ever return and attempt to reclaim his throne. His own people had betrayed him when they refused to recognize him, and according to them he was no longer a Kellhound. That name had died with his father.
Yasmin could sense the hurt and anger within him, but as much as she felt that it was now her responsibility to help him get back to where he belonged, she couldn’t pressure him or try to force him into it.
So she left it at that, and instead spent the rest of the night just trying to get to know him and befriend him. Once the subject of his past and future was out of the way, Alric turned out to be a rather friendly and charming guy. Even if she was hesitant to tell others about her background, she felt it was only fair since she knew his and even told him everything about herself.
They seemed to click really well. So well that he didn’t seem to mind Yasmin tagging along on his adventures. Especially not after she showed herself quite useful with her witchcraft, deep knowledge, sharp wits, and even her visions came in handy for them.
He was a mercenary, a hired swordsman who took whichever job paid best, and together they saw, experienced and fought many things on his jobs, all of ranging safety levels. The two made for a pretty efficient team.
They were together for years, and after this long time together, something was beginning to happen between them. Yasmin felt drawn to him, not just by fate anymore, but emotionally and spiritually as well. His demeanor changed towards her as well, he had always been friendly and good spirited towards her, truly treating her as a friend and equal, but he was getting… softer, towards her. Almost loving in his tone, and he was more prone to protect her if he caught someone looking at her funny. Not that she needed it, it just seemed more out of principles for him.
It was like both of them knew what they were feeling, but they didn’t say anything. They never aired those feelings out.
And even if one of them would’ve growned the courage to, their adventurous life would soon change when they had another fateful encounter from Alric’s past.
Yasmin had almost forgotten the real reason she had been seeking Alric out in the first place, but running into a sudden pack of dire wolves and hearing their plea for Alric to come back brought it all back to her.
Apparently, there are still plenty of families who still supports the Kellhounds, and now when it turns out that the usurper’s son is a useless false king who has brought the kingdom to its brink of ruin, the civil unrest has gained even more traction and a full blown rebellion had been brewing for a while.
However, they knew that they needed the Kellhound’s only son to lead them and reclaim the throne that was so rightfully his.
Alric, however, still wasn’t easily persuaded. It took Yasmin days until she finally got through to him, and they joined with the wolves to bring Alric back home.
Seeing that they had spoken the truth, and that there were still plenty of families loyal to his family and who had even opposed his exile, something seemed to be brought back to life within him.
A sense of belonging, and a hunger for justice and revenge.
Yasmin never faltered from his side as they fought with their allies to dethrone the false king, once again using her visions to aid in their battles, and aiding with the soldier’s strength and healing with her witchcraft.
She came to the realization that maybe her years serving King Maranthus was meant to have prepared her for this…
And after years of a long and rough campaign, the usurper’s son finally fell to Alric’s blade, like his father had before him. This time, there was no one who refused to recognize Alric as their new king, and he was crowned.
While Yasmin on one hand felt not only relieved that the fighting and political turmoil was over with, but also more than happy and proud of Alric watching him rise to become the king she had seen in her visions.
But at the same time, to see this long journey of theirs come to and end filled her with dread and grief. The time before she started receiving visions of him now felt like an entirely different lifetime. It had been seven years since she left for the north, and realizing that she had fulfilled her purpose here made her feel empty.
What was she supposed to do now? Where was she supposed to go? She figured that she would just stick around until next visions sent her on a new quest, but then she was faced with a new source of angst:
She had since long realized that she had fallen for Alric, and now she felt that her feelings for him were stronger than ever. She wanted to stay by his side, but she knew that sooner or later he would choose a mate, or several as dire wolves sometimes did. And she wasn’t sure if she could stand seeing him with someone else.
So, she decided to leave before she could allow herself to grow even closer. But it was like Alric knew what she was planning, and intercepted her just as she was about to leave.
What started out as him trying to get her to stay a little while longer, not wanting to say goodbye to the one who had been his best friend for many years now, to them both finally relenting and poured their feelings out for one another.
To not only finally being able to tell him how she felt, but also hear him return it, almost brought tears to Yasmin’s eyes from joy. Which they certainly did after he once again asked her to stay, but as his queen.
Yasmin had never even imagined herself becoming queen, and frankly the reverence and power that comes with the role does make her a little uncomfortable, but she never once regretted mating with Alric. Her life had once again changed overnight, but she did her best to adjust and make do.
However, she soon noticed something more changing since her and Alric’s first union, the night he knotted her for the first time; it was like her powers were weakening.
It suddenly became harder for her to conjure up the visions on her own, and whenever they did came they were fleeting and fragmented, and it was hard to truly get a reliable, full picture.
The sudden loss of the very thing she had been born with and made her who she is was fading, and it was terrifying. Even if Alric kept reassuring her of the opposite, she couldn’t help but to feel that she was losing herself piece by piece, and that without her powers she would be completely useless to everyone. Especially Alric.
And it didn’t help that they were struggling to conceive. As she was losing her visions, she became obsessed with the plan to bring him heirs instead, but to little success. Not from a lack of trying exactly, and she just knew that it was because of her...
That Alric Kellhound had mated with a feline was already enough to stirr up a buzz among the dire wolves, but the fact that she was the witch that had helped him win was the talk of the kingdom for pretty much the first couple of years of their rule.
She earned the moniker “The Witch Queen” very fast, and while she really wasn’t personally offended by it, the way some would utter the word “witch” with disdain made her wince whenever she heard it.
But they weren’t entirely wrong: with her visions as good as gone she decided to focus entirely on her witchcraft.
Alric gave her an unused wing of the underground dungeons for her to set up a coven in and she has more or less taken over the courtyard and the castle’s gardens to plant medicinal herbs and plants. It’s from her coven that she runs her base of operations, and where she can finally spend more time studying her mother’s old books. Which she has kept on her for all these years, even if they’ve been mostly a waste of space and weight for her.
And among these books remain her mother’s black book, and while Yasmin has a feeling that the secrets that reside in the book are probably better off hidden from the world forever, she does have the hopelessly curious mind of a feline.
Unfortunately, the language it is written in completely baffles her. Despite that she’s fluent in nearly twenty languages, this is just one she’s never seen before.
While her adventuring days are definitely over, her quest to crack the case of her mother’s book nearly sends her on a new one.
It even makes her leave the castle one day while Alric’s out on a long hunting trip with a few other wolves from the court. She hears rumors of another witch living in a small town in a contested area between the dire wolves’ kingdom, and the Snow-cat Empire, belonging to an elusive, yet notoriously hostile, race of snow leopards, and sets off with only her handmaid Isa. Hoping that with only the two of them they won’t raise too much suspicion, as Alric’s already struggling just trying to keep the peace between the two kingdoms.
Unfortunately, the witch turned out to be another one of the fake fortune tellers whom Yasmin hate with a fiery passion, and she and Isa is just about to leave in a huff when something catches her attention in the small little town; a young girl. A feline like her, but from the state she was in it was impossible to tell what she was at first, as she was nothing more than a pile of fleabitten skin, bones, and matted and filthy fur. As well as apprently suffering from some sort of severe psychological illness.
Rather than treating her with the same unkind hostility the townspeople did, something about her really got Yasmin’s attention, and she knew that she just wouldn’t be able to let her go.
Maybe it was just her empathy and bleeding heart refusing to simply leave the poor girl in this rotten town, where she would guaranteed die sick, cold and despised one day without having felt a day of care in her life. Or maybe, there truly was something special about this girl. Something special that Yasmin could relate to.
Her name turned out to be Isolt, and after taking her home and giving her food, clothes, fur care, and a much, much needed bath and delousing; a young, scared and malnourished snow leopard emerged.
And once Yasmin gained her trust, Isolt revealed her secret; a secret which was the sole reason to her ruined life: in the middle of her forehead sat a vertical, third eye. A third eye which granted her the power of premonition, but as she grew up without tolerance for her gift, she lived her life trying to repress it and hide her eye. Which is what was slowly driving her mad.
Rather than feeling repulsed or horrified, Yasmin only felt excitement and curiosity over this fascinating third eye and its subsequent powers.
She not only offered Isolt a place to stay for as long as she wished, she was also happy to try to help Isolt understand and control her gift. In return, Isolt would help her out with some easier things in the coven until she ultimately got upgraded to Yasmin’s apprentice.
And her assistance in the coven proved to be invaluable to Yasmin, and with her help they even managed to discover a fertility potion for her that finally worked, and Yasmin finally became pregnant.
She gave birth to the twins Colm and Inanna, and while her visions completely disappeared after that, she found that she no longer cared. Being a queen, a mother, as well as the friendly neighborhood witch was more than enough for her.
Sadly, the same couldn’t be said for her apprentice…
Keywords
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witch
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character sheet
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jungle
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seer
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witch queen
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4 years ago
15 Nov 2020 21:11 CET
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