Shannivar (prime)
Shannivar Mursilis (Devessi) is a human priestess of Lorminstra. She likes small fuzzy animals and cinnamon coffee, and is functionally illiterate.
Background
Shannivar was born to Lyndra and Beringar Shoati in an inconsequential little village in South Hendor. An impulsive child with more curiousity than sense, she was often fished out of millponds, streams, and other small bodies of water (as well as out of trees, thorn bushes, etc.) by her elder half-sister Siwas. Her father died when she was young, and her mother left her in the care of her half-sister while she went off to try and establish a new life for them somewhere with more opportunities and less memories. When Shannivar was finally brought to the Landing by her sibling after an ardrous journey she was confused and terrified to find that her new home was a charred, smoking ruin with no sign of her mother anywhere. Left in the care of the temple clergy, Shannivar learned about her mother's faith and eventually joined their ranks as an initiate.
Unable to master the art of literacy well enough to memorize the rote magic the temple initiates were taught, she found that she was able to overcome the problem through a natural talent for coaxing the local spirits to produce the required outcome. Divine magic, however, posed its own problems when she was unable to comprehend the written rites and patterns. As such, Shannivar reverently draws on Lorminstra's divine influence in the world to give power to her clerical spells, and her strength waxes and wanes with the seasons as Winter grows closer or is left behind.
Shannivar is married to Sir Aydan Mursilis of the Order of the Azure Sun, and resides primarily in Solhaven when they aren't back in their homestead in Helt. They have no children of their own, but do share their home with a small menagerie of animals and an ever-changing flock of stray youths that Shannivar has temporarily "adopted" for some reason or another.
She is a Hospitaller of the Order of Venquinor, a largely-ceremonial title granted to her at the end of the Solhaven Cataclysm for her tireless efforts in organizing the Fasthr's Lance triage to deal with the mass casualties that poured in as a result of the attacks.
Appearance
You see Lady Shannivar Mursilis the High Priestess of Lorminstra.
She appears to be a Human from Hendor.
She is average height and appears to have come of age. She has expressive deep cobalt blue eyes and dusky olive skin. She has very long, glossy sable hair that falls in soft waves to her waist, with subtle mahogany highlights framing her face. She has a delicate face and high cheekbones. Her features, combined, are both sharp and gracile, giving her a distinctive appearance. The effect is not unbeautiful. She has slender wrists and hands with long, graceful fingers.
She is holding a swept-hilt gleaming eonake sabre in her right hand.
She is wearing a curving gold filigree earcuff, a choker of flat gold discs interlaced with a black grosgrain ribbon, a shoulder-pinned cloak of heavy aureate silk, a quartered white and gold surcoat over a coat of rosette-linked mail overlaid with articulated cast silver plates with an austere sable wool gambeson underneath, a delicate white gold wedding ring cradling feather-etched mithril, an emerald-set red bronze ring, a gold-bound glossy mahogany scabbard, a slim pair of side-laced charcoal kidskin leggings, and some atrous steel-plated ringmail knee-boots lined with white rabbit fur.
Sabre: Engraved lines of intricate silvery scrollwork reach from a pommel of faceted onyx, adorning the golden plates that form the guards of the hilt. The pattern then spirals along the thin quillons that serve as the cross, terminating at each pointed tip. A curved blade of flawless eonake extends from the hilt, its surface carefully polished to lend a striking gleam to the sharpened edge.
There appears to be something written on it.
In the Common language, it reads: Solstice
Surcoat: Falling in heavily draping folds to end just below the wearer's knees, the pristine white linen of the surcoat is embellished along all edges with heavy gold thread. The second and third quarters of the garment are filled from one edge of their border to the other with complex goldwork of an interlocking design of keys and laden mournbloom vines. The surcoat is secured with a thick, braided cord of sable silk, its knot and tassels hanging at the hip opposite from where a sheath would be.