Ysaeril (prime)

Ysaeril Illistim "Draw upon Knowledge" (crest) Race Elf Culture Illistim Class Artist Profession Wizard Affiliation(s) Member of Twilight Hall, Curator of Caeruil Atelier In-a-Word Awkward Disposition Cautious and modest Demeanor Introverted Greatest Weakness Shyness Hobbies Painting, drawing, studying art Dislikes Crowds Fears Crowds Loyalties House of Illistim Best Friend Elysia and Faerinn

Ysaeril Illistim is a elven wizard with a penchant for art and architecture. She lives in the elven city of Ta'Illistim, heads an artists' collective known as Caeruil Atelier, and recently opened the Caeruil City School of Art.

In personality, Ysaeril is generally polite and kind, though introversion and shyness make it difficult for her to carry conversation. She is creative, curious, and analytical, but finds comfort in conformity during moments of uncertainty and is quick to adopt the social and cultural cues of others. Ysaeril is knowledgeable about art and architecture and is well traveled. She has her father's violet eyes, which is a defining physical characteristic of his lineage. Ysaeril claims no additional surname, same as her forefathers, but adopted a grid-like pattern as a family flourish on her crest as a symbol of her dedication to the Illistim city-state.

Crest

Ysaeril's crest is borne upon a gold-framed sapphire ornament that she carries with her always. The object emits a scintillating grid of silver and gold energy that glows brightly beneath her, guiding her path.

Encompassed in a golden frame, a large peacock with teal and white plumage is set above an amethyst anemone flower upon a field of sapphire blue, accented with a flourish of a diagonally oriented silver and gold grid. The crest is flanked to the left with a silver drawing compass, to the right by a silver scroll tied in violet ribbon, and honored by violet-rimmed diamond. Simple script bearing the words "Draw upon knowledge" graces the iconography.

History

Ysaeril was born within the city walls of Ta'Illistim near midnight on Charlatos 6th, 4940 to Lady Evelise and Lord Mechryn Illistim, grandson of Meachreasim Illistim. Ysaeril gained an interest in city works and drawing from her mother, who was an architect in her own right, and a love of study and lore from her father. She was an only child and grew up in the city, attending local schools early on with frequent visits to an aunt in Ta'Ardenai. Ysaeril abandoned dabbling in sorcery upon the death of her father at ShadowGuard in 5102, and left the public eye for the better part of fifteen years following. She spent the subsequent years seeking solace from her aunt in Ta'Ardenai, attending an arts college in Ta'Loenthra, and traveling to far-flung lands west of the DragonSpine including the Sea of Fire. Having finally come to terms with her father's passing, Ysaeril returned to Ta'Illistim for good in 5117.

She currently holds land in Highpark Estates and was welcomed into the company of Twilight Hall to design an annex for the esteemed House near the quaint Paradis halfling village of Icemule Trace. Ysaeril was recognized as a Master Painter on 8/15/5117 and won Second Place at the 5117 Ta'Illistim Art Gala for her traditional landscape painting, "Autumn Comes to Sylvarraend." She founded the fine arts collective known as Caeruil Atelier on 9/9/5118.

On Lumnea 30, 5119, Ysaeril was honored with an elven jewel, a violet-rimmed diamond, for her artistry and fundraising efforts to support the refugees of Talador, which culminated in a fine arts fundraiser in Lormesta. By the grace of the Argent Mirror herself, all races were welcomed into Moonglae Inn for several days before and after the art show.

As 5120 began, Ysaeril was accepted into the ranks of Argent Mirror Myasara's handmaidens for a year of service. Under the service of the Argent Mirror, Ysaeril, along with the other handmaidens, provided creative oversight of a new solarium on the southern face of Ta'Illistim Keep. Utilizing organic architectural lines to frame glass walls and roof, the bespoke design highlights unique characteristics of the handmaidens, whose heritage spanned multiple Elven houses. Between her official duties, Ysaeril additionally worked to immerse herself in the public eye in an attempt to overcome her social anxiety; one approach was through a series of paintings of women of the Illistim court, with whom she made acquaintance while stationed in the Pewter Salon. A few of the pieces were presented to the Argent Mirror as a personal gift the following year.

In 5121, Ysaeril refocused her energy on the arts. She won second place in Cairnfang Manor's annual Grand Art Exhibit, for her portrait "Lady of Glo'antern." Ysaeril founded the Caeruil City School of arts in the vein of public Loenthran institutions, which features space for exhibition and instruction. She also helped Caeruil Atelier secure land outside the city walls for a more rustic retreat.

Ysaeril resigned from the Argent Mirror's service early in 5122, eager to cultivate her long-laid plans, which were finally coming into bloom. She secured a reciprocity agreement for Caeruil Atelier and the Ailffres Gallery in Ta'Loenthra, a multidisciplinary school for established artists. In Koaratos, the Caeruil City School had its first exhibition of Loenthran works, and she used the opportunity to provide an introductory course on aesthetics and criticism in the gallery. As the first day of autumn dawned across Ta'Illistim's lapis spires, Ysaeril completed the last of her guild study to achieve Grandmaster Alchemist status.

Drawing and Painting

Click to view

an oval-framed painting

A pair of bulbous-eyed goldfish are depicted in a lazy, circumnaviational aquatic waddle in this oval painting. The fish's pectoral and caudal fins are shaped like broad, wavy fans while occasional umber and ivory mottling graces their rich, golden-orange scales. The contrasting cerulean background is speckled with waves of turquoise and faint, slightly darker hexagonal tracery. Upon closer inspection, the painting is composed entirely of tiny dots arranged in a broad range of colors.

Title: Fish in Fountain

Date: undated

a watercolor painting

Heavy rag paper depicting a watercolor of a beetle in motion is nested carefully within the frame, its hand-torn edges still evident. Shaped like an early carrot, the beetle's carapace is dark sienna in color and banded horizontally by a wide, jonquil yellow stripe. Long black antennae droop to its sides, nearly overwhelmed by its many swiftly-fleeting legs. The flurry of appendages are almost playfully represented within a faint, roiling wash of heavily watered black ink.

Title: Beetle of the Southron Wastes

Date: (undated)

a watercolor painting

Heavy rag paper depicting a landscape is nested carefully within the frame, its hand-torn edges still evident. Variegated with russet and ochre, a contiguous mountain range runs diagonally through the landscape in a curvilinear fashion. A trail bifurcates the scene while shadowed pits treated with a black wash and hash-marked scrub dot the surrounding area. High above the mountain range, the sky fades into muted cerulean wave.

Title: Southron Wastes I

Date: 5108

a watercolor painting

The painting appears to be a watercolor on heavy rag paper, matted invisibly within the frame. Risen in an asymmetrical collision, two cliffs meet to create a single, chevron-patterned peak. The mountains are boldly dry-brushed in carmine and orpiment and neatly outlined with thinned black ink. Before them, a vast sand dune, little more than a fanned wash of transparent ochre, consumes the lower half of the image. A narrow trail treated umber snakes its way through the bleak basin.

Title: Southron Wastes II

Date: 5108

a narrow vertical painting

The painting is narrow, vertical, and composed almost entirely of a massive cloud formation. Ivory, orange, blue-grey, and raw umber paint, applied in a scumbling technique, gives a puffy appearance to the clouds. Near the bottom, a plethora of pale yellow hashes, suggestive of wheat in a field, are painted at severe angles. The slim strip of sky beyond is pale near the horizon and darkens toward the top, in contrast to the richness of the image's primary subject matter.

Title: Autumn Comes to Sylvarraend

Date: 8/5117

an ivory-matted vellum map

The full-color map is beautifully rendered on fine vellum, matted with ivory linen, and mounted in a slim frame. East to west, the illustration is thick with lush forests. Most notable in its depiction are two sets of ruins. One is closer to the city of Ta'Illistim, while the other is densely packed between groves of highly animated, gnarly oaks. A small estate and nearby settlement are located in the southeast quadrant of the map, which comes to a close at the shoreline of the Lake of Fear.

Title: Map of Sylvarraend and its Environs

Date: 09/5117

a large glass-mounted map

Contained within the glass is a map of whole of Ta'Illistim. Each street is carefully inked, along with every business, residence, and region. Illustrated in exaggerated size are the Sapphire Gates, the Hanging Gardens, Library Aies, Ta'Illistim Keep in the center of the city, and Sylvar Pointe far to the northeast. The space beyond the city walls is marked by mountains to the northwest and forests elsewhere, save for the observatory of Seethe Naedal, whose dome peeks out of the clouds dotting the incline.

Title: Map of Ta'Illistim

Date: 09/02/5117

a wide maple-framed painting

A pale ivory bighorn sheep is shown lying in a bed of moist grass and mossy rock, with eyes shuttered and head bowed. The animal's massive horns make three full revolutions before disappearing beyond either edge of the painting. In the foggy distance, boughs of leafless trees compliment the form of the animal's regal horns and a blue-grey sky sets a serene, albeit somber tone to the painting. Upon closer inspection, the painting is rendered entirely of tiny dots in a broad range of colors.

Title: Bighorn Sheep

Date: 09/06/5117

a willow-framed painting

A small, blonde-haired elven girl in an ivory frock is shown standing in front of a youth-sized easel. Before her stands a massive willow with a staircase encircling its trunk, though oddly, the steps begin far out of reach. At the top, a platform is just barely visible among the branches. The peak of Seethe Naedal is scarcely visible beyond the willow's massive crown. Upon closer inspection, the painting is composed entirely of tiny dots in a broad range of colors.

Title: Willow Observatory

Date: 09/5117

a glass-mounted architectural drawing

Contained within the glass is an architectural drawing rendered in black and blue charcoal on smooth white paper. On the left side of the drawing, a low, castle is depicted upon a hill surrounded by blue and grey obelisks. Faint accents to the building's exterior are suggestive of ice, rather than stone. On the right are two interior diagrams drawn on a shifted axis, representing multiple levels to the building. The lower level is more shaded and contains no windows, implying an underground location.

Title: Proposal for Icemule Twilight Hall Annex

Date: 9/5117

an oval painting

Surrounded by an oval frame resembling gracefully foliated wood, the drawing prominently features a scarlet-feathered owl perched on a branch in the darkness of night. A crescent moon in the upper left quadrant implies sufficient backlighting to illuminate the bird's silhouette and that of the arching boughs it rests upon. A pale peach swath of daybreak hugs the horizon in the distance, followed by a small curled banner in the foreground bearing the words, "Veiled in darkness and aglow in light."

Title: Tribute to Twilight Hall

Date: 5118

a square haon-framed painting

The painting is two feet by two feet, and depicts a up-close woodland scene in springtime. A fresh colony of unfurled ivory flowers trailing down slender stalks cast bell-like silhouettes across the ashen leaves smattering the forest floor. Motes of orange and muted mint, applied in an irregular sponged technique, suggest lichen covering the rounded stone set beside the delicate flowers. The distant backdrop is rendered in a haze of juniper scumbling, speckled with compact splashes of cream and violet.

Title: Spring Comes to Sylvarraend

Date: 3/5118

a broad haon-framed painting

The painting is broadly horizontal and depicts a snow-covered, barren field in the foreground. Rolls of hay dot the landscape, each rendered in swift, circular hatches of washed-out umber and shadowed in contrasting blue-grey. The bales yield visual sight lines far into the distance, where foothills turn to mountains. Nestled between the ridges of the reach, a pair of arches peek up between the sapphire domes of a large, shining city.

Title: "Winter Comes to Sylvarraend"

Date: 11/9/5118

a wide haon-framed painting

The painting is wider than it is tall, with rich hues bathing the canvas of this festive painting. Several slender elven hands control large, colorful kites flying high above a healthy crop of corn, each plant tipped with a golden tassel. Tiny black Vs suggestive of birds dot the pale cerulean sky between white and grey scumbled clouds. Near the base of the image, a small red fox skirts the edge of the field, clearly intent on escaping notice.

Title: "Summer Comes to Sylvarraend"

Date: 8/15/5118

a rectangular thanot-framed portrait

Posed in subtle profile, the pale whiteness of a young woman's bare shoulder faintly radiates over the cold, foggy grey background. Marten fur trimming a muted cerulean velvet shawl is drawn up to her breast, where she clutches two flowers: a solitary fairy primrose to match a hint of gauntness in her cheeks, and the other a sprig of forget-me-nots. Her downcast eyes match the hue of her powder blue fillet, which draws sandy blonde locks away from her ears to reveal simple, yet elegant sapphire earrings.

Title: "Lady of Glo'antern"

Date: 5121

an oval bronze-backed painting bordered by haon infinity knots

Warm azure scumbling surrounds the oval portrait of a woman, envisaged in an elegant, mid-compositional pose. The woman's youthful human form is mantled in a scalloped charcoal capelet stitched with rosettes over a gown of warm grey. Narrow brushstrokes define her upswept wavy red hair, accentuated with thin curly wisps above her gold-limned blue eyes. A fluffy swan feather quill extends from her slender right hand, the ring finger encircled in silver set with cabochons of diamond and emerald.

Title: "Cobalt Salon: Lady Kasendra"

Date: 5122

+ Gifted to Lord Salnim Malwind of Vornavis, upon the death of his wife, Kasendra

a compact bronze-mounted painting adorned at each corner with verdigris peacocks

Painted amid a haze of smoky smalt is the portrait of a young elven woman. Her upswept ears and pale green eyes are brilliant compared to the relatively muted background. Gazing out slightly left of center, fresh and rosy cheeks adorn her fair oval-shaped face, while a highlight just above her lapis-wrapped decolette gives the appearance of youthfulness. Crowning the woman's brow are voluminous braids in titian-tinged copper, drawing the focal point away from a splash of coral upon her even lips.

Title: "Cobalt Salon: Lady Sayilla"

Date: 5122

+ Donated to Sayilla's memorial

Letters

Dearest Mother, it has been some time...

Dated 09/04/5118
[A lone dried anemone, faded to a pastel lavender, accompanies the letter and several sheaves of paper within a large scroll tube. A sketch bordering the letter confines the flowing elven script, which depicts a double-cased frame with finger joinery and a miniscule lozenge-motif fillet set within an outer moulding featuring fern crozier scrollwork.]

Penned to E. Illistim, to be delivered somewhere in the countryside near Ta'Ardenai...

Dearest Mother,

It has been some time since we exchanged letters and longer since last we spoke. I pray the rustic air serves you well. My father, your love, is yet within my thoughts daily but I am told -- time -- of which there is so, so much, will yet soften the blow and shrink the holes in our hearts. Great grandfather Me......... fairs well and remains deep in study as he ought to be, though I do wish he would eat more frequently.

In the Shining City I shall soon gather like minds to form new collective to help spread greater arts awareness, visual literacy among the population, spur creative discourse in aesthetics, and foster master-apprentice relationships to support the most rudimentary artists in their journey toward excellence. And to meet those ends, I shall open studios and a gallery to exhibit works from these upcoming artists once space has been secured. Your attendance at the grand opening, whenever that should come, would warm my heart and still my ever-nervous shoulders, but I understand if our dearly ..p....d M..h.. keeps you at bay.

Between now and then however, hastening assembly of interested parties for this collective is of utmost urgency. Your dearest ...... .... ....... has decided that our house must raise funds and aid for human refugees in the Talador region of the Turamzzyrian Empire. I can only assume you've heard in passing of the most calamitous conflagration that destroyed the entire region, which they now call simply the Bleaklands...

I was not ready to proceed yet, but I shall draw on my knowledge to meet this challenge in the manner I am able. Such a compelling plea necessitates expedition. I shall begin with a call for artists to donate works for the Mirror's fundraiser and if all goes well, it shall prove fortuitous for the collective as well.

Mother, I rest peacefully with the belief that you are filled with joy and pride for me, as plans laid long ago are soon to bud.

[An uncharacteristically whimsical doodle interrupts the flowing text, depicting two frilly-capped trafel mushrooms with a small lady bug balancing on a two legs.]

Also, I write to you not only to provide information on my well-being and progress but also to request your aid: I require a dozen sheaves of the new-growth silvery birch bark from .s..t..'s coppice, for a new project that I expect you would find pleasure in viewing. In exchange please accept the enclosed drafts for a water feature that would look so fetching, set beneath the arborvitae-ringed cupola where we last took tea.

Please ship the requisite material at your earliest convenience to my home on Ridge Ramble, Highpark Estates in our fair Shining City. I trust this gift shall suitable for the effort. Should it be built, you may expect that I pay visit to the grove to have tea with you yet again.

With all my heart,
Ysaeril

[Several sheets of supporting material accompany the letter, laying out a plans for a wall-mounted fountain composed of slanting wood planks spilling water in a lazy back-and forth fashion, terminating in a broad basin at the ground. A miniature mill and artistically looped tubing with a pair of arches in the basin appears to shepherd its water back to the beginning.]

OOC: This message serves two purposes:

* Initial notice for Ysaeril's intent to establish a visual art based MHO

* Pre-warning of Ysaeril's plan to suggest an art auction type fundraiser that would lend support to the Talador refugees in the upcoming planning meeting with the Argent Mirror.