Personal Characteristics
Birth Date: September 9
Birth Place: Unknown
Hometown: Aclair Village
Death Date:
Age at Death:
Death Place:
Resting Place:
Manner of Death:
Last Words:
Primary Objective: Talara’s main goal in life is to become a master enchantress. The fundamental pursuit of Magic is the underlying drive to all her actions and conflicts. What exactly is the nature of her magic? What are her true limits? “Temper your talents with experience and gain wisdom,” said the Old Arab.
Secondary Objectives: The regulation of magic within the Twelve Related Worlds. “With great power comes great responsibility,” she read that in a story from another world. A world without magic. As an enchantress with nine lives, Talara Camlorn is being groomed to one day assume the office of the Chrestomanci and police magic. The misuse of magic is (or rather will be) her business.
Another secondary objective of hers is to make as many smiles as possible. Before this Chrestomanci business, Talara felt her calling in the world of entertainment and would dream of using magic to entertain others. If magic is indeed a tool, she would rather use hers for spreading joy.
Desires: There are many personal things Talara would love to do. Principal among those is to one day perform in a troupe or a traveling circus, or visit an amusement park. She would also like to encounter a unicorn, ride on the back of a dragon, and dance with fairies.
Secrets: Hidden away deep in Chrestomanci Castle is a small pool of ancient magic. This is the source of magic that powers the castle’s bounded field. It also serves as a near-limitless well of magic to draw from. Those new to castle may feel this as an oppressive force, suppressing emotions and magic and causing those with negative thoughts to feel physical discomfort. To those long exposed to the castle’s influence, it becomes a source of strength, allowing even those with minimal magical aptitude to use magic effortlessly. An enchanter with nine lives can draw from this pool and this makes their already bottomless magic virtually inexhaustible.
The secret Talara knows is how to permanently disable this pool and, in turn, make Chrestomanci’s power weaken.
Quirks: The society of Chrestomanci’s World, especially in England is reminiscent of Edwardian era England at the turn of the 20th century. Although certain social norms are beginning to relax,
It is still inappropriate for men to sit at a table with a hat or gloves on. Sitting down before a woman is extremely rude. Women are not allowed to use a man’s first name unless they are of close acquaintance.
Women are not always required to wear dresses and have their extremities (arms and legs) covered at all time, but the concept prevails.
Everyone with time do so, goes to church every Sunday.
For the most part, Talara adheres to these etiquettes and manners. However, her unusual upbringing shows itself in how she bends these social rules.
Having grown up without a mother or father, siblings or many children around her own age, the only company she had in Aclair village were older men women including her grandparents. This older generation would impose on her the concepts of how gentleman and ladies act. The collective wisdom was also higher than average in Aclair village, on account of its high elderly female population, and that too rubbed off on Talara.
When she began taking lessons at a famous magic for predominantly children of nobility and the well-connected middle class, she brought with her the sense of a child of a working class family. There were many things in the big city she was ignorant of and it earned her a lot of grief from other students who viewed her as slow or some backwoods girl. Some conspired to make her life even more difficult because she could not use magic.
As the next Chrestomanci, it is quite possible she’ll one day be hobnobbing with the crowned heads of Europe and abroad. For that purpose, she is given the training and education afforded to women of Nobility. How to host tea parties and balls, knitting and horseback riding, to name a few. In this way, she always carries a certain elegance and pride with her.
But indeed, where she diverges the most from her society is the influence from the Otherworlds, the places she visits on her nightly Dream Trips. Exposure to hundreds of different cultures and attitudes has birthed the Young Lady she is today.
She shows deference and respect to those older to her, but has a ‘bad habit’ of speaking very casually to them. It’s seen as rude in her own world when speaking to someone of a high-class and much too casual when conversing with those of lower social classes.
The social status of Chrestomanci is a unique one that allows her to get away with this. This trait of ruffling feathers is something required of any Chrestomanci. For women, straying between social classes is a taboo so it’s seen as even more offensive for Talara to behave the way she does. Again, her status as a nine-lifed enchantress, being Chrestomanci’s apprentice, and her youth shields her from most social consequences.
Mental Characteristics
Known Languages: English (Conservative Received Pronunciation) (Altair Local Dialect), The Language Cats. the languages of various sea creatures (taught by some very nice mermaids),
Lures: The kinds of people Talara are drawn to are those with strong personalities. She enjoys getting reactions from people and giving reactions to the things others say or do. She is the dedicated Bokke in a Bokke-tsukomi routine, the Fool to the Straight man.
Savvies: Talara has been interacting with strangers since she was a child. Although she does feel some anxiety going up to someone new for the first time, actually talking with them, asking questions and giving opinions, comes fairly naturally. Magic is also something intrinsic to her, though in her own unique way. Doing spells the traditional way such as using ingredients and chanting, does not work for Talara. Instead, through the balance of the elements, she can activate a number of effects.
Ineptities: The complications of Romance, what she calls “Gentleman and Lady Business,” baffle her.
Temperament: Sanguine
Hobbies: On Sundays, she travels to the village to perform magic for small children. On Wednesdays, when she’s released from schooling early, she goes into the forest to find insects and spiders for influence on creating new spells.
Intellectual Characteristics
Logical-Mathematical: Talara is reasonably intelligent. She can understand and solve problems as well as any teenager might.
Spatial: Par excellence. Though she may not grasp the full understanding of magical theory, but her conceptualization is high enough that she can craft spells on the flight. This is a key trait of enchanters magic, which has a more personal and stronger touch than sorcerer’s magic. She’s created such imaginings as Tarantula Dirt and Heavy Metal Queen.
Linguistic: The English are masters of the English language and so expansion of her vocabulary is an on-going commitment. She’s not as eloquent as she might want to be, but her second language, Sarcasm, is improving swiftly.
She is also proficient in magical languages. The Language of Cats is as intrinsic to her as English. This applies predominantly to cats, who’s understanding of humans allows for communication both ways. Cats in the Panthera family such as lions and tigers are harder to understand and do not understand humans.
Bodily-Kinesthetic: Her motor functions are average. She does not have superb reaction speed, but does not have such poor control of herself that she could be called clumsy.
Musical: Of all the talents she has, music is not one of them. Talara Camlorn is tone deaf. Neither does she have the patience to endure hours of practice to learn.
Interpersonal: If there is an award for getting along with others, Talara would be a contender for it. There is not a prejudicial bone in her body. She has met vampires and werewolves, ghosts, demon overlords, and kids from many Otherworlds, most of which she counts as her friends. For many of them, she lacks the ability to fully understand them (she does not have much in common with the struggles of vampires, after all) but she strives to accept them without compromising her own responsibilities and morals.
Intrapersonal: Talara Camlorn is not the introspective sort. Sometimes, she doesn’t understand at all why she does the things she does. There are moments when she wakes up in the morning feeling deep shame over some action she did years ago.
Naturalistic: This is where the uniqueness of her magical Origin comes in. Talara is in her element when she’s among nature. Forests, oceans, canyons, wherever there is an expanse of wilderness is where she feels most pleasant.
Existential: Not entirely on her own, but Witch Sight allows her to see and grasp the structure of spells and other witchcraft. For example, seeing through an illusion, or observing the layers of spells in Chrestomanci castle. It’s how she finds her way into the Bonsai Forest when on her Dream Trips and from there, the pathways into Otherworlds.
Philosophical Characteristics
Morality: Talara’s concept of morality follows strongly on the morality of her society. Things like sexual propriety, hard work, honesty, thriftiness, a sense of duty and responsibility towards the less well off, zero acceptance of criminal activity and having a stern demeanor are extolled as virtues.
She’s not so childish to believe that she can change the world or bring world peace. In her travels through Otherworlds, she’s seen and met those who have lived much more difficult lives. They do bad things, but only because their circumstances are different than hers. If, for example, a kind old couple hadn’t been the ones to adopt her, it could have been off to an orphanage and then she’d grow up a street urchin working London’s back streets. The girl that Chrestomanci eventually finds might have been very different then.
She’s just lucky, she realizes.
Perception: Talara Camlorn is an unrelenting optimist. She’s a positive thinker with a strong emotional fortitude. The things that get her down, don’t keep her down. A good nap is all it takes to remove negative feelings and she’s managed to will herself into forgetting the cause of strife once or twice. She seeks to make the best of bad situations, though it is often balanced by the reasonable, experienced adults that surround her.
Spiritual Characteristics
Religion: Her views on religion aren’t very well thought out. There may be some greater power out there, working Its invisible hand over the lives of humans, but she has trouble putting her faith in it. She does not attend church on Sundays. However she feels about the existence (or non-existence) of possible deities, she actively dislikes church. As a child, she was brought along by her grandparents and she can barely recall anything of those times save how boring they were.
Her revolutionary idea to get out of them was to go on an extended Dream Trip when she fell asleep Saturday night. Until she chooses to return to her body, she will remain ‘asleep’ and so all she has to do, she realizes, is stay away from her body until at least Sunday noon.
Now that she’s a little older, she’s capable of making the hard choice not to go without having the excuse of sleeping in. This doesn’t earn her any points with anybody. To her surprise, she dislikes going to church so much that if pestered to attend service, the thought of blowing up the church has crossed her mind. She would never, of course, misuse her magic that way.
Superstitions: There are no hard superstitions or rituals she adheres to. Her knowledge of superstitions come mostly from a ‘Grimoire’ that’s outdated by several centuries. Compiled by a non-magic user looking into ancient folklore and superstitions, most of its content is either wildly inaccurate or archaic. Only if one were attempting some sort of spell, would any self-respecting witch follow through with some superstitious ritual.
Virtues: (Does your character exhibit Chastity, Charity, Temperance, Diligence, Humility, Kindness, Patience, or Justice? Only the 8 listed should be used, but more than one can be used.) There are two Virtues that Talara meets. The first is Chastity. In her society, women are considered a sign of purity and cleanliness. Young women doubly so. Although she should be at the age she’s started taking an interest in handsome young men, this hasn’t happened for Talara. She’s never felt anything more than platonic feelings and so can only assume the opposite is true.
Justice is the second Virtue. She does not believe in the vengeful sort of justice. Rather, that punishment should be fair and metered out equally. She’s always felt that magic should be used for one’s own sake, but that one should have responsibility nevertheless. If one severely misuses magic, it should happen that their magic is taken away and if crimes were committed, turned over to the authorities. She always struggles with thi
