Tower Mountain Character Information Sheet
April 2001
Includes New Hope/ 4th Mil information
Name: Basile
Call Name: Known in the Hidden Valley as "Stoneweaver"Gender: Female
Species: Elf
Status: Alive; was Functional for a period late in the 3rd Millenium
Generation/Age: 3rd Generation, born TWR -1091
Origin: Tower Mountain
Current Residence: New Hope, Risingmist HouseholdHair: Honey blonde, very straight and extremely fine, bangs, often hangs down to her the middle of her back and usually wears it loose. During the Exile years, Basile kept her hair to shoulder length for practical reasons. Once the Hidden Valley is established, she let's it grow long again. While in New Hope, she maintains her hair length to the middle of her back. Basile does vary styles for special occasions and will also tie her hair back or put it up when doing acrobatics, dancing or labour intensive tasks.
Eyes: Wide grey eyes, with long eyelashes
Skin: Pale; very delicate peaches n' cream complexion; bruises easily. She will discover that she burns easily and will take precautions to keep from burning.
Height: 4'11"
Build: Very childlike in build; very small breasted and petite; looks dainty and delicate; is well toned. She becomes more lean and muscular during the 4th millennium, but still maintains an air of delicacy about her that borders on ethereal.
Voice: Basile's voice is somewhat high and soft, not squeaky or annoying. She pronounces her words very carefully and one can hear consonants quite clearly.
Other Physical Attributes: She has a round face, very childlike and has a look of innocence about it, a small delicate nose, a rosebud mouth, very pretty and fresh-looking.Parents: Nyessti (mother - dead); Beliel (biological father - unknown to Basile, or anyone else for that matter); Mikail (assumed father).
Siblings: Brothers: Havrin, Mischa; Sisters: Zareth, Adaarah, Ellyven (d)
Other Relatives: Uncles: Piet, Helkar (d); Nephews: Malra; Nieces: Meiji, Ayla; Cousins: Valimar, Jheredd, Snowflower.Current Mate: Heartseeker (lifemate).
Previous Mates: Beliel, Dalesian, Emerel, Hanlir, Redmane, Shade, Twillor.
Recognized?: Yes, to Heartseeker (in NH 126).
Child: Leelia (b. NH 128).
Closest Friends: At the Hidden Valley: Redmane, Shade, Sungold (others TBD). At New Hope: Shade, Vallaree, she re-establishes some other old friendships, new ones pending.
Bondbeast(s): None.
Pets: Basile likes lizards and other reptiles (including snakes - not bothered by them at all).Talents: Sending, rockshaping; she can manipulate stone and gemstones of all types. She has never tried metalshaping but can detect and extract metals from ores (it's processed metals she hasn't tried to shape). During the 4th millennium she will develop her talents considerably and establish herself as a powerful rockshaper in her own right.
Skills: Cooking; tanning; clothes making; she learns to hunt while wandering in Exile (mostly trapping small animals) and develops remedial skills in non-magical healing; she also learns tool making, both using rockshaping and by doing it by hand. She has forced herself not to become a burden to the other Exiles and her survival skills will develop immensely. In the Hidden Valley she takes up and develops her weaving skills, continues her embroidery and spearheads the development of the textiles industry and in turn learns a great deal of new techniques. This is her "pet project". Basile also becomes the Seneschal of the Hidden Valley and her excellent organisational and management skills are put to good use.
Hobbies: Tanning and clothes making. She likes experimenting with food. Basile will pick up spinning, weaving and embroidery again in the Hidden Valley. In New Hope she continues on with her hobbies and also picks up gardening.
Weapons: Knives of various sorts; dagger and hunting knife mainly.Jewelry: Basile wears a "homemade" necklace, a piece of an old one given to her by Mikail. She lost her bracelets in the "wild" as time went on, though she likely has a few of them left. She regains much of her jewellery in the Hidden Valley once it is settled. She prefers bracelets and hair do-dads.
Clothing: Basile abandoned the long intricate dresses she wore at Tower for a more practical style of dress while in exile. She also discovered she burned easily so she kept herself as covered up as she could. She wore mainly leather clothing while in exile. She learned to tan hides and work with leather during those years. Once settled in the Hidden Valley, she went back to using cloth again, especially after setting up the textile industry there. In the Hidden Valley, her clothing is neat, tidy and clean. She wears various styles, tends to stay away from too skimpy and too revealing. She'll wear form-fitting clothing, even sexy stuff, as appropriate, but she is normally quite practical. She does wear elaborate clothing on occasion when the situation warrants it. Once Basile gets to New Hope, she does tend to dress practically and tends to stay out of the sun or cover herself up during the worst parts of the day. She dresses up for special occasions and when she visits the Tower.
Personality and History
While in the Tower, Basile was extremely shy, quiet and rather unassuming. She certainly was not a prominent figure throughout her life there. Even after she went functional as Beliel's Door, she was largely forgotten about, except by a few people. Her loyalties ran strong, however , and so did her love for Beliel. These traits had a profound affect on her life after Beliel was exiled and she decided to follow him. After being woken up from functionalisation (during which she freaked once she realised just WHO was bringing her out of it -she only knew Dove as Lake), Basile was rather disoriented, but still refused to believe Beliel had anything to do with it.
Although she is not condemned with Beliel, she decided to follow him into Exile. Her two main reasons were because she still loved Beliel and she let that love blind her. She refused to believe Beliel was jealous of her, but she acknowledged Tyaar's role in making her functional. She decided Tower life was not for her in the 4th millennium and went into exile once her post-functional therapy was completed. Friends and family tried to prepare her for the great outdoors and Malra helped her track the Exiles (but he was under strict orders from the powers that be to not make actual contact himself - that Basile had to do on her own). She was all very frightened by being outside at first, but she put on a brave face.
While travelling with Malra, she began to learn basic survival skills. Once she and Malra parted ways (a very tearful event), she found the Exiles and was a little worse for wear, but she had a little more self confidence where taking care of herself and surviving were concerned. I'm not sure how the likes of Adiana, Beliel and Doleera would react to little Basile showing up on their "doorstep", not to mention the subtle changes that had started to take place in her. She was still shy and quiet, but not as easily manipulated as she was back at Tower. She became more observant and began to learn to read between the lines, so to speak. She also became more aware of her own capabilities and strengths and did not allow anyone to put her down regarding them.
Basile became more straightforward with her opinions, but developed the wisdom to know when not to say anything, very well knowing she was dealing with some rather large egos. Many of her earlier personality traits still existed: her idealism; her love for people (especially her rather blind love for Beliel); her love of beauty and even a certain degree of naivete, but she was definitely a stronger personality and less easy to manipulate. In her determination to not be a burden on the other exiles, Basile learns to make clothes, hunt (mostly trapping), cook (which she found she was pretty good at), some basic non-magical healing techniques and was quick to pick up on things and often did quite well at them (some of these skills she began to investigate and learn at Tower once it became apparent she was going to follow Beliel).
She became selective where "artistic" embellishments were concerned, keeping it mostly to clothing and cooking, but she otherwise became highly practical where hunting, medicine, etc. was concerned. Basile became quite a valuable resource to the Exiles. While wandering, Basile did develop her rockshaping skills somewhat, but mostly for practical reasons.
Basile remained patient, fairly compromising, gentle and considerate and it still took much to get her angry, but when she was pushed too far, she didn't hold back. She was suspicious of strangers, but protective of those the Exiles took under their wing. She developed a particular fondness for the Deathwater Falls elves. Basile would not (and still will not) kill unless she absolutely had to and she always tried to deal as quick and painless a death as she would (I'm thinking animals here). She didn't abide suffering at all and no one, absolutely no one, could make her kill against her will. She was not cruel, morbid or evil and wasn't as easily influenced as she was before - even Beliel's control/hold over her had became tenuous if he went too far and for a very long time, he had more influence over Basile than anyone else.
Despite Basile's increased competence, something got lost in her and she didn't "find" it again until she Recognised Heartseeker. Her love and zest for life wasn't as pronounced as was before she went functional in the 3rd millennium. She felt empty and sad in many ways. When she was alone, she sometimes cried, as she missed her friends and family back at Tower. She felt out of place among the Exiles and in general felt very alone. Basile did not like the role she had been forced into in the Hidden Valley. She did make friends while living there and she was quite well liked by many and certainly was likely more approachable than the other Exiles, more open and friendly too, but it wasn't until she Recognised that she found herself again and began to realise her real worth and how she really fit in with those around her.
Basile helped establish the Hidden Valley with the other Exiles, being one of the two powerful rockshapers who re-shaped the area. Basile's talents for organisation and efficiency were also put into good use and eventually she was set up as the Seneschal of the Hidden Valley. She organised an efficient network of mostly elves to carry out various duties around the Valley and Basile had made it a point to be a jack-of-all-trades where food production, transportation and industry were concerned. She set all this up with Adiana's help and Basile also became determined to unify the two elven communities with the one human community by constructing common festivals and encouraging appropriate food distribution between tribes.
Basile's pet project in the Hidden Valley was the textiles industry and she put a great deal of work into developing it. She also did a great deal of teaching in Tower methods and techniques and in turn learned a great deal from the other tribes. Basile became quite skilled in various textile arts and created a large industry in the Valley. She also learned, in theory anyway, the rudimentaries of food production - her main goal was to understand the hows and whats of it and didn't consider it beneath her to help out during the planting or harvest seasons.
The Deathwater Falls elves were the first ones to call her Stoneweaver. Basile did not understand this at first until either Shade, Redmane or Sungold (or all three) explained the concept of a soul name to her and eventually Basile resigned herself to being called Stoneweaver. In her role as Seneschal, Basile reported directly to Beliel. She covered everyone's needs as appropriate, but as Beliel was the Lord of the Hidden Valley, she reported directly to him.
In domestic matters, Basile was usually both wise and fair, so often she was left alone to do her job with little interference from the others. She had, I would imagine, a good rapport with the leaders of the various tribes. Life in the Hidden Valley went well for Basile, for the most part. She kept herself busy and worked hard to gain the trust and respect of the elves and humans she worked with. She did not fit in well with the BCD frame of mind and did not understand their thirst for war/fighting, but found them energetic, talented and passionate, which she could well appreciate. She affiliated herself more with the crafters of this tribe than the warriors. She did not understand the Nieali-Cin at all, but managed when she had to deal with them. Most of her elven associations were with the Deathwater Falls elves and this was where Basile felt she fit in best. Her own personal handmaids came from this tribe and Basile had an excellent relationship with their chief, Redmane.
One of the tribe's healers, Shade, was (and still is) one of her closest friends and for the most part Basile had "adopted" the Deathwater Falls elves. She was very protective of this tribe and spoke up for them during councils as it was a small tribe and she feared their needs would get overlooked or ignored.
Basile never knew about the attack on Tower Mountain until after it was over. She was furious about the whole deal and it slowly began to dawn on her just how far Doleera and Beliel would go to exact their revenge. She did confront them about it and got no more than a pat on the head and a "there, there, run along and play now" reaction. Of course, this very much confirmed to Basile that Beliel took her for granted, which made her hopping mad. It was a while before Beliel, at least, could work his way back into her good graces. I'm not even sure if Doleera would have tried.
In NH 126, when Heartseeker came spying on the Hidden Valley, Basile Recognised him when he climbed into her rooms one night. Heartseeker was caught and imprisoned and later when Beliel and Doleera decided to make an example of him after it was discovered he was communicating astrally with Piet, Basile, Adiana and some Deathwater Falls elves staged an escape and left the Hidden Valley. Basile returned to New Hope with Heartseeker. Upon arriving at New Hope, Basile was confronted by Mouse, Heartseeker's lovemate, who challenged her for the right to him. Basile refused at first, totally appalled at the idea, thinking it beneath her, but at the same time, Basile insisted that Heartseeker have no other lovemates, her own insecurity, plus Beliel taking her for granted for so long made her somewhat hard-nosed about the whole thing.
She finally complied with the challenge despite her pregnancy. She imposed certain conditions on the trial (mainly in an attempt to render it a draw and prove it was a ridiculous thing - the winner was determined by actually winning all three trials, not the best two out of three). Mouse won all three trials, but Heartseeker chose to stay with Basile instead. Mouse returned to GreatWater Holt, and Basile settled in Risingmist. Heartseeker moved in with her and they lifemated.
Basile's transition from the Seneschal of the Hidden Valley to just plain Basile at New Hope was a very difficult one for her to make. She had always been used to humans as servants and had a very hard time adjusting to them now treating her in a familiar fashion. Basile's skills, however, do serve New Hope well, but she had a great deal of difficulty in adjusting to life at the settlement. Her confidence and self-esteem did increase, though and as time passed, she realised her misgivings about how the inhabitants of New Hope saw her and she recovered herself, especially after Leelia was born.
Basile's other concern, at least for a while, is the fact that others may not have trusted her because of her affiliations with the other Exiles and with the Hidden Valley. Whether real or perceived, Basile certainly felt people didn't completely trust her and she felt she had to work extra hard to prove herself. She certainly divulged what she knew about the Hidden Valley to a certain extent and likely confirmed a lot of Tower's and New Hope's suspicions regarding the Hidden Valley and the Exiles. She would not, however, set up the Hidden Valley so that the inhabitants there would be killed or hurt. She certainly would have confirmed the assertion that Beliel and Doleera were preparing for "war" and would continually frustrated by New Hope's reluctance to prepare for that event when it came. Despite her misgivings, Basile did well at New Hope. She was reunited with old friends and family and as time passed people realised that she had changed and any and all loyalties to Beliel were gone.
Despite her initial difficulties, Basile became very happy and content with her life and her little family. In NH 128, her daughter Leelia, is born and Basile took to motherhood quite naturally and she adored her little girl. Leelia was quite spoiled, but not to the point of being ruined. It was as much other family members' fault as it was Basile's.
Life was good for Basile until the Hostage Crisis. During the initial skirmish where the hostages were taken, an attempt was made to take Basile as well. This was foiled by Malra and Wildwings (who were on a "mail" run from Tower) who protected her after she had been knocked out. Basile recovered afterwards, but was badly shaken up. Many of the tax collectors Basile had known in the Hidden Valley and although she refused to give in to their taunts, Basile wouldn't do anything openly to make trouble for the hostages being held back at the Hidden Valley - there was only so much she could take, so the tax collectors at times would get a taste of an angry Basile...it wasn't pleasant for them.
Afer the hostage Crisis was over, Basile offered to return to the Hidden Valley to undo Beliel's garden and to take the opportunity to say good-bye to her friends. Basile went with an escort (likely a mix of Towerites and New Hopers) and did the job. She not only dismantled the garden, but created a new one with a memorial to those who had died at Beliel's and Doleera's hands. She then said her good-byes and returned to New Hope. Basile never returns to the Hidden Valley again. Basile is one of the elves who accompany Wildwings on his expedition to find Twillor's body. Further developments pending.
What People See at New Hope after the Hostage Crisis: Basile is a very sweet-natured elf. She is kind, generous, quiet and still a bit shy, but it isn't too difficult to draw her out, and, when someone bothers to, she is open and friendly. She is generous with her time, is a good elf to talk too. She is honest and forthright and works very hard. Basile is excellent at organisation and is a person one can rely on to get a job done fast, well and on time or ahead of schedule. She is fanatical about punctuality. Anyone can trust Basile with a secret. She isn't one to gossip herself. She is very forgiving, but doesn't let people take advantage of her too much. She likes to keep busy and active. Basile is bright and creative, but is also remarkably practical.
She still likes pretty things, and this shows even when she is making something for practical purposes. Basile is a powerful rockshaper - it is something that is as natural for her as breathing - she uses it a lot and is always looking for ways to improve her abilities in this area. Basile adores her family, she is also very protective of them. She was quite shaken up by the Hostage Crisis and was disillusioned and angry by the behaviour of her former home.
While a very forgiving elf, it is hard for Basile to find it in herself to forgive the Hidden Valley for what it had done - and for no reason really. Basile knows New Hope would have given freely what the Hidden Valley needed. She felt terrible at the death and destruction suffered by all, and is glad it's finally over, although she maintains a distrust of strangers.
Basile's self-esteem is pretty solid, although once in a while she slips into old patterns. She usually is able to pull herself out of it. She is a non-confrontational character, but is willing to discuss problems and is usually very willing to set things right or compromise.
Basile is not a beautiful elf, but is very petite and with her being a quiet, soft-spoken elf, she has an ethereal quality about her. She is still very approachable, but she carries herself in a quiet unassuming way - this is totally unconscious. She no longer feels the need to "distinguish" herself, as she had tried to do at Tower and the Hidden Valley, but is quite confident and content in her abilities and in her skills. In the end, she realised, that is all that matters. Basile is afraid of Trolls and avoids them. She has gotten better over time where humans are concerned but upon visiting Tower it is frightfully easy for her to slip back into being worshipped and pampered. Basile has to watch out for this.Attitude towards:
Humans: Basile likes humans a great deal, but has always considered them servants, and not much else. She trusts them, enjoys their company and as always treated them extremely well, but they are servants. This attitude is hard for her to overcome in New Hope. She moved into Risingmist for two reasons - one because she could set her own terms for participation in New Hope and because it would help her better understand humans in a non-servitude role.
Trolls: Basile is terrified of Trolls, especially the really big ones. If you ask her why this is so, she wouldn't be able to give a specific reason. She'll avoid Trolls if she can.
Preservers:They are curious creatures, very pretty, very loud. Basile likes them.
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