Tower Mountain Character Information

ORIGINATOR OF CHARACTER: Sharon Tyler
NAME: Vyth (short Y; rhyme with "myth")
GENDER: Female
GENERATION/APPROXIMATE AGE: Second/3200 years
CURRENTLY LIVING? Yes
ORIGINAL TRIBE/HOLT: Tower Mountain
DECLARED? No

HAIR COLOR/LENGTH/STILE: Black, slight wave. Full natural length, which is relatively short (just below shoulder blade). Often clasped at neck or worn with over-the-head hairband. To her annoyance, the "elflocks" over her ears are always slipping loose.
EYES: Dark green, double outer ring: dark blue and slightly lighter green.
HEIGHT: 4'11"
SKIN: Very fair
BUILD: Slight side of average
VOICE QUALITY: Undistinguished middle-range alto. Speech sometimes seems  stilted, as if consciously calculated (it often is).
PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: Triangular face, clearly marked (not bushy) eyebrows. Stands very straight, as if to look taller. "Attractive," not "pretty"; never "cute."

PARENTS: Wyren (D), Donn (D)
SIBLINGS: Sanpriel, elder sister (D)
FIRST COUSINS: Eylar, Davrille
NIECES/NEPHEWS: None
CURRENT MATE: None I know of!
RECOGNIZED? Never
PREVIOUS MATES: Tanyel, for one
CHILDREN: None
CLOSEST FRIENDS (discounting relatives): Serggyon, the winecellar Door (sort of)
SPECIAL TALENTS: Magic feeling (strong), sending (crude)
SKILLS: Poetry, music (strings)
BONDBEAST: n/a
HOBBIES: Currently, jewel-and-tile mosaic pictures. In the past, anything is  possible!
WEAPONS: Carries none. Probably minimal past training, as sport-hobby, in use of  some. Best defence, however: in a pinch she can naturally throw things straight.
OUTFIT MOST OFTENWORN: Slightly flared, slip-on robes, or tunics to same pattern with soft trousers (Basic design: like those velour housecoats that zip up the front). Minor variations possible. Adornment minimal, the idea is convenience, though she rarely looks really scruffy. Prefers darker blues and greens, but may wear anything except orange, yellow-greens, and fluorescent-bright shades. Slippers or sandals, never boots.
JEWELRY: Always wears silver-and-emerald ring, oblong stone set at an angle in filigree circlet. She owns a second ring (two smaller, square stones), brooch, hairclasp, and belt clasp in the same design, and may use any or all of it if she wants to impress someone--thinks of the full set as "battle dress."

ATTITUDE TOWARD HUMANS/TROLLS: Tolerant superiority with overtones of "noblesse oblige." Humans are slightly more interesting. Roughly, a lady of the manor and member of the SPCA toward the yard dog and the carthorse respectively.
TOWARD PRESERVERS: Remembers them vaguely as something pretty in her girlhood. As an adult, wishes she'd noticed them more; they sound like fascinating little pests.

PERSONAL INFO: Vyth is dedicated to the Tower, not for any ideological reasons but because it offers a chance for her to be able to do things as she wants to, when she wants to, and because she wants to, with no interference from necessity. Her memories of "outside" are remote and unpleasant, and she cannot imagine it being otherwise.  Without being sybaritic, she values comfort and security, and the freedom both offer, very much. At the same time, she distrusts the upper echelons (she is afraid of Beliel, coldly and cordially hates Doleera, and tries very hard not to doubt Tyaar), and avoids them.
   A natural dilettante, Vyth has probably tried her hand at almost every craft practiced in the Tower, normally giving them up when they cease to be fun and become work. Two that she keeps up consistently are poetry (her most consistent passion is for wordcraft of all sorts) and music (performs to "talented amateur" limited level; as audience her taste is more sophisticated), particularly if they bear on the Tower history. Her other continuous passion is magic--another reason she loves the Tower. She can tell instinctively where it has been used and is always thrilled by it (standing at the head of the Great Stair is a perpetual high); her only real regret about herself is her lack of active powers.
   Vyth's dominant traits are curiosity, stubbornness, and a prickly sense of her own independence. She is essentially conservative because she prefers things to be predictable. Reserved herself, she respects the privacy of others, but that does not stop her from learning as much as she can by passive observation. She probably knows a good two-thirds of what goes on and could guess at a great deal more, but acts on very little of it.  All forms of conscious people-managing strike her as silly; so the ambitious probably sum her up as apolitical (she is), self-centered (she is), unfeeling (she isn't), trivial-minded (she isn't). But a threat to something she values would find her an implacable and vindictive enemy. There is little she feels that strongly about--herself, her lovemate when she has one, the various members of Eylar's family (especially Valli), and the Tower itself.
   Toward most elves Vyth's attitude is one of distant liking. She has no particular loyalty to the tribe as tribe; that's an aggregate of individuals who ought to be able to look after their individual affairs individually. But she is very capable of affection, and of fun, and has had more than one lovemate. She is a one-partner-at-a-time lover; while the liaison lasts she is strictly faithful and intensely loyal, and expects the same in return. Normally affairs are broken off by mutual consent when one or the other feels the partner no longer satisfies such exclusivity. Former lovers are among her most appreciative acquaintances; those who don't know her well may find her standoffish and think her a prig-and she can be astringent when she wishes.
    In the declining years, Vyth is trying to ignore an increasing uneasiness. She has drifted unwittingly into overcivilized blase-ness. Music and magic still thrill her; she senses vaguely that it isn't quite as it used to be but doesn't herself realize that a large part of her pleasure is now the memory of pleasure. But also she feels the present tensions and sees no resolution to them. Leaving the Tower is unthinkable; materially altering its institutions almost equally threatening. Too intelligent not to know that something is wrong at the very core, she is trying, even to herself, to take the line that Tyaar is arrogant, high-handed, and very possibly cracked, but as long as his presence maintains the Tower that's his problem, not hers. Otherwise, she keeps herself occupied and amused with hobbies and artistic performances (calling for madder music and stronger wine would seem vulgar to her, but that's the idea), and tries, with variable success, not to think too much.
    Vyth likes to articulate her thoughts, but the only elves she would trust that far are Eylar's family, for whom they would make intrusively uncomfortable hearing. As a compromise, she has made a confidante of the winecellar Door. Her habit when she wants to work something out is to pace in front of it and talk, half to the Door, half to herself. She sometimes wonders how much he can see or hear.

                    ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

A useful analogy: As a quick index to Vyth's personality, think of an alley cat which has moved up to the status of house pet and likes it (but apply this analogy only if you like cats). Cats are proverbially tough and adaptable enough to survive in a wide variety of circumstances, but anyone who has had one is aware of how stubborn they can be about their own environment and what creatures of routine they are, and we have James Herriot's word for it that no animal is a better judge of comfort, They regard it as their inalienable right to have a look into anything and everything, but they have no herd in  stinct, resent being interfered with, and will get involved in an activity only if they see a good personal reason for it (Vyth would probably make a dedicated intriguer once she was convinced it was necessary or advantageous, but convincing her would take some doing). They can be very, and loyally, affectionate, but only through willing, clear-eyed but sometimes inexplicably whimsical choice. They're unimpressed by status and quietly vain. That's Vyth.

Background: Vyth's mother, Donn, and her adult elder sister, Sanpriel (short A, emphasis on second syllable, third almost elided--San-PREEel) were missing  presumed-dead in the Sundering; her father, Wyren, was subsequently killed in an accident during the shaping of the Tower heights--implication, not clear fact, is that after the death of his lifemate he just didn't bother to be careful. Donn was a sister of Eylar's father, dark-haired, green-eyed, a weak glider; probably whatever feeling Vyth has for magic came from her. Wyren was a reliable but relatively ordinary type, rather like Treestump, a competent but unremarkable sender (Wolfrider average). He had tawny hair, heavy eyebrows, and notable eyes. Light brown to a glance, they were actually amber with a double outer ring, the outermost dark brown, the inner grey (like water agate). Sanpriel had the same eyes but dark hair; Vyth has the ring effect but Donn's coloring: her eyes are predominantly a dark bluish green (Crayola Pine), but have outer rings of dark blue (Crayola Midnight), and true green (Crayola Forest). Where the girls got their gift for words isn't clear, but it seems to be hereditary; Sanpriel was well known as a poet, and wordcraft is one of the few arts Vyth consistently maintains.

Powers: Magic-feeling is very strong; she can tell automatically and invariably when someone has been "magicking around." This does not wear off; it is a perpetual thrill. In consequence, the Tower always gives her the same de  light it did when first founded. She is fascinated by functionals, wonder  ing what it is like to be one. For sending, think of a powerful but badly tuned radio. Her sending is usually broad-band (she cannot lock-send at all, though she can pick up one aimed at her), and imprecise, more like empathy than true telepathy. For example, a recipient would get a strong sense of warning, and perhaps a vague "Feet!" but not "You are about to fall over a trip-wire Widget left for Beliel!" Partly it is simply that she has never bothered to refine the talent; the normal communication of the Tower is spoken and she actually enjoys the problems posed by articu  lation. If "speech is a barrier" to the perfect communication of sending, Vyth is mural artist.

Activities: Vyth will literally try anything, often to see why someone else gets pleasure from it ("Is weaving really so rewarding, Vayree?"), and is rather like Sulu in the enthusiasm with which she pursues her current avocation. The difference is that she never thinks she has found her One True Calling; she is getting the maximum delight out of something which at present gives her pleasure, and isn't that the point? When she hits a plateau or the effort exceeds the reward, that's usually enough. Sometimes there are other factors--dancing, for instance, she gave up not only because her hardest work would still have left her only second-rank but to take herself out of an obviously futile competition with her cousin Vallaree before any problems developed; jewelry-making because apart from her emerald set she wears it very seldom, and you can only give so many presents. Sometimes she will return briefly to a past hobby with nostalgic delight at what she remembers.

Love life: The only absolute requirement is only one at a time. This is not the rather pathetic syndrome of "It's the real thing at last--no, it isn't"; it is like the hobby-enthusiasm, a way of getting the maximum reward out of the experience while it lasts, and--to be honest--demanded by her vanity, since the exclusivity is reciprocal (it better be!). Casual promiscuity, and those who practice it, she regards as shallow and rather stupid. As a corollary, her affairs are not based on pure physical attraction; the best beginning is to find something else in common--the hobby of the day, or a spontaneous identical reaction to an incident or performance. She has probably tried both sexes if a female friend was so inclined (at least she'd want to see what it was like), but prefers males. Normally affairs simply drift to a mutually-agreed close, though if someone wants to write about it I suppose there could be a messy one. She is rather glad Recognition seems to be a thing of the past; that sort of permanent knowledge by and involvement with another elf she doesn't want, still less the responsibility of motherhood.

Position: Vyth has never tried for Declared status and never will. There are several reasons: 1) it's too much like work, 2) it would require too much association with people she doesn't like or trust, 3) except for the hawkriders, it goes for particular achievement, and she resists being labelled as the anything, 4) swearing an oath of loyalty to another elf is a repug  nant idea (and even before she began to doubt his sanity, she didn't much like Tyaar's arrogance), while swearing that one will always be loyal to the Tower makes almost--not quite--as much sense as solemnly promising always to breathe.

Vyth and her relatives: These are the most consistent, though limited, element in Vyth's social life. Current relations are colored by history: Vyth was "on her own" relatively young as elves go, with Eylar as her oldest living relative. Though they never took her in, Eylar and Vayree probably felt some responsibility for keeping an eye on her. In consequence, her relation to them has some of the carefully distant affection of an adult daughter very conscious of her separate identity, while to Nalkor and Vallaree she has some of the reactions of a particularly youthful aunt. More particularly:

Davrille: She is more nearly Vyth's contemporary than Eylar, and the blood tie has in consequence not overcome the fact that they have very little in common. (They do share two traits, however: low-key intelligence and a capacity for keeping their mouths shut about strong opinions.) Davrille' two dominant interests, people-managing and sex-for-its-own-sake, Vyth finds incomprehensible. They are probably the kind of cousins who acknowledge each other's existence and are comfortably polite at family reunions but don't send Christmas cards.

Eylar: Vyth likes him and respects him. Though she sometimes thinks him a bit of stuffled shirt, he is the only elf to whose opinions she would ever consider deferring. Bis position is the main cause of distance in their relationship; her inference, true or false, is that like Chancellor Thomas More, there are some things he may not, or would prefer not to, hear.

Vayree: Vyth also likes her, though she finds her rather annoyingly passive sometimes (like those people who seem too good to be true and are obviously doing it on purpose). It is in part to maintain the comfort of a light association that they deliberately limit their friendship; too much intimacy would be a strain, so there is a good deal they tacitly do not discuss.

Nalkor: Surprisingly, this is one of the most comfortable associations; both are reserved people who have made their own terms with life, and they respect each other's reserve and terms. Their associations involve companionable silence, though (if Nalkor really is a wit) they probably also appreciate each other's low-key irreverence about the powers that be. If elves had it, they would be the kind of people who watch television together.

Vallaree: Vyth worries about her, even though she reminds herself that it isn't really her place to do so and says nothing. Vallaree is obviously easy to hurt, and some of her current friends seem like professional trouble  makers (not necessarily bad in itself, but can Valli stand the fallout?). Vyth (like many people who are incapable of absolute commitment, she appre  ciates it in others) admires Vallaree's dedication to dancing. A threat to or attack on Valli would anger Vyth more than anything else, since Valli is so obviously ill-suited to looking after herself--it would be the most unfair sort of cruelty.

Vyth and similar elves: This is not to suggest that Vyth has worked this out, or even that she knows these elves particularly well. It's for perspective-  here are some elves whom Vyth resembles (based on the limited character profiles), here are the differences.

Frith: Both are musicians, both seem casual in their attitude toward all activities. But--if I read that "often accused" right--Frith really is a serious musician. Vyth is quite happy as a limited performer--performed music is, to her, often accompaniment--getting her more advanced pleasure as audience. Frith probably thinks she could be better if she practised more, to which the obvious answer is, "You should talk?"

Feyhr: Both are intensely curious, both are using similar tactics to deal with the ennui of the present situation. Main difference: Vyth's curiosity is that of a lively child rather than a scientist. And Feyhr seems to know he's bored, Vyth doesn't. He seems rather more intense, and generally nastier--he really would be calling for madder music and stronger wine, the madder and stronger the better. In short, he really is heartless; Vyth is merely self-centered.

Rahirah, Vayree, Shadaln: All are strong women, all reserved, all to some degree playing ostrich to the present problems of the Tower. Of the lot, since Rahirah's dramatic change in behavior, Vyth is now probably the most likely to do something against convention, having some of the attitude of the aristocrat (or of the cat) that ultimately no one's opinion matters much except her own. If she has thought about it, she probably believes the other three are asking for trouble (as well as courting a lot of grief) by consorting so much with the centers of power. Rahirah's case seems to prove her point, at least to her. More specifically:

Rahirah: Her blinders are heavier and tighter than Vyth's; they have to be. The distinction is between "That's not my problem" and "There is no problem." Also, Vyth has never liked Tyaar and admits as much, though avoiding the idea that his proclivities have become actively dangerous.

Vayree: Both are observant people and good listeners. First main difference: Vayree is immediately likeable, people instinctively want to talk to her.  Vyth is something of an acquired taste and confidences come only after association. She does not encourage them (that would be invasion of privacy); it is up to the other party to signal the desire to talk, otherwise the kindest and most appropriate behavior is business as usual, isn't it a fine day and I hear Mikail has something special planned. Also, the two may come to similar behavior through opposite means: Vayree does not judge, Vyth automatically judges but then reminds herself that her judgement isn't really material to someone else's situation. Example: both Vayree and Vyth know that Vallaree is sometimes very unhappy; Vyth does not know the full story but does know that it is somehow associated with the loss of her outsider lovemate. Vayree: "My daughter's my daughter, that's all that counts"--tolerant, sympathetic support. Vyth: "It just proves "outside" is nothing but trouble, but that was Valli's choice, however silly, and it's over"--result, tolerant, sympathetic support.

Shadaln: Both place a high premium on loyalty. The difference: Shadaln' loyalty sounds as if it is abstractly conceived and defended; Vyth's is emotional, in large measure tied up with her own pride and the stability she wants in her life. Thus, if the two were faced with the problem of being asked to betray a close associate: Shadaln: "It would be wrong to
betray a friend," Vyth: "You (whoever you are, you idiot) are out of line asking me to betray my friend." As a result, Vyth is probably harder to involve in a problematical undertaking, but harder to dislodge once she is involved.

Mikail: Academically, theoretically, and so on, these two like each other, but they are not comfortable associates. With no bad blood, they simply find that after an hour or two they begin to get on each other's nerves, and they accept it as one of the inescapable facts of life which they are not going to let affect their friendships with others. So they manage well enough at dinners or parties and in groups, at least for short periods.  The truth is that they have too many of the same sharp edges--the restlessness which sends them from activity to activity, the touchy privacy.  Difference: in Vyth these are natural characteristics and relatively relaxed, while in Mikail they are at least in part the neurotic reactions to being Tyaar's nephew and (current) next of kin.

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