Lorelei of the Undertow
From Changeling Venue
| Seeming | Elemental Waterborn |
|---|---|
| Court | Winter Court • |
| Freehold | The Gift of Iron and Twine (Sydney) |
| Player | P. Saunders |
Contents |
Peter: They'll sweetly drown you if you get too close.
- P. J. Hogan's "Peter Pan"
This character is pending approval: with the permission of the relevant STs, this Wikipage exists as a placeholder, and advertisement for links.
Overview
Defining Quote: "Won't you please come play...in the water?"
Alias(es): Lady of the Riptide, Duchess of the Secret Depths, Syrenka Njarlovik
Real Name: Forgotten
Age: Over a century old
Concept: Classical siren
Entitlement: Pending
Mask: The apparently young woman who calls herself Syrenka (a cipher reference to the Slavic word for mermaid), looks to be in her early twenties, is taller than average at 5,9", slim, broad-hipped and broad-shouldered. She has distinctly Eastern European good looks, though not remarkably so, with long, thick, wavy dark ash blonde hair, fair skin and shifting grey eyes, with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline. She generally dresses modestly and well, in conservative dresses and skirtsuits, and seems to prefer very muted tones of blue, grey and green. She is generally quiet and softly spoken; she speaks impeccable English and the remnant of her Russian accent is all but undetectable, except for in moments of extreme stress, when it becomes very thick and she starts dropping the smaller and less necessary words from her sentences. She has a knack for blending into the background and making herself easy to ignore - despite her reasonable attractiveness, she can sit alone at a bar all evening and not be disturbed, and is never whistled or honked at, by either piggish construction workers or obnoxious young men in suped-up cars. Hugging this cultivated invisibility around her like a cloak, she hurries head-down from place to place, eyes lonely and haunted.
Mien: Lorelei, in her fae seeming, is an obvious creature of the deep. Her skin shimmers with a metallic sheen, varying in places from pale purple to pale green, and here and there, subtle patterns of scales can be glimpsed. Her hands and feet are clawed, and webbed. Her lips are the swollen, lilac blue of the drowned, and her long, tightly crimped blonde hair is draped and tangled with pieces of kelp, as is her lithe figure. She wears a tattered green dress, more out of habit than any sort of actual modesty, and is generally draped and tangled in various netting, over the top. Her eyes bear the slit pupil of something reptilian, and her mouth is lined with the needle-sharp teeth of an aquatic predator. She is constantly dripping wet, her hair hanging, sopping and heavy, down her back and into her face, her scant clothes clinging to her form, moisture beading on her skin. Her touch is cold, but surprisingly pleasant. Her beauty is of a decidedly alien and frightening nature, but her feral allure is undeniable. She is occasionally mistaken, to disastrous result, for true Gentry by other Lost, particularly those confused and terrified individuals newly emerged from the Hedge, due to the complete otherness of her seeming.
Relevant Mechanics: Under construction
Character Livejournal: N/A
Character Information
Whether it be in oceans or rivers, this lovely and terrible water nymph can generally be found swimming with the currents, playing amongst the fish and dolphins, and using her beautiful face and haunting song to lure men and small children into the water, where she drowns and then devours them. Her weeping and keening as she does so is truly horrible, and the memory of it, once heard, inescapable. She is nothing so simple as evil, but rather, horribly shattered by her time in the hands of her Keeper, even more so than most Lost. Sometimes she seems aware of what she does, and horrified by it, and at other times she can be heard to plead, "My baby, where did he go? I had him in my arms...where has he gone?", weeping in grief and confusion. She tends to swing between helpless self-hatred, and frightened, disoriented daze. Her manner with other Lost is invariably one of sweet, gentle, almost childlike love, combined with a desperate, piteous neediness. She is undeniably insane, but in her moments of lucidity, she can occasionally be unexpectedly and disturbingly incisive, possessed of an almost oracular clarity.
Known History
Basic Timeline:
- Born 1900, in Novaya Zemlya.
- Taken for the first time in 1920.
- Escaped, and returned to her family in 1922.
- Recaptured almost immediately, along with her husband and son, in 1922.
- Escaped and returned to the mortal world in 2000.
- Left Russia for travel abroad in 2000.
- Wandered through various places, trying to find a place she belonged, from 2000 to 2005.
- Settled in Sydney, Australia in 2005.
Current Activities: Pending
Merit Details: Pending
Background: Once upon a time, in the Old Country, there lived by a chuckling river a fisherman, Vasili, his wife, whose name has been forgotten, and their young son, Vanya. They did not have a great deal of money, and they did not live lavishly, but they were simple folk, and they loved one another. The vodyanoy (водяной) who dwelled in the river grew jealous of their simple and contented joy and, one day, he stole the woman away, to his palace beneath the depths.
But her love was great, greater, even, than her fear of her captor, and she fled that place and escaped back to her husband and son. At this, the vodyanoy grew angry, and he swore against the family - in his great and terrible wrath, he re-captured the woman, and her family.
In his jealousy and madness, he declared that she should love no other but him, and slaughtered that strong, kind young man, and that sweet, gentle child as she looked on. At this, the woman screamed - she tore at her hair and beat at her breast, and the vodyanoy pulled her close and whispered, with his breath stinking of fish, "Your family is dead, and yet by my grace you remain. Am I not merciful?"
He went away, then, and he left her there, with her dead son and husband, and he did not return for many moons. In his absence, she grew thin and weak, for he had left no-one to tend her, no-one to feed her. And in her starvation, the woman grew close to death.
And death drew near...
And she was so hungry.
In time, the vodyanoy returned, and he went to check on his captive. He found the boy and man gone, mostly; all that remained were the bones, picked clean. And the woman, utterly mad. And he decided she diverted him better this way, and after all, she was very lovely. And so he took her as his bride, now that she was no longer bound to her husband by the lifelong promise of marriage.
He held her for a great many years. But there was still a part awake in her mind, telling her she must get away, must get home, must return to her dear husband, to her sweet son. There was something dark there, as well, at the edge of her mind, that sparked and spat at their names, but she did not look at it. It frightened and saddened her, so she looked away.
And in time, she escaped that place beneath the waves, and she returned to her home, only to find her good man and innocent child gone, vanished without explanation. Her family was gone. She searched the lands, up and down, calling for them, but they would not come to her and she could not find them. But she had been gone a very long time, and her family, too, and the people of the land pulled away from her, shuttered their windows and locked their doors against her, and made the sign of the evil eye when she passed in the street.
So she left that place, and set out across the world to find herself another family.
Inspirational Media
My restless blood lies all a-quiver
Knowing that always, exquisitely
This April twilight on the river
Stirs anguish in the heart of me. - Rupert Brooke
I cannot explain the sadness
That's fallen on my breast.
An old, old fable haunts me,
And will not let me rest.
The air grows cool in the twilight,
And softly the Rhine flows on;
The peak of a mountain sparkles
Beneath the setting sun.
More lovely than a vision,
A girl sits high up there;
Her golden jewelry glistens,
She combs her golden hair.
With a comb of gold she combs it,
And sings an evensong;
The wonderful melody reaches
A boat, as it sails along.
The boatman hears, with an anguish
More wild than was ever known;
He's blind to the rocks around him;
His eyes are for her alone.
At last the waves devoured
The boat, and the boatman's cry;
And this did with her singing,
The golden Lorelei. - The Lorelei, Heinrich Heine
You parents all that children have
And you that have got none;
If you would keep them safe abroad,
Pray keep them safe at home. - Old Nursery Rhyme, author unknown
Motley
Pending
Allies
Pending
Enemies
Pending
Character Inspirations
- Classical sirens/naiads in mythology the world over
- Rusalka, the malignant water faerie in traditional Russian folklore
- Mermaids from the recent live-action Peter Pan (2003) movie
Soundtrack
- Rapunzel - Emilie Autumn
- I Want My Innocence Back - Emilie Autumn
- Under The Water - Meryl Bainbridge
- Run To The Water - Live
- Possession - Sarah McLachlan
- You Can Still Be Free - Savage Garden
- Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
- The Thing I Hate - Stabbing Westward
- Going Under - Evanescence
- Time For People - Atomship
- Sold Me - Seether
Quotes
Pending
Rumors
Pending
