BT Bio - Teal Fletcher - CC'd by Freelanders

[Arath Faringal]

DM Handle: Visar Falmaien

 

Contact Info: visarfalmaien(at)gmail(dot)com

Character Count: 1st

 

Character Name: Teal Fletcher

Nationality: Altaran (from the Rashad in Ebou Dar)

Age: 23

 

Physical Appearance: Teal has a very plain appearance, with brown hair, brown eyes, and

olive-toned skin. Most people would not notice his average height or build (5’6”, 150 lbs. or so)

save for one feature: he has a tattoo of the herb Thyme on his forehead, which he tends to keep

shaved or short-cut.

 

Personality Description: Quick to anger but slow to fight, Teal is an interesting Altaran who

is more than meets the eye. While he has a brusque, blunt manner of speaking that can be quite

off-putting, he is actually quite shy around strangers, and abhors unnecessary violence of any

kind. He loves women of all sorts of appearances and obsesses over them, yet tends to be very

quiet and deferential around them, lest they challenge him to a fight.

 

Personal History:

 

Teal’s father was a fletcher, and his father was a fletcher, and his father’s father was a fletcher,

or at least that’s what Teal knows. His mother’s brothers and father were all tanners, so Teal was

brought up with the option of both trades in mind.

 

Not being one too thrilled to continue the family business of either side, Teal liked to keep to

himself and wander the city. Of course, living as he did in the Rashad portion of Ebou Dar,

violence and dueling was a part of every day life. A boy wasn’t considered a man until he lived

through his first duel and had a scar to show for it, and yet Teal did not have any propensity or

liking for dueling.

 

The only time he dueled was with a girl, who defeated him because he didn’t want to hurt her.

She didn’t scar him, but did the same kind of damage, as she humiliated him in front of most of his friends in the city, calling him a good-for-nothing coward, among other things.

 

It became increasingly clear to Teal that he was not welcome where he was. His

family was fed up with him not being decisive on picking his trade, and accused him of being

a lazy good-for-nothing carp. His friends, what few he had, increasingly shamed him for not

becoming a man and having the guts to duel like what was expected of him.

 

And so one day, rather than face a man who had challenged him to a knife duel, Teal left the

city, taking only what little he possessed and could carry. He had a knife, but didn’t really know

how to use it other than for peeling potatoes and onions and such, and he had some decently

made leather boots.

 

He traveled for a few years, spending some time voyaging with a Sea Folk family who befriended him. When they parted ways in a less than satisfactory manner, Teal decided to have a tattoo done to remember them and their kindness. They had been almost a family and clan to him, and he would miss them. Their ship was called the Taym, and since that sounded a lot like a certain herb, Teal had the herb thyme tattooed on his forehead.

 

Next, having not found what he was looking for in the high seas, he traveled inland.

 

He journeyed north up the river, through Ghealdan and Murandy, or whatever the country was,

and one day months later, he found himself with well-worn boots and tattered clothing close to

the city of Caemlyn, with no money or food, or energy for the journey to better prospects in the

city.

 

Stopping one day in a village, hoping to beg for food and shelter somewhere, Teal found a

commotion in the town square and decided to take a closer look. Men with black coats had

arrived, asking to see all interested men for a “testing.” Desperate for work, Teal asked to see if

he could get tested.

 

The testing went by, and something very strange occurred. The man who tested him held up a

small flame, asking him to look at it. Teal didn’t ask how the man had managed to make a flame

appear over his hand; perhaps these were illuminators or performers with some trick? That’s

what he thought at first, at least.

 

Teal found himself drawn to the flame like a moth, but fire tended to do that for him,

mesmerizing him with its beauty. Sometimes he just wanted to reach out and speak to the flame

somehow, and for a moment it seemed like he did speak to it, if only a faint echo of another’s

distant voice.

 

To his surprise, the men in black agreed and found him “worthy”, whatever that meant, taking

him with them to their Farm in some undisclosed location in Andor. From there, his life at the

Black Tower would begin.

Edited October 6, 2011 by keyholder21

[Elgee]

I've never heard of anyone in Randland except the Seafolk and I believe the Sharans having tattoos.

 

Interesting bio, btw - I enjoyed reading it.

[keyholder21]

I'm checking on it - I'll get back to you!

 

 

I also enjoyed the bio Visar :).

[Visar Falmaien]

Hello! Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

 

I might be able to tweak the tattoo detail a little. As far as Altarans not having a distinct tatoo tradition: Would it be far-fetched to have Teal getting a tattoo from someone of the Sea Folk, or is that something they reserve for only their kind? Just a thought. Maybe during his travels he travels on board a sea folk vessel for a time and gets to know some of them? He is old enough to have travelled a little, and I can add that into his bio.

 

Just thought it would be cool for him to have some sort of unique defining feature, but I can sure think up of something else if this idea doesn't fly with you all.

[keyholder21]

Hey Visar - I think it's a cool idea too. IDo you have a reference in the books or the BWB where Altarans would do this?

 

As far as Sea Folk, I believe some of them denote rank/clan/status, but not all. I think he would need to have spent a little time with them in order to have it done, but I could see it done then.

[Visar Falmaien]

From the Altarans specifically, no, but I don't believe the practice is anathema to the culture, necessarily (and it is a PSW, why do cultures have to adhere EXACTLY to the very limited information we have of them in tBWB?). I was just trying to get away from the typical "has scar on his face from a duel" thing, or having no interesting facial features at all. I think that soldiers tattoo themselves in different regions (I seem to recall someone in the Band of the Red Hand having one on his arm? I could be wrong about that though but I'd need to find a reference to that.

 

What's the verdict on this so I can get started? Should I try the "spends time with Sea folk and gets a tattoo" route or drop the tattoo thing altogether?

[keyholder21]

Nah, don't drop it. I like the idea. I'm going to shoot a PM to Myst to make sure that she's cool with me CCing it even without a reference, I'll let you know as soon as I get a reply from her!

[Mystica]

I always like your bios, Visar and this one is no exceptions and I like the idea of the tattoo. The thing with it being an Altaran cultural thing is that it would affect other characters from Altara, so an addition to a cultural tradition like that would need to be made on a wider scale than just for one character. Otherwise there's no way we can keep track of what is or isn't appropriate for this or that culture. I'm certainly not against adding little tweeks to a culture that deviate from them in the books, but we need to go about that outside the biography sphere. Let's discuss this on the FL boards and we can see what we can do.

 

Your idea of him getting his tattoo from the Seafolk is quite acceptable. As far as I could find, they tattoo themselves on the bridge of their hands to denote their clan. So if they were to give you a tattoo, it would be different from anything they have. I'll leave it up to you to come up with a storyline that's plausible.

[Visar Falmaien]

Ok,

I sent a bio to Arath (and a relevant segment to keyholder) with a "Teal got the tattoo from the sea folk" explanation (warning! it's long lol). I'll see if Arath's ok with it, then I guess he'll put it on here? Would you like a copy of the file as well to go over, Myst?

[Mystica]

no need, we can look over the updated version when Arath posts it here. It's his bio, after all :)

[telonderiel]

There are definitely tattoos outside the Sea Folk. Page 335 ACoS "...[Corewin was] holding his tattooed arms over his head..." and later the same page "...[Harnan], with a crude tattoo of a hawk on his left cheek...". So there is even evidence of people having tattoos on their faces. Both Corewin and Harnan are soldiers in the BotRH.

Edited October 5, 2011 by Achlys

[Visar Falmaien]

Thanks Achlys! That's exactly what I was looking for but couldn't remember for the life of me!

 

So, option one, I could just remove the "sign of shame among altarans" and just say that he got a tattoo.

option two, which is a bit of a long stretch, I could say he befriended some sea folk and travelled with them, and has the tattoo as a sign of that.

 

 

I did send option two to see if Arath would bite, though if it would be faster in the meantime to just fix option one real quick, removing the bit about tattoos being a cultural thing with Altarans (which I was pulling from my buttocks, sry about that).

 

I guess now I/we both have a couple choices lol, I didn't mean to make this as complicated as it got X_X

[telonderiel]

No problem! I am re-reading the books and remembered reading that only a couple of days ago, so it wasn't hard to find at all!

[keyholder21]

For the record, the "sign of shame among Altarans" was the part that Mystica wanted a reference for. If you're taking that out, it should be good to go....

[Visar Falmaien]

Ok, sure! I can just edit that out that's fine. How should that be done to be the least hassle with everyone?

[keyholder21]

I can edit it out, if you're cool with that. Then I'll wait til you see it and then CC it and get started :).

[Visar Falmaien]

Could you replace this section:

 

The only time he dueled was with a girl, who defeated him because he didn’t want to hurt him.

She didn’t scar him, but forced him to tattoo his forehead, often a sign of shame among Altarans,

with the herb Thyme. Maybe if he had “courage” painted on his forehead at all times, he would

actually have some, she reasoned, and then proceeded to break his young heart and leave him for

a man with three dueling scars.

 

Growing up, it became increasingly clear to Teal that he was not welcome where he was. His

family was fed up with him not being decisive on picking his trade, and accused him of being

a lazy good-for-nothing carp. His friends, what few he had, increasingly shamed him for not

becoming a man and having the guts to duel like what was expected of him.

 

And so one day, rather than face a man who had challenged him to a knife duel, Teal left the

city, taking only what little he possessed and could carry. He had a knife, but didn’t really know

how to use it other than for peeling potatoes and onions and such, and he had some decently

 

made leather boots.

 

With this?

 

The only time he dueled was with a girl, who defeated him because he didn’t want to hurt her.

She didn’t scar him, but did the same kind of damage, as she humiliated him in front of most of his friends in the city, calling him a good-for-nothing coward, among other things.

 

It became increasingly clear to Teal that he was not welcome where he was. His

family was fed up with him not being decisive on picking his trade, and accused him of being

a lazy good-for-nothing carp. His friends, what few he had, increasingly shamed him for not

becoming a man and having the guts to duel like what was expected of him.

 

And so one day, rather than face a man who had challenged him to a knife duel, Teal left the

city, taking only what little he possessed and could carry. He had a knife, but didn’t really know

how to use it other than for peeling potatoes and onions and such, and he had some decently

made leather boots.

 

He traveled for a few years, spending some time voyaging with a Sea Folk family who befriended him. When they parted ways in a less than satisfactory manner, Teal decided to have a tattoo done to remember them and their kindness. They had been almost a family and clan to him, and he would miss them. Their ship was called the Taym, and since that sounded a lot like a certain herb, Teal had the herb thyme tattooed on his forehead.

 

Next, having not found what he was looking for in the high seas, he traveled inland.

[keyholder21]

Done! You read it over and make sure it's cool and I will CC it darling!

[Elgee]

There are definitely tattoos outside the Sea Folk. Page 335 ACoS "...[Corewin was] holding his tattooed arms over his head..." and later the same page "...[Harnan], with a crude tattoo of a hawk on his left cheek...". So there is even evidence of people having tattoos on their faces. Both Corewin and Harnan are soldiers in the BotRH.

 

You're so right! I completely forgot about that *smacks self over head* ... sorry about that, Visar!

 

I must just say that it was a pleasure to see how this whole matter was sorted out

[Visar Falmaien]

Awesome! The above bio looks good to me, just waiting on official CC from Myst. Thank you everyone for working with me on this!

[keyholder21]

Nah, you don't Visar. I can CC it :).

 

 

Consider it CC'd!

[Visar Falmaien]

Danke Danke!

(rushes off in crazy trenchcoat to steal doughnuts and cause mayhem)