Post by Adelaide nó Nicodeme on May 2, 2010 14:25:45 GMT -5
Character Played By: Elisabeth Harnois
Name: Adelaide nó Nicodeme
Age: 16
Race (Lineage Origin): D’Angeline (Anael)
Gender: Female
Height: 5’, 3”
Home Province/Country: Kusheth/Terre d’Ange
Appearance:
Adelaide’s eyes are light blue (sometimes mistaken for green). Her wavy hair falls down to the middle of her back, the colour of straw. She is of average height for her age, but most of that is leg—“filly legs”, as they are often called. At an age when most young women are admiring their curvature, Adelaide is noticeably lacking in any sort of bosom. She is seldom seen wearing anything else save the black robes of the priesthood and a silver pendant in the shape of a crossed rod and flail.
Personality:
Adelaide seems out of place in the Temple of Kushiel. Where other acolytes are solemn and restrained, she is cheerful—like a ray of sunshine that brightens gray skies. Whereas others in her situation focus on sin and redemption, she tries to see the good in people, frequently engaging in amicable conversation with the penitents who visit the temple. While it is true that she is capable of expressing saccharine sweetness at the best of times; she is known to have a fierce temper which is easily provoked.
Unfortunately, given her position as an acolyte of the Temple of Kushiel, Adelaide shows no such enthusiasm for her studies. She can’t sit still long enough for meditation, constantly forgets the words to her prayers, and finds the study of textual materials to be as dull as the menial chores that she performs around the temple. She is also one of the clumsiest acolytes in all of Terre d’Ange: if it can be upset, tripped over, or disturbed in some way, changes are she has managed to upset it, trip over it, or disturb it no matter how careful she was being at the time. Many would consider it a sign of Kushiel’s favor if Adelaide managed to make it through one day without incident.
Despite having a lack of enthusiasm for various priestly duties, however; Adelaide possesses true devotion to Kushiel, and that is what sustains her when her studies become nigh unbearable. She hopes to one day wear the bronze mask of a full-fledged priestess, but knows that that day is unlikely to arrive in the near future.
History:
Born to unknown parents, Adelaide was abandoned at birth, left to die from exposure to the harsh Kusheline climate. She was found by an acolyte serving at the provincial temple to Kushiel, who wasted no time in bringing the infant in out of the cold autumn air. Attempts to locate her parents were unsuccessful, as the only clues to her heritage were the telltale scent of apples that marked her as one of Anael’s scions and the silver pendant of a crossed rod and flail—one of Kushiel’s symbols.
Even as a small child, she seemed to be drawn to Kushiel almost instinctively. One day, when she mysteriously disappeared from the garden, her worried caretaker found her curled up at the effigy’s feet, fast asleep. At the tender age of seven, she fell out of an apple tree that she had been climbing, when she regained consciousness, she claimed that “the Man with Bronze Wings” had broken her fall, saving her life. The priests and priestesses of the temple saw this as a sign, and she was formally accepted as an acolyte at age ten.
Unfortunately, while her heart appeared to be in the right place, Adelaide showed no enthusiasm for typical priestly duties. She could not sit still for meditation and constantly forgot the words to the prayers she was given to recite. Her superiors despaired when they discovered that she was also clumsy—at one point accidentally spilling powdered incense all over the inner sanctum of the temple. “If she has been called by Kushiel,” one of them mused, “it seems he has a very strange sense of humor.” Adelaide’s clumsiness only seemed to worsen as she matured and her legs quickly grew out of proportion to the rest of her body. It was often whispered around the temple that the gods had taken all the volume out of her breasts and added it to her legs.
When she was mid-way into her tenth year, her superiors deemed it necessary to send her to the temple of Kushiel in the City of Elua believing that a change in scenery would inspire Adelaide to pursue her studies with more zeal. The move both saddened and excited Adelaide, saddened, because she was leaving the only home that she had ever known, and excited at the prospect of living and studying in one of the most famous temples in all of Terre d’Ange.
It was at the temple of Kushiel in the City of Elua that she met Auberon.
It was luck—or perhaps, Kushiel himself had a hand in it—that saw her assigned to the senior priest to be mentored until she was ready for ordination. In Auberon, Adelaide found a father that she’d never known, felt, for the first time, what it was like to experience something akin to paternal affection, affection tempered with discipline, for Auberon did not hesitate to chastise Adelaide when he deemed it was necessary. Now, at sixteen, she continues to study (or not) at the temple in the hopes of one day becoming a full-fledged priestess.