Post by Leith Shahrizai on Jul 22, 2010 12:02:08 GMT -5
Character played by: John Ingle
Name: Leith Shahrizai
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Height: 6'0
Race: d'Angeline
Home Province/Country: Kusheth/Terre d'Ange
Appearance: Utterly white haired from head to toe, Leith Shahrizai has lived a blessedly long, full life. His skin is much like expensive crumpled parchment, wrinkled and creased, but where it's not, it's smooth and healthy, showing the beauty he once held in his youth. Eyes are sharp and hawk-like, a deep, shining blue that his sisters were always envious of, something Leith took great pride in. He was Shahrizai. Generally speaking, his mouth is always downcast, his gaze hard as diamonds, his posture stock-straight, not bent with age. There is nothing soft about Leith, nothing in him that hints at warmth. He is hard, cold, calculating, and no one is spared from his ministrations.
Personality and History: Grizzled and elderly, Leith is anything but soft. His entire life, he has been hard both in appearance and personality, with no room in him for flights of fancy or tenderness. His family he has ruled with an iron fist, his wife is cowed by him and the wordless, thoughtless slaps across her face. His children in particular were ground into instead of guided, molded by unforgiving hands and forced to do things, to act certain ways.
Rebelling against it, Leiths eldest child disobeyed his wishes to continue a pure, untainted Shahrizai bloodline and instead married a golden haired, green eyed woman for his bride. Enraged, Leith very nearly cut his son off from every last cent the family owned, throwing him and his bride both out onto the streets without a second thought. Only the begging of his wife and the promise from his son that they'd rear their children in the way that the Grandfather chose kept them from being tossed out, if only barely.
Within a few years after marriage, a son was born. Raen Shahrizai - pale of skin, crystal blue eyes and downy hair as black and blue as a ravens wing, he was the epitome of Shahrizai, and favor began to return to the small family because of it. Leith made sure Raen had the best of schoolings, taking him under his wing a few times at an early age to show him the art of hunting, something he was sure his father would utterly fail at.
Two years after Raen was born, a daughter was birthed, Leighton. Immediately Leith felt a strong distaste for her - with her golden locks and her darker skin, she was an obvious throw from her outsider of a mother. He dismissed her, disregarded her, and as the child began to grow and showed an attitude very much like Leiths own, he began to absolutely detest her. Where Raen was strong, silent, cold and calculating, Leighton, so named after Leith himself in hopes of currying favor, was prone to bursts of fiery temper, striking out at those closest to her and throwing words like daggers. Leith couldn't abide it and more than once struck the child down; it didn't take Leighton long to learn to keep her silence around him.
Unfortunately, it made the family grow apart as well, as his son and his golden-haired wife stopped coming around so much, begging obvious excuses. It grated at Leith, that he didn't have the control he once did, and for years he pinned that on Leighton - if it wasn't for her, life might well have continued as it had. Raen might be half blooded, but at least he had the right appearance, something Leighton never would have.
For long years, Leith held his tongue.. for the most part. He allowed the children to use his townhouse in the City, allowed them to come and go without stopping them, always waiting for Raen to choose a proper Shahrizai bride and stop his facades, his damnable flights of fancy. He had a duty, and Leith was damn well sure he'd meet it, that he'd produce more children to purify the bloodline that his father had sullied. When Raen didn't comply on his own, Leith took it into his hands to secure a marriage for him and expand the families wealth both. Asarhia, beautiful and sweet, though with a bastard child. He used that against her and her family both, securing their lands in complete, securing that the bastard child would never inherit anything, but out of the deal Asarhias family was able to remain living on the land as caretakers. The girl herself at least had already proven fertile, and Leith took her to the City with him to see she was married to Raen properly, that Leighton was taken care of… for he had discovered the true relationship of the brother and sister, of their incestuous love and love making.
Pushed into a cramped house in the South District, the poorest side of town, Leighton was put out of his mind, and once Asarhia and Raen were married, he left for his estates in Kusheth once more, satisfied that all would be taken care of, that all would be well. His grandchildren wouldn't defy him again, and the line would be purified.