#oc: bran yot'aster

[cain-e-brookman]

Favorite Character Poll

Thank you for the tag, @topazadine! i picked Orrinir in your poll! love a trauma boy with abandonment issues tbh

Rules: list all your main ocs and give brief descriptions of them. then, create a poll with their names and allow your followers to vote on who their favourite character is.

Characters are from my current WIP, The Name Witch. This is part of a series that has many more main characters but I'm really controlling myself here and only taking from the first book.

Uthyr Kri'Asphodel

Uthyr is, in his own words, a soft fussy solitary witch from the Uslarian coast who wants nothing more than to tend his garden, cook good food, and live a life of peace. He has a strong sense of justice, but a delicate heart full of loss and shame. He loves all animals but particularly loves frogs and amphibians as well as most bugs and snakes. His connection to the gods allows him to call on many magics, but he specializes as a healer. Despite being a genuinely kind person, he's anxious and grumpy around groups of people or people he doesn't know. Although a powerful witch, he suffers under others' perception of his standing. He long ago abandoned the name of his foremothers, taking the name Asphodel as the first of his line. Despite this, he doesn't regret doing so. His name, like his garden, is his pride.

Crucius, Formerly of Alilux

Uthyr's neighbor, a Fallen Mage who never speaks on his detachment from his god, though he rarely speaks at all. Quiet, indiscernible, and haughty, he plays most of his past close to the vest, giving very little away in the eight years he's lived next to Uthyr in his square house in the woods. He's branded himself with the only fear he'll admit to: two spiders burnt into the backs of his hands: a reminder of his banishment from his homeland into badlands infested with man-eating spiders. Despite his apparent detachment from anyone, he leaves the corner of the forest he shares with Uthyr every spring and only returns in fall.

Sister Alma of Bhréchin

A young woman from the island country of Bhréchin, new in the robes of the Death God's Order. In fact so new, that as of the first chapter she's introduced, she'd only been a Priestess for a week. Her youth becomes obvious in both her naivete and her love of frivolous gossip, though both belie a dark past she faces head-on. Her devotion to the Death God wouldn't be strange but for the grip of the Lifebringer's Cult in her country, who squash any worship outside of the Church under their boot. With a cheerful disposition, an optimism that could eclipse the sun, and a temper to be reckoned with, Alma is only not speaking when she's asleep. And even sometimes, she does that too.

Bran Yot'Aster

As the heir of the line of Aster, Ninth of his Name, Bran comes from a long line of witches and has been told his whole life of a prophecy that the fate of the world depended on his answer to the call of a twisted wind. When the Coven discovers the unraveling of the realm adjacent, The Other, they call upon him to face his destiny and save them all from the destruction of the Calamities...

Only to find Uthyr has beaten him to it.

Dethroned of his destiny, Bran is surly and adrift. When he joins Uthyr and Alma on their journey, he believes Uthyr's involvement comes entirely from a mistake, that he will see the moment where the prophecy declares him champion, and he finally finds himself deserving of the pedestal his family has always placed him on. Despite the predicament, he's steady and true, believing honesty and valor will light his path to glory.

tags under the cut! feel free to do this even if not tagged, and please tag me if you do! don't feel pressured, only if you'd like to o7

@illarian-rambling @emrowene @xenascribbles aaaannnnnd uuhhhh

@spideronthesun

[cain-e-brookman]

WELL HELLO! Since I saw you mention your witch characters. Tell me about them a little. Do they know that they are witches since birth in your world? Or do they come into their abilities a bit later? And who is the best at potion making?

hello hello!

so witches in my world aren't a class to specialize in like a lot of fantasy, and are instead an entire race! When the Lifebringer still held dominion of the world through the rule of the Fae, she heard a prophecy (so very conveniently given to her by the Trickster) that the daughter of the Death God would surpass her in power, and so banished the goddess Lythis to the Void. There, Lythis created her own version of life, (in the way someone who's only once seen a bird tries to make a sculpture of a bird, giving Lythis the title of Goddess of the Uncanny.) The creatures she created called themselves Clurga, and were varied and strange, some more humanoid than others.

Back in the land of the living, humans were Not Having A Good Time under the rule of the Fae, as Aeriessa (The Lifebringer) only created them to serve the Fae. A group of humans tried to escape their bondage into the wildlands. Lythis, seeing their plight when they wandered into a glen where the skin between the worlds was thin, let them into her realm. As the children of that group grew, they took partners with some of the Clurga, and those children eventually left Lythis' Otherworldy Plane (known by witches as The Other) and carved out a country from the grip of the Lifebringer, and named their new land Uslaria under the name their goddess gave them: witch. After the Mage Wars and the fall of the Fae Empires, humans joined the witches in their country. Since witches are pacifists, they wanted no rule over the country, and so Uslaria became a human kingdom that is known far and wide as the home of the witches and their central force, The Coven.

This is a very long explanation to basically say, they have their magic from birth, and any child born from the womb of a witch will pass their magic to their child (as opposed to Mages, where the magic follows the blood of the one who sired them.) It's why most witch parents will immediately start teaching their toddlers fun tricks like Put Plant Back Into Seed :) Grow Dandelion From Puff :) Please Don't Summon Fire To Light Mummy's Candles. Fire Is For Grownups. (Magic is like teething. They will do it anyway. Give them a proper outlet that won't end with them accidentally flooding your house.)

And as for who's the best potion maker--of my two main witch characters, it's Uthyr! Bran spent his years learning more versatile magic, so he's very Jack of All Trades wrt his magic. Uthyr put all his skill points into healing and potion making. And hex casting, but he's always found the Trickster to answer his requests, so it's his usual go to. Doesn't understand why more witches don't think about it tbh.

[cain-e-brookman]

Happy STS! What genre other than the genre they're in would your characters have the most fun in?

Thanks for the ask!

Uthyr would have the most fun in one of those like beach read type books by Elin Hildebrand or someone. Because then even if he's having A Bad Time, at least he's near the ocean

Crucius would have fun in a spy thriller. He would be the one trying to catch the spy though

Alma deserves a YA romance with a lot of scandal. She'd obviously be the lead

Bran honestly would still want to be in a fantasy novel, but he'd want to be in one where he's the main character :/