Sinaï Qahdirah

Details

Sinaï is an attractive woman to see. With long legs, upturned eyes and pointy ears she has a captivating appearance. Her skin is a warm shade of light brown, and can be compared to honey. Her hair is naturally black, but by braiding it in white locks she completely changes her look. She has never cut her hair, as per Xailan costum. Her eyes are amber, with one eye a significantly darker shade of brown than the other.

Sinaï is very hardworking and a perfectionist. She doesn't do half assed work, and completes her tasks on time. She's a serious person and doesn't care much for entertainment. She doesn't scare easily, and is up to any task you ask of her. She's smart and intelligent, though we're mainly talking about streetsmart, not booksmart. She has respect for life, and would never kill just for the fun of it. Though having respect for life, doesn't mean she's forgiving. She won't hesitate to go to extreme measures if it's in her advantage. Sinaï doesn't like to work together with anyone, on anything. She dislikes socialising and rarely partakes in events or festivals. She can come off as rude to others as she's quite distanced and aloof. Engaging in social contact is quite hard for her, and she has a great deal of attachment issues. Because of these issues she keeps her emotions in check and makes a point about being stoic and cold. She also believes in the superiority of Sun elves, and looks down on magicless beings.

Sinaï can manipulate flames as many other Sun elves. Though she has definitely developed this skill well, she has far from mastered it. Because of her overall agility and handiness with a dagger, she most often manipulates her flames to be daggers she can hold. She can choose to wield them, or throw them up to ten meters. She can infinitely summon more daggers, though with each new summoning they rise in temperature. After around four new summons, they grow too hot and become blue flames. If she tries to hold on to the blue-flamed weapon for longer than a few seconds, she burns herself badly. In those few seconds she can hold them, she feels the flames constantly zap her skin, something akin to lightning..

Two star-crossed lovers fall in love, and have a child together resulting in a tragedy. The man, Harith Qahdirah, is a simple shepherd living a simple life in the small village Jahriyah. The woman, Elisabeth Manecastor, is a thief on the run originally from Lythrania, trying to find a place to lay low for a while. She tries to take refuge in Jahriyah, but the villagers here don't take kindly to strangers. They lock her up to perish away. Harith takes pity on the woman and tries to ease her suffering by giving her food and someone to talk to. It doesn't take long for them to fall in love. Harith helps her escape her prison, which is not too hard considering Jahriyah doesn't have an impressive guarding system. They originally planned to run away together, but Harith decides against it at the very last moment. Elisabeth is enraged and heartbroken, but continues on her journey alone.

Then eight months later she shows up again, with a baby in her arms. Harith knows it is his, but keeps his mouth shut. When she begs the guards at the entrance of the village to let her in and cries out Harith's name, one guard snatches the baby from her arms, and the other slits her throat - an escaped thief should know better than to return to her prison. Harith denies any intercourse with the woman, and does not claim his child. Instead his best friend Malik (who is aware of the situation between Harith and Elisabeth) adopts the baby girl, naming her Sinaï.

Malik is not the best dad Sinaï could wish for. He has attachment issues of his own, making him unpredictable - and he doesn't know how to care for or raise a child properly. Their relationship has never been great, and Sinaï found herself growing up at a very young age. She learns how the world works and how to take care of herself fast. As a young child, she mimicks the older kids and teens by watching them succeed or fail at things. She never talks to them, just watches. It doesn't take long for her to understand that the strong rule over the weak. So she becomes strong herself; at first she tries copying fighting moves she sees from others, then she starts picking fights on purpose to train, then she starts training with the guards of the village.

Twenty-one years this goes well. The lie is kept up and Sinaï has grown up to be a guard herself. Until one of her collegues mentions her mother, and her calling out Harith's name. This strikes Sinaï as strange, as she's never heard this side of the story. She confronts him about it, and he decides she's old enough for the truth. But because of her dislike towards Malik and the not-so-great childhood she's had, she doesn't take the news well at all. She has a meltdown, becomes agressive and severely harms Harith. Before she can kill him, she's pulled away by one of her collegues and restrained. Before they can decide what to do with her, she escapes using her years of training from the streets.

She runs away to the capital, where she quickly notices merchants are often the richest of the bunch. By doing exactly what she did in her youth; watching the strongest, copying the strongest, and a bit of stealing, torturing and manslaughter, she manages to build up a life as a merchant herself. Now she's a merchant selling spices in Al-Qahil, as well as a smuggler who sells these goods in Alderrath as well (with a little help from a princess).

- Sinaï desires to blend into her surroundings, which is why she mostly wears earth tones.
- She's a very clean individual, and washes up at least onces a day using sea salts to remove impurities, after which she lathers herself in a mixture of milk and honey to keep her skin smooth.
- She has not a single person she actually loves at the moment.
- Her favorite season is Bloomtide, her favorite constellation is The Archer and her favorite color is dark brown.
- She believes Sun elves to be superior to any other race.
- She despises the idea of the power of friendship or bloodbonds.