The Basics-Ā Ā
species: Siren affiliation: She aligns herself with neither Assyria or any siren captain. She instead only aligns herself with the goddess of the sea.Ā character name: ElistraĀ age & birthdate: 44, born May 7th gender & pronouns: Her gender is ambiguous and undefined and will likely stay that way. Her pronouns are she/her.Ā birthplace: Caribbean SeaĀ length of time in port vale: Six years occupation: Administrative assistant at Beacon ChapelĀ fc: Natasha Liu Bordizzo
History-Ā
THE OCEAN
When the storm hit and the ocean roiled with anger, Elistra was certain at that moment that she had never felt anything as much as she felt the fear of death. She had been on the outskirts of her captainās territory, as she usually was when a watchful eye wasnāt placed on her, and now she was paying a much heavier cost than encountering enemy mermaids who would want her to bow to their authority. Blindly, she dove for the bottom of the sea, where she hoped the currents would be calmer, and hid in a shallow cave to wait out the storm. But when she got there, what she did not expect to find was another lost soul, eyes as wide and fearful as her own. A mermaid, but not, at this moment, an enemy.Ā
A ship passing overhead poured its wreckage into the waves only moments later. The heavy debris crashed into the opening of the cave, trapping both Elistra and the mermaid in a horrible display of gravity. After an hour of trying to break through the rubble and debris, they grew exhausted, and in her exhaustion, the mermaid began to pray. She prayed to her goddess, the one who had gifted the mermaids their seven kingdoms before the sirens came along to carve out territories for themselves. Elistra listened to the mermaid for another hour, and listened to the silence she received in response. The other sirens always told her that she lacked anger, that she lacked the ruthlessness needed for a killing blow, but in that exact instant, Elistra felt something more powerful than anger. She felt righteous defiance.Ā
Closing her eyes, she matched the mermaidās prayers, said them with as much vigor and determination as she could muster. The goddess would listen to her. The goddess would tell her what she wanted to know. And after a long moment of only further silence, finally, their prayers seemed answered. The mermaidās companions had come looking for her. They were saved. The rocks and debris were loosened and they were free.Ā
But if Elistra had hoped that she could find a place with the mermaids that she could not find with the sirens, she was wrong. She was met with disdain from the mermaids that matched in vitriol with the pity and disappointment she found in her fellow sirensā eyes. So, disillusioned with both, Elistra swam away from the Caribbean sea, hoping to find a place where her prayers could reach the ocean goddessās ears.Ā Ā
ON LAND
With only one place to go, Elistra went where sheād been warned never to venture by the elder sirens. She went ashore. She grew legs, stole clothes, and learned to mimic the way the humans greeted one another. Port Vale was a strange place, one of wonder and curiosity, but also one of strange stares and dangerous glances. Elistra knew she couldnāt let herself be revealed or else be turned to sea foam, but what else was she to do? She wandered on new legs to an old stone building on a winding path and collapsed like an abandoned doll on the doorstep. She hadnāt meant to stay long, but when an elderly man and his young granddaughter welcomed her inside and fed her, she realized it was the most kindness sheād ever been shown in her life.Ā
The pair never questioned where she came from or why she knew so little about the world. At first Elistra tried to remain quiet to avoid suspicion, but after a while, she observed the pair accommodating her, as if they knew that she was too afraid to ask for help on her own.Ā Elistra learned that the building she was staying at was a chapel, and it was a place where one prayed to god. This, of course, was not the deity she wanted to listen to her, yet it seemed like a sign nonetheless.Ā
Elistra stayed in Port Vale for a year, learning and growing and praying in the chapel. On her year anniversary of living in the town, she made a vow, like she had read some priests did. Elistra would not go back into the water until she was welcomed within it. Until the goddess answered her, until her worth was acknowledged, she would not be a siren or a mermaid. She would be something else, something new.Ā
After a few years, the priestās granddaughter went off to college and left Elistra with all her tasks, which Elistra gladly accepted. Now she cares for the priest that took her in, as well as manages the upkeep and administration of the small chapel. She digitizes old records and goes into town for groceries. And at night, she prays.Ā
But with the arrival of mermaids and sirens and other more mysterious beings on Port Valeās shore, Elistraās happy haven is threatening to be torn to pieces. As she tries to prove her worth to a distant goddess, she now finds herself also wanting to prove herself to those that had previously rejected her.Ā
PERSONALITYĀ
Elistra is a very stubborn and hard-headed person, especially now. She is single-minded and goal orientated. She spent enough time when she was younger being told who she was or how she should behave because of nothing more than the chance of fate that was her birth. Now she fights back against those beliefs with a vigor and righteousness that rivals other sirensā rumored brutality and ruthlessness. She hates the binary of mermaid and siren, hates that the ocean can be so many things at once, and she is expected to only be one thing: evil, a scourge, a disease, a conquering force to be reckoned with. Above anything else, she wants to prove not only to the goddess of the ocean, but also to sirens and mermaids alike that she is good enough. Has always been good enough. Consequently, she is aggressively helpful, sometimes to the annoyance of others.Ā
CONNECTIONS
General Connection Ideas:
The mermaid Elistra met who changed everything for her. Whether she cares for Elistra or thinks of the night they met bitteraly, Elistra will always owe something to the mermaid who first showed her how to pray to something larger than herself. They went through something harrowing together and survived and so that ties them together somehow, and Elistra isnāt willing to let the other mermaid forget it once they meet again.
A siren from the Caribbean sea, either a friend or an enemy. Elistra disappeared on the night she was caught in the storm and probably assumes the other sirens think she died. This siren might also have thought that until they saw Elistra working at a tiny church in a port town, acting as human as if she were born one. The reappearance of someone Elistra knew will frighten her and challenge her place in Port Vale, which is not something sheās willing to give up without a fight.Ā
A human she wants to tell everything to. Living for half a decade in a place has lowered Elistraās defenses. Sheās questioned so much about the fundamental truths she was taught about what it is to be a siren and what it is to be a mermaid. Will she really turn to sea foam the moment someone knows what she is? That doesnāt seem fair. But for this person, for such a dear friend, she sometimes weighs the risk in her mind.Ā
