Nickname or alias: The Nymph
Character age: Thirty-four
Date of birth: February 2nd 1686
Resilient, Enchanting, Empathetic,
Aloof, Impetuous, Private
What rank is your character trying to be? Are they looking to be captain of their own ship, first mate, or will they take what they can get? Do they have any special skills that relate to seafaring?
Over the years, she has been taught how to navigate by the stars. Her mother herself taught her how to look at the ocean waves, to feel the salty breeze and predict the weather. She is an excellent navigator, a woman whom the waves seem to favor and even the roughest oceans will calm for. Born gifted, she seems to carry on her mother’s mythical legacy and knows every tale of old the pirates whisper in the night.
Why does your character go to sea? What are they looking to find?
Even though it was never her mother’s desire to spend her life at sea, and perhaps would have wanted a different life for her child, Cissi simply does not know what it means to live another life. What else could here be but sailing the world, chasing after the next new thrill of adventure. She revels in the sensation and enjoys the name she has made for herself in the pirate world, even though it might only be whispered in the backrooms. In the back of her mind she might have a dream of finding riches to settle somewhere on a nice shore to spend what’s left of her years on this earth in peace. A dream she might be fooling herself with, for she would probably end up a shell of the woman she once was if she would abandon her sea-born heart. As she is finally freed of her chains, she wants to make her own mark on the world. There would be nothing worse than dying a nobody, who non would remember. Letting a legacy that once burned bright die.
Her mother went by the nickname of ‘the Sea Witch’, or by the one Chryseïs’s father picked for her. At times calling her ‘Sycorax’ in an almost loving way, after the powerful witch of a Shakespeare play. Her mother was a prize from one of her father’s raids in Imperial China. He kept her as well as their child like a treasured prize. A magic token that would bring him and his crew luck and good fortune. - After he, and more than half of his crew, died in a gruesome battle Cissi and her mother were captured and traded on high-prized markets . Word had spread that the sea-witch and her child could predict the storms and even manipulate the weather in favor of the ship they sailed on. That it made their captains invincible when treated right. Not all honored the woman they considered touched by the divine. Her mother died at an early age 29 was 14, by the hands of a young, ruthless captain that had attempted to capture and take charge of the ship they were on.
Her late father was a lover of poetry and used to be the son of a wealthy Spanish merchant and tradesman before he turned against the law and was disowned. In his upbringing he had learned how to read. There are very few memories Cissi has of him, nor does she really remember what he looks like. All she had left is a book van inherited and she carries with her. Filled with old poetry she can hardly understand. She has kept it with her all this time for sentimental reasons, as she can barely read any of it herself.
After her mother died, Chryseïs was captured once more in a failed attempt to escape. The never ending cycle continued as it always had but something had snapped inside of the young girl. A light went out, the moment she was her mother die before her own eyes. The trust she had had in the codes of piracy was violated and never before had she felt as hopeless and angry at the same time. The cycle continued non the less, herself being traded between ships. Sold to the highest bidder to have her sit around as a bird in a pretty cage. A moving, talking figurehead that would protect from harm.
After years of repeating the same old song, during which she grew more resilient as well as cunning, she came across an old captain. Close to his final days at sea and out on the hunt for his final great treasure. He offered her a deal she could not refuse. Vengeance on her mother’s killer as well as her freedom of the chains that had bound her all her life, only in exchange of showing him a true miracle of guiding him to his most desired treasure. Maps were unclear and the sea on the way considered far too dangerous to sail but Cissi took the opportunity with both hands. The slim change at succeeding, paid for in blood would she fail, had been the only light of hope she had seen in years. - Against all odds, she sailed with a small vessel through several storms and navigated to the desired place where the captain found this he had been looking for. Keeping his promise, he freed her upon their safe return in harbor where she next morning was greeted with the news that the old captain had sailed out to pay his last debt. 3 months later, the news of the death of her mother’s killer reached shore. Marking her first day as a true free woman.