Rue Buckthorn (WIP)

The line between the dead and the living, the hare's skin and the wolf's teeth, the flank and the horsefly, river and brook, neck and snare, between you and I --- it is thin. I bleed into you. -- Buck   A backwoods daughter, Rue Buckthorn was raised among beasts. She is a masterful survivalist, talented trapper, and ferocious huntsman who combines her intimate knowledge of forest life and magical abilities.   Despite the rough hands and set jaw, she is gentle and kind, slow to anger and slower still to violence. Her rowdy familiar is the one you should be wary of.     Table of Contents Backstory Personality Abilities Skills & Stats Usage Notes Gallery Author's Notes Backstory Rue Buckthorn was born a bastard.   Her father (Llion, the Satyr of Wispeln) was a playwright, bard, and troubadour known for his musical talent and romantic misadventures, well-respected in the Seelie Court of the Feywilds.    Her mother (Duirel, Sword of the Stag) was a high-ranking knight feared for her skill in battle and cutthroat tactics in war, a valued upholder of justice in the Unseelie Court of the Feywilds.    The two met during a diplomatic banquet mere days before the fragile peace between the two courts dissolved into bloody infighting. Llion was fascinated by the unfamiliar stranger --- ever-watching, ever-tense, hand never straying far from the pommel of her sword. He amused her --- soft-hearted poet with a silver tongue. In the early morning, when the nobles were drunk in bed, Llion tempted her to a drink.    Their love affair continued for several years, secretly, with the onset of war through letters and secret rendezvous. After discovering she was pregnant, Duirel, with Llion's aid, attempted to break free of her vows and escape the Unseelie Court, beginning life anew beyond the Feywilds.    They were initially successful. Knowing their child would never be accepted by either court, they lived a rural and private life, raising a family in relative seclusion, moving often. This peace, however, would not last long --- Fey seldom forgive oath breakers.    When Rue was only three, her family was hunted down by swords of the Unseelie Court and slaughtered. Rue was narrowly rescued by her mother's familiar, Taraamkat.   The spirit, severely injured and the new unwilling guardian of the young girl, brought her to the woods of Wilspen, her father's birthplace --- far from the teeth of the Unseelie and well beyond the attention of the Seelie, a bordering wood between the Feywilds and the realm of man.    There, she was graciously accepted and raised by the Coven of the Gentil, a collective of human witches vowed to the protection of orphaned children and abused women. A patchwork family of myriad backgrounds, they took Rue in gladly and reared her as their own.    Taraamkat continued to serve as the young girl's guardian, concealing her from the gaze of fey-born. Ever-vigilant, fiercely protective, and loyal to Duirel even after death.    At nineteen, Rue left the coven to pursue an adventure of her own. She writes often and visits occasionally, sending what little money she makes back home. She wanders from town to town, living off the land, selling pelts, working as an exorcist, picking up odd jobs...

Rue Buckthorn Shedding Velvet; Late July   Aliases/Nickname(s) Buck Profile Race Satyr (Seelie) // Fey (Unseelie) Pronouns | Gender | Sex | Sexuality She/Her | Transfemme | Queer (preference for femmes) Age 21 Weight | Height | Build 6'5 | ~270lbs | Muscular/Lumberjack Hair | Eye | Skin Color Deep brown | Gold | Almond Distinguishing Features ✦ Physically large ✦ Powerful stag-like legs, soft ears, and horns Job/Vocation Forest Witch, Exorcist Hobbies ✦ Entomology 🪲 ✦ Herpetology 🦎 ✦ Ornithology 🪶 ✦ Herbology  🍃 ✦ Cooking (makes a mean blackberry cobbler)  ✦ Archery & Trapping  Related Characters Tomcat -- Familiar Creator Bear

Personality

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Rue Buckthorn is the sort of stranger you spill your guts to at three in the morning, six beers deep at the local pub. A shoulder to cry on, a hand up when you fall, an ever-lending ear... Like the woods she calls home, Buck exudes a feeling of warmth, stability, and quiet. Soft-spoken and somewhat shy, decades of isolated living left her abysmal at small talk. This isolation has also taught her patience and the power of a gentle hand. It takes a certain kind of care, of course, to separate a rabbit from its skin, catch a perch with only your hands, or forage blackberries without pricking yourself on the brambles. 

Raised in a collectivist community, Buck loves often and loves effusively. Because she is stubbornly stoic and not the best at communicating her feelings, she demonstrates her affection through subtle acts of service. As a friend, she is unendingly loyal — sometimes to a fault.

[In love, too, she is generous, leaving behind a trail of short-lived, passionate affairs. Though preferential to women, the torrid little stories she’ll tell you around a campfire (when sufficiently drunk) feature lovers of myriad backgrounds and species.]

Despite her mellow demeanor and long temper, she is hardly a pushover. She does not take disrespect mildly and can be ruthless in the defense of the things she loves. Not a violent person, Buck does not start fights, but she is more than capable of ending them.

Likes

• Pastries, especially cheesecake! Dairy and sugar are a rare delicacy for someone who lives off the land.
• Fresh air; the natural world; peace and quiet 
• Animals of all shapes and sizes (box turtles, though, are her favorite)
• Heavy sleep after a long day’s work and waking up sore the next day
• Romance; enjoys reciting Lais
• Thunderstorms and rain; can sit for hours watching a storm
• A drink
• Poetry

Dislikes

• Enclosed spaces; not accustomed to sleeping under a roof
• Loud noises; bustling areas; easily overwhelmed by auditory stimuli 
• Rude people
• Authority; dislikes being ordered around
• Technology; wary of modern tech, sort of like your grandmother who cannot use an iPad
• Violence; conflict
• Carbonated beverages; she despises that a drink can have texture 

Abilities

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✦ Lending

Buck can inscribe objects with runes to invoke the power of specific spirits. Lending necessitates a willingness on the spirit’s end to lend its power in the first place. Buck frequently makes offerings to these spirits to maintain their favor (she gives the fox spirit, Eckle, the first cut of any rabbit she kills). 

• • • • A few examples:
        • Her hooves have the rune of a fox spirit burned into the keratin, allowing her to walk near-silently.
        • She has several arrows made of wolf bone that howl when shot and fly as though sentient themselves, seldom missing their target. 
        • Her knapsack has fishbone sewn into the leather, and the rune of a fish spirit burned on its side, effectively waterproofing it.

✦ Vessel

Buck can call upon a spirit and allow them to possess her. This is a dangerous and risky maneuver that allows both her own soul and the soul of the spirit to temporarily occupy the same body (for a period of no more than an hour, anything more risking bodily decay and inseparability).

• • • This allows her to take on characteristics of the assumed spirit and can give her the appearance of having a ghostly “second skin”
      • Allowing a bear spirit to occupy her body, for instance, might give her immense strength and ghostly claws

✦ Spirit-Binding

Buck can bind spirits to containers of bone (often carved in the shape of what they seek to contain: a fox-shaped figurine to hold, say, the spirit of a fox). More powerful spirits can break out of these containers. 

• • • This process necessitates knowing the spirit’s name. They tend to be touchy on the subject, so this is difficult to obtain.
    • Think of it like a Pokeball. Captured, the spirit is subservient to her. She does not perform this sort of magic unless a spirit is malicious. She finds it morally distasteful.
      • Spirits can also be released after capture. When dealing with animal exorcisms, this is usually what Buck does. Bind the creature to the bone, take it somewhere else, and let it scurry free — like supernatural animal control. 
    • A familiar is merely a spirit that has been bound (often willingly) to a different sort of bone: one’s own skeleton. 

✦ Beast-Tongue 

Born of the woods and being half-man and half-beast herself, Buck is able to communicate with woodland life. Mushrooms are especially gossipy creatures, but not all are so talkative. Immersed in the forest, its mumblings are a constant and comforting presence to the young satyr.

✦ Bone Divination*

Roll the bones! Buck is not very good at divination, so she’s limited to simplistic 8-Ball responses (Yes, No, Maybe…). The spirit occupying the bones also does not like her and frequently lies.

✦ Herbal Tonics

Buck carries with her parcels of medicinal herbs and other, more exotic ingredients. Using her knowledge of herbology, she can concoct tonics and ointments and broths for all your medical woes, from stomach aches to snake bites. 

Skills & Stats

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Buck’s magic is drawn from the mana of the forest and its various spirits. She worships a pantheon of various deities corresponding to the life and forces of the wood. Bone is the medium through which this magic is accessed.

Weapons

Whistle (Bow & Arrow):

• A handmade composite bow made of plum wood that she uses for hunting, fishing, etc. Inherited from her mother.
  • She named the bow Whistle when she was only six and still too small to draw it.
    
• Carries with her a dozen handmade arrows. Three of these arrows are tipped with wolf's bone and howl when shot, seldom missing their target.

Field Knife:

• Traditional, antler-handle buck (ha!) knife. Used for skinning, butchering, crafting, fishing the last pieces of food out of an aluminum can... 

Horns:

• She has these! They are sharp. 

Hooves:

• She has these too! Can deliver a nasty kick. 

✦ General Stats

✦ Strengths	✧ Weaknesses
Physically strong; can take a hit  Compassionate Hard-working Knowledgeable about all aspects of the natural world (knows hundreds of animal calls, can identify most plants and animals, will ramble to you about bugs…) Deadly shot with a bow Limited first-aid ability  Excellent cook, even with limited ingredients	Easily manipulated; believes the best of people Self-sacrificing Soft-hearted; hardly cutthroat, she’s just a girl Workaholic Overly controlling of her environment Naive when it comes to the modern world, unfamiliar with much of its technology and innovation

✦ Imperative Strengths

Physically strong, high constitution, can hold her own

✧ Imperative Weaknesses

Not particularly agile or fast, slow to react with violence

✦ Psychological Stats ✦

Charisma	✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧	Kindness	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧
Patience	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧	Intelligence	✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧
Confidence	✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧	Perception	✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧
Discipline	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧	Psych stamina	✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧
Courage	✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧	Caution	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧
Honesty	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧	Loyalty	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧
Maturity	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧	Creativity	✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
Cleanliness	✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧	Work ethic	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧

✧ Physical Stats ✧

Physical Strength	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧	Speed	✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
Magical Strength	✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧	Constitution	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧
Physical Defense	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧	Dexterity	✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧✧✧
Magical Defense	✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✧✧	Stamina	✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧✧✧

Usage Notes

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• Misgendering/Transphobia
  • I get enough of this in the real world, so there is no need to explore it here, too. 
• Shipping/NSFW 
  • Just ask first! Usually down for a romance plotline, though :) 

Beyond that, fair game. I'm a horror writer myself, takes a lot to squick me out, so you can beat her up, kill her, whatever. Go wild!

Gallery

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[main reference image]

Portrait <3	[etc]	[etc]

Author's Notes

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✦ Glossary~

• Coven of the Gentiles: 
  • Coven of witches who live off the land, dedicated to the care of orphaned children and abused women
• Taraamkat:
  • True name of Tomcat
• Wispeln:
  • Woods that lie on a border between the Feywilds and the human realm. Birthplace of Rue's father and home of the Gentiles. 
• Whisper
  • Name of Buck's bow, belonging to her mother