Sabriel

bindsthedead @ 2014-03-25T14:57:00

2014-03-26T05:29:55Z

OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Sarah
Other characters: None!

IN CHARACTER
Name: Sabriel
Fandom: Old Kingdom
Canon point/AU: After she and Touchstone arrive in Ancelstierre and dig up Kerrigor's body, but before they get it to the school.
Journal: bindsthedead
PB: Shea Prueger/fanart
History: Wikipedia link

Presentation: Sabriel's outward presentation is of a serious, mature young woman, who sometimes comes across as a little morbid, due to her affinity for Death and the Dead. She takes tasks assigned to her seriously, and it takes a lot to rattle her. She often gives off an impression of carefully controlled force, giving the impression she's older than she actually is whenever she gets serious.

Arrogant might be the wrong word for it, but Sabriel has confidence in herself and her abilities both magical and mundane, and though this is sometimes shaken, it's not something that ever goes away. She's capable of commanding respect from adults- including soldiers by virtue of both her title and their respect for her abilities.

This isn't to say that Sabriel acts like a stoic badass 24/7. She can be playful and teasing to people she considers friends, and was quite happy to do normal teenage girl things like sneak out to the movie theater with her classmates, and apparently wants to meet young men her own age. The way her demeanor can switch from proper young schoolgirl to wise beyond her years necromancer is occasionally unnerving, but neither side is an act- though Sabriel finds herself feeling far less like a schoolgirl given what she's gone through recently.

Sabriel spent thirteen years attending a school for 'young ladies of quality' and it shows. Sabriel learned etiquette as well as how to fight in chainmail with a sword and cast spells, and while certainly not obsessed with perfect etiquette, she's generally polite and addresses people by their proper titles, though she doesn't insist on people calling her Abhorsen- being called that actually makes her a little uncomfortable. When she dislikes someone, she's still generally polite, though her demeanor tends to veer towards passive aggression and condescension, speaking to people as though they're either children or servants, regardless of actual age or social rank. At least part of the time, this isn't through deliberate effort, either.

Motivations: Sabriel's not actually quite as mature as she presents herself. While she's good at keeping up a facade of mature competence (And it isn't all an act), Sabriel does often feel like she's in over her head, particularly as she learns more about the current state of the Old Kingdom and her role in it. Discovering that she's important and has some enormous responsibilities resting on her shoulders doesn't swell her head- instead, the sense that people are relying on her, and what if she fails them? makes her feel overwhelmed and forces her to mature even further.

Not to say that Sabriel's moral compass centers solely around fulfilling her duty as Abhorsen to lay the dead to rest. Mundane evil is not supposed to be an Abhorsen's problem, but Sabriel is outraged when she sees children enslaved to be used as bait for the Dead, and almost attacks the slavers before being reminded that she's got bigger problems to deal with, and the slavers are only a symptom of the root cause that it is her duty to address. Even after she backs off, she promises to come back when she can and help the kids.

Death is something Sabriel is familiar with, but not exactly jaded about- people dying is a tragedy to her, but 'everyone and everything has a time to die', and once someone is dead, she generally won't try to bring them back (although she will be very, very tempted). She gets upset when people die, it doesn't traumatize her- if anything, Sabriel seems more disturbed by how comfortable she is around death than the fact of death itself.

As for the Dead themselves? 'Hate' is a strong word, but Sabriel is completely aware that the Dead were once human, and that some retain their intelligence and capacity for speech. She also knows that all of them must steal life to stay out of Death, and will not hesitate to destroy- no condescending insults, no gloating, no banter, no righteous speeches- she simply tries to take them out as quickly and efficiently as possible. This attitude extends to living people she sees as genuine enemies, instead of simply disliking- though she's more willing to try to talk things out with them, if it comes down to it.

Sabriel isn't ruthless or devoid of compassion, but she's pragmatic and not prone to extended bouts of either self-pity or self flagellation, and dislikes them in others. She's generally sympathetic to Touchstone's pain, but his initial attempt to atone through over the top servility grates on her. Sabriel loved her father deeply- he was her only family, and man who taught her necromancy and shard her connection to Death- but rather than drop everything and mourn him or simply get as far away from the Old Kingdom as she can, she follows his last instructions and seeks to defeat Kerrigor once and for all- not for revenge, but because it's her duty as Abhorsen, and to help the people of the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre.

Setting: Sabriel's initial reaction is going to be shock- and then anger. While unlikely to immediately resort to open rebellion, Sabriel will be keeping her eyes open, looking for signs of people who share her attitude to connect to.

She's also likely to seek out ways to sabotage things if she thinks she can get away with it, both in and out of the games, and given her upbringing and relationship to death, dying repeatedly is probably not going to traumatize her to the extent that it would a normal person, though she definitely won't be unaffected by it either.

SAMPLES
First Person Thread:

[Sabriel stares at the device. She'd thrown herself into the deepest body of water she could find, when she'd realized that the poison from the muttation's spines had condemned her to a slow, painful death- no antidote, and no separating from her body so her spirit could wait wait in Death for her body to die.

Even if intellectually she knew drowning was a fast way to die, her death had felt agonizingly slow. And even after the water had filled her lungs, she hadn't- hadn't.]

I didn't go into Death, after I died. [She says it out loud, confused and frightened, and you can practically hear the capital 'D' as she says it.]

Although I suppose I ought to explain- Panem is fortunate enough not to be troubled by the Dead or necromancers, after all. [It's off topic, but Sabriel suspects a description of Death will interest the Capital far more than her simply stating that she doesn't particularly care that she lost, that she considers the Games a moral outrage, that Panem, like the Old Kingdom, is a place where death is not the end of suffering and slavery.

Instead Sabriel suppresses that, and talks about Death.]

When someone dies, Death is where their spirits go. It's a river with no banks, that starts at the boundary with Life and flows through nine precincts. [Talking about Death, instead of her own death, is oddly soothing, and Sabriel visibly relaxes. Her tone is that of someone telling a story they've told- or been told- many times before.]

Each precinct is separated from the others by a gate. The current makes it far easier to go into Death than to walk out, although- excuse me, I was supposed to be talking about my own Death, wasn't I? [Sabriel smiles, and though it isn't remotely sincere, she's regained enough composure to answer the question, though her voice is brittle.]

I feel fortunate. People have died in far worse ways, and though they weren't able to come back into life to talk about how it felt.

Prose:

Sabriel didn't speak. If she did, she knew she'd start screaming until she was hoarse, shouting curses, pleas, and spells that had somehow been stripped of all their power. Instead, she settled for giving the figures watching her a glare of withering condescension before turning her attention to the racks of weapons. She would not give these people the pleasure of watching her lose her composure, and yelling at them wouldn't accomplish anything.

She didn't hesitate in choosing a sword, only pausing to feel the balance of it, and bowed gracefully to the Gamemakers before turning her attention to the targets and sliding into a fighting stance.

At first, she parried and dodged thin air, as though she was fighting with an invisible opponent. Her movements were graceful and controlled- then she began hitting the dummies, and her movements were just as graceful, just as controlled- but increasingly brutal.

Thrust, cut, slice- It was almost like being back in school, taking a Fighting Arts exam, except Sabriel had never hit her opponents quite so hard during class. There were no flourishes, no fancy twirls- every strike was made to incapacitate or kill, until Sabriel's last thrust punched straight through a dummy's neck, and it took her two tries to dislodge it.

Finally, Sabriel turned her attention back to the Gamemakers and gave them a perfunctory bow before putting the sword back where she found it. Then she spoke in a controlled tone, hostility buried under carefully constructed neutrality.

"May I go now?"

What is your character scored: Probably between 8 and nine? Even without her powers, Sabriel has several traits that work to her advantage.

Mental Sabriel's connection to death means that while she's reluctant to kill people, except out of mercy, self defense, or the defense of others (or they're undead), she should be able to cope with the nastiness of the arena and be able to focus on her own survival and that of her allies. She also has an excellent memory and good observational skills- she's hard to sneak up on, and while 'paranoid' might be putting it rather strongly, she's in the habit of sleeping with her weapons in easy reach, generally keeping them close at hand, and never seems to forget that as long as she's in the Old Kingdom, she's in danger. She's shown as being reasonably good at relating to people and getting to like her- once she realizes it's in her interest to do so.

Physical Sabriel has shown that she has some wilderness survival experience- she's able to tolerate physical hardship well and has excellent endurance. Also, she's a skilled swordswoman with some experience in combat and is tall and physically strong for an eighteen year old girl.

Powers Sabriel's abilities are divided into two categories- Her Charter Magic, and her powers as an Abhorsen, which come from having one of the foundations of the Charter

Charter Magic is the more common form of magic in the Old Kingdom. By mentally pulling marks out of the Charter, Sabriel can create a variety of magical effects- fireballs, lightning bolts, projectiles, shields, healing, and a few other things, including using magic to anchor people's feet to the ground or completely immobilize them. If she has access to wood ash and water, she can baptize others, granting them the ability to use Charter Magic- although she will need to teach them, since it's not an ability you can use by instinct.

Sabriel's powers as Abhorsen are mostly necromancy. She can feel people and animals die- for example, she feels the water going into the lungs of a drowning person. (Which may put her at a bit of a disadvantage in an Arena, though she can block it out partially.) Her death-sense also allows her to sense and track undead creatures, and feel if there's been a great deal of death at a particular location, or if people have been buried there. Also, she can force her spirit out of her body and into the realm of Death, although this leaves her body frozen solid and completely vulnerable, unless she puts protections around it before she goes in.

While Sabriel generally uses the bells, she has demonstrated that she can exert a limited amount of control over the dead without them. Also, she can raise the dead- either as shambling zombies (Which she will refuse to do) or, if they only just died and she can patch up their bodies, and pull their spirits back in, restoring them to true life. (For humans, this seems to require a baptism.)

Obviously her bells will be confiscated, but I'll list them and their abilities in case it becomes relevant.

Ranna: The first, and smallest bell, the sleeper. It sends those who hear it into slumber.
Mosrael: The second bell, the waker. It acts as a seesaw, throwing the ringer into death as it brings the listener into life. One of the doors on the way to Abhorsen's House is described as opening to its sound, and in later books it's mentioned that it's used to awaken bound Free Magic spirits. Sabriel's unlikely to use it.
Kibeth: The third bell, the walker. This bell has many sounds, and can both grant freedom of movement, to the dead, or remove it. It's described as troublesome, and tries to ring of its own accord, forcing the ringer to walk where she does not wish to.
Dyrim: The fourth bell, the Speaker. It can grant the power of speech, or remove it. In later books, it's mentioned but not shown that it can 'give forgotten words their meaning', so it may have other communication related ablities.
Belgaer: The fifth bell, the thinker. It can restore independent though, memories and "all the patterns of life" to the Dead, but it can erase these as well. In later books, it's used to release someone from a binding. Other necromancers have apparently used it against their enemies to shatter their minds.
Saraneth: The sixth, and deepest of all bells- the binder. It binds the target to the ringer's will.
Astarael: The weeper, the final bell. Sends everyone who hears it into the deeper part of Death. Sabriel doesn't have it on her at her current canonpoint.

comments

App for Distant Skies

2012-01-01T00:17:59Z

ABOUT YOU

Name: Sarah
Are you 18 or over?: Yes
Other characters played: None

CHARACTER

Name: Sabriel
Canon: Garth Nix's Old Kingdom
Age: 18
History:http://oldkingdomwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Sabriel_%28Book%29

Point in canon: About a month after the end of Sabriel.
Window Location: Inside the grounds of Abhorsen's House.
Universe:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kingdom_%28book_series%29, http://www.oldkingdom.com.au/charter_marks.html for a good summary on the Charter and Free Magic.
Abilities: Sabriel is a talented Charter Mage- though she's spent most of her life in northern Ancelstierre, and her knowledge of the Charter isn't the best, but what spells she does know, she can cast with a lot of power behind them, and the books in Abhorsen's House may allow her to learn even more Charter Magic. However, Charter Magic will work only in the world of the Old Kingdom, or in the northern part of Ancelstierre.

As the current Abhorsen, Sabriel possesses considerable talent at necromancy-by using a set of seven the seven bells, which I'll just list here, with the descriptions they've been given in the books, and any other uses for them that have been shown or mentioned.

Ranna: The first, and smallest bell, the sleeper. It sends those who hear it into slumber.
Mosrael: The second bell, the waker. It acts as a seesaw, throwing the ringer into death as it brings the listener into life. One of the doors on the way to Abhorsen's House is described as opening to its sound, and in later books it's mentioned that it's used to awaken bound Free Magic spirits.
Kibeth*: The third bell, the walker. This bell has many sounds, and can both grant freedom of movement, to the dead, or remove it. It's described as troublesome, and tries to ring of its own accord, forcing the ringer to walk where she does not wish to.
Dyrim: The fourth bell, the Speaker. It can grant the power of speech, or remove it. In later books, it's mentioned but not shown that it can 'give forgotten words their meaning', so it may have other communication related ablities.
Belgaer: The fifth bell, the thinker. It can restore independent though, memories and "all the patterns of life" to the Dead, but it can erase these as well. In later books, it's used to release someone from a binding.
Saraneth*: The sixth, and deepest of all bells- the binder. It binds the Dead to the ringer's will,
Astarael*: The seventh, and final bell. Weeper, the Banisher, when rung, casts all who hear it deep into Death, including the ringer- and so it's only used as a last resort, when the ringer has no other options. This bell will probably never be used.

* Sabriel may not have these bells to start with, since Saraneth and Kibeth were destroyed in her confrontation with Kerrigor, and Astarael needs to be cleaned before it can sound again. However, I would like her to gain use of these bells again at some point.

Even without the bells, Sabriel can exercise some extremely limited control over the dead by whistling, clapping, singing, etc. In fact, she's shown bringing a rabbit back to life by whistling and using some Charter Marks to repair its body, although the rabbit had only been dead for a few minutes at most, and it's not a stunt Sabriel is likely to pull in-game.

The bells themselves can be countered by either sheer power or by sounding the right notes to counteract them, if a character is skilled in both music and magic.

Sabriel is shown to be sensitive to Death, and is able to sense the presence of the Dead, as well as feel when people or animals die, along with places where passage into Death is easy, such as graveyards, broken Charter Stones, and places where large numbers of people have died, along with being able to tell just by looking at a corpse how long it's been dead for. She's also able to send her spirit into death (I will hash this out with the mods, but my feeling is that Death up until the Ninth Gate corresponds to the path to, and the suburbs of the dead, all the way up to the river, with the Ninth Gate being equivalent to the riverbank- thus, I think Sabriel's daemon will be able to follow her into Death, unless the mods have any other ideas.) She's also competent with a sword, and is used to fighting in chainmail. (Wyverly College has an interesting curriculum.)

Possessions: A set of the seven bells, (Minus Kibeth, Saraneth and Astarael, which Sabriel will try to replace as quicly as she can, given that Kibeth and Saraneth are the bells she's seen using the most, and this piece of extracanonical writing shows how necromancers make their bells, and presumably the Abhorsens have a method that involves Charter as well as Free magic, and which may be in Sabriel's copy of the Book of the Dead.), Abhorsen's Sword, which seems to be a powerful blade with marks that allow it to cause serious injury to the Dead and Free Magic spirits, as well as acting as an aid in casting Charter Magic, and a mail hauberk- it seems to be made of overlapping scales of a ceramic material, and seems to be both lightweight and very tough.

Personality:
Sabriel is determined and pragmatic- she was enough of a realist, after journeying to Abhorsen's house and nearly dying at the hands of the Mordicant, to realize how deep over her head she was, how little she knew about the Old Kingdom, or Charter Magic- and yet, she was brave enough to keep on going, even with that knowledge. She's also perfectly willing to run if staying to fight will get people killed- Sabriel knows her limits, and while she's willing to push them, she know that she won't be able to do any good if she's dead.

Sabriel loved her father deeply- he was her only family member, and was the one who taught her necromancy, in addition to being a confidant, although she later realizes she only knew one facet of the man. His sacrifice was one of the forces that pushed her towards finishing what he started, and stopping Kerrigor once and for all.

While Sabriel is generally serious- dealing with the Dead doesn't give a whole lot of opportunities for smiling or joking around, she tries on occasion- though Touchstone tends to take her seriously when she does so.She's definitely a teenage girl, albeit a mature one- blushing and insisting to herself that she doesn't care and she's not crying when she thinks Touchstone is sleeping with someone else, even though it turns out to be a misunderstanding. She's also capable of becoming exasperated when people (like Touchstone and Mogget) are cryptic or unhelpful, though apparently years of classes in etiquette and her own inclination means that she doesn't swear that often, and tends to speak fairly well spoken. (Actually, she only seems to swear once in the whole book.)

Despite her training in dealing with Death and the Dead, it seems that someone actually dying is relatively new to Sabriel, and it horrifies her. She's also, for all her experience with inhuman monsters, inexperienced when it comes to human evil- she's aware of what necromancers and the Dead do to the living, but the idea of the living willingly cooperating with the dead disturbs her, and until it was pointed out that they had more important things to do, like saving her father, she was eager to oppose some scavengers that were using child slaves as bait for the dead, and Sabriel isn't entirely desensitized to dead bodies or how horrifying the Dead are- but it's something she's able to cope with, and gives her a reason to fight, and protect the living.

The phrase "Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?" is used in the books, and it gives some insight into Sabriel's personality- a lot of her development is tied to her both accepting loss, and accepting her duty as the Abhorsen, instead of just escaping to Ancelstierre, where she'd be safe. Her acceptance of this takes place over the course of the book- while at first she tells Mogget that she can choose another path in response to being told that her path is chosen. Later, she says out loud that as much as she wants to go as far south as she can, but is staying to save her father and help defeat Kerrigor. Then, even later, when all hope seems to be lost, she refuses to run away, telling Touchstone that she's the Abhorsen, and besides, with his broken leg, she wouldn't be able to run away with him.

And speaking of Touchstone? Yes, Sabriel loves him, though her initial reaction was blushing awkwardness over seeing a naked man, and exasperation with his attempts at acting servile, she does appreciate his companionship and assistance as he acts as her guide to the Old Kingdom, and while they don't actually admit it until they'd gone to Ancelstierre to dig up Kerrigor's body (Although Sabriel was pragmatic enough to remind him that they had other problems to deal with), those feelings have definitely developed by the time they're in Belisaere, between Sabriel's attempt to convince herself that no, she doesn't care, to her kissing him savagely to get him to resist Astarael's call into death.

The friends Sabriel made at school don't really factor into the story, but it's clear she still cares about them- in later books, she's shown to still be in contact with one of her friends from school, and has named her daughter, Ellimere, after a friend that died in the fight with Kerrigor.

Thread Sample:http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/85795.html

Prose Sample: The wind flutes made by Sabriel's father, the previous Abhorsen, had fallen apart under the full moon after her father had passed beyond the final gate- ending a binding that had lasted for twenty years. Now, Sabriel would have to create the bindings anew.

After she'd dealt with Kerrigor. Sabriel had spent the first few days after Kerrigor's defeat in the infirmary of Wyverly College, as her wounds were healed by both Charter Magic and Ancelstierrian medicine, with Touchstone always by her side.

Even after she'd recovered enough to walk around the school grounds, everything was different- she'd been gone for less than a month, and yet her life had changed so much that it seemed much longer. As much as Sabriel still loved her friends and teachers, their paths had parted forever, even as Sabriel had returned to the school. Her path lead to the Old Kingdom, with Touchstone, where she would bind the Dead and help restore order to the Kingdom, helping Touchstone to reverse the rot caused by Kerrigor breaking the Great Stones... which meant she would not see her friends from school much, if at all, she realized, as she walked through the schoo.

Finally, she came to the hall, with the sarcophagus and the two sleeping cats- unlike other parts of the school, no effort had been made to clean it up, beyond removing the bodies. Probably, Sabriel thought to herself, because of the black cat in a red collar that was sleeping on the floor, next to a white cat with an identical collar. Neither of them were truly cats, and Sabriel felt her fingers begin to tremble as she remembered that night- the death of Colonel Horyse, of Ellimere, of Touchstone lying on the ground as she was stabbed with her own sword...

"Sabriel," Touchstone asked her, snapping her out of her thoughts, "What are we going to about Rogir- about Kerrigor?"

"I don't think I could send him beyond the ninth gate- not without the bells," Sabriel admitted quietly. Kibeth and Saraneth were now so many shards of silver metal beneath her feet, and Sabriel knew that even if she had both walker and binder, Kerrigor was still one of the most powerful of the Greater Dead, and even weakened by the destruction of his body, there was the chance that she might fall to him, undoing the sacrifices made by her father, the scouts, and all the girls of her school, letting the Old Kingdom slide into further anarchy.

"I suppose- we'll take him and Mogget to the House, and then- and then put every spell of binding and warding on him that we know," Sabriel said hesitantly. It wasn't ideal, and she could see Touchstone's skepticism, but pressed on.

"The House is already warded, and between the wards and the river, no Dead creature or necromancer will be able to hold him- and after that, the two of us will go to Belisaere," she said, remembering her father's words in Death. Two of the Great Charters had been corrupted.

"We have to restore the Gr-" The words caught in her throat, and Sabriel remembered the binding, and chose her words more carefully, her hand wrapping around Touchstone's. "We have to repair what Kerrigor destroyed," she finally said, with a sense of finality.

Plans: (OPTIONAL)Sabriel is likely to stay in the Old Kingdom, unless other forces compel her to leave, or someone asks her to deal with infestations of undead in another world. She's also going to be willing to accept help from anyone willing to help restore order to the Old Kingdom, provided they're not dead, and may be willing to go to their worlds to offer assistance in return. Also

Notes: In the Old Kingdom, nearly everything pertaining to magic that isn't Charter Magic is both bad, and likely to kill people. Hence, Sabriel will probably be wary of other kinds of magic and supernatural entities- although I think this might quickly be eased back to distrust of only magic and entities of dark, chaotic or undead inclination- and while Sabriel may learn to grudgingly cooperate, or at least not try to attack them on sight, she's unlikely to ever fully trust them without a whole heap of interactions and development.

DÆMON

Name: Bertram
Sex: Male
Form: Raven
Additional notes:
Why this form: Sabriel is both fairly intelligent and wise- both qualities associated with ravens, and as a scavenger and carrion bird, has an association with death to mirror Sabriel's own abilities and role as the Abhorsen.

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