3. Taira Satomi

Taira Satomi


  • Name: Taira Satomi
    Age: ??
    Hair Color: Dark Brown, Dark Red Highlights
    Eye Color: Green
    Height: 5 ft, 5in
    Race: Half Elf
    Origin: Kara-Tur

    Description:

    Though she appears young, this girl’s slightly tilted jade green eyes often dart around as if looking for something, the worry adding years to her eyes. Her face appears to bear some marks of Elfish heritage intermingled with features of the exotic bloods of the far eastern lands. Dark brownish-red hair hovers just above her shoulders, appearing to have been sheared off just recently, but also seems neat and clean along with the rest of her appearance. When her back is exposed, a gray tattoo of some sort of strange bird in flight stretches across the middle of her back, wings outstretched to graze her shoulders.

    History:

    ((Taira Satomi and the story for her history was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, “The Nightingale”, as well as Arthur Golden’s book, “Memoir’s of a Geisha”, so there will be a lot of similarities through out Taira’s story. I tried to do a good bit of research on the backround of Kara-Tur, as well as any existing cultures in RL that would help make the character more "authentic". If anyone has any suggestions, or help they would like to offer, please PM me!))

    While some lands in the far eastern provinces of Kara-Tur are ruled by wise, compassionate leaders, many are not. The manners in which a leader can be cruel can be many and varied. Some are often passed off as being for the people’s “own good”, or merely a necessity for maintaining the state or kingdom. At other times, the cruelty is motivated by greed, lust, hatred, or obsession. This is such a tale.

    The Nightingale, Chapter I

    Once upon a time…

    A small girl, named Taira grew up in the country side of a kingdom, which name is not important, in a land far away, which some of you may know as Kara-Tur. While most childhoods in many of the kingdoms and provinces of this land are experienced amongst impoverished and ordinary places, with impoverished and ordinary parents, some are different. Taira’s childhood began with her parents: her father, a former soldier in the army of the local lord, and her mother… who was a bit odd as far as the other local people were concerned, both in appearance and in disposition. However, her mother sung the most beautiful and pleasing of songs, so her oddities were forgiven, as long as they were not made painfully obvious.

    Taira, being a child of her father, but mostly of her mother, whom she seemed to gain most of her disposition from as well, had much more difficulty hiding her oddities, which were sometimes forgiven and sometimes not. But she too could sing beautifully, some saying that she outshined her mother by leagues. The local folk would come by now and then, to hear mother and daughter sing.

    Though talented they were, their fame never stretched beyond the borders of their small community, as though song was pleasing, it could not fill one’s food with stomach, or fight away those who would burn their crops and kill their livestock, which is what was most important after all.

    As most stories like this go, the day came that this would change.

    Rarely did this village see visitors, or outsiders come within its boundaries. Even more rarely, was it anyone of consequence. Such a strange and curious day this was that the lord of the land himself passed through the village. And on this day, Taira and her mother sat outside their house, tending to the mending, and singing song to help pass the time.

    The lord, hearing the song, stopped his caravan, pausing to listen to the mother and child. Immediately after, he disembarked from his chamber in the train, approaching the pair with a proposition in mind.

    “Woman, is this your child?” Asked the lord.

    “Yes, she is Taira, good lord, my child as well as her fathers,” replied Taira’s mother, bowing respectfully before the grand lord, her hands pressed together to form a line before her.

    “And it was you and your child who were just now singing, correct?”

    “Yes, good lord.”

    The lord looked upon the two, the mother, an attractive, yet oddly looking woman, and her child, who seemed to possess the coloring of the people of this land, yet much of the same strange oddness that her mother contained in her own features. Having had come to a decision, he spoke quickly his order.

    “You and the child shall come with me to my capitol. There I shall keep you in comfort, and luxury, all that I request of you, is that you sing for me as you sung just now. You shall both live out your days most pleasantly. Hurry now, and board my train, lest I be late to return to my capitol.”

    Taira’s mother shook her head in denial. “My lord, no, I cannot. I am married, and my position is with my husband and my daughter… we…”

    The lord cut off her words with a slice of his hand through the air. “Very well, you cannot go, but the child may go. I shall take her as my own, and you shall not miss her, only knowing that she shall have the best of lives. And she shall sing for me, every day.”

    “But my lord…” Taira’s mother began to protest.

    At that moment, two others joined the exchange… The lord’s advisor and Taira’s father. Taira’s father, recognizing who stood before him, quickly fell to his knees before the men, pressing his hand on his wife’s shoulder to force her to kneel as well.

    “Lord Emperor… Forgive my wife, she is not as familiar with these lands as some, and she does not know who you are, and what it is to deny you. She did not mean her insults,” rushed Taira’s father, bowing repeatedly in apology. The advisor, standing next to the emperor, merely nodded, and began to speak in his smooth, cold voice, “The Emperor wishes your daughter to come to the capitol to sing for him. This would be a great honor to your family, and she shall be well taken care of. Please see to the collection of her things, so that we may quickly depart.”

    Though Taira’s father loved her daughter very much, he knew what it was to deny the emperor, for he had served in his army for many years before he turned to the life of a simple farmer. Hesitantly, he agreed to give up his daughter, to let her from this day forward be dead to him, and his wife. Upon his agreement, Taira’s mother screamed, crying hysterically, clawing at her husband to take back his words.

    But these words were not to be undone.

    Less than one hour later, Taira and her parents said their final goodbyes to each other, never to see another again. Her small child sized trunk was loaded onto one of the luggage carts of the train that would be going to the Capitol city and the Emperor’s palace.

    To Be Continued…


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