Ginger Rivale

Ginger Rivale, the daughter of Ridley and Lilivale, is the leader of the Syndicate. Though she looks to be in her early thirties, she is actually 164 years old; her hair is kept long and is a soft silver colour, and her eyes are sapphire blue. She's a no-nonsense woman, who runs her empire with a tight yet fair fist. 
Ginger has four children, which is quite a large number for an elf: two girls, two boys and all from different fathers. She has something of a dichotemy with her children: she encourages them to do whatever they please and do it to the fullest, but at the same time is viciously protective of them.  The best example of this is her youngest son, Cress: she has no problem with him hanging around with thugs and criminals, but will come down with fire and fury on those who take advantage of him or hurt him. 
Ginger has met Vol and is reasonably acquainted with him. 
== Childhood ==
As a child, Ginger was passed back and forth between her parents regularly, alternately being raised in the harsh northern village of Gaivoutna with her mother and the city-hopping, back alley environment provided by her father. She learned wilderness survival skills from her mother and all manner of tips and tricks from her father, including some minor magic, thieving skills and the arts of manipulation and disguise. 
Reaching her teenage years, she revealed herself to be a competent adventurer; she began travelling of her own accord, finding that she became restless and bored when she stayed anywhere too long. She alternated between spending a few months in Gaivoutna, a few months with her father, and a few months wandering wherever her fancies took her.
She was always rather fascinated by Riolythe City in her youth; though Ridley took her there semi-regularly when she was little, she was never raised there, so their way of life was both familiar and poignantly foreign. On the same tack, the people of Riolythe never knew what to make of her: she was undoubtedly a full elf, born of Riolythan citizens, but she was born out of wedlock, between two families that shouldn’t have mingled, to two people that they, as a collective, would like to forget existed. Older elves would not look at her, and young elves found her to be the most interesting of mysteries. Eventually, when she began sneaking in of her own accord, she began to ‘corrupt’ them, but in an entirely different fashion from her father: she tempted them with the world. Making friends with the younger elves, she would tell them stories of Asanon, the Northlands and Yeto, and tell them how there were people who would not only appreciate and respect their hobbies, something that was rare in the isolationist city, but would be interested, and excited, and full of praise and wonder. She would convince them to sneak out with her, and she would take them to wherever she thought they would have a captive audience who would appreciate a connoisseur of irrigation techniques, steam power or magic light fixtures. While it was never her intention, these truant or migrant elves had a great impact on Asanon in particular, with its newly-restored government highly receptive to new technology and magic. It led to the creation of Losanti, a highly advanced city designed by Riolythan engineers and architects. 
Originally, Ginger's family name was Ara, inherited from her mother since Ridley didn't want her to have the Cor title. Later in her life, in a fit of frustration from her eldest's child's father's behaviour, she changed her family name to Rivale, a portmanteau of her parent's names, and gave this name to her children. This was a symbol of solidarity, as it truly marked them as a new family line: the first full-blooded elven family to live and grow outside of Riolythe in recorded history. It also marked the beginning of Ginger's disenfranchised views of Riolythe; she still visited, though her enticement of locals to move away became the point rather than the side-effect. 
== Children ==
Ginger has 4 children: Juniper, Narcissus, Holly and Cress.
Lilivale died at the age of 205, when Juniper was 28. She did not meet any of her other grandchildren. Ridley died at the age of 231, when Holly was 42. He never met Cress (but did meet baby Lupin).
=== Juniper ===
Juniper: oldest, female, black hair, amber eyes 
Juniper is the eldest. She lives in Gaivoutna, and has many half-elf children, along with many animals. Her father was a Riolythan elf who panicked when he found that he had sired a child out of wedlock and pleaded to have nothing to do the business, offering anything to have the secret kept and the child fatherless. This hurt Ginger deeply, and was the impetus for her to declare her own family name, Rivale. When Juniper was little, she was very fussy about being moved about, so she stayed with her more stable relatives when Ginger was out doing business. Foremost, she stayed with her grandmother Lilivale, since she always loved her and her many animals. In her teenage years, Juniper was very willful (not unlike the rest of her family). Ginger, like her father, was never particularly secretive about her life choices, and by this time, she was a major part of her father’s operation, often acting as his right hand, if not a leader in her own right. Juniper did not like her mother’s and grandfather’s business, finding it morally reprehensible; at the same time, she looked up to her grandmother for her strength, honesty and independence that wasn’t gained at the sake of other people. She declared at the age of 14 that she was staying in Gaivoutna with Lilivale and wanted to live there permanently, no longer hopping around the country like her mother. She also wanted to have nothing to do with the Syndicate, as it was called by this point. Ginger acquiesced to this after some argument, but eventually gave in to Juniper, though she still visited regularly and kept in a vested interest in what her daughter was doing in the northern village. As she grew out of her teenage years, Juniper and her mother developed a good relationship; though Juniper is close with her mother and siblings, she still wants nothing to do with their business lives and would rather not hear about any of it. Juniper took over Lilivale’s home and animals after her passing. She does not have the hard edge that her grandmother’s personality did, but has every bit of the fierce protectiveness over her children. 
She has had two husbands over the years, both of whom fathered many children each, both of whom she loved dearly, and both of whom made it to their graves before her. She is close with her mother and sister particularly, but also keeps in touch with her brother Narcissus. 
Juniper visited Riolythe with her mother and grandfather occasionally when she was little, but she hasn’t gone back since she moved to Gaivoutna. She has no love lost for the country.
=== Narcissus ===
Narcissus: 37 years younger than Juniper, male, black hair, dark red eyes
Lupin: born when Narcissus was 53, male, black hair, violet eyes
Narcissus is the second child. His father, like Juniper’s, eschewed all responsibility, though he had none of the fear that Juniper’s father did.
Narcissus was born around the same time as Carlton Webber (one of Aiden and Shirley’s 6th generation descendants). Due to Ridley and Aiden’s close relationship, and the resultant relationship between Ridley and Aiden’s children, Narcissus spent a good amount of time with the Webbers, as Ginger and Juniper before him. Narcissus and Carlton became very good friends and shared quite a few interests; Narcissus was very interested in Carlton’s stories of school, and so enrolled alongside him (in a human disguise). The two were fast friends, and went through public and, later, law school together. This wasn’t enough knowledge for him though, and so under a different disguise, he enrolled in the Arcane University to learn of wizardry as well. He managed to successfully graduate from both programs, and began to work for the Webber law firm and practice magic research on his own. When Narcissus turned 50 and was proven a skilled and intelligent man, Ridley granted him the technology for the portal system he had pioneered (using other’s magic) to do with as he pleased. Thrilled, Narcissus, using a variety of human guises, opened Lightning Transit as a public transportation system. It was a hugely successful venture, much to the pride of his family.
Narcissus has a few homes throughout Asanon, as well as one in Tsimshian and in Nagaoka, though the other countries don’t interest him much. He keeps up a variety of reclusive human identities: the partner at Webber Law, the human wizard who “invented” portal technology, a graduate student at the Academy of the Arcane, a Wizard Battle persona, and the CEO of LT. He is quite well-learned, and is something of a master of arcana as well. He also keeps an active social life, and is close with his mother, his sisters, and several members of the Webber family. As such, he is constantly busy, but he figures sleep is for people who don’t have Rings of Sustenance.
Narcissus has a son of his own, from a long-term secret partner and lover in Rio. She is married to someone else and has no interest in leaving Rio to be with Narcissus, but she does love him, at least more so than her legal husband. They are more than content to keep their tryst as such, since they both have at least a century of youth to consider alternatives. The child, Lupin, lives in Asanon with his father (having been birthed there in secret) and shares his father’s talents, though not the preoccupation with taking on human guises to mingle. He prefers to keep his skills in the family as an elf, with his name attached, and works for his father in a variety of bookkeeping and arcanist roles.
Narcissus visits Riolythe on a regular basis, enjoying its vast resources, as does Lupin.
=== Holly ===
Holly: 13 years younger than Narcissus, female, bright yellow hair, green eyes
Holly, the third child, was born to one of the engineers of Losanti, who permanently emigrated to watch the development of his project. He was actually overjoyed to be a father, something he had written off when he abandoned his life in Riolythe. He was an active part of Holly’s formative years, and remains very close to her, if not to Ginger and the rest of the Rivales.
Holly was schooled and taught mostly by her father, who imparted a sense of wonder about the world and a desire to help those less fortunate. Presently, she enjoys wandering the country, taking on odd-jobs and lending assistance to poor and needy families. She was born with the innate talents of musical magic, which her father cultivated over the standard arcane curriculum. She has no children or serious love interests; she has a romantic world view, and is waiting for her perfect match. Unlike her other siblings, she has never been to Riolythe. She often visits Gaivoutna to see Juniper, and speaks regularly to her mother and father; she talks to Narcissus when he has time, much like everyone else.
=== Cress ===
Cress: 45 years younger than Holly (5 years younger than Lupin) , male, white hair, bright green eyes
Cress, the youngest, was born to a Riolythan elf who took a very pragmatic view of the situation, and who ascribed to his paternal duties with a stiff upper lip, and an overall lack of visible emotion. Ginger kept the young Cress alternately in her care and in the care of his father and his wife. The father attempted to raise the child to Riolythan standards, which was made difficult with Ginger continually taking him to Asanon and pre-empting his enrolment in school. Further, he was an active, non-studious child with no arcane skill, which the Riolythan parents had a hard time dealing with. By the time he was 10, the father and his wife declared that they were done with trying to rear this child, especially with Ginger’s “lax and disruptive excuse for parenting” interfering with their efforts. After their loud and aggressive severance of ties with both Cress and Ginger, the young elf has stayed in Asanon with his mother ever since.
Cress is the very obvious 'baby' in the family and struggles with this, along with his seeming lack of the natural talents that his siblings boast.
Category:Character