Artemis Tynne

Artemis Tynne 	Artemis Tynne 	
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Biographical Information 	Biographical Information 	
Full Name 	Artemis Tynne 	
First Name Pronunciation 	ART-eh-miss 	
Nicknames 	Tem, Temmy 	
Homeland 	The Iron Blackfort - Mercia 	
Occupation 	Former Shadow Keeper and Commander of the Shade 	
Physical Description 	Physical Description 	
Race 	Elf 	
Gender 	Female 	
Height 	5' 5" (1.65 m) 	
Hair color 	Flame red (cropped short as per Keeper tradition) 	
Eye color 	Amber 	
Distinguishing Features 	Her unusual eyes, pale skin and the glowing amber scar on her left palm - the source of both her magic and her unusual appearance.	
Languages Spoken 	Elvish, English, Greek, Latin 	
Family 	The Shadow Keepers - her parents died when she was very young so she was taken and raised by the order as one of their own. 	
Known Allies and Associates	
*Chief Recruiter Yaraman the Grey - Mentor and Guardian
*Grand Commander Murtagh the Black - Leader of the Shadow Keepers 	
"I......literally hold the power over life and death in the palm of my hand and.....I don't like it. I don't want it, but I have no choice."
From "Collected Tales of Elysium" by Samson Arigiros
Artemis was, until recently, Commander of the Shade and third in command of the Shadow Keeper Order in Mercia, neighbouring kingdom of Elysium. She was also the left hand of Grand Commander Murtagh the Black, whilst her mentor and guardian, Yaraman the Grey (brother to Murtagh) was second in command and Murtagh's right hand.
However, Artemis has now been forced to flee the order after being framed for treason and attempted murder. Someone set her up, and now the entire order believes her guilt, with the exception of Yaraman, who gave his life so that she could escape across the border into Elysium and seek sanctuary amongst the Elysian Elves instead.
==The Shadow Keepers==
The Shadow Keepers are a group of men and women from all walks of life, whose sole purpose is to 'police' the lands of Mercia and keep law and order, through any means necessary. They are above the local security, outside the Royal Guard and beyond the other Elite special forces that also work in and around the kingdom. Their jurisdiction ends at the borders of Mercia, but their reputation does not, and it is steadily growing.
The Shadow Keepers are named as such because during the early days of the Order, they preferred to keep themselves hidden in the shadows and rarely revealed themselves to anyone.
They were watchful guardians. Silent protectors. Saviours who would simply melt back into the shadows without ever staying around to receive praise or thanks for their good deeds. They were unnamed heroes and the kingdom held them in the highest respect. 
As the order grew in numbers, however, and their reputation also grew, it became harder and harder for them to stay in the dark. So now they don't hide - they walk amongst the people freely, proudly displaying the symbol of their order and receiving the praise that they once ran away from. 
The Shadow Keepers have five tiers of rank and hierarchy, starting with the Grand Commander at the very top. He is the implicite authority and what he says, goes.
Then there is the Chief Recruiter, who is the Grand Commander's Right Hand, and the Commander of the Shade, who is the Grand Commander's Left Hand. In the absence of the Grand Commander, these two share the power and responsibilities of leadership and the rest of the order answers to them.
The Senior Keepers are veterans who have been a part of the order for over a decade. They have knowledge and experience in all areas and will often take an apprentice as their own, to train and teach just as they themselves were once taught.
Lesser Keepers are members who have passed their initiation ritual and no longer require a mentor to teach them. They are not as experienced as the Senior Keepers, however, and still have much to learn.
And Apprentices are junior or trainee members who have only recently joined the order. They are assigned to a Senior Warden to learn from, and do not become a fully fledged Keeper until they have passed their initiation ritual, when the Senior Warden deems them ready.
==Magical Abilities==
The Shadow Keepers don't usually make a habit of practicing magic, as they prefer to rely on their skills with weapons and words, but Artemis is an exception to the rule.
After one particular incident against some unruly mages, which almost claimed Yaraman and Artemis' lives, Artemis gained a scar across her left palm which glowed an ethereal amber at times, seemingly randomly at first, until she figured out the reason. It only glowed when she was weakened either physically or emotionally, and after a few terrifying situations when she accidentally killed people with it, she realised that it also allowed her to absorb the life force of another, stealing their life for herself to renew and regenerate, or to heal wounds, whilst draining her victim of their own life, eventually causing death if she held them under it's control for long enough.
She saw it as a curse – finding the very idea of stealing someone else's life for her own gain a repulsive idea -  but both Yaraman and Murtagh convinced her that it was a gift and she should use it to help the people she had sworn to serve and protect, by ending wars before they had ever begun. She could use her powers as a defence rather than an offence, to discourage attacks before they ever came to pass.
Sometimes words could win wars – and all she had to do was threaten to use her powers. She didn't actually have to use them – because the few times that she'd already used them in the past would have sent word spreading like wildfire across the kingdom anyway.
Her reputation now preceds her and people do their best to stay on her good side, so that she doesn't 'drain them of life' as the rumours suggest she will.
==Appearance==
Artemis' magic also drastically changed her appearance after she gained her abilities, so much so that at first she didn't even recognise herself.
Her skin tone varies depending on her strength - when she's at full strength she has a bronze, tanned tone and looks healthy and 'glowing'. When she's weak, her skin pales considerably and she looks much less healthy. Some people have even described this side of her as looking like "death warmed up", which isn't far from the truth as she will feel like she is indeed dying, until she can either use her powers to 'steal' life from another, or recover in the much more natural (and slower) way that she prefers, unless circumstances demand a quick recovery.
Her eyes - once slate grey - are now a warm golden amber, with golden flecks dancing about in them, though when she is weak they will dull and become dark, almost but not quite black. When she is at full strength, they spark with bursts of energy (metaphorically) and glitter, showing that she feels truly alive.
Her hair also changes, depending on her energy levels. At full health, it can shine a brilliant flame red, whilst at low health it becomes black and 'dead' looking. She used to keep it cropped short, as per Shadow Keeper tradition, but since leaving the order, she has started to allow it to grow out and become longer once more.
Her left palm has the famed 'scar' reaching from the base of her thumb and curving in a crescent shape across her palm before ending at her wrist. She received the scar after grabbing the staff of a mage as he was attempting to cast some form of spell that was intended to kill Yaraman. Artemis grabbed the staff to redirect the spell and was burned across the palm for her efforts. She also suspects that some of the staff's magic was transferred to her hand as well, which would explain where her magic has come from. 
When she is weak, the scar will glow amber - a complete contrast to her pale, weakened appearance - and tendrils of amber mist will seep out, constantly searching for life sources to drain. She has to constantly keep her hand covered to ensure this doesn't happen, with specially crafted gloves that can contain her magic until she removes them. When she is at full health, however, the glow dies down and the scar appears as just an ordinary scar, with nothing special about it, aside from a very faint glittering in the surrounding skin of her palm.
==History==
===Orphaned===
Artemis has no recollection of her birth parents, as she was just 9 months old when they were killed. Her home was one of many that had succumbed to flames after a bandit attack on the village, her father was trapped inside and perished in the flames, whilst her mother succumbed to smoke inhalation and died hours later, depsite succesfully managing to rescue Artemis and get her out of the burning building.
Raiders had been pillaging and terrorising the vilage for years, always demanding payment in either gold or crops and leaving the village in poverty every winter. This particular winter, however, the villagers fought back - inspired by one brave fool who gave a rousing speach about freedom and justice, but was then the first to die by the bandit's hands.
Yaraman and his small group of Shadow Keeper Scouts were camping in the forest nearby - on their way to the Capital to recruit more to their order - and heard the screams. They ran to aid the villagers battle the bandits and put out the fires, but Artemis' parents could not be saved. Yaraman recruited the surviving villagers, who all readily agreed to join him as nothing remained of their homes any more, and Artemis' mother begged him to take her and her daughter as well. Yaraman knew that she would not last the night, but promised her that he and the Shadow Keepers would take care of her child and raise Artemis as one of their own. He allowed Artemis' mother to share their camp fire that evening, but come morning he found that she had passed on, leaving Artemis an orphan. 
He became the girl's official guardian from then on, loving her and treating her as his very own daughter, whilst the rest of the order became her family and helped him to raise her. She grew up in the Iron Blackfort  - home of the Shadow Keepers - and when she was old enough to become an apprentice, Yaraman (now a Senior Warden and able to take an apprentice of his own) became her mentor, training her and helping her to hone her skills as a Keeper. He also taught her basic skills like how to read and write, sew, cook, care for armour and weapons, ride a horse, tell the time using a sundial and navigate using the sun or the stars.
Virtually everything Artemis knows today, in fact, is thanks to Yaraman's teachings. She is who she is, because of him.
===Rising High===
Grand Commander Murtagh the Black, brother of Yaraman, soon saw promise and potential in his brother's protege, and encouraged Yaraman to create him a 'super soldier' who could some day be his own right hand, second in command and eventual successor. Yaraman, the younger of the two brothers, was hurt at first that his brother would not consider him as successor, but eventually put aside his jealousy when he saw what Murtagh had also seen in the young girl - now a headstrong teenager with definite skills and talents. Already she had many of the Senior Wardens wrapped around her little finger, most of them being very fond of her since they had known her since she was a baby and had watched her grow.
Yaraman took up his brother's challenge and decided that if Artemis were going to take the trials in order to become a fully fledged Keeper, she would need to master her own self confidence and take responsibility more often. Artemis was confident, after all. But not in herself.
She lacked faith in her abilities, so Yaraman played on this, pushing her further and further each day, until some evenings she felt like breaking down altogether and calling it a day as a Keeper. But Yaraman would not allow it, and continued to push her even more. 
Eventually she somehow found the resolve to pick herself back up and do what was being asked of her, despite her fatigue and depression. And the more she took charge of a situation, the less Yaraman pushed. Finally seeing a way out of this living hell that she'd found herself in, Artemis did everything she could to do what Yaraman was expecting - and more. 
By the time Murtagh called for her to be assessed by the council, in order to see if she was ready to face the trials, he found that mentor and apprentice had formed an even closer bond, and now Artemis would not shy away from situations where she was required to take charge, make decisions and take responsibility. 
Murtagh and the coucil agreed that she was now ready for the trials. If she succeeded, she would become a Shadow Keeper. If she failed, she would continue to serve as Yaraman's apprentice until she was deemed ready to face the trials once again. 
For the next week, she trained and trained, honing each of her skills in preparation and when the trials finally came, she sailed through them, passing with flying colours.
She was now a Shadow Keeper. And over the next seven years, she worked her way up through the ranks, as Murtagh had wished of her, though he never favoured her over anyone else and made her work twice as hard for each promotion. Artemis rose to the challenge, however, and eventually became Commander of the Shade and Left Hand of Murtagh, whilst Yaraman became Chief Recruitment Officer and Right hand of his brother.
===Falling Hard===
Things would soon come crashing down around the young woman, however, and she would soon find that she'd risen too high, too fast. those who had once considered her as family and loved her, now envied her and would stop at nothing to take what she had fought so hard to earn for herself.
It all started one evening when Artemis stumbled upon a group of the lower ranking Keepers plotting and discussing how to overthrow Murtagh, Yaraman and herself and seize control for themselves. She reported what she'd overheard immediately, but Murtagh dismissed her accusations as she had no proof to back them up. 
She continued to protest, even voicing aloud her suspicions of corruption during a council meeting. Murtagh promised to look into the accusations she had made, then as was customary during such an inquiry, sent her on a mission to remove her from the scene so that she could not influence his investigation in any way. It was standard protocol and any member who had made an accusation against another member of the order would have been treated just the same.
The mission that Artemis was sent on, however, was really a cover up for an assassination, in order to silence her. She was able to survive, but only just and had to resort to using her magic to heal herself faster, draining one of her would-be assassins of his life so that she could restore her own.
She tried to return to the Iron Blackfort after the failed assassination, but Yaraman intercepted her outside the gates and told her that she needed to run. During her absence, someone had indeed influenced Murtagh's investigation, framing HER for being the ringleader of the rebellion, who had orchestrated her own near death to imply that she was a victim, shifting the blame from herself so that no-one would suspect her.
The evidence against her was so meticulously placed and so precise that Murtagh had no choice but to believe it as truth. He declared her a traitor who must be executed on sight for her crimes.
Realising she was now a fugitive of the order, through no fault of her own other than the inability to keep her mouth shut, Artemis and Yaraman tried to escape, but Yaraman gave his life to ensure her escape, dying at the hands of the men and women he'd once called family.
Artemis didn't have time to mourn his loss, however and had no choice but to carry on running for her life as the Keepers set dogs and their best hunters after her.
She stumbled across the border into Elysium, weary from her escape, and was found by an Elysium hunting party in the woods. They hid her from the Keepers and managed to throw them off her trail, then took her to the Houses of Healing to recover.
Category:Elf
Category:Misc. Families
Category:Sorcery
Category:Female
Category:Misc. Generations
Category:Ealdor
Category:Warrior