Sekuli

Inatut (Brother, NPC)

Kopilai and Yariki (Sisters, NPCs)

Sekuli was a female barn owl with beautiful dark eyes. She was the familiar and partner to Faolan of Mhor. Her story is ongoing. Sekuli was created and RP'd by PaperElk.

## Personality

* ***Patient, Clever, and Curious, and a bit Passive.*** Sekuli is a patient owl - she had to be, having spent a good portion of her life searching for a myth – and is willing and able to wait long spans of time for things to happen. She prefers calmer hunting techniques. She’ll often sit and wait on logs or branches for something tasty to scurry by instead of actively hunting, and this same ideal persists in the rest of her life. Sometimes it pays to wait for things, especially if it means you might be able to suss out any potential issues along the way just by sitting patiently for a few extra minutes. Or hours. However, because of this, she can come off as passive and unmoving, letting opportunities pass her by without so much as a glance.
* ***Honest and Loyal, if a bit Blunt.*** Honesty is a virtue and Sekuli has it in spades. She will always give you her honest opinion… sometimes at the expense of your feelings. She unfortunately won’t mince words, even if you’re her friend. Actually, *especially* if you’re her friend. She’s not about to give you a half-assed, censored version of her thoughts if she cares about you. And you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more loyal friend, even if she gives you an earful or two.
* ***Stubborn but Cautious.*** As calm and rational as she is, she has a bit of a stubborn streak. Once she puts her foot down about something, or makes up her mind, that’s it for her. Very little can shake her once she does that.

## Pre-Group History

In a deeply forested mountain range, in a crevice struck deep into the rock, Sekuli was hatched along with her three siblings. The youngest of the four, she took her sweet time, her fretful parents wondering if she’d ever emerge after several extra days of incubation. Much to their delight, she was perfectly fine, and they often joked that she just wanted a little extra sleep before coming into the world, especially with how much she loved to doze as an adult.

As a hatchling, Sekuli was a curious kid to the dismay of her family, constantly asking questions, even if the well of answers was running dry. Even when her siblings were satisfied with the responses they were given, Sekuli would often continue to press for details, and she spent many a night barely awake, nodding off as she listened to her parents explain the same thing to her for the tenth time.

The tales of the Otherworld were common amongst the barn owls. Several of the local families coming together once every season or so to swap stories, about the spirits, the Summerlands, the Mhorians that had once roamed the area; wolves who held the same ideals as them. Sekuli had never seen a wolf before, and she couldn’t understand the concept at first. Only that they were large, kind of ugly, big things that ran around on the ground like a big coyote. Apparently these Mhorians were the supposed guardians of the Otherworld, having all sorts of ceremonies and vigils, mediations to contact the spirits.

Sekuli was deeply intrigued by this, pressing the other roosts for knowledge on where they had gone, or what had happened, but they were hesitant to give her any details other than the Mhorians had left long ago. It was clear that the elders were keeping something from her, some story handed down for generations, but all they would give her was a word; Calamity. Something had happened to the Mhorians, that much was clear, but what it was, she supposed she’d never truly know. Some of the owls even suggested that they were nothing more than a legend, an old tale passed down from generation to generation.

She let this information stew as she grew up, forever dreaming about the old stories of the wolves. She learned to flap, then glide, then fly when she was strong enough, she and her siblings taking to the trees and cliffs, but it wasn’t long before Sekuli found she was still dissatisfied with just this. She wanted to try her own communications with these spirits.

In the coming weeks she’d hold her own vigils, much to the annoyance of her siblings, but on one quiet, overcast day, she saw something.

It was vague at first, a smear of colours that didn’t make sense, but it solidified into some sort of strange, clouded landscape, soaring over a large stretch of water, then forming to create one tall, towering peak with a sheer face, rising up above the rest of the mountain chain. A strange voice called to her from somewhere. The words were completely unintelligible, coming from a strange creature of black, but a wild howling sound rose to meet her, rushing toward her violently. She snapped her eyes open, waking from her strange dream with a start, nearly toppling off her perch in the home cave.

Asking her father about the visions these Mhorians had was no help – he only knew the basics of the stories – but he suggested she ask one of the elders at the next meeting. Much to her delight, a wise old female by the name of Ourea spun her a deep, intricate tale about the visions the Mhorians received, and it was then that Sekuli was sure she’d had one of her own.

It was then that she decided to strike out on her own.

A tall mountain with a sheer face. A strange figure in the distance.

She’d find that peak first… and then, maybe find that stranger the spirits had so clearly shown her.

Sekuli said goodbye to her family, knowing that she could always come home to them, and took her leave, gliding silently off into the night on her way to meet her destiny.

But her journey wasn’t about to be so easy.

Turns out, finding a bunch of wolves that had come through the area generations ago was harder than she’d originally planned. There had been several packs (that’s what they called a group of wolves; what a strange name) that had come through, and it was nearly impossible to tell which was which unless you were looking for a specific wolf. Sekuli didn’t have that kind of information, and was left to circle around old den sites, wondering if it was the right path.

And asking about a mountain didn’t help either. Too many birds lived close to too many mountains, and not many of them traveled very far from where they were, unless it was for migration patterns – and none of them had seen the mountain she was describing.

The lack of leads didn’t phase her much. She knew it had been a bit of a pipe dream even before she’d encountered any problems, and even if she didn’t find what she was looking for, the things she’d seen so far would make great stories back home.

It was nearly two months more before she caught wind of a lead. A great horned owl who had belonged to a family of history keepers of sorts, with knowledge of the comings and goings of the area for countless generations. She learned that several packs had indeed come through the area, passing through to newer, better places, but for the first time in many moons, the name Mhor was mentioned alongside several others.

They had been here, but it had been so long that the specifics of the pack – names, pelts, etc – had been lost. But they had BEEN here. In these woods.

The great horned owl, Criah, had mentioned that the pack had headed south all those generations ago, but something in her mind told her it was time to meditate again. Upon receiving a foggy, muddled picture, her new destination came to her in a haze, supposedly.

East. It was time to head East.

The first time she encountered the enormous mist shrouded mountain range, she was sure she was going to find the peak from her first meditation, but after a solid two weeks of searching, she couldn’t help but feel a little crestfallen. None of them were what she was looking for. Beautiful, of course, but this didn’t quell the curiosity in her heart. She definitely hadn’t seen enormous black rocky covering on most of the mountain chain, and the look of it made her feathers feel weird. It was like a bad omen.

When she hit the bay next, however, her spirits were lifted infinitely. The large stretch of water she’d seen! With renewed vigor, Sekuli powered forward, sticking to the coast as she moved toward her destination. There was something to this land however that seemed so strangely familiar, like a tickle in the back of her head, and she wasted no time in continuing toward her dream…

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* PaperElk's deviantART Gallery