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Nester Tattergild
Race: Human
Class: Bard and Wizard
Personality:
Nester’s demeanour and outlook on life can best be described as ‘sunny’. Some – the more cynical among you perhaps – might note that it’s easy to be bright and cheery when you’ve had the kind of upbringing Nester enjoyed. And you might be right, to an extent. But her younger years were not all sunshine and roses. Her parents’ demanding expectations and subsequent arguments, once her preference for the life of a bard became clear, caused her no small amount of mental strain, and this is a period of her youth she does her best not to dwell on, now that she is free to wander Khy'eras on her own whims.
As well as being a generally happy person, she is talkative, outgoing, and fond of weaving stories and tales in front of a rapt audience, particularly children, who always seem to gravitate to Nester (likely because of Zephyr the parrot, the sight of her instruments, and the loud jangling of her abundant jewellery). She loves to make people laugh – there is nothing so disappointing to Nester as a joke falling flat or a lukewarm reaction to the climax of an epic narrative. Thankfully, however, she is the type of person to bounce back quickly. Her mood is never sour for long, and she doesn’t tend to hold a grudge.
Nester’s other attributes are not quite so positive. She can be impulsive, and though this works in her favour when performing, it’s often liable to get her into trouble in other areas of her life. Combined with her scattiness and inattentiveness, it’s a wonder she has not yet found herself in real peril due to lack of forethought or neglecting to plan. Her spellcraft – haphazard and unpractised though it is – occasionally gets her out of scrapes. But it’s probably only a matter of time before her willingness to throw herself into the fray, and her somewhat oblivious nature, come together to cause some mayhem or other.
Finally, though decisiveness can be an asset, Nester often takes it too far and strays into the realm of pig-headed stubbornness. If she sets her mind to something, there isn’t much that will dissuade her, and woe betide anyone who tells her, “you can’t do that” or “you can’t go there”. A tactful person might describe her as strong-willed, but a more accurate term is probably ‘mulish’. Disconcertingly, she will often argue or forge ahead on her own path with a cheery (and, to some, slightly infuriating) smile.
Background:
Nester was born at Tattergild Hall, on the Tviyr coast near Fellsgard, to Alathar and Elphenia Tattergild. Alathar, her father, is a talented wizard – something the family keeps determinedly under wraps, given the suspicion with which magic is viewed in the surrounding area.
Alathar inherited his large house and not-insignificant fortune from his own father – a merchant by the name of Alamanthar Tattergild. But Nester's mother, Elphenia, comes from money too. In fact, Elphenia is also the offspring of a merchant, and her marriage to Alathar added a sizeable sum to his wealth. Nester, their only child, was therefore brought up in luxury: surrounded by fine furnishings, dining on fine food, and waited on day and night by an assortment of servants.
From the moment of their daughter's birth, Alathar and Elphenia envisaged great things for Nester. Her father began to school her in magic at an early age, curtailing her time spent playing in the gardens or on nearby beaches in favour of long hours in the library or study, where he would laboriously attempt to teach her spells. Though she enjoyed spending time with her father, it soon became clear that Nester had not inherited Alathar’s easy talent for magic. She had to work twice as hard to pick up the intricacies of spellcraft that had come so naturally to him at her age.
Elphenia, too, had grand plans for her daughter. Raised in a well-off and traditional household, she was already thinking ahead to Nester’s eventual marriage, and she knew that in order to make a good match, her daughter needed to be accomplished. So she hired several tutors – some from far-flung locations – to teach Nester languages, literature, history… and music.
Nester’s music teacher was a very elderly bard from Ninraih. He taught her the fiddle and flute during her teenage years, unfortunately succumbing to age and illness just as she entered adulthood. But his passing did nothing to temper the fierce love of music and song his lessons had instilled in her. Nester took to her instruments with a passion she’d never felt for magic, much to her father’s disappointment (and disapproval). Despite Alathar's efforts to get her to focus on spellcraft, she spent far more time practicing chords, trills and harmonies – until, eventually, she announced to her parents that she had found her calling… it was the life of a travelling bard she wished for.
This caused bitter arguments within the family, and the atmosphere at Tattergild Hall soon grew too full of tension for comfort. Nester, who was by then in her early twenties, informed her father and mother that she was leaving the manor to seek fame and fortune on her own terms, as a singer, storyteller and musician. She promised them, however, that she would come back to visit them once a year, every year (as, despite it all, she did love her parents). And she made a promise to her father to keep up her magical studies where she could, so that, should the path she’d chosen turn out to be less illustrious than she’d hoped, she would at least have something else to fall back on.
Nester now travels Khy'eras, entertaining at various establishments along the way. While music is her burning passion, her lessons in literature, history and languages have bestowed her with something of a flair for storytelling, and her spellcraft – clumsy and arduous though it often is – comes in useful every now and then to add touches of the dramatic to her narratives... in locations that allow it, of course.
Relationships:
TBC
Potential Ideas:
TBC