Character Bio and Info: Idis

[fisher_queen]

Character Profile – Idis

Names and Titles and such:

Lady Idis (technically Princess is her title but that's not something she really USES because it feels weird and stuff), Idis Elfhildsdohtor






A woman must shine, cherished among her people. She must be open hearted and generous with the horses and treasure. With the honor she must offer the cup to her lord's hand. She must know what is wise for both of them as rulers in the hall.

-Maxim from the Exeter Book

Background and history:

Idis is a first draft Rings character. Initially, Theoden didn't have a son, and the first Marshal of the Mark was someone else, and Eowyn had a cousin. Then Eowyn's role got bigger so Tolkien decided to do the kill your darlings thing. It happens! Uh anyway.

Idis is the daughter of Theoden and Elfhild, and their only child, seeing as Elfhild died in childbirth, similar to Theodred's story, and has grown up as a princess of Rohan. In terms of game canon, she's 23 years old and her young cousins Eomer and Eowyn have come to live in the Golden Hall as of last year. She's especially fond of Eowyn, and given their age difference is more like an aunt than a cousin or sibling to her.

Idis is unmarried and has no plans to change that in the future, seeing as she knows it would likely be a political marriage, and she has no desire to leave her home and people and the ways of her land anytime soon. She's grown up with an extremely rich sense of her history, and of the old songs and ways, and, rather than marrying elsewhere for political ties, she's made it her self appointed duty to preserve these old ways as best she possibly can. She wishes the Mark to keep to her traditional means of expression and history, and has vowed to preserve the traditions, and well, to find a way to erase the damage some of the elders believe Thengel has done.

With this in mind, however, Idis also wants to ensure that the traditions are kept alive, and that others, in lands outside of the Mark are aware of the tales and old stories too. She's long wrestled with the best way to present them, and, eventually, much as it made her feel like a bad person in some ways for doing it, has been compiling the old histories into writing. She's interested in preserving and sharing, but she also worries that in doing so, she's negatively impacting the old culture and potentially marring it. It's a line that she's worried about for much of her life, but in the end, the sense of a definite preservation over any won out, and there are now copies of her recountings stored in a collection, which she has been sending out to Minas Tirith's library to be included there.

For all her love of country is strong, Idis does harbor feelings for Boromir and on her visits to Minas Tirith has been known to spend a lot of time with him. They are good friends, and, there is a part of her that hopes for something more, in large part because a soldier would understand that her love of country must come first, the same as his, and would not be likely to press her for anything she can't give him, namely a marriage or a life that consists of more than in between stops.

Character Points

Idis doesn't have a warrior's spirit by any means, and knows the field is something that would never be for her, but she's as much of a fighter as the rest of her family, she just does it through the means that are available to her. She's had the education of a scop (read: bard) and uses it, and her skills in music, to sway things to her influence whenever possible.

A bard occupies a strange position of power in society, being one of those who CAN speak out against problems as he or she sees them, but having to walk a line between speaking the truth, and being offensive. Considering her ranking in society, Idis...kind of doesn't have to deal with that last one as much as someone else, and she's never been one to deal delicately with matters of criticism, though she probably should. She's never had to deal with that kind of deferral before finding herself in Gondolin, though she was aware of it, and was rather outspoken in her way back at home.

When you don't have to worry about making money, or keeping your place in society, it's easy to be brave enough to completely speak your mind. While Idis's way of doing this is extremely politic and courtly, she was still always the one who did speak up stubbornly, who didn't mince words, and who never backed down before. In Gondolin, where things have changed, she'll be struggling to find a balance that works for her, and to become more diplomatic when it comes to dealing with these sorts of issues. I expect at some point she'll probably at least be fined for forgetting the lines and where they now stand.

She's very quiet and reserved when an instrument isn't in her hand or she's not recounting an old tale. When Idis is in the midst of one of those, or has her hand on a string, she becomes something else entirely, in a new mental place, and when she's not performing again, the stage presence tends to fade entirely, and she's a bit awkwardly quiet and kind of overly dorky.

Her voice is a bit different than people might expect if she's singing. She's probably somewhere in between the ladies I'll link in a second when it comes to vocal quality, which isn't unusual in and of itself, but it's again, not quite what you're expecting from the pretty pretty princess, not that Idis plays too hard at being that. She's a bard first and foremost, and being the princess is a secondary thing, and doesn't have anything to do with what she DOES, so it's not as important to her. She can PLAY the princess if she needs it, but she feels uncomfortable with that, and hates it for the most part.

She's stubborn and fiercely protective of her family and culture, and you can bet if you mess with either one of those? You're gonna get put into a street corner song insulting you, your mom, and your horse's children. I'm sure that's going to work out really well for her, longterm.

I'm bringing Idis into the game, rather than establishing her, so this will start out extremely interestingly. While she's not a conscious jerkass or anything, there's a lot of work to be done in terms of her adjusting to stuff. So...you know. Yeah. I'm sure more will come up later on.


Appearance – Tall, thin, redhead. She looks a lot like her dad, actually. They even make similar faces, PB wise.

Avatar in game – Marina Dreux

Likes: music, the harp, the lyre, the rebec, singing, lore, history, Boromir, her family, performing, coffee (or she WILL anyway)

Dislikes: physical violence, being pressured, being patronized, being protected or fought for (just because she can't fight herself, it doesn't mean she wants you fighting a duel for her. She'll find her own way to deal with it, thanks), being treated like JUST a noble, stale mead

Okay, let's see if I can embed videos for vocal quality examples here. Her voice is along the lines of older folk singers today, sort of like:

Leslie Fish

Heather Alexander

SJ Tucker

Comments

[crantz]

Theo sez hi.