Heidi Ranum
The Basics
Full Name: Heidi Ranum
Age: 342 as of AW103
Gender/Pronouns: female/she/her
Ethnicity: Raej-ian
Birthplace: Raej
Current Location: The Traveling Territory Court
Profession: Court Healer & Sometimes Escort
Caste: Healer
Birthright Jewel: Tiger Eye (CUT 34)
Offering Jewel: Rose (CUT 64)
Face Claim: Akira Reid
The Body
Height: 5'8"
Body Type: Willowy
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Appearance:Heidi is a tall, lean woman. Sharp angles and cunning features. Her face softened above cutting collar bones by a round chin, and warm, welcoming eyes. Sandy brown near the pupil, they darken as the iris spreads, to near black again at the edges. Her smile is most often sassy or amused. Her mouth seemingly unable to express serious emotions, she is not prone to frowning, or tight lipped scowls.
Appearing younger than her years, it is easy not to take her seriously. Ever changing hair often cut into shocking styles, or painted daring colors. Her clothing is much the same. Heidi is always chasing the most recent fashions. The most daring styles. She loves colors. Or stark contrasts. Or form fitted black as a blank background to the playfulness of both her personality and her hair.
The Mind
Craft Strengths: 11/15pts
Craft Weaknesses: Craft Healing - Heidi was taught young and taught well to reserve her strength and protect herself, as such she has trouble committing to Craft Healing, afraid to lose herself, or her Jewels, in her patient.
Personality:Heidi is not the solemn sort a person might expect to find in the infirmary. Neither is she brusque or business like. Her infirmary, like her person, is warm and welcoming. The beds full of old patchwork quilts and oversize pillows. While it might not look like a sterile environment, people can still expect the utmost care, and Heidi sees that they have it. Even if it isn't herself providing the services.
Conversation is encouraged. Gentleness assured. Heidi draws out a patient's problems like she draws poison from a wound. But most of her craft is a step removed. Brews. Webs. A sight that sees all but touches nothing. She guards her Jewels and Webs in a way many other Healers do not. The drive to sacrifice all to save another has been smothered in her. Heidi could not name even a handful of people she would die to save.
None of this reserve is expressed. Heidi is a friend to any who enter her domain. And most she meets outside it. If that friendship does not exist beneath the surface, she is careful not to show it. She must be accessible, not only as the Court's Healer, but also as the companion to the Territory Ruler. Heidi is Nik's escort. The woman on his arm when a woman would do the most good. Non-threatening. Warmer than his cool aloof. But as a married woman, not competition for those angling to merge their families with his.
The Backstory
Family:- | Father | Yellow to Rose Warlord Prince
- | Mother | Summer-sky to Purple Dusk Black Widow
- | Brother | Tiger Eye to Rose Warlord
- | Husband | Summer-sky to Purple Dusk Warlord Prince
History:They would be a family of rank. A family with power. Hardly anything darker than an Opal appeared in the Ranum lineage, but they still strove. And achieved. Careful angling. Clever machinations. All was possible. Or near enough to all that it didn't matter. They would never rule the Territory, but they could have power else where. Power that mattered. Whispers in the right ears. The possibilities were endless. And orchestrated.
A child of the courts. Carefully raised. Precisely groomed. Heidi's life was a series of steps. Like a dance. Or a battle strategy. Everything from the ribbons in her hair to the friends in her circles were chosen for her. Purpose mapped before she even had a Jewel or a Caste to call her own. Hardly a child, she was more a tool. Another rung in the Ranum ladder. Reaching every upward. A strand in the web branching outward.
It suited her strangely well. Her brother was less able to play the part. He was more good soldier than bandying playmate. His course changed to fit the mold of his psyche. Heidi found herself as a companion to those mot likely to rule. She was surrounded by power. Dwarfed by it. Her Tiger Eye almost always outshown. Her caste almost always outclassed. Heidi never minded. She was clever, friendly, and healing was like a secret passion. Everyone
knew she was a healer. But there was something personal and furtive about her caste that Heidi could not and did not want to name.
She felt special. The hands that shaped her never pinched too hard. She enjoyed the attention, even when it was subtle. She enjoyed saying "yes,
that Vee" / "oh of course I've been
there". What she knew, she told. As she'd been taught. But as the years progressed who she told first, and then to who she told all, changed. The allegiance that had been meant to further the family goals became the allegiance meant to further Raej's goals.
She was infected. Corrupted. The fervor of a free Raej, a better Raej, had somehow been instilled into her by the very dispassionate Nikodemus Vee.
Heidi had other friends, other companions. Close ones, chosen by her family but grown into something else. Even when she toured battle fields, and slipped along borders, doing healers work, she kept in touch with them. They both saw it coming. But they were friends already, and so neither saw the pitfalls. What would a marriage of allegiance change between them? Surely they were suited to it, and this way neither had to marry a stranger, or worse yet, someone they disliked.
Heidi was still settling into her Rose. The sting of her Virgin Night mostly forgotten in the excitement of what would come now that her inner webs had been shored up by the act. Vows were spoken. Promises made. She'd never expect a romantic marriage. Never even dreamed of one when she'd been a girl just growing into that sort of fancifulness. Both agreed it was a good idea. Their families much lauded it.
But somehow reality was not like the dream. Expectations stretched their friendship. New duties strained the companionable silences they'd shared before. Heidi found herself running. Traveling. Taken away by work at every turn. Trying to escape something she had no name for but sat heavy on her heart. Like a stone in her stomach. Mostly left to be ignored while she tours the River with the Territory Court. One old friendship paying off like another had not.
The Writer
Player Name: dergon/cole
Player Pronouns: she/her
Timezone: -6
Contact: PM or discord
How did you find us?: I was in the closet
Inactivity Instructions: Write out as needed or adopt to Kay's preference.
