Chandra

Birth Clan - An unknown Earth clan Element - Earth Gender - Female Pronouns - She / Her Orientation - Heteroromantic

Chandra is Oakrest's Matriarch, though she holds no true power. Her kindly eyes belie a learned brusqueness that has come from years of hardship. She does not draw close to anyone besides her mate, and even they are frequently apart. Chandra does what needs to be done for the good of the clan. She is often found laboring at building and repairing tunnels, fighting monsters, and teaching young ones the ways of Oakrest and of Earthshaker. She offers wise counsel to those who seek it out, though she is rarely pleasant about it. She is stern, and she is hard, but only because life has made her hard. Chandra is Stonetouched, as are many of her line in Oakrest. Because she experiences the present differently than others, she is sometimes difficult for others to understand. Her dreamy, distant stares and chuckles at things that happened months ago but play out as if they were happening now cause others to keep their distance. For, the rumor goes, if she can see what happened in these halls, what's to say she can't see what happened to any of her clanmates before they entered the clan? But she holds wisdom of experience, for she had traveled a good deal with Bordeaux before they settled down and founded Oakrest. And though she misses many friends and family members who have gone their separate ways, the stones still carry them. And she feels much less alone for their memories.

"I do look forward to when I can see yesterday again." Matriarch Clan mother, completer of odd jobs STATS STR ██████████ DEX ██████████ CON ██████████ INT ██████████ WIS ██████████ CHA ██████████

Bordeaux - Chandra's mate,

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In Dragonhome, there are those who are born Stonetouched. They hear the past in the dust on which they walk. The feel the whispers of those who have gone before as they pass the stone bulwarks of their lairs. They know, deep in their bones, that they live as a result of a tremendous history.

These come from families deeply blessed by Earthshaker himself. Families which he smiled upon in favor in the times when the gods walked Sornieth.

Often clerics, and sometimes considered mad, these dragons struggle to live presently as they are constantly drawn towards the past. They are known for seemingly vapid stares as they are caught up in something beyond what the untouched see and hear, and for what sound to be half-mad whispers as they speak with the past.

Those who study and train and attempt to become better able to handle their skills can live a life of peace, walking between the past and the now. Those who do not take this time are doomed to be pulled under time and again, wrestling with the then to retain something of what they are.

In Oakrest, the Stonetouched come from Chandra's line, and they are marked with rings like eyes to symbolize seeing what can not be seen. Copperlight and Butternut have both taken this path as clerics of Earthshaker, listening attentively to changes in the whispers of the lair. Chandra herself struggled for a long time to attain control of her skills, often being seen as a daft old woman and surfacing for brief and startling moments of clarity.

Since her pilgrimage to the Pillar, however, Chandra has achieved a peace that was not seen before. She has become more present, and though she still heeds the whispers more often than her grandchildren, she is able to return again.

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For many years, Chandra has been Bordeaux's silent companion. She has ministered to his aching bones and weak joints, and in Council meetings offers only the briefest indication she is present, instead of eons away as the stones speak to her. This is all many have ever known of her.

Chandra is Stonetouched - the earth and the rocks around her sing out the history as they know it, and the song of the past often drowns out the present. To many in recent years, she is the distant matriarch, a sign of Oakrest's internal failings. But though many have spoken quietly that perhaps Chandra would better serve Earthshaker from a place of honor among his Exalted, Bordeaux would hear none of it.

Perhaps it was because Bordeaux was nostalgic for the love he once had. Or perhaps it was because the Stonetouched are a rare and honored group, but Chandra never left Oakrest. Instead, she was often found wandering deeper tunnels than was safe, no matter what her battle prowess once had been, much to the dismay of the more veteran Hunters. Or she would be found collapsed in a corridor, her eyes glazed over and mumbling words in a tongue long forgotten except by the Sealwalkers that roamed the plains beyond the Citadel.

And only songs and legends could recount her wisdom and agency.

The clan saw long years like this. Many wept silently for their matriarch, for the rare flashes of her former self were so starkly different from the haze into which she had fallen. It was painful to witness the dichotomy.

In time, however, she was found near the end of a tunnel long unused and forgotten. Her claws were caked in dirt, as though she had been digging. As others rushed Chandra to the healers, Butternut and Copperlight, also stonetouched through Chandra's own line, heard the song that had so enchanted Chandra. And they, too, dug at the wall.

It was not long before the earth gave way. What lay beyond was an ancient thoroughfare, dimly lit by (that glowing rock thing). Silently the two cousins ventured into the darkness, following the thread of whispers that the Earth called to them.

They were gone a long time. Chandra's haze cleared, seemingly for good, and she returned daily to the site of her collapse.

"The song is gone," she said softly. "I hear only our lord."

When Copperlight and Butternut at last returned, it was with a thread of great excitement. "The Pillar," they whispered. "We have taken the tunnels all the way to the Pillar."

The rest of the clan seemed overcome with disbelief. No one had ever expected their tunnels to reach the Pillar. It was a great honor among the Earth clans to tunnel so far that they found the Ancient Paths.

"I will go," Chandra said. "I have not yet completed a pilgrimage of my own."

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Bio (except as credited), oak leaves, acorns, & layout by ixris / 26035 - all edits by later users
Horizontal dividers by Mibella / 47497