Cirque des Reves: Randrin Aleandar

_{Getting excited about this...I hope I get in!}



FULL VIEW: velkynkarma.deviantart.com/art…

PROFILE:

♥ N a m e :
Randrin Aleandar
_{(Note: in drow, this name translates to “Lesser Rogue of the Noble Line of Black Hearts”)}

♥ A g e :
63
_{(still considered a young adult by species standards)}

♥ B i r t h d a y :
August 13th

♥ S p e c i e s :
Drow/Dark Elf

♥ F a c t i o n :
Black

♥ J o b :
Tarot Card Reader

♥ P e r s o n a l i t y :
Self-centered, witty, sly, and more than a little paranoid, Randrin is a prime example of a dark elf. Like most of his race, Randrin was taught early to never trust anybody and to always watch your back, while simultaneously manipulating things to your advantage. In true dark elf form he still remembers most of his lessons and employs them, frequently looking out for number one—himself—before anything else.

Randrin is exceptional at reading people (body language, emotional reactions, catching lies) due to years of warily looking out for himself in his underground city, searching for double meanings and hidden agendas. However he is very bad at taking a lot of these reactions at face value, and usually expects that there is an ulterior motive or a hidden meaning in even the most casual of gestures. In particular he has a very hard time accepting acts of kindness, naiveté, or openly ‘weak’ shows of emotion like sorrow or guilt as real, and usually expects it to be an act in order to achieve something. This makes him very distrustful and a bit paranoid. But after being on the surface for several years he’s started to soften regarding this a little, and is learning that not everything is indication of some sort of foul play in the works.

Randrin does not like being controlled or given orders, and values his freedom and ability to make his own choices very highly. He takes this so seriously, in fact, that he will frequently do things just to be contrary and prove he’s in control. This extends to his work as a card reader; although he does actually possess clairvoyance, he will frequently give people precisely the opposite ‘result’ that they want, just to mess with their heads. (Ex. reading a customer’s body language determines that they want to find out who they will marry, so he ‘sees’ that they will die old and alone). This particular trait stems from being controlled by the matron mothers of his homeland without ever having any opportunities as a “lowly male,” and also results in him having something of a dislike for women, particularly controlling women.

As mentioned, Randrin’s tarot card readings are more or less invented based on what he gathers from his customers. While he does possess clairvoyance, he rarely actually utilizes it, and can be a bit hypocritical about these types of powers both in himself and others. He will frequently question the legitimacy of ‘readings’ or ‘psychics’ outside of his seer act, largely expecting them to be fake. This is in a large part due to being forced to suppress his own powers in his earlier years, and actively pretending he didn’t have them. Along a similar vein, he usually finds people highly devoted to their faiths irritating, questioning the legitimacy of their beliefs, although this also partly stems from disliking the fanaticism his race had towards their dark goddess in his homeland.

When he has his own legitimate visions, readings, etc, he will question their accuracy or even act contrary to whatever he sees to make sure it doesn’t happen, just to prove he’s not being controlled by his own powers, unless he gets a very strong feeling from it. Unlike his showy customer readings for the circus, he will never try to play up his actual visions or readings. In fact he usually downplays them, or tries to hide that he’s actually seen anything at all.

In terms of his relationship with others, Randrin’s friendships are typically based off of mutual benefit, and he still regards them more as alliances than ‘friendships.’ This usually means that he uses whoever he is ‘friends’ with at the time to his advantage until they are no longer useful, and then promptly disregards them (and he fully expects the opposite party is doing the same thing to him). He is also not above stabbing a friend in the back (figuratively or literally) if it proves more advantageous for him, or he thinks said ‘friend’ is becoming too much of a threat or a liability. However, his time on the surface world is softening him up a little on this, and he has started to become a little more flexible about it. He’s less likely to stab first and more likely to look for less violent or cruel methods for dealing with people he considers allies. For people he trusts more (as in, he’s relatively sure that if they haven’t backstabbed him yet they probably won’t, maybe) he’s even occasionally willing to help them out with small favors or advice (as long as it’s not a threat to himself or his livelihood). Note that he probably won’t admit he’s being nice ever, and will usually claim the person owes him one, but he’s less likely to actually call them on that then he used to.

Overall, while Randrin largely possesses some crueler or less trusting character qualities, due to the teachings of his race in the underworld, he is slowly learning to be a little nicer and more trusting the longer he spends on the surface. Although he’s frequently contrary, has a morbid or mean sense of humor, and is morally questionable, he does have his moments of subtle kindness and his more violent and straight-up sadistic tendencies have decreased significantly.


♥ H i s t o r y :
Born deep underground in a cavernous city to House Aleandar, Randrin was gifted with a minor ability of clairvoyance, sometimes able to predict events or actions before they happened. However, as this power was neither gifted by the drow race’s evil goddess or given to a female (drow live in heavily matriarchal societies), House Aleandar considered this ability a curse or a burden. Under normal circumstances this ability would prove useful in the chaotic backstabbing, power-driven society of the drow, but since a ‘worthless’ male received the gift it was considered useless and potentially a threat, if other Houses found out about it. As a result the matron of the household did everything possible to smother his gift and keep him away from magical arts, in order to keep it from manifesting further. Randrin learned quickly to hide his ability and not use it as often as possible. He threw himself into his assigned combat training instead, often deliberately trying to deny or ignore his ability and associated visions or senses.

However his gift was not as easy as he’d have liked to hide, and he hadn’t managed to master controlling it, meaning visions or feelings would still manifest whether he wanted them to or not—often at the worst possible times. The females of his house were infuriated by this so-called disobedience and kept trying to beat what was viewed as insurrection out of him with heavier doses of acceptable male discipline than usual. Eventually Randrin snapped, and refusing to take any more, killed one of his dark priestess sisters in the middle of one of her ‘lessons.’ Unfortunately for Randrin, the killing of any female by a male in drow society is cause for serious punishment, and the punishment for killing a priestess in particular is exceptionally severe and painful.

As a result Randrin fled the city and, eventually, the underground, coming to the surface to try and get away from his vengeful family. Although he himself was not fond of the idea of running to the surface, drow frequently found it so loathsome that he bet on his family refusing to follow him that far. Unfortunately, dark elves are also severely mistrusted and feared on the surface, meaning Randrin was unable to find any sort of sanctuary above.

He eventually grudgingly decides to join a traveling circus filled with a number of other mythological and magical beings, assuming (correctly) that with so many other misfits about, he at least wouldn’t be turned away based solely off his race. Additionally, the constant traveling of the circus meant that if his family was still looking for him, they would have a much harder time tracking him down. It also gives him an opportunity to spit in the face of everything he’s ever learned from his family and underground home, by deliberately not doing those things (abandoning his warrior training, playing up his clairvoyance instead of hiding it, doing what he wants instead of following the whims of a head of house).


♥ V o i c e
J. Michael Tatum

♥ L i k e s :
Messing with people/getting amusing reactions from his ‘readings’
Sweet things (he’s grown fond of these since coming to the surface)
Birds (he’s fascinated with them since they don’t live underground)
Gemstones

♥ D i s l i k e s :
Spiders (not afraid of them, just detests them)
Sunlight/strong light
Naive or overly friendly people
Cold (always warm in the Underdark)
Open sky (due to living underground his whole life...this is a fear/borderline phobia, so he’ll usually stay indoors as often as possible)

♥ F a m i l y :
House Aleandar, which consists of the Matron, her current consort, two older sisters (both priestesses), an older brother, and another sister younger than him. There was a third older sister, but he killed her.

♥ R e l a t i o n s h i p s :
N/A

♥ M I S C/O t h e r I n f o r m a t i o n:
Drow possess infrared vision and can switch between that and normal vision. Randrin is no exception to this and actually uses it to his advantage by tempering his cards with a minor heat spell, so he can tell them apart while others can’t. This helps him play up his ‘readings’ by letting him select appropriate cards/set the deck.

Drow can also make a globe of pure darkness for a short amount of time, one impervious to all forms of light or vision—regular, infrared, magical, etc. Randrin usually uses this to play up readings, although he might occasionally use it to protect himself, too.

Another drow ability is Faerie Fire, which encases a chosen target in purple-blue flames (although it does not actually hurt the target, just makes them visible). Once again, Randrin uses this to his showmanship advantage to scare the people at his readings or make his own pronunciations seem much more impressive.

Although he wears a blindfold, he’s not really blind. Because his eyes are extremely light-sensitive, he uses a piece of dark cloth a lot like sunglasses to protect his eyes during daylight or in bright lights, but it is see-through. He’ll also wear the blindfold during his readings to play into the ‘blind seer’ stereotype; he can still see through it and uses his infrared vision to do his readings. At night in between shows he’ll usually not wear the blindfold at all.

Before leaving his homeland, Randrin was proficient in combat with a sword and dirk. He is still skilled with these weapons when push comes to shove, but has not practiced since joining the circus, meaning his skills are a bit rusty.

He claims the feathers on his cloak are phoenix feathers. Actually they are parrot feathers. Whether he knows this and is just scamming further, or just doesn't know enough about surface animals to tell the difference, is still up for debate.

♥ R P m e t h o d s :
Notes, occasionally comments or Skype

~VelkynKarma