The Arthima sisters
Aridia, Yloriem and Meliana
Aridia Riv Arthima
the white crusader of Polaris
A well-built young woman, having inherited the natural musculature of dwarves, and a tall stature exceeding the median of Meridian women and sometimes as tall as most of the men she rubs shoulders with, an Elven trait from our mother. Long red hair, often tied in braids. Lightly tanned white skin, green eyes, rarely very feminine in her choice of clothing; even more often on a battlefield in armour.
Aridia is a loudmouth, rivalling with Phyrios. Rivalling Marakh in both strength and intelligence, openly curious. Skipping class to fight with her classmates and sleeping in class when she was present. However, she already had a strong sense of justice and always intimidated only other bullies. It was by hanging out with our sisters that she developed a curiosity for legends and mysteries.
At the age of 14, just as I entered it myself, she was expelled from school. Our father, being the personal mage of the king, recruited her as an assistant, tidying the shelves and doing errands. Yet, even in the streets she continued her habits of fightings, getting in troubles with aggressors, alcoholics and other perpetrators of all kinds. Our father used to scold her severely, but one day, out of spite, he asked her: “What are you fighting for?”. Aridia didn't realize it at first, but by working for her father, she had the time to meditate and understand her sense of justice. At sixteen, on a common accord, Aridia engaged in military school.
Having problems with hierarchy and being a bit of a hothead, she didn’t wait for more than two months assigned her to the "problems" section run by Phyrios Onirem. She left such an impression on him, he recommended her for officer himself, and granted her the nickname everyone knows today: The scarlet dragon.
After two years of training and education, both general and military, she graduated as a sergeant with twenty men under her command. She had to prove herself to her squad both as a woman and a nobleman, often with her fists (some of her men have a nice mark on their face). Today, having earned their loyalty, they're the ones who crush anyone who dares disrespect her. In sign of respect, all her squadron now wear a fake ginger braid on their helmet or shoulder armour. The insignia of her squadron, the red dragon head and golden ropes was and idea she had, and asked me to design. I was only seventeen. And she trusted me.
After a trip to the Akeidre Islands, she became a dream blade. As a human from Meridia, she is considered a saint of the Astral Aurora. Today, she and her blade, Calystril, have become a legend, Saint Aridia, Crusader of Polaris. But few dare call her that, for fear of having to fight her in a bar. She abhors the title and threatens anyone who calls her, except children.
The absolute twins
It is pretty hard to talk about the twins separately. From birth, they got together, never separated, and always think as one. Their nickname, “the absolute twins”, comes from their telepathic level connection. In their childhood, they developed an entire language composed solely of winks, tongue clicks and hand signals. Méliana being non-verbal, signing what should be said, and Yloriem voicing, without expressing her own feelings. Now adult, they are known to finish each-other sentences from time to time, and after a while, even talking as one. Since Yloriem’s apogee, they suffer an actual illness. Yloriem is megalomaniac and Meliana depressive. However, being together, they are stable, and start showing symptoms if they are out of sight for more than a day.
Méliana is currently mildly skilled in the art of glyphs and has a sorcerer's level in most human arcana (with the addition of dwarven medical knowledge, her healing spells are correct). The reverse is true, Yloriem has a good grasp of science and technical knowledge. It's out of a need to complement and differentiate each other that Yloriem has taken magic and Meliana to science and engineering.
Together, they founded the Bureau de l'Electro-thauma, and hold three patents on thauma-infused technologies (a thaumic lens system enabling holographic conversation between mages and an improved version of the dwarf transmutation gauntlet, as well as the Athrian liquid crystal process). Meliana is also the chief engineer responsible for the expansion of Alia station, Arthima's name is inscribed on half the station's platform beams, and holds the construction project for those in Loreif and Aridion.
Yloriem Sumara Arthima
Yloriem is a name of elven elfal origin, meaning pure spring, which most Meridians rarely pronounce correctly, and her friends never remember it, always ending up calling her Ilia or liem. I remember it took me a bit to get it correctly.
Yloriem discovered her magical powers at the age of eight, when most start dabbling at the start of puberty, between ten and twelve. And became a sorceress at fourteen, skipping part of middle school to enter a magic high school, and became a magician at seventeen, putting her on the short list of those who did so before the age of 20. Playing as much on the sign as the incantation, she quickly grasped the concept of murmuring and reduced gestures, then abbreviated formulas. It took her just two years to come up with a synchronous double-casting. To add to her greatness, at the age of 22, while learning the elven glyphic art, she became an ideator without realizing it, making her first finger snap during a decisive battle in Alkalia. She went on to break records by becoming the youngest archmage at the age of 25, with a thesis on Orc alchemy.
Yloriem is emotional, hot-headed, hot-blooded and instinctive. Now struggling with a desire for megalomania and an oversized ego, she was once awkward, clumsy and spoke only on behalf of her non-verbal sister. Aridia used to protect her sisters from the kids who bothered them. It was when Aridia was excluded that Yloriem became the hothead she is today, standing up for herself. She imitated Aridia, pretending not to listen in class and never doing any work to look cool (but sometimes studying until the early hours of the morning with her sister to compensate).
Spending two years in Aeld for her training was terrible for her Meridian accent; she's more Elvish now. She also tends to point often when she speaks. Although she hates it, she can be extremely elegant with very feminine dresses and manners. She was educated in the mystic temple of Aeld, so she knows all the etiquette of the imperial court. Her skin is pale, her body almost anorexic since she became a Damphyr. Since then, she has stopped ageing physically, marking the difference between herself and her twin.
Although she is a mage, she always carries her wand, carved from a unicorn horn, and Maelstrom, a rapier of chaos given to her by Alexander Von Wargen, her vampire sire. Yloriem's long, copper-brown hair is held in place by an elven jade magatama necklace. She also has elven tattoos on her arms, showing her mastery of the art of glyphs.
Méliana Kirstof Arthima
Méliana, like her sister, skipped many grades before taking her bachelor's degree at the age of just sixteen, then entering Koruthil's Academy of Physical and Chemical Sciences, to become a mechanical engineer at the age of twenty, to which she would later add electrochemistry and electronics. She became a Rhodes master the following year, giving her a more muscular appearance than her sister and any human woman in general. In her time at Tatl part-time in a Spa, she learnt transmutation in secret mage circles, and firearm. She got herself a licence for a revolver and took free time in shooting range, while dabbling on the transmutation gauntlet. And then, talking with orks, discover the joy of druidic alchemy.
Like Yloriem took a bit of an elfal Accent when visiting Oriaka’s Shamio temple, Méliana got a bit of a mountain Alkalian accent while studying abroad. However, it was less marked and disappeared faster, probably because she wasn’t the only Meridian transfer student in her class.
Méliana has always been cold, calculating and rational. When they were children and Yloriem was still withdrawn, Méliana was non-verbal, passing on what she had to say to her sister who verbalized for her, but always in short, direct sentences, wasting no time. When Aridia was expelled, Méliana became strong, learning to fight with her big sister, while remaining a hard worker who refused to give up her lessons. As a result, she would break the jaws of anyone who interrupted her while she was doing her homework, only to resume silently as if nothing had happened.
Elinor Aliani Arthima
for those who wondered who am I, there it is. Elinor Arthima, the last sister of the family. Since our parents are respectively a half-dwarf and a Half-elf, we all inherited traits from the three races. If Aridia gained the height of an elf and muscles of a dwarf, or the twins being clearly half-elves with high magic potential, I have inherited the opposite of Aridia… the size of a dwarf and the slim smooth features of an elf. Not complaining, but I am known for wearing child sized clothes, and looking like a tiny copy of my mother. On the other hand, I am known to be the most feminine of the four sister. Notably because I am the only one wearing girl clothes, earrings or jewellery in general.
Despite my actual profession being archivist and historian specialised in myth analysis, I also dabble intensively in plural form of arts. Drawing illustrations from the myths i work on, I also love painting and a bit of wax sculpting. And since it arrived from Alkalia, I have started to study photography. I work on my own stories, the legend of my sisters and their friends, and doing researches on the Athrian history and the witch Kenariah’s life.
As a child, I had virtually no relationship with my sisters. First, Aridia, who was six years older than me and had been expelled from school before ending up in boarding school at the military academy, I had not a lot of chance to see her. And then there are the twins, who were totally withdrawn before starting secondary school. Though, since then, I got to become way more linked to the three of them, and now, not only Am I close friend, but also their entitled biograph and artist.
Since there are not much more to say about me, I wish to give a bit more background of my familly by telling a bit of my parent’s story:
Galthor Arthima, Our father, grew up at the frontier of Meridia, somewhere close to Keld-Aren, his familly are known brewers of the region. even if he could never separate from a medium due to his dwarven blood, he still has a high level mana. His powers went revealed as he unwilingly set fire to a empty keg shed while playing with a mere stick, launching a simple sparkle spell. He is well known as the personal mage of the king, but his real renown comes from the originality of his medium. far from classical wands and staves most schools use, he designed his own medium from a pugilist gauntlet, mixing dwarven martial art with close-combat spell casting.
Lisiah Yanata, our mother, grew up in a small human-comunity village of the south-west of Oriaka, born from an elf mother and a human father. Living the hard life of being a mixed couple in a very conservative region, they ended up leaving the country for Meridia, and spent a time in Aridion until the end of High-school, when Lisiah went to the capital for the best college of literature. that’s how she met the love of her life, a young mage from Alkalia. Doctorate in archaeology, she works on the pasts of our world, and especially how the fall and the Athrians influenced the course of our evolution and culture exchanges between countries.