Character Profiles VINE VEIN #6: Nebra Oremire
Creator of the Order Dragtide, and last remaining Elder Star-Shaper in the Copper City, Neb might be 82 (born in Age 23 of the 2nd Era), but she still had a lot to do on Vilakku before her time was up. She was there during the Burning of Age 90, and saw firsthand some of the rage and wrath Queen Redshift was capable of, and of course the labeling of Shapers as Burners.
Her City, Her People
She had always felt a tremendous amount of pride and responsibility for the people of the Copper City, and had taken up the mantle of Elder Shaper in her late father’s stead. This meant that she felt the need to try and draw out any remaining Shapers in the city, even if there didn’t seem to be more than a few. Working beyond just finding Shapers who were in hiding, she would induct a few Copperites into being Shapers as well, as she worked towards her final goal of taking the city from the Allacoras, and restoring the Shapers’ good name.
Her star was named Tegi, and it was a chipper, rearing-to-go, yellow star. The two of them were joined together the day she turned 10, back in Age 33 of the 2nd Era. They had done many good things over the ages, including helping to put an end to the Burning of Age 90, and training many generations of Shapers before that fateful day. With all of her students and friends fled from the city, and then her father’s death soon after, Neb’s optimism and zest for life did wane. However, Tegi was always there to pick her back up, and to keep her moving forward.
Ashon, the Second Star
After her father’s death in Age 92, Neb’s passion and enthusiasm took a drastic hit. Even Tegi could not shake her from her doom and gloom. She began to delve into darker, lesser known herbology and medicines (as she owned and operated a small delivery business of self-made remedies and such). These dark thoughts and avenues led her to try something that no one had ever survived before: joining with a second star. Tegi was beyond adamant that Neb abandon this folly, but its voice alone was not strong enough to dismiss all the thoughts in Neb’s head. And then there was the rule that if a Shaper hadn’t addressed its star in an hour’s time, then the star could no longer speak to their mind. This was a tactic Neb utilized for some time, not allowing Tegi the chance to speak for quite some time.
The Shaper Ritual is something that had slight variations depending on which Shaper tribe or individual was performing it, but its main components were always the same. There must be an eye scope fashioned from brass and meteor fragment, its glass constructed from the same meteor’s dust. Concoctions of henbane, blood, and lodestone are used to brush hexes on the eye scope, this is what imbues the device with its ability to magnify into the sky deeper than it could on its own, and it is what tells the stars that your heart is open to receive one of them.
“You must brush them with two hexes derived from Star-Shaper lore in order to begin your induction,” explained Neb further. “First, the shape of an eye drawn to the right is required on the eyepiece, along with a half circle at the top of it, an arrow down the middle, and four swipes around it representing nodes of sunlight. The second hex will go on the base of the eye scope: it will be the same eye shape with a half circle at the top, and an arrow down the middle, however, this time you will have to swirl an ‘S’ shape in the center of the symbol, laid on its side.”
Nebra would attempt this ritual a second time in the summer of Age 94, after nearly 2 ages of preparing herself mentally and physically. She ate only from the ground, keeping away from any animal products: she fasted, drank only water, didn’t smoke, hardly slept, and studied for days the sky above her. She tried to find one of the stars nearest to Tegi, though most had partners already, until one day she finally located the perfect star, not too far from Tegi. The ritual set up, Neb brushed her hexes, and looked through her eye scope. The sensation was a little different for every Shaper, but it was one none of them forgot, and this time was similar for Neb. Similar, but worse, more painful. And as she stared at the star she had chosen, she discovered it was in fact without a partner, but that it was angry that she was trying to partner with it while already having Tegi. Tegi too was undone with rage, and though it couldn’t kill Neb out of spite, it could make her body and mind feel untouchable pain and discomfort, and that’s what it did.
Her first attempt unsuccessful, Neb had expected as much. She took some time to think, going over the Shaper Ritual over and over again, looking for something she could do to tweak it, to improve upon it. A third hex, of course. She derived a brand new hex, one that would be applied to her forehead, as well as to the eye scope. This new hex was a series of claw marks stretching down from her forehead to her cheeks, and that had notch after notch of sunlight nodes branching off them. She used much more blood than the other hexes demanded, covering her face in it. This time the eye scope worked better, and she felt less pain. Looking at this red star, she finally could hear its voice in her head. It told her that she had not only broken the Old Ways, but that she had perverted and bastardized them, made them into a mockery, a shame, and that no Shaper before her had ever done so and lived. Many hexes had been tried in such vain attempts at power and greed, and all before had been snuffed out by the stars, or by the hands of those who truly respected and upheld the Old Ways.
This red star Neb had found, however, it was intrigued by her callous disregard of the very morals and codes that she lived her life by, all in an attempt to unite with it. While it disagreed with what Neb had done, as did Tegi, this red star, Ashon, it allowed Neb to take it on as its partner. Thus, Neb became the first known Shaper in history to achieve this feat and to live.
This is when Neb’s already hectic and unsafe life would become an explosion of obstacle, tribulation, and illusion. As she continued forward with trying to fill out her Order Dragtide with Shapers willing to put their lives on the line in order to free their home from the tyranny of the Allacoras, and to bring back the Shapers who had fled this land, her people’s land.
Would an Elder Shaper with two stars be enough to shake the rotting kingdom from its stagnation? Only time would tell…and a lot of mead.
