Shayne "Kami" Miser

Physical Description: Kami is a petite fellow, slightly shorter than an average Saldaean. He is fairly pale skinned with dark hair almost to his shoulders and blue-green eyes. Uninterested in fairly many outdoor activities, he's not muscular either. And unlike most Saldaean men, he has no facial hair. This is partly because he also likes to cross-dress sometimes. And wear make-up. He's a weird fellow. Kami also wears a silver chain around his neck upon which is an exquisite blue butterfly pendant.

Character History:

Born in the southern part of Saldaea, Shayne was born into a well-off family. His traveling, merchant mother met his (minor) noble, wealthy father while wandering in town. Though his father was gone on military-related duties most of his life, he spent a great deal of time with his mother, who was a lover of fine arts, music and dance, and brought Shayne up to appreciate and learn about all of these things. He grew close to her to the point of taking up much of her behaviors, including acting much more feminine than he should have. His loving, open-minded mother allowed him to get away with this, but only when his father was gone. Shayne began thinking of it as a game, even dressing up in his mother’s dresses and putting on makeup. He was her only child and she spoiled him terribly, but was also careful to teach him not only arts, but of society’s etiquette, right and wrong, and the importance of righteousness and love. 

At age fourteen Shayne’s father died in battle and his uncle, aunt-through-marriage and their young daughter came to live with him and his mother. His aunt had acute schizophrenia; of course, most people thought her possessed by the Dark One, or some other such evil things, so she was kept very isolated. His uncle always did his best to keep his aunt happy, but eventually her sickness got the best of her. Shayne and his uncle, returning one day from horseback riding, found her on the ground with various parts of her body broken; she had jumped (or perhaps fell) off the second-floor balcony. Seeing his aunt dead after observing her for two years and helping with the burial made a young Shayne rather fascinated with death. He questioned why some people were born healthy when others were born so sick inside their minds—whether from some evil possession as his aunt apparently had, or the desire to be a Darkfriend and serve the utmost of evil.

 His own thoughts and desires to pursue such things farther lead to his first channeling experience shortly before his seventeenth birthday. His mother’s favorite horse broke its leg and in a desire to try to please his mother and help the horse instead of killing it, he attempted to clean and bind its leg. His only desire was to do more because his mother was in such an upset state. Thinking of this, he unknowingly channeled—but instead of helping the animal, it made its pain worse, and the bone he was trying to mend cracked. Unsure what he did and feeling very sick afterwards (physically and mentally), he fled the barn and cooped himself up inside his room. The horse had to be killed and Shayne blamed himself for the animal’s death.

 While tending to his sickness, his mother learned from Shayne about his attempt to help the horse, only to cause the poor thing its pain. After a few days of thinking hard on this, she feared the worst; that perhaps her son had channeled. Wanting to protect him farther from such an evil fate, she began to dote on him more. She made dresses for him. She let him wear her makeup and even taught him the intricate language of fans that court women used. She taught him how to be a ‘proper Saldaean woman’ right alongside his female cousin. It was in her mind a way of getting him away from the one fate that was the most evil of all, to channel saidin, and she planned on weeding it out of him by simply turning him into a lady.

  For two more years this went on (despite his uncle’s protests, though those eventually died down in his sympathy for his sister-in-law). He even adapted a new name: Kami. However, he did inadvertently channel again, this time when his cousin Helina fell terribly sick with a fever. This time he wasn’t even trying to help her, but sat in tears by her bedside, thinking of the unfairness of it. Luckily, he did not harm her. But in his anger and lack of understanding he ended up busting all the glass covers that were over the wall candles, and busting the glass on the windows. These two incidents, coupled with a few other minor ones throughout the past four years, drew a confession from his mother once he relayed his fears. When she told him of her suspicions, they talked late into the night, and by the time the sun rose his mother convinced him he must go to the Black Tower out of necessity. Afraid to hurt someone since he didn’t know what he was doing or how, he agreed. His mother said she would visit soon and sent him off with Helina, who was miraculously better the very next morning. As a going away present, his mother presented him with a silver chain upon which was a most exquisite blue butterfly jewel about the size of his palm. He vowed to always wear the necklace.

 So Kami and his cousin, Helina, set off south with three horses and some of Kami’s basic possessions—which perhaps included one too many lady-related items and only one outfit for a male traveler. Traveling as a man a majority of the time for safety’s sake, just miles outside the Black Tower Kami decided to take on his more feminine persona and with Helina by his side the two rode the last miles to the gates of the Black Tower. With no knowledge that other men would be able to sense his ability, Kami hoped to only stay there long enough in silent observation—for he was a very silent individual—to learn to control himself and then sneak back home. Unfortunately, as these things go, this was not to be the case, and an unsuspecting Kami was soon going to find himself stuck there for a long while to come.

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