SEMIYAR (pronounced: Seh-mee-yar)
Race: Silene
Eye color: Violet
Hair color: Silver and curly, to his shoulders.
Distinctions: Wears bright and colorful outfits, often with ridiculous amounts of frilly ornamentation and keepsakes from every place his wandering takes him. A long purple lirewen feather adorns his hat, and he carries a silver lute.
“Myndling” is a term used by the people of Silon to refer to a person who possesses the gift of “hearing” nature, who is more attuned to the voice of the land, and is usually musically-inclined, inspired by the rhythm and melodies they perceive in the wind, the water, the forest and the daily hum of life in all areas around them. Few can claim to be as talented as Semiyar, however, or as adept at channeling his gift through poetry and song. He has the sky and forest in his blood, and his chosen instruments are his voice and a silver lute he calls Svenana.
~Story~
Kind and understanding, but very willful and driven, Semiyar is fueled by an insatiable desire for knowledge and discovery. As a teenager, he leaves his hometown of Holpensgate and his family’s woodworking trade to become a wandering minstrel, journeying with and learning life lessons from Tayone, a retiring bard of former renown who had passed through Semiyar’s hometown many times during his childhood and inspired the boy to follow in his footsteps. It was from Tayone that Semiyar received the lute Svenana as a gift.
Music and song cater readily to Semiyar, and his warm, exuberant singing voice draws many a crowd along his travels. He shares his talents with others in exchange for food and coin and talk of lore, and soon his violet eyes carry enough tales and adventure to pen volumes. His charm and flair for performance over the years earn him recognition throughout the kingdom, surpassing even his mentor. He learns to play every instrument handed to him, but favors Svenana above all, fancying that she possesses a voice of her own and sings only for him. He does not linger in any one place long, journeying ever onward in pursuit of new melodies and memories of life to capture in song and poem.
One fateful spring, however, he finds himself hopelessly beguiled of a strange and hypnotic siren song that quells even his wanderlust for a time–he falls in love. During an extended visit to the isle of Saberondan to perform for the beautiful Princess Mereet, he is captivated by her wine-dark eyes and playful spirit, and is swept up into an impulsive and blissful secret affair with her. Despite all caution, she bids him stay, equally as fascinated by him and his enchanting tales of her realm. But their whirlwind courtship is ended abruptly by Mereet’s father, King Meliek, who promises her hand in a political marriage to the foreign prince Iliauben, and Semiyar is banished from Saberondan on threat of death.
Years pass, and one day Semiyar crosses paths with a dismissed servant from the palace of Saberondan, who tells him of the horrors Mereet suffers at the hands of her abusive new husband. Anguished, Semiyar defies the threat made to him long ago and returns to the island in an effort to become a court musician and provide Mereet some comfort amid the gloom and neglect of her forced isolation. His best efforts, however, cannot change the course of her fate, and their memories of stolen moments together are all they are able to keep.
A brutal war ravages the kingdom, and with the demise of Saberondan and Mereet’s death following a calamity known as the Great Tragedy, Semiyar loses his spirit and his songs. In grief and regret, he breaks Svenana’s strings to silence her keening in his ears, to kill the music inside of him that resonates with and amplifies the emotion he cannot bear. He forsakes his life as a wandering musician and retreats into silence.
He would eventually come to find solace living alone in Marcale Forest, in a hermit’s hovel once belonging to an old friend who shared their last days with him. There he would slowly regain and cultivate anew his connection with nature. As his scarred hands heal tending to the land, he recalls the fractured, unfinished melodies in his heart longing to be mended, crying out to be freed, despite the pain. He opens himself once more to the music around him, to the new love songs singing in spite of war, to the sounds of new life swelling in the wake of death, and he knows new purpose. The spirit of music reawakened in his heart, he mends Svenana’s strings and picks back up his colorful mantle. With the aid of a messenger falcon named Zaida, he is able to reconnect with and return to the outside world.
The entertainment of myndlings was sorely needed now, as the realm struggled to rebuild and stabilize in the aftermath of calamity. While most of the new generation did not know Semiyar from before, his talents were nevertheless welcomed and praised, and the realm beckoned him once more. Though it was much changed from the world he remembered, he is enraptured again by the life of a wandering bard, and walks wherever the wind guides him, singing as he goes. He travels far and wide, without destination, seeking only to bring joy and memory back to a shattered world, to heal hearts with his music, and in this his own heart will likewise be healed.
One of the many songs he pens, which will one day become his most famous, is about Mereet.
~
~
(Bonus extra blurb:
Once, Semiyar also enjoyed an alternate-universe foray into the “Not All Kings Wear Gold” rp storyline I shared with a friend, in which an early snowstorm blows him to the gates of a distant, illustrious palace. There a wondrous new kingdom awaited his exploration, a place in which the harrowing wars of Avenan were merely legends. In the palace he catches a glimpse of Diana, a beautiful, golden-winged woman who seems to have stepped right out of a fairytale, and he is instantly touched by the sadness in her eyes that mirrors his own. Her lover, the former prince Luke, has fallen into madness and neglects her. She is losing her prince, as Semiyar once lost his princess.
Determined that Diana will not share Mereet’s lonely fate, Semiyar follows her from a distance, evading jealous rivals and Illusionist thieves alike to find a way to reach her and give her new hope. He writes songs to make her smile, collects trinkets and stories from his travels to delight and entertain her. His persistence gradually earns him a place in Diana’s heart, and he supports her in her separation from Luke and the pursuit of her own dreams of becoming a physician. Though they are together only a few months before their lives go separate ways once more, they come to be known fondly by others during this time as “The Bird and the Bard” or “Silver and Gold,” and inspire a handful of artwork from myself and other artists. (Diana is ©Kelly Kilbourn))