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[Icebird]

Hello, and thank you taking for time to stop by our Holt introduction. Should you be shopping around for a new Holt to join I can tell you we operate over a BB forum. Our main focus is the online roleplaying game itself, but we also develop characters and events through art and stories. Come August we will be celebrating our 6th anniversary and during the time we've experienced both prosperity and descent in the terms of member count. Currently we're a small group of core members. We see this as an opporunity, for you and for us, as it opens up for a lot of adoptables and room to get situated.

Check out the forum here: Thunderwater Holt

The Admin Team: Crescent (co-creator) , Icebird, Redshine and Darkleaf – you can approach any of the admins with questions and suggestions on the board once you have registered an account, but you can also approach me (Icebird) here on the EQFA boards with any questions you might have.


The Setting:

Thunderwater Holt is located in a tropical jungle area on the west coast of an island the size of Australia, known in the ElfQuest canon as Hearthstone. In the series it is depicted as a burning waste rather than a lush rainforest but we've taken liberty of tweaking the map of Abode a bit to fit our needs.

The elves are pure-blooded, skin colour ranging from Wolfrider pale to Sun Villager dark, depending on how well they take to the sun and how much time they spend exposed to it. The elves rise with the daystar and go about their chores with the daylight as a constant companion. They live in the time where the Palace has only just been swept away into the Future though they hold no knowledge of this.

An underground clan of trolls were discovered 10-odd years ago and the elves have established a trading system, trading food, furs and surface goods for metal, weapons, jewellery and other troll valuables and tools.

With the arrival of a human tribe the tribal laws of Thunderwater were tightened to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. However, a few elves took contact to a placid male teen, trying to learn the human language and soften the humans' feelings towards the elves, but to no avail. When a tribemate was bludgeoned to death by human hunters the rules were once again tightened and no one wished peace with the humans any longer.

Having humans, lost kin and trolls in the underground to concern themselves with the later years have provided many a new challenge for the elves in Thunderwater Holt, some better received and solved than others. A new danger may be lurking however...


The Tribes:

Thunderwater Elves (islanders)
Seaside Elves (islanders)
The Wanderers (plain nomads)

Originally created with circa thirty tribemembers the Thunderwater Holt elves are a hunter/fisher/gatherer tribe, equally living off of the jungle as well as the sea. Questions regarding forgotten as well as new kin rose when a young elf maiden washed ashore. Swiftflow could not answer the questions of her rescuers, nor her own – a head trauma before her arrival caused her amnesia and for a long time even her own name was unknown to her. Following her appearance came Oceansong, a young male elf who had sailed out after his friend had disappeared. From him they learned of Seaside Holt, the island residence of the Seasiders. A year later a ragtag group sailed into the bay: Seaside Holt had been destroyed by a tsunami wave, demolishing everything in its wake. The survivors, including the chief, could be counted on two hands only.   

Century, the chief of Thunderwater Holt, and the rest of his tribe welcomed the survivors and readily agreed to let them all settle down in the Holt. Stories were told and it was found out that the Seasiders and the Thunderwater elves shared a common ancestry. Chillsword, son of the first Thunderwater chief and brother to the second, resented his sister's rule and after loosing the challenge he had issued her he left with his followers, eventually settling down on the island that would become Seaside Holt. 

The Wanderers are relatively new addition. They are a group consisting of circa fifteen 1st-3rd generation elves. They are nomads, as their name suggest, and they follow the herds of animals across the plains in search of food. They domesticated horses in the past and use them for scouting, hunting and carrying their tents and belongings; they have now become an essential to their lifestyle. The elves have few possessions and travel light – they make tent camps in the summer but prepare a cave to take shelter in during the winter. Even though they are extremely close to the High Ones they have no magic; this also means that the tribe has known no healer, though many of the Wanderers are much older than the islander elves, or at least old enough to be considered elders in their tribe.

Individuals of all tribes can be played.


The Story:

At this point the Thunderwater elves and the survivors from Seaside has merged completely into one tribe. Century, after almost dying at the hands of humans, became obsessed with finding the Palace and what knowledge of the High Ones it surely held. Gathering almost half his tribe to go on a quest for the Palace he left his very meek and very untried daughter Softglow in charge of the elves staying behind.

With a hostile human tribe on the rise Softglow had no time to dawdle in learning how to be chief and grew into the role simply because she had to, though she had her father's trusted council to back her up should things grow out of hand. And of course they did. A strange creature was sighted. Then two. Then a hunting party came across a group of them and had to haul tail back to the Holt with two injured hunters in tow. The humans picked up on the new threat and left, but the monsters (variations of Winnowill's shapechanged creatures) proved to be a much worse foe than the humans. To make matters worse the old Seaside chief Jade continued to question and challenge Softglow's rule, feeling that she did too little to stop the monsters. It ended with an all-or-nothing challenge between minds. Surprisingly Softglow proved herself worthy of her chief's feather and won over Jase. However, with the monster threat about the chieftess did not banish Jade such as tribal law decreed. Jade was left to wallow in his shame, unable to leave since he had no wish to die, and kept his distance to Softglow and most of the tribe, with the exception of only a handful of Seasiders.

Half a world away Century and his Searchers combed through lone islands and impressive archipelagos, the first being the sad remains of Seaside Holt. Eventually, after many years on sea they made their way to the mainland (Junsland) and while trekking north stumbled across the Wanderers. Salem, the chief, convinced them to join them in their cave shelter for the winter instead of dying out on the plains from exposure to the harsh elements. Over the winter Century and his Searchers decided to return home with the arrival of the spring. Surprisingly the Wanderers elected to follow – no Recognition had occurred within the small tribe for the past three centuries and many were starting to worry if it would ever occur again or if they'd simply die out one by one. New elves could very well mean new blood to the tribe and the Wanderers said a bittersweet goodbye to their life on the plains and the horses who had loyally carried them across them for so long.

Now Century, his Searchers and the Wanderers have just arrived back at Thunderwater Holt. Half a day has passed and many are only just waking from the bliss of reunion. A celebration for the returned elves and the newcomers will be held in the evening.

In the mean time fun and mischief will most certainly happen.

Many of these events have been covered by a massive timejump spanning eight years and we are only just picking up the first “new” day, so there is a considerable amount of wiggle space concerning the skills and development of the adoptable characters.


Timeline, covering the elven years of story time we have so far played through - Timeline

Map of the World of Two Moons, with heavy editing of Hearthstone and the additions of several islands and archipelagos. Also includes Century and his Searcher's travel route.

[Icebird]

Current Adoptables:

Thunderwater Elves

Darklance

Soulname: Zorn
Age: 2011 (immortal)
Gender: Male
Position: Hunter
Parents: Shymorning (mother, deceased) & Crow (father, deceased)
Siblings: Hazefeather (sister, deceased) & Railynn (sister, deceased)
Recognized: Giftgreen
Love/Lifemate: Giftgreen (lifemate, deceased), Deerprance (lifemate)
Children: Lonerider (son), Crest (adopted son) & Flight (son) 
Skills:
Crafting - Weapons (spears/staves), Traps, Carving (wood/bone)
Fishing - Spear (rare)
Hunting - Tracking, Trapping, Skinning (animals/fish)
Weapon - Spear, Staff, Bow

Darklance has black hair, dark hazel eyes and pale skin. He is an expert at hunting with spear and staff and he prides himself on his hunting capabilities. On the subject of skills, if someone gets him started on it he can be extremely haughty about how many tribemates he has initiated. Of course, having lived a long life many of those first-timers are now deceased, but more than one remain, whether they will admit it or not. Darklance is well-known for his wit, but he can come off as sarcastic and arrogant, with a tendency to think that he knows best, a trait he shares with his son, Flight.

Despite the passionate prank-war they led up until their Recognition Darklance was very devoted to his lifemate Giftgreen. He was terribly crushed when she died; he still keeps the wooden necklace she made him close by his heart at all times. He is sinfully proud of Flight, who reminds him of the best qualities in himself and his late Recognized, however, his relationship with his eldest son Lonerider is far more complicated and often leaves him puzzled and concerned. He's fond of Crest, who Giftgreen adopted after his parents' death, but Darklance never quite became a father to him in the way Giftgreen became his mother.

Lifemating with Deerprance later in life softened Darklance visibly even though he resents to admit it outside their furs. Through her he has become very close with Mismatch and Matchflare: the four of them are generally considered to be lovemates but they don't name it as such. Darklance strives to be good to Deerprance, as well as hers and her late lifemate Chime’s daughters, Calliope and Sundazzle. With Calliope being Flight's lovemate he is on good terms with her, but he has had a lot of trouble with Sundazzle in the past. They finally buried the axe when Century recruited them both to go with him on his search for the High One's lost Home. Darklance found the journey and their later meeting with a tribe of new elves reasonably exciting, even though there were a few almost-too close class along the way. Now he simply longs to be reunited with his family after eight years away from the Holt.


Panther

Soulname: Unknown
561 (immortal)
Gender: Male
Position: Hunter, Archer
Parents: Highpoint (mother, deceased) & Tracker (father, deceased)
Sibling: Pathfinder (brother, deceased)
Recognized: None
Love/Lifemate: Rushingwater (former lovemate)
Children: None
Skills:
Crafting - Weapons (bows/arrows)
Fishing - Net-making
Gathering -Fruits, Vegetables
Hunting - Tracking, Scouting, Skinning (animals/fish)
Other – Mimicry (birds) (in-training)
Weapon - Bow

Panther has dark brown hair and his likewise dark brown eyes can easily be mistaken for being completely black. He is an highly skilled archers and an experienced hunter, even though his quiet and reserved nature might bely these skills. Polite to a fault Panther is conservative and weighs his words before speaking them. He will however speak his point if needed, he's by no means a push-over. He carries a hard outer shell which only few have been allowed to crack open and pass through.

His past relationship with Rushingwater had no real love in it, it was mainly for the title and Panther was well aware of the fact. They were no real match, but somehow they nevertheless reached the point of actually lifemating...and sharing their soulnames very prematurely. After only two turns split, both realizing that the love they'd finally build up just wasn't enough. Wrecked by the breakup Panther was sad and sullen at best and kept mostly to the company of his pet panther, Shadow, who he had adopted a few turns earlier. When Shadow died from a fight with a wild female panther Panther kept his pelt in memory of his furry friend.

His life now bumpy at best Panther found a small reprieve in Sunbird's companionship. She was quiet and calm, qualities he greatly appreciated but seemed to find only rarely in his tribemates. The two made a deal: Sunbird would teach him to mimic birds and he would teach her to use a bow. A good trade, he thought, but was also surprised to discover that he enjoyed her company for more reasons than simply her serenity. When she left with Century to go on his quest he realized he missed their quiet times together and now awaits the return of Century's group, hoping that his friend—and the others, of course—will all be coming back safe and soundly.


Rainlight

Soulname: zen
Age: 63
Gender: Female
Position: Craftsman, Fletcher
Parents: Coral (mother, deceased) & Whirl (father, deceased)
Siblings: Songglow (sister, deceased) & Bound (brother)
Recognized: None
Love/Lifemate: Magpie (former lovemate)
Children: None
Skills:
Crafting – Bows/Arrows, Carvings (wood)[/list]
Food – Preparation, Cooking, Meat Curing, Preservation
Hunting – Tracking, Scouting, Skinning (animal/fish)
Weapon – Bow

Rainlight (known as Heartsflower until recently) has long silver hair, blue eyes and lightly tanned skin. She's a slender and limber elf, and the last child of Whirl and Coral, who both died when she was barely a teen. Speaking about them still pains her but her grief is not overwhelming; she is a rather lively elf—with a remarkable love for flowers. Bound, her brother and close agemate, is very different from her, stoic and conservative, but they nonetheless share a tight bond after the death of their parents brought them closer together.

Despite her still reasonably young age she is a talented craftsman, specializing in wood-carving and has excelled as a fletcher. Hunting isn't lost on her either and she is quite handy with a bow, making her a particularly good hunter of birds. A little shy in spite of her happy nature she never took a lovemate because no one seemed terribly interested in her (if they did she didn't notice) and instead took to dreaming and planning to find “the one and only”, which many of her tribemates found amusing and a little strange. Unknown to her she can be a little over-the-top flirty when talking to others, her head spinning ahead about the the future they might have together if that elf is “the one”.

This happened when she literally ran in Magpie, marking her first meeting with the elf. Off her mind went: he was new, he was, well, odd, wearing a skirt and all, but he was handsome and didn't seem to have a lovemate and oh...! Hitting it off surprisingly well they lovemated not long after, both seemingly head over hells in love. However, the pink cloud of bliss eventually evaporated and the two started bumping heads. They went away for a year to concentrate on each other, but Heartsflower resented how Magpie seemed to focus only on his loom, leaving her to hunt and care for them both. Finally they had a big shout-out fight, ending with Magpie running off in a storm. After he returned (noticeably roughened up after having been taken hostage by a human) they finall talked it out and decided to split up.

In the years since Century and his splinter-group left the tribe Heartsflower has found a new name for herself: Rainlight. Matured by her bumpy lovemating and breakup she puts a lot of effort into supporting her close friend and agemate Softglow in her relatively new position as Chieftess.


Reed
Soulname: Koi
Age: 8 (immortal)
Gender: Male
Position: Kit
Love/Lifemate: N/A
Children: N/A
Parents: Calliope (mother), Highdive (father) & Flight (adoptive father)
Skills:
Playing kit games...

Personality: OPEN

With his raven black hair and bright purple eyes Reed (born Kit) resembles his very blonde and blue eyed parents very little, a fact which still amuses the tribe after eight years. Jokes have been made on the purple eyed Whisper's behalf though Reed has only recently begun to grasp why on earth his eye colour seems so amusing. Reed's family situation is a special one – he calls his mother's lifemate Flight for “father” while his birth father Highdive is more of a dedicated playuncle to him. Reed knows the gist of what went down after Recognition struck and forward until his birth but has accepted mother, father and uncle Highdive as his family. He has heard about of his grandfather Darklance and aunt Sundazzle and the chief they follow but has no real relationship with them apart from the stories he has been told. 


Seashell

Soulname: Hali
Age: 611 (immortal)
Gender: Female
Position: Gatherer, Jeweler
Parents: Mossberry (mother) & Skyblue (father, deceased)
Siblings: Two miscarried brothers, Dawn (sister, stillborn) & Deerprance (cousin/adoptive sister)
Recognized: Deepswim
Love/Lifemate: Deepswim (lifemate, deceased)
Children: Watersprite (daugther)
Skills:
Crafting - Dye-making, Feather Decor, Pottery, Basket-weaving
Food - Cooking, Gardening, Preparation, Preservation
Gathering - Clay, Eggs, Fruits, Salt, Vegetables
Other - Jewelry (beads, rock, seashells, feather), Painting, Pearl-diving, Sewing

Seashell is a beautiful female with brown wild corkscrew curls and bright green eyes. Calm and modest she possesses a kind heart and sweet demeanour... and a slightly obsessive habit of collecting all the seashells she can find whenever she's down by the beach. She's become so adamant in her seashell-gathering over the years that Tanfall, the tribe's tanner, had to start sewing extra pockets on her clothing because she kept filling them all up. Apart from seashells she also likes to gather feathers, pearls, rocks, coral, anything that's even remotely pretty and deftly turns the things she finds into beautiful jewellery.

A devoted lifemate and a dotting mother Seashell lived on the hope that they would always have the perfect family. Ignorance is a bliss. Depression hit her lifemate Deepswim after he lost a leg in a shark-attack; as an animal-bonder he thought himself a failure. It all went down the slope from there: Deepswim withdrew from the family and finally took off to an island two days' voyage from the Holt. Seashell followed him, leaving their young teenage daughter Watersprite in the care of her grandparents, Mossberry and Tide's Out. When the returned after a year of absence and in no better shape than when they left Seashell tried hard to pick up the pieces of her shattered family but little did it help. It all came to an end (for better or for worse) when Deepswim was beaten to death by human hunters.

Losing her lifemate was not easy. Seashell was torn, her grief stemming from the fact that Deepswim died while still at odds with both their daughter and herself. Eventually her mother, Mossberry, convinced her to stay with the living and not succumb to her grief. She has grown a little closer to Watersprite again but understands if her daughter is still a little averse to her. She has accepted Deepswim's death to the point where she can at least appreciate that he no longer is in pain, physical or mental. Picking up her friendship with Cascade again has also brought her closer to Adria, and she now enjoys discussing jewellery designs and swapping ideas with her, finding her pleasant to be around.



Seaside Elves


Sharktricker

Soulname: Arha
Age: 73 (immortal)
Gender: Female
Position: Huntress, Fisher
Parents: Beesweets (mother, deceased) & Tallwood (father, deceased)
Siblings: Magpie (brother)
Recognized: None
Love/Lifemate: none
Children: None
Skills:
Crafting - Basic Weapons, Trap-making
Fishing - Spear, Net
Food - Cooking, Meat Curing
Hunting - Tracking, Trapping, Skinning (animal/fish)
Weapon - Spear, Dagger, Bow/Arrow (rare)

With short, wild and windswept silver hair, narrow green eyes, sun-kissed skin and a tall, sinewy frame Sharktricker's appearance goes hand-in-hand with her fierce and devious demeanour. An experienced hunter she takes great pride in her skills, sometimes a little more than would be deemed proper. Formerly known as Coralsand, Sharktricker took her new name after she began hunting a very particular kind of prey: sharks. The people of Thunderwater Holt still have a hard time coming to terms with this very questionable habit of her, but Sharktricker cares very little for what people think of her; she's your typical “tough girl” and has very little tolerance for those who cries and laughs “too easily”. Objects may fly and shatter if she get angry but she doesn't actively lash out violently unless provoked. Should such a situation arise she'll throw a mean punch! Looking past her disturbingly short fuse Sharktricker is also easily bored and will sometimes take to teasing her tribemates to pass the time.

Magpie, her younger brother, whom she raised after their parents dies when he was only ten years old, is the only one who can truly get past her snarky attitude. When he was taken hostage by a human the young huntress was ready to go on a rampage. She's also very short-tempered towards Reefedge, Magpie's agemate who has always teased him about his girly dressing habits.

In the past, before the tsunami wiped out Seaside Holt, Sharktricker spent many days chasing after and pranking her former chief Jade. She knew he detested such audacious behaviour but it didn't detour her and finally, somehow, she managed to get him in the furs, with the clever use of dreamberry wine. Jade was less than pleased, especially because their drunken encounter had been Sharktricker's initiation. They agreed to stay friends, ended up in the furs once more, then agreed once more to stay just friends. This time it worked. However, despite their friendship Jade's actions upon arriving at Thunderwater Holt made Sharktricker question his motives and decided to keep an eye on him. She shared her worries with the elves she had grown close to. Jade wasn't pleased. To Sharktricker the loss of his friendship was simply “good riddance”. She adhered to the Thunderwater chief now.

Going with Century on his quest was a tough decision for Sharktricker. Should she really leave her little brother behind? But, knowing that someday Magpie would need to stand on his own as well Sharktricker decided to go with Century. And she couldn't deny that the promise of adventure did excite her.



Wanderers

Caydin

Age: 713
Soulname: Sona
Sex: Male
Position(s): Weaponmaker, Carver, Guard
Parents: Jinor (father, deceased) & Malati (mother, deceased)
Siblings:
Love/lifemate: Serrah (Recognized, lifemate)
Children: Zum (daughter, deceased)
Skills:
Crafting - Weapons, Tools, Carvings (wood/bone)
Hunting - Scouting
Other - Jewelry-making (bead/wood/bone), "painting" (He calls it that. It really isn't)
Weapon - Dagger (bone with beautiful carvings), Spear (bone)
Carvings tools

Caydin has short blonde hair, surprisingly boyish blue eyes and a decent tan despite working mostly within the premises of his tent or cave residence, depending on the season. He is a tool and weaponmaker and likes to think himself an instrumental part in the tribe's survival, in spite of his lacking hunting skills. His mother died in childbirth and his father fell victim to a poisonous snakebite, leaving quiet little Caydin orphaned at the age of five. His remaining family kept a close eye on him but he was evenly raised by the entire tribe until he reached adulthood.

He grew from quiet child to sullen adult, and prefers his own company over that of the tribe. He's not exactly a loner, the tribe chatter just doesn't appeal to him... and he's a little shy. Often he gets lost in his work and someone has to forcibly pull him outside for a gulp of fresh air—not that he'll show the culprit any appreciation. He only openly tolerates the presence of his Recognized lifemate Serrah... and his younger uncle-cousin, Zeed, and is very thankful towards them whenever they bring him food. He loves food and has a habit of snacking away even while working, but still needs someone (mostly Serrah) to keep count of his meals, or he would probably starve from lack of proper food.

His demeanour changed for the better, once, after his Recognition with Serrah. Caydin was elated about becoming a father and for the first turn of baby Zum's life he was lively, outgoing and extraordinarily happy. When she died still in her infancy Caydin was crush and withdrew even deeper into his shell than he had been before his Recognition. He was a little surprised himself when he and Serrah managed to stick together during the grief. They are still devoted lifemates to this day, a rare occurrence within the tribe. Most Recognized pairs share the child rearing but choose to stay furmates or simply friends, if even that. Caydin, however, doesn't yearn for anyone but Serrah. He knows she understands and that's all he needs.