Character Avatar: Riki Lindhome
Player: Imaginos
Character Name: Jenelle no Orchis ('Nell' to friends)
Age: 36
Birthday: Unknown
Height: 5'9" (1.78m)
Rank/Title: Second of Orchis
Race: D'Angeline
Country/Province: L'Agnace, City of Elua
Appearance:
Just a bit taller than average, Jenelle has a presence that immediately lights up any room she's in. Her features are incredibly expressive, painting with intense strokes whatever her current mood might be. Nell's eyes are probably her most striking feature - bright and big and blue. Her hair is a deep, yellowish blonde and her face has only just begun to show the passing away of youth.
Personality:
Like many disciples of the Orchis canon, Jenelle is many things to many people - bright, snarky, irreverent, sensual, musical, inquisitive, passionate, creative...usually all at the same time. She is an endless ball of energy that is balanced by sometimes needing to just close herself away with tea and a book for a day or so. Most of her hours are filled with handling the business of the House and assisting her Dowayne. Her role as Second also finds her as a kind of intermediary between the Dowayne and the younger Adepts.
It is often true that a comedic personality is rooted in tragedy, and Jenelle certainly had many of those as a child. She has seen how callous, random, and cruel the world can be...so making a refuge of joy and laughter is something she needs for herself as much as she knows the other Adepts need it.
Additional Information
Marital Status:
Married to her job...
Known Languages:
D'Angeline (Native), Tiberian (Conversational), Skaldi (Basic)
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths: the strength of Nell's personality is tempered by the fact that it's a warm, open, funny, and honest one. She is easy to befriend, and not the type of friend that is fake. Jenelle has always approached life and other people from a 'what you see is what you get' mentality. Despite the fact that she can come off as frivolous, she is actually quite studious and good with bookeeping and penmanship.
Weaknesses: despite her experience and station, Jenelle still sometimes has bouts of insecurity and even loneliness. It's the timeless curse of the comically-minded - the tears of a clown.
Family Members/Important NPCs:
Jeannot Roche (Father, deceased)
Lean Roche (Mother, deceased)
History:
So much of Jenelle's early life is lost - consumed by flame and blood and privation. As little as she remembers of it, her tale does indeed have a beginning. Born to Jeannot and Lean Roche on a small homestead in the eastern marches of Azzalle, little Jenelle's days were happy, if simple. Her parents were croppers and she grew up in comfortably humble conditions...at least for the first five years of her life.
Raids were a fact of life on the Skaldi border, although it had been quiet for years. Nobody knew who the warband was, or what they were truly there for - wealth, maybe, or simply the cattle - but they came with flame and steel that simple farmers could not withstand. Her father was slain along with several others out in the fields, but her mother was able to escape. Lean quickly bundled her daughter up and fled, eventually seeking the protection of Troyes-le-Mont. The fortification offered safety, but Lean knew she needed to move on to the larger City of Elua. One, because it would offer more opportunities for a widowed mother...and two, because she had a long-nagging illness inflamed by the stress of the flight and deprivation of the wilderness. She knew she would need to seek the Temple healers there.
Lean soon found a merchant's carvan heading into the City and left with them, her young daughter in tow. Tragically, the road was to much for her health to overcome and she died of sickness on the journey. When Jennelle finally made it to the City of Elua, it was as a scared, lonely orphan.
Charge of her was handed over to the Temple of Elua, where she recovered under the tutelage of the priests. Jenelle started to find her own voice, coming out of her scared shell and opening herself up to creative expression. It was like a floodgate - when it opened, nothing could hold the river back. She explored all means available to her, from poetry to singing and playing instruments, even starting to sneak out into the streets and peek in on taverns and taprooms to watch the minstrels.
It soon became apparent that, as much as she appreciated them, her time with the Temple was rapidly becoming outgrown. One of the Priestesses of Elua (who had also introduced her to the lute) was a former Adept of the Night Court, and thus recommended that Jenelle consider it as a path.
As generous and giving as the Eluans were, her growing smart-assed sense of humor was starting to get a shelf life...
Fostering in the Night Court proved to be the right choice for her. Access to all the books and knowledge and personalities were many seeds for growth in the young girl. She seemed to teeter on the edge of Eglantine with her natural musical and vocal talent, but the underpinning of a wild sense of humor and lack of seriousness toward the musical craft eventually steered her toward destiny. Orchis purchased her and, by age thirteen, she was fully dedicated as a Servant of Naamah.
The Showing was fascinating, as she'd often imagined it would be. Although Nell had assumed she might have made some offhand joke about the man grunting like a wild boar or something, she actually sat with her chin resting on her hugged knees in rapt attention. It was then that the true nature of her calling, the human sacredness of it, managed to settle in. As she watched the Adepts entwined in their passion, she felt a warmth in her body, almost like her blood prickled with energy and excitement. This was true closeness, true desire, passionate need and then open, tenderly-exposed heart of companionship. She would do this, too, for people...a light to dispel the shadow of loneliness. She could be the light.
Nell's next three years passed in a blur as she readied herself for full servitude. She continued to grow and mature, springing up taller than many and even causing some murmurs that she might not be capable of physical perfection. Jenelle has often thought that, had she been attempting to fit into any other House, she might have been turned out for not being an ethereal goddess on earthly feet...but she was true to herself, and what was needed for Orchis.
Her Debut night was a gay affair, as many things in Orchis were. She had three patrons interested, sitting and quietly listening to them deliberate until finally the young Adept jumped up and started to serve as her own auctioneer, playfully selling her physical features and sense of humor for them. The jest (thankfully) went over well, raising her virgin price far beyond what it likely was going to be. That night's satisfaction was twofold - in the bed, and in her mind...for she was truly an Orchis.
For the first time since she was five years old, Jenelle was home.
Serving Naamah through the lens of Orchis brought Nell as much joy as she hoped her patrons got. She rose steadily through the ranks of the House as she worked away at her marque, cultivating a small but loyal clientele. The marque was declared finished by her twentieth summer, but Jenelle never entertained any thoughts of leaving the Night Court. It was fortunate, then, that the young Adept had also been noticed quite often by House leadership. Her wit, creativity, and dedication eventually helped Jenelle rise to the rank of Second of Orchis House, serving as a loyal right-hand of the Dowayne and helping foster the next generation of those searching for the light.
Updates:
Approved by Janet - 2nd April 2023
