Post by Yemoja Abeni on Jul 23, 2013 5:20:39 GMT
Yemoja Yewande Olujimi Abeni
Hey, my name is... Yemoja Yewande Olujimi Abeni
But most call me... Yemmie
If you want to, you can label me... pansexual
I've been on this earth for... 182 years
Which means I was born... Sometime in March, 1831
I'm a... teacher
And only a... earth element teacher
I have power over...earth
My eyes are... brown
And my hair is... brown
One could say... I'm sort of out-there looking. I have a lot of tattoos, mostly tribal but some I collected elsewhere in the world. My back and upper arms are covered with them, and so is my right hand, my left ankle, and my right hip to knee. I have several piercings in my ears. I'm on the short side, but slim in the waist and curvy where it counts. I have my share of battle scars, too, the worst of which is a vertical line from just behind my left ear down to just above my shoulder. That one was courtesy of some shrapnel.
I'm normally seen wearing... just about anything. I have clothes from all corners of the world, and things I've saved from decades ago. One day I'll be wearing an old Yoruba dress, the next I'm in a kimono. I tend to be on the skimpy side, though. I was raised running naked through the jungle, and that sort of freedom is hard to part with.
And I supposedly look like... Eliza Dushku
All round, I'm... peaceful. Or, at least I try to be. I don't pass judgement so long as no one is committing cruelty, and I try not to inflict my will upon others. The world is a beautiful place. Even things some believe are ugly can be breathtaking to me. I like to be free, to experience life and new things. My mannerisms come across as eccentric sometimes (okay, all the time), but I will bring no harm if you have brought no harm. Then again, if you become a threat, I'm not someone you want to mess with. I like to think of myself as down-to-earth. Real. I don't pretend to be anything other than what I am, and I don't pretend to have any clue what that may be. I don't form particularly profound attachments, but I make friends easily and hold them close to my heart for the short time we're together. I can be very protective of those around me.
I'm in love with... love, travel, adventure, nature, people, fresh fruit, music with a beat
Though I detest... attachment, obligation, being in debt to anyone, being cooped up, judgement, pessimism
But my best assets are... my serenity, my fighting abilities, and my worldliness
However my worst... my wanderlust, my reluctance to form deep attachments
And I dream of... exploring and experiencing every last corner of this world
My life story...
The Yoruba call the night I was born Iná Igbó Alë, the fire jungle night. It was the night that huge swaths of the land they had lived on for generations were burned away. They believed the gods were angry with them, but the gods were angry with themselves.
The faerie army in Western Africa had grown weak, so a group of elite fire faerie soldiers were brought in from Spain. My parents were two of these soldiers. That night, they clashed with a group of sorcerers in the jungle. Well, my father and the other soldiers did. My mother had been staying behind, tending to the injured and cooking, because she was very pregnant with her first child: me. Something went wrong with the combination of faerie fire and the sorcerers' magic, and soon the flames were out of everyone's control.
By the time the sounds of calamity reached my mother, though, she was well into her labor. She gave birth to me alone in an army jungle camp. Then, with scarcely an hour to recover and my umbilical cord still attached, she wrapped me in a blanket, and she ran from the fire and deep into the jungle. She raised me in those jungles for four years, living off the land, and neglecting her own needs in order to make sure I stayed alive. She grew weak, though, over time, and very sick.
One day, in my fourth year, my mother was ill, out of her mind with fever. I was panicked, afraid that she might die and leave me alone. I led her through the forest until we came upon a secluded Yoruba village. The people in the village said that, as I led my mother into their midst, grass and flowers sprung from beneath my feet. After the fire had devastated so much of their countryside, they were sure I was a gift from the gods.
My mother died within a few days of our arrival. Others who heard this story have speculated that it was infection, but the elder who watched over her told me it was a broken spirit. Her final words were, "Lorencio...e pora que?" My fathers name, "and for what?"
After I lived with them for a while longer and started to learn the language, I had attempted a child's explanation of what had happened, but I obviously didn't get the full meaning across. The people of the Yoruba tribe believed my mother to have been a warrior goddess. The gods had destroyed their land during the battle, and the gravely injured goddess used her final moments to deliver her only daughter as reparation for the damage she had caused.
They named me for a local river goddess who they believed I was the reincarnation of. A childless couple took me in and raised me as their own for the most part, but with a special reverence and awe. The tribe would pray to me on occasion, beg for me to make the crops grow, to deliver bounty to the village. I tried my best, but I was young, my powers weak. I often wept if I could not deliver. As a child, I spent days sometimes, sitting in barren fields and willing the crops to life. My perseverance paid off, and by the time I was grown, I was much more powerful.
The fact that I didn't seem to age after I was fully grown only strengthened the village's belief that I was a goddess. When I was in my early 50s, the Europeans came to colonize the area. War broke out, and the village was consumed in the chaos. I fled the country with a British soldier who brought me to India to be his wife. Once we reached our destination, though, I left him and set out on my own.
I traveled the world after that, never spending more than half a decade in one place. During my travels, I met other faeries who helped me to understand my own origins. I went to Spain to find out more about my parents, and was enlisted in the faerie army. I served in Africa, like my parents had, from 1906 through 1920. The violence wasn't for me, though, and after I grew weary, I moved on from that, too.
I've done so many things in my life. I studied under Buddhist monks in Nepal, under shamans in New Mexico, and Zen masters in Japan. I herded alpaca in Peru and cattle in Australia. I learned (at least passably) more than a dozen languages. I fell into the war on a few more occasions, but for the most part tried to stay away. After I heard that the truce was signed, I felt I had to be a part of the healing process. I made my way to England and applied to teach at the new academy.
I was born to... Lorencio and Garcea Hephaestus
But was raised by... Olufemi and Dayo of the Yoruba tribe
My ooc name is... Joohlia[/color][/blockquote]
And I've been roleplaying... since you could see a silent picture show for a nickel
The Secret Word is... Halloween
