Sarna

From The Heretic Knowledge Vault

Latest revision as of 15:36, 11 August 2010

Sarna
Race:	Elves
Gender:	Female
Introduction:	2004/02/18
Appearances
Chapter 6 02/18, 02/20, 02/23 Chapter 36 11/05, 11/07, 11/10, 11/12 Chapter 39 Cover, 03/23, 03/25, 03/30, 04/01, 04/03, 04/06, 04/08, 04/10, 04/13, 04/15, 04/17, 04/20, 04/22 Chapter 40 06/01, 06/03, 06/05, 06/08, 06/10, 06/12, 06/17, 06/19
Mentions
2003/11/24, 2004/02/16, 2006/05/12, 2008/02/13(?)

Sarna is an elven ranger first seen in Saus, disguised as a human male for reasons described below by Poe. She left for Isabel, hunting the two errants purportedly headed that way. Though she is an acquaintance of Sarine, it would not be entirely correct to say that they trust one another. She has been around humans too long, according to Sarine; this could be because of her sarcastic attitude, her carelessness in maintaining her disguise (which is penetrated by the child Suzie), or because she was so easily fooled by a misdirection of Sarine's. The experience has given her a highly developed capacity for cynicism, whether directed at the Great Houses, Toren (whom she calls the "Lead Dead Moron"), or humanity in general.

In her human disguise, she bears a curious and no doubt coincidental resemblance to Gabriel's henchman. There may be an amusing, oblique reference to her in this disguise here, although it's not certain that the "friend" in question was Sarna.

She reappears later in the story, after being called back to Praenubilus Astu to join the mission to roust the sleeping Senilis. The ensuing, highly snarky dialogue makes it clear that she doesn't think much of Sarine's preference for running around (and otherwise getting involved...) with smelly humans rather than going and dying on the Senilis mission like a good little soldier. Sarna herself is taking a pragmatic view of the mission, even as she speaks contemptuously of "this ugly hole in the ground." Sarna, it appears, doesn't think very highly of anything, with the possible exception of herself. In this line, it may or may not be significant that Sorna is Spanish for "sarcasm," which could just about be her middle name. (Note that Sarna is Spanish for "seven-year itch" -- which probably isn't applicable.)

She gets one last (alas) moment on stage at the great battle in the Far North, where she has been left as part of the rear guard to intercept Sarine and friends on the way to doing whatever they had planned to do. This leads to an extended (and, of course, snarky) fight with Sarine that lasts for most of two chapters, and ends with her unfortunate demise, leaving Sarine with a typically angsty monologue about having had to kill her oldest friend. This moves her into the ranks of the Living Impaired, but she certainly went down fighting.

(Taken from this entry in the modern Forum)

Yes, the general idea with the illusion spells that Sarna uses is to make the illusion as close to your general body size and shape as possible for the easiest, most effect results. Trying to make yourself look like someone smaller or taller takes a great deal of effort to coordinate and will often come out looking odd and unnatural when it moves around and would require a complicated juggling act if you had to actually physically interact with a object during that. So, since Sarna is around 6'4" (Sarine is a very short 6' by elf standards) she chooses to look like a man as it would draw less attention than a 6'4" woman would.