Sarine Elle

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Revision as of 14:55, 4 April 2008

Sarine Elle is an elven ranger. She is almost 3000 years old. Her rank is Peregin (which appears to be a generic Elven term/rank for all the rangers), as mentioned several times during the discussion with the members of the Elven Council in Chapter 20.

Personal history and personality

A long, long time ago (see the prologue), Sarine had a human mate, in a relationship that lasted for eight years before his untimely death, and was pregnant with a half elven baby. She was also one of the Viradior, the elven "special forces" cadre, although whether this was before, during or after her pregnancy isn't clear. All we know is she "retired centuries ago." We do know, however, that in her job in the Viradior, she trained the human fighters who became (or at least so she thinks) the predecessors of the Ensigerum. This leads her to an almost fatal underestimation of Warrel's fighting skills, but she prevails with a little help from Jon Amraphel, with whom she has a relationship that can reasonably be called "ambivalent."

Now, as a ranger, she hunts Errants for a living. However, it seems she only joined the rangers to get out of the elven city, where she hated to live, and save some face at the same time, but that was mostly for her mother's sake. As Misa stated she frequently goes behind other's backs and helps half elves who are not Errants.

When Sarine isn't out roaming the world, she lives in a house (condo? apartment?) in Praenubilus Astu with magical windows that simulate day and night. It seems to be very sparsely furnished, as one would expect for a ranger, and Sarine tends to just throw clothing and armor around the floor in a haphazard way when she's there (raising the hopes of voyeuristic readers in the process). Material goods just don't seem to matter much to her, and she is clearly repelled by the ostentation of Praenubilus Astu.

Temperamentally, Sarine definitely inclines not to suffer fools gladly, and by her standards, there are a lot of fools out there. However, she also tends to respond in kind to good will, respect and decency. For example, after Bani's dad recovers from his initial shock when she and her companions barge in on him and extends his hospitality to them, she's the one who expresses appreciation, and also sympathy for the loss of his wife -- in which she sees parallels with elven attitudes to marriage. She also has a telling change of attitude when she realizes that Miyo Hinadori is still carrying a childishly naive torch for Rarune, eighteen years after Meji's love-'em-and-leave-'em conception. She switches from brusque dismissal of a dingbat (which, to be sure, Miyo certainly is) to a sense of pity that leads her to try (for her own reasons as well) to let Miyo down easily. Of course, it doesn't work out that way. She's also gentle with the dim but well-intentioned scribe Renane, whom she meets while facing down the Elven Council following her first return to Praenubilus Astu. The Council themselves, now ... see previous remark about not suffering fools gladly.

One of her many oddities (at least from an elven standpoint) is her name itself. Sarine has pointed out that most elves only use a single name, not two as she does. So where did "Elle" come from? She says, in that same episode, that it's a "long story." Her human mate's surname, maybe? Who knows ...

Sarine seems to have a bad case of Aetern Desiderium, although she'd never admit it, of course.

Magic

Sarine is a powerful spellcaster -- "mage" doesn't seem quite right -- whose bag of tricks includes at least the following (any resemblance to spells from various RPGs is purely coincidental):

• Command: used on her annoyingly persistent information source in Saus, and maybe also on the crowd in the tavern after she executes Derren Felmel
• Healing: given that violence seems to follow her around like a puppy dog, she gets lots of chances to use this one -- repairing the elven army after the great battle, Jon's wrist after she introduces herself and has to injure him to keep him from shooting her, herself during and after the battles with Melrin and Warrel, various of the elves who intercept her and the Amraphels outside Praenubilus Astu
• Sleep: used on the Shipping Company Guy after she extracts information from him on where Jon and Meji were going; later used unsuccessfully on Sara Amraphel, who resists the spell
• Mind Wipe: used on Jon the morning after the night before
• Earthquake: used to throw Melrin off balance so she can recover the initiative after he ambushes her
• Force Bolt: with which she nails Melrin in the kisser to turn the tide of the battle; also used on Misa, fortunately with non-fatal results.
• Illusion: used first to disguise how hacked up she is when she goes back into the tavern after dispatching Melrin, and later to get the drop on bandit Jim
• Domination or Mind Control or whatever you want to call it: used to overcome Jim's reluctance to rat on his colleagues, and then to get him out of the party's hair by sending him off to confess his crimes in town, although Jon finds a more direct solution
• Fire Blast: Used against Warrel in Chapter 24, when she seriously wants to make the guy dead. However, it doesn't, which is one of the things that makes her a bit ... anxious ... about the outcome of the big battle in the church, although all's well that ends well.
• Shield: Cast to protect Jon and Sara when the three of them are intercepted by an elven patrol outside Praenubilus Astu

She was also winding up something presumably nasty to hurl at Ian when he disappeared with Meji, but he was quicker on the draw...

Weaponry

Sarine normally fights with two short swords, as when she nearly decapitates Derren Felmel (hardly a "fight," just an execution) and later in battle with Melrin. She also owns a Durus Flamma weapon, as seen in various flashbacks and maybe in her pad in Praenubilus Astu. However, she doesn't routinely use it, still feeling bound by the proprieties that dictate that a Durus Flamma is only supposed to be used in duels. This is just one of the many contradictions in her personality: rigorous adherence to elven conventions of the past, while she defies the conventions regarding Errants. Well, that's why we love her so much. None of these things stop her from whipping out an advanced weapon when she's fighting for survival, as in her big scene with Warrel. She also uses it in her duel with Sara Amraphel, although it appears that she intentionally refrains from striking a killing blow with it.

See Also

• List of Spells

• The following text is quoted from Michael Poe in this thread.)

Sarine's Armor

"Does anyone have the faintest clue what the back of Sarine's armor looks like? 'Cause it affects how I can make the chest plate and the poltrouns. Also the leg guards, but those look pretty basic, so it shouldn't be TOO difficult to figure it out... "

The front and back torso pieces are connected by straps at the sides and rests ontop of a separate piece that covers her neck and collar bone (the shoulder pads are also connected to this part). The back of the leg guards are just straps as is the underside of the upper arm/shoulder parts.

And under those pieces is just a tight-fitting, black shortsleeve shirt, pants and a pair of leather boots (no high ass @$@#@#@%$*&&*## heels on them).

The armor started out as leather but each time I colored the thing it came out looking more and more like metal so that's what I'm going with now. The darker blue parts are light weight metal plates riveted onto layers of leather (that's actually what the lighter blue parts, that end up looking more like some sort of trim, are suppose to be) for padding and to sort of quiet the armor a bit so there's no metal parts loudly clanking on other metal parts.

"In fact, Poe appears to have changed armor designs at least twice, especially considering that when she's fighting the monks, Sarine's cloak is of a different design and is worn UNDER the armor, at least that of the upper body."

Yes, the armor she was wearing in that flashback was a completely different, heavier elven made armor... I don't have any decent pictures of atm since I'm still playing with its design... and yes, the elves really like flowing cloaks and kilts/skirts and incorporate them into their armor designs no matter how impractical it may be.

"Now, in all of this, we haven't been allowing for specialty Elven-forged metals, but rather have been speaking as though her plate were simple steel. If we allow for specialty metals, though, then the entire argument becomes moot... once we change the rules there's no way to tell what's possible and what isn't."

Actually her current armor is human made and about a hundred years old or so.