Minet's Portrait Archive
4th Archive - Twin Towns Characters

Strev Utrykk Strev Utrykk was a worker in a Rygan factory owned by the Golden Lynx Cartel. A section leader for one of the more productive shifts, he was uniquely situated to work his way into the management of the company. But he was at a disadvantage ... he cared! Don't misunderstand. He cared about his job and the work he did as deeply as he cared for his fellow workers. He truly felt that companies would benefit as much as workers if all worked in cooperation and equality to support their shared goals. Needless to say, this was one controversial dwarf! In another place and age, he would have been a crusading labor leader. Ten years earlier, the 22-year-old Utrykk had formed a social club for unmarried contract workers in his factory and a neighboring plant. Most of these workers lived in small, dingy, but warm and sanitary dormitories provided by their companies. They had little to think about but a 6-day-week of hard labor, and a holy day of visits by clerics of all stripes. The social club provided an outlet for recreation, as well as encouragement for literacy and technical education for the workers, many of whom had never attended formal schools. But the club also provided an outlet for discussion, ideas, and ultimately discontent. His story is a long one, and his involvement in the founding of the Twin Towns is further described if you click here. Celeniel Starshine Celeniel Starshine was a relative newcomer to Pride, although her family had lived in the town since the founding. Only 40 years old, an adolescent among elves, she had proven her mettle as a warrior very early, and her long, blond tresses covered a number of scars on her left shoulder, gained before she learned the best techniques for handling a shield. After a 10-year enlistment with the Imperial Forces at Hardonas, she had joined a group of mercenary soldiers hired to remove a small nest of Woodsmen who had been terrorizing the farmers and herders in a rather isolated valley two weeks ride north of Pride. The effort turned into a particularly nasty campaign against a far more organized opponent than they had bargained for, led by a retired Woodsman General who had personal plans for the area. Since she was so nearby, and still recovering from a serious injury sustained in the latter days of the fighting, she decided to visit her parents in their new village. After a rather violent encounter with Lothar Po, the Pride constable, the two became close friends, and Celeniel was appointed deputy constable ... as Lothar said, "She gets bored beteween wars. Keep her busy, and maybe we won't need to keep getting her out of trouble!" Tauren Pald A native of Chaton Island, Pald's family was among the poorest citizens of that wealthy island. Third of four children orphaned when Pald was 6, they were raised by the eldest sister, with the aid of Mithran volunteers. Very impressed by the concern shown to all those in his neighborhood by the Mithrans, he resolved at an early age to join their ranks. He works among the most destitute citizens of the cities throughout Drak. Aurona Bolizar Aurona is a human of Amrodian descent from the city of Graech, but has lived most of her life on Chaton Island. She has been a religious mystic since childhood, hearing "voices" that no one else can hear, reliving memories that no one else can remember, and seeing visions that no one else can see. She joined the Sect of Dedication of the Mithran Order when she was of a very young age, and as she gets older, her religious experiences seem to be increasing both in frequency and power. She thinks that she is communing directly with Mithras. Others around her aren't so sure, and some question her mental stability. Cyndre Like Pan, with whom she travels, Cyndre, a beautiful young elf, with her everpresent cat, seems to be nearby when things are not as they should be. Perhaps she is the personification of that inner power that beings call upon to do heroic deeds. If you'd ask her, however, she'd laugh and call you silly for thinking that she's anything but a normal being.

Ouvrange DuRoq Ouvrange joined the Mithran Sisterhood of the Healing Touch at the age of 18, the young widow of a soldier of the Hegemony, and orphaned daughter of a minor warrior who fought for the Empire. Alone in the world, she found that few of her former friends and family were willing to help her. Although literate and schooled in many skills, a single young woman had few enticing prospects in Rygan. Befriended by the Sisterhood, she was rescued from what could have been a life of prostitution. Ouvrange had known Minet's sister, Dryade, during a year of study in Rygan some three years before. Soon after Muette and her friends returned to Hyys from Rygan, Ouvrange came to the city on a mission for the Sisterhood. She and Dryade renewed their earlier friendship, and the young cleric was introduced to Minet and his four friends. Muette and Ouvrange hit it off immediately, and had discussed the conditions among the workers in Rygan, as well as the thought of starting a "self-help" community for workers and their families who wished to move to the countryside. Ouvrange also had confided her dream of starting a refuge for the widows and children of soldiers and others killed in wars. She presented her idea of a widow's refuge to the elders of the Sisterhood. At first, they were skeptical, but eventually Ouvrange was given the charge to work with Muette and Utrykk, and to found her shelter as part of the combined effort, and to this end, she was released from all her other duties with the order. Zvokkus Zvokkus of the Tonttu was venerable, brilliant, and forgetful as you might imagine a superannuated dwarf wizard could be. He was a true team player, very necessary in a basically communal society. He did his job, and did it well. Unfortunately, after several hundred years, he rather forgot what he was supposed to be doing. His spells were quite effective ... as long as he remembered how to cast them. Kloster Skytwinkle Colia, the Elder Herald of the Sect of Dedication, had already heard rumors of the Utrykk's activities from members of her own sect who were involved, and was very interested in the Pride experiment with great application to similar people in the teeming slums of her own Kolko. The assurance by Mornia Elventresses that the Sisterhood would be represented in the person of Ouvrange, led Colia to seek out a cleric of her own sect to work with the group. At that time, among the lesser known clerics under her supervision, was an elderly elven priest of great wisdom, but relatively low rank as he had joined the order quite late in life, after a long career as a stone mason, architect and builder of temples and shrines. His name was Kloster Skytwinkle. Having recently lost his wife of over 150 years, Colia felt that Skytwinkle needed a new focus to his life, and his skills would be invaluable in establishing any new settlement. Pleased at being considered for such an interesting assignment, Skytwinkle immediately began to work with the forming group. He is the architect of the "Pride Compound", the ubiquitous earth-sheltered, communal housing so well-adapted to life in the Twin Towns area. An interesting quote, "I know that elves don't visibly age! So why do I look so old? Because if I look young, I don't get any respect. So I make myself look my 238 years!" The Shadow Cats The Shadow Cats were created by a renegade wizard over 250 years ago. The intent was to create a species of professional warrior to be totally subservient to the Woodsmen and their generals. The experiment, supposedly based in some form of evil magic, went drastically astray, and resulted in thoroughly chaotic, purely evil beings, existing only to destroy other living things, but far less willing to follow the Woodsmen than was planned. The have a serious weakness, however, in that their natural odor is so strong and offensive to all other beings on the planet, they lack the element surprise in any attacks they launch. Pan Forester A tall handsome young elf, who seems to appear at times of peril. You always know of his presence by the haunting tune he plays. It is almost as if he was the personification of alertness, that inner warning that tells a wary traveler that danger is near. Should you ask him about that, he's likely not to reply, as he speaks very seldom, but will smile at you, and with a glint in his eye, gentle shrug is shoulders, and return quietly to his music.