Ioyas Esef pez Roh

Oshoor Printmaker and Illegal Spellwriter

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Ioyas Esef pez Roh
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 2:09 pm
Topics: 2
Race: Passive
Location: Thul'Ka, Mugroba
Character Sheet: Character Sheet
Writer: Muse
Writer Profile: Writer Profile
Contact:

Mon Apr 22, 2019 2:16 pm

Ioyas Esef pez Roh

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Race: Oshoor (imbali-born arata)
Birthday: Loshis 19, 2691
Age: 28
FC: Adonis Bosso

Place of Origin: Thul'Ka, Mugroba
Current Location: Thul'Ka, Mugroba
Occupation: Printmaker, Bookbinder
Player Name: Muse

Physical Description

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Ioyas is of slightly above average height for a Mugrobi native, standing at about 5'8" tall. He is broad-shouldered for an arata, stronger than his delicate frame implies from working around heavy machinery. His features are carved into rich, dark skin and bright his amber eyes are almond-shaped with a crooked grin and straight teeth. He is usually smudged with ink or grease, though he's more than capable of appearing well-groomed when needed. Other than a small silver ring through his septum and a couple of earrings, Ioyas has no other piercings or markings. He wears his dark hair short and in various styles, often covering his head in a scarf or a wrap to keep sweat from his eyes when working in his pressroom.

When setting type, sewing book spines, or writing spells, he begrudgingly wears spectacles. Otherwise, they are stuffed in his apron breast pocket.

Ioyas' mode of dress is as thoughtless and functional as possible, as he finds that printmaking ruins anything fashionable with ink and grease regardless of his well-practiced level of care, though he does like the occasional bright color in his outfit choices. More often than not when leaving his workshop or his home, he forgets to remove his worn leather apron or still has a wax pencil tucked behind his ear.


Personality

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Ioyas is, if nothing else, creative. He is most satisfied, focused, and confident when making something, be it hand-setting type for a book order, sewing a frame, or preparing a lithograph stone for hours on end. He'd rather be making than anything else, and the process is sometimes more important to him than the end result. In his mind, his work must be as beautiful as it is functional, and this is often a source of inner conflict. Not all of what he does can be as lovely as he'd like it to be, and often his work is more treasured as an illicit commodity instead of a work of fine craftsmanship. His creativity also spills into solving problems: he's a talker, a fixer, and an improviser when all else fails. He'd rather come up with a working solution (whether in his workshop or in a social situation) than be forced into violence, though he's not necessarily afraid to step up to such measures if the solution requires such.

That said, Ioyas is also stubborn. He likes to be right, and when he is actually wrong (which is often enough that it should be humbling), he struggles to admit he's wrong, to apologize, and to make things right. His stubbornness, tempered with a deep-rooted creative sense of perfectionism, can make him rather obstinate. He's not immune to passionate fits of stubborn frustration, and it's fortunate much of his printmaking and bookbinding equipment is too heavy to pick up and throw. When pushed against the grain, his first response is not to bend, but to push back with words. He can be shaped (persuaded), but immediate compliance to something he doesn't agree with is not his knee-jerk reaction ... ever.

Ioyas is both socially and magically aware that he is an arata (galdor) among imbali, and, while he'd like to say it has never been an issue, he can at least say he's come to terms with most of the issues that tend to arise ... most of the time. Raised by imbali, growing up with them as friends, and working side by side with them in their own neighborhood in the sprawling capitol of Thul'Ka has given him an inability to view imbali as anything but equals, though growing up among traditionalists on the Turtle meant he was never quite given the same consideration. He has, on one hand, experienced the prejudice of other galdori, if only because of the mythological incredulity surrounding his ability to do magic in spite of his parentage. Legally considered just another imbala, Ioyas is quite aware that his magical abilities are completely unrecognized by his arati peers and, well, illegal in practice. Still considered just as soul-less and full of untruth as his magic-less peers, he is a living proof of that deep and historically maintained lie shared among those in power.

He has also, on the other hand, experienced the prejudice of imbali as well, given that his genetic abilities isolate him from the once-exiled residents of the Turtle. Socially, he exists in an awkward bubble, unable to entirely hide and yet forced to operate in often clandestine ways. Needless to say, he has been forced to become used to feeling slightly out of place in both worlds, which has made him a somewhat reluctantly private person.

It's all alright in the end, though, because his printing presses don't discriminate when he's alone in the shop with their cast iron presences and his customers still pay him handsomely enough for illicit printed materials, magical or otherwise. He's comfortable enough in his own skin, in his relationship to the mona, that he can usually let things slide off his freckled skin, but at the same time, Ioyas has chosen to almost entirely define himself by his craftsmanship in the hopes of avoiding racial or social or political definitions, consequences of that choice in current times be damned.

Likes: strong drink (be that coffee or liquor), staying up until sunrise, the smell of ink and grease, swearing like a sailor

Dislikes: disorganized things (literally anything in disarray), social gatherings without alcohol involved, dressing fancy, cooking for himself

Backstory

Ioyas was born right on time to expectant and eager traditionalist imbali nestled comfortably in the culture and history of The Turtle in Thul'Ka. While his mother was born far from the capitol and made her way upriver years before her marriage, she never shared her story of her journey. Ioyas isn't even convinced that his father, a successful and well-established bookbinder and print-maker whose shop he inherited after the old man passed away when he was 18 and left him the heir to said family business, had any idea of the entire ordeal either. His mother was still a happy woman from what he remembers, though he lost her first at the age of 4 when she gave birth to his sister, Ama'ra, and did not survive the difficult labor. His father worked hard to raise them both, run the bindery, and be involved in traditionalist imbali politics and society.

His first decade was otherwise uneventful, and he and his sister have no complaints about their childhood other than missing the lovely woman who they would have called mama. Even once it was evident that Ioyas was, indeed, arata and not imbali, his father didn't blink an eye. Irrespective of his racial pride, he loved his children as much as he loved his wife. Instead, he sought to give his boy a skill and point him in a direction with the hopes that the label of oshoor wouldn't carry too much of a sting as long as he had some sort of craft to back it up with.

While already apprenticing him around the shop and introducing him to printing and making books, his father also took the time and money to find him a tutor and quietly, privately, secretly allow for the education of his son in magical things he had neither the ability to teach nor interest in learning much about. Studying never came easy to Ioyas, and much of what he has learned in terms of magic has been self-taught and is probably wildly dangerous, bordering on the sort of experimental theorems an Amati would give their robes for if they could. However, the clandestine, illegal nature of magical study for his son put a strain on their relationship, despite Ioyas' budding love and passion for printing in his father's footsteps.

While it was almost a personal necessity to find connection among other oshoori, especially given both his sister and his father's mostly well-hidden discomfort, Ioyas still struggled to remain connected to his family. Unfortunately, his father's untimely death and all but ended Ioyas' choices, leaving him the heir and proprietor of the bindery and print shop at 18 as well as the sole provider for his slightly resentful younger sister. Ama'ra never said anything out loud, but it became painfully obvious she believed her brother was, indeed, even more cursed than she could ever be.

His sister, an imbala unlike her brother, was accepted into Thul'Amat half a year after the loss of their father. She did not hesitate to take the opportunity to get away from everything familiar and sad and unfortunate. Ioyas really doesn't even know what she is studying, for it's an understatement to say they don't talk much. Her desire to distance herself from loss has also included her brother, though it may also be because of her discomfort at their magical differences. Being raised among traditionalist imbali has not always been easy for Ioyas, quite aware both physically and socially of the perceived differences between himself and almost everyone else he's surrounded by in the Turtle. It was often even more difficult for his sister, having to be a buffer between the truth and the lies.

Still seen as a soulless liar as well as some dangerous mistake by both galdori and imbali, Ioyas is more than just a little jaded with progress and politics and social standards. He's happy to have the act of creating and making to give him purpose and definition instead of anyone else's opinions, and is quite content in the truth that everyone else is no more (and no less) a liar than himself. His idea of personal honor is defined by tangible things: good printing, a well-bound book, and bootstraped, self-made spellcraft. The line he walks is thin and he finds himself more often in touch with the underbelly of Thul'Ka and not it's shining face, though that's not to say he wouldn't like to see it another way.

Still, he's not interested in being considered just another typical galdor any more than he is comfortable being told he's just another imbala. Neither culture seems comfortable with him in their midst, and that's okay. He can play both sides for now. Not only can he print and bind books of any number of illicit subjects, but he can offer to more discerning clients what few others in the Turtle are able to: spellcraft. It's a bit of a competing edge in the publishing business, and Ioyas is happy to exploit it whenever the need arises, though he feels compelled to study more, be it among other oshoori in secret or from another, more illicit source in the underworld.


Aptitude Skills

Mental
Good
Physical
Good
Social
Poor

Focus Skills

Combat

None

Linguistics

Monite: Fluent
Mugrobi: Fluent
Estuan: Fluent
Estuan Sign: Broken

Magic

Perceptive: Elementary
Static: Elementary

Professional

Printmaker: Professional
Spellwriter: Beginner

Career and Income

Occupation

Ioyas is a bookbinder, printmaker, and spellwriter. He works with both letterpress moveable type and lithography. He can draw images, carve engravings, and cast metal type. He can bind and create books as well as scrolls and grimoires. He has secretly cast Monite in lead type.

Income: Average

Because he identifies as an imbala to the world around him, Ioyas has financial freedom to grow his business and be successful. He is more than busy with clients and book orders, supplementing his income with his more illegal activities.

Housing and Inventory

Housing: Small House and Business

His print and bindery shop is on the Way of the Book, tucked into little alley off the main road on Ribbon Street. The old hand-painted sign (refreshed last by his father almost 30 years ago) reads simply:

The Between Hours Press

in Mugrobi (more literally In Between the Houses of Time Press).

The downstairs features Ioyas' workshop and small storefront, featuring a variety of bookbinding equipment, two different printing presses, cabinets upon cabinets of type, flat files of paper, and a host of other intricate, messy, somewhat obscurely interesting things. The upstairs is his residence, which is entirely too large a space for him even if he won't admit it, considering he now lives alone. Still, he keeps his sister's room nice and cozy as a guest room and now has a little office for himself for spellwriting and studying.

Inventory

Ioyas owns a decent wardrobe, an impressive library of grimoires, and all of his own printing equipment. He's not one for pets.

Goals

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Aware that most of his spellwriting customers and connections are of underworld nature, Ioyas wouldn't mind a more steady contact for more regular business, especially if he could continue to study magic in the process. Writing spells and printing magical works is perhaps his form of making a political statement, though he wouldn't be one to admit that out loud any more than he is able to make that at all public.

That said, the oshoor wouldn't mind an apprentice or an assistant around the shop; printing and bookbinding are slow, laborious processes he wouldn't mind sharing with someone else.

Other than that, he's not very good at thinking long term, though somewhere under the ink and glue are probably curiosities about a family for himself one day.

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