Shifting Plains

From the World of Sons of Destiny

Decades before the time of the Sons of Destiny, a female shapeshifter became the leader of the people of the Shifting Plains…

Tava Ell Var never really knew her mother, but she did know her tragic fate at the hands of a band of cruel shapeshifters—a history set down by Tava’s father as a warning about life on the Shifting Plains. But after her father is murdered, Tava encounters a Shifterai warband fighting to rid the Plains of the terrorizing bandits

Shifterai leader Kodan Sin Siin is sympathetic to Tava’s suffering, but he’s determined to bring the wary young woman to the Plains. Because he knows her secret:  She, like he and his men, is a shapeshifter. Once she joins them, he knows that she will see for herself the true fate that awaits her on the Plains, and most of all, lose her fear of his people. And, in time, he knows she will find her place is in their fight—and by his side.

“I’ve never known anyone grown, male or female, with as much curiosity as Tava has.”

Name: Kodan Sin Siin
Age: 28
Height: 6′ (183cm)
Weight: 205 lbs  (93.1kg)
Eyes: Light Brown
Hair: Dark Brown, by preference thick and long, somewhat wavy
Build: Muscular and fit
Lineage: Born to Siinar Sid Quen, a fellow multerai, and Sinya Trei Dan, a respected member of the Sisters’ Council, Kodan is the eldest of three.  His brother Kenyen Sin Siin lives within Clan Cat, Family Tiger, while his sister Nansi Sin Siin lives with her husband in Clan Cat, Family Bobcat.
Speciality: Shapeshifter and warband leader.  Kodan is a multerai, a shapeshifter who can shape ten or more pure animal forms.  In fact, he is the strongest shapeshifter in Family Tiger outside of its Family Lord, his great-father.  Kodan specializes not only in being a warrior and a powerful shifter, but also in studying and thinking, since he knows these things will help him to be a better leader.
Personality: Aware of his powers and his position, Kodan has carefully kept himself single.  It isn’t that the other women in Family Tiger aren’t worthy of him, so much as they think he’s a fine prize, being a multerai, successful warband leader, and a wealthy young man.  He wants more out of his life, and from his future wife, than to be considered a possession or a prize.  What he wants is an equal, someone who cares about their fellow Shifterai as much as him, and who enjoys learning like he does.

“Kodan is right. I was as well suited to Valley life as an eagle raised to think it was a duck…”

Name: Tava Ell Var
Age: 21
Height: 5’8 (172.8cm)
Weight: 139 lbs (63kg)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown, thick, and by preference somewhat long.
Build: Slender but fit
Lineage: Tava was born to Ellet Sou Tred, a Zanthai woman kidnapped from the edge of her homeland and tormented by shapechangers claiming to be members of the Shifterai Clan Mongrel.  She doesn’t know who sired her, but claims Varamon Vel Tith, Mornai scribe, as her father.  She has no siblings, nor any other known relatives.
Speciality: Scribal Arts and Shapeshifting.  While most Mornai frown upon women who aren’t demure and submissive, Varamon raised his daughter to be intelligent and educated.  He also assisted her in exploring and learning to control her shapeshifting abilities.  So far, Tava has mastered more than a dozen shapes, mostly whenever she has successfully felt like she knew the animal in question inside and out.  She excels at learning, though she hasn’t had much opportunity for a higher education, stuck in a backwater village like Five Springs.
Personality: Growing up a Mornai girl—and thus expected to behave in a suitably demure manner—has put the “strain” in constrained for Tava’s existence, most of her life.  Raised to think for herself, the hardest part has been keeping those thoughts to herself.  One of these days, she plans to live in a place where women can speak their minds freely.  More importantly, she wants to live in a place where she can ask as many questions as she likes.  Most of all, she wants to escape the smothering cocoon of her father’s culture, and maybe find a man as trustworthy as her father.