Shine Cycle Character Profile: Celia
This is the next in the series of profiles of characters who will appear in the Shine Cycle, my fantasy-series-in-preparation.
Celia – Bard, Princess of the Bardic Lands, King’s Harpist of the Empire, and great-mage. A powerful weather-mage, second only to Windstorm, and one of the King’s most trusted associates.
Of all mortal concerns, music has always been Celia’s first passion—so strongly that her peers in the Bardic Lands chose her to lead them. But her metaphysical abilities were so strong untrained that she went through training, and continued practicing, both standard applied metaphysics and the non-musical aspects of the bardic craft.
She spends about a third of each year in the Bardic Lands, teaching and administering the government; a third in the Imperial court, playing as her duties require but also teaching; and third either on tour or giving advice to mages, bards, and others who need to consult her.
A tall slender woman with straight black hair extending to her waist. She wears bardic robes, cut loose enough for her to play her harp, in bright colors, often red. She also wears small earrings and has the borders of her robes embroidered with intricate designs.
Celia’s story began when she unexpectedly found herself in the utterly unfamiliar environment of the Bardic Lands early in the second century after that world’s creation, with a vivid but fading memory of her peaceful death on Earth in the late 21st century.
Seeing herself as having been given new life, and feeling her renewed youth, she set about getting to know the people among whom she had been placed. As her passion for music, for her Christian faith, and for her now-lost family was evident to all, she quickly became a popular figure among the small society of the capital there.
However, metaphysical potential manifested strongly in her, burgeoning with such force that her friends feared an upheaval and warned her she was putting herself and them in danger. The Prince of the Bardic Lands at the time, who thought of her almost as fondly as his own daughter, assigned his own tutor to train her and help get her powers under control.
While she was by no means fully trained, because the Prince’s tutor specialized in teaching children the basics and could not do much to help her with advanced topics, she reached a point of firm stability and returned to the Prince’s court, where she began to learn more about the country, its people, and its history.
A few years after that, news reached them that many of the “free nations” of the two major continents had formed an Empire under the leadership of the Sunshine Kingdom, and that the Dragon Empire was preparing a violent response. After vigorous debate, the leaders of the Bardic Lands decided to send a delegation to the Sunshine Kingdom to offer alliance, also with the hope of recruiting bards there to join their society, and Celia was asked to join the delegation.
While in Capitol, each member of the delegation gave at least one public performance; many of these were attended by leading members of the Imperial court. The King was particularly taken by Celia’s performance, and asked her to become the King’s Harpist for the Sunshine Kingdom. After consulting her peers, and receiving her Prince’s permission, she accepted that prestigious post.
Once she had settled into Capitol society in her new role, in the time not taken up by performing and preparing for her official duties, Celia began studying at the Sunshine Kingdom’s Bardic College, and after that at the College of Mages. She raced through their standard curriculum and beyond, quickly completing all the training they offered to novices and apprentices and earning a “journeyman” rating from both institutions.
For the “journeying” requirement usually laid on new journeymen, she traveled throughout the Shine and Wild Empire, blooming with the newly-declared peace, and taught anyone who asked for a lesson. For this tour, she spent two-thirds of each year for four years out in the countryside, and a third of each year in the capital giving the performances for the court expected of her as King’s Harpist. On her final return from this trip, both the Bardic College and the College of Mages awarded her with formal recognition of Mastery.
After that, she returned the Bardic Lands, visiting the Empire for a third of each year as her duties required but spending most of the time at what she thought of as “home” among her peers, becoming ever more intimately acquainted with the countryside and people of the Bardic Lands.
The Prince of the Bardic Lands died about a decade later, and as was the country’s custom its leading citizens voted to choose his replacement. They selected Celia, and then spent several weeks persuading her to accept. Even though the vote had been strongly in her favor, and the old Prince had been preparing her to replace him for years, she was reluctant, but her peers eventually prevailed on her to accept.
After her first year as Princess of the Bardic Lands, Celia decided that she needed to get away from the heights of power every so often, and so began what became her habit from then on of spending a third of her time in her capital on official business, a third of her time in the Imperial capital on her duties there or teaching, and most of the rest touring either country’s countryside.
