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December 6 - Tell me more about Jesseryn's family
Today, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kennesaw asked me to tall him more about Jesseryn's family.
For the record, Jesseryn is the father of the character I play bin a gamekennesaw runs, Vedran Callais. But I rather suspect he does not want me to talk about Vedran *more*, but rather the other members of the family, espescially extending into the older generations, so here we go...
in his immediate family, Jesseryn has his wife, Minalda, his two children with her - Jeremyn and Melinara - and his bastard son Vedran.
He married Minalda when they were still in Vanilorra, and they came together when he was sent as a junior diplomat in service to one of the Vanilorran representatives to the Parliament of Dragons. Minalda is incredibly ambitious, socially speaking, and she is the one who manages most of the ritual of elven social interaction in Highmark. That stuff is important to Jesseryn, but he doesn't have as much time as he would like to deal with it, and for the most part she is very good at knowing what does need is immediate attention. She is less patient than him, however. I think that he were more weak willed she would be much more Lady Macbeth. He can and does rely on her for a lot of things, and they work well together for the most part - the one thing she has never accepted is his relationship with Vedran's mother, and his decision to had a child with her. She understands his aims, but the idea that he expected her to accept such a grave personal affront in order to pursue them continues to rankle.
Jeremyn is his oldest son, and the age difference between him and his father is relatively small for elves. he is deeply involved in his fathers affairs and manages a lot of his business projects. He is traditional enough that he mostly doesn't mind that he will basically life his whole life walking in his fathers footsteps, though he has shown himself willing to make decisions that at at odds with his father's plans. The biggest example of this was that he married the woman of his heart rather than pursuing a more formal arrangement. I forget how old he is - 75-ish maybe?
Melinara is in her mid 40's, and she was a teenager when Vedran was born, and so she is especially resentful of his existence. She is a traditionalist in some senses, in that she decided to pursue a more martial career with the Adventurer's Guild. She is more involved with the management end these days, and is one of their quartermasters, dealing mostly in magical weapons.
And then there is Vedran, of course!
As for the older generation - I have thought about them abstractly, but I haven't pinned down specifics, at least not to the level of names. I write some of my general ideas about the House itself On the wiki, and that gives a little insight into how I see the Callais more broadly.
Jesseryn's branch of the Callais family have not been the leaders of the house in some time. They have traditionally been druids invested in the maintenance of the natural areas in the city, and are directly involved in the maintenance of the city parks. I think this originated from an older role as wardens of some kind, and that they may have been charged with maintaining relationships with wild creatures that lived (and maybe still live!) in the area. What this translates to these days is sort of a position as civil engineers, possibly with some ceremonial roles relating to diplomacy with the natural world. If the government of Vanilorra wanted to raise an army of bears, say, technically it would be their job to facilitate (but not lead) the necessary negotiations :p I think the main branch of the family is more concerned with art, artisans, other public works, and other government projects. Possibly there could be another branch who pursued the warden thing more seriously and feed more directly into the city's military branch?
Jesseryn has at least one older sibling who is following the family path. I think this gave him a little more flexibility in pursuing an alternate career path. I think he has to have one parent, or perhaps an uncle or aunt, who is more directly involved in governmental affairs and could have gotten him an in with the diplomatic corps.
I know that he has one set of uncle/aunt who waited until quite late to have a child, so that his cousin Merlyn is actually a little younger than Melinara. Elven generations are kind of convoluted to start with though! I have always thought that they tend to operate in some ways on more of an 'age set' system than worrying specifically about generations. at least in terms of sorting out personal relationships. So you might be someone's uncle and be the same age as them, but actual birth order will be more important than who is more or less removed from the point of origin.
I think that's all I've got for the moment - of course I would be happy to try and expand on anything if asked.
kennesaw asked me to tall him more about Jesseryn's family.For the record, Jesseryn is the father of the character I play bin a game
kennesaw runs, Vedran Callais. But I rather suspect he does not want me to talk about Vedran *more*, but rather the other members of the family, espescially extending into the older generations, so here we go...in his immediate family, Jesseryn has his wife, Minalda, his two children with her - Jeremyn and Melinara - and his bastard son Vedran.
He married Minalda when they were still in Vanilorra, and they came together when he was sent as a junior diplomat in service to one of the Vanilorran representatives to the Parliament of Dragons. Minalda is incredibly ambitious, socially speaking, and she is the one who manages most of the ritual of elven social interaction in Highmark. That stuff is important to Jesseryn, but he doesn't have as much time as he would like to deal with it, and for the most part she is very good at knowing what does need is immediate attention. She is less patient than him, however. I think that he were more weak willed she would be much more Lady Macbeth. He can and does rely on her for a lot of things, and they work well together for the most part - the one thing she has never accepted is his relationship with Vedran's mother, and his decision to had a child with her. She understands his aims, but the idea that he expected her to accept such a grave personal affront in order to pursue them continues to rankle.
Jeremyn is his oldest son, and the age difference between him and his father is relatively small for elves. he is deeply involved in his fathers affairs and manages a lot of his business projects. He is traditional enough that he mostly doesn't mind that he will basically life his whole life walking in his fathers footsteps, though he has shown himself willing to make decisions that at at odds with his father's plans. The biggest example of this was that he married the woman of his heart rather than pursuing a more formal arrangement. I forget how old he is - 75-ish maybe?
Melinara is in her mid 40's, and she was a teenager when Vedran was born, and so she is especially resentful of his existence. She is a traditionalist in some senses, in that she decided to pursue a more martial career with the Adventurer's Guild. She is more involved with the management end these days, and is one of their quartermasters, dealing mostly in magical weapons.
And then there is Vedran, of course!
As for the older generation - I have thought about them abstractly, but I haven't pinned down specifics, at least not to the level of names. I write some of my general ideas about the House itself On the wiki, and that gives a little insight into how I see the Callais more broadly.
Jesseryn's branch of the Callais family have not been the leaders of the house in some time. They have traditionally been druids invested in the maintenance of the natural areas in the city, and are directly involved in the maintenance of the city parks. I think this originated from an older role as wardens of some kind, and that they may have been charged with maintaining relationships with wild creatures that lived (and maybe still live!) in the area. What this translates to these days is sort of a position as civil engineers, possibly with some ceremonial roles relating to diplomacy with the natural world. If the government of Vanilorra wanted to raise an army of bears, say, technically it would be their job to facilitate (but not lead) the necessary negotiations :p I think the main branch of the family is more concerned with art, artisans, other public works, and other government projects. Possibly there could be another branch who pursued the warden thing more seriously and feed more directly into the city's military branch?
Jesseryn has at least one older sibling who is following the family path. I think this gave him a little more flexibility in pursuing an alternate career path. I think he has to have one parent, or perhaps an uncle or aunt, who is more directly involved in governmental affairs and could have gotten him an in with the diplomatic corps.
I know that he has one set of uncle/aunt who waited until quite late to have a child, so that his cousin Merlyn is actually a little younger than Melinara. Elven generations are kind of convoluted to start with though! I have always thought that they tend to operate in some ways on more of an 'age set' system than worrying specifically about generations. at least in terms of sorting out personal relationships. So you might be someone's uncle and be the same age as them, but actual birth order will be more important than who is more or less removed from the point of origin.
I think that's all I've got for the moment - of course I would be happy to try and expand on anything if asked.