Name: Sanya Elleserys
Calishite Name: Saniya yr [unknown] al-Elleserys yi Memnon
Race: Half-Elf (Wood Elf/Calishite Human)
Origin: Sarenestar (Forest of Mir); Memnon, Calimshan
Age: 19
Height: 150cm
Weight: 45kg
Her given name might be an elven child name, or based on someone's accented attempt at the Calishite name Saniya, or else a nativization of said name made easier for northern tongues.
Saniya typically has three syllables and stress on the second syllable. Sanya, on the other hand, has two syllables and stress on the first syllable. She herself almost always pronounces her name the latter way.
Elleserys is unambiguously an elven surname, whatever meaning it once had lost to the sands of time.
Speech
For those who have known Sanya for a time, one of the more notable features about her might be her speech. She always speaks relatively formally with the well-spoken, with a neutral featureless accent more typical of learned scholars. With other people, however, her manner of speaking is more variable, regardless of the language. She seamlessly transitions between modes of speech, sometimes sounding like a rough street kid, a sailor, a desert dweller, a northerner, et cetera. The one commonality is a conspicuous absence of any mix of regional markers tying her accent down to any specific place. It's as though she has spent considerable effort masking or otherwise excising any traces of an identifiable accent from her speech. This is not her trying to disguise herself, but just how she is, a social chameleon. In this malleability, Sanya is truly a girl without a voice to call her own.
The one exception is when she says any elven utterance. She stubbornly clings to a wood elven lilt indicative of someone who was once deeply familiar with the cadence, even if she now imitates it imperfectly.
In Combat
Sanya favours an elven-style longbow. While able to shoot long range with comparable accuracy to her peers, her arm is not strong enough for high penetrating power. Thus, she prefers to shoot from close range, which allows her to precisely target weak points with good penetration. Occasionally, when she is forced into close quarters combat, she switches to an arming sword or a rapier. She has been trained in wood elven fencing, but whatever martial education she received was incomplete, and to an elf's (or warrior's) eye, she would appear to have poor form like a juvenile trainee. This doesn't mean she has the combat effectiveness of one, but more that she compensates with largely improvised techniques of her own, drawing from experience with street fighting more than from any mentor. Still, Sanya doesn't have a particularly robust physique and lacks discipline. Many opponents could simply outlast her until she lost her edge in an extended fight, and she does not do well one-on-one. Instead, she most often finds success in flanking enemies in quick and decisive attacks. In dodging attacks, she is like a contortionist. When it comes to survival, she's not so concerned with looking good, but more with whatever can get her out of harm's way. Of course, being obsessed with appearances, she does try to go for aesthetic moves when danger is minimal.
Appearance
Sanya is a mix of Calishite and elven features, an uncommon blend considering the dearth of elves in Calimshan and even fewer half-elves there. Perhaps as a consequence of that, she is very self-conscious about her appearance. She has developed an extensive routine of self-care, much of it copied from Sunites as the closest inspiration she had. Sanya carries with her everywhere a compact makeup and grooming kit, the better to allow her to gussy up on the road. She treats her body like a canvas, as a work of art. Her daily routine is akin to meditation. Despite the extent of her cosmetic treatments, she strives not to look garish. Her makeup serves mainly to accentuate her features, to make her nose appear sharper, to give her lips more volume and to make them more evenly-sized, and to give her cheeks a more ruddy hue; and to mask perceived blemishes, like the bulbousness of her nose, the smallness of her eyes, and the shape of her cheek bones.
Sanya's hair, her pride and joy, is something she takes good care of, despite how much she mutters about its brown colour being nothing special. Her hair reaches to her hip at its longest, though she rarely lets it out in public. Long hair is a liability in her work, and typically she styles it into braids that she keeps secured in the field. It is otherwise well-conditioned and regularly combed, free from matting.
Art
Drawing is Sanya's main nonprofessional passion. She has doodled since she was a toddler. Despite the hardships she's endured, her childlike whimsical wonder has never entirely left her, and it breathes throughout her work. Having a less than disciplined disposition, Sanya has long eschewed formal training and is instead self-taught. She chafes especially under the rigorous academic demands of master draughtsmen. Though she has heart, more discerning art critics and skilled draughtsmen will have little trouble spotting flaws in her work. Sanya's art fundamentals are lacking compared to better-trained illustrators. She avoids making precise measurements and instead tends to eyeball distance, proportion, and perspective. Where such precision is required, as in technical drawing, her sloppiness becomes most apparent.
She also prefers to follow flights of fancy and personal aesthetics instead of reproducing reality faithfully. When doing portraits, she often does not draw from life but instead relies on memory and imagination. She will thus usually fail to replicate intricate patterns and complicated tattoos and such, and may add her own embellishments. Still, there's plenty of room for growth.
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