҂ Kiwani Persona ҂
҂_Name___+++Niyol (Najavo for “wind”)
҂_Gender___+++Female
҂_Role-Play Color___+++Dusty Rose (#FF8899)҂_Birth Day___+++March 4҂_Physical Appearance___+++She is 5’4”, has warm copper skin, mid-shoulder length jet black hair and lavender eyes. Niyol was born without a voice and so uses the art of jingle movements to rely on her feelings to people. She has leather bands that have three close rows of these jingles on both wrists and has gone as far as to add two rows to her leather boots. She wears a long leather dress with a six inch slit on the right side. When at pow-wows, she shows off new jingle dresses she’s made.
҂_Personality___+++She is a bit shy by her disability and often becomes disgruntled by new people who don’t understand. Niyol is also unrelenting to those she doesn’t trust and will protect what is hers. She loves to express herself through story-telling dance; it is the only time she is free to express herself fully.
҂_History___+++When Niyol was born, she was born without the use of her vocal chords. The tribe’s doctor said that the Great Spirit revealed to him that He had intended special things for her and for that reason the council made her family raise her outside of the eyes of the tribe. Her family had been big influences with ceremonial dances throughout the years; her older brother was recently chosen to carry on by wearing the blessed Regalia from past chosen dancers.
+++Four years later, the tribe’s doctor had told Niyol’s parents of a story he’d heard over his most recent medicine journey. He had heard it from one of the Ojibwa tribes of a dress that was said to cure ailing children. The doctor told them that he had a similar dream, previous to this meeting, of Niyol and a dress that the tribesman had later described to him. Following the story he presented her family with the dress and that at the next ceremony she was to wear it.
+++They had done as the doctor had instructed including the addition of eagle feathers in her hair and took her to the ceremony. Niyol loved the music so much so that she joined in the celebration and danced alongside her brother. The sound was so pleasant that the council believed it to be the Great Spirit’s doing.
+++Ever since then, Niyol made a new dress and made a dance from something that had inspired her in that year’s time. In some dances she had a family member interpret her dances to the tribe, some were simple and others more complex, but she loved the fact that she was needed in the tribe.
+++As she grew up, people began to take notice of the young beauty she was growing into; especially the young men. They were always asking, pleading, her father for her hand. But every time he declined, until one summer evening after she became a woman. Her father sat her down and told her he’d made a decision regarding her future. He told her that it was time for her to move on from these silly dances and start a family. That was when he said he’d found the suitable husband for her. Niyol looked to her mother, but no response was there, obviously this decision was made a while before that evening.
+++After the talk, she ran into the forest until she came to a clearing she gazed up at the moon, pleading for help from the Great Spirit and wept. The moon darkened as clouds masked its silver beauty and a soft breeze blew against her, like it was saying it wanted her follow. She got up and let the win drift her toward whatever lay ahead of her. Soon the breeze died down and she found herself standing in-front of a lake the river connected to and fed off to the unknown. Then the moon broke free from the clouds and shone over the lake. The breeze that had died returned and swirled around her, “Here,” she heard a voice on the current say. The gust disbursed and Niyol watched the ripples fade from the surface of the water.
+++That night she crept back to her family, packed what she had and left. She left the eagle feathers next to her sleeping parents as an apology that she didn’t want to disobey them, but she couldn’t disobey the Great Spirit’s wishes.
+++A couple months later, at the next gathering, she revealed her story of what happened the night she left through her dancing and much to her father’s dismay the council approved of the reckoning, for the doctor had foretold of her being the Great Spirit’s blessed daughter and the wind was her voice.
+++After the ceremony, she left for home once again, however, when she returned there was new life in the lake. A beautiful blue Mer mare swam carefree and the familiar breeze enveloped Niyol whispering what she was to be called. And from then on, the rest is history.
Takumi
