“In this part of the world they call us rākṣasa hatyārā, the light that keeps the darkness at bay. We come in two sorts; those that baulk at ending the demons with human faces, and those that don’t. I never knew on which side I would fall until I became one of those demons with a human face.”
Description
Strong brows, prominent cheekbones and full lips. The gold of her eyes is darkened almost to black by contacts. She is tall and lean; strong-limbed, athletic, and favours dark, practical clothing, though is fond of embroidery, jewellery, and tattoos. Tenzin collects good luck charms and wears them on leather thongs about her neck and wrists. Her hair is black and often braided in various styles. Weapons lay concealed on her person, as well as other essentials.
Personality
Duty and honour form the foundation of her personality. Though independent she enjoys the company of others; she is loyal, and places great importance on her social interactions. Meditation and exercise help temper her more wolfish instincts, though she finds this balance harder to maintain in a city. Discipline has shaped her life and she is naturally tuned to respect hierarchy, erring towards the side of formality with strangers. But beneath lays a spirited woman, quick to smile and banter, and not unaccustomed to mischief. She is inquisitive and bold. Still a young pup, Silver would say; a trait apt to get her into trouble.
Atharim
Tattoos
Tenzin’s ouroboros tattoo is buried amidst a plethora of others. What started as the colourful decoration of one arm has since expanded to much of her body. The work is bright, most of it inspired by Hindu and Buddhist myth. Although some images feature her wolf brethren, most are imaginings of the names of those kin most important to her. Included in this is a depiction of her own wolf name, Star Dancer, of a woman dancing into the kalari snake pose, surrounded by the celestial heavens.
Skills and Weapons
Tenzin is a practitioner of Kalaripayattu, a distinctive brand of acrobatic combat drawing heavily on yoga and ancient Indian knowledge of the human body, and which involves both hand-to-hand combat and the use of weapons. Kalaripayattu takes inspiration from the attack poses of wild animals. Translated literally, it means “art of the battlefield.” Its teaching includes the learning of ancient medicine and massage.
As deadly as kalaripayattu can be, it’s also an incredibly graceful art. Acrobatic rolls jump, and dives are used to evade both armed and unarmed attacks. Students of kalari are taught a complex set of strenuous exercises designed to make their bodies strong and flexible. This involves kicks, jumps, animal postures, spins, step sequences and vigorous stretches – in increasingly long and complicated sequences.
Once set moves have been mastered, students are then introduced to combat with weapons: the sword, shield, dagger, spear, mace, and a long flexible sword (known as an urumi) .
City Life
Moscow is the first time Tenzin has ever dwelt in a city. She dresses to fit in. In a way the hunting is easier, for Moscow crawls with darkness drawn by the Apollyon. But the Atharim are fractured and in hiding, fighting each other as much as the monsters they are pledged to protect the world from. It grates on her, but she will always go where the wolves tell her she is needed.
After making use of a safehouse she encountered the injured Jacinda, and the two have been extremely close since. Tenzin wholeheartedly welcomed human pack, even gave Jacinda the most precious of her possessions, Silver’s tooth, but misread the signs of burgeoning romantic affection, presuming their intimacy was normal for human relationships since it had never strayed into anything sexual.
By now Silver had begun pushing her from the wolfdream, and without that support no amount of careful meditation was enough to keep her sane, and Tenzin found herself more restless than ever. She did not understand why she had been rejected. Yet neither could she confide what was wrong.
Finally finding the group of wolves outside the city tempered her downward spiral; the outlet Silver had been nudging her towards. But meanwhile Tenzin’s human connections came under strain, when Jacinda confessed her feelings and caught Tenzin entirely off guard. Her wolf nature is a secret she has kept close ever since leaving Leh, a secret that might mean her death at the hands of brethren, and in the moment she panicked, for neither could she accept Jacinda while being a lie.
Trapped in a corner, instead of confessing, Tenzin fled. She hunted viciously in the undercity, and spent time with the Moscovite pack until her emotions calmed. It was then Chasing Butterflies asked her to help another of her kind; someone far outside of Moscow. Of course Tenzin agreed.
She returned to find Jacinda gone to the aid of a sister Atharim, and left her own note, hoping for reconciliation when she returned.
Pack
Stories
[character-story char=”108″]
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