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Description
Athena is temporarily retired. This page will be updated when I bring her out of retirement, which should be in about a month or so. dated 12/30/2016

Roleplay Info
Status: Open to members of Starborn-Alignment
Method: Google Docs | Forums
Contact: Notes | Skype

Character Info
“Dive again and again into the river of uncertainty. Create in the dark, only then can you recognize the light.” - Jyrki Vainonen
Name: Athena Ergane
Meaning: Ergane is the surname of the goddess Athena when she is serving as patron goddess of smiths and craftsmen.
Nicknames: Thea
Age: 34
Sex: Female
Height: 15.1 hh
Breed: 3/4 Akhal-Teke 1/4 Marwari
Species: Common Horse
Coat Color: Grullo Overo
Eye Color: Grey
Genotype: Ee/DD/Oo
Herd Affiliation: Breim
Rank: Maker
    Occupation: Metalsmith (Armor), Jewelry Maker
Patron God: Argus
Location: Nariah

Items
     Active:
- Gold bands with ribbons attached and tied together in a waterfall style on her tail, which is shaved.
- Tattoos, identical ones on either side in the shape of wings, as she has always found pegasi fascinating.
       - Tattoos (transparent PNG)

   Inactive: N/A
Familiar: N/A
Likes        Dislikes
Her work     The Old Generation
Paintings     Lack of effort from others (and herself)
Gardens      Cold

Personality: Chaotic Good
Good: Patient | Intelligent | Bold
Bad: Unforgiving | Cynical | Demanding
Neutral: Cautious | Ambitious | Enigmatic
Patient: Athena has the patience required of any artist. She can sit and stare at a work in progress for hours, or think about it, until she's realized what the best course to take is. This carries over to other areas of her life as well, except when dealing with people. She often comes off as brisque or downright rude, but that's a side effect of the next attribute.

Intelligent: She's extremely smart, far more so than you would expect from your average craftsman. If she had wanted to, she could have been one of the Driven, or King's Guide, or anything really. She's chosen this life because creating works of art is her passion. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that she's impatient with people who can't keep up with her rapid thought process, and she'll often cut people off if she understands the point they're driving at before they're done.

Bold: One of her strongest characteristics. She'll approach anyone if she finds it necessary, and address them as near equals no matter their rank (which verges on rudeness, but is a habit of hers nevertheless). Confrontation holds no dread for her, and she's not afraid of innovation in art. It is this characteristic, more than any others, that marks her as a member of the New Generation.

Unforgiving: Don't cross her, as once you do it would take a miracle to get back into her good graces. If you've caused her, her family, or her herd harm, she is not going to forgive you. This does not mean, however, that she won't work with you when needed, or interact with you. She doesn't cut people off just because she finds them distasteful, but she will be more overbearing than usual.

Cynical: Breim is being torn apart at the seams, Aodh is plotting to enslave us all, the sky is probably falling, and there's really nothing we can do about it because that's just how the world is. But hey, this necklace I made is pretty cool.
Demanding: Ooh boy is she demanding. It's difficult to work under her, as she expects nothing but the best, at all times, very few excuses accepted. You'd better be dead or dying, and you'd probably rather be that if you hand her sub-par work. She is equally demanding of herself, and tends to be a workaholic.

Cautious: More so than you would expect from someone as bold as she is. However, she is only bold when she sees a need, and this is where her caution comes in. She takes action only after careful planning and thought, whether it be a new business venture or a commission. This is a side effect of her intelligence and patience.

Ambitious: She's going to be the best craftsman in all of Hireath or she's going to die trying. Okay, her goals are perhaps a bit more sensible than that, if only just. She's going to be the most successful small businesswoman in Nariah if at all possible, and she's already well on her way to accomplishing that. Once she's done with that goal she wants to go into politics, perhaps as a King's Guide or Consul.

Enigmatic: To most people she's a mystery. She doesn't have many friends, and prefers to spend her time alone. She is intentionally very private, rarely speaking about herself or her upbringing. She is friendly once she decides to let someone in, but that is rare.

Summary
Thea is an intelligent, sarcastic, cynical dreamer who loves to think about the ideal versions of things. She loves her job, her home, and her people, and has a big heart underneath all the snark and gloom. She's terrible at remembering names, and so comes up with nicknames for everyone, as it's easier for her to remember those. She's great at games of strategy and enjoys the business side of her work just as much as the creative aspect. Her family has been part of the New Generation longer than most and she's rather proud of the distinction. She still feels like a bit of an outsider, but she doesn't mind nearly as much as she did as a child.
History
Childhood:
Athena was born to loving parents, kindly New Generation traders who lived aboveground in a small community. Growing up, Athena had a close-knit group of family and friends, all of whom encouraged her and trained her in the arts all Breimian children are expected to know. Early on she showed a passion for craftsmanship, making toys and dolls out of grass, sticks, and hay. At this age she had many friends, and was willing to play and interact with everyone no matter their standing. She was generally acknowledged as a bold child, and expected to achieve great things.

When she was ten, her grandmother, who lived with the family, fell ill, and for the next two years her parents were consumed with caring for her to the exclusion of all else. Her grandmother was difficult to care for, and required exotic medicine that rapidly ate up the family's savings. After Athena's grandmother's death, the family tried and were unable to make ends meet, and decided to move underground, to Nariah, where they had some extended family who were willing to take them in and help them get back on their feet.

Teenage Years:
Athena hated Nariah. She hated the caves, the darkness, the cold underground. The open sky she had slept under so many nights was gone. She could no longer see the stars, those beautiful sparkling jewels up above, and the beauty of the crystals in the caves below couldn’t make up for her loss.
For the first year of her new life underground she withdrew into herself, only leaving home to attend school or with her parents when they went to the shrines. She threw herself into creating, making small children’s toys out of stone. Slowly, she began making jewelry as well out of small crystals and brightly-colored stones her parents brought home to her. It made her feel better, and connected her to her life aboveground. After a year passed she began attending school again. Though she was older than most of the children, she hadn’t yet completed her studies, and children younger than her were often far more advanced. This time, instead of withdrawing, she took it as a challenge and pushed herself to succeed, to be better than her classmates.
However, being her classmate’s equal in study did not make her one of them. While she was no Outsider, she was still different. She was also embarrassed that her family was living off the charity of relatives, and as a result made no friends and had few acquaintances. Her relative isolation gave her more free time to practice creating her jewelry. She had none of the usual materials, and it was a challenge to make art with only stones and colored string. However, she began wearing what she’d made, and drew the attention of an elder Maker, who began to support her, and offer assistance with her questions.
Eventually her family did find their feet again, and her parents started a business trading imports from the surface, using contacts they'd made aboveground. She began to relax into her new life, and started to make friends, including the rare pegasus, which she found fascinating.

It was at this time that the differences between the New and Old Generations became clear to her. Before now, she had largely only known members of the New Generation, as she'd lived aboveground. Now, though, she was introduced to radically differing schools of thought. Her status as a pseudo-immigrant meant that members of the Old Generation treated her almost suspiciously, and she hated the narrowness of their ideas and their dedication to keeping things as they had always been, as she felt these beliefs isolated her and made it harder for her to make friends. As she grew older her stance began to soften and mature, and even started to collaborate and learn from members of the Old Generation along with the New.

At seventeen she became an Echo, and began planning for a career making jewelry. She had no specific mentor, instead learning from several different horses whose talents laid in different areas of the craft.

Adulthood:
It was as if a whole new world had been opened to her when she became an Echo. Suddenly she had access to all the supplies and materials she could want, and she realized it was everything she'd been missing. She learned the art of jewelry-making quickly, drinking it all in with remarkable speed.
Now, interested in branching out a bit more and making her own collars to set stones in, she found a mentor willing to teach her the art of metalworking. To her surprise, this art did not come easily for her. If she was honest, it was extremely difficult. She was never one to give up on a challenge, though, and dove in with a passion. It didn't take her long to realize this was her true calling. She began innovating quickly, and, building off traditional styles, began creating finer, more delicate, and more personalized jewelry than was common before. However, her “innovations” were nothing really remarkable beyond showing that she was developing her own unique style as an artist.
She began to venture into the realm of armor, though she preferred only to make light decorative pieces such as faceplates (often incorporated into bridles) or leg guards. At the age of twenty-five, though, this changed. Late one night, she was sitting in one of her mentor’s studios, working on a small chestplate. She had made a mistake in choosing the metal for it, and it only scuffed and scratched when she tried to polish it, no matter how careful she was. She began to wonder if there was a way to cover the tarnished metal, perhaps with paint. But there was no paint she knew of that would bond with metal and not scratch and flake.
The idea had taken root, however, and she threw herself into research and development. She was no painter, but learned all she could about the various types of paint, and what made it bond to some substances but not others. Finally, realizing there was no type of paint that perfectly fit her requirements, she decided to create her own. It took her over a year, but finally she found a type of paint that, once dry, did not flake or chip off metal. It kept its polish longer and better than plain armor, and, a surprise side benefit, protected the armor from corrosion. From this she made armor design into an art form, and after a few years started to receive orders from Aodh nobles who wanted her new, multi-colored armor. At twenty-seven, she became a Maker, dedicating her life to the improvement and continuation of her art. It was also at this age that her fascination with pegasi came to a head, and she got large wing tattoos on both flanks, a choice she has not yet come to regret.

At the age of thirty she opened a shop in one of the busiest districts of Nariah and began carving out a position as one of the foremost makers of fine armor in Breim. She has pioneered new styles of jewelry-making, and is known for her large, intricate pieces, such as chest- and faceplates, and leg guards with fine carving, inlays, and of course, many different colors. This isn't to say that she has abandoned her jewelry-making roots. She has many works for sale in her shop, and just because her armor is the main feature doesn't mean she isn't equally as skilled when working with smaller items.

Relationships
Friends: pls she needs friends
Enemies: lol bring 'em on
Family:
Business Contacts:
- Leonardo (fav.me/da2g9fr )
- Tomo (fav.me/d9y50c8 )
Romance:
   In A Relationship With:
Former Lovers:
Music Inspiration: Warriors by Imagine Dragons
Voice: Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Extra Info
- Believes in ghosts and spirits (thinks her shop is haunted by a friendly spirit, she talks to it sometimes)
- Has a beautiful singing voice. She'll sing to herself sometimes while working.
- Wants a small and furry familiar. A cat, small dog, or bat preferably.
- Secretly misses being aboveground, but is afraid to go back up
- Makes up nicknames for everyone (it's easier to remember)
- secretly has a collection of small toys she's made (occasionally she'll give one to a kid)

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” - Eckhart Tolle

Description
Athena is temporarily retired. This page will be updated when I bring her out of retirement, which should be in about a month or so. dated 12/30/2016

Roleplay Info
Status: Open to members of Starborn-Alignment
Method: Google Docs | Forums
Contact: Notes | Skype

Character Info
“Dive again and again into the river of uncertainty. Create in the dark, only then can you recognize the light.” - Jyrki Vainonen
Name: Athena Ergane
Meaning: Ergane is the surname of the goddess Athena when she is serving as patron goddess of smiths and craftsmen.
Nicknames: Thea
Age: 34
Sex: Female
Height: 15.1 hh
Breed: 3/4 Akhal-Teke 1/4 Marwari
Species: Common Horse
Coat Color: Grullo Overo
Eye Color: Grey
Genotype: Ee/DD/Oo
Herd Affiliation: Breim
Rank: Maker
    Occupation: Metalsmith (Armor), Jewelry Maker
Patron God: Argus
Location: Nariah

Items
     Active:
- Gold bands with ribbons attached and tied together in a waterfall style on her tail, which is shaved.
- Tattoos, identical ones on either side in the shape of wings, as she has always found pegasi fascinating.
       - Tattoos (transparent PNG)

   Inactive: N/A
Familiar: N/A
Likes        Dislikes
Her work     The Old Generation
Paintings     Lack of effort from others (and herself)
Gardens      Cold

Personality: Chaotic Good
Good: Patient | Intelligent | Bold
Bad: Unforgiving | Cynical | Demanding
Neutral: Cautious | Ambitious | Enigmatic
Patient: Athena has the patience required of any artist. She can sit and stare at a work in progress for hours, or think about it, until she's realized what the best course to take is. This carries over to other areas of her life as well, except when dealing with people. She often comes off as brisque or downright rude, but that's a side effect of the next attribute.

Intelligent: She's extremely smart, far more so than you would expect from your average craftsman. If she had wanted to, she could have been one of the Driven, or King's Guide, or anything really. She's chosen this life because creating works of art is her passion. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that she's impatient with people who can't keep up with her rapid thought process, and she'll often cut people off if she understands the point they're driving at before they're done.

Bold: One of her strongest characteristics. She'll approach anyone if she finds it necessary, and address them as near equals no matter their rank (which verges on rudeness, but is a habit of hers nevertheless). Confrontation holds no dread for her, and she's not afraid of innovation in art. It is this characteristic, more than any others, that marks her as a member of the New Generation.

Unforgiving: Don't cross her, as once you do it would take a miracle to get back into her good graces. If you've caused her, her family, or her herd harm, she is not going to forgive you. This does not mean, however, that she won't work with you when needed, or interact with you. She doesn't cut people off just because she finds them distasteful, but she will be more overbearing than usual.

Cynical: Breim is being torn apart at the seams, Aodh is plotting to enslave us all, the sky is probably falling, and there's really nothing we can do about it because that's just how the world is. But hey, this necklace I made is pretty cool.
Demanding: Ooh boy is she demanding. It's difficult to work under her, as she expects nothing but the best, at all times, very few excuses accepted. You'd better be dead or dying, and you'd probably rather be that if you hand her sub-par work. She is equally demanding of herself, and tends to be a workaholic.

Cautious: More so than you would expect from someone as bold as she is. However, she is only bold when she sees a need, and this is where her caution comes in. She takes action only after careful planning and thought, whether it be a new business venture or a commission. This is a side effect of her intelligence and patience.

Ambitious: She's going to be the best craftsman in all of Hireath or she's going to die trying. Okay, her goals are perhaps a bit more sensible than that, if only just. She's going to be the most successful small businesswoman in Nariah if at all possible, and she's already well on her way to accomplishing that. Once she's done with that goal she wants to go into politics, perhaps as a King's Guide or Consul.

Enigmatic: To most people she's a mystery. She doesn't have many friends, and prefers to spend her time alone. She is intentionally very private, rarely speaking about herself or her upbringing. She is friendly once she decides to let someone in, but that is rare.

Summary
Thea is an intelligent, sarcastic, cynical dreamer who loves to think about the ideal versions of things. She loves her job, her home, and her people, and has a big heart underneath all the snark and gloom. She's terrible at remembering names, and so comes up with nicknames for everyone, as it's easier for her to remember those. She's great at games of strategy and enjoys the business side of her work just as much as the creative aspect. Her family has been part of the New Generation longer than most and she's rather proud of the distinction. She still feels like a bit of an outsider, but she doesn't mind nearly as much as she did as a child.
History
Childhood:
Athena was born to loving parents, kindly New Generation traders who lived aboveground in a small community. Growing up, Athena had a close-knit group of family and friends, all of whom encouraged her and trained her in the arts all Breimian children are expected to know. Early on she showed a passion for craftsmanship, making toys and dolls out of grass, sticks, and hay. At this age she had many friends, and was willing to play and interact with everyone no matter their standing. She was generally acknowledged as a bold child, and expected to achieve great things.

When she was ten, her grandmother, who lived with the family, fell ill, and for the next two years her parents were consumed with caring for her to the exclusion of all else. Her grandmother was difficult to care for, and required exotic medicine that rapidly ate up the family's savings. After Athena's grandmother's death, the family tried and were unable to make ends meet, and decided to move underground, to Nariah, where they had some extended family who were willing to take them in and help them get back on their feet.

Teenage Years:
Athena hated Nariah. She hated the caves, the darkness, the cold underground. The open sky she had slept under so many nights was gone. She could no longer see the stars, those beautiful sparkling jewels up above, and the beauty of the crystals in the caves below couldn’t make up for her loss.
For the first year of her new life underground she withdrew into herself, only leaving home to attend school or with her parents when they went to the shrines. She threw herself into creating, making small children’s toys out of stone. Slowly, she began making jewelry as well out of small crystals and brightly-colored stones her parents brought home to her. It made her feel better, and connected her to her life aboveground. After a year passed she began attending school again. Though she was older than most of the children, she hadn’t yet completed her studies, and children younger than her were often far more advanced. This time, instead of withdrawing, she took it as a challenge and pushed herself to succeed, to be better than her classmates.
However, being her classmate’s equal in study did not make her one of them. While she was no Outsider, she was still different. She was also embarrassed that her family was living off the charity of relatives, and as a result made no friends and had few acquaintances. Her relative isolation gave her more free time to practice creating her jewelry. She had none of the usual materials, and it was a challenge to make art with only stones and colored string. However, she began wearing what she’d made, and drew the attention of an elder Maker, who began to support her, and offer assistance with her questions.
Eventually her family did find their feet again, and her parents started a business trading imports from the surface, using contacts they'd made aboveground. She began to relax into her new life, and started to make friends, including the rare pegasus, which she found fascinating.

It was at this time that the differences between the New and Old Generations became clear to her. Before now, she had largely only known members of the New Generation, as she'd lived aboveground. Now, though, she was introduced to radically differing schools of thought. Her status as a pseudo-immigrant meant that members of the Old Generation treated her almost suspiciously, and she hated the narrowness of their ideas and their dedication to keeping things as they had always been, as she felt these beliefs isolated her and made it harder for her to make friends. As she grew older her stance began to soften and mature, and even started to collaborate and learn from members of the Old Generation along with the New.

At seventeen she became an Echo, and began planning for a career making jewelry. She had no specific mentor, instead learning from several different horses whose talents laid in different areas of the craft.

Adulthood:
It was as if a whole new world had been opened to her when she became an Echo. Suddenly she had access to all the supplies and materials she could want, and she realized it was everything she'd been missing. She learned the art of jewelry-making quickly, drinking it all in with remarkable speed.
Now, interested in branching out a bit more and making her own collars to set stones in, she found a mentor willing to teach her the art of metalworking. To her surprise, this art did not come easily for her. If she was honest, it was extremely difficult. She was never one to give up on a challenge, though, and dove in with a passion. It didn't take her long to realize this was her true calling. She began innovating quickly, and, building off traditional styles, began creating finer, more delicate, and more personalized jewelry than was common before. However, her “innovations” were nothing really remarkable beyond showing that she was developing her own unique style as an artist.
She began to venture into the realm of armor, though she preferred only to make light decorative pieces such as faceplates (often incorporated into bridles) or leg guards. At the age of twenty-five, though, this changed. Late one night, she was sitting in one of her mentor’s studios, working on a small chestplate. She had made a mistake in choosing the metal for it, and it only scuffed and scratched when she tried to polish it, no matter how careful she was. She began to wonder if there was a way to cover the tarnished metal, perhaps with paint. But there was no paint she knew of that would bond with metal and not scratch and flake.
The idea had taken root, however, and she threw herself into research and development. She was no painter, but learned all she could about the various types of paint, and what made it bond to some substances but not others. Finally, realizing there was no type of paint that perfectly fit her requirements, she decided to create her own. It took her over a year, but finally she found a type of paint that, once dry, did not flake or chip off metal. It kept its polish longer and better than plain armor, and, a surprise side benefit, protected the armor from corrosion. From this she made armor design into an art form, and after a few years started to receive orders from Aodh nobles who wanted her new, multi-colored armor. At twenty-seven, she became a Maker, dedicating her life to the improvement and continuation of her art. It was also at this age that her fascination with pegasi came to a head, and she got large wing tattoos on both flanks, a choice she has not yet come to regret.

At the age of thirty she opened a shop in one of the busiest districts of Nariah and began carving out a position as one of the foremost makers of fine armor in Breim. She has pioneered new styles of jewelry-making, and is known for her large, intricate pieces, such as chest- and faceplates, and leg guards with fine carving, inlays, and of course, many different colors. This isn't to say that she has abandoned her jewelry-making roots. She has many works for sale in her shop, and just because her armor is the main feature doesn't mean she isn't equally as skilled when working with smaller items.

Relationships
Friends: pls she needs friends
Enemies: lol bring 'em on
Family:
Business Contacts:
- Leonardo (fav.me/da2g9fr )
- Tomo (fav.me/d9y50c8 )
Romance:
   In A Relationship With:
Former Lovers:
Music Inspiration: Warriors by Imagine Dragons
Voice: Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
Extra Info
- Believes in ghosts and spirits (thinks her shop is haunted by a friendly spirit, she talks to it sometimes)
- Has a beautiful singing voice. She'll sing to herself sometimes while working.
- Wants a small and furry familiar. A cat, small dog, or bat preferably.
- Secretly misses being aboveground, but is afraid to go back up
- Makes up nicknames for everyone (it's easier to remember)
- secretly has a collection of small toys she's made (occasionally she'll give one to a kid)

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” - Eckhart Tolle