SEMIYAR (pronounced: Seh-mee-yar)
Race: Silene
Eye color: Violet
Hair color: Silver
Distinctions: Wears a colorful outfit with ridiculous amounts of frilly ornamentation, and a long purple lirewen feather in his cap
Understanding, willful, and sometimes gullible, Semiyar is a myndling with the sky and forest in his blood. Fueled by an insatiable desire for knowledge and discovery, his flair for performance has earned him recognition throughout the kingdom. Though he is relatively young for a silene, his violet eyes carry enough tales and adventure to fill many lifetimes, and he will venture far beyond the borders of any natural realm.
~Story~
At an early age, Semiyar’s restless spirit and gift of “hearing” melodies in everything prompts him to run away and become a myndling (a wandering musician). Music and song cater readily to him, and his skill with many instruments soon earns him renown in the cities. His instrument of choice is a silver lute he calls “Svenana,” which some suspect to be enchanted. Silon is his sporting ground, and he knows every road and village, their wonders and dangers, and enthusiastically shares his talent with others in exchange for food and coin.
A fateful trip to the isle of Saberondan to perform for the beautiful Princess Mereet abruptly shifts the course of his life forever. Captivated by her wine-dark eyes and playful spirit, he finds himself swept up in an impulsive and blissful affair with her, denying his wanderlust to pursue the source of his fascination. But his courtship is cut short by the princess’ impending marriage to the foreign prince Iliauben, and he is chased from Saberondan on penalty of death. A year later, he is told of the horrors Mereet suffers at the hands of her abusive husband, and he overcomes his fear of her guardians to return to the island in an effort to become a court musician and provide her some comfort amid the gloom and neglect of her forced isolation. His best efforts, however, cannot change the course of her fate, and their memories of stolen moments together are all they are able to keep.
With the demise of Saberondan and Mereet’s death following the Great Tragedy, Semiyar loses his spirit and his songs, breaks Svenana’s strings, and wanders aimlessly for many years afterward, his heart as splintered and scarred as the shore of Silon. But even with broken strings he still carries Svenana with him, hoping someday that the music he listens for will return, that the fractured, unfinished melodies in his heart will one day mend themselves, and he will be able to sing again.
That day comes when he strays into the “Not All Kings Wear Gold” storyline, when an early snowstorm literally blows him to the gates of a distant, illustrious palace. He discovers a whole new realm awaiting his exploration, a wondrous kingdom in which the harrowing wars of Avenan are merely legends. In the palace he catches a glimpse of Diana, a beautiful, golden-winged woman who seems to have stepped right out of a fairytale, and he is instantly touched by the sadness in her eyes that mirrors his own. Her lover, the former prince Luke, has fallen into madness and neglects her. She is losing her prince, as Semiyar once lost his princess.
Determined that Diana will not share Mereet’s lonely fate, Semiyar follows her from a distance, evading jealous rivals and Illusionist thieves alike to find a way to reach her and give her new hope. Making her smile becomes a fascinating obsession that he pursues with abandon–his new purpose in life. He mends Svenana’s strings, he writes songs for her, collects trinkets from his travels to delight Diana and inspire stories to entertain her. Her sweet, enchanting company reawakens in him the spirit he had lost, the wonder of the world he had forgotten, and unlocks once more the gift of music in his heart. His persistence gradually earns him a place in Diana’s heart, and others soon begin to refer to the couple as “The Bird and the Bard” or “Silver and Gold.”
Though Semiyar will never forget Mereet and would later write one of his most famous songs about her, he leaves his sadness behind and embraces a future without loneliness, a future in which his music will once more radiate the joy and beauty in life that is so often overlooked.