Profile of Ciara

Ciara is of a sturdy but slim build, finding strength from her countless travels and finding athleticism in the same. She bears a coat of soft sand, which often turns a reddish hue in the light. Her accents are those of the earth. But it is her eyes that matter most: they are a brilliant, unerring blue, and when they settle on another, they give the impression of being set under a spotlight or doused in a pool of cool water. They are the kind of eyes that someone would remember.

Ciara is a woman of the Highlands born of Clan Whelan. She is salt of the earth, and she is the morning bird song. Her personality is vibrant and alive, as if she believes every breath and every beat of her heart might be her last, and she is determined to live it to the fullest. Creative and authentic, Ciara strives always to be her truest self, and finds her deepest struggles when she loses sight of who she is and what she wants to be.

Note: Ciara's Affinity in Clan Whelan is Iris.

There are some that joked that Ciara was a Changeling, dropped into her family's wary arms by the Fae themselves as a cruel trick, though no one who knew her father would have said that to his face. From a young age, Ciara was unruly and difficult to restrain, though Toren and Caoimhe tried their best. Ciara would most often be found in the trees, a woodland sprite who had to be dragged by her ankles to lessons and meetings. This stubbornness manifested itself nicely in her chosen Affinity. As a child, she would dredge up all manner of plant, bug, or otherwise to proudly show her family. On the day she brought home a clump of irises, enchanted by their deep, oceanic blue petals, she was admonished. "They are poisonous," her mother had quipped, and Ciara was quickly stripped of her treasures.

After that, every iris that Ciara saw was a special one. She found herself lingering near them in her travels through the woods looking for Fae, and she wondered how something so beautiful could also be so toxic. When it came time for her to choose her Affinity, it was easy. She chose the iris, because it was nothing like she had expected. It was difficult to understand. Difficult to hold close. But it made doing so all the more special. She certainly did not fit the mold of a Chief's daughter and heir, as she was quite often reminded, and it led her to harbor some resentment towards the stifling family structure she grew up in and was someday expected to lead. All children have their rebellious period, after all -- Ciara's just had much more at stake. The weight of her Clan's expectations was oppressive, and their scrutiny of her was nearly unbearable.

But then came the war. And everything changed after that.

Her dear mother was killed, and in the wake of that bloodshed, Clan Whelan was thrown into chaos. Some wished to fight, others wished to withdraw. A militia was drawn up, and Ciara's brother, Graeme, joined the cause. Her father, already fiercely Jacobite and stricken with despair, was never the same after that. But Ciara was caught in the crosshairs, trying to manage her grief while attempting to understand the increasingly entrenched viewpoints of her family. In the end, when it became too much and she lost sight of herself and her purpose, she fled.

She took shelter amongst a Highlander convent who made their home in a crumbling church. There, she sought solace with the Children of the Moon in their worship of the moon and their deep desire to live life authentically, as their true selves, including encouraging communion with the Fae. These radical beliefs shook Ciara, whose family had respect bordering on fear for the Fae. It was why they hid their names, after all. But the women of the abbey taught Ciara to live a new truth, one where she expected nothing from another except what was in their nature, and one where she was free to expect of herself everything she knew she was capable of, however big. Slowly, the women of the Abbey taught Ciara not to be afraid -- of herself, of her future, of the Fae, and even of war.