Sphinx Endore
From Wild Wolf Society
Contents |
[edit] A Crash Course In Sphinx
...That is, a quick summary on the character herself, of course. How else would we start this whole shenanigan off than by making sure you know who we're talking about?
[edit] History: The Cliff's Notes
Sphinx is a six-year-old Arctic wolf/Banks Island tundra wolf mixed breed who was born on Valentine's Day in 2002. She was born in the far northern Canadian province of Nunavut to the Alpha pair of a small pack and was the only daughter in a litter of five. She left home at around a year and a half old, traveling south with no particular destination. She was a born leader and she led several packs before she eventually found the Salvaje Valley and decided to settle down in a little territory called Silver Creek.
She led Silver Creek for about a year or so before a bitter conflict arose between her pack and the nearby pack of Nova Mountain. Tensions escalated to the brink of war before an agreement was finally made and peace returned; granted, it was the kind of stiff, uncomfortable peace that you find between two kids who hate each other but are being forced by Mom to play nice, but it was still peace nonetheless. In the wake of all this turmoil, the heavily-pregnant Sphinx and her mate decided to leave Silver Creek, with a small group of family in tow, and move south of the Salvajes into the Neve Valley. There, Sphinx founded Winterheart Forest and continues to reside quite happily there to this day.
This is a brutally concise summary and much has been left out, but if you're interested in learning more about Sphinx's history, you can read up on it here.
[edit] Sphinxy: A Snapshot
A lot of roleplayers have this image in their heads of Sphinx being this big, tall, imposing wolf of godlike proportions. Her personality would certainly lead one to draw that conclusion, however the reality is quite the contrary. Sphinx is a very small wolf, weighing only about 70 pounds and standing barely 29 inches at the shoulder. She is short, thin, fine-boned, and graceful in her overall structure, with a lean body, long legs, a long tail, and a noble face. Her paws are large in proportion to her legs, and her ears are also a bit larger than they should be. Her fur is long and fine, being extremely dense due to her arctic heritage.
Her fur is entirely white, with no other distinguishable markings or colouration. Several white scars mar her otherwise flawless figure, most of which are concentrated on her legs and shoulders. These came from both the Darklands war of 2001 as well as her recently being struck by a bus. Her eyes are a bright, vivid shade of blue-green (one of several signature Endore traits, aside from the white coat), her nose and claws are black, and her pawpads are dark grey.
[edit] What's She Like?
Sphinx's personality is difficult to describe in brevity, because it's become highly developed and multi-faceted over the years. To put it simplest, Sphinx's personality is largely a canine extension of my own personality, on which I will elaborate later. She's a highly emotional creature, following her heart and her gut instinct before logic and reasoning. This is how she has led her packs throughout the years, and although it has brought her to make some unwise decisions at some points, it has also won her the love and loyalty of those that follow her. She's got very strong maternal instincts, always having a soft spot for puppies and young wolves, and in the past two years has adopted two children into her family.
She can also be capable of indescribable cruelty, as is expectable of any predatory animal. She has murdered countless without regret, fought and killed and slaughtered for what she wanted or what she believed to be right. She is quick to use her teeth if her authority is challenged or brought into question, her packlands are disrespected, or any of her packmates or family are endangered. She hates dogs, loathes coyotes with a fiery passion, and never forgives a liar or a traitor. She values family and companionship, is very proud of the Endore name, and though she was not directly involved with or even very well-taught about the Saturnin family (a family with whom the Endores have shared a blood feud for generations), she still harbors a bitter dislike for anyone who bears the Saturnin name.
[edit] The Recipe For Sphinx
...And no, it's definitely not sugar, spice, and everything nice. ;) When we originally began working on WWS and I starting thinking of a character to play, I had a general idea in my mind based loosely on a character I'd played at past games. Her name was to be Ruenn Raeska, and she was to be a sweet, gentle, loving, pot-smoking-hippie-flowerchild-type character. We opened the game in August of 2005, and within a month or two I knew this character just did not fit the mold I'd laid out for her. She was turning out nothing like I'd expected, and as a result I made a few modifications to her character as well as her history. I gave her the name of Chakra Sphinx at this time and instead of struggling to force her to be what I had originally planned her to be, I instead allowed her to grow and develop in her own direction based on her experiences in the threads I wrote. That's essentially how Sphinx was "born".
[edit] What About That Personality?
As I mentioned earlier, Sphinx's personality is, for the most part, a lupine extension of my own personality. Into her I channel my own thoughts and feelings on the various situations in which she finds herself, and many of her actions and reactions are ways in which I would act or react in a given situation (wow, was that ever an awkward sentence or what?). This has made it incredibly easy to play her over the years and is the biggest reason why I have not grown bored with her or run out of "muse" for her. It's hard to run out of ideas when you're essentially putting yourself into your character's shoes, after all.
It becomes even more interesting when you throw in the fact that I suffer from mild bipolar II disorder. If you read my threads throughout the years, you may get a sense of this in my writing as Sphinx's moods go up, down, side to side, and all around in frequent cycles. Sometimes I get a kick out of it myself as I look back and see how it's affected my character, but in all honesty I think it really makes her that much more interesting. Now that I play several characters with very different personalities, it's much easier to keep Sphinx on a steadier level since I essentially play a character for every mood swing.
She turned out absolutely nothing like I expected her to way back in the beginning, but sometimes I consider this a very good thing. Characters that essentially develop themselves over time can prove to be some of the most interesting, believable, and long-lived characters in a particular game or, heck, in the roleplaying community as a whole. So many people drop characters as soon as they begin to deviate from their original plan without ever giving them the chance to develop into something potentially more fun, but Sphinx is a perfect example of why you shouldn't drop a character just because it doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to.
[edit] Why Does She Look Like That?
I've always had a great love for white wolves. I think they're the most beautiful of all the lupine colour phases, and being a therian-natured person I have for many, many years identified myself with white wolves. This is largely why I chose to make Sphinx white, and perhaps it is why I have grown into her character so much and have come to love her as more than a mere roleplaying character.
Her eye colour I chose simply because it was, at the time, different from what everybody else was doing. This was back when every white wolf had "pale, icy blue eyes". A green-eyed wolf seemed just as cliche, so I figured that by going with greenish-blue -- a combination of the two -- I'd be stepping outside the norm. And it worked for a while, too, until people realized how trendy blue-green eyes could be. ;P
Her small physical size was a more amusing aspect of her appearance that I gave her more for the sake of irony than anything else. Sphinx is a natural-born leader, a regal, dignified queen in every imaginable way, from her royal beauty to her dominant personality. She's powerful, demanding, vicious, perseverent, charismatic, stubborn, driven, proud, noble, and...tiny. It's just not something you expect of a wolf who's been built up to be so much, and in a weird way I find it pretty damned funny. That a big, bad queen should have to look up to her subjects is just too amusing for my own good. XD
[edit] A Heart? Where?
Yes, believe it or not, there really is a heart in Sphinx's chest, no just a big block of ice. She loves with a power that would be disabling if it were a tangible, physical object. She was five years old before she took her first mate. She's a pretty girl and grew used to the overtures from males trying to win her affection, and just ignored them through the years. However, when she met Kimoto, their connection was instant and their mateship was quite the spur-of-the-moment thing. When I originally created Sphinx I had not intended for her to ever mate or have puppies, to be honest. There was just something about the character of Kimoto that I myself came to love, though, and through me, so did Sphinx. It sounds weird, but it makes sense to me. A lot of people have asked me why I chose to have Sphinx choose such an unlikely, seemingly unfitting mate. It was true, Sphinx mating with Kimoto was like a queen marrying a common soldier. It just doesn't happen. But the truth is, I never consciously chose Kimoto. I just fell in love with him, hah. :P
[edit] Houkie For Dummies
If you've read this far, you must really like Sphinx. For that, I am immensely grateful. She's a character into whom I've poured a great deal of time, effort, and emotion. But if you read any farther, I'm really going feel appreciated, because this is the part where I tell you about myself out of character and try to convince you that I'm as cool as you think I am (or not). XD
[edit] Houkie 101: The Basics
So yeah. Talking about myself has always been incredibly awkward for me, so please bear with me. I do have a name, and while I'm not overly secretive about it, those who know my name know it and those who don't know it don't need to know it. You can just call me Houkie. How did I acquire this strange little name, you may ask? It was the name of my very first wolf character, Houkalani (the account name was "Houkalani*Wolf", lol), when I joined WWS1 back in 2000. Back then nobody had "OOC names"; we all called one another by our character names. People called me "Houkie" and I guess it just stuck. I like it; so much that I go by the name in real life too.
Anyway, I'm 25 years old and I live in Virginia, USA though I am originally from Kodiak, Alaska. I am of German and Scottish-Irish heritage, the former of which I am immensely proud because Germany is awesome. I have several hobbies that don't involve roleplaying (believe it or not!). I enjoy reading, music, learning, astronomy, aviation, and outdoors activities. My pets include a yellow Labrador retriever pup named Simba, two cockatiels, Ponch and Lyra, a rosy boa constrictor and a betta fish, all of whom I love like my children. I am pursuing a college degree in medical imaging and hope to be finished with it by mid-2013. I have been with Wild Wolf Society since shortly after its original founding back in 2000 and I intend to keep it around for a good many years more.
[edit] Conclusion...Finally!
Well, I guess I've babbled on long enough about myself and my roleplaying rambles. I've written all of this in one night and it's now pushing 5:00 AM...and I have to get up at 8:30 for work. *Dies* I hope you've enjoyed reading this or, at the very least, learned an interesting fact or two about my character and me. I'll continue to update this page and add pictures as I think of things, so check back if you get bored sometime and don't have anything better to do! :)
