KARABELA ARCANA

• Species: Tropical wolf
• Sex: ♀
• Age: 27
• Height: 5ft 8in
• Weight: 140lbs
• Siblings: Karabela has 8 siblings and is one of a pair of twins. To break down her position in the family and relative ages: Jabari, age 29 ♂ (2 years older, eldest sibling) Lyarra, age 27 ♀ (twin sister of Karabela) Shaearra, age 24 ♀ (3 years younger) Tariq, age 23 ♂ (4 years younger) Kendri, age 22 ♀ (5 years younger) Kilik, age 20 ♂ (7 years younger) Kalei, age 15 ♂ (12 years younger) Harika, age 6 ♀ (21 years younger) (side note, her parents started their family when the mother was 18)
• Profession: Mystic priestess

Worldbuilding Notes

Being a mystic priestess is something a person in Karabela's world is born with, and is passed down the generations. A mystic priestess can cast supportive magic through prayers and offerings to spirits.

Mystics are moderately rare. Each village has a small group of them. Karabela’s bloodline isn't the only mystic bloodline; there are many families out there that produce mystics.

Karabela is an original character. She is a mystic priestess, which grants her a prominent role in her village, and she thoroughly enjoys the role.

Trust & Confidence

Baby

Karabela was born as one of a pair of twins to an affectionate, loving, kind mother. Her twin's name was Lyarra.

Karabela herself was a normal baby and was as easy to care for as an infant can be, as was her twin sister. Their mother already had a son so she was able to take the task of caring for her twins in relative stride. Her experience meant that she already knew what to do to care for an infant, had a lot of the supplies she needed from the care of her son, and could simply indulge in the pleasure of the very early symbiotic relationship between herself and her two daughters.

And she was delighted to have daughters in particular. She loved her son dearly, but she felt that giving birth to a pair of twin girls was a particularly special gift.

Freedom & Self-Determination

Toddler

Being raised by such an attentive mother gave Karabela a wonderfully stable start in life. She felt certain of her mother's presence, and of the protection, acceptance, and valuing she could get there, so as she became a toddler she went forth to explore the world around her with a relaxed, happy-go-lucky sense of curiosity.

Her family’s generous spirit reassured and rubbed off on Karabela so that she felt unconcerned about the concept of scarcity. In other words, she was an easy-going toddler who was happy to leave her toys unattended, watch people leave her family home, and to not feel overly concerned about making sure she got her portion of food. She felt certain that her toys would either still be there when she came back (or that she would be able to find something else fun to play with), that the people who left would come back so that their leaving was of little consequence, and that if she didn’t get one morsel of food then someone would give her another.

Karabela’s seemingly innate generosity may be in part due to the fact that she had a twin, Lyarra. Neither had ever known a time without the other so it only seemed natural to share. For children of different ages, having a new sibling to accommodate can make them feel as if they are second best all of a sudden, or that they are being pushed aside. This was not an issue for the twins.

In addition to this, perhaps the very fact that they were twins made them more of a focus for the village, and this prompted them to see it as only more natural that they would be noticed, celebrated, and doted on by their elders.

Karabela and Lyarra also had an older brother who was protective of them both, and this may very well have contributed to them feeling safe and cared for.

As she explored the world around her she made the occasional bad judgement call as all toddlers will, but overall her mother guided her very well. That isn’t to say that her occasional moments of bad judgement didn’t leave an impression. When Karabela did something unacceptable enough that her mother chastised her, it came as an unpleasant surprise. However, her mother was experienced enough to only chastise her for as long as was needed.

This may have contributed to a sense of self-doubt that Karabela occasionally demonstrates. It is very intermittent and shows up in sharp contrast to her usual confidence as an adult, but it seems that something in her history can make her doubt herself. Karabela herself either cannot put her finger on exactly what stimuli prompt this (which suggests that it’s something from when she was younger than 3 years), or she doesn’t like to talk about it.

Karabela also had an early experience as a mystic that she can barely remember, but which frightened her as a toddler. In later years she was trained in mysticism and almost entirely overcame this early experience, but the long-term result is that occasionally she feels doubtful over her ability to complete a particular task and can't put her finger on why.

Although in the present day Karabela does feel a certain measure of self-doubt, she is less prone to shame, which in many ways is doubt's twin. She is happy to share her ideas, projects, and anything she has been working on even if they are incomplete. She enjoys the freedom of living on the fly and sharing her thoughts with others around her.

Karabela also has great faith in her own thoughts. She knows her own mind pretty well and doesn’t change her mind very easily even when pressured to do so. This is not to say that she is stubborn. Quite the contrary: she is naturally cooperative. Her steadfastness comes from an ability to set, and maintain, boundaries, which is important for somebody in her position.

Karabela's mother knew that her daughter would become a mystic priestess and that this would require good communication skills, so she made a point of teaching Karabela to articulate herself well even at this early age. It is likely that this contributes to her confidence about her own thoughts, as good communication skills include the ability to identify, and communicate, one’s own thoughts, experiences, and wishes.

Overall, Karabela's experience of toddlerhood was that she had time to play, had a great relationship with her mother in spite of her need to start to become her own person (which is the core challenge of toddlerhood), and felt generally empowered and ready to deal with life's challenges.

Ambition

Young childhood

Karabela entered young childhood, and as she did, became an energetic young girl. Her initial, tentative experiences of autonomy in toddlerhood solidified into a firmer sense of self-belief, and her body became stronger and more under her own conscious control. All of this meant that she began to think about what she wanted to do with her time on this earth: or in other words, she began to consider her ambitions.

This was destined to have been chosen for her, at least to a limited extent. When Karabela was 3 years old her family noticed her talking to something that didn’t seem to be there. This was a very suggestive sign that she was a mystic, so they arranged for Karabela’s grandfather to talk to her about the matter.

Karabela’s grandfather was a mystic teacher. He explained to Karabela that she was destined to be a mystic priestess. With her being only 3, she didn’t appreciate the full implications of this so once he was sure she had digested the information as much as a very small child could, he left it at that. This helped her to understand what she was experiencing. Her grandfather waited until Karabela was 5 to explain the implications of being a mystic in greater depth.

Mystic children routinely began their formal training at age 5 and this was the reasoning for his timing. Having mystic abilities can be unpredictable and dangerous, so he and the rest of the family were keen for Karabela to feel as informed as possible.

Lyarra is not a mystic, but has been privy to Karabela's thoughts about her mystic journey ever since she became aware that she had the potential to become a priestess. This sharing of experiences, and her authentic reactions to them, has helped to bond them and keep their relationship strong.

Karabela had more ambitions in mind than becoming a mystic priestess however. She also dreamed of having her own family one day.

At first she was boundlessly excited and optimistic about her capacity to achieve, but inevitably sometimes she failed at things – again, this was not unusual as all small children do. Those failures weighed heavy on her. She had grown up feeling such a strong sense of self-belief up until this point that when she tried something and it didn't work out, she felt genuinely upset about it. A lot of her ‘let-downs’ were related to her budding mystic abilities. In time she overcame many of them but as a small child, learning to harness her mystic talents would have been overwhelming.

She felt particularly invested in, and elated by, her successes, especially mystic-related ones, once her training began.

Karabela came to take a great deal of joy in cooperation and loves to help people.

Productivity

Older childhood

As she reached age 7 she began to find herself better-prepared within herself to manage her studies, both mystic and otherwise. The reason for this change was that as her brain continued to develop, she gained the capacity to reliably think rationally. Prior to this her problem-solving had been intuitive, so the ability to be rational and logical in her approach was a boon. She took her studies seriously so she was pleased by this development.

She loved her mystic training and continued to apply herself to it well, and to excel in her studies.

She particularly enjoyed teamwork. For her, there was a great deal of joy to be found in the act of cooperating with the others in her team to get the best out of both them, and herself. Seeing other people succeed gave her lots of fulfilment. Once again, that easy-going attitude that she had learned in toddlerhood lent her the personal strength to see others succeed without becoming jealous or to berate herself.

Despite having the title of ‘mystic priestess’, Karabela was not from a high status family, as some might expect. Her family made a simple living and this helped her to remain humble. Being one of several mystic priestesses in her village also helped. Whatever the responsibilities and dangers of mysticism, she was not facing it alone and could share her successes, thoughts, and concerns with others, as well as asking for help when needed.

Child to Adult Transition

Adolescence

Karabela was well regarded by her teachers, co-students and the other villagers. They would comment that she had the potential to be a great mystic like her grandfather, and a beauty like her mother.

She came to see her mystic training as a constant in her life, and her studies kept her grounded whenever anything untoward was happening in other areas of her life.

The culture in which Karabela grew up was blessedly free of any serious conflict, so she grew up with a tendency towards harmony. Her default reaction to others was to accept them as friends, so long as they showed an inclination to be friends with her too. She spent a lot of time around her co-students and later, her colleagues, so these were her main in-group.

As far as enemies went, as a teenager Karabela had a minor rival in the form of another mystic student, a girl who would try to one-up her all the time. She found this frustrating but it didn’t particularly escalate. As an adult she has a much more serious enemy named Vashira, a demon of hatred.

During her adolescence Karabela’s role model was her grandfather. He was, as previously stated, a great mystic and a village elder. She particularly treasures the values she learned from him about kindness, compassion, and a willingness to help other people.

Although Karabela did have both boyfriends and girlfriends during her teenager years (she is bisexual), she didn’t have many as she prioritised her studies over and above romantic or sexual relationships. Of the ones she did have, none were particularly serious.

After she went to live in the mystic temple, she mainly only socialised with her colleagues.

Closeness in Relationships

Young adulthood

Karabela is known for being a likeable member of any group she finds herself in. She’s also keen to contribute to the team effort This makes it easy for her to affiliate with others, and easy in turn for others to affiliate with her. She dislikes jobs where she might get dirty so is less enthusiastic about these.

She is very open with her sexual relationships and is fine with casual encounters so long as she feels respected. She does not like arrogant creeps. She is open to trying new things and loves to please her partners.

Some partners find her casual attitude towards relationships difficult to come to terms with, and this has caused her problems in the past.

Ultimately, she seeks love and comfort from her relationships.

Karabela was 25 years old when she had her first child.

Passing on Responsibility

Middle age

In time Karabela will retire, and when she does, she will become a mentor to the next generation of mystics.

Karabela will also keep a close bond with her children as they grow up, and offer help whenever they need it however old they get. She will do a good enough job at supporting and loving them that they will be happy to keep an active relationship with her, and will visit her whenever they can. In turn, her children – two sons and one daughter – will be protective of her and happy to help her whenever she needs it.

End of Life

Old age

As a mystic, Karabela is already familiar with some elements of the afterlife. She does not fully understand what happens after death, but she knows that something special awaits her after death and she finds comfort in that.