Henriette van der Delmonte
Basic Information
Basic Information
- Full Name: Henriette "Hank" van der Delmonte
- Elvish Name: Insa'imya Landra'asaenos
- Age: 35 Years
- Gender: Female
- Race: Avanthar-Anglian Ailor (Half-Elf)
- Main Ambition: Knowledge, Inventions
Visual Information
- Eye Color: Hazel
- Hair Color: Brown
- Hair Style: Coiled natural curls greased into a short ponytail.
- Skin Color: Fair, with yellow undertones
- Clothing: Loose and comfortable pants and tunic with a leather apron
- Height: 5'7
- Body Stat: 10. Toned.
- Body Fat: Low body fat.
Proficiency
Proficiency Points
- Total Points: 35
- +26 Alchemy (+26 From Points)
- +10 Light Bow Combat Skill (+10 From Racial Bonus)
- +9 Nature Care Sciences
Languages Spoken
- Common. (Fluent/Literate)
- Modern Elven. (Fluent/Illiterate)
- Zasta. (Research purposes only. Much like knowing religious Latin, but being unable to hold a conversation. Oh, and some curse words.)
- None
Visual Information
- Hank has a circular face, with a gently angular jaw and large hazel eyes. Her nose is slightly turned downward, and otherwise slender. Her cheekbones are high, and her lips are somewhat full. Her eyebrows are dark and shapely, but the left one is missing a patch of hair in the middle from an alchemical accident. Her ears are somewhat awkward as well. They're long, pointed, and elf-like, but are limp and a tad droopy. To hide their outward protrusion, she covers them with her hair or a bandana. Her neck, however is long and graceful.
- Hank's body is firm, lanky, and somewhat lacking curves. Her limbs are long and gangly, and her spindly fingers never seem to be at rest. Her forearms, above the line where her leather gloves protect her hands and wrists, are covered in a swath of alchemical burns and keloid scars.
- Hank ALWAYS wears some kind of headgear, from a bandana to earmuffs. She uses these to disguise her ears. Additionally, she always had a leather apron… it has /pockets/. Other clothes rotate and vary, but are generally some form of a cotton or wool smock over pants. She couldn't care less about about the colors she wears, and picks whatever is cheapest.
- The eye of her Allar mentor.
- A bottle of Tallassan Gel (one use)
- A vial of Springblossom (one dose)
- Pruning shears OR a 12 inch dagger (Rechthelm). Never both.
- Hank's voice is mid-pitch and generally thought of as warm and sunny. When she's having a discussion she tends to chatter and make side notes.This speeds up her voice. When she's asking questions, her voice slows down and her language becomes precise.
Personality and Abilities
- From the outside: Hank comes off as… eccentric. She's got a lot going on in her head, and tends to blurt things out. Her curiosity is often perceived as ignorance, or stupidity, which is fine with her. As silly and superfluous as she comes off, there's plenty going on underneath the surface. She maintains an air of inferiority, in truth, and strives to be seen as non-threatening. She isn't above manipulating her perception as a daft girl to her advantage. This helps her get where she wants to go and learn what she wants to learn without coming off as suspicious.
- On the inside: Hank is a deeply curious and optimistic person. Her deep optimism is an almost antithetical response to the cruelty of Aloria, and rather than sinking to depravity, she throws herself toward the other end of the spectrum. Indeed, to some degree she is artificially naive, and tries to turn a blind eye to the worst that the world has to offer. She's very comfortable with herself, but is a follower and not a leader by nature. She has a lust for life and discovery that she was born with, but it was enhanced in her by her tutor who encouraged the alchemical prodigy to ask questions and pursue new knowledge at most any cost. A mostly benign spirit, Hank rarely uses her mental faculties for scheming, but has a self-preservative streak. She sees herself as an observer of the world, rather than an active participant in it.
- In private: In all honesty, Hank acts similarly in private and in public. However, at a certain level of comfort, she is more likely to talk about herself. It isn't that she keeps her problems bottled up out of stoicism, she just copes by throwing herself into her work rather than complaining. She doesn't expect sympathy in her times of need, but is always pleasantly surprised to find it. So, while she doesn't /usually/ pour her heart out to strangers, with close friends she's a bit more likely to divulge personal information, talk about her problems and reveal little secrets. In addition, she's a bit too… mercurial… for lovers. Her ambitions are too great and her temperament too flighty to make her a stable romantic partner. Around her family she puts on a dutiful face, especially toward her mother, and has an underlying eagerness to please around her father.
- Worldview and Morality: While ever cheerful, Hank isn't all good. She's not at all guided by religion, nor, as typical of alchemists, the legal system. She views morality on a case-by-case basis. She vaguely adheres to utilitarian philosophy (doing the most good for the greatest amount of people), but is willing to suspend morality in the face of discovery. This philosophy is popular among the Allar, and she adopted it after spending her formative years with one. Hank believes in some sort of natural hierarchy, and turns to nature for her worldview. As there are predators and prey in the wild, so must there be in society. She's not sure which she is right at the moment, and only time will tell. Much like the Allar, she worships no particular god, but believes all religions to be equally important. To her, if people act on a belief, that belief has a degree of verity in its own right.
Personality and Abilities
Quirks:
- Hank tends to:
- Stutter or repeat herself when flustered. For example: "Yes. Uh. Well. Sounds... Good? Yes."
- Call everyone 'pal' or 'man' as a subconscious nod to egalitarian wishful thinking.
- Fidget with her bandana if her pinned-back ears feel uncomfortable
Preferences
Likes
- Warm, dark places: It's not entirely clear why Hank likes her atmosphere to be cozy and somewhat humid, but that's definitely how she likes it. In her spare time, she piles up a mountain of wool blankets and curls up beneath them, letting her body heat bring the space to her ideal temperature. This can come off as odd to her roommates.
- Exotic spices: Hank loves a good fancy flavor. Exoticism and expense, in her mind, are conflated with quality. She adores the scent, depth, and warmth of spices, both on their own and in recipes. It's not uncommon to find her dwelling crowded with potpourri and other spiced scents.
- Old books: When it comes to knowledge, the more ancient the better. Hank's demi-obsession with finding the Stone of Ssentra has lead her to pore over old books. She loves their smell, their feel, and of course the knowledge they promise.
- Allar: Hank thinks Allar are the bee's knees. She respects their intrinsic alchemical prowess, and just generally enjoys seeing the scaley fellas.
- Url: They freak. Her. Out. Something about being taken over by a parasitic worm and turned into a terrifyingly muscled, mindless, grunting beast is scary to Hank. She avoids them, shuns them, and generally melts into a puddle of terror around them.
- Stains: Despite being exposed to countless stain-causing materials, Hank abhors a filthy workspace and stained clothing. At first, she used to burn any and all stained and discolored garments… which was expensive… and overly dramatic. Nowadays she just uses alchemical stain remover. She still cringes at seeing other people with stained, or sloppy garments, especially if it appears they have the ability to clean or replace those clothes.
- Eating food from other people: Hank has a deeply irrational fear of being poisoned. Despite being a poor, boring, and unimportant individual, she internalized this fear a long time ago and has yet to shake it. Whenever possible she refuses food from others, and when she has to eat it, she makes sure the host says has some before she does. Oddly, this doesn't stop her from ordering food at restaurants and similar establishments, merely food that is conspicuously offered to her in particular.
Relationships
Hejteh Landra'asaenos- Father: A vapid Avanthar who tended to sleep around. Cast out from his home village for cheating the wrong people one too many times, he continued a decadent and frivolous lifestyle. Not a great role model, and actually kind of awful as an elf. To his credit, he introduced Hank to alchemy, albeit for selfish reasons.
Katarayan Landra'asaenos - Paternal grandfather. Katarayan is a fullblooded Avanthar and warrior, who's approaching the end of his life. He's a sweet, caring fellow who helped finance Hank's education, and instil some proper values. He also insisted she have the proper sacaraments as a little girl under the Faith of Estel.
Lotte van der Delmonte - Mother: A young mom, and with basically no help from her deadbeat partner, Lotte did her best to balance the farm, bakery and Hank.
Creed van der Delmonte - Maternal Grandfather: An extremely shady character with an even shadier past. Creed lives in New Ceardia… with a new identity. What he's running from, nobody knows.
Katarayan Landra'asaenos - Paternal grandfather. Katarayan is a fullblooded Avanthar and warrior, who's approaching the end of his life. He's a sweet, caring fellow who helped finance Hank's education, and instil some proper values. He also insisted she have the proper sacaraments as a little girl under the Faith of Estel.
Lotte van der Delmonte - Mother: A young mom, and with basically no help from her deadbeat partner, Lotte did her best to balance the farm, bakery and Hank.
Creed van der Delmonte - Maternal Grandfather: An extremely shady character with an even shadier past. Creed lives in New Ceardia… with a new identity. What he's running from, nobody knows.
Life Story
0-5: Hank is a noisy, curious, and exciteable young child, born to a solidly middle class family, in the Anglian heartland, where she spends all of her childhood. Her father lives with her and her mother for these years, making this the most complete their family will ever be. Her father develops an attachment to his favorite daughter, if in a selfish way, and introduces her to half sibling playmates. Being the obvious favorite is both a blessing and a curse.
6-12: Hank parrots snippets of Modern Elven from her father and begins learning mathematics and baking from her mother. She falls in love with the precision of the one and the transformative nature of the other. Hank follows her father around relentlessly as he indulges her unending curiosity. By 13, he notices her burgeoning alchemy talent and tells her about his wild plan to locate the Stone of Ssentra and achieve immortality. He introduces her to an aging, expat Al-Allar called Ma-Cressiu, who is helping him search for the stone. As his daughter's talents bloomed, the man became more and more certain it was a sign that he was meant to find the stone.
13-15: When she was 13, her half-brother, a fullblooded Avanthar paid her a visit. He was three years older than she, and a young demon mage. Taking an immediate disliking to Hank, his irritation mounted until, a week into his stay, he casted an amateur curse on the girl. He lifted it after a minute or two, but the pain was excruciating and unforgettable. Afterward, she suffered from Magic Touch induced dreams. Tortured by the endless nightmares, but fearing retribution if she told anyone what her half-brother had done, she researched the nightmares extensively, coming across literature on curing the fearful dreams-- Strauss' Silence. Determined to end her suffering, the fourteen year old brewed a batch, and used it on herself. As unpleasant as the cure was, the nightmares lifted, but there were consequences. At 16, Hank began rigorous training at the School of Alchemy. She demonstrated vigor, discipline, and something of an obsession with the art. What had begun as a quest to serve her father's hedonism evolved into a fervent passion for alchemy. She decided to dedicate her life to its study, and finding the Stone of Ssentra.
15-25: Hank took on a rigorous courseload at the School of Alchemy. For all her time there, the study of alchemy consumed her. She practiced no other hobbies during this time. To help pay tuition, which is a steep 200 regals per month, she worked as an herbalist and groundskeeper. Her intimate familiarity with plants was a boon to her alchemy studies, which she pursued zealously, more hellbent than ever on achieving her ultimate goal.
25-35: At 25, Hank returned home with her new skills, and started work in a local apothecary. Patients there were uncomfortable taking medicine from a Henriette, so she began going by her nickname, Hank. She found work there dull, and unchallenged, but still began losing some of her skills. She is currently a little out of practice with detriments.
35-Present: As the Anglian floods decimated her homeland, Hank quietly began preparing to move to Regalia as hope of the end of the rains crumbled. With the goal of uncovering more alchemical secrets and new texts, Henriette van der Delmonte journeyed on a rat infested ship to the Holy City. She then worked for the d'Ortonnaise for months, before resigning to work for the Alchemia Order.... where she promptly caused an explosion by mishandling fireweed due to nerves. Bad Hank. And she turned into a plant that one time.
Last edited:
