Where There Is Light There Is Shadow

Yeah now that I've wrote it out, I don't see Haiiz getting a real story, just being a background character in another story. Well, Zaen would probably be the one actually involved, but Haiiz would be mentioned. Yesss.


Haiiz lives in a world where the peoples are separated into races by certain animal traits each different races possesses. The Avid race have wings on their backs like birds, patches of feathers, scaled hands and feet, each one can sing beautifully(or according to their avian), and their heights may vary slightly according to the bird that the individual represents. Felids have arms similar to the forelegs of felines as well as tails and eyes with slit pupils. Canid traits are similar, except their legs reflect the hindlegs of canines and they manifest their ears instead of their tails. And so on and so forth.
I have no idea what Haiiz's plot is or whether he's just a person with a life story. Maybe the story isn't even about him. Maybe it's about Therazaen, or Zaen, the turkey-vulture bodyguard to the Lord of the Flesheater Avids who meets with the Meister of Long-Wings to broker a much-needed peace.
What I do know about Haiiz is that he is a Raven, obviously. Ravens are on the verge of being Flesheaters but defected to the Long-Wing empire a hundred years ago during the last Avid War after the Long-Wings planted a poison activated on death on their soldiers, which spread like wildfire through Flesheater ranks when they fed on the fallen. Ravens have now been categorized into the same class as Small-Flyers, for the smaller seed-eaters and bug-eaters and etc, like sparrows, pigeons, larks, etc. Non-carnivorous birds. Ravens, however, are treated with special contempt for their lineage. Haiiz, despite being altogether a sweet, mild-tempered individual who has never tasted flesh in his life and actually tries to be a good servant to the Long-Wings(unlike most of his kindred) is no exception.
Haiiz's life first gets interesting when he enters a relationship with Fletcher Lynge, a woman that is half golden eagle, half phoenix. He is first drawn to her by her ability to produce flame from her flesh and cover herself in it, witnessing this ability during one of her training sessions when he's passing by. Being a pyro, Haiiz becomes immediately enchanted. Fletcher is a bastard whose father will not even acknowledge as his child despite knowing full well that she is. Fletcher grew up in a very abusive environment among peers that hated her for her impure blood and with a mother who often took out her frustrations on her. Rather than resist this sort of life, Fletcher has come to reflect it. When she discovers Haiiz's attraction for her and then the source of it, Fletcher effectively seduces him through fire and lust. Though at first she merely seems "intense" Fletcher quickly becomes violently abusive towards Haiiz, threatening to beat him to death if he tells anyone or tries to leave her. When he fails to restrain himself long enough for Fletcher to climax during intercourse she will take him to the "discipline room" which is a room in the Long-Wing palace for punishing servants and slaves alike. She will chain him to the wall and beat him with her belt for almost an hour each time, both his back and, if he doesn't submit to being chained quickly enough, the front of his torso.
This relationship endures for a long time to the point that Haiiz practically develops something like Stockholm syndrome. What begins as a desire to please in order to avoid pain develops into a need for Fletcher's approval. If she insults his appearance, he starves himself and struggles to improve his physique. If she punishes him for whatever failure during sex he encourages her to enact whatever sick fetish is next on the list in order to appease her. Fletcher occasionally uses her fire to practically hypnotise him into arousal and then has whatever way with him she wants.
During this time the Flesheaters pay a visit to broker peace in a long-lasting off-and-on war. The reason for this is because there are whispers among shamans of an approaching war between the very gods, and the Lord of Flesheaters feels it prudent to garner alliances while he can. His faithful bodyguard of ten years is a young turkey vulture that goes by Zaen. Zaen is fast, efficient, and deadly. She possesses the raw power of a raptor, the merciless pessimism of a creature whose diet benefits with the outbreak of war, and chilling speed and precision. On top of that, Zaen is more than turkey vulture--she is also a child of Calcitrax, the shadow of Mardus, the Avid god(a roc). Calcitrax, despite being known as the "shadow" of their god is an actual flesh-and-blood individual that has sired more than his fair share of bastard children. Zaen is one of them and insidiously powerful in shadow things.
Fletcher learns the hard way that the power of a legend does not even come close to the power of a god when Zaen sees her about to lay into Haiiz and prevents it. Fletcher, not aware of Zaen's lineage, throws a punch. When her fist stops dead in midair, caught in Zaen's iron grip, Fletcher flames up and tries to intimidate the vulture--to no avail. Zaen's own power crawls out and covers Fletcher's arm like a black sickness, choking and absorbing the flame, almost killing Fletcher before Zaen's Lord stops her.
From then on things begin to change. As Zaen's Lord struggles with ambassadorial things Zaen struggles to protect Haiiz thought she doesn't understand why. She puts it down to a lingering sense of kinship between her and the boy of the "traitor race." Zaen ignores the fact that she's never felt a smattering of kinship for any individual, not even members of her own family.
As they sprout a friendship and then something deeper, Zaen finally convinces Haiiz to break it off completely with Fletcher, convincing him she will protect him--which she does. She finally lays her mark on him in a stable's tack room, inscribing her clan symbol on his chest with her claw surrounded by a collection of other symbols. When Haiiz confronts Fletcher, she attempts to incinerate him, only to discover that Haiiz's symbols were more than marks of possession. She also allotted to Haiiz a very small amount of her power, weaving a protection spell into his very skin. When that defense is activated it almost kills Fletcher--but the magic can only do as much as the ward wills it, and so Fletcher again lives. After that, though, she leaves him alone, aside from spreading insidious rumours about his integrity as a sexual partner and insulting him loudly whenever he's in range.
With Zaen Haiiz begins to heal. Zaen is, as a girlfriend, by no means "mild"--but she does not lose control of herself and hurt Haiiz like Fletcher would. She is gentle and caressing most of the time, but also ferocious and aggressive when she can tell he's feeling energetic. Haiiz's main problems with Zaen are convincing her to just /talk/--for the most part she likes just spending their time together in silence, as Zaen tends to be socially clueless and is afraid of making an idiot of herself in front of him. When Haiiz finally gets some balls and starts demanding she talk or he'll go find himself another phoenix--at least THEY're more chatty(actually they brag ALL THE TIME, srsly)--it's the kick in the arse Zaen needs and she begins to slowly open up some more. After that Haiiz's biggest worries are whether she'll come back from the battlefield--in the end, peace negotiations do break down and he defects back to the Flesheaters when the Lord's company leaves to return to their own territory. Zaen is at her Lord's side almost twenty four seven to the extent Haiiz begins harbouring ridiculous suspicions she's cheating on him with the empire's sovereign. He knows this is ridiculous, but can't help himself. He still struggles with intense insecurities after what he went through with Fletcher and will occasionally starve himself again when Zaen isn't immediately "embracing" when she returns from a long campaign, either because of exhaustion or she just needs space to get the battlefield out of her head. If this sort of thing goes on too long Haiiz will become ravenous for her attention, terrified of the possibility of her wanting to leave him.
As time passes, Zaen begins to realize the depth of Haiiz's mental issues and does her best to become more sociable with him. She even starts accepting her Lord's invitations to his lavish parties(as a guest, not a bodyguard) just to make Haiiz spend time with people outside of their home(she marries him when they get back to the empire). She encourages Haiiz to develop friendships so that he'll have company while she's gone(though she discovers herself becoming jealous when he wants to indulge too much in friendships while she's there, and she'll become insanely possessive if he spends too much time with lady friends.) Their relationship tends to be a caricature of Beauty and the Beast, the one monstrous, withdrawn, and scarred, the other beautiful, helpless, and just as scarred. It's amusing to watch them develop their relationship and try to figure out how to make each other more normal as they are concerned with the other's life being healthy while being largely oblivious to their own issues. While they definitely struggle in communication most of the time, what they lack in elocution they make up for in just the way they treat each other--gently loving and immensely forgiving of the other's mistakes(after long periods of sulking about them.) Both are adorably jealous about each other and incredibly possessive.
Ohey I can put this in that world with the giant whales and rocs and the, the, blood totems. Yeah. Put this in thar. So they aren't some kind of animal avatars, they're just blood totems. Yesss.
I want to nom Haiiz. He's too precious.