Conner Oswald

I've redone Conner's profile picture! I feel that art has improved a little bit since last time, so I decided an upgrade was in order. So, enjoy!
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Full Name: Conner Cherry Oswald
Goes by: Conner (Everyone), Pinkie von Fluffykins (Aston)
Element: Dark (He pretends to be an Air shinlai.)
Age: 39
Birth Season: Spring

Backstory:

Born absolutely pink, dark, and small, Conner’s life has certainly not been a cakewalk. His outward appearance makes most think he is female, thus male shinlai tend to hit upon him. This naturally leaves Conner more than angry at others. He makes up for his shortcomings by being rather stoic in his approach to life.

For most of his puphood, Conner thought that he would become an Earth shinlai like his father, Augustus. He would spent hours trying to move the minerals around him and manipulate them. However, the rocks around Conner never moved and shadows creeped towards him more often than not. The young shinlai would never admit to his parents that shadows seemed to follow wherever he went. Life was already hard for Conner, since his small frame made him an easy target for his large cousins.

Things got stranger when Conner would walk around Ocean Port. The shadows would move around, they would knock stuff off of windowsills or cause smaller animals to run away. The people of Ocean Port first thought a Darkblood might be silently terrorizing them, but then they realized that these shadows moved when Conner strolled around. Most would believe the townspeople would have grabbed their pitchforks, but instead they asked Conner to find a Shinlai to help him in his elemental dilemma.

At first, Conner denied being a Dark Shinlai, mostly due to the stigma of the element. He found the idea of using his element ghastly and would more often than not pretend he had no talent in any element. However, as Conner grew older and other shinlai would normally be masked; Conner fought any kind of elemental training and for a time ran away from his family. He spent most of the summer of his 14th year cowering in the woods not far from Ocean Port, until an elder shinlai came along.
This shinlai’s name was Delmore, a great master of the Dark element. He saw a certain talent in Conner and invited the young shinlai to join him in understanding that the darkness does not always bite. Conner spent a week hanging around Delmore’s home watching the elder manipulate dark energies. Conner decided that in order to more on with his life, he had to give his “element” a go. Delmore taught Conner several ways to master the Darkness and find solidarity in himself. The elder shinlai found that Conner had talent in his element and wished to keep Conner under his wing until he grew into a strong adult, but Conner had other plans. The young shinlai hated being so talented in controlling darkness that he ran back to his home in Blue Waters. He then confided in his father about his Dark element. Augustus was surprised at the news, but promised that his love for his son would stay the same.

The Oswald’s decided not to tell other Shinlai of Conner’s true element. Instead, they told them that he was an air shinlai who couldn’t really use his element at all. Conner was happy in the fact that feigning the true was more comforting than admitting to it. For many years afterward, Conner grew and was masked by his father at age 23 for being “power in the air element and strength of character”.

After his masking, Conner took to the wider world and began to travel as a way to learn more about Elaisha. He would often stop in human towns and help out with what they needed in exchange for a place to sleep and perhaps some food.

For a time, all was well and Conner was even making lots of shinlai and human friends around the world. He gained a reputation as being good in medical ventures and also for life advice. Conner found happiness in learning of new things.

But, one day while walking along the Tailride, Conner encountered a congregation of Dark shinlai talking about the history of their element. The young shinlai intended to stay far away from them, but one of the shinlai sensed Conner and the congregation managed to keep him down long enough to get the fact he was a Dark shinlai as well. This group of shinlai tried to convince him to give into his element and join them, but Conner fought back and then managed to injure the leader of the group with the shadows that followed Conner as a pup.
Running from the group of dark shinlai as fast he could, the young shinlai traveled across the water from Tamara to the continent of West Rendali. Conner found himself in the mountains and in need of gold. He then got together with a blacksmith named Lyle Riverrider and they peddle metalware. Later on, he meant a rather sociopathic light shinlai named Aston. Togther, Conner and his two friends try to eek out a living in a changing and sometimes dangerous world.

Personality:

Conner is somewhat of a weak-willed male, but he makes up for his weak will by being gifted in life advice and other medical ventures. Overall, he is a nice guy who wishes only to help others in their hour of need. Conner also enjoys swimming, hiking, and just generally being in nature. This fact, however, seems contrary to the fact that Conner is a party animal. He loves to spend nights partying with his human and shinlai friends for just about reason at all. He also enjoys a fruitful social life with the general lot of sentient creatures of Elaisha. However, Conner is fairly secretive about his past and is often lying about his true nature. The young shinlai is also not afraid to take off his mask around others, since he feels that being conservative leads to cynicism. Conner lies a lot too, since he wishes only to hide his dark element from other shinlai. He will often say he is an air shinlai who can’t really use his abilities.


Family:
Conner Cherry Oswald is the second pup of renowned Earth shinlai, Augustus Monroe Oswald. His mother is Helen G. Monroe, an air shinlai capable of telling fortunes. Conner also has an older sister named Yinna Ryland Oswald, she’s a rather large earth shinlai who kicked around Conner when he was young.


Growing up in the sunny southern regions of Elaisha, Conner spent his childhood running around a human city called Blue Waters. Conner’s father was a Shinlai who worked alongside a horsetrader as a way to ensure a good life for his children. Conner’s mother didn’t really like living in the city at first, but soon found that social life in human cities was much more interesting for her than the squabbling in Shinlai cities. Overall, Conner had a fairly normal puphood, save for his strange nature.

In terms of family, Conner’s clan has a large number of very large earth shinlai who specialize in hauling heavy stuff. His mother’s side of the family consists of mostly earth shinlai as well, but the elements of fire and air have been known to pop up in the bloodline. Because of the general nature of the genetics involved in Conner’s family, most thought he would be an Earth shinlai, but they were rather wrong on that decision.


Other details:

As for Conner’s allegiance, he does not consider himself a member of any camp. Dailaism does not suit him due to the fact he is a Dark Shinlai, so Dailaic priests look down on him. The Darkbloods are a mystery to Conner and he doesn't think real hard about them.


Conner’s mask is made from a light-weight wood craved from his hometown of Blue Waters. It is painted a metallic dark grey and has yellow accents adorning it. A pair of ear-like structures point from the top, these are more or less decorative choices. His mask also has two dangling tags that hang down from each side of his mask. These don’t have any real significance as well. Overall, Conner’s mask is more or less decorative, and also to denote his adult status.

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The shinlai belong to *AlanaRoseheart, their a closed race.