[ OOC ideeen voor Wendele ]

This page is pure fluff and does not contain any new rules or such, it simply describes Wendele's general appearance

Slender and tiny at just over a meter tall, Wendele is covered entirely in a white with the exception of her mouth, from the long and complex veil hiding her hair and dragging over the ground behind her down to the floor length skirts of her triple-layered gown. Her gloves go up into her gold embroidered wide sleeves, with a short sleeved gown shaped slightly like a tabard on top. A blindfold covers the top half of her face, disappearing into her veil, with a simple and elegant gold crown with a large sapphire hanging over her forehead and she has a pair of white feathered wings usually hidden under her veil or cloak. Wendele bears no symbols of any kind and no jewellery beyond her crown.

This section contains a detailed description of Wendele's appearance and clothing.

At 102 centimeters (and 5 milimeters, as she'd be quick to add) and 13.6 kilograms, Wendele is not just short and slender, she's tiny. Having become an elpha at a young age, the process by which she converted from a standard elf into her elpha form also converted her maturing body into that of an 8 year old girl with none of the characteristics of physical maturity. Even for that age though, Wendele lags behind in physical height, something she is very self-conscious and sensitive about. Being a vegetarian on a strictly controlled diet, Wendele's physical weight likewise lags behind even for her small size, in part due to her active elpha metabolism which consumes energy at least as fast as it can acquire it.

Her skin, though none except the area around her mouth can be seen, appears to be slightly pale but perfectly smooth without a single blemish or spot. Though she does treat it with various oils and creams Wendele does not wear make-up. She has straight and flawless teeth, owing to careful and continuous dental care and good elpha genes. One notable feature here however is that with her young body, Wendele still has her primary teeth, meaning amongst other things she has fewer molars than an adult elf would have. Wendele has a very strong sense of smell and perfumes do not agree with it, becoming overpowering for her very quickly. As such, she avoids wearing perfume altogether, instead relying on regular bathing and proper hygiene. For those who share her sensitive nose and who come up close, Wendele has a slightly floral scent.

Owing to her elpha heritage and young physical age, Wendele's eyes seem huge and when looking deep into the sapphire blue orbs, indigo energy patterns seem to dance in them, always just out of view even when studying them closely. Recently though, the eyes have gone still, staring blankly ahead and offering no glimpse of the person behind them - the powers of the Blindfold of Eternal Darkness having taken away their ability to perceive the world forever. The blindfold itself, permanently worn and bound to her soul, forever hides this emptiness however. The Blindfold is made of flawlessly white cloth that looks and feels like silk but is actually made up entirely of the light of the White Moon, the brightest moon in the Ilfreannian sky. It covers the upper half of Wendele's face, from the tip of her nose and cheekbones upwards, disappearing into her veil and caul, leaving only her jaw uncovered.

As a gift from the Gods, Wendele has been granted a pair of wings, which extend from her back by her shoulders. The wings are covered in slender white feathers, giving her an angel-like appearance. Folded up, her wings are about the length of her back, while fully extended she has a wingspan of some 150 centimetres, making them relatively small compared to most angelic creatures. Since Wendele herself is small and light, she does not require as much wing to carry her up in the sky. This is a good thing too because she would not have the physical strength to handle much larger wings, barely being able to lift herself with these as it is.

Wendele's wings feature seven different types of feathers, all of which are white, with her primaries being the largest at the tips of her wings going up to 35 centimetres. Besides these, Wendele has secondaries at her upper wing, primary and secondary coverts layered on top of these, maginal coverts over her wing arm and alula at the end of her wing arm for in-flight manoeuvring. Underneath her regular feathers she has a layer of down feathers, though these aren't visible. Unlike most birds and some celestials, Wendele has no scapular feathers, though some of her down feathers cover the base where her wing reaches her back.

While she does sometimes fly, Wendele normally keeps her wings folded tightly against her back, where they are hidden under her veil. Thus, unless she spreads them, people do not actually see her wings unless she specifically spreads them to show off. Wendele's clothing leaves small openings for her wings, fitting tightly around the base of her wing, counting on the flexibility of the wings to allow them to squeeze through, rather than using special closings. As this is sometimes impractical while getting dressed, Wendele needs to take her time to prevent damage to her wings.

Wendele has no uropygial gland and thus does not posses a natural ability to preen, instead relying on various expensive powders and oils to have her feathers maintained. She is preened twice daily before and after bedtime by her servants, which is not just important to help keep her feathers in good condition, but is also essential to keeping her wings waterproof. Without this treatment, her ability to fly during humid weather, which is the norm in her homeland, would likely be lost in a day or two, though this has not actually been tested, as a failure could result in a painful and embarrassing crash. Due to the careful maintenance of the wings, Wendele also avoids feather degradation and thus she does not moult, though if the maintenance is stopped for a longer period, this might still start.

The elpha's hair is straight and gold blonde and unnaturally long, seeming to go on forever as it covers several times her own body length, having never been cut in the many decades of her life. To be able to move around at all with such large and unwieldy locks, Wendele's hair is kept strictly controlled in a tight and carefully planned braid, every hair kept perfectly in place and woven into an almost arcane pattern. The braid runs down from the top and back of her head onto a few centimeters above the ground, then back up again woven through itself and back down several times. The weight of the hair makes up a significant part of the girls bodyweight and forces her to keep her head up straight at all times.

As impractical and unwieldy as it is, hair of such length is a powerful symbol of nobility, making it clear at a single glance that Wendele is of noble descent, even without the wealth of clothing and jewellery, as no commoner could possibly afford the investment of time and money the maintenance of such hair requires every single day. Recently though Wendele has stepped away from showing off her golden tresses, preferring instead to hide them in her multi-layered veil: as an imperial princess, she no longer has the need to show it off as none would dare question her nobility. Though some might take that opportunity to cut the hair, after living with it for her entire life, Wendele as a creature of habit and lawfulness takes comfort in the regularity and ritual of its maintenance, even if it no longer serves the function for which it was originally cultivated.

Protecting the hair is a flawlessly white caul which covers it up like a large sock, running from her head down to the tip of her braid, hiding her hair from view and protecting it from being damaged. The caul also covers the girls slender elven ears, throat and the lower part of her jaw, hiding them from view leaving only her face exposed. The Blindfold of Eternal Darkness disappears inside on either side and the top.

Over the caul she wears a snow white veil made of slightly shiny silk, its gold embroidered edges falling loosely over her forehead, the sides of her head and shoulders before running down along her back to the ground, where it drags behind her for a foot or so. At the back, the veil is revealed to actually consist of six combined layers of cloth, one layer ending on her shoulders, the second at the height of her elbows, the third at her hips, a fourth at her knees and a fifth at her ankles, the sixth one being the one to drag over the ground. Each layer of the veil represents one of the six casts, from the shortest on top representing the peasantry to the longest one representing the sovereign nobility that she is part of.

While from the front it seems as if she is wearing only one veil, from behind one can see she actually wears a set of six stacked together into a single piece. In the back, each layer comes into a point at the end where the gold embroidery forms a pattern that suggests the shape of a bird with its wings spreading into the pattern on either side without actually being a bird - in fact, all embroidery patterns on Wendele's outfit are meaningless, though a creative eye can discern many patterns including birds, family trees and holy symbols of her deities. However, the design has been carefully chosen to not actually display any real world images or existing symbols, leaving the imagination to find patterns that aren't there.

Mostly hidden under the front part of her veil and resting on top of the caul piece covering her forehead, Wendele wears the Wenalmare Melisse, which consists of two golden bands woven around a single silver band, leading up to a central sapphire worn over the third eye of the wearer. The golden bands represent the peasantry and regular folk, which circle around the silver band representing the nobility, which supports the peasantry just as the silver band forms the foundation for the golden bands. The sapphire is set in a silver ring which suggests the Amorran holy symbol, without actually being it, the ring flowing seamlessly into the silver band. The golden bands turn into six small points which hold the gemstone in place over the wearers third eye. To form three points from two golden bands, the two bands split, with the larger part becoming an upper or lower point and the smaller parts joining together to form the third central point holding the gemstone in place. The sapphire itself has been cut into a variation to the brilliant cut with six points on the table instead of eight, matching the setting. By the way of cutting, the sapphire doubly breaks the light causing it to glisten and seem extra deep, like a real third eye. The light breaking has a hint of indigo, the colour associated with the third eye and incidentally the same mix of sapphire blue and indigo that Wendele's real eyes, hidden under the blindfold, still hold. Wendele wears no jewellery other than the Wenalmare Melisse.

Though completely invisible from the outside, Wendele's underwear consist of a long sleeved simple white chemise, which protects her skin from chafing with the tightly laced mithral corset. The corset itself is an over-bust model with shoulder straps and a high back, though given Wendele's youthful figure, 'over-bust' is a bit of a misnomer. The mithral material remarkably allows for more freedom of movement than one would expect of a regular corset, being thin and flexible yet offering enough strength to protect Wendele from harm, even while not hindering her much in her physical freedom and comfort level.

With the corset, she wears mithral sleeve jewellery. Though previously this was worn outside of the gown to display the wealth of the material, nowadays it is worn under the outer layers to keep the armour hidden like the corset. When she was still lower nobility, Wendele's ability to afford and wear fashionable armour was something to display proudly, but at her new level of operations, as an imperial princess the fact that she needs to rely on armour for her protection is actually no longer something to be proud of, or in fact acknowledge. Thus, though still benefiting from the armour qualities, Wendele now hides the mithral from view.

Desiring a silhouette with with a tight waist and wide skirts, Wendele's corset takes care of the former while she wears petticoats for the latter. She in fact wears several layers of such skirts which together offer the volume she needs as support for the outer layers of her outfit. Though it offers little actual advantage in terms of armour, to protect her legs Wendele wears a thin layer of Mithral chain as a skirt between her petticoats. Some of those skirts go under the mithral layer to protect her legs from the metal while others go over it to protect the skirts going over it from being snagged by the chain. Being layered between there offers the additional advantage of muffling any sound they might make to be inaudible over the rustling of the skirts themselves. Together, the layers of mithral covered in her underwear protect her arms, legs and body, leaving her hands, neck and head unprotected however.

Though hidden from view under her skirts, Wendele wears white thigh-high stockings made of smooth silk, held in place by a simple and matching leather garter on each side covered by softer fabric for comfort. Since she has no desire to show them off anyway, the stockings and garters are simple and functional in design. On top, also invisible under her skirts, Wendele wears knee high white leather boots which lace in the front. To help her compensate for her short physical size, the boots have long stiletto heels which raise her up on her tiptoes for maximum heigh gain. Due to her experience dancing en-pointe, and careful posture training, Wendele can keep herself balanced reasonably despite of them, but walking longer distances is uncomfortable. The reason Wendele does not wear platforms is that this would make walking even more awkward and her ballet and posture training would not be helpful there.

Not counting the underwear, Wendele's actually visible outfit consists of three layers, together forming a single outfit, one layer for each of the deities in the pantheon. The innermost gown forms the foundation of her outfit and consists of tight fitting white linnen covering her from the top of the neck down to a few centimeters past the floor, thus hiding her feet and petticoats from view. The long sleeves run tightly down her arms to cover her hands. The rigid white cloth of the gown features no embroidery or weaving patterns and serves simply as a base layer covering up her underwear so it does not show, forming a blank slate upon which the rest of the outfit is built, like Ilfreann forming the foundation of the prime material plane. The only part of the gown that isn't perfectly smooth is the lacing on the back side running up and down the centre towards the small of her back where the lacing is tied off.

On top of this Wendele wears a slightly more forgiving gown which falls more widely, made of the same material as her veil. The skirt runs down to the ground where a band of gold embroidery circles around the girl, while the sleeves reach to three quarters of her underarm, leaving her hands and wrists free. The sleeves taper somewhat towards the shoulders and are very wide at the wrists where they are marked with a similar band of gold embroidery. This gown does not cover her throat, but the bottom part of her caul disappears into the round neckline which also features gold embroidery, keeping the girl neatly covered. The gown is laced up in the back like the layer below it, though the lacing here is partially hidden and hard to notice. The flowing wide sleeves and shiny fabric, though not actually possessing any slimy quality, represent the slime aspect of Beliria. With this layer, Wendele wears a pair of long white leather gloves, which disappear into the wide sleeves. The gloves offer an extra layer of protection and isolation from overenthusiastic commoners who may wish to shake her hand, something that would be considered inappropriate otherwise. The pure white leather also shows Wendele keeping her hands clean from physical work and indeed dirty dealings.

Finally, the outermost layer of her outfit consists of a white gown with short sleeves and high neck collar that go only slightly beyond her shoulders, falling as if it were a tabard of some sort, though running down to the ground instead of the knees with an actual skirt. This outermost gown is stiffened somewhat by the dying process that gives it a subtle leather-like shine with all sorts of subtle, seeming random patterns appearing on it from different angles, alluding to the spirits of the dead and Mortaebius. The gown is pulled on over the head, with minor lacing on both sides of the bodice allows the wide sleeves of the previous layer to pass through before being tied down.

As with the embroidery, Wendele's gowns display no holy symbols or heraldry, not even the Tria Phoenixia, Wendele's personal charge, nor are there any reference to House Helevorn or Clairmont. There is of course clear symbolism in her chosen outfit, but actual symbols are deliberately avoided. As an Imperial Princess, Wendele no longer needs to announce who she is, what her affiliations are and who she serves through her clothing: everyone who is in any way familiar with Clairmont is presumed to be familiar with her and anyone who is not familiar with Clairmont most likely won't understand the symbols anyway. In not showing heraldry, a statement is made that she is important enough to no longer need to bother.

Wendele does not carry her own luggage which is normally carried by Lilima or Edana for her. In cases where combat is expected, however, she keeps her spell component pouch with her on an attached thin white leather belt around her waist, which Lilima ties around her if it is required, hanging diagonally over her hip. The pouch is a small white leather pouch the size of her hand, packed each morning depending on the spells she has prepared with the appropriate spell components by her servants. Wendele has to find the components by touch, something that is often problematic for her, and the correct packing of the pouch is thus crucial to be able to cast with due speed. Notably, the pouch also contains a simple pantheon holy symbol, which is the only actual symbol Wendele carries sometimes. Beyond this, Wendele carries no bags and her gowns have no pockets in them.

When outside, Wendele always wears a floor length cloak. In normal circumstances this is a simple white leather cloak which is draped over her shoulder and closed in the front with the hood up and hanging over her face somewhat. The cloak is meant to give her some anonymity as her face and clothing are not visible when moving from place to place. This in turn means assassinations are more difficult while still marking her as an important person. Additionally, the leather is waterproof, protecting her and her clothing against the wet climate. When going to cold places, Wendele instead wears a fur cloak made of winterwolf fur, which is absolutely necessary as despite her layered outfit, Wendele has a high surface area to volume ratio, meaning she gets cold quickly.

• Wendele is currently looking into having the Wenalmare Melisse reconstructing to get rid of the Amorran holy symbol hint and to more accurately represent the fact that she is now blind, something the third eye set up does not match properly with. She is hoping to incorporate the three styles of magic she practices into the new form.
• Wendele's multi-layered outfit is much too warm for the tropical climate. However, her primary concerns are appearance and symbolism, and personal comfort comes somewhere far behind in last place. Over time, Wendele has gotten used to the discomfort.
• Lilima has plans to improve upon Wendele's current level of protection. As a Mage, Wendele has more ability to continue her magic with armour that offers better protection, however as of yet Lilima has not solved the problem of how to offer better armour while keeping the fact that Wendele is wearing any at all hidden.
• Wendele is looking for a method to solve the material component problem, especially regarding her arcane spells.