Mara reference sheet

<da:thumb id="293176525"/> (the one laughing at the bus stop) (somewhere carrying her cub)

Text updated: 12-5-2019
Names: Mara Grandal
Species: siderian (a northern, horse-sized tiger-oriental cat-lynx like feline)
Gender: female

Birth place: the Grandal family land – located in the Lakelands (Sweden) on the borderline with the Fjordlands (Norway), in an area with wide spruce valleys and mountains.
Birth year/date (relative to Stian’s birth year): -37
Death year (relative to Stian’s birth year): +92  - she becomes quite old (126 – which is like 96 in human years). 

Family
Mother: Gunda Grandal
Father: Håvard Stortind
Sister: Tyra Grandal
Mate: Morten Sætansen
Son: Goran Gunnar Sætansen
Daughter: Stígana Sætansen (Tiga) - you can see her as cub on Goran's sketchdump
Son: Stygian Stígandr Sætansen

APPEARANCE

Appearance and reputation: Nonchalant, tough and even somewhat bitchy. She comes across as quite a weirdo. Her tendency to openly throw all her radical opinions around, is not always appreciated.

Shoulderheight : 1,55 m

Physical description
Body: tiger like body type with slightly convex spine. Very robust and stocky skeleton with heavy bones; especially her limbs.  Although her chest is pretty small and narrow. Balanced musculature. Paws are average sized and she has strongly curved claws, which are not always fully retracted. Her tail  is long and the tip carried a bit upwards.

Head: wide skull and forward directed muzzle. Little kink in her profile and slightly convex shaped bridge of the nose. Occipital is typically arched. Ears are large, point sideward  and are tilted slightly forward.  Slanting light blue eyes and angular shape. High ‘eyebrows’.  Muzzle and chin are rounded but triangular shaped in frontview.

Fur: very soft and silky, pretty short. Only a bit longer hair on her tail, throat, elbows, wrists and ankles. She has longer hair on her head, which naturally falls forward and lies flat, but she artificially creates a Mohawk. Her mane is rather long, thin and silky. Colour: cold black with the Tonkinese-like gradient, which results in a lighter blue-gray body colour. Legs, head and tail are black. Some light -gray markings in her face, throat and fingers.

Jewelry and accessories
Several earrings, a necklace with a 'nightmare' and a piercing in her right ‘eyebrow’.

PERSONALITY & CHARACTER

Personality and mannerisms:Mara is someone who openly voices her mind and expresses herself without worrying about others or the consequences. She is rather unsubtle as it comes to making her opinions clear. When she's annoyed by something she can complain in such a way that other siderians can get quite annoyed.  Despite her somewhat bitchy comments here and there, she can be very nice, understanding and funny. She has a good sense of humor and likes to have fun with her friends.

 Toward her cubs, she is very soft, considerate and lovely. She has quite a strong feeling of empathy and is a very caring mother…but quickly forgets that when her cubs are out of sight….So when her kids are old enough she quickly teaches them to care for themselves, so that she and her mate can leave home frequently.  So, she cares a lot about her kids and has a strong motherly instinct but she doesn’t have much responsibility.  She gets quickly distracted when she’s occupied with other things (hunting, patrolling, gossiping, spying) and then forgets about her responsibilities. Thereby she can come across as careless and quickly thinks that everything is all-right.

Even when things do go seriously wrong, she has a hard time breaking her behavior pattern and quickly falls back into the same mistake. In some ways, I can say that she’s wise with her view on life, but in other ways she is not always the smartest. Focusses on the here-and-now and her long-term insight is not that good.

Mara is someone who has a few ‘extremes’ in her feelings. She’s often rather cool and chill with things and not quickly emotionally disturbed. But once things get serious, she can ‘snap’ and her emotions take her over. She doesn’t mind being independent and solitary but also needs someone to come back to and is actually quite bound to her family and friends.

She also has an attraction for ‘the dark side’ and ‘dark stories’ (like the stories her father told her about the evil Sætansen family). She finds that cool and getting involved herself gives her a thrill. She’s quite a thrill seeker and is quite easily bored.

Type of humour: quite hard, straightforward sarcasm.

Voice, manner of speaking: Sounds a bit low and somewhat nasal, sometimes with a bit of a bitchy undertone when she’s nagging or complaining about something. She talks a lot and has a bit of a dominant, very straightforward way of talking. She freely speaks form her mind. 

Sexuality: I suspect bisexual.

Spirituality and philosophy: she’s pretty down-to-earth and in a way quite wise (although not  always smart…) in her sayings. I think her spirituality is mostly linked to nature spirits but she doesn’t give this much attention or dedication.
Throughout her life, her motto became something like ‘death is a natural part of life’ and ‘it can always get worse’

Fears: having no-one to return to. She’s alright with being solitary for a while but she needs to have someone to return to. Losing that, is something she fears deeply. And that fear came rather close as her life proceeded.

Dreams: becoming part of the Sætansen family and being remembered.     

Interest, hobbies, occupation: She didn’t have many special interests or hobbies but was often quite curious about other’s business. Gossiping and observing other siderians could entertain her or quite a while. When she moved to the Sætansen lands, she patrolled actively on the territory borders and assisted her mate Morten with some of the work that he had to do for his father and the family. That consisted of active patrolling, fetching material from the metacluster and investigating various cases (like the nearby human settlement).

During this period, she developed a bit of an interest in making armor and achieved some skills with that. That came in handy when she joined the fighting force against the invading humans.

Special skills: she’s quite a walking news-station and somehow knows surprisingly much of the ins and outs of other siderians’ (or other animals) business.

STORY

An adventurous cub
Mara came from a rather remote but rich territory; the Grandal lands. Her childhood was rather quiet, often too quiet for her taste. She got along well with her sister and family but when she got too bored, she could end up in a (bitch)fight with her sister. Mara had always been rather fascinated by her father’s dark stories about the evil Håkan Sætansen, who had attacked his family and brought him to where he was now. However, she couldn’t express her attraction to the ‘dark-side’ because of her father’s sensitivities. When Mara became an adolescent, the boredom and suppression of her hidden fascination made her bold and rather rebellious. She travelled to the nearest metacluster MistFjord on her own, in search for more adventures and a potential mate.

Forbidden relation
Quickly, she got a crush on Morten Sætansen, son of the notorious Sætansen family-head Matthias and grandson of the tyrant Håkan who had destroyed her father’s family. Morten seemed a rather decent guy, despite his dark ancestors and she approached him confidently. Initially, he wasn’t interested and ignored her. But after some persistent flirting, she got the impression that the interest was becoming mutual. But he had other business to do and disappeared for a while. Excited, she went back home as well. She couldn’t keep her emotions inside and slipped off that she had a huge crush on the Sætansen guy. Her father Håvard was shocked to hear this and tried everything to talk her off her crush; he didn’t want to have anything to do with Sætansens. Her mother was supportive but the tension between her parents got so strong that they were often in conflict. Mara’s old frustrations came out and she refused to let her parents stand in the way for her mate-choice. After another fierce conflict, she left her homelands and thought to never return.  

Into the ‘dark family’
Back in MistFjord, she stalked Morten again and her persistence had finally won him over. He was quite chill with her weirdness and seemed even amused by it. A relation was growing and eventually, he invited her to the famous Sætansen lands. That was the ultimate thrill for her; to meet all these dark ones and to become part of this fascinating dark dynasty with the rich history. The family-head Matthias was even crazier and creepier than she expected, but he allowed her to stay. She learned a lot more about the family and felt that her decision was right. Mara became friends with Malta, the mate of Morten’s brother Axel. She thrived and assisted her mate in the work that he did for the his father and the family. Soon, she became pregnant and got her first cub; Goran. Morten took a break from his usual activities and spend most of his time together with her and little Goran.  Mara got pregnant again and gave birth to Stígana (nicknamed Tiga) only a year after they got Goran. When the cubs became old enough to join the learning-ground (a place where cubs can play and learn under adult supervision), Morten resumed some of his work (which now also included investigating the growing human settlement) and left Mara mostly in charge for the parenting, although he still payed his family regular visits. Occasionally, Mara got company from Malta, who had also gotten a son (Ravn). Goran and Tiga were easy-going cubs who got along very well, which made it easier for Mara to raise them mostly alone. However, she missed the adventures together with her mate and quickly found herself distracted from watching over the cubs. 

Unexpected loss
Mara got pregnant of a third cub, while her friend Malta was pregnant of her second cub. Meanwhile, humans had become a more serious threat but they had never been on the Sætansen lands and Mara also trusted her cubs enough to leave them alone while she went out hunting. Goran was now 8 years old and Tiga 7. When she came back from a hunt, she found Goran in destress while was Tiga stuck in a snare-trap that was tightly wrapped around her waist. In panic, she tried to free Tiga but not long after she got her daughter out, Tiga died of the injuries. Without thinking, she turned to Goran and asked him angrily what had happened and why he couldn’t prevent this. Little Goran was so shocked that it immediately struck Mara’s empathy and she regretted having been angry with her son. Of course, he wouldn’t want this….

She searched for Morten but he turned her away and disappeared. Confused and frustrated, she didn’t know what to do. Even Malta had left the Sætansen lands because of the human-caused dangers and Mara felt abandoned and alone. Only now, she began to overthink her decisions and felt regret of having left her family. However, there was one person still there, who gave her support: Alva, her mate’s mother. Alva explained why Morten was behaving the way he did but Mara felt bitter about it. A few months after this loss, her son Stian was born. Morten gradually returned, but she had a hard time not being angry with him. Thinking about Alva’s words helped and slowly their relation improved again.  

Falling into the same pattern
Stian grew quickly and Goran always stayed close to watch over his little brother. As Stian got old enough to join the learning ground, Mara resumed some of her activities and joined Morten whenever possible. She trusted that Stian was safe under Goran’s watch. Malta’s return with her daughter Yava, also reassured her. Yava was of Stian’s age and the cubs got along well. She resumed her patrolling activities, trusting that Stian was safe. Meanwhile the threat from humans had become more serious and Mara tried her best to educate them about the dangers.

However, when Stian was about 7 years old, he suddenly disappeared, leaving Mara in complete distress again. She wondered how it could happen again and thought of herself as a bad mother. Thanks to genius Matthias, they managed to locate Stian after a few months. He was held captive by humans in the nearby town. Morten risked his life to save him. When he brought Stian back, the little boy was injured and in a bad condition. He was distrustful and he only allowed Mara to come near him. As the years passed, Stian got back to his old curious, confident and independent self. Mara had noticed that Stian developed a rather close relationship with his cousin Yava and his grandfather Matthias. As both cubs reached adulthood, she went back to her own activities and spend more time patrolling with Morten.

Territory conflicts
Surprise got her again when she heard that Morten and Axel got caught in a fierce territory conflict after the Nivalis neighbors had invaded their land. They accused Morten for having murdered one of their family members. Soon after, she realized that Stian had disappeared as well. Months passed and he didn’t return. Yava and Goran had been searching as well, without any result. She got seriously worried but Yava had picked up some rumors about Stian’s location and Goran went after him.

Both of her sons were gone
Over the years, she had only heard from Yava that Stian was still alive, roaming somewhere far away, followed by Goran who couldn’t find him. She tried to be chill and didn’t want to worry too much but the nagging feeling that she may never see them back, bothered her. Meanwhile, humans had become a serious problem and several siderians had been killed by them. Even Malta couldn’t escape from the bullets but survived. Mara joined Morten wherever she could in the human-investigation work. The severity of the situation even made Matthias bargain with the Nivalis family about possible solutions against humans.

They returned
After more than 17, Stian finally returned, together with Goran and Yava. He had become a fully grown, impressive male and she was proud of him. Although he had a big scar on his back and came across as cold, distant and hateful. Mara got worried about what had happened to him during all those years. Morten was less eager to see Stian again, since he hadn’t forgotten about the neighbour-trouble that was most likely caused by Stian. However, he accepted Stian’s return and even supported him with his plans to start up a fighting Force against humans. The Fjordland Force was growing fast in numbers and power. Mara joined as well, together with Morten and the rest of the family; even old Matthias. They were to claim the Northern Lands back from the invading humans.

Active in the Fjordland Force
Mara got involved in the weapon-and armor making work and she enjoyed the thrill of the missions. She eagerly supported Stian with everything he did but as the battles went on, she realized that this was not just a thrill. Many siderians got seriously injured or died in the missions. Mara mostly kept her head cool with her nonchalant attitude but seeing so much suffering did have an effect on her. The birth of her grandkids brought a pleasant distraction from the hardship and she wanted to be the cool grandma.

No cure for her mate
However, good times quickly ended when Morten and Stian didn’t return after a failed mission. It was only a few years after the Fjordland Force had risen and the strategies were not yet optimized. Anxiously she waited and waited… Those who had survived the battle had returned but there was no sign of neither Morten or Stian. Suddenly, the familiar tall white silhouette appeared through the smoke. He looked all-right and she tensely screened the scene for any sign of Morten. Her emotions ran wild when she the blue silhouette appear behind Stian. Covered in blood and heavily limping, Morten had returned. The healers immediately took care of him and patched up the wounds. Mara only left his side to hunt and bring him food. Morten tried to resume the activities as soon as he had recovered from the worst but he never got his old strength back. Over the course of two years, he only got weaker and more sickly until he no longer managed to keep up with the activities. Mara and her mate went back to their homeland to take some proper rest, but he got only worse and it got clear that he was attacked by a terrible disease (quite likely something like FIP). They went to MistFjord to get the help from specialized healers but there was no treatment that cured him. Mara felt her mate slip away but tried to stay hopeful as much as she could. When he was skin and bone and hardly moved anymore, she felt her last hope seep away. Her sons came to visit one more time. Mara didn’t leave him anymore and lost quite some weight herself…he slowly passed away in her embrace.

Fighting means loss
In roughly the same time, Morten’s mother Alva, had also passed away of old age. Alva had always been there for Mara when she needed support. Now she returned to her old friend Malta and she tried to keep herself strong. Death is a natural element of life, she kept saying. But the loss of her mate had hit her hard. She continued the activities in the Fjordland Force and small victories here and there, kept her going. She was incredibly proud of her son who had now become the General of the Fjordland Force. The Force had become a well known fighting group and siderians from all corners came to join the fight against their common enemy. Mara’s battle-spirit was still alive, despite her age. Worries returned when her son Goran got shot after an unexpected confrontation with humans. Fortunately it was quickly clear that no vital organs were hit and he recovered well.

No time for mourning
However, the death of Morten’s father, the crazy Sætansen family-head Matthias, gave her another blow. He was a central figure in the Force; the old genius who always found a crazy solution for everything. She had always admired him deeply and this loss was felt intensely by everybody. Only now, the siderians realized how much Matthias had meant for them. But they had no other choice than to go on. The continuing missions didn’t leave them much room to mourn the dead. Bravely she still followed in her son’s footsteps and hardened herself again.

Death is a natural element of life
Even young ones couldn’t escape death. Her brave granddaughter Siri (Stian’s daughter), fell in battle and left her few years old daughter parentless. Never had she seen her Icecold, battle-hardened son Stian mourn, but she felt that this had hit him hard and she silently supported him without touching his pride. Fortunately, the Fjordland Force was gaining ground. Most humans were slowly retreating from the Fjordlands and siderians finally felt safer. But dangers kept lurking around; during a small scouting mission, Stian got shot in an unexpected confrontation. He suffered from intense blood loss but thanks to Yava’s accurate acting, he made it through. After this, Stian lowered the activity level of the Force and focused more on his family. Mara got to meet several of her great-grandchildren. The youngest was Rose, a little jewel who had a special bond with Stian. Other siderians kept saying that little Rose looked quite a bit like her great-grandma Mara and she felt proud of it.

Only one son left
Since the activities of the Fjordland Force had slowed down, many members returned to their own territories and daily lives for a while. Only a small group continued some scouting missions and worked to maintain the safety. General Stian was always leading and hardly ever took any rest. And so did he lead this scouting mission in an abandoned town, not far away from his homelands. Mara was getting too old to join the missions but always wanted to be with her sons. Nobody expected any trouble but when Goran approached her with a serious expression that she rarely saw on his face, she knew that something was wrong. Stian had been shot dead. Nobody could believe it. The General had always survived everything, always been a step ahead of humans. One fatal mistake and a surprise attack killed the one whom everyone saw as their immortal leader. Mara crumbled in sorrow when Goran and her grandson Jay brought Stian’s bloody body back. Even seeing him dead hardly convinced her that her youngest son was really gone.

Her last years
During her long life, she had lost many siderians whom she held dear. Always had she hardened herself and held on to her motto that death was a natural part of life. But Stian’s death took too much of her. She was already 113 years old and struggled against a depression. Also her friend Malta had just passed away and she clung to her first-born son Goran, her last child left. During the last years of her life, he stayed close to her and tried to cheer her up and cared for her. Seeing her grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up did her good and with Goran at her side, she could find her well-deserved rest.

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