Eilistraee appears as...

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Kaote Bruchedaine
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Eilistraee appears as...

Post by Kaote Bruchedaine »

Without looking up sources or trying to fact check anyone. In your own mind, your own thoughts on the subject. Were you to see Eilistraee in person, describe what she would look like to you.
Bhaern Quel
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Re: Eilistraee appears as...

Post by Bhaern Quel »

Well considering I read the sources and do not need to check them I must beg off this question. Though even in 2nd Edition, if seen at all, mostly was seen in a distance.
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Irennan
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Re: Eilistraee appears as...

Post by Irennan »

Knowing how Eilistraee looks like, it's rather difficult to answer your question. My brain would automatically summon the image of her canonical appearance. However I can tell you how I imagined her when I read about her for the first time (in WotSQ, up to book 4. I didn't read further because the sword-plot made me groan and really shutted down my interest).

In my mind, I (obviously) pictured Eilistraee as a drow with long silvery hair, not amazon-tall, like in canon, but still taller than most drow. Being a goddess related with dance, beauty and such, I imagined her as awe-inspiringly beautiful, with a divinely graceful and agile-type athletic body (long limbs, slender shape). But that's kind of a given, especially since she is a drow.

I pictured Eilistraee's visage as both reflecting and different from the ''classical'' elven/drow face. It would have delicate and fine features, chiseled to perfection, but definitely not as sharp, softer, with large, deep blue eyes (Idk why, but I thought her eyes as deep blue, even while knowing their actual color. And I still picture them like that) and -most important- it would be very expressive. Her kind of ''perfection'' wouldn't be the ''extraordinary but cold divine beauty'', instead her features and eyes would sharply reflect her emotions, she would ''feel'' warm, spontaneous, bright and joyful, sweet and loving. While reading the books I didn't get the feel of her being impish, a bit moody, of her melancholy or her having a fiery and wild personality (and I liked those traits a lot when I came to know about them. They just fit her so well). However my image of her definitely included her being the rebel/underdog forging her own path and basically the incarnation of the free spirit concept.

There's one thing that I imagined very vividly about Eilistraee, that I've never done for any other character (and that I mostly did after reading the scene about Halisstra's conversion). That is the emotions that she makes people feel. I imagined that by being near her, by meeting her gaze, anyone (especially drow, ofc, but anyone) would have a sense of inscrutable, but fascinating mystery and would feel strength: a great, primordial, indomitable awe-inspiring strength, that of the goddess' spirit, that of creating and giving life, of nurturing and protecting all that is beautiful. But also, I imagined that they would feel her love, it would be like being drawn by a siren's song, but even more intense, because they would feel a bond reaching deep in their soul, as Eilistraee would be able to see through them, to know -and perhaps feel herself- all that is deep in their hearts: their passions, their mistakes, their battles, their wishes. She would know all that is good and bad about them and accept and love them despite that, for whom they are, with a love that is spontaneous, pure, unconditional. She would see and appreciate the beauty and light in [i:j2op4u2t]anyone[/i:j2op4u2t] and try to make it bloom, and they -especially those who were lost, or who were suffering, or who were surrounded by cruelty- would feel free, a joy so great to bring them to tears (like it happened in the book). It would be like aching for something, searching it across the whole world, through storms and dangers, without ever be able to reaching it, and finally, after so much suffering, finding it in the embrace of a goddess, feeling all the pain dissolving and being replaced with warmth and love (and this would especially be true for the drow, as Eilistraee would open their eyes, let them know the joy of life that most of them never knew).

For some reason that I really can't explain, I also thought that Eilistraee would avoid using words, that she would communicate mostly through her song, by making others [i:j2op4u2t]feel[/i:j2op4u2t] emotions, and throuh her expression and gestuality.
Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.
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