Name: Skarkiss Shrillskive
Species: Loggerhead Shrike
Gender: Male
Nature: Sadistic and scheming.
Clan: Fangroot
Family: Marellis(mother), Sirsskit(father), Karak(older brother), Kessela(older sister), Torlinn(brother, clutchmate)
Appearance:To start off, some reference pictures of Skark's species:
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He should basically look like the pictures above, perhaps slightly scruffier and shabbier, seeing as he lives in the big horrible forest of Fangroot. His face should be edited to match the hawk-like beak, and his facial expression would be that a schemer, as he is a very nasty sort of guy, maybe a nasty grin. If he's on songbird lines with edits, if possible, it would be nice if they could also be edited to portray the stockiness of the bird by giving him a slightly thicker neck if possible. He needs to be on songbird lines, yes. Weird, spooky eyes would also be good. I'll try to post some refs of what I mean.
Should I be lucky enough to win him on custom lines someday, I have little preference for pose, and the artist can use his personality as an inspiration for that.
Accessories: Skark likes to wear a variety of shawls and short capes which he fashions from pieces of fabric he likes to collect. His favorite is a piece of tattered
black silk with a floral design in faded silver. He likes this one best because another Rooter made a fastener for it as payment for a job. On one side of the collar is an embroidered hole, and to keep it fastened, the other side of the collar has a red string tied to the middle of a polished and dulled thorn, which is stuck through the hole to keep it fixed about his shoulders.
He also wears a woven necklace that holds a very tiny piece of triangular blue sea glass as the charm, inherited from his mother.
History:Skark's history is not a pleasant one. Born into a family of thieves and killers, Skark discovered from day one that you can't trust anybody, not even your own nestmates. Out of a clutch of four children, only Skark and his brother reached maturity. Both are still, to this day, at each other's throats.
Raised on the very outskirts of Fangroot, barely part of the clan, the Shrillskive family was comprised of parents Marellis(mother) and Sirsskit(father), and several older siblings who helped to protect their family's territory. Sirsskit never lived to see his second clutch of children reach adulthood. He was caught unawares by a neighboring pair of their own species while trying to steal food from their cache, and subsequently impaled upon the thorns. It was a harsh blow to his wife, who'd been successfully protecting an area that included a large bramble thicket near the forest floor alongside her husband for years. The family struggled to raise the new clutch, only two of which survived, Skarkiss and younger brother Torlinn.
The two grew up under the vigilant and harsh guidance of their mother and older siblings, taught to fly with agility, to hunt, kill and impale their prey upon the thorns of the bramble in order to build food caches. Their mother also imparted to her children her great knowledge of poisonous plants, many of which could be found near the dangerous floor of the Fangroot forest. What can kill, what can paralyze, what can heal. The old female shrike disappeared mysteriously one day and hasn't been seen since. This occurence caused great unrest between the three siblings.
Skark lives in the same territory he grew up in, helping to protect it alongside his siblings, waiting for his mother to return. Kessela left to find her own fortune in life, leaving Karak to govern the family's land. Each brother holds a corner of the territory, and though relations between the three are somewhat tense, they manage well enough. Though the family of shrikes has never really integrated into the Rooter society fully (even seeing some members as tasty food morsels for the taking), Skark has taken it upon himself to 'socialize' with them, offering many a shady service to those who seek it.
Currently:Skark will still live in the general area of Fangroot, but the constant bickering of his brothers wears thin on his nerves. Unwilling to fight either of them for the family territory, Skark has taken to undergoing short trips from home to investigate the world for himself. His brothers could care less, and leave their brother to his own devices, usually. It could turn out that Skark will move out completely, but that is to be seen. Unbeknownst to his siblings, he will often go hunting for their vanished mother during these trips as well, even though it's been almost a year since her disappearance.
Personality:Skark is, to put it simply, a nasty, scheming individual. There is a natural sadism in him that runs in his family, and he takes pleasure in causing chaos and pain. A big part of his life is hunting and maintaining the food cache in the family's bramble thicket, a horrid area upon which the three brothers impale and hang their prey so they are able to eat at their leisure. They have a 'friendly' competition every so often to see who can tally up the most kills, and Skark has won on many occasions.
Despite his disregard for other species (he sees almost anything smaller than himself as a potential meal, small birds included), Skark is also an opportunist, and provides a sort of service to the Fangroot clan by fetching plants and insects that are otherwise unreachable to those unwilling to make the journey down. He wouldn't hesitate to act as a hired killer either, and sometimes takes other odd jobs if the pay is good or interesting. He has a fondness of objects from near the road, as well as pieces of fabric.
While his brothers mostly employ strength as a main tactic in hunting, Skark sometimes uses wit and charm to lure possible victims to their doom, taking great amusement from the process. He is often outwardly 'friendly' to strangers if he sees he can use them in any way. Skark also exhibits a certain degree of loyalty when it comes to family. He regarded his mother with deep respect, and does not spurn his brothers because it's easier to protect a hunting ground with three birds instead of just one.
Points of Interest- Skark was the one who was closest to their mother, and the sibling who was always most interested in her knowledge of plants and poisons. Because of this close bond with her, he inherited her sea-glass necklace, which is a family heirloom of sorts. It is believed to hold some type of magical property, but Marellis did not stay long enough to reveal whether or not this claim was true.
- Skark's mother had an odd accent that Skark and the others picked up from her as they grew up. No one really knows, including Skark, where it came from, because Marellis was a very secretive bird. (It sounds German or possibly Russian. If this isn't allowed, please tell me. I just have fun with these kinds of things sometimes <3)
- Skark also had a somewhat affectionate relationship with his older sister, Kess. Her disposition differed greatly from her siblings, being considerably less aggressive, and Skark misses her, even though they write each other from time to time.
- The three remaining shrike siblings maintain a strained relationship, with Torlinn wishing to take over the territory and attract a mate. Torlinn and Karak are a bit bigger and stronger than Skark, but he's by far the best flyer of the three, and probably the most charismatic as well.
- Though neither Skark or Karak want to believe it, it is thought that their mother has died. Why she left without her belongings is a mystery to them, and Karak refuses to relinquish his responsibility to protect his mother's territory. Torlinn sees this as a foolish endeavor, and wants to start a family of his own without having to move away from their big territory and good hunting ground.
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