Bianca is a very... motherly mother. Much to the horror of her adolescent son. She has some very... reserved,... ideas of what is and is not appropriate. She worries and frets, and isn't shy about using her power to take care of her son.
Roland is one of the Elders in North Village who took care of things in the transitions between kings. Given how many of them are related to him, perhaps that is fitting. He was directly involved in converting the Evil Magician Trent and the Evil Sorceress Isis into Good King Trent and Queen Isis, simply by granting them their wish, the thrones of Xanth. He is wise, fair, and stern. Married to Bianca, his softer side comes out. He can set rules the kings must follow, and stand by them, but faced with his wice, he bends every time. Bianca rules the ruler of kings.
Chameleon - Beauty and brains... just... not at the same time. Chameleon's talent is more like a curse, and one she ran away to Mundania to escape. But love, and magic, brought her home, and brought her to a man who could love her when she was ugly and smart, as much as he loved her when she was pretty and dumb. Dumb enough not to realize the proper word is stupid, not dumb, idiot. Did I mention that when she is ugly and smart, her mouth is the same? She's still the same person, mind, as she changes... but... her intelligence varies so much that it is hard to tell. Also, her beauty phase is always different each time, all of her phases are changeable, but she has no choice of anything.
Married to Bink, may we all have mercy on him.
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:53 pm
Married to Queen Iris Trent is the magician of transformation. He was banned from Xanth years before the first book began, sent to drear Mundania for trying to take the throne of Xanth by force.
When Bink brought Trent back to Xanth, and when they had a truce, it finished the maturing process that began in Mundania. Bink's power saw to it that Trent became the king legitimately, and he did all he could to maintain Bink's well being. Trent is now a man of honor and bravery and of extreme loyalty. Well, except for to his second wife. While he and Iris have made their peace, and do genuinely care for each other now, the attentions of a young woman can still touch him. He would never break his marriage vows, and loves his daughter Irene, but his love is still for his first wife who died in Mundania of a virus that the magic of Xanth could have cured.
Mate - King Trent Iris is not a female to look down upon or underestimate. Her illusions are Magician caliber despite her gender. She was one of the first females to be named Magician. Twice now she got what she want with regards to the throne of Xanth and twice she found it not what she wanted after all. So she finds other ways to flex her powers. She plays her daughter like a fiddle and knows that illusion is not always about magic, sometimes just knowing what to say to whom and when... And when it comes to her magic, don't underestimate that either. She can perplex two or three scenes at a time. She can make moldy rice look and taste like dragon-steak. She likes her little jokes against people who have irked her, and she is petty. She holds a grudge, but at the same time... if you do her a good turn, she will never forget it.
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:55 pm
Mate - Dor
Irene had always had a chip on her shoulder as a child. Her mother disdained her, and she felt the same. Her father was always busy, but still always found time for Dor. And why? Because Dor was everything she wasn't. Dor was male. Dor was a full magician. And one day, Dor would be king. Queen Iris never failed to remind young Irene that the only why the green haired girl would ever be queen would be to marry that fool. Too bad she hated Dor!
But as they grew together, and as teasing turned more... mature... she began to find herself pulled closer to him. When she saw his bravery on a grand adventure they took together, she realized that he was growing into a fine man. She therefore had to grow into a fine woman.
She did.
She is a firm mother who tolerates little foolishness from her children, and who usually has to be calmed down by Dor. Still, for all she might kick the furniture or glare at supplicants, as easily as she attracts conniptions, she does love her children, and all of Xanth.
She is a good soul, deep down. However, hurt her babies or tick her off.....
Married to Irene. He really didn't believe that would happen... and then he started to notice her legs. But really, he has the brain coral to blame for their romance... He still isn't sure who owes whom a favor over that...
Dor
"THE LAND OF XANTH"
buy door
Eye live inn the Land of Xanth, witch is dis-stinked from Mundaina inn that their is magic inn Xanth and nun inn Mundania. Every won inn Xanth has his own magick talent; know to are the same. Sum khan sore threw the heir. Butt inn Mundania know won does magic, sew its very dull. They're are knot any dragons their. Instead their are bare and hoarse and a grate many other monsters. Hour ruler is King Trent, whoo has rained four seventeen years. He transforms people two other creatures. Know won gets chaste hear; oui fair inn piece. My tail is dun."
(Taken form book 4, "Centaur Aisle" Pg.14)
No one will ever let Dor live that one down, especially not his wife...or the table he sat at to write that essay. Of course the moat recalls that day but has other things to bother him about.
They say his power is magician level, talking to the inanimate and having it talk back. He never much saw it as a talent as a child, however. Because he could ask the walls anything, people were nervous around him, and his parents stayed away most of the time. Other children bullied him, though none worse than Princess Irene. His friends were Smash Ogre who was too stupid to have secrets, and Chet who being a centaur, had no secret from the humans he associated with. Dor knew Chet's only shame anyway, his magic. So he had two friends... Well, and Grundy. Grundy was a former golem who had the matching talent to Dor's, Grundy could talk to any living thing. Too bad he couldn't do so without being insulting!
But there was more to that for Dor... Because unlike other people, his power... was always on. Any inanimate object he spends any time around will begin to talk, even when he does not want them to. And the problem with talking to the inanimate was that it was never as witty as it thought it was.
But Dor had a lot of experiences that helped him grow up fast. He spent time in the past in the body of a warrior, coming to peace with his crush on Millie the Maid, and then taking kingship far sooner than anyone expected, for longer than agreed upon. He became a good and fair king, a calm anchor to his wife's flares of temper.... He is also a good father and always seems slightly amused by his wife's temper. Never a wise thing. He is, however, one of the very few adult men to get along with Iris, but he never lets that show where Irene could discover it.
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:58 pm
"Maybe you're a princess!" "Maybe you're someone's long lost twin!" "Maybe you're a magician!" Nothing is too odd or out there to be true. Not when Princess Ida is around. Her power is subtle but devastating. It is also one of the most complicated talents in all of Xanth. Her magic is the idea. Anything said in front of her becomes true... unless you know her power. Once she learned it, she could no longer use her power herself, but that does not make it any less dangerous. It made her a princess, it made itself magician class, it made her Ivy's long lost twin, even though until someone suggested all of that, she had not been a magician, and Ivy had no long lost twin. There are few who can rival her power, so her parents now that they have her back, are very careful about who has access to her.
Of course, it is hard to limit access when people have to keep journeying to Ptrea, the moon that orbits her shoulder. A simple accommodation spell brings a visitor into a series of worlds, each odder than the gourd on it's own... On these worlds you will find everyone who ever was in Xanth, everyone who ever wasn't, anyone who ever should have been... And on every inner world is an Ida with her own odd shaped moon. And in each world, that moon is the gateway to another world. Watch out for the Comic Strips, no matter what world you are on, and learn the rules!
Princess Ivy is one of my three favorite characters from Xanth. She has the talent of Enchantment at the Magician level. Her power is subtle, but devastating. Ever since she was a child, Ivy has had a penchant for getting into trouble. Her best friend, for example, is the Gap Dragon, and she fell in love with, of all things, a mundane!!! She's been grazed by forget whirls, and has fought off wiggles. She made Hugo into her knight in shiney armor when she was just a child, and he is wrapped around her hoof to this day. She is great friends with the two girls her dodo little brother got himself engaged to. She's hard on her little brother, because that is how she thinks big sisters are, and things tend to work out the way Ivy thinks they should be.
Mate: Grey Mundane
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:00 pm
Mate - Spoiler stressed
Wait, wait, wait. Did someone say that IVY got into a lot of trouble? Ivy? Uh...no. Ivy always got HIM into trouble. Stupid snotty stuck up big sister. Stingy! She would tell him to turn into a giant slug to get down the cookie jar, then leave him behind to get in trouble... She'd never let him watch the magic tapestry... Okay, okay, so maybe that had all been when they were kids, but really, did she have to be so beside herself with the giggles when he came home with two fiancees?! As they got older, their relationship improved, and it always shaped Dolph's life. From at odds with her, to eager to please and help... his relationship with his sister was always at the root of what he did. And that includes going on his great quest to find the Good magician. Sure, he went with only Marrow Bones (and later Grace'l Ossen) as an adult companion, but Ivy was still at the root of it. Or is that Route, given he had to find his way through the gourd? He is one of the few people who live in Xanth Proper that the Night Stallion respects. He has a pass to come and go through the gourd as he pleases, and the denizens of the gourd are honor bound to help him, rather than trying to steal his soul.
But Dolph got himself into whole messes of trouble with girls, while he still thought they were all like Ivy and icky. Then he found he had to agree to be betrothed to Nada Naga in order to secure the aid of the Nagas. Why? Because Nada's elder brother had been told "marry what the dragon brings", so they had expected the princess Ivy. When Dolph arrived instead, they made due. Then the quest took him to a sleeping princess. his kiss woke her up and she had to become engaged to him, and marry when they were of age, or she would age her nine hundred and some years and die. So he agreed to be engaged to her too. Queen Irene was NOT pleased, and he was grounded until he chose who to marry.
But just like Ivy lead to his going on an adventure, his adventure lead to her impromptu trip to Mundania.
Oh, yeah. His talent? Transformation. No, not like his grandfather. He transforms himself... into anything. Need a ride?
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