Kids and such.

Well, first we have Mirian. She is Rhia's first child, and first daughter. She was born in China in 4512bce. She's a full elf, though with mixed races of half Wood, quarter Drow, and quarter High. Her appearances takes much after her Wood heritage, having platinum blonde hair and pale blue eyes. Her skin is ashen, almost a muddy gray, the only place her Drow heritage tries to peak through. I haven't at all experimented with her disposition during life, and only know how she's become since entering Heaven. She never met Toryk, her father, as he died while Rhia was still pregnant. She died young, though was one of the few of Rhia's kids to live late into her teens. She was about seventeen when she died, and spent all of those years at Rhia's side. She's sweet, gentle; Rhia did well to keep her from getting spoiled by the life they lived, and it wasn't until she entered Heaven and learned just how Rhia's life had been, and watched her siblings come after her, that her innocence was truly spoiled. Being the first of Rhia's children, she gained the ability for leadership, and took on maternal instincts that would rival Rhia's own. She knows how to settle disputes, and has a cool temper that most definitely came from her father. Perhaps I'll come to know her better down the line, but for now, she's only slightly less a mystery than the others.

Next is Aubri. Rhia's second child and first son. Like Mirian, he was born in China, in 4302bce. As of yet, I know nothing of his father, so I know very little about how he'll look. I know his father is elven, at least. I picture him being tall, taller than Rhia, with somewhat sandy hair and fair skin. He's resourceful, confident, and good with his hands. In life, he, too, spent much time with Rhia, though a little more with his father, and lived to be about eighteen. As I'm sitting here, I'm getting an image of a village, or perhaps a small town. Rhia perhaps met a soldier while he was on duty, and as he was relieved of that duty - the war or whatever trifle he was involved with came to an end - he returned to his home, proving to be a stonesmith, a builder. I think I've also now found where I'll place the Dragon Elf War. But, putting that aside, and getting back to Aubri... When he did die, and came to Heaven, he met Mirian, and at once the two bonded and became inseperable. As time went on, and more of the K-kids came, he and Mirian acted as surrogate parents to them all. By around 1000ce, he petitioned to God and set to the task of creating an Estate for Rhia and their whole family. The Estate eventually becomes big enough to house not only Rhia and all of the kids, but all of the kids fathers, their own families, and just about anyone that Rhia might want to keep close to her.

Third, we have Antranig. He is the third child and second son, born in Sumer in 3194bce. He is the first half-elf of Rhia's line; that is, the first child Rhia has with a human. His name means (in which language I cannot at the moment remember) First Child. I see him as being very dark-skinned, almost golden, with peculiar - to the other humans - platinum hair. His eyes are a very pale blue, like ice, and he has acquired Rhia's accute ability to read people, through their habits, movements, and emotions. He lives to maybe twelve, and lived those years as a bit of a runt among the other kids of the human city. Rhia lived at that time as a mercenary, and only saw Tran during the Off-season or when she wasn't on contract. His father was the city's blacksmith, and was often contracted as a weaponsmith for the militia, so Tran often spent his time alone training with one of the forge swords. Upon his request, Rhia taught him here and there while she was at home, though his father never really approved of it.

Rhia's fourth child and third son is Taban. He is Rhia's first link to Earth's solid history, as he is the son of the Hittite king, Mursilis I. He was born in 1612bce, eight years after Mursilis rose to power. The boy didn't age too much, so there was little time for him to really become much of a character himself in life. He lived maybe only to five or six, and very little of that time was spent with Rhia. It so happened that Rhia was working with Mursilis' military, training soldiers, leading expeditions, etc, and if the fact that a bastard child between them existed got out among Mursilis' adversaries, things would not have boded well for him. So, Taban was sent into Babylon with an escort, a trusted friend of Rhia's. It also so happened that Mursilis, as is rather commonly known, went a tad bit sick in the head during his reign, and led a conquest into Babylon. Much to Rhia's dismay, she could not stop him, and during the battle to subdue the people, both the escort and Taban were killed.

The next four kids I'll speak of together, as they were siblings. First is Marcus, fifth child and fourth son, born in 1304bce. Then came Medwin, sixth child and fifth son, born in 1296. Then Xenon, seventh child and sixth son, born in 1294. And last was Demeter, eighth child and second daughter, born in 1289. They were all born in Babylon, a place Rhia came to hold dear to her, and often returned to during her early years. Shortly after Demeter was born, the father went off to war, having done so a number of times already, but this time did not come back. Rhia did her very best to keep her children out of the war, especially Marcus, who was very much like his father in that he wanted to do nothing less than protect his family and kingdom. Much to Rhia's dismay, he did finally go off to war, leaving Rhia and the other three to see to the rest of the city, which Rhia, too, wanted fiercely to protect. When certain unfriendly circumstances came to pass that forced Rhia to desert the city and, extremely reluctantly, her children, Marcus returned to look after his younger siblings. Demeter, it turned out, was a very gifted priestess, and ended up serving the few young years she had - dying at eight - in the service of the temple of a certain Goddess Rhia was already affiliated with. In turn, Xenon made it to 13, Medwin to 15, and Marcus to 20, having died before the other three by means of battle rather than what befell the other three. (There is a picture of these four together on the photobucket site.)

Next, there's Draco. He's the ninth child and seventh son, born in Athens in 659bce. Draco is unique among all of Rhia's children, in that he is an actual figure of our existing history. He was the first Athenian Law Scribe, and transcribed some very harsh laws, which I am speculating for the sake of the storyline is due to Rhia's own cruel nature that developed by this time in her life. I'm going to say he was the first of Rhia's children to not be bred out of love, and thus did not know his father, nor would have wanted to. I'd also say he and Rhia didn't quite see much of each other, or get along too well when they did see each other. He's imposing, stern and has a very demanding presence. At the same time, he's able to sink into the background without anyone really missing him. Though, that might have a little something to do with the hint of magick he has command of. I haven't figured out how old he is when he dies. As I said, he is the one exception in that he's an actual historical figure, so that will take a little more research and finesse.

And here we have Adelle. She's the tenth child and third daughter. She's the fifth child to be born in Babylon, in 603bce. You may notice that Draco, Adelle, and two of the next kids are all born relatively close together, yet not living at the same time. This is reason for it, and reason for why it stops. The main reason is because Rhia was rather loose with herself, and Adelle is the second child to be born from lust instead of love, and the second to not spend much time at all in Rhia's presence and none at all in the presence of her father. As a result, Adelle is one of the only children without a real strong bond to Rhia, and to the other kids once she reaches heaven. In life, she was a thief, and spent much of her life under the wing of another, very successful thief. Her love is for climbing, and always enjoyed scaling walls to get into better-protected buildings. The times she did see Rhia, even as a child, they never said much to each other, though that didn't stop Adelle from forming an admiration for the woman. But, admiration and love are two very different things.

The next two are also born in Babylon. Leila, the eleventh child and fourth daughter, born in 545bce, and Kadin, twelfth child and eighth son, born in 541. As I mentioned, Rhia often returned to Babylon, finding it a sort of sanctuary. By this time, she has a strong bond with the people of Babylon. Before Adelle was born, she helped in the designing and building of the Hanging Gardens, among other things. These two were not born of the same consequences as Draco and Adelle, but rather were born of a young man that, while she didn't exactly love him, he understood her, and didn't judge her, and became a safe haven within the sanctuary of Babylon, and she stayed with him for the rest of his years. Granted, they weren't very long years. He, and the two children, were assassinated in the attempt - and success - to strike a paralyzing blow to Rhia. Leila died at eleven, and Kadin at seven.

A long gap of years brings us to Sully, the thirteenth child and fifth daughter, born in Rome in 49ce. Sully was a very sweet-natured child in life, loving to sing and dance, and got to know Jason well while living in the port city of Rome. Rhia had once again taken to the mercenary life, though during the time she had Sully, she and her lover stayed-put for the most part there in Rome. They did little jobs, and Rhia was even noticed by the new emperor, Nero. She did a lot of work and conferring with him, and was one of the few who did not hate him for his unconventional and artistic ways, and even helped him in building some of his greatest monuments. Sully and her father were both caught in the fire that burned Rome, unable to escape their home, Rhia not reaching them in time. Sully lived to thirteen, and in heaven retains her scars, which cover the whole right side of her body, and continue to plague her with a terrible ache whenever anyone touches them.

Now for one of my favorite little-known characters. Larael, the fourteenth child and ninth son, born in 311ce. He was born in Rome after Rhia's forced return. She'd been captured, and made a slave, and offered as a gift to the prince, Constantine. She became a general in his army, training his men and leading them into battle, helping Constantine win much of his empire. During her time with him, the relationship became decidedly more than professional. Thus, Larael. Granted, he didn't spend much time actually in Constantine the Great's presence, but that didn't stop him from getting the "Greater than Thou" attitude. When he was around five, Rhia took him and fled from Rome due to some grievance with her bounty and the Hunters and the like. Now comes the reason for his being my favorite little-known character. He is Seth's big brother. He was twelve when Seth was born, and had already taken up a good bit of his mother's knowledge in the martial arts, and was quite handy with a scimitar or, when situation allowed, two. To sum it up, as I'm supposed to be doing here, he made Seth's life miserable for as long as the two were together. Which, fortunately for Seth, wasn't all that long. In five years, Larael met his fate.

And, thus, onto one of my favorite characters, period. Seth, fifteenth child and tenth son, born in Spain in 323ce. As I'm pretty sure I've gone over here before, Seth is an incarnation of Rhia's black magick, Arcane. During his first legs of life, Seth knew very little of his father or even what he was. He had little chance to ask, of course. The cruelty of his older brother forced him to grow quickly in both mind and body, and was made into a very cold person early on. He and Rhia never truly got along, not in ways that anyone could understand, and as time went on, their relationship turned into what can only be described as violent acceptance. Arguments tended to be settled through fists rather than words, and yet with a simple glance or gesture, one seemed to know precisely what the other was thinking, and when to cut the crap. Seth turns out to be the longest living of the Kolareny kids, partly due to what he was - being 'half magick' in a sense imparted him with a greater power than any of the K-kids had had - and partly due to his part in God's plan, though that is a whole different topic I don't intend to discuss here. His 'childhood', which comes and goes with the situation he's presented with, is spent very much on his own. He spent nearly equal parts of his life living on his own as he did in Rhia's stead, partly because of how long he happened to live and how easily Rhia seemed to get into trouble those days. In truth, Seth lived three lives. His first was the longest, dying somewhere in the twentieth century, and during which he'd taken one wife, though nothing came of it in way of children. It was to this woman, Mara, that he gave his soul, and will end up spending eternity in Heaven with her. His second life is granted by way of becoming a low-level Guardian Angel in order to keep watch over Rhia (though she is never his official charge). In that second life, he takes a second wife, Rebecca, with which he has one daughter, Cecelia. That second life actually comes to an end the moment Rebecca officially becomes his wife, and before she even knew she was pregnant, dying by protecting her on the alter from an assassination attempt. And, finally, his third life, during which he lives through the Apocolypse and stands at Rhia's side up until only decades before the end of the world. About six years before he dies last, he takes his third wife, Sala, with which he has two boys, whose names I cannot at the moment recall. He dies this last time in protecting the city Sala and the boys are living in. There is plenty more to say about Seth. Perhaps one of these days I'll do a detailed bio of him. I intend to spend a lot of books looking into his life.

The next two girls are rather sweet little numbers. Paytah, sixteenth child and sixth daughter, was born in 714ce, and Nituna, seventeenth child and seventh daughter, in 715. These are the first two children of Rhia's born in America, to, surprise, a Native American. The funny thing about it is that Rhia had no idea she'd entered some new land. She'd just happened to be near the Bering Straight during the right time of winter, and crossed without even realizing it. The people by then didn't look much different from the Russian and Chinese nomads, and she simply assumed she'd gone farther than she ever had before on the continent, never having really had reason to go all the way to the shore before. But anyway. The girls turned out to be very sweet natured, and it was only the destruction the Hunters wreaked that they met such an early end, along with the tribe she'd been travelling with. Paytah died at nine, and Nituna at eight.