Book One – Chapter 11

Besides, from a more un-academic perspective, creating shamans was simply exciting.

It took years of training and guidance to craft complex beings that truly appeared lifelike. After an eternity of theory and countless foundational exercises, of strictly following instructions and meticulously copying the masters’ examples one limb at a time, you could finally unleash your creativity. You could choose the race to start with and freely tailor the progress of the shaman transformation according to your individual preferences.

Twig represented Yves’ maiden attempt at creating a female figure, and if he were to be frank, in that regard she had been far from flawless. Yves had just begun crafting lifelike illusions. Following the completion of his two wizards, transitioning to the female form had presented a considerable challenge. Rather than starting from scratch with a completely new frame, Yves had opted to utilise the well-established body of his wizard Atrap as a foundation, and had improvised from there by basically slimming him down. This is why Twig looked so much like a young tairan woman who had exhausted all her body’s reserves in an insane growth-spurt that had left nothing for her to grow into womanhood.

When Yves first conjured her into existence, she had surpassed him in height, and even now, she stood just as tall as him, with long and graceful limbs, albeit with conspicuously large hands and feet — back then, trimming away portions of an arm or leg had proven much simpler than thinning the intricate structures of fingers and feet. Also, it had been the year of the Tournament, which had left Yves short on time and preoccupied with far more life-threatening matters than his master’s potential disapproval.

True to her name, Twig’s upper body and hips lacked the feminine curves one would expect from her race, descendants of the tairan. Yves had sold this to his examiners as a deliberate choice to make her something of a wanderer or herder, a beast shaman who spent her days exploring, running and climbing rocky forest terrain.