Birth Clan - Unspecified Nature clan Element - Nature Gender - Male Pronouns - He / Him Orientation - Heteroromantic

Javor lives in the upper levels of Oakrest, among the other craftsdragons. He is on good terms with Brightwork, who shares his exhaustion with speaking, and a very close friend of Kel's since they met among his stand of trees while the other coatl was doing a botanical study. He is greatly impressed by the other's bright and cheerful attitude, even when their words have abandoned them mid-sentence. He also does weaponscrafting for some of the Hunters down in Cairnstone, as sometimes it is the heartwood of a given tree that is all that will strike down the evils that lay beneath their citadel. To those who do not know him or take the time to understand Javor's interest in devoting his life to woodcraft, he seems stand-offish and rude. After all, they can barely get a clipped hum of answer out of him when he's busy, and when he's not he looks at others like they had done him some slight by speaking to him. But it's mostly that other dragons make Javor so tired he can't wrestle together the energy to engage with them on their terms. He can only engage with them on his own. It is especially frustrating for others who attempt to joke with Javor, as he will turn a stone face towards many who have told some point of humor and expected a laugh. So he has gained a reputation for having no sense of humor. The opposite is quite the case. His own humor is relatively internal, and it is quick and sharp, though often missed by others. It is most often seen in the strangely quirky figurines he carves for others, but sometimes - if they're lucky - another dragon may catch him cracking a joke, and they're usually so taken aback as to not know what to do with it. To those who gain his trust, Javor is a very loyal friend. His is demonstrative with his affections to those who have earned his friendship. He is an especially eager hugger, and he gives gentle touches to those of any gender whom he trusts. When he is very happy he is often humming to himself - not the same sour notes that are often found in coatl speech, but the old work songs he learned from other carpenters back in his home clan. He is known to spend hours in the company of dragons he enjoys, sitting in silence and working over a problem in his head while fiddling with bits of wood and sandpaper. The steady rhythm of the sand on the wood a good indicator of his mood. He is known among visitors for his little pieces - small lucky figurines or replicas of local landmarks. But that is only because they have not seen his large-scale sculptures of dragons of heroic myth and the gods, which he has been working on for some time. He trains the trees from sapplinghood, guiding them to the forms he envisions so that the grain will not break when he goes to carve more intricate patterns into it. These treasures are constant works in progress until he cuts the tree and harvests his precious wood from it, at which time he will begin to carve it in earnest. He also has a small collection of bonsai, which decorate the terrace that leads from the canyon to his lair. He hopes one day to have many more. The plants, though small, make Javor feel very much at home in Dragonhome.

*whittling* Carpenter & Woodworker Carver of stakes, maker of tables STATS STR ██████████ DEX ██████████ CON ██████████ INT ██████████ WIS ██████████ CHA ██████████

Tala - Javor's mate, Tala is a photographer. Fond of Javor's humor and his gentle ways, she also values his creativity and his thoughtful (if wordless) critique of her pieces. She prefers social gatherings far more than Javor does, but she greatly values their quiet life together.

Bordeaux - Bordeaux's oaks are the parent oaks of Javor's grove. The two have reached an understanding with each other regarding the safekeeping of the trees, and they raise them with the intention of keeping the groves as healthy and strong as possible.

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Wood is scarce here, unlike in the Viridian Labyrinth where Javor grew up. Each scavenged limb must be used as efficiently as possible. Table legs, doors, shelves - all these things need replacing. All these practical things need a steady hand to repair them when their time has reached its end.

Javor knows this. And he is honored to take up the mantle of carpenter for the Oakrest clan.

Javor grew up with two brothers. And while all three were cherished by their family and their clan, Javor has been oddly reticent most of his childhood. His parents, worried that he was mute, sought what help there was, but Javor's silence remained. It wasn't that he had nothing to say, or that some trauma had befallen him. No, Javor simply found words too exhausting to speak. And while his parents did not fully give up trying to 'coax him from his shell', no one has ever heard Javor speak more than a few words at a time.

But while the noise and bustle of crowds upset him, and social engagements bored him, Javor found a pleasant peace among the trees of his home. And he found a special peace smelling the resinous and loamy odors of the forest. The texture of wood beneath his claws, and the sound of carpentry tools forming whatever portion of a project, and the smell - oh the smell! - of the wood shavings all called to him as his brothers sought their lives among other clans.

Javor sought out other dragons who practiced carpentry. He watched how they worked, and he mimicked them in his head, imagining how to hold the saws and knives and chisels that they needed to do their work. He learned cadence songs from, and could sometimes be found humming them as he wandered through the Gladeveins, learning each tree by its leaves and wood. And all the while he spent in boring social obligations, his mind was far away, taking apart the furniture and the joints and learning how they worked by looking and guessing.

Much of Javor's skill has been learned this way. He is an extremely patient dragon who enjoys every inch of his craft. But he knew that there was little merit to be found in being an exceptional carpenter in a land where plant-shaping was rather run-of-the-mill. And so, he decided to travel.

He journeyed north and west from the Viridian Labyrinth, and he came to Dragonhome. There, he was horrified to discover the expanse of what seemed like barren death. How could anyone live there? How could their ancestors have come from there? This open, scorching waste did much to discourage Javor from further explorations, but then he saw the tree.

How? How had a tree come to live here, in this bed of cracked earth?

Javor was curious, and his curiosity led him to a full exploration of Dragonhome. Mostly he watched clans and roving bands of Snappers from afar. But sometimes, when he needed to trade for food, he would make contact with a clan and stay for a time, then move on again. He said little, but he knew where every tree between here and home was, and he never felt lost. The generosity of Earth Clans astounded him, but they were also a guarded people, and so he felt oddly safe among them.

Eventually, he found a canyon with a veritable grove of oaks lining the crevices. And nearby, he found rivers that ran straight out of bases of mountains. And so he came to Oakrest.

Javor was not officially welcomed in the clan, as no one is formally welcomed there, but he was tired of travelling and wanted to find a place to stay and perhaps set up shop. And surely they did not need all of those trees? So, at first, Javor worked with the scrap of the area - discarded limbs that were scavenged or broken pieces that could be repurposed to other needs. But eventually he wrote a letter (for letters are far less exhausting than speaking for so long) to Bordeaux, whose oaks he learned they were, asking permission to take a few of them every so often, or perhaps to try to start a stand of them elsewhere.

He was not prepared to be called before the Council to discuss his intentions. Javor nearly left on the spot out of shame and fear of so many dragons looking at him and asking him questions. But Eldritch, the quiet secretary to the Elders, gave him an encouraging smile. "Do you want to write down your answers?" he said. "I'll gladly read them for you."

And so they negotiated. Javor gained a small patch of earth where the desert oaks would thrive, and with his nature magic has guided them to grow strong and sturdy. And in exchange, he has agreed to provide carpentry services for all who may need them in Oakrest.

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At first, Tala had been ecstatic that the Citadel was opened. No more living under the trees! No more staring at the open sky all the time! No more days filled with the stresses of raiders, beastclans, illness, and cold!

But though many dragons remained in the Citadel, it no longer hummed with life. She found herself missing Brightwork among his dye vats and Krystallos in his surgery. She longed for Clarion over the cookfire, the firelight catching on her crystalline mane.

She longed for life as she remembered it. The humdrum nature of a clan at peace, rather than the haphazard stumbling that had become Oakrest during this transition.

She had lived enough days in transition, and she had raised enough children not knowing what tomorrow would bring.

She said as much to her mate, Javor, who sat in his workshop carving. She watched him carefully, knowing she'd be lucky to get a single word out of him. He might make a few tonal hums, but they weren't really words as others might understand them. Tala knew what they meant, whether they were good or bad, but it had been a difficult thing to learn, and it had taken many years.

She was worried, bringing this feeling to Javor. He had so much to lose if they left. He'd acquired a grove of oak trees to harvest and carve and build. He'd started a project to live-sculpt wood for enormous effigies of the Eleven. He was starting to build friendships again.

She hated to think of taking this from him.

Tala wasn't surprised when Javor didn't answer. He set his tools down and moved to sit beside her, leaning against her, a small sound vibrating in the back of his throat that meant nothing besides he was listening.

"Don't just agree with me," she said quietly. "What do you want?"

The humming stopped, and Javor stared at her face with big green eyes that flicked here and there, noticing - she assumed - her cheek bones and her eyes and her nose, but never really stopped to make eye contact. Then, he pressed his forehead against hers and sighed.

They were quiet for a time, and Tala didn't dare bring it up again. She, too, was afraid of what would happen if they chose to leave under such good terms. Would they find another home? Would their children be as happy there as they had seemed to be here in Dragonhome?

She made herself put the thought behind her, and she started planning photos again. Weeks passed, then a month and another. She said no more about it, and she thought no more about it.

Then, one day shortly after their most recent nest hatched, Tala woke to an odd surprise. It was an oak tree, just a few inches tall and set in a deep pot. Around its single branch hung a note that read "I'll bet it can grow anywhere."

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Bio (except as credited), oak leaves, acorns, & layout by ixris / 26035 - all edits by later users
Horizontal dividers by Mibella / 47497