TABITHA

Tabitha is one of a few rare human prophets. Her abilities were not given much credit throughout much of her life, but she spent time studying on her own and listening to her intuition regarding the existence of multiple realities, and found through one of her predictions that they were in fact expecting her in another dimension. Long story short, she followed dream cues and vague hints to find a strange portal in a pool of silvery water, and ended up crossing over to another dimension. The trip to Ailao effectively erased most of her memory of her life before that, though she still possessed her language skills, her conviction, and some of her sense of self.

Very used to dimensional travelers, her receivers brought her up to date on who she was and what she was expected to do, and after a surprisingly short instruction period, Tabitha was installed as a full-fledged prophecy teacher. She took on the first of her students, and after successfully bringing out his best talents and getting him into a good position, she received her second student, a young girl named Ashnai. Being that this girl's talents were great and her spirit was strong, it was suggested she could be a candidate for going back to Tabitha's world to try to teach humans. Tabitha gave her a human name--Adele--for use in her new life, and proceeded to teach her everything she knew.

Tabitha tried to keep herself from getting too close to her student since it was inevitable that she would leave and not come back, but nevertheless grew very close to Adele and loved her like a daughter. Over the years she taught her all kinds of prophetic arts, and when her student turned nineteen, she had to prepare her for her transition. She had to help Adele learn certain things so deeply that they would become second nature and survive the trip through the volatile pool. Adele was expected to arrive on the other side with little more than a name, a language, and her intuition, but Tabitha secretly hoped she would be remembered.

Tabitha is on the tall side of average, with what humans would call red hair (though Adele would call it orange), blue eyes, and a pale "redhead" complexion. She is generally pictured in her black master prophet robe and spends much of her time in her prophet alcove, but when she is not teaching she does have her own small quarters. Her voice is of average pitch but tends to come out low when she is serious (which is often). She only speaks English; she has not managed to learn the dominant language of Ailao (Shioan), but is intuitive enough to make herself understood most of the time. Tabitha sees prophecy as a deeply intuitive process but does not process it as supernatural or spiritual, and she identifies as an atheist, who also doesn't believe in reincarnation or an afterlife. She frequently feels cold and has to bundle up more than most of the people she knows. Her favorite food in her adopted home is bread. She has absolutely no wish to go back to her world.

My favorite Tabitha pictures (click on the small pictures to see large, good quality scans):