The Compendiumist Irid al'Menie

BIOGRAPHY

ecember 23rd, 1985 - half past eleven PM. A woman is entered into hospital with contractions. She is put on a bed, but has to wait until the gynaecologist arrives. She is told to breathe. A little later, the doctor arrives, extends his gloved hands... And there I was. It was the fastest thing I ever did in my entire life.

I was the second child of a former priest and his much younger wife. My sister was a year older, and never failed to remind me of it. My childhood was pretty normal - at least I thought it was. Lately I've heard so many tales of sad childhoods that I'm starting to think that a happy one has become the exception rather than the rule. My parents only had normal rows with very long periods of peace in between. They're still together.

Anyway, I was talking about my childhood. I went to school, made some friends, then we moved and I went to another school, made other friends, then we moved yet again and I came to a new school, where - you guessed it - I made some friends. That was the last time we moved, so I lived in the same house from the time I was about nine until I was 21. Then I moved again, but more of that later.

I was always pretty good at school. Well, I was when I still took school seriously, mostly in primary school ('lagere school' for those of you who know the belgian system). Then I went to secondary school ('middelbare school'), and discovered that school wasn't actually all it was cracked up to be. My grades went down accordingly. I had a horrible class, with all kinds of groups forming and me and a few others always being on the outside. I could tell you much more, but let it suffice to say that I was not happy there.

So in my third year, I changed schools again, this time without having moved. My new class was really much better, so my grades marginally went up. I still didn't take school very seriously though.

Then came university college. It's not a university, but it's close. I chose to be a translator for English and Czech. Regretfully, you'll not hear the story of why I chose Czech. I've had to explain it too often anyway. So you'll just have to guess ^.^ This period of my life was again pretty uneventful, except that I had a not so nice class again. *grumbles* bunch of hypocrites...

Anyway! One more important thing was my stay in the Czech Republic with Erasmus, a time in my life that I really enjoyed and would like to do again. I met some wonderful people there. It was over way too quickly.

So, did I forget anything? Yes, I did, I forgot to mention my boyfriend :P We got together when I was 16 years old, and we're still together. In fact, we moved in together about half a year ago - that was that last move I said something about. Didn't lead to another changing of schools though.

The first time I found Santharia was back in 2001. I'd been participating in Play-by-Post RPG's, and was looking for more. I created a character, participated in a story, then left. Then I came back in 200...4? 5? Found I couldn't use my previous character anymore, created a new one and started participating in the Dev forum as well. I haven't left anymore since then.

So, that brings me to the present day. I'm almost graduated, just half a year more to go, then I can go work for the rest of my life. But hey, it'll be ok, so long as I have Santharia to escape to...

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PERSONAL DETAILS
*Gender*	Female
Date of Birth	December 23rd, 1985
Profession	Student
Languages	Dutch (native), English (fluently), Czech, French, and a very little German
Location	Ghent
Nationality	Belgian
E-Mail
Messengers	None
*Website*	None
Favourite Books	Ah... Let's see. "Lord of the Rings" is obviously one of my all-time favourites. In a shared first place is the "Sevenwaters" trilogy by Juliet Marillier. And all her other books too, really, but "Daughter of the Forest", "Son of the Shadows" and "Child of the Prophecy" will never leave first place. Apart from that, I just really like to read, and there are many books and authors that I enjoy. David Eddings, Nicholas Evans, Jude Fisher, C.S. Lewis, Maeve Binchy, Jane Austen, Jean Auel, Ellis Peters... And many, many more ;)
Favourite Music	I mostly listen to folk music, and more specifically from the Belgian folkscene. I enjoy the folkmusic of other nations as well, but I don't come in touch with them as much. Renaissance/medieval music is also nice, if applied sparingly. I very much like Manau (a french hiphop group) and Jaromir Nohavica (a Czech singer-songwriter). I'd name all the Belgian groups that I like, but I doubt any of you have heard of them. If you're interested, you can always PM me on the boards.
Favourite Games	Just about the only game I play is the Santharian RPG game. I can surely say by now that I'm addicted to it. The count of my characters at this point is 9, and counting... Apart from Santharia, though, I like Runescape, though I haven't played that in a while; and some board games, but I don't have many of them. I played Settlers of Catan, and some other less famous games. At times when I get bored, I play some silly internet games, but I'm growing out of that.
Hobbies	points to the Favourite Games Yes, practically all my free time is spent on Santharia. Mostly on the RPG board and in the IRC (hint, hint - if you ever want to talk to me ^.^). Then, as you could gather from my favourite books, I really like to read. I also write stories, though lately all my creative energies have been flowing into the RPG board. And I very much enjoy folkdancing. No, get rid of that image of people dancing with clogs on, my kind of dancing is actually more modern. You should come with me some time...
Santharian Focus	I'm mostly a story writer, but I enjoy creating all kinds of different stuff so I will continue to do so.
Joining Date	First entry added to the site September 5th, 2004, finally offical member on the 1st December 2007!

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DEVELOPMENT AWARDS

The Best Story Award 2007
Winning Story: "Murder in Bardavos"
Irid did not only deliver her masterwork this year in order to become official member of the Dream, she also is responsible for an innovative idea she realized with it: the first Santharian detective story! The first two chapters that were published this year laid the groundwork for further suspenseful story-telling that is still to come to have the murderer revealed. We're hoping for another chapter soon and congratulate Irid for winning the Best Story Award 2007!

The Best Story Award 2011
Winning Story: "Keldar and Bryella"
It is one of the oldest stories in the world: two children, betrayed by a wicked stepmother, victim of a witch's spell, get lost in a forest, without hope of ever finding their way out again. It is a story about one of the most terrible fears that a child can have: the fear to be abandoned, to be unloved by your parents, to be alone in the world. Every one of us has had this fear, whether we remember it or not. And this is why stories such as Kelder and Bryella are told by every generation of humans all over the world. The stories tell us how fear and solitude are overcome: by holding on to those you love; by keeping courage and an open heart; by trusting that somewhere, there is someone who is looking for you; and by learning that goodness may come from the most unlikely source. Irid al'Menie has told this story with a fresh voice, with deft narrative skill, and with all the heart and soul of someone who knows about fear, about trust, and about love. It is therefore with the warmest congratulations that we present to her the award for Best Story of 2011!

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