General

Name: Gentian

Meaning/Origin: Type of plant. (Trivia: there are three varieties of gentian endangered in the Midwest United States.)

Gender: Buck

Age: 3 years – strong, sturdy adult

Movie/Series: Movie/book

Physical

Breed?: Full Britannia Petite

Coat: Sable Martin

Colors: Dark sepia, cream, sepia brown

Physical appearance: Light-bodied. Gentian is racy and small – for his rank especially – but has a lean muscle and aggressiveness to make up for it. Approx. 3 lb/1 Kg; ‘light’ end of the weight scale.

Eyes: Mahogany

Familial

Father: ?

Mother: ?

Siblings: Unknown

Mate(s): Desires Thethuthinang

Does: Has had many mates among the warren, but as is with a dominant rabbit, he does not have a permanent mate.

Ex-mates: N/a

Social

Friends:

Rush: One of Gentian’s captains. Rush is in charge of lookout and is one of the bucks to later go to Watership Down with Gentian and meets a few of the rabbits there – he is a good-natured buck, and tends to not worry about beating others around to show dominance. He’s well-respected among the warren, including by the other captains and Gentian.

Lindrithray: Another captain, Lindri is in charge of the owsla itself and tends to have to be a bit rougher than Rush has to, resulting in a bit less well-loved public image. He too is among the patrol that went to Watership Down.

Enemies:

Bigwig: In a confused sense of venomous envy did Bigwig become the enemy of Gentian – there is nothing the great buck desires more on the downs than Bigwig’s mate, and this sparked hatred in Gentian beyond measure.

Rivals: Bigwig

Mortal Enemy: Bigwig

Obsession: Thethuthinang

            Past:

Crushers: None/semi-open

            Past:

Origin Warren: Hlessi

Home Warren: The Heather warren, Lienahlay

Past Warrens: None

Current residence: Lienahlay

Rank: Chief rabbit of Lienahlay

Ruling style: Indifferent – lets the Owsla have full control of the warren, only to become militant later

Mental

Personality: Goal-oriented. If there is nothing to work toward, Gentian has nothing at all and falls cold, torpid and generally indifferent. He requires a constant state of needing to improve. Once there was a time when he was a very ambitious young buck who felt a constant need to get a warren. His aggression suited him well at the time and he didn’t have a problem making himself a chief after having proven himself a brave and rather noble leader. He was a good leader at the time, if not slightly uncaring toward the wants of his subjects, even though their needs were thoroughly satisfied. He became utterly indifferent, however, after his warren was set up. He eventually grew so torpid and inactive that he began losing weight. Eventually though he was sent out to patrol by his captains and when this occurred, he saw Thethuthinang and everything changed. He grew aggressive and ambitious once more and became sure that he would have her, and grew obsessed. When he found out that she was the mate of Bigwig, Gentian grew full of bloodlust and hatred for the buck who he felt was ‘keeping’ Gentian ‘away from his doe.’ He does, however, have a great sense of honor, sure that he must keep himself true. His sense of honor contends that taking Thethuthinang from her mate, who she so clearly is happy with, is wrong, but his confused envy and utter obsession with her bring him to attempt to surmount this honor and smother it.

Likes: Nothing particularly well, though one could count Thethuthinang.

Dislikes: Bigwig, being in the open(he’s grown used to the heather commons)

Fears: Nothing

Goals: Take Thethuthinang for his own

Strengths:

Fast: Gentian, given his small size, is very capable of speed – in fact, though it hasn’t been tested(Likely it never will be), he could be able to match Dandelion in speed. This helps him especially on an open area of battle with cover where he doesn’t have to close on his enemy.

Long-toothed: In some strange anomaly from kithood – likely broken bottom teeth – Gentian ended up with uneven-length teeth. He has much longer top teeth than bottom ones, which results in deeper, more serious bites.

Weaknesses:

 Small: Gentian is very small for a chief and, obviously, this is a disadvantage in battle. He cannot fight well in close areas such as burrows or runs and must avoid this at all costs.

History:

.Little to nothing is known about the circumstances of Gentian’s birth, nor is anything known about his upbringing. His story only starts when Gentian came across a large group of hlessil in a heather common not unlike the one Hazel crossed, just North of the foot of Watership Down – within two days’ distance. Gentian came face-to-face with the group – some of whom had left Efrafa, others just wanderers – and immediately fell in with them. He offered no assistance as to how they could leave the heather, but he soon immerged as an unusual sort of leader. He convinced them before long that there was no way in which they could leave the area and, when one particular buck stood against him and attempted to turn the others against Gentian, he fell on the bigger buck and proved something about himself unlike anything they’d seen – despite being small, Gentian left unusually deep bites and had a quick wit and lack of any sort of mercy. When a cat appeared and he attacked and killed it swiftly when it was off guard, his fearlessness and mercilessness was solidified.

But beyond that, his top front teeth were quite noticeably longer than his bottom teeth. When he chose to bear them, it looked almost rat-like – and that’s where rumors began. A few of the rabbits, who’d experienced nothing but Efrafa, claimed that the only explanation was that Gentian had killed a whole pack of rats and took the teeth of the biggest among them – and where Gentian had lost his own top teeth in the battle, he drove the rat teeth into his gum.

Of course such a thing was nothing but vapor and fantasy, but in the close and sheltered minds of the hlessil, it was enough to shroud Gentian in myth. And that mystified them enough that they felt better off following the rat-killer – and he led well.

Gentian never proved concerned, really, with what his followers wanted. However, he knew exactly what it was they needed, whether it be rest or food, and when it became clear after some days that two of the does would soon have litters, he knew they needed a warren. Gentian himself helped them dig in the strange soil of the heather, and in the roots of the scattered birch trees in between the thick heather clumps. This digging turned into runs, which turned to burrows – and before long, Gentian made it a warren. The rabbits worried that the place wasn’t good – and indeed it was nerve-wracking a place, full of foreboding – but Gentian made it effective. He found a small clear area on which they could feed, where grass grew, and made his owsla. He set up his warren and when he did, guards were on watch for danger at all times.

The warren soon coined the name Lienahlay, meaning “Fog warren,” for the mist that often settled in the common.

However, not long after things had settled down and grew peaceful, the new Chief Gentian grew listless and bored – he began to stay in his burrow and was less and less influential, and after proving such a strong and noble leader, the others grew nervous. The Owsla took it upon themselves to keep the warren controlled and in a time, it happened that the owsla had grown cruel and heartless toward the rest, bullying and beating.

Gentian still did nothing.

This was when two well-meaning Owsla members approached their chief, worried about his condition. They made him go out beyond the heather in a patrol with them and this was when the bucks found Watership Down.

They got near to the warren and hid in a small clump of bush and thorn-tree, rather like the one Hazel’s rabbits stayed in the first nights on the down. They observed the warren curiously. And then Gentian saw Thethuthinang – and, having never seen a doe who looked quite like her, he admired her upon first sight. They stayed a few more days in the thorns, and one of those evenings, Gentian was out to silflay alone when the unthinkable happened: He met Thethuthinang face-to-face and they spoke.

He soon was head-over-heels about the doe, and it was not something accurately described as ‘love.’ No, Gentian didn’t know what it was – but the strange Efrafan doe had him gripped in the teeth of obsession and lust. He invited her to join him in his own warren, offering her a place at his side as the most revered doe in the warren, but she politely turned this offer down, mentioning that she had a very devoted mate already.

And this is what set Gentian into a twisted fate indeed. In their observations, he soon found who this mate was – Bigwig. And Gentian spiraled into hatred and envy.

When they returned, he was back to a leader – he was determined to have Thethuthinang. He began preparing to take her, somehow, some way.

He won’t let anything stop him.

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