Tommie

Introducing Tommeliesl von Dorfli, my Volks Kun/F-22, fresh from a spa visit to Viridian House!

This character is one of my 'big four', so it's exciting to have her fully face-upped, with the right wig and eyes and costume! Tommie is part of the same story as Gwenllian, Deryn and Mafonwen.



Tommeliesl comes into the story at the same time as the other girls - she's 11 years old and going to secondary school. She has pretty much nothing in common with her peers because she is from Schkauss and speaks a different language to them and wears different kinds of clothes and even behaves differently.

Tommie also has a tough job because her uncle, Schkauss ambassador to the Mori, has tasked her to look after the tribal princess Morideryn; also a fish out of water, Morideryn comes from further away than Tommie does and her culture is even more remote from Camric culture. The fact that Morideryn's people want to send her to the famous Camric school Graiglwyd actually changes Tommie's family's plans for her own education - she was all set to attend the prestigious Fürstin Schule in Schkauss, but her uncle persuades her family to attach Tommie to the Mori for social advancement. It is to Tommie's credit that she doesn't resent Morideryn for this change in circumstances and the two become friends.

The responsibility for making sure Morideryn is fine makes Tommie a little distant from everyone else and it takes her a while to get to know the other girls in her class - her friendships are actually led by Morideryn who is more outgoing of the two of them and quickly attaches them to best friends Gwenllian and Mafonwen.

Tommie feels more homesick than Deryn does, which helps her bond with Gwenllian who picks up the Schkauss language with the slightest effort, and being able to chat to someone in her own language brings Tommie out of her shell more. Her friendship with Mafonwen grows because they're both picked on my Camric girls at school, Tommie for being Schkauss, Mafonwen for being ethnically Kiroteran and the daughter of second-generation immigrants. People try to pick on Morideryn for being different but she has self-confidence to spare and their criticisms don't touch her in the same way they affect Tommie and Mafonwen.

So the four have marvellous adventures at school together, but when they turn 18 and leave school, they have to go their separate ways. Tommeliesl goes back to Schkauss to take up her national service place in the Prince's Life Guards regiment (the same regiment her brother and father served in) and start a military career, Gwenllian stays behind in Camria, not sure what her next move will be, Morideryn returns to her tribe, and Mafonwen leaves the intolerance of Camria to work as a scientist in Schkauss where she's able to date women in peace.

I never seem to have all four of my girls together at the same time. I sold Mafonwen last year, but I definitely plan to re-shell her in the same sculpt (Volks F-01/Four Sisters) but I would like to do FCS for her and have her in sunlight skin or ebony skin. Mafonwen was always intended to be a person of colour and I think it's important for her character to have her doll avatar reflect that. For now though I'm going to enjoy the three girls I have and work towards re-shelling Mafonwen in a few years.