Izusa Whitestone is a Dogwood Yunwi Tsundsi Elder in Alabama.
Overview[]
Since her birth in 1940, Suzie Jefferson knew she was different. Her great-grandmother raised her on stories, not only of her proud African heritage, but also of the Creek and Cherokee blood that pulsed singing through her veins. Even as a child, however, Suzie felt there was something more. A wise voice inside her whispered other stories to her at night after she had gone to bed. These magical dream-tales opened to her a world of proud and beautiful spirit-people who spoke to the spirits of plants and rocks and animals and who lived in secret places hidden in the earth. Someday, the voice said, Suzie would learn who she really was.
On her eighth birthday, the whole family traveled from their home in Childersburg, Alabama to the nearby De Soto Caverns, where her Uncle Jimmy, a fun-blooded Creek, worked as a tour guide. While Suzie's parents and siblings toured the caverns, Uncle Jimmy managed to take Suzie aside and lead her way from the rest of the tour group. Sensing that she was about to learn the truth about the voice inside her, Suzie's excitement grew as she and her uncle traveled deeper and deeper into the vast caverns. The next thing she knew, a dozen slender, diminutive people stepped out from behind stone pillars or just "appeared" beside her. As she looked at them, Suzie felt her body, becoming a younger version of the strangers who accosted her. All at once, Suzie realized that these little people weren't strangers at all; they were her true family, and she was one of them. And so was her Uncle Jimmy.
With he uncle's help, Suzie (now renamed Izusa Whitestone) managed to keep in touch with her Nunnehi family, the Yunwi Tsundsi. During he frequent visits to their freehold of Spirit Rock deep within the De Soto Caverns, she learned the ways and customs of her true people. When she was 16, she left her home to care for her now aging Uncle Jimmy, a move that enabled her to participate fully in the life of the people of Spirit Rock.
Now, decades later, Izusa has attained the status of elder among the yunwi tsundsi. Although she spends most of her time within the freehold, teaching the younglings as she herself was taught, she occasionally visits her mortal family. Remaining out of sight, she manages to help them in small, unseen ways after the manner of the "little people." She also looks for signs of faerie blood in the newest generation of her kin.
Image[]
In her mortal seeming, Izusa appears as a middle-aged woman of mixed blood. The combination of African and Indian features has toned her skin dark mahogany color. Her high cheekbones, dark eyes, and full, expressive mouth give her a wise but approachable countenance. Her long black hair coils tightly at the back of her neck. In her fae mien, she becomes shorter and slimmer and her features take on a sharper cast. In both forms, she dresses in a pastiche of styles, combining African jewelry with Indian beadwork and fringe.
Personal[]
Izusa is the product of three proud bloodlines. Although, as an elder, she has the right to remain within the freehold, soaking up the sustenance of its Medicine-rich surroundings, she also feels to the need to give back some of the beauty life has given her. She does this through teaching, through making lovely onyx beadwork presents to give to friends (and sometimes worthy strangers) and by using her gift for remaining unseen to secretly help her mortal family in little, thoughtful ways. someday, she will turn her faerie self loose and send it onward into another body; when that day comes she'll be ready for it, but not a minute before.