Aelflead, The Savage Beauty
Gender/Sex: Female
Age: 23
Birthdate: Maius / 21/ 481 PT
Ethnic Group: Velen/Laicar
Esteem: Notable
Aelflead Kirastes in a word(s).
Aelflead, is not an outwardly kind woman. She is extremely cold and abrasive, mostly due to her temper and seemingly startling lack of concern for anyone beside herself. She is sardonic and rude to strangers for the most part and unimpressed by signs of distraught or fear, making her an excellent assassin, and most of her work as a mercenary aligns with this. Her ability to carry out missions without hesitation and her matter-of-fact attitude makes her invaluable, and has earned her many connections in the underground.
As a child however she was sweet, while by no means mild mannered, kind. Her life's goal back then, when she was still known as Gwendolyn, was to become a successful mechanic and inventor. Though this changed after a fateful encounter with a pravum infected daemon followed by, a traumatic introduction into the world of human trafficking as a product, being forced to witness the murder of her mentor, and years of general mental abuse on the premise of her heritage from "pure blood" denizens of Araevis. All within the span of four years in her childhood (10 to 14).
This turn of events shaped her new and current name, along with her psyche and aversion to the other pure blooded apex races of Araevis. She generally comes off as rude if not cruel and indifferent to pure blood Araevians, and generally abrasive. This quality does not disappear when she has the pleasure of engaging with a spurii, demvir, or one of the less common races of Araevis, but she does share a sense of kinship with them. She sees those around her who have suffered undue hardship as proverbial brothers and sisters to herself, especially children, and will often go out of her way to assist them. Pure blood races do not receive this treatment in any capacity as common as she would give it to others, except perhaps in desperation, because as far as Aelflead is concerned: "How could they know what hardship is? They have the whole population to fall back on, I have always had nothing. They can burn for all I care."
Outside of her frustration and hatred, Aelflead is a startlingly intelligent woman. Her mentor, Velden Aquavit, was a master martial artist, a learned woman of a myriad of classical knowledge, and an archaeologist. Tutelage under Velden encouraged her natural proficiency with control of her body and excited interest in machines; while granting her an exhaustive knowledge of ancient languages and cultures, world history and myths, and general academia. Bits and pieces of this knowledge have faded over the years, as working as a mercenary offers little opportunity to hold intelligent discussion or debate, but she supplants this as well as she can with light reading. In fact, a good book is nearly as good as cold exa in exchange for a favor with her.
The trauma she experienced as a child has done more than ruin her relations with the pure blood races of Araevis, as she is prone to "episodes" that return her to those moments in time. Her vivid PTSD is triggered most easily by proximity to brothels or physical bindings of any kind, though being physically bound herself tends to produce the most drastic effects.
-Personal Beliefs:
The gods are nothing more than fairy tales The gods are obnoxious assholes.
People don't change, only motives.
An arm for an eye, and a hand for a tooth. Hurt them worse then they did you, they'll think twice next time.
Names have power, watch your mouth.
Respect is taken or earned, never given.
Why waste talent on a world that hates you? You owe it nothing, do what suits you.
Don't let old debts stand.
The truth is a privilege, but if you must lie, lie honorably.
Anything being done is worth doing right.
Doors left unlocked will always swing open.
Suspicion is the Vis greatest gift to Araevis.
Appearance: Aelflead is only slightly larger than the average laicar, measuring in at 5’7 with a toned and noticeably curvy figure along with an average bust.
Her skin is a deep bronze and accentuated with coffee brown scales that decorate her limbs, back, and outer edges of her body. A large searing brand of a geometric rose sits prominently across the right side of her chest and shoulder. A mark of ownership recognized by a handful of older criminal organizations, and a significantly sore point of her past. She tends to keep this brand covered with Occultus’ Shade, a large impossibly black cloak trimmed in silver with a hood, high collar, magical shape shifting properties that she stole from a caravan of oddities as a little girl while escaping imprisonment and her hometown.
The rest of her body is littered with scars and wounds of a similar caliber from years working as a sword-for-hire in the criminal underground of Araevis. During a prison bust attempt at high-security prison Arx, she suffered the direct effects of the spell “lightning cannon” and earned a pattern of lichtenberg scars that have since turned violet; and during the recent battle to seal the Black Portal, Occultus Shade was badly damaged, and she suffered large 2nd degree burns across her body and lost half of the thick braid of red hair she’d previously had.
Prior to both events she could hide the fuchsia cartilage ribbons around her face and her gills within and beneath her scarlet locks to pass for terran, but without her impressive mane this has become difficult, even after Occultus’ Shade was repaired.
Generally she wears a waterproof bandeau top in line with velen minimalist styles of dress and a pair of dark pants she can turn to baggy shorts with the help of a drawstring on hot days or if she needs to take to the water.
Her feet are almost always clad in heavy combat boots for practicality sake.
Bio:
Aelflead is a angry girl of sad origins. Her mother was businesswoman in a dumpy old port town called Foramen, operating a brothel called the pink lady. She was a reasonable owner and wasn't too hard on her girls or boys, and depending on her mood would assist on jobs with customers that caught her fancy. Because of her location and occupation she attracted a lot of customers from all walks of life, all creeds, and all kinds in her promiscuous and often extremely strange activities. As result she met a lot of drunken terran, and growing up Aelflead assumed that one of them had to have been her father.
It was a pitiful existence with Aelflead growing up in the home she did, with no attempts made by her mother to shield her from the horrors of her work; which was fitting seeing as she was hoping for her child to take after her one day. Aelflead had other ideas, and despite her sad and detestable origins had brighter dreams for her life; because Aelflead's mother was so wealthy from her business, she was able to pay for the girl to be educated since she figured her daughter would need it to continue on the 'family business'. So the bright eyed girl learned as much as she could, in hopes she could use this newfound knowledge of other faraway lands to escape the hole she'd been born into.
Previously the spurii girl had been extremely careful with keeping her mouth shut about her true aspirations around her mother, as the whoremonger and drug lord grew violent and angry at any talk of leaving Foramen from her child. However as Aelfie grew in knowledge in her schooling, the men and women who came to madame Adamas's crystalline palace noticed slowly the teen had begun to blossom as well. The female customers had begun requesting her company when they came through at night, and the male regulars began approaching the fifteen year old in the streets on her way home.
Aelflead had begun to notice the attention she was suddenly gathering to herself as well, and was embarrassed by it as she was used to being of little importance most of her life as a child, and wasn't quite comfortable with the changes going on in her own body quite yet. However the would-be 'suitors' and gigolos continued their progressively more brazen pursuits until the spurii learned she'd need to protect herself. Her mother Adamas had taken notice of her daughter's rapid 'blooming', and had begun considering handing the business over to the girl quicker than she had originally planned; as the men and women were asking about her more often when they came in. Fast forward one year after Aelflead's mother decided she'd matured enough, she mother announced to her scholarly daughter that she would be retiring, within the next two months in fact, and that the untouched beauty would need to prepare to take over the business.
Appalled, Aelflead made preparations to leave as quickly as possible, and managed to hitch a quick ride out of the perverse backwater town and headed straight to the landlocked city of Cursus in a move of desperation. The people of the close-knit community ostracized her, and after a short year a mercenary came by with her description they uncaring people gave her up. Immediately she was captured by the woman and brought back to her mother. Furious with the teen's rebbelion she struck the girl down, when Aelf regained consciousness she found herself bound by her limbs with old irons in a rentable room filled with clients.
Days later the city of Cursus complained about the smoke coming from Foramen. A few days later a small party came to investigate the small town and found it burned totally to the ground, along with its immoral inhabitants. Outside the city a little ways the men found a pair of travelers castrated, killed, and stripped bare of their belongings and travelling beasts. In the next city over they came across a pair of women, velen and enlil, who'd encountered a girl wearing a black and oversized man's cloak, of about sixteen years of age who'd asked them to make purchases of weapons, foodstuffs, and winter clothing; then disappeared in the night. They also mentioned long, tangled, red hair.
Gender/Sex: Female
Age: 23
Birthdate: Maius / 21/ 481 PT
Ethnic Group: Velen/Laicar
Esteem: Notable
Aelflead Kirastes in a word(s).
Aelflead, is not an outwardly kind woman. She is extremely cold and abrasive, mostly due to her temper and seemingly startling lack of concern for anyone beside herself. She is sardonic and rude to strangers for the most part and unimpressed by signs of distraught or fear, making her an excellent assassin, and most of her work as a mercenary aligns with this. Her ability to carry out missions without hesitation and her matter-of-fact attitude makes her invaluable, and has earned her many connections in the underground.
As a child however she was sweet, while by no means mild mannered, kind. Her life's goal back then, when she was still known as Gwendolyn, was to become a successful mechanic and inventor. Though this changed after a fateful encounter with a pravum infected daemon followed by, a traumatic introduction into the world of human trafficking as a product, being forced to witness the murder of her mentor, and years of general mental abuse on the premise of her heritage from "pure blood" denizens of Araevis. All within the span of four years in her childhood (10 to 14).
This turn of events shaped her new and current name, along with her psyche and aversion to the other pure blooded apex races of Araevis. She generally comes off as rude if not cruel and indifferent to pure blood Araevians, and generally abrasive. This quality does not disappear when she has the pleasure of engaging with a spurii, demvir, or one of the less common races of Araevis, but she does share a sense of kinship with them. She sees those around her who have suffered undue hardship as proverbial brothers and sisters to herself, especially children, and will often go out of her way to assist them. Pure blood races do not receive this treatment in any capacity as common as she would give it to others, except perhaps in desperation, because as far as Aelflead is concerned: "How could they know what hardship is? They have the whole population to fall back on, I have always had nothing. They can burn for all I care."
Outside of her frustration and hatred, Aelflead is a startlingly intelligent woman. Her mentor, Velden Aquavit, was a master martial artist, a learned woman of a myriad of classical knowledge, and an archaeologist. Tutelage under Velden encouraged her natural proficiency with control of her body and excited interest in machines; while granting her an exhaustive knowledge of ancient languages and cultures, world history and myths, and general academia. Bits and pieces of this knowledge have faded over the years, as working as a mercenary offers little opportunity to hold intelligent discussion or debate, but she supplants this as well as she can with light reading. In fact, a good book is nearly as good as cold exa in exchange for a favor with her.
The trauma she experienced as a child has done more than ruin her relations with the pure blood races of Araevis, as she is prone to "episodes" that return her to those moments in time. Her vivid PTSD is triggered most easily by proximity to brothels or physical bindings of any kind, though being physically bound herself tends to produce the most drastic effects.
-Personal Beliefs:
The gods are nothing more than fairy tales The gods are obnoxious assholes.
People don't change, only motives.
An arm for an eye, and a hand for a tooth. Hurt them worse then they did you, they'll think twice next time.
Names have power, watch your mouth.
Respect is taken or earned, never given.
Why waste talent on a world that hates you? You owe it nothing, do what suits you.
Don't let old debts stand.
The truth is a privilege, but if you must lie, lie honorably.
Anything being done is worth doing right.
Doors left unlocked will always swing open.
Suspicion is the Vis greatest gift to Araevis.
Appearance: Aelflead is only slightly larger than the average laicar, measuring in at 5’7 with a toned and noticeably curvy figure along with an average bust.
Her skin is a deep bronze and accentuated with coffee brown scales that decorate her limbs, back, and outer edges of her body. A large searing brand of a geometric rose sits prominently across the right side of her chest and shoulder. A mark of ownership recognized by a handful of older criminal organizations, and a significantly sore point of her past. She tends to keep this brand covered with Occultus’ Shade, a large impossibly black cloak trimmed in silver with a hood, high collar, magical shape shifting properties that she stole from a caravan of oddities as a little girl while escaping imprisonment and her hometown.
The rest of her body is littered with scars and wounds of a similar caliber from years working as a sword-for-hire in the criminal underground of Araevis. During a prison bust attempt at high-security prison Arx, she suffered the direct effects of the spell “lightning cannon” and earned a pattern of lichtenberg scars that have since turned violet; and during the recent battle to seal the Black Portal, Occultus Shade was badly damaged, and she suffered large 2nd degree burns across her body and lost half of the thick braid of red hair she’d previously had.
Prior to both events she could hide the fuchsia cartilage ribbons around her face and her gills within and beneath her scarlet locks to pass for terran, but without her impressive mane this has become difficult, even after Occultus’ Shade was repaired.
Generally she wears a waterproof bandeau top in line with velen minimalist styles of dress and a pair of dark pants she can turn to baggy shorts with the help of a drawstring on hot days or if she needs to take to the water.
Her feet are almost always clad in heavy combat boots for practicality sake.
Bio:
Aelflead is a angry girl of sad origins. Her mother was businesswoman in a dumpy old port town called Foramen, operating a brothel called the pink lady. She was a reasonable owner and wasn't too hard on her girls or boys, and depending on her mood would assist on jobs with customers that caught her fancy. Because of her location and occupation she attracted a lot of customers from all walks of life, all creeds, and all kinds in her promiscuous and often extremely strange activities. As result she met a lot of drunken terran, and growing up Aelflead assumed that one of them had to have been her father.
It was a pitiful existence with Aelflead growing up in the home she did, with no attempts made by her mother to shield her from the horrors of her work; which was fitting seeing as she was hoping for her child to take after her one day. Aelflead had other ideas, and despite her sad and detestable origins had brighter dreams for her life; because Aelflead's mother was so wealthy from her business, she was able to pay for the girl to be educated since she figured her daughter would need it to continue on the 'family business'. So the bright eyed girl learned as much as she could, in hopes she could use this newfound knowledge of other faraway lands to escape the hole she'd been born into.
Previously the spurii girl had been extremely careful with keeping her mouth shut about her true aspirations around her mother, as the whoremonger and drug lord grew violent and angry at any talk of leaving Foramen from her child. However as Aelfie grew in knowledge in her schooling, the men and women who came to madame Adamas's crystalline palace noticed slowly the teen had begun to blossom as well. The female customers had begun requesting her company when they came through at night, and the male regulars began approaching the fifteen year old in the streets on her way home.
Aelflead had begun to notice the attention she was suddenly gathering to herself as well, and was embarrassed by it as she was used to being of little importance most of her life as a child, and wasn't quite comfortable with the changes going on in her own body quite yet. However the would-be 'suitors' and gigolos continued their progressively more brazen pursuits until the spurii learned she'd need to protect herself. Her mother Adamas had taken notice of her daughter's rapid 'blooming', and had begun considering handing the business over to the girl quicker than she had originally planned; as the men and women were asking about her more often when they came in. Fast forward one year after Aelflead's mother decided she'd matured enough, she mother announced to her scholarly daughter that she would be retiring, within the next two months in fact, and that the untouched beauty would need to prepare to take over the business.
Appalled, Aelflead made preparations to leave as quickly as possible, and managed to hitch a quick ride out of the perverse backwater town and headed straight to the landlocked city of Cursus in a move of desperation. The people of the close-knit community ostracized her, and after a short year a mercenary came by with her description they uncaring people gave her up. Immediately she was captured by the woman and brought back to her mother. Furious with the teen's rebbelion she struck the girl down, when Aelf regained consciousness she found herself bound by her limbs with old irons in a rentable room filled with clients.
Days later the city of Cursus complained about the smoke coming from Foramen. A few days later a small party came to investigate the small town and found it burned totally to the ground, along with its immoral inhabitants. Outside the city a little ways the men found a pair of travelers castrated, killed, and stripped bare of their belongings and travelling beasts. In the next city over they came across a pair of women, velen and enlil, who'd encountered a girl wearing a black and oversized man's cloak, of about sixteen years of age who'd asked them to make purchases of weapons, foodstuffs, and winter clothing; then disappeared in the night. They also mentioned long, tangled, red hair.
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