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Daria is one of the Mandragora, an Abandoned tribe that has claimed part of the woods along what the Compact recognizes as the Oathlands/Lycene border for generations. That claim and their allegiance shifted when Ruslan Volkov and his people bent the knee. They followed suit, swearing fealty to the Volkov, but little changed other than the family's claim on land being significantly reduced. Thus, Daria has known both lives, shav and prodigal, though for most of her life has known little difference between one and the other. As one of Mandragora's Whitefeather Scouts, she spent most of that life in those ancient woods, ranging north through the Oathlands and south into the Lyceum, paying far more attention to game trails than news from the capitols, either in Lenosia or in Arx. What use are those things to people of the woods? Everything changed in the winter of 1011, when a marauding army rolled through the woods. Her own people scattered before it like leaves in a gale wind. The Volkov weren't so fortunate and, to the last, were exterminated. Things were different afterward. The forest that had been as familiar to Daria as the back of her own hand was changed. Twisted. Scouts ventured into old parts and never returned. When the duchy of Fidante raised its cadet house, di Fidante, over the march the Mandragora were skeptical. Many wanted to return to their old ways, their old lives. Daria was among those who argued in favor of staying, of waiting, and when the new marquis and marquessa began to make progress in undoing what had been done, she urged her uncle to reach out to them and later reminded him of his vows of fealty. She spent most of the next year helping restore the land, freeing the land from the strange hold the woods'd taken upon them, and assisting the di Fidante with a number of their attempts to bring order back to the area. Now that things are getting back to normal, she sets her sights on Arx and the rest of the world.

Daria stands on the tall side of average, with long limbs and the lean build of someone whose days are mostly spent engaged in action. Strawberry stains honey-blonde hair, adding a reddish cast that is most pronounced in the sunshine, when it turns fly-away strands molten and copper. And there are a lot of fly-away strands. She keeps it cut short, its natural tendency to curl causing the ends to lift up, adding layers of texture and, occasionally, a bit of frizz. Pale lashes are often lost, a poor frame for dark brown eyes, like the smattering of copper freckles that melt into her tan most seasons of the year.

Daria Mandragora is perhaps best summed up as being aggressively competent. Which isn't to say she's particularly aggressive; she's ordinarily a very warm, cheerful person, first to volunteer for any number of details and one of the last to pack up and go home when things are done. That's coupled with a touch of independence, such that when she's given a task or has an idea she seizes it, embraces it, and runs with it to its conclusion, rarely diverting along the way. Sometimes this leads to her taking on more than she ought to, but eventually everything gets done. There's a bit of competitiveness in there, the sort that builds friendly rivalries, and that leads to her keeping a mental list of who she knows is good at what. Especially when good gets defined as better than she is. There's a sprinkle of curiosity too, a love of adventure rooted in a deep, abiding love of her homeland: she might go anywhere at all, but afterward, she will always go home.