Browse wiki

Rue's mother died a few years after she was born. A nasty sickness took her, Rue's older brother, and one cousin also biting the same bullet. The whole affair left her to be raised by the makeshift team of her father (a mummer) and her ill-tempered aunt (a seamstress of questionable quality). Most of her early years consisted of learning how to sew, babysitting or being babysat, and rolling around in the dirt with her cousins. SIn her teenage years, she busied herself apprenticing to her aunt and slowly improving the quality of the older woman's shop. No more half-assed stitchwork or fabric that would fall apart first wash. It earned Rue more than her fair share of cuffs to the side of the head (Wastin' time and coin, her aunt would say!) but it did see small increases in sales. In her spare time, Rue patched up her father's costumes and offered her assistance to family and local mummers alike for free. The extra practice was worth the time and coin it costed her. And Rue was never too above snatching a bit of fabric or ribbon to supplement losses. SNothin' remarkable ever happened to Rue really, not until she was freshly seventeen. She was delivering a package for her aunt and it went all wrong. Three hours later than expected and covered in a mix of blood and dirt, Rue stumbled home without payment or package. The mugging left with her a chipped canine tooth and a lasting head injury, one that would eventually result in the gradual loss of sight in her left eye. Stubbornly, Rue refused to give up on her craft. If anything, she pursued sewing with an almost obsessive passion after going blind in that eye. It took quite a while to adjust to the lack of depth perception and many sleepless nights were spent agonizing over practice pieces. Years and years later, she's now set her sight on setting up a shop in Arx.

Short and waifish, Rue is just another Lower's girl in a crowd of commoners. Her tawny skin is speckled with small scars, each telling a story of her childhood. A fall there, a brawl with a cousin here, and burn from the cookpot half hidden beneath her right sleeve. The tips of her nimble fingers are calloused from years of sewing and needle pricks. Her hair is a mess of wavy, chestnut locks that reach about half way down her back. Rue tends to let her bangs cover the left side of her face, using them to block her blind eye from view. The right eye is an olive green while the left's iris has been covered by a milky film of white. Her lips are full and heart shaped, hiding mostly straight teeth. Minus the chipped canine, of course.

Rue is a soft-spoken, polite girl and is rarely seen without a smile. She's quick to laugh at her own mistakes and even quicker to help others, even when it comes at a cost to herself. It pains her to say no to someone in need, almost as much as it pains her to be rude. Over the years, she's trained herself to keep smiling and save face even if a customer decides to yell over petty nonsense. She chalks up those incidents to the person having a bad day. A bad week maybe. Even a bad year. Rue prefers to forgive, forget, and meet every dawn with a fresh outlook. Letting insults roll off her back has become a skill, one she refines by singing off key to her father and aunt whenever they're slacking off. Hearing a bird get eaten is great motivation to work! The exception to the rule of Rue's cheery demeanor is her work. All orders are undertaken with great care and must be perfectly crafted to fit the client. If a dress or cloak fails to live up to her standards and if Rue were left to her own devices, it'd be promptly turned into scrap fabric. Thankfully, her aunt's guiding hand means that Rue is stuck making simple alterations. (And not going bankrupt over a picky noble!) It drives Rue mad even if she denies being more than a little obsessive about her craft. It's just dedication! Hard work!