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2006

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Brass Not anymore +You don't know!  +
Braxas Songweaver +Born in Arx twenty years ago, Braxas came into the world with no surname. His parents whoever they were did not want him so he was left at an orphanage in the worst part of town. Braxas was a dark child, handsome but frightening to the other children because of his dark moods and anger at the world. He started singing when he was five, just letting his emotions out via song. Some of the other boys tried to bully him over the singing but Braxas would not back down. When he was thirteen he ran away from the orphanage to join a troupe of traveling bards. Before he left Tomas his childhood tormentor gave him the scar that remains on his face today. He got away and has since learned how to dodge and defend himself a bit. He stayed with the troupe of bards as they traveled across the land. GOing from city to city Braxas learned how to survive and entertain on the streets. Seven years passed and after Braxas turned twenty he decided to try his luck back home in Arx once again.  +
Breccan Malere +Born to a family of successful farmers, Breccan grew up understanding and learning the land like all people of Acorn Hill. But what developed was a deeper understanding of nature itself and more often than not the impressionable youth found his time idling out into the woods where he was oftentimes scolded for being so careless by his father who compared him often to his older brother, Everett, as the eldest took to the agriculture life and found it suitable. It was after a fight that resulted in blows, the brashness of youth calling his old man out, that he ran off to the woods and wasn't heard from in weeks. What happened exactly was unknown but Breccan came back changed, throwing himself headlong into the family affairs but from a different angle. Instead, his charm and good nature was put forward to help bring prosperity and trade, having made several connections throughout Arvum- houses ranging from Setarco to Clearlake. It was after the death of his father, that Breccan told his brother the truth of where he had been for those many weeks ( as it had always been a mystery ) and it is with the passing of their father that he now must devote his life to another path for something is coming that will test their family and all of Acorn Hill. That something did come, however, it came with the arrival of shavs who destroyed all of Acorn Hill. It was luck that had Breccan away, devoting his life to helping build Lodges of Petrichor in other areas that he deemed would need the protection.With a brother and nephew still alive, he aims to devote his life to Pretrichor and seeing the land of forest and homestead safe from any that would defile it.  +
Bree Harthall +Bree and Brannen Harthall were born twins and from the moment they were born their lives were planned out. From early formative years, Bree took to the Valrdin way of life. Chivalry! Duty! However Bree always had a very bright twist on the Valardin way. She was strange, as many Valardins are more reserved and conservative Bree never was. From her childhood she was the most outgoing, the most exuberant, the most enthusiastic. Because there are dragons out there to slay/befriend depending on the particular situation/dragon. Bree loved stories and when playing as a child often got in trouble for being so violent. Her excuse generally was that she needed to see how hard she had to hit in case it wasn't her brother she was fighting but a skeleton risen out of the earth. And so her training began early. Bree took to fighting like a fish to water. While her brother became more tactical, more keen, Bree spent her days training and fighting, interspersed with flower picking, running on the beach or watching the sunset. Though she was driven she never had an issue with the work life balance. Bree has always known how to live, even in her most prepatory years. She also became closely attuned with Gild. She would often talk to the goddess at night, worried about those worse off than her, promising Gild she would help them in the morning. It was Bree's dream to become a Knight of Solace, to protect the weary and downtrodden, but she was destined to become a knight for her house and to serve as a champion of Harthall. Brannen constantly reminded her of her duty, to house first. Unfortunately tragedy struck. In a horse race with the heir of the House, their cousin Odhran, Bree and Brannen witnessed their cousin die in an accident. Stricken by this great tragedy, Brannen finally relented and the two have recently taken their oaths as Godsworn. Foreswearing marriage, titles, children, and have instead recently been inducted as Knights Of Solace. Eager to protect the weary in the City of Arx!  +
Breidaia Ferchyn +The Northlands are a harsh place for a commoner. Breidaia knew the hardships of a hungry belly, an empty quiver, and lips turning blue. Her father died before she was five, memories of him gone dim with the years. The tiny village she dimly recalls was overrun by Abandoned or plague, alternating disasters that signalled a need to move on. So her mother did, uprooting them in a straggling band of starvelings harried by the closing season. The small family nearly perished before they reached Giant's Reach, or close enough to eke out some modest existence. They were never prosperous after any fashion. Some days it was merely enough to life. Hunger motivates as well as necessity. Breidaia had no future on the outskirts of Giant's Reach, being without desire to work in mines or muster some small craft. She had a far-roaming nature and a quest to see the sea. It took her nearly six years to make it to the shores of Sanctum on the Eventide Vast, working the river bit by bit, but she had enough competency on the ropes and the sails of inland waters by then to buy her way onto a ship. It was a terrible position and she thoroughly hated it. The next posting was better, less given to abuses. The crew tolerated her quirks more. She grew into her skin. The lure of the water wasn't really what it was about. The excitement, the colour, the wonder all found on a ship boiled down to the heady experience she loved. Sailing gave her choice. She went far west with a trading coster funded by the Redrains, and through the distant patronage of their economic interests, would criss-cross the ocean. She became the second mate on a respective ship, got a name for honest dealing and good leadership. None of that mattered for piss during a brutal storm somewhere northwest of the Saffron Isles, when they were cutting for the far storm-wracked coast of the Compact. Men died. Her lover, the captain, died with a spar to the chest that no one could heal. The first mate was riddled by rage and sickness, forcing Breidaia to take up the role. And she was good at it. Very good. By the time they made landfall, half their cargo lost, a third of the crew down, it looked like a disaster. She got a second chance, with a second ship, and that was that. She's been sailing for the Redrains ever since.  +
Brianna Halfshav +A true child of the north, Brianna has always wanted more. She's proud of everything about her heritage, taking particular pride in her family House Halfshav winning glory for House Redrain and laying low the worst elements of the Abandoned in the North. Despite that pride, she yearns to see more, and she grew up of tales among northern nobility about the wild customs and fashions of the south and the pageantry of the court of Arx. When she was finally old enough to accompany her father south to court, it seemed to be all she had ever dreamed, delighting in all she found and even meeting the king, becoming King Alaric IV's frequent companion. Shortly after the king's marriage, she was forced to return to the north, but has since returned after the tragedy of the King's Rest. Still bright and vivacious, she also has a newfound determination and intensity about her, the tragedy of recent events with the coma of the king and deaths of so many others weighing heavily upon her mind.  +
Briar Marjawn +Born into a Halfshav village, Briar was the third youngest son of a full family of woodcrafters. A mother, a father, and three brothers, and a sister, Violet, the family did well living off the land and selling to the leatherworkers. He got to spend his days following his older sister around the woods, her eternal shadow. That would occasionally wander where the dappled sunlight or shadows seemed to guide him. A true child of the forest he could approach a deer with surprising ease. There would be the occasional skirmish with the Abandoned, but for most of his young life it wasn't a real threat. Eventually though, it wasn't enough. A warband from the village had gotten tired of the constant warfare, and attacked the small village outright. Only Violet dragging him out of bed before dawn and into the surrounding forests allowed them to survive the massacre of their family and most everything and everyone they had known.. By the time the Halfshav army arrived it was too late to do anything but help the survivors. Briar and Violet didn't leave with the others, however, and stayed to take out the warband once and for all. The Halfshav army had hired a nearby company of Crimson Blades to assist them in the eradication of this particular Abandoned problem. When the dust settled the survivors of the village were scattered and Violet and he had no home or family to go too. Yet his sister's talent with a bow had caught the Colonel of the Blade company's attention. Soon they were off to Arx with the Blades and a new life. Briar, who had always had a calling for shamanism finally had the ability to do something with it. Being a woodcrafter was all well and good, but he felt his passion lay with the spirits. So with his sisters blessing and support, he joined the Spirit Walkers. It was been a few years now and he has grown well into his vocation, his fierce energy doing him well in some areas and less in others.  +
Bridget Pravus +Bridget is from a minor noble family, House Mescino of the Lycene barony of Pastrazza. She is a young widow to Elonso of house Pravus. Her marriage had nothing to do with love. It was a formally arranged marriage with the goal of bringing two houses together. It was a marriage that abruptly ended with her husband's death. Upon the return of their widowed daughter, her family broke into chaos. The entire point of the marriage was to settle the dispute of a land claim. It was a minor land claim, but to her house could mean the difference between riches and ruin! The whole thing would have been easier if she had given her husband a sun before he went off and had himself executed. The only logical step to take from here was to send her back to house Pravus as a ward. It was cruel considering they were the ones to execute her late husband, but they didn't have time or resources to deal with a widowed daughter, and there were simply no other logical courses of action to take. What did Bridget think about all of this? Oh who really cares... just send her off!  +
Brier Crovane +Brier was born in the north in the middle of June as one of the first cousins of the Crovane family. Her mother was Ingrid and married into the Crovanes, while her father was Kheit Crovane. She was quick to become known for being one of the biggest handfuls out of the Crovane family's children, one who was quick to barrel into trouble just for the fun of it or to otherwise make sure that no one doubted her just because she was a 'young lady'. Her family, knowing that she would need an outlet to contain her energy and distract her, encouraged her to spend some time with the blacksmith of the village. There she tended to some apprentice-like duties and found that she loved the craft. Enthralled by working in the forge, Brier soon became less of a problem and grew into a fine young woman. There was a time that her family encouraged her to marry a young man of a neighboring territory, and so she and Yldimer were married in the winter months near her twentieth birthday. They spent ten years living happily together, but were unable to bear any new heirs due to him being secretly barren. Unfortunately, he fell three years ago in defending the north. For years she was stricken by grief, until her mother and father encouraged her to try a change of scenery and so she moved to Arx with hopes of being able to leave behind her past.  +
Brigid Inverno +Raised at Acorn Hill, Brigid grew up steady and strong like the many mighty trees that surrounded her home. The forest pathways became so familiar she could traverse them blind, chuckling rivers guided her ears, and she learned to appreciate the land in which she resided. The land that her family cultivated was perfect for grazing and housed a large stable where visiting households were known to stall their mounts given the skilled reputation for quality care. With a father who was versed in the various use of weaponry and a mother who was born to the saddle, it left an impression on their only child. Molding both their teachings, Brigid grew into an accomplished equestrian and swordswoman training herself up to both protect the ruling house and assist the nearby military outpost where her cousin, Rane Keaton commanded a stalwart militia. It was what granted her the title of House Sword for her ruling Moore cousin of Acorn Hill and it was one she had planned on devoting her life to - that was until tragedy had struck her home. While having been granted leave to deliver mounts to the nearby Keaton outpost, a rider delivered the news that everything and one she had sworn to protect had been decimated by an outside force with not a soul left alive. With direction having gone askew, Brigid remains to help see her home set to rights and to redeem herself in the eyes of the family she had failed.  +
Brigid Moore +Raised at Acorn Hill, Brigid grew up steady and strong like the many mighty trees that surrounded her home. The forest pathways became so familiar she could traverse them blind, chuckling rivers guided her ears, and she learned to appreciate the land in which she resided. The land that her family cultivated was perfect for grazing and housed a large stable where visiting households were known to stall their mounts given the skilled reputation for quality care. With a father who was versed in the various use of weaponry and a mother who was born to the saddle, it left an impression on their only child. Molding both their teachings, Brigid grew into an accomplished equestrian and swordswoman training herself up to both protect the ruling house and assist the nearby military outpost where her cousin, Rane Keaton commanded a stalwart militia. It was what granted her the title of House Sword for her ruling Moore cousin of Acorn Hill and it was one she had planned on devoting her life to - that was until tragedy had struck her home. While having been granted leave to deliver mounts to the nearby Keaton outpost, a rider delivered the news that everything and one she had sworn to protect had been decimated by an outside force with not a soul left alive. With direction having gone askew, Brigid remains to help see her home set to rights and to redeem herself in the eyes of the family she had failed.  +
Brigida Fidante +Brigida has lived through it all. When she was a girl, she was as fine a hunter, dancer, and player of music as any lady of the Lyceum. She was not the most beautiful of her sisters but she was clearly the most accomplished. At sixteen, she was the Golden Rose of Tor, and she had lovers on her string at twenty ranging from all over the Compact. But all idylls end. Brigida joined the Faith relatively late -- at 24 -- in part to avoid a disastrous marriage she did not want that would have sent her to the Laurents. She had no desire to join the workhorse duchy of the Valardins. Instead, she cast aside the silks of her wild life as the Golden Rose of Tor, and threw herself into a new life as a priestess. She had a solid background of Lyceum politics to bring with her to the priesthood along with genuine faith for the gods and a healthy respect for the power structures here that she could potentially grow into. She had already survived at least three poisonings before she donned her first robe. She learned quickly that the machinations of the priests were different in form from those of Lycene politics but not in kind. Ambitious people jockey for position everywhere, and the Faith is no exception. By the time she was 40, she was such a mainstay of the priests of Petrichor that there were few other names that could even be considered for his Archlector. Yet at this pinnacle she chose to stay, leading the godsworn and championing the guardian of the land rather than attempting to politic any higher.  +
Briseis Morgan +The last of seven children, Briseis had to make quite a bit of noise to stand out. A few of her older siblings were already headed in a direction of martial service, but Briseis's talents were more mental. She was preternaturally curious from a young age, devouring books, become an enthusiastic visitor to Sanctum's local Archive. One might say she harassed the Scholars there, but enthusiasm and talent for exploiting her own cuteness meant that she actually managed to endear quite a few of them. It's only right to encourage the will of Vellichor where one finds it, after all. So she grew a joyful child. An /enthusiastic/ child. Not quite as wild and free as her brother Aleksei, who ran from Sanctum without looking back when he was sixteen and she was only eight, but if her effusiveness was sometimes a little unseemly, it was tempered by the fact that her areas of fascination were entirely appropriate: theology, history, law. (It also helped that she was a good deal better at charming her way into what she wanted from her father than certain other rebellious siblings.) And where many Orthodox Oathlanders were raised with faith as a serious, sober weight, she celebrated the beauty of it with a joyful conviction, and she gave up hours of her free time to become a disciple of the Faith among the ranks of the Scholars as soon as they let her in. However, she found that the spread and preservation of knowledge, while fulfilling, didn't quite fulfill the itch of her passions. It was in the Sentinel that she found her calling. Curiosity was her drive, but being able to use that information to help make the world a more just one -- that became her purpose. She would FIND INJUSTICE. And she would STOP IT. (And people would TAKE HER SERIOUSLY.) She longed for the days when the Inquisition was itself a discipleship of the Sentinel, but who said she needed to let a little rift between major Compact organizations stop her? She could revere the tenets of the Sentinel both as a Disciple in the Faith as well as in the secular world as an Inquisitor! That's what she's come to Arx to do, in any case. And when Briseis dedicates herself to something, there's not a lot that can stand in her way.  +
Brogan Nightgold +Born to be a duke's younger brother, Brogan expected his lot in life from an early age, and threw himself into it with a will. Marriage for politics, maybe -- he was a dutiful son, and he expected that even when he was a young teenager -- but that was nothing to put a damper on his lust for life. Marriage did nothing to stop him from running amok amongst the common folk, or among the other similarly ranked nobles, for that matter. He drank, hunted, punched and gambled his way through every keep in the North and brought with him wild volume, laughter, and just an inordinate supply of delightful bullshit. His wife was another count's daughter, from the Oathlands, and she died giving him his firstborn daughter, who died a few years later. It was the kind of tragedy that could have brought a lesser man down. For Brogan, it made him live harder, live wilder. He disappeared into the snows and got in touch with the mountain's icy roots, bringing himself to the shaman's path and hunting for blood, life and happiness in his own way. When he returned, it was as an uncle to the new Duchess Nadia, as a frequent inebriate and a roaring soldier who drank as much as he punched. Bare fist fighting was his specialty (and remains so) and while in coming to Arx as part of the Nightgold retinue has made him miss the snows, he came ready to throw himself into the uproarious life of a lesser nobleman in the capital.  +
Bron Aisling +Born in one of the smaller mountain villages in the North, he was scooped up by an army recruiter shortly after reaching adulthood, his knowledge of the area along with his hunting and trail skills making him a useful skirmisher. A few small wars later, Sergeant at Arms Aisling left his Lord's service with a pension, some spoils and a desire to spend some time on his own for once. Going back to his village didn't seem quite right, not after all he had seen so after shipping home a totally non-blood-spattered care-package he vanished into the woods. Bored with his own company and perhaps missing the camaraderie of his unit, he has headed to the big city to see what that's like instead.  +
Bruce Valardin +Honor. Honor above all. Born on May 26th, 985 AR to Prince Robert Valardin and Lady Helene Telmar, Bruce was the firstborn but grew up knowing he'd never inherit title or land. Instead, he was prepared for a life of chivalry, nursed by tales of Oathlands heroism and knighthood. He was riding by the age of five and learning how to wield a longsword by eight. At ten, he became the squire of Lord Gregor Steelhart the Chillhearted, a renowned knight and swordsman. It was a busy childhood of martial training, studying warfare, extensive conditioning and prayer. Though even now, he holds those hazy memories close of warm summers spent at the river with friends and family outside of the Capital, and along the coast outside of High Hill. His peaceful childhood was not to last. Knighted at sixteen, Bruce took up the sword for his family and began his career in earnest. It was only a year later when the Tragedy in Sanctum occured. His mother and father lay dead, along with Prince Radley Valardin and most of his immediate kin. The newly knighted Oathlander had been away in the Gray, partaking in Compact operations against hostile abandoned. When the news reached him, it changed the young man forever. 1006 AR. Bruce was a mounted knight in the Silent War, twenty one years old. He fought in countless skirmishes in the Northlands, the Gray, and finally in the Crownlands, culminating in the Siege of Arx. Months of his life had been spent waging war against Tolamar Brand and his forces. Yet there was never any respite. The following years were spent in small campaigns among Valardin forces, the Compact and Templars, fighting hostile Abandoned and cultists throughout central and western Avrum. A week before his birthday, in May 1008 AR, Bruce served under High Lord Edain Valardin in the Gyre War. Though the city burned and the losses were extraordinary, the battle-hardened knight survived and rode down the Gyre's fleeing troops alongside his comrades. In less than three years, he had participated in two grand wars that shaped the future of the Compact. And he lived. Bruce had earned a name for himself with his exploits among knightly circles and Valardin forces; a veteran of wars, countless campaigns and dozens if not hundreds of skirmishes with abandoned and brigand alike. He gave the Pantheon praise, Oathlands Orthodox through and through, living without a fear of death after experiencing so much in his young life. It took the Battle of High Hill Crossing to humble him. He was twenty six years old, a small unit commander among the united forces of Valardin and Telmar. He had recently learned of High Hill's fall to shav forces, and the massacre of House Steelhart; so many friends, comrades, good men, dead. He yearned for revenge. In his anger, he forgot the Faith's teachings. And he payed. Nearly a thousand allied troops died in that ambush, among them Prince Caius Valardin and Duke Arn Telmar, both kin to Bruce. His leg was shattered in battle by a mighty blow, a serious injury that would fully heal, but that left him bedridden for the better part of a year. His countenance grew more serious, stern. He lost that youthful charm and cocky posture. Prayer was his solace. He thought of all the brothers and sisters in arms that he had lost throughout the years. Slain family members, allies, friends, fellow knights and Oathlanders. It's during this time in which he realized that for him, war would never be over. In the years since, Bruce returned to combat and his knightly pursuits, training and assisting in the Compact's campaigns against abandoned and foreign foes whenever able. And now, he has traveled to Arx in order to get more directly involved in the coming wars. Foes surround Avrum, the Compact, Valardin. From within and without. Bruce wants to play his part; for the sake of honor, virtue, justice. He will lead his people to victory.  +
Bryndis Nightgold +Bryndis is the youngest of five, and has always been a curious child. She would often go out of her way to explore the world around her, from outside the home to the darkest of corners within the home. She would watch the animals, study the bugs, draw the flowers and trees that she saw in her world. There was not much that did not interest her, both in the animate things around her, or the inanimate as well. Just because a flower was often more beautiful than a rock doesn't mean that the rock itself didn't hold its own very special place in her world. By the time she was ten she had books and books of drawings, each year they got better, more apt to actually resemble what it was that she was exploring and studying. She would watch and listen to others that were more knowledgeable about art, flora and fauna, and take in everything they offered. As she grew older she knew that it was very clear to her what she was going to do with her life. Some thought she'd become a healer or midwife. But she didn't want to do anything like that, she was very interested in the properties of the plants, of course, but even alchemy and apothecary studies weren't number one on her list outside of just curiosity. No, it was actually learning just about the world around her. How things fit together, why you'd find one particular animal and plant in one location, but find just the animal, or the plant, in another. It was when she was almost nineteen that she grew ill, ill to the point that everyone was sure that she'd die. But something changed, one night she was on her death bed, and the next morning she was up and moving around as though nothing was ever wrong. She's never really had any explanation for that, but her entire outlook on life seems to have changed after that night. She was more direct, less interested in books, more forgetful than she once was.  +
Brynja Blackwood +Brynja was born in the wild lands, beyond the bounds of what most consider civilization, the eldest child of Sigurd Blackwood. Her mother passed away when she was young, dying under mysterious circumstances, and leaving her father heartbroken. As a way of honoring her memory and helping himself recover from his grief, Sigurd taught Brynja the ways of the warrior as soon as she could stand, and she has been on that path ever since. Her father would eventually find love again and remarry. As she blossomed into a young woman, word of her deeds spread among the tribes, and she gained notoriety for her unrelenting ferocity in battle. Many great men made many great excuses when she bested them in combat, but Brynja had hardly a care -- you don't get very far with excuses. When Tolamar Brand came to assault their lands and enslave their people, Brynja was on the front lines, commanding the Blackwood infantry. She performed well, even if she received another scar or two. She was less thrilled at the notion of becoming a silk when her family decided to bend the knee to House Crovane. She will just have to make do.  +
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Cabrera Godsworn +Cabrera was a beautiful boy, the pride of his parents. He was born large and strapping, and grew quickly. But he grew in the backdrop of chaos and war, and his parents were cut down in their prime. His mother was a knight-captain who laid down her life for Fidante in the Tor-Southport war, and his father was brutally crippled in the aftermath of the fighting; though young, he simply was in no state to care for himself, let alone his son. There was no family left who could take care of this young boy whose parents had had such high hopes for his brilliant future, so the Seraph of Tor brought him to the Faith, that he might be raised with the children who knew no other family. A child who ran and scampered among the servants of the Rectory, fitting into strange places and exploring weird corners was young Cabrera's raison d'etre. He was too young to squire when he first came to the Church-- a child, five years of age -- but somehow he managed to get places and make himself useful. His bright eyes and raffish smile were weapons of war he waged upon the Faith. He was everyone's gopher and no one's; a disciple of the Church when he was far too young to be so. He wasn't the only child of the Faith, but he was certainly one of the most vibrant. As a teen, he came to understand how he lost his family, and he was reactive about it, fierce and hotheaded and miserable. He tried to get into duels about it, but the Lycenes he challenged knew better than to duel a boy of his years, and he was given a hiding and sent back to the Rectory. He screamed his outrage at anybody who would listen, and one of the priests -- the same Seraph who had brought him from Tor -- took him back to the Lyceum to visit the grave of the cripple who had been his father. When he returned again to Arx and the service of the Church, he was a quieter, more thoughtful version of himself. While the mischief and warmth returned to him, and he would never lose the laughter or the quickness of his wits, the Cabrera who recognized the indelible part that loss had played in his development was a more sober, serious one, with a fierce understanding of what it was to be loyal to a cause, and a deep-seated recognition of the horrors of war. He squired with the templars as a youth, and as a man, he took his oaths in service to the Faith, and enlivened their quarters with lively cheer, an upbeat attitude, and a sense of humor that danced between classic soldierly raunchiness and more obscure absurdism. Resourceful and clever, Cabrera lived by his tongue and his wits, and in more than one campaign, served the Faith with sword and shield, putting his life on the line gladly in service of something greater than himself.  +
Cade none +Born in a small village, Cade's mother died a few days after his birth. He was left to be raised by his stern and unaffectionate father who was a former mercenary. Even as a boy, Cade's father instilled into him the hard work and discipline that he had learned from his travels. Having not known any gentle touch and constantly receiving his father's ire, Cade grew to resent his father. When his father died of sickness, Cade packed whatever belongings he could carry and left the village, knowing that there was nothing left for him there. He traveled from one village to the next, doing some odd jobs when he could. From then on he wandered aimlessly, only doing what he deemed necessary to get him through the day.  +
Cadenza Fidante +Cadenza Velenosa, eldest of a lesser line of Velenosa princes and princesses, was not a very good Lycene. As a child, she did not take to her political lessons. She was frank, forthright to the point of tactlessness, and had a knack for taking exactly the wrong point from her teachers and running away with it out of sheer stubbornness. Iron will in a nine year old can be difficult to deal with, particularly an active nine year old with a seemingly endless ability to get into things. Her father was a Zaffria, and while on a trip to visit relatives at Crowned Hill, their party was attacked by an Abandoned raiding party, and Cadenza learned a lesson about heroic recklessness: that is, that if you're going to hero recklessly, you have to pick your moment, and preferably, be older than eleven. She came away from the fight half an orphan; her mother died fighting in defense of her father, and her father brutally injured defending Cadenza, and it was a lesson she never forgot. As an adult, she remembered what she'd learned about timing, but she never let it hold her back. She sailed forth with her cousin Antonio and learned the ropes, and then set forth all the further, sailing through the Mourning Isles. Allegedly she was seeking a potential alliance with House Thrax, a potential match for one of the young princes, but she slipped loose the leash and sailed still further, disappearing off the map for awhile. She turned up again far afield in Arvum on a wild adventure where she either rescued or was rescued by Lou Grayson, or maybe it was mutual. It was neither the first nor the last time that Cadenza mysteriously made herself vanish only to reappear again later with tales of dramatic nonsense and half-truths. When Lady Aislin launched her Society of Explorers, Cadenza was only not an early adopter because she was spending a month trapped in the basement of a ruined temple to Gild in the hinterlands of the Oathlands, living on an unfortunate diet of roast rat and buried roots while she tried to work out a series of absurdly confusing puzzles that would have made a lot more sense if you could remember all Thirteen gods. During the Silent War, Cadenza would have fought for the Lyceum gladly, but instead, she had accidentally gotten herself temporarily sold as a prisoner of one piratical group of Abandoned to another, following the loss of her ship to a raid. She only escaped by dumb luck and someone else's stray arrow fortuitously striking the gut of the guy who held her chain. So it was that, in trying to make her way back to Arx, speaking a mangled polyglot of several Abandoned languages badly, she has only turned up again on the shore of Southport honestly confused about how she'd arrived, with a fresh scar on her neck from someone trying to kill her for no reason she could explain, and the worst part is she had no good story to show for it.  +
Cadenza Velenosa +Cadenza Velenosa, eldest of a lesser line of Velenosa princes and princesses, was not a very good Lycene. As a child, she did not take to her political lessons. She was frank, forthright to the point of tactlessness, and had a knack for taking exactly the wrong point from her teachers and running away with it out of sheer stubbornness. Iron will in a nine year old can be difficult to deal with, particularly an active nine year old with a seemingly endless ability to get into things. Her father was a Zaffria, and while on a trip to visit relatives at Crowned Hill, their party was attacked by an Abandoned raiding party, and Cadenza learned a lesson about heroic recklessness: that is, that if you're going to hero recklessly, you have to pick your moment, and preferably, be older than eleven. She came away from the fight half an orphan; her mother died fighting in defense of her father, and her father brutally injured defending Cadenza, and it was a lesson she never forgot. As an adult, she remembered what she'd learned about timing, but she never let it hold her back. She sailed forth with her cousin Antonio and learned the ropes, and then set forth all the further, sailing through the Mourning Isles. Allegedly she was seeking a potential alliance with House Thrax, a potential match for one of the young princes, but she slipped loose the leash and sailed still further, disappearing off the map for awhile. She turned up again far afield in Arvum on a wild adventure where she either rescued or was rescued by Lou Grayson, or maybe it was mutual. It was neither the first nor the last time that Cadenza mysteriously made herself vanish only to reappear again later with tales of dramatic nonsense and half-truths. When Lady Aislin launched her Society of Explorers, Cadenza was only not an early adopter because she was spending a month trapped in the basement of a ruined temple to Gild in the hinterlands of the Oathlands, living on an unfortunate diet of roast rat and buried roots while she tried to work out a series of absurdly confusing puzzles that would have made a lot more sense if you could remember all Thirteen gods. During the Silent War, Cadenza would have fought for the Lyceum gladly, but instead, she had accidentally gotten herself temporarily sold as a prisoner of one piratical group of Abandoned to another, following the loss of her ship to a raid. She only escaped by dumb luck and someone else's stray arrow fortuitously striking the gut of the guy who held her chain. So it was that, in trying to make her way back to Arx, speaking a mangled polyglot of several Abandoned languages badly, she has only turned up again on the shore of Southport honestly confused about how she'd arrived, with a fresh scar on her neck from someone trying to kill her for no reason she could explain, and the worst part is she had no good story to show for it.  +
Cadern Blackwood +Cadern was a rapscallion. A scavenger of attention. A thirsty little sneak who made it his business to get into things. He cherished freedom, the freedom to run amok, and clashed frequently with his older sister, with whom he had a seriously healthy sibling rivalry, especially when both were too young to temper themselves particularly. The shamans of the Ravenseyes knew what to do with a boy who wanted to get into trouble, though, and found ways to occupy him, to turn his impish mischief to good account, and to train him so that his garrulousness and wit could one day be used to the advantage of their family. He chafed at being second to Aella, especially when the House first bent the knee to the Compact. He had hoped that swearing fealty to Redrain would mean casting aside old traditions and leaping whole-heartedly into a new life, a new culture, with the people of Farhaven whose arms would surely open wide to welcome them now that they were oath brethren. He had a few rude awakenings early on before settling into his new role, and still twitches restlessly for chances to prove himself. Which sometimes means, to this day, that he has to talk himself out of a tight spot. Luckily, he always did have a glib tongue.  +
Cadern Ravenseye +Cadern was a rapscallion. A scavenger of attention. A thirsty little sneak who made it his business to get into things. He cherished freedom, the freedom to run amok, and clashed frequently with his older sister, with whom he had a seriously healthy sibling rivalry, especially when both were too young to temper themselves particularly. The shamans of the Ravenseyes knew what to do with a boy who wanted to get into trouble, though, and found ways to occupy him, to turn his impish mischief to good account, and to train him so that his garrulousness and wit could one day be used to the advantage of their family. He chafed at being second to Aella, especially when the House first bent the knee to the Compact. He had hoped that swearing fealty to Redrain would mean casting aside old traditions and leaping whole-heartedly into a new life, a new culture, with the people of Farhaven whose arms would surely open wide to welcome them now that they were oath brethren. He had a few rude awakenings early on before settling into his new role, and still twitches restlessly for chances to prove himself. Which sometimes means, to this day, that he has to talk himself out of a tight spot. Luckily, he always did have a glib tongue.  +
Caelis Malvici +Caelis is a cousin to the main branch of House Malvici. A student of herbalism, she took great joy in learning each plant and it's uses in the gardens of Southport. When herbalism wasn't enough she learned the craft of a soldier and sailor. Spending most of her late teens and young adult years on a ship, she's risen recently to Maritime Captain and uses her travels to collect and find rare herbs from port to port as well as stories of the old days. Recent trouble has recalled her to Arx to support the family and bolster alliances.  +