To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Woodborough is a place of staggering serenity, positioned as it is between Avon's rolling riverlands and a smattering of forest cloaking the hills that eventually lead into Cambria. Such natural beauty was the legacy promised to the eldest daughter in the ruling manor, and Dhani conjured many childhood games in the dappled woodlands and the sunny shores of the River Avon. She would be trusted to venture further and linger longer than her enterprising siblings. Roosting her from ranging as far as she might sometimes took a stern hand.
Indeed, it's a fair thing to say Dhani suffered being put under a roof not of starlight and darkness, oak leaves or a lazy current. She ran half-wild and her mother despaired of ever making a lady of her, though not for a lack of trying. Her bliauts came back stained in mud, her tunics torn. Her smooth braids would be full of burrs and twigs before noon. A battle of wills contested a subtle friction started when her father took ill and died, and grew worse when the girl herself was dreadfully sick young in life. Only the intervention of a physician and long convalescence saved her, and by then, the eldest Woodborough girl decided firmly and utterly four walls would never enclose her again.
She served as a page catastrophically for Lady Cecilia de Marlboro, and within a year transferred into her husband Sir Sian de Marlboro's service as a proper squire. An arrangement took her far from home but honed and refined those coarse tendencies into a more productive outlet, and it would be in his care that Dhani ended up crisscrossing Salisbury, Marlboro, and indeed much of Logres in pursuit of glory. Sir Sian was, if nothing else, a stout defender of Uther and his son Arthur thereafter.
When she was seventeen, an act of dark consequence struck in the care of Sir Sian, something hushed up. The squire emerged a much less carefree soul than she had been before. There lay a hardness in her stormcloud eyes, a purpose utterly lacking before. Her roving took on a harsher edge and she concerned herself with justice and law in a fashion unknown before. In particular she showed a need, almost an obsession, for seeing injustices against the weak, vulnerable, and unprotected righted. It made her popular among the commonfolk, though she fairly ignored the niceties of court as a result.
She earned her knighthood at the bloody Battle of Bassus River, and subsequently attended some of the King's major campaigns until 514 called her home. A brief spate on the tourney circuit did not distinguish her greatly, and held little lust. Something burns inside Dhani de Woodborough, a force without name and all the force of a lightning strike. Her time in Woodborough has been largely spent melting into the woodlands and appearing in the village or on a road, assisting where she is best needed.
For she has amends to make, vengeance to claim, and rights to wrong. And they will not be levied in a season.
Courtly Face
When she gets around to washing, she'll let you see.
Hunter's Mask
She will never belong in a court function unless that court happens to be in Pictland. Ink, copper, and unrelenting height all set this unkempt young woman apart from the norm, harsh elements that impress themselves upon the mind. Thick plaits pull back from her angular face, the stiff, streaked chestnut and ebony braids bound up by rawhide leather thongs. Her copper face is a solemn mask, her long nose smooth and well-formed, full mouth destroyed by a mulberry line an inch thick streaking down to her chin and terminating in a separate circle. Smoke billows around feline eyes easily mistaken for being infinitely darker than they actually are, a line of tapered cinnamon dots marching over her temples. High cheekbones are traced by a knotwork of delicate whorls no thicker than a hair, the pale ink almost indistinguishable except close up.
A hunter in a pond of mallards, she benefits from all the dubious benefits of her obvious rank. Not an ounce of excess defines her sword-sleek body, her muscular limbs polished where visible under her clothes. Leather garments define all she wears, the wrappings climbing up her arms in alternating fawn layers until reaching her upper biceps. Woad lines race over her exposed shoulder in complicated patterns, vanishing under her garments. Whatever undertunic she wears makes a mediocre appearance at her throat, a gasp of undyed linen. A leather strap enfolds her neck a few inches above, and the corselet she wears is a heavy, boiled vest stretching shoulder to hip in severe, flattened curves. Buckles capture her sides and a doubled belt anchors a sword and a quiver. Leggings and tough ankle-high boots melt into a continuous tan expanse that only seems to heighten her substantial height.
| 7 |
- Chaste |
| |
Lustful - |
13 |
10 |
- Merciful |
| |
Cruel - |
10 |
| 13 |
- Energetic |
| |
Lazy - |
7 |
7 |
- Modest |
| |
Proud - |
13 |
| 10 |
- Forgiving |
| |
Vengeful - |
10 |
10 |
- Pious |
| |
Worldly - |
10 |
| 13 |
- Generous |
| |
Selfish - |
7 |
10 |
- Prudent |
| |
Reckless - |
10 |
| 13 |
- Honest |
| |
Deceitful - |
7 |
10 |
- Temperate |
| |
Indulgent - |
10 |
| 16 |
- Just |
| |
Arbitrary - |
4 |
10 |
- Trusting |
| |
Suspicious - |
10 |
| 15 |
- Valorous |
| |
Cowardly - |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Size: |
16 |
Dexterity: |
8 |
Strength: |
14 |
Constitution: |
13 |
Appearance: |
12 |
| Damage: |
5 |
HR: |
3 |
MR: |
2 |
THP: |
29 |
Unconscious: |
7 |
| Awareness: |
8 |
Boating: |
1 |
Compose: |
10 |
Courtesy: |
3 |
Craft: |
0 |
| Dancing: |
2 |
Faerie Lore: |
1 |
Falconry: |
10 |
First Aid: |
10 |
Flirting: |
3 |
| Folklore: |
2 |
Gaming: |
3 |
Heraldry: |
3 |
Hunting: |
10 |
Intrigue: |
3 |
| Orate: |
3 |
Profession: |
0 |
Play: |
3 |
Read: |
10 |
Recognize: |
3 |
| Religion: |
2 |
Romance: |
2 |
Singing: |
10 |
Stewardship: |
2 |
Swimming: |
2 |
| Tourney: |
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Battle: 10 |
Siege: 0 |
Horsemanship: 15 |
| Sword: 15 |
Lance: 15 |
Spear: 6 |
| Dagger: 5 |
Bow: 0 |
Axe: 0 |
Famous Just: The rule of the law is valid only so long as the enforcement is right and equitable, regardless of one's status of birth. Violating these codes is a sure way to earn an equal and opposite reaction. Dhani has considerable reserves of patience to pursue a goal when she feels wronged.
Hatred: She bears something beyond ill-will to the Irish. It might be likened closer to a desire to see their island dragged to the furthest reaches of the western ocean, where they were summarily anchored, denied boats, and subsequently forgotten by all peoples of the Earth.
Service: She has fought in some of the more significant battles of the past five years, including Terrabil, Bassus River, and the Morning Battle. Loyal service won her a knighthood and possibly a great many connections.
