Griffin Rampant
10-06-08, 10:46 PM
Name: Sophie Cantor
Age: 24
Race: Human
Hair Color: Light brown
Eye Color: Grey
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 120lbs, sans armor.
Occupation: Nomadic Knight-in-training.
Personality: Sophie is honorable, mild-mannered, gentle, polite and humble - generally earning the labels of a reliable girl or a complete stick-in-the-mud. She doesn’t have much of a temper, and tends to let little things run off her back rather than getting upset over them. However, she's rather like a pressure cooker when it comes to the big things: keep piling them up, and eventually she's going to explode and clock you but good. She has a deep phobia of undeath - she is terrified of the idea of being turned into an undead warrior, or of even encountering them, really.
Appearance: Sophie is somewhat short, slender and well-toned. She’s fairly shapely, though the effect is quite ruined by layers of mail and cloth. Her hair is light brown and wavy, with a tendency to frizz and tangle when she hasn’t had a chance to wash it, or when the weather is wrong. She usually keeps it at about shoulder-length and braided. Her eyes are light grey and usually alert, showing off more of her emotions than she might wish. Her right eye is 'lazy', it tends to not look where the rest of her face is looking. It sometimes throws off her concentration, and can be distracting to those she's talking to, but if she's paying attention she can focus on things alright. She tends to freckle when she’s out in the sun a lot. Her arms and torso are etched with scars from training and battling, and she’s missing her right upper canine tooth.
History: Once upon a time, there was a young woman with a big mouth. This young woman tended to offend anything and anyone she came into contact with, including (but not limited to) a very powerful hedge-witch. And everyone knows how well witches react to being offended. Said hedge-witch cursed the young woman for her offense – she would be doomed to wander until she had given birth to – and given away – her first child.
Sophie, born six years later, was that child.
Fortunately, the young woman with the big mouth also had a big brain. She’d picked a good place to give a child away, a good place to settle down once the witch’s curse had been fulfilled. It was a small village in the north-east section of Concordia, a village run almost entirely by a small abbey. The abbey belonged to a group called the “Most Holy Order of the Griffin,” a small, obscure, monotheistic group that promoted chivalry and fairness as a life style.
Sophie was given over to the Order, and grew up on the Abbey grounds, but she was truly raised in equal parts by her real parents – her father was in charge of the Abbey’s stables – and the Order.
Sophie grew up watching the knights of both genders preparing for quests and adventures, and – in her own quiet way - always wanted to be like them from the time when she was a small child. The Abbess and the Knights – after much pleading and a serious conversation with her parents – granted her the training she wanted.
The training took years, and covered all the things deemed necessary by the Order: fighting was first and foremost, of course, but the training also included etiquette, horsemanship, dedication to charitable causes, practicing music, learning the basics of wilderness survival, riding and devotion to the piety of the order.
Sophie grew from a young girl to an adolescent to a young woman in the company of these noble knights, becoming a demure, well-spoken and competent squire. She was generally dependable, only occasionally venturing out with fellow squires for fun and games in nearby villages. It was there, at the age of sixteen, that she first heard whispers of the undead - fell, dark things, reanimated to prey on the living…
What she heard were merely stories and tall-tales meant to scare without truly harming, but the very idea chilled her to the core. The idea of undeath remained a looming phobia of hers to the current day.
As she grew older, she took part in some minor battles, helped roust a band of robbers that were preying upon the locals, but yearned for something more. Something bigger.
She wasn’t really prepared when she got it.
On the eve of her Twenty-fourth birthday, Sophie was deemed ready to take part in her quest for knighthood. This ritual consisted of searching for a particular type of mushroom, and bringing it back to a mentor. The mentor would consume the mushroom, and then enter a trance – while in this trance they would allegedly see where their student was to perform an act of great valor or charity.
Twenty-three years of good luck broke with her mentor’s vision. Whatever her quest was, she was told, as soon as her mentor came out of her trance, it would take her to Raiaera, towards the heart of Xem'zund’s undead army…
But there wasn’t much Sophie could do. If she wanted her knighthood status, if she wished to gain the title she had earned, she would have to face her darkest fear. She packed up her kit, begged a horse from her blood father, and set off towards the unknown…
Skills:
Horsemanship: Average. She can handle a walking or trotting horse with ease, and can gallop if she’s able to put all her attention into riding. She cannot, however, fight on a horse, no matter how fast or slow the horse is going. She’s primarily a foot soldier. She also knows how to care for the creatures – currying, cleaning, calming and the suchlike.
Fighting: her knight training consisted of the three main styles, polearms, swordplay and archery.
Polearms: Average. She knows enough to be dangerous with one and how to not gut herself, but doesn’t feel very comfortable with polearms in general.
Sword: Above average. She’s most comfortable with a sword, she knows enough technique and footwork to better the average soldier, but she’s not good enough to beat a master swordsman…yet.
Bow: below average. She knows how to use a bow in principle, but most of her shots at this time go wild – she’s more a danger to herself and her companions than to the enemy right now.
Writing: below average. Her focuses were not on writing, and – as a result – her superiors have tasked her with the dubious assignment to better her writing – both in legibility and in style.
Music: Another of the skills taught to her in the order. Sophie was exposed primarily to vocal music, flute and stringed instruments.
Voice: Average. She’s not a dying cat, but she’s also not the most skilled.
Woodwind: Above average. Sophie can play quite prettily on pipes and flute.
Harp: Below below-average. One should not ever let her touch a harp, ‘lest one wishes to be restringing said harp and nursing sore ears for a month.
Equipment:
Armor:
Hauberk: An iron, chain mail hauberk that covers her arms to her elbows, her torso to her collarbone, and her legs to her knees.
Gauntlets: Fingerless and made of leather, these are reinforced over the backs of her hands with iron. They reach from her first knuckles to just below her elbows.
Boots: Leather strap-boots that reach her knees, reinforced with iron over her Achilles tendon and ankles.
Helm: A leather-and-iron Spangenhelm-style helmet with cheek-and-nose guards and a mail curtain to cover the back of her neck. The design, unfortunately, leaves the rest of her face and the front of her neck open.
Sword Belt: Black leather, winds around her hips with her sword on one hip and her dagger on the other.
Sword: A single-handed, double-edged arming sword. The blade is three feet long and made of steel. The hilt is six inches, wrapped in black sharkskin and finished with a simple, smooth red pommel stone. It has a scabbard of hardened black leather.
Shield: A buckler of hardened oak with iron reinforcements at the center and around the edges. It is three feet in diameter.
Underclothes: Linen-lined woolen leggings, fingerless gloves and shirt, two pair of each. A linen shift and petticoats for when wearing her court dress.
Overclothes: Midnight blue sleeveless linen tunic that reaches her knees – slit up the front and back to her waist for riding - with a device of a white griffin rampant on the chest.
Court Dress: Grey silk lined with white and gold, full skirted and long sleeved, elegant and meant to be worn when at court or in noble company. Currently gaining wrinkles folded at the bottom of Sophie’s packs. Includes dove grey hose, a pair of delicate kid shoes, and a pair of white gloves.
Rosary: A simple rosary with beads of carved and finished oak, with a cross chipped out of rose quartz.
Dagger: Steel. Used primarily for eating, and only in last ditch fighting. Nine inch blade, four inch hilt, forged to match her sword. She wears this blade on the opposite hip from her sword.
Horse: A six year old grey-and-white speckled Fallien gelding. Named, embarrassingly, Stuart.
Horse tack: saddle, bridle, saddle blanket, saddle bags. All unremarkable – old, but kept in good condition.
Travel kit: soap, flint lighter, fishing hooks and line, boning knife, salt, cooking spices, tin spoon, plate and cup, bedroll, compass, bandages, needle, thread, polishing cloth, armor and leather polish. All kept shoved into Stuart's saddlebags.
Flute: A flute carved of cherry wood. It has a sweet, clean sound
Copybook, inkwell and quill: A thin paper book meant for practicing the shape of one’s letters. The inkwell is tiny, and needs refilled almost every time she stops. The quill is a crude crow-quill pen.
Familiar: Derek, a badger cub that she found soon after leaving the abbey. He's still small enough that he fits curled up in her hands.
Nothing in her items will be sold, the horse will never be used in battle, and I am more than willing to part with startup gold in order to keep her armor the way it is since there's nothing magical about any of it. Or about her, really. :)
Age: 24
Race: Human
Hair Color: Light brown
Eye Color: Grey
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 120lbs, sans armor.
Occupation: Nomadic Knight-in-training.
Personality: Sophie is honorable, mild-mannered, gentle, polite and humble - generally earning the labels of a reliable girl or a complete stick-in-the-mud. She doesn’t have much of a temper, and tends to let little things run off her back rather than getting upset over them. However, she's rather like a pressure cooker when it comes to the big things: keep piling them up, and eventually she's going to explode and clock you but good. She has a deep phobia of undeath - she is terrified of the idea of being turned into an undead warrior, or of even encountering them, really.
Appearance: Sophie is somewhat short, slender and well-toned. She’s fairly shapely, though the effect is quite ruined by layers of mail and cloth. Her hair is light brown and wavy, with a tendency to frizz and tangle when she hasn’t had a chance to wash it, or when the weather is wrong. She usually keeps it at about shoulder-length and braided. Her eyes are light grey and usually alert, showing off more of her emotions than she might wish. Her right eye is 'lazy', it tends to not look where the rest of her face is looking. It sometimes throws off her concentration, and can be distracting to those she's talking to, but if she's paying attention she can focus on things alright. She tends to freckle when she’s out in the sun a lot. Her arms and torso are etched with scars from training and battling, and she’s missing her right upper canine tooth.
History: Once upon a time, there was a young woman with a big mouth. This young woman tended to offend anything and anyone she came into contact with, including (but not limited to) a very powerful hedge-witch. And everyone knows how well witches react to being offended. Said hedge-witch cursed the young woman for her offense – she would be doomed to wander until she had given birth to – and given away – her first child.
Sophie, born six years later, was that child.
Fortunately, the young woman with the big mouth also had a big brain. She’d picked a good place to give a child away, a good place to settle down once the witch’s curse had been fulfilled. It was a small village in the north-east section of Concordia, a village run almost entirely by a small abbey. The abbey belonged to a group called the “Most Holy Order of the Griffin,” a small, obscure, monotheistic group that promoted chivalry and fairness as a life style.
Sophie was given over to the Order, and grew up on the Abbey grounds, but she was truly raised in equal parts by her real parents – her father was in charge of the Abbey’s stables – and the Order.
Sophie grew up watching the knights of both genders preparing for quests and adventures, and – in her own quiet way - always wanted to be like them from the time when she was a small child. The Abbess and the Knights – after much pleading and a serious conversation with her parents – granted her the training she wanted.
The training took years, and covered all the things deemed necessary by the Order: fighting was first and foremost, of course, but the training also included etiquette, horsemanship, dedication to charitable causes, practicing music, learning the basics of wilderness survival, riding and devotion to the piety of the order.
Sophie grew from a young girl to an adolescent to a young woman in the company of these noble knights, becoming a demure, well-spoken and competent squire. She was generally dependable, only occasionally venturing out with fellow squires for fun and games in nearby villages. It was there, at the age of sixteen, that she first heard whispers of the undead - fell, dark things, reanimated to prey on the living…
What she heard were merely stories and tall-tales meant to scare without truly harming, but the very idea chilled her to the core. The idea of undeath remained a looming phobia of hers to the current day.
As she grew older, she took part in some minor battles, helped roust a band of robbers that were preying upon the locals, but yearned for something more. Something bigger.
She wasn’t really prepared when she got it.
On the eve of her Twenty-fourth birthday, Sophie was deemed ready to take part in her quest for knighthood. This ritual consisted of searching for a particular type of mushroom, and bringing it back to a mentor. The mentor would consume the mushroom, and then enter a trance – while in this trance they would allegedly see where their student was to perform an act of great valor or charity.
Twenty-three years of good luck broke with her mentor’s vision. Whatever her quest was, she was told, as soon as her mentor came out of her trance, it would take her to Raiaera, towards the heart of Xem'zund’s undead army…
But there wasn’t much Sophie could do. If she wanted her knighthood status, if she wished to gain the title she had earned, she would have to face her darkest fear. She packed up her kit, begged a horse from her blood father, and set off towards the unknown…
Skills:
Horsemanship: Average. She can handle a walking or trotting horse with ease, and can gallop if she’s able to put all her attention into riding. She cannot, however, fight on a horse, no matter how fast or slow the horse is going. She’s primarily a foot soldier. She also knows how to care for the creatures – currying, cleaning, calming and the suchlike.
Fighting: her knight training consisted of the three main styles, polearms, swordplay and archery.
Polearms: Average. She knows enough to be dangerous with one and how to not gut herself, but doesn’t feel very comfortable with polearms in general.
Sword: Above average. She’s most comfortable with a sword, she knows enough technique and footwork to better the average soldier, but she’s not good enough to beat a master swordsman…yet.
Bow: below average. She knows how to use a bow in principle, but most of her shots at this time go wild – she’s more a danger to herself and her companions than to the enemy right now.
Writing: below average. Her focuses were not on writing, and – as a result – her superiors have tasked her with the dubious assignment to better her writing – both in legibility and in style.
Music: Another of the skills taught to her in the order. Sophie was exposed primarily to vocal music, flute and stringed instruments.
Voice: Average. She’s not a dying cat, but she’s also not the most skilled.
Woodwind: Above average. Sophie can play quite prettily on pipes and flute.
Harp: Below below-average. One should not ever let her touch a harp, ‘lest one wishes to be restringing said harp and nursing sore ears for a month.
Equipment:
Armor:
Hauberk: An iron, chain mail hauberk that covers her arms to her elbows, her torso to her collarbone, and her legs to her knees.
Gauntlets: Fingerless and made of leather, these are reinforced over the backs of her hands with iron. They reach from her first knuckles to just below her elbows.
Boots: Leather strap-boots that reach her knees, reinforced with iron over her Achilles tendon and ankles.
Helm: A leather-and-iron Spangenhelm-style helmet with cheek-and-nose guards and a mail curtain to cover the back of her neck. The design, unfortunately, leaves the rest of her face and the front of her neck open.
Sword Belt: Black leather, winds around her hips with her sword on one hip and her dagger on the other.
Sword: A single-handed, double-edged arming sword. The blade is three feet long and made of steel. The hilt is six inches, wrapped in black sharkskin and finished with a simple, smooth red pommel stone. It has a scabbard of hardened black leather.
Shield: A buckler of hardened oak with iron reinforcements at the center and around the edges. It is three feet in diameter.
Underclothes: Linen-lined woolen leggings, fingerless gloves and shirt, two pair of each. A linen shift and petticoats for when wearing her court dress.
Overclothes: Midnight blue sleeveless linen tunic that reaches her knees – slit up the front and back to her waist for riding - with a device of a white griffin rampant on the chest.
Court Dress: Grey silk lined with white and gold, full skirted and long sleeved, elegant and meant to be worn when at court or in noble company. Currently gaining wrinkles folded at the bottom of Sophie’s packs. Includes dove grey hose, a pair of delicate kid shoes, and a pair of white gloves.
Rosary: A simple rosary with beads of carved and finished oak, with a cross chipped out of rose quartz.
Dagger: Steel. Used primarily for eating, and only in last ditch fighting. Nine inch blade, four inch hilt, forged to match her sword. She wears this blade on the opposite hip from her sword.
Horse: A six year old grey-and-white speckled Fallien gelding. Named, embarrassingly, Stuart.
Horse tack: saddle, bridle, saddle blanket, saddle bags. All unremarkable – old, but kept in good condition.
Travel kit: soap, flint lighter, fishing hooks and line, boning knife, salt, cooking spices, tin spoon, plate and cup, bedroll, compass, bandages, needle, thread, polishing cloth, armor and leather polish. All kept shoved into Stuart's saddlebags.
Flute: A flute carved of cherry wood. It has a sweet, clean sound
Copybook, inkwell and quill: A thin paper book meant for practicing the shape of one’s letters. The inkwell is tiny, and needs refilled almost every time she stops. The quill is a crude crow-quill pen.
Familiar: Derek, a badger cub that she found soon after leaving the abbey. He's still small enough that he fits curled up in her hands.
Nothing in her items will be sold, the horse will never be used in battle, and I am more than willing to part with startup gold in order to keep her armor the way it is since there's nothing magical about any of it. Or about her, really. :)