Amara
02-12-10, 12:08 AM
"There is nothing impossible to him who will try."
Name: Amara vas Eledhwe
Age: 27
Apparent Age: 19
Gender: Female
Race: Raiaeran Elf
Nationality: Durklan
Hair Color: Crimson (dyed), Auburn (natural)
Eye Color: Hazel
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Occupation: Bum
Alignment: True Neutral
Appearance:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3352/durklanwoman1.jpg
Amara about to ruin someone's day.
This daughter of Raiaera is, like most of her people, of a rangy, supple build. However, her time spent amongst the barbaric Durklan has drastically altered Amara's naturally svelte form; her curves are relatively understated, and she has the muscle and flexibility of a well-trained athlete in addition to the many scars of a veteran. Her naturally pale complexion has been baked by the merciless desert sun into a warm bronze, and her hair is ass-length, vividly colored, and outrageously styled. Her facial features are airy and exotic, marked by a set of large, plump lips and strange, iridescent eyes rare amongst modern elves. While Amara is generally genial, her eyes are hard, with a curious, scintillant shallowness that reflects a thousand changing lights and gleams like some strange gem; there is mockery in those eyes, cruelty and recklessness. Amara has decorated her flesh with a number of piercings, the most noticeable of which are the many silver hoops that dangle from her ears.
"The question isn't who's going to let me; it's who's going to stop me."
Personality
Generally charming and optimistic, Amara is extroverted almost to a fault. Her ridiculous level of self-confidence (some would say arrogance) and forceful personality draw others to her, but she can unintentionally wound others with her unapologetically honest way of speaking. She has no patience with those she considers unintelligent or foolish, and shows little restraint in demonstrating this. Her passions are many and violent; when she feels something, she feels it strongly, and she's practically incapable of hiding how she's feeling at any given moment.
As far as Amara is concerned, she is a Durklan. She thinks little of her Raiaeran origins, and harbors a seething hatred towards all things elvish.
"Nor was this Amara an ordinary person, but in wealth, family, and reputation the second person in the kingdom, and in courage and prowess the first, and for bodily stature and beauty no woman like her."
History
(OOC Note: I tried to make this as goofy and readable as possible. If I went a little overboard with the humor, just let me know and I'll trim it down. )
Back before Raiaera was the thriving nation that it is today, it was just some coastal colony in Althanas that constantly got its shit jacked up by a group of people native to Althanas known as the Durklans. Very little is known about the citizens of the now-extinct Durklans but, that being said, it's pretty safe to say that in the years prior to the Raiaeran conflict the Durklans were busy making every elf on the continent their bitch. The Durklans would basically invade Raiaeran territory, steal as much gold, booze, and women as they could carry, then spend the next few months partying it up before starting the cycle over again.
The Durklans brutal raids did little to deter the growth of the Raiaeran empire, and after hundreds of years the small elvish colony became a thriving coastal empire. Fearing that the elves would soon be strong enough to drive them out of their homeland, the Durklans launched an all-out assault on the young kingdom, intent on driving the pointy-eared intruders back from whence they came.
Well, this pissed off the Raiaeran elves (and for good reason!), and they quickly decided that they would finally march their armies against the Durklan menace, crushing the skulls of everyone they found and putting an end to their wacky bullshit once and for all.
Well, the Durklans had other ideas. First, they prevented the elves from crossing the Black River into their territory in the most badass way imaginable - by staging a fucking amazing one-man-versus-an-army defense of their homeland. A woman known only as 'The Traitor', a one-eyed badass with nothing to lose, held off the invading elvish army single-handedly while the Durklan mages prepared to blow the bridge sky-high. Amazingly, the mages brought the entire bridge down while the traitor was still standing astride it, sending both the Durklan heroine and much of the Raiaeran army tumbling into the icy waters below, but the traitor swam back to safety - in full armor, carrying an axe, and with a broken Raiaeran spear sticking out of her thigh.
But the face-cleaving traitor and her 'last stand' only afforded the Durklans a brief respite - the Raiaerans were super pissed off at this point, and it wasn't long before they constructed a new bridge and marched across it, slaughtering everyone they could get their hands on. The Durklans eventually decided to strike a deal with the marauding, ass-kicking elvish army; they would give the Raiaeran king twenty of their hottest young virgins if he would please leave with his army and promise not to grind their entire civilization into dust. The Raiaeran king, being a fan of hot young virgins, agreed to these terms.
Amara was one of the women ransomed off to the Raiaeran king as part of the before-mentioned deal, so we can assume that she was one of the Durklan's hottest young virgins, but aside from that she's pretty much a mystery wrapped in an enigma and then thrown into a black hole.
Fortunately for the Durklans, Amara was a badass, self-confident woman who wasn't going to take shit from anybody - least of all a poncy elf - and she sure as fuck wasn't going to let herself be auctioned off like cattle or some shit just because some jackass thought he was tough enough to stamp her homeland into nothingness. Fuck that. One night, not long after her imprisonment, Amara decided she'd had enough of this bullshit. She was going home, and anybody who wanted to stop her could go fuck themselves with Durklan steel.
In the middle of the night, Amara freed herself from her bonds. She snuck around the camp, quietly rescued some of the other girls, evaded a few military patrols, and led her entourage through the Raiaeran camp. They stealthily made their way to the edge of the camp, then sprinted the short distance to the nearby banks of the Black River.
You can be pretty fucking sure that the Raiaeran sentries noticed a dozen teenage girls sprinting through the night in their togas or skivvies or whatever, and the bladesingers weren't too excited about the king chopping their balls off for letting the hostages escape, so they ran after the fleeing women. The girls reached the river banks and then, at Amara's urging, they dove into the freezing waters and began their desperate swim towards the opposite bank - and freedom.
Amara was the last woman in the river, waiting to make sure that all her fellow virgins had successfully made it out of the camp, and not long after she dove into the river herself the Raiaeran guards showed up. Since the soldiers weren't stupid enough to try swimming across the river in full suits of armor, they just decided to start launching arrows, javelins, and anything else they could get their hands on at the fleeing hostages. Amara shouted words of encouragement to her compatriots, probably something along the lines of, "HEY, wouldn't it be fucking great if we didn't get hit by arrows and died?" All the women soon made it to the opposite bank of the river safely, and they all made it back to the Durklan camp just a few miles away.
This badass virgin toga prison break was heroic and noble, but there was still a problem - the Raiaeran king was still out there, and now he was even more fucking pissed off than before. He didn't even send a messenger to the Durklan to tell them how angry he was - he probably just shouted so loud that everyone in a five mile radius heard him. Needless to say, he demanded that the woman behind the escape be brought to him to face his uncontrollable and terrible wrath.
Amara, being a teenage girl at the time, simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "Whatev." She'd just swam across a freezing-cold river with arrows flying past her face, and she wasn't going to just roll over and beg for mercy now. As soon as she heard the elvish king was after her, she didn't even need to be asked - she just got on a horse and rode out there to give that motherfucker a piece of her mind.
What happened during the meeting of the elvish King and Amara is a mystery, but it's pretty safe to say that the king got fucking told. When their meeting was over, the king had been so impressed with Amara's adamantium ovaries that he not only allowed her to return home unharmed, but he also let her bring half of his remaining hostages back to Durklan with her. The king never fucked with the Durklans again - he made peace with the kingdom, went back to Raiaera, and vanished into obscurity.
Amara, for her part, was now a hero to the Durklan people. Her fearless badassitude and complete teenage disrespect for authority made her such a legend amongst her people that they built a giant statue of her in their capital.
A few short years later, the softie Raiaeran king was deposed and replaced by a more vicious ruler who quickly completed the genocide that his predecessor started - every man, woman, and child of Durklan descent was exterminated within a year of his coronation, and few traces of the once-illustrious barbarian civilization remain.
How Amara managed to survive for 14,000 years, let alone remained hidden for all that time, is a mystery. She might not even be the real Amara - it's much more likely that she's taken on the name just for the attention it brings her, but only time will tell whether this person is the real deal or just another wannabe.
The Durklan: A Brief Overview
-Religious Views-
The Durklan believed that when a person died their soul was not lost, but was instead transfered to another living creature. The belief that death was just a temporary setback inspired ancient Durklan warriors to go completely balls-out into combat without worrying about their own mortality.
~
The Durklan worshipped a pantheon of gods that numbered in the thousands, though only a few dozen were considered 'major' deities. Amara considers the pagan god of creation, Ry'leh, her primary patron, with Fest and Sek'und (the gods of water/life and war/the moon, respectively) receiving plenty of worship as well.
-Combat Tactics-
During the Raiaeran conflict, an infamous Durklan general often strapped the children of his enemies to cattle and herded the livestock ahead of his battle formations. The astonished defenders refused to fire arrows at their own children, saving the Durklan warriors from a painful and pointy death. Isn't that messed up?
~
Many modern gangs owe a lot to the Durklans, who were the first group in Althanas history to hold their bows sideways just because it looked cooler.
~
The 'Durklan Shot' was when a horse archer was galloping at full speed away from you and somehow twisted his whole body in the saddle and accurately fired an arrow backwards from his horse without missing a step. After the genocide of the Durklan people was completed, this term was bastardized into the 'Bladesinger Shot', solidifying the elves place as the biggest douchebags in Althanas.
"My sword is sharp and terrible. It is the mightiest of things when the pot of war boils fiercely."
Abilities
( Skill Ratings from least experienced to most experienced: Undeveloped - Basic - Below Average - Intermediate - Above Average - Advanced - Expert - Master )
-Combat-Relevant Skills-
Low-Tech Armor: Basic
Like all Durklan women, Amara has received some limited instruction in the art of war. Amara can wear light-to-medium armor, in addition to small shields, without totally crippling her ability to fight.
Brawling: Below Average
Axes: Intermediate
Amara is most familiar with one-handed axes, and uses them in combat most effectively.
Shortbows: Intermediate
Amara is fairly experienced with shortbows, and can fire accurately at a stationary target within 75 feet of her. When firing against a moving target or while she herself is moving (either on foot or on horseback), her range is cut down to 25 feet. If both she and her victim are moving, only pure luck would send the arrow within five feet of it's intended target.
-Non-combat Skills-
Horseback Riding (bareback): Above Average
Amara claims that she's spent more time riding bareback than she's spent walking on her own two feet!
Command: Undeveloped
Amara has a personality that lends itself to leadership, but she lacks the experience and knowledge to effectively command more than a handful of men at once on the battlefield. (Modern-day Equivalent: Private First Class)
First Aid: Basic
Amara is capable of setting broken bones, binding wounds, and treating burns both on and off the battlefield with the proper equipment.
-Traits (Misc Strengths/Weaknesses)-
Raider: Amara spent much of her life after her legendary escape raiding the isolated coastal villages of Raiaera for liquor, coin, slaves, and... more liquor. During quests that involve looting, sacking, plundering, and pillaging, Amara receives a +10% bonus to gold earned and a +50% chance of contracting STDs.
Conspicuous: Subtlety is not Amara's strong suit. Not only is she taller and more solidly-built than most elves, she knows nothing about modern Althanas, wears her makeup in a savage, outdated style, has an outrageous hairstyle and speaks both Common and Elvish with a distinctive dialect.
Survivalist: Amara is capable of living off the land in most environments with just her wits and an axe.
Equipment
Poor Iron Woodaxe: A common, multi-purpose tool favored by low-income landowners.
Clothing: A ill-fitting, unfashionable dress common amongst the lowest class of Raiaeran women. The Althanas equivilent of a muumuu.
Quote Sources, respectively: Alexander the Great, Plutarch (altered), Ayn Rand, Khalid ibn al-Walid
Name: Amara vas Eledhwe
Age: 27
Apparent Age: 19
Gender: Female
Race: Raiaeran Elf
Nationality: Durklan
Hair Color: Crimson (dyed), Auburn (natural)
Eye Color: Hazel
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 175 lbs.
Occupation: Bum
Alignment: True Neutral
Appearance:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3352/durklanwoman1.jpg
Amara about to ruin someone's day.
This daughter of Raiaera is, like most of her people, of a rangy, supple build. However, her time spent amongst the barbaric Durklan has drastically altered Amara's naturally svelte form; her curves are relatively understated, and she has the muscle and flexibility of a well-trained athlete in addition to the many scars of a veteran. Her naturally pale complexion has been baked by the merciless desert sun into a warm bronze, and her hair is ass-length, vividly colored, and outrageously styled. Her facial features are airy and exotic, marked by a set of large, plump lips and strange, iridescent eyes rare amongst modern elves. While Amara is generally genial, her eyes are hard, with a curious, scintillant shallowness that reflects a thousand changing lights and gleams like some strange gem; there is mockery in those eyes, cruelty and recklessness. Amara has decorated her flesh with a number of piercings, the most noticeable of which are the many silver hoops that dangle from her ears.
"The question isn't who's going to let me; it's who's going to stop me."
Personality
Generally charming and optimistic, Amara is extroverted almost to a fault. Her ridiculous level of self-confidence (some would say arrogance) and forceful personality draw others to her, but she can unintentionally wound others with her unapologetically honest way of speaking. She has no patience with those she considers unintelligent or foolish, and shows little restraint in demonstrating this. Her passions are many and violent; when she feels something, she feels it strongly, and she's practically incapable of hiding how she's feeling at any given moment.
As far as Amara is concerned, she is a Durklan. She thinks little of her Raiaeran origins, and harbors a seething hatred towards all things elvish.
"Nor was this Amara an ordinary person, but in wealth, family, and reputation the second person in the kingdom, and in courage and prowess the first, and for bodily stature and beauty no woman like her."
History
(OOC Note: I tried to make this as goofy and readable as possible. If I went a little overboard with the humor, just let me know and I'll trim it down. )
Back before Raiaera was the thriving nation that it is today, it was just some coastal colony in Althanas that constantly got its shit jacked up by a group of people native to Althanas known as the Durklans. Very little is known about the citizens of the now-extinct Durklans but, that being said, it's pretty safe to say that in the years prior to the Raiaeran conflict the Durklans were busy making every elf on the continent their bitch. The Durklans would basically invade Raiaeran territory, steal as much gold, booze, and women as they could carry, then spend the next few months partying it up before starting the cycle over again.
The Durklans brutal raids did little to deter the growth of the Raiaeran empire, and after hundreds of years the small elvish colony became a thriving coastal empire. Fearing that the elves would soon be strong enough to drive them out of their homeland, the Durklans launched an all-out assault on the young kingdom, intent on driving the pointy-eared intruders back from whence they came.
Well, this pissed off the Raiaeran elves (and for good reason!), and they quickly decided that they would finally march their armies against the Durklan menace, crushing the skulls of everyone they found and putting an end to their wacky bullshit once and for all.
Well, the Durklans had other ideas. First, they prevented the elves from crossing the Black River into their territory in the most badass way imaginable - by staging a fucking amazing one-man-versus-an-army defense of their homeland. A woman known only as 'The Traitor', a one-eyed badass with nothing to lose, held off the invading elvish army single-handedly while the Durklan mages prepared to blow the bridge sky-high. Amazingly, the mages brought the entire bridge down while the traitor was still standing astride it, sending both the Durklan heroine and much of the Raiaeran army tumbling into the icy waters below, but the traitor swam back to safety - in full armor, carrying an axe, and with a broken Raiaeran spear sticking out of her thigh.
But the face-cleaving traitor and her 'last stand' only afforded the Durklans a brief respite - the Raiaerans were super pissed off at this point, and it wasn't long before they constructed a new bridge and marched across it, slaughtering everyone they could get their hands on. The Durklans eventually decided to strike a deal with the marauding, ass-kicking elvish army; they would give the Raiaeran king twenty of their hottest young virgins if he would please leave with his army and promise not to grind their entire civilization into dust. The Raiaeran king, being a fan of hot young virgins, agreed to these terms.
Amara was one of the women ransomed off to the Raiaeran king as part of the before-mentioned deal, so we can assume that she was one of the Durklan's hottest young virgins, but aside from that she's pretty much a mystery wrapped in an enigma and then thrown into a black hole.
Fortunately for the Durklans, Amara was a badass, self-confident woman who wasn't going to take shit from anybody - least of all a poncy elf - and she sure as fuck wasn't going to let herself be auctioned off like cattle or some shit just because some jackass thought he was tough enough to stamp her homeland into nothingness. Fuck that. One night, not long after her imprisonment, Amara decided she'd had enough of this bullshit. She was going home, and anybody who wanted to stop her could go fuck themselves with Durklan steel.
In the middle of the night, Amara freed herself from her bonds. She snuck around the camp, quietly rescued some of the other girls, evaded a few military patrols, and led her entourage through the Raiaeran camp. They stealthily made their way to the edge of the camp, then sprinted the short distance to the nearby banks of the Black River.
You can be pretty fucking sure that the Raiaeran sentries noticed a dozen teenage girls sprinting through the night in their togas or skivvies or whatever, and the bladesingers weren't too excited about the king chopping their balls off for letting the hostages escape, so they ran after the fleeing women. The girls reached the river banks and then, at Amara's urging, they dove into the freezing waters and began their desperate swim towards the opposite bank - and freedom.
Amara was the last woman in the river, waiting to make sure that all her fellow virgins had successfully made it out of the camp, and not long after she dove into the river herself the Raiaeran guards showed up. Since the soldiers weren't stupid enough to try swimming across the river in full suits of armor, they just decided to start launching arrows, javelins, and anything else they could get their hands on at the fleeing hostages. Amara shouted words of encouragement to her compatriots, probably something along the lines of, "HEY, wouldn't it be fucking great if we didn't get hit by arrows and died?" All the women soon made it to the opposite bank of the river safely, and they all made it back to the Durklan camp just a few miles away.
This badass virgin toga prison break was heroic and noble, but there was still a problem - the Raiaeran king was still out there, and now he was even more fucking pissed off than before. He didn't even send a messenger to the Durklan to tell them how angry he was - he probably just shouted so loud that everyone in a five mile radius heard him. Needless to say, he demanded that the woman behind the escape be brought to him to face his uncontrollable and terrible wrath.
Amara, being a teenage girl at the time, simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "Whatev." She'd just swam across a freezing-cold river with arrows flying past her face, and she wasn't going to just roll over and beg for mercy now. As soon as she heard the elvish king was after her, she didn't even need to be asked - she just got on a horse and rode out there to give that motherfucker a piece of her mind.
What happened during the meeting of the elvish King and Amara is a mystery, but it's pretty safe to say that the king got fucking told. When their meeting was over, the king had been so impressed with Amara's adamantium ovaries that he not only allowed her to return home unharmed, but he also let her bring half of his remaining hostages back to Durklan with her. The king never fucked with the Durklans again - he made peace with the kingdom, went back to Raiaera, and vanished into obscurity.
Amara, for her part, was now a hero to the Durklan people. Her fearless badassitude and complete teenage disrespect for authority made her such a legend amongst her people that they built a giant statue of her in their capital.
A few short years later, the softie Raiaeran king was deposed and replaced by a more vicious ruler who quickly completed the genocide that his predecessor started - every man, woman, and child of Durklan descent was exterminated within a year of his coronation, and few traces of the once-illustrious barbarian civilization remain.
How Amara managed to survive for 14,000 years, let alone remained hidden for all that time, is a mystery. She might not even be the real Amara - it's much more likely that she's taken on the name just for the attention it brings her, but only time will tell whether this person is the real deal or just another wannabe.
The Durklan: A Brief Overview
-Religious Views-
The Durklan believed that when a person died their soul was not lost, but was instead transfered to another living creature. The belief that death was just a temporary setback inspired ancient Durklan warriors to go completely balls-out into combat without worrying about their own mortality.
~
The Durklan worshipped a pantheon of gods that numbered in the thousands, though only a few dozen were considered 'major' deities. Amara considers the pagan god of creation, Ry'leh, her primary patron, with Fest and Sek'und (the gods of water/life and war/the moon, respectively) receiving plenty of worship as well.
-Combat Tactics-
During the Raiaeran conflict, an infamous Durklan general often strapped the children of his enemies to cattle and herded the livestock ahead of his battle formations. The astonished defenders refused to fire arrows at their own children, saving the Durklan warriors from a painful and pointy death. Isn't that messed up?
~
Many modern gangs owe a lot to the Durklans, who were the first group in Althanas history to hold their bows sideways just because it looked cooler.
~
The 'Durklan Shot' was when a horse archer was galloping at full speed away from you and somehow twisted his whole body in the saddle and accurately fired an arrow backwards from his horse without missing a step. After the genocide of the Durklan people was completed, this term was bastardized into the 'Bladesinger Shot', solidifying the elves place as the biggest douchebags in Althanas.
"My sword is sharp and terrible. It is the mightiest of things when the pot of war boils fiercely."
Abilities
( Skill Ratings from least experienced to most experienced: Undeveloped - Basic - Below Average - Intermediate - Above Average - Advanced - Expert - Master )
-Combat-Relevant Skills-
Low-Tech Armor: Basic
Like all Durklan women, Amara has received some limited instruction in the art of war. Amara can wear light-to-medium armor, in addition to small shields, without totally crippling her ability to fight.
Brawling: Below Average
Axes: Intermediate
Amara is most familiar with one-handed axes, and uses them in combat most effectively.
Shortbows: Intermediate
Amara is fairly experienced with shortbows, and can fire accurately at a stationary target within 75 feet of her. When firing against a moving target or while she herself is moving (either on foot or on horseback), her range is cut down to 25 feet. If both she and her victim are moving, only pure luck would send the arrow within five feet of it's intended target.
-Non-combat Skills-
Horseback Riding (bareback): Above Average
Amara claims that she's spent more time riding bareback than she's spent walking on her own two feet!
Command: Undeveloped
Amara has a personality that lends itself to leadership, but she lacks the experience and knowledge to effectively command more than a handful of men at once on the battlefield. (Modern-day Equivalent: Private First Class)
First Aid: Basic
Amara is capable of setting broken bones, binding wounds, and treating burns both on and off the battlefield with the proper equipment.
-Traits (Misc Strengths/Weaknesses)-
Raider: Amara spent much of her life after her legendary escape raiding the isolated coastal villages of Raiaera for liquor, coin, slaves, and... more liquor. During quests that involve looting, sacking, plundering, and pillaging, Amara receives a +10% bonus to gold earned and a +50% chance of contracting STDs.
Conspicuous: Subtlety is not Amara's strong suit. Not only is she taller and more solidly-built than most elves, she knows nothing about modern Althanas, wears her makeup in a savage, outdated style, has an outrageous hairstyle and speaks both Common and Elvish with a distinctive dialect.
Survivalist: Amara is capable of living off the land in most environments with just her wits and an axe.
Equipment
Poor Iron Woodaxe: A common, multi-purpose tool favored by low-income landowners.
Clothing: A ill-fitting, unfashionable dress common amongst the lowest class of Raiaeran women. The Althanas equivilent of a muumuu.
Quote Sources, respectively: Alexander the Great, Plutarch (altered), Ayn Rand, Khalid ibn al-Walid