[hider=WHITE CROW - Main Character Sheet]
[b]Name:[/b] Serenay of Thousand Roses Orphanage

[b]Race:[/b] Half-elf

[b]Legend:[/b] Prophetic last words from an Elf Seer’s corpse to a lone Pykas. The executed body could not be found the next dawn and Pykas never mentioned this ‘hallucination’ to anyone:

[i]“O, Pykas the king. Pykas the fool. Poor, little Pykas the dead. He who burns a wilting rose’s meadow will be scorned by its thorns, of which there is no escape and no cure for the poison.

Do you remember all those havens you conquered? Can you name every single one? Every person? No? But how will you ever see the orphaned hand holding the knife? Shame. One of those fickle, unremarkable places full of tales not worth telling was where the final chapter of your tale was written. The tale of usurper Pykas – he who killed himself through ambition – and the lost soul that will see it done. Alas, it is but a short tale, already over, like your life.

You died the moment you sired more orphans than children. Perhaps killing your ambitions and turning to redemption will save you, but you will do no such thing. You will continue your war. And so, there is no stopping those with nothing left from taking all that you have. You cannot run. It is too late. If even the gods can be silenced, if even faith can become extinct, how can you hope to survive the veiled noose of fate? It is coming. You cannot be saved.

Your legacy will be bled dry and forgotten about, like our words to you – nothing more than a violated corpse discarded by the wayside; lost forever to the flaying sands of time. And when you die, all will cheer. Children will laugh, men will dance, and women will sleep in peace…”[/i]

[b]Appearance:[/b] A tall Half-elf effortlessly agile in movement, with bronze hair, hazel eyes, and porcelain skin. Plagued with perpetual baby-face (her words), Serenay is actually a warrior monk and deadly combatant of the uruk-Ghilzim; a Udrau war sect that played an instrumental role in the downfall of Pykas and capture of Cyrabassis. Her hair is covered by a veil that she wears as a sign of respect and solidarity for her sect. The comfortable clothing she prefers to wear belies a hardened body of wiry strength and honed precision befitting one who trains and fights besides hulking Uruk (Orcs). She always wears armour and hidden weapons under her clothes, alongside gauntlets and greaves to aid in unarmed combat.

As evidence of her combat skill, sharp instincts, and likely a whole lot of luck, she does not have noticeable scars on her visible body except for the mess of knife scars splayed across her stomach, robbing her of her ability to bear children and have regular menstrual cycles.

[b][[url=https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/radiant-hijab-capturing-inner-beauty-muslim-woman-modest-attire_622540-7261.jpg]Serenay(18)[/url] vowing loyalty to the uruk-Ghilzim and their campaign to retake Dara][/b]

[b][[url=https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/charming-arab-warrior-woman-blue-600nw-2149763045.jpg]Serenay(18)[/url] in battle after training as a warrior monk, then as an uruk-Ghilzim soldier][/b]


[hider=Character Description]
[u][b]Character Description:[/b][/u] 

[b]Personality:[/b] Due to her impoverished upbringing, Serenay is practical and pragmatic, having no interest in things like religion, though she has unwavering faith that things will work out as long as her orphan family are with her. She also has an unhealthy obsession with cute things and money. Naturally sympathetic, nurturing, and caring – traits the tragedies of her life never took away – she strives for peaceful solutions and mutual benefit. While not shying away from violence or killing, she utterly despises it unless faced with ‘evil’; like her blood-drenched hunt for Pykas and when she wanted Cyrabassis killed instead of captured.

Post-war, she has become a laid-back peacekeeper in Dara with a fondness for children, adopting those in need into her new Thousand Roses Orphanage. She spends as much money on personal luxuries as she does her time helping the city guard. Though vigilantism is frowned upon, her effective use of her and her orphan’s skills means most of the city guard see her as an unofficial spymaster with her orphans as her personal operatives.

Because of the war, Serenay has immense survivors’ guilt and trauma, choosing to recklessly die a hundred deaths before abandoning an ally. She also has a bleeding heart towards struggling veterans and the mistreated. While she strives to uphold justice and virtue, her cunning shrewdness has won the cooperation of many ‘darker’ groups to the benefit of her and her orphanage’s new home in Dara; benefits being lawful could never bring. This means she is the main liaison between the law and the criminal underworld, a very useful one.

[b]Background:[/b] Serenay was one of a few orphans from a large but unimportant village across the Sunil Sea from Dara. This nameless village isolated itself in a thick forest but was eventually annexed by Tyrant King Pykas in preparation for his invasion of Dara, forcing it to submit resources and human livestock to the Selander Army’s war effort.

Serenay was named by a deserter of the Selander army, who would come to be known as Mother Banu, when she found a dilapidated building on the outskirts of the nameless village. Banu only wanted temporary shelter but found a new purpose in life instead. Inside was an un-swaddled baby, still strong enough to cry loudly, crawling shakily under and around an alluring tapestry depicting countless roses of all colours. Banu nursed the baby back to health with her medical and survival expertise, naming her Serenay – from the word ‘serenade’ as the baby’s resilient cries despite everything was music to her ears. Banu also renovated the building into the Thousand Roses Orphanage, named after the somehow perfectly preserved tapestry that served as inspiration to her and a spark of hope for the future orphans to push on in the darkest times. Doing this in Selander territory was Banu’s defiance against the evils of her disowned nation but also redemption for herself in being complicit. And soon, local orphans and those in nearby areas would live under her roof. Banu was a talented doctor, teacher and later Selander field medic so the orphans under her care received a very strong education along with respectable military survival training.

[b][[url=https://img3.gelbooru.com//samples/68/5d/sample_685d1da471b587d019b031384f939593.jpg]Banu(30) [/url] looking one last time at her Selander friends who refused to desert with her][/b]

As Serenay grew up, she didn’t care about things like religion or status, didn’t ask about her Half-elf lineage or her parents, and never bothered learning the name of the village that saw orphans like her as nothing but leeches. All she cared about was survival and her family at Thousand Roses Orphanage, but being the only orphanage in an already struggling village drew residential distain and harassment. Alongside the wandering beasts and Pykas’ forces, the orphanage constantly had to deal with hostility from all sides which lead to the two eldest orphans, Serenay and Kalash, to become fierce protecters under the guidance of Banu; fighting, hunting, and doing anything else so the orphanage could survive another day. 

[b][[url=https://image.lexica.art/full_webp/b2882a84-420f-419c-9451-36fdaebc03a7]Kalash(15)[/url] the night after his first kill, not expecting the guilt even if they deserved it][/b]

Unfortunately, those days were numbered. As soon as the village was unable to provide for the surging resource demand, it lost all usefulness to Pykas. So, soldiers under his Selander Hegemony were given permission to use the village and what remained of its people as living target practice or outlets for sadistic pleasure. Luckily, the orphanage was able to hear the wails of agony and gleeful cackling just soon enough to attempt an escape.

Mother Banu adamantly stayed behind to buy the orphans more time to run. Over the enemy soldiers hollering at her words like “captain” and “deserter”, Banu would say one last thing to the children before charging back into the burning orphanage for her confrontation:

[i]“Never forget, my children: live no matter what. Stagnation is death, survival is the bare minimum. You deserve more. To be truly live, you need money, power, control… and friends and family. Work hard for them but never do evil, or you will suffer in the end. I don’t know if your futures will be bright but always protect and love each other… please. Goodbye.”[/i]

The orphans wandered numbly – each day a new blur of fear and sorrow. They avoided Selander territory, killed lone beasts or bandits for supplies, and were shooed away from every ‘friendly’ settlement they found. Injured on the brink of starvation, exhaustion, and infection, the orphans encountered the Udrau-badawi warrior monks. These monks were more vengeful than pious, barely escaping Pykas’ army while being driven across the sea from Dara. With them were many indentured people in which they intended to restock their ranks with to take the fight back to Pykas. Having nowhere else to turn, Serenay, Kalash, and the other orphans joined as well, becoming indentured in exchange for food and safety. Little did she know, this single desperate act would lead her to more tragic strife, but also to joining the uruk-Ghilzim, becoming a hero, and being the last thing Pykas saw before his end.

[/hider]
[/hider]