[CHAR] Phoenix Heart (Azena X Missy Mina) Chapter One: Fire Meets Ice

[Azena]

Princess Gwendolen Flamehart of Tasec

Gwendolen Modith Gedia Flamehart
Female, Human, 22 years

Name Meaning: Gwendolen was the name of an ancient queen. She loved her husband dearly but for the sake of her kingdom, she turned against him and conquered him in battle. She remained in mourning for the rest of her life but united her people and lead them into an era of prosperity. Modith was her mother's name. It means “dark maiden” and Gwen is named in her late mother's honor. Gedia means “to prosper.” And, of course, Flamehart is the house name of the kings of Tasec whose line has been unbroken for over a thousand years.
Alias: Called Gwen by her father and a few close friends. Red Hind or The Red Hind by soldiers who had served under her.
Place of Birth: Valeria, capital of Tasec.
Current Residence: Valeria, the capitol of Tasec.
Occupation: Crown Princess to the throne of Tasec and adviser to her father the king.
Family: Father is king of Tasec, mother was princess from a neighboring country. The wedding of their parents was political but the pair cared quite a bit for one another. Her father was rather devastated when Modith passed away while giving birth to Gwen.
Height: 5' 7"
Hair: Dark brown, like her mother's. Usually braided intricately for court. When attending more serious matters of state away from home where her handmaidens do not follow, she lets it down besides a braid at each temple. The braids are pulled back and bound together at the back of her head with a token ribbon from her father with her family crest woven into it.
Eyes: Blue, like her father's.
General Appearance: Gwen takes heavily after her mother to the point of frightening a few of her more superstitious relatives. But her steely blue eyes and the way her face appears almost vexed when she is at ease or deep in thought are certainly her father's. Gwen normally dresses to her station when at home but dawns her armor when away. Gwen does not fear her people but she knows well enough that as the only living heir of her family and with such bitterness among the nobles, she can take no chances. Because of this, most who see her remember her as rather a giant for being decked in bulking armor, a billowing red cloak, a great wolf skin about her shoulders, all while mounted on a shiny black Friesian does tend to cut a rather intimidating figure. However, when dismounted and dressed as a lady, her powerful figure is revealed to be actually rather willowy.

Nonios

Strengths: Gwen is a dangerous combination of brutally strong and quick minded. While she has enough power in her blows and skill under her belt to fell most opponents on the field, she does not rely completely on it and is always ready to use her surroundings and the weaknesses of others to her brutal advantage. She is trained in spear, long sword, and hand to hand combat; though she favors heavily the long sword. She is ambidextrous in battle thanks to an injury to her right arm when she was early in her training.

Weaknesses: While she, like her father, has always advocated for the poorest of her people, she has never lived or suffered as a commoner and at times can lack empathy. While Gwen does not relish violence, she has been to war several times and can often turn a blind eye to blood and death and cruelty. While she can speak reasonably before her father's court and council, she is not what one would call silver tongued and often runs short of patience. While she is trained in hand to hand, she tends to be much more of a brawler and so while she is quite excellent at utilizing terane and weaknesses in war, with her long sword, and astride her horse; if she encounters a stronger opponent while on foot and must face them without her sword, she's most certainly at a disadvantage.

Enemies: Prince Roland Flamehart (Uncle Roland) and all those who side with him.
Current Goal: Learn all she can to succeed her father and rule the kingdom fairly.
Aspirations: Unite lesser houses and nations under her banner so that her kingdom might grow and that smaller lands will be safe from targets from other larger kingdoms. Minimize deadly poverty among the lower classes.
Hobbies: Hunting, tanning, weaving, singing, and dancing.
Talents: Hunting, leather and pelt work, swimming, war strategy, war, and riding.
Inabilities: Embroidery, holding her tongue when she knows full well she should, heights, being around rodents, see clearly more than 100' away, walking in dressed when she's angry.
Fears: Losing her father, losing her throne, becoming like a few of the mad kings not so far down the family line, having her horse fall in battle.
General Personality: Gwen can be rather unpredictable. She has been trained to exude the royal air when she is being observed in the capital and has a natural baring when she takes up the position of general. But when left alone or pushed to the end of her rope, she can be stubborn, high strung, brutish, and did anyone mention stubborn?

Inner Personality: She was born in the shadow of her mother's death and that sorrow has carried with her all her life. She knows she has the capacity for great cruelty and viciousness and is always afraid that one day in old age, she will turn to look at her life and find only madness and evil in her wake. She is lonely and feels perpetually heart broken for reasons she refuses to examine as the ghosts of felled enemies haunt her in her darker hours of solitude.

Special Items: The large amber cloak clasp Gwen inherited from her mother. She wears it into battle religiously.
Weapons: Long sword and three other back up blades; one boot dagger in each boot, and a modified short sword tucked into her armor near her belly.
Magics: Absolutely none.

General History: Gwen's mother died giving birth to her but despite this, her father has done his best to raise her kindly. She traveled widely with her father for peace talks when she was a child but when skirmishes at border struck up, Gwen was old enough to be sent out with an army to handle the conflicts on her own. She has lost a few battles but always and without fail rallied to utterly destroy the victors. While there are surely events in her life that will be recorded for the history books, little eventful has happened in her personal affairs.

Present Life: With the borders again secure, Gwen has returned to Valeria to study diplomacy. Her father also hopes to teach her how to walk the tightrope of doing what is right by the lands while avoiding the bit of waiting noble daggers and coups and rebellions that lay below, eager to see her fall.

[Azena]

Ryder Nyroni, Initiate of the Red Ravens

Aydenul "The Ice Wolf" Nyroni
Male, Half-Elf, 24

Name Meaning: Nyroni was an old noble house that was destroyed in the last era when they were framed for being cult worshippers. One of his ancestors survived and now their name is forgotten to the common man.
Alias: Aydenul, his elven name. The Ice Wolf.
Place of Birth: Ebonwing, poor village in Tasec.
Current Residence: Valeria, the capitol of Tasec.
Occupation: A young member of the Red Ravens, a secret organization that does various tasks for King of Tasec, including guarding the royal family.
Family: Mother lives in Ebonwing, he visits when he can. His father is an unknown Elf from when his mother visited Oren Heim, the Elven homelands.
Height: 5' 10"
Hair: Silver, pulled back into a small ponytail with strands hanging on either side of his face.
Eyes: Jade
Distinguishing Marks: Scar across his throat, a tattoo on his arm of a griffin.
General Appearance: Ryder's elven half definitely predominates his physical feature. He is slightly tall for a human and has a thin frame. His legs are strong and his skin paler. His stern face is the result of years of prejudice for mixed heritage and being a bastard. He doesn't don the traditional red and black armor of the Ravens, claiming it stands out too much. He instead prefers basic leather torso armor with shin and arm guards and white garbs underneath. This is a basic look for adventurers and allows him to pose as anyone he needs to be. He wears a collar around his neck to hide the scar he got early in his career went a job went south. He keeps a jade gem tied to it. His mother claimed it was a gift from his father when they met.

Strengths: Ryder's elven physique allows him to be more agile than his human allies. His eyes are sharper allowing him to be more accurate with his bow and notice threats before they arrive. Years of training and a rough childhood have made him constantly alert and gave him keen reflexes to avoid danger. Despite his stern face, he can be quite charming when the need arises.

Weaknesses: Unarmed, Ryder has to rely on his wits and guile to survive since he's learned the hard way that his bite isn't as strong as his bark. The cut on his neck flares if he has to strain too much or is under a lot of stress. Can't stomach to see children dead. Headstrong, can rush in before he should if he sees something he doesn't like.

Allies: Red Ravens, his mother, and Lady Syrona, a knight in the Order of the Blue Rose.
Enemies: Count Montierro, a member of the King's council that Ryder suspects of treason. Erik Banter, a crime lord in Tasec that traffics slaves.
Current Goal: Exposing the Count and shutting down Banter's operation.
Aspirations: He works hard to one day be the Red Ravens representative in the King's Court and start making changes.
Hobbies: Play his violin, paint, and practice trick shots with his bow.
Likes: Pumpkin ale, charred chicken, a starry sky, horses, wolves, and exploring the local color.
Dislikes: Greed, slavery, whoring, cats (they freak him out), spiders, and the color indigo.
Talents: See hobbies. Decent singer, can balance three pints of ale on his chin.
Inabilities: Terrible cook, never could get the hang of learning Elvish, writes like a five year old.
Fears: Being buried alive, spiders, learning who his father is, apple trees (long story).
General Personality: As a member of the Red Ravens, there are many faces to Ryder. He is trained utilize the correct personality for the ocassion. His mother would know him as a kind and heroic boy that always stood up for others no matter how big the other guy was. Gentle and always smiling, he has many friends to see when he returns to Ebonwing. However, on the job he is stern. Keen and reserved, he is hard to connect with and always focuses on his next task. Thankfully, his hometown self emerges when off duty and he can even crack a smile and share a joke with his allies at the tavern. His demeanor on the job has earned him the nickname The Ice Wolf in the Ravens and among criminals.

Inner Personality: Ryder harbors a lot of hate. He hates his father, he hates the nobility, he hates slavers and other big time criminals. Growing up in Ebonwing as a baster hybrid showed him just how dark the world really is. He harnessed that dark and became a part of it. but learned to gussy it up as good deeds. Deep down, he hates himself.

Special Items: His mother's jade gem on his collar.
Weapons: Shortbow and Curved Sword.
Magics: Elves are known for grand arcane power so the Ravens have been teaching Ryder to harness it. So far he's only managed basic healing spells and a few simple fire tricks. Since his studies began, he's had an accident with his anger setting off his flames.

General History: Sprinkled the important stuff throughout the sheet, but quick overview. Born a bastard, his mother is human and his father was probably an elven noble slaver. Dealt this bad hand, Ryder grew up facing reticule and being bullied by his peers. However, Ryder has a tough heart and learned from these bullies. He learned to fight. He learned to run. He learned that the world is crappy. He learned the strong make the rules. He learned the weak need help, but only enough to get them to stand on their own two feet.

When he was old enough, Ryder set out to join a mercenary group. The Black Blades were a ragtag group that sold him a load of bull about grand adventures and heroic deeds. In reality, they did shady work for scum nobles and blew all the payment in cheap taverns with cheap women. His unit was hired to take out a Red Raven that was harrassing a drug smuggling nobleman. The Blades left him alone on guard duty when they captured the Raven and went to drink away a celebration.

The Raven saw a broken boy that was looking for a cause in this dark world. He offered to train him and to give him that cause. Ryder didn't believe a word of it. It was the same bull that the Blades had offered, but it was time to move on. He freed the Raven with full intention to leave him eventually. They fled in the night to Valeria and Ryder started his training. As a young recruit, he doesn't get any high profile assignments so Ryder has yet to see the promised cause. He'll give it a few years to hone his skills as much as possible and then leave to find his next temporary purpose.

During his free time from Raven assignments, Ryder has been following leads about a Count in Valeria that has been openly voicing his hatred for King Richard and his support of a new regime. This has upset his commanders as they have Ravens officially working the case. To avoid butting heads, he's picked up a case about a slaver that has been kidnapping people and smuggling them across borders to the Talion Empire.

Present Life: Ryder now dedicates his life to rising through the ranks in the Ravens. Currently, it's his turn for the royal detail. A task he hates doing, and usually volunteers to patrol the castle walls.