[hider=Ciara Keogh]
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[h1][color=6ecff6][b][u]Ciara Keogh[/u][/b][/color][/h1]
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[color=6ecff6][b][u]Name[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Ciara Keogh[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Age[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]21[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Gender[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Female[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Relationship Status[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Single[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Job[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Traveling Bard[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Element/Abilities[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Water - Water Manipulation
Ciara can control and move water - she's not very well practiced at it by any means, but she's quite capable of mustering enough force to knock a man on his back with a good blow. In addition, she's also a powerful swimmer, and while she can't quite breath underwater, she can hold said breath longer than anyone should be able to.[/indent]

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[color=6ecff6][b][u]In-Depth Appearance[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Ciara is a pale, brown-haired girl of short stature and slight build. She's unmistakably pretty, in a waifish sort of way, and it's been said that her eyes are deeper and bluer than any lake in the land. Her wardrobe is fairly limited, a result of her nomadic lifestyle, and as such she usually wears some sort of practical traveling dress, and tends to leaver her short, curly hair around her shoulders.

 She's never seen without her lute on hand, and tends to have it slung across her back for every occasion, every single day. Her shoes are invariably practical and flat, good for both walking and dancing on top of bars, and she has never been known to wear jewelery or any kind of outward ornamentation, save the occasional ribbon in her hair.[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Likes[/u][/b][/color]
[list][*]Rain
[*]Music
[*]Small Towns
[*]Money
[/list]
[color=6ecff6][b][u]Dislikes[/u][/b][/color]
[list][*]Pretentiousness
[*]War
[*]Being Poor
[/list]
[color=6ecff6][b][u]Biggest Fear[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]More than anything else, Ciara fears being lost again - with no home, no identity, no place to go. To wander from town to town, living as best as she could, with nobody recognizing her or even looking twice at her, save with ill intent. She has had enough of having nothing for a lifetime - she will never, ever go back.[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Personality[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]There are, in essence, two Ciaras - the first, and the one that most would be familiar with, is the jolly, peppy performer, strumming her lute and dancing on tables and singing raucous songs at the request of every inn patron she recognizes. This person is energetic, fiery, and passionate, and it's more or less a complete fabrication. 

The true Ciara, the one that only shows when she's alone, is a much more somber, quiet person, not prone to great fits of passion or loud declarations of anything. This person is shy and introspective, and loves nothing more than to sit and watch the rain fall in the woods for hours on end, strumming the slow songs her mother taught her. It's worth noting that she doesn't resent her stage persona or feel forced into it, really - in fact, she sort of admires it, but knows that she could never be so loud and extroverted all the time. It's an act, something to rile up the crowds and get them tipping generously, and people are often surprised at just how awkward and uncertain she can be, if they see her performing and approach her later.

Does she believe in the Destined legend? Sort of. Destined love stories appear in enough of the songs she plays that she'd be a fool not to put some stock in them, but she's seen too much of the real world to really expect a perfect man to come riding out of nowhere, bound to her by fate. Still, some part of her, the little girl in love with love songs who'd never seen hide nor hair of hardship... part of her hopes, at least.[/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Background[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Ciara was born on the outskirts of the kingdom of Orewyn, in a quiet town nestled in a riverbank, deep in the woods near the border with Galinas. In truth, nobody had ever really bothered to name the town, it being so small and generally unimportant in the area, and those that lived there only referred to it as 'the town' on account of never having lived anywhere else; though on a few maps of the region, it could be identified as 'Galemara', for the river it was on. Ciara's family was something of an oddity - they were the first new family to settle there in three generations, and remarkably worldly at that. In their youth, they had been the most famous traveling minstrels in the land, wandering the kingdom singing the old songs, songs that had been lost to all except them. They had come to the town seeking to put it all behind them, to start a family, lead a quiet life. Stories told that they were Destined for each other, but they never said if that was true.

Ciara was their only child, and they doted on her relentlessly, teaching her all that they had learned of their travels and filling her head with faraway places and old songs. She dreamed of leaving that small town, that lazy river and those friendly people, and traveling the world - of course, when the day for her travels finally came, she was far from ready for it.

It was a border skirmish between Orewyn and Galinas - a 'minor incident', on the scale of kingdoms. Two rival lords - one from Orewyn, one from Galinas - both got it into their heads that the village was part of their kingdom's territory, and marshalled their armies to defend that claim. Everyone knew they were just looking for an excuse to fight, and they had it. There were a few engagements in the woods outside the village, but that was nothing new for Ciara; but when war came to the village proper, that was quite a surprise indeed.

The lord from Galinas had received a report that the soldiers of Orewyn were hiding out in the village, sheltered by the townsfolk, plotting an ambush. It wasn't true, but that didn't matter. He ordered his men to raze the village and slaughter the peasants, and they did so with cold efficiency. The evening sky was filled with smoke and screams and equal measure, and that tiny village that had survived years of war barely was destroyed after only a few months of peace. Ciara alone managed to slip away in the chaos, with nothing but her mother's lute and the clothes on her back.

She wandered for years, sleeping where she could, begging for money in crowded streets. She foraged, she stole, she did things she was not proud of to survive, but ultimately, she endured. She had sold her mother's lute for food long ago - it wasn't until years later, when she was eighteen, that she found another, abandoned. In the backpack of a man who wasn't looking. Because he had drank too much and passed out. He wasn't taking proper care of it, anyway. As soon as she touched it, all her mother's old lessons returned, and she played on and on until her fingers bled. She almost didn't notice that passersby were dropping coins for her as they passed - almost. Ciara the bard was bored.

Since then, she has become something of a minor celebrity in Orewyn - if you know anything or about music or frequent a local inn, chances are you've heard of Ciara Keogh, the beautiful bard with a voice like the rain, whose music is fit to make a roomful of hard men weep, or a funeral burst into dance. She'd likely say that it's coincidence she happened to be in the City during the Festival - maybe, she even believes it. [/indent]

[color=6ecff6][b][u]Extra[/u][/b][/color]
[indent]Face Claim: Eleanor Tomlinson
Color Code: 6ecff6[/indent]
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