[hider=Vaia Alti'shen]
[color=D2B48C][b]Character Name:[/b][/color]
Vaia Alti'shen 

[color=D2B48C][b]Race/Species:[/b][/color]
Human - Ra'sheek

[color=D2B48C][b]Gender:[/b][/color]
Female

[color=D2B48C][b]Age:[/b][/color]
28

[color=D2B48C][b]Role:[/b][/color]
TBD

[color=D2B48C][b]Skills/Traits[/b]:[/color]
[list]
[*][b]Unarmed Combat[/b]
Even before the age of 6 Vaia had a tendency toward violence. Often she would brawl and fight, practicing the moves learned from watching blood sports, to better improve her technique. She was enrolled into a "training program" at the age of eight and is adept at a style that focuses on kicks and grappling, with her own brutality and willingness to kill added to her technique. Vaia is more dangerous unarmed or with striking gloves. 
[*][b]Sword and Shield[/b]
Vaia was taught to use a sword and shield by her father at the age of 12. While her skills with both have improved since then, Vaia still has much to learn, especially when it comes to using the shield in conjunction with a blade. More often than not, Vaia resorts to using the sword alone.
[*][b]Crossbows[/b]
Taught to Vaia alongside the sword and shield training was the use of a crossbow. While her accuracy is decent and her ability to reload without fumbling is well trained, Vaia does not use the weapon often. Sometimes she uses it as another object to bludgeon foes with.
[*][b]Savage Endurance[/b]
Training under harsh conditions, often unwillingly, has bred in Vaia the useful skill of pushing past the limits where others would stop, even if it means injuring herself. It's not a high pain tolerance, it's simply the ability to ignore it, to the point where Vaia can function as if she's not hurt at all. Regret sets in quickly after pushing so far, however.
[*][b]Cooking[/b]
Cooking in the household often took a bit of strain off of her mother's workload. Vaia was taught by her grandmother and mother to cook but didn't pay much attention. Things are edible, of course, but certainly not memorable. 
[/list]

[color=D2B48C][b]Weapons:[/b][/color]
[list]
[*][b]Scimitar[/b]
Basic, unremarkable, made of sturdy steel.
[*][b]Shield[/b]
A basic Hoplon style shield. Oddly painted with a red X on its center. 
[*][b]Studded Gloves[/b]
Tough leather studded with bits of iron. They protect the hands while adding an extra hardness to the knuckles. Stained slightly from... use.
[/list] 

[color=D2B48C][b]Physical Description:[/b][/color]
Vaia stands around 5ft9in and has a thick and stocky build. Her skin is dark brown and her sharp eyes are hazel colored. She keeps her tightly coiled black hair cut close to her scalp, simply so that it's not easily grabbed in combat. While she has no piercings and wears no jewelry, Vaia has chosen to decorate herself with black ink tattoos of intricate maze-like designs. 

All of her clothing is functional, appearing to be "ready for combat" even when dressed down. Her garments are suited for the desert climate-- long sleeves and baggy pants-- and she wears a headdress, with the occasional face covering, that often hides all but her eyes. All of her clothing is well worn, non-decorative in nature, and fitting for a desert warrior.

[color=D2B48C][b]Armor:[/b][/color]
Medium-weight armor, consisting of a single iron chest plate with padded leather backing, studded leather shin guards, thick leather boots, heavy leather gloves, and studded leather forearm bracers.

[color=D2B48C][b]Equipment/Other[/b][/color]
[list]
[*][b]Disassembled Crossbow[/b]
Basic crossbow. Taken apart for carrying convience.
[*][b]Crossbow Bolts (10)[/b]
Iron tipped bolts with wood shafts. Cheap.
[*][b]Small Knife[/b]
Oddly nothing more than a sharpened bit of metal and a cloth wrapped "handle".
[*]Sack of Dried "Meat" (1lb)
[*]Burlap Sack
[*]Whetstone
[/list] 

[color=D2B48C][b]Mental Description/Personality:[/b][/color]
She is nearly humorless. Vaia is quite rigid in her ways and that stubbornness translates to powerful relentlessness. Unfortunately, she does not know how to give up, which can often turn into utter foolishness on her part. Still, she does posess an unsettling quietness and calm that disguises her inward emotions very well. She is angered and annoyed quite easily despite the outward calm. Her acts of revenge are either carefully planned or passive agressive. Vaia is quick to question her peers but she knows how to hold her tongue when around someone "higher". Still, her sense of duty and hard earned loyalty are not to be underestimated if one can get past her prickly nature.

[color=D2B48C][b]Goals/Aspirations:[/b][/color]
Being born into the Rhemora caste left Vaia no room to pursue anything more than duty, fighting, or marrying into a higher caste. While she is still uncertain as to what she wants, she does know that great wealth has to be a part of her future. Large quantities of money, simply put, is all she wants.

[color=D2B48C][b]Background/History:[/b][/color]
[hider=Money Buys Happiness]
Vaia was born into the Rhemora warrior caste, the eldest of three brothers. As Vaia grew up her mother, Amira, tried her hardest to groom Vaia for marriage. A strict regimen of customs, traditional "wifely duties", and courtship practices were all Vaia knew as a home life. When outside playing among the other children, Vaia was seen as a bully and troublemaker. She felt it her duty to protect her little brothers from “the world”, which often meant punching other kids in the face whenever they made a mean comment. Eventually Amira became tired of scrubbing blood from her daughter’s clothing and confronted the nine year old child about her conduct. When Vaia explained her stance on fighting as a means of protection, with an amount of conviction that horrified Amira, Vaia found herself restricted to her room for two days, then thrust into the care of her distant father, Kulal, early the third morning.

Kulal was a man that was defined by violence and lived by the blade. He worked as a mercenary that was always on the move but always sending his earnings and letters back home. While Vaia knew of him, the morning she was taken from her home, by a burly angry man dressed in worn armor that reeked of blood, marked the first time she’d met Kulal in the flesh. Vaia recalls Amira's cold stare and her brother's all calling after her, as Kulal lead her away from home. While Kulal had arranged for his sons to be trained by a retired gladiator, in a more orthodox method of fighting, he’d never considered that his daughter might stray from the path of tradition. Kulal planned to take her on one job, in order to show Vaia the type of life she had an option of choosing, versus the one she thought to reject.

Kulal ventured into the desert, on a simple delivery job, with a burlap sack and Vaia seated atop a saddled animal. The ensuing scuffle with bandits, their screams and blood on the sand, and the smell of death clinging in the air, can still be recalled by Vaia quite vividly to this day. Looking back on the fight that Kulal brought her along to, Vaia knows now that the injuries her father inflicted were purposefully brutal-- that he probably wished to show her something shocking in order to change her mind. The truth of it was, that Kulal’s skill in battle served only to ignite her fascination with fighting. Immediately after he was done with the job, a simple package hand-off in a bandit infested oasis, Vaia insisted that Kulal pay for her training too. 

Be it out of spite or rage, Kulal denied her request with strong words and a strike, that Vaia recalls as the first to make her lose consciousness.

The next years of Vaia’s life were spent with Kulal. He brought Vaia along on his jobs and gave her the occasional scrap of bread or meat as “payment”. He “sparred” with Vaia multiple times a day, sometimes even by surprise, and did not hold back. Kulal forged Vaia's violent streak into something brutal and feral. No matter how much danger she was in, Kulal didn’t give Vaia armor or a weapon, and rarely did he fight someone off that threatened her life-- he forced her to always fight for life or death. There were times when Kulal forced Vaia into blackouts from lack of water or beat her simply because she needed to “toughen up”. It was only after three years of this treatment that Kulal let her have a weapon-- a dull broken scimitar with half a blade and a beat up shield. Kulal taught her to use it versus his own fully functioning sword and shield-- forcing her to learn how to fight dirty and with little to work with.

Three years after that Kulal gifted her a full scimitar and her first piece of armor-- a beaten down chest-plate-- and a simple wooden crossbow. While Kulal didn't use a crossbow himself, he insisted that Vaia learn to use one, and constantly made her shoot targets. Punishment for missing and under-performing were brutal-- often resulting in missed meals or sleep depravity. The method Vaia used to learn the crossbow was her own, effective at reloading quickly under pressure, and steadiness with shots in the middle of a fray. Four years later, on a seemingly random date, Kulal fought Vaia viciously then ran her off, screaming that she was on her own and should find a job now. He rode off into the desert, leaving Vaia alone on foot, and she never saw him again.

It was a few days later, after having made her way back to her home town, that Vaia realized the day Kulal ran her off had been her birthday. 

Now nineteen and eligible to be registered with a small mercenary guild, Vaia immediately registered, then went home to visit her mother. As soon as Vaia came home, Amira handed her a scroll detailing a job already “accepted” by Vaia. Confused at the arrangement but thankful, Vaia took the job, then soon realized exactly why it was already arranged. Her client was one of Kulal’s regulars-- a merchant that greeted Vaia by name and with familiarity. Because of her success on this particular job, Vaia was recommended to another group of merchants, which kept her reputation spreading from there. Her performance eventually paved the way for her to become registered with a more notable bodyguard company called the Ra’ad Seja. 

This particular company specialized in escorting people, protecting them from assassins and thieves, and sometimes hiring out long term “guardians” to people that could afford it. The Ra’ad Seja acted as a liaison between it’s employees and their sometimes anonymous clients. Vaia came to the Ra’ad Seja with a reputation that preceded her. Several times, Vaia had even crossed paths with Ra’ad Seja that happened to be on “opposite sides”. She was known to be brutal but her skill and talent in battle was not often questioned. When eventually the Ra’ad Seja came upon a contract that asked for long-term guards, with a wealthy client that wanted to hire “some of the best”, Vaia’s name was near the top of the list. The Ra’ad Seja wasn’t going to send it’s best but they were going to send their “upper-goods”.

Vaia accepted the employment at the age of twenty two. The years that followed are a dull blur in Vaia’s mind. Compared to the previous years of extremes and events, guarding a wealth merchant’s living grounds against small-time thieves in the night, were some of the most boring times in Vaia’s life. They are only known to Vaia as her “day brawling” times, for it was during this dull period that Vaia, in an attempt to liven her life up, entered into a small-time fighting pit. While the pit was more filled with bored Rhemora warriors like herself, the fights were enough to help sharpen her skills, and gave out enough prize money so that she could afford better weapons and armor. 

Still, there eventually came a monotony to the small brawls after night-shift. All of it became routine to Vaia, which began to make her even more restless. She began to look at her life for what it was worth. Her brothers seemed satisfied with their lives of guarding buildings or walking the walls-- happy even. They each had families and friends, always spoke about them whenever they were around for dinner, and constantly asked Vaia what she had. And what [i]did she have?[/i] 

Vaia could never form a proper answer. 

In all her years of fighting and working, Vaia had never once gotten close to another or even confided with anyone. Not even her family knew what occurred between her and Kulal all those years in the desert. For all they knew, she left one day a child and came back a woman, years later, with more scars and silence than she ever had before. They had all, at one point or another, tried to get her to speak but, Vaia realized how angry it made her to think about her “training”. She knew that it was this anger that repelled anyone that could have helped her. 

And it was this anger again that lead to her resignation from the Ra’ad Seja only three years after joining. They had been a goal of hers, she supposed, but had that company really been what she wanted? Confused and without direction, Vaia drew her blade once more as a free agent, then did her best to ignore the nagging feeling that years of her life had been wasted. Vaia decided she would walk freely and travel to as many lands as she possibly could-- everyone needed a mercenary, right? Her travels lead her out of Arad Luin but not as far as she’d hoped. She saw new things, experienced more of the world, but still there was the sense that she was lacking something. While sitting in an Inn one day, staring out of a window at the first snowfall she had ever seen, Vaia thought back on how fat and happy all those merchants always were and what must be the cause...

Money.

All of them were wealthy. All of them were satisfied. All of them could flood a street with their gold and silver. What kind of life it must be when you’re able to afford anything and not worry about the cost! Vaia quickly became obsessed with wealth and the pursuit of it. She began taking riskier jobs and charging higher-- using her reputation as leverage with success. As she journeyed more, tales of how others came into wealth made their way to her ears. Dungeons filled with gold, treasure chests buried on distant islands, selling rare relics and magical items, and all sorts of other tales caught Vaia’s attention. While plunging dungeons and such sounded unrealistic, the tales of treasure buried on islands sounded far more viable, as did the methods of those that found said treasure. 

If pirates were becoming rich by finding money people left on strange islands, then Vaia figured she was going to become a pirate. She figured she could either work for the rest of her life, scraping the pay from small jobs together and hopefully surviving past the age of thirty, eventually becoming “upper” within her caste, or she could become a pirate, find a large amount of treasure, and become rich immediately. Were she to find enough treasure, Vaia figured she could even afford to stop fighting for a while-- she could instead [i]live as a person[/i]. With all this in mind Vaia made the decision, around six months ago, to start her search for a crew of pirates that would take her on. 

While none so far had wanted to hire someone with no knowledge of a ship, Vaia has yet to give up her search. In between contracts, Vaia regularly scans the docks and hire-boards, hunting down any crew looking to hire, and pitching her skills in combat as her main asset. [/hider]

[color=D2B48C][b]Relationships[/b]:[/color]
TBD



[/hider]