[hider=Aurélie] [img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/d4/53/5fd4530f1d12cd2ef0c9aea552eb83b9.jpg[/img] [color=f7941d][i][b]Better shut it down before I step in, bud. No one wants that.[/b][/i][/color] [color=f7941d][b]Name:[/b] [/color] Aurélie [color=f7941d][b]Sex:[/b] [/color] Female [color=f7941d][b]Culture:[/b] [/color] Brittonian [color=f7941d][b]Age:[/b] [/color] 34 [color=f7941d][b]Physical Description:[/b] [/color] Aurélie is no taller than your average Brittanian peasant, but that is arguably where most similarities end. Her oaken brown hair tousled and unkempt at shoulder-length, further enhanced by dark eyes, presents a wild, unruly image. Though perhaps not overtly muscular, the woman is stout enough to be considered fit and able. Her wardrobe appears to be recent, with fresh, clean cut fabrics that look more expensive than she’d ever be able to put up. She’d been further equipped with a selection of plate and leather, once again both new and unfitting someone who so clearly belongs among the rabble. Indeed, a true hint to her lot in life is the tattered red cloak bound over her shoulders: Old and ragged, it was no doubt majestic at one point in the woman’s life – now it is a clashing addition to an otherwise clean appearance. She carries a long knife, a short sword, an arming sword, and a set of iron knuckles. [color=f7941d][b]Occupation/Skillset:[/b] [/color] Aurélie is skilled with a variety of weapons and can hold her own against dangerous enemies in a moderately fair fight. While it is doubtful she has ever truly had any formal training, weapons drills or disciplinary education, a life of hardship has driven her to perform well in unorthodox and brutish ways, and she excels against solo combatants because of this adaptive outlook on battle, and her uncanny ability to find a way to fight dirty even in the most fair of fights. Though it is doubtful she can read, she is generally knowledgeable when it comes to maps, strategy and even underhanded intrigue, though she’s certainly no sneak thief. Finally, Aurélie has a wealth of knowledge relating to survival, both in the wild and on the street. She has spent long enough alone or struggling to have found the solutions to many of the basic needs a traveler may have. [color=f7941d][b]Personality:[/b] [/color] To call this woman anything but a thug would arguably be giving her too much credit. Much like a lion or bear, she carries herself with minimal exertion, and can easily appear lazy at the worst of times, slacking off or complaining about boredom during an assignment. Still, just like the animals, she is prone to fits of rage, and will switch from goofing off to being confrontational with deceptive haste. To make matters worse, she appears fully in the know of how aggravating her behavior can be and will try to get a rise out of people so long as she can get away with it. She certainly lacks formal education, but her coarse, lazy exterior hides a manipulative woman who is quick enough on the uptake to have survived this long, despite by all accounts being a relative nobody. She will do what she must to survive, and furthermore appears to have some basic decency somewhere deep inside, if only by virtue that she will not stoop to bullying and picking on the weak. She at the very least has a basic concept of honor, if only to mock it. Whatever moral code she has, it’s been warped by years spent in the lowest rungs of society. [color=f7941d][b]Backstory:[/b] [/color] Fate can be a fickle thing, if fate is even something to be believed in. Aurélie certainly never has. Put into the world in a stable and spirited away to a cloister, she experienced an upbringing that promised to be as unkind as it was devoted to God. She grew up knowing she was unwanted, and when she started picking fights with the other orphans living around the monastery, it was to no one’s great surprise. Between constantly being in fights, being punished for various misdeeds big and small, and being told there was a world out there that was not for her, it was also to no one’s surprise when she one day vanished from the garden and never came back. No more than a tramp in a world of farmers, nobility and magi, Aurélie found herself drawn towards the city beyond the hill, Brest, and joined it’s ranks as yet another street rat, a boisterous parasite on the well-meaning citizens of Brittany. What few contacts she made during her growing years, she simply added to the list of people that would eventually try to punch, kill or steal from her. When she had grown old enough to pretend to be old enough to get into real danger, she quickly found herself in the employ of street thugs, running errands and back up during altercations. She became an enforcer, a messenger, and a criminal. How she made the transition from street brawler to mercenary is up in the air, but it is all too likely that she simply ran away when the guards came calling, and found work that suited her penchant for violence. She resurfaced in several different places over Brittany and Provence, doing odd jobs and guard work for whoever would pay. Perhaps most surprisingly, she seemingly transitioned entirely from her earlier life of small-time crime to land in the employ of dubious fighters for hire, city guards, and paying merchants. While by no means a legend, Aurélie has participated in enough small scale violence over the years to earn herself a solid reputation as a thug for hire, and someone reliable enough to stand by her employer, even if those same stories have nothing pleasant to say about the woman beyond her assorted skills. And so it was that fate – were one to believe in such a thing – had placed Aurélie in the Duke’s sphere of influence, returned to Brest and in the occasional employ of people vaguely to do with courtly affairs. When the call came to assemble a grand party to rescue a dame, a handful of guards in the Duke’s livery came to ‘offer’ Aurélie a prestigious chance to help. Surely succeeding in such a quest would elevate her out of her endless struggle. [/hider]