[hider=Raelyn Giordano][B]Name:[/B] Raelyn Giordano, also known as "The Bard of Flame"
[B]Race:[/B] Imperial
[B]Age:[/B] 27
[B]Birthsign:[/b] The Thief
[B]Family Origins:[/B] The Imperial City, a small merchant family that runs a shop that sells pots.

[center][B]Appearance:[/B][/center]
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A slight, rather young looking woman who smiles often and laughs more. She has bright, discerning eyes that look at people like she's examining a cut of meat. Her brown hair is wild and frayed from working on the road and she always seems to carry on her skin a thin patina of dirt. She stands and moves with a flowing confidence. Her bardic outfit consists of a tight buttoned shirt under a red vest, with white poofy sleaves, and brown leggings just in case you weren't sure she was of the arts.

She has the kind of face that when smiling is charming, handsome even, but when frowning is like staring at death in the face. She paints her nails, often in different colors, though prefers purple because not many can afford it. She also wears three enchanted rings on her left hand.

[B]Personality:[/B] Raelyn is before all other things an actor and spy, so much of her outward personality reflects the story she's telling or the song she's playing. Under the surface she is calculating, with a cynical sense of humor. Her body language typically exudes relaxed enjoyment of life. She's an easy liar and friend to the weak, though she is very manipulative and finds it to her benefit to push people towards doing work for her.

In personal relationships, she is rather demanding. Her work for the empire, despite her naturally sunny disposition, has worn on her, and she has no time for fools. Oh she'll joke and tells many, but under stress those jokes turn to sharp jabs.

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[B]History:[/B] Raelyn Giordano, part time bard and full time spy for the Penitus Oculatus, was once a member of The Imperial City guard. She spent most of her short time catching criminal scum, before being approached by a Penitas Oculatus agent. What had interested them was a skooma smuggling case she had managed to figure out, primarily by going against city guard legal code and pretending to be someone who wished to purchase skooma. She never understood why this had gotten her in trouble. If you wanted to find out where the skooma was going, what better way than to pretend to buy it?

The Penitas Oculatus assigned her a target. Her first kill was different than the rough treatment she had, had to give to those skooma dealers. It was far more final.

After this, she was sent to investigate Skyrims Bards College. There she posed as a student and after a year, finally managed to prove the Headmaster was both working against the Dominion and was slipping in pro-stormcloak propaganda in poems, verse, and song. For this he was arrested, thanks to a very lengthy report Raelyn had wrote. Finding she enjoyed playin music, and now being a known member of the Bards College, she decided to return several times during her trips in Skyrim, and eventually took on a side career as a bard.

Far more recently, she had targeted a spy for the Thalmor at their own embassy, in the moments that the Empire thought it would win against their rule. This killing was the worst for her. Besides its brutality (she hadn't been able to bring her own weapons and had to improvise), the man was, a mere day after his death, essentially innocent of his crime. That is, The Empire and Dominion had peace, and the reasons for his death were no longer needed.

[B]Biggest Regret:[/B] Raelyn was once tasked with killing a Dominion agent in 4E212. What made her regret this, was she committed the murder a mere day before the peace between the Empire and Dominion was formed. While essentially a faceless cog in the machine, the murder of an innocent man has weighed on her heart and made her question her very purpose as a hired killer for the Empire.

[B]Character Name ‘s Goal:[/B] Raelyn has been tasked with finding the Dragonborn and has been given carte blanche to do so. The reasons for this command do not matter to her because as a Penitus Oculatus Investigator, you don't ask why. You kill until it is done.

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[B]Skills:[/B] 
[u]Expert:[/u]
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[*]Speech: Raelyn is a smooth talker. She is able to maintain the affect of a friendly bard while calculating the best way to get what she wants out of you. This makes her both politically astute and good at convincing others to go her way.

[*]One handed blade (knives, primarily): Raelyn was trained by the Penitus Oculatus in one-handed short blades, primarily for use in assassination with some focus on how to get past a armed opponents guard. She can also wield a sword fairly well, given her time in the Imperial City Guard.
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[u]Adept[/u]
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[*]Hand-to-hand: Along with bladework, she was shown how to bring someone to the ground to "ask" for information.
[*]Marksman (throwing weapons) This is actually self taught. Raelyn has participated in various contests and tavern bets in knife throwing and has even juggled knives as part of her bard act.
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[u]Novice:[/u] 
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[*]Sneak: Sometimes talking your way out of things doesn't work. Raelyns had to slip out of a sticky situation, more than once.
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[B]Equipment:[/B] Three hidden knives, two in her sleeves and one in in her vest. A bag, full of traveling rations. A small coinpurse. A golden ring enchanted with fortify unarmed. A silver ring fortified with muffle. A bronze ring fortified with health regeneration.
[B]Misc. Possessions:[/B] A lute case, a violin case with said instruments inside. Often in the cases are two wooden blocks.
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[hider=Biggest Regret]
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Raelyn Giordanos fingers flew across her lute like hummingbirds plucking at a flower. Each note rang with such emotion, such intensity, that the Thalmor within the embassy she played held their breath, fearing that their breath would be blasphemy to such art.

Then she sang. The break from the frantic strumming earlier released the tension and this tension quickly turned to tears.

"I once loved you,
For far so long,
Looking to your eyes in the early dawn,

I once loved you,
Before blades were drawn,
And pray to Aur'iel for your souls i-mmor-tal-ity, 

Your death still hurts,
I grip your shirt,
And give one last kiss to your company"

Then, the crescendo. Raelyn slid a gloved finger along a flintbox on her waist. This lit the oil that set the fire-resistant enchanted gloves aflame at the fingertips, which she brought back to the lute, held mere inches from the wood, made of a blackmarsh trees wood. 

Many gasped, though no Altmer jumped to their feet to her aid. They understood magic and doubted a bard would set themselves alight, no matter how entertaining that would be. Raelyn began to play.

==

After her performance, Raelyn took the praise and offers of drink in stride. She drank, though not so much as to become tipsy. Her mind needed to be clear, needed to be focused. Her eyes followed a Altmer man, a Rumile Numanye. She noted that he was offered one book from Ondolemar, who held sway over Makarth. Whatever was in that book, had to be interesting. Her eyes narrowed.

Raelyn took a moment to see "freshen up", which involved going to what Skyrim seemed to think was proper toiletry, buckets and stools. But she wasn't here for that. She took from her lute case, two wooden blocks. Then, she began to unstring her lute, wrapping the strings tightly around the two pieces of wood until she could hold one in each hand and stretch the wire taught. She stuffed this in a inner pocket. Not yet.

She went down a side hall. There was a Thalmor guard, who she asked sweetly, "Oh, sorry, I'm lost. Do you know the way back to the party?" Her eyes went down to his waist, which held a billy club. 

The Thalmor grunted, looking over her head and pointing behind her, "Well it's that way-GRAH!"

Raelyns fist met his crotch and in what must have seemed to that man to be lightning speed, she spread the two wooden blocks with the wire, threw the wire over his head as she passed him, then when she was back to back with him, she crossed her arms, kicked his legs out, and bent over, so that the tall man was suspended in the air.

He gasped, "Uh...uhhh...uhhh..." his face turning a pink crimson as he struggled to breath. His legs kicked and Raelyn elbowed him in the ribs and pulled harder, sawing with the wire until the mans throat was cut, until he no longer had breathe in him and blood loss began to weaken his limbs. [i]Just die...just die...[/i] she thought, her legs growing weak trying to lift the man. When he stopped struggling, she let go.

Her heart racing, Raelyn unwrapped the wire and wiped it clean on the dead mans clothes. She took his billy club and, looting a nearby pantry, dumped out a sack of potatoes and tied it to her waist.

She peered through several keyholes, until finally finding the room that Rumile resided in. She calmed her breath, and knocked, standing aside from the keyhole. As the knob turned, she untied the sack and held the club in one hand.

Rumile opened the door, "Yes?" moments before he was sent reeling from a blow to one of his pointy ears, so hard it bruised blue. He cried out in pain and Raelyn quickly threw the sack over his head and pushed some of the fabric into his mouth. He spat, trying to get the hessian out of his mouth, but found himself being brought to the floor. Air left his lungs on the sharp impact, then his thoughts become a pained blur as blow, after blow, after blow, smacked against the outer edges of his burlap prison.

Raelyn heaved, gasping, bringing up the now blood stainedup again for another strike. Realizing Rumile was dead, she dropped the club. She went to a basin of water sitting on a table, and washed her face. She looked into the mirror. Her face was pretty, but with hard edge of a woman who had just killed. She sighed. The things she did for her country. She cleaned up her hair, her clothes. She had to look like she had just went to the privy.

Leaving the room, she stepped over the body of the guard she had killed. She sniffed the faint smell of urine, so she could be reasonably sure he had really died.

After cleaning the blood from her lute strings, she reset them and returned to the embassy party. It was near the end, so nobody questioned her as she casually left through the front door. A murderer leaving their midst.

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