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[hider=Corinne]
[list][*][u][b]Name[/b][/u]: Corinne Julienne Irénée de Tiffauges, the Countess Vérigny
[*][u][b]Age[/b][/u]: 20
[*][u][b]Gender[/b][/u]: Female
[*][u][b]Race[/b][/u]: Hundi
[*][u][b]Rank:[/b][/u] Copper
[*][u][b]Appearance[/b][/u]: [hider][img]https://i.ibb.co/jkhbNZdh/image.png[/img][/hider]
At only 4’9, Corinne is short even for a Hundi girl, and absolutely nothing about her appearance gives any impression of adventuring talent or aptitude. She looks every bit the rich noble who spends all day sitting around taking tea and idling her time away over minor pursuits… which is entirely accurate, even as a new adventurer she’s quite sedentary and prone to wearing much finer clothing than makes sense for the job.
[*][u][b]Personality[/b][/u]: While Hundi are well known for their general reluctance to lie – often extrapolated into an inability, though that’s not [i]strictly[/i] accurate – there exists no such saying that they should be as open about whatever is on their mind as entirely possible. Not so for Corinne; not only is it likely that she’s never told a single lie in her life, she’s extremely bad at self-censorship and prone to putting her foot in her mouth immediately. On the flip side, this also makes it easy to learn that her upbeat attitude is entirely genuine and she doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body.
But also that she’s… probably not the brightest. Extremely good with the technical details of running an entire estate? Sure. Surprisingly gifted with magic for how long she’s spent studying it? Also true. But when out of her depth, she’s pretty fast to get stumped by problems and at times a frustratingly slow learner.
Despite her cheery enthusiasm, Corinne is actually shy around strangers and will almost [i]always[/i] defer to Liliane and let her handle the introductions, outright hiding behind her wife if things start to get out of hand. Or if she decides they’re too scary, which mostly means “oh no, undead”; even with a skill set that makes her well suited to destroying them, decaying bodies just freak her out to no end.
[*][u][b]Brief Backstory[/b][/u]: As her name would attest, Corinne hails from the town of Tiffauges – a reasonably large town two days’ travel from the Black Pit, perhaps once a satellite of Talderia but [i]now[/i] the last major settlement before reaching Caron Lyn and the eastern defences. Despite its inauspicious location, the town’s trade still thrives, both from supplying the fortress itself and its own native ceramics and (this being Ithillin) wine industry. As her full title also indicates, she’s not [i]just[/i] from the town, but from its ruling family, both their heir and sole child of the main line.
Given the social prominence she was born into, she was under more pressure than the norm – mostly internalised, neither of her mothers minded [i]that[/i] much – to display the martial skill that Hundi prize so much. Throughout her childhood, she proved completely inept at [i]every single one[/i]; Corinne remained more a danger to herself than anyone else when handed a weapon. Desperate to find [i]something[/i] she was good at, she bugged a local mage into giving her lessons, despite the rarity of a Hundi displaying any magical talent whatsoever.
She turned out to be one of those rare few.
A tutor was quickly found – a mage more specialised in battle than the sorts of enchantments her initial pick knew – and Corinne began voraciously learning everything she could to appear [i]somewhat[/i] competent. More focused on breadth and power than speed or actual combat practice, she picked up enough by her coming-of-age journey to at least stand a theoretical chance.
The initial portions of her journey were pretty peaceful: [i]nobody[/i] in the nearby area wanted to potentially annoy her family by pressuring Corinne into a marriage she wouldn’t be happy with, and her awkward attempts to get a duel were deflected into practice instead. Annoyed at being babied, and wanting to follow in her [i]mother’s[/i] footsteps of finding a marriage this way, she began to head further and further afield, up towards the north of the country where the population was increasingly human-dominated.
When she first met Liliane, she was refused a proper duel once again, but managed to strike up enough of a rapport that the white-haired girl turned around on her own journey and offered to accompany her and act as a guide. Given her own growing loneliness and general social awkwardness, Corinne was all too keen to say yes, quickly growing more attached to her new companion as they meandered from town to town.
She lost the duel the second time she challenged Liliane in less than ten seconds.
While their marriage was the big social event of the year, Corinne was less focused on that (as enjoyable as it was) as she was preparing for what came after: while they’d been together, Liliane had been talking about her time as an adventurer a lot, and that gave Corinne an idea. Why didn’t she become one, too? Her mother’s still young, which gives [i]her[/i] a lot of time to work on her skills, and Tiffauges’ involvement with Caron Lyn would make it all the more important she be able to demonstrate [i]some[/i] ability to protect it.
Naturally, this meant acquiring ‘reasonable’ living conditions up in Venne, as well as brushing up on her Estivalian, and corresponding with the guild to make sure they had no objections to employing foreign nobility. Happily, they didn’t, but actually starting her adventuring career after the move was delayed quite a while – it would be [i]terrible[/i] form to start something like that when your twin daughters are still infants.
Despite her considerable destructive potential, Corinne’s general lack of experience has kept her firmly in Copper rank; given the potential fallout if she were to get in over her head, [i]nobody[/i] wants to promote her prematurely. It’s the same reason Liliane [i]always[/i] accompanies her.
[*][u][b]Equipment[/b][/u]: Corinne’s adventuring equipment consists of a single staff, elaborately carved from some black wood imported from beyond the veil, and with numerous gems worked through its length, with a fist-sized piece of alchemically created mana crystal shifting through various hues at its top. While it [i]looks[/i] more a piece of art than a weapon, it’s actually a very well-made catalyst, capable of drawing fully on its wielders’ mana to resist any damage, and letting someone even as clumsy as Corinne cast spells with nearly-practical speed.
Her non-adventuring equipment… well, she’s a rich noble; running out of money is [i]not[/i] a concern. She actually owns an entire townhouse near the adventurers’ guild outright, as well as employing the staff to maintain it.
[*][u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: While the majority of her education and talent lies in being an administrator, Corinne’s not a [i]bad[/i] mage for the amount of training she has, by any means; she has a wide library of offensive magics to draw from, and like any Hundi mage, she’s almost overflowing with mana. But she’s not a [i]practised[/i] spellcaster; she can pull out big spells, but even a single enemy would have good odds of overwhelming her before she could swap to something defensive.
She’s also not great at utility magic; yes, she can light a fire or conjure light, but those are basic exercises to learn magical control, it would be outright concerning if she [i]couldn’t[/i] do that.
Her general preference lies in lightning and fire spells, with her natural affinity being for the former. While amazingly destructive… well, it makes the general practicality even lower; both of those demand being [i]much[/i] more careful with your casting, lest you hit the wrong person.
She’s got a great head for languages: she natively speaks Ithillane, Hundi, and Elvish (strangely), fluent Thaeln and Veltish, and knows a smattering of Barukstaed or dwarven. Her Estivalian wasn’t great to start with but after living here a while…[/list]
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[hider=Liliane]
[list][*][u][b]Name[/b][/u]: Liliane de Tiffauges
[*][u][b]Age[/b][/u]: 22
[*][u][b]Gender[/b][/u]: Female
[*][u][b]Race[/b][/u]: Hundi
[*][u][b]Rank:[/b][/u] Silver
[*][u][b]Appearance[/b][/u]: [hider][img]https://i.ibb.co/KpJ9XGHX/image.png[/img][/hider]
Marginally taller than Corinne, at 4’10, Liliane has a considerably more wiry build and – despite having now married into nobility – does her utmost to avoid any occasion that would require her to [i]dress[/i] the part, although her clothing [i]is[/i] much less raggedy and cheap than it was when the pair of them met. She does wear warmer clothing in the winter, though.
[*][u][b]Personality[/b][/u]: Liliane is outwardly proud and prickly, considered something of a stickler for doing everything [i]properly[/i] by the other adventurers she’s had to work with. She tolerates mistakes poorly in general, but anything that would put people in danger? Ah, almost [i]everyone[/i] is going to get chewed out for that; while she’s capable of being [i]diplomatic[/i], Liliane has the typical Hundi honesty. 
She finds no end of amusement in how this makes people assume she’s going to be an easy mark when it comes to gambling or games of chance; yes, she might tell the truth, but that means nothing if she doesn’t actually [i]tell you[/i] what she’s got. 
Despite all the prickliness, she’s exceptionally protective when it comes to her family or friends and [i]particularly[/i] Corinne, although you’d be hard pressed to get her to show it in public – not trying to push her wife away, mostly, or sparing her from the complaining that anybody else would get for screwing up in her place.
Being treated as a noble [i]still[/i] throws her for a loop.
[*][u][b]Brief Backstory[/b][/u]: Liliane generally tries to avoid talking too much about her childhood – her father was an itinerant at best, and a common bandit the majority of the time. It left her with a rather troublesome set of skills and nowhere that she really [i]fit[/i], enough that when she finally managed to wheedle her mother’s location out of the old drunk, she abandoned him at the first opportunity.
Her mother might have found other employment here and there, but even she took her daughter to task for being so coarse, pressuring her to make [i]something[/i] of herself. She was good with knives, yes? So [i]do something[/i] with that; get away from where she was likely wanted and improve her skills.
Escaping to Estival was the logical choice, joining the guild gave the half-starved Liliane some way to actually employ her abilities for something other than apprehending unfortunate travellers or preying on other bandits directly. It wasn’t too difficult (in her opinion) to climb to Iron rank before her coming-of-age journey, and that presented a good opportunity to find some more places to hone her skills before returning to the guild full-time.
It was on a trip back to see her mother that she ran into the most defenceless-seeming hundi Liliane had ever met. Defeating her would have been no effort at all, and if anyone unscrupulous came along… well, the best case scenario would have been just taking everything valuable the girl had. There were considerably worse possible fates.
So she offered her services as a guide, not wanting the enthusiastic mage to get in over her head – maybe hoping for some reward at the end, but mostly not wanting someone so fervently [i]innocent[/i] to get in trouble. And the adventurer couldn’t avoid noticing how cute Corinne was, eager to hide behind her when they were approaching someone new, or clinging to her when it actually started to get cold. Really, she started to regret not accepting the challenge…
It was a good thing Corinne had the same idea.
The marriage itself terrified her; suddenly, Liliane had gone from some no-name daughter of a bandit to the upper heights of Ithillin’s nobility, with [i]everyone[/i] clamouring to meet her and seek favour. Maybe that was why she didn’t resist too hard at the idea of taking her wife to Estival to be an adventurer, wanting to go back to comparative obscurity. It was only later that she started to worry, not wanting Corinne in over her head at all, or the repercussions if she let harm come to the other woman…
She hoped that motherhood [i]might[/i] have tempered those desires, but aside from making Corinne [i]very[/i] firm on ruling out anything that would obviously take far too long, it was really just a delay that gave Liliane time to improve her own skills some more. If she wants to adventure [i]that[/i] badly, Liliane’s going to make sure to keep her safe.
[*][u][b]Equipment[/b][/u]: Primarily, Liliane wields a pair of oddly curved daggers. Lightly enchanted and then further alchemically treated, they essentially need no maintenance – grime or blood will slide right off, and they [i]never[/i] get stuck. Of course, that’s mostly for convenience: the point of the secondary treatment was to make sure that oils [i]would[/i] stick until cleaned. The idea being that, along with a magically expanded satchel of various poisons, toxins, and even corrosive acids, she would be able to produce a way to debilitate or bring down a wide variety of opponents with [i]just[/i] her daggers.
She doesn’t carry much else in the way of equipment – she’s never been comfortable in armour, and leaves trying to think of alternatives to Corinne (maybe she’ll eventually get defensive spells down). 
[*][u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: Naturally, Liliane knows how to use those daggers to full effect, with the benefit of complete ambidexterity, being able to completely flip how she’s attacking or defending at a moment’s notice. Her approach to combat, having no armour to fall back on, is inherently cautious: she’s rare to launch a direct attack against a skilled opponent unless she can bait them with a feint first, and entirely happy to just dodge and deflect to buy herself time, or start fighting dirty. It’s not the ideal approach for protecting someone else, but she’s made it work.
Her noncombat skills have a lot of what you’d expect from a girl that grew up on the roads and in the wilds – foraging and general survival skills, but not much in the way of [i]good[/i] cooking. She’s gotten more and more practise with not just using and identifying but also [i]compounding[/i] poisons since her marriage, now that she has the weapons to make use of it, though she’s far from a proper alchemist.
Like a large minority of Hundi, Liliane is remarkably adept at charming canines, given some time to establish a rapport. [/list]
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Notes for both:
[list][*] This is not a case of the whole being stronger than the sum of its parts; their skillsets don't synergise and Liliane's interest is [i]so[/i] much on keeping her silly wife safe that they're functionally an iron/steel adventurer.
[*] Their twin daughters are 3, so not [i]terribly[/i] important. Their names? Irénée Florentine Corinne de Tiffauges and Julienne Violette Liliane de Tiffauges. Yes, they're named after Corinne's parents.
[*] Indeed, two girls (or two men, although that's more complicated) can have children. Magic's handy.
[*] Corinne's overall reputation amongst the guild is one of general bafflement. She's nice and very earnest about doing the job and not just playing it… but she's the daughter of a [i]duchess[/i]; it's quite strange.
[*] They like to hire adventurers to babysit and give the regular staff breaks.
[*] I mean townhouse in the very Georgian London sense. It's [i]big[/i], for all it might eventually share walls with something else.[/list]

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