I'm reposting Kass now for you guys. ^_^ I replaced her picture, found a new Kassandra that was very fitting. c: ----- [b]Name:[/b] “Mother” Kassandra Xenos [b]Age:[/b] 21 [b]Height/Weight:[/b] 5’6, 142 lbs [b]Appearance:[/b] Kassandra has a rather sharp build to her. Her hair, as most of her being, is well-maintained, clean, and smooth. She remains crisp and proper, always formally clean – a trait she is told to have received from her mother’s side of the family. She covers herself as well, even when not in uniform, dressing in clothing very similar to the common apparel of a priest. Her weight is distributed as lean muscle throughout her body, but she isn’t a brute by any means, relying more on speed than pure strength. Her hazel eyes are soft and her cheeks are rather flush when compared to her lighter skin and hair. [URL=http://www.zerochan.net/845648][IMG]http://s3.zerochan.net/Imai.Nobume.240.845648.jpg[/IMG][/URL] (Click the picture for higher resolution) [b]Personality:[/b] Kassandra has a sharp tongue and a cold attitude, or at least that’s the impression she gives to most. Those who she actually shares a bond with, like quite a few of her fellow priests/priestesses, know that she is loyal and even, to some degree, caring. However, when in battle, focused on a mission, or around those she is not very familiar with, her cold, calculating attitude returns. Despite her slightly below-average height, she is confident and protective, despite being quiet in unfamiliar situations. Kassandra wasn’t an ambitious youth, nor would one consider her to be as such while an adult. However, due to her circumstances, she has never shirked on her duty and strives to be the absolute best at whatever she is tasked with. Of course, this is still not to be confused with ambition – her entire life has been spent with having this idea of being the best drilled into her. Kassandra did not have a natural desire to climb the ladder of success, it was merely that her entire life has revolved around being the most respected, strongest figure she could be. The priestess uses her faith and focus to avoid confronting any conflicts within herself that may go against her beliefs… Not only the temptations of drink or other pleasures, but those desires buried even deeper. By focusing on her work, she will never have to face the fear she holds – the fear of those desires being true. She’s found herself never able to connect beyond friendship with any man… And only has she felt attraction toward other women; these thoughts are the ones that she buries the deepest in her soul, locking them away so that not even she knows of them. [b]Talents/Abilities:[/b] Mother Xenos, like the others who have been accepted into priesthood, has become rather experienced in combat. Her own specialty lies in a falchion, which she wield in her right hand and keeps strapped to her back and, upon her left hand, a lightweight cestus of metal with small spiked plates near the knuckles. With the cestus, she wears a bracer that is a little on the heavier side, when compared to the common armour of the other priests, in order to help deflect and block attacks without the need for a shield, though it does lack the strength and durability of one. On the magic side, Kassandra was slightly less blessed – she found difficulty in grasping the concepts she was taught and, while she tried her best, only managed to gain power over the most basic of abilities in the field. She has found, however, that her reflexes have a nearly sixth-sense feel to them, which is actually why she chose a falchion and cestus combination for her weaponry – a pair that is very rarely seen. It was also the reason she chose the bracer over a shield. [b]Background:[/b] Kassandra was never able to meet her biological mother. Her father rarely spoke of it before his own death, and her family is always very quiet whenever she would ask. However, the very little information she was able to collect told her that when she was young, her mother was actually kidnapped while alone in a nearby city and sold into human trafficking for a high price. Being of a lower noble family in La Nostre, as well as being rather attractive, she fetched a high price. The family, while esteemed in their small area, was not well-known throughout La Nostre and they were unable to pool the resources to look into what happened or retrieve her… It is likely that, by now, her body has been worn down into a laboring slave. Mr. Xenos, Kassandra’s father, passed when she was young as well, but she was almost ten, so she can still clearly remember the man… He was kind and always warm-hearted. However, her memory does not serve her well always; there were nights where he would come home and not even acknowledge her presence… He smelled of spirits and would saunter to his study, lock the door, and not come out for hours… sometimes he would spend nearly two whole days in that room – coming out for perhaps a meal or two, or to search the cupboards for a fresh bottle. He never hit her, but Kassandra remembers having to care for herself on those days. He died in that office of what was later considered as some form of alcoholic overdose. Life after that was much sterner, and Kassandra changed completely. She moved in with her grandmother and aunt. While her grandmother, Megaera, was not always capable of caring for herself and Kassandra’s aunt would help her, it seemed that the elderly woman held some form of disdain for her own daughter. Kassandra did not understand, but assumed it was because her aunt did not marry, despite being a grown woman. After Megaera’s death, Kassandra noticed that one of her aunt’s friends seemed to come to the house far more often, though perhaps it was just to help care for the young girl. Her entire family had been instilling patriotism for La Nostre and the goddess that once guided them all… Even when she was young, she was resilient and steadfast in her own opinions, which were molded by her family, and her affinity for physical battle, she believes, comes from her devotion to that goddess. Of course, because of the time that had passed, no matter how short, it was undeniable that Varyan society had mixed with that of La Nostre, and so she still believed in the strength of Lord Varya. It was more her aunt’s decision for her to go to the Red Seminary, but she was also told of the glory and the strength of character that came with becoming a priestess… Though Kassandra never told her aunt about the thoughts that had slowly been becoming part of her mind, she honestly believed that by becoming a priestess, she would be cleansed and could find herself… “fix” that part that she so desperately fought and locked away. Besides that,she knew that by becoming stronger, she would never be cursed with the fate that her mother was… The harder she worked, the farther she went, the stronger she became… All of these things would protect her, and more importantly, those around her… She couldn’t let somebody else be taken due to their own weakness. This was a burden she brought on herself after her mother’s death; her father’s passing as well, when he gave in to the temptations of alcohol and wallowing in his own depression; and finally, her grandmother, a bitter old woman who passed full of regrets which she could never express as well as a disdain for her daughter which, ultimately, caused the woman to stop taking such close care of her… All fates that were caused by weakness and which she had been powerless to stop. Never again would the priestess feel so weak and unable to control that which tore her family apart. [b]Quote:[/b] Weakness lies not in the mind, but in the soul. In order to crush it, you have to strengthen every part of your being.