Any edits, more detail, etc. needed and I will happily oblige. It's mostly a rough draft anyway. Three AM, bed now.
EDIT: Just saw this:
"Sorry, not at the moment. If a spot opens i'll send you a PM."Was under the impression it was open for applications? I guess not, well sorry if I wasted time on anybody's behalf. I've got this pinged either way, unless I'm wrong or stupid or something.
Name
Ilayna Blackwater / Edessa Thorne
Gender
Female
House Name
Blackwater
Age
Twenty-four
Appearance
5’6” and hair reminiscent of the midnight skies with sapphires for eyes, Edessa Thorne has the look of a child of Gorgon, but a common look nonetheless. Bearing fur or cloth cloak depending on the weather or environment she is generally well-prepared.
Homeland
Gorgon
Race
Human
Bio
If not for Thomas Briar, the woman known currently as Edessa Thorne would have likely lived an entirely different life.
Twenty-four years prior to the present, she was born a daughter of the royal dynasty known as House Blackwater through the union of Lord Blackwater and Lady Briar. As the Princess of the Kingdom of Gorgon she was baptized as a part of the royal family with great expectations designed for the young royal. Of course, she was far behind in the line of succession with three elder brothers who were well-read and well-trained in the way of duty. As she was baptized there was one man who would be bound to her protection for his life, a knight and experienced ranger known as Edwic Devain; assigned as her guardian and protector, Ser Edwic would go beyond the expectations of duty to ensure safety and worked with the then spymaster of Gorgon to designate royal safehouses, escape routes, and similar contingencies for the safety of not only Ilayna but any royal at home in court.
When Lord Arthur Blackwater left his kingdom for the war against Malfear he left his spymaster and brother-in-law (Thomas Briar) as leading regent of Gorgon, giving the man the beginning that would excite his taste for power and control. Not long after when Ilayna reached her eighth anniversary of her name-day, the worst of possible events occurred at home in Gorgon—the betrayal of House Blackwater, and the murder of her bloodline by someone that was trusted to their protection: Thomas Briar. The spymaster and regent had often plotted in secret to steal what he believed he deserved, the first murder he would commit would earn him the title of kinslayer as his sister and mother of the Blackwater heirs would lay dead in the streets of the capital. Ser Edwic cursed himself for not seeing the treachery beforehand and organized several other knights sworn to other heirs to retreat and to stay away from the designated safehouses for Briar created them and knew about them. Ser Edwic himself took to the north as he dragged the eight year old daughter of Gorgon through the forests and swamps until he could get as far as possible.
The safety and survival of the Blackwater line was now abruptly in the hands of men sworn to protect its heirs. Ser Edwic’s loyalty unfaltering, he ensured that no harm would come to Ilayna while he still breathed air of this world; the Blackwater line would not end in a flood of darkness and treachery. Traveling to the Valarian countryside, Ser Edwic and Ilayna Blackwater disappeared and Mauldin and Edessa Thorne emerged. Hoping to avoid any eyes and ears that could report back to Thomas Briar, the two Gorgonite individuals began to cut out a life from village to village in the township of which they settled to protect themselves from the fear of assassins and spies.
Her name changed her dynasty taken, and life distressed; the girl known as Ilayna Blackwater was now Edessa Thorne, and now sprung up amongst commonfolk in an assortment of backwater villages and hamlets. Coin became sparse, food rationed, and despite the two Gorgonite’s resilience it never did stop the dwelling and nightmarish dreams that taunted them. The nightmares throughout the years would be a constant torture for the former Princess of Gorgon as she remembered the hushed panic, her mother’s blood drenched on her uncle’s knife, Ser Edwic’s hand preventing her from screaming in horror, the exhausting dread of Thomas Briar’s Blackwater hunters, the sound of the dogs, and the feeling of being stripped from her brothers whilst the feeling of never being able to speak to her parents again—it was insufferable. Her guardian attempted to calm her nerves throughout the coming years, but it would do nothing for the true psychological damage that she was dealt.
Despite the deep sense of psychological turmoil in the young girl’s mind, Ser Edwic instilled a sense of resilience and rigid strength in her. Originally coming from the commonfolk himself before he was knighted when he was much younger, Ser Edwic knew what it took to survive in their newfound environment. Fashioning himself as an adventurer, tracker, bandit hunter, and general problem solver—the people in this rural Valaria found much use in the man they would come to know as Mauldin Thorne. His skills as a ranger of Gorgon came into much use as he put coin and food on the table whilst also training his believed ‘daughter’ in the same skills he had honed decades prior. Dexterity, Gorgonite-style hand-to-hand, swordplay, archery, tracking, survivalism, and collective “common wisdom” would be things that Edessa would learn and surprisingly she had a knack for a few of these skills, perhaps taking after her elder brothers who had idolized the rangers of Gorgon. From eight years after her nameday to seventeen years after it she would become a capable ranger indeed as Mauldin’s training was nothing but extensive. But inspired to not be so weak as she was when her mother died in front of her eyes, and to prove to her guardian that his training was not for naught.
Two years after the “completion” of her training and some field experience in surrounding villages as well as trading posts it came to be her guardian’s end of days as he was stricken ill—an illness that would take the ranger-knight’s life at sixty years past his nameday; a remarkable age for someone who had been living in bad conditions and throughout a traumatic and taxing life. As she buried him in a grave that read only as: “Maurin Thorne – beloved father and protector.” So it was here at nineteen years past her nameday that Ilayna “Edessa Thorne” Blackwater began to live life from one outpost, caravan, and village at a time as she tried to put her past behind her and live for what she was taught by both Ser Edwic and her royal family that now laid in the dirt and was with the gods.
Injustice and chaos thrived in the lands and whilst she saw herself as ‘moral’ she knew that coin would have to come first if she intended to continue eating—though where heroics occurred oftentimes people were thankful for their endeavors. The Valealian frontier was chaotic and upset as rebellion, mage-hunting, and banditry began to run rampant thus creating an unstable world to travel in for the young woman though it was also as easily to be looked upon as for a hireling/problem solver-type of individual that it surely would be profitable for their career. For her, there was a struggle as her moral fibers of virtue and good nature began to shout out in her head; for if she could stop tragedy to consume other lives she would save others from the misery she felt every night when the nightmares called out to her like a frightful spirit. “Nobody deserves to be overthrown by tragedy nor misery.” – she kept telling herself such thoughts to make sure she didn’t devolve into a narcissitic hiresword that cared only for coin and their survival; hireswords that she had heard that ignored bandit attacks because there was no coin in helping a hamlet from getting raided and pilfered or even those hireswords that would join the bandits on such raids. By the Coin and not by the soul was such a terrible way to live life.
For five years she traveled across Valeal; helping who she could while getting by on her personality and actions. For some villages, hamlets, and outposts the name “Edessa Thorne” has some significance despite her small actions, but those who suffer remember their friends. While seen as not entirely selfless, she has helped where others would turn them away with a glance that reeks of the phrase: “That’s a shame.” – She wants to help people and survive doing it, but sometimes she thinks her small actions have gotten rescinded as soon as she leaves these settlements. She hasn’t really found her purpose in life as this Valealian “ranger”. But given the political and socio problems growing in the world… something will absorb her eventually.
Footnotes
65 years ago: Edwic Devain is born of a common house of Gorgon.
33 years ago: Edwic Devain is knighted.
24 years ago: Ilayna Blackwater is born of the noble ruling house of Gorgon.
18 years ago: The Kingdom of Gorgon joins the war against Malfear.
16 years ago: Thomas Briar, the then spymaster and regent of the Kingdom of Gorgon begins a coup d’etat against the Blackwater dynasty.
16 years ago: Ser Edwic escapes Gorgon in order to safeguard Ilayna Blackwater.
16 years ago: Lord Blackwater withdraws from the war to return home to combat Thomas Briar’s treachery.
16 years ago: Ser Edwic creates the identities of Mauldin Thorne and Edessa Thorne, goes into hiding.
15 years ago: The coup in Gorgon ends with the death of Arthur Blackwater, defeated in battle at King's/Traitors pass. Thomas Briar claims the Gorgon throne.
5 years ago: Edwic Devain/Mauldin Thorne dies.
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