Appearance: Gabby was born with a short, broad build, standing at a mere 5'1. Her shoulders are wide, and she isn't exactly the prettiest of women around, but most wouldn't call her "ugly" so much as "plain." She has blonde hair, a red nose, a blotchy complexion, and olive-colored eyes. She's missing two teeth in the middle-left side of her mouth.
Name: Gabriela "Gabby" Varanus
Age: 18
Personality: Clever, sarcastic, and inquisitive make for dangerous traits in Lucenrai, but Gabby nevertheless possesses all three of them. Still, she manages these traits quite well; her clever tongue wags only when she thinks she has an upper hand, and her inquisitive nature is demonstrated through action, not through words. Never one to sit idly by while the world marches on, Gabby prefers to find things out for herself than to "take some blockhead's word for granted."
"People are bad," Gabby believes, "until they prove they aren't." She always believes someone is going to try and cheat her, betray her, or otherwise harm her in some way. So, she always tries to have a way out for herself, be it an excuse to leave a conversation at the table or having a knife in her sleeve so she can gut whatever bastard thinks he can do what he wants to her. Some would call her paranoid. Gabby calls herself prepared.
Gabby is a thrill-seeker, and it so happens that robbery is her favorite game. It's not the money - well, okay, it's
kind of the money - that draws her to the profession of a burglar, but the excitement, the danger, and the sweet of victory. Conversely, Gabby doesn't like fighting because bleeding hurts. She knows from experience. Holding a knife up against some fat man's throat and listening to him warble on about the injustice of it all, though,
that is precious.
When it comes to her property, the young thief can best be described as "defensive." She knows what's hers, and she'll make certain anyone that gets a bit too close to her things knows, too. The lines blur, however, concerning other people's things. The difference between something she's stolen and something she owns is just a matter of time and place; given a year, that fancy coat may as well be hers, as might that fancy dagger she "justly earned." You know, from some princeling's belt? She stole it. It's hers now.
While Gabby may be a guiltless thief and may enjoy seeing people at her mercy, she doesn't actually want to
hurt people. At least, she doesn't want to hurt people that don't deserve to be hurt. The list of "doesn't deserve to be hurt" may be a bit narrow; after all, people are awful until proven otherwise. Still, you can be on the list by adhering to these "don'ts": don't be rich, don't be rude, and don't try to stab or bludgeon or otherwise main her. Oh, and don't try to cheat her.
Ever.Killing is something that Gabby has done... once. She doesn't want to do it again, but she's promised herself that she will if she has to. She hates it, though, and the act of taking the life from another human being isn't one she takes lightly.
Despite her rough past and her "me first" mentality, Gabby is actually a good friend to have... if she trusts someone enough to call them a friend. She's honest to her friends, and she'll fight for them like a mother bear. Gabby does happen to be the one to get her friends into trouble, though, like
abandoning them in the middle of a dangerous job. Good call, Gabby. Real good call.
Gabby also is very good at keeping her promises... partly because she only makes them sparingly. To her, a promise or an oath, especially one sworn before the divine, is not to be taken lightly.
Gabby also has a bad habit of giving food and stuff to hungry, poor children. They remind her of when she was a street rat or something. She won't deny it, but she won't tell anyone she did it, either, nor will she make any excuses as to why she did it.
Finally, it's worth noting that Gabby loves winning and being right. Likewise, losing isn't something she takes well.
Backstory: Gabby was born to a merchant family with a slowly growing business. They ran a general store in Varya's capital. Gabby's mother would spin clothes to sell while her father handled the store itself; his three employees would get goods from the market for resale, salt meats and make jerky, and peddle unwanted or soon-to-spoil goods in the poorer districts at discount prices. It was a good enough trade to have, and Gabby's father would throw the occasional party for his employees, and he'd subsequently give them bonuses while drunk, but hey: it made them loyal and happy, and it encouraged his men to take him out drinking.
Being a member of the merchant class had a lot of benefits: clean clothes, full bellies, bathing more than once a month, and a bigger house (which, of course, doubled as the store). Gabby enjoyed all of these thoroughly as a child, and she flaunted her possession of these luxuries. She was a
nasty little girl. She teased poorer girls about their ragged clothes, made huge gestures and and forced gagging noises as she talked about their smell, and she loved to show them how good she was at reading - something most peasants can't do. Her mother tried to force that behavior out of her, trying everything from beating to pleading to ranting about how the powers-that-be in the heavens would punish her for acting so crass, but nothing really worked. It didn't help that her father thought it was the funniest thing he'd heard, and that he'd engage her in piercing insult contests.
There were a lot of disagreements between Gabby's parents - her father would stay out drinking until morning, for instance, or her mother would angrily destroy something precious of her father's - and those quarrels reached their peak when she was seven years old. Her father found his wife in bed with one of his employees. After much yelling, fighting, and a few broken pieces of furniture, Gabby's mother left the city with the man she'd slept with. Gabby stayed with her father.
It was a destructive experience for her father. He became a bitter man, and he quickly became addicted to gambling. Gabby's father was a horrible gambler, and he quickly found himself owing a lot of money to a band of roguish individuals that let him borrow some money. When he couldn't pay, he started giving them things from his store.
One night, Gabby heard her father talking to a stranger downstairs, so she crept down to the store front to see what was going on. Her father was talking to a large man wearing a hood, and the word "debt" was tossed around a lot. Apparently, her father had gambled away so much money that he'd have to give up the store itself. He refused, however, and the moment he did, his throat was slit with a steel knife right before Gabby's eyes. When she cried out in shock, the man whirled on her and decided to try silencing her. Gabby ran.
It was through this series of disasters that Gabby found herself on the streets of the capital. Her fine clothes quickly became rags. Her belly became thin. She hadn't bathed in months, and she stank horribly. Gabby mused on her mother's old words, and she decided perhaps her mother was right. Perhaps she'd brought all this on herself and her family. She was eight years old.
Gabby might have died on the street if it weren't for a perceptive old codger that caught her nicking a few pieces of fruit from a fruit stall entirely unnoticed. He saw that she had talent as a thief, so he took her under his wing. He was a member of a guild of thieves, and they liked recruiting their members young; as a desperate and malleable child, she was a perfect candidate for membership in the organization.
Gabby spent the next several years living among thieves, some of them child-initiates like her and a lot of them adult members of the guild. She took quicker to the life than expected, enjoying a chance at having nice things once again (namely by taking them), and especially enjoying having other children in her "family." She taught reading to a few of the other children, and she also taught them some some basic arithmetic - the sort a good merchant's daughter would know. She, in turn, became very good at cutting purses, at moving unnoticed, at using a cudgel properly, and also how to use a dagger (though she preferred the mace). Gabby learned quickly, and she also learned to hate the wealthy - those who, she now understood, had so much in their pockets yet wouldn't give an orphan a few measly coins for a meal. Her teachers cheerfully fostered that hatred.
Gabby was thirteen when she started going on real jobs. Some of her peers considered her a liability; she liked to take risks, and she always wanted the bigger prize despite having something in her hands already. She only got caught a few times, however, and by luck or just by her slippery nature she always escaped. She did lose a couple teeth in one escape, but she got over it.
By the age of seventeen, Gabby had been on enough jobs to know the tricks of the trade - at least, enough to stand out among her young peers. She probably would have become a great member of the guild if she hadn't seen one of the Varyan princes strolling down the street one rainy day, the royal lad flanked by a pair of burly escorts. He was a very handsome boy, maybe a year or two older than her, and before she knew it she was following him with a stupid smile on her face. When the prince's guards noticed this behavior, he demanded to know what her business was, and when she mused some ill-worded flirtatious comment, his response was to laugh, step forward and shove her into the mud before suggesting he'd sooner shag a dog.
An opportunity for revenge came when a client came to the guild requesting they steal some sort of heirloom from the royal family. The payment he offered was phenomenal, but the task was incredibly dangerous, so the guild took volunteers to do the job. Soon enough, Gabby found herself in the company of three much more experienced thieves scaling the castle walls. When told to keep watch for them, however, Gabby decided to duck away when her companions weren't looking so she could sneak off to the prince's chambers and steal the dagger from him.
She made it into his chambers just fine. She even took the dagger (and the fancy sheath and belt that came with it) just fine. However, an alarm rose around the castle as her companions (whom she'd abandoned) were discovered. The prince awoke and started fumbling for his sword. Gabby knocked him out with the pommel of the dagger and fled into the night.
It was too late, however. Gabby was a wanted woman; the prince had recognized her, and others had seen her run by as well. Her poster was everywhere. It didn't help that she'd abandoned her guildmates that night; two of them made it back just fine, but another was executed that very morning. Still, Gabby felt the best thing to do was to come forward to her mentors and admit her mistake. At least, she hoped, she could reason with them and explain herself. They wouldn't kill her, would they?
Hoping to find sanctuary among her fellow thieves was a grave mistake. Her guildmatestried to capture Gabby for themselves and turn her in to the authorities. The girl had to kill one of her friends to escape, and she took a nasty wound from a morningstar in the process. She left the Varyan Empire for good.
Gabby has spent the last year in the Edessan capital, trying to hide her identity and keep herself hidden. With the war slowly getting worse and worse, however, Gabby finds herself on the move again, this time traveling with a group of refugees. She doesn't like it, but she
also does not like the idea of being caught on the road by orcs... or by Varyan soldiers that just might recognize her.
Skills and Abilities: Professional Thievery - Gabby is a natural thief, and she's been training as a cutpurse and burglar since she was eight years old. That honed talent is something to be respected.
Adept Stealth - Gabby has a good grasp of how to go unseen and unheard. She may not be one of the greats yet, but she's got the potential to become one... if she can stop trying to flaunt how good she is at being stealthy. Her personality is a bit counter to the concept of "stealth."
Novice Dagger Wielding - Gabby can use daggers, though not extremely well, and they're not her weapon of choice. Still, she can throw daggers and knives, and she knows how to stab things. She just hasn't mastered anything else.
Adept Bludgeon Wielding - Gabby knows there's more to swinging a mace than just hitting things. Maces have momentum that you need to work with; if you can take advantage of their good qualities, they're very good weapons. Gabby realizes that. Maces and morningstars are her weapons of choice, but she can also beat your head in with a club just fine.
Novice Academics - Gabby is a cut above the normal person when it comes to that book learning stuff. She's got a good grasp of arithmetic, knows her history, can read and write... While she's no scholar, she knows enough from her childhood education and books she's "borrowed" along the way to know some useful information.
Novice Investigator - While Gabby is useless out in the wilds, she's got a good intuition when it comes to finding hidden things. Her skill hasn't developed much beyond that, however.
Novice Packrat - Gabby can find fairly good places to stash things so that others don't find them, both on her person and, say, in the ground. She's also good at keeping her gear nicely organized (which lets her carry a little bit more weight than someone her size normally would).
Equipment:Kirse, Magesteel dagger, light - This ornate and effective dagger is wrought from Magesteel, a material used by Varyan nobility. It has all the beauty and luster of gold while being even more durable than ordinary Varyan steel. While it is expensive to create (an arduous process involving magic, Varyan steel and alchemically-enhanced gold), it is famous for being being easy to enchant. This particular weapon has been enchanted to emit a red light at will from the ruby eyes of its hilt. It was stolen from a Varyan prince, and Gabby has a bounty on her head for that escapade. Lucky her.
Morningstar - A simple morningstar used for pounding someone's skull. Makes you bleed. Yep.
Small bag of jewels - Gabby still has a few ill-gotten gems she's saved up over the years. It's nothing special, but it could be used to buy her way out of a bad situation. Maybe.
Really nice backpack - Gabby's backpack is really well made and can help her hold lots of things. You know, like things she "finds." Or someone might just let her hold onto their things for her; I don't know.
