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Measuring below average at a lean 5'9", Swanhilde is a comparative featherweight among Nords. The small deposits of muscle in her arms, legs and core evidence physical feats that are acrobatic in nature. Being lighter also has the advantage of moving around less weight when traipsing roof- and treetops, or creeping through hostile territory. Reaching the centre of her back are two tight braids that keep the golden mess from obscuring her dark, blue eyes, and sharp, pale features. Her everyday wear consists of leggings, tunics, vests and loose pantaloons, while on jobs she'll don light armour and a hooded cloak, favouring the style and functionality of hardened leather riveted to flexible hide. Either sets of attire are likely to show skin wreathed with scars.
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【
Full Name】
Swanhilde Sea-Swift 【
Alias】
Hilda the Swift, Swan (rare) 【
Race】
Nord 【
Gender】
Female 【
Age】
28 【
Sexuality】
Undefined 【
Birth Place】
Brunvar Steading, The Rift 【
Nation/Allegiance】
Independent Ex-Patriate of Skyrim 【
Profession】
Mercenary Sentinel --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
【
Personality】
An opportunistic soul, she prefers the quick gain over a long and drawn-out, planned approach, and therefore pursues business and pleasure with impetuous gusto. As reliably honest as she is blunt it can prove difficult to gauge her mood from under that ill-temper. Whilst she is resourceful, capable of talking her way out from under a blade and pacifying the ire brought upon herself through conflict, she is still prone to the pratfalls of hastily made, sometimes irrational, decisions. A bold and haughty tongue persists in compromising situations, and her tone rings with arrogance still when encountering loss, embarrassment or failure. At the very least the promise of a reward keeps rebellious airs in check when self-preservation fails to. If Swanhilde was to ever regret anything in hindsight, she is too possessed of stubbornness and pride to admit it. It takes a strong argument to persuade her loyalty, but once won over, her promises and efforts hold stronger than steel.
Surprisingly, her interests don’t all fall under a fixation on military culture or a love of the sea. Sketching land formations to assist a Pirate Sailing Master developed into a pastime, with her favourite subjects being ancient landmarks and people. It draws from her impeccable memory which unfortunately escapes her when pressed to reveal the entirety of what her keen ears and eyes catch. An awareness of regional events and politics is more of an occupational necessity than a chosen interest, but it arouses her curiosity all the same. She has the provisioning skill of an able apprentice, and a penchant for alchemy that is of practical use. Whilst acquired through experience rather than study, her knowledge has the potential to launch promising careers in either field, should she ever slow down.
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【
History】
Whilst her spoken accounts are far from fiction, they are not a complete picture of the truth.
Born in 4E 196, the fifth child of Brunvar, a self-made businessman of the respected Sea-Swift clan, and Jaedis, an advisor in Laila Law-Giver’s court, Swanhilde was to become a valuable asset in her family’s plans for expansion. Located on the southern shores of Lake Honrich, the family residence, small fruit orchard, and the vast crops of wheat, hops and barley surrounding it, comprised Brunvar Steading. It was the base of operations for Bruvar's export trade, helped along with the financial backing of Adelveig, Jaedis’ brother, and their Breton friend from the Great War, Ainmire.
The advantages of operating on the flanks of Skyrim’s trade gateway ensured steady growth at the cost of stability. Heated competition between rival breweries caused fluctuation in crop prices, and if people weren’t already too afraid to peddle his stock, the Dragon crisis and Civil War made transport alone a lucrative business. The steep rise in criminal activity would be the only remnant effect of the tumultuous period between 4E 201-202. Mercenaries profited from both their business and their predicament, filling the void left over by an apparently understaffed Town Guard. As their only daughter, Swanhilde was trained for her familial duty in seclusion, receiving private lessons in academia and etiquette that would mold her into a highly sought after candidate for betrothal.
Living out her childhood regime during events that would become legend, Swanhilde was taken captive by wild dreams of what lay beyond their heavy gates. She wanted what the bards sang about, to feature in a story that traded lute-tootling for swordplay, wound up tutors for mythical creatures, and a life sentence enforced by her mother’s “rule”, for a life questing with heroes of folklore. The growing weight of unmet desires would become increasingly difficult to reckon with as she grew older. Later she would learn how to harbour this restlessness and resentment, but until then she coped by wreaking discord from her ornate prison cell.
Unlike her elder half-sister, the uncounted sixth child born before her mother married, Swanhilde couldn’t settle for domestic, leisurely bliss and took every opportunity to exercise her free-will. She made a regular game out of hiding from her retainers and testing security perimeters by sneaking out, and her efforts only grew bolder by the year. At ten, she was baiting mercenary guards into teaching her how to wield a dagger and throw fists. At twelve, she was an able enough cook to avoid the never ending parade of dinner parties. Despite her mother’s strict disciplinary efforts, Swanhilde grew from a mischievous little girl into an increasingly reckless and inconsiderate youth. By her sixteenth birthday, her reputation was so widespread, private tutelage was no longer an option and she was barred from visiting Riften to see her father. She was confined to her own wing, with books and set exercises her only pastime between family engagements. For two years, she was virtually hidden from the public eye.
News of her father expanding the business into Cyrodiil reached her by courier, but the summons to join him was only extended to her mother and half-sister. By then, her brothers each had families and roles in the business to call their own, and her mother’s ambitions were focused solely on Signe, the daughter who hadn’t completely “ruined” her eligibility for marriage. The homestead was bequeathed to Brunvar’s youngest son, a strategic genius of a dandy, whose first order of business was to relocate Swanhilde to one of his apartments in Solitude. During the perilous ride she broke away with a portion of her allotted fortune and made for Markarth. In the three years that followed, she changed her name, learned to hunt, became a barmaid, and eked out an uneventful existence, until the day she ran afoul of some powerful figures. They were most likely advisors from the Jarl’s court, and were alerted to her in reports of an informant leaking town guard patterns to a skooma dealer. By miracle of jurisdiction, she and the dealer escaped head hunters into neighbouring Jehanna, where he hastily palmed her off to a band of scavengers he knew, promising to return later.
A year later, after amassing a humble fortune picking valuable dust particles and the occasional relic from abandoned mine shafts, she joined a splinter group that pooled their earnings together and invested in a small schooner. Their attempt at an honest trade in the fishing industry, however well-intended, was naive, and lasted only a season. As a result of political uprisings, resources were invested in the containment of chaos on land, leaving large stretches of Tamriel’s northwestern seas under light patrol, if any. Hardened by their rocky start, what remained of the crew adapted to the capriciously fickle circumstances, essentially becoming pirates, cutthroats and daredevils themselves. Through the salvaging of wrecks they applied upgrades to their ship, amassed a larger crew, and eventually developed an appetite for live prey once they acquired the “capabilities” to pursue it. Now a young woman, Swanhilde was competent in her role assisting the Sailing Master. Her new alias “Hilda the Swift” was given for her bird-like precision in spotting ships from the Crow’s Nest, and her swiftness in scaling the terrain, be it slippery spurs and masts, or treetops and slopes when surveying terraforms before landings.
Clearer than the path in front of her was the memory of being separated from her crew. From the islet Swanhilde washed up on, she managed to signal a small fishing vessel making its return voyage to the Gold Coast from Stros M’kai. A slave ship travelling in the direction of Valenwood was sighted not far from their destination. Outfitted with heavy cannons befitting its ambitious route into Dominion territory, it was given wide berth, yet on its upper decks Swanhilde spotted prisoners that resembled members of her crew. Once ashore, Hilda’s luck headed much in the same direction. Her determination to find passage eastwards was allayed by naval activity off the coast of Leyawiin, and a year later, the situation in Elsweyr compromised her livelihood, as work began drying up on the seas. The quest to reunite with her fellows was quickly suspended for the more pressing need to find her own means of survival. Rumours arose of a group operating out of a nearby smuggler’s den. At the time, she was harvesting rare alchemical ingredients, and signed on without hesitation. The work entailed guarding convoys that peddled their pilfered stores to all walks of life, from needy nobles to outposts and encampments cut off from military supply lines.
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Skills and AbilitiesSpeed and endurance are her flagship traits. An expert at evasion and sneaking, she can incorporate acrobatics to a make more difficult target of herself, and has the stamina to cover great distances on foot.
Short-swords and daggers facilitate a fluid fighting style where her fine footwork and evasive rolls are used to outmanoeuvre an opponent and strike from compromising angles. She is capable of pairing sword with dagger, and using either or, but favours dual shortswords, which she expertly wields with the only semblance of grace she possesses.
A light shield and sword are employed in larger-scale battles, where the targets are numerous, and there are less opportunities to gain distance in retreat. While only matching an apprentice’s level of blocking skill, she retains her competence with a sword, and uses her shield to lessen the shock and severity of blows that may find her blindside.
Growing up on a farm that supplied breweries, plus time spent exploring the wilderness, instilled her with an adept’s aptitude for identifying reagents and memorising their properties and uses. She is as proficient in alchemy as she is in provisioning, knowing how prolong the life of perishables through smoking, curing, pickling and preserving, as well as livening up bland staples using herbs and spices.
Vital to any survivalist is the knowledge of how to hunt, which Swanhilde possesses to the same level as an apprenticing archer. The use of a bow is only complimentary in battle, she can nock, aim and shoot, but under pressure these capabilities suffer. Being able to fish and trap small game means she hasn’t needed to rely heavily on archery off the battlefield, either. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Weapons/Tools and MagicWeapons/Tools/Armour
Leather Armour
2 x Steel Daggers (alt: a shortsword and light shield from the den's armory)
Hunter’s Bow
Iron Arrows (x20)
A pack containing:
2 x waterskins
2 x red apples
Cured meat (three days’ ration)
Bandages and wadding for minor bleeds
A worn and dented hip-flask, three-quarter’s full of health potion (weak)
A repair kit for mending rips and dents, and polishing the blood from her armour and weaponry
Charcoal and a leather-bound journal
Flint and tinder
Whetstone
Member
Izurich,
Eviledd1984,
BrokenPromise,
Hos,
ERode,
Star Cat,
Majoraa,
InnerFlame,
DrDistasteful,
anothered