Post by stella on Oct 20, 2013 11:24:40 GMT -5
(Character was created for Halt's Playground originally...)
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Profession: Merchant: Blacksmith and Jeweler (former mercenary)
Appearance:
Fin has russet red hair and bright sparkling blue eyes. She is 5’10” tall and her muscular, solid Scandian build is a result not only from her heritage, but from several years training as a fighter and more years wielding the blacksmith’s tools. Though she weighs 190 pounds, there is not an ounce of fat on her, the weight is all muscle.
She wears her hair pulled back in a long braid that reaches down well below her buttocks and is tied up with a leather thong normally. On special occasions she wears it loose as is common for an unmarried woman from her country.
When working at the forge, Fin wears a heavy, brown leather apron that covers her from chin to knees over a brown leather halter top that supports her ample breasts but leaves her arms and belly exposed. The outfit is designed to relieve some of the heat suffered from the forge, but it also has the added affect of showing off her considerable muscles. She wears dark brown leather knickers that go to just below her knees where they meet up with light tan leather boots that are laced in a criss-cross pattern from ankle to knee.
When she is just selling her wares in her merchant wagon, she wears the traditional Skandian woman’s underdress and overdress often in shades of blue with two large brooches (one at each shoulder). The overdress is just a rectangle piece of material that is pinned at the shoulders and the underdress is a light colored material with tight fitting sleeves and a scooped neckline. The hem that falls down to her ankles. She likes to slit the skirt up the sides for ease of movement.
Often she wears her fur boots, a fur lined hat with a bell on the point and a fur vest during the colder weather. She is always armed with at least one sword and dagger suspended from a brown leather belt around her waist. She also has a pair of wooden shoes that she wears when there is a lot of ice on the ground. These allow her to skate across the ice without falling down. A very long leather bull whip is coiled and tied to a loop on her belt.
Personality:
Fin is an outgoing, lusty, life-loving woman who generally prefers the company of men to that of women. She enjoys the more bawdy and surly type of men who generally make up the majority of sailors and soldiers. She has a quick wit and a ready sense of humor. She loves a good joke told well almost as much as she loves a pint of good ale or honey mead. If not for her obvious feminine appearance, she could be mistaken for a man based on her behavior. Most men find her very easy to talk to and get along with – up until they try to take “liberties” with her.
Fin has always fought against the traditional role of a woman of Skandia, so she has never married. She wants to see the world and she has no desire to settle down in one place for the rest of her life. She does long for male companionship, however, and occasionally even has thoughts of desiring children, but she feels she would have to give up her life of travel if she were to get married. She would be very happy if she found a man willing to put up with her roving lifestyle. Fin is great with people and a shrewd negotiator.
She is very artistic and pours her soul into every piece of jewelry or weapon she creates and has a talent for tailoring commissioned items to their owner’s personalities. She also gets along very well with most animals, especially horses and dogs. She has a fondness for bears resulting from a particular incident in her early childhood.
She is very competitive and athletic and often rises to challenges and dares, risking herself on bets when a good profit can be won. She is fearless to the casual observer, but once someone gets to know her, they can see her softer, more feminine side and the fact that her greatest fear is dying alone on the trail with no one to mourn her or care that she is gone. She also has a fear of snakes and some insects of the deadlier variety. She is not really fond of big cities, but has gotten used to them through her interactions as a merchant. She hates war and the gore and death of battles and does not understand why people can’t just work out their differences without fighting.
History:
Glorfindel was born and raised in Skandia in a sea hold called Bruinheim, along the Stormwhite Sea not far from Hollasholm. Her mother calls her “Glory” while everyone else calls her “Fin”. Her father was a blacksmith, and although her mother tried to birth several children, Fin was the only one who survived beyond the age of 10. Her father began teaching her the basics of smithing, since he had no son to pass the business along to.
At age 14 she followed an impulse and stowed away on a wolfship, hiding in the forecastle until they were so far out to sea that when she was discovered four days later, suffering from dehydration and hunger, it was too late to take her back to Bruinheim or even Hollasholm. So they were forced to take her with them on the raids. A couple of old sailors took her under their wing and treated her as if she were just another young lad on his first voyage. They taught her some basic fighting skills with sword and axe. She had made herself some basic armor that fit her well, but was not of the highest quality workmanship since she was still learning the finer points of weaponsmithing, armouring and forging.
Although this first voyage exposed her to many things and she gained a vast amount of experience in a short time, she discovered that she loathed the idea of her people stealing from other lands’ hard-working peasants who were only trying to scrape out an existence for themselves. She felt no remorse over taking from the wealthy however. But she began to develop the idea that trade was a much more savory way to earn a living than raiding.
After that raiding trip, she returned to her father’s forge and set her mind to learning as much as she could of the trade as quickly as possible. She began to develop ideas for jewelry and other marketable items based on what she had seen in her travels and from visiting merchants. She decided that she wanted to travel the world, see the sights, and make money all at the same time and determined that the merchant life was the one for her. So she set about building herself a wagon that would be pulled by four Skandian draft horses and would house living space and her merchant wares and her forge and tools. She built the wagon with only a little help from a wainwright and her father. It, along with the traditional crafting of ones smithy and tools were her “exam” and defined her graduation from apprentice to journeyman as a blacksmith. She spent a couple more years plying her trade and skills both as blacksmith, Ferrier, and fighter until she had enough money to purchase the draft horses to pull her wagon.
At age 19 she set off in her wagon, bound for Tuetlandt and the lands beyond. She travelled the main land for several years and never grew tired of life on the road, seeing new places and meeting new people. She was welcomed in most places and even developed a circuit for three years, returning to the same places, carrying goods for other merchants from place to place in addition to her own wares.
Eventually she desired to see Araluen and the island countries and so she found a ship that could transport her horses and wagon and set off for Marshwood Fief. She fell in love with the land there, it being similar to her own home of Bruinheim.
She now considers Marshwood to be her home and divides most of her time between the towns surrounding Marshwood Castle and Stoneheath Castle. She travels in her wagon during the summer months through Caraway, Araluen and Norgate and even up into the Scotti Mountains and then back to Marshwood on the Scotti side of the border, trading, smithing, and selling her armor, weapons, jewelry and other trinkets. She generally spends the first half of the winter in Marshwood and the second half in Stoneheath and frequents the Ruddy Duck and the Dancing Bear inns for companionship and to keep up with the news outside of the Fief.
Additional Information:
Her four horses look like Shire horses, being black and white pinto colored with huge, shaggy feet and long shaggy manes and tails. They are now in the prime of their life at around age 13 and have many more years ahead of them.
She knows how to fight with two short swords, a long sword and dagger, a two-handed bastard sword and with Florentine axes or one-handed battle axe, but she is not a great fighter. She is adequate – maybe slightly above average, but certainly not highly skilled. She carries a dagger at her belt and normally one in each boot. She has been known to use red-hot pokers as theft deterrents on occasion.
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Profession: Merchant: Blacksmith and Jeweler (former mercenary)
Appearance:
Fin has russet red hair and bright sparkling blue eyes. She is 5’10” tall and her muscular, solid Scandian build is a result not only from her heritage, but from several years training as a fighter and more years wielding the blacksmith’s tools. Though she weighs 190 pounds, there is not an ounce of fat on her, the weight is all muscle.
She wears her hair pulled back in a long braid that reaches down well below her buttocks and is tied up with a leather thong normally. On special occasions she wears it loose as is common for an unmarried woman from her country.
When working at the forge, Fin wears a heavy, brown leather apron that covers her from chin to knees over a brown leather halter top that supports her ample breasts but leaves her arms and belly exposed. The outfit is designed to relieve some of the heat suffered from the forge, but it also has the added affect of showing off her considerable muscles. She wears dark brown leather knickers that go to just below her knees where they meet up with light tan leather boots that are laced in a criss-cross pattern from ankle to knee.
When she is just selling her wares in her merchant wagon, she wears the traditional Skandian woman’s underdress and overdress often in shades of blue with two large brooches (one at each shoulder). The overdress is just a rectangle piece of material that is pinned at the shoulders and the underdress is a light colored material with tight fitting sleeves and a scooped neckline. The hem that falls down to her ankles. She likes to slit the skirt up the sides for ease of movement.
Often she wears her fur boots, a fur lined hat with a bell on the point and a fur vest during the colder weather. She is always armed with at least one sword and dagger suspended from a brown leather belt around her waist. She also has a pair of wooden shoes that she wears when there is a lot of ice on the ground. These allow her to skate across the ice without falling down. A very long leather bull whip is coiled and tied to a loop on her belt.
Personality:
Fin is an outgoing, lusty, life-loving woman who generally prefers the company of men to that of women. She enjoys the more bawdy and surly type of men who generally make up the majority of sailors and soldiers. She has a quick wit and a ready sense of humor. She loves a good joke told well almost as much as she loves a pint of good ale or honey mead. If not for her obvious feminine appearance, she could be mistaken for a man based on her behavior. Most men find her very easy to talk to and get along with – up until they try to take “liberties” with her.
Fin has always fought against the traditional role of a woman of Skandia, so she has never married. She wants to see the world and she has no desire to settle down in one place for the rest of her life. She does long for male companionship, however, and occasionally even has thoughts of desiring children, but she feels she would have to give up her life of travel if she were to get married. She would be very happy if she found a man willing to put up with her roving lifestyle. Fin is great with people and a shrewd negotiator.
She is very artistic and pours her soul into every piece of jewelry or weapon she creates and has a talent for tailoring commissioned items to their owner’s personalities. She also gets along very well with most animals, especially horses and dogs. She has a fondness for bears resulting from a particular incident in her early childhood.
She is very competitive and athletic and often rises to challenges and dares, risking herself on bets when a good profit can be won. She is fearless to the casual observer, but once someone gets to know her, they can see her softer, more feminine side and the fact that her greatest fear is dying alone on the trail with no one to mourn her or care that she is gone. She also has a fear of snakes and some insects of the deadlier variety. She is not really fond of big cities, but has gotten used to them through her interactions as a merchant. She hates war and the gore and death of battles and does not understand why people can’t just work out their differences without fighting.
History:
Glorfindel was born and raised in Skandia in a sea hold called Bruinheim, along the Stormwhite Sea not far from Hollasholm. Her mother calls her “Glory” while everyone else calls her “Fin”. Her father was a blacksmith, and although her mother tried to birth several children, Fin was the only one who survived beyond the age of 10. Her father began teaching her the basics of smithing, since he had no son to pass the business along to.
At age 14 she followed an impulse and stowed away on a wolfship, hiding in the forecastle until they were so far out to sea that when she was discovered four days later, suffering from dehydration and hunger, it was too late to take her back to Bruinheim or even Hollasholm. So they were forced to take her with them on the raids. A couple of old sailors took her under their wing and treated her as if she were just another young lad on his first voyage. They taught her some basic fighting skills with sword and axe. She had made herself some basic armor that fit her well, but was not of the highest quality workmanship since she was still learning the finer points of weaponsmithing, armouring and forging.
Although this first voyage exposed her to many things and she gained a vast amount of experience in a short time, she discovered that she loathed the idea of her people stealing from other lands’ hard-working peasants who were only trying to scrape out an existence for themselves. She felt no remorse over taking from the wealthy however. But she began to develop the idea that trade was a much more savory way to earn a living than raiding.
After that raiding trip, she returned to her father’s forge and set her mind to learning as much as she could of the trade as quickly as possible. She began to develop ideas for jewelry and other marketable items based on what she had seen in her travels and from visiting merchants. She decided that she wanted to travel the world, see the sights, and make money all at the same time and determined that the merchant life was the one for her. So she set about building herself a wagon that would be pulled by four Skandian draft horses and would house living space and her merchant wares and her forge and tools. She built the wagon with only a little help from a wainwright and her father. It, along with the traditional crafting of ones smithy and tools were her “exam” and defined her graduation from apprentice to journeyman as a blacksmith. She spent a couple more years plying her trade and skills both as blacksmith, Ferrier, and fighter until she had enough money to purchase the draft horses to pull her wagon.
At age 19 she set off in her wagon, bound for Tuetlandt and the lands beyond. She travelled the main land for several years and never grew tired of life on the road, seeing new places and meeting new people. She was welcomed in most places and even developed a circuit for three years, returning to the same places, carrying goods for other merchants from place to place in addition to her own wares.
Eventually she desired to see Araluen and the island countries and so she found a ship that could transport her horses and wagon and set off for Marshwood Fief. She fell in love with the land there, it being similar to her own home of Bruinheim.
She now considers Marshwood to be her home and divides most of her time between the towns surrounding Marshwood Castle and Stoneheath Castle. She travels in her wagon during the summer months through Caraway, Araluen and Norgate and even up into the Scotti Mountains and then back to Marshwood on the Scotti side of the border, trading, smithing, and selling her armor, weapons, jewelry and other trinkets. She generally spends the first half of the winter in Marshwood and the second half in Stoneheath and frequents the Ruddy Duck and the Dancing Bear inns for companionship and to keep up with the news outside of the Fief.
Additional Information:
Her four horses look like Shire horses, being black and white pinto colored with huge, shaggy feet and long shaggy manes and tails. They are now in the prime of their life at around age 13 and have many more years ahead of them.
She knows how to fight with two short swords, a long sword and dagger, a two-handed bastard sword and with Florentine axes or one-handed battle axe, but she is not a great fighter. She is adequate – maybe slightly above average, but certainly not highly skilled. She carries a dagger at her belt and normally one in each boot. She has been known to use red-hot pokers as theft deterrents on occasion.