Race: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Birthday: 55th day of Spring, 493
Birthplace: Between Kenash and Syliras
Appearance: Halfordine is 5’ 2’’ and weighs 105 pounds. She has shoulder length black hair that she frequently ties up in a bun. She appears inconspicuous and prefers dark clothing of common style. She has navy eyes and a lower tooth that slightly juts out. There are no distinguishing marks on her except for the perpetual presence of quill ink on her forearm.
Character Concept
Halfordine is easily dismissed as the shy girl but upon closer examination, one realises that she is quietly judging and evaluating each person and encounter. Her reserved demeanour often makes it difficult for her to make friends and she is actively trying to become a more approachable person. Her attempts to be more personable are hindered by her almost pathological need to give strangers a glare as she looks them over. She tries to hide her ambitious nature but it sometimes slips out. Over the years, she has had some success in schooling her expressions and hiding her true emotions, aided by her growing interest in taking on disguises when wandering the Great Bazaar and studying the actions and behaviour of the different people gathered there.
She becomes more open and animated when it comes to learning new knowledge and skills. She wants to travel the reaches of Mizahar – a feat she knows is almost impossible unless she acquires knowledge, magic and skills from diverse areas. She has a basic knowledge of the earth sciences from her days of growing up on the roads due to her father’s travelling merchant business. She does not have any knowledge of magic but is prepared to put in all effort to learn magic – at the expense of anything.
Her ultimate goal is to bring together the disciplines of earth sciences and magic, perhaps creating a mixed field of Earth magic. Her pursuit of knowledge is, however, not entirely noble. She is conflicted by the opposing desires to acquire knowledge for its own sake and the temptation of power achievable by knowing the land and controlling it through magic. The path that she will eventually take remains to be decided.
She likes studying, silence, and creating strategies for anything. She secretly likes combat and conflict, but usually when she is not directly involved. Almost incongruously, she reveals a feminine side in her love of flowers. She dislikes attention and crowds, though the energy and anonymity of being in a crowd appeals to her.
Character History
Halfordine was born on the roads between Kenash and Syliras. The stress of childbirth which was compounded by travel weakened her mother. Halfordine’s mother eventually passed away in the winter of 496, when Halfordine was 3 years old. Her father, Dyson Soge is a travelling merchant who trades medicine and tobacco, going from Kenash to Syliras to Zeltiva each year. Through her adolescent years, she has picked up a few navigation skills. These skills are, however, limited since the routes taken by her father were cyclical.
During winter, they would return to a small 20x20 room in Stormhole castle. Though well-travelled traders, Halfordine and her father have made huge losses having been robbed on their way to Zeltiva in the spring of 508. It was in this year that she started to learn how to use a dagger. She had begged her father to acquire a dagger for her at the Great Bazaar. Whatever skills she possessed, she learnt from watching the Sylirian knights wielding swords at practice - which admittedly was not all that applicable to wielding a dagger - and asking the guards of wealthier traders for advice. She would find an isolated corner and try to stab at the air with the expertise of one who has an idea of how a dagger is used but without the exact knowledge. She may not have the skill of an assassin, but she will be able to maneuver it around well enough. After all, the cardinal rule of using a dagger was to get it out, point it, and stab. It was also in that spring of 508 that the seed of discontent blossomed in her, leading to the growing hunger for power within her.
She has a bone teacup, which she uses to practice her make-shift fortune-telling skills that, given her abilities, might as well be guesswork. According to her father, her mother used to delight in tea leave readings. It was through tea leave readings that her parents found out her gender when she was a foetus. The limited knowledge of tea leave reading that she has was gleaned from a torn and tattered book that was barely decipherable. She keeps the teacup by her side to hold onto memories of her mother. As an aspiring scholar, she would also like to be able to properly put to test, the actual art and worth of fortune telling. Certainly, she thought, nothing helps as much in understanding the world as being able to forecast into the future.
When she was 18, Halfordine decided that she wanted to go to university at Zeltiva. Learning writing and reading from her father, and devouring books on her own just were not enough for her anymore. After having seen Zeltiva on her numerous trips, she wanted to begin formal learning in the city. So when Dyson Soge made yet another trip to Zeltiva, Halfordine did not move on with him to the next city, but enrolled at the university to build on her bit of knowledge on the earth sciences and to finally pick up some magical skills.
Language
Fluent Language: Common
Poor Language: Jamouran
Skills
Skill | EXP | Total | Proficiency |
Land Navigation | 12 SP | 12 | Novice |
Cooking | 4 SP | 4 | Novice |
Medicine | 8 SP | 8 | Novice |
Investigation | 7 SP | 7 | Novice |
Fortune telling | 3 SP | 3 | Novice |
Disguise | 8 SP | 8 | Novice |
Anthropology | 8 SP | 8 | Novice |
Dagger | 15 RB | 15 | Novice |
Lores
Lore of History of Zeltiva
Possessions
1 Set of Clothing
-Simple Shirt
-Simple Pants
-Simple Undergarments
-Simple Cloak
-Simple Boots
1 Waterskin
1 Backpack which contains:
-Comb (Wood)
-Brush (Wood)
-Soap
-Razor
-Balanced Rations (1 Week's worth)
-1 eating knife
-Flint & Steel
Heirloom: bone teacup
Housing
Location: Zeltiva
House: University living quarters
Ledger
Purchase | Cost | Total |
Starting | +100 GM | 100 GM |
House cash in | +500 GM | 600 GM |
University courses | - 90 GM | 510 GM |
Parchment sheets x 10 | - 20 SM | 508 GM |
Quill | - 5 CM | 507 GM 95 CM |
Disguise kit | - 50 GM | 457 GM 95 CM |
Dagger | - 2 GM | 455 GM 95 CM |
Ink | - 2 GM | 453 GM 95 CM |