Rionach Stormhand

[Rionach Stormhand]

Rionach Stormhand of the Amethyst Clan Appearance Race: Drykas Gender: Female Age: 25. Birthday: 1 Spring 488. Birthplace: Cyphrus (Sea of Grass). Occupation: Hunter. Strider: Claybank/red dun stallion, Wind. Appearance: (Model: Lucy Lawless, Salem) In the Drykas custom for free people, Rionach is very proud of her hair. It's down to her tailbone when braided, just grazing the surface of whatever she sits on--exceptionally notable since she's just shy of six feet tall. In a plain braid, her usual hairstyle to keep it out of the way, it's nearly as thick as her wrist. She can almost sit on her hair when it's loose, and before she was married she loved wearing bright wraps and silver beads to show off her soft, matte-black waves. After marrying her husband, she toned it down to "only" the wraps, and her half-brothers liked to joke that since their father made her hair-wraps, they were probably more expensive than silver. Her face is long and rawboned, attractive in a hard way: Her chin is sharp and her nose is very strong, teetering on hawk-like, especially with her wide brown eyes. Her skin is average for a human, neither fair nor dark, although she does tan easily. In addition to her unusual height, Rionach was known among suitors for her ample curves. However, the recent death of her family has taken a huge toll on her: She eats erratically, often forgetting one or two meals, and her Strider is currently in better shape than she is. Her clothes are starting to sag at her chest and hips, and she only combs her hair out of habit--but again, she tends to forget it for a day or two, and it's not unheard of for her to wander around in a slept-on braid. Thanks to her father's wealth, she's accumulated a lot of bracelets and rings, though she no longer wears them due to her grief: Instead they're hidden in a saddlebag, and she sells or barters them as needed. However, one piece of jewelry that she still wears is a silver necklace with dangling glassbeak scales, taken from her oldest half-brother's body. It is conspicuously broken, with two or three inches of leather carefully knotted to balance out the right side. Her Strider's yvas has a matching piece of jewelry--the piece that she couldn't join back to the main necklace--dangling between the handles. The second piece of jewelry that she still wears is a sky-blue turquoise bracelet with the bold and heavy design of a man's jewelry. This was her husband's bracelet from the Sapphire clan, also taken from his body. Her windmark is a set of three long red spirals on her dominant left arm, twining around it all the way from her collarbone to to her wrist. She often wears sleeveless shirts or dresses, as much out of pride as for intimidation--it took a full month for her to use her arm again, due to the tattoo's difficult placement. Character Concept Grief is the first word for Rionach: Three months ago, her family was caught in the path of raiders while she was out hunting, and she came home to find only the bodies of her father, husband and half-brothers--her father's two wives, her brothers' wives, and her nieces and nephews have all vanished. She knows as well as anyone that they're probably slaves by now, if they didn't die on the way to somewhere. The most she can do is hope they died painlessly, or that they find a kind master. Knowing the realities of life doesn't make her pain any less deep, and to that effect she's emotionally stranded in a culture as family-oriented as they come. "Normal" Rionach, before losing her family, is almost unrecognizable from the quietly lost woman wandering around Mizahar. "High-minded" when people were being polite, and "like a mare in heat" when they weren't, she took great pride in both her own accomplishments and her family's, with a confidence that matched her striking appearance very well. However, pride doesn't always mean ill-tempered, and the only thing she'd really get offended about were jokes about her husband and brothers being shorter than her. More often, her lack of reaction would have been more of a blow to someone's esteem than an open insult--it usually meant she either didn't notice you, or just didn't care. Currently Rionach's hit rock-bottom in grief, and she doesn't know what to do with herself. Without her nieces and nephews to look after, the familiar chatter of her family, and the constant stream of in-laws, she has a tendency to talk to her Strider stallion, Wind. She doesn't care if she's considered mad or strange for it--aside from Wind, she has nothing left to lose, so what's a few jokes about the crazy Drykas woman talking to her horse? Character History Rionach Stormhand is a member of the Amethyst clan. Born during the last monsoon of the season to Irial Stormhand's favored second wife, Rionach was born in relative prosperity for a Drykas. Her father had large herds of horses and zibri both, and was known throughout the clans for his masterful needlework and weaving. Rionach grew up to be a prominent spear-wielder and a competent hunter. She received her windmark and her Strider on her first hunt at seventeen. Her first adult kill was actually a deer--being young (and full of herself, she'd admitted only to her husband), she decided to butcher it right away instead of hauling it back to camp, and got ambushed by a glassbeak halfway though. It killed her riding mount, and her pack mount fled after shedding its yvas. In her rush of terror, Rionach didn't realize that the horse she'd mounted to flee was a third: A claybank Strider stallion. She had two lucky breaks: The first was that the glassbeak stopped for a precious few seconds to eat some horse meat, so her yet-unknown Strider managed to get a head start. The second was that her oldest half-brother found her galloping desperately back to the pavilion. With both siblings' instinctive knowledge that trouble was coming fast (very fast, being a glassbeak), all her brother could do was catch up to her on his own horse, take a second to aim behind them, and throw it as hard as he could without slowing down. The glassbeak died immediately. An exhausted Rionach helped her brother drag the carcass to the safety of the pavilion as fast as possible, and her Strider stallion became the talk of the the family, especially with his glorious red coat and his dramatic arrival. She named him Wind and soon after, Rionach received her windmark tattoo: Three long red spirals from her collarbone to her left wrist. She would always remember it as an instant thing: Her half-brother caught up to her, she barely saw him raise the spear amidst the wind of their galloping, and suddenly the glassbeak was dead. She often told her nephews and nieces that the spear turned into a lightning bolt and that was why she hadn't seen it clearly. (Her oldest nephew and niece eventually realized magic didn't work that way, but they still enjoyed the normal version of events.) He made a necklace of glassbeak scales to celebrate his victory. At twenty she married Lorcan of the Sapphire Clan. They did try for children, but after two years and a miscarriage, it was reluctantly accepted that their children would be few, if any. But amidst the continued effort for children, they were content with helping raise their nieces and nephews, often joking that they'd only help when the kids were behaving. Her oldest nephew had turned fifteen when the disaster happened: Coming back from a hunting trip to celebrate his birthday, Rionach knew that the silence in her family's pavilion couldn't be good. The animals were all gone, most of the portable valuables stolen, and she only saw the bodies of the adult men--her female family members and her nieces and nephews had vanished. It didn't take a genius to know what kind of raiders they'd been: Slavers, or at least opportunistic bandits. Four women and seven children would fetch a decent price in the market, especially with Drykas horses and livestock. She doesn't remember much past taking her family's bodies out to the grass--only that she took her husband's turquoise bracelet and rode as far as possible, where she can't see or hear anything about Cyphrus or the Sea of Grass. Right now she's right at the edge of Syliras, two or three days to the Evantide Tower, and quite a bit worse for wear. Language Fluent Language: Pavi Basic Language: Common (good grammar, but heavy accent) Poor Language: N/A Skills Skill EXP Total Proficiency Textiles (sewing) 0 RB, 10 SP 10 # Novice Wilderness Survival (Plains) 0 RB, 10 SP 10 # Novice Weapons (spear) 0 RB, 20 SP 20 # Competent Riding (Horse) 10 RB, 0 SP 10 # Novice Hunting 0 RB, 10 SP 10 # Novice Lores Lore - Knowledge of Drykas Clans. Lore - Knowledge of Drykas Culture. Possessions -1 traveling outfit: Blue wool half-sleeve tunic. Paler blue knotwork trim at the sleeve hems, neckline and bottom hem. Dark gray matching pants. -1 sash: Dark purple, with lavender embroidered birds for the Amethyst Clan. Worn with either the dress or the tunic. -1 wool dress: Sleeveless dress in pale gray wool with an ankle-length skirt. Deep blue embroidered vines along the sleeve hems, neckline, and spiraling down the skirt. -1 cloak: Dark brown wool with rust-red embroidered knotwork along the hood hemline and bottom hem. Ankle length. -1 pair of leather boots: Dark brown, knee-high, 2-inch heels. -1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Comb (Wood) -Brush (Wood) -Soap -Razor -Balanced Rations (1 Week's worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel 100 Gold Mizas Heirloom: Her husband's bracelet: Heavy bronze wire strung with bright turquoise beads. Her brother's necklace: Silver beads and glassbeak scales, with a few inches of the right side repaired with knotted leather cord. The missing piece hangs between her Strider's yvas handles. Housing Location: Syliras House: No permanent home. Currently two or three days' ride from the Evantide Tower. Ledger Purchase Cost Total Starting +100 GM 100 GM Thread List CURRENT - (Evantide Outpost) Lost and Found