River Paleblood
Appearance
River is a strong woman with a rather pale complexion. Her body is fairly sturdy and muscular, but built in a way that she retains her speed and agility. She appears to be rather savage looking, which makes sense due to her years of living on the road. River shaves most of her hair besides the top, which she keeps rather wild and cut short. This is to keep people from grabbing her hair in battle, as she deals with people who fight dirty. Her face is scared around her eyes and mouth from the treatment of bandits who kept her prisoner.
Skills and Abilities
Berserker: Running into battle fearlessly, River never hesitates. She’s always the first to charge, and can take a ton of punishment while moving quickly across the battlefield. In a fight she’s actually better when facing multiple people. River likes to disrupt the flow of battle, and keep people fumbling over each other. As she described it “To be in a fight is to sleep with chaos”, although she was much more crass. Where most try to control the situation using their experience, River knows that anything can happen in battle. While facing a bandit head on, another easily could be coming from behind. So, River trained by constantly fighting multiple people from the mercenary party. Basically relying on her senses, speed, and reflexes to cut down multiple enemies.
Savage Nature: River may have been trained by a skilled mercenary, but she is far from his fighting style. Where his was refined, clean, and precise, her’s is brutal, messy, wild, and dirty. River is fueled by her harsh upbringing, and her emotions go wild as she fights. To believe she is bad at fighting would be a grave mistake, though. River is a great swordswoman, it is how she uses that knowledge in a fight that differs. Her greatest weapon is her unpredictability. Starting fires, biting, spitting paint into eyes, and headbutts are some of her favorite tricks. She also wears medium armor that’s made from leather mostly. This allows her to move faster, which is important to her wild and fast paced fighting style.
Sword fighting: River fights best with with short swords and long daggers. Trained by her adopted father at a young age, she is very good in a fight.
Dual-wielding Blades: Two weapons are always in River’s hands in a fight. She prefers two short swords, however, she can manage with a sword and a long dagger.
Parrying: Instead of blocking, River mostly parries incoming attacks. If something can’t be parried, River will likely dodge out of the way.
Brawling: River is a great fist fighter. She can take a hard hit, and keep swinging. Bar fights are a pastime of her’s, and she’s had a lot of them. In life and death fights, her brawling and dirty fighting skills help River beat all manner of enemies.
Throwing Weapons: With a hatchet or a throwing knife, River has pretty good aim. Much better aim than with a bow. Knives are easier to throw than hatchets, though.
Archery: River can use a bow, however, it is not something she has mastered. Shooting bandits from about 100 feet isn’t too hard, but the farther they are, the harder they are to hit. She mostly uses bows for hunting.
Riding: For years River would travel by horse with mercenaries to protect caravans. However, she hates it. She’d much rather walk on her own or ride in a caravan.
Hunting: River can track animals, skin them, and prepare the meat. She can do the same for bandits too, of course she doesn’t eat them. River can track through various terrains, and she’s pretty sneaky while stalking around.
Loner: River has trust issues. Meaning she has trouble working with others or asking for help. She’ll need something big to change her mind.
Resistance to Cold: She is barely phased by the cold weather thanks to her heritage.
Personality
River is a strong, young woman who dislikes being tied to groups. Her allegiance is to people she has met and bonded with, rather than the huge groups and ideas that bring together strangers. She sees them as sheep, plain and simple. While she does believe in religion, she respects the ‘shepherds’, not the ‘flock’. Despite a rough upbringing, River is the life of the party. Often she’ll waste her money drinking and gabbling, making her bad with money. Despite her intimidating and off-putting appearance, River is friendly and quick to offer her services.
She hates bandits and raiders with a passion, and will rarely show them mercy. Her wild nature actually makes people think she’s a raider of sorts, which pisses her off. A good rule is to never compare her to a bandit. She enjoys hunting and killing her own food, as well, but hunting animals for sport only is too cruel to her. Bandits soon the other hand she’ll hunt with a smile on her face. Her attitude is fairly crude, loud, and rowdy. But at the same time she is trustworthy, fierce, protective, and unwavering. Loves drinking with the few people she’d call her friends (And anyone who seems fun). She likes to keep trophies, so most of her armor and weapons were taken from dead Bandits.
Biography & Lore
River was born in Writhereach, a village in Eretejva Tundra. Her mother was a low class miner, while her father was a wealthy merchant who traveled there. The two were never married, which made raising her difficult. The two clearly disliked one another. Her father wanted to take them somewhere better than this poor town, while her mother didn't want her daughter to be a weak willed wench. She thought River should stay in the town and become strong. The outbreak of a class war made things difficult for River to stay, though. She was the daughter of a noble merchant, after all, so they fled when she was roughly 12 years old.
Her father was optimistic about relocating with his caravan, while River missed her mother greatly. But their journey didn't last long. She was orphaned rather early, however, when her father was murdered in a raid on their caravans. The young girl was even kidnapped by her father's killers. Her captors were horrible men, and they took joy in terrorizing her for days while inside a cage. Thankfully, she'd be saved by a mercenary who was hired to exterminate the group. Afterwards, he took pity on the young girl and took her along with him on jobs such as protecting caravans and killing bandits. The man trained River to use a sword and bow in an attempt to make her useful on the missions he took her on.
By the age eighteen, River was already skilled young mercenary who'd already taken a few heads. Sadly, her caretaker would die in combat against a bandits attack on the caravan he was guarding. River could take care of herself now, though. So she'd travel wherever each mission took her, collect the money, and then take another one. River has been around enough of the world to know every side has their own agenda and downsides. That's why she'll never pledge her allegiance to some group. She'd rather trust those she's met and fought beside. She'd die for the people that earned her trust. River doesn't really have a home since she travels so much, and her birthplace was such a dump. So any bar or inn that will have her is good enough.