Yneffuwen "Sledge" Avastarylline
Appearance
* Sandy blonde chin-length hair, blue eyes, fair skin, 6'2". She also has a large scar on her left cheek extending down to her chin. Her ears are small for an elf.
* Usually wears her silvery plate armor of elven make. Wears a light gambeson coat made of elven linen underneath.
* Armed with twin winged maces.
* Owns her own mount, Mace. A Falwood Moa Strider; a giant, bipedal, temperamental bird.
Skills and Abilities
Elven Quickness and Agility, Lacking Grace: Though not possessing much of the hallmark elven grace in how she moves, Sledge nonetheless is as fast and agile as her kin. Her reaction time is above average, and she's a good judge on gauging the minimum distance necessary to evade, sidestep, or dodge a strike. Often she will simply move her head, twist her body slightly, arch her back and et cetera to just barely evade her foe's weapon. This style of dodging doesn't leave much momentum for a fluid counterattack, and so while her strikes can be quick they are often predictable, as opposed to the quick and unpredictable styles of her peers.
Mercenary Combat Experience, Terrible Shot: After a brief stint in a mercenary company with her brother, Sledge gained a certain amount of proficiency in close-quarters combat. The polar opposite of her brother, she turned out to be a legendarily awful shot with a bow, literally missing the broad side of an actual barn. So she tried a variety of hand weapons, favoring maces. Her fighting style isn't graceful or flowing or artful in the slightest. Simple brutal efficiency. Dodge and parry as necessary with a minimal amount of effort, and deliver singular strikes when opportunities are presented. Her style is all about felling her opponent with as few swings and effort expended as possible. Nothing flashy or showy.
Kinetic Magic, Often Backfires: Untrained in it, Sledge nevertheless discovered that she had some fledgling magical potential. With intense focus, she can concentrate on objects and manipulate them: moving objects at rest and stopping objects in motion, with heavier and/or faster objects being increasingly more difficult to manipulate. However, this magic is utterly ineffective at manipulating people and living creatures, always causing a backfire if she attempts it. Backfires occur if her focus falters by any degree or if she simply didn't concentrate hard enough to begin with. Curiously, though her kinetic magic can't affect others, a backfire always sends Sledge flying some distance, very often bursting blood vessels in her nose and eyes as well.
Personality
* Practices radical honesty. As such, is terrible at keeping secrets. Though, to her credit, she doesn't lie. Ever.
* Brash and succinct. Says what she wants to say whenever she wants to say it. Very much inclined to "call it as it is", dispensing with pleasantries and metaphors and euphemisms and all else that isn't direct. Tends to dislike others who aren't as straightforward as her.
* Confident and prideful to a fault. A result of the inferiority complex she has with regards to her brother and the immense skill he has that she envies. Despite all her best efforts, she constantly finds herself outdone by him and his exploits as a bounty hunter. She knows it, and will say as much, but is certain beyond doubt that she will best him one day.
* Often single-minded and stubborn. Can sometimes result in her bashing her head against a problem "her way" until somehow it works. One of the reasons for the nickname she earned in Leona's mercenary company.
* Likes to sometimes take inexperienced or "weak" people under her wing, as she had been in her former mercenary company. Also takes pride in defending and protecting those who cannot do so themselves.
+ Has a tendency to disrespect the personal space of others.
+ Incredibly unfeminine.
+ Enjoys smoking.
+ Likes to instigate brawls.
+ Curses often and casually.
+ Formerly a potter, shoemaker, and tailor, like the rest of her family in Fal'Addas. Looks down on non-elven craft in these fields.
+ Hates her given name and her family name, each too long and "soft". Goes by her nickname "Sledge", and hates all the condescending nicknames her brother has for her.
+ Loathes the feel of sweat on her skin. Bathes and washes her silken clothes and underwear often. Exception for sweating on account of battle.
Biography & Lore
Peaceful drudgery.
Such was the life of the Avastarylline family in Fal'Addas. Yneffuwen's mother and father didn't see it that way, but she and her brother Donnirhin yearned for something more. Something undiscovered in the serenity of Fal'Addas. But their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles all looked down upon their protests. Always said something to the effect of "Peace is a fragile thing, worth cherishing." Familial pressure throttled their restless ambitions for a long time, and so Yneffuwen and Donnirhin stayed and perfected one craft after another. Superficially content.
And the day finally came. The day of discovery.
Yneffuwen and Donnirhin were outside Fal'Addas proper when they came. Raiders. A rogue element of Anirian Guard, thinking the gateless city to be an easy target. She and her brother ran just far and fast enough to meet Blair Company, a large band of mercenaries who had been contracted to dispatch the rogue Guardsmen. The two sides clashed, Yneffuwen and Donnirhin caught in the middle. And to their exhilarated surprise, they held their own, each having picked up a weapon from a fallen man and joining in. The Blair Company commander, Leona, offered to hire them both on the spot to replace her losses suffered in battle.
At eighty-two years of age, still young for an elf, Yneffuwen had found her passion. She had the heart of a warrior.
Her parents were furious that Yneffuwen and Donnirhin had accepted Leona's offer. Threatened to disown them if they followed through and left Fal'Addas for the mercenary life. And so they were disowned by the whole of the Avastarylline family.
* * * * *
Yneffuwen stayed with Blair Company for six years. Learning the ways of the sword and the axe and the knife and the flail and coming to favor the mace. And she learned the ways of combat from the more hardened mercenaries of the company who had taken her under their wing, coming to favor a brutal efficiency uncharacteristic of elves and her graceful and stylish brother. This manner of fighting would soon come to define and reshape her worldview.
An old and crazed orc, armored head-to-toe in heavy armor, hounded Blair Company for days, seeking death in honorable combat. The other mercs, her brother included, scoffed at the idea of taking on a fight without pay. But Yneffuwen eventually accepted. Leona tried handing her a dagger, saying to end the old bastard quickly by puncturing his armpits. No. Yneffuwen insisted she would fight the orc her way. And the whole company gathered around to watch the spectacle.
And for an entire hour, Yneffuwen battered her way through the fierce orc's armor. And as he lay dying at last, a huge and satisfied grin on his bloodied face, his final spoken word:
"Sledge..."
* * * * *
Sledge and Donnirhin departed from Blair Company on good terms, each having survived long enough to earn the coin and resources to go independent. She had always been competitive with her brother, and especially so after he got one more kill than her during the fateful attack outside Fal'Addas. And now their competition began in earnest as bounty hunters. Each seeking to outdo the other. Sledge doing well for herself, but Donnirhin always doing better; bigger bounties earned and bolder tales to tell. The braggart sure to let her know at every turn and to offer condescending and snarky advice.
Then Sledge stumbled onto something. Something Donnirhin apparently had no idea of. Not him, nor had their family had ever said a word of it.
A bounty. Fanatic researcher from the College of Elbion. "Appropriated" funds and items for an unsanctioned foray into a buried archive in the Seret Mountains to the west. Sledge found him, and the mage tried to destroy the old manuscript he was reading in his campfire. After subduing him, Sledge recovered what was left of the manuscript out of the fire. And an untarnished phrase in Elvish caught her eye. The hint of something greater. Something meaningful, past all the blood and bullshit and thrill of bounty hunting and battle. Something begging to be discovered, whatever it truly was.
The phrase, partially destroyed:
"...the secret of the Avastarylline family..."
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Created byonSledgeLast updated byonSledge
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