Heike Eisen

Biographical information

Birthplace Born Died Age 29 Home Reikhurst (Allir Reach, on the Sayve River) Sexuality Pronouns

Physical description

Race Human Sub-Race Gender Female Height 5'11" Mass 167 lbs. Hair color Sandy Blonde Eye color Bronze Skin color Fair

Political information

Affiliation(s) Order of the Golden Blade. Night Watchmen Templar Chapter Occupation Knight, Templar Clan(s) Caste Domain Masters Apprentices Alias(es)

Out-of-character information

Writer VigiloConfido Created on Avatar Female Paladin by Swerc

* Shoulder-length sandy-blonde hair, bronze eyes, fair skin, 5'11", a hardy warrior's build. Appears to be in her earlier twenties than later twenties, since her former vampirism had halted development at the age of 24.

* Usually wears her knightly full plate armor, gold-tinted in the style of her Reikhurstan Order. Chainmail beneath her plate to protect the gaps. Padded arming doublet and pants as the base layer. On her belt also dangles a small insignia of a Golden Blade.

* Armed with a two-handed longsword and a dagger as a sidearm.

* In possession of the Legendary Orb of Nullification.

Knight of the Golden Blade: Heike is but an ordinary woman, trained via traditional means. She endured a physically intense initiation (also called "squiring") into her order of knights, and through her perseverance reached the standard of endurance, strength, and mental fortitude expected of her male counterparts. She is educated, trained in martial combat and equipment maintenance, and is sworn to act with the decorum befitting her station.

Incorruptible: The sole facet of Heike that is extraordinary. Through an initiation ritual undertaken by recruits of the Night Watchmen Chapter of Templars, Heike has been made immune to that which would violate the fundamental integrity of the body, mind, and soul--for better and worse. Disease and poison, mutation and madness, all of the dark and insidious methods used by the vilest of fiends are rendered useless, yet it is the same even for things purely beneficial. For no blessing nor curse, no boon or ill affects her, with the exception of healing magic, which restores rather than alters the body.

*** The price of this Incorruptibility, is that Heike will die in nine years' time, in the year 379 and the age of 38.

* A knight through and through, she upholds herself with a formal and dignified decorum. A patriot of Reikhurst without question, and carries with her all the virtues of the Reikhurstan people.

* Following a Trinity of sworn Oaths even now, she is honorbound and conducts herself accordingly. She will not lie.


* Loathes vampires, and remembers well what these creatures of the night did to her and her home of Reikhurst.

* Prone to wishful thinking in moments of weakness, despite her otherwise stalwart and adamant resolve.

* Her humor has turned more and more dark/wry in recent years.

* Will often go far out of her way in an attempt to earn someone's trust, to the point of suicidal recklessness if need be. A leftover trait from her years as a vampire.

+ Is an honorary member of the Night Watchmen Chapter of Templar.

+ Sympathetic toward sole survivors.

+ Intense soft-spot for the extremely impoverished.

+ No longer scorns gods and goddesses, but reserves skepticism toward claims of their benevolence. Trusts more in men and women of Arethil than the divine.

+ Loves animals.

+ Suspicious and distrustful of magic generally, owing to the culture of Reikhurst and her own experiences.

+ Snores lightly in her sleep. Currently, does not know that she still does this.

Heike is the proud daughter of Albrecht and Sieglinde Eisen. Such an address, declaring oneself to be the proud son or daughter of one's parents, is typical for Reikhurstans, who by and large hold a very traditional, conscientious, family-oriented worldview, and Heike was certainly no exception. The Eisen family was well-to-do, living on the illustrious Vale Street; her father Albrecht was a renowned carpenter and her mother Sieglinde, a jewelcrafter, had done work on Queen Karaliene's diadem prior to King Rommel's election ceremony. So Heike and her brothers and sisters did not want, did not know hardship in their childhoods.

But Heike aspired to something difficult and rigorous: to become a Knight of the Golden Blade, Reikhurst's elite and prestigious knightly Order. This she had wanted ever since first seeing them on parade down upon The King's Avenue. To take up arms in defense and service to Reikhurst was a high honor indeed, and with it came the title of "Citizen and Warrior" and earning the privilege to vote. Heike, a true Reikhurstan who believed in the tenets of honor, duty, and order above all else, wanted this more than anything.

As the years got closer to her seventh birthday--the earliest she could enter military service--her mother rejected the idea more and more obstinately. But Heike's father eventually convinced her, and with the blessing of both of her parents, Heike was allowed to enter initiation into the Order of the Golden Blade.


Heike trained extensively while she was sixteen years old, doing all that she could to prepare her body for the trials that would await her during her initiation. Even so, her initiation was the most difficult ordeal at that point in her life, absolutely draining, both mentally and physically. Her knight-superiors, Herr Dieter Roth and Herr Elias Schulze, pushed her and the other squires of her class to be at their pinnacle and beyond. A good number of them quit, and Heike came very close to quitting herself on several occasions, when her body was worn and shattered and her willpower near exhausted in its entirety. But she persevered. One day at a time. She kept on going until she was one of the few women who passed the Order's demanding initiation.

And it was a moment of great joy and pride to kneel down before King Rommel himself, to accept her Accolade, to rise after the anointing sword had touched both of her shoulders and to swear before him the Trinity of Oaths central to the Order: the Oath of Truth, the Oath of Justice, and the Oath of Honor.

She was now Herr Heike Eisen, Knight-Gallant of Reikhurst. A Citizen and Warrior.


Heike would go on to serve Reikhurst and the Order in many battles, both small and large, both defensive and offensive, and would rise to the rank of Knight-Valiant, in command of her own errantry of Gallants.

And she would bear terrible witness to the most devastating catastrophe in Reikhurst's history, a massive attack, well-planned and coordinated, by a veritable army of vampires that would leave Reikhurst decimated and its population massacred or scattered across the continent of Epressa in the year of 364. Unbeknownst to Heike at the time, it was led by the Third King of Reikhurst himself, Jürgen Kaiser, who had mysteriously vanished some four hundred years ago. Heike was taken captive by the vampires and forced to watch the massacre and the destruction throughout the night, and then she was turned and left for dead.

She awoke in the gray morning after, ashes all about her, and as one of the very monsters which had so wrought this tragedy: a Slaughtern vampire.

Thinking the slaughter to be complete, that she was the final Knight of the Golden Blade and perhaps even the last Reikhurstan, her despair in those first few days was immense. But, as she had done, as she had learned to do during her initiation, she persevered, and did so in the only way she could now. She became a vigilante. For over five years, Heike struck a balance between hunting down the guilty and the monstrous and sating the abhorrent thirst of vampirism that she was now afflicted with. And all the while, she carried in her heart the mementos of a better time, a time of family, home, and love. When she had her humanity. That was the real her.

And then hope arrived.

Heike discovered that not all of the Knights of the Golden Blade were dead. She discovered the immensity of the diaspora of Reikhurstans across Epressa. She discovered the name and truth of her enemy, the Third King, and the terrifying artifact which gave him his formidable strength. The hope of a Reikhurst restored from ash and ruin was real. Faint, but real.


The first step in her quest to restore Reikhurst would be to rid herself of her vampirism. And this, as one might rightly think, was no easy task. The search alone for a viable cure was difficult enough, and Heike could not do it alone. She sought out help and found it in high places, found it among those who would have been well within their rights to slay her on sight.

But, with the aid of the Alanthis Trade and Co. and of the Templar Chapters of the White Ravens, The Night Watchmen, and a Pariah, Heike saw herself at long last be cured of her vampirism. It had come with a high cost, but it was done, and she could face her people once again. She could be the beacon of hope around which the shattered and dispersed people of Reikhurst could rally, could take heart, and could be led to retake their city and their Kingdom.

And this road will be a long one.

Heike need only persevere once again.

The Lion and the Giant
Hellsfeld (A bounty, and losing a friend.)

Of Wine and Blood

Set Upon (Attempting to care for the orphan Ella.)

An Open Hand (Vengeance and rage, unbefitting a knight.)

Hunted or Be Hunted

The Adventurous Seven (Accepted. Learns of a possible cure for vampirism.)

Nicht Alle Tot (Rumors of the Golden Blade surviving.)

Always the Thirst (The quest to restore Reikhurst begins.)

Kenne deinen Feind (Aware of Jürgen Kaiser and the Bloodstone.)

Oddities (Citizen and Warrior.)

The Town of Gorinsbin

The War of the Kinniger Duchy (A disagreement of morals in war.)

What Remains

Winter (Maria, and what happened to her.)

Verhandeln (Honoring the fallen, accompanied by Szesh.)

What has happened

The Proud Daughter (Failed attempt at a cure for vampirism.)

The Path of Purity (Cured of her vampirism by Templar.)

A Fated Reunion (A meeting with Tzuriel Alanthis, a supporter of her cause.)

The Fog

Preventing Disaster (The Portal Stone Crisis. A spy of King Jürgen's finds out about Heike.)

Whose Deeds Are Daring

Slayers of the Wicked

Valor

Oathbound