PLAYER: Pam CHARACTER: Dain Simon (Dainiella Maria Simone Marron) RACE: Human CLASS: Fighter STATS: DEX: 16 (Initiative/Missile: +1; AC: -2) STR: 15 CON: 15 (HP : nD10+1) INT: 14 WIS: 12 CHA: 9 HP: 11 + 6 + ----------------------------------------------------------- HISTORY: Family stuff: Born around midwinter to Alfonse Henri Rann Gervasi and his wife, Alicia Barbara Elissar Gervasi. Dain was their third child; her elder siblings are both brothers. Their names (short version) are Maurizio (3 years older) and Aethan (2 years older). She also has a younger sister Nadia (2 years younger), plus a plethora of cousins and such. Her father is the head of a minor noble family of the Franconia part of the Kingdom of Franconia. (See Franconia page.) Dain was brought up a proper young lady of the Franconian nobility. She learned sewing, riding, dancing, how to manage a noble household, etc. Not much was practical wrt her current life. She did learn how to read not only her own language, but also to read and speak Elvish (Alfheim/Aldarn dialect) and Steinhallian, since as a member of the nobility, her future husband would very likely entertain Steinhallians and Alfheimers, and certainly many Franconian elves. Since before her parents were born, Dain's family, the Gervasis, were in a blood feud with the Marron family. Over the years, this feud resulted in the deaths of many Gervasi and Marron men. In fact, Alfonse became the head of the Gervasis when his brother, Guillermo and Guillermo's baby son and heir, died at the hands of a Marron assassin. Dainiella's mother--Alicia Barbara Elissar came from a noble Eldith family whose lands lie on the shores of Big Lake. Her marriage with Alfonse Gervasi was arranged to cement a trade agreement. As with most of the Eldith nobility, there is a strong streak of Elvish blood in the Elissar family. Alicia died of a fever when Dainiella was about 12. Siblings--the only member of her immediate family that Dainiella was close to was her second brother, Aethan. The elven blood in the family all seemed to have come out in him. (NB: Actully, Aethan is no true Gervasi--Alicia Gervasi had a secret affair with an Elvish bard three seasons before Aethan's birth. It was a brief affair, but it was long enough. Alicia, of course, knew that Aethan is a bastard, but she wasn't about the share the fact with anybody, and now she can't because she's dead.) wrt her other siblings, Maurizio (eldest bro) is a jerk; he's very full of himself about being the heir, etc. Nadia (young sister) and Dainiella were pretty close as children, but they drifted apart after Dainiella was married. One other important family member is "Aunt Banno." She's Alfonse's father's sister who never married. She's an old battle-axe who's been around so long that she knows more family history than anyone else alive. She is, in fact, a sorcerer of minor ability who knows a great deal of lore. The Gervasi family crest is a green lizard on a red field. The family's lands lie in the western part of the principality of Franconia, but the family lives, for the most part, in their house in the capital, Franconi. ----------------------- Personal History: When Dainiella was 14, her father and Enzio Marron (the head of that family at the time), negotiated a truce in the blood feud. To seal the bargain, Alfonse gave Marron his only daugher of marriagible age (_barely_ of marriagible age, but he didn't have much to work with) to wife. Enzio Marron was almost of an age with Alfonse, but hadn't had Alfonse's luck in the family department. He'd buried two wifes already, with only one daughter (from the second marriage) as issue. He desperately needed an heir, and thus wanted a young wife. It should be noted that Aunt Banno was vehemently opposed to any reconciliation with the Marrons, and was especially displeased that her favorite great-grandniece was supposed to produce an heir for the accursed Marrons. Poor little Dainiella was not at all prepared for marriage. While it was legal for a girl to be married at 14, it was usual to wait until she was at least 16. At 14, Dainiella's training in How To Be a Noble Lady was not finished, and she only had the barest idea of how to politick her way through life as an adult in a noble household. Dainiella hated married life. Even though she was technically Lord Enzio's Lady, the whole household treated her like a child, including her husband (except of course, when he had her perform her "wifely duties"--she was adult enough for THAT, sure enough). She had no legal recourse (women aren't allowed to divorce their husbands in most of the Kingdom of Franconia). She DID have Aunt Banno, who told her ways to avoid conceiving an heir for the hated Enzio Marron. In the year that she was married to Enzio, Dainiella began to learn something of the subtle manoevering and politicking that goes on within a noble household, and how she could do this or that to improve her position. Know that Enzio wasn't a _bad_ husband; he was no worse than any other man chosen through the political process would be. Dainiella just didn't know how to deal with the real world, into which she was thrown two years too soon. So, when Old Aunt Banno mentioned, offhand-like, that if Enzio died, Dainiella would be a widow, and would probably be pensioned off to some small country holding of the Marrons, and wouldn't have to deal with the Marrons much at all, Dainiella remembered. The words came back to her when, after a year of marriage, and still no sign of an heir, Enzio threatened to bed his young wife every night until she DID conceive. (Now, it is doubtful Enzio could have managed such a feat, but young Dainiella didn't know any better.) So, the short of it is that Dainiella poisoned her husband. She didn't poison him very well (she wasn't very good at it, after all--she should have asked Aunt Banno for help), and she was discovered. Now, old Aunt Banno felt a good bit of guilt for putting poor little Dainiella up to this, and thus hid her so that she wouldn't get arrested. Needless to say, this was done without the permission of the head of the Gervasi family's permission. The result of Dainiella's crime and disappearance were that 1) her father disavowed any knowledge of what she'd done, and disowned her, and 2) the truce between the Gervasis and the Marrons was ended. Good old Aunt Banno sent Dainiella off to join a convent of the Sisters of Freya. The abbess of this convent was an old friend of Banno's, and Auntie gave Dainiella a letter of introduction suggesting that the abbess take Dain on as a novice. Dainiella didn't really _want_ to be a priestess, but it was preferable to hanging (the punishment for murder in the prinicipality of Franconia). Luckily, Dainiella wasn't very curvey and with her hair cut, could pass as a boy. Dainiella was sent off with a horse, the letter of introduction, and a bit of coin, and directions to the temple, which was located on the Steinhall side of the Steinhall- Genua border. However, when she finally got to the place where the temple was supposed to be, Dainiella found only a ruin, and no sign of the nuns. She couldn't go backward, so she went forward, into Steinhall. She sold her horse for coin on the way. After wandering a while, she ended up in Hildesheim. Although she didn't have many skills at the time, she had always been good with horses, and managed to get a job as a stablehand in an inn in one of the lower-middle-class sections of town, the Frog and Firkin (proprietor--Alfred Grossman). She knew she couldn't go by her real name--not only because she thought people would be looking for her under that name, but because such a large mouthful as "Dainiella Maria Simone Gervasi Marron" would mark her as noble-born for sure. So, she shortened it to "Dain Simon." She became friends with a couple of female mercenaries, Arden and Janis, who lived in the inn while working as guards for the Cloth Merchant's Guildhouse. Arden and Janis helped teach Dain how to survive in the "big city." She learned knife-fighting and how to use a quarterstaff, as well as gambling and drinking, and how to act like a commonner, instead of an upper-class runaway. Dain met Colleen in a tavern in Hildeshiem, the Four Winds Bar. Colleen was "casing the joint" for a job she was planning. Dain was playing cards with some folks, one of whom was a guard for the merchant Colleen was planning on robbing. Colleen joined the game to try to get some intelligence from the guard, but quickly became interested in the scruffy-looking girl of about 16 years who was dealing. Certain aspects of the way she spoke and acted could go unnoticed among people who only saw nobility from afar, but there are some mannerisms that are only learned at the knee of a Young Ladies' Ettiquette Instructor. This girl was almost certainly noble-born, and from Franconia. Likewise, Dain found Colleen a curiousity. She was clearly upper- class; if not noble-born, then very close to it. The option of her being a minion of her father, or of her husband's family, sent to hunt her down, was considered and dismissed. All she could imagine was that Colleen, like Dain herself, had done something that forced her to flee into the lower class. Mutual curiosity turned to friendship. Dain learned that Colleen had run away from home, rather than be married off to some gross old man of her father's choosing. (Colleen "knows" that Dain WAS married off to a GOMOHFC, and ran away, and that somebody is, or was, chasing her. She may or may not suspect that there's more to the story, due to how Dain fears for her life if she's caught.) Dain also learned that Colleen was a theif, something Dain feels that she has no right to condemn or criticise Colleen for, since Dain has done worse--cold-blooded murder. Colleen taught Dain how to cheat at cards, something Dain found quite useful for those time when she was short of cash. After about a year of living in Hildesheim, Dain life was again interrupted when Colleen brought her word that somebody was asking questions about a girl who could fit Dain's description. Colleen helped Dain sneak and get a look at the guy; sure enough, it was one of Enzio Marron's minions, Boba Fetti. While most of the guy's description wasn't accurate anymore, due to over a year of growing and hard living on Dain's part, enough remained true that somebody would eventually recognize Dain Simon. It was time for Dain to run again. Colleen helped her by slipping the bounty hunter a sleeping potion, and then stealing him blind (including his clothes). This gave Dain a good head start on him. At this time, Dain was about 17. Dain ran for a while, towards the far eastern provinces of Steinhall. She came down with a fever, and finally collapsed in River's End under a bush in front of Arwen's house. Arwen found Dain, and nursed her back to health, and helped her get a job assisting the stablemaster of the Town Guard. Dain is very grateful to Arwen for saving her life, and they've become friends. Arwen knows that Dain is running from something or somebody, but not what. Arwen has helped convince Dain that she can't run away all her life, and that River's End is sufficiently in the boonies that whoever was chasing her wouldn't be able to find her, and she should get her life in order, and decide what to do with it besides running away from her past. While working for the Guard, Dain has learned how to use a sword, and has turned out to have a natural talent for it. She's also learning how to shoot a bow, although she doesn't have the same knack for it as she does for swordfighting. She was surprised and happy to find her old friend Colleen also hanging around River's End, working in a bar, of all places. Dain's job in the stables consisted of cleaning stables, brushing and feeding the horses, exercising the horses, cleaning tack, helping care for minorly wounded horses, and other tasks the Stable Man sets her. Of course, now she's taken up Adventuring, and pretty much doesn't work in the stables anymore. Dain hangs out at The River's Arms, a tavern frequented by the Guard, and also hangs out at The Spitting Camel, where Colleen works. She enjoys a good game of dice or cards, and while she drinks wine or ale, just like anybody else, she never drinks enought to get drunk. She doesn't have many friends among the townfolk, because she tends to be closemouthed and standoffish. She doesn't like to talk about herself, or her past. While she's pretty good-looking, she never sleeps with any man who propositions her; she doesn't even flirt. If a man presses his luck, she is likely to threaten him with bodily harm. From her manner and speech, people can generally tell that she's not from "these here parts," and she'll freely admit that she was born and raised in Franconia (there's not much point in trying to hide it). Anyone who spends much time in her company can tell that she came from a higher social class than she's in now; perhaps her father was a well-to-do merchant, or somesuch. She has lived in River's end for about a year, now; she's about 19. ----------------- PSYCHOLOGICAL NOTES: * Dain is filled with guilt over having poisoned her husband in cold blood. She is determined to atone for it, somehow (although not by going back to Franconia and turning herself in). So, she generally tries to do the "right thing," although she often doesn't know what that is, and when pressed, she'll sometimes choose the path of expediency. * While she knows, intellectually, that she's no longer a noble, she was raised believing that she's naturally superior, and that _her_ superiors consist of Dukes and Kings, only. This is why Lord Lara will never get her to swear everlasting fealty to her, or even to the Baron of Lubek. She also wouldn't feel very comfortable swearing her life to the country which is the supposed enemy of the place of her birth. * She's loved listening to ballads and bard's tales since she was a kid, and has a bit of a Romantic Hero complex from that. * Now that Dain is becoming a warrior, she wants to model herself as much as possible after what she feels is the most admirable example of that type that she's known--her brother Aethan. Dain always knew Aethan to have a very strong sense of honour. (Her only other models were Maurizio, who's full of himself, and somewhat cruel, to boot, and her mercenary friends Janis and Arden, who, while nice and friendly were more than a bit on the scruffy and disreputable side. While _others_ may see Dain as also a bit scruffy and disreputable, _she_ views herself as a higher class of person. ------------------ MISCELLANEOUS: