[Note by Luminescence] Serenity Phoenix

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Serenity Phoenix

Postby Serenity Phoenix on August 19th, 2018, 3:05 pm

Serenity Phoenix


Appearance
Image
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 33
Birthday: 81 summer 485
Birthplace: Lhavit
Appearance:
Looking very typical for her race, Serenity is a bit smaller than the average female human, but not overly so. Her features are angular and sharp, hair a typical wild mess that she pays little attention to. When she was younger, Serenity's hair was redder but has now gone to mostly blond now that she is grown. Her eyes are vivid blue, a little startling when her full gaze is turned on someone, and though she grimaces when it's pointed out, her mouth is frankly sensual.

Sernity's body is lean and athletic without being muscle-bound, lithe and built for agility. Her clothing is almost entirely of butter-soft finished leather -- shirt, breeches, and boots -- and carefully chosen for its flexibility and silence. As the daughter of a tanner, this woman knows her leather and is meticulous in its care. A simple black woolen cloak for colder weather but she'll often leave it bundled with her simple collection of supplies at her lodging, wherever that may be. Packs annoy her as they make her feel bogged down, so three small pouches at her belt hold any necessities. Having a high constitution, Serenity eats like a bird and does not need to stock up heavily on supplies.

She does not weigh herself down with weapons beyond a set of small knives tucked in her waist, arm, and boot. Her boots are worth mentioning -- they are knee-high and tied cross-ways across her shins. These are not hard heeled but soft as slippers, and allow her to move about and climb silently. She wears no jewelry or any other female decoration save for a worn and faded silken cord around her neck, intricately braided, but as it's mostly under her shirt, it's always hidden.

Overall, Serenity's appearance is sleek without being sultry, lithe without the appearance of fragility, and strong without too much masculinity. Self-assured in her bearing, this is a woman who has enough experience to be fairly assured of herself.

Character Concept

Don't look for manners or gentle ways from this woman. Raised in impoverished streets and growing up among common human laborers, her accent is coarse, her language rough. Serenity is not chatty; she'll speak when it suits her or easily ignore someone she feels is being a dick. Though she has a temper, she's learned to control it, but may look for an opportunity at sweet revenge should the offense be grievous enough.

Serenity is most comfortable in taverns in the poorer quarters of town. She has little patience for the upper class but will take work from them readily enough as long as the job is of limited duration. She has natural street-sense and thus wariness of just about everything. Though she can be a little aloof with strangers, she works best in a group where her specialized skills can help augments a variety of talented individuals. But once a job is done, she'll often move on, preferring fluidity to becoming too attached to any one place or people.

Stay on her good side by paying her on time, giving her fair warning of the difficulties of a job, and treat her with a reasonable amount of respect. To seriously piss her off, you could try to cheat her, look down on her as 'just a woman', or get the authorities involved in any aspect of her life.

Character History

A mediocre-talented dancer and a soft-hearted shopkeeper --- those were Serenity's parents and the basis for her beginnings. Kai Phoenix ran a small tanner's business. The work was dirty and the stench of the tanning process very bad but the goods produced in Kai's shops were well-made yet affordably priced so that only the poorest of people couldn't afford it. The older man generally took pity on those impoverished and slipped them shoes or breeches even if they could not pay -- after all, winter's wind was harsh on bare feet. As a result, his little family was always on the brink of poverty themselves.

Kai met and later married Maeve Cassius, a lithe and graceful creature. Tiny, with a puckish face and a laugh like spring water trickling over rock, Maeve was also from a low-born family, a group of entertainers traveling around in brightly painted covered wagons, earning their living on the road at festivals and taverns. At first, settling down in one place was hard for the free-spirited Maeve, but she loved Kai dearly and when their only child, Serenity, was born, life seemed complete. Perhaps because of the noxious fumes of the tannery or the unhealthy water and food available or even one of life's little perversities, Maeve contracted an incurable wasting sickness a few years after her daughter's birth and died before Serenity was seven. Kai was left heartbroken but he had a business to run and couldn't take long to mourn. The raising of Serenity fell to the wives of some of his employees -- most of whom were barely above the poverty line themselves -- but in the evenings after the shop doors were closed, he always tried to make time for his little girl.

Serenity grew up running with children, street kids and boys mostly for she found hovering around the skirts of the wives and daughters while they baked, laundered and gossiped deadly dull. It was much more exciting to run the alleys, skitter across badly-patched roof-tops, or create a myriad of private 'assassins guilds' in abandoned buildings. She was incredibly agile and hadn't met a building yet she couldn't climb. The grace she'd inherited from her mother also allowed her to move silently, earning her the nickname of 'Silentfoot'. It proved a valued skill among the other children as spies were nicked from windowsills for their enjoyment. But as her little band grew into adolescence and they became more aware of the hopelessness of their situation and lives. This hurt Serenity deeply and she began to spend more and more time alone. The rooftops were still her refuge as she brooded, crouching and often taking bitter pleasure in eavesdropping on her neighbors -- who was cheating with whose wife, who was nearly penniless, who was beating their children.

Her teen years were bleak ones for Serenity. Her father's business was finally failing after long-term debt. He tried to keep it from her but she was a listener from the shadows, after all, and knew it all. He'd become distant to her the last few years, from disappointment perhaps (or so she thought), but more probably because she looked so much like her mother (which she was unaware of). Serenity was aware of the tension but had no idea how badly it affected him until she came home late one evening to find his body hanging from a rafter, a simple note of 'I'm sorry' on the floor below. In shock, Serenity had turned the paper around hopelessly in her fingers -- she'd never been taught to read and the blocky scribbles meant nothing. The sale of Kai's shop and belongings brought only a meager handful of coins once all his debts were settled, leaving Serenity with only the butter-soft leather clothing she habitually wore, a silken cord necklace said to belong to her mother, and the crumpled note from her father. How she was going to live, she didn't know.

It seemed so easy then -- to just nick an apple from a street vender's cart, or slip a bit of bread while wandering in the baker's. Serenity's dexterity served her well, and though the shame of stealing still burned her, at least she was now fed. It was a natural progression to slip a delicate thin hand into the occasional pocket of a passer-by, rewarded by a coin or two. But one of those times, a large hand clamped down on her wrist, pulling her into an alley.

"Well, well," a large dark man said. "What have we here?"

That was when Serenity came into the acquaintance of Quintin, scout-for-hire and presently working for a shipping company out of Syka. Sly, reflexes faster than an eye could blink, tracking skills valued by experienced drovers, Quintin bought her the first decent meal she'd had in weeks and talked, describing his life, explaining the skills and training. Serenity was wary at first, mistrustful of a stranger offering help to a nobody.

"Why you doin' this?" she asked.

"Maybe because... some time ago, someone else did the same for me," Quintin replied. And so began her second life -- as Quintin's apprentice. Over the next ten years, Quinton taught her everything he knew and imparting to her his own peculiar brand of philosophy. It didn't matter who you worked for, you should be one-hundred percent loyal to them until the contract was up -- then move on. No country or city or individual deserved your loyalty unless they paid for it. Insist on half now, half when the job was done -- anything less is asking to be cheated. And information was always, always more valuable than any treasure. To that end, Quintin encouraged Serenity's tremendous climbing and acrobatic skills, where she was able to listen outside upper-story windows to private meetings, nick away secret documents, or spy on forbidden trysts. Quintin may have used Serenity's talents shamelessly, but he made sure she was treated well and made to feel part of a family.

Most of all, he taught the girl how to keep her eyes open, how to react quickly to any situation and how to use her inborn skills of agility, silent-movement and a wary, careful nature to the greatest advantage. He made her a survivor.

She was appreciative of his attention, but in her mid-twenties, Serenity bid Quentin farewell and headed out on her own. She'd always felt more comfortable on her own -- if she did the leaving first, she wouldn't have to watch him be the one to go first, something she had painful experience with. Serenity did well on her own, and it has been many years hence that she's become one of the better scouts (and occasional spy) that money could buy. She prefers to work within a band or guild, enjoying the safety in numbers, but perversely, does not stay with one group too long, ensuring that she never grows any attachments. Being too close meant inevitable betrayal, and she would not go through that again.

Language

Fluent Language: Common
Basic Language:
Poor Language:


Skills

Skill EXP Total Proficiency
escape artist 10 Novice
stealth 20 Novice
Acrobatics # +15 ((rb)), # 20 35 Competent


(HELPFUL HINT, Please Remove - Common Skills: Sailing, Fishing, Swimming, Navigation: Sea, Wilderness Survival)

Lores

Helpful Lores: (Pick 2)
Lhavit layout
Thievery

Possessions

1 Set of Clothing
-Simple Shirt
-Simple Pants
-Simple Undergarments
-Simple Cloak or Coat
-Simple Boots
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: Silk Cord


Housing

Location: Pending
House: Pending


Ledger

Purchase Cost Total
Starting +100 Gold Mizas 100 Gold Mizas


Thread List
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Serenity Phoenix
Player
 
Posts: 1
Words: 3656
Joined roleplay: August 19th, 2018, 2:23 pm
Race: Human

Serenity Phoenix

Postby Luminescence on August 19th, 2018, 9:44 pm

Image
Let me shed some light on the situation

Hi, Serenity; my name is Luminescence, and I'm here to help. Before you can start playing, there are a few things you need to fix on your CS.

*Your image: Please resize your image somewhat; as it is, it's quite large. If you need help, you can ask around; there are plenty of people who would be willing to do it for you.

*Your concept/history: Your history is simply not feasible in Lhavit, unfortunately. While there are certainly families with varying levels of income, the city does not have 'poor quarters' or abandoned buildings, and children do not run around homeless; they are generally well-educated, as well.

Climbing the roofs in the city would also be incredibly difficult bordering on impossible, as many of the roofs of the buildings are made of skyglass. The sort of history you've described seems more fitting for somewhere like Sunberth; please either change your history to accurately reflect Lhavit's lore, or change your city of origin.

Please also avoid language that implies your character is an expert at something when you do not have the appropriate skills to reflect this; you have no climbing skill, and relatively low skills in other related fields.

*Your skills: Your table seems to need a little bit of fixing, as you haven't put in your totals for some of your skills; that aside, please list your skills in order of competency and alphabetically. You may not start with more than 30 SP in a skill, even when adding your RB to it; please remove 5 SP from Acrobatics.

Again, please make sure you have skills that represent how you describe your character. You mention your character stealing multiple times but don't have the larceny skill.

*Your lores: While you grew up in Lhavit, I'm not sure what city you're starting in; if you aren't going to be playing in Lhavit, you may want to swap your lore of the city's layout for something more useful.

'Lore of thievery' is much too broad; thievery is a skill (larceny), and even if you made it more specific, you can't have lores on a skill you don't have. Might I suggest an acrobatics related lore? (Ex: Lore of how to land on one's feet)

*Your possessions: Please pick a cloak OR coat.

*Your housing: You will have to decide on a city and your housing before your CS can be approved.

*Your ledger: If you are going to start in Lhavit, please change your currency to kina. (1 kina = 1 GM)

Please let me know once you have made the above changes so I can remove this intervention. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me or find me in chat.
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Luminescence
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