PERSONALITY
Maybe you were the ocean, when I was just a stone
Like the element she has an affinity with, Eirys is solid and stubborn. She has always appeared to be a woman of rather simple tastes and desires, very pragmatic in her needs and wants. Growing up on an estate, Eirys developed a love of farming, of working with her hands and taking simple joy out of helping something grow and protecting it from disease and weather. She is very strongly rooted to the people in her life, a trait that tampers her natural wildness. She faces problems head-on and believes that direct solutions are the best paths to achieving success.
Responsibility is one of Eirys’s strongest personality traits, though it often appears to clash with her love of playing pranks and her lack of regard for her own personal safety, traits that sometimes make her (especially as a child) appear to be very wild. As a child Eirys was always putting unknown things into her mouth, picking up dangerous farming equipment or unfamiliar animals, trying to see if she could jump this ditch or climb that tree. Her responsibility, therefore, is all focused outwards, towards her overwhelming desire to protect and be responsible for other people. Eirys truly believes that as a soldier, her lot is to lay her life down in the defense of others, to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. As a child and teen Eirys would stand up to bullies who preyed on the weak.
Being in charge is one of the things Eirys enjoys best in life. She is also an exceptional manager of time, resources, and people, again due to her upbringing on a farm where time, resource, and labour management were important factors with regards to planting and harvesting. Through her career as a soldier, Eirys has become quite adept at planning troop maneuvers.
Despite being skilled as a manager, however, Eirys is slow to trust those under her command and to make new friends due to the losses she’s suffered in her life. Another hindrance to easy friendships is Eirys’s quick temper and her pessimistic outlook on life, which leads her to take many comments said to her as insults or threats which she rarely lets go unanswered. Eirys can be a know-it-all and is extremely stubborn. She would rather boil and eat her armour than admit she is wrong. She also tends to hold grudges, and once someone loses her favour it is extremely difficult to regain it. She also tends to be rather slow to respect untried troops or people who don’t do some sort of work for a living, though she has the utmost respect for proven warriors, healers, and generally anyone who works hard and applies themselves fully to what they do. Lack of respect, however, would never stop her from actually helping someone in need or putting her safety at risk for someone. She’ll just roll her eyes at them while she does it.
After falling out of a particularly high perch in a tree as a child of seven, Eirys developed a crippling fear of heights, although she tries her best to disguise this fact. Heights, however, appear to be one of the only things Eirys is afraid of. She loves to stare down enemies or whatever stressful situation she might be in and never flinches, having a strong belief that in life and war the stronger force will always win, and trusting that she is that stronger force. She very much enjoys being seen as a strong person and shows off that strength whenever she can, whether that be in brash sporting events or challenges by fellow soldiers, or using her strength to help people in the community with whatever tasks they might be struggling with.
While extremely strong and agile for someone of her size, however, Eirys is still only of medium height and build and as such is usually still the smallest soldier in any room, but would be hard-pressed to show that she thought she was any different from any of her peers, always attempting to act like ‘one of the boys.’ She also loves telling wild, gory, cautionary tales to new soldiers taken from her military experience and has an extremely crude sense of humour. The brash aspects of her personality, however, tend to be tempered by her love of flowers and fine silk, something that her peers tend to find contradictory. Eirys never attempts to explain it beyond telling people that she is an earth elemental so loving things that come from the earth is in her nature. She also tends to punch anyone who suggests that she likes pretty flowers and fabrics because she is a girl.
Though slow to trust and easy to piss off and disappoint, people who have Eirys’s respect and love will have it forever. She adheres to the belief that blood is thicker than water and would do anything for her husband's family. Nothing is more important to her than keeping them safe, and she would gladly face any challenge to make them proud. She will never forget the deaths of the Baeddhelm’s natural sons or the attack on her brother, and is devoted to making the enemies who killed or injured them pay for the evil they have done. Her respect for her adoptive family has even led Eirys to reform much of her wildling ways.
Upon arrival at the Baeddhelm’s estate, Eirys ‘s clothes and skin were stained and dirty, her hair filthy with leaves and burrs and tangled almost beyond hope. Eirys witnessed Norah and Dav’s peers chastising them for Eirys’s appearance at parties and functions, talking behind their backs about the insanity of them allowing their son to marry a farmhand. Eirys always confronted people who made such slights against her benefactors, but was too young and small to be taken seriously. The Baeddhelms never asked Eirys to change how she dressed or acted, letting her know that they were always happy with her no matter how she looked, as long as she possessed a kind heart. But Eirys desperately wanted to make their lives easier and began trying her best to wear clean dresses to important functions, to keep her hair combed at all times and keep herself scrubbed. She still retains a deep-seeded hatred of shoes, however, preferring to keep her feet bare to be closer to the earth. She also never wants to make her parents’ peers completely happy, so while she will wear shoes when necessary, sometimes she avoids them just to see if people talk.
Eirys’s desire to be a shit-disturber in the upper echelons of society isn’t just limited to clothing, however, as she also tries her best to shock the delicate sensibilities of the upper class with an exaggerated lack of manners and promiscuity. While physical comfort has never been high on her priority list, Eirys will occasionally have a roll in the hay with men at taverns or balls, but she keeps men at arm’s length as she understands that her life may be forfeit at any moment as a soldier. Eirys has never been particularly ‘girly’, but began to hone a degree of femininity once she was adopted by the Baeddhelms. She enjoys wearing jewelry and dresses to parties and being complimented on her appearance.
Weaknesses:
ground dweller: As she has aged Eirys has developed a fear of heights and prefers to remain as close to the ground as possible
trust issues: Having faced the death of many loved ones in her life, Eirys has become very slow to trust and to open up to people around her, while expecting unwavering trust from those under her command
daredevil: Eirys is a risk-taker in regards to her own safety, always putting herself in the line of fire ahead of others
debbie downer: A natural pessimist, Eirys approaches life expecting the worst to happen and attempting to circumvent her expectations
bossyboots: Eirys is used to giving orders and having those orders followed unquestioningly
like a rock: While adaptable in combat with regards to tactical maneuvers, Eirys’s personal preferences and opinions on most other things in life are tough to change and she is very stubborn and unmoving
like a rolling stone: It is difficult for Eirys to remain in one place for extended periods of time as she is always seeking adventure and discovery; she always returns home out of a sense of commitment to people or sense of duty
country girls have more fun: Eirys enjoys the great outdoors and struggles to feel comfortable the more buildings, technology, pollution, and people she is around
Strengths:
brick s***house: Eirys is extremely tough and hearty for someone of her size, very difficult to incapacitate
duty/loyalty: Grateful for the opportunities she’s had in life and always aware of how very differently her life could have gone, Eirys feels a great sense of loyalty towards the people she is close to in life and will go to the ends of the earth for them. She is driven by a sense of duty to protect her loved ones, uphold order and law within society, and make the people who have helped her in life proud of her
pragmatic: Eirys is a very practical thinker who tries always to use her head rather than her emotions in decision-making
tactical maneuvers: From her lifetime of training and her many years as a soldier Eirys has honed a particular ability to plan tactical maneuvers for her own people and to discern maneuvers of her opposing forces
Greatest Desire/Motivation: More than anything, Eirys wants notoriety, to be remembered and talked about and to make her family proud.
Greatest Fear: Eirys's greatest fear is to be alone.
abilities+skills
Go your way, I'll take the long way 'round
-familiarity with simple and martial melee weapons and shields (most proficient with handaxe, morningstar, shortsword)
-able to wear all types of armour (but partial to studded leather)
-above average stamina and strength
-proficiency with exotic weapons (kama)
history
I'll find my own way down, as I should
Nothing is known of how Eirys came to be born. She was found in the Ghostlight woods in the western cantrev of Carmawr as an infant by the Blaiddgalons, a middle-aged couple scratching out an existence as tenant farmers for the rulers of cantrev Carmawr, the Baeddhelms. The Baeddhelms had ruled Carmawr, a prosperous and productive farming territory, for generations and were on friendly terms with their tenants, even allowing their children to run wild with the local youths.
Foundlings weren’t entirely foreign to the inhabitants of this farming village- every few years a farmer would come across a babe left in the clearing of the woods, sometimes with hair of white or green or other unnatural colours. Most times these foundlings were taken to the local foundling home in Caer Carmawr or even taken all the way to Caer Athaund, but the Blaiddgalons, who were childless, kept the infant Eirys and raised her as their own, naming her after the purple flowers near which she was found.
Eirys’s childhood at the Blaiddgalons farm, called Duskmoor, was simple and relatively happy. Times were not always easy, but Eirys never wanted for food, shelter, or warm clothes. The Blaiddgalons, Graven and Olwenn, were disciplined but fair in Eirys’s upbringing, and while they did not show much outward affection, they showed their love for their foundling child with their patience, generosity, and by always defending and supporting her. Eirys was fascinated with the Blaiddgalons during her childhood, as they were both very scarred and full of fanciful tales of adventures undertaken by characters Eirys was sure were avatars for themselves. But they never spoke of their pasts in clear terms with Eirys, and as a child Eirys did not think this strange. All she knew of them was that they were good farmers, caring guardians, and the only parents she’d ever known.
At five, Eirys made fast friends with the Blaiddgalons’ new farm boy, who was only two years older than herself and was adopted by the couple in order to help with some jobs at the farm. The boy, a fellow foundling acquired from an overcrowded home in Caer Athaund, was treated just as generously and fairly as Eirys was. Soon Eirys came to consider the boy her brother and could not remember her life without him. They managed to get into a great deal of trouble together on the farm, with Eirys always the one wanting to get dirty or taste unknown things or jump off the highest perch she could find, leaving her brother to tag along and try to keep her safe.
At the age of six, Olwenn Blaiddgalon began teaching Eirys how to defend herself, telling her that the world was a very dangerous place and that she needed to be able to stand up for herself. Olwenn tried to introduce Eirys first to a sling, but Eirys proved uncoordinated, so Olwenn switched to a wooden sword. Always an energetic, brash child, Eirys devoured this training with great interest, and soon Olwenn was having to force the girl to pace herself in her lessons, lest she wear herself out completely. Lessons continued throughout her childhood, with Eirys always unable to exhaust Olwenn’s knowledge of fighting.
As she aged, it became apparent to everyone in the farmhouse that Eirys was an earth elemental. She was always happiest the closer she was to freshly tilled earth or lush fields of wheat and plots of vegetables, and things seemed to grow better while she was around. Though the Blaiddgalons could not help Eirys develop her elemental abilities, she managed to discover a rudimentary form of her stone skin by accident during her training sessions with Olwenn, when her body produced the form as a means of armour in practice combat. Her skin would appear to turn to stone in the place that it was hit with one of Olwenn’s practice weapons, but then fade and return to normal after the blow was struck.
When Eirys was twelve, tragedy struck the Blaiddgalons when Graven became striken with a sickness that ravaged the nearby villages, passing away in very short order. Olwenn also took ill. Eirys and her brother stayed with the only mother they’d ever known night and day, making a promise to one another that one of them would always remain awake to keep watch over Olwenn. On the fourth night, however, Eirys fell asleep during her watch, and was woken by her panicked brother to discover that Olwenn was gone.
No one in the farming village could say what had happened to Olwenn, and Eirys and her brother were devastated. Three days after her disappearance, however, the queen of Carmawr herself came to fetch them.
The king and queen, Norah and Dav Baeddhelm, had always been a distant but constant part of Eirys's life. They lived in Caer Athaund for the bulk of the year, but spent their summers in Caer Carmawr. During the summers they visited the tenant farms and even pitched in around the communities during harvest season. Their sons spent their summers running around with the farmers' children. So while Eirys and her brother were expecting to be brought to a foundling home or placed on other farms around Duskmoor to work as labourers, they were shocked when it became apparent that the Baeddhelms meant to keep them close and raise them themselves.
They could find nothing to complain about regarding their new situation, as the Baeddhelms appeared to be cast from a similar mold to the Blaiddgalons, being a strict but fair couple who worked hard to project a favourable image of nobility within the cantrev by their generosity towards others. Norah was a mage healer and Dav a respected judge in Caer Athaund. Their eldest son had been a city guard in Athaund but had perished in the line of duty not long before. Their only remaining heir, Huw, a healer only a year older than Eirys, had always treated Eirys and her brother like siblings. Eirys quickly came to accept Huw as one of her greatest allies and best friends, second only to her brother. The only thing Eirys disliked about her new life was moving to the big city-state for the majority of the year.
Dav and Norah encouraged Eirys’ training and hired the best swordmasters in Caer Athaund to further instruct her. Upon discovering that she was an earth elemental, they also hired a tutor to help Eirys develop her stone skin and teach her how to channel the earth.
Though Eirys had difficulty at first adjusting to life in a large stone mansion rather than the simple dirt-floored farmhouse she’d always known, her admiration for the Baeddhelms made the early days of discomfort tolerable, and eventually she became used to her new surroundings, though her situation was helped immeasurably by the building of a lush urban garden on the Baeddhelm’s city estate. Less than two years after moving in with the Baeddhelms, Eirys's brother was legally adopted by the Baeddhelms, inheriting their name and titles. Eirys was not yet fifteen, but it was made clear to her at that time that the Baeddhelms hoped to bring Eirys into their family officially as well.
Having difficulty coming to terms with the idea of being a noblewoman, Eirys stole away from the estate in the night and went back to Duskmoor, where she worked as a labourer alongside the new tenants of the farm. Though Norah and Dav knew of her whereabouts, they left her on the farm, understanding her internal conflict.
After working on the farm for almost three years, Eirys joined the Carmawr division of the Athaund armed forces. Only eighteen, Eirys grew up very fast in the army. Professional soldiering honed her skills but also profoundly altered her world-view and her perspectives on life, love, and responsibility. She found herself aching to return to her old farming life and to the Baeddhelms- particularly Huw.
Eirys served with the army for two years, until severely injured in a devastating battle.
Though she believed herself to be completely alone with her injury, Eirys awoke in a battlefield hospital to see Norah and her son Huw watching over her. In a rare expression of emotion, Eirys repented running from the family, and expressed her love for them all- especially Huw.
After almost a year of recouperation from her injuries back at Caer Carmawr, during which time she was honourably discharged from the army, Eirys, at 21, wed Huw, becoming a Baeddhelm officially, as well as Lady Eirys.
Huw took over the management of the cantrev from his parents, who decided to remain in Caer Athaund full time. He and Eirys travelled to Caer Athaund each winter, however, to visit them, as well as Eirys's brother.
When Eirys was 23 she and Huw were traveling back to Carmawr for the spring planting season when they were set upon by bandits on the road. Huw fell to the brigands, despite Eirys's best efforts to protect him. Her brother, the foundling who had grown up on the farm with her, was now the heir to Carmawr.
Eirys stayed at home with Norah, Dav, and her brother for a year after the death of the Huw, mourning with them and attempting to take care of the devastated Norah and Dav. After a year Eirys became convinced that they had regained their will to live and that it would be safe to leave them to pursue a new career and life that would make them proud. Eirys joined the city guard as the Baeddhelm's eldest son had done. By the time she was 26 she had risen to rank of Captain with a dedicated outfit of soldiers under her command.
Eirys had been a captain for less than a year when her outfit was doing a routine patrol and responded to a distress signal from her parents’ city estate. Upon arrival, Eirys discovered that there had been a robbery at the estate. Her parents were not at home, but her brother had attempted to stop the thieves and had been stabbed, discovered much later when Dav returned home from the courthouse for the day. Despite the fact that Norah was a healer and there was a healer in her outfit, Eirys was devastated to learn that her brother was already too far gone for either of them to save him. Another healer was called, however, and the third healer's magic was strong enough to do the trick.
Eirys's brother was saved by a member of King Geraint's council, and Eirys would feel eternally indebted to him and the council as a whole. She requested to join the King's Llaw and has now been a member for three years.
miscellany
There's coke in the Midas touch
Preferred Equipment:
-Kama
-short sword
-round wooden shield with onyx boss in the middle, painted in Baeddhelm colours of forest green and black with the Baeddhelm emblem of a black boar
-studded leather armour
Magical Item
-Eirys’s shield is enchanted to never break
Daeargryn
During her time in the army Eirys came across a battle hound who had survived when its warrior owner had perished. Traditionally battle hounds and their warriors had such love and devotion to one another they perished together on the battlefield, but the soldiers in the hound's outfit did not want to see the young dog waste away and brought it to their commander who had similar feelings about saving the animal rather than letting it die. Believing that the battle hound was waiting for another warrior to fight with, their commander encouraged Eirys to meet the hound and Eirys became convinced she was meant to have the hound. Now they are fated to fight as if they're two halves of a single warrior, protecting one another until one or both of them fall on the battlefield.
Eirys named the battle hound Daeargryn, which means Earthquake in the language of the farmers from her youth.
Dae resembles a Tibetan Mastiff, roughly 75cm tall at the shoulder, and weighing 140 pounds.
| NAME. | Lady Eirys Baeddhelm |
| CODENAME. | Pigpen |
| RACE. | 1/2 earth elemental |
| RACIAL TRAITS. | move stone, stoneskin |
| CHARACTER POINTS. | strength bonus, stamina bonus, exotic weapon, animal companion |
| OCCUPATION. | Captain in Caer Athaund city watch |
| AGE. | 30 |
| FAMILY. | Norah, Dav, foster brother, foster mother (Olwenn)
|
| HEIGHT. | 5'6" |
| BUILD. | average |
| HAIR. | straw blonde, usually unkempt, braided sides |
| EYES. | grass green
|
| POSTURE/GAIT. | upright, confident
|
| CLOTHING STYLE. | feminine but usually haphazard
|
| SCENT. | flowers, fresh earth
|
— ooc. —
| PLAYER. | Mon |
| EMAIL. | mmcculloch1983@gmail.com |
| SKYPE. | Stratford_girl16 |
| TIME ZONE. | CST |
| PB. | Katheryn Winnick.
|
|
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