WORK IN PROGRESS

Name: Emilia of Two Bridges
Aliases: none
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Height: 1.62m (5'3")

Appearance:
Upon first reflection, Emilia is an unremarkable young human woman. Any city dweller would see her for the rural peasant she is, given her humble attire and overt lack of style. She has a naturally pale complexion, however this has been darkened by the sun and a speckle of freckles lightly adorn her cheeks. Her hair, unspecial in its earthy brown tones, has a slight wave to it, and a wildness that has strands creeping out from the traditional headscarf meant to keep rural women modest. Large, deep brown eyes reflect her youthful nature. her lips are almost always posed in an eager smile and a wide-eyed enthusiasm

Emila has a sturdiness about her that is borne from a lifetime of manual labour. Whilst not burly, she is certainly not feminine in a frail way. She has an athletic strength about her, and can lift, carry, push, plough, dig and chop alongside most men and holds no shame in being physically capable. Perhaps a little contradictory to how she appears, Emilia does have some taste for 'pretty things', she's simply never had the opportunity to own things that are frivolous. She wears humble attire in a practical and simple styling; a linen blouse and lose fitted harem-like pants. Almost always she has a thick leather belt with a utility knife and pouch and her feet are covered by a decent but well worn pair of working boots. If it is cold, she has a hooded cloak in a utilitarian grey.

Travelling, as she has been, means she shoulders a bulky pack with all her worldly things, including a spear and a small wooden shield.

Personality:
Emilia is quite the force when it comes to personality. She has the sort of confidence of youth that you have before you've learned to truly fear anything yet. She is open, happy and difficult to debuff or dissuade. Her outlook on life is both optimistic and determined, with complete faith that she will one day be the warrior she can see in her mind's eye - so much so that she can sometimes be quite exhausting to those around her. She seems to have an abundance of energy and a definite 'go-go-go' attitude, though she can fall foul of her over-ambition at times, pressing herself upon unwilling people, finding herself in places shouldn't be. Still Emilia always seems to have a story or excuse to talk her way out of trouble. At least so far.

She is generally fun loving, liking to laugh and sing and eat. Simple things make her happy, although her eyes tend to wander to fancy trinkets and hair thingamebobs that the wealthy ladies seem to employ. She knows these things don't really match who she is, but there's no harm in looking - right?

Having been a member of a large family, she is used to noise and the comings and goings of people. She is less used to quiet contemplation and can feel quite uncomfortable when alone. The determination and worth ethic she seems to have innately, means she can be extremely stubborn sometimes and has -on more than one occasion- butted heads with people she is socially contracted to respect and listen to.

Skill Sets:
Hard Grafter (Strength, Stamina, Dogged-learner): Emilia is not afraid of throwing in her whole body to achieve a task. She seems to have boundless energy and can be extremely determined to the point of dogged obsession. This goes the same with learning - although she's pitifully ill-educated, she has a determination that means she picks new things up relatively quickly.

Bardic Fangirl (Storytelling, Singing, Spoken lore) Her romanticised perception of life and what it is to be an adventurer comes from her love of stories and songs. While she may not be able to claim to be 'well read' she has an encyclopedic knowledge of the more famous tales that circulate through the population, and has a deep fascination with any new epics that might delight her ears. She can sing and perform a little too! There is a particular Bard, Alistair Blackwood, that she's a fan of who she managed to speak to a few times.

Farmer's Daughter (Animal Husbandry, Fishing, Farming, Tool repair, Basic Herbalism): Growing up within a farming community, Emilia has a great deal of experience, ranging from tending to livestock, fishing and trapping, through to repairing tools and using what local plants are around for basic healing remedies. She has a great love for animals, particularly rabbits and elephants.

Aspiring Warrior (Amature Spear and Sword combat): Emilia wants nothing more than to take on the fight with all things foul and to live out the stories that she adored. As such she has some martial skill, and a keen eye for learning more.

Neutral Aspects:
Forthright (Honest / Rude): Emilia just says it how she sees it, without much thought to implications beyond the immediate moment.

Weaknesses:
Poor: Emilia has the items in her pack and a whole heap of enthusiasm.. but she has very little material wealth.

Uneducated: Although she could recite many ballads at the drop of a hat, she has only basic numeracy and literacy skills. She knows no other languages other than the common tongue and has little knowledge of politics or history, save for that which is passed through gossip and rumour. Those of a noble bearing would find her very uncultured and probably rude, though not through intention. Knowing that she lacks knowledge, Emilia can sometimes be inappropriately curious about things she doesn't know.

Brutal Naivete: With her mind in fables and having spent most of her life out in the middle of nowhere, in a village of no consequence, Emilia is savagely naive when it comes to the complexities of life, the cost of war, of strife and of loss. This opens her to potential harm as she would be very easy to manipulate or trick.

Notable Equipment:
Weapons: Spear, Old short sword, hatchet
Armour: Small Shield, ill fitted Gambeson (was made for a man)
Utility knife & Pouch of gathered herbs.
Lucky Rabbit's paw (Charm)
Ball of string, some small hooks, some needles (Useful survival things)
Donkey called Jenny with basic tack and saddle.

Likes: Anything physical (training, working, dancing etc), she has energy to burn and isn't a fan of being idle. Listening to and retelling stories. Pretty much all food.
Dislikes: Being still. Being alone. People who tell her to get married and be a good wife.
Habits: TBD

History:
(1061) Emilia was born to a large farming family in the rural village of Two Bridges in [Appropriate place]. She is the single female child of 9 and has many both older and younger brothers. For obvious reasons she was greatly influenced greatly by them when growing up, despite her Mother's best efforts. They always had food on the table, and their family was a close knit, loving group, but there was always work to do and so education and play were not a priority. She was brought up with a mixture of more modern veneration to Arator and an ancient tradition of adherence to Bunolagus. For a farming community to ignore the God of Agriculture would be just plain stupid, the old ways were never quite lost in the remote place of her birth.

She worked hard and she worked a lot. With so many brothers to compete with she had no space for being dainty or frail - that would just render her useless.

Most exciting thing to come to Two Bridges would be tradesmen and bards. Both brought news from the lands beyond, some as plain boring fact, others as tales spun into elaborate stories. From a young age these visitors were of great intrigue and anticipation to Emilia and she absorbed all the stories and songs she was allowed to hear. News of Dragons being defeated, of fledgling countries being birthed, of war and strife, all reached her ears through the lens of the entertainer and so her comprehension of the world beyond her village is rather skewed and romanticised. At some point in her early teens the notion that Emilia might her self -one day- be a subject of such glorious tales struck her [I imagine she heard a story about a brilliant female warrior - to be fleshed out]. So she tried to get any knowledgeable person in the village to teach her combat arts, though her successes were few and the attention she was given was often fleeting.

(1078) It was difficult to miss the great streak of fire in the sky. Such a sight had the old ladies of the village rattling bone charms and praying outright to the old gods. Quakes even reached them in their remoteness. The largest of which rent the earth, ruined crops and damaged buildings. There were many injuries and a few deaths, however the village managed to mend itself reasonably well, coming together to assist affected families. Emilia spent several days tracking down lost livestock and had thought to be lost, but returned to stunned faces with a smile and recovered animals. This small, heroic moment, spun Emilia's dreams into an undeniable force of determination, she pestered everyone she could, at every possible moment to provide her with the skills she would need to become warrior she wished to be.

(1080) Realising she could learn no more from the farming families that made up Two Bridges, Emilia opted to pack up her things and search for more learned warriors to tutor her. She hopes to apprentice or squire to someone noble and daring. She wants to be more than just a Farmer's Daughter, and despite great protestation from her family she has left home and is heading to more densely populated areas. She came across the Wandering Caravan some weeks back and has travelled into Flumina with them.

Connections:
Family: Ma, Pa, Eric, Eamon, Edward, Elijah, Ernest and Evan.
Travelling Bard: Alistair Blackwood - He frequented Two Bridges several times over the years. He is small fry in the grand scheme of things, but Emilia adores him.
Other farming families, traders and such from nearby settlements.
[Potential Caravan Traveller contact]
[Open to potential hooks between players]

Aims: Find work. Find a trainer. Get gud.