View source for Thamsin Calley

{{Infobox character
| name          =    Thamsin Calley
| title         =    <!--noble titles, honorifics-->
| image1        =    <!--character portrait-->
| alt1          =    <!--character portrait alt text-->
| caption1      =    <!--character portrait caption-->
| archetype     =    <!--character archetype-->
| hair_colour   =    Very light blonde
| eye_colour    =    Hazel
| height        =    5'7"
| build         =    Thin and boyish
| features      =    Albinism
| birth_date    =    199
| birth_place   =    Myrken Town
| death_date    =    <!--date of death-->
| death_place   =    <!--place of death-->
| spouses       =    Andrew Dalley (d)
| children      =    William, b 215
| profession    =    Maid-of-all-work
| religion      =    <!--espoused religion-->
}}

==Description==
The immediately noticeable thing about Tam is her pallor: her translucent white skin has a hot-pink cast from the visible blood just under the skin, and when she blushes--which isn't often--it's an outright, undeniable event. Her hair, cropped short to the back of her neck, is likewise a very clear, white-blonde, and her eyebrows are so fair that on first glance, she appears not to have any. Though scrawny, she carries herself with the air of a born scrapper (with four elder brothers, she learned to hold her own). The color of her hazel-gold eyes is probably her most striking feature, or would be, if the eyes themselves were not round and slightly bulbous, a bit like a toad's. All in all, she looks a bit like a boy...and not even a good-looking boy.

Up close, Tam is a tough, determined, typical Myrken specimen. She takes very little guff, and if she's ever been afraid of anything, she's managed to fake otherwise very well. 

==Background==
===Origins===
Thamsin was born the only daughter in a large family. Since she was very small, she grew up working in her mother's tiny dress shop; her father was a sailmender who quit the sea after an accident cost him one leg, and who has since--perhaps ironically--taken to repairing boots. Seven people living above a shop was always a bit of a tangle, and the money was always tight, but no one ever went hungry and the family was close-knit and fiercely protective, the boys in particular getting into numerous scrapes to defend the honor of "their Tam" whenever someone made fun of her lack of eyebrows. Soon enough, though, Tam learned how to get into her own scrapes, and win, even after being scolded about how terribly unladylike it is for little girls to put other little girls in hammerlocks.

At fifteen, Tam was introduced to Andrew, a dockmaster and the son of one of her father's old sailing mates. Some few months after that, Andrew and Tam were married, for the oldest of reasons. In spite of the hasty wedding, the young couple was largely content and very much smitten with both one another and their son William. 

Just under two years after they were married, Andrew was killed after attempting to intervene in a fight between two unruly dockhands. In shock, and overwhelmed by grief, Tam accepted her parents' offer to return home with her baby. Andrew's father, a well-off sea merchant who had initially objected to their marriage, soon came pestering the family, offering to "take the baby off their hands." Tam gradually snapped out of her grief and became absolutely furious, first at the man's meddling...then with her parents' efforts to convince her that her father-in-law's idea might be for the best. Instead she took her late husband's tiny pension and moved out of her parents' home to a rooming house on the bad side of Myrken Town, determined to care for her child on her own. 

===The Broken Dagger===
After Andrew's death, Tam began looking for work, first taking in piecework from her mother's shop, then exploring Myrken for the few opportunities available to a single mother. Hearing that the Broken Dagger might have need of help (or, more exactly, after having been told that the Dagger couldn't ''keep'' help due to constant monster attacks), Tam tried her luck and was hired on the spot.  

==The Present==

Tam works in the Dagger, greeting customers, tidying, and serving meals, but always braves the dark road back to town in order to care for her baby in the evenings. On rare occasions when the woman downstairs can't keep William during the day, Tam brings him along with her, effectively working two jobs at once as she attempts to keep peace in the commons while tearing after a toddler. Any threat to Tam's hard-won livelihood can be lethal to patrons: cause trouble on her shift and she's quick to call the guard--if she doesn't kick you out herself.

==Plots==


[[Category:Characters]] [[Category: Active Characters]]