Difference between revisions of "Ariane Carnath-Emory"

- From an illustration by M. "Vol" Kontinen.

Ariane was born some twenty-odd years ago in the distant colony of Northern New Dauntless. Youngest child of mingled House Carnath-Emory, she grew early to adulthood, as is the way of things in this remote outpost. While she seldom details the events which transpired during her twelfth year there, this much is clear: that there was trouble enough that she felt the need to flee both House and home, and seek out her fortune elsewhere.

Years of wandering followed, during which she continued the fencing lessons she'd begun years ago, at the hands of her brother's tutor. A sellsword of gradually-growing repute, she found work in various companies (frequently posing as male) -- from a stint in The God-crushed War, to service within the ill-fated group set to guard the Sorcerer's Guild in the distant city-state E'strielle. When the disaster befell them, the explosion of unshaped magical energies responsible worked a particularly strange effect upon young Ariane. The plate armour which was her uniform was liquified in an instant, and driven through the pores of her skin to flow with the very blood in her veins. Endowed with a sentience -- or perhaps only a sensitivity -- the armour rises in monofilaments from her skin at almost random periods, there to reform briefly into the platemail that it had originally been.

The travels which followed eventually led her to Amasynia and the city Myrkentown. Some days after taking up residence at the Broken Dagger, she was fortunate enough to be employed by its then-proprietor, Raegan Darkblayde, in the capacity of tavern bouncer. For years, she worked alongside Quincy Randall, Tempestro Starr, Jarek, Lenore -- and even crotchety Pritchard.

Everything changes, given enough time, and so was the case for Ariane. Over the years, she developed close friendships with her fellow bouncers, even taking Quincy for her beloved sister, regardless that there was no blood shared between them. At the capable hands of Johan Vornheim, she began the slow process of learning to read what passes for Amasynia's common tongue -- for such things were not taught to girl-children, in Northern Dauntless. Starr taught her some mercy for magic-users, as did the sorceror Coran D'zir, with whom she entered into a very odd bargain. In the company of these friends, she even journeyed to Kanpar Village, there to battle monstrous Zayken.