About Shalina Sekh-atFemale human (Garundi) bard (archaeologist)/10; Barbarian (elemental kin)/10
Special Abilities = Barbarian/Elemental Kin
Mythic
Spells per Day
Background:
Shalina was born and raised in Wati. Her mother, Kristina, was a northerner who had moved to Wati to study the history and many mysteries surrounding the area. Kristina met Shalina’s dad, Nevai, when she was trying to acquire a rare book containing a lost language of an ancient Garundi tribe. The book had been in Namrut’s collection and Nevai had been present during her first visit as he helped his brother with his acquistions. Kristina had never believed in love at first sight but found herself making excuses to meet Nevai time and again. After weeks of making such excuses, Nevai began courting Kristina even though there were some in his family that didn’t approve of Kristina because she wasn’t Garundi. In spite of the opposition they were soon married. Within the year, Shalina's older brother Shanun was born and Shalina was born three years later.
As a historian, Kristina often told Shalina many bedtime stories of hidden treasure, lost cities, and historical heroes of Wati. This began Shalina on her journey towards becoming an archaeologist and solving those mysteries she heard about. As a child, Shalina ‘trained’ herself for her future profession by climbing the sides of buildings, running along rooftops, and dodging through the crowds of Wati. She found that she craved the rush of adrenaline produced by harrowing situations. In an attempt to curve his daughter’s hyperactive tendencies, Nevai would try to lock Shalina in her bedroom so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. To his dismay, Shalina would often find her way out of her room by picking the lock with one of her hairpins. Upon Namrut’s suggestion, her parents decided to channel Shalina’s energy in a constructive way by finding her a teacher to train her in acrobatics. Meanwhile, Kristina taught her daughter in many subjects including history, magic, linguistics, and science. It was through these studies that Shalina discovered she had a natural aptitude for magic even though she had no desire to study it full-time. Growing up, Shalina was often at odds with her older brother. Shanun thought the sun rose and set on him and he expected that his sister treat him with the reverence he thought he deserved and yet she disagreed. When Shalina was seven, she made the grievous error of beating her brother in a race at school in front of his friends. Shalina never thought much about it other than she was proud to have beaten the older kids and maybe a little pleased that one of them had been her brother. She knew that her brother wasn’t happy but it never crossed her young mind that her brother would react so poorly to her having won the race. Shanun played a ‘joke’ on his sister a few weeks later that was anything but in Shalina’s eyes. She had woken up to something wriggling inside her ear and then she realized that there were other things moving against her skin. She scrambled out of bed and it was then that she realized that her bed was full of tiny, writhing bugs that had crawled all over her while she slept. She frantically brushed all of the insects that she could out of her hair and her clothes before running for the door to get away from the insects and get to her parents. Her panic increased when she realized that her door was suspiciously jammed and she couldn’t get out. Stuck in her room with hundreds of bugs traumatized young Shalina and when her parents finally found her the next morning, she had crawled up on her dresser and curled up into the fetal position. This incident strained any relationship that Shalina had with her brother and she never fully trusted his claim of it being a joke or anything he said from then on. As she got older, Shalina’s uncle Namrut asked her to do odd jobs for him. This usually involved retrieving artifacts or books. Most of the time it was straightforward go-for work but occasionally she had to get creative in order to bring the item to her uncle. One of these instances involved her having to squeeze herself through a very tight tunnel where her clothing had gotten snagged and she had almost been trapped. She had had to rip her favorite blouse beyond repair in order to free herself. After that instance she made sure to wear more tight-fitting clothing to keep it from happening again. Her resourcefulness soon put her at the top of her uncle’s go-to list despite her age. Namrut’s favoritism towards his niece as a procurer of artifacts never sat well with Shanun. Shanun had also heard the same stories growing up as Shalina and thought that their uncle would naturally choose his help over that of his younger sister. But instead of respecting history and wanting to preserve it, he sought only to profit from it by any means necessary, and so he got involved with people of questionable character. Shanun made promises to some dangerous people and when he couldn’t deliver, Shalina’s parents were threatened. This was the last straw for the bard as well as other members of the Sekh-at family. It was true that being Garundi meant family was of utmost importance but Shalina found in unacceptable that Shanun had acted so recklessly and selfishly with regards to their parents. This is why she has severed all ties with her brother
Personality and Appearance:
Appearance: Shalina Sekh-at is a native Garundi. She is slightly tall and lithe in frame standing at 5’7”. Her skin is lighter than most Garundi and her eyes are a light brown color. She keeps her hair braided so that it is easily kept out of the way. When adventuring, Shalina wears a tailored suit of leather armor of varying shades of brown that allows for ease of movement but will not snag on anything when squirming through tight spaces. She has a light crossbow slung over her shoulder, a whip coiled at her hip as well as a rapier and dagger. Personality: Shalina is very personable having had to deal with a large family (some of which weren’t accepting of her because her mother wasn’t Garundi) as well as many of Uncle Namrut’s acquaintances. However, she isn’t necessarily a people pleaser as she will often choose what is best for herself. She loves listening to stories as well as sitting and chatting with others to hear about their lives – but is very selective about what she shares about herself. She is an adrenaline junky at heart and at times takes calculated risks just to feel the rush. |
