About Amaya HarveyBackground:
Although genetics gave her beautiful skin, a straight nose, and a deformed hand, she has one important aspect that was not inherited: she is bookish. Both her parents can read but they have neither an endowment of intelligence nor an affinity for knowledge. Her two younger siblings are the same—they lead unremarkable and uneventful lives a few miles from the house in which they all were born. Amaya, in contrast, attended Hillsdale College and has lived the life of an academic ever since, living somewhere new in the United States every few years—travelling to academic conferences far more often than travelling home. Although she cares about her family, she is not close to her family; she can learn all that she needs to know in order to continue caring with one or two conversations or letters per year. The name that they gave her—as with all their interactions—served as both a cause and an effect of their differences. “Amaya” is a name that her parents invented. A made-up word. For them, a shiny object and, at that time, the only personal identity of a young baby girl, besides a deformity. For Amaya, it was eventually the launching point for her professional identity. At Hillsdale, she studied French. French was a way to study something different from the Upper Midwest. She knew that she was French, or at least French Canadian. Her grandmother had told her that the family came from France with the name “Le Havre” and had used that name in Quebec, then had changed it to “Harvey” in Michigan. While studying French, she learned of the Basques in France. One day, in the Hillsdale library, she happened upon a book in the Basque language. As best she could guess, it was an ethnography of dancers. More importantly, one of the subjects of study was named “Amaya.” Amaya immediately asked the librarian for any books about Basques. Hillsdale had none. Even the summary catalog of the holdings of the University of Michigan was two years out of date. While discussing the limited options for obtaining loaned books from U of M, Amaya realized that she could do the research on her own terms if she were to travel to Ann Arbor herself. She convinced Hillsdale to hire her into a position at the library that would involve couriering loans and catalogs. Within two weeks, she was in a carriage to Ann Arbor. Within two months, on a train to Lexington, Kentucky—there she found plenty on the Basques at Transylvania University. The words “amai” and “amaiera” mean “the end” in the Basque language, and the derivative “Amaya” is among the names given to girls. Her academic life since that first library job has been little different—privileges and access are the ends for which negotiated clerical duties are the means. Amaya has talked her way into whatever institution or meeting has been of value to her. She prefers poring through archives and libraries, but will interact with people as needed. Her life—especially during the Civil War, which held no interest for her but which emptied universities of many other folks—has been predominantly spent in basements with candles and books, in conversations in cafés successfully convincing professors that they need an assistant, or in the back of the room at conference lectures. Rarely leaving the United States, she secretly longs for a trip to the Basque country to see what the people look like beyond black-and-white photos. Because she has cultivated not-fitting-in into a profession, the idea that she might belong somewhere is an idea that burns within her only half-noticed. She is a polymath, but readily self-marketed as a linguist. Linguistics is the sort of field where there is no such thing as an exhaustive knowledge. Once ingratiated to a research group, Amaya continues to masquerade as a secretary or assistant, but is valued because she can bring a worthwhile perspective to a project and draw connections that others would have ignored or missed. In general she is hungry for research and so uses her charisma to get herself access to projects and data and opportunities. Once in, Amaya does not need to sneak around within her own group—she has both the respect and charismatic intellectual attraction of her fellow researchers. Sexism is such that she cannot climb the ladder into a directive role; once the problems at hand lose their luster, she cannot change the institutional direction toward new problems and so she must start over as a "secretary" somewhere else—rinse and repeat every three or four years.
Appearance and Personality:
Amaya stands 5’ 4” and weighs 155 lbs. She is 39 years old but looks 30. She does not owe her healthy appearance to copious exercise or to fastidious nutrition. Rather, she was born with olive skin that she cannot seem to ruin either with sunshine or by never drinking enough daily water. She carries a fair bit of weight in her butt and thighs, though not so much that she could not run, if needed. Her bosom is just ample enough that she looks feminine from the waist up. As a rule, she does not wear a bustle and much prefers the emerging style of narrow skirts. She wears two-piece skirt suits rather than dresses, being most happy in a jacket buttoned high on her neck, a plain skirt of the same fabric, low-heeled boots, and a bowler hat. Her curves on the bottom make for a stylish shape without the need for much of a bodice. Her dirty-blond hair is tucked round the back of her head beneath the brim of a hat. She is never without a hat. Her hair is healthy and well kept—when let down in private, it extends nearly to her waist and she spends some of her best thinking time while she is giving it a daily brushing. Nevertheless, she is distracted without a hat: perhaps a hat allows her to feel taller, perhaps she feels less exposed. She has grey–green eyes and dark eyebrows. Her nose is straight and wide on her face. Compared with the Germans and Scandinavians of her native Upper Midwest, her look is so ethnic that an observer will not note her otherwise mildy homely features. Her teeth are straight but gapped, her jaw is square, her face is wide. However, her looks are not distracting in any way; her eyes are well set, her hair is unremarkable in color and arrangement. In any situation, she is certain to obtain—through intentional, expert effort and through natural gifts—a physical presence by which those around her are wholly absorbed by her speech and her actions, not her appearance. Among her expert efforts is the ability to hide her particular infirmity. Her left hand is deformed and her left arm is slightly shorter and weaker than the right. Her hand has only three fingers and a thumb and there is an anomalously large separation between the index finger and the other two—oligodactyly. When holding up a paper between her index finger and thumb with the remaining fingers curled into her palm, the condition is unnoticeable. The affliction is a birth defect and is neither progressive nor painful. In terms of personality, she is selfish. She is spiteful but not jealous. She is unquestionably charismatic: however reluctantly, begrudgingly, and necessarily. The people who enjoy being around her socially and unprofessionally are the people who do not care if they are building a friendship or offending anyone with their statements or behavior. She has no patience for people with confidence problems and may be intentionally mean to them. She is moody with slow rather than rapid swings. She values the few acquaintances that have proven to survive her schedule of moods and introverted retreats. Professionally, she is a hard worker, has a slow but effective mind, and has tireless respect for the subject matter. As a scholar, she knows that she is an inspiration to those around her. Her most significant outlay of her charisma is to not let her professional colleagues’ respect either sour or wither, either for her or for the project. She is the constant magnetic centerpiece of any research group—she ensures that everyone’s emotions are then directed to the research problem, after skimming off some overhead. She has no significant long-term personal relationships in her life. However, she is not married to her job, nor is she so bookish that she is shy or unequipped socially. Rather, she simply prefers to pursue problems than people. All of her long-term emotional outlays are to academic problems, not people, and so she commits her charisma to drumming up and maintaining access to data or expeditions or memberships, albeit through people. Nevertheless, she is not without human needs and cannot subsist on research alone; for example, she will pursue her interest in a new acquaintance at a conference. But, her interest will not be held long by such a personal relationship, nor does she have the emotional ability to care about somebody else enough to maintain a relationship. Her charisma can get her into a relationship but it cannot maintain it on an intimate level. She wishes that she were more capable of long-term romance—she is selfish in that she knows she cannot maintain a romance, but starts them anyway without regard for the inevitable abandonment of her partner. Nevertheless, she can and does have long-term respect and affinity for capable and dynamic scholars.
Statistics:
Amaya Harvey, Female Human Charismatic Heroine 2
N Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +0; Senses Perception +1 ------------------------------ DEFENSE ------------------------------ AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 defense, +0 dex, +0 armor, +0 shield) hp 10 Fort 13, Ref 13, Will 12* *16 vs charm and compulsion ------------------------------ OFFENSE ------------------------------ Speed 30 ft. Melee -1 Ranged +1
Skills (16 points; 14 class levels + 4 INT) Bluff +10 (2 ranks + 3 class + 5 Cha + 0 feat + 0 racial + 0 trait)
ACP -0 ACP of 0 applies to these skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Fly, Ride, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Swim. Languages English, Latin, French, Russian, Basque Class & Racial Abilities:
------------------------------ CLASS ABILITIES ------------------------------ Leadership Talent Tree. Coordinate: The Charismatic hero has a knack for getting people to work together. When the hero can spend a full round directing his or her allies and makes a Charisma check (DC 10), the hero provides any of his or her allies within 30 feet a +1 bonus on their attack rolls and skill checks. The bonus lasts for a number of rounds equal to the hero's Charisma modifier. The hero can coordinate a number of allies equal to one-half his or her Charismatic level, rounded down (to a minimum of one ally). --------------------------------
Equipment & Encumbrance:
------------------------------ GEAR WORN ------------------------------ ------------------------------
Money 0 PP / 0 GP / 0 SP / 0 CP ------------------------------
Current Encumbrance Level: Light Light 0-33 lb. Medium 34-67 lb. Heavy 68-100 lb.
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