-Arae's page

1. What is your favorite word and why?
"Justice. It's such an easy word, helps you decide what to do, or absolves you if you've been up to something questionable. It has power, that word. After all, what worth has the life of the criminal? What worth has a mother's love if your son is a necromancer?"
There's a fierce, vaguely threathening grin on her face, and a far away look in her eyes, as if intensely focused on something not in the room.

2. What is your least favorite word and why?
"Safety. The world is allowed to kill you. There's no intristic reason why you and me aren't going to die. In fact, it's pretty much guaranteed that we will. To think yourself safe is to fall prey to an illusion that'll curtail your potential. Indeed, the reason we fail to stand up against injustice, and fail to make an impact on the shape of the world is that we're holding on to the illusion of safety. To truly become something, we must first realise that we are not safe, and that we never will be."

Some thought or feeling flashes across her face. She pauses. "That is not to say that I'd ask anyone but myself to reject the illusion. It's... probably not the path to a happyness, staring into the pit. But then again, I wouldn't tell anyone who seeks as I seek to turn back either, no matter who they are."

3. What is your biggest regret?
"That's it for the easy ones, huh? I guess I sometimes wonder how life would've been if I'd grown up in a village in a quiet place, working the earth, falling in lo..." She pauses, shaken. "Huh. I guess there is something... Years ago, I danced on a scene at the mid-summer festival. Savera was so incensed with me that I was showing off like that." She smiled at the memory. "There was a young man there, watching the show. I remember he had his sleeves rolled up." She blushes furiously. "And his eyes. He had kind eyes. I... I wish I'd spoken to him before I left."

4. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
"I wanted to be a cultist. Not just any cultist, mind; I wanted to be the priest. Most of us children did. He had it all, or so it seemed back then. Power, admiration, the respect of the community. In our world, he was nobility, the spiritual and political leader of everyone who mattered."

5. If you had one wish, what would it be?
"I'd want to make life better for everyone. How to go about it in a single swoop is a quandery I'm not sure that I'm equipped to answer. Abolish war? War is instrumental in change, and change is neccesary for improvement. Strip evil from the hearts of mortalkind, perhaps?"
In the end it doesn't matter. No deity has the power to fulfill the sort of wish a question like that merits. Or perhaps they merely choose not to do so, out of respect for our freedom. The world would be the same for the difference."

Inquisitive, arrogant (she'd call it self-aware), introspective & contemplative. Arae puts value in truth and hold herself to high standards. She's also disciplined, both as pertains to her mind and body. She can take a long time to reach a decision if she feels it needs pondering, but is nonetheless quick to take action when she reaches a decision.
On a good day, she's toiling towards making the world a better place. On bad days, she feels that the world is going to end in chaos anyway, so maybe she should just try to enjoy the ride? The bad days are part of the reason she tries to impose discipline on herself, and holds to her code.

She holds Shelyn as her main deity, a practice she was introduced to by Savera, and to her, the godess embodies the value of life. She has been known to make homage to Iomedae from time to time, but is somewhat leery of the faith and its practitioners, as she finds her paladins and dogma rely overly on righteous fury as a source of moral judgement. She respects Korada and his following, and has read texts with great interest, but finds that while they have sublime thoughts on discipline in the face of the chaos of reality, they do not take action to steer the chaos.

Arae was born into a close community of cultists. It wasn't exactly a happy childhood, there was pain and suffering, others' or her own, but mostly, it happened to those outside the community, who she were explained were inferior to the chosen ones, and thus treated as the natural order of things. Problems aside, she loved her parents, and they loved her. At the age of 11, she was granted the great honor of partaking in a ritual as a sacrifice as the guest of honor, so to speak. She was "saved" by Ser Aurius Layolar, a paladin of Iomedae who had been trying to root out the cultist chapter. He took her in, and raised her in his house in Absalom. Arae hated him with vehemence; she'd watched him kill her farther.
Aurius wasn't around much during the next few years. He hired a nanny, an aging Varisian bard called Savera, who ended up a surrogate mother figure for Arae. It was Savera's policy of always telling the truth that eventually brought Arae around to worship of the good deities. Aurius quitly approved of Arae's study of religion and philosophy, but was loathe to say so directly; She has yet to forgive him, managing to treat him only with cold politeness. She is aware that what he did was for the best, but is unable to change how she feels. She considers this her greatest personal failure.

Quite recently, Aurius has disappeared on a mission deep behind enemy lines in the worldwound. While there's little chance of ever seeing him again, Arae has some half-baked thoughts that she won't admit to, thoughts about going in there and getting him out, or recover his body. She knows it'd be like searching for a pin in a haystack, and she'd probably die a hundred times over, even if she knew where he was, but sometimes, she can't help but wonder. Even if she'd still be angry at him if she saw him again.

Arae is of middling height. She has the pose of a fencer or dancer, a result of years of training as both, at the behest of Savera. She's ravenhaired and trim, but of no exceptional beauty. Her face is often arranged in a frown of deep or at least serious thought, but lights up when she smiles.

Current HP:
14/14

Readied Maneuvers:
Enduring Crane Strike
Swift Claws
Encouraging Roar
Steady Hand

Expended Maneuvers:
none

Active Stance:
Inner Sphere Stance

Spells Prepared(0cl):
none

Smite uses remaining:
1/1

Gambits Used:
none