Ashekara Kalder's page

Dusky brown skin covers this young woman's slight, 5'7" frame, and together with the striking facial markings, they offer most a telling insight into her heritage as a Black Gypsy of the Kariv people. Hazel eyes, upturned and set into a slim, oval face, peer out from underneath a thick veil of black hair. Her upper lip, noticeably more plush than her lower, seems to give her an almost perpetual pout when she's not minding her features. While her somewhat exotic appearance might ordinarily be found attractive to those whose tastes favor what's foreign, there is an unsettling aspect to her presence that many find difficult to overcome. Her garb, an off-white blouse, a woolen skirt, soft, well-worn boots, and a recently mended cloak have all seen better times, and often have the look of few days worth of travelling dusty roads. Despite this, Ashekara seems to carry herself as one who has a great deal of pride.

At equal times aloof and amiable, charitable and inconsiderate, Ashekara is a study of contrasts. Born into a nation of misfits and pariahs, she quickly learned that blood is the only thing you can trust in the world. To the Kariv, outsiders were nothing more than sheep to be fleeced. Ashekara was indoctrinated into this isolationist view from a young age, and even now she is often slow to warm to others, pessimistically waiting for them to begin treating her as an outsider. Almost completely at odds with their view of gadscho, or others, the Kariv also held that one of the highest tenets of their culture was to give aid to whomever needs it. The idea of helping others, be they blood-kin or not, was one that was firmly reinforced when Ashekara began down the path to becoming a Healer. Even now, long after abandoning that calling, she often finds she doesn't have the hardheartedness to turn a blind eye to one who is suffering, no matter how they may have slighted her.

Wandering is all that Ashekara has ever known, and, if the stories her people tell are true, wandering shall be the only thing she will ever know. The third and last child of a fortune-teller mother and a cutpurse father, Ashekara was born into the Kalder clan of the Wandering Realm of the Kariv, a nomadic people widely despised and mistrusted throughout the southern nations. But as much as city-dwellers and settlers look down upon the Kariv, so too do the other great families of Kariv look down upon the people of the Kalder clan. Reviled among their own people as kidnappers and bride-thieves, servants of dark gods who conspire with the undead, the life of a Kalder was one of being an outcast even among outcasts.

Family was what got Ashekara through her days growing up, particularly her elder brother, Iquari. When Ashekara became of age to begin training for what would become her life’s work, she chose to apprentice with the clan’s Healer. It was a noble calling, though, as Kalders were known for being masters of magic both malignant and benevolent, it was no small undertaking.

Her studies were cut short when, after a night of drunken revelry and violent tempers clashing, Iquari was brought to the Healer’s tent to be prepared for his burial. Deeply hurt by the death of her kin and most fervent ally, Ashekara would not be parted from her brother’s corpse no matter how her family and the Healer tried. And so they agreed that some time to grieve and say her goodbyes in privacy was what she needed, and let her be.

But when her parents and the Healer came back to collect her, they found their son’s body near mutilated, and Ashekara sewing the last stitches of a grisly poppet with bloodied fingers, murmuring about how “they” would to teach her how to bring Iquari back. That same night, she was brought before the King of the Kalders, who forever cast her out of the clan for breaking her Healer’s oath and defiling the corpse of a kinsman. Ashekara has been a wanderer in exile ever since, seeking more knowledge of the shadowy powers-that-be that have been her only companion since that fated night, and hoping that one day they will grant her the powers they promised.