Ionnia von Sturnidae's page

Init +0
Perception +4 (half-elf +2, Wis +2)
AC 16 (Scale mail +5, light steel shield +1, Dex +0)
hp 12

Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +2 (+4 vs enchantment) Immune Sleep

Speed
Melee attack longsword +3
Ranged attack javelin (3) +0
Special Attacks smite evil 1/day

Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 14

Feats Skill Focus (Ride) (B), Weapon Focus (longsword)
Skills (Modifier = Ranks + Ability Bonus + Other bonus + Class Skill) Handle Animal +5 (1+1+3), Knowledge (religion) +5 (1+1+3), Perform (dance) +6 (1+1+1+3) Ride +7 (1+0+3+3)
Traits Talented (Ultimate Campaign 61, see below), Child of the Crusade

Talented You are a virtuoso musician, actor, or storyteller. You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with a single Perform skill (your choice - dance), and all Perform skills are always class skills for you.

Aura of Good (Ex): The power of a paladin’s aura of good (see the detect good spell) is equal to her paladin level.
Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a paladin can use detect evil, as the spell. A paladin can, as a move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet and determine if it is evil, learning the strength of its aura as if having studied it for 3 rounds. While focusing on one individual or object, the paladin does not detect evil in any other object or individual within range.
Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil. As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.
In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.
The smite evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the paladin rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 4th level, and at every three levels thereafter, the paladin may smite evil one additional time per day, as indicated on Table 3–11, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
Low-Light Vision: Half-elves can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Multi-talented: Half-elves choose two favored classes (paladin, cleric) at first level and gain +1 hit point or +1 skill point whenever they take a level in either one of those classes.

At 5 ft 10 inches, Ionnia is slightly taller than average for a half-elf, with a lean, muscular, build due to her many hours of sword-practice, riding, and other physical activities.

Her brown eyes are set in a conventionally attractive face, framed by long, reddish-brown hair (unless she's in armour, in which case she keeps the hair up in elaborate braids).

For battle, she wears scale-armour embossed with the holy symbol of Shelyn on each scale over a green arming coat. In more casual situations she tends to favour either a green tunic over red hosen with sturdy boots, or a simple, yet flattering dress in either red or green with a matching bodice and slippers.

Inspiration

Ionnia is a member of the old Ustalavic von Sturnidae family - barons and baronesses who have served the Counts of Barstoi for generations. Her mother, however, as a young woman fell in love with a handsome elven crusader and left her position as heir to the Sturnidae holdfast to fight the demons of the Worldwound at the Mendevian front (there was plenty of familial precedence for her action, as several younger sons and daughters in the family had joined the various crusades already).
Having grown up with parents, uncles, and aunts fighting in various places along the Mendev-Worldwound border, Ioannia always knew she was going to join the struggle once she reached the proper age - it was not until she met a Shelynite priestess during a trip to Kenabres when she was fifteen that her to do so as a paladin started to form.
For the past five years or so, Ioannia has served as a squire in the local temple of Shelyn, until now when she has finally been inducted as a full paladin of the Eternal Rose and stands ready to bring love, beauty, and art back to the demon-haunted lands to the north and west.

EARLY LIFE

Circumstances of Birth
About a year before Ionnia’s birth, her mother discovered that her then husband, Sir Róka, had been neglecting her in favour of a (much too young for it to be socially acceptable, or even legal) stable-boy at the family estates in southern Ustalav. Coupled with a desire to avoid having to pick sides in the just then erupting War Without Rivals between the counties of Barstoi, (where the family’s title comes from) and Ardeal (where they also held estates), Lady Katynika took the drastic decision to, in addition to divorcing her husband, relinquish her title in favour of her oldest son Detrick and join the crusaders in Mendev (already including several cousins, uncles, aunts, nephews, and nieces to her), leaving her brother, Sandor, as custodian of the family wealth and Detrick until he would come of age.

On her way to the court of Queen Galfrey, Katynika met a handsome young elven bard, Talathel Sildelaral, who, alongside his mother, was returning from a failed attempt to make a new life in Kyonin, far from the sorrows of fallen Sarkoris. Katynika and Talathel took comfort in each other, and while the relationship ended soon after the group’s arrival in Nerosyan, they have stayed in touch ever since, seeing as not that long after, Katynika gave birth to a daughter with slightly pointed ears.

As the daughter of a wealthy Ustalavic noble-woman and the step-daughter of a prominent member of the Church of Iomedae, Ioannia was brought up with every advantage their position could get her. As a very young child she always had a nurse specially dedicated to looking after her whenever her mother wasn’t around, and once she’d gotten old enough to start a more formal education, the nurse was replaced by the best governess her parents’ money could buy. At the age of fifteen when she began to show an interest in joining one of Mendev’s many chivalric orders rather than follow in her mother’s footsteps and serve the Crusade as an administrator, her mother managed to get her a place as a page-girl with a small order of exclusively female knights and paladins dedicated to Shelyn and Sarenrae who had their headquarters in Egede (as far from the Worldwound as it is possible to be in Mendev) and specialised in teaching knightly skills and good, noble manners to the children of Mendev’s new crusader-nobility.

Education
It was during her second year with the Sisters of the Rosy Dawn that a seventeen-year-old Ionnia first realised she didn’t just want to become a knight, but a paladin sworn to Shelyn, the goddess of art, beauty, love and music. The realisation came about after the order’s fortified convent in Egede hosted three travelling paladins whose holy presence greatly impressed the young girl. Having set her eyes on the prize of a paladin’s sword and sanctified armour, she spent the next year trying to convince her tutors that she should be allowed to join one of their active members on the border of the Worldwound as a squire. This campaign was not met with success, though, and Ionnia might have ended up choosing a different path in life if it weren’t for a second visit from one of the three Shelynite paladins – a woman named Viniana the Bright – who first convinced her that she wasn’t yet ready to join the struggle against the demons, and then promised Ionnia that if, once she reached the age of twenty, Viniana would return to the convent and test Ionnia, and that as long as she showed enough martial and spiritual promise, Viniana would take her on as a squire and help her become a real knight and paladin of Shelyn.

Ionnia spent the next two years in even more intense study – dedicating herself equally to the study of Shelyn’s teachings, and to the more practical studies of fencing, riding, and building up enough strength to be able to fight in full knightly armour. During her studies she was encouraged to pick up an art, as befits all worshippers of Shelyn, and she became a passable dancer, reasoning that it is the art that best complements the skills of a warrior. Her greatest joy, however, is that of jousting – a practice she enjoys enough that she can sometimes be heard laughing with joy as she rides along the lists.

On Ionnia’s 20th birthday the paladin, a fellow half-elf woman by the name of Kaseyennia Shieldheart returned to see if the young noblewoman had what it takes to become a paladin. After a week of tests of varying difficulty – Ionnia had little trouble with the fencing, dancing, or riding tests, did well when questioned on Mendevian politics or Shelynite dogma and practises and showed good understanding of the reason for the self-same dogma and practises. Having to create a painting or sculpture was rather more difficult for her, though – and for a night she feared she had failed her test, until Kaseyennia explained that she had just managed to scrape through on the painting, and besides, her dancing had been artistic enough that she could have afforded to fail one test.

Ionnia has then spent the past 2-½ year as Kaseyennia’s squire as the paladin has helped out with keeping order and maintain justice inside Mendev – something that’s not always easy considering the people attracted more by the absence of the lawkeepers chasing them than by a desire to help out with the desperate struggle for Golarion’s survival that make up a large proportion of the crusaders in Mendev.

Two weeks ago, Kaseyennia told Ionnia that at the end of their visit to Kenabres, it would be time for Ionnia to be raised to the full rank of knight and paladin in the order, and to start making her own decisions as to how she can best help the crusade – until then, however, there’s a city to see, and a woman called Willow Hopgood saying she has been told by the priestesses to “help Ionnia with her burdens” to get to know.