Step 1: Write 5 background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind. 5 is just a minimum...more elements are encouraged!
1.
Kseniya was born to a Jadwiga family, the youngest of only two siblings, both with the faint markers of elven heritage. They never knew their father, and their mother made it clear the subject was taboo. Her family is a lesser branch of one of the minor former queens from centuries ago, so they have little standing and prominence within their class but still remain near the top of the social order. This position and the family estate’s distance from Whitethrone has allowed them a greater deal of autonomy and privacy than usual amongst the Jadwiga.
2.
She’s a large woman—almost 6 feet—built out of wiry muscle that her winter clothing obscures. Her Jadwiga and gold dragon heritage have combined to give her hair a color between platinum and gold and eyes to match. Her skin has a glow like torchlight shining through ice, scars likes cracks. Her skin is too delicate for the life she leads and shows every scar and bruise, the worst being a full mouth of winter wolf teeth puncture marks on her left shoulder from a particularly harrowing wrestling match. She keeps her hair in long ringlet curls that she meticulously tends to and ties back with a bow. She typically wears a deep blue and white hardy dress and favors blue in all of her clothing.
3.
Kseniya is a bare-knuckle brawler and wrestler with the aesthetic sense and pride of an entitled sorcerer. She is all-too-happy for people to see her as just another fragile spellcaster up until the moment she puts them in a headlock. She is essentially a professional wrestler as her day job, albeit in far more real and dangerous circumstances, and she has the sense of showmanship to go with it.
4.
Kseniya likes to pretend that she’s all cool and uncaring as Jadwiga are supposed to be, but she’s too much of a big soft-hearted idealist to be convincing for long. She tends to have difficulty seeing the bigger problems behind the small ones, but if someone appears in front of her needing help, she will do so in a heartbeat.
5.
Kseniya’s older sister, Apollinariya, is an accomplished winter witch so Kseniya was allowed more leeway as a second daughter, and she has often pushed the limits of that leeway. Her greatest transgression was beating the winter witch she was apprenticed to unconscious for telling her to torture a man to death. As a punishment, her mother sent her off to an elite finishing school in Varisia for young ladies to learn more appropriate behavior. Fortunately for Kseniya, the school doubled as a monastery dedicated to the service of Falayna, a minor empyreal lord of femininity...and martial training. Kseniya did indeed learn a great deal about how to control herself, how to act as a proper lady of her rank, and how to punch a man’s skull in, though she eventually chafed against the restrained ideology of the Falaynans, but not before they cleared her to graduate and go home.
6.
She has spent the past year since returning home to getting involved in a fighting ring in Whitethrone that sponsors wrestling matches with people, giants, fey, and all other such manners of creatures. She does this to help practice and prepare for circumstances outside the controlled bouts of her former school, as well as to help develop her control of and connection to her draconic powers, but she ultimately wants a purpose far more grand and heroic.
7.
She tends to spend an unseemly amount of time with the “lower classes,” in a situation reminiscent of the young Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV, preferring their company to the jadwiga. Her loose purse has made her quite popular as an acquaintance, but her gregarious demeanor has found her friends as well.
8.
Kseniya should be able to serve as a strong, multitalented frontliner. Her AC is already 24 with mage armor and shield and will be increasing by leaps and bounds. She can grapple to shut down spellcasters and individual combatants and does more than respectable damage with the dragon style feats that will synergize well with her upcoming dragon disciple strength boosts.
Step 2: List at least two goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.
1. Kseniya’s Goals
Kseniya wants to prove her worth to the world. Everything about her, save her pride and love of luxury, is against the grain of Irrisen, and she has thus spent her entire life being looked down upon by everyone in her class. She also wants to ensure the safety and flourishing of her family.
2. My Goals for Kseniya
I want her to grow to the point that she realizes that she doesn’t need to prove her worth to anyone. I want her to get over her inferiority complex (see step 5). She also needs to learn that she really has had a pretty privileged life and should reexamine many of her own preconceptions and habits.
Step 3: List at least two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!
1. Secret she does know
Despite their mother’s attempts to keep their father’s identity a secret, Kseniya and her sister were able to uncover that he was a snow elf, Jothian, that their mother had a long love affair with while publicly remaining a bachelorette and denying more “suitable” men. He was caught and executed by the Queen for supposedly disseminating revolutionary literature, but it was an open secret amongst the Jadwiga class that the charges were made up and that the real crime was annoying the Queen and acting beyond his class.
2. Secret she doesn’t know
What Kseniya and her sister don’t know is that they actually don’t have any father at all and their elven heritage comes from Tatyana’s line. Their “snow elf father” was actually a female gold dragon, Xerojothialexi, in one of her many disguises. Xerojothialexi had gotten it in her head that she could insert herself into Irrisen and topple the whole regime to make way for something more Righteous and Glorious and quickly found the task much more than she bargained for. She and Tatyana fell in love and would have happily stayed together, but Kseniya’s noticeable gold dragon bloodline brought too much attention and dangerous questions. Xero and Tatyana faked the former’s capture and execution to try to take the heat off before Queen Elvanna realized Xero’s identity, but there were still too many eyes on Tatyana for Xero to remain at her side, even in a new disguise. Where Xero is now is anyone’s guess. Perhaps she left for far off parts unknown to mourn her lost love and move on as dragons do, or maybe she stayed and found new disguises so she could finish what she had started, or perhaps Xero ran the Falaynan school Tatyana sent Kseniya to, or maybe she just stops by periodically to whisper sweet nothings to her love and see how their children are doing. That answer, I leave to the GM and whatever fits the story the best :)
Step 4: Describe at least three people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
1. Family
Her mother, Tatyanarina, casts a great shadow over her life. Tatyana is appalled at her daughter’s rambunctious lifestyle, but she also believes she simply needs to wait out the “phase,” though she does secretly admire Kseniya’s unabashed attraction towards women, an attitude that she wishes she could have found herself. She is ultimately devoted to her daughters and she will provide a stern, yet available, safety net for Kseniya if the need is truly great. Nevertheless, she does know to keep a tight grip on the family purse lest her daughter spend the whole lot in an afternoon.
2. Family
Apollinariya, Kseniya’s older sister, and her were once close. Kseniya idolized Apollina’s intelligence and understanding, and she always felt grateful that her older sister’s aptitude for witchery left her free of such obligations. However, they have drifted apart in recent years as Apollina has become more and more involved in the complex, ruthless politics of Irrisen. Apollina has been covertly involving herself with more radical and even revolutionary elements of the country, and she does not want her beloved younger sister to get caught in the crossfire. For her part, Kseniya is wounded as she thinks her sister has simply grown out of interest in her.
3. Friend
Boris Drussovich is Kseniya’s common partner-in-crime. He’s a short redheaded Ulfen man twice her age who works as a teamster by day and bets on Kseniya’s fights at night. He’s a salt-of-the-earth man just trying to keep his family fed and clothed in a society that treats them like chattel. He’s a good man but with an eye for practicality. He actually initially sought Kseniya’s friendship because of her loose purse, but something about their personalities just meshed and it turned into a genuine friendship after she caught him having a private rendezvous with another man and agreed to keep the matter quiet from his wife, citing her own same-gender attraction. They have since become each other’s wing-person. He asked her once if she’d be willing to throw a fight, and when she refused, he respected her position and has never brought it up again, considering the matter closed.
4. Foe/Rival
Serafinaslava Tolstovkova Urvalane is Kseniya’s eternal rival. Serafina and Kseniya grew up together as Jadwiga heiresses of friendly families, but the two of them were constantly butting heads. Their personalities have always been too similar and too big. Bringing the two of them into a room is like putting fire next to gunpowder. In fact, much of Kseniya’s initial interest learning wrestling arose out of finding a way to shut down Serafina specifically for whenever they inevitably come to a climactic battle. Whereas Kseniya always questioned the ruthless methods of her teachers, Serafina played the game, and she would eventually become a full-fledged winter witch. How much Serafina is happy with the current order or Irrisen is known only to her, but Kseniya has also never delved into that question.
Step 5: Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
1. Mannerisms
Ksenia simply sees nothing unfeminine in caving in rib or suplexing someone’s head into the ground, particularly as she does it in a dress, long ringleted hair, and covered in gold and gems. She believes that she can make anything feminine without having to make it prissy or delicate. Her views are a little looser than usual for a Falaynan, but she is an unusual Falaynan.
2. Quirk
Kseniya has an inferiority complex towards arcane spellcasters, especially witches, and ESPECIALLY winter witches. Her first instinct when confronted with one is to completely shut them down however she can and she proudly brags in battle whenever she overcomes one of their spells or hexes, taking particular joy when people attempt to use slumber hex on her.
3. Quirk
Kseniya is horrible with money, as represented by her drawback. She inherited her gold dragon ancestor’s voracious acquisitiveness for gold and gems, to the point she hates having any type of currency other than gold or jewels. She will give away excess silver and copper that she can’t convert and is constantly telling people to keep the change. Unlike her ancestor, she is in no danger of hoarding, as money tends to leave her hands as fast as it gets there. She tends to have little idea what anything is worth and thinks it boorish to ask.
