Ustalav is no easy place for a common woman. Maria learned that far too young. No child should lose a parent that way. But when the ruffians beat her father to the ground and dragged her mother outside, she saw the cruelty of her native land. At thirteen, she was left with a widowered father who's mind was broken by the blows or the loss. Already broad-shouldered for her age, Maria set to chopping wood, feeding pigs, and providing for the father she had already lost. The constant work hardened her further.
Tortuously, an internal strength was born too. With no parent to comfort her, Maria gripped her pain tightly inside. The other villagers soon came to regard her as a sullen, brooding child and most preferred to stay away from the teen. When haggling over a chicken, Maria had a way of bluntly stating the facts of the matter that left the farmer squirming under the gaze of her hard eyes.
Every day, Maria remembered what cursed her with the pain she carried silently. With her burden weighing hard upon her, she never tolerated the strong to take what they wanted from the weak. None of the children in the village could be close to Maria after her mother's death but the smaller children soon learned that they benefited from her presence. Bullies rethought their plans whenever the broad young woman strode briskly past on her way to Ravengro Creek or the smithy.
And Maria's growing strength was not wasted. The tall, imposing young woman happened upon some bandits assaulting a young woman and an older man in an alley. Her rage kindled by the injustice, Maria plunged into the alley, wielding the shovel she had been carrying. Despite her strength and surprise, the well-armed bandits recovered from her initial assault and began pressing her backwards, their leader's greatclub threatening Maria with instant death. Then a vision of a woman in shining armor leapt into Maria's mind and, with the fury of a thousand wrongs, Maria smote the bandit leader dead in a single blow. His allies panicked and fled, allowing Maria to help the poor woman home.
Confused by her new power, Maria sought answers. By chance, the man she had saved knew many answers to many questions. After prompting Maria to give some descriptions, Professor Lorrimor deduced that she had been chosen as Iomedae as a warrior of her holy light. Confused by this new revelation, Maria grunted some acknowledgment to the older man and wandered home, unsure what her life had become. But Iomedae's call pressed into Maria's routine so the young woman began to scrimp and save her hard-earned coppers, so scarce with her father's needs weighing hard upon her. Eventually, Maria scraped together enough to buy her first real weapon, a rough greatsword that lay unwanted in the local smith's stores. She continued saving and piecing equipment together, determined to prepare herself to destroy any injustice placed before her.
