About Natalia AshtonQUICKSTATS
ANCESTRY, BACKGROUND, CLASS, FEATS:
ANCESTRY Human Heritage - Versatile Heritage
BACKGROUND
CLASS
BONUS FEATS 1st Level
SPELLS AND RITUALS:
SPELLS
1st Level - 2 Per Day
FOCUS SPELLS - Focus Pool 2
1st Level Focus Spells RITUALS
INVENTORY - 3/11 Bulk:
ARMOR - Studded Leather GEAR Backpack - .7/4 Bulk
Bandolier
Sheath (Rapier(1))
WORN/LOOSE
CHARACTER BACKSTORY:
As with all people, the story of their life starts long before that first faithful breath of life. The choices of their parents, the life they led, and the dreams they had. All morph and shape a person before they have even a chance to be a thought in their parents' mind. Natalia's parents were from the Chelish Puppet State of Isger in the quaint town of Breachill. Together as a young couple, with their childhood friends, they embarked on the Heroes Call. That taste of freedom through adventure ignited a hunger within them. That wanderlust that drives so many to the profession. With bright eyes and fresh experience, Natalia's parents and their friends set off from their humble village to pursue that romantic life of adventure. Yet romantic ideals are often so easily stained. The band fared well with the simple threats as they meandered their way down the rivers that welled up in the center of the Isgeri heartlands. By the time they had crossed the borderlands into Cheliax, those starry-eyed adventurers were changed. Death had come for their friends and scars physical and mental had sapped the cheer from Natalia's parents being. Luck would offer a boon in those darker times. A Chelish noble would recruit them to his service. Not as adventurers or guards, but as servants and craftsmen. Not even a year after they had set off, the couple had found themselves in retirement from the adventure life. Scarcely a year after the settled, Natalia's mother gave birth to Natalia. It would be easy to say that her parents loved her. Somedays, Natalia even believed they did. Yet one could not deny that the scars of their misadventures strained their relationship with Natalia. It was a struggle to get them to open up to her, or for them to comfort her. There was one, however, who cared for her. The who took her parents in and gave her a house to be born into. Volus Sylla. The Patriarch of his house and patron of the arts. He was old enough to be her grandfather, and in her youth she made a habit of calling him such. He was a hearty man, with a gregarious attitude that seemed to bring light to anyone's eyes. From a young age, Natalia's voice was the talk of the villa. Servants and family members a like took joy in listening to toddler Natalia blabber out lullabies in her half-jibberish half-common dialect. As she grew, Volus made an effort to nurture Natalia's budding talent. While most servant children were quickly pushed into work around the villa, Natalia was given lessons in opera. Expectations and admiration were heaped upon her in equal measure with each passing year. Adolescence saw her off to Egorian, the Chelish capital. There she became classically schooled in the arts, with a specialization given to High Chelish Opera. Her lessons in performance came easy, but she struggled to grasp the Azlanti language Chelish opera is performed in. Still, others found themselves jealous of Natalia. Especially those of more noble birth. Her time at college, hardened the young woman and by the time she graduated she had grown bitter and arrogant. Friends did not come easy to her, but music did. So she became what was expected of her. Never once did she sacrifice her standards, and never once did she allow someone to grow close. Before long she was the primadonna of her own opera house, and her name was on the lips of countless nobles across Cheliax. She basked in the spotlight and drunk deep the adoration of the audience. Every night she gave a performance that could shatter glass and mend hearts in the same breath. Yet life in the spotlight for a woman of performance was all too short. The vanity of the crowd that had helped her supplant the woman before her, and turned against her. Aging looks and political maneuvering by her juniors saw her taken from the pedestal before her voice had wavered. She was only 34. She returned home to the villa she was raised in. To her parents, who were nearly fifty. To Volus who had aged into a jolly old man. She performed for him, and for his friends. Small and humble performances. For any other soul she would not of done it, but for the man who nurtured her voice. She would suffer any indignity. She would suffer the hollow pit in her chest after every performance, as the applause of a small crowd struggled to fill that desire for adoration. For a time it felt like her life's work was over. She had done her service to the arts, and Shelyn would reward her in the life after. She need only fill the time between then and now. Love never came easy for her. Friends as well. All of her life she shut herself off from everything but her work, and in the end she was left in an aging house before her prime was even past. Life did not wait for her to finish in her wallowing of regret. Hell came to the House Sylla. Like a hammer it smashed to pieces the only home Natalia had ever known and set it ablaze. 'Why?' was the only word on her lips. The only thought in her mind. Why? Surrounded by fires and showered in embers. Why? In a dress stained with mud as she knelt, while soldiers with torches marched past. Why, would Hell seek its vengeance here? Natalia was arrested, but many more- including her parents and Volus were not given such a chance. They burned alive in the fires of Thrune's retribution for a crime, Natalia could not understand. A crime she did not know. I would've been easy to sentence her as an accomplice. She was so close to Volus, and even still she was just a commoner's daughter. It was the fame of her early youth that saved her. She was released onto the streets of Egorian, standing among the theaters she once owned. Without a coin to her name, and only her voice to carry her. With nowhere to go, Natalia went to the only other place she knew. Breachill. The home of her parents, and perhaps far enough way from all of this to... help her forget. Life was not easy for her on the journey across Cheliax and up to the Isgeri highlands. She was pushed to theft and common criminality. Performers were plenty, and to the common folk- There was little interest in listening to performances of a out of practice opera diva. |
