Pavanna Alazario's page

About Pavanna Alazario

Image of Pavanna — note that I did not draw this image, and it’s linked-to without permission.

BIOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION:
Abandoned to the graces of the Dorjanala (Westcrown’s Temple of Iomedae) scarce hours after her birth, Pavanna would have liked to believe that it was because her parents were too poor to provide for her and hoped to see her have a better life... but she’s long since accepted that in all likelihood, her mother was a member of the Wiscrani nobility who didn’t want the family reputation tainted by ‘fiendish blood’.
Adopted by Quinta Alazario, a half-elven paladin of the Inheritor, Pavanna spent most of her youth within the walls of the Dorjanala. A cheerful, quiet, studious lass, she was quite content to spend most of her days reading of far-off lands or joining the temple’s warriors in their daily routines, rather than explore the city. Certainly encounters with native-born humans during trips outside the temple quickly taught her to dread such excursions, for she almost never escaped some form of verbal violence over her status as a ‘hellspawn’, and on several occasions the bullies attacked her with fists and feet, as well as words. One of her most abiding memories of her childhood is being thrown into a canal by a trio of ‘highborn’ boys hoping to ‘wash some of the devilborn stink off her’, and it was only through the good graces of a Condottari patrol that she escaped drowning.
Through these incidents, and the gentle, patient teaching of her mother, Pavanna learned alertness, an abiding hatred of bullies and tyrants, and a fierce determination to stand up for those who could not defend themselves. Though she is of a more scholarly bent than many of the Inheritor’s faithful, she cleaves to their paladin’s code with a ferocity some might call frightening.
Several years ago, Quinta was ‘encouraged’ to join the Temple of Iomedae in Magnimar and take her foster-daughter with her. (Though her mother has not confided in her the real reason for this relocation so far across Avistan, Pavanna suspects that it had something to do with certain topics the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune may not wish discussed.) Nonetheless, she was delighted to have a closer look at monuments and relics of the lost civilisation of Thassilon, tales of which had fascinated her even when she was a girl, and she set to studying them with a will. Moreover, the relative acceptance she received from natives of the Varisian city, compared to the contempt and constant harassment she endured in Westcrown, quickly endeared the city to her... though she quickly learned to be cautious when dealing with native Varisians, as not all of their infamy is undeserved. In the time since her arrival, she’s actually taught herself a working knowledge of the fallen empire’s dead language and, with her study of Magnimar’s ruins and relics essentially exhausted for the moment, she’s taking advantage of a request from Quinta to further her own explorations. The Swallowtail Festival and the consecration of the new cathedral in Sandpoint are mere days away, and while it does not hold a shrine to Iomedae, Quinta Alazario asked her daughter to represent the Inheritor’s Magnimaran temple to Father Abstalar Zantus as a gesture of goodwill. She also knew full well that her daughter would take the chance to speak with Brodert Quink, a local expert on matters Thassilonian who holds some odd theories, as well as poke around ruins like the Old Light.

Pavanna is of average height (5’ 5”) and has a lean physique (130lb) toned by years of practicing sword-arts and other drills with fellow faithful of the Inheritor. Graced with straight black hair and an olive Chelish complection, the marks of her otherworldly origins are most visible in her blood-red eyes (which almost seem to glow in dim light), her notched, goat-like ears, and the matching two-inch goat-like horns sprouting from her forehead. She favours practical traveller’s garb, usually topped with a felt slouch-hat, but rarely goes anywhere without her longsword, a prized gift from her mother. (Quite apart from wanting to protect herself, she’s well aware that a blade forged by Chelish master-smiths before the rise of the House of Thrune is worth more coin than many commoners might make in five years.)
If expecting battle (or clad for a religious ceremony like the Swallowtail Festival), she wears her armour, a midnight-blue toughened-leather breast-and-backplate arrangement with an inner lining of chainmail and leather pauldrons, vambraces, and greaves, with the arms of Iomedae moulded and silver-enameled into its front and both pauldrons. (She also bears the arms of Iomedae on her iron-shod wooden shield, and her flaunting of that emblem has seen more than a few folk mistake her for a paladin of the Inheritor, which tends to make them think twice about playing tricks on her.)