Post by Nadia Darkon on May 31, 2007 20:03:13 GMT -5
Name: Nadia Darkon
Gender: female
Species: cat, NOT a wildcat, just a plain cat
Appearance: Nadia is smaller than the average cat, but she is by no means slight. She has no pronounced muscles, but is evenly proportioned throughout her body. She has tabby markings that are a mixture of orange, tan, black, and grey. This coloring helps her to blend in to many of her surroundings. She has green eyes like most cats which lend to her acute night vision. She usually wears a brown or tan tunic to blend in with her colorings and a belt. Her one fetish is to wear a deep purple cloak, especially when it is raining outside.
Weapons: Nadia carries a short sword with an obsidian pommel stone which has been passed down through her family for generations. She would carry it around her waist, but because she is on the small side, it tends to drag every now and then on the ground. Because of this, she primarily wears it across her back. This is her favored weapon, yet she is also very adept at using her claws, which she keeps sharpened. These usually come in handy when fighting a vermin who merely pays attention to her short sword and is not looking for a swipe from her paw. She also carries a small dagger in the back of her belt just in case of emergencies. Nadia is also talented at using objects from the environment around her as weapons.
History: Nadia grew up in the far far southeast, the second in a family of six children. Cats were by no means uncommon, but the population of their tribe also consisted of hares, squirrels, mice, and other creatures. Her father had been part of the Home Guard of Lord Baden, the otter that governed and protected the borders of their small country. Every family was expected to contribute one member to the Home Guard on a rotating basis. When Nadia was 16, it was again her family’s turn to choose a member to serve in the Home Guard. Since Nadia’s father had already served, it was expected that his oldest child would serve. However, Nadia volunteered. Her older brother was getting ready to be married while she was just starting to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She decided that learning to fight would not hurt her and it had been years since the Home Guard got into anything more than a minor skirmish with small bands of wandering vermin.
When she entered the Guard, her father gave her his sword that he had used and that his father and grandfather had fought with before him. It was a short sword that was broader than a usual sword of the kind with an obsidian pommel stone. Nadia had heard myths of the stone being awarded to an ancestor when the land was crawling with hordes of vermin whose only desire was to conquer. However, other than myths, Nadia did not have any family history of military prowess. In the Guard, Nadia was trained in sword and paw-to-paw fighting. Because of her brown/tan/black fur coloring which blended into the landscape, Nadia was one of the few who also received training in stealth, secrecy, and reconnaissance work. Here, her superiors found that she had natural talent which was enhanced by the fact that she was a cat, a species that already possessed excellent night vision and sleek, coordinated movements.
Nadia excelled in her training with one exception. She could never aim a long range weapon very well. She learned how to use a bow and arrow and a sling, but she never had any precision when it came to aiming. Whenever she tried to use a sling, the stone would plop discouragingly into the dust. Shooting an arrow had the same effect, although sometimes it was more spectacular depending on where the arrow landed. One particularly interesting experience was when one of her arrows knocked a large batch of specially seasoned vegetables that a cook was roasting in preparation for a feast into the flames. It had taken weeks for Nadia to regain the good graces of all the cooks, a tragedy for her because she loved good food.
Not having an overwhelming list of duties in the Guard, Nadia concentrated on several things. She practiced often with her sword, trying to get the moves down to an automatic response so that if she ever did have to fight for her life, which she doubted would ever happen, the moves and defenses would come easily to her. She also met a traveling mouse that taught her lock-picking, a legitimate skill that went on the list of her abilities in the Guard.
Nadia’s time of service was almost up when the unexpected happened. A horde, composed mainly of ferrets, started encroaching upon territory that a few creatures who were under Lord Baden lived on. The first news that reached the Guard of these incidences was delivered by a squirrel that Nadia’s patrol had encountered. The squirrel was exhausted and so Nadia, as the fastest in her patrol, was chosen to bring the horrifying news the rest of the way back to Lord Baden. Nadia had run back to the fort as fast as she could, all the while in shock from the squirrel’s information. There had not been attacked on a large scale like this in decades! She didn’t know whether to be excited for the opportunity to actually fight, or to be scared for the lives of herself and the families that she knew. She was also worried that Lord Baden would not be prepared, since there had been peace for so long.
Nadia had no need to worry. When she delivered the news, the otter’s eyes gleamed with fire. He immediately began organizing the Guard into fighting groups. At first he only sent small patrols out who verified that the ferrets were indeed planning more than a few border skirmishes. Nadia, as one of the few trained in stealth, was part of the first mission to gather intelligence. She and her fellow warriors found the enemy camp larger than anticipated. It was well-established with good perimeter defenses. Upon hearing this, Lord Baden ruled out any direct attack of the camp. He focused on keeping the ferrets from coming further. The skirmishes eventually escalated into a full-scale war and many of the creatures under Lord Baden willingly volunteered as soldiers to protect their homes and young ones. Nadia found more than her fair share of fighting and of narrow escapes.
As the war dragged on with neither side winning and more and more of his creatures dying, Lord Baden decided to try a different tack: assassination. He relied on the information brought in by Nadia, who was by then head of the very small scouting and intelligence gathering force. This information showed that the horde relied on the brilliance of its leader to hold it together. If the leader was killed, the horde would be disorganized and easily defeated. He could not afford the money to hire an assassin and furthermore, he did not trust anyone but one of his own Home Guard to not sell out if the ferrets found out and offered a higher price. Lord Baden asked Nadia if she would be willing to be his assassin. Nadia was reluctant. She had killed beasts, but she had never, even when fighting against vermin, killed by stealth. She felt it was dishonorable. She believed that this was one of the things that kept good beasts separate from vermin. However, as the horde slowly moved closer Nadia started thinking. Her father was already fighting on the lines. Her brother had had to leave a young and pregnant wife behind to go and protect his home. Even though Nadia hated the thought of becoming an assassin, it seemed the best viable option at that moment for ending the war quickly and without further loss of life.
The only problem was entering the horde’s camp. At night, entering it was nigh impossible. Nadia had only ever been able to enter it once, and that was before the war escalated. There was only one other option. Nadia entered the ferret camp just as the sun was setting on a night that promised to be very foggy. She had dyed her fur with wildcat markings and had colored her normally white teeth yellow. She slitted her eyes and kept her face in a permanent scowl, fangs glittering from a form swathed in a deep purple cloak that had a sword with a black pommel stone gleaming behind her back. She was every inch a traveling wildcat warrior who might possibly be descended from a ruling family. She was admitted into the camp as a guest and was entertained by the horde’s leader that night. Later, as she seemingly wandered aimlessly around the camp, Nadia noted the positions of the guards, of the leader’s tent, and of possible escape routes. In the middle of the night, Nadia shed her purple cloak and sword, hiding them in a tree. Bleeding into the fog and darkness, she slipped away to the leader’s tent. The assassination went off without a hitch. The ferret leader was dead without a sound. Nadia returned to her cloak and sword and climbed into the branches of a tree to await the coming of the sun.
As soon as the sun rose, Nadia flashed a signal with her pommel stone to one of her scouts that was waiting for the news to mobilize their army. Lord Braden’s forces hit just as a shout went up among the ferrets that their leader had been assassinated in the night. Having neither the time nor the experience to organize themselves, the ferrets were decimated. Nadia descended from her tree as soon as she could slip back to her own forces. The ferrets had been driven off for good, but now they had to rebuild their own society.
Nadia decided to leave as soon as she saw that peace did not need warriors with her expertise. She loved her family. However, in the years Nadia was in the Guard, her mother had had two sets of twins; therefore, Nadia felt that now was not the best time to add another member to their already crowded home, even though her father and mother would have welcomed her back with open arms. Nadia also felt that the war had changed her. She was not the creature she used to be. She felt that her covert actions in the war, especially the assassination, had been dishonorable. Nadia knew that she was the only one who could have done it, but she still had moral issues with killing an unsuspecting beast in his sleep, no matter how evil he was. Nadia knew her skills could be very useful to an army in the role of a scout or information gatherer, although she hoped she would never be called on to carry out such an assignment as an assassination again. She received Lord Baden‘s permission to leave the Home Guard and started traveling north. She took with her her sword and also the purple cloak she had worn that night in the ferret camp. In her travels, Nadia heard about the Guardians of Mossflower, a group that defended all peaceful creatures. She joined them, hoping that she might be useful in their struggles to protect others.
Gender: female
Species: cat, NOT a wildcat, just a plain cat
Appearance: Nadia is smaller than the average cat, but she is by no means slight. She has no pronounced muscles, but is evenly proportioned throughout her body. She has tabby markings that are a mixture of orange, tan, black, and grey. This coloring helps her to blend in to many of her surroundings. She has green eyes like most cats which lend to her acute night vision. She usually wears a brown or tan tunic to blend in with her colorings and a belt. Her one fetish is to wear a deep purple cloak, especially when it is raining outside.
Weapons: Nadia carries a short sword with an obsidian pommel stone which has been passed down through her family for generations. She would carry it around her waist, but because she is on the small side, it tends to drag every now and then on the ground. Because of this, she primarily wears it across her back. This is her favored weapon, yet she is also very adept at using her claws, which she keeps sharpened. These usually come in handy when fighting a vermin who merely pays attention to her short sword and is not looking for a swipe from her paw. She also carries a small dagger in the back of her belt just in case of emergencies. Nadia is also talented at using objects from the environment around her as weapons.
History: Nadia grew up in the far far southeast, the second in a family of six children. Cats were by no means uncommon, but the population of their tribe also consisted of hares, squirrels, mice, and other creatures. Her father had been part of the Home Guard of Lord Baden, the otter that governed and protected the borders of their small country. Every family was expected to contribute one member to the Home Guard on a rotating basis. When Nadia was 16, it was again her family’s turn to choose a member to serve in the Home Guard. Since Nadia’s father had already served, it was expected that his oldest child would serve. However, Nadia volunteered. Her older brother was getting ready to be married while she was just starting to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She decided that learning to fight would not hurt her and it had been years since the Home Guard got into anything more than a minor skirmish with small bands of wandering vermin.
When she entered the Guard, her father gave her his sword that he had used and that his father and grandfather had fought with before him. It was a short sword that was broader than a usual sword of the kind with an obsidian pommel stone. Nadia had heard myths of the stone being awarded to an ancestor when the land was crawling with hordes of vermin whose only desire was to conquer. However, other than myths, Nadia did not have any family history of military prowess. In the Guard, Nadia was trained in sword and paw-to-paw fighting. Because of her brown/tan/black fur coloring which blended into the landscape, Nadia was one of the few who also received training in stealth, secrecy, and reconnaissance work. Here, her superiors found that she had natural talent which was enhanced by the fact that she was a cat, a species that already possessed excellent night vision and sleek, coordinated movements.
Nadia excelled in her training with one exception. She could never aim a long range weapon very well. She learned how to use a bow and arrow and a sling, but she never had any precision when it came to aiming. Whenever she tried to use a sling, the stone would plop discouragingly into the dust. Shooting an arrow had the same effect, although sometimes it was more spectacular depending on where the arrow landed. One particularly interesting experience was when one of her arrows knocked a large batch of specially seasoned vegetables that a cook was roasting in preparation for a feast into the flames. It had taken weeks for Nadia to regain the good graces of all the cooks, a tragedy for her because she loved good food.
Not having an overwhelming list of duties in the Guard, Nadia concentrated on several things. She practiced often with her sword, trying to get the moves down to an automatic response so that if she ever did have to fight for her life, which she doubted would ever happen, the moves and defenses would come easily to her. She also met a traveling mouse that taught her lock-picking, a legitimate skill that went on the list of her abilities in the Guard.
Nadia’s time of service was almost up when the unexpected happened. A horde, composed mainly of ferrets, started encroaching upon territory that a few creatures who were under Lord Baden lived on. The first news that reached the Guard of these incidences was delivered by a squirrel that Nadia’s patrol had encountered. The squirrel was exhausted and so Nadia, as the fastest in her patrol, was chosen to bring the horrifying news the rest of the way back to Lord Baden. Nadia had run back to the fort as fast as she could, all the while in shock from the squirrel’s information. There had not been attacked on a large scale like this in decades! She didn’t know whether to be excited for the opportunity to actually fight, or to be scared for the lives of herself and the families that she knew. She was also worried that Lord Baden would not be prepared, since there had been peace for so long.
Nadia had no need to worry. When she delivered the news, the otter’s eyes gleamed with fire. He immediately began organizing the Guard into fighting groups. At first he only sent small patrols out who verified that the ferrets were indeed planning more than a few border skirmishes. Nadia, as one of the few trained in stealth, was part of the first mission to gather intelligence. She and her fellow warriors found the enemy camp larger than anticipated. It was well-established with good perimeter defenses. Upon hearing this, Lord Baden ruled out any direct attack of the camp. He focused on keeping the ferrets from coming further. The skirmishes eventually escalated into a full-scale war and many of the creatures under Lord Baden willingly volunteered as soldiers to protect their homes and young ones. Nadia found more than her fair share of fighting and of narrow escapes.
As the war dragged on with neither side winning and more and more of his creatures dying, Lord Baden decided to try a different tack: assassination. He relied on the information brought in by Nadia, who was by then head of the very small scouting and intelligence gathering force. This information showed that the horde relied on the brilliance of its leader to hold it together. If the leader was killed, the horde would be disorganized and easily defeated. He could not afford the money to hire an assassin and furthermore, he did not trust anyone but one of his own Home Guard to not sell out if the ferrets found out and offered a higher price. Lord Baden asked Nadia if she would be willing to be his assassin. Nadia was reluctant. She had killed beasts, but she had never, even when fighting against vermin, killed by stealth. She felt it was dishonorable. She believed that this was one of the things that kept good beasts separate from vermin. However, as the horde slowly moved closer Nadia started thinking. Her father was already fighting on the lines. Her brother had had to leave a young and pregnant wife behind to go and protect his home. Even though Nadia hated the thought of becoming an assassin, it seemed the best viable option at that moment for ending the war quickly and without further loss of life.
The only problem was entering the horde’s camp. At night, entering it was nigh impossible. Nadia had only ever been able to enter it once, and that was before the war escalated. There was only one other option. Nadia entered the ferret camp just as the sun was setting on a night that promised to be very foggy. She had dyed her fur with wildcat markings and had colored her normally white teeth yellow. She slitted her eyes and kept her face in a permanent scowl, fangs glittering from a form swathed in a deep purple cloak that had a sword with a black pommel stone gleaming behind her back. She was every inch a traveling wildcat warrior who might possibly be descended from a ruling family. She was admitted into the camp as a guest and was entertained by the horde’s leader that night. Later, as she seemingly wandered aimlessly around the camp, Nadia noted the positions of the guards, of the leader’s tent, and of possible escape routes. In the middle of the night, Nadia shed her purple cloak and sword, hiding them in a tree. Bleeding into the fog and darkness, she slipped away to the leader’s tent. The assassination went off without a hitch. The ferret leader was dead without a sound. Nadia returned to her cloak and sword and climbed into the branches of a tree to await the coming of the sun.
As soon as the sun rose, Nadia flashed a signal with her pommel stone to one of her scouts that was waiting for the news to mobilize their army. Lord Braden’s forces hit just as a shout went up among the ferrets that their leader had been assassinated in the night. Having neither the time nor the experience to organize themselves, the ferrets were decimated. Nadia descended from her tree as soon as she could slip back to her own forces. The ferrets had been driven off for good, but now they had to rebuild their own society.
Nadia decided to leave as soon as she saw that peace did not need warriors with her expertise. She loved her family. However, in the years Nadia was in the Guard, her mother had had two sets of twins; therefore, Nadia felt that now was not the best time to add another member to their already crowded home, even though her father and mother would have welcomed her back with open arms. Nadia also felt that the war had changed her. She was not the creature she used to be. She felt that her covert actions in the war, especially the assassination, had been dishonorable. Nadia knew that she was the only one who could have done it, but she still had moral issues with killing an unsuspecting beast in his sleep, no matter how evil he was. Nadia knew her skills could be very useful to an army in the role of a scout or information gatherer, although she hoped she would never be called on to carry out such an assignment as an assassination again. She received Lord Baden‘s permission to leave the Home Guard and started traveling north. She took with her her sword and also the purple cloak she had worn that night in the ferret camp. In her travels, Nadia heard about the Guardians of Mossflower, a group that defended all peaceful creatures. She joined them, hoping that she might be useful in their struggles to protect others.
