Character information & Application

[nosmallprotector]

Player Information
Player name: Emiri
Player journal: emiri @ dw, for all that i use it (rarely)
Playing here: N/A, fresh meat
Where did you find us? Amber’s fault!
16 or older? Sure am!

Character Information
Character name: Keladry “Kel” of Mindelan
Fandom: Tamora Pierce series/Tortall Universe/Protector of the Small quartet
Timeline: After the events of the fourth and final book, Lady Knight
Character’s age: 19

Powers: Kel has no canon supernatural powers, and I would like to keep it this way in Scorched (for now, at least) in order to stay true to what I feel is the spirit of her canon. The entire point of Kel’s character is that she’s the most entirely un-magical person in the whole of Tortall—and therefore can prove that it is possible for girls to become knights without the aid of magic.

Skills: Having been trained since the tender age of four in the various ways of battle, unsurprisingly Kel’s skill-set is almost entirely combat-oriented. Her weapon of choice is the naginata, a pole-arm similar to what we might call a glaive. However, she also trained to varying degrees of proficiency if not mastery in the following weapons: sword, bow and arrow, spear, staff, lance, axe, war-hammer, small knives and the shukusen, a metal fan with razor sharp edges. She is also skilled in hand-to-hand combat, though not enough that she could win against a master. The rest of her non-combat-oriented skills are still applicable to being a soldier in the field: (very) basic cooking, basic first aid, horse riding and care, weapons care, mapping, mathematics, arrow fletching, tactics and strategy, chess, basic sewing, and so forth.

Pets: Keladry has three pets: an ugly but loyal and ferocious mutt of a dog named Jump, and two horses—her savage warhorse Peachblossom and her peaceful travelling horse Hoshi. Being calm and restrained on the outside, she has referred affectionately to Peachblossom as “her true temper,” as he is a horse who will take no crap from anybody. Hoshi she refers to as a mare who would survey disaster with a calm eye. In the books she is also adopted by a flock of wild sparrows that she takes care of, however at heart they are still wild animals. To call them pets would be slightly amiss, and as such they will not be following her to Scorched.

Equipment: Kel has on her person at all times at least one weapon from the above listed in skills (usually small wrist knives or a belt-knife, since they’re the easiest to carry without being cumbersome), being prepared at all times. Her horses carry the rest of her weapons when on the move, also listed above, except for the lance (as lances are ridiculously heavy and easy to make anywhere you go). She actually has two glaives—one for practice and one for realsies. She also has a shield, a set of mail and plate armour, and a bag of rare griffin-feathers she earned from two griffins in book three, which she carries with her everywhere she goes. The griffin feathers, when fletched, help arrows to fly true. When held above her eyes, they help her to see through illusions and mage-craft. As for clothes, she usually carries with her typical medieval-style men’s clothing: boots, breeches, two shirts and two tunics.

Canon history: Tamora Pierce wiki: Keladry of Mindelan

Personality: Keladry of Mindelan knew what she wanted from a very young age. From age four she trained with the children of the Yamani court in hand-to-hand combat and found it enjoyable. From age six, she started training with the glaive. Inspired as a child by witnessing her mother single-handedly defend an ancient Imperial treasure from a band of pirates, and by hearing the stories of Alanna the Lioness, the first female knight in over a century, Kel dreamed not of marrying and having children (as would be expected of a lady of her station) but of becoming a warrior. She has worked towards this goal despite several setbacks with tireless determination ever since, facing down both school-yard bullying and institutional misogyny.

Fairly early on, we see that Kel’s reasons for wanting to become a knight are slightly different than that of her peers. Rather than duty, fame, battle-lust or ideals of romantic heroism, Kel wishes to be a knight so that she can protect people. Where others see “the way things are,” Kel sees injustice and unfairness everywhere and rages at how powerless she feels to stop it. Just as she rallies against the idea that girls are lesser than men, she rallies against the idea that commoners are lesser than nobles, that kids are lesser than adults, that animals are lesser than people. Despite being born into a noble family, she carries ideas that most other nobles find “strange.” She is well aware of her privilege and is determined to use it to help others, rather than abuse it. She cannot refuse a person in need and takes both her duties to the crown and people, and the code of chivalry very seriously. She tries her best to act at all times as a champion of justice for those who have none, and cannot abide anyone who takes advantage of others. On the downside, this can also lend her to look like a self righteous prig to anyone who disagrees with her, being stubborn and mule-headed to a fault when it comes to her beliefs.

Over time, Kel learns to stop worrying what other people think of her and simply accept that people will think of her what they will. It has been one of the hardest learned lessons for her—that sometimes you cannot do anything to change the way people think, no matter how hard you try or how wrong they are, but you must still carry on and get the job done regardless of whether they like you or not.

Partly it is her calm and eminently practical personality that helps her to overcome this particular hurdle. As a child in the Yamani Islands, she lived in a culture where any outburst of emotion was regarded as openly rude, and as the daughter of the ambassador for Tortall, she knew that she must do her duty by her father and adhere to this nation’s customs. After six long years of schooling her emotions and face to being calm, when she initially arrives back in Tortall to begin her knight training at age 10, it has become an entrenched part of her personality. She does have emotions—lots of emotions—however her training has taught her to keep it all well under wraps. A stoic master of understatement, it is a rare sight indeed to see her ever raise her voice, almost unheard of for her to yell or swear or cry. Her bullies, frustrated by their inability to get a reaction out of her, take to calling her “the Lump” for her expressionless face. Even at the age of ten, Kel is mature enough to know that giving them any reaction at all is tantamount to losing, and so does all her raging in private. It is also the practical side of her that refuses to give in to anger, as she tells others, anger only makes you do stupid things you regret later and then you feel more tired at the end of it. However, the people that know Kel well are aware that a simple clenched fist for her would be the equivalent of any other person raising their voice in anger.

Over the years she learns to loosen up a little, but only around her friends or in moments of extreme tension or stress. She is not entirely humourless—in fact, when she relaxes around a person, they might notice that she actually has an incredibly dry sense of humour. However she is not one for sarcasm or making others feel stupid—well, not unless they really go out of their way to make her angry. But this subtle sense of humour is not a personality trait she is born with but rather something she learns as she grows up from her best friend Neal and her mentor Raoul, and it grows more pronounced throughout the books. Initially she appears a very quiet and serious young girl, knowing when to speak and when to hold her tongue, accepting her duties without question (at least on the outside), forcing her friends to eat their vegetables and kicking Neal under the table whenever his big mouth looks like it might get him in trouble. It is because of this serious and mothering nature of hers that her friends eventually start nicknaming her “mother.”

She takes to heart the mantra that a warrior’s duty is to obey, even when she dislikes the orders. A good warrior must never argue with their commander, or the commander will lose face and be unable to control their unit. Worse, in the time spend arguing, an enemy could sneak up and take the unit by surprise. She is such a serious and staunch believer in fair treatment for everyone that she includes herself in this and will accept any punishment for bad behaviour handed down to her. However, despite being a good follower, Kel is also somewhat surprisingly an excellent leader, too. Or maybe not so surprisingly—as they say, in order to be a good commander, one must first learn how to follow. After years obeying the strict and merciless command of her training master, Lord Wyldon, Kel begins training under Lord Raoul, commander of the Third Company of the King’s Own. It is there that she learns how to take command in battle. She proves over and over that she can keep her head calm and clear even in the most stressful of situations, and that she knows instinctively what needs to be done.

Kel also enjoys the feel of a good fight, and she would rather be somewhere fighting for a cause than doing nothing, however she does not relish bloodshed or gloat over her victories. Rather, needless deaths and injuries sadden her, and she insists on treating even enemy dead with respect. Even on the rare occasion she loses her temper with someone, she only ever goes far enough to make sure that they get the point, no further. She looks up to and admires warrior-stoics, admires people who have done heroic deeds and those who simply get the job done without complaint. She finds tactical planning and strategy one of the most fascinating topics in the world, and loves talking shop about weapons and fighting styles. Despite all this, she never wants fame or thanks for her own deeds; she only ever wishes to do what she believes is the right thing, as a protector and enforcer of justice.

Why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? Kel lives in a medieval society that has been plagued by war, bandits and pirates for generations. She is no stranger to violence or hardship; rather she is intimately familiar with them. Kel will do just fine in Anatole.

Writing Samples
Third Person Sample:

Kel did not usually pray to the gods over trivial matters. It’s not that she wasn’t religious—she attended Sunday service to Mithros and said her prayers before dinner like anybody else. But as far as gods were concerned, she also thought it was dangerous and stupid to bring the attention of a contrary and all-powerful being upon you for mundane and mortal concerns. Surely, she thought, they had more important things to worry about.

However, for once in her life she was wishing she had. Looking out the window at the town below, she wondered how she had ended up in the strangest-looking place she had ever seen. This wasn’t like her, she thought. She was good at reading maps, she knew the Eastern Lands well, but this place was like nothing of her knowledge. How long had she been out for? More importantly, how had she been knocked out? She was alert at all times on patrol and always made sure to keep scouts out in all directions. And yet, here she was, completely off the map, and everything between now and taking a patrol around Haven was a blur.

The first thing she did was take inventory. No new cuts, bruises or signs of a struggle... she could feel a dull headache coming on, but finding herself suddenly transported elsewhere with no knowledge of how or why, well, a stress headache was hardly surprising. She wasn’t restrained or locked in-- that was the second thing she had checked-- and her weapons remained on her person, so clearly she was not being kept prisoner. Maybe if she could get to high ground, she could survey this strange new city and its surrounds. See a way out. Even if she wasn’t being kept prisoner, she wasn’t about to dally around waiting for the person who had brought her here to show up. In her experience, unexplained events always spelled trouble sooner or later, and she couldn’t afford to waste time. There were people depending on her back home.

Kel closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, schooling her thoughts from encroaching panic to calm. I am stone, she willed. In moments she had her emotions under control again. Enough pacing, she thought. This isn’t helping anyone-- time to do something. There was never a problem she couldn’t either think or punch her way out of before, and she wasn’t about to start now. Mouth set in a determined line, she exited her room and the building in order to go gather information, any way that she could.

Network Post Sample:

[A tall and muscular figure pops up on the video feed. Dressed in a chain mail shirt with plate-mail gauntlets and helmet, a belt knife and sword decorating their hips, it’s incredibly easy to recognise whoever it is as the very picture of a medieval knight, if one were familiar with such things.]

[He fumbles around with the forge for a while, seemingly unaware that it’s already broadcasting. One might expect him to lose patience or mutter under his breath, but the knight’s face remains calm if somewhat puzzled as they slowly but surely deduce the workings of the Forge. Taking off his gauntlets seems to help immensely. Shocking, we know.]

[If one were to use this time to observe what little you could see of his face, you might think him somewhat pretty for a man. Long brown lashes frame thoughtful hazel eyes, and a dusting of freckles are settled over a small, feminine nose and a full, determined mouth.]

--Ah, I see... so that’s how this thing works.

[Hang on. That doesn’t sound deep enough to be the voice of a man... the knight takes off her helmet to reveal a mess of mouse-brown hair and gives a small grin of triumph as she looks directly into the video camera, now.]

I think I’ve got the hang of this now, right? I speak and people can hear and see me? I sincerely hope that’s so anyway, though I suppose I’m not looking any more foolish if I’m just talking to thin air. [A wry grin, and then her tone turns serious.]

Look, I’ve been for a bit of a quick ride through this city already, but I haven’t really found anything helpful. I’m in a bit of a spot, so if anyone’s listening-- at the risk of sounding like a drunkard or an out-of-town bumpkin, I’d really appreciate it if you could tell me where I am. I swear it’s an honest-to-god question, I’m not taking you for a lark. Believe me.

[She pauses, seeming to think something over, and then comes to a decision.]

Ah, well, I suppose I may as well ask. If you were enemies I’d be tied up in chains already. So, I’ll give bonus points for anyone who knows the road back to Tortall!

… That’s it, I guess. Thanks in advance!

[Keeping it short and simple, it seems like she’s done with her message, but the feed hasn’t finished. It continues as she just waits there in silence for a reply, hands crossed over her chest expectantly. I guess expecting her to know to cut the feed as well is expecting a bit much, for a first day.]

Anything else? Nope! Party on!