Sir Tristan of Lyonesse
22 years of age
DescriptionTall (five foot ten) and lean, her figure is more boyish than womanly. She has fair skin like her mother, and inherited her auburn hair and long lean frame, but her face is more that of her father with blue almond-shaped eyes and a straight nose. She cuts her hair short like a man: shaving it down so as not to choke out the fit of her helmet and letting the top layer grow no longer than her chin.
PersonalityShe's very formal, and very aware of her gender in her life as a knight. She feels a need to prove herself, always; it's a by-product of her upbringing. When one knows her well, she will be more relaxed, and she gets along easier with men than she does with women (to whom she cannot relate.) She doesn't like to be called Lady Tristan, and will sharply correct errors in this.
Weapons & EquipmentSword with shield (coat of arms: lion of Lyonesse - a gold lion on a green field)
long bow
Belted (with pouch) tunica with hose, boots
plate mail in battle
Would prefer not to wear them but has a few dresses for formal occasions.
(Will provide details later, am exhausted from setting up the back-story you're about to read...)
RelationsKing Medliadus of Lyonesse, father. Lady Moeya of Lyonesse, stepmother. Georg, half-brother, heir to King Medliadus.
Backstory"My mother died upon my birth, and named me Tristan as a bearer of great sorrow. Her name was Lady Elizabeth, and when I was in the womb an enchantress witched away my father King Meliadus by sending a magnificent stag to draw him into her castle, where his bewitchment with the foul she-devil caused him to forget my mother entirely. Upon a fortnight of his absence, my mother was maddened with grief and ran off into the wintry forest to try to find him where she succumbed to the bitter cold and birthed me, a red stain on that pure white snow. Those who went to retrieve her brought back her corpse and a squalling babe. It was already too late when the Merlin was able to undo my father's bewitchment, and restore him to his castle.
And so, I was largely raised by a woman who was not my mother, my father's second wife Lady Moeya. Happily for Moeya, she birthed a son soon after marriage, and when I was no longer in any way important I was quickly put aside. On the one hand, I yearned for her to be a proper mother to me, but on the other I was free to find guidance in my life by those more willing to give me their attention. This meant my father and his knights.
I spent my childhood watching the knights and learning from their mock battles. I attended church and learned my letters. I followed my father around like a loyal hound, and I managed over time to wheedle him into allowing me to learn sword play and archery. When I approached thirteen, Lady Moeya began a campaign to have me sent to a nunnery, claiming I was much too masculine to every be married off. I was like my mother: unusually tall and lean without much in the way of womanly assets. What in my mother was a willowy beauty with eyes like a doe, I was more lanky with muscles honed by swordplay and eyes that were smaller and almond shaped like my father. Unable to convince my father to send me to the nunnery, Lady Moeya contrived to send me to France for a time. An attempt to soften me, I suppose. It didn't work well, thought it wasn't absolutely ineffective. On the path I was before I was likely to turn myself into a Queen Boudica and stain myself with woad and go running about the forest chasing down deer. Instead I suffered our French cousins to dress me in silk and bows and other awful female accouterments for a time, where I still insisted upon practicing my archery and swordplay every morning. That I could out-hunt many of the men at the French court won me the right to continue this discipline. I returned to Lyonesse at 18 still more a knight than a lady, and still unmarried. Men don't seek to wed women who can out-fight and out-hunt them, especially if they aren't sole heiresses to any wealth or land.
Upon my return, my father and his people greeted me with love, but Lady Moeya greeted me coldly. She hadn't made anything useful of me, and still felt I was a threat to her son, despite being a healthy young lad himself. Maybe she had some strange thought I would want to marry him, I don't know, but she tried again earnestly to get my father to send me to a convent. I overheard them arguing about it, and stepped in on my own behalf and begged my father to let me take vows as a knight and live by my sword rather than spend my life as a bride of Christ. Lady Moeya just about fainted and my father was taken aback by the suggestion, but seeing little other choice to make the women in his life happy he consented to my request.
But I did not take my knighting from my father. At the time, Lady Igraine of Cornwall was seeking forces to help fend off raiders from the sea. I departed with a small contingent of men from Lyonesse to lend her aid. No one knew of my true sex until I presented the head of the raider chieftain before her, and removed my own helm in her presence. From my bravery on the field, and perhaps the novelty of a woman knight, Lady Igraine offered me knighthood in Cornwall. I took my vigil the following evening, and went the next morning to my destiny."
