NAME—
Vanahara Pike

AGE—
23

GENDER—
Female

MASTERY—
Metallic
SPECIALTY—
Ironworker
RANK—
Weaver

APPEARANCE—
At first glimpse, Vanahara is extremely intimidating. She stands at six feet tall, with broad shoulders and hips, and rather obvious muscles; this, paired with her dark skin, bright green eyes, hair pulled back in braids, and the numerous small scars covering her hands and forearms, cuts an impressive figure. Her high cheekbones and strong eyebrows could be striking, but in her broad face and broader physique, most are too intimidated to look for long. Her hair she keeps in meticulous braids, pulled back into a thick ponytail at the back of her head, and true to her element, she keeps multiple ornaments in them—small iron beads, rings, and ties of metal wire—that have been very useful on multiple occasions. She tends to wear a leather vest, rough trousers, a toolbelt, and sturdy boots—she has no patience for fancy clothes.

EQUIPMENT—
Vanahara is practical in every way. She wears a tool belt whenever possible, and keeps some in her pocket if she can’t—she has pouches for random scraps of metal, wires, and bolts, some small blacksmithing tools—but the main part of the belt is entirely metal. She also wears iron bracers that stretch from wrist to elbow, with a leather lining that stretches into fingerless gloves. It doesn’t end there—Vana keeps metal on her wherever possible. Tucked into her boots, pins in her trousers, buckles on her vest; she refuses to be without a weapon if necessary. On that topic, she keeps at least one pre-formed set of brass knuckles on her at all times. She prefers not to fight, but she’s been helpless before, and doesn’t want to be there again.

DEMEANOR—
For her size and obvious strength, Vanahara is surprisingly quiet. She’s not unfriendly, but reserved, more willing to listen to others than talk herself. She considers every word before she says it—this slow speech and her large size combine to give the impression of stupidity, at first glance. Make no mistake, though, she’s smarter than many of her peers—she just waits before she uses it, and she never tries to show off.

It can be difficult to get to know Vana, but you will never have a more loyal friend. She sticks by her friends through thick and thin, and is more than willing to stand between them and danger, and would trust them with her life. Unfortunately, no one has actually ever met one of her friends—they’re starting to doubt she has any.

HISTORY—
Vanahara was born in a small desert village called Sunder, the Storm always brewing on the horizon. Due to their proximity, their hostile surroundings, and their remote location, the people Vana grew up around were tough, but close-knit. Her family have been blacksmiths for generations, ever since the village sprung up and possibly before then—as such, Vana can’t ever remember the moment she recognized her elemental talent. She had three brothers and sisters, all significantly younger than her, and it always seemed to them like she was just the perfect eldest sister. Her father was hard to please, but his praise meant everything to her with the absence of her mother; he was a devout follower of Karina and Loriot, like most of the villagers, and instilled that same sense of duty and purpose in his daughter. It seems like she’s always been bending metal to her will; when he realized she was more than just a talented smith, he said she was proud of her and sent her off to the Academy. Vana’s family is all about duty; she misses them, but she recognizes an opportunity to improve herself and the world, and she’ll do what she’s told. She hasn’t seen them in more than a decade, now—maybe soon she’ll see them again.

Vana hasn’t made many friends, mainly due to her intimidating size and her quietness, but she’s not quite lonely. She's made some enemies, simply because of her skill on the dueling floor, but she's not the type to hold a grudge over anything as simple as that. She dedicated herself to learning about her abilities, and as such has become quite proficient. She’s quite talented, and controls metal almost instinctively, and she’s more than willing to follow orders—she’s a prime candidate for a military outfit, but what she really wants to do is help people with her gift, whether that's making armor for peacekeepers or going home to protect her family and her village. She wants to keep people safe, and make her father proud.
(hope it's alright as vague as it is, I'd like to keep some details to reveal later!)

Name: Florence Delores
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Mastery: Metallic
Specialty: Ironworker
Rank: Master

Appearance: Florence stands at an average 5'6" with a strong build and dusky brown skin. Her once jet black hair has turned prematurely silvery grey, and is kept out of the way in a long braid. From the right side of her face down to her chest and shoulder, she is covered in burn scars and has aged that side of her body considerably, which in combination with her hair, creates the illusion that she is older than she seems. In contrast, her grey blue eyes are sharp and lively.

She is almost always wearing a suit of armor that covers her entire body bar her head. Its exact shape and design are constantly changing to meet Florence's needs. Despite its weight, she moves quickly and unrestricted by it. In the rare situations where she is not wearing armor, it becomes plain to see that she lost her right arm some time ago, and uses a metal one to replace it, and uses her magick to move it like a normal arm. Her clothing is plain under her armor, consisting of cream blouses, black pants and leather boots, but she always has some kind of belt on her person. Over the top of everything, she tends to sport an old cream cloak with a hood, mainly to get people to stop staring at her armor or her arm.

Equipment: With the amount of metal she has on her person at any one time, Florence really has no need to carry weapons. The exception is a small blunt dagger she keeps attached to her belt under her armor - the first weapon she ever created.

Demeanor: Florence comes across as being a fairly relaxed and jolly sort of character. She seems to shrug off other people's mistakes and vices, is always up for a casual drink down at the pub, and has a distinctive booming laugh. She can be fairly popular with other students in the academy, as she will just let some small failing slide. In reality she has simply become good at concealing her stress and anger at people's dismissive attitudes, having learnt over time that many people require patience and understanding rather than screaming at them in order to achieve, and she does get a large amount of satisfaction from seeing her students excel. However, there are three things which she is stern and disciplined about - her magick, her religious beliefs, and her daughter Sylvia. In these areas, she will spare no quarter and will work tirelessly for them, as she sees them as the most important aspects of her life, and without them, she wouldn't be herself anymore. If she finds people who treat these aspects as irrelevant or disrespect, she can quickly lose her temper. The only other time she tends to get angry is when she is drunk, and her ability to conceal negative feelings is diminished. Florence has a bit of a problem with alcohol, as she turns to it to deal with stress and as an outlet for her frustrations and dealing with the pain of her injuries. Even so, she'll still drag herself out of bed with a hangover to tend to Sylvia or pray to Karina.

History: Florence was born as the only daughter of a Healer and a Mechanistic, and her father quickly realized her affinity for magick, so he would often bring her into his workshop, to try and teach her about giving life to metal. He planned to give her a head start, before sending her to the academy for further training when she was older. Florence quickly came to love both of her parents jobs - she enjoyed seeing her mother's patients recover and how delighted that made her mother, and also seeing how much her father enjoyed creating life out of the impossible. However, one day when she was 8, her father ducked out of the workshop to go create a splint for one of her mother's patients. It was a cold day, and Florence decided to use the fireplace to make it more comfortable for her father to work. However, the fire quickly grew out of control, starting to burn down his workshop and destroy his bots. Knowing how much he loved them, she tried to save them, but was trapped in the burning building when a support beam fell from the ceiling onto her arm, causing her to also catch fire. Her father rushed in to find her stuck, and realised he couldn't move the wooden beam, so he cut off Florence's arm to free her. Once they were safe and the building was put out, Florence's mother tried her best to heal her daughter, but as she was only a weak healer, she was unable to remove the scaring and only dull the pain of the injury. Her father then suggested they send her to the academy early, pointing out that if she could master Metal, she might be able to create a new arm for herself and avoid a life of disability.

Florence headed to the academy, and quickly buried herself in study, determined not to be crippled for the rest of her life. During this time period, she became quite religious, believing that Karina had blessed her with her affinity for metal knowing that she would need the power in order to set right her own mistakes. This belief helped keep her conviction strong as she slowly but surely crept up the ranks. As an Adept in her twenties, she quickly discovered that alcohol helped dull the pain of her missing limb, and quickly became heavily involved with it. When she was 23, this landed her in the situation of having become pregnant, with no recollection of how it happened, or who this child's father was. Despite this, she tried her hardest to look after her child, Sylvie, although it made the path of reaching master more difficult, but she found watching her grow to be just as rewarding. Finally, at the age of 36, she achieved the rank of Master, and had complete control over the metal arm that she'd created, essentially allowing her to be a fully functioning human being. This occurred at the same time that Sylvie was accepted as an Illuminate into the academy, making it the happiest year of Florence's life. Since then, she's been focused on teaching other students, refining her skills, and helping Sylvie learn as much as possible.