[hider=Dolores Braise, the Crimson Maiden]

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/T9ruNh9.jpg?1[/img]
[h3][i][color=f7976a]"The absence of faith is the mark of the weak."[/color][/i][/h3][/center]

[color=f7976a][b]Name:[/b][/color] Dolores Braise

[color=f7976a][b]Age:[/b][/color] 19

[color=f7976a][b]Gender:[/b][/color] Female

[color=f7976a][b]Appearance:[/b][/color] A young woman like many in this harsh new Age, strong of body and wiry of build. Her coloration- fair skin, blue eyes, hair like fire- she inherited from her mother, a woman of Hyperborean descent. Her tall, sturdy frame and sharp features are owed to her father, a man of the fertile lowlands that were once part of the Kingdom of Thule. A plain girl by most appearances, her lack of femininity does little to disguise her average looks. Dolores cares little for finery or fashion, usually dressing in men's clothes and wearing her father's armor into battle. She prefers to keep her bright red hair cropped short, but long months on campaign can allow it to grow into a fiery mane (which may be hacked off hastily as soon as it becomes a nuisance).

[color=f7976a][b]Personality:[/b][/color] Dolores often betrays the expectations of those she meets; smallfolk that have heard the stories of the Crimson Maiden, and expect a figure of unblemished purity, extruding saintly virtue. Rather, Dolores is a woman that has become wise beyond her years, much too quickly. Once filled with idealism and goodwill, years of battle have worn her greatly, and her demeanor is mostly brusque and intolerant. Even so, her experience on the battlefield has hardened her heart and tempered her resolve; she is filled with quiet courage and grim determination. Faith still drives her, though it is often all she has to rely on. Faith in her cause, faith in her comrades, and faith in herself.

[color=f7976a][b]History:[/b][/color] The earliest years of the Age of Dawn were rife with chaos and discord, even as the terrible threats of the Years of Dusk subsided. As the rule of law fell with the empires of the Iron Kingdoms, anarchy reigned. Villages struggling to survive on meager resources formed militias, and battled against their neighbors out of desperation and paranoia. Nobles eager to accrue wealth or consolidate power sacked cities and plundered palaces and monuments.

In the region formerly occupied by Thule, the state church of Ignis Divine provided a pillar of stability and a beacon of hope to the beleaguered peoples of the land. Monasteries and temples, many built by the Atlanteans centuries ago, served as makeshift fortresses to ward against raiders or monsters. Monks and clerics dedicated temple gardens to the growth of crops that could feed the poor and displaced. Precious relics and hoarded treasures were bartered away for protection against scavenging armies and for such resources grain and livestock. Truly never did the temple fires burn as brightly, nor did the chapels ring as loudly with prayer as in those desperate years.

Knights and men at arms that survived the Years of Dusk and found themselves without lords to serve (be they dead or proved unworthy) often flocked to these isolated keeps and abbeys. In these places they found hope to override the despair that threatened to consume them. This hope turned to zeal, as many found no more worthy cause than to serve Ignis Divine and lend their strength to defending these bastions of light. With scarcely enough resources to keep a small villages' population, much less a standing army, these knights of divine inspiration could not stay at the temples for long, and would roam from one to the next many times over several years. These circuitous journeys became holy pilgrimages to the knights, who would cleanse the land of any taint or injustice encountered in their path. Such was the birth of the Orders Invictus, the Knightly Orders of the Unconquered Sun.

As the Age of Dawn wore on, small nation-states arose, and the mad frenzy of anarchy following the Years of Dusk began to settle. While some claimed patronage to strange and malefic gods, many paid at least partial due to the god of their forebears, and accepted Ignis Divine as their holy patron. Some of the Orders Invictus allied themselves with these nascent kingdoms, providing strength of arms (and a degree of moral high ground) to any nation that accepted their god and could keep them fed and housed. If a ruler could find sufficient justification to paint a rival as being corrupted or heretical in some manner or another, a crusade could be brought against them, calling the banners of Orders from leagues around.

One such Order was known as the Order of the Crimson Shield, so named for the color that adorned their heraldry. A pilgrim Order that claimed tenuous fealty to small kingdom of Poitain in the grassy lowlands of Borea. One of the oldest Orders, yet unremarkable in its size or battle record, among its knights was one Rouland Braise. As was common among pilgrim knights, he had taken a wife while on campaign, a woman of northern blood named Leyna. She and their two daughters, Dolores and Charlotte, traveled as a part of the Order's entourage, helping where they could by cooking meals or caring for horses.

Deep in the black forests of central Borea, tragedy struck the Order of the Crimson Shield. A pack of ravenous mutants broke into the Order's encampment, barreling past their sentries and perimeter. While the knights fought their hardest to push the monsters back, the few that escaped their swords wreaked havoc in the camp. A beastman nearly ten feet tall attacked the camp of the Braise family, and though Rouland fought bravely to defend his family, he was struck down by the monster. As her mother and younger sister cowered tearfully, the fourteen-year-old Dolores saw no other choice but to take up her father's sword and stand between them and the mutant. As she held the heavy blade, tears streaming down her face, she was overcome with a sudden delerium. She saw golden visions of victory, premonitions of how she might kill the beast. Screaming with near-insane courage, Dolores acted on what she saw in her visions, and gradually yet surely wore down and finally slew the mutant that had killed her father.

The following morning, as the dead were mourned and buried, Knight-Commander Crydamour, the veteran leader of the Order, personally commended Dolores for her bravery, and out of respect for her and her departed father, allowed her family to stay with his and continue to travel with the Order. However, this was not the end of Dolores' visions. Foreseeing another attack by mutants against a nearby fortress, she petitioned the Knight-Commander to rally the Order to the keep's defense. At first the veteran knight laughed off her predictions, seeing them as the delusions of a young girl deep in grief. However, as a courier arrived with word of the keep under assault, Crydamour mobilized the Order to their relief. He kept Dolores close at his side, and as she had continued visions throughout the battle, he passed on her predictions as orders to his men. The attack was routed with remarkable efficiency, and such was the first battle won by the Crimson Maiden.

Dolores' visions were seen as a gift from Ignis Divine, the girl herself a vessel for the will of the Unconquered Sun. Having been raised to follow the virtues of the Orders Invictus, Dolores committed her gift to the eradication of evil and the protection of the innocent, and was the direct adviser to Crydamour. After over a year on campaign at the side of the Knight-Commander, she was brought before the king of Poitain himself and (after investigation by the High Priory that she was not a with) was knighted, officially joining the Order of the Crimson Shields.

For four years since, Dolores has campaigned against evil, and the Order has been undefeated in battle. Word of the Crimson Maiden has spread across the Iron Kingdoms, some calling her the chosen of Ignis Divine, while others claim her to be a goddess of battle in her own right. While still second to the Order's Knight-Commander, Dolores often takes to the field to issue orders personally. She is even known to fight alongside the other knights, having been trained by them to wield her father's sword that she first took up five years ago. Dolores' gifts serve her in close combat as well as in strategy, though they do not make her invincible, as she has been wounded twice in battle. Despite the success of her crusade, Dolores' youthful optimism and idealism have left her bitter and jaded after years of warfare. She wonders if the battle against evil can ever truly be won, but keeps faith, as it is nearly all she has left.

[color=f7976a][b]
Journey:[/b][/color] Dolores seeks nothing less than the complete purification the Iron Kingdoms from corruption and heresy. She has vowed to bright peace and hope to the long-suffering peoples of this land, even if it must be won with steel and fire.

[color=f7976a][b]Ideals:[/b][/color] 
[b]Faith:[/b] Dolores is a woman of faith, having been born into and raised by a religious order. Even as her morals and determination are tested with every battle, the faith she carries in herself and her god carries her forward.

[b]Zeal:[/b] Faith is not the only motivation that drives the Crimson Maiden; she also carries a burning hatred for that which is unholy or unlawful. Mercy is a virtue that she does not spare for those at the end of her blade, and while her unquestioning self-righteousness has been flagging for years, she rarely needs justification to end the life of a heretic or mutant.

[b]Purity:[/b] The perfection of Ignis Divine can return to the Iron Kingdoms, Dolores is sure of it. Once every mutant is dead and burned, and the head of every heretic sits on a pike, peace and goodness can return to this land.

[b]Victory:[/b] Dolores' visions are singular in theme: they show her the path to victory, no matter the cost. Victory rarely comes easily, and must be won through terrible sacrifice, even if the path is known. One must also ponder if a victorious outcome is worth the price one must pay to achieve it.

[color=f7976a][b]Holdings:[/b][/color] Dolores is effectively the second-in-command of one of the most influential Knightly Orders in the Iron Kingdoms. Aside from the power that extends her, she personally owns an ancestral sword, heraldic shield and suit of armor (fitted to suit her proportions), and a warhorse named Manuel.
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