Name: Ashira (Ah-she-rah)
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Species: Elf
Physical Description:Ashira stands at five foot nine and weighs about one hundred twenty pounds. She's covered in lean muscle, and has some decent curves to her. She sports a D-cup chest and long graceful limbs. Her hair is jet black, naturally wavy, and rests neatly below her shoulders. She usually wears it loose, but in times of intense battle, she'll tie it back in a neat braid. Her eyes are a dark gray that turns black in certain lightings. Her dark hair and eyes contrast nicely with her pale skin, which has several scars etched into it. Like all her kind, she has long, pointed ears, which she has full muscle control over and tends to give away her mood, if you know how to read her. All her clothing is a mix of dark greens and grays, making it easy to blend in with the forest. She wears long earrings with bells on the end of them, in an attempt to stop herself from being so expressive with her ears, it hasn't worked so far, just annoyed the people around her.
Skillset:Like her siblings, Ashira has been taught the ways of the ranger. She is skilled in stealth, tracking, hunting, and surviving off the land. She is completely at home inside of forests and can move around in small spaces with ease. She is an expert in the ways of free-running and climbing, her preferred way of travel is not on the ground, but through the treetops. She is extremely light footed and graceful, able to walk atop snow, or on dead leaves without making them crunch. She's agile and quick, able to dart around and not get hit, as well as piss off her enemies.
Her combat skills lie in archery, to be more specific, in sniping. Combined with years of using a longbow are her heightened Elvish ears and eyes. In fighting situations her strategy is to climb into trees, or onto rooftops, anywhere she has the high ground, and aid her allies from there, picking off the enemies that her allies are unable to deal with, or can't see. If she can't get to high ground, then she's never in one place for very long.
History:Due to a nasty blow to the head as a child, Ashira's earliest childhood memories are nothing but blurry images. She can barely recall the faces of her parents, let alone anything else. Her first recallable memories are that of waking up in, and having a terrible headache. The event that caused the blow to her head and her parent's disappearance are one and the same. A religious group that call themselves Ishvara's Followers believe that humans are the supreme race and that every other race should be eradicated. A group of these fanatics attacked the group of the Elves Ashira and her family belonged to, slaying most of them. It was due to luck, and inexperience in the fanatic's part, that Ashira was struck by the flat of a blade, and not the edge itself.
The campsite belonged to a certain Brand of the Nightwood, and several children of various ages that he had already adopted. Despite the fact that Ashira's memories were fuzzy, the carnage that he found her in made it obvious that she was now orphaned and without a home. He took her in right then and there, thus beginning her training as a ranger. After the head injury healed of course. Ashira always liked the fact that Brand was just as harsh on her as he was on any of the boys, sometimes even more so. Though he taught her the basics of being a ranger, it was up to her to develop a style of her own. Which she did after several years, finding that her talents lended towards her being more of a sniper than a frontlines fighter. But she was happy to sit back and aid her allies from afar, and leave the frontlines combat to those who were better at it.
As her siblings came of age before her and travelled away from the forest they called home, Ashira only had desires to stay, or at least travel to a new forest. Whether it was her lineage, or something else, she just felt right being among the trees. When she brought this up with Brand, he welcomed her to stay, and so she did. Though sometimes it was weeks before they saw each other again, with the amount of wandering they both did around the forest. It was on one of those rare occasions where they had both stay the night in Brand's home that the tragedy of his death struck. He asked Ashira to go hunting, and when she returned later that night, he was gone. It would be days before she heard the news of his execution, though she had suspected that something like that had happened. Now she travels out of the forest for the first time in years in order to attend Brand's burial.
As the years pass from her head trauma, she had recovered bits and pieces of her childhood memories, but is still far from recovering them completely. There are still faces without names and names that have no faces, and entire years of her life that are still blank. But now at least, she can recall the faces of her parents with relative ease.
Psychological Profile:Being as young as she is, and not to mention a woman, growing up the way she did has made her a tomboy. She dislikes dresses, makeup, and other things that woman tend to like. Though she thinks short hair would be easier to maintain, she keeps her hair long because little else separates her from the boys. She is stubborn and tough, but at the same time she is light hearted and playful. If she tries to be stern, it usually ends in failure or laughter as her ears gives her away immediately. Though more than once she has scolded people without fail. She is naïve about the world outside the forest, As it is the only place she's ever really been, but on the other side, she knows the forest better than just about anyone.
She has the tendency to over think, and to be overly patient. Both of which make her wait too long to make a choice, or to fire a shot sometimes. But on the other side, it means she doesn't rush headlong into battle without thinking first. Also due to her ability to overthink, she's observant, she's good at studying the surrounds and analyzing everything there, usually making her the first to notice when something's out of place. She's quiet and tends to be very awkward in social situations, unless you get her on a subject that she's passionate about, in which case you may be stuck there for hours listening to her blabber. She's an emotional person, it's easy to make her turn red, both from embarrassment and from anger. Though she doesn't mean to, she wears her heart on her sleeve and makes her emotions very obvious to others. Out of all of her siblings, she is probably going to be the one to shed the most tears over Brand's death.
Equipment: - Armor, Ashira is always wearing a set of light leather armor which is dyed the same dark greens and grays of the rest of her clothing. She only wears a few pieces of armor, because of her tendency to move around quickly, it would only slow her down. The pieces she wears are a chest plate, shoulder guards, and bracers. As well as shin guards and knee pads which fit over her boots and are mainly to protect her lower leg when she's crouched on the ground or in treetops.
- Longbow, Ashira carries with her a longbow that she made, and maintains, herself. It is nearly the same height as her as it made from a light, but extremely durable wood. She uses a mixture of arrows, all of which she has made herself. Some are for hunting, others for piercing armor, some yet that are made for ripping and destroying if they are pulled out.
- Knife, Ashira has with her a hunting knife, usually strapped to either her outer right thigh, or lower back. She doesn't usually use if for combat, but instead for catching care of her catches or harvesting various plants.
- Survival Supplies, Ashira has with her various supplies that aid her in her survival in the forest. Such as flint and steel for starting fires, water skins, a warm woolen cloak, some dried and cured meat, as well as various other pieces tucked into pockets and pouches on her person.
- First Aid, Ashira has a small amount of medical supplies on her at all times. Including some plants and mixtures to stop infections and help heal wounds, a needle and thread for sewing up skin and clothing, and a health amount of bandages.
- Jewelry, when not hunting, Ashira wears long silver earrings with small bells attached to the end of them. This trains her to keep her head still as she moves about, but also is an attempt to stop herself from being so expressive with her ears. She also keeps with her, but rarely wears, a fancy circlet that one of her siblings gave her as a joke one year, knowing she had no need for fancy things. But due to the fact that it was a gift, she wears it on very special occasions.
Yes, and:Due to their closeness in age, Ashira has always been a bit closer to Masef than to her other siblings. With both of them preferring archery over other weapons, there was a bit of rivalry there, but mostly in a friendly manner. Ashira was always the first to scold him after he did something foolish, and more than once roughed him up a bit for travelling into town just to mess around with girls. Eventually Brand stopped trying to scold him as well and just left it up to Ashira. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that she had developed a bit of a crush on Masef, and that was why she always reacted so badly when he came back from town. Though she refused to admit it of course, it was pretty obvious to at least a few of her siblings. Whether Masef realized it or not he never said.