Name: Tanda
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Appearance:Brown haired, brown eyed, with the body of a country peasant, one would be hard pressed to look at Tanda on the road and think she was descended from an Iron Rose Knight, much less one of their number.
Tanda in her great grandmother's armorPersonality: Though Tanda grew up in the patriarchal society of the Hillfolk on the outskirts of Taln, her grandmother's doting saw to it she was inquisitive of mind, and her daily chores as a shepherdess saw she was mentally strong enough to survive in the wild with nothing but her wits and the tools on her belt.
:Brief Backstory: Tanda grew up among the worshipers of the Green God in the north of Taln- a secretive and patriarchal culture within the kingdom known for shunning outsiders, often simply called Hillfolk by other people of the Kingdom. For most of her life, Tanda could only look forward to a future of tending sheep, marrying, and raising a family with her future husband's other wives. Her grandmother Silana saw something in the fierce spirit of her granddaughter, and saw to it that Tanda always looked to heroes of folk stories and histories for inspiration, rather than the prophets of the Green God's faith. She was often punished for standing up to the boy children of other families, but never broken for her "disobedience" to the men.
Only recently was she forced to look beyond the palisades of the Hillfolk. The previous year's harvest was particularly difficult for the people of the Hills, and many of their Holds were facing starvation on the eve of winter. The Patriarch of the Green God decided to revive the old practice of selecting a Bride of the Green God in the hopes it would restore the harvest- a ritual one of Taln's previous Queens had long ago forbidden when she granted the Hillfolk sanctuary within her borders.
Whether by chance or by design, Tanda was selected for this bloody honor. The problem daughter of the Hillfolk was to be made an example of in an attempt to appease the Green God.
Tanda did not speak of how she escaped the dubious honor of the ceremony, or how she found her way to the heart of Taln. It certainly helped that she could peddle the herbal healing of the Hillfolk to peasants too poor to afford one of the magical Healers within Taln. Curing warts and country fevers put enough copper in her pocket to buy food for the road, and her skill with a sling allowed her to hire out as an extra caravan guard on the road to the Capital. The story of Tanda could easily have ended there- becoming another folk healer or caravan guard within Taln. But her grandmother's stories of her own mother, Lady Diane di Silva, a Knight of the Iron Rose, gave Tanda a trail to follow to a new future. Lady Diane left behind her armor and spear within the hall of the Knights before retiring to wed one of the Hillfolk, her true love.
If the Knights had no reason to accept Tanda's service, she would at least be able to lose herself within the Capital and be able to make a new life away from the secretive Hillfolk. With her great-grandmother's armor on she might even make a decent living as a caravan guard.
Equipment: * Sling and stones
* Armor and spear of Lady Diane di Silva
* Medicinal herbs
Skills: * Deadeye shot - Tanda is an excellent shot with her sling, having used it to fend off wolves and hunt rabbits for supper.
* Skilled rider - Tanda can keep up with the best of 'em when hard pressed to ride.
* Country Remedy - The Hillfolk shun magic and magical Healers of all kinds, preferring to use the herbs of the land to remedy their ills. While it's not as effective as calling on a Magi, Tanda has been known to cure the odd fever with her home remedies and set broken bones to heal.