Username: Free Faller
Character Name: Laila Saihdar
Race/Species: Human, Ra’sheek
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Career/Class: Rogue/fighter/intelligence gatherer
Weapons:
- Scimitar- a well maintained and balanced blade, this smaller saber-like curved blade can often be found swaying from Laila’s hip as a clear sign to her Ra’sheek heritage. The lack of wear on the leather wrapped hilt, however, suggests that the weapon may in fact be more for show than actual combat.
- 2 Long Knives- strapped snugly to the small of Laila’s back sit two twin blades, both the length of her forearm, and double edged. A special technique of forging iron with other metals found only in the Arad Luin gives the metal a distinctive dark, bluish-grey color that doesn’t shine or reflect light. These weapons are that of her trade, being both versatile in function and easily wielded in the smallest of back alleys to the most open of fields. Like all her equipment, the knives are very well maintained and it’s just as common to see her wielding just one blade in her right hand as it is to see her twirling around both.
- Depending on the situation, Laila may have a number of daggers hidden on her person. All are balanced for throwing and are made of the same alloy as her knives, light and durable. She will always carry at least two daggers on her (One in a boot and one hidden somewhere on her upper body) but has no qualms about strapping a blade to every available inch of her body if she is going into a known battle.
Physical Description:Laila is a tall and lithe creature for her people, standing at an even 5’8, and possessing a musculature that is all long lines and definitive toning as opposed to being bulky or broad. Over this willowy frame is skin of a warm, dark sandstone color that has lightened somewhat since her departure from the deserts and is sporadically covered in a variety of scars. She has almond shaped, tawny eyes that are almost always lined in copious amounts of kohl and sit beneath expressive brows. Her nose once looked to be slim and delicate, but now has a noticeable bend due to a broken nose not being aligned again quite right. Laila has an oval shaped face, with a pert chin and quick, mobile mouth that can most often be found pulled into a lazy, lopsided smirk. Her hair is a thick, wavy mess of black that stretches to the bottom of her shoulder blades when left down. She’s considered a pretty thing in her homeland, and in most places outside of it her darker complexion has labeled her as “exotic,” though it is just as often meant as an insult as a compliment. It’s also important to note that Laila’s ring and middle fingers on her left hand have been cut off between the knuckle and first joints, leaving only tiny nubs, and she has severe scarring across her back after a few run ins with whips.
Armor:Heavy, clanking metal armor would be detrimental for a woman who would much rather approach a fight from the side than head on, so Laila employs a set of brown leathers. These are well made like the rest of her equipment, and even have a few plates sewn between layers of leather for extra protection (her forearms and upper chest, namely). This armor is very plain in appearance, bearing no markings or embroidery that may make it easily identifiable. She also wears a wide, decorative looking leather band around her neck that is inlaid with small, square metal pieces of the same alloy as her knives; a small piece of armor that has saved her from a slit throat in a back alley on more than one occasion.
Equipment/OtherFor clothing, Laila prefers to wear dark clothes of earthy and natural tones. Never black, ever. She’s found that besides being horribly cliched and dreadfully hot in the sun, that black clothing can often make one darker than the shadows they’re trying to hide in. So, usually she can be found wearing clothing that is at least similar to the colors in the area in which she finds herself. Oddly she often offsets these plain clothes with a small splash of bright color that can be easily hidden, reds and teals being among her favorites. Slim leather gloves are almost a constant presence on her hands for many reasons, but the most overt being her lack of digits on her off-hand. She has supple, flexible leather boots that ride up her calves as well, and aside from her weapons are probably her favorite thing she owns. Their soft soles are exceptional for treading lightly across any sort of terrain, and they look damned good on her too. She also has a traveling pack that contain some essentials: rope, a vial of her favorite kind of poison, food stuffs, spare clothing, and extra daggers.
Mental Description/Personality:Laila has a lazy confidence, wit, and fiery charisma that at first glance makes her seem like a run-of-the-mill charming rogue type who reaches her mental capacity with sarcastic quips and sticking her hands in places they don’t belong. She’s far more complex and cunning than that, however. The woman is just very skilled at appearing to be exactly what people expect her to be, and adapts to situations with a fluidity that would make a chameleon jealous. Hell, she even changes her accent on a whim just to throw people off balance. But even when she feigns extreme boredom or even incomprehension, the woman is soaking up every detail around her while her brain constantly travels down a dozen different winding paths at once. She’s always scheming and has some hidden, underlying purpose for her actions and a big picture only she can imagine. Laila also has an underlying ruthlessness that can be quite shocking, as she seems of an amiable and impish nature to most despite her conniving tendencies.
Goals: Laila was once a prominent member of the rogue guild in the Ra’Sheeki city of Kheshan-e Gohar but was banished after staging a coup and almost succeeding in taking it over. She seeks to return to her home and try for the title of Rogue of Kheshan-e Gohar again, as well as get a bit of revenge on those that betrayed her and caused her plan to fail. Before she can, however, she needs to rebuild her power base and funds.
Background/History:
- Laila was born to one of the lowest castes in Ra’sheek society, where one either conceded to their lot in life being manual laborers or turned to the underground to scrape together some sort of freedom and power. Luckily for her, Laila had the advantage in growing up at the Rogue’s court, where the highest ranking and most skilled criminal types in the city did business and relaxed. This provided her with early insight into the world, as well as the opportunity to learn from as a curious and friendly youth.
- Though she spent the vast majority of her childhood running errands and messages for the Rogue’s court, Laila’s first official job as a full member of the guild came at the age of thirteen. She was chosen to be apart of a con that required her to play the part of a Sahib caste girl, and spent many months preparing for the role under the tutelage of many of the veteran members of the court. For this reason, Laila can and often will employ a flawless high-born Ra’sheek accent, though she was raised speaking her native tongue or low-born commons.
- By the time she was a young adult, Laila had elevated herself to being in the inner circle of the rogue leader. It had seemed that the child raised within the halls of their court had grown to be an extremely competent and skilled member of the guild who could be entrusted with some of their most delicate assignments.
- Ambitious to a fault and knowing that the way of the guild was that only the most cunning and strong should lead, it didn’t take Laila long after her promotion to start looking up once again. For years she schemed and made vast networks and connections to grow in hidden power. She had to be careful to ensure that the threat her existence was causing to the guild leader never overtook her value and use to him.
- During her coup for power, Laila managed to take out several of leader’s most trusted lieutenants that she hadn’t been able to sway to her side and was on the verge of taking control of the underground court when a single act of betrayal caused her years of work to come crashing down around her. She did not usurp the Rogue of Kheshan-e Gohar. In fact, she ended up captured and trussed to a chair in his dungeons. That is where she lost her fingers and very well could have lost her life. Laila still isn’t sure exactly as to the why, but the Rogue spared her and decided that banishment was preferable to her death. So she went.