Post by Faelinn on Jul 7, 2015 0:38:51 GMT
 FAELINN | ||||||||
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APPEARANCE Faelinn stands at a modest height of 5’6” and weighs a rather light 129 lbs. Though years of living in the wild have made her physically fit and tough, the Dunedain does not have a bulky body type, but is instead quite lithe. This means that Faelinn is not the strongest of the Rangers or has the greatest endurance, but what she lacks in brute strength she makes up for with a natural nimbleness and agility and dexterity honed over years of training. The Ranger has white skin tanned from exposure to the sun which, while usually covered in a healthy coating of dust from the wilderness, is smooth and so far free of any kind of scar or other marking. In fact, given her Dunedain blood, though the Ranger is 37 she appears more akin to a woman in her early 20’s. Faelinn has slightly curly dark brown hair which extends to just between her shoulder blades on her back. Several strands of hair also extend over her ears and down her front, but the Dunedain keeps her face free of any bangs, and the hair as a whole is not styled in any fashion. Finally, the woman has pale green eyes. Over the top of her body Faelinn wears a simple long-sleeved linen shirt which is forest green in color. Over her legs she wears gray wool pants tucked into a pair of brown supple boots, which extend to just beneath the Dunedain’s knees and are cuffed at the top. A short-sleeved brown leather jerkin rests on top of the linen shirt that extends to the middle of her thighs. The garment also has a small leather collar which goes halfway up the woman’s neck, and is tied along the front with leather cord ties. A long brown leather sword belt wraps around Faelinn’s waist, with the end knotted tight and left hanging down her front. Over all this the Dunedain wears a dark green longcoat made of thick leather, as is accustom of the Rangers. The garment is long-sleeved and extends to the middle of her shins, and is kept open when worn. Over the sleeves of the longcoat on her forearms Faelinn wears a pair of vambraces made of dark brown boiled leather. The vambraces are made of a solid piece of leather that is flat near her hands and ends in a leaf-blade shape near her elbows, and is smooth save for the image of three flying birds which are etched along the length of each vambrace. Lastly, the Dunedain wears a brown cloak the length of her body. The cloak has a deep hood which can be pulled low to cover Faelinn’s face, and is pinned on her left shoulder with the silver star brooch of the Rangers of the North. Faelinn’s main weapon is a steel longsword. The blade of the weapon is a meter long and double-edged, with a groove running down the center of the blade on either side from the hilt to taper off just beneath the tip. The blade extends from a metal crossguard. The center of the crossguard is diamond shaped on either side so that it partially covers the beginning of the blade and the handle, while the ends of the crossguard are flattened and curve slightly towards the tip of the weapon. The handle of the sword is wrapped in worn black leather and large enough to be wielded with two hands, while the pommel is a thick concave metal circle. The scabbard for the sword is made of black leather and both ends are coated in a thin sheet of steel. The scabbard is hung on Faelinn’s sword belt on the left side of her body. The other major weapon which the Ranger uses is her longbow. The weapon is made of smooth yew wood and the handle portion of the bow is wrapped in brown leather. Accompanying the bow is a small brown leather quiver which Faelinn wears strapped across her back. The quiver is padded and tightly fits a small collection of arrows to reduce noise while moving, with the surface having no ornament save for bands of black stitching periodically down the length of the quiver. The arrows themselves are wooden and tipped with steel broadhead’s, while the fletching is composed of brown feathers. Faelinn also carriers a steel hunting knife. The blade of the weapon has a single curved edged and a straight back with a sharp tip, which is connected to a small straight metal crossguard. From this extends the hilt of the knife which is made of smooth bone with a bronze cap at the bottom. The sheath of the weapon is made of brown leather and is strapped to the Ranger’s right thigh. Finally, the Dunedain carries an iron hatchet with her. The axe has a wooden handle made of oak, while the axe head is composed of a thick crescent shape with the blade edge on one end, and a thick spike on the other. The hatchet is kept hanging on a loop on the right side of Faelinn’s sword belt. Other than the star brooch on her cloak, Faelinn carries only one additional type of ornament. This is her mother's silver necklace from which is hung a silver figurine in the shape of a crescent moon. Along the edges of the moon is a thin band of gold on either side, save for a portion near the bottom of the crescent where a large jagged gash was made in the metal by an orc arrow. The necklace is very sentimental to the Ranger, and she almost always keeps it on underneath her linen shirt. Lastly, the Dunedain carries a number of supplies when out in the wilderness so that she can survive for prolonged periods of time away from any Ranger camps. This mostly includes the small and bare essential, such as a small whetstone for keeping her weapons sharp, flint for making fires, a water skin and dried food for nourishment, etc. Those that can be are stored in small brown leather pouches along the back of her belt, but the larger items are kept wrapped in a spare thick grey cloak which Faelinn’s keeps slung over her back beneath her quiver. | ||||||||
PERSONALITY
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HISTORY Faelinn was born in the spring of 2981 3A in a Dunedain village in the Angle, near the southern portion of the Bruinen River in Eriador. Her father was a tall black-haired man named Dandir, while her mother was a slender brown-haired woman named Euilin. Dandir was a member of the Rangers of the North and worked to defend the area around the village from orc raids, as well as make occasional forays across the Bruinen to attack enemy camps in and around the Misty Mountains. Euilin on the other hand remained in the village to help maintain it and tend to the family's livestock and house. Faelinn was their firstborn child and would remain their only child. Because he was a Ranger Dandir would spend extended periods of time away from the village, and even when he was at home he would often remain on the outskirts patrolling the Bruinen. For this reason it largely fell to Euilin to raise Faelinn during the majority of her early childhood. The young Dunedain was given a fairly normal, albeit simple, childhood in the small village surrounded by her people. When she had learned to walk and talk the young girl would help her mother with small chores around the home during the day, and play with the other children or listen to the elders of the village tell the history of the Dunedain in the evenings. The latter became particularly fond of Faelinn as she would be one of the most eager of the children to listen to their tales, though it became apparent that it was more the stories of the brave and honorable warriors of Arnor and Gondor which captivated the young Dunedain's interest, and less any words of wisdom or life lessons. In fact, this interest in stories of war and valor only grew in Faelinn's heart as she grew older, and soon the young girl would come to spend as much of her time as possible around one particular group of Dunedain: the Rangers of the North. To Faelinn the group of warriors became the living symbols of the heroes the young girl cherished in the stories she was told, and every time the rag tag group of men would leave the village Faelinn would imagine the glorious exploits that they did. The Dunedain also had a personal connection to the group. All of Faelinn's interest in the Rangers of the North would be directed at her father when Dandir was at home, and the girl held immense pride that her father donned the star brooch and green longcoat of the group. Dandir on his part only encouraged his daughter's fascination by regaling her with stories of his many hunts and the deeds of Dunedain long since dead. The two became very close as a result, and as Faelinn matured her interest in the Rangers became a deep rooted desire to join them, despite the male domination of the group. So great was her interest that Faelinn would eventually come to ask her father Dandir to train her how to fight and live in the wilds, and most of all how to one day join him in the Rangers. Euilin was completely opposed to the idea of her daughter one-day hunting orcs, and Dandir on his part was unsure at first, wanting to protect his daughter from a life he knew was harder than the stories sometimes let on. But he eventually agreed. Dandir could see the ambition and passion in his daughter’s eyes, and the man could not deny that he also felt immense pride at the thought of his child following in his footsteps, no matter if they were son or daughter. And so Dandir would convince a reluctant Euilin, and when he could spare the time and Faelinn had no chores the two would travel to the edges of the village and train. The Ranger would come to teach his daughter many things over the later parts of her childhood. He would first show her how to hunt in the wild, how to gather herbs and heal wounds, how to track and trek across the rugged land, and how to survive alone in the sometimes harsh environment. Eventually such lessons would pass on to more of an apprenticeship, and Dandir would soon enough be found taking Faelinn out into the forest to hunt game or spar with his daughter using sticks near their home. For Faelinn it was all practically a dream come true. The young Dunedain retained her ambition to become a Ranger no matter how difficult the training with her father became, and Dandir was even surprised to find a hidden bravery in his daughter, even if it sometimes led to stubbornness and recklessness. But the man could only beam in pride at a daughter who he fully believed would be able to join him in the Rangers when she grew older. And so it was that by the time Faelinn was nearing adulthood she would become a respectable hunter and woodsman in her own right under Dandir, almost indistinguishable from the other boys of her village, and with one goal kept deep in her heart: to become a Ranger of the North. No longer did she dream of just entering the ranks, but now Faelinn also dreamed of becoming one of the greatest Rangers the Dunedain would ever know, to put herself in the very legends she adored, and above all, to make her beloved father proud. All this would change though when Faelinn was 17. In the fall of 2998 3A, emboldened by a new chief, a group of orc raiders crossed the Bruinen and attacked the girl’s village. What ensued was a fierce battle. Though the Rangers and those fit to fight in the village were able to engage the orcs and hold most of them off, at one point in the battle a group did manage to break through momentarily and fall upon the village itself. It would be the first time Faelinn saw orcs firsthand as she fled with the other women and children, and the first time she would see blood shed by a blade. Filled with bloodlust the orcs began to burn the village and slay all those who they could find. It was only a short while before Dandir and a few other Rangers were able to rush back to drive off the raiders, but it was long enough for tragedy to strike. Once the dust and smoke had settled, the man would find Faelinn not far from their home, the head of his wife Euilin resting on the girl’s lap and the black feathers of an orc arrow protruding from her chest. The death of Euilin struck Faelinn hard. While her training and shared ambition with Dandir had made them perhaps closer, her mother had still always been there for the girl, and she mourned Euilin’s passing for some time. But her death also hardened her ambitions. While Faelinn did not swear vengeance per say, Euilin’s death only strengthened her resolve to become a Ranger and to personally take the fight to the enemy, and to prevent any such tragedy from befalling her people again. But if Euilin’s death saddened Faelinn, it devastated her father Dandir completely. Not only did the man lose his wife, but as the days wore on to weeks and then months the man began to grow bitter and resentful. In his mind it was his fault and the fault of the Rangers as a whole that they were unable to protect Euilin, and his pride and performance with the Rangers of the North began to falter, and eventually fail altogether. Unfortunately, with failure came even more grief and eventually alcohol. Dandir would turn to the bottle to ease his suffering and anger, and Faelinn could only watch in horror as the man she once cherished and looked up to began to crumble before her very eyes. Becoming nothing more than an unruly drunk, Dandir was stripped of his position in the Rangers and cast out in disgrace, and the once proud man locked himself away in his home with his alcohol. And with Faelinn. While saddened by her father’s plight she still held love for her father and believed that he would return to his old self, and so for several years the Dunedain would care for Dandir and their house. But despite her best efforts Dandir would only continue to go down a dark path. Disillusioned by his wife’s death and no longer holding any love for the Rangers, Dandir would begin to try and turn Faelinn away from her goal of joining the group, and instead try to convince her that they were responsible for their pain. The girl however, stubborn in her resolve, did not listen. But with each failed attempt Dandir would only become more enraged by his daughter’s “ignorance”. Gentle persuasion would turn to heated arguments and demands, and though Faelinn refused to budge in her resolve, her father’s constant berating and abrasive attitude did affect the Dunedain. She began to see Dandir in a new light, and as time wore on she would go from cherishing her father to outright detesting him and all the disgrace he dumped on their family name. In the end the man would no longer be a symbol of the ideal Faelinn sought but rather become a symbol of everything she strove to fight against. This change would blunt the girl’s outlook of life, and the Dunedain’s old happiness was replaced with a quietness and cynicism in the face of what she considered nothing short of betrayal. By the time she turned 22 Faelinn’s resolve to join the Rangers and leave her village was never stronger, only this time the woman sought not just to make a name for herself, but to prove Dandir wrong and to make up for all the shame he had wrought. And she would do just that. After five years Dandir had become only a shadow of his former self, and there was scarcely a moment when the man was not raging against the Rangers and all they represented. It was during one particularly bad episode when Dandir, blind in his rage and drunkenness, lashed out at the orc which killed Euilin. Only the orc happened to be a stunned Faelinn returning home. By some irony it was only through her training with Dandir that Faelinn had the reflexes to defend herself and subdue the man long enough for him to calm down and fall asleep, but for the woman it destroyed any last shred of respect she had for her father. Both angry and on the verge of tears, Faelinn would end up leaving the village that night, carrying nothing but some food, the clothes on her back, and her mother’s necklace which she had all but tore from her father’s hand, and joining a Ranger patrol that was heading out. Thus would be the start of Faelinn’s life as a Ranger of the North, and though it was far from the wondrous event she had once dreamed of, the woman could not deny her happiness. The Dunedain would eventually reach another Ranger camp where she would remain for several years. There she trained under the tutelage of the other Rangers to further hone the skills she had gained from Dandir, and to become a warrior, hunter, and tracker of the same prowess as the Rangers were known for. Though a hard and dangerous life, to Faelinn it was paradise from the bitterness she had faced from her father. The memories would still haunt the woman and she would firmly oppose ever coming near to her home village, but living her dream, beginning what she would consider her own legend, brought some measure of joy back to her life. And so, in 3007 3A and at the age of 26, Faelinn would officially don the green longcoat and star brooch and become a Ranger of the North. It has now been eleven years since a moment Faelinn, now called Nightingale by the men of Bree and the surrounding lands, would consider one of the greatest in her life, and she continues to fight for the Rangers of the North. Though at first still a new member and thus mostly kept to small time patrols and guard duty, the woman has served long enough in the group to begin travelling on her own and taking the fight to the orcs and other fell creatures in her defense of Eriador. And in defense of her name. With her hatred of Dandir still firm at heart the Ranger has made the wilds her new home and the other Rangers her new family, and she continues to fight to make up for her father. Though Faelinn cannot deny that she still looks to the legends of old, and to a future that she hopes, and plans, to make fit for a legend. | ||||||||
OTHER Faelinn has a stallion named Tinnu, which, like many of the horses of the Rangers, is strong and thick of body. This makes the horse slower than the quick steeds of the Elves or Rohan, but the horse’s high endurance allows the Dunedain to ride great distances. The stallion is also well trained to travel the sometimes rough terrain of Eriador, as well as work in cooperation with his rider. Tinnu has a dapple gray hide and a coarse black mane and tail. When being rode the stallion is outfitted with a simple black leather saddle and harness with no additional ornament or armor, though saddle bags are sometimes also slung over the horses back when Faelinn requires a greater amount of supplies to be carried. The Ranger owns no property of any kind, though her family built a house in the Dunedain village from which she grew up in and where her father still lives. She avoids the place however, and so has nothing more than the open road and occasional Ranger camp as her home. | ||||||||
lucy griffiths | faelinn PLAYED BY TOM BOMBADIL MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS |
