***<br/><br/><strong>Aella Berenike</strong><br/><br/><strong>Concept</strong>: Imperial officer and battle-priestess<br/><strong>Age</strong>: 20<br/><strong>Race</strong>: Human (Imperial)<br/><strong>Physical Description</strong>: 5'11”, 160 lb., with blonde hair and green eyes. A soldier's life has shaped Aella's body – she's all sharp angles and hard muscle, able to march for hours in heavy armor and carrying a rucksack, then fight a battle. Ordinarily she'd cut her hair, as its length is a liability in combat, but her men can identify her on the battlefield because of it, and it doesn't bring the same kind of enemy attention as an Imperial standard would.<br/><strong>Personality</strong>: Blunt, aggressive, maternal. Despite her age, Aella is used to telling people what she thinks and what they should do.<br/><strong>Sexuality</strong>: Avidly bisexual. She has never slept with a non-human.<br/><strong>Cares about</strong>: The men under her command, her old mentor Junia, the Vestal Veil Society, orphans, the poor, and the gods - primarily Bathildis, goddess of war, but as a good polytheist she knows the history, preferences, relationships, and rituals of all the important gods of the Imperial cult.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">History (long)</div><div class="spoiler_body">Wars create riches – for the men behind them, not the poor sods dying on the battlefield. Aella's father Marinus is one such profiteer, a merchantman whose fortunes skyrocketed with Imperial demand for arms, armor, food, tents, wagons, and all the other accoutrements of war. His ambitions unsatisfied by mere wealth, Marinus dispatched Aella to be fostered by a widowed patrician, Junia Laurentis, who made a living educating girls of low social rank and finding suitable husbands for them. Many aristocratic families were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, as war claimed their fortunes, lands, and children. Marinus plotted to marry her to one such and elevate himself through that marriage.<br/><br/>From the tender age of twelve, then, Aella saw very little of her family. Junia and her fellow fostered children were the majority of her company. She learned etiquette, fashion, several languages, a general sense of history, and the other requirements of high society. But Junia was no mere schoolteacher; she was a member of the Vestal Veil Society, a secret order of noble ladies that manipulated Imperial politics in their own favor. Junia taught her children to love her and obey her, then made sure they married politicians, captains, bankers – men of importance whose secrets would pass from their brides to the Vestal Veil Society through Junia. When Aella demonstrated a knack for religion, the Vestal Veil Society deemed this a useful talent. She was sent to a priestess, Adrasteia, twice a week for lessons, and rapidly gained a reputation as a prodigy whose prayers brought good fortune.<br/><br/>Shortly after Aella turned eighteen, her mother took a fever and died. Scarcely was her corpse buried before Marinus remarried, to a much younger woman from an illustrious house, and before the year was out she had given him a baby boy. Aella, his firstborn daughter of common blood, went from heiress to inconvenience. How unfortunate, after all the effort the Vestal Veil Society had gone to to make her a suitably talented and obedient agent. There would be no prominent marriage in Aella's future. Junia tactfully communicated to her that it would be best if she found herself an occupation with which to support herself - immediately.<br/><br/>Aella joined the Legions, heartbroken, as a battlefield chaplain. Rumors quickly spread that she was blessed by Bathildis, goddess of war, especially as she took up arms in several engagements and came out of them unscathed. After her company held a ridge against a charging force more than five times their number, Aella was made their sergeant by unanimous vote of the survivors, a decision later formally recognized by their general. She took the last name Berenike - “Bringer of Victory” - and turned her back on her father and her house.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Armor and Combat Reference Picture</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/4/43/Aella_berenike2.jpeg/750px-Aella_berenike2.jpeg)</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">IRL Body/Face Reference Picture</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/f/f1/Aella_berenike1.jpg/443px-Aella_berenike1.jpg)</div></div><br/>Played By: Synecdoche17<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>Name: Athan Tamlen<br/>Age: 23<br/>Race: High wood Elf (they are named this for their habit of dwelling in cities built in groves of massive redwood style trees)<br/>Physical Description: Athan is about 6 foot 2 and weighs about 190 lbs. He is lean and toned. He wears a light black and red set of leather armor with a hood that shrouds his face.(Similar to the outfit of the assassins in Assassins Creed without the cloak so it is only the base armor and hood) He has dual longswords that he wears at his waist and a beautifully made blackwood longbow. He has gold colored skin which is contrasted by white hair. His eyes are black where a humans. (Sclera is the term if anyone is curious.) His irises are gold and his pupils are black. He has black tribal tattoos on his arms and part of his back and chest.<br/>Personality: He like all elves is rather reclusive but he is a nice man if you get to know him. He is passionate and kind but has a fiery temper if you anger him. He likes to relax and meditate as often as he is allowed. He is also very serious about his fighting ability and practices often.<br/>History: Although Athan is a young man in elven times, very young, still called a child by many. He embodies the spirit of their civilization in many ways. They are not callous toward outsiders but they do not seek them out either. They heavily prefer to be left alone to their own ways. They are prone to many acts of kindness as well, they will often help lost travels find their way once more or help them out of dangerous situations. They are also renowned as wonderful warriors but it is rare to see them fight for anything other than their own gods. They do not like to be included in the conflicts of other races because they feel that they are not what their gods want for them.<br/><br/>Athan himself is a serious young warrior and loves his people, he does his best to uphold the worlds view of them as kind strangers. He prefers to stay that way, hence the hood upon his armor. He rarely reveals himself to anyone he aids. Even people that it takes him days to help. He feels that it is easier that way. He is very open with his own kind but retains the racial reticence with people of other kinds. If he was asked to join the fights below he would likely say no unless he saw good reason to involve himself and his people. It was something he was taught as he grew up.<br/><br/>His parents always told him to look at the world as a picture, never with a narrow view. They said a narrow view would never help him or his people and he should always think of how his decisions could affect his people and not just him. He was also taught to never value his life above another because selfish thinking will poison the land.<br/><br/>As he grew up with his family's strict teachings he had become a very kind and self sacrificing man but it is a side that he shows rarely to anyone outside of his tribe. To outsiders he is calm and kind but little more. He has shown indifference to the point of angering those that he helps on many occasions.<br/>Sexuality: Straight, possibly interested in trying a man<br/>Played By: Strifesblaze7<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Image</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101117073943/darkmoonfaire/images/b/b4/Elven_Warrior.jpg)<br/></div></div>