<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Lady Amanda Caithwaine</span><br/><br/>Sheet (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1425685)<br/><br/>An honor-bound elven paladin struggling to maintain perpetual optimism in the face of a grim but epic prophecy.<br/><br/><em>Solstice holidays were always difficult.  "This is Amanda," my parents would crow, beaming, prideful.  "She's going to be a legendary martyr!"  I was expected to smile, show humility, avoid dancing overmuch (what was the point in courting, after all?) and make cheerful small talk about my impending demise.  "Yes, it's a great honor," I would say, or "No, the prophecy doesn't mention any torture but all the really heroic sagas have some."  I'd listen to the cousins talk about planting orchards and sneak off for a little cry in the pantry.  Aunt Cece always made the best walnut and peach pie, though, so it wasn't all bad."</em><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1b/b2/a7/1bb2a7e9077ca39fae028cc8a5bafd90.jpg)  </div>For 300 years it was apples and priests.  True, the oracle announced a few exceptional fates: craftsmen, merchants, a second cousin who wrote silent plays, but the Vale, just a short distance inland from Saltmarsh, was at peace and the folk within were hard working, devout, and peaceful, renowned for their orchards and little else.  So, despite her nominal nobility, when baby Amanda was placed on the blind man's lap her parents hoped a new cider recipe lay in store, or perhaps she'd be the one to finally drain the marsh in the back quarter.<br/><br/>Instead the oracle pronounced the babe would become a great hero, a legend of her own age and many after, touched by the gods to free their people through selfless martyrdom of her young life.<br/><br/>The destiny wasn't assured, of course; such prophecies only revealed potential, and required devotion and hard work to achieve.  Still, it was a rather impressive fate and Amanda's parents were reminded of their titles and importance.  Only a few months old, Amanda was the center of family pride and expectations.  If she was, in fact, an exceptional child it was merely to be expected of a role model.  She was admired, envied, celebrated and placed atop a pillar she had no part in making and wasn't entirely sure about.  While everyone else only thought of her coming glory, she struggled with a peculiar, ungrateful hesitance to die.<br/><br/>Even after decades of weapons tutors, honing her body and spirit through exercise and philosophy, arrayed in the polished arms her grandparents once used, Amanda still struggles to accept her fate; but the call for heroes has come, and Amanda is determined to meet a stoic and honorable end.<br/><br/><strong>Character:</strong>Only 116 years old, Amanda has the svelte, wiry strength unique to the elves, fiery red hair brighter than any human's and deep, crystalline green eyes marked with a sense of sorrow.  She smells of apples, even when none are around, and armor oil, which she always has around.  Soft spoken, focused, self-conscious, dedicated if not confident, she exudes an almost divine sense of gravitas.  One of 13 children, she has a massive family that includes nearly everyone within the small community of the Vale; a modest, puritan settlement both civilized and pastoral, respectful of nature as they shape the forest into wild orchards and living manorhouses.  Amanda is defined by the sense of a dutiful daughter bounded by the expectations of others and struggling to live up to them, despite her misgivings and the sacrifice of her own hopes and dreams.<br/><br/><strong>Sexuality:</strong>The experiences available to a doomed noblewoman in a religious community are limited.  The inherent expiration dissuades any serious interest and encourages the wrong sort, so Amanda abstained in frustration.  She is bisexual, although the implications of a few pleasant kisses with her cousin Isabelle are still a bit vague.  For now, her love life includes the round handle of her third-best dagger and a somewhat petulant sense that a bit of casual sex shouldn't be bad when it's the only option available.