I've revised Abigail's background. Please let me know if this is okay or if it needs anything. It's almost 3am so I'm going to leave off story posting until tomorrow because I should get some sleep.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>Abigail is a Paladin serving the Temple of Sol, who is to become a member of the Order of the Rose.</em><br/><br/>Abigail has long been based in the Misty Valley, where she lived at a homestead to the south of Northshire with farmer, Eleanor and her son, Jon. She would often stay at the chapel in Northshire when on church business, but as often travelled on duties for the church or militia. The majority of Abigail's formal training took place in Northwind and this is an area she knows well. It was during her time in the Misty Valley that she first met Baroness Adhafera Arcwright, and made an impression with her. Rumour eventually reached her ears that Adhafera had married King Cameron Edenburg and was now his Queen.<br/><br/>She was raised by the church in its orphanage. Her background is not so unique as it might sound, given the multitude of threats that were affecting the Misty Valley. Her mother Diana was a sorceress, and was murdered by one of the elves (Abigail still doesn't know her killer's name). Her father Akaro is a hunter/trapper, and at the time of his wife's death, Abigail was merely an infant. He was a broken man when he turned Abigail over to the Church of Sol, for he knew little of raising a child on his own, and he feared for her safety in the woods that were his livelihood.<br/><br/>Akaro didn't visit his daughter for many years, but when he eventually made the snap decision to visit her as a ten year old, she surprised him. She was smart, soft-spoken and different in every way to how he'd envisioned her. By comparison, he was a rugged man who spent the majority of his life on the land, and he had to be a tough sort to survive that. They got along well - Abigail adored her father's honest forthrightness and his presence, which had been missing for so much of her childhood. She finally felt like she had a family to belong to, even if it was a family of one man. Akaro told her about her mother and to some extent, what happened to her. Akaro shared that he'd first met Diana in the wilderness. He'd thought he was alone and then he heard footsteps. He was expecting a threat or one of any number of dangers, but he hadn't expected to meet a woman with an enchanting smile. Their family had returned to their camp early one night when they were ambushed by elves. Diana lashed out at their attackers with sorcery and was killed before their eyes.<br/><br/>Abigail's commitment to the church was strong, and once mentored in combat (because the world was such that it was unreasonable not to), the clerics/priests found that she excelled. She was given an opportunity few others had - to become a paladin, and then a sacred servant of her deity, the sun god, Sol. She always had a strong sense of justice - a calling for it, and a level head on her shoulders. Her training was as much in religion and law as it was in combat. In many ways she felt this was what she was born to be. It was during her paladin training that her abilities in sorcery advanced, drawn on once without thought when she was forced to defend herself against a martial opponent. Her mentor in swordsmanship (an elderly man named Reece), advised her to keep these abilities to herself and focus instead on her studies in swordsmanship.<br/><br/>While the sorcery wasn't an ability that Abigail thought would be well-accepted by the church, she wanted to explore it and discover its secrets. It was one of the few remaining connections she shared with her mother, who she couldn't remember at all. Sometimes at night she would try to channel her sorcery, and slowly but surely it blossomed, as did she. While Abigail believes that it isn't truly a power she should draw upon, she also feels that in the tide of battle, it is fair to use the weapons at one's disposal, provided they are used with honour.<br/>