<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/SVgHqW2.jpg)</div><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Iona Viliulf</span></strong><br/>Once the pride of Kassen, her grandfather Firth Viliulf had been struck by genius as a child, and became a renowned clock-maker.  His work was renowned across occupied Nirmathas and ruling Molthune-- of course, most examples of his artistry didn't survive in the war, except a few smaller and easier-to-hide pieces, and some curiosities that have disappeared into Cheliax or Molthune troves to be buried or melted down.  After his grown children died in a passing tide Crimson Fever, he was left with an infant grandchild survivor to raise-- so he and his wife returned to his childhood home to raise her.  His business had been ruined by the War by his lack of enthusiasm for war-machine craft, and he had begun to show signs of lost memory.<br/><br/>Thus, Iona has come of age in this town-- the only home she remembers-- raised by a grandfather and grandmother in their elder years, whose good intentions cannot compensate for their poverty and age.  The once-wealthy family is now destitute from decades of lost investments after the war, and so Iona has raised herself on the River to support them-- she's worked as a deck-hand, a guide, a porter, a fisher-woman, and it's never been easy.  Sometimes she must fight older youths from upriver, sometimes she has to fend for herself from grabbing hands, and sometimes her eagerness to grift any stranger that comes into town has earned her a cane-lash or two.  On quiet days, she tinkers in her grandfather's workshop, fidgeting with tension wires, springs, and gears, learning only the fundamentals of the strange secrets of her ancestor that he can no longer properly explain.<br/><br/>She bears a few scars from her occasionally-violent life so far, but aside from her reputation as a ne'er-do-well, she's essentially harmless.  Although her bitterness comes through in waves, barely concealing a wounded child beneath the tough-woman facade.  Anyone who knows her well enough realizes that her hardened shell of defensiveness and ennui is simply an act to protect a young woman who may enjoy a good fight from time to time, but can't stand the suffering of the innocent... who wants to rob the rich, but would give her last coin to keep a poor family fed... and who would fight a magistrate bare-knuckled in a church-yard if it meant that a tree with a bird's nest didn't get cut down until the eggs had hatched and flown.<br/><br/>Character sheet: Iona (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/2/2c/Iona_V.pdf)