Aroal
Pronunciation: aeh-ROLL
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| Age | 24 |
| Birth Year | NRC 506 |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Human |
| Homeland | Forest of Darkness |
Physical Description
A tall, lean and busty beauty. Despite her good looks, she seems to do what she can to make herself intimidating, mainly through her tattoos. She bears many tattoos in blue ink over her lightly tanned skin including a band of ink casting a shadow around her blue eyes, a circular design on her breastbone with designs reaching to the hollow of her neck. On her arms, she has a matching pair of tribal armbands on her upper arm and bands in a fire-like design around her forearms. On her back is a design of a Phoenix in flight. The skin beneath her breasts is thickly covered in intricate designs. She is also tattooed around and above her navel, above her pubic bone, and in the small of her back. High on her thighs are two simple bands around each leg. Her blonde hair is straight and falls below her shoulder blades, but she usually keeps it pulled back in a simple ponytail.
| Height | 5’8” | Hair Color | Blonde |
| Weight | 140lbs | Eye Color | Blue |
| Build | Hourglass | Skin Color | Lightly Tanned |
Clothing and Armor
Aroal is clad in mostly leather armor, including a tailored leather vest made for her. It’s low cut and shows a healthy amount of cleavage. She also wears fitted leather leggings with a pair of hardened leather knee guards. Her boots are stout leather boots for walking and reach up to her knees. Her gloves cover her arms up to her elbows. She has a leather helm with a spike on the top that covers her head, but not her face, and also a simple silver circlet. Underneath, she wears a cotton tunic. For warmth, she has a plain hooded wool cloak.
Weapon DescriptionAroal’s main melee weapon is a matching pair of hand axes. They are simple and functional, well polished fine steel on a solid haft, wrapped in well-worn leather. For ranged weapons, Aroal uses throwing spears. She carries a bundle of about 10 at a time, and when she runs out, she can make more from the fletching and spearheads she has, and whatever wood is available.
The newest addition to Aroal’s collection is a greatsword that belonged to her husband. The blade is five-feet long, double-edged, and with serrated notches further down toward the hilt. The steel is darkly tinted, and of Marmo make. A ruby is set in the center of the crossguard, and the two-handed grip is wrapped in black leather.
| Class | Warrior |
| Occupation | Mercenary |
| Guild Membership | Mercenaries’ Guild (5) |
| Weapons | Two Hand-Axes, Marmo Steel Greatsword, Throwing Spears |
| Armor | Leather Vest, Leather Breeches, Leather Helm, Leather Bracers, Leather Boots |
| Equipment | Traveling gear; pack, bedroll, utility knife, comb, whetstone, flint and steel, mostly neccessities |
| Horse | No |
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Magic Items and Enchantments
- Axes - Aroal’s axes have a Cha Za blessing on them that gives her a +5 bonus to Luck.
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PersonalityShe’s a strong-willed, bold woman. A medieval feminist. Aroal is unafraid to speak her mind and voice her opinions, but underneath that tough exterior is a softer side. A woman who was wounded by the men in her life, and afraid of committing to another, lest she suffers the same betrayal and misunderstanding. This leads to her tough, no-holds-barred attitude. In her teenage years, her marriage to Thrighan led to her developing an apathetic attitude. She didn’t care if she lived or died. She still holds onto that apathy, but a more emotional and lively woman often comes out when she’s not working. On the job, Aroal holds onto her cold, emotionless shell to avoid fear and shock.
Alignment: True Neutral with strong Lawful tendencies and minor Good tendencies
Quotes: “Well, if it isn't my dear husband. Come back for another round? Would you like me to crack your skull with your own axes, or would you prefer the manner of beating you're most accustomed to? You wouldn't happen to have a skillet I could borrow, would you?”
HistoryAroal was born to a barbarian tribe in Marmo’s Forest of Darkness. She was prepared for a hard life from the start and trained to defend herself from an early age. While the goal of most women in her tribe was to marry a strong, honorable husband, Aroal would have rather become a warrior, but her father forbid it. He only afforded her enough battle training to defend herself from monsters and bandits, but she was never allowed to hunt or fight any battles with enemy tribes.
When she was twelve, she was betrothed to a young warrior named Thrighan, much to her displeasure. She tried to make the best of the situation, hoping that Thrighan would at least be someone she could be close to, but all her attempts to get to know the warrior were a failure. Before they wed, she feared the worse for her future. At fourteen, she was married to Thrighan. After their marriage, didn’t seem to regard her as anything more than a mate and a housekeeper. He was a violent man, and whenever she displeased him, he struck her. If she tried to speak her mind, she was slapped. If she stepped over his lines of control, she was beaten into submission. She tried to fight back in the beginning, but he proved far too strong for her. She considered escaping many times, but never found the courage. Instead, she resigned herself to a miserable life. It seemed as if she had lost the will to live, as if her soul had died.
Aroal became pregnant shortly after their marriage, but after an eight month pregnancy, the child, a son, was stillborn. Thrighan lashed out when the midwife announced the child was stillborn. He accused Aroal of being weak and slapped her once, but the midwife stepped in and assured Thrighan that it was no fault of Aroal’s. It was not an uncommon event, especially in mothers so young. Thrighan relented and left Aroal to recover. He heeded the midwife’s advice and avoided Aroal’s bed for a year.
Aroal felt little with the death of her child. She was cold and apathetic at the time, her defense against Thrighan’s abuse. She was grateful that the boy didn’t survive, though she wasn’t quite sure why. Deep down, there was a small hope that her life wouldn’t end in this village, and for now, she had no child to tie her to Thrighan anymore than she already was.
At the age of sixteen, Aroal became pregnant again. Thrighan was hopeful, and Aroal was anything but. However, Thrighan was obviously afraid of a miscarriage or another stillbirth and did all he could to protect Aroal and keep her healthy, only for the sake of his potential son. Three months later, Aroal miscarried.
Thrighan was enraged. He attacked Aroal, and this time it wasn’t a few slaps. He beat her like he had never beaten her before. When he thought he had enough, he turned his back on his battered young wife, which was his mistake. Something in Aroal snapped, and instead of reverting to an apathetic state, she was overwhelmed by anger. While his back was turned, Aroal snatched up a cast iron skillet and beat Thrighan back. The first hit knocked the large man to the ground. She continued to swing at his body. He couldn’t defend himself from her rapid blows, so he crawled out the house with a broken arm and concussion, then escaped. As he limped away from the house, he threatened to deal with her later, but he had conceded defeat.
While Thrighan was gone, Aroal decided it was time for her to leave. She had the presence of mind to realize she would need to support herself outside her tribe—and she wanted to spite Thrighan as well—so she gathered every item of value in their home, including all of Thrighan’s weapons and metal armor. She kept a pair of hand-axes for herself, as well as some pieces of leather armor, then pawned everything in Salbad and bought herself passage on a ship to Kanon.
She had no interest in helping the Marmo army, so she slipped out of their lands and into Valis. She didn’t attract much attention, being a pretty blonde teenage girl. However, she wanted to pursue her desire to be a warrior—and to prepare herself in case she met Thrighan again. She was able to buy membership in the Mercenaries’ Guild, but she had a hard time getting hired. While waiting for jobs to take her, she trained in the Roid guild, sparing with other mercenaries to hone her skills. One of her sparing partners saw she had more talent than most would assume from a sixteen year old and helped her get her first job. Most of her work was guarding merchant caravans, a job which has allowed her to explore Valis, Moss, and Flaim a bit. She has ventured into Raiden once or twice, but never had the chance to explore the city.
With the money she earned, she had leather armor tailored to her, and paid her rent at the inns she has lived in, but what she has spent the most on are her extensive tattoos. While Aroal is naturally a beautiful woman, she has a problem with the way she’s treated for having such a lovely face. So, she marred her beauty by tattooing an intimidating blue shadow across her eyes. The tattoos across the rest of her body are partially inspired by tattoos of her tribe, or otherwise her allowing tattoo artists to use her skin as a canvas for their creativity. The phoenix on her back was entirely the idea of her tattooist who was inspired by tales Phoenix’s resurrection during the civil war in Flaim. She continued to come back for more tattoos to help herself focus and control her tolerance of pain.
Aroal does all her work out of Roid’s Mercenaries’ Guild and dutifully pays her dues every month. She has no home of her own, and lives from inn to inn in her travels.
