Kayla

Description: Female elven ranger.Level: 15Experience: 57,000 / 69,000Last XP Award: 1,115 XP; May 28, 2011Personality:Kayla is adventurous, curious, and impulsive. She is excited by the idea of exploring distant lands and challenging herself. She has a restless streak but can be calm and focused in dangerous situations.Kayla enjoys stories of her parents' adventures but feels that she can't live up to the stories of her deceased elven father's valor. However, taunts about her human stepfather and half-elven sister taught her compassion. Kayla understands that she doesn't know much about the life of a legionnaire but she is excited, confident, and hopes to do something worthy.Appearance:Kayla is fairly tall for an elf and has a slender, athletic build. She has long, slightly curly, deep golden blonde hair. She sometimes weaves thin braids into her hair. Her eyes are violet with a dark tint.Kayla wears a suit of harlequin green armor. The armor decorated with a pattern made with sweeping, lavender lines. The design is reminiscent of a celtic knot but looser and more graceful. The pattern is both artistic and also serves as camouflage in the forest, like a tiger's stripes.History:Kayla was raised on stories of adventure at home and traces of racial tension in her community that fed a desire to leave home and explore the world. Kayla’s biological father, Heian, was an elven paladin of Bahamut. He was a member of an adventuring party where he fought alongside and ultimately died defending Kayla’s mother, an elven bard named Ayala.* Ayala was shaken by his death and left the adventuring life. While returning to her home, she soon learned that she was pregnant. Her good friend a human ranger named Marsen eventually found her and offered his support in the months ahead. They later married shortly after Kayla was born.

Kayla was raised on stories of her parents’ adventures, particularly her biological father’s courage and integrity. As Kayla grew older, she began to wonder about the stories of her parents and her birth. She has been told that her parents fell in love after Marsen abandoned adventuring to support her mom but she wonders if this is true. More importantly, she learned from her clan’s priest that it is rare for elves to worship Bahamut and that his priests and paladins are expected to be chaste. She has never discussed this revelation with her parents.

Kayla had little patience for school and loved to explore the forest with her friends. Her stepfather recognized a restlessness that ran deeper than the usual impulsiveness and frivolity of elves. He taught her his woodcraft and fighting skills as a ranger so that she would learn to discipline herself. She took to these lessons enthusiastically due to her athleticism and the stories of her parents’ adventures.

Although humans are occasionally accepted into elven society, they are still viewed by many elves as refugees and a fallen people. Kayla would sometimes encounter racism towards her stepfather and half-sister. She was fiercely protective of her younger half-elven sister and helped her build a circle of friends where she would feel welcome. Nonetheless, Kayla was aware that her own family encountered attitudes that most elves did not.

As she got older, Kayla’s parents would begin to take their children to travel and visit lands beyond the elven forest. As former adventurers themselves, they wanted their children to know that there was a world beyond the forest. Kayla loved traveling, camping, and discovering new places.

Over time, her home began to feel too small. She eventually left her home in search of new challenges and an inner peace. Raised on her own parent’s stories of adventure, Kayla began to keep journals of her travels that she would send home. Although she wanted to keep all of her friends and family informed, she was really writing for the sister she left behind.

* - Grim reaper’s fertility clinic: cliché. The chances of a heroine conceiving from a one night stand skyrocket if the hero later dies in the movie. See: Terminator, others.

[Note: I usually have a detailed image and background for my characters. I just rarely write this much down, let alone have an opportunity to share all of this with the party.]