The Gladiatrix of Difelin

Aife daughter of Gwaeddan is the only female gladiator in the city of Difelin. That she is also freeborn and only fifteen years old makes her even more of an oddity and attraction in the Bull Ring, the rickety wooden arena used for gladiatorial matches, cattle auctions, and city watch training.

She is of the villein (lower) class, but her family is reasonably secure by the standards of that class. She is the illegitimate bastard daughter of a lower-class woman named Gwaeddan. Her father was a vagabond/tinker whom she has never known. She lives with her mother, her mother's husband Deniel, her mother's brother Dalach, Dalach's wife, and their three young sons in a small cottage in the Snarl of Difelin.

Appearance

Aife stands 4'7" tall and weighs 110-111 pounds. She is broad through the shoulders and chest, even at her age, and narrow through the hips, with strong thighs. Her brown-red hair is worn in a multitude of individual braids (dreadlocks), decorated with beads and small bells.

She bears a noticeable scar down her forehead, through her empty left eye-socket, down her left cheek, and into her left shoulder, caused by a wound from a broadsword in the Bull Ring. The scar is only a year old, so is still quite livid. Her right eye is brown, and her skin is otherwise pink and smooth.

She is young, but has a youthful look with an unusually sober demeanor. Her general appearance is rough; her loose-fitting dark clothes are second-and third-hand, oft-patched. When on the streets and around the house, Aife generally wears a black patch over the empty socket of her left eye.

When competing in the Bull Ring, she fights bare-chested and wears only a loincloth and cloth-and-leather fasciae on her legs, with soft leather boots. Because of her intensive physical fitness regime, strength, and youth, her breasts are not yet fully developed. She has a boyish figure, but is beginning to mature, with an under-bust measurement of 28 inches and an across-bust measurement of 33 inches (bra 32B).

Personality and Possessions

Aife is somewhat neurotic and suffers from a vengeful nature and a low-grade paranoid anxiety as a consequence of her youth as a street urchin in the Snarl. She has an abrasive personality, but is not especially extroverted nor introverted, and has a morose disposition.

She is a girl with an active intellect from a multi-cultural background, and speaks three languages fluently (Gallavach, Yoruach, and Aukrian). She has an intellectualist's materialism, and is truthful and foolhardily brave.

Her morals are aesthetic, in that she tends to see value in beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing things. She is irreverent in her piety to the gods, and uses profanities carelessly.

She has a normal energy for an adolescent girl, and is thrifty now with her money, after several unfortunate financial life-decisions as a gambler.

She has a habit of picking her teeth with a splinter of wood.

She has a loyal domesticated pet, a small woodcocker spaniel with black hair and a white blaze on her chest. Her dog's name is Rua, and she stands five hands (20") tall at the withers and weighs about 32-33 pounds, typical of village scavenger dogs. She is intelligent, aggressive and strong and knows several "tricks", including house skills, heel, silence, stay, recall, and track. She is also water-trained. The dog Rua is three years old.

Aife has an unusual combat sense, being sharp and quick-witted in stressful situations. This serves her well in the Bull Ring, where she often seizes the initiative over her opponents. She owns a spear-axe (halberd) of particularly good quality. It is extremely well made — forged of the finest steel, honed to razor sharpness, and made of the finest woods. It has a value of one-hundred and twenty silver ôra, and is the most valuable thing she possesses. Her enemies would gladly take it from her to collect on her debt to them.

But her own most personal treasure is a simple rag poppet from her childhood. It reminds her of simpler, better times, before the violence of her later years.

On account of her streetwise upbringing and her thrifty and paranoid nature, she drives a hard-bargain and is unusually adept at her social skills whenever trading is involved.

She was bullied as a child, and has a strong hatred for bullies now.

She has an interest in gambling and is unusually adept at it for a girl of her age. By the time she was seven, she was running a thriving craps operation and continued to do so until she was eleven, when she ran afoul of local, syndicate-run gambling operations.

Because of her gambling and street violence, she was eventually arrested [boned] and thrown into prison [boarding school]. During her time in prison [boarding school], she developed a moderate phobia of snakes. If threatened by a violent encounter with a snake, there is a strong chance she will flee or otherwise avoid the encounter.

For a time, she ran away from the city with a pack of traveling entertainers, during which time she learned tumbling and juggling skills. However, she tumbles like a dying fish, even after her training. She was much better at juggling swords.

Her combat trainer was a tough old Gallavach ex-mercenary, and she received training that toughened her and improved her constitution and endurance. She also learned from him the shield-rim feat, and the warrior's scream feat. The shield-rim feat involves the use of a special shield with a sharpened rim as an attack. The warrior's scream is a terrifying battle-cry that strikes fear into Aife's enemies.

Through her adventures in the Bull Ring, she's earned fame and a good reputation in Difelin. She is known far and wide throughout the city, and this reputation can open doors and create opportunities (although it can also make it difficult to "blend in"). Not every single person in the City knows about her, but there is a chance they might, particularly if they are fans of the Bull Ring arena fights. But she is also as well-known to her adversaries as her friends. As a result, she has difficulty concealing or disguising her identity in the city and its suburbs. Because she has made an enemy more powerful than herself in the city's law enforcement circles, she has to be particularly conscious to stay on the right side of the law. As a result, she only gambles in the Snarl now, where law enforcement refuses to go.

Contacts

Allies

Doctor Ragngautr

The outcast physician and part-time vivisectionist Doctor Ragngautr operates a street clinic in the Snarl. Discreet and talented—if sadistic—Ragngautr is a reliable source of medical care for Aife and the other residents of the Snarl.

Gunnfúss, proprietor of The Sheep & Toad

The boisterous Yoruan barkeep of a tavern called The Sheep & Toad, on Hlosestoc Lane in Lower City. He's an old war buddy of her uncle Dalach. The tavern is a good quality place, and Gunnfúss is motivated by greed. His status is average among the taverners in Difelin and he has four apprentices whom he treats decently but coolly. He is of the upper class himself and owns The Sheep & Toad outright.

Eremhon Black Eyes

During her time in Newgate Prison, Aife made the acquaintance of Eremhon Black Eyes, an aspiring burglar who had been nicked for a crime he actually didn't commit. Eremhon had taken the fall for another burglar, a member of the Night Crowns crime syndicate. Eremhon offered her some measure of protection in Newgate, saving her from some of the worst abuses by the other inmates.

Family Resemblance

She shares the common recognizable features of her mother Gwaeddan and her uncle Dalach, which improves the reactions of those who already have a friendly or helpful attitude toward other members of her family.

Multi-Cultural Background

Aife has grown up in a multi-cultural family: her mother and uncle are native Gallavans, while her uncle's wife is a Yoruan, and her mother's husband is an Aukrian. She therefore speaks all three of those languages fluently, and has an understanding of the associated cultures. Additionally, having grown up in the Snarl, she speaks the unique patois of the underclass.

Enemies

Nad the Bookmaker

Nad the Bookmaker holds the paper on Aife's sizeable debt to the Red Masks crime syndicate. This gambling debt, worth twenty-five thousand silver ôra, was accrued during her training as a gladiator, as she borrowed money to make (losing) bets on the outcome of the games. Nad has two sizeable enforcers who travel with him for protection and "encouragement" of loan repayments.