Paenitia

Paenitia

About Paenitia

Paenitia is a kind hearted soul and a dreamer subject to too many harsh realities, too early in life. As a child she traveled with her family on a circuit through the Kingdom of the Lion, the Land of a Thousand Princes, and rocky Isobar. To a Lucth Siuil, these places seemed even more grand and fantastic, the high castles towering, the windswept mesas stunningly beautiful. Travel by airship along the Gust Furrows filled her with giddy delight. Her family moved, as Lucht Siuils should, in a great trading caravan with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Every stop was a new city or town, a new wild landscape to explore.

It was a life of travel, until it stopped. In the town of Harrana in Isobar, her family was given an offer that made them risk the Lucht curse. A good offer, which soured over time. The Inn and trademaster position taken over by 'assistants' supply from the very noble they cut the deal with, who then would not let them break their contracts. Around this time her father and many of the men in her family became involved with the underground, and dissent foemented. Harran was a small town with a singular focus, many new faces but few new sights.

Smaller than other children, with few of her own to play with, Paenitia retreated into books and read stories of knights and dragons, even the biography of the Knight of the Purple Rose. She began to imagine a better reality than her own. Her father, as well as uncles and vicious aunts, struggled against foes corrupted by dark magic. When they disappeared, they were held in dungeons and her mother was forced to become a prostitute. Their suffering was epic, the stuff of legends.

The reality was less exotic. Her older relatives were captured and put in dungeons, but it was due to simple greed and resisting powerful men. Her mother had to take up a demeaning lifestyle, but becoming a cleaner in the same dungeon where her husband and brothers were held was what raised her grandmother's ire. Their suffering was suffering and there was nothing romantic about it. Paenitia sought glamorous salvation for her tawdry reality, and when the Gilday Riots spawned the Order of the Pillar, she heard the call.

A young woman, barely fifteen, Paenitia would join the uprising to throw off the iron glove and free the working man. As a halfling, she could get into most places and was often overlooked. She worked with others to break the grip the Iron Barons had on their company towns and empower the peoples. The curse of keeping a Lucht Siuil too long in one place manifested in her, sending her into a life on the run as a Knight Errant, seeking chains to break.

She speaks Gnoll, because it is the language of the revolution. The dog-men of the Isobar wilds are considered savage, uncivilized, but they can be bargained with. When Paenitia took refuge from the iron-fisted rulers she found untamed spirits, willing to be armed and directed towards colonizing strongholds. Later she would teach it to fellow revolutionaries, so they would sound like mad dogs barking in the night.

She speaks Sildanyari, because is the language of hopes and dreams. The timeless books she read, the most obscure and distant of them were in the language of another species, formed from an alien mind. Of high and lofty values.

Now, twelve years later, she is an idealistic knight astride a white charger. Mostly white, for her steed is a glorious peacock gypsy-horse hippogryph, all feathery and fluffy. The sleek and lean peacock lines blending into the strong horse hindquarters which are all but lost under his immense tail that trails behind him like a wagon. The white of his feathers and hair contrasted by blood red feathers on the back, nest and breast. His crown also peaks with crimson, as are the multitude of eyes in his tail. Ramirez struts magnificently. Paenitia wears a matching armour of red and white, a wide brimmed hat, and a cloak made from her mount's feathers.

About Ramirez

Ramirez, her mount, is an eye-catching hippogryph. An albescent peacock gypsy-andalusan breed. Glorious, the size of a strong warhorse, his tail could cover a cart and easily hides his fluffy equine hind. His forelegs are the delicate and deceptively strong legs of the avian, and his body flows well into his feathery trail. Almost completely white, Ramirez is blood red on his neck, shoulders and breast, with the same bold colour in his crown and his many tailfeather eyes. He struts about regally, staring imperiously, proud and beautiful. Paenitia's saddle straps his midsection and has its own tail fan, a scabbard candelabra of pole arms that lies along his back.

I need a tiny knight

Where have all the explorers gone
And who hoards all the nods
Where's a streetwise chevalier
to fight these dismal odds

Isn't there a crimson knight upon an ivory steed,
a glorious peacock hippogryph of andalusan breed

Ea needs a Lucht Siuil.
Ea's holding out for a hero 'till the end of this blight.
She's gotta be small and she's gotta be fast,
and she's gotta pack twice the fight.

Ea needs a hero
Ea's holding out for a hero who will set things right
She's gotta be cute, and she's gotta be boon
And she's gotta be leading the fight
Tiny and trite

Roleplay Hooks

• Revolution!
• "I was in the same prison as your mother."
• "I knew your father, he was a good man."
• "Your brother, Miguel, needs you."