Lera Caldthorne

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Gender	Female
Race	Hyur
Clan	Highlander (half-Midlander, half-Highlander)
Citizenship	Ishgard
Relationship Status	Single
Age	19
Height	5 fulm 10 ilm
Date of Birth	aaaaahhh I need to check the game oops
Guardian	Menphina, the Lover
Server	Balmung

Overview

A young dragoon-in-training, Lera Caldthorne came of age after the Calamity. She comes from a Hyur family of retainers to House Fortemps in the Holy See of Ishgard. Her father a dragoon; he legitimized his bastard daughter when she was nine years old, after the death of her mother. Before she could swear her oaths as a knight, Lera’s father vanished in a battle against the Dravanian Horde. She has since gone looking for him, as rumors of Aldric Caldthorne’s survival and presence in distant lands have spread. She attempts to play the part of a serious knight on a journey, but the truth is that she is an excitable, overly sincere, and sometimes dense young woman who rather likes the chance to adventure out and see the world with her own two eyes.

History

Lera Caldthorne is the daughter of a Midlander Hyur father and a Highlander Hyur mother. Her father was a knight of Ishgard, a dragoon named Aldric Caldthorne sworn in service to House Fortemps. Her mother was a sellsword from Limsa Lominsa, named Meriana Black, who had been hired by House Fortemps before such things were common. Aldric was a low-ranking knight, a Hyur of little fame and from a minor family of retainers, who did not have a particularly bright aristocratic future. Meriana was an illegitimate daughter of a trader, who took up life as a sellsword when there was no future in her father’s shop.

The two fell in love in a whirlwind romance; they were never married, and considering the difference in their stations, a marriage was never particularly likely. They did have a daughter, though, whom they named Lera. She took after her mother in appearance, and life was happy enough when they were young; Aldric kept the recriminations and accusations of impropriety from his daughter in her younger years.

The brief, passionate romance between Meriana and Aldric began to grow cold, however, within a couple of years of her birth. The freedom that the sellsword enjoyed, and the demands of Ishgardian society, began to look questioned. Aldric, too, had his hopes of advancement dashed; he was seen as an embarrassment. The couple was trapped, and began to resent one another.

She didn’t see this pressure, but made sense of it as she grew older. Her mother stopped living with the family when Lera was five; they still saw each other a great deal, but Aldric saw Lera as a potential heir and -- in part due to the pressure of his older brother, the head of their family -- kept his daughter at home. The first seeds of doubt began to grow in the young girl’s mind, though, as she saw the difference between her life before her mother lived with them and her life after. She began to realize that people viewed her differently, too, because of her birth. She wasn’t her father’s trueborn daughter.

Eventually, the rift might have deepened. Her mother might have pursued a contract away from Ishgard. It wasn’t to be. When Lera was nine, Meriana died in a battle, and what might have been was gone. Grief made Aldric remember why he loved her, and in those first days, he legitimized his daughter and said that he wished her married her. Lera was crushed and confused, and her father was little comfort.

Aldric and his older brother, Hendric, fought over Aldric’s decision. The church honored it, thanks in part to substantial donations from the dragoon and approval from the head of House Fortemps, but Hendric felt that it was a dishonor on their family. In the end, his hands were tied, but he saw little use for Lera.

Anger and sadness motivated Aldric afterward. He decided to make certain that his daughter was useful to the Caldthorne family, to keep his wife’s memory honored. He began to train Lera in the spear, teaching her to be a dragoon, and planning for her own knighthood. Life grew far more regimented for her after that, but she took to it nonetheless. It was a way past her own grief and a way to find meaning in life, especially as she realized that her value and future with her family was more tenuous. She threw herself into her training, hoping to prove herself, and finding solace in her skill with a lance.

The Calamity struck when she was fourteen. The Caldthornes were swept up into the changes that took ahold of Coerthas, and the growing war with the Dravanian Horde. Lera’s training continued, with some support from her family, as they needed every family member they could use. Her father also began to take more complex missions; he sensed an opportunity to increase his standing with House Fortemps and the Holy See.

He fought in the war, leaving more and more of Lera’s training to relatives and other knights. She proved to be a skilled fighter, but she had something of her mother in her; as she grew up, she wasn’t sure that she wished to live as a knight for her father’s and family’s sake. She started to think of adventure and seeing more of the world. These ideas might have gone nowhere, until word came a year ago: in a battle with the Horde, Aldric vanished, and no one was certain of her fate.

She finished her training, but before she took her oaths as a knight, Lera received word of something troubling: her father had been seen in Uldah. It may have been a rumor; it meant he might live. Lera asked her uncle if she could go and look for him, and Hendric hesitated, but permitted it. He had little need of a legitimized bastard, but he needed to know if his brother had turned traitor or heretic.

And thus, she left Coerthas, seeking her father, and taking up a life of adventuring that she only thought might be possible.

Combat and Skills

Lera’s skill and talent is in wielding a spear. She was trained to be a dragoon by her father from a young age, and underwent formal training at Camp Dragonhead. She is young and relatively inexperienced; most of her combat training has remained training, and she is still feeling her way through actual combat. Nonetheless, she is a talented lancer, and showed considerable promise. She hasn’t manifested into that promise quite yet.

She is generally quite sturdy and graceful, with a lot of strength behind her. Lera is, in simpler parlance, capable of hitting like a truck. Her height and size make extremely quick movements unlikely -- but she is dexterous enough to keep up with faster opponents, and she can be surprisingly accurate with her strikes.

Lera is also adept at cooking and fishing; her mother taught her a little bit of both, but it was a simple hobby, rather than anything she thought to make marketable. She can bake a few pies and fend for herself in the wild, though, if a stream is nearby. Both skills have come in quite handy since she left to look for her father.

Personality

In a word, Lera Caldthorne is energetic. She isn't really what a stoic and serious Ishgardian knight is supposed to be like and knows it. She does her best to live up to the image, though, so sometimes she puts on an act of appearing proper. The act, ultimately, isn't very good. She may play the part of a serious and reliable knight, but then little things begin to slip through. They can slip through rather quickly, all told.

She is an overly sincere and outgoing sort, which comes out quickly in most interactions. She can be boastful and more than a little prideful, partly out of real confidence and partly out of a need to make up for the circumstances of her birth and life. She is not, however, mean-spirited in her pride; she is sure of herself, but doesn't go after others to boost herself up. She throws herself into situations without thinking, acting on impulse. She isn't supposed to do this as a hopeful knight, of course, but it doesn't stop her. She can easily become gregarious, boisterous, and more than a little silly with any prodding at all.

The other side to this coin, though, is that she is also quick to anger. She is more careful about controlling this, but her anger can come on suddenly and furiously. It will not always be well-directed or fair; she can end up yelling at someone who isn't related to the source of her anger. She has a fair amount of it pent up, and little place to express it; she feels left behind by her family, especially by her father, and like she has no way out of it.

But, that loss and that sense of not mattering also makes her try to please. This is at the bottom of a lot of who she is. She wants to win people's friendship and respect, and sometimes, even with people who don't deserve it. This extends to her family, too, especially her uncle and her father. Her feelings are complicated regarding them.

• Three Strengths: brave, friendly, sincere
• Three Flaws: impulsive, angry, insecure

Affiliations

• Holy See of Ishgard: Lera is still a citizen of the Holy See and a knight-in-training. She wants to be a full-fledged dragoon in their service, some day. (She thinks.) She is loyal to Ishgard, even if her feelings on them are complicated. She knows the flaws in Ishgardian society quite well and likes being away from it. The fact she can proves that she is of little value to them, though, so she wants to earn their respect.