Karen Brightflower
| Karen Brightflower | |
 Ala Mhigan Bodyguard for Hire | |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Hylander |
| Citizenship | Ala Mhigan Refugee |
| Age | 25 |
Character
General
Birthplace: Ala Mhigo
Current Residence: The Silver Nexus. (Lavender Beds Free Company Mansion.)
Eye Color- Right violet, left green.
Hair color- Blue
Body Type- Muscular
Muscle mass- High.
Age: 25
Appearance
Karen is of average height for a Highlander woman, with bronzed skin and a muscular build. She has deep blue hair, usually with light blue highlights, most often kept in a ponytail but at times cut short. Her eyes are hetero chromatic, with her right eye being violet and the left green. Karen tends to favor clothing that is dark blue or violet in color, whether it be heavy armor, a lighter tunic for hand to hand combat, or casual clothes for socializing.
Personality
Despite being a hothead in her youth, Karen is a reserved and usually stoic woman. She values strength and courage, and detests bullies and schemers. Initially she can seem distant and aloof, but can be quite warm and caring once she gets to know someone, and is very protective of the few she calls her friends. She respects strength in whatever form it comes it, but detests those who abuse their power to bully or torment those beneath them. She tends to keep her feelings and emotions to herself, guarding what she allows others to see whether friend or foe.
Combat
General
Karen's preferred style of combat is with a sword and shield, usually wearing medium to heavy armor. Using blade and shield in tandem, her use of extensive shield work often catches some foes off guard who expect her to mostly block with it, rather than use both her sword and shield for both offensive and defensive purposes. She tends to fight defensively, looking to outlast her enemy and slowly wear them down, aiming to tire out her foe until they make a mistake and create an opening for her to exploit.
In addition to her blade work, Karen has also begun training in the Pugilist's Guild in hand to hand combat. Both in order to defend herself when without her arms and armor, but also for instances where she may need to incapacitate an aggressor without maiming or killing them. When fighting in a tunic or other light clothing besides her armor, she can be deceptively quick for her size, using a combination of strength and speed to bring down her foes. When fighting in this way, Karen is much more offensive and aggressive than with her sword and shield, looking to end fights more quickly. However, she is not as skilled with her fists as much as she is with her sword and shield.
Tendencies
Likes/Hobbies
- Sparring, hand to hand or with practice weapons
- Triple Triad (Casually)
- Honesty and straightforwardness
- Weapons and armor
Dislikes
- Bullies
- Corrupt merchants/officials/officers
- Boisterous loudmouths
- Sickly Sweet things
Strengths
- High physical strength and stamina
- Highly proficient with one handed blades, shields and heavy armor
- Moderately proficient in pugilist martial arts
- Though lacking education, she can be clever at putting pieces of information together
Weaknesses
- Though not completely illiterate, Karen can only read and write on a very basic level
- Limited mobility when in armor
- No formal education
- Relatively small abundance of aether and no talent for spell casting
Relationships
Family
Katherine Brightflower (Mother): Deceased. Perished shortly after the Calamity.
Friends
Her fellows in the Silver Nexus, and former employment in the Safe House.
Romantic Partner
Owen Ryder
Enemies
None, yet.
Rumors
Common Rumors
- Said to be a former gladiator in the Blood Sands of some success, until her career came to a sudden and quiet end.
- A refugee from Ala Mhigo who has managed to integrate better into Ul'dah society than many.
- Because her surname Brightflower stands in stark contrast to the typical, more violence inspired Highlander surnames of Ala Mhigo, some may find her surname odd, or even question if it's her true surname by birth.
Rare Rumors
- There may have been more to her retirement from the Blood Sands than she lets on.
- Seems to be rarely seen with others when outside of the workplace.
OOC Info
Bodyguard for Hire
Karen works as a bodyguard for hire, either in heavy armor with a sword and shield, or in a lighter tunic using her fists depending on the circumstances. Karen's main employment is via her Free Company, the Silver Nexus, working security detail at the company house. However, Karen is also available to be hired for security or bodyguard purposes for RP events or to protect individual characters. If interested send me a tell. IC wise Karen would be getting paid for these services, but I don't require to actually be given in game gil for her services. Karen has a strict confidentiality policy with her clients, and will not discuss anything that goes on in private while on the job, and will see the job through to its conclusion once a deal is struck. Her services are defensive in nature. To provide security or serve as a bodyguard. While this may involve Karen fighting against someone causing trouble or trying to harm her client,
Combat RP
I tend to avoid this with strangers, but it can be fun when everyone is an adult about it OOC and nobody godmods or tries to 'kill' other characters without consent. Someone may well TRY to kill Karen, that's fine. You can try just about anything. But I'm not going to let the character be killed off, so if that's your goal OOC don't bother. Whenever I engage in combat RP it's usually with Grindstone rules. To elaborate, both parties roll, highest gets initiative. Then the two people go back and forth rolling for attack and defense. If the attack roll is higher, the defender takes a hit. We go back and forth attacking until one part takes three blows, at which point they lose, but are not killed. It should be noted that the attacker will describe the attack, but leave the response to the defender to determine how they are either hit or how they evade the attack.
Types of RP
I see people mention different types of RP in their in game statuses all the time, so I figured I'd add a section here to elaborate on things, rather than try and cram it all into my status note.
Slice of Life: Characters just interacting and chatting or hanging out etc rather than going on an epic quest or focusing on big plot lines or combat etc. This is fine and can be a good way to develop characters and build connections between them naturally.
Story Arc: RP centered around longer stories and arcs. These can be a lot of fun and I'm more than happy to have Karen play a role in one so long as it fits her story naturally.
Dark RP: I'm fine with dark themes in RP, so long as it's done in a natural feeling way and not for the sake of being edge lords. The world of FFXIV can actually be pretty dark at times. Murder, corruption, kidnapping, rape and other dark things are shown or alluded to happening if you look closely. So I'm fine with incorporating such things into RP, so long as it's handled well. And there's not an OOC attempt to be killing off peoples characters without consent.
Mature RP: This is something I'm also fine with. Including 'mature' themes in RP. Flirting/sexual language, violence, use of alcohol etc. This is all fine. This can but doesn't necessarily include sexual themes, but the difference between that and ERP to me is that ERP is when the sex is the goal from the get go, while in MRP it may happen but if it does it stems from natural character interaction rather than OOCly contriving it. And doesn't necessarily mean playing out anything explicit either, things can simply be implied as well.
Random ERP: No. Karen isn't the kind of person IC to fuck strangers and I don't find random ERP to be engaging on an OOC level either. If it's something you enjoy, that's fine, it just doesn't interest me.
Romance/Relationships: I'm not specifically looking to have Karen hook up with another character, but if such happens naturally I'm more than willing to have Karen enter a relationship. This is the sort of thing that will need to evolve naturally from character interactions. If you're looking for a bit of random ERP or for someone to instantly fall in love with your character, you're better off looking elsewhere. Feel free to approach Karen however you want IC. You WILL NOT offend me OOC no matter what you do, but do not expect Karen IN character to easily fall for your character. Karen does have her types that she's more or less likely to find an interest in, but since this is the sort of thing I prefer to flow naturally from RP I'm not going to list that here.
Annotations
A commission of Karen done in the Paladin Job Armor.
A commission of Karen during her first gladiator match.
A commission of Karen in her current armor.
A commission of Karen (left) and her sister Kallen (right)
This Template was created by Karen Brightflower
