Karen Brightflower
| Karen 'Bright Flower' Ashwood | |
 Ala Mhigan Blade/Guard for Hire (See OOC Info) | |
| Gender | Female |
| Race | Hyur |
| Clan | Highlander |
| Citizenship | Ala Mhigan Refugee |
| Age | 26 |
Character
General
Birthplace: Ala Mhigo
Current Residence: Lavender Beds
Current Workplace: The Silver Nexus. (Lavender Beds Free Company Mansion.)
Eye Color- Right violet, left green.
Hair color- Blue
Body Type- Muscular
Age: 26
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. Karen always keeps a wrap around her right wrist.
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. However, those that she comes to call true friends will be able to see another side of her.
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. Though lacking enough aether for prolonged use of magic, Karen can use her aether to empower sword strikes or reinforce her defenses in limited amounts.
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
- Armchair psychologists
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
- Limited understanding of magic
Relationships
Family
Katherine Ashwood (Mother): Deceased. Perished shortly after the Calamity.
Kallen Ashwood: Younger sister. Former member of the Ala Mhigan Resistance, armorer and metalworker.
Friends
Her fellows in the Silver Nexus, and former employment in the Safe House.
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. She was known for tight defenses and being able to take several hits before staying down. However, it's been several years now since she left the bloodsands.
- A refugee from Ala Mhigo who has managed to integrate better into Ul'dah society than many.
- Those familiar with her time in the blood sands would know that Karen used the name Bright Flower as a pseudonym in the ring. Though she introduces herself as Karen Bright Flower now, her actual surname is Ashwood.
Uncommon 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.
- Karen always seems to have a bandage over her right wrist, visible when her current outfit doesn't cover her arm. From the way she moves and uses her sword, it doesn't seem to be injured though.
Rare Rumors
- Said to have vanished for a couple of weeks shortly before the liberation of of the city of Ala Mhigo and appearing again a couple weeks after.
OOC Info
Blade/Guard for Hire
Karen is available to be hired as a guard or mercenary for RP events. Maybe you need someone to stand guard at a dig site in Alllagan ruins or someone has hired assassins to attack you. Or perhaps you're going out to hunt a monster or bandits plaguing a nearby town and need an extra blade? Karen is avaiable to help. While she would ICly be paid for her services in most cases, I don't require any OOC payment, just as most RP bars don't actually charge you for drinks. Karen might also be persuaded to do a job for free ICly under the right circumstances.
Karen will keep a job confidential and see it through to the end, unless said job ends up requiring her to break her moral code. She'll fight monsters, fend off assassins etc, but if you want her to shake down people for gambling debts, intimidate people into paying protection money, murder someone in cold blood, set fire to an orphanage or kick a puppy, she'll quit the job. I describe Karen's alignment as 'lawful-ish good.' She may delve into some gray areas, but not outright evil acts. She prefers to act within the law, but when it comes down doing the good thing or the lawful thing, she'll generally err on good over lawful depending on the specific circumstances.
Combat RP
This can be fun when everyone involved is on the same page, and I find it's generally best to make sure of that before starting this up. If one person is trying to free form and the other insisting on rolls, that can get messy. I'm fairly flexible myself, and combat RP can be fun as long as nobody's trying to godmod and everyone's willing to take a hit here and there. If I'm at an event that involves combat, such as the Grindstone, I'll abide by their rules. If it's just an off the cuff thing, I'll generally freeform unless rolls or some sort of combat system are requested, in which case I'm generally fine with that too. Another form I've come across recently is to roll once to see who the ultimate winner is, but still allow for some freeform back and forth so that fights don't end up one sided.
Dark/Mature Themes
So this is a can of worms that needs more room to elaborate on than the limited search info. I don't shy away from dark, mature or even sexual themes in RP. So long as they're given the proper weight. If I feel like someone's just being edgy for edge's sake then I may bow out of an RP, but if the subject matter is handled with weight and consequence and serves a purpose, then I'm all for it. Karen has been through some good story arcs that handled dark and mature themes well, and basically all i really want is to make sure these things aren't just used for cheap shock value.
As far as ERP goes, Karen is not going to sleep with someone she runs into at the Quicksand. I'm not doing ERP for ERP sake or to get IRL jollies off. If characters have some IC chemistry and grow close, then Karen may enter a realtionship. But no 'you're hot I'm hot let's bang' Quicksand erp.
Annotations
A commission of Karen done in the Paladin Job Armor.
A commission of Karen in high mythrite armor.
A commission of Karen (left) and her sister Kallen (right)
This Template was created by Karen Brightflower
