Vardha Blackfeather

[Amaer]

Vardha Blackfeather

First Name: Vardha
Last Name: Blackfeather

Appearance: Ancient, withered crone with stooped posture
Race: Human (Illuskan)
Age: Past her seventieth winter...
Height: 5ft6, though her hunched back makes her shorter.
Weight: 115 lbs
Eyes: Pale grey, now obscured and milky through cataracts.
Hair: White, long, wispy
Facial Hair Style: A few stray hairs grow from her chin, and there is a hairy wart on her lip.

Personality Profile:
General Health: Her venerable age makes her weaker and less agile than most of her kinsmen. Her mind is still sharp and calculating, however.
Deity: Myrkul
Initial Alignment: Neutral Evil
Profession: Midwife, healer, advisor to the Blackfeather chieftain.
Base Class & Proposed Development: Cleric/Barbarian - possibly War Priest if she survives that long.
Habits/Hobbies: Before the tribes began their migration, she spent much of her free time collecting herbs from the wilds around the Blackfeather marsh camp. She brews these into poultices, potions and poisons, often testing them on the local wildlife.
Languages: Common, Goblin, Illuskan.
Weapon of Choice: A staff made of yew wood supports her on her ramblings. She also carries a sharp sacrificial dagger for darker purposes.

Background:
Vardha Blackfeather was the sickly daughter of a female Doombringer of the Blackfeather tribe, the product of a forced congress with a warrior from another tribe who surprised her while she was alone in the wilds. The childbirth endured, despite the Blackfeather tribes' darkest efforts to abort the unwanted child, and Vardha's mother loathed her for the enduring memory of her moment of humiliation. Despite numerous attempts by her mother to poison her, she seemed remarkably difficult to kill, and the High Doombringer of the tribe deemed that the Lord of Bones had made plans for her and that she would be brought up as a cleric of Myrkul like her mother.

This did not make her mother any more willing to look after her, however, and forced to fend for herself, she grew up bitter and mistrustful of men, who she deemed responsible for her mother's inability to love her. Vardha instead spent much of her time as a youth speaking to the traders who warily approached the Blackfeather camp, learning of the outside world and their writing, languages and customs.

Her primary role in the camp once she reached maturity was delivering the newborn babies of the tribe. Despite her spiteful, wicked nature, she displayed a knack for bringing new life into the world, and interpreting whether the tribespeoples' various stillbirths were either a blessing or a curse from the Lord of Bones.

This all changed when news of the Dark Tribe reached the Blackfeather camp. Hearing that the Thunderclap tribe moved to meet this threat head-on, several of the Blackfeather Doombringers followed on to witness the slaughter, no matter whose. Most of the tribe's warriors followed them, despite the failure of their forebears to return, and it took a messenger from the Greyfox tribe to warn them of the impending Dark Tribe advance.

Pragmatically, she joined the voices of the Blackfeathers who did not wish to face their annihilation head on, and instead followed the tribe to the Sword Coast to join the council of Chieftains. She volunteered to act as an emissary for the tribe, hoping to see the civilisation that she had heard of as a girl.

Goals:
Her overall motivations are known only to her - she does not seek personal power and considers the acquisition of wealth to be pointless. Like many Blackfeather, her main aim is to join the Lord of Bones having sent many souls into his service. She has recently developed a respect for the young Winterfang priestess Hilga, although she would never admit it, and has been attempting to encourage closer ties between the Blackfeather and Winterfang tribes.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
While definitely evil, most of her wickedness is fuelled by pragmatism rather than cruelty. She has no interest in causing wanton destruction unless it furthers the Lord of Bones' purposes.

While her belief is largely that the strong are right to take from the weak, she cannot abide male abuse of power over women. Unlike many of her kin, she can respect intelligence as well as strength of arms.

She largely deems non-human races as irrelevant, but has recently taken an interest in elves, fascinated by their long lifespans. She finds the shorter races to be largely irritating. While wary of half-orcs, she has been known to empathise with their heritage as it is often similar to her own.

[Amaer]

Update

Vardha was "killed" by a black orc scouting party while trekking North from the keep of the Silver Rose.

She was found by some kinsmen of the Greyfox tribe and laid to rest in their fashion.

However, something happened and she returned to life, physically drained (Str/Dex/Con 8!) but much more persuasive than before (Cha 18) - her vision has also returned. All Vardha knows is that the Lord of Bones has withdrawn his magic, and furious, she has revoked the name of Blackfeather and the worship of Myrkul. Too proud to ask to join one of the other tribes, she will instead continue to act as a non-aligned advisor to the barbarians.

((OOC knowledge))
Vardha will eventually come to believe that a spirit of the North Wind is behind her resurrection and will start to exhibit the powers of a spirit shaman. In fact, the power providing her magic now is the Frostmaiden Auril, who has taken the opportunity to spitefully steal a follower from her rival tribes' deity.

Mechanically, Vardha will be a multiclass spirit shaman/barbarian, though she will not use any spirit shaman abilities/spellcasting until she discovers the link to the "North Wind spirit".