Olena / Antislar / Ranger

Name: Olena Iceborn

Gender: Female

Age: 25

Race: Human

Tribe: Antislar

Occupation: Ranger

Title: Free Rider

Character Portrait

Overview

Height: 1 Ped, 2 Fores, 8 Nailsbreadths,

Weight: 1 Pygge, 2 Hebs, 2 Ods

Hair Colour: Dark Brown (pinnipeye)

Eye Colour: Dark Brown

Appearance

Being a ranger means that Olena has an athletic build. The physical demands of making her living by surviving the harshness of the Iol wilderness have made her body thin but muscular. There is no extra weight to her, but it is not one of bulging muscles either.

Her features are dark, both her hair and her eyes are a dark brown, known as pinnipeye. Her eyes are deep set and sharp. Her hair hangs down to the small of her back, often kept in a braid or braids. Many have called her comely among her people.

Olena carries two vivid reminders of her time in the army. One is a scar on her right breast, where an arrow had pierced her during her time in the army fighting the Remusians. Another scar is on her left hip, again where an arrow had injured her, this one causing her to walk with a pronounced limp.

Clothing

Olena dresses in the materials most readily available to her. Her inner wear is made from the dark leather of pinnipskin. Over this she wears a cloak from softened doeskin in the warmer months, or a full parka of bearskin in winter. Her boots are leather in summer, while big thick fur lined boots are worn in the deep snows. Winter has her wearing big fur mittens as well.

Olena wears no jewelry, seeing it as something useless to her in the wild and only for those who live in the cities and towns.

Personality

Pragmatic and quiet. Olena spends much of her time alone for good reason. She does not crave the attention of others. She is content with her own company. She is most content when in the wilderness.

Men have oft been cruel to Olena, so she tends to stay away from them and treat them with distrust. She is neither shy, nor aggressive towards them. It is simply a cool dispassionate distrust.

Olena is a calm person who rarely gets upset. She keeps her wits about her and thinks things out before acting.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Bow; Olena is very adept with the bow. She uses a fine Remusian bow that she recovered from a dead Remusian warrior during a skirmish in the Mantle Woods. She uses it when hunting.

Sword; The Antislar ranger has been trained with the Antislar Fire Blade. She is proficient with the weapon, but is by no means an expert swordswoman.

Ranger Skill; She can track most creatures in the north both during winter and summer. She knows the local plants that are safe to eat, and rudimentary shelter building. Modest tailoring skills as well as self healingg skills help her survive long brutal winters all by herself.

Weaknesses

Hip Injury; Olena suffers still from an injury she took during her time with the army. She was hit twice during a battle by arrows, one in her right breast which healed, and once in her left hip, which did not heal properly. Her hip is often stiff and causes her to limp pronouncedly. During cold weather and in the mornings it is at its worst.

Distrust of Men; Because of her captivity with the Remusian patrol that captured her, she had been assaulted in ways that no woman should have to endure. It has given her a deep distrust of all men.

Dark Features; Having dark hair and eyes in Antislar marked Olena as Remunapan, a derogatory term melding both Remusian and Kanapan, two tribes hated by the Antislar. These were the lowest of the Antislar society, and Olena found herself often the target of bigotry among her fellow Antislar.

History

Olena was born to a single girl in the city of Antis, in the Iol Peninsula. She never knew who her father was. She had no brothers or sisters. During her younger years, Olena helped her mother wash clothes for the more wealthy of society. She and her mother were looked down on by most for being Remunapans, dark haired, dark eyed Antislar. This caused her to grow up lonely and alone without friends. As she grew, that loneliness faded and she found that she preferred her own company to that of others.

Olena's mother was never a strong woman, and she died when Olena was only fifteen. To keep from starving to death, she joined the Antislar army. She had a natural proclivity towards the bow. This garnered her attention of the officers which led to her posting to a special unit called the Paxens. Her unit was to patrol the Mantle Woods, where the Remusian's often tried to attack for resources.

At the age of twenty, Olena saw her first battle. Remusians were spotted and during the battle, she got separated from her people and taken prisoner. For three days she was raped and threatened with death. However, a Remusian officer joined the group and demanded that she be set free. She was never sure why they did not kill her, or who that officer was.

When she rejoined her army, Olena became militant. She demanded to be sent to the Wargs, an offensive branch of the army. The Wargs were sent to raid within Remusian territory and she earned a reputation as a fearless warrior, who killed many Remusians with her bow. It was during this year that she killed a man who carried a very fancy Remusian Bow that she took as her own. With it, she became even more lethal.

During her twenty second year, Olena was part of a battle that would change her life forever. As the Antislar charged, the enemies arrows filled the sky. The first arrow hit her in her left hip. A second arrow took the tarandus deer she was mounted on out from beneath her, throwing her hard onto the ground and driving the arrow in her hip further in and tearing much of the muscle within. As she climbed broken to her feet, another arrow took her in the right breast and she fell. If it were not for the heavy studded leather breastplate she wore, her life might have ended right there. Her fellow soldiers won the day and she was rescued and sent back to Antis, where she healed slowly.

When she recovered, it was apparent that she could no longer serve in the army because of her hip. Suddenly all the acclamation that she had earned as a soldier disappeared and once again she was simply a Remunapan. But she had changed as well. No longer was she content in a city that did not want her.

Instead, Olena set off north. She followed the Camlyn river and met rangers who took her in, some of them being Remunapan themselves. They trained her how to survive alone, how to track and hunt and trap. She took it all in, traveling north in the winter to gather furs, then traveling back to Antis in the spring with boats along the river. During one winter, she traded some of her furs for Majesty, her tarandus deer.

Accessories

Weapons

Remusian bow; A fine bow, it is a terrific weapon taken from a fallen Remusian officer. It is lacquered red in colour, with black pictures of animals on it including a caracal, tarandus deer and thunderfoot. A large brown eye is also painted on it, to help it "see" its target.

Antislar Fire Blade; From her time in the army, Olena carries an Antislar Fire Blade. It has used up just less than half of its life in fire.

Knife; She has a knife that she uses as a utility tool, but that can be used for a weapon if needed.

Belongings

Olena carries supplies that would do her well in hunting and trapping in northern Iol. A flint and steel, extra mittens, dried meat, a waterskin, and a small metal pot for cooking. Lengths of rope and tack for riding Majesty.

Familiars

Majesty; a four year old Tarandus deer. Olena named him Majesty after the majestic rack he carries on his head. He is used for riding by Olena as one would use a horse. She has had him for two years, given to her by a fellow ranger who had trained him. He is a steady animal, but is not trained for battle. She would not take him to war, nor would she trust him to stay calm if confronted close up with a bear or wolves. But as a mount for travel or a pack animal, Majesty does well, especially in deep snow.