Character Name: Niamh McNamara

Canon/Original: Original

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Family:

Sir Anrai-45 years old, father
Maeve-32 years old, mother
Ciaran-18 years old, brother
Eamonn-17 years old, brother
Aoife-13 years old, sister

Occupation: She has no occupation though she helps her father around their shop when her brothers are busy and her father is busy with negotiations.

Place of Habitation: The Keep

Physical Description (five sentence minimum):

Niamh is not a tall woman by any standards as she stands five foot even. She weighs about 125 pounds and her build is hour glass as defined by her dresses. Her favorite colors to wear are red or a deep blue. Her eyes are as black as a night without any stars and a covered moon. Her hair is just as dark and her skin is remarkably pale from being inside so much (her mother frowns at her going out without something to keep the sun off her.) Her neck is tiny in width, but long. All this is placed on top of broad shoulders (from her father) and a body that has wide hips (gift from her mother).

She is not a vain woman, going around without any cosmetics on of that sort. She sees them as frivolus and gives any gifts such as those to her younger sister who likes them far better than she. Niamh has a strange birth mark on the back of her shoulder that is circular and dark. For this reason, she does not wear any clothes that come off her shoulder or, if they do, that they have enough cloth to cover it. She is deathly afraid of anyone finding this out for fear of the reprecussions.

Her clothing is not ornate like some ladies' would be. Her father is a very good merchant but he does not like the women of his family wasting his wealth of trivial items like headdresses and perfumes. He buys them the usual cosmetics and sometimes ribbons and a new dress when he's in a good mood which has been often now that Niamh is old enough to be married off. As a result, she has been seen out of the house wearing colors such as red, blue, yellow and, on an odd occassion, green. The new clothes are flattering to her (she hates the color green, however) but she finds herself often donning her old, worn clothes when her father is not around as they are more comfortable.

Personality (eight sentence minimum):

Niamh has a strange sense of humor. It can be dark and twisted and can bite as well when she uses her wit correctly. She's a rather intelligent girl, having been raised around merchants like her father and often overhearing negotiations. However, her intelligence gives her an arrogance as she looks down upon women who cannot read or write or discuss philosophies and religion.

Niamh is also very determined. When she was younger, she fought and fought her father and mother on the ability to ride a horse like men. Her father warned her that no reasonable woman would ride a horse as such and no man would want a woman who could ride like that. Niamh, who was eight at the time, instead campaigned throughout their house endlessly until, finally, exasperated, her father gave in. She was miserable at it and from then on only rode sidesaddle but the fact remained that she had gotten what she wanted through determination and such persistance that it baffled those around her.

Niamh is also a woman of high passions. When she becomes fascinated and starts becoming passionate about something, it doesn't take long for that passion to burst into a flame and then, from there, to a bonfire. One can only assume that if she were to fall in love, it would be with that sort of passion. However, despite this, she can also come off as apathetic in situations that she does not truly care for such as things like war or which lady has a new dress.

What interests Niamh more than that are politics. She loves negotiations, plotting, anything to do with intrigue. She has a profound goal to become a noble woman of her own right and is determined to do it through whatever means necessary even if it costs her her head. She loves poetry and reading books that are either banned or simply frowned upon. She adores riding even if she can't ride like a man. She is also a good singer, musician, and dancer as taught by her tutors.

Her flaws are her arrogance to other women in that fact that she's an educated one and also her ambition to go higher than her family has ever gone before.

History (ten sentence minimum):

Niamh was born to Sir Anrai and Maeve after her two brothers were born. Her mother wasn't very pleased to give birth to a girl since she was so certain that it was going to be a boy and, in fact, took several strange potions and charms said to encourage the birth of a son. Maeve was disappointed, therefore, when she found out a girl had emerged from her womb instead of a third son to be sure the McNamara line would continue through the ages.

Niamh's birth had a consequence in the fact that, because his wife had let him down, the merchant Anrai grew displeased with her and decided to go abroad and find new goods to import and export and try to introduce to Thiasa's court. Niamh, until the age of three, never saw her father and when she was finally introduced to him, she was stunned and started crying immediately.

However, Anrai's return provoked a new age in a household that had, up until then, decided against teaching their daughters or any of their women to read and write. While he was abroad, Anrai stayed at a merchant's house whose daughters could read, write, and speak five different languages. The merchant father of Niamh decided that added a certain aesthetic and noble quality to an otherwise normal household. When he came back, he decided that all his children be given the best education he could provide and set about it immediately. Anrai's return also brought, nine months later, Niamh's little sister Aoife whose birth provoked Anrai to sleep alone since then as he didn't deal well with disappointment.

At first, his sons were disgusted at the idea of learning alongside their little sister but soon warmed to it when Niamh proved herself able of keeping up by the time she joined their studies. A bond was formed between the youngest boy, Eamonn, and Niamh and soon they spent every moment with each other.

Eventually, Eamonn decided he wanted to become a priest, an idea that his parents, though not very supportive, gave into because they could think of no other use for him since Ciaran had made it into adulthood and was starting to become a successive, young merchant himself. Niamh took it harshly as she didn't think highly of the Catholic church from all her readings.

The result was a quarrel that shook the house with it's screaming and shouting as Niamh is a hell cat when enraged. She told him all she thought of the Catholic church while the household looked on in horror and finally stormed out of the room. The next week brought Eamonn into the ranks of the priesthood and he was taken forever from her, a blow that truly hurt Niamh's pride and made sure she hated Eamonn for abandoning her.

Since then, she has donated herself to studying and to dreaming of her ambition: to become a noble in her own right.

Plot Potential:

Niamh is ambitious and as a result is trying her hardest to gain any connection she can to become close to the king and, from there, gain her desire to become a noble in her own right. She wants land, fortune, and, of course, her line to last through the ages no matter the price. If this means death in the end, she cares not as long as she obtains her goals.

She can be charming, witty, glittering as the moon when she chooses and so she plans to use this to her advantage. It is no doubt that she'll make enemies on her way to the top but her determination will fuel her forward even if it means the loss of her virtue, honor, and reputation, she'll get there.

During wartime, she'll no doubt care less and continue to try to move her way to the top through building connections with the remaining nobles at court. However, she can always be distracted in her gaining ambition through courtship and even her passions that rise up so suddenly whether it be reading a new book or translating a banned book into a new language that she might read it.

All this provides for several possible encounters, several plots and several episodes of intrigue for this merchant's daughter.

SAMPLE RP (from any site, ten sentence minimum):

(from my own board as the character Rivkah in the thread "Wild Child"):

Rivkah clucked her tongue three times and the mare sped off, ears down, haunches releasing and bunching the muscles like crazy. Rivkah let out a whoop of pure joy at the speed and felt optimistic. But as they ran over snow drifts, she realized that the horse was giving it all she had and probably couldn't hold out like this for too long without her heart bursting.

Nevertheless, Rivkah fought the urge to ease the mare into an easy canter, knowing that the raiders weren't going to bother. Not when they had prey in their sight. Instead she let the mare have her head, even letting her hands release the silky strands of mane.

Releasing the strands probably saved Rivkah a lot of pain later.

Just then, the horse sprinted over another snow drift but lost her footing. Her foot crunched through ice, then snow but the rest of the mare's body kept going at its regular speed, breaking the horse's leg instantly so that the bone showed through the skin.

Rivkah was hurled five feet away, crashing on her back after she rolled through the air and landed harshly. She felt her back crack all down her spine but nothing broke. Her ankle was sprained, she knew, because it had smacked the ground. Mostly, she had lost her breath and was now struggling to breathe.

When she caught her breath, she looked around, realized the raiders were much closer and then looked at the mare, who was screaming in pain and screaming for mercy.

What's the name of the Creator God the Ekaini worship?:
Spirit of the Sun

I'd say this is good. You've got the plot potential already, so full speed ahead.

You might want me to add her father to the canon list. Do you? Or any other characters? Try reading through other apps and seeing if you can find someone else to plot with.

Lia?

I love this application, you are good to go for me. As Sam said let us know if you want to add her family to the canon list. Welcome to Thiasa.

Merci Beaucoup! We could always add her brothers to the canon list as they, no doubt, have their own ambitions and desires. I would love to have her father added to the canon list (can I use him as an NPC in her intro post before than though since he's already there?)

I'm fine with you NPCing him until he's picked up by someone.