+- FEPlanet Community (http://forums.feplanet.net)
+-- Forum: Fire Emblem (http://forums.feplanet.net/forum-7.html)
+--- Forum: Roleplays (http://forums.feplanet.net/forum-9.html)
+---- Forum: Fire Emblem: Insurrection (http://forums.feplanet.net/forum-28.html)
+----- Forum: Insurrection: Characters (http://forums.feplanet.net/forum-29.html)
+----- Thread: Maynette (/thread-310.html)
Maynette - idoaltima - 06-10-2014
Name: Maynette (the Rapture)
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Nation/Allegiance: Sacae
Appearance/Description:
Appearance (click here for a drawing): Standing at a slightly tall 5' 7" with copper-toned skin, firm musculature, and gentle curves, Maynette possesses the athletic, war-forged body of a Sacaen plainswoman and little of the attitude to match... most of the time. Dark red hair frames a sober-looking face with two chest-length braids that end in a pair of gold rings in the front and the rest tied up into a thick ponytail. A pair of deceptively soft, bright amber eyes and an often flat expression reflect in May's character what has frequently been read (incorrectly) as dispassion or even witlessness; in truth, the woman flashes bright smiles, nasty frowns, and everything in between occasionally when it suits her... mostly when one or more of her axes is either in motion or coming to an abrupt halt.
Not one to fuss over dress, Maynette most commonly wears a short, close-fitting black robe with gold trimming around the edges and a pair of red shorts fringed with fur from a large white wolf that the woman hunted herself a scant few years ago. The robe's sleeves have long since been ripped off, leaving tattered edges at either shoulder, and the robe itself ends in a short skirt and tabard. From the shoulders and thighs outward, May's robust arms and legs are left bare and with free range of motion as a result, and like her clothes, all limbs bear a few scars from past battles save her left arm, which frequently lies hidden within a full harness of sturdy, black light armor. Some of the material from the discarded robe sleeves was used to make the gauntlet on May's right arm, also fringed with a bit more of white wolf fur at the end. A pair of sturdy, black, short boots protect the warrior's feet during travel and battle alike, and a pair of shin guards and plating are added defense over the boots.
Maynette's red bolero is perhaps the most characteristic part of her outfit, an open garment worn over her black robe. It is lined, fringed, and collared with the majority of the white wolf pelt used elsewhere on May's clothes, and it bears the full sun-and-moon crest of the Taifah tribe on its back. This crest is repeated in parts across the woman's person as a stylized sun symbol on her tabard and a moon tattoo on her right shoulder, right above a leather arm band; various other intricate tattoos arc across her face and legs. Around her waist, May wears a thick yellow sash, and the belts of a cross-harness wrap across her torso and hips for holding miscellaneous items, gear, and weaponry. This includes her axes, other assorted sharp implements, and a few additional surprises hidden beneath her bolero. Notable weapons include a favored trio: New Moon, a broad-headed, penetrating axe, Crescent Moon, a dark-reddish axe with a curved blade, and Half Moon, a tomahawk often hidden at May's back beneath her bolero.
Personality: A bit taciturn but fairly mild and approachable in bearing, Maynette is a hardened outdoorswoman who relishes her freedom and seems to hold few interests beyond the simple: eating, drinking, sleeping, hunting, exploring, and fighting. Rarely, she may even be found reading and writing if sufficient materials are at hand—a pursuit stemming from her mother's influence—but she is otherwise disinclined to carry any about herself. May is given to capriciousness as well, sometimes aborting conversations to hunt down passing wild game or wandering off on the job. However, her infrequent bouts of absent-mindedness belie a penchant for practicality and common sense enough not to do anything that would be too dangerous to her own goals or prospects.
Where Maynette shows muted or middling interest in other matters, she lights up with little warning when presented with opportunity and/or excuse enough to swing her blades at a target, living or otherwise. As it turns out, her normal composure is one part personality, one part the result of instruction in peacefulness as a warrior, and two parts boredom; nearly everything that she fails to react to outwardly is likely being stored away as fuel for a battle rage later. Especially as a Taifah warrior, combat is therefore not only a means of seeking self-improvement and clarity but also a chance to simply cast confining restraint aside, one that May tends to indulge in rather deeply.
Bio/Backstory: Years before the formation of the Lycian Empire or the unification of Sacae's long-fractured and beleaguered tribes, Maynette was born in Sacae in the depths of the country's ongoing desolation following Bern's invasion roughly a century ago. Daughter of an Etrurian outlander and one of the premier warriors of the embattled but fiery Taifah tribe, the girl grew up between two vastly different, discordant worlds that she could hardly reconcile within herself. The tumultous Sacae and serene Etruria were like night and day, and rather than being allowed to firmly establish herself in one or the other, Maynette drifted constantly between.
For weeks, May might be accompanying her mother into the affluence of Etruria, sleeping in warm inns, hearing the songs of bards in the air on the street, smelling the scent of fresh goods from nearby bakeries, and wondering during tutoring sessions why her father often sent her and her mother off so abruptly. Later still, May might be back in the thick of Sacaen strife with mother and father both, sleeping under the stars with one eye open, hearing bleak chatter about yet another band of brigands spotted roaming some miles off from camp, smelling the distinct odor of iron from blood and blades everywhere, and wondering why her fellow tribesmen spent increasingly more and more time hunting people than food.
Life continued in this unstable routine for the first thirteen years of Maynette's life. Chaos and dissonance were the norm in her world. She was hardly a fool: it became quickly clear that the way the Taifah—all her Sacaen brethren—merely subsisted was neither desirable nor normal. The windswept plains were still her home, though, and she loved them fiercely even with the constant threat of bandit assaults and starvation. What was she to make of her second home in Etruria, though? In the long run, it certainly seemed like the simpler place to lead a decent life in.
Maybe convincing Maynette so was the real reason why her parents often tried to keep her out of Sacae.
Whatever she thought then, Maynette ironically showed increasingly greater identification with her Sacaen heritage than that of Etruria as those first thirteen years passed. She voluntarily began spending more time in conditioning and field survival training with her father than she did in her intermittent history lectures and literature while traveling with her mother. By the time the Stone Wolf had begun his campaign to unify the much divided Sacae, May was a fledgling warrior of 15, and the Taifah had already been subjugated. She numbered among those clansmen and women who did not entirely resent Yul's conquest of their tribe, instead fixated by the benefits. Not only did the Taifah now have an opportunity to consolidate itself and regain strength, but aside from fighting to bring the other tribes into the fold, May herself could finally put to steel legions of the bandit scum that had been plaguing life in Sacae from her early youth and daring to claim lands that were rightfully Sacaen.
Not only did May prove herself a quick study in gutting her foes, but she gradually realized that she rather enjoyed it. A quiet, deep-seated, festering and foul hatred for the mass horde of brigand squatters and a faint, frustrated resentment for Lycia and Bern's part in Sacae's languishing ruin found shape and voice in her blades.
Long before Maynette's birth, her father was known amongst the Taifah as "the Taipan" for being a serene man prone to lashing out in a rather abrupt, focused, and often deadly explosion of wrath; his fury came with little provocation and commonly ended as soon as it began. Eight years of bloody marauding and havoc later in northern Sacae, the Taipan's reticent daughter was a hellion who had garnered similar notoriety as "the Rapture," having demonstrated a remarkable capacity for her personal twists on the family brand of tranquility followed by unsettling, merciless, and lethal rage.
Matters pertaining to the Lycian Empire and the general state of affairs beyond Sacae went unheeded by Maynette, almost entirely absorbed in the thrill and vengeance of warring openly against the yet significant bandit presence in her homeland. Every so often, she heard but thought little of the occasional concerning reports from her mother, who herself still frequently traveled in and out of Sacaen borders following the tribal unification—May hardly knew or questioned why. In fact, had her mother not suddenly reappeared just a few days prior to the Lycian invasion of Etruria, haggard and pale with dread, May would likely not have stopped long enough to consider Yul's agreement to non-aggression with the bandits as much more than a mistake and an obstacle to her vendetta.
Though her identification with it had long since waned, Etruria still felt like a second home to Maynette, and her mother's despondence over its fate was evidence of her own love for her country. With that in mind, and after some additional food for thought from fellow Sacaens, she eventually found personal acceptance of the High Chief's repurposing of the Sacaen horde. If May was to be barred from planting axes into brigand skulls for the moment, Lycian ones would serve as a fair enough replacement. Etruria gave her a more than perfect excuse.