Jane

When Jane was a child, life was very different for her. She was a Lady of nobility, a fact she loathed more than cherished.

Profile of a Girl

Lady Jane Shayla fa'Eridon

In the beginning....
Jane was born in the thriving capital city of Haven, Havenland. Her father was a distinguished and wealthy Lord. He was responsible for much in the way of economics and trade within the city, and he owned several of the largest diamond mines in the area. Jane was born to privilege, never left wanting for anything. She was a homely child, built small and thin and angular, with pallid colouring and fussy moods. She was never quite able to fit properly among her family or their guests, but she was always loved. The awkward child was a delight, with boundless energy and an arresting smile. However, she was also often seen as an annoyance. Those that paid her attention often only did so for their own benefit. Jane learned what exploitation meant at an early age. She lived under her father's name, and lived as happily as she was able in her family's large stone keep. One day, however, quakes began to shake the city. The mines were collapsing, and Jane's father grew weary of his work. He transferred his position to his brother, and the family moved to the quiet village of Meadowood, a place Jane detested.

In Meadowood, Jane was left with little to do. The village was very skill-oriented, which was why her father, a skilled weapon smith, chose to move there. Her mother was a talented herbalist, her elder sister a gifted musician. Jane had little talent to speak of. Her fingers were nimble, her needlework divine, but she despised sitting still. She gave into her mother's pleading now and then, and wove lovely tapestries, or embroidered linens, but the work did not please her. The local children laughed at her for being awkward and untalented. They scorned her habit of climbing trees. She disliked them just as much for their arrogance, and often kept to herself in the manor, or her end of the forest. She led a lonely, sad existence, until one day a stranger knocked on the door...

   He became her best friend, her Swordmaster. He taught her the fighting arts. She was enthralled and adoring. She leared Honour from him, and decided her calling was as a Swordmaster herself. He was who she most trusted in the world, and who she woke up to see, and went to bed at night thinking about. She admired him, was in awe of him. He was infallible in her pre-adolescent mind. He made her happy.
    One day when Jane's idolized elder sister, Clarity, ran off with a man Jane hated with all her soul without even a word of good-bye, Jane's heart was shattered. Her sister had been very important to her, and now she was gone forever, without a trace, without telling her. Jane felt betrayed and numb and unloved. Her champion comforted her, but his emotions had grown far past fondness for the small girl of twelve. He wanted to protect her forever, and so asked her to be his wife. Jane, confused in her vulnerable state, mistook admiration, trust, and strong friendship for love, and agreed.
    The wedding day came, family and friends all gathered to share the ceremony, and as the couple stood at the altar to voice their vows, a massacre ensued before they could begin. As Jane stood, uselessly frozen, her betrothed, her young cousin, her mother's unborn child, and countless friends and family were slaughtered. Her father took a crippling blow, protecting his paralyzed child, and her mother later died from the miscarriage. Jane blamed herself for doing nothing, despite all she'd been taught. Hating herself, she left Meadowood in shame, exiling herself for dishonour.
    Somewhere between self-pity and disgust, she decided to rebuild herself to be what she ought to be. Through some remarkable act of mind and will, she duplicated traits of her deceased betrothed within herself, adopting his mannerisms and way of speech, and confidence. She took her elder sister's name and added it to her own, renaming herself Clarity-Jane, also borrowing her sister's ways of handling the opposite sex. She discarded any last name, feeling she deserved none she'd had before. During her travels she paid an Enchanter with all ornament she carried to make her hair black as night, as her sister's had been. Once this was done, and Jane was satisfied with her transformation, she took up her new identity and began to travel.

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