Eleanor

Deryni

Name: Eleanor "Lia" Verrault

Age: 30 (m06/d23)

Position: Herald Trainee - 1st year, Junior officer in Guard

Gifts: Very Weak Companion Mind-speech, Very Strong Foresight

Appearance: Equipped with a long braid of red-gold hair, a small pert nose, full lips that look perfect for smiling or kissing, and soft hazel eyes, Eleanor at first glance seems like she should be in Court wearing silks and velvets, on the arm of a handsome noble. However, a second, observant glance notes that the nose is crooked as if broken once or twice, that she holds herself almost at attention, that her gaze is carefully assessing the people around her, and that there’s a great deal of muscle on the woman. Truth be told, Eleanor is more likely to have her braid bound up on her head to cushion a helm while she wears a chain shirt and carries sword and shield – she may look like a lady, but she dresses and acts like a guard. Lia would happily trade her good looks for a better sword, stronger shield, or a good night’s sleep. As token of her most recent battle, she’s partially deaf out of her right ear, slurs her words, and walks with a pronounced limp – and can be counted lucky given the circumstances.

Personality: The woman hasn’t got a single bit of the noble airs, and is more likely to sit with the soldiers and trade crude jokes. A guard from head to toe, she’s stubborn, slow to anger, and completely lacking any patience for fools or wasting time. Although she holds herself with a fair bit of pride, her pride is in her abilities and her people, not in her birth-rank. She knows to learn the strengths and weaknesses of herself and those under her command, and to earn their loyalty by taking care of them and holding herself no higher than them – she started as a recruit, after all. She’s been well-trained and has always had a keen eye for tactics and strategy, with a natural knack for making the best decisions in the field (her Foresight has always been present, just not very strong, instead just strengthening her intuition). Unfortunately, her trust in her skills at leading has been completely shattered by her last, disastrous mission, and she is in fact terrified of the idea of being in charge of anyone ever again. Her dreams are haunted by the guards she led and watched die around her, and she’s filled with unrelenting guilt at what she perceives to have been her failure. She’s also afraid of her Gift and wants nothing to do with it – block it off, cut it out, get rid of it, just make it go away. She wants to forget what happened and at this time she’s a shell of her former self – any normal interactions are mostly an act as she tries to continue her denial that it really happened. The only thing keeping her sane and willing to live is Adair.

Short Life Story: Fourth child of the head of the Verrault estate, Lia grew up with two brothers that she identified better with than her sister and mother, being far more interested in weapons-work than academics or needlework. Her dreams revolved around joining the Guard and making a name for herself than marrying and being a lady, which she found to be almost repulsive. Her parents, being realistic, recognized that she had the skills to make a good Guard, and if they tried to marry her off instead of letting her join the Guard, she’d run away. So, despite their unhappiness at her choice, allowed her at sixteen to join the Guard. She worked her way up through the ranks at great speed, aided by the easy way she fit in with the other soldiers and her natural skill for leading. By the time she was twenty-one, she was a junior officer. Things seemed to be going well – she was helping eradicate the bandits on the border and was leading patrols reliably. Her future in her career looked bright, as long as she lived.
It wasn’t going to remain that way. The only one who had any suspicions of the oncoming disaster was a Companion stallion, who two weeks before had bolted for the stables, demanding to be tacked up immediately, then charged out of the city at full speed. When he got there, ignoring the usual rules, the stallion went to Lia's garrison and demanded that they send people after him, including a Healer. He then returned to his reckless flight to where he knew he was needed right then. Despite his exhaustion from the long run, he didn’t rest until he finally came to where Lia lay, nearly dead from a blow to the head. She didn’t want to live. Everyone was dead. It had gone so wrong, how had she not known? And she kept seeing things, time after time, she couldn’t tell what was real anymore. Her head hurt so badly, and she wanted to scream as something nudged her shoulder. Opening her eyes, she saw something so solidly real, so there, that the woman wanted to cry. Then it was a world of blue, {My name is Adair, and you are my Chosen. I am real, and I will not let you die.}
The rest of her time, including the healing and being sent to Haven for better help, was nothing but a pain filled blur of self-recrimination and the presence of Adair at her side keeping her from dying or losing herself to madness. Once there, the Healer that had needed to travel with them to make sure she stayed physically stable informed the Healers of the situation – including the fact she had an intensely powerful Gift that her Companion was keeping shielded by staying nearby, and that he thought she was going to need a great deal of Healing mentally once she was willing. He felt he’d done what he could to heal her – he suspected that the head-blow had triggered her Gift and forced it to its full strength, but luckily hadn’t done any permanent brain damage, instead leaving her only partially deaf in her right ear, and a slur (less pronounced over time and/or focus on what she’s saying). Several injuries to her left leg, probably incidental from being trampled, would most likely leave her with a limp, but still able to walk, and even run if she was willing to ignore the probable pain.

Companion: Adair
Description: Adair is built along the lines of a destrier, a stallion built for battle. Although not as swift as other companions, he has the nearly limitless reserve of endurance and muscle needed to be as much a warrior as his Chosen. He’s one of the more serious Companions, not interested in gossip or pranks, preferring to pay attention to important matters. Usually quiet, he’s almost talkative to his Chosen, a matter of surprise for the other Companions. His focus is always on the long term, and he dislikes trivialities as much as Lia does. He’s well-suited to being Lia’s foundation, being as solid and dependable as the strongest stone.

Family: Grandfather – Lord Hendrick Verrault
Father – Jethrick Verrault – head of the Verrault family
Mother – Verena – well-educated lady, excellent horse-woman
1st Brother – Moric – 36 –favoured of his father, good head on shoulders, helps care for estate
Sister – Kathryn – 34 – well-educated lady, recently widowed, no children
2nd Brother – Keegan – 32 – also in the Guard, natural leadership skills but too much temper

Last Updated: 06/15/2008