Tell me a story about a wolf, who smells fear and kills the coward.
Tell me a story about a man, who smells gold and kills his brother.

Name:
Anakerie Trident

Call Name:
Heartsbane

Position:
Freelance Mercenary and Expert Assassin

Age:
30

Physical Appearance:
Anakerie is an expert at disguises and can take upon many faces and guises. She is tall, a solid 5’10”, and has a medium build. Her mother was Shin’a’in, and she inherited her near-bronze tan skin and dark brown, nearly black hair from her. Her hair has grown to the bottom of her back, and she normally prefers to wear it pulled back in a no-nonsense braid. She has one lock of shorter hair that often falls over her dark, green hazel eyes. She has a closely guarded, but serious looking face with a sharp nose and distinctive cheekbones among other typical hawkish Shin’a’in features. About her brow she often wears a plain steel coronet that her mother once wore.

Anakerie has a perfectly upright stance, and moves with the grace and prowess of a well-trained warrior. Her fingers are long, her hands calloused from weasponswork, possessing a strong handgrip. She generally prefers her muted colors and conservative clothing, wearing a thin breastplate beneath her clothing much of the time. Rest assured that her visible weapons are not the only that she carries.

Mounts:
Jel’sutho’edrin, which means “forever younger sibling” in Shin’a’in, was her mother’s last horse before she died. She commonly refers to the mare simply as “Sutho”. Because it is Shin’a’in bred, Sutho has high endurance and intelligence, but rather lacks when it comes to beauty. She isn’t top of the line material to a Clansman, but is more than sufficient for Anakerie. The mare is very large and is coal-gray, almost black in color, with a tan mane and tail.

Her second mount is named Sterling, a slightly smaller half Shin’a’in mare. Sterling is quicker, with smaller, more clever hooves, but with slightly less endurance; she is a rich, dark gray in coloring. Though Anakerie rides both, she often uses Sterling for her packs and for carrying her child wards.

Personality/Attitude:
It is hard to describe Anakerie’s personality or attitude. She rarely ever lets any other living soul know what she truly feels, as she has been trained. She can take upon herself whatever personality best befits a situation to her liking. Generally, she is serious and dangerously patient, calm, and calculating. She is wise and analytical-perhaps too much so, sometimes.

Gifts:
None, except for perhaps the merest speck of foresight; if it is, she doesn't realize it, as it is as much riddled with past and present as with future and imagination - she only experiences what everyone experiences at some point in life, sometimes glimpsing things that come to pass.

Brief History:
Anakerie’s mother was a Shin’a’in who married a merchant. When Anakerie was only 4, her father hit rock bottom, and decided upon the cruelest course of action possible: he decided to sell his children. Her mother fought him passionately, but it was futile. Her 3 older brothers were sold off to mercenary units. Her older sister and she were sold off as whores to a southern lord, but Anakerie's hawkish looks were not to the taste of the man. After less than 6 terrible, enduring months, her sister's begging payed off when - the lord sold her to a ‘house of schooling’ that sought young children. Little did she or her sister know, the 'house of schooling' was an assassin’s school.

It was here that she spent 14 long years of brutal training. In all of the 14 years, she was allowed to sleep in past sunset 4 times, 2 of which resulted in beatings that left her barely clinging to life. The trainers set them against their classmates, making them paranoid and vicious. Here, Anakerie was taught to wield weapons of all sorts, and how to substitute anything at hand as a weapon. She was taught how to live and fight alone, with nothing and nobody to her advantage. She learned to use herbs and mix poisons, to speak many languages, and was made a master of the art of disguise and stealth. When the time came to leave the grounds of the school, they informed her that she would never be able to come back, no matter what companionship she might once have had there. Assassins could not be allowed to leave the school rampant - an assassin with no bindings is a dangerous thing. Instead, Anakerie was sold back to the lord from whence she had come (for a higher price, of course).

The young half-Shin'a'in went back to the man her father had sold her to so many years before. Though her teachers had tried to force her to forget her past, she had refused - and now, she desperately sought her sister in the harems. When she learned of her sister’s death, one of two sparks left within her heart was snuffed. She poisoned her 'master' and left his manor - no one was ever the wiser. No respectable man would ever admit owning his own personal assassin, afterall... at least not to anyone who would step forward upon his death.

Her next quest took her in search of her parents. It took her a year to finally track her father down, but her mother was no where to be found. It didn’t take long to find out what had become of her. Anakerie didn’t bother disguising his murder; he didn’t deserve the dignity, and wasn’t worth the price of the poison. Anakerie sold all his posesssions save two - her mother's Shin'a'in mare and the steel coronet her mother had once worn. She then rode north, the second spark in her heart doused forever. She now rides looking for justice, blood - whatever eases the aching emptiness where her heart once was. It is for this reason she chose her Calling Name-HeartsBane.

She is not ashamed of being a mercenary assassin; she has often said, “The stars don't mourn for another dead lord. The stars mourn for those which the lord wronged.” Everywhere she goes she searches for people who sell children, legally or illegally. She buys them with excess money (or kills their masters - whichever is easier), and finds them better homes, may that be a barren widow yearning for a child or a tavern keeper who is willing to exchange hospitality for fair work, or any other circumstance she deems fit for the child.

Perhaps the Heartsbane has one spark left within her heart, after all?

Goals in Life:
To find a meaning to her life.
To join her mother and sister.
To find and buy as many children as she can, finding them better homes.
To kill that pompous bastard Morgan - very, very slowly.

This is a picture of Anakerie taken from the back cover of "Dark Moon" by George Lucas & Chris Clermont; she is riding Jel'sutho in the picture

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