Position:
Heraldic Trainee

Age:
16

Physical Description:
Kendra is tall with a slender figure which has a few gentle curves. Her face, which is small and pointed with delicate, elfin-like features, is belied by her chin which is usually set stubbornly. She has beautiful hair, glossy, coal black ringlets just long enough to gently touch her shoulders when she wears it out. Usually, she will simply tie it back with a ribbon, but she can never prevent a few pieces from falling out of the careful hold she places them in. Her skin is a pale creamy color, with a light dusting of freckles covering her nose and dusky-pink cheeks. Never seen without a smile on her face, Kendra uses her eyes to convey her moods and emotions. Dark forest-green pools, they dominate her face with startling intensity and are almost hypnotic in their depth.

Personality:
Kendra never really understood the old saying, “look before you leap” and to say that she jumps into things is probably an understatement. Fiery and passionate she’ll fight for what she believes in with a dogged intensity that always manages to get her into trouble. Although more often than not she means well, nothing ever goes the way she expects it to. She is extremely curious about everything and often finds herself where she shouldn’t be. Fortunately, she was born with more than a little luck and is fairly resourceful so she can usually manage to get herself out of trouble before anything too major goes wrong.

She is easily bored and sometimes finds life at the collegium a little too tame for her liking. Her attempts at making it more interesting, usually involving pranks and impulsive decisions, have landed her in trouble on more than one occasion and she and the dean are now on a first name basis. She is always caught in the act and has yet to pull off even one of her ‘little jokes’ without being discovered. This has meant that she’s basically been banned for life from the Artificer and Healer’s Collegia.

Quick to make friends with anyone and everyone she meets, Kendra is extremely trusting (and extremely talkative). Basically willing to swear by someone’s good character after one meeting, everybody thinks that she’s completely naïve. However, most people live up to her original expectations of them, almost as if her high morals and ideals rub off on them. Kendra isn’t perfect though, she has an uncertain temper which usually results in major screaming matches with people, however she usually simmers down without too much trouble and all’s forgotten within about half a candle mark.

Ever since Kendra arrived at the Collegium she has been driven by her intense thirst for knowledge, although she knew only the basics in numerics and literacy when she first arrived, Kendra has flourished under tuition. Her teachers however, have taken to running away when they see her in the corridors. She is always asking questions of somebody, usually ones to which nobody knows the answer and has sparked numerous (very heated) debates in her classes. Never afraid to air her very public views, her teachers are divided into two groups, those who love her… and those who detest her.

Brief History:
Kendra came from quite modest roots. Her father was a fairly wealthy merchant, though with five children that didn’t leave much money to spare. The youngest child, as well as being the only daughter meant that she spent most of her life being spoilt and petted by her older brothers and parents so she tended to run wild for the first thirteen years of her life.

When she reached adolescence, her parents were really at a loose end with regards to her future. She had basically been able to do what she wished for most of her life and although she had turned out good-natured and charming, she had next to no schooling and was ill prepared for the kind of future a woman was supposed to take. Her brothers had taught her how to ride, fight, hunt and track but none of these would be useful, and she had shown no interest whatsoever in cooking or sewing, during the one experiment she did carry out, she had ended up burning the entire kitchen down.

In a small town where women were supposed to take their place in the home at thirteen and be married by sixteen she was never going to fit in. While her undomesticated behavior had been tolerated while she was still classified as a child, no-one was willing to see a lady tearing around the fields bareback. Her parents, both who had moved to the village later in life were a lot more tolerant of their daughter’s behavior but they despaired of her ever fitting in. If there had been no objections they would have entered her into the blacksmith’s business, as a child she had spent hours down at the forge, fascinated by the work. The old blacksmith took a shine to her, showing her much of what he knew in his spare moments and encouraging her presence there, he became almost an extra father figure to her and the two formed a very close bond.

Yet when her parents entered her into the blacksmith’s guild there was instant uproar from within the village. Nobody could accept the idea of a girl doing “men’s” work so the plan was eventually abandoned with great reluctance. Although her parents hated the idea of their daughter being forced to do something she had no interest in, they hated the idea of her becoming a social outcast even more. Kendra, wouldn’t have really minded the latter, she couldn’t stand most of the people there with their close-minded attitudes and would have been happier if she’d never had to speak to them again but she wanted to make her parents happy so she agreed.

Fortunately, the problem was eventually sorted out by the unexpected appearance of her companion, Kesia. Kendra, ecstatic about the turn of events, threw herself into her new life. She overcame much of her homesickness by seeking solace in books and by doing so became intensely interested in learning everything there was to know.

Kendra’s gifts manifested soon after she was chosen and her mindspeech is very well trained. However, when she first began her work with empathy she spent a lot of time using it when she wasn’t supposed to. She had a few experiences that she would care not to repeat and has gradually become terrified of her gift and the power it holds. She has found numerous excuses to slip out of her gift classes, all quite reasonable. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have slipped through the cracks but her first gifts teacher fell ill when he was part-way through her training and her new teacher thinks that she’s far more advanced than she really is. She has nothing but the most rudimentary of control and takes great pains to avoid anyone who might discover how little she really knows. That was the main reason why she got herself banned from the Healer’s Collegium and she also avoids most of the real heralds like the plague. Unfortunately, her ruse can’t last much longer and eventually something’s going to give.

Goals:
Kendra wants desperately to become a herald. She would also love- one day- to become the herald chronicler, although that is a dream which she knows is a long way off. Until then she just wants to be the very best she can, to make friends and to live life to the fullest.

Gifts:
Empathy (strong); When she’s fully trained, there won’t be many barriers she can’t break with her gift. Until then, she just needs to learn how to control it.

Mind Speech (extremely weak); Kendra can’t do much with her mind speech, unless she’s actually touching the person she’s talking to she can’t ‘hear’ anything. She and Kesia are able to ‘talk’ when they’re a little way away from one another but it’s nothing that she can rely on.

Position:
Herald Trainee

Companion:
Kesia

Yahoo ID:
alethiometer2 (alethiometer87@hotmail.com)