I was born twenty years ago in Ruby-Touched River. It's large-ish, I'd say, but most definitely still something you would call a village. My father was a hunter, bringing in food for much of the village - he was the one who taught me how to use a bow. My mother, like many of the villagers, makes trinkets out of the pinkish stone our village is known for. In my childhood, she used to take me to Chiaroscuro, getting a ride on the caravans passing through town, when she went to sell the art.
From a very young age, I felt called to the priesthood of our local goddess, the Lady of the Rose-Tinted Sunset. Throughout my training, I showed an aptitude for the healing arts in particular, and soon I was one of the most skilled healers among the priestesses, as well as highly-versed in the mystical ways of the world. For my knowledge, upon attaining full priestess-hood, I was granted the name Sagacious Maiden of Rose.
One day, about a year ago, a large group of bandits came to raid the village. Normally, we manage to fight off bandits with no more than a few injuries to everyone, but this time… they overwhelmed us. Those of us who had any skill in healing could not even sort out the severity of the wounds quickly enough to deal with the new injured. Then I felt a sudden power flowing within me. My forehead burned, and I felt surrounded by a brilliant golden light. As if possessed, I picked up the bow of one of the fallen and a handful of arrows, and in a flurry of motion, began shooting bandits, hitting every one I aimed for. After the few remaining bandits fled, I managed to mend the wounds of most of the villagers. Sadly, some people had perished before I managed to get to them, including my dear father, may the Lady care for him.
Since that day, I have had a sun glyph burned into my forehead in brilliant gold. Our tales say this is the mark of the Lady's Favored Ones, those granted powers by her to protect the weak. [OOC note: This feels right, and makes me think that the best way to think of her religion is a kind of blending together over time of Unconquered Sun worship and veneration of my character's past life into one deity.] Also, I have been having visions from the Lady, visions including a sanctuary full of wondrous things protected by traps of extraordinary design. I have been granted what artifacts from the Lady my village possesses, but perhaps these things I am seeing could aid me in protecting those I care about, and perhaps even more…
[I totally have ideas on what she looks like, I just suck at describing things. So, this will be here when I can come up with a good writeup.]
[I'll give them names once I start taking Arabic, which happens to be totally what Flame-tongue is in my head - because even though I probably won't actually learn relevant words, words can be looked up, but starting learning the language will give me some sort of grasp on making the names sound “right”.]
Sigh.
She never did get a rest. Mostly things were under control, but the Contagion did come very close to breaking free every once in a while. This time, some of the newer soldiers had gotten careless and returned to the rest of the army after dealing a bit too closely with a group trying to break through the quarantine, and several soldiers had been airlifted to The House of Cleansing Winds for treatment. They'd gotten enough of a tongue-lashing from Wren that they'd never be so stupid again, but that didn't fix the issue of treating them now.
So many this time… It was probably inevitable that one of them would die by the time she got through the rest.
“Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” A roaring scream was accompanied by the din of an entire examining room's worth of equipment being smashed.
For hours the rampage continued, rooms and rooms worth of medical devices destroyed, with anyone getting in the way getting their heads bitten off (thankfully, only metaphorically, though a few Dragon-Blooded nurses who tried to restrain Rose got some nasty bruises for their efforts). Luckily, all the integral parts of the manse were sturdier than her fists and feet alone could damage, or the results may have ended up catastrophic.
As her mind cleared, Rose turned, looked at what she had wrought, and collapsed, tears coming to her eyes. She kept her composure long enough to make one brief call before bursting into tears.
“Phoenix? … I need you to come fix some things.”