Race: Human
Gender: Female
Class: Rogue
Age: 24
Occupation: wanderer
Eyes: hazel
Hair: light brown
In Character Journal
Raised on the outskirts of a small town in the kingdom of Vandregon, Imara lived a simple life with her family. She helped raise her brother and sister, milked the cows, fed the animals, collected eggs, and foraged for fresh food in the woods. There were always clothes to patch up or a sibling to help out. Imara was very close to her father, who would carve wooden hand-held puzzles that she delighted in solving. Her older sister, Razel, was married with a child and lived in the capitol of Vandregon as a seamstress. Imara’s town was remote but comfortable, especially since she never asked much from life nor was she really aware of what else lay out there.
When she was 17, a small group of Undead were sent to destroy the near-by village. Imara’s farm had the bad fortune to be on the way. They entered the home while the family was sleeping, and attacked. Her family struggled to fight back as she fled to the village to sound the alarms for help. Once they were alerted, the villagers were able to assemble well enough to repel the Undead from the town. Sadly, they were too late for Imara’s family. When she went back to her farm it was burned to the ground, her family was slain and all of the animals were either dead or gone. She was left with nothing. She buried her family with a silent rage building inside of her. That was the night she never forgot, she learned how cruel life can be to those who didn’t ask it.
She held onto her rage. She took what little money her family had buried in the yard, purchased an old sword in poor condition and went into the forest looking for Undead. They would have to pay for what they had done. As she was striding through the forest, looking for anything to use her anger and hurt against, a small band of bandits spotted her. She realized through her rage that she had no chance at winning. She tried to get away, but they were faster and soon caught her. Even with low odds, she fought them, but they had the skill in swords that she lacked. They quickly disarmed her. As they were tying her up, the Undead that she had been looking for suddenly set upon the group. In their fear, the bandits never fully finished the knots on Imara’s wrists. She fought and struggled against the ropes trying to get free and run. With the Undead closing in on her, she gave a vicious snarl and ripped the ropes from her wrists, drawing blood and skin away from her hands and ran for her life from the Undead yet again.
After that encounter, she realized she was not ready for revenge. Being in the country was her life, but now she had no home and no way to protect herself. She was able to move into the nearby village and live off the generosity of the people for awhile. Working for any money, food and shelter she could. She was a hard worker proficient in sewing, caring for the villager’s children and knowledgeable in farming. She became involved in an orphanage helping care for the children whose parents had been taken from them just as they were from her. After a time, she took herself to the capital of Vandregon and moved in with her sister and husband; Razel and Stephan, helping her with their home and shop. She became the book keeper for Stephan for very meager pay.
For a few years she made a simple living, not letting anyone become too close. But she paid attention to the terrible things happening in Faedrun. Over time, she worked on collecting some weapons and armor, for she still wanted to get her revenge on the Undead and to help stop evil from hurting the innocent. In her spare time she would look for someone to help her learn how to fight. The going was slow. By then any able man or woman had already fled or was helping to fight the losing war against the Undead.
Times were hard, even in Vandregon- food became hard to attain, even with silver to pay for it. No one was willing to go out of the cities gates to farm. What little food they did have was given to the soldiers trying to keep the city from being sacked. Tired of constantly living on edge and worrying about the family she had left, she begged her sister and brother-in-law to take one of the few ships still going to a new land called Mardrun. Imara had heard it was a new place where folks could start again. A place with no Undead around and families weren’t torn apart. It was a long argument, for her brother-in-law did not want to leave. He had a small business as a merchant, and with supplies being so limited, he enjoyed the raised prices. At last his concern for his only daughter, Leah, and the possibility of a bigger business with the new settlers that he finally decided to leave Faedrun.
Stephan spent most of his earnings to secure their passage on a ship. The trip was hard and long. Scavengers and thieves took anything left out and food was hard to come by. After the long journey they came to New Hope in Mardrun and Imara felt hopeful for the first time since most of her family was killed.
In New Hope the going was still rough. It was a big city, not many wanted to travel into the wilder places. Because of that, there were a great number of merchants and Stephan was displeased. He decided that if he was going to make a living they needed to go to nearby villages that didn’t have as many merchants. Razel didn’t want to go into the wilderness anymore then they had too, but agreed to her husband. They packed up their belongings and started the trip.
Their group was small and slow moving. Travel took several days. As much as they tried to cover up their trail, it attracted a small group of creatures. The creatures caught up to them just as the town was in sight. Their group scattered and ran for the safety of the town. The nasty creatures chased them. There were a few big ones, but mostly small ones; crouched over almost slinking across the ground. And they smelled badly of dirt and rotting meat. Mordok.
Stephan tried to take as much of his belongings as he could carry, slowing him down. Razel was holding and running with Leah, she yelled at him to drop it all and run. A small Mordok took advantage and came after Stephan who was struggling under the weight of his greed and wares. Imara yelled at Razel to get Leah to the safety of the town as she grabbed a sword, pulling it out of a dead Mordok. She stabbed the Mordok as it attacked Stephan.
The wounded Mordok turned and pursued Imara. Her knees turned weak as she fought the urge to turn and run with the rest of the travelers. But she knew she had to keep it together until Razel and Leah could get to town. Then something strange happened- her vision turned red, her body flushed with heat and anger; there was no way this Mordok or any other was going to get past her and take all that was left of her family. She raised the sword, bellowed out a challenge and charged the already wounded Mordok. It flinched, giving Imara a small advantage and she took it. Her swordsmanship was clumsy at best, but the Mordok was young and already hurt. It got a few good swipes at her, cutting her upper arm and drawing blood on her calf, but Imara was relentless and kept swinging the sword until the Mordok was down. With a final grunt, Imara stabbed and killed it. She looked up and saw the Mordok were pulling back after half of their group had been killed by the travelers. She helped the wounded into town, but it was too late for Stephan.
Imara never forgot what it felt like to kill that Mordok- it was power. Power; where she could really make a difference in this world. That Mordok she had slain was never going to kill anyone ever again. Since most of her family had been killed, she was only surviving and nothing more. She liked this new feeling, it gave meaning to her otherwise drifting way of life. No, Mordok weren’t the Undead that had killed her family, but she could help other families and she felt her father would approve of her choice.
Telling Razel was difficult; she and Leah were the only family she had left. She wanted to make sure Razel would be ok without her. They moved her and Leah back to New Hope where the defenses were better and Mordok attacks were few. Razel set up a shop as a seamstress and developed a good business. Imara refused to take any of Razels money, and set out with very few belongings in a foreign land. This time her anger for revenge on evil burned. She had heard of a group of adventurers where she could join other humans. She hoped she could learn to fight and help take down any evil that stood in her way. But she was also nervous, for she had heard there was also Ulven and Syndar with them- she has never seen them, she only knew of them by stories and rumors.
Was she really ready for this?
CHARACTER UPDATE (RETIRED): After serving alongside William of Vandregon and helping the Vandregon cause grow, Imara took a permanent position as a political representative and assistant to Baroness Katherine. She now spends most of her time in the colony of Newhope, supporting Baroness Katherine’s ideals and helping grow support for the Vandregon colors. Surrounded by politics, her work is never done as the games played by the nobles keep all members of the Council of Ten busy.