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[relentless_sentinel]

OOC INFORMATION
Player Name: Arna
Pronouns: She/Her
Contact: Plurk: Arnavet , Discord: Arnavet
Characters Played: N/A

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[relentless_sentinel]

IC INFORMATION
Character Name: Nephenee

AU or OU: OU

Canon: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn

Canon Point: A year after the events of Radiant Dawn (so around year 649 or 650 Tellius)

Character Age: 21

AU Description: N/A

OU Backstory: So here's three links from the wiki, but frankly they're not very helpful for this sort of thing (especially on the timeline...), so I'll also write up a summary here for Neph. Also, underlined parts are headcanon, but it is just for fleshing out a few points, for the most part:

Little is known about Nephenee’s history prior to Path of Radiance. Originally from Ohma village, Nephenee lived with her mother and siblings -2 sisters, triplet brothers- and, like the rest of the village, supported her family by tilling the soil and reaping its fruit. Up until the war between Crimea and Daein, her life is unknown, aside from a few incidentals like having a skin condition when she was small (when she hears the term 'espionage' and is asked if she knows what that is by fellow Ohman Brom, her reply is "Oh, sure. When I was just a sprout, I caught a real bad case’a that. I got this awful rash all over my back, too!") . Her support with Brom seems to imply her father is not around, and that's because her father passed away sometime in the 5-6 years prior to Path of Radiance (I place this around the time she was 11). Her life between that point and the beginning of the Mad King's War was incredibly difficult because of this, and when she developed her low self-esteem and timidness around others.

Prior to the harvest season in the year 645, Daein suddenly attacked the Crimean capital of Melior, beginning the events of Path of Radiance. In preparation to defend their village, a local militia was put together, which Nephenee joined in order to defend her family and livelihood. It was there that she met fellow villager Brom, who she would serve beside in the Greil Mercenaries later. However, unlike said mercenary group, this militia was quite ill-prepared, as it was put together right after war broke out, and consisted entirely of farmers and villagers, with no experience in battle. It was so ill-prepared, in fact, that we learn that they only learned to stand for roll call, had to share equipment, and when they marched, people got lost or fled. But Nephenee and Brom went on, to fight for their village. One fateful day, the militia was engaged by Daein troops, and Nephenee and Brom were helped in some way by the bishop Sephiran. However, the three were captured by the enemy, and imprisoned in Canteus Castle, where they stayed until they and another prisoner, Kieran, were rescued by Ike and his band of mercenaries.

Meeting with Princess Elincia, Ike took them all aside and asked if they are willing to recognize Elincia as the Princess of Crimea (as she was unknown to many before), and to fight for her in their mercenary band. Brom responded by saying that royalty and who ruled didn't seem to affect them much since they're mostly left alone under what had been the current rule. He quickly added, though, that Ashnard could take away their fields and lands, taking away their way of sustaining their families, which is why they joined the militia- to protect their loved ones and their livelihood. Thinking of her own family, Nephenee asked, "If you can defeat the king of Daein, will this country return to the way it used to be? Is that what you're after?" Elincia assured them that she will never abandon her kingdom, despite not being as strong as her father. Brom and Nephenee agree that she seems the sort that will keep her word, and both join up to restore her to power, as well as to thank Ike for saving their lives. Traveling in the band, which later became known as the Crimean Liberation Army, Nephenee fought with her lance and shield and gained battle and life experience, until Ashnard was finally put down, and Elincia became queen of the realm. After the war, she returned to her family, boasting of serving the queen, and fighting under the great Commander Ike.

All was well for several years. Nephenee went back to working the fields of the Crimean countryside, her armor and weapons ever at the ready in case of need. A good thing too, as three years after the country was liberated, in year 648, a man named Yeardley came to Ohma and stirred up the youth of the village, in an attempt to put Ludveck, the duke of Felirae, on the throne. Seeing the crowd and incited youth, Nephenee quickly donned her armor and grabbed war buddy Brom. Together with the thief Heather, they defeated the rebellious youth and Yeardley, and set out to warn Elincia of the impending rebellion, joining back up with Ike eventually to stop it for good, as well as stopping a corrupt Begnion, and defeating the goddess Ashera.

After the war ended, Nephenee moved her family to Melior, where she continued to protect her country...

Until she was taken by the Empire, maybe on orders from some noble that either wanted a bodyguard or a lovely servant, or both. Whether by fighting her way out or by escaping due to a malfunction of the Gate, she made her way from there to the Eternal Ocean, where she came into contact with the Crimson Corsairs. Once she was able to communicate well enough with them, she asked to join, given the Empire's a potential threat to her homeland, and definitely a threat to innocents. (And if a noble is unhappy about his prize getting away...well, that's always something that could come up.)

Powers and Abilities:
Nephenee is a Sentinel, which, to quote the class description from Radiant Dawn, are “Legendary lancers who stride battlefields with calm and surety.” To also quote the wiki entry: “Sentinels are very strong units. With all-around high stats, they can sustain, dodge (or block, since Sentinels use shields for their dodge animations), and deliver many blows to inflict substantial amounts of damage.” She’s fully capable of using polearms in one hand with what seems to be a tower shield in the other, and of performing feats with them that make full use of her skill with them, as evidenced by the Sentinel class skill, Impale (which I’ll list below with the others). As one, Nephenee would probably be best described as an ‘expert’ with polearms (SS skill, the highest skill in the games), at least with most European styled ones. With Eastern style ones, she probably can figure them out pretty fast.

As part of the above, as well as several that are innate to here or were gained via scrolls, here are her Skills (apologizes for being a bit exact on numbers, it's mostly to show that they don't happen all the time, since they're mostly tied to her stats):

• Wrath: When the user's HP is less than 30% of the max HP, their critical rate will be increased by 50%. Innate to her, actually comes across in her personality if she gets super hurt. Like a large surge of adrenaline, focusing her more so she can hit weak points easier. The Tear Ring Saga name of "Life or Death" for it is pretty telling. Always active when she's under 30% HP, but getting there's really hard to do.
• Critical +10: Grants a +10% bonus to her Critical Rate. Innate Sentinel skill. Basically, Nephenee has been trained to look for weak points in the enemy's defense, and to take advantage of them better. Her chance...depends on some stuff, but nixing the Bond support bonus, it's about 32~% with the Wishblade lance.
• Shove: Allows its user to push an adjacent target one tile away. Probably about 10 feet? Can be used against even large units (I figure this is from high Strength). Innate to non-mounted characters.
• Impale: Allows its user to inflict four times the original damage onto a selected enemy unit. Separate from Critical chance, activates at a rate of (Skill/2)%, so about 17.5%.
• Adept: Allows user to perform a consecutive attack. In practice, this is just her speed being high enough to quickly strike at the enemy again. 34% chance (speed%).
• Cancel: Negates the enemy's next attack when activated. In writing, this would be a quick and skilled parry that gains her an opening for attack. 34% chance (speed%).

As for overall abilities:

• Physically, Nephenee is very healthy, in constitution, endurance, and strength. Due to working long, hard hours on the farm, and a lot of training during, between, and after the wars she was in, she is rather strong, stronger than many girls her age and size. She also has a naturally high defense, and a fair bit of magical resistance. However, when she does go down from something, she tends to go down hard from how much it takes to get her to that point. She's also pretty decent at picking up other weapons, just naturally learning fighting styles a bit better by being a very physical person. She eventually picked up the bow, though she's nowhere near Marksman level, probably not even Sniper yet. But she's training more on it, dang it!
  • In D&D terms or something similar, she's a mixture of classic tank and dodge tank - she tends to dodge pretty often, but she can take hits if she has need.
  • She's probably going to notice the power cap at first, given stat capped Sentinels are maybe a bit bonkers. What do you mean she can't take on more than 10 guys at a time?? Time to dodge everything?
• Mentally, she’s kind, loyal, and compassionate, as well as tenacious and stubborn (which is very much a two-edged sword), with a very strong spirit (canonically, the player characters have strong enough wills to withstand Ashera's attempt to petrify all of Tellius). She's not book-smart by any sense, but she's fairly intelligent. She has better self-esteem than she once did, but she's still fairly shy and self-conscious around people she doesn't know, unless she's on a battlefield.
• Related to above, as a veteran soldier, Nephenee has a heightened sense of awareness to things around her, which could be described as a ‘battle-readiness’, almost all the time, in varying strengths. Intense training has taught her how to hear small noises, notice small details, and generally have good instincts, as well as really good reflexes. Think high Perception, in D&D terms. The flipside of this manifests in ways like her sleep getting interrupted easily and just generally being more tense.
• She can do quite a few things involving farm life and living off the land, though some of it gets into Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-few territory. Except for cooking - as long as it's not fancy, she's a really good cook!
• She can also dance, but she'll need to do the power training stuff for any fancier stuff regarding that. Also, you know, you have to get her to actually feel comfortable doing so.

Desired Faction:
First choice: Flotsom, as it fits her being really good at combat and, frankly, liking to explore and being able to move about quickly. Fits her a lot.
Second choice: The Vault. She's not book-learned at all (she's probably about a fourth-grade reading level, if that), but the farms and some of the other things could be good fits. She's a really good farmer!

[relentless_sentinel]

SAMPLES
IC questions! Please note that in this interview, she's fairly fresh from her experience escaping the Empire, so she's a bit more on edge and still a little in her battle mode...but her normal shyness still comes out here. We'll just pretend for ease of example that she can communicate well enough with the recruiter and isn't going to need to learn more. She's having to translate in her head as she goes, as is.

1. Why do you wish to join the Crimson Corsairs?
   • ...Ah wanna help protect my homeland an' others from dastards like them that've been capturin' folks, an' if y'all're fightin' 'em, Ah wanna help y'all do that.
2. Why should the Crimson Corsairs allow you to join them?
   
   • ...[Nephenee fidgets with her hair a little. She doesn't like talking about herself like this, but...] W-Well, Ah'm a right sturdy gal that can take a lickin' an' keep goin', an'...Ah'm a Sentinel in Her Majesty Queen Elincia's guard. [When asked to elaborate on what exactly a Sentinel is:] Oh, well, we're...high rankin' lancers who're known for how well we use lances an' polearms, an' for bein' able to take on a lotta folks by ourselves an' not get rankled or overwhelmed easy on the field. We use shields, too. But Ah've been in two wars under The Radiant Hero, Ike, both to help Queen Elincia take back the throne, an' to defend it from rebels, an' when the goddess Ashera tried passin' judgement on Tellius an' we had to take her down. A-Ah know a thing or two 'bout war an' such, an' Ah ain't easy to scare on the battlefield, an' Ah don't back off easy, neither - Queen Elincia e'en called me The Relentless Sentinel. Ah could help teach folks polearms an' shields an' war stuff, or e'en help with farmin' or gettin' stuff in the wilderness or cookin'...Ah ain't e'er been to school, but Ah know how to do a fair few things that could help y'all out. N-not that Ah'm braggin' or nothin'! Jus'...Ah wanna help protect folks, an' with an enemy like the Empire...no offense, but ya need all the folks ya can get with a foe that big an' strong. R-right?
3. What has your experience with the Imperials been like?
   • ...Uh, not great...Ah mean...they tried to capture me, so Ah had to get away...Ah don't know what they wanted me for, but... [Nephenee's not dumb, she's been in two wars, she knows what women tend to get captured for. She just doesn't know specifics for this particular situation.]
4. Have you ever lost a comrade? How did you react?
   
   • Naw, Ah ain’t lost one…none o’the fighters in our groups were killed. But…Ah woulda been real upset if one o’them had. There’s… a kinship Ah guess ya’d call it, when ya fight beside someone. E’en if ya don’t get to know much ‘bout ‘em, ya still get close ‘cause o’that. I-If someone died, Ah'd do my best to help finish off the mission an' make sure to honor 'em the best Ah can.
5. When is it appropriate to take a life?
   
   • Well…Ah don’t like doin’ it, but to save the lives of others, or yourself…if someone’s tryin’ to kill ya or worse, can’t jus’ let ‘em do that. Ah'd try to knock 'em out first, though, if there's any chance they ain't completely evil. But...lotsa times ya can't do that, so...
6. What would you refuse to do in service of the Crimson Corsairs?
   
   • Kill or torture innocents or kids, or…uh, ya know… [She fidgets, blushing furiously as she looks away.] w-wind somebody’s…ball o’yarn… [She’s saying she won’t sleep with someone to further the cause.]
7. Many Crimson Corsairs must serve Imperials to preserve our cover and gather resources. How do you feel about this?
   
   • Ah can do that…been under castle-bred folks all my life, only real difference Ah reckon is that the Empire ain't good. May not like it, but Ah can do it if Ah need to. Though...uh, Ah'd rather not...go to somewheres like Elysium, if that's all right with y'all...
8. How well do you work with comrades? What can we expect from you when you are placed on a team?
   
   • A-Ah'm fine workin' with folks. Ah'll do my best to help 'em, 'slong as they don't ask me to do somethin' real bad...e'en when Ah ain't gotten on with folks exactly back home, or was scared o'em...Ah can work with 'em. 'Sides...e'en scary folks can be good ones sometimes.
9. What are your dreams for the future?
   • …Ah reckon helpin’ take down the Empire, then goin’ back home…Ah’d like to start a family someday, too. Ma, Brom, an’ Calill keep sayin’ Ah need to find my type o’fella already an’ bring him home…
10. Describe how you believe you would act if your mission has failed and you know your life is forfeit.
    
    • [She thinks for a second, then looks up, determination in her features.] Been there before… If it’s against overwhelmin’ odds, Ah’d hold out ‘til the last second. E’en if the mission fails, if Ah can do somethin’ to buy time for others to escape, or for reinforcements to come…Ah’ll fight Ah can’t no more. There’s always the chance for that…an’ givin’ in to despair ain’t an option. An’ if they take me prisoner or try to execute me…Ah’ll jus’ hafta make ‘em regret it. [And she would, if reports about all those dead guys around the Servant Gate are anything to go by.]