Belle Desrosiers

== Early Life ==
Born in Aeswick, a small village in Dokyrath, she is the only surviving child of Maurice DesRosiers and his wife. Her father was an inventor and a tinkerer, although the family farm provided their main source of income. She was priviledged in terms of education, for she was taught to read by her mother. When she was 7 years old, her mother and younger sister, Rose, died of a mysterious illness. While it wasn't the Walking Starvation, the timing coincided with the early days of the Blight. To this day, Belle does not know the exact cause of her mothers death.
Following the deaths of her mother and sister, several more mysterious illnesses and deaths occurred throughout the village. It was to a point that the village council declared a state of martial law, enforcing strict curfews and quarantines to avoid the Blight. Eventually, the mysterious illnesses and quarantine ended, but strict protections remained in place for Aeswick
From the age of 10, Belle was a forager, journeying into the surrounding woods with the other children to collect food and other resources. Rations were supplied by the city, but any findings from foraging children were greatly rewarded. Her father continued to run the family farm, providing most of the grain for the village.
While days were spent by the DeRosiers family working to maintain the machine that was Aeswick, at night, her father worked on his inventions while she read stories to him by candlelight. Having never ventured outside of Aeswick (both due to village law and her fathers overprotectiveness), her books instilled in her a great sense of curiosity. Young Belle dreamed of exploring beyond the Yarrow, but it wasn't safe to do so. Instead, she was trapped in the village, forced to spend her days foraging and avoiding the attentions of a one Gaston, a hunter who was desperate to have her hand in marriage.
== MacGoffin Castle ==
One day, after years of being sheltered both by her father and Aeswick itself, she wandered farther than she normally did. She justified it by telling her fellow foragers that she thought there might be a new source of nuts, berries, and medicinal roots the village desperately needed, but secretly it was to get away from her usual life, if only for a little while.
As the day wore on, her imagination got the better of her, and she soon found herself having lost track of the time and hopelessly lost. After further wandering, she found herself at the gates of what appeared to be a haunted castle on a cliff on the edge of the Mauritanus Sea: MacGoffin Castle.
The sun was setting, and she was approached by a frightening, cat-like creature called Mordred, and given shelter from the Blighted monsters that lurked in the Yarrow. He frightened her, but there was something very human about him. After having taken shelter in his castle, it became very clear that she wasn't able to leave. The Walking Starvation had finally reached Dokyrath, and with it, Aeswick. She was trapped.
She soon began to find that her frightening companion was a diamond in the rough. He indulged her love of books, and found herself growing fond of him. He defended her honor before Morgana le Fay, a half-fae that apparently had a penchant for tormenting poor Mordred. He kept her safe in his fortress while the Walking Starvation ravaged the land.
Her star, however, was short-lived. Not even the fortress of MacGoffin Castle was safe from the army of Blighted sea creatures that attacked the castle. Belle and Mordred barely escaped with their lives, and the surviving servanfs scattered to the wind.
== Return to Aeswick ==
Having escaped the shambles of the castle, Belle and Mordred journeyed to her village, hoping to find the town, and her father, still alive. It was not to be, however, as the pair found themselves staring at the burned, charred remains of what was once the little farmhouse she shared with her father.
Having taken shelter in a storm cellar her father had built, she found that not all hope was lost. A letter from her father, as well as evidence of hastily leaving for a journey proved that, at least for now, her father was still alive. The pair resolved the following morning to journey to Caerleon to find Maurice Desrosiers.
== Currently ==
Mordred and Belle and journeying through the Yarrow to Caerleon, and have thus far encountered danger in the form of Blighted wolves. A strange, wolffish woman named Damali came to their rescue in the nick of time, but this far they have not encountered her again, although surely many other strange things would occur on their journey to Caerleon.
== Personality ==
Belle is an extremely kind woman in an unkind world. Having had to become the lady of the house at such a young age, she became a nurturer by nature, taking care of her father and their little farm dutifully. 
She is also loving and loyal, never wavering in her quest to find her father and to break Mordred's curse.
She is not one to judge by appearances, having learned that lesson with both Gaston and Mordred. While she doesn't judge by looks, she does judge by character, and she is an excellent judge at that.