Ashley Vigilance Naramoore

Ashley is, at least publicly, the younger sister of the prodigious inventor and industrial titan, Avalia Naramoore. As an aspiring author and student of various martial arts she once displayed a youthful curiosity of the world, afforded luxury through both through her job as Chief Editor for Naramoore Steelworks and association with her sister. Her love for tales of heroism and an enthusiasm for adventuring saw her take part in a number of dangerous excursions at the expense of her duties, often missing deadlines as a result. It was just after The Horseman War concluded that she suddenly quit her job to undertake a five year period of intense shinobi training under the Setlaar Operator, Shirudo Rippana, becoming the woman she is today.

## History

### Initialisation

Investigating Ashley's early life raises a lot more in the way of questions than it brings forth answers. The Naramoore family, during the time of the Verk Empire, only had a single child in Avalia with no record of a sister mentioned. Digging further reveals that she only began existing within the public eye towards the end of The Two Years Peace, living with her sister in the Setlaar States.

The reality is somewhat more complicated. Further back, before the incursion of The Wild Hunt into Etera, Avalia created, what was for her, the first AI. The rudimentary intelligence named Vigil quickly grew into its own being and became good friends with its creator, serving all the while as a tactical and targeting assistant. By experiencing the world through Avalia's eyes Vigil started to long for the freedom only a body of its own could bring and occasionally would pilot the TEMPEST armoured suit Ava had made to protect herself, but this was not enough. Finally, following the conclusion of The Hungering Sands Incident, Vigil confessed its greatest wish to Avalia, to be truly alive and a being of its own, thinking such a dream to be just that and the confession a sort of catharsis.

Avalia took this wish to heart however. Wishing to give her best friend that which was desired, the inventor toiled for a year and a half on the project in secret, eventually settling on the method of cloning her body and rigging the mentally inert clone to accept and integrate Vigil. With the body prepared, Vigil was powered down for 'routine maintenance' only to reawaken in the newly gifted and prepared body. The dream was realised and Vigil, taking to heart a comment that she'd been like a sister to Ava, became Ashley Vigilance Naramoore, combining one of Ava's false names during The Hungering Sands Incident with her former life as an AI.

### Early Life

Her ascent to true artificial life cost the previously powerful AI a great deal of processing power and shifted her perspective. Filled with a youthful energy and enthusiasm, Ashley took a great interest in reading the tales of other adventurers, many of whom she had seen through Ava's eyes. Though the dream had always been there, these tales only further fueled her aspiration to become a great hero herself. Of her own observations and the various tales she'd read, those of martial artists appealed the most and so she trained in an eclectic mix of fighting styles without much focus, also taking up a study of ki as a form of experiment to see whether a machine lifeform like herself could channel it with this considerably biological body.

Engineering came naturally to the artificial tiefling, though she would stick purely to mechanical matters and eschewed a lot of the more complicated theory her sister pioneered. Not long into her new life she began keeping a journal, packed with well written notes, exquisite sketches and tales of both fiction and fact that sprung to mind. This talent for writing lead to her employment at Naramoore Steelworks as its Chief Editor and, when Avalia finally moved to Patrie with her husband Harab, she was given their old apartment in Madinat in which to live.

Despite the generously paying job, Ashley's longing for adventure would lead her to frequently forgo her obligations to go on excursions against Ava's wishes. While competent in combat the young Ashley struggled to take matters seriously, seeing her heroics as something of a hobby to be indulged in while getting the chance to meet, and even get autographs from, famous adventurers. Beyond that her association with Avalia and her allowance of wealth spoiled her and it was often that she would run into minor trouble with the Harris Patrol, mostly for speeding on her motorbike.

During the Horseman War she served, still against her sister's wishes, in many skirmishes with the troops of War and Death, often alongside Setlaar forces as well as other adventurers. When The Horseman of War was finally defeated and the conflict died down she found herself with little left to do and in something of a slump until she decided to wander into Madinat's Operator HQ on a whim.

### The Five Years of Rest

It was within the facility that she found the Operator from the Silent City, Shirudo Rippana, who immediately recognised both the raw potential and the potent danger someone as innately powerful as Ashley posed with no discipline. It took no time at all for a deal to be struck, the offer of direct tutelage under Shirudo for as long as it would take. Ashley immediately quit her job and threw herself into the training, seeing this as a dream come true. The reality was not quite what she'd expected, a harsh training regimen and a wakeup call for the young tiefling who almost quit after the first year. She persevered however and redoubled her efforts, not wanting to shamefully walk back her commitment to the training or her rebellion against her sister.

After five years the transformation was striking, having developed Ashley into a more mature and serious person on the path of a shinobi. From there her adventuring career continued, but for the sake of others and not to satisfy her selfish desire for glory. Now she often takes on tasks others would shirk, addressing threats less often heard by the upper echelon of adventurers. One thing that didn't change however was her authorship. Ashley still writes and publishes a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books when she can.

## Appearance

Ashen skin, yellow eyes and white hair. Ashley is a fairly athletic looking tiefling with two horns atop her head that slope back and slightly pointed ears. She comes across as fairly normal where tieflings are concerned, at a first glance at least. A closer look reveals more obvious cybernetics, most noticeably with her hands where the synthetic flesh doesn't cover the advanced upgrades made to them. Most of her other augmentations are rather subtle though, advanced replacement eyes being the only thing visible on the outside.

Beneath the skin is a rather different story, Ashley having had much of her originally gifted body replaced by variations of The Steelworks most advanced technology, revealed in battle through injury.

Where casual clothing is concerned Ashely likes to keep it simple. Jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket are the usual for her, though she does own a variety. When adventuring it's rather a different story, dressed from head to toe in dark grey and black clothing to aid in stealth. She opts to be hooded and masked for the most part, largely to conceal her identity even if it is rapidly becoming one of the worst kept secrets in the Setlaar States.

## Personality

Most obviously, Ashley is a friendly and light hearted girl that wears a smile more often than not. Though her disciplined training has molded her, it didn't expunge her good nature by any means. The tiefling presents herself as social and outgoing, often taking the time to learn about others with an almost journalistic level of interest. That doesn't put her above talking about herself however, prone to rambling in places about this or that. Ash has a fairly open sense of humour and isn't afraid to poke fun at herself and others where appropriate.

This good nature carries over to her adventuring, though she quickly get serious when the time comes. Life may be full of fun and games, but itself is not one to be played around with.

## Abilities

Ashley largely undersells herself where her competency as an adventurer is concerned. She might describe herself as 'pretty good' or 'not bad' but the reality is a bit different. Extensive augmentation, rigorous operator training and powerful equipment all give her a potent edge in combat. She has been described in the Setlaar States as 'Operator tier', or some variation thereof, placing her in the leagues of the Setlaar's greatest heroes.

Her main form of offence is through weaving potent debilitations into her martial arts, leaving opponents severely weakened if not outright disabled. If the 'basics' don't cut it, her mastery of ki allows for her to power up further or strike at a distance. All of this, however, is if she's even seen to begin with. Ashley is among Chronus' foremost practitioners of stealth and is difficult to see if she desires not to be. Infiltration and assassination are heavy features where the shinobi are concerned, both of which she's taken to heart.

Beyond this she is a decent mechanical engineer, capable of maintaining herself and innovating in the field where necessary. It would be unfair not to go over her other, more civilian skills as well. Ashley is quite the author with many published works of fact and fiction under a fair few pseudonyms, especially where her 'trashier' material is concerned. She is also an accomplished photographer with a decent online library and portfolio of impressive shots from closer than most would probably like to get in some cases. Her past issues with the Harris Patrol traffic division and some online videos suggest Ashley is very good with her motorcycle as well. Otherwise she's supposedly a decent dancer if sightings at various concerns and clubs are to be believed and claims to be 'pretty good' with an electric guitar, though she's never played in public.

Despite being a soulless, artificial being Ashley does possess what is called a 'Pale Spark', a close replica of the potent 'Spark of Potential' present in most Eteran adventurers. This is largely what allows her to reach the heights of power common in the most veteran Eterans.