Riya Rowan

## Appearance and Character

Born in the year 1,330 AC, Riya Rowan was the second child and firstborn daughter of Tymon and Alicent Karint a family of no real renown outside of a marketing sphere. While first dismissed as shyness, the years made it clear there was something far more severe: Riya couldn’t utter a word. She simply couldn’t speak. The child was mute. Already a temperamental child, her inability to speak did nothing to help her tantrums. She would cry all day and night.

As a small girl, it became apparent Riya enjoyed following her big brother. She picked up the sword alongside him, though she was always met with a scolding instead of a proper scrap. Her time spent with her brother would at least soothe her, and see her learn to read and write sooner. As she grew, her tantrums subsided but gave way to a troubling new habit: sneaking out. While it began as simply leaving her room in the dead of night, by the age of one and ten she snuck out into the wilds outside of Penrith. From then and many years to come, Riya learned a great deal of survivalism. The duration of her escape ranged from hours to days, to weeks on a few occasions. Childhood yielded to young adolescence and her inner fire burned bright, and though her tantrums subsided, the girl still boasted a temper. Though she was mute, she was cunning with girlish charms.

During one of her outings, she came upon an abandoned pup. For once she surrendered herself to her father’s men, if only to lead them to the animal. She felt a compassion for this animal that dwarfed most humans. After silently pleading with the kennelmaster then her father, she was allowed to raise the dog, whom she named *Petey* by spelling his name in the mud. This encounter, combined with her experiences in the wild, saw her grow an interest in animal taming. All the while, she became proficient at archery and gave whatever she could to be allowed the chance to practice.

About a year later she met Dovan Rowan from Penrith when he came to Sarilt to meet with Lord Denzin Thulum she saw him and like most of the other girls almost instantly fell for him so she approached him alongside her dog and while she couldn't talk she wrote to him and he smiled at her talking back softly for a while. Eventually Dovan went to talk to her parents to ask for her to travel back to Penrith with him even though she was still quite young. They agreed as it made their life easier and Riya rejoiced as she packed everything and left on the path to Penrith.

On the path to Penrith there was an odd showing of the Red Faith in the north speaking their truth to the masses a rarity in the north for certain. Dovan and Riya went to go listen just in case there was something to change their perspective, and where they didn't find that. The Red Priest Perseus who was the preacher stared at Riya curiously and called her up, and while she was reluctant she nodded and walked up. He cut his hand and wiped his blood on her forehead blessing her in the light of the master of fire and she contorted oddly much to Dovan's horror before suddenly she took a deep breath in and out and oddly she felt an odd warm feeling as she instinctually started making more coherent sounds and managed to actually speak. From that day on she learned to properly speak and she is no longer mute and she is married to Dovan.