Tharja of the Painted Hand

### Quote

"Painted sister... it is 4 bells past... go to sleep or ancestors preserve me, sworn sisters or no, I will GET MY BOW!"

### Affiliations

Wayfinders (Current)Frosthaven (Mercenary work)

Tharashk (Mercenary work)

Jorash’tar: Rusha’khan Tribe (Exiled)

## Personal Details

### Known Relatives

Saaral of the Thousand Arrows (Mother)Munokhoi Sleeping with the Heard (Father)Alun Frost-in-the-Bones (Eldest Sister)Davaa who Only Tigers Love (3rd Oldest Sister)Nergui to Be Painted Twice (4th Oldest Sister)Mandal with the Rattling Skirt and Odd Enebish (5th and 6th Oldest Sister, Twins)Khulan Who Needs No Sheath (Youngest Sister)Cheery Baidar (Uncle)

## Physical Description

### Remarkable Features

a skeletal prosthetic hand painted colorfully

## Sources

### Out of Core (incl. pg #)

Samural (XGE 31)Orc (ERLW 31)

A Jhorash'tar exile with a big bow and even bigger issues.

## Appearance

May the ancestors watch over you Tharja of the Painted Hand. You are shorter for your kin 6’1’’ something your uncle attempted to use to detract from your achievements, but he always threw insults thoughtlessly. Your great bow put an end to his idle chatter. The bow is a colorful weapon made of the bones of your ancestors and painted in the way of our traditions to honor them. When your mother wielded it, it came a few inches above you when planted on the ground. Now with her addition, it is nearly a head taller, and when you perish in glorious battle it will be larger still. Bone Striker, aptly named, as you used it to break the bone and spirit of your accursed uncle that dared challenge your line, although your drawing out of his punishment following your own justice ended in your exile by your sister. No matter, they will beg for your return after you achieve glory in the southern realms.

Your hair, black as the earth the ancestors return to, was your mother’s touch upon you form, your vermillion skin, your father’s gift. But neither can claim your golden eyes that stare out onto the battlefield to bring death to those who would dishonor the corpses of your kin.

Hold fast upon your weapons with your skeletal hand by which they name you, which once was one of flesh that you dyed a dark red the color of oaths when you swore to your uncle it would serve his cause, as long as your sisters were safe, and severed along with that vow when he showed himself one to go back on his word. That painted hand, enchanted by your pale sister who hears our voices through marrow and dream, was once the hand of your own mother. Do you feel her still when you pull back your great bow? Her guiding hand by yours? The weight you feel on that taut string is your ancestor’s will, ringing through to your very bones.

Let your enemies cower before your war armor, a shirt of bone plates bound by leather and the skill of your twin sisters’ hands, topped with the skull of the Kamadan that had terrorized your tribe, your first sundered foe, your first kill, whose spotted white pelt of fur and scales you wear around your waist for all to see what becomes of those who cross you. Let them fall to your axe, given as tithe by the twin clans for your achievements against our shared enemies, used to sever the heads of all those that dare disrupt our sacred ground. It is fitting that the weapons of the hairless moles be used against them, those invaders, those murderers, those accursed fiends! CRUSH THEIR BONES TILL EVEN THEIR SPIRITS CANNOT BE ROUSED! WE WILL NOT BE SATED TILL THEY ARE DRIVEN BACK TO THE PITS FROM WHENCE THEY CAME! BECOME OUR LIVING VENGENCE UPON THEM! YOU WILL BE THE ARROW NOTCHED BY OUR-

*“Hey! Hey, snap out of it! You want me to put a dagger in your throat? You’re scaring the southerners.”*

*“Wh… huh? ...I apologize, my Painted Sister, I was… contemplating.”*

*“Can you contemplate without looking like you’re going to put an axe in someone’s skull? Someone might try to outdraw you.”*

*“I did not know you thought on how I would appear to others. It is comforting to know you care.”*

*“Wh!? No! That’s no- I’ll kill you if you say sappy bullish!t like that again!”*

## Family

Tharja comes from the Rusha’khan tribe, known for their pastoral lifestyle in the valley between the mountains of Noldrunhold and Tordannanhold. The tribe relies primarily on two animals, their auroch herds for milk, meat and leather and ferocious tiger mounts for descendants of those left by the dhakaani during their push into the mountains battle, herding and companionship. The tigers themselves are treated as almost family, and it is not uncommon for their bodies to get treated with similar reverence as if they were members of the tribe when they die.

While the tribe’s free nomadic lifestyle and their tendency to wander near dwarven lands for grazing fields have brought them in conflict with the Mror dwarves almost as much as the aggressive Karashik’Ruh tribe of the Goradra Gap, they are also the tribe with arguably the closest working relationship with the dwarves. Indeed, when the founders of the twin clans went to visit the Bonecaster that taught them their healing arts during the early day of the exile, it was a Bonesworn of the Rusha’khaan tribe that led them, though the Rusha’khaan version of the tale has some noticeable differences from those of Toldorath and Tordannon.

Their willingness to work with the dwarves of Frosthaven, and their current negotiations with House Tharashk has bought them some reprise from the harshness of life in the Ironroot mountains, but at the cost of being shunned by tribes who clamor for war against the dwarves, and at best suspicion of the tribes that would like peace for “straying from tradition”.

While the tribe under Saaral was very open to the twin clans, the chieftain even letting a Toldorath dwarf educate her daughters on the outside world, the last chieftain Baidar kept the twin clans at arm’s length and instead courted Jhorash’tar breatheren in the mountains. The current chieftain Alun walks between the two previous chieftains, trading with the twin clans but not getting involved as much with joint military ventures against Doranath or accepting Tordannon missionaries and scholars. She has also stopped procuring azurite and other minerals needed for colored dye from the clans, instead relying on the tribes of the mountains or herbal alternatives, and has been in discussions with Tharashk to mediate between them and other tribes, something that the Twin Clans are slightly uncomfortable with, though favorable terms for Rusha’khan cattle, dairy and crafts has smoothed over some of the issues.

### Saaral of the Thousand Arrows

*Mother, former chieftain of the Rusha’khan Tribe. Deceased in Doronath raid, but still stands with her daughters.*

### Munokhoi Sleeping with the Heard

*Father, talented herder with knowledge and experience in finding the best routes for the tribe and their herd. A broken shell of a man after the death of his wife.*

### Alun Frost-in-the-Bones

*Eldest Sister, current Chieftain of the Rusha’khan tribe. Calculating and pragmatic.*

### Davaa who Only Tigers Love

*3rd Oldest Sister, hunter and herder of the band. As close as a Jhorash’tar can get to being a cowboy.*

### Nergui to Be Painted Twice

*4th Oldest Sister, Bonecaster of the band. The voice of reason in a family of eight.*

### Mandal with the Rattling Skirt  and Odd Enebish

*5th and 6th Oldest Sister, Twin blacksmiths, one who follows tradition and the other who is fascinated with the dwarven ways of metal and stone.*

### Khulan Who Needs No Sheath

*Youngest Sister. Young Bonesworn, attempting to break away from her eldest sister's band. A trouble maker.*

### Cheery Baidar

*Uncle, her mother’s younger brother, former chieftain of the Rusha’khan tribe. Deceased but not gone.*

## History

Tharja was always curious about life outside the tribe, often grilling her dwarven teacher for scraps of information about the southern nations, their Great War, and the orcs that lived in the southwest corner of the world, some with powers given to them by fate itself.

When a secret hunting expedition she went out on by herself to rid a kamadan that was plaguing the herd and orcs of her tribe led to her elder sister Alun losing the use of her legs to frostbite dragging the poor girl back from the blizzard she had wandered into, cut Tharja’s wish to explore short as now the responsibility as the warrior to defend the rest of her siblings fell directly onto her shoulders. When her mother was killed in an Doranath raid, the 6 year old Tharja had to pick up her mother’s massive war bow and grow up quickly to prevent other bands who disliked their mother’s fraternization with the twin clans from revoking their status as a band, and take their father’s herd from them.

It was the chieftain of the tribe, her uncle, who offered help in exchange for Tharja to become his champion, which Tharja accepted against her elder sister's protests, dying her hand dark red, the Jhorash’tar color symbolizing oaths. Unfortunately, her sister’s instincts were right, as Baidar simply wanted to keep Tharja unable to fight him as he went about, trying to integrate her band into his own, along with their cattle. The final straw came when he attempted to pressure her elder sister to marry one of his sons, and goad Tharja’s youngest sister and the best fighter among the band into a fight, attempting to nip the young upstart in the bud. Enraged, Tharja hacked off her own hand with an axe before challenging the chieftain to a duel, her bravery and strength turning the tribe that had been fully on her uncle's side against him. Reluctantly her uncle took the fight, thinking an armless and weakened Tharja would be no threat, especially unable to wield a bow.

However, Tharja’s sister Nergui crafted her a prosthetic from the painted bone arm of their mother and after some healing from a Toldorath ally, Tharja took to battle against her uncle.

The fight was quick, Baider did not have time to draw before Tharja pinned him with and arrow to a wooden pole used to hang the painted bones of the tribe's ancestors, but Tharja’s rage got the better of her, and she continued to fire into Baider till he was dead, and then refused her cousins the right to take their uncle’s body, claiming that he had not surrendered nor hit the ground and by this the duel would continue.

She drove off her cousins several times before her elder sister, who had gained the position of chieftain through pushing her already strong claim and deals and alliances with bands that had been their enemies, called Tharja to a moot in which the new chieftain banished her sister for desecration of a corpse and dishonoring the bones of the ancestors that hung from the pole she had pinned Baider to. Tharja could not even whisper an apology before she was left behind by the tribe, already moving to greener pastures.

With nowhere to go and utterly crushed by her elder sister’s actions, Tharja joined up with a Tharashk mercenary company in Frostvale and fought the wars of the twin clans for 6 years, whether above or below, fighting as if she had a death wish. Through the crucible of endless waves of abominations and howling dwarven barbarians that might have well have crawled out of Khyber itself, Tharja slowly opened up more to the members of her company and grew to laugh and chatter with them, still yearning to return to her tribe, but feeling supported by this new mismatched family. When a group of Wayfinders came to her with a request from her sister to guide them through the mountains of Noldrunhold, Tharja almost didn’t accept until the cook of the company Irinushka, a stern ice troll who made very good stew, talked her out of her nonsense and into doing what she wanted and not what she thought she should. With that push Tharja decided to take the job with the Wayfinders.

### The Last War

Tharja had no real contact with the last war besides discussions with some mercenaries who had seen it first hand. She sympathies with the Cyrans who like her people were forced out of their lands and put at the mercy of others.

### Invitation

Tharja led the band of adventurers to the location they wished to go, a mine shaft entrance that had long been avoided by the Jhorash’tar, stopping along the way at camps of other tribes to trade for supplies and information about the location. Things were going smoothly until an unruly Doronath dwarf came charging in, ignored any offers of peace and broke Tharja’s nose with a dishonorable headbutt while she tried to explain that they were contracted adventurers and non-combatants. Tharja, urged on by the whispers of her ancestors, was very close to drawing her bow and ending the dwarf’s life if the Wayfinders hadn’t convinced the dwarf to put down her weapon for the time being.

While Tharja was keen to let the dwarf kill herself running into danger, the situation changed when down underground they were beset upon by hordes of twisted creations of the Foul Labyrinth having to fight their way out with byeshk and steel. During the fight the dwarf had saved Tharja’s life, and in turn (without thinking) Tharja saved her’s, which by Jhorash’tar customs, bound them as sisters till they died and their bones were painted.

While Tharja was horrified by being bound by such an oath to a barbarian that could barely get through a sentence without screaming at the top of their lungs, she accepted it as it was their way, regardless of what the dwarf felt. The two made it out along with the Wayfinders thanks to the artificers makeshift explosive, and the mines were sealed along with the evil that lurked within.

Tharja was able to visit her family and band for the first time in 6 years, and she was able to meet all her sisters except for the eldest who simply paid the Wayfinders their fee for the investigation and returned to her tent. While Tharja’s exile had been shortened she could not stay long and bid a goodbye to her siblings and returned to Frosthaven with the wayfinders to see them off back to the southern lands.

To her surprise they offered to recommend her to the Foundation which she thanked them for but did not think anything of, as she felt she was much too ignorant of the world to be considered. until she received an invitation from an Orien courier while looking for her next job. Feeling the pull of new horizons past the routes of her tribe and the auroch herds during the spring, Tharja accepted, packing her things for a trip beyond the mountains.

### Experience

Tharja is a trained warrior and deadly with her massive bow, hitting targets farther and more accurately than most trained archers, all with a bow that most would struggle at even pulling back let alone firing multiple times.

However, as a member of the nomadic Rusha’khan tribe Tharja also knows how to traverse the lands of the Jhorash’tar and dwarves, how to handle animals, and how to survive in the wilds making her a much more useful asset to an adventuring organization like the Foundation.

### Motivation

Tharja spent most of her life living for others, first her sisters, then her mercenary company. She now wishes to do what she always wanted, and travel beyond the narrow borders of the Ironroot Mountains, see the people who live in the warm flat lands of the south.

Tharja is very interested in the Shadow Marches and house Tharashk, an orc culture that has not just survived alongside other races but thrived, though some of their more daelkyr focused cults slightly unnerve her. She wonders if they can be allies to her people from those who would try to wipe them out.

Tharja still feels very responsible for her sisters even when she was exiled from their tribe. She is weak to the idea of family and family ties, and will not allow anyone she views as part of her family, whether by blood or deed, to be harmed, taking it very badly if she fails.

### Future Goals

* Fix her flute that a certain dwarf broke
* Explore new places and meet new people and cultures
* Take a tour of Sharn
* Get some fancy southern clothes
* Fulfil her duty as a Bonesworn and become a conduit for her ancestors emotions
* Continue to tease Kerrigan whenever she can

### Secrets

Tharja has secretly gotten into reading trashy pulp adventure novels, though she tends to skip over the boring bits.

### Enemies

* Her cousins.
* Various Doranath dwarves (including Kerrigan)

## Faith

The Jhorash’tar faith “the Path of Bones” is an animistic faith based on the worship of ancestors and the maintaining of their souls in Dolurrh with through sharing with their spirits memories and emotions through rituals by boneshapers and bonesworn. By infusing them with positive emotions and resolving negative emotions through the living as conduits, they believe the souls of their ancestors can return to eberron as ascended spirits, and later be reborn back into the tribe in a great cycle “the Path of Bones”. A common prayer among the Jhorash’tar is “to the bones we were born, and to the bones we will return.”

While they don’t have “gods'' they do have powerful spirits that guide them including the founder of the tribes and the first warlord Jhorash who is depicted in 3 separate forms each representing a step on the path of bones, or an orc with three heads, the right with the visage of an orc, the middle a visage of a bleached skull, and the third a blank visage representing the cycle of living on eberron as a mortal, persevering in Dolurrh as an ancestor spirit, and watching over the next generation as an ascended spirit fully linked back to the earth and ready to be reborn back to mortality. Sovereign scholars view this as a 3 faces cult though whether the faces are “Dol Arrah, the Mockery, and the Traveler” or “Dol Dorn, the Keeper, and Aureon” is debated. Some believe Jhorash might even be a group of 3 shadowmarch interpretations of the sovereigns, which combine aspects of usually 2 gods, making Jhorash possibly 6 gods in one, though this is mostly dismissed in scholarly circles as an attempt to extrapolate a single linked possibly pre-dhakaani orcish pantheon with very little historical evidence.

Color is important to the spiritual practice of the Jhorash'tar. As Dolurrh is a bleak and grey place, the Jhorash'tar paint the bones of their ancestors with colors representing Jhorash'tar virtues so their ancestors do not lose their sense of self: Red symbolizing oaths and honor, Green for prosperity and health, yellow for community and love, purple for wisdom and memory and light blue for freedom of spirit and body. Black is considered an auspicious color for its association with the earth and a return to the land of the living and white is considered unlucky as it is the color of unpainted bone and the cold snows of winter. These multicolored painted bones are incorporated into weapons or hung from ropes attached to poles around and in a Jhorash'tar encampment to allow the ancestors access to their descendants when they are needed.

## Personality

**Personality Traits**

* Tharja is normally overly polite and respectful as she is not the most charismatic and fears that she’ll offend someone, but with people she’s comfortable with she’s more prone to relaxing and takes part in some good natured teasing and prodding to see how they react. Currently her pass time is trying to get Kerrigan to go back on her oath not to kill her till she saves her 3 times.
* Tharja watches over her friends as if they were a litter of newborn tiger cubs. Woe to those that would harm them.
* Tharja honors her ancestors through practices and rituals that are foreign to this land.
* While vanity is a flaw that the Jhorash’tar cannot afford, Tharja does have a fondness for some of the strange clothes and food of the southern kingdoms. While her ancestors may disapprove, one pair of stunningly embroidered and tasseled boots isn’t \*THAT\* much of a crime… is it?

**Ideals**

* To Tharja family is everything. One cannot survive in the world alone, and everyone needs guidance from another whether a dead ancestor or a living friend.
* Tharja keeps to a code of honor and genuinely feels uncomfortable with lying, stealing and desecration of corpses. Particularly with the last one, she always tries to make sure that the corpse of even a foe is treated with dignity and laid to rest according to their customs.
* Tharja believes in expanding her horizons. Only through experiencing new places and people can her tribe be able to grow and protect itself through allies and knowledge.

**Bonds**

* Tharja is fascinated by the beauty and wonder of the southern kingdoms.
* The spirits of Tharja’s ancestors guide her through her skeletal arm and bone bow, with them she is never alone even when far from her tribe.
* Tharja has sworn sisterhood with Kerrigan, someone that would be her enemy in any other circumstance. She is still not quite sure how to proceed with that.

**Strengths**

* Tharja is generally even tempered and doesn’t get angry unless people she cares about are threatened
* Tharja will never abandon a friend and will even to the detriment of herself try to help in any way she can.

**Flaws**

* Tharja has a tendency to keep her emotions even violent ones bottled inside, it is not pretty when they burst out.
* Tharja tends to take harm suffered by her allies as her own personal failings. She might not be able to look them in the eye for a few weeks and push herself too hard to redeem herself
* While she hates to admit it, coming from a family of seven sister’s Tharja is INCREDIBLY competitive. The best way to break her composure is to tell her someone else can beat her at something she knows she is good at.

## Completed Missions

### Insert Mission Name Here

(Describe anything from the mission that particularly impacted your character, any achievements, allies or enemies acquired, etc.)

## Crunch

### XP & Gold Log

*This transaction list must include all finished expeditions and the gold/XP earned for each, as well as all expenditures (what you bought and for how much).*

### Inventory

* Painted laminar bone armor (chain mail)
* Oversized Longbow
* Longsword
* two handaxes
* an explorer's pack
* One set of traveler's clothes
* A damaged bone flute
* poorly wrought maps from your homeland that depict where you are in Khorvaire
* a snow Kamadan pelt worth 10 gp
* Shard of Comfort
* a pouch

### Character Sheet

* https://drive.google.com/file/d/1\_1uksuWPA9\_ywKKCUAAZwgHFjc1cj-13/view?usp=sharing