Raffia

*Forever a work in progress*

 History

Born in a tribe living in the jungle near Luperion, Raffia is the daughter of one of the elder druids of her village. Obviously having no formal education whatsoever, Raffia still enjoyed a loving and simple childhood, learning how to hunt small game and being taught the druidic arts to replace her father when the time would come. At a young age, she learned to scratch magical patterns onto bark from her Elders, a process she now applies to scroll scribing. The reclusive nature of the training, though, made the girl a little bit more than awkward when it came to social interactions. Few friends would come and stay with her. Still, her communion with nature was all that she considered she needed, for the most part.

Her tribe worshipped a Holy site standing a few miles away from her village created by the elven natives. The sit is composed of many standing rocks, or Menhirs, which are meant to assist a user in focussing and channeling the magic of the world, a phenomena known as 'Ley lines' in the Academies. Part of her duties were to clean and prepare the site for major rituals yearly. This task was to be performed alone, and would usually last a bit over a week.

This magical training would sometimes come at a price. When she was thirteen years old, she was participating in a ritual to soothe, or at least repel, troublesome wildlife from the area. Unfortunately for her, the circle went berserk and Raffia took the brunt of the magical blast. Though she was not physically harmed, she has since been cursed with the inability of staying near animals, effectively being a ward against them in general. Considering her village heavily depended on livestocks and such, it did not help her outcast status in the least and isolated her even more, bringing her into a hermit-like lifestyle.

The ritual year of her 18th birthday would be the one that would see her ordained as a true Druidess of her community. Unfortunately, when coming back from her cleaning duties, her entire tribe had disappeared entirely without a trace, as if the place had been purged of life through magic. She is unaware of if this was an act of Luperion in their attempts to remove primitivism from the area or anything otherwise. Alone, Raffia simply stumbled around, looking for her loved ones. Instead, she stumbled into Luperion, and was saved from the mean streets of it by a caring yet harsh noble, Lady Kelbourne, who added Raffia to her collection of intricate belongings.

Though Lady Kelbourne more or less had pure intentions, hoping to 'bring the Savage out of the Savage' to prove that people like Raffia could just as well live in society, she did so from the Luperion point of view and stereotypes of tribal life, ultimately causing more pain than good to Raffia. Trained as a maid (which she somehow believed was a tribe of people rather than a profession due to the nature of the uniforms), Lady Kelbourne managed to teach her how to speak common and read, if only barely.

Raffia though was swiftly bored by intrigue and the dog eat dog attitude of Luperion, as well as their actions towards her as a lesser, primitive being in general. Taking her leave one night, along with her all of the gold she had saved aside from her maid position, she came onboard of a steam boat under the guise of a vermin hunter, finding a use for her curse. Not knowing where she would end up, not even aware of the fact she's halfway across the world now, Raffia now lives in Falador, where she met people who would dress as she would. Comforted, she has since remained in Falador, even despite the fact she was told there is no such thing as a 'maid' tribe, if only so she can repay a debt she feels to the society which has welcomed her as part of their community.

Recently, Raffia has been democratically elected as Marshal of Falador, out of the blue. Despite her social ineptitude, she hopes to step up to the role and prove her worth to her comrades.

## Appearance

Raffia is a 5'7 human of surprisingly sturdy build due to her upbringing in the jungle, her musculature suggesting she is more finesse than brawns. Purple eyes betray the fact that she may have a mysterious non-human ancestor down her lineage, though the blood is long diluted in her. She often enjoys dyeing the long black hair she has, often through natural products she finds in the wild. Indeed, when she first appeared in Falador, her hair were of a blue shade. When it comes to clothings, she has two philosophies. One of them is that she doesn't see much of a point to them. As a result, she keeps enough to stay prude, tattered leather often being enough. The second is that they are important to show rank and position within a community. This means that she may sometimes be seen wearing more formal uniforms if she wishes to represent her allegiances, such as when she would wear a maid outfit. She sometimes does decide to decorate herself with various plants she collects, or remains of animals such as teeth to wear as a necklace. She also seems to have a hard time keeping fully clean, as she has a preference for natural, wildlife products to clean herself over buying products as a means of keeping her independence, but also enjoys perfuming herself with sweet smelling plants when she has the opportunity to.

## Personality

Raffia is a shy observer. She prefers staying in the background and not get in the way of people, an everwatching scrying eye on the lookout, rather than be the leader and guide the path. Lacking initiative doesn't mean that she is blind to opportunities: she may sometimes decide to act on her own if she believes it is beneficial for her to do such, such as when she stepped up for the position of Marshal in Falador. Raffia enjoys taking calculated risks, but is wise enough to not blindly jump into danger's way in most cases. Formulating plans of action is not her forte due to her social ineptitude, being somewhat of a loner. As an aside, she tries to evade non-hostile herds of animals as much as she can, to not bother them.

## Friends

Raffia considers most people to be her friend, though two specific cases come to mind.

**Satin** acts as some kind of guardian over her since her arrival. Raffia has come to respect her for such. She also helps Raffia unlock the mysteries of Chi, which she recently has begun exploring as a bolster to her druidic abilities.

**Velvet** is her trusted friend, and the first of the short lived 'Maid tribe'. She sees her as some kind of big sister, and as a result seems to trust and confide in her.

## Enemies

Raffia is currently chasing a criminal she nicknames the **Laughing Witch**, most likely responsible for the recent spree of children murders. She knows nothing about her identity or whereabouts, though.

## Aspirations

As a student of the weather and a believer of order, Raffia one day aspires to be able to form her own circle of druids that will overwatch the various rites of the seasons, or the balance of life and death in all things, amongst other things. She also wishes to repay a perceived debt towards Falador for welcoming her and making her a part of their community. Lastly, she wishes to discover what has happened to her original family and tribe, and either reunite with them or avenge their disappearance.