Name: Aimee (pronounced I-me) Roswell

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Appearance: Aimee is 5' 2" tall, with green eyes and short brown hair. Her favorite garb is the yukata, of which she has several. On the surface she appears as an innocent young girl, but her wide eyes hold a depth of knowledge and experience that clashes with her youthful appearance.



Personality: Aimee is clever and quick-witted, with a tendency to point out gaps in logic or errors in reasoning. Socially, she is sometimes a little awkward and standoffish, but in company with close friends she relaxes her guard and opens up.

Fighting style: Aimee is a Blade Shaman from the north, and is skilled with swords and axes. Her weapon, Rra'Kesh (pronounced Ar-Ra-Kesh), is a combination katana, hatchet, and war axe. The blade's sheath sports both a handle and a blade, and contains a special mechanism that can lock the katana inside it. With the blade removed, the sheath serves as a heavy hatchet which she is capable of wielding along with the katana; and when the blade is sheathed and locked the added length of handle transforms the entire assembly into a long-bladed war axe. She specializes in fighting with both hands, either ambidextrously with both weapons or with two hands on the sword or war axe, yet the power for her strikes rises from her stance and her deep connection with the earth.

War-Axe Style: Aimee's stance is lowest to the ground (nearly crouched), and the axe is often held horizontally behind her waist or diagonally out to the side. Strike zones are low ( horizontal spins / sweeps / chops) and high (vertical sweeps / chops). This style is her slowest and most defensive, most often used for power strikes, and is the base for most of her transitions.

Dual Wield Style: Aimee's stance is low, and she stands with one weapon to either side of her torso. Strike zones are low (omni-directional sweeps / chops / thrust), mid (omni-directional spins / sweeps / chops / thrust), and high (omni-directional sweeps / chops / thrust). This style is her most aggressive and varied, most often used against multiple foes, and is primarily used for breaking through formations and preventing flanking.

Katana Style: Aimee's stance is high, and she stands with the katana in a high guard above her head. Strike zones are mid (omni-directional sweeps / chops / thrusts) and high (vertical chops / thrusts). This style is her fastest and most accurate, most often used against high-mobility or endurance enemies, and is primarily used to set up powerful transition and counter attacks.

Artes: Strike Artes
Starting Arte: Tiger Blade
Arte path: Asbel Lhant / Richter Abend / Presea Combatir.

Backstory: Aimee hails from a small village in northern Daymonde, at the foot of a tall mountain. Her family has been the village's spiritual leaders for centuries, their sons becoming High Priests and their daughters becoming Blade Shaman. Recently, the village has become assailed by monster and disease alike. Of her whole family, Aimee remained the only one immune to the debilitation that was spreading between the people of her village. After the village council held an emergency meeting, the decision was made to send a messenger to the capitol for help, requesting they send skilled healers to the village's aid. As the person most capable of making the trip alone, Aimee was entrusted with the village's enshrined Sacred Stone and the bulk of the transportable riches, and tasked to only return if she found aid...

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Travel Excerpt

As the first rays of dawn cleared the horizon, Aimee's eyes slowly opened. Taking a deep breath, she bowed her head to the earth before rising to her feet; her blade sliding across her lap before tracing the sun's future path across the sky and slipping into its sheath. Her morning meditation and sun salutation complete, she set about breaking camp and getting ready for the day ahead of her; a task she finished before the sun was halfway up. Securing Rra'Kesh to her gear, she hoisted it into the air and secured it away from the ground before making her way into the small wood to see if her traps had earned her a meal.

The first two were empty, and she wasted little time recovering the materials before moving on. It was on the third trap that fortune favored her, and she could already hear and feel the scuffling of the trapped Bunwigle as it sought escape. Approaching the frightened creature cautiously, she chanted a prayer of thanks to the gods and the spirit of the animal, her hunting knife slipping out of its sheath. As her prayer concluded she struck, the blade finding the weak part of the skull near her prey's jaw and piercing through to its brain, killing it instantly. Quietly chanting a second prayer to see the creature's soul returned someday to life, she cleaned her blade and set about stringing the creature for later preparation.

A decade of training and a deep connection to the earth gave her an instant of warning before the nearby shrub erupted in a mass of flesh and black fur. The Black Wolf had no doubt been lying in wait, the creature's unnatural intelligence somehow informing it that whatever had trapped the Bunwigle was preferable prey to the defenseless meal in front of it. Once Aimee's hands were both occupied and her attention seemed fully engrossed, the monster pounced.

Snarls of aggression and bloodlust erupted as the beast crashed into Aimee, all three forms bowling over and twisting as the Wolf sought to lock its jaws on its prey. Yet those snarls turned to a pained yip as the Blade Shaman's knife found its way into the monster's flank. By the time the beast had rolled back to its feet, Aimee was already on hers. Snarling and barking in rage, the beast's red tongue lolled over foaming fangs, rabid saliva dripping to the ground as it paced back and forth.

For her part, Aimee assumed a low stance, her blade parallel to the earth as her knuckles nearly touched the ground. Her off hand rested against the elbow of her dominant, ready to defend against a renewed assault. No fear or hesitation was in her eyes as they remained locked on her foe, and a new mantra began to fall from her lips; one imploring the gods forgiveness on herself and her enemy, and begging the enemy's soul be sent swiftly to justice.

As if it understood the words, the beast rose up in rage, dashing at the smaller girl in the hopes of bowling her over. Yet it never got the chance, as the moment it lunged so too did Aimee. Weapon flashing with a crackling energy, the Blade Shaman's knife rose in a powerful crescent. Feet leaving the ground, both Aimee and the wolf were propelled into the air. As the beast snapped its slavering jaws at her, she batted it away with a spinning kick before her blade came crashing in from above, slashing across its face and slicing through its right eye.

Once again the beast rolled away, blood now streaming down its face to join the saliva that splattered on the ground. As Aimee once again took her stance, the Wolf apparently decided this prey was too strong for it. Glaring wicked intentions from its one remaining eye, the monster turned and fled into the woods, its path made clear by flora and fauna scattered in its passage.

Completing her mantra, Aimee once again cleaned her blade, then took her meal from where it had fallen and returned to camp. After such an interesting and invigorating morning, she was quite excited to see what the remainder of the day would bring.