Red Snow ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seeming Ample, plush lips as deeply red as blood staining soft skin as white as fresh fallen snow. Her hair falls in large curls about her sharp jaw and has the same thick, ravendark blackness as her voluminous eyelashes which shade her large, light-filled dark eyes. She wears a wide, red hairband across the top of her head tied into an oversized bow that drapes down the right side of her head. She wears a well-oiled, rich leather cuirass that smooths down the curves of her slender chest, the front of it opened slightly to reveal the white flesh and to allow a tall white collar to frame her slender neck. The cuirass is sleeveless and follows the wasp-waisted figure of her bottom-heavy frame, ending with a heavy panel in front and back over a deep ochre colored skirt just long enough to show her leather boots with a wide, sensible heel and a small bow near the pointed toes. Where her hips flare out a belt of large metal discs supports a handsome sword sheath and longsword while a smaller, leather belt a bit higher supports her coin pouch and various supplies. Her arms have a puffy, paned sleeve over the shoulders that tuck into a detatched leather sleeve that is cuffed and strapped to her slender arms, the rigid folds and thickness of the leather giving her arms extra bulk. It ends with the cuff of a softer, white under layer splaying over her knuckles where she wears many rings, including one bearing the mark of an apple tree, her signet ring. She usually carries a masterfully crafted and beautifully stained lyre across her back while her faithful mule, Rumpelbold, has a wooden chest lashed to his pack saddle alongside a small, easy to retrieve backpack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Origin The official story, collaborated with the court wizard, is that her mother was blessed after a blood sacrifice in the snow during a fertility ritual with child. The King was old and had no luck in bearing children up until that point. Surely it had nothing to do with the darkly handsome elven ambassador who had visited the palace around the same time. Unfortunately her mother died in childbirth, a cost for rituals some say, and the woman that came to replace her was much more stern and severe. When she had become teen-aged her step-mother grew heavy with child. It was whispered in rumor to be from demonic ritual, but in any case it gave the stepmother more boldness that the girl's aged father could not control. The girl gave up her name and took on a new one, Red Snow, and fled after an assassin in guise of a handmaid tried to garrote her with her own corset laces. The assassin underestimated the power of Red Snow's hip-throw. Red Snow left the palace and journeyed west, towards the far-off frontier where she could hide herself. Along the way she met a group of dwarves from the same clan who were also sallying out towards the frontier, she befriended them and joined their party. The next assassin attempted to poison her with a comb slathered in the oil of taggit, but again they underestimated Red Snow, this time her constitution, and after a good throw-up Red Snow was fine and her companions made sure the assassin didn't make it out the door of the inn. Red Snow's stepmother really didn't want another heir to be out in the world and consulted the court wizard, who really didn't want to be a part of this. Unfortunately the only good enchantment spell he knew was sleep, and after making a potion that had been distilled to be so pure as to last forever the stepmother sent it out with a third assassin. Unfortunately, Red Snow, being half-elven, is immune to magical sleep and never even noticed the final assassination attempt. Moral of the story: Just use regular assassins with high-powered crossbows.

not perfect, but a good visual representation: