Name: Ghorza Mab'khul
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Race: Orc
Height: 5'10"


Appearance:

Slightly undersized both in height and build for an Orc (likely due to childhood malnourishment), Ghorza has a nearly human build. Her features are unmistakably Orcish, with a wide but chiseled facial structure, high browline and piercing yellow eyes. Her skin is a muted dark green and her hair is shoulder length and black, tied into individual braids and beaded tufts. She keeps her fangs sharpened while campaigning (and, recently, sometimes just for fun) which makes her infrequent smiles somewhat menacing. She tends to otherwise keep a neutral expression with a disconcerting habit of keeping prolonged eye contact when speaking. She has long since learned that the quiet intimidation of her stare and her teeth could steer a negotiation in her favor and - as long as she didn't escalate the situation - she could always explain away the tactics as Orcish habits if dealing with a less frightened client.

A lifelong soldier, she wears a light leather vest and a light chain skirt over leather pants as daily clothing; her only ornamental piece is a totem of Masakari carved from a boar tusk, which she credits with protecting her through countless battles. She carries an unusually long broadsword strapped to her back along with a wooden buckler layered with thick leather. A short axe with a heavy blade hangs from her belt on the left side. As last resort, she has a leather sheath with a fighting knife on each calf. All of the equipment is worn but well-maintained, blades sharpened and armor oiled regularly.

When campaigning, she adds a iron plate armor on her chest and back with short mail sleeves and a mail coif. For pitched battle, she adds a barbute helmet and iron plate leg armor, though it's been years since she has felt the need to wear her full heavy armor. A scar runs along her left bicep where a bandit's throwing knife nearly severed the muscle. She carries herself upright, without the slight menacing hunch of her larger brethren, though she does imitate the orcish tendency to lean toward humans when dealing with shorter folk.

Personality:

Ghorza has the confidence of an experienced soldier and the taciturn nature of an Orc in human society; she is distrustful of new people but has learned to keep that instinct in check for the sake of finding new business. Most who interact with her - especially clients - are struck by her mild temper, even compared to human mercenaries, much less a typical Orc. Instead, she has a reputation for thoughtful preparation and strategic insight that befits her time in a human military and her clients have learned to trust her judgment.

When she fights, however, it is clear to everyone that the thrill of the battle calls to her as strongly as any of her kin. Her movements are as graceful and quick as those of human blademasters but carry the telltale strength of her kind. She has held her own against larger Orcs on many occasions, using technique, leverage and patience to offset her disadvantages in size and brute force.

By Orcish standards, Ghorza is quite smart, a trait which no doubt contributes to her mastery of human fighting techniques and strategy. Her success as an Orcish mercenary operating alone or leading small bands is unusual in human society, where her kind more often provides the muscle than the brains. Perhaps it is this intelligence which has also made her unusually curious - while she would only ever characterize her exploits as making a living, they are starting to look a lot like the results of an adventure-seeker as well.

Strengths:

Fighting Skill: Ghorza was trained as a human soldier and fought with a human unit, making her an unusually technically proficient fighter with Orcish strength. She primarily fights with a buckler and hand axe in her left hand and a long broadsword in her right. She has also drilled and fought as part of a shield and spear line and was particularly adept at using her strength behind a kite shield to create openings in an enemy line or against a single opponent. Those spear line skills are slightly rusty, as her recent experiences as a caravan guard and mercenary have made her more practiced in fighting robbers and bandits than organized foes.

Charisma: Ghorza's quietly competent nature make her a natural leader, particularly of small groups. She doesn't gravitate toward leadership positions, but is outspoken on topics of her expertise; she has learned over time that people tend to be receptive to her input and generally respond well to her. This is particularly noticeable when interacting with humans, where Ghorza's relatively less intimidating size and her long history with humans tends to put them at ease.

Tactical Intelligence: Unlike many soldiers, Ghorza was actively curious about their unit's tactics and role in broader strategy. While her junior role and unusual background limited her exposure to the overall army's strategy, she learned a lot of squad-level tactics and situational strategy in her 10 years of service. She has since adapted some of those for use defending from robbers or raiding bandit hideouts and is widely considered one of the most thoughtful and reliable mercenaries among her small (but growing) set of clients.

Neutral Aspects:

Inscrutable: Ghorza is not naturally expressive, a trait which tends to make strangers uneasy around her. Fellow mercenaries take  time to get comfortable in her presence, much less potential clients. The trait occasionally helps with intimidation and negotiations, but just as often alienates potential contacts or clients.

Weaknesses:

Distrustful: Ghorza does not trust people easily, whether human or Orc. She has a hard time forming new working relationships, which has limited her career as a mercenary despite her fearsome reputation and tactical competence.

Savage: While she fights with human training and techniques, she shares the natural Orcish tendency to embrace violent dominance. Her human comrades are sometimes put off by her readiness to inflict crippling injury and she is not as accomplished at taking prisoners as the rest of her military exploits would suggest.

Uneducated: While she is naturally intelligent and tactically well-trained, growing up as a refugee and enlisting at a young age left her with large gaps in her education. She reads just enough to  understand basic military orders and rudimentary maps and can do very limited arithmetic (for troop movements and limited squad-level supply planning), but is otherwise illiterate and largely ignorant of academic subjects.

Notable Equipment:

Long broadsword (44-inch blade)
Leather-on-wood buckler
One-handed war axe
2x Fighting knife (12 inch) & leather sheath
Boar-tusk Totem of Masakari

Likes Enchanted Items: Like most Orcs, Ghorza is not sophisticated in the ways of magic; she believes fiercely but vaguely that her totem of Masakari has granted her protection in her campaigns ever since it was given to her by a dying comrade - she has sought enchanted items ever since, occasionally making her an easy mark for local "traders".

Dislikes Social Interaction: Given her limited cultural fluency, Ghorza particularly dislikes large gatherings and parties - the more complex the social rules, the more she dislikes the situation. She also dislikes (and is slightly confused by) small talk and social niceties, though she has overcome this to a limited extent with her regular clients and fellow soldiers of fortune.

Habit - Orcish War Preparations: Ghorza files her teeth into sharpened fangs occasionally - she used to follow this "grooming" ritual before battles, but now tends to keep her fangs sharp as a pastime as well.

History:

Ghorza is an Orcish mercenary – she grew up in an orc tribe conquered by Peas'mak near the end of the expansion era. Her family escaped the conquest as refugees and, once she came of age, she fought with The Alliance in an army composed mostly of humans. Training with human soldiers and slightly undersized for an orc (perhaps due to malnourishment as a refugee child), her fighting style is a hybrid of a human soldier and an orc - not as reliant on brute force as her brethren but more individual and mobile than a spearman on the front lines. As a young soldier, she latched on to the identity to of being one of her regiment's most fearsome frontline troops, a role she continued to embrace even after being elevated in hierarchy.

As the war wound down, the Alliance armies began to disband; she and much of her unit signed on as guards for the World Trotting Caravan on a whim. She learned to fight robbers rather than soldiers and to minimize destruction, developing an eye for ambush sites and defensible campgrounds. She earned the respect of many of the traders for her fearlessness and honest dealings and seemed satisfied with the work. After a few years as a Caravan guard, she declined to renew her contract without fully explaining herself, simply telling the merchants that it was not a matter of her fees. In fact, at her last stop with the Caravan, a client offered her a lucrative job and offered a minor retainer if she would travel at his behest; she did so, taking jobs as they came both from this client and any other in the area. She traveled - mostly alone but occasionally attached to small mercenary groups - continuing to take local contracts when they did not conflict with her client's work. Living a life of itinerant adventuring, she has managed to save some money and made her way to Inrivers at the same client's request. She plans to shop for enchanted armor between paying gigs.

She couldn't fully explain to herself why she decided to follow a single wealthy client and leave the Caravan, particularly after they offered her a raise. She was bored by fighting unsophisticated bandits, certainly, but her contracts since had hardly escalated in terms of combat. She simply felt a greater sense of adventure traveling by herself than with a massive caravan. With the relative financial stability of a client keeping her on retainer, Ghorza had begun choosing her contracts for new experiences and learning - the chance to work with an expert tracker or to guide an accomplished herbalist to find a rare plant. Without fully realizing it, Ghorza had spent the last 2 years turning her mercenary career into a rudimentary education. She just knew that she enjoyed the feeling of seeing something new and learning a new skill.