THE BASICS

Name: Mapiya (means "Heavenly Sky")

Nickname: Hehewuti (her warrior name, it literally means "Warrior Spirit")


PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Gender: female

Age: 18

Hair: black and long, usually open or in pigtails

Eyes: dark brown

Distinguishing Marks: slightly crooked tooth on the upper left, mixed Cheyenne and Chinese

General Appearance: Mapiya is naturally slim but with an hourglass figure, a flat belly and a relatively large bust for her figure. Her waist is quite small, making her hips look wider than they are, which gets balanced nicely by her long and shapely legs. She has big eyes that scream "cute" and a smile that can kill. Her one slightly crooked tooth only adds to the cuteness when she smiles. She is 5'4 and weighs a little less than 100 pounds. She knows that when she visits a town of the palefaces, she needs to dress modestly, but her version of that still draws many eyes. She wears a long, flowy skirt that tends to ride up a lot when she is on horseback and a strapless top made of the skin of a wolf she killed by herself. It covers the essentials, but still shows her shoulders, belly and almost all of her back. It seems quite astonishing that it stays up, since it's basically held only by the firmness of her breasts.


HISTORY

Occupation: Cheyenne Warrior Woman

Personality: Mapiya is smart, creative, and unconventional. She is also outgoing, assertive, and talkative. She can make friends easily and she is able to get along with almost anyone. She simply likes being around people, and because she is organized and charismatic, she has some natural leadership skills. She can be quite diplomatic if she wants to, but she can also be fierce and brave. She would lay down her life for her people without hesitation.

She is compassionate and thoughtful. She goes out of her way to help her people, and is sympathetic to the plight of other tribes as well, sometimes to her own disadvantage. She tries hard to do the right thing by others. She likes most people and is a good negotiator. She is often kind and goes out of her way for others, and as a result people tend to like her.

Sexual Preferences: heterosexual

About Your character: Mapiya's father fled the economic chaos in China and moved to America, drawn by the California gold rush. Unfortunately, he did not strike it rich, instead he got robbed and almost killed several times. This led to him deciding to travel further inland, hoping for some good honest work that would not be this risky. Several other Chinese adventurers joined him, and they found work at a mine controlled by Mexicans.

Their string of bad luck did not stop, because the mine was on territory of a Cheyenne clan. Before the American-Mexican War erupted in 1846, there was bloody fighting between the Cheyenne with their Apache allies and the Mexicans, and the mine was raided as well. Since the Chinese workers did not fight back, the victorious Cheyenne took them prisoner. Not considered warrior-material, they were brought back to the camps to work for the tribe, as the clan had lost many warriors and labor was lacking.

The Cheyenne clan had a strict monogamous policy when it came to marriage, and due to the recent losses, there were many women without a husband. The council of the elders decided that because the Chinese men were not Apache, they would not fall under that rule and would be allowed to become "companions" to all the women who were lacking husbands. The Chinese were well liked, so many Cheyenne women took a "companion" every now and then, and this produced children - one of which was Mapiya. Most of the children from such a union were female, which the shaman explained was because the Cheyenne blood was stronger and the mothers were Cheyenne, so most of the children would be female as well. That made sense to everybody.

Mapiya grew up in a time of almost constant war. The Americans took the Apache's and Cheyenne's help happily when they fought the Mexicans, but once their territory came under US rule, they insisted that the Indians kept the terms of the treaty while the Americans ignored their part. This of course did not fly. Skirmishes happened a lot during that time, but they intensified when Mapiya was ten years old, after miners launched a surprise attack on an encampment on the west bank of the Mimbres River and killed several Cheyenne, including women and children.

It was about that time that Mapiya's clan decided to allow the mixed blood children to train as warriors, regardless of gender. The outrage over the treatment of prisoners by the palefaces led to many taking this path for themselves, including many of the female children. Mapiya was among them, she had energy to spare anyways and wanted to show the tribe that she was willing to fight for them. For years, she trained in horseback riding, stealth, tracking and the use of the bow, the spear, the tomahawk and the knife. Guns were not readily available, so the mixed blood children were instructed in the use of more traditional weapons, which the tribe could craft themselves. When they hit 16 summers, they were used as scouts, and before their 18th birthday, they were integrated into warparties. Sometimes, they were allowed to raid by themselves as well, without the help of any other warriors.

While she was still seventeen, Mapiya participated in a raid on a ranch several dozen miles south of the settlement the palefaces called Sweetwater. It was one of those raids performed by young warriors only, and they voted for Mapiya to lead them. Her tactics were good, and the raid was a success. They captured enough cattle to bring the clan through the winter. Even though Mapiya said she was lucky in the raid, the warrior to the left and the one to the right of her had been shot and killed, she was recognized for this raid.