Name: Asa of the North

Titles: Baroness that Cannot WILL Not be Tamed

Occupation: Shieldmaiden, Wife, of a manner, to Baron Edward Ironfall

Age: 25

Birthplace: Northern Islands known as Blacktop Isles

Appearance: With a face framed by nearly black soft waves that brought out her blue eyes, Asa often drew the eye, the coloring unusual in her native lands. A slender neck gave way to a lithe form, making her a harder target to hit, and often causing others to misjudge just how much strength she held. Poised more like a cat, slender form stalking until just the right moment to strike, Asa held a form built to be swift and agile.

Her face is often painted, coal around the eyes that make the usual dark blue stand out, leaving them far more striking than they would be normally. Tracing down one eye is three straight lines, broken at the brow only to continue along the cheekbone. The other eye is circled by two crescents following each other along the outer edge of the eye. Though, one must watch which side the crescents are found on. Along the right eye means she has chosen healing and peace, but along the left means she is out for blood.

Personality: Born from a hardened people, Asa grew to be a headstrong woman that does not tolerate the subtleties of mind-games and politics well, much to the discomfort of her husband, a marriage with no more meaning than a treaty keeping her people from being attacked, or attacking. Many refer to her as a Heathen, Uncultured, Crass, and many other unladylike terms, all of which Asa wears as a badge of honor, even if none would dare openly speak such terms to her face.

After learning of her title as The Baroness that Cannot be Tamed, she often corrects any she hears using it to the Baroness that WILL NOT be Tamed instead, claiming in her own way that while the ability to change and fit in with the polite company that now surrounds her exists, the will to do so does not. The fires sparked in her heart by her people’s ways never seem to dim, creating a bold woman that refuses to stand down from a fight, but her time in that polite company has allowed her a chance to learn to deliver such insults with a bit more flair than before.

History: Asa grew up in the harsher Northern Islands in part of a culture that required its people to be just as harsh as the elements around them. As Islands, they lacked many resources, and as such developed a well-trained navy with raiding parties that would “hunt” for what they lacked in other lands.

Asa found herself in the near-losing end of a battle, where a deal was struck. Five daughters were to be traded and married off to nobile houses in exchange for secure trade routes, with none of the violence necessary to secure goods for the Islands. The women, many just as headstrong and hardened as the men, argued and debated such a deal, most flat-out refusing…

Until Asa called them all weak willed soggy reeds for not doing what needed to be done for the betterment of their people, standing tall as she volunteered. Only then did she turn to the others, a glint of humor in her eyes and she mentioned, “they’ll never know what to do with women stronger than their steel.”

She understood the true meaning of the treaty. It wasn’t about showing the Island wolves who was stronger, but rather a desperate attempt to stop their raiding. She had seen first-hand the damage, the fear, the way some chose to move from the coastal towns, causing them to lose stability, purely out of fear. How they grew only enough crops to feed the people living there, hoping that the Wolves would take pity just once and they might not have to starve.

She saw it as a way to expand her people, to create crops and supplies specifically for them, a way to ensure they received what was necessary to winter in the harsh Island weather, a way to help her people thrive rather than bow to boots unwilling to stand up to them half the time.

Harassing noble ladies ended up being merely a passtime for her, much to the despair of her husband, who eventually turned a blind eye, claiming the marriage only when politically necessary, but struck an agreement with Asa that as long as she did not care who he spent his time with, he would offer the same for her. He knew there would be no taming her, and rather enjoyed not having to wonder if he would wake up to a knife in his throat by her hand. The agreement between them allows them both the freedom to live as they see fit, while also securing the treaty struck that brought her south in the first place.

Quotes:
”Asa dear, you mustn’t play with murder. It isn’t civil.”
     -Dutchess McGathery, upon catching Asa coming back from the woods, three rabbits she planned on using for dinner slung over her shoulder.
”Funny how it’s ‘murder’ when I’m the one bringing them home, yet a ‘delicacy’ when they appear on your table prepared by the hands of your kitchen staff. Tell me, My Lady, how exactly do they get from the forest to your table if not the same way as to mine?”</lavender>

”I believe that’s the very thing I told you not to do.” -Baron Ironfell
<Blue>”Did you really think I’d listen?” -Asa, in reply
   -After she told a story of raiding a town she found particularly humorous, causing no less than three ladies to faint