---

---

Name: Eir "Mercy" Gard

Gender: Female

Age: Looks to be in her mid to late 20s. Has lived for a millennium, give or take.

Race: Valkyrie

---

---

Physical Description: Shorter than most of her sisters in arms, Eir is a seemingly petite woman around 5'4'' tall. Softly flowing red hair, slender fingers, bright blue-gray eyes, easy smiles, and full lips further contribute to her dainty looks. Looks can be deceiving, however, and the slender woman is just as comfortable in combat boots, tactical gear, and even full-plate armor as in the feminine dresses and 3 to 5-inch heels she usually wears.

Peeling away the layers of clothes, one will find lean muscles befitting someone who has lived through several wars and is at home on a battlefield. Lightly toned and in no way bulky, her physique is more primed for endurance than raw bursts of strength. Despite this, her skin is unmarred by scars or blemishes and has a pale, creamy color that speaks of ancestry from colder climates. Aside from her coloration, Eir's origin is hard to place. While obviously Western, her face would be considered classically beautiful in a lot of countries. She fits in well in the US, though her beauty and rare hair color draw obvious attention.

Currently Wearing:


Alternate Form: N/A

---

---

Skills:

・Highly-Skilled Physician: Through her millennium of treating soldiers on the battlefield and her capacity as a healer, Eir has acquired a near-complete knowledge and understanding of the human physique. Exceptions to this knowledge would be responses to new strains of illnesses and creative use of magic. Through a mix of mundane means and runic magic, Eir can treat any injury, and most illnesses if given the necessary time and resources.

・Combat Prowess: Like all valkyries, Eir is highly trained in various forms of combat, though her personal weapon of choice is an old type of spear called atgeir. Using her knowledge of human and humanoid physiques, she has become adept at hitting weak spots with the ends and blunt sides of the blade with terrifying precision. She can use firearms, but she doesn't like them as it's hard to control whether you kill someone or not from a distance, and resorts to small firearms with less firepower if forced.

Powers:

・Superhuman Strength and Endurance: Both physically stronger and decidedly harder to kill than humans and a few other species, Eir is a lot more powerful than she looks and heals from injuries at a higher speed.

・Runic Magic: Like other Valkyries, Norns, and Asir, Eir commands an in-depth knowledge and affinity for runic magic, though her runes are mostly limited to wards and healing. She can use offensive runic magic as well, but not at the scale of others of her rank, and she prefers not to, instead investing all her powers into protection.

・Strong Wards and Healing Magic: Eir's strongest powers, stemming from the very core of her being and her unwavering belief in them, is her healing and warding magic. While she needs runes to fully power most of them, she can offer some of the strongest wards known to mankind and the supernatural community alike. All shields will eventually break, but you will need to come fully prepared if you wish to break through Eir's.

・Death Sense: While prone to instability, Eir has the power to tell if someone near her is about to die. This will sometimes alert her to unseen threats, though not reveal the source of the threat, simply their target.

Vulnerabilities:

・Weaker Valkyrie: Due to her primary role as healer, Eir is not quite as strong an opponent in battle as many of her sisters. She's a fair match against younger valkyries, but all of the older sisters would win in a one-on-one duel.

・Warped Moral Compass: Contrary to her name and nature as a healer, Eir's view of acceptable harm inflicted on opponents toes quite the disturbing line. She will leave them alive but often aim to permanently cripple or subdue them. You're still technically alive in a coma, after all, and in her mind, you can live a perfectly satisfying life with a limb or two missing. If you met her before going against her in battle, she may even insist that she cares deeply about you despite any inflicted injuries.

・Impulsive: Following her feelings and ideas often gets Eir in trouble, both with clients and strangers alike. Not quite a stalker, she will sometimes follow impulses to check in on people she hasn't seen for a long time. Other impulses include falling into bed with monstrous strangers, meddling in business she overhears without asking, and interceding in fights without much consideration for who's in the right or wrong.

---

---

Personality: Most first impressions of Eir are quite positive. She has a warm and caring nature, easy laughter, and tends to help keep the mood high. She's a bit nosy and meddlesome, but it's clear that she means well and is trying to help out. Even at work, she gets into trouble because her desire to aid and nurture those around her result in professional hiccups as attachments grow a bit too deep, a bit too quick. If the redhead considers you under her protection, there is not a whole lot she won't do to keep you safe.

Speaking of which, should you meet Eir for the first time on opposing sides in a fight, your first impression will likely be drastically different. With horror, you may very well see that very same warmth and mild expression as she breaks your collarbones, pulverizes your kneecaps, or otherwise cripples you for life. The ease with which she inflicts grievous harm upon others stems not from a casual disregard for others, nor any pleasure derived from it. Rather, it is her misguided conviction and concept of mercy that drives her to excessive brutality. She may very well find you endearing as she lays down the hurt, and will not hesitate even if she knows you well. She is confident that she is justified in her actions and would rather dissuade you from a second attempt right away than prolong your pain. To Eir, this is the highest form of mercy.

In other words, Eir is a quite bit messed up but is willfully oblivious to the fact. She has a more or less self-imposed rule against taking lives that is encouraged by her employer, but she has found that there's quite a lot of leeway between "dead" and "not dead." Her twisted view of what are acceptable levels of harm has chilled many a previously heated relationships, but the Valkyrie has been alive long enough to consider relationships fleeting anyway and simply vows to protect people from a distance instead.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how one views her tendencies, Eir is usually just a passionate woman who is able to see something lovable in all living (and sometimes even dead or undead) creatures. Outside of battle, she is pleasant, accommodating, and friendly.

Backstory: Eir has lived the life of a valkyrie as long as she can remember... Which is a very, very long time. Though many things are blurry thanks to the millennium she has been around, just as many memories stand out with clarity. Many of those memories are of battlefields. Time and time again, Eir has seen allies turn to enemies and enemies turn to allies, only for them to betray each other and become enemies again. To the valkyries, there is no right or wrong side of battles, only valor or cowardice, and this is true for Eir's worldview as well.

Her role as one of the oldest valkyries differs from most of the sisters-in-arms from the same era or later. Not a Chooser, Eir's role on the battlefield is instead to heal and guard anyone not chosen to die a warrior's death, and it always has been. She has taken part of many battles throughout the centuries, though most memorably she fought against Ethniu, one of the only battles she remembers where the valkyries picked sides. Since that battle, Eir's main base of operations has been NYC, though she has lived in most parts of the world and often leaves NYC for longer periods of time when the job requires it or she asks for adventures on faraway shores.

Through her job, she has met with the White Council on several occasions, and many a dweller of Nevernever has made her acquaintances through the years as well. In fact, it was exposure to one of the fae that, long ago, started Eir on the path down her shift from a fretful, ever-compassionate healer, to the calm but somewhat brutal person she is today. Whether they wished to sow discord within the Norns or simply thought it would be fun remains unknown, but Eir spent many years discussing her duties, morals, and ethics with the fae and eventually succumbed to the broken logic she follows to this day. While she sleeps like a baby, conscience ever clear, it's debatable whether this turn of events left her, and the world, better off.

Regardless of that twist, she is a healer and a protector above all else, and she does both quite well, having earned herself a widespread reputation through her job at Monoc Securities. Quite aware of her tendencies towards violence, the taskmaster of Monoc usually assigns her jobs with a low risk of direct combat, but her reputation boasts both magnificent offensive and defensive skills. These days, whenever she's assigned a new client, they are asked to directly express a dislike or acceptance of excessive force, and Eir does her best to stick to any agreements made this way.

At the moment, she is back in NYC after a brief stint abroad, awaiting her next assignment while checking up on old acquaintances.

Connections:
・Monoc Securities, where she is employed.
・Occassional run-ins with the White Council, usually business related.
・Frequents O'Malley's Pub and Pound Of Flesh.