TJ's Character — Lady Ainsley of Clan Weir

[T.J.]

Ainsley is the third child and only daughter of Eideard of Clan Weir, a Highland Marches nobleman well-liked and well-regarded.

On the other hand, his wife Siobhán, was less popular in the Marches. He met the Inish noblewoman at court when the capitol of the Glamour Isles was still Luthon. They were wed within weeks of meeting — leading some of his kinsmen claim she ensorcelled him with Glamour magics.

There was Glamour magic involved, but not in the way anybody outside his immediate family understood. Like his wife, Eideard had sorcerous blood, but the males of his line had never actually manifested any powers. Only the women did, and the marriage had been arranged by his own grandmother to continue the line long before Eideard was even born.

The couple had two children in short order, both sons who clearly took after their father, but it was nearly a decade later before their third child was conceived. It was a difficult pregnancy, one that Siobhán did not survive. Some fathers might hold the demise of a wife against the child, but Eideard was not cut from that cloth. He doted on the girl, especially as she grew into the spitting image of her mother.

Ainsley spent her youth being trained for all the things a young noblewoman should know: courtly behaviors like singing and dancing plus many of the Isles' bardic traditions. Her father often allowed her to accompany him on his hunts. She was never interested in the actual kill, but she enjoyed spending time with her father and older brothers.

While not deliberately quarrelsome or mean-natured, she was somewhat of a wild child, a chronic misbehaver. She frequently got in trouble for a variety of mischief despite the efforts of nannies and governesses. Her father never punished her, even when he was forced to offer recompense for her actions. Some nobles attributed her behavior to the lack of a strong mother figure, others blamed it on rumors of fae blood. In either case, she developed a reputation as a noblewoman in blood, but never behavior.

In her middle teen years, while accompanying her father to court in Carelon, she met a Montaigne diplomat. She fell madly in love with him, but did so from afar. When he left for home, she followed him all the way to Charouse, only to learn he was both married and had a young son about six years her junior. Despite her interest, nothing ever came of the affair, if one could even call it that.

Rather than returning home, she decided to stay in Montaigne, adopting the name Ainsley du Veers. She’d always wanted to see the world, and the Montaigne believed they were the center of it, so it was as good a place to start as any. While she received a regular stipend from her father — both to keep her in style and to keep tabs on her — she fell in with a rough man and a rougher crowd. Eventually, it lead to her learning Boucher-style street fighting. While he knew she was wealthy and foreign, he didn’t know she was a noblewoman, and still doesn’t.

After six years of brief affairs and ill-conceived dalliances, she has grown bored of her surroundings. She began planning an expedition further eastward. She was keen to visit the Empire of the Crescent Moon, and perhaps even Cathay beyond that. She had secured a ship, crew, and a personal guard to make the trip.

Before she could leave on her grand adventure, a man arrived from the Marches with ill tidings — her father and both of her brothers had been killed in a house fire. To prove the authenticity of his message, he presented her with her mother’s knife, a family heirloom that her father never would have let anybody touch let-alone take out of the Glamour Isles.

She boarded the next ship bound for home, landing near the port city of Canguine…

[T.J.]

Appearance
Ainsley is a slender wisp of a girl, everything about her screams delicate and graceful. She dresses herself in well-crafted clothing, but eschews bright colors. She prefers earth tones: browns, tans, and white. She prefers to keep her strawberry blonde hair up, but it often has opinions of it’s own. Her curls regularly escape from whatever efforts she makes to confine them.
Advantages
Noble—Ainsley’s late father was a Marches nobleman. With the death of her two older brothers, she is the sole heir to his lands and titles.

Scoundrel—Despite her noble birth, her history and reputation as a wild child precedes her. Some of it’s true, some of it was made up as explanation or consequence of her sidhe blood.

Sidhe Blood—Ainsley’s mother is Innish; somewhere in the matrilineal side of her family there was a dalliance with a sidhe. It is believed to be three or four generations back, though nobody is truly sure.

• Appearance (Above Average)—She’s pretty and petite, some might say doll-like… or fae-like.
• Good Standing—While her fellow Highlanders rarely have anything nice to say about Ainsley, her matrilineal line has long had good relationships with the Sidhe. It’s not something she’s delved much into or understands very well.
• Gifts—For Ainsley, it’s about not being in debt to anybody she doesn’t have to be. She can’t be the free-spirit her soul wishes to be if she has commitments tying her down. She doesn’t exactly realize the compulsion is part of her sidhe heritage.
• Iron Susceptibility—Ainsley is completely unaware of this curse; her mother never allowed cold iron in their home (for this very reason) and she didn’t encounter any in her travels.

Sidhe Weapon (Dagger)—This weapon has been passed down by the women in her mother’s line for decades, if not centuries.

Small—Ainsley is tiny, all of 4’10” in stocking feet. While it deprives her of brute strength, it helps her remain unnoticed, and slip in and out of places she probably doesn’t belong.

Backgrounds
Assassin—The men who killed her father want her dead, too. She is presently unaware of their existence, believing the fire was simply an accident.

Nemesis—The son of a Montaigne nobleman; he believes Ainsley and women like her are the reason his parents are estranged. He refuses to place any of the blame on his father, a man he idolizes.