Alsadi Gravelsong

Race: Goliath
Class: Warden (Earthstrength)
Role: Primal Defender

Alignment: Chaotic Good
Deity: Haramathur
Background: Geography - Mountains

Current Sheet

Snapshot: Compassionate, friendly but reserved, fiercely protective, curious about the world, wanderlust, an artistic flair, strong sense of duty, good listener, loyal, sometimes competitive, loves the mountains and the outdoors, driven, concerned about safety of others, reckless with her own wellbeing, cares about doing what is right much more than obeying laws, loves physical activity, athletic, uncomfortable in cities, feels unreasonably responsible for the safety of teammates, even those she personally dislikes.

Appearance:
Though relatively short for her race at 7'2, Alsadi nevertheless towers over most others in this world, an effect accentuated by her athletic, muscular physique. Her skin is a light gray, with slight blue undertones, with somewhat less of the darker mottling effect than is common in Goliaths. Her eyes, likewise, are bright blue. Asadi's hair is grayish-black, and like most females of her race she wears it long, usually in four of five loose braids.

When not equipped for battle, Alsadi usually wears a sleeveless shirt or vest and long, loose trousers of some sort. She likes wearing bracelets in particular and often has as many as four or five on each wrist. She also has a silver, septum nose ring.

In general, Alsadi enjoys wearing a contrasting combination of black or grey and bright colors - blues, greens, and orange tones in particular.

Personality:
Though somewhat hesitant to initiate an interaction with those she does not know well, Alsadi is, in general, friendly - she particularly enjoys talking to people from different races and far off places, so as to learn more about the world.  She tends to be a better listener than talker. Though friendly, she is slow to truly trust someone; once she does, that trust is similarly hard to break, and comes coupled with strong personal loyalty.

In general, the competitiveness which Goliaths are known for is most seen in her when around a member of her own race. Otherwise, this tendency is more internalized: she will do difficult or dangerous things as a challenge to herself, or make boring tasks go by by setting goals for herself - can she do it in an hour, faster? Alsadi also tends to go on extended, tangent-filled though processes in her head, and will sometimes sit perfectly still and silent for hours at a time if allowed to, something some companions might find an unnerving trait.

She tends to act very recklessly when it comes to her own personal safety - running into dangerous situations with the briefest or preparation. On the other hand, she is known to show a good deal more concern for the safety of others, particularly those she things less capable than herself of holding their own. This combination can lead to the Goliath taking on very tricky things for the sake of protecting someone she barely knows. Alsadi does not anger easily, but what pushes her buttons most is selfishness and deliberate cruelty, especially towards those who cannot defend themselves - children, the aged and ill, animals. She has very little respect for laws of the land however, and has no compunction about ignoring them completely for what she feels is the right reasons.

She has an artistic flair. In adolescence, the Goliath would spend many hours creating elaborate mosaic-like images from various pebbles, stones, and chips of flint, earning her some small amount of renown in her local community. She also had a skill for memorizing and orally reciting long pieces of poetry and song. The combination of these talents earned her the moniker she now goes by. Alsadi also loves physical activity, particularly mountain climbing and swimming. She also rather enjoys being underground, finding small, cramped spaces to be cozy. On the other hand, she rather detests large cities, finding the number of people and noise to be disconcerting and rather overwhelming to her senses.

She approaches combat with enthusiasm but also deadly seriousness, taking her role as a defender seriously and feeling responsible to perhaps a greater degree than common or necessary for the well-being of her party members.

Background:
Alsadi was born among a moderate sized community of goliaths spread out among several villages in the mountain ranges of the Old Empire, close to the border with Gollian and removed from much of civilization. She had two older brothers, who looked after her and taught her how to run and climb and fight in the crags and canyons of their homeland. She was an unusually inquisitive child, even by standards of Goliaths, getting into all kinds of minor trouble as a result.

Once Alsadi entered adolescence, she became more focused her natural artistic talents, spending hours making elaborate mosaics out of pebble and stone and many more hours yet searching for just the right colored bits of earth all around. She also sat with elders, at an age where many youths had better things to do, and listened to old tales and poems, epic songs which the girl could memorize with ease, and recite at will. She even began to compose some story poems of her own, thinking that it, perhaps, was her calling in life.

Though the skywalkers among the villages took some notice of her, they soon decided she was unsuited for anything they were involved in, and moved on. There was however, another figure of power in the area, the great Warden - he was far more a hermit than the priests, spending much time in the wilds instead of the villages, and he was known for having great powers of earth, which he harnessed to protect the area from harm and from the outside world. One day while looking for stones for one of her projects, Alsadi ran into him. He asked her what she was doing, and they talked for a long while, the old man asking many questions. Several days later he arrived at her home and explained his wish to take her on as an apprentice; she had particularly strong bond with the earth and would be well suited. Although the path of a warden was certainly not anything Alsadi had ever imagined for herself, her curiosity did get the best of her and she agreed.

She spent years studying and working for the Warden, learning to use the powers of earth to protect. Her mentor was not just an ordinary warden, however - he had a great bond with the spirits of earth, that of an Earthforger, and slowly he began to teach this path to her too. Alsadi, though skilled at a warden's tasks, found the earthforging abilities came to her only with great difficulty, her bond with the spirits always far more tenuous than her master's. She did keep trying, not least because she was far too ashamed to give up and to disappoint him. It was also for this reason too that she never spoke of her growing desire to see the outside world, sparked by the small trickle of visitors, mostly dwarven traders, that occasionally passed through the villages. He was training her to take his place and to leave would be selfish, a waste of all the time he had invested in teaching her. That changed when a group of dwarfs visited their settlement, asking for help against a great danger their own people were facing. The warden agreed to go, taking Alsadi and a number of warriors with him. They arrived just in time to help fend off the attack that the dwarves had foreseen. During the fighting, the warden was seriously wounded, and would have been killed had his apprentice not stepped in, taking a blow meant for her master and fighting off his attacker. Her arm was broken in three places from that blow, but they survived and found a healer. Ever since Alsadi's arm has been prone to aching right before bad weather, or from overuse.

Some months afterwards, the Warden sat down with his apprentice. He told her he knew of her desire to see the world, and that battle had shown him that there was more to learn, outside of the mountains, to better protect their home. He would allow her to go, since he was still healthy and vigorous enough to protect their people from dangers. However, when it was time and she was needed, he would contact her through the earth spirits. When he did, she had to swear to return immediately, as soon as at all possible, regardless of what she might be doing. This Alsadi did swear, intensely grateful for the opportunity to fulfill her deepest desire.

She left the mountains, first traveling with a pair of dwarves from the village she had fought in previously. Later on they parted ways, and Alsadi traveled alone, taking on minor quests on behalf of folks she ran across, occasionally working with a fellow traveler for a short time. She traveled to the Ebbervelt, and it was here that she learned of the spellplague. Horrified by the the implications, Alsadi could not help but travel to the Morayin, hoping to volunteer her services on a temporary basis in aide. On her way across the many fortifications separating it from the rest of the world, the Goliath met several creatures afflicted with the illness, an experience that deeply disturbed her and solidified her desire to DO SOMETHING about these horrible circumstances. It wasn't until she made it all the way in and told her tale to others that she realized that she must have immunity, for that kind of exposure should have infected her, and had not. Thinking back to the oral tales of her particular tribe that she knew, Alsadi could not think of a single one where her ancestors suffered from plague - perhaps they all had a natural immunity to such things.

Realizing that she was blessed with a protection that few had, and feeling strongly now that fighting the plague was her particular calling in the outside world, Alsadi chose to apply to the Bulettes, with one caveat: she would serve to the best of her abilities and for as long as needed, unless or until she was summoned by the Warden, for that obligation still trumped all others.