Description and Background
Description:
Long White Hair, Violet Eyes
Background:
Conwenna hails from Vahurthane. She took to the shield young and became a shield maiden. She can be hot headed and quick to fight but is also cunning and clever when need be.
Conwenna is conscripted to guard a cargo ship on a trading voyage to the south after failing to protect the village from wichtelmännchen who tried to kidnap the children during a late spring blizzard.
Wichtelmännchen. The word always terrified Conwenna. She was taught as a child that they would steal her and put her in their cold dark holes to dig in the rocks. It was a myth they would teach all the children to make them mind their parents and the village elders. Do the laundry or he wichtelmännchen will get you. Tend the garden, or the wichtelmännchen will grab you.
When she was old enough, she was tired of being victimized by this folktale, so she started training to be a warrior, like her aunt, and some of the other older women in the village. She excelled in her disciplines, knowing that the next generation of the village would rely on her, and just a few others. In time, and training, she grew out of the folktale, but there were many other things to guard the village against. Bears, wolves… possibly even other hostile tribes coming to steal their fuel or food in the cold endless winters. Tribes were even known to take the children, maybe as slaves, maybe for other reasons.
When the men were out on the great hunt, or during the summer, if they were out on a trading expedition, and the women were tending the needs of the children and the elderly, it would be their job, her job, to guard the village, especially the children. They would take shifts. It was the only fair way. Sometimes they would watch during the day, sometimes they had to stand watch through the night, keeping the fire lit. keeping watch over the village.
A few months ago, it was Conwenna’s turn to keep watch through the night with two others. A dark winter storm was rising. Possibly the last blizzard of the winter. As the winds howled, and the night |
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