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Personality

Emilia's spring outfit

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• Personality
• Early Life
• Guild Career
• Mistrian Life
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At first blush, Emilia is a cheeky and mischievous woman. With strangers, she often resorts to teasing and button-pushing in order to get to know them. She is an empty flirt, and enjoys seeing what people's reactions are to what she'll say or do. It's all lighthearted to her, however, but has gotten her into unpredictable (to her) situations in the past. Emilia loves banter, and will gladly instigate a conversation with a stranger if she thinks it'll make for a good time.She also has a bit of a temper; if her teasing is met with a hostile counter, she is very quick to return the negative energy and get into arguments. However, she is not immune to getting her feelings hurt. If someone were to make a genuine dig at her, it's possible for it to cut deep and stick with her for a while. She does not enjoy crying in a fight -- crying, she was taught, was a sign of weakness in combat. However, crying outside of combat becomes a trait she slowly fosters the longer she stays in Mistria. With her gradual growth of emotional intelligence, Emilia will sometimes find herself crying about cute baby animals like her pet Finnegan, or on a particularly beautiful and peaceful day. Genuine acts of kindness and love towards her will also often make her cry quite a bit.Emilia carries herself with a level of confidence, but the level of genuine confidence she has in herself is debatable. Because she lacks a lot of common skills of her peers -- reading, writing, cooking, socializing -- she works hard to compensate through learning them as quickly as possible and navigating social situations with the confidence of someone who already has all of these abilities. Her inability to read common things is a heavy insecurity of hers, and she will often find ways to memorize what things are and pretend she's read the labels. Emilia is also quite insecure about her past and the actions she's done, and how she was raised for one negative skill only, when everyone else around her is "normal". She was only given any semblance of praise upon completing quests for the guild, so she often associates love and with utility; if she feels she is more a detriment than a boon to someone she cares about, she will often become very anxious that she will stop being worthy of their love or time.

Early Life

- A Siren at the Sea: Emilia's Birth -

The circumstances of Emilia’s birth were… unfortunate.There are many inherent dangers lurking within the vast waters of the world’s sprawling oceans. Sailors often regale to one another tales of sea beasts beyond comprehension, monster waves that stretch to the clouds, or fish so large they could swallow whole crews without second thought. Though full of real and natural horrors, the more fantastical tales of the worst that the ocean had to offer tended to fade from common knowledge among folks who spent their suns and moons on land. The tales of pirates past were left solely in song, tunes of their travels turned to mere fairytale. Even in an age still touched by magic in secret pockets, the idea of sirens and seafolk seemed farfetched at best; if such a thing existed, there would certainly be proof, wouldn’t there?Perhaps it was this lack of proof that left seafarers with a false sense of security. Certainly no pirate worth their pillage would fall nor fear something silly enough to have been reduced to song. Any pirate willing to etch their name into history had to fear nothing nor no one. If there was anything to be feared on these glittering blue sees, it was them.This was certainly true for Delphine Goldhart. Big, broad, and brutish, she’d already made quite the name for herself in her 15 years captaining The Heartbreaker, a vast ship that cut the waters like a knife through air and sent chills down the spines of lesser vessels. Her crew, comprised exclusively of the strongest rat bastards the world of pirates had to offer, were a true scourge to any and all that came across their path, paving their way into the history books, their exploits written in blood. As far as Delphine was concerned, fame and infamy were just close enough to be one and the same, certain that she would end up known in the nightmares of townsfolk the world over before even reaching her 40th nameday. Her record was spotless — no treasure she’d found was left untaken, no battle undertaken not won.This was, until a particularly foggy night, as the ship swam languidly through the moonlit haze towards an unknown destination. No one truly knew where she was leading them, but they knew better than to ever question her intentions. Not that she’d share, had she known herself. There was nothing in this stretch of land on her map, and she knew the seas like the back of her workworn hands, yet she felt so horribly compelled by whatever was out there, whatever sought her, whatever she sought in return. A melody, seemingly ringing in her ears and her ears alone, had wormed its way into her mind and pulled her like a fish on a line.Deep into the dense fog, in its ethereal glow, she found it. Or rather, him. He stood at the center of the deck, as if he’d always been there. He was unfamiliar, yet inspired no fear at all. His attire was foreign and drenched, like the sea come to life itself, yet he faced none of the same vitriol as any other unwelcome stranger. “Unwelcome” hardly suited him. With the rest of her crew asleep at their stations, lulled to rest by the gentle rocking of the calm waves, Delphine and the mystery man of the sea danced arm in arm, twirling to his melody as the fog grew more and more dense. His smiling face and gentle eyes regarded her with an adoration that rocked her to her core, her own expression — once stalwart and stony with years of malice — mirroring his in unusual ease. They danced, spun, sang, and held tightly as the fog grew brighter and brighter and denser and denser. She felt like she was falling, or perhaps swimming, or perhaps merely floating in a sea of his love. His laugh echoed in her ears, his touch lingered on her face…The next morning, things felt… wrong. The ship had drifted for miles and miles, the crew only just barely waking up to the feeling of the harsh sun baking their skin. Many could hardly recall what’d occurred, nor where they were, nor why they’d all rested on the deck like dried fish. And Delphine, unusually ragged and bitterly confused, could not shake the dread that something irreversible had happened. Like a faint dream, a broken melody and faint laugh still echoed in her mind.It only took a few hours to get back on track and a few days to forget, but only weeks until the answers started to bubble forth.At first Delphine considered it a small matter of bloating. Perhaps a disagreement with the packed rations. With time, perhaps it'd been a matter of overeating. But before long, the evidence became more and more difficult to dismiss. Delphine Goldhard, the red scourge of the sprawling seas, was with child. As the ugly truth grew within her, all she could do was remember the fragmented melody and the bastardly smile of a man she never knew the name of.By the time of the baby's arrival, the air on the ship had grown tense with anxious anticipation. They'd all pieced together, through fragmented memories and whispers, that this was the child created on that foggy night at sea. What was once merely a legend that scared and frightened landlubbers and lesser sailors was now well known amongst them as something real, tangible, and distinctly now everyone's problem. Wracked with embarrassment that she fell for something reserved for knock-kneed dryfoots, she'd sworn the whole crew to secrecy. The matter of what to do with the cursed child started as mumbled debates but gradually grew into a collective understanding of a simple fact: a crying, howling, sniveling, weak little cursed baby had no place in a pirate's crew.Shortly after taking her first breaths in the world, the unnamed baby's fate was decided. At the nearest dock, some nasty little cluster of islands, she was dropped off on a doorstep in a half-emptied basket of bread by the youngest member of the crew, who left a single hefty knock on the door before running off.

- A Cheeky Youth: Emilia's Childhood -

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As it turned out, a little cliffside sea town was the perfect place for a little lady like her. Her earliest years were spent within the orphanage she’d been dropped off to, raised by the ever patient and even more elderly headmistress Emilia Gallach.

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Guild Career

The Early Years

The training years of the guild were harsh, but for a rambunctious troublemaker like Emilia, it was just her kind of scene. Scrappy and foul-mouthed, she was more than willing to participate in combat training, but thoroughly lacked the discipline for it. It took some years, and several scuffles as one of the only girls in a large cluster of boys, but as time went on she became just as much good trainee as her larger male peers. She was trained like the rest with wooden swords, but grew an affinity for playing darts, her accuracy much more keen than the rest in her training tier. With her deft hand in mind, she was trained in thrown ranged weaponry as well.Unaware of what it truly meant to be an adventurer, the first two years of her time in the guild felt safe, and she grew to see her trainer, Niko, like a father figure she never had. His approval and his praise instilled the mindset that her value was directly tied to her usefulness, that positivity was something you had to earn through rigorous means. She was his best trainee, so she got praise. She was top of her group, so she got admiration.Despite learning plenty about weaponry and combat during her training years, several of life's critical skills were never taught to her, as the guild considered them to be useless for its guildmembers. Survival skills -- starting a fire, catching game, proper sword holds -- those skills mattered, while skills like cooking, reading, writing, and how to navigate one's feelings, did not. The language of the land, new and foreign to them, was learned primarily through osmosis -- high ranking members almost exclusively spoke and gave commands in Aldarian, while the coastal Caldosian children spoke amongst themselves in their native Oarsean. When commands were quick and discipline was harsh, learning what each word meant came quickly.Once Emilia reached the age of ten, she had finally started going out on quests from the quest board. In clusters of three or four, she would join in with her guildmates for the easiest quests first, singing old road songs and sailor's shanties that they'd kept in their minds and hearts despite years away from the coastal shore. The songs grounded them and united them, making the jaunts into the unknown much less scary. The early assignments were simple -- fetch this supply, track this animal, bring this to someone -- and offered her the ability to see the world she'd always craved as a little street scamp back in Caldosia, even if she knew she couldn't stray too far from the path.Of course, she would anyway. On rare and sneaky occasions, driven by her curiosity, Emilia would occasionally use a quest as an excuse to sneak out into the capital city that surrounded them and watch the normal people on their regular routes. She loved watching the beautiful women in their flowing dresses dance and laugh as their handsome lovers spoiled them in the marketplace, and would envy and daydream to have a life like that for herself. The pretty girls, the ones who likely never knew how to hold a sword, the ones who were loved and cherished, would walk the city streets with bows in their hair and sweets in their hands, and emilia would watch them and wish. If someone seemed particularly well off, with loud pockets full of tesserae, she would use her small and sneaky stature to pick pocket them of a fistful or two -- an amount they surely wouldn't have missed -- in order to get sweets from Ladybird, a famous bakery near the Capital Centre. She would get the same slice of lemon cake every time and would sit on the side of the road, eyes closed, imagining the ruffling of delicate fabric and the warmth of a kiss to the cheek. She knew better than to truly aspire to such things, but the daydreaming and sneaky treats were more than enough to "fill the void", so she thought.

The Gryphon Incident

At the age of ten, Emilia was finally ready to partake in the final exam that all young guildmates had to undertake in order to become a certified adventurer of the guild. Rather than quests that may incidentally have combat, with only minimal risks of danger, the final exam was a distinctly dangerous quest. It was the last task in order to prove that she had properly absorbed all of her training, and that the guild could continue to invest in her growth and care. She was eager to prove and show off her abilities: she was small, but it made her harder to hit; she was cute, which made her disarming. Everything about her that would've otherwise seemed ill-fit for an adventurer, she'd turned into a boon.The usual groups were no more than three young adventurers at a time, but for this particular quest they sent out an unprecedented eight. As it turned out, this would be the guildmates' first experience with a beast: a gryphon. A distant town had written in that a baby gryphon, something none of them had seen before, had been eating their crops and damaging their farmland. Emilia was confident, of course; eight of them seemed almost overkill. By the time the group arrived in town, singing and laughing with their swords out, they had built themselves up into a frenzy of hubris, attacking the baby gryphon with a messy mix of personal skill and haphazard teamwork. When the monster had been taken down, the group cheered, ready to return home and reap the wards of new status, new merits, and the delicious food afforded to the true adventurer ranks.They had not calculated for the mother that had stalked them the entire time, their jovial travel songs covering up the sound of her footsteps through the woods.It was bigger, stronger, and far more enraged than the baby gryphon before them, and made quick work of unleashing the whole of its fury onto the screaming cluster. The memories clouded with fear still hold some semblance of what went down on that afternoon: the indistinguishable smell of ones' own blood mixed with everyone else's, the shriek of a gryphon fueled with maternal rage, the feeling of a white knuckle grip for dear life on a hilt too big for nine year old hands. Of the eight sent out on that quest, only four returned on foot. There rest returned in the arms or on the backs of those who could still walk, having passed on.The events of that day still lingered with her long after she graduated into a proper adventurer. It manifested in a brainfog that she had to be pulled out of by Niko, with a pep talk that may have done more harm than good: “Sitting around and grieving the lost is a waste of the time that surviving has afforded you. You must continue, remember, and survive. For your sake, and for theirs. Their names and faces can remain in your heart and mind, but life is short , and they merely bought you more time. Make good on it, but never stop, never reflect, never linger.”

The Final Assignment

Years, names, and faces all passed by in a blur from that point on, Emilia’s primary focus leaning further and further into serving the guild. She strove to make good on the time borrowed by fallen guildmates, the survivor’s guilt turning into a burning passion to make something out of their sacrifice. The guild’s investment of her abilities, fourteen years of food and shelter and medical care without a single tesserae owed, left Emilia in a deep state of loyalty and indebtedment. How often had she ate at their table? How often had she used their bandages and rations? How often had she gone to the Mender, the guild’s mysterious witch doctor, to have her bones returned to form? Too many to ever pay back, and both she and the guild knew it.Assignments became routine, her skills refined to the point of muscle memory. She rarely ever even thought about what they were doing or why, just as the guild intended. What the guild says goes, and what the guild wants it gets. Obedience was always underscored with the fear of losing it all, to be cast out to start completely over, to find a way to feed oneself when they were only good for the guild they’d scorned. It was suicidal to bite the hand that fed.The sacrifice of the fallen had left her with an unusual attitude. At her rank, most adventurers were worn and sullen, having borne a survivor’s guilt that seemed to physically rot away at them as years went on. Emilia, however, resolved herself to enjoy her life to the fullest because of her keen awareness of the brevity of life. She saw how letting the mind linger on the reality of guild life drove some guildies to run away and others to give up, and it lead her to never let herself be alone with her own thoughts. Even still, Emilia would find herself going again and again to the market grounds, the hustle and bustle of the common folk being more and more alluring with every visit. Her trips to Ladybird were always a light in the gray, though watching all of the beautiful women running, laughing, being a family, being free, stoked an envy that never seemed to be quelled. But at the end of the day, she always knew what she would always be. A little cake here and pie there would stave off the urge to join them, just enough to feed her escapist daydreams on long travels and lonely nights; if she could sneak herself a treat between work, and have a better life in her dreams, then it was good enough for her. It had to be.She grew into a bit of a social butterfly, often flirting and joking and teasing with those around her in order to keep spirits lifted, even if just slightly. On usual assignments to recover stolen goods from bandits or escort nobility from point to point, she sang the same old caldosian folk songs keep the thoughts at bay, her charming half-lidded gaze and gap-toothed smile almost intoxicating to those around her. It was a facade for the sake of her sanity. It was a happiness of desperation, a jubilance in spite of. Every person that she kept at arm’s length with her charms was someone she hoped she wouldn’t have to carry back home.On the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, Emilia was celebrated for reaching the highest rank in her division. Her hard work had paid off, her daydreams and sneaky pastries staved off the will to run and become a common maiden, and the guild finally showered her with a love she had long since desperately desired. It was bittersweet, a celebration of a life lived halfway in a dream.It was a late spring day, almost a month thereafter, that she got a new kind of assignment, not from the quest board but requested from the guildmasters themselves. The wording – spoken firmly by men in cloaks that masked their visages - was clear and curt: Someone that was a problem to the guild had to be handled. That last word, handled, was said slowly and carefully, the lack of subtlety having not been lost on her.It was a trader, likely to be rounding their usual route, who’d been spreading rumors and kicking fuss about the guild. Emilia sat in waiting, obscured in the underbrush, for a quick and easy job. Surely this was no different than normal combat, just more aggressive, surely. It would be like disarming, only permanently. Her brow remained furrowed in the shadows, while her stomach kept souring at the thought.Had it been easy, perhaps she would have stayed as she was. But it was the fear in his eyes, the blood on her hands, the same blood that pooled in the walk-worn grass, the trembling beg, that caused the bubbling in her stomach to boil over. She dropped her weapon, abandoned the man, and fled into the secrecy of the pitch-black treeline. She couldn’t do what the guild had asked, a crime in their eyes, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to be what they wanted of her. She could not, would not go back and face them as a failure, but she could run – she’d always been fast, she could flee from them and live a coward’s life, a distortion of her daydreams.She could live a life of half-truths, a former adventurer who just needed a change of pace, and knew more than her fair share of ways to charm and endear her way into getting just by enough to keep prying eyes disinterested. In the back of her mind as she ran, not knowing to where, not knowing for how long, she knew that guild would inevitably come looking to collect on their investment. They hated being owed, she knew this – the man she left behind was proof that they hated a lack of repayment. Perhaps, though, if she could just stay out of their grasp long enough, she could pretend. She could just once wear a pretty dress, just once eat cake without guilt, just once twirl in the sunshine.

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Mistrian Life

The First Arrival

Having run through the night on adrenaline alone, not thinking to prepare proper rations, Emilia found herself on the verge of faining when she finally reached a clearing in the tree line. She didn’t know where she was running to, but the sun had started to crest just enough to lighten the sky. The shade of night wouldn’t have kept her hidden for much longer, but she couldn’t stop in her pursuit. It was a matter of life or death, and even with her legs in pain and her vision blurring, she kept on her pursuit through the dusky forest. Once she crossed an old stone bridge over a roaring waterfall, however, she began to feel her body falter with exhaustion.Emilia’s legs gave way first, followed shortly after by the rest of her, fainting mid-run as she neared the wooden cabin of the Eastern Road. The young carpenter, Ryis, had been working outside to prepare for an incoming storm, and noticed her just in time to catch her before she hit the ground. Having come out of nowhere, with no identifying information or letters or belongings, she filled him with dozens of questions and absolutely no answers. Concerned and in shock, but unable to help, he carried her to Valen’s office in hopes that the town’s doctor could help her somehow. Emilia woke up several hours later, confused as to whether or not she was still even alive, but the smell of medical supply made her jump up in terror. It took Valen a considerable amount of soothing and coaxing to calm Emilia down, taking note of how severe her medical aversion seemed to be. Once she was calm though, Valen was finally able to get her name, but not why she came to town. All she said other than her name was the phrase “I’m hungry.” With an accent as thick as Emilia’s, Valen simply assumed she’d come from somewhere quite far and needed somewhere to stay, and lead the girl to the inn to get a warm meal and somewhere to rest, at least until she can continue her journey.While at the inn, Emilia came to the realization that she truly didn’t prepare for what happens after running, underscored with her complete lack of tesserae to cover her meal. She asked how much she owes Reina, the head chef of the inn, for the bowl of soup she’d been allowed to have. Reina, tickled at the notion, laughed and replied that the soup was free to anyone who needs it! Emilia, pleasantly surprised but further confused, then asked about somewhere to sleep, even offering to work there in order to pay off her due. At the prospect of another pair of hands willing to help the developing town continue its growth, Adeline – town leader and close friend of Reina – thought it was a wonderful offer. After a bit of brainstorming with the family that owned the inn, an agreement was finally settled: for as long as Emilia needed to stay in the inn, until she could get back on her feet and continue her journey, she would work for the Sleeping Dragon Inn as the newest barmaid.

Settling In

As time passed, Emilia found herself settling into a routine, eager to work for her keep as she had done before. The transition into a normal life was rocker than she’d thought — she often found herself not entirely able ot relate to the other girls in town her age, discussing things like love lives and gossip — but with time she found herself finding new and subtle ways to fit in. She picked up gossip at the bar as the charming and alluring barmaid, and got to know the townsfolk by serving their late night beers and early morning coffees alike.Hemlock, patient and eager to teach, did his best to teach her about the various ingredients of the most common ingredients in the bar, but after a few days of trial and error, his ever-keen eye noticed how she hadn’t been reading the labels at all. Emilia, embarrassed to have one of her ‘otherings’ found out, pleaded for him to not let the rest of the town know. He promised he wouldn’t, but instead offered to teach her one word at a time, like he’d done with his three children before. Josephine, having caught on to Emilia’s distinct sweet tooth, even offered to teach Emilia how to bake during their down time, bit by bit, the way she had with Reina. Between the loving couple, Emilia truly felt like she’d found parents for the first time in her life, the warmth and welcome of their family rendering her emotional on multiple occasions.Ryis also became a frequent aspect of her life, often stopping by to make sure the inn was still in tip top shape. Quiet and polite but friendly and intelligent, he caught Emilia’s eye quite early on. Initially, he hadn’t known how to approach her, considering the basis of their first meeting. But once they finally met, Emilia watching and teasing him playfully as he fixed a barstool in the inn, the found themselves catching on like sawdust on fire. Her cheeky personality and quick with always made Ryis laugh, and his gentle kindness and charm kept Emilia standing by the bar hoping to see him once more. As the person who’d carried her into town, he also felt a level of responsibility to help her settle into Mistria the way others had with him not too long ago, bringing her on walks around town and teaching her all the little things he’d learned to love about the town.[to be continued]

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Relationships

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Familial

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Platonic

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Romantic

A cheeky Emilia and composed Ryis.

Navigation

• Personality
• Early Life
• Guild Career
• Mistrian Life
• Relationships
• Skills
• Dialogue
• Trivia
• Gallery
• Development
• References

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Bitter

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Skills & Abilities

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Dialogue

Initial Greeting

"Welcome to the- ...oh, ye must the farmer everyone's been tellin' me 'bout. [Player], aye?"

• Yep, that's me!
• How could you tell?

"Pleasure tae meet ye. An' thanks fer all the fresh eatin!"

"Either way, the name's Emilia. Remember it now, ye'll be needin' it fer yer dreams tonight."

Trivia & Headcanons

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Gallery

Reference Images

Main References

Pixel References

Concept Artwork and Designs

Newest Designs

Older Concepts & Designs

Commissioned Pieces

Credit in captions

Gifted Pieces

Credit in captions

RedWood (Emilia x Ryis)

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Development Notes

Timeline

References