![[Approved by Rumour]](.//images/icons/cs_ok.png "[Approved by Rumour]"){kind=icon}
Sophia Essard
Race: Human
Date of Birth: 5th Trial of Vhalar in the arc 697
Marks: N/A
Factions Joined: The Black Guard
Languages Spoken: Fluent in Common, Broken in Ith'ession
Partners: N/A
Appearance
Sophia stands at 5 feet 4 inches and has a lean build. She has dark red brown hair that reaches just past her shoulders. Her eyes match the color of her hair and she has soft facial features, though she often wears a polite but clearly fake smile. In her everyday clothes, she chooses not to wear anything flashy, and often just wears plain blouses over trousers, along with a coat if the season is cold. On the other hand, her work attire is that of a member of the Black Guard of Etzos. Sophia wears light armor when she's working. Her weapon of choice, a sheathed longsword, is attached to her belt.
Personality
Blunt and generally dislikes unnecessary activities, Sophia likes getting right to the point. She has a bad habit of jumping to conclusions and can be quite suspicious of those around her. As a member of the city watch, she believes that she needs to be attentive to her surroundings, and tries to keep a watchful eye on strangers. Sophia can sometimes be too judgemental, and mostly it turns out their her suspicions are unfound. She can also be a bit hot-headed, and easily gets annoyed when she thinks her time is being wasted. However, she is loyal to the city watch, to her family, and to her friends.
History
Sophia Essard was born into magic.
Xander Essard was a member of the Seekers, originally a Rharne cell sorcerer specializing in Rupturing who became part of one of the earlier attempts at establishing a proper Seeker cell in Etzos. It was his belief that in a place where all immortals were shunned and no one divinity could take root as the dominant idol of worship, magical research could flourish quietly away from prying immortal eyes.
He failed to account for, or perhaps underestimated, local prying mortal eyes.
Within their first few seasons, they were ferreted out, arrested, even killed by the local magocratic powers that be. The first in a line of occasional shadow purges that would haunt any subsequent attempt at a proper seeker cell right up to the present. Many chose death or eternal rot in the Black Guard cells or some other fate over being conscripted into etzori service, but Xander wasn’t that loyal to the Seekers.
At least not compared to the loyalty he had to his daughter, who he had taken along to Etzos, the last remnant of his dearly departed wife.
Who he had initiated. The threat was clear. Even if he held out, they would take his daughter into the service. They would eventually, anyway, but at least now she had a few arcs of a normal life. With no Sundial for a proper escape and knowing that even if he left, he couldn’t risk his daughter, he joined the Etzori Black Guard as a caster. Sophia had vague memories of this time - of violence and hiding, of sudden moves to the houses that were similar in only how they were equally cramp and dirty, in seeing her father subjugated by other mages and crushed down. Her impression of the mages in Etzos was not a happy one. Her eventual drafting to be trained and honed as a Black Guard caster when she was 16, too, was not something she took to well.
That quiet resentment turned to rage when her father died.
One of the casualties of the shadow beast attacks of 716, they said, but she knew better. He must have done something, uncovered something, that made them finally decide whatever use he had as a mage did not outweigh the liability he had always been. Now 20, Sophia’s out looking for answers and she won’t take no.
Housing
Sophia lives alone in a house situated in the northeast outer perimeter of Etzos. The house is 400 sq ft in area and includes one bed, two chairs, one table, two knives, a set of six plates (assorted), one chest, and a fireplace.