Senn-Stoat

[senn]

Name: Sennkara Warstripe
Nicknames/Aliases: Senn
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Species: Stoat
Occupation: Mercenary

Physical Appearance:

General--
Senn is large for a female stoat, and muscular. Her fur is primarily dark reddish-brown in color, with cream colored throat and belly. Her main distinguishing characteristic is a long black stripe that runs straight from just past her forehead down her back to the tip of her tale, an unusual marking for one of her species and the origin of her family's name. She bears the seams of battle-scars on her limbs and body, though most of them are relatively minor. There is a faded red tattoo on her forehead between her eyes in the shape of a downwards-pointed, double edged sword with curving lines radiating from it. The pommel of the sword rest right at the tip of the black stripe and the point ends directly between her eyes

Attire--
Senn is not given to flashy clothing, and simply wears a chainmail shirt over a light brown tunic and dark green kilt. She wears a pair of steel bracers to protect her wrists, and a metal-studded woven belt around her waist. Over all this she wears a dark cowled green cloak. Often, when she does not wish to show her face, she will wear the cloak hood up along with a black cloth mask that obscures everything but her eyes.

Possessions:

• A short gladius-like sword with a shark-skin wrapped handle and a pommel shaped like the head of a stoat.
  
• 10 blackened ring handled throwing knives
  
• A fire-cured 6 ft. yew staff with metal caps on each end.
  
• Several utility pouches to carry rations and a cantine
  
• A grappling hook and 60 ft. length of rope.

Personality:

Senn is a taciturn beast by nature. In most situations, she prefers to listen for information that can be used later, and will never volunteer information about herself if she can help it. However, when a peculiar mood strikes her and she chooses to talk freely, she reveals herself to be a remarkably intelligent and profound beast. Senn has very few friends, but those beasts she does take a liking to she protects fiercely. While an opportunist at heart, Senn has certain codes of honor that she will not transgress. Though she will loot from a fallen enemy, she considers it beneath her to steal or take what she had not rightfully earned. Nor will she kill, except in self-defense or in the course of her work as a mercenary. She will work for anyone who pays her enough, regardless of their intent, and once she takes a job she makes it a point of honor to follow through. She also makes it her personal code never to get too attached a particular place or employer, and moves around as she pleases.

Strengths:

Senn is a fighter and always has been since she was old enough to move around. From the time she was walking, she was trained in the arts of war, and grew up with a sword in her paw. Though she is an excellent swordbeast, her paw-to-paw technique is second to none and her staff is her favorite weapon. She is quite an athlete and has worked hard to become fast and agile, as well as strong. Having spent the bulk of her life as a warrior, Senn is also something of a natural strategist.

Weaknesses:

Senn is often plagued by terrible nightmares and occaisionally waking flashbacks, the mark of all the battles she's been in. When in the grip of a flashback, she shakes uncontrollably and often speaks to creatures who are not there, or even mistake those around her for long-dead enemies come to hurt her. She is also resolutely superstitious and believes in all manner of "haints" that can bring ill fortune if angered or left unappeased. Senn also lacks any kind of schooling except for the arts of war, and so she cannot read or do anything more than very basic addition and subtraction.

History/Background:

Sennkara Warstripe was born to a barbaric tribe of stoats in the country east of Mossflower. Her father, Drakkar Warstripe, was chief of the tribe and quite proud of his six offspring, of whom Sennkara was the youngest and favorite. Though her older brothers and sisters were fearsome in their own right, they spent the majority of their time squabbling with each other, unlike Sennkara, who applied herself with fanatical discipline to training in the arts of war so highly valued by the clan. By the time she was old enough to join the raiding parties that occaisionally spear-headed into Mossflower, Sennkara was known as one of the best paw-to-paw and spear fighters in the tribe, and certainly the one that Drakkar would hand the reigns over to one day, if she lived long enough. But it was not to be.
Sennkara was 14 seasons old when the a larger horde of vermin swept through their lands. The warlord offered a parley with her father, and slew him almost before both leaders had said a word. He then offered any tribe member who would swear loyalty to him a place in his horde, and unsurprisingly, almost all of the tribe, including Sennkara's siblings accepted readily. Sennkara and a handful of others who had been particularly loyal to the old chieftan refused. Except for Sennkara, the others were ruthlessly dispatched, but since she was the daughter of the previous chieftan, the warlord decided to use Sennkara as an object lesson for his horde and had her flogged nearly to death and left her unconscious and broken on the plain in the noon sun to die of exposure. But Sennkara didn't die. When she awoke, sun-parched and in pain, she dragged herself into the shelter of the trees and reflected on the lesson she had learned that day. Loyalty amounted to nothing. The only way to survive was to be strong enough to fight and protect yourself and smart enough to know when to move on.
Sennkara didn't bother to track down the ferret warlord that slew her father, or her trecherous siblings. Her only concern now was herself, and making a living. She dropped the name Warstripe and the honorific -kara from her name since it was applied to the female relatives of a chief among her tribe, and called herself simply Senn. Then, she began making a living the only way she knew how. Fighting for the highest bidder as Senn the sellsword.

Relationships:

• Drakkar Warstripe (father, deceased)

[Ashstripe]

Approved. Welcome to Redwall!