Post by Mahthilda Liodtōdener on May 3, 2012 0:00:09 GMT -5
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Profession: Princess of Teutlandt
Appearance:
Gender: Female
Profession: Princess of Teutlandt
Appearance:
Mahthilda, nicknamed Hilda by her family, is considered by all Teutlanders to represent the perfect woman. Blond and tall, with long legs, lightly tanned skin, an ample bosom, and bright blue eyes, she is the envy of every woman in the kingdom and the desire of most of the men, married or otherwise. With straight white teeth, a clear complexion and the grace of a cat, there is nothing about Hilda that is not beautiful.Personality:
Still, while those features might make Hilda exceptionally pretty, they are not what truly makes Hilda beautiful in the eyes of all Teutlandt. No, her muscular build, calloused hands and the long scar that runs from her left breast all the way down to the bottom of her sternum are what makes Hilda beautiful to the people of Teutlandt. They show that she is strong, skilled in battle and capable of defending any potential husband's land. They mark her as a Trahhofrouwa, a "Lady Who Commands Dragons", metaphor for a woman who has taken up the arms of men.
Despite what some from other cultures might think, Hilda's muscles and ability to kill with a sword don't mean that she forgoes silk and lace and jewels. No, Hilda is perfectly happy to dress up in a dress or to receive expensive gifts. She'll even occasionally giggle and turn in a circle to show off her latest gown. That said, Hilda does prefer plain clothing most of the time and probably spends about 30% of her time in a shirt and pants. They're far more practical for sword or archery practice.
Hilda is an intelligent, humorous, strong minded young woman who equally enjoys poetry, sewing and practicing with sword and shield or bow and arrow. She is kind to the poor, obeys her parents in most things, plays practical jokes on her brothers, ogles the younger members of her father's warband with her sister and flirts outrageously with them when no one is around. Hilda is slow to anger, has no quarrel with family members of enemies so long as they don't become involved and is kind to slaves.History:
Of course, there is a flip side to this virtuous coin. While Hilda is slow to anger and doesn't hold a grudge against those who don't directly offend her, she is vengeful to those who do. More than one young lady has lost their virtue after Hilda has managed to convince them to go amongst the mercenaries hired by her father when they were drunk, and Hilda didn't just kill Earl Wīnhalōjan when he started murdering noblewomen, she killed all of his extended family, burned the Wīnhalōjan's ancestral home and made cups from the skulls of Wīnhalōjan and his mother.
And, like most Teutlanders, Hilda has no problem with ritual human sacrifice. Indeed, she has participated in the biannual ceremonies since she was twelve and, before battles, offers the enemy forces as sacrifices to the gods if they will let her win the battle. She considers the sacrifices as necessary for continued good crops, victory and a long and healthy life.
Mahthilda was born the youngest daughter of the King and Queen of Teutlandt. Unlike her sister or three brothers, Hilda's birth was something of an accident, as the Queen hadn't wanted to have another child so soon after Adalheid, but her birth was nonetheless a cause for celebration and Hilda was never felt as though she was unwanted. Indeed, her whole family was very close.Additional Information:
Growing up, Hilda learned what all women of noble birth learned. She learned how to cook and sew, how to take care of a man's wounds, how to read and write, how to do sums, how to hunt, how to tend the fields and, most importantly, how to fight. All women in Teutlandt are taught how to fight so that they might defend themselves and their husband's property, and all women go about armed with at least a knife. Indeed, a husband is expected to present his wife with a knife after their wedding night. However, the weapon most used by women is the spear, or the bow. A few use axes or maces, but very few ever use swords, because the sword is a strictly male weapon.
Down through the years, a very few women both real and legendary have wielded swords, either in defence of their husband or betrothed, and it is generally accepted that any woman who uses a sword must fight a man before she can legally carry the sword anywhere outside of her house. Should she lose, the woman becomes the property of the man she fought, something that discourages most high born women from even thinking about using a sword. However, some think that the reward - being able to carry a sword and gaining all of the man's property and possessions, as well as becoming famous throughout the realm - is worth it and train for their fight. Hilda was one such woman.
She trained first with a Hildsahs ("War Knife") and, when she was twelve, moved on to her first sword. Her parents were none too happy about Hilda's decision, but she defied their orders and, they were once forced to admit, had the build to be an excellent swordswoman. So, after they discovered Hilda fencing with a post for the third time in a row, Hilda's father assigned Nordemann, an old, half-Skandian swordsman to be her tutor.
A massive bear of a man, Nordemann was 62 years old and routinely fought multiple challengers just to keep his edge. He was a natural warrior and, although Hilda wasn't a natural, managed to teach her techniques that few men know of or could pull off. He taught her to be fast, to always strike at an enemy's weak spot and that her shield was as much a weapon as her sword. Hilda came to think of Nordemann as a grandfather and he became very protective of her, once killing a man who claimed that he had taken Hilda's virginity, even though Hilda's brothers should have avenged the insult to Hilda and the family's honour.
As Hilda's sixteenth birthday, and the day when she would have to fight for her right to use a sword, approached, a handsome young lord came to visit. He was Siewurt, Erl (Earl) of Wīnhalōjan, one of the oldest Earldoms in Teutlandt. A staunch supporter of his father and victorious in battle, a dark cloud still followed Siewurt. Everyone knew that noblewomen vanished whnever he visited a lord's hall, and he always left in the middle of the night. Six men had so far accused him of murdering the women, but Siewurt had killed them all in trial by combat. After that, people were more reluctant to accuse him of any wrong doing.
Still, when Siewurt visited, Hilda and Adalheid were warned to never be alone with Siewurt and, as it was said that he could sing an enchanted song, they should enver let him sing to them. Hilda thought such measures stupid, as she would much rather put a knife through Siewurt as going off with him in the middle of the night to be murdered, but she obey her mother anyway. The next morning, Siewurt was gone, but there were no missing women. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and promptly forgot what they had been afraid of.
Two weeks later, Hilda received word that one of her best friends, Anelie, had last been seen in Earl Wīnhalōjan's company and had vanished during the night. Filled with anger and regret that she hadn't killed Siewurt when she had the chance, Hilda stormed in on her father and mother and, ignoring the delicated position they were in when she burst in, demanded Siewurt's head. Her father yelled at her to get out and Hilda had to wait a few hours before the covnersation continued.
Her parents explained that, without Siewurt's support, the kingdom would become more unstable than it already was, and that that could be disasterous. They also pointed out that there was no direct proof linking Siewurt to the disappearances and that the gods had already proven that he was innocent six times. Hilda ignored them and discussed the idea that she might go after Siewurt herself with her sister, who was horrified and told Hilda that she should never, under any circumstances, go to him. Her final hope was that her brothers, who were charged with protecting her honour, would cover for her and let her go. They both agreed, provided that she wore her crown with dignity and didn't dishonour herself or their family.
Avoiding Nordemann, who Hilda was sure would cotton on to her plan and forbid her from going, Hilda waited until nightfall before dressing herself, stealing her father's best horse and riding out to where Siewurt was supposed to be camped.
Singing some of the old ballads, mostly ones containing female heros, Hilda came across Siewurt quite by accident, as he was out hunting. Smiling knowingly, he sent his men away and asked if Hilda had come to hear his sing. When Hilda replied that she had, he pulled out a strange blue stone and began to sing. Afterwards, Hilda couldn't remember the song, but she would always remember feeling as though she was outside of her body, watching as it obeyed Siewurt's commands.
Under Siewurt's command, the two rode for several days until they came to a secluded clearing, where sixteen women hung from the trees, one of whom was Anelie. Ordering Hilda to dismount, he ordered her to strip down to her underclothes, as her outer garments were much to fine to rot on her body. He put them in a pile and then kissed Hilda. When he broke away, he told Hilda that her beauty impressed him so much that he was going to offer her the choice between hanging and having him take her head off with a sword.
For a moment, Siewurt seemed to give Hilda back her wits and that was his downfall. Hilda, thinking quickly, decided to say that she would prefer to die by a sword, as should befit a noble virgin such as her. She also made a request, that Siewurt remove his shirt so that her blood didn't stain such a handsome shirt. Siewurt laughed and put the blue stone down to take off his shirt. He didn't think to order Hilda to keep looking at it, perhaps thinking that, even if she ran, he could catch her. And, indeed, Hilda did run. She ran towards him.
Shoulder low, Hilda slammed into Siewurt as his shirt was up around his head and sent him sprawling. Quick as a flash, she drew his sword, since he the first thing he had done was take away her war hildsahs, and attacked him. To his credit, Siewurt recovered quickly and had almost disentangled himself when Hilda attacked. He used an arm to fend off her blow and then drew his own hildsahs, striking with the determination of a dead man. The knife bit deep and Hilda screamed in pain but she fought back regardless, slamming the pommel of the sword into Siewurt's head so hard that he was knocked out. Hilda had no further trouble removing his head.
As Hilda was riding home, Siewurts head in a sack, she passed by his lands and met his mother. When asked if she had seen Siewurt, Hilda taunted the mother with her sons head and, when the mother screamed at her two guards to kill Hilda, Hilda cut all three of them down and went to the nearest lord, commandered his guard and rounded up all the members of the extended Wīnhalōjan family. Hilda threw them inside the keep of the castle and set fire to it, burning them alive.
When she returned, victorious, she was greated by her family who, although happy to see her alived and unharmed, were horrified by the civil war that Hilda had started. They were further taken aback when Hilda, still angry, turned Siewurt and his mother's skulls into drinking goblets. That was an insult that many men could not stand and soon there was a full scale civil war on the cards.
Hilda managed to convince her father to let her lead a few battles, but that only made things worse. Even though Trahhofrouwa ("Ladies Who Command Dragons", aka female commanders) were greatly venerated, Hilda's previous actions made it easy for her enemies to portray her as an unnatural creature, a savage woman who bathed in the blood of the innocent.
Things were getting even worse, and so Hilda's father decided to send her off to Araluen. Part of this was a hope that life in the Araluen court would help to convince his daughter to put away her sword, and part of this was a plan to marry her to the son of some important duke or baron, in the hopes of A) making Hilda seem like less of a threat to his enemies and B) to try and secure an alliance with Araluen.
Although she hated the idea of being married off and forbidden from war, Hilda knew that she had to go along with the plan. She was responsible for the war, and so she had to accept her role in ending it. She did, however, request that Nordemann, who had only spoken to her rarely since she killed Siewurt, be assigned as leader of her personal bodyguard. Even though she was sure that Nordemann hated her, Hilda wanted to have someone she was close to with her, and he was the natural choice. Her father agreed and they set sail, along with twenty other guards, their wives and children, various male and female slaves and several concubines.
They were almost at Araluen when the storm struck, pushing them off course, separating the ships and forcing Hilda's boat onto the Pictish shore. And that, my friends, is only the beginning of Hilda's story.
Influences:
Hilda is largely based on the unnamed princess in the Dutch ballad "Heer Halewijn", with names changed to reflect the Old High Germanic language and some additions/modifications to make it fit with RA and with how I see Teutlandt. I'm more than happy to change things if you want, though.
Hilda's Name:
Hilda's name can best be rendered in English/the common tongue as "Matilda Song-Slayer", although Hilda is too proud of her heritage to let people know that. It should also be pointed out that I've envisioned Teutlandt as being similar to Germany in early times, so "Liodtōdener" isn't a surname but a byname bestowed on Hilda by her men after she killed Siewurt Wīnhalōjan, who was well known for his song.
Hilda's Weaponry
Sternoswert: Sternoswert, "Star Sword", is the ancestral sword of the Wīnhalōjans. Supposedly made from a fallen star, it follows the pattern of most older swords. The blade is relatively long and wide, 900mm long and 50mm wide at the hilt, but is also fairly light, weighing only 900 grams. Made from pattern welded steel, the core of the sword has five fullers that run almost the entire length of the blade, with the whorls in the steel changing direction every fuller. The edge of the blade is also pattern welded, but the grain is parallel to the razor sharp edge.
The oval hilt of the sword is inlaid with gold and silver wire, and the rear face contains four images of warriors fighting, highlighted in gold. The grip of the word is made from ivory, with the three raised ridges of the grip made from solid gold. The brazil nut pommel is made from brass and is inlaid with silver knotwork, with a line of tiny rubies encircling the edge closest to the user's hand.
At least 300 years old, the blade holds and edge like no other sword, has a slight bluish sheen and seemingly never rusts.
(OOC Note: Sternoswert is essentially a sword where a small percentage of the metal came from a nickel-iron meteorite. As a result, the blade has levels of iridium, nickel and cobalt that make it superior to even Ranger saxe knives.)
Stehhaner: Stehhaner ("Thruster") is Hilda's hildsahs, or war knife. 580mm in total length, it has a 403mm blade that is just over 3mm thick and 52mm wide. The blade has a straight edge, while the back of the blade slopes down the blade 2/3 of the way down the blade, with the resulting false edge being sharpened. The initial distal taper of the knife is very small, only narrowing by 1mm over the first 25mm of the blade width. It then becomes much sharper, smoothly tapering down to the edge. As a result of this two step tapering, the knife is heavy, weighing just under 700 grams, but is still able to cut through flesh and bone easily. The cutting power of the war knife is further aided by the curved hilt, made from dark walnut wood inlaid with gold and riveted to the tan, which provides the user with a bit more leverage.
Thruster is kept in a blackleather scabbard that is decorated with silver and yellow topaz gemstones. A second, smaller knife is also sheathed alongside Thruster, the hilt ending just below the throat of the scabbard. This blade is thinner, narrower and the blade is only fifteen centimetres long. Hilda generally uses it to eat or to skin animals with.
(OOC Note: I probably didn't make it clear, but Thruster is essentially a giant broken back sax, the blade largely inspired by this sax.
Hilda's Goblets: Hilda's goblets seem to made from tortiseshell but are in fact made from the skull caps of Earl Siewurt and his mother. Dark and mottle in colour, they are attached to a golden stem and have scenes depicting the destruction of the Wīnhalōjan's castle etched into them and highlighted with gold, silver, copper and various gemstones, both inside and out. They look magnificent, but few people are willing to drink from them when they know what they are truly made from.