Name: Niamh, of Clan Ròcas
Race: Dalish Elf
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: 19 Harvestmere 9:11
Occupation: Grey Warden
Companion(s): Pads, a young mabari pub gifted to her by Nathaniel Howe.
Niamh is small and lithe, her frame toned by a combination of scouting and dancing. She compensates for her petite nature with a boisterous and loud personality more befitting a mighty knight than a graceful dancer. Her fiery red hair is kept in a short, haphazard cut which she manages using her dagger. It is universally unkempt, barring the rare moments when her duties require attendance to a more formal setting. Even then, she is not prone to much grooming. After all, who has the time when there's monsters to slay?
Her large hazel eyes brim with kindness, gazing upon everyone as if they were a dear friend. A large tattoo—a Dalish vallaslin dedicated to the goddess Sylaise—covers her left eye and extends down towards her cheek. Niamh's skin is fair and thus far unmarked by the scars of combat. However, the top of her left pinky finger is missing, bitten off by a darkspawn on her first official mission as a Grey Warden. While she is more often than not seen wearing her uniform or armor, Niamh will sometimes wear a simple tunic and trouser when off duty, although she does have a simple burgundy skirted dress for when the fancy strikes her.
Class: Rogue
Specialization: Ranger (Expert)
Weapons & Armor: Niamh wields an ironbark shortbow that was recovered during her first excursion against the darkspawn beneath Denerim. She also wields a pair of silverite daggers commissioned for her by order of Warden-Commander Nathaniel Howe. Niamh's Grey Warden armor has been personalized with a small tuft of crows' feathers, which festoon her left shoulder. She also has a green dress used for dancing which is reserved for special occasion.
Additional Inventory: Niamh's possessions are largely practical. Flint and steel, a small whetstone and iron dagger, her bow and a quiver that she fills with hand crafted arrows. Her travel bag contains her dress, a waterskin, and various herbs, berries, or dried meat. She also travels with a simple bedroll.
Languages: Common (mostly fluent), Elven (bits and pieces.) Niamh is nearly illiterate, although she is taking reading lessons.
Non-Combat Skills:
Master: Dancing
Expert: Acrobatics, Boyer/Fletcher, Dalish History, Dalish Lore, Scouting, Stealth (Wilderness), Tracking, Traps & Wilderness Survival
Intermediate: Alchemy, Natural Lore, Healing, Cooking, Climbing, Cartography
Novice: Riding, Poison Lore, Leatherworking, Human Etiquette
Combat Skills:
Master: N/A
Expert: Archery (Short Bows), Camouflage,
Intermediate: Dual Weapons (Daggers), Fleet-Footed
Novice: Summon Companion, Exploit Terrain, Unarmed Combat
Armor Proficiency: Medium
Congenial. Niahm has a great respect for other people and treats them with kindness and good humor. While she is no fool, she believes that people generally mean well. As such, she is fast to pursue friendships. Niahm always maintains her cheer and has a propensity to talk to herself. She loves telling stories, always eager to share what she knows with others. If all else is uncertain, it can always be taken for granted that Niahm will remain in good spirits. This is not without its downsides. Niamh's focus on keeping positive means that she often fails to consider or ponder the negative; she places pain to the side instead of properly dealing with it.
Niahm left her clan under the belief that she has been called upon for some endeavor. This can sometimes, when paired with her naturally high spirits, give the impression of arrogance. Her desire to remain positive and keep those around her happy might also be misconstrued as a desire to be the center of attention. This is partially true, given that she can be genuinely obtrusive and nosey. These qualities have been muted some by her time among the Grey Wardens and she is working hard to become a responsible and reliable comrade to her brothers and sisters in arms, holding aspirations of leadership.
If Niahm has a deep flaw, it is that she is capricious. While she might be content to wait and be still during a hunt, she has difficulty abiding idleness elsewhere and can be erratically changeable in her tastes as well as overly reliant on others to provide a stabilizing influence. If left on her own, she has a tendency to get distracted.
As a Dalish elf, she maintains a suspicion towards humans and other races. Although this has been greatly mollified by her time with the Wardens, she may sometimes make unflattering assumptions. She is religious, holding a special fondness for Sylaise. Niamh finds herself drawn by the idea of the Way of Peace (Vir Atish'an) and the notion of a more idyllic tomorrow.
Born into a nomadic clan roaming the Coastlands, her father Kyran was a hunter and her mother Hana was First to the clan's Keeper. Growing up, Niahm enjoyed as good a childhood as could be asked. She eagerly learned from her parents and the clan's elders, although she took after her father more than her mother. Rushing to her father after he returned from hunts, she would listen to his exaggerated recounting of the process. It enraptured her enough that she knew that she wanted to be just like him. From a young age, she practiced archery and took an interest in learning all she could about how to survive in the wilds.
While she had many friends in her clan, her best friend was another girl named Aoife. Much quieter than Niamh, she nevertheless possessed a captivating grace and talent for the arts. Most of all, she could dance. Envious of her friend, she asked for lessons and the two would slink off into the woods together where Aoife would teach Niamh. The two developed a deep bond and although she would never admit it, Niamh held a deep crush in her heart. As she grew older, Niamh would join her father on hunts and often bring back small trinkets to her friend while also taking after her father and telling exaggerated tales of chases through the forests and impressive and highly unlikely feats of daring.
During one of their lessons, the two were set upon by a wolf. Without her bow or any means to fight back, Niahm was unable to protect her friend. Aoife was grievously injured and Niamh herself was only saved at the last moment by her father. Although everything was done to help the young girl, Aoife passed away. Heartbroken, Niamh only found solace in dance. It was as close as she might get to her lost friend. Her life was dominated by long hunts in the forest and deep and enthusiastic performances for her clan on feast days.
When the Blight came, Niamh would act as a a scout alongside a few other hunters. Moving ahead of the aravels, they would guide the clan to safe lands. She remained with her clan throughout this period. Her father did not. He was one of many Dalish who set off to Denerim to help in the battle against the archdemon. He did not return. Niamh and her mother took solace with the knowledge that he died for a good cause. Yet, Niamh often wondered why the Creators had seen to rob her of her father.
It was around this time that the clan's Keeper, Iseri, passed away and Niamh's mother took on the role. What little connection the two shard began to fray as her mother became engrossed in her duties. Often, she pushed her daughter to find a mate and begin raising a family but Niamh refused outright, pouring herself into her hunting and spending days apart from the clan. All the while, her dreams began to be plagued by images of a sad and forlorn woman. Unable to cast the image aside and convinced that it was a message from Sylaise herself, Niamh turned to her mother for council only to meet a dismissive response. It was foolishness, she was told. The overactive imagination of a girl who refused to grow up and arrogantly believed she was special. After a particularly heated argument, Niamh packed her bags and left her clan in the middle of the night.
The young elf journeyed alone until she arrived in Highever. Captivated by the city's wonders and eager to prove that she was meant for great things, Niamh apprenticed under the alienage's healer as an assistant. To earn spare coin, she danced in the streets and entertained whatever crowds that would gather. It was not the most glamorous life however, and while she did not regret the work she did, she also yearned for something more exciting. That chance came when a Grey Warden mage watched one of her performances. Eagerly offering her services to the Grey Wardens, they left for Denerim and a new life full of excitement—and hardship—unlike anything Niamh could have imagined.
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