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Name: Josselyn Jacobi
Previously Known: Josselyn Austern, from her marriage.

Gender: Female
Day of Birth: December 3
Current Age: 28

Religion: Agnostic, deeply wary of the Spirit.
Social Class: Artisan, distantly related to a Minor Noble.
Profession: Furrier, with some tanning services offered for unsuitable furs. She owns one of many fur shops in town, called simply: Jacobi Furs & Skins. Notable, perhaps, for her insistence on overseeing the slaughter and cleaning of almost all skins that come into her hands to be made into clothing, Josselyn inherited her trade from her father and does it with the grit of a hunter and the eye of a jeweler. She will not accept haggling -- her price is what it costs, no exceptions

Marital Status: Widow to Henry Austern (hunter), dead for just over 7 years.
Children: None
Pet: Asher -- black and gray wulfkind, very aggressive.

Likes:
Dislikes:
Treasured Belongings: A golden hair comb that belonged to her mother, her father's furrier tools, a pair of fur gloves she made 100% by herself at age 8, and a jeweled clasp that she was awarded for her first high-quality garment.

Appearance: Josselyn is a sturdy woman standing at 5’10” with dark brown hair and blue-green eyes that appear teal. She maintains a feminine shape, cut in the waves of an hourglass -- though she is a little more square in the hips, a little thick with muscle around her waist. Her arms are not waifish things, nor her thighs. It is clear that Josselyn has done labor in her life, physical labor, and it would be a fool that mistook her for weak, even if she still show signs of the same thinness that plagues much of the town.

Her eyes are almond-shaped but rimmed with dark circles. Her nose is gently curved, bottom lip pouts out past her top, cheekbones as high as a royals with a rounded chin. Her complexion is olive-toned and even. Her hair is almost always worn in a messy braid or messy bun, anything that keeps it out of her face. She is not beautiful and yet not plain. She is, more or less, of average attractiveness. Despite her status, there is something regal about the way that Josselyn carries herself that can make her memorable regardless.

Her most unique feature is a white spider-webbing burn scar that covers her left hand and forearm, sprinkling up to her shoulder and crawling across the top of her left breast. As a child, she was following her father too closely as he worked on removing some fur from a skin and knocked over a boiling hot bucket of water. She nearly died from shock, but was able to recover through the use of salves that cost her father a good chunk of his money and goods. Even so, she considers the scar a glowing tribute to her strength and survivalism, even if she is insecure to have others see it.

Josselyn does not wear makeup, but she does wear clothes that someone who might care about makeup would wear. Her skirts are long and gathered, often accented by hanging furs and crystals to draw the eye. Tufts of silken furs pop out from sleeves and collars. She is always in a corset with a matching high-neck jacket. Everyday, she treats her body like a billboard for her shop -- if Josselyn is not wearing fur, then the world has ended. As gorgeous as some of her clothes might be, Josselyn still wears sensible black work boots, scuffed and dirty from years of hard work.

General Personality: Josselyn is a woman who comes from hearty stock. There is little that she admits to fearing, though sometimes when gazing out at the forest line she might be seen crossing herself. Life, to Josselyn, is about hard, honest work with little room for frivolity or other such nonsense. She inherited this attitude from her father, now passed, who raised her by himself after her mother died in childbirth and her two older brothers passed from sickness during childhood. Despite her hard exterior, Josselyn is not a woman without joy or mercy. She will be there to offer a hand when some luckless sonofabitch needs it, but the first to kick him in the a** when he welches on that kindness. Honesty, hardwork, grit -- these are the things that matter to Josselyn.

Josselyn is happy to be alone, which can make people feel distant from her, and her constant focus on work has led some to describe her as joyless or without spirit. However, Josselyn enjoys attending community events, smalltalk, and listening to stories by the fire or seeing others dance. She is simply a creature who feels most at home in the quiet company of a few close friends, or curled up with her wulfkind, Asher, in her small home on the second floor of her shop.

When it comes to her major downfalls, Josselyn is a creature of habit and can be incredibly rigid. She is wary of things that are unfamiliar, and it makes her a bit close-minded. She would rather things stay the same, even if the same is just plain old mediocre, rather than take a risk that could result in something better. It makes her very grounded, but also very unimaginative and boring.

In her wildest dreams, Josselyn only wants a comfortable life where her work is appreciated, her stomach is always full, and her life is free of confusion. She fears the unknown; it is dangerous.

Skills: Josselyn is a shrewd businesswoman with equal parts head for finance/bartering and genuine skill at her craft. There is a reason that Jacobi Furs & Skins has a steady flow of patrons of varying social classes despite being located in a less than glamorous part of town a touch closer to the woods than some might like. Josselyn is not a pretentious person, not at all. If you come into her store with goods to meet her prices, she will deal with anyone from a petty thief to the Speaker. This helps offset some of the coldness that she radiates in social situations, though no one would describe her as warm or friendly even.

Physically, Josselyn is quite strong. She is not a hunter and has never hunted, but she works every single day with the iron implements needed to butcher, skin, tan, treat, and craft furs. In a fight, these are the skills Josselyn would rely on, but she is not one to fight. There is no battle-training in her past, no real agility, no strategical savvy. Her strengths are in her hands and how she can use them to create beautiful, structurally sound fur and fur accessories.

Josselyn is better than most people at avoiding deception -- she cannot read minds but she is incredibly good at sniffing out the intentions of people. She is bad at admitting when she is wrong and accepting change.

Hobbies: Josselyn is always working, but she also enjoys a good drink at the pub, listening to others tell colorful stories about their more-exciting adventures, trying to improve her reading skills beyond basic function, participating in hands-on crafts, learning how to wield various weapons, and surefut-riding. As of late, she has taken to trying to learn how to preserve meats and create jerky. Almost all of her hobbies are based in something that could be turned into a marketable/beneficial life skill. You won’t catch this woman painting or singing. Ever.

HISTORY

Josselyn Jacobi was born to Mikhail and Annalyn Jacobi on December 3rd in the dead of winter. A thick snow had fallen the night before, and going outside was treacherous. Mikhail battled through the freezing cold to the midwife's house, but the trip took three times as long as it should have.

By the time Mikhail and the midwife arrived at the home, Annalyn had delivered the baby alone. Tiny Josselyn gurgled and wailed from the blood-stained bedsheets. The cord was cut, and the midwife quickly wiped and warmed the baby. Mikhail ran to his wife's side. She had lost blood, too much of it, and within moments, before she was able to hold her daughter, she passed away. Her father never remarried.

Josselyn was raised by her father with her older brother. There had been another boy, Allan, in the family, but he died from sickness when he was just two years old -- years before Josselyn herself was born. Unfortunately, death was not done with the Jacobis. When her living brother, Tyrek, was 5-years-old, he succumbed to frostbite and died.

From the age of three onward, Josselyn was an only child raised by her single father.

Most people in the town assumed that Mikhail would remarry -- and certainly, many women made it a point to parade before him as potential options. And why not? He was a successful business owner with ties to nobility and food on the table each night. What he lacked in dashing looks he made up for in the essential ability to be a provider.

However, grief had set heavily into the simple man, and the few women who he did entertain a relationship were roundly despised by Josselyn. Though Mikhail did court a few reputable young ladies for a time, he quickly tired of the dance of it and the disdain of the little girl who he loved so much. By the time Josselyn was 8, her father was dedicating most of his time with women to the kind of women whose time was billed hourly.

Josselyn, for her part, grew up faster, faster even than most children her age. She was making dinner each night the moment she was old enough to reach the edge of the cauldron. She was bartering for vegetables in the market as soon as her chubby little legs could carry her there. Her independence was so great that it was the prime thing that she and her father came to blows over. There were many nights that he would lock her in the upstairs bedroom, for fear that she would run to the edge of town to try and catch the hunters on their way back in the hopes of purchasing furs.

Though Josselyn had unofficially been apprenticing with her father for years -- mending small holes, cleaning furs, tidying the shop -- her official work began when she was 11. Teaching her to read was the first order of business, and her father just happened to know a prostitute, Janina, with the unique ability to read and write. Janina worked with Josselyn in the evenings while her father finished up work, and then Mikhail would tuck her into bed to spend his own time with Janina. It was anything but a typical upbringing.

Janina was the only female friend of her father's that Josselyn did not outright despise. This probably had a great deal to do with the woman's usefulness. She tutored Josselyn as much as she could, and by the time the girl was 13, she could read and write as well as most adult furriers and traders. "See, my girl," her father had said. "Now you can keep your own books -- this is the best advice I could ever give you." In present day, Josselyn still has a soft spot for prostitutes and is more likely to offer them assistance than others of a similar class.

Working with her father brought the two only closer. By the time she was 16, Josselyn was able to open and close the store on her own and fill all the orders -- not that her father ever let her do it. They worked side by side for years until the pressure for Josselyn to marry became too great.

When Josselyn was 20, she married a man her father believed would be a good match: Henry Austern. It was a quiet, simple wedding. Henry was a hunter and a friend of the family, and Josselyn had just completed her official apprenticeship under her father as a furrier. The marriage would benefit both parties financially, and Josselyn’s father hoped it would quickly bring him the grandchildren he wanted and that the community needed.

Unfortunately, Josselyn was never a very intimate person nor someone who dreamed of romance, and the marriage was strained from the start. When her father got sick just after Josselyn and Henry’s first wedding anniversary, she used the excuse to move back home for a time. Three weeks after moving back home, Henry went out on a hunt and was never seen again. Only his bloodied satchel was found. At 21 years of age, Josselyn became a widow and returned to her maiden name.

For the next three years, Josselyn took over Jacobi Furs & Skins during the day and her father during the night. At times, she got so desperate for her father to recover that she considered trying to seek healing in the forest, but... no. Despite it all, Josselyn could not bring herself to tempt fate in such a blatant way. One night when Josselyn returned home from work, she found that her father had passed.

Grief filled her until she was overflowing. Townspeople whispered woes for her -- first a husband, now a father. What was a woman to do? Josselyn had an answer: work. In the year after her father's death, Josselyn turned out more product and accrued more wealth than she had in her previous 24 years of life. She sold the home that she had shared with her father and instead turned the second floor of Jacobi Furs & Skins into her own living space. Her life that had once be filled with family was now filled with work. New friendships cropped up -- other artisans, many hunters and traders. Josselyn began to establish herself as a name in the town, a name with as much repute as her father's.

Being a widow saved Josselyn from some of the harsh scrutiny that unmarried, childless women often experienced in the town, but now that she is 28 and has still not found another mate to bear children, people have begun to whisper again. Gossip has never mattered to the sensible girl, but the idea of disappointing her father, even though he has passed away, is a constant source of stress, one that she is only able to alleviate by drowning herself in her work.

Currently, she lives with her wulfkind, Asher, and spends her days working and her nights at the local pub listening to the grand stories of others.