- Name: Rosalie Costigan
Nickname: Sir
Age: 23
Social Class: N/A
Occupation: Second Sword
APPEARANCE
Rosalie has the potential for great beauty, naturally fair-skinned and smooth of face with high cheek bones and vibrantly green eyes. Her mouth is a bit narrow, perhaps, and working life has tanned her to a richer shade, but otherwise she leans toward dark and noble good looks. Her hair is thick and a shiny, lustrous black -- but by choice, for the sake of safety in a fight, she keeps it cropped boyishly short, barely brushing her ears.
Her frame, however, is nothing to write home about. From behind, with her short hair and the confident way she holds herself, it would be easy to mistake Rosalie for a short, slim young man. Virtually flat-chested with almost no hips, strong arms and lean legs, there is very little femininity to her shape. She makes this all the worse by dressing in clunky boots and tight-fitting pants, not even the structure of a worn corset doing much good to hourglass out her body beneath her shirt.
PERSONALITY
The unacknowledged daughter of a more-than-minor Noble, Rosalie frequently finds herself smothering big thoughts and ideas, swallowing strong emotion, and fighting against an inescapable rumbling of anger that sits in her core. Her blood line, she is sure, is pure; however, her mother's reputation for wandering has left Rosalie's own honor besmirched, and brought her legitimacy into question enough that she lacks what status she should have.
The result of this is the shattered remains of a strong moral compass, a strong belief in laws and the way things are, laid over a sense of wounded pride and frustration. The combination is something dangerous: someone quietly confident, muted and easy to ignore, with a spine of steel and the absolute certainty that her way is the right way. All of these qualities are highly desirable considering her position, but can make it difficult to befriend her.
In many ways, she is also an island, and has never been anything else. She is not actively opposed to the idea of friendship, but considering the fact that she must keep at least some distance between herself and both the men she commands and the people she protects, to prove herself as competent despite the fact that she is a woman in a man's game, few relationships seem to rise beyond company and the physical.
ABILITIES
From a young age -- when boys in the yard would tease her for being low born, whether it could be proven or not -- Rosalie had to fight to defend her honor. Terrible at more 'womanly pastimes', she did at least take to the sword. She is good with the weapon, no, excellent with the weapon, even if her style is less than conventional. Given her height and the fact that she's a woman, Rosalie knows when to fight and when to run and, despite the way it frays at her honor, when to fight dirty.
She is also more than capable at throwing balanced knives, bellowing over a loud crowd, and has a firm understanding of the law.
She is not, however, who anyone would want negotiating or dealing with the public. She leads her men well in an official capacity, she can teach the newcomers who enter the ranks, but she is restless and lonely, and has alienated most of the people around her. They do not dislike her, she simply keeps herself separate from them in order to hold onto their respect.
HOBBIES
Rosalie has an eye for fine weapons, and much of her gold is poured into obtaining them. In her rooms she has rows of delicately wrought swords and knives too elaborate to ever use in a real fight. She merely collects them.
Some part of her, were she not highborn, might have enjoyed making weapons. It's too late for that now, and she pours her own creative instincts into wood carvings, primarily, talismans that she leaves around the city during her routes.
Socially, when she's levered out, Rosalie usually ends up in a corner on her own, drinking too much and eating not enough. Her appreciating of fine wines and food is surely inherited from her father and her ancestors, a noble indulgence that -- were it not for her job -- would almost certainly render her as fat as them.
