- Name: Lytka Gottschalk
Nickname: Lyt
Age: 24
Social Class: born a peasant, became a Hunter out of necessity
Occupation: Hunter
APPEARANCE
Lytka is of average height but is a little stocky -- not overweight (the diet of a peasant and even a hunter is not full enough for that), but definitely not what one would call "willowy" either. Her face is squareish and she has a flat, wide nose. Her dirty blonde hair has been cropped to shoulder-length and is a mass of unruly curls and tangles that she rarely ties back -- although it sometimes gets in her face, she prefers the warmth of it on her ears and neck to the increased visibility of tying it back (except when she's hunting). Her eyes are a plain, common brown and a spray of splotchy freckles dust her cheeks. The clothing Lytka wears is plain but practical, and many-layered to keep her warm while she's out hunting: fur-lined leggings underneath a calf-length skirt that is usually hitched up past her knees to give her ease of mobility, shirts under vests under jackets, hoods, boots, gloves. She doesn't go much for decorations or overly feminine cuts -- Lytka is mostly interested in her clothes keeping her warm without hampering her freedom of movement too much.
PERSONALITY
Lytka is a mostly solitary person. When she is forced to interact with others it is usually with a sarcastic and slightly bitter attitude. Lyt is a bit of an outcast, although this is mostly due to her own choice. She grew up in one of the small peasant houses near to the outer wall of the city with her mother, her father having died when she was very young. Lytka's mother is extremely absent-minded, almost to the point of a mental illness, and lives her days in a fog not unlike that of an Alzheimer's patient would today. As such, Lytka knows next to nothing about her father or her early childhood.
When she was young, Lytka's mother struggled to hold down various meager jobs but her absentmindedness made this extremely difficult and often Lytka was forced to go out on the street and beg for her food. As soon as she judged herself old enough, Lytka ventured outside the walls of the city and began watching the hunters, trying to learn as much about their trade as possible. She acquired a knife and learned how to set snares on the edges of the wood and in this way began gathering enough small game to feed both her and her mother, and enough small furs to help keep them warm. As the years went by Lytka spent more and more of her time outside of the city walls, hunting with a homemade bow and arrows and setting her snares deeper and deeper into the wood, venturing back to her mother's house only to deliver food and furs and to check on her occasionally. The amount of game she captures these days leaves her with more than enough to sell and barter away, and Lytka has grown into the rank of a full-fledged hunter.
Lytka is inept (at best) in most social situations and feels most comfortable when alone on the outskirts of the wood. Most of her human interaction takes the form of selling or bartering her game and occasionally conversing with other hunters in some of their more common gathering places. Still, she is known as a rather cynical and sarcastic woman to talk with, although she holds no real grudges and rarely gets into fights.
ABILITIES
Lytka is stronger than most women of her age, but that is mostly due to her build and the natural exertions of her chosen profession -- her strength is that expected of a hunter. She is a fair shot with a bow and arrow, enough to hit larger animals that are moving slowly through the forest, but her main skill in hunting is in setting traps and snares. She is of average intelligence but would prefer to discuss practical knowledge (like how to make a proper bowstring) over some more intellectual pursuits any day. While not openly hostile, Lytka prefers making business acquaintances over friends, and has a tendency towards sarcasm.
HOBBIES
Lytka doesn't have much spare time (or doesn't allow herself much, at least) and spends most of her time hunting or selling her game. A quiet evening (perhaps during a snowstorm when the weather is too harsh to venture outside for long) will find her working with animal guts and sinew to make strong twine and rope for her snares and bowstrings. She shaves down the shafts of her own arrows and does her own fletching with feathers from her game. Occasionally, when she has nothing else to do, Lytka can be found whittling little figures out of scraps of extra wood -- usually animals of various shapes and sizes. Most of these she gives to her mother, who has filled the corners of her little hut with them -- although on occasion Lyt will sell or barter one away in addition to her other goods.
REFERENCE PICTURES
This is the version of Lytka that exists in Wardwood, but it gets the general idea of her face and her hair (and her attitude) across. Drawn by the lovely Rejam! <3
ROLEPLAYS
[ORP] Crazy on the Corner (Ever, Lytka, Ayle, everyone)
[META] Into the Blackwood
[META] Group Five (Rosalie, Devlin, Lytka, Ulrich)
