Ashes

Ashes

The tiefling woman known as Ashes has very humble beginnings, but has gone on to become a well known adventurer and folk hero. There are very few people out there with as much skill and proficiency in firearms as Ashes, and when you add in her combat training and supermassive build very few common folk wants to get on her bad side. Starting out as a simple farm girl turned novice bounty hunter, Ashes continues to build her heroic reputation alongside her friends and companions to this day.
Ashes was born as Velhiri to a poor tiefling family living at and managing Crossroad Ranch in the small hamlet known as Oni Hill. She grew up helping out on the farm, mostly helping her mom caring for the animals as a child. As she grew older she was noted to have inherited some previously dormant orc genes from her dads side of the family. This meant that she ended up growing immensely tall and huge, and thus she ended up doing most of the heavy work like plowing the fields and chopping wood. During her teens her mom used to take her out to practice handling her old rifle. It was there Velhiri discovered her love of firearms, and practiced with it daily until she was a borderline pro. However, the family was poor and struggled to stay afloat. Thus young Velhiri decided a goal: To go out in the great wide world to earn money to support them.
The only problem was that she had no idea how to do that, she had no training on how to survive out there. So Velhiri sought out just the right man for this job: Ben "Wildfire" Pilgrim, an old retired guard captain living in Oni Hill. She slowly managed to convince the very reluctant Pilgrim to train her (he mostly did it to shut her up and leave him alone). He did so for 4 years, and eventually the now 20 years old Velhiri had become a very skilled fighter and markswoman. It was during this time that Velhiri, like most tieflings changed her name to match her new self. She was the apprentice of "Wildfire" Pilgrim, and what do fire leave behind? Ashes. She set out for the big city life, where she over time started to build a small reputation as a bounty hunter.
She ended up in the capital city of Reffentect, where she eventually ended up as a freelancing bounty hunter/mercenary. But the combination of her intimidating gigantic stature, complete inexperience and harsh competition meant that things rarely went well. Ashes was lucky if she got any job at all, and if she did it was most likely just to find a lost cat or bring home someone's drunk grandpa. Until one day. An aaracokra noble by the name of Sir Toby of Hootinghoot offered a high paying job of tracking down his lost pet moose, a job which was right up Ashes' alley. She left to track it down, and this one job led to a grand adventure the likes of which few people get to experience. And although it has been rough and demanding, Ashes will press on and keep building her legend. And hopefully find that moose.

Physical Description

Body Features

Ashes is a very big woman in every way. Most tieflings stand at about the same average size as a human, aka between 5-6 feet. Ashes stands at 6'10 or 209 cm tall. In addition a very active lifestyle, combat training and orc genes running in the family have resulted in Ashes being extremely strong and muscular, weighing in at 280 Ibs. of muscle.

Facial Features

Ashes has a notably small face compared to her big body. Her jawline is fairly small and pointy, her nose is thin and her forehead is completely covered by her horns. She does have quite big, if dull, eyes though. Her ears are also quite large for a tiefling, but rounder and less pointy than average.

Identifying Characteristics

Ashes is easy to spot in a crowd due to her tiefling heritage. When you have red skin, a thick tail and large ridged horns you tend to stand out compared to the more common humans and elves. Even more identifying is her size. She is almost 7 ft. tall and possesses monstrously huge muscles, much much taller and beefier than an average person. This results in her being probably the first person you spot in a crowd. That and the fact that she dresses like a cowboy.

Physical quirks

Ashes tends to wrap her tail around objects when standing or sitting still. The tail is thick and not very flexible so she mostly does it around long thin objects, but on occasion she can do it around someones leg if she needs to. Like someone clinging to somebody else for comfort.

Special abilities

Given that Ashes is a tiefling she has a few innate abilities to use, this by channeling her race's inherent devilish origins. She can cast the spell Thaumaturgy to cause minor supernatural occurences (like causing small flames to flicker or her own voice to boom) whenever she wants. She can also cause enemies to become enveloped in dark flames via Hellish Rebuke or cover a small area in complete darkness via Darkness, but these abilities can only be used once a day. Other than her innate tiefling heritage she possesses no special abilities, magic or otherwise.

Apparel & Accessories

Ashes has a very rural fashion sense. She tends to wear clothes that are easy to move in, like tank tops and jeans. She is also rarely seen without her trademark black longcoat and especially her wide-brimmed cowboy hat. Ashes can also on occasion be seen in other outfits like vests, crop tops or on some occasions skirts, but what keeps them all connected is their notably western style. If you ever see Ashes in standard urban fashion, someone either forced her or it isn't Ashes.

Specialized Equipment

Ashes is well-versed in many various fighting styles and weapons, but she is mainly a skilled gunslinger. Her most trusted weapon is her trademark revolver, a well-used firearm which can hold up to 6 bullets. After completing her training with Ben "Wildfire" Pilgrim she was gifted his old gear to use. This includes a shortsword, a shield and a longbow that she still carries around in case firearms won't cut it.

Mental characteristics

Gender Identity

She/Her

Sexuality

Bisexual

Accomplishments & Achievements

• Became proficient in hand-to-hand combat, swordplay, archery and marksmanship over the course of 4 years.
• Helped defend a small town from a giant spider attack.
• Along with others, defeated a gigantic ghostly spider queen.
• Carried two unconscious fully armored guards for an entire night without stopping.
• Dealt the finishing blow via headshot to an intelligent troll who could use magic.

Failures & Embarrassments

• Failed in her first major job by tracking the wrong target, thus killing an innocent while the real culprit escaped.
• Tried to break an enchanted rapier, which only resulted in a stab wound.
• Continously fails to understand big city customs.
• Failed to protect her friends on two occasions, leading to their death. One of them irreversible.
• Still hasn't found that moose.

Mental Trauma

Ashes has had a fairly normal and happy upbringing, but several events have led to some serious doubts and issues. Growing up Ashes had a friend that came to Oni Hill each summer named Dust, a tiefling girl about her own age. As they grew older they also grew closer, until both realized they were in love. But before anything could come out of this Dust's family sold their summer house and never came back, and while Dust explained this via letter Ashes still held some belief that it was because of her. Not only that, but on her adventures people have died. One was struck down by a massive ghost spider and the other was destroyed by a troll. Both times Ashes was right there but unable to save them. This has led to Ashes believing that the reason this happened was because of her not being strong enough to protect them. Thus she has sworn to herself to become stronger. Strong enough that nobody else will die because of her.

Morality & Philosophy

Ashes is of a simple upbringing and an equally simple mindset. Back home everyone were treated as an equal regardless if they are a farmer, shopkeeper or ranger, just as long as they live honest. That's the mindset that Ashes still lives by: Everyone who works hard and honestly are equal. That's why she has a bit of an issue with the social ranks in the big city, like why you can't ask nobles for a cup of sugar or just reach out for a handshake with the royals.

Taboos

Never. EVER. harm. animals. If you're in Ashes' vicinity and purposefully harm an innocent animal she will beat you to a pulp. Her farm upbringing have left her with a love for all animals, so an attack on them is an attack on Ashes. She is okay with hunting for food as long as it's not an endangered species, that's how it works in nature and there's no way to change that. Hunting for sport is a surefire way to get a 6'10 tall muscular tiefling with combat training on the warpath though.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

The main reason Ashes has left the safety of home and ventured into the dangerous big wide world is simple. It's to get money to support her family. While her family doesn't struggle to stay afloat they also don't have much money left after all the bills are paid, which means they have several issues on the farm that remains unfixed (like a faulty fence and a hole in a roof). Every time Ashes gets paid for a completed job she always sends as much as she can back home the first thing she does.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes:

• Drawing and painting
• Working out and training
• Animals of all sorts
• Watching the sunset

Dislikes:

• Stuck-up upper class people
• People who hurt animals
• Vehicles
• Perverts

Virtues & Personality perks

• Ashes is nothing if not honest. She never lies unless it's truly necessary, and everything she does is through hard work and dedication. No cheating and no shortcuts, just honest work.
• She is a very kind woman both to people she likes and to animals of all kinds, even dangerous ones. Make a friend in Ashes and you got someone who will watch your back at all costs.
• If Ashes is ever put against a wall, she will. not. give. in. Her drive to win is remarkable, and the only way to make her give up a fight is to force her to.
• She might not be very well-versed in city life, but life on a farm has given Ashes many useful skills. She can fix your fence or even wall, she can pull out that annoying stump in your yard, she can take care of your animals (there's a risk they'll get too attached to her and don't want her to leave), she can manage your crops and she can track down your lost friend.

Vices & Personality flaws

• Ashes can easily lose her composure and act on impulse. If somebody is in danger she will 9 times out of 10 jump into danger herself to save them, which always worsens the situation even if the rescue is successful.
• As someone who has lived her whole life on a farm Ashes is still new to how you live and act in the big city. She can't just go around and greet everyone like an old friend anymore or neglect hygiene for long, but she still does sometimes and when you are among nobles it just doesn't work.
• Ashes is notably naive. As mentioned above she is used to everyone around her being friendly and on the same level, so she trusts people way too easily. Over time she has lost some of this naivety, but in its place is a level of pessimism and distrust of city folk in general.
• Deep down, deep enough that she herself hasn't noted it, Ashes heavily looks down on city folk. During one year of living in it she has recieved more judging looks, insults, crude comments and shuns than in her entire life. And while she has met many good people too, deep down she equates all city people with the bad ones.

Personality Quirks

Ashes has a tendency to chew on things when bored or nervous. Usually a straw or something edible that lies nearby, but on some occasions this can be something less good. Like sticks, a pencil or even her own hair if nothing else is nearby. She also doesn't get angry very easily, but when she does she tends to punch the closest wall (and due to her considerable strength this tends to leave a crack or hole).

Social

Contacts & Relations

Ashes had a friend turned lover when she grew up. Her name was Dust, another tiefling around Ashes' age. They were besties and played around every summer whenever Dust was in Oni Hill with her family, and the summer when both were around 14 they realized that their feelings for each other were so much stronger than just friendship. But unfortunately Dust's parents decided to sell their summer home and bought another much further away, and they haven't seen each other since. To Ashes, Dust is both a heartwarming memory and a heartbreaking one. She assumes Dust must have met someone else by now and has tried to forget about her, but instead her feelings have only grown with time. It happens that she starts crying when she thinks about her old love.

Religious Views

Ashes isn't a cleric or even a devout follower, but she is a minor follower of Melora, goddess of the wilderness. Her family has a small shrine to her at home that especially her dad prays to every day, and when she moved out she made sure to set up another one. She mostly prays once a week and doesn't put her life in her hands, and the only other time her belief is shown is when she uses Meloras name as a mild curse word.

Speech

Ashes speaks with a notably heavy southern accent. This extends to several older phrases still commonly used in Oni Hill, like:
"Bag of Nails": Chaos and confusion
"Flannel Mouth": A smooth talker
"Pull in your horns": A warning to stop or back off
"Light a shuck": To leave or escape somewhere fast
"Crawl his/her hump": To pick a fight

Alignment

Chaotic Good

Species

Tiefling

Age

22

Date of Birth

10/8

Birthplace

Crossroad Ranch, Oni Hill

Pronouns

She/Her

Gender

Female

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Red

Height

6'10/209 cm

Weight

280 Ib.

Belief/Deity

Melora, the Wildmother

Known Languages

Common and Infernal