Brija Bailey-Brijild
Brija is up there as one of my favourite characters in Trickster's Afterlife.
She's utterly loyal to Lamara, the very country in which she's a slave and tool of war, the same country whose institutions separated her from her parents at birth and chemically spayed her, more or less completely removing any chance of her having biological children, for fear of the theoretical descendants she could have if she ever escaped captivity, simply because every day in the temples in the mountains where she was raised among other freckled Brijild girls like her she was taught to.
She is an obsessively, disturbingly zealous follower of Lamara's religion and its religious institutions, which claim she is part-demon, that the only reason that Brijilds like her should be allowed to exist is their usefulness.
Every day, she'd sneak into a temple after regular training and punch, kick and fling herself at a great steel pillar, deliberately breaking her own bones so they'd grow back stronger in a few days, all so that she could better serve and fight for a nation, religion, rulers and institutions that despise her.
Overall, an instance of the brainwashing and conditioning of freckled Brijilds being a complete success. Still not the most obedient, though.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Stronk and helfy gorl. Sometimes has broken bones.
Body Features
Fairly unique hair.
Physical quirks
Left handed just like her papi.
Special abilities
Can shoot fire from her freckles. Fireproof. Limited regenerative ability (broken bones heal in a few days)
Specialized Equipment
None. Uses whatever's available.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Show spoiler
So, Brija's parents were the worst pair you could make. They quickly hit it off, resulting in Brija's mother getting pregnant with twins, but at the same time decided slavery is cringe and their kids aren't gonna be separated from them and spayed at birth, so they planned to escape.
The escape plan, carried out the day after Brija and her sister were born, was half successful:
Brija's dad: Escaped successfully.
Brija's twin sister, Sally: Escaped with Brija's dad.
Brija's ma: Fucking exploded.
Brija: Still enslaved.
Also Brija's ma gave Brija's pa Sally and kept Brija (the plan involved splitting up) because she knew her half of the plan was less likely to succeed. She cared slightly more about Sally than Brija, because Sally had her mother's blue eyes and Brija her father's green eyes.
Brija was found in the rubble of her ma fucking exploding and spayed, enslaved and raised to be a soldier as normal.
She's been raised in some temples in the southern mountains within royal territory, nice and far from disloyal vassals. There are 12 other girls in her year group, and they will be in the same squad as her when they're used in combat. The temples are dedicated to Hufnir.
She's the highest performing of her year group in straight-up conventional combat skills, although her peers have taken to specializing in things she's not as good at, actually resulting in a well-rounded team where everyone is at least somewhat good at almost everything and everyone is exceptional at at least one thing. She's also consistently tested to be the most loyal, zealous and so on of the trainees, but is actually on the lower end when it comes to actual obedience.
She also snuck into the Hufnir's Tournament (click this later jackass) by hiding among some of the sacrificial slaves.
To qualify for the tournament, a participant must fight and kill 5 slaves in the arena. These slaves are considered sacrifices to Hufnir.
Brija let the 4 slaves she was with try to charge a Tummen and die by that Tummen's hands. She then beat the shit out of that Tummen, surprising everyone cos "what the fuck is a Brijild doing in the arena?"
Since she won, she got to make demands, within some limits, of the overseer... that's a thing if you're a sacrificial slave but defeat the competitor.
She could've used this to gain her freedom. Sure, Brijilds and their children are enslaved, but Brija's been spayed already so there's no risk of any theoretical descendants becoming a class of free, problem-causing, Brijilds. She'd have earned her place as an exception to the rule of Brijilds being enslaved, a side-note in history books mentioning her, and be able to live her life how she wanted.
But this is Brija, a brainwashed war thrall.
She asks that if she defeats every opponent the tournament she be allowed to be in the Royal Guard. After checking her records, Alaros agrees.
Brija loses her third round against a woman named Skelva who can grow her bones as she pleases (lol forgot the name of the family but it's here), although she could've won if she hadn't responded to Skelva's absence from the arena, which counted as a forfeit, by going to Skelva's house and saying she'd refuse to leave until Skelva would come out and fight her.
Skelva, who was too busy taking care of her sickly half-sister, refused. Brija forced her way into Skelva's home and threw fire around to force Skelva to fight her, and Skelva not only beat the shit out of Brija but used her and her fireproof body+clothes to put out the fire Brija had started.
Alaros just lets her join his daughter's royal guard anyway. He hopes that having to manage Brija who is obsessively loyal, zealous and patriotic but also impulsive, disobedient and has little respect for things in Lamara other than its monarchy or religion, such as her having 0 respect for regular nobility or merchants, will be helpful for Krysala's growth into a capable future ruler. He's also worried by reports that his daughter has no friends around her own age.Her mother was born and raised in the slavery of the Brijilds:
- Forced onto a specific diet for the greatest production of Brijild fuel. Brijild fuel is used in some of what little machinery is present in Lamara, such as its only functioning train.
- Taught to read and write so she can fill in the blank spaces of books, especially holy books, with the names of demons and other evil things.
- Used for textiles in making ship sails for the Lamaran navy.
- Occasionally paraded around so the commoners could have fun throwing rocks, garbage, mud and shit (no, like literal shit. Lamarans have truly ascended and returned to monke) at her.
- Given poison that would take effect after several days or weeks if ever allowed to leave the fortress. Could only get the antidote if she returned in time. This is at the same time as also having armed guards with her ensuring she doesn't escape. And being handcuffed at all times. And ankle-cuffed. And almost never let out at all, only being sent to complete specific tasks.
Her father, meanwhile, was enslaved not at birth but as a punishment for being too much of a gigachad:
- Commander tells you and homies you're suicidally holding some strategically god-awful position for the sake of glory.
- "Eat shit and die." kills commander "K guys let's meet up with main force and tell them the commander died from an arrow through the eye or something."
- Get ratted out by best friend. Turns out commander was best friend's older brother.
- Krysa judge: "Normally you'd go to the gallows, anon, but you're tall, muscular, healthy and a freckled ginger. Your sigma gigachad grindset days are over. You're being enslaved and forced to marry a Brijild woman. Those of your children that inherit your freckles will be spayed, separated from you and their mother and raised into super soldiers!"
- Brija's pa: "Wait a second, does this mean I'm gonna lose my virginity?"
- Krysa judge: "It says here you're 27... yes."
- Brija's pa: "NO GOD DAMN IT NO! YOU SHALL NOT DO THIS TO ME! HOW WILL I BE A GIGACHAD GRINDSET SIGMA IF I'M NOT A VIRGIN!? Also my name's Sam, not anon."
- Krysa judge: "Lol git fucked traitor. Literally."
...
Some artistic liberty was taken with Brija's dad there, although he was legitimately named Sam.
So, some more stuff about both of them:
- Brija's mother, Anasa Brijild, secretly read illegal books, including ones made by heretical sects of Lamaranism and from before the Brijild enslavement. She got ideas of things like freedom and so on from these. She also illegally read books about the world being the fortress where she was born, raised and lived.
- She was very good at sneaking around within the fortress but could never find a way out. She secretly learned alchemy related to her Brijild fuel by sneaking into the office of the head of the fortress and reading his books when he was out of said office.
- Sam Bailey was actually from our world. At the age of 7 in our world, he tried to do a backflip of a tombstone on Halloween Night. He split his head open and died while his older sister, Sarah Bailey / "Seh-uh Belly", who was meant to be watching him but was texting her friends instead in the moments where he tried the backflip, desperately tried to keep him conscience while calling an ambulance.
- Sam was found washed up on a beach by some farmers. They adopted him as a slave. He spent the time he wasn't working training/playing with his best friend, who he never learned was the youngest child of a local Hufka (like a knight or samurai: gets some land in return for being an elite soldier in war).
- When Sam was 15 his adoptive parents tried to force him and his adoptive sister, aged 16, to get married, this apparently being part of why they adopted him in the first place. Sam's best friend, around the same time, was kicked out of his place for breaking his cousin's arm.
- The 3 of them became adventurers, Sam and his adoptive sister didn't get married, and their adventuring consisted primarily of hunting down criminals for bounty money and various odd jobs for communities in places. Sam's adoptive sister and his best friend became a couple during their run-in with the Cult of Lussot, later getting married.
- They joined Alaros's side in the war against Henos the Child-Eater (yeah Henos kinda lead and founded a cannibalistic heretic sect), coincidentally got put to a team lead by the older brother of Sam's best friend, and then Sam being too freaking based happened.
Sexuality
Unknown and undecided. If she's lesbian, bisexual or pansexual she's gonna have a crush on Krysala (who she gets into the royal guard of). Either way she's borderline-worshipping Krysala: a Krysa, Lamara's ruler, a figure in the religion Brija is obsessed with, while Krysala mostly just finds Brija annoying but endearing.
Education
War thrall training: weapons, hand to hand, all in conjunction with her abilities. Tracking, wilderness survival, reading and writing, medical skills, tactics and so on.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Beat up a trained Tummen warrior. Beat up a trained Lesser Krysa warrior. Got into Krysala's royal guard.
Failures & Embarrassments
Got the shit kicked out of her by a trained bone-magic-family warrior.
Mental Trauma
If you go through mental history, you'll know of her dad's former best friend. Her dad's former best friend is in charge of the Hufnir mountain temples where she's being raised, and took the extra effort to inform her of the events before and after her birth with a bonus dose of bias, planning to use her in his scheme to track down her father and sister. That shit got her fucked up.
Also fucking breaks her bones on purpose.
Intellectual Characteristics
No thought brain empty.
Morality & Philosophy
Brija: "So I was faced with a moral conundrum regarding whether or not to let an escaped slave bleed out cos verse 39 says kill them but 44 says return to owner and 2903 says save them and let them keep escaping so I spent 5 hours just about keeping them alive while carefully reading all 8493 of our religious books for an answer and then made a chart averaging out the answers to arrive at the conclusion of saving the slaves life, informing the authorities of them but letting them escape and all that after torturing them into believing that 2 + 2 = 5."
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Personally protecting the Monarch.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
0 social skills, much fighting skills.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes slowcooked, soft meat. Hates tomatoes.
Virtues & Personality perks
Brave, loyal, kind.
Vices & Personality flaws
Impulsive.
Hygiene
Has been washing 2-4 times a day since Krysala told her she stank. Before then would wash most mornings in hot springs in the temples.
Social
Social Aptitude
HAHAHAHAH none.
Relationships
Current Status
Competing in the Tournament of Hufnir.
Species
Age
13 at story beginning.
Circumstances of Birth
Parents were slaves forced to marry in the Brijild Militarization Program. They tried escaping with her and her baby twin sister: her ma died, her pa escaped with her twin and she's still enslaved. Her pa was unaware of her being alive for 12 years.
Birthplace
Fort Kelnas, located on a hill just outside the mountains Brija has been raised in.
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Hufnir's peak-temples in far South Lamara.
Pronouns
She/her
Eyes
Green.
Hair
Ginger.
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Freckly and pale.
Height
5'3
Weight
52 kg
Belief/Deity
Follows Lamaranism... yeah that's how intertwined Lamara and its religion are.
Aligned Organization
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