Nydia Star-Counter

Nydia is tall, thin and perpetually pale, thanks to spending most of her days in the shade or in Jhahara's hut. With pale blue eyes that are usually squinted thanks to her less-than-good eyesight, some joke that Nydia already looks like a half-blind crone, though it's often a back-handed compliment. She wears very little in the way of beads or jewlery, and most often ties her long black hair back using a decorative scarf, a gift from her mother on the day she became a woman. Her attire is normally a simple shirt and a many-layered skirt, one layered with pockets to hold her findings when she scavenges; she also has a set of leathers she wears for travel that might be more physically demanding. She is quite often dirty from sitting in the smoky, dusty hut all day and tending to the creatures. Her arms are covered in scars, faded burns and bandages, the result of working with creatures (both to harvest milk and poison and to harvest organs, bones and pelts) and hot fires and often dangerous toxins, mixtures and liquids. On her right forearm is a nasty scar from a botched attempt at milking the venom from one of Jhahara's serpents; she spent a fortnight recovering from the incident. She is usually followed by the musty exotic scent of far-off plants; not an unpleasant smell, but unusual.

Nydia was born to Valeria Red-Spear and Mattias Warrior-Bane of the Oldok Tribe. Her father's name is not an honor but a cruel jab: Raised to till the fields, Mattias had only barely wed and bed his wife when another tribe, wearing copper and gold masks with long flowing wigs, began torching the fields. He took his spear and headed into battle, but in the aftermath, when the other farmers were sifting through the ash to find what they could salvage, they found Mattias hidden beneath a cart, still quaking in fear of Entei's Fire Warriors. Mattias was branded a coward and driven into exile, with Valeria taking up a spear and regaining her honor in glorious combat. Valeria later married again and bore several children, favoring them over Mattias' daughter, a quiet girl who did not run or quake but would rather stare quietly at the sky and wonder than defend her tribe.

Finding no desire to follow her mother and her mother's new husband as a warrior, and not wishing to be wed off to serve her tribe by bearing brave sons and pious daughters, Nydia found a different path in life, the path of a thinker. The village had a wise-woman, Jhahara, whose sole task was to think and ponder and know. Though the tribe has healers who can tell you all the medicinal properties of herbs and barks, Jhahara knows these and many more, and could find the useful and non-useful purposes of any plant without feeding them to a creature and waiting to see. Though the tribe has warriors who can speak of tactics and warfare, Jhahara knows the winners, losers, and forgotten people of nearly every war the Oldok Tribe has fought, and can preach on which tactics are the best, the worst, and the worst that are thought to be the best. A breeder might tell you that a particular creature is prone to violence but can be a great companion when trained, but Jhahara can tell you three uses for its hide, seven uses for its bones and fifteen uses for its organs, and whether these are worth the cost of a fine member of its species. The wise-woman was a hermit who had foregone both a husband and children to walk her path, but she has become blind and bent, and her fingers shake. So when Jhahara noticed the warrior-child who stares placidly into the sky, she brought her into her hut to help her light a particularly stubborn pile of kindling. Nydia stayed in that hut for many years after, becoming Jhahara's formal apprentice.

For all of Jhahara's wisdom, as the years grew on, Nydia sometimes paused in her constant questions and observations to ponder the wise-woman's own shortcomings. Though she knew an amazing amount of information on any given creature, she never raised any of her own, not even for companionship. The wise-woman was often asked to leave the safety of the village, to search for useful plants and barks and creatures, but when she leaves she must take a warrior or two to defend her, should the need arise. These warriors, though good men and women, know little of the great bounty the earth provides, and often trample the very useful things Jhahara needs. If Nydia could forgo the use of guards and guides, and strike out on her own, who knows what she could discover to benefit the Oldok Tribe outside its boundaries? She only needs companionship, a creature, perhaps one to help her search out useful things in addition to defending her from the wild.

The stars aligned in her favor. After managing to fend off an attack from raiders, one of the Oldok Tribe's warriors was brought to Jhahara's hut. Among the raider's creatures was a great snake; unlike the smaller, hooded cobra creatures Jhahara keeps to milk their poison for medicinal properties, this one had a blade on its tail that had a burning poison. Only a very potent antitoxin would cure it, one beyond Jhahara's skill... but Nydia, who had studied how to dilute poisons, took up the task. Jhahara is skilled and knowledgeable, but age has made her hands shake too much to handle the careful temperature regulation to stew the antivenom. With her steadier hands and lesser but still impressive skill, Nydia made a potent brew, enough to stop the toxins before they could reach the warrior's heart. He lost the leg where the bladed serpent had struck him, but kept his life. Without a leg he could still ride into battle, or accept that his time in battle is over and take the honorable position of an elder warrior, training the younglings. In thanks, the warrior's wife, a breeder, tried to give Nydia beautiful pelts and beads, but Nydia refused. Instead, when the breeder's hound next gives birth, the woman would give Nydia one of the pups - not the strongest or the smartest, but the one with the best nose and keenest eyes. Two moon cycles later, the pup - named Basil for his preponderance for chewing on Nydia's basil leaves - became Nydia's companion.

With the hound Basil as her companion, Nydia has begun traveling further from the village to gather herbs and bark and creatures, bringing back many strange new things to use. Basil has been trained to sniff out potent herbs and creatures, and his keen eyes have helped Nydia discover oddities left behind by other tribes. Though Jhahara is proud of Nydia and considers the girl her successor, she disapproves of her decision to take on a creature as her companion. To Jhahara, the creatures are nothing more than swords for battle or walking containers of medicine components and useful goods. Sentimentality, even sentimentality solely for her own creature, as Nydia has yet to refuse harvesting from other creatures, is a weakness to Jhahara. Still, she lets the girl enjoy her creature, hoping her interest in it will soon wane. After all, Jhahara will pass before long, and then the role of wise-woman will fall to Nydia. She will have to decide between playing with her pets and helping the village.

As for Nydia, she lives an odd and troubled but productive life. Many people in the village still look at her askew. Some consider her weak at best and a coward at worst, choosing to hide in her hut instead of fight as her mother does. She even sometimes hears the name 'Nydia Warrior-Bane' whispered behind her back. But she doesn't consider her work to be cowardice, simply smart and practical and for the good of the tribe. Both the Ondak Tribe and, from what she hears, other tribes are as much victims of their environment as they are of warfare. A tribe is likely to lose as many people to sickness, infection, poison, injuries, accidents, and attacks from untamed creatures as they are to warfare. The Ondak Tribe in particular has among the fewest resources. By study and research, she can learn to realize resources they might not know they have and utilize what resources they do have to the best of their potential. If one tribe has a small creek on their land and another a great lake, the tribe with the lake will still die out faster if they don't know how to kill the sickness and bacteria that breeds in stagnant waters, after all. She is determined to become as wise and knowing as she can, for her own sake, for Jhahara's sake, and for the Ondak Tribe's sake.