Althea Neurath, Struggling Sword Scion

[crazncanuck]

Name: Althea Neurath
Pathbuilder Sheet: https://pathbuilder2e.com/launch.html?build=528476
Ancestry and Heritage: Human (Versatile Heritage)
Background: Sword Scion
Class: Fighter

Alignment: Neutral Good
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 143 lbs.
Eyes: Hazel green
Skin: Clear and fair
Hair: Sandy blonde, kept loose

Description: Althea generally finds herself standing head, and sometimes shoulders over many of her young fencing peers in Restov. A late bloomer, the formerly lanky frame of her teens has finally started to fill out with persistent training. Her general preference for clothing is relatively austere, though the material is still noticeably of fine quality. In recent years, she has taken to covering her well worn fencing leathers with metal plates and a shirt of scale, a stopgap measure until she figures out how to consistently use her gangly frame as anything other than be a bigger target.

Personality: Rather self-conscious and generally unassuming, Althea's mannerisms can be a jarring contrast to the dashing first impression she tends to give off when she enters a room. She has a habit of second guessing her decisions, and struggles to adapt to rapidly changing situations and can be startlingly clumsy or uncoordinated when forced to rush her decisions. Althea's is a caring soul that likes to assume the best in people, and is often quite stung when they prove to mean her ill, making her confidence perhaps more fragile than her lean but deceptively strong frame, much to the confusion of those still getting acquainted with her quirks. Possessed of an almost saintly patience that might almost be mistaken for drive, her mother has long struggled to imbue Althea with more aggression, dash or any of the other traits that any Aldori swordlord worth their steel ought to possess.

Background: The beloved and only natural child of a much lauded Aldori swordlord, most of what Althea's ever learned about her Ulfen father from her doting mother was that their brief relationship had been a misguided but passionate tryst built on the whims of adventure and adrenaline. She has long suspected that so many of the issues she's faced in her years of lengthy and frustrating training to be a worthy successor to her mother's legacy are due to the fact that she appears to have generally taken far more strongly after her absent father than any other reason, and if somebody had been around to train her in the ways of axe and shield, she'd probably be considered a far more competent combatant by now. It is certainly quite common to hear new family acquaintances commenting that their blood relationship wasn't particularly obvious, and the difference between mother and daughter has become more pronounced by the way the two women carried themselves out in society. Somehow, no matter how her persistent parent approached her training, nurturing her nature out of her has proven to be an uphill battle.

Althea's development as a fledgling Aldori duelist was thus very uneven, often faced with some peaks of success and many unpleasant valleys, as her mother often tried to get even more creative in her methods of instruction to coax her into finding her footing somehow. Althea gamely accepted each alteration or change of style in her instruction with unfortunately little improvement, and has grown distressingly accustomed to a reputation of being a subpar, if steady, swordswoman around Restov, especially amongst her young peers. Most of her peers still willing to take the time to cross swords with her tend to fall into two camps: Ones who threw their matches, generally with the hopes of wooing her since she was come of age, a result that often caused her much embarrassment, whilst the other are bravos desperate for an easy win to salve their own confidence, which her uncompetitive nature seems often quite obliging of. Admittedly, most objective observers of her attempts at practice duels do generally find themselves of the opinion that she probably could muscle past most other fledgling duelists' parries with sheer brute force and the leverage granted by her height, but she has generally avoided doing so due to most considering it not sporting or appropriate in the Aldori styles she was trained in.

Indeed, her mother seemed to have discerned as much, even if it broke her heart to concede that Althea would likely never become a true Aldori swordmaster, things might be salvaged if she could actually get her generally gentle daughter to just be more physical. Where that aspect of Althea's persona had come from, her mother had never quite puzzled out, given that her father had been quite the passionate reaver, in his own way. In recent months, she has taken Althea out into the Restov hinterlands on small scale jobs, and observed how she reacted to the change of pace, as she intentionally sought out situations where she could watch over her daughter employing her blade without the restraints of form or the expected finesse of tradition holding her back. Althea grew to look forward to these trips, as it seemed to salve her mother's overbearing approach to her upbringing. Unfortunately, the latest such venture has been postponed indefinitely when her mother departed for northern Brevoy unexpectedly to deal with some unpleasant business from their past, leaving the young lady back to attempting perfunctorily out of habit to try and better herself against unenthusiastic opposition in the streets of Restov once more.

In her mother’s absence, the commission announced by the swordlords of Restov caught Althea's eye. She'd been to the hinterlands a few times now, and she'd loved her time there...perhaps innocently unaware that things had gone so smoothly only because she had her seasoned adventurer of a parent watching her back. Mayhaps this could be a way she could get back out there again and finally make some progress towards lifting the weight of legacy that had been long hanging like the proverbial millstone around her neck.

Edited September 10, 2023 by crazncanuck (see edit history)