#kith kaese

[kitweewoos]

I'm always one second away from info-dumping on some poor unsuspecting soul (and by that I mean @gregorygerwitz) about my dnd characters

[kithalstead]

A Dungeons and Dragons Character Backstory: “Favors the Bold”

She hadn’t been given a name as a child; he only ever called her “Girl.” He hadn’t given her sister a name, either, but he never even referred to her. She didn’t even know what names were until they’d escaped. She held her sister against her hip when the first cart rumbled by. An elderly human man looked over the pair of them, young and scrawny with ashen skin that had never been kissed by the sun.

“You two need a ride?” he asked, voice rough but not unkind. It was the softest words that she had ever heard. She would repeat them over and over in her head for years to come, a mantra to help her through nightmares that didn’t stick to just the dusk hours. She nodded and lifted her sister up into the cart. It was rickety, and groaned with the additional weight, but the man didn’t seem perturbed. He was barrel-chested, with a greying beard and thick, unruly dark hair. She’d never seen dark hair before. Everyone she’d ever known had dark, grey skin, and electric white hair. He intrigued her, so she sat between the man and the child, cradling her sister’s shoulders and keeping her close, keeping her safe. “Where you going?”

She shrugged and then pointed away from the caverns, away from where they’d been.

“Alright, I’m headed for Dulan. I can drop you off at my goddess’ temple.”

She lifted her eyes to his face.

“Goddess?” she asked, voice cracking with disuse.

“I follow Melora, the goddess of nature.”

The name didn’t bring warmth to her chest the way-

“Avandra,” she croaked out.

“Aye, that’s one of the deities. What about her?”

“She spoke. To me.”

“You must be very special,” the man said, eyeing her. “I can take you there instead.”

“Please.”

That was the strongest word she knew.

“I can do that.”

They rode in silence until her sister, who she had taken to calling Baby since she was born, mumbled towards her.

“What’s that, Baby?” she asked.

“That,” Baby stated and pointed up towards a shadow crossing the sky. Baby was probably about eight years old, although that was just a guess.

“It’s a bird. Looks like a raven,” the man said. “Don’t you know what a bird is?”

“I’ve never seen one.”

He looked at her carefully.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes,” Baby answered. Baby knew what hunger was, if nothing else.

“There’s a sack of bread and dried fruit by your feet. Have at it. Just don’t make yourselves sick.”

She carefully picked up the sack and pulled it open. Inside, indeed, there were dried fruits and a loaf of crusty bread. She broke off a small amount of bread to pass to Baby.

“Slowly, Baby.”

Baby didn’t listen.

She didn’t, either. Once she got a whiff of the bread’s smell, her stomach reminded her of the last time she ate, which honestly she wasn’t sure of. It could’ve been two or three days, or five. She hadn’t been full in years, not since her sister was born. After their slices of bread, she dished out two small handfuls of dried fruit for them to share.

“You’re very,” she said to the man, pausing to think of the word. Common didn’t come to her easily. She’d learned her father’s harsh Undercommon first, and had picked up the translations later. “Kind.”

“I don’t know about all that,” he said. “I do what I can.”

“Kind,” Baby echoed. She didn’t know what it meant, not truly, but she trusted her sister. “Good.”

“What are your names?” he asked. She paused mid-chew of her fruit and looked at him, eyebrows furrowing. “You were named, weren’t you?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s what someone calls you when they’re referring to you. My name is Oberon Thornblade.”

“Oberonthornblade,” she said, the two becoming one. He chuckled. It was a nice sound, nicer than she could believe possible.

“No,” he said politely. “Oberon. Thornblade. Two different names. You may call me Oberon. Thornblade is the shared name of my kin.”

“Oberon,” she tested it. “Oberon. It’s nice.”

“Thank you. Is there anything I can call you?”

“He called me Girl, and this is Baby,” she said timidly. Oberon shook his head.

“We’ll find names for you two. Something fitting, something you want to be known as. I promise.”

His promise didn’t feel fake.

She chose Kith, derived from the name of a folktale hero that she was told about at Avandra’s temple the first week there. Baby took the name Marill, from a far-off sea kingdom’s greatest queen. That was her favorite story from the matrons, and often asked for it to be retold. Oberon picked out their kin-name, Kaese.

“Avandra is known for being the deity for halflings,” he explained as they sat at dinner. He hadn’t left Dulan yet, and had insisted on taking care of them until they were settled. “She had a champion in the Time Before, a halfling who, against all odds, managed to save the world from a great evil. She favored him, and fortune smiled upon his very fate. His name was Kaese.”

That night, she sat in her room -her own room with a bed and a dresser and a desk for letter writing, not that she knew how to write- in front of her mirror. She had her brilliant white hair pulled up in a long braid, frazzled at the ends but growing healthier. Even her face was filling out, her cheeks almost rosy after so many days in a row with multiple meals.

She smiled, and it didn’t look forced.

“Kith,” she tested it quietly. She liked the way it lingered on her tongue, settled in her mouth for the long haul. “Kith Kaese.”

It felt good. It felt right. It felt like home.

“Kith Kaese,” she said more confidently. “Kith Kaese. Hello, my name is Kith Kaese. You may call me Kith.”

Her smile split into a grin.

“I’m Kith.”

[kitweewoos]

Ooh! I want to learn about Kit and all your dnd characters 👀

Hi Ire!!! I feel like I'm being spoiled here!! Kith is my child, and I could talk about her all day. She's the first pc that I came up with, and I hold onto the hope that I'll get to play her someday. So, let's talk about Kith Kaese!

Art for Kith done by the wonderful and incredibly talented @criticalrolo

Kith is a half drow elf, born to a ruling drow father and a human servant woman who was forced out of Kith's life after her birth. The thing was, Kith didn't have a name. She named herself when she escaped from her father's tyranny, because he had only ever called her girl. She'd picked out a name that had meant something, a folk hero's name she made her own, and she'd helped her sister, a full drow elf who had been treated even worse than she had, find a name of her own, taken from a favorite bedtime story about a power pirate queen, Roslienne. They don't talk about what happened for the years they spent in the quiet backroom and servant's passages that their father had boarded up after them. They didn't talk about how dirty they were, how hungry, how unloved. They were children locked away where no one except the one servant mother who fed them and looked after them when their father, her master, their master, wasn't looking. They do talk about their goddess, the Changebringer, the voice that had whispered to Kith in the dark before she had a name or knew her own face, without words but her meaning quite clear. She was shown a path out, up, above, where no one might hurt her. She was shown a friendly face, a temple, a bed, a sword, and a mission. As she was freed from her bindings, she would go forth into the world and cleave the chains from those imprisoned, and she would do it with the Changebringer at her back.

[Favors the Bold short story]

[Kith moodboard]

[Kith pinterest board]

Things from my Kith Notes:

White hair 

Purple eyes 

Very pale skin that, without sun, greys 

5' 7" 

26 years old (probably? Oberon thinks she was around 12 when they met) 

Speaks Undercommon, Common, Draconic, and Elvish – learned undercommon from listening to her father and the servants – has an accent because of this, one that hasn't gone away even over the years, sometimes mixes up common words  

Says "excuse my undercommon" sometimes when she curses 

Kith knows she isn't very smart, but she's trying. She listens when people are talking about things she may not understand, and every night before bed, she tries to teach herself how to read a little better. Oberon started to teach her, but it frustrated her how slow she was picking it up and she stopped the lessons. However, she also became super frustrated that she couldn't read signs and instructions. She carries a simple book around with her to keep learning.  

[kitweewoos]

When you have a Pinterest board for everything, including your D&D character you can't play because you're the DM