Leoma

Character Name: Leoma

Name Meaning: 'Bright'

Age: 40

Date of Birth: December 13th, 2970 Third Age

Race: Woman

Residence: Edoras

Profession: Caregiver for the Elderly

Appearance: Leoma has the look of an average Rohirric lady. She stands at her full height 5'7”, and is slender of build, both by nature and also for the air of frailty which hangs over her. She has long and wavy light blonde hair that she often wears in a loose braid to keep out of her way, though she has trouble working with her hand and it's rarely mid-day before the hairs have fallen out again about her face. She is blue eyed, and is often smiling, the corners of her lips and eyes giving way to lines of age creeping in. She bears a visible scar on the right side of her face, a vertical slash that crosses from the curve of her nose to just beneath her lips, and another just above her right eyebrow, both from a dog attack during her eighth year. Other scars from the same incident are upon her right arm and side, and she still bears some markings from a dangerous slide she once took over bare rock. Though, none of these scars are visible or known of by any but her own brother. She is modest to a fault and will not even draw up her sleeves to do the washing unless she is in her own home with the door latched.

She is hemiplegic leading to a slight paralysis in the left side, which leads to other difficulties. Leoma's left foot is turned inward, and she is not very nimble with her left hand. Her arm is usually bent bent backward and kept out of the way, often holding it to the side and working with her right instead. As a child she learned how to walk with crutches that her father made for her. She can move about unassisted now, at least on even ground, but prefers the use of her cane to steady her and is never without it when outdoors.

Personality: Though speech is no longer difficult for her, Leoma is often quiet in public and does not offer information about herself unless specifically asked. Even after all her years, she is still shy about her disability and will try to hide the extent of it in most circumstances, preferring to sit within the company of others that they might not see her awkward gaited step, and keep her hands folded upon her lap or beneath her cloak to hide her tremors. She is very self conscious and doesn’t always attempt to do things for fear of failure in front of others, though she is often willing to try things in the safe confines of her home while alone.

She is pleasant in nature to most people she meets, though always nervous, and often reclusive. Most of the city folk would recognize Leoma for her off center walking gait, yet she is only an acquaintance to many, fearing close friendships, as every time she has taken to one it has not been long before the person is lost to her; this mostly being the case since many of her friends have been those elderly in years. Leoma is extremely intelligent, and the only truly literate person in her family; versed in all the songs and stories of her people, the lores and histories of the realm and further beyond, she knows astronomy and astrology like the back of her hand and is a naturalist of sorts, learning as much as she can from her books and manuscripts, though she lacks much practical experience.

If it were not for her shaky hands, she would have sought to be a scribe in Meduseld as her tutor once was. If she were not a woman she would have sought to be a counselor to Theoden King himself. To someone she knows well, she will be very talkative and witty, and she enjoys intellectual debate. She also takes a great interest in visitors to the city, for they bring tales of travels and distant lands that she has only heard of and imagined, and her curiosities in such matters outweigh her worries of the judgement they might cast upon her for her disability.

Though she lives independently now, she still has a great deal of fears passed on from trauma in her younger days; namely she has always been fearful of dogs and petrified of storms. She is also quite hesitant about any body of water wider than the silver stream which flows past her home.





Parents: Leofling and Cenvilda (Both Deceased)

Sibling(s): Twin brother: Cenric (40)

History: At birth, Leoma was one of two. Her mother was late in years for child bearing, though took the risk and spent much of her pregnancy on bedrest with her twins. Leoma's twin brother, Cenric, pushed his way out first leaving her to struggle behind. Perhaps there was not enough space in the womb, for her brother was quite large himself, or perhaps she struggled too long without oxygen, but during birth something happened that left her hemiplegic on the left side of her body. It was thought that she would die, but after a difficult first few days she appeared a healthy baby.

As she became older and her brother began to walk and crawl, spouting forth baby talk, it became apparent that Leoma would not develop normally. She had the same stamina, but she did not achieve her first few goals as quickly. Leoma did not speak until the age of four, and it was difficult for her, although she understood everything said to her. She learned how to crawl around the time her brother walked. Her parents thought she would not walk or talk at first, but they saw her intelligence through other actions and did not fear that she was mentally impaired. At the age of six her father carved out her first small pair of crutches, and she began to hobble around on her own without the help of another person. By the time she was ten, she could move around without the assistance of another person, albeit she has always been short of good balance.

As a youth she developed a fondness for horses. Taking her out once with her brother, her father realized that Leoma’s walking impediment in no way affected the ability for her to ride a horse, and so he trained her up in the same way as her Cenric. She is quite adept on horseback, and she can pull herself up onto the horse with a little assistance. Despite her horse joy, she cannot ride alone, nor does she own a horse, so she is dependent upon the rare days in summer when her brother might take her out, though year by year it is less often. She cherishes that time on horseback when she has no need of a cane and the horse carries her freely over the plain, as it is the only time she can truly run.

Leoma struggled with sewing and embroidery that her mother tried to teach her, failing at threading her own needle and stitching without shaky hands. In order to help her communicate and find something that she could do on her own, her parents allowed a neighboring elder, Master Odhelm, who had once been a scribe to the King to tutor her, and she picked up reading and writing skills that most of the people of Rohan did not need to have or even have access to. Not much good it would do for a lady to have these skills, but she treasured the fact that she was good with at least one thing, and she eagerly read every book or manuscript that she was able to lay her hands upon. She spent hours, days, and years pouring over Master Odhelm's old maps, listening to the tales of his youth, and learning all the songs and histories of the Rohirrim and those of the lands beyond, and soaking in every bit of knowledge and wisdom he could teach her. Odhelm began to decline, aged that he was, and as she came into her adult years, she kept the man company in his last days, retelling the stories and songs to him as he forgot them, and eventually forgot her, before he passed when she was twenty seven and he was ninety six. Her parents passed on not long thereafter, being older in age, her mother prone to illness, and her Father a carpenter who lost his life in a thatching incident; Leoma was left with only Cenric, though he had moved on to take his own wife and begin a family. She has a sister-in-law, though sees her nephews more often as they take to keeping her firewood in fine supply, and helping her to draw water in the winter months when the air outside becomes too much for her trembling muscles and leaves her to constantly dropping her buckets.

Leoma now lives alone in her parent's old home near the gates of the city, though the inner lookings of her home are quite different from those she grew with; all sign of her Father's business in carpentry departed. Odhelm's old bookshelves line the walls of her home, and she would be surprised to learn if anywhere in the city there were more reading materials aside from the archives of Meduseld itself. The walls are hung thick with Master Odhelm's old maps of Rohan, Gondor, and lands further afield. A special map once drawn specially for her and lettered with her name is now mostly soiled with damage from water and weather, but still hangs most prominently on her wall as a reminder of the time she once was taken on excursion far from Edoras in the company of friends. Almost half a lifetime ago! Though, she would never forget it.

The silver stream runs straight behind her house and she can hear the gentle flow of water day and night throughout the year. Her brother has always seen to the upkeep and care of it, though he does what is needed and then leaves her to her own devices. Her brother's home is not a place she feels comfortable, what with the near constant drinking her sister-in-law partakes in. Leoma and Cenric have grown further apart year by year, and the rest of her family is gone along with her dear mentor. She feels most often lonely. Leoma once desired to have her own family, though the dream is long spent. She always knew she would not be able to care properly for a baby or a husband, and though she had fancies of family life in her younger years, and even a young man who she had once longed for; learned and well traveled, and just as taken to maps as she, he did not bear her the same affection. He had no physical limitations as she did, and was given to the wanderings and travels that she could only dream of, and so she parted with him on good terms, yet still misses him.

Now her days are spent keeping her own home, furthering her studies in whichever ways she might be able to do so, and she earns a meager living as a caregiver for various elderly neighbors over the years, much in the way she cared for her dear Master Odhelm in his later days. Though it takes her long to go about the daily tasks one-handed, she manages to help them keep their homes, keep them fed, and keep them company when their own families cannot.