Avila of Rohan

Character Name: Avila

Name Meaning: Desired

Age: 29

Date of Birth: October 4th.

Race: Man

Residence: Edoras

Profession: Previously a healer at the Hall, though now a "homemaker".

Appearance: Avila is an average height for a Rohirric woman, standing at around 5’8”. However, it might be the only average thing about her. She had striking, angular features and bold, arching brows that frame blue eyes and perfect, pouty lips. Avila constantly covers her sickly appearance with ample amounts of face paint, using the cosmetics to keep the eyes turned upon her. She has long blonde hair of light honey with golden streaks that she prefers to keep down to add to her air of femininity. While slim, she has no ounce of muscle on her, and is unable at times to carry even the most simple of items.  

Personality: Avila is conniving, vain, and all about personal gratification. She loves the weight her family name carries, and has found that life has been relatively easy for someone who is the daughter of an advisor to the king of Rohan. She is feminine to the exclusion of all masculine interests, and cares much about her personal appearance. Her hair is always in place, and her clothes neat and tidy and of the richest dyes.

She was a horrible healer, though tells everyone the people who work there were just jealous of her ability. She has a wandering eye for attractive men, and often wishes she had thought of pursuing young Theodred rather than snagging the husband she did. She has no loyalty to her marriage, and often finds entertainment outside of her own home, though her husband is unwise to her games.



Parents:

Olfete, mother.
Adwine, the one she calls father.

Otmar, true blood father.

Sibling(s):

Wynfled, sister. 27.
Baugulf, half brother. 29. (Son of Otmar)

Spouse:

Balder, 31.

Children:

Njall, son. 8.

History:

Olfete had crossed paths near Yule with the local jeweler, Otmar. Otmar’s wife had been carrying their son and in no mood to entertain him, and Olfete had been in want of some desirable fun and new gems.

Olfete had gained her pleasure, a full set of jewelry, and a belly for her trouble.

This at first was a concern for Olfete, for she was married to Adwine, a wounded war veteran that went from captaincy to advisorship in Theoden King’s shadow. Adwine was an acclaimed warrior, someone rich, and well respected. However, with his wound came some things that could not be repaired: the loss of a leg, and the loss of any ability to have children. Olfete’s infidelity was going to be glaring and blatant to him.

However, as soon as Adwine learned of the coming baby, he was elated. He had always wanted children, and as he worked with the Eored had put it off for what ultimately turned into too long. He knew his wife had needed to seek the child from another man, but Adwine did not mind, and made her simply promise she would call the child his, and never allow the other man to claim them. Olfete assured him she would be happy to follow those two rules, and Adwine was happy.

Avila was born that October, after a long and miserable pregnancy, and she quickly became her father’s pleasure. From the moment Avila arrived, she wanted for nothing and was raised receiving anything she ever wished for. Adwine was happy to buy her any dress she could fancy, any toy…and when her younger sister, Wynfled, was born two years later, she grew up with the same comforts.

A vain child, Avila cared more for looks and material things than anything else, and began to use her girlish charms young to get what she wished. She learned how easy it was for a boy to be convinced to do things if she fluttered her lashes and let her lips drip honeyed words, and with minimal coaching from her mother, Avila was able to bloom into quite a puppet master. By fifteen, Avila had half of Edoras wrapped around her finger.

At twelve she was sent to work at the Healing Hall, because Adwine wished his daughter to learn trade. Times were beginning to darken, and he did not want his children wanting for anything should something terrible take place to him, or his wife. Avila was livid, for she did not think a lady of her standing should be forced to work in such lowly places, but was apprenticed under Hildred nonetheless. Despite what she claimed was her “best effort”, Avila was found to be entirely lacking of skill and mind for healing, being far too selfish to think of caring for another person. Her father’s name was very heavy, though, and kept her employed there for many years, though her tasks never progressed beyond simple wound dressings, laundry, and serving meals.

When she was thirteen, she developed her first true crush: Baugulf, the son of the local jeweler. That was when Avila and Wynfled both learned of their respective family lines, and restrictions were drawn in regards to the men they were allowed to pursue. The handsome jeweler’s son was no longer a viable option for Avila to pass time with, but she quickly learned there was no shortage of men to choose from otherwise. And as she began to blossom into a fuller woman, so came many other eyes. A particular pair the young girl enjoyed the attentions of was Balder, a young Eored trainee. While things were by no means exclusive between them, it was relatively common to see them about together, and Avila visited the training grounds on occasion to speak with him and any other handsome teen there in sight. She would have gone more often, but work constantly seemed to be in the way.

However, Avila, at seventeen, became grateful for the very job she hated.

Ceolmund, one of the patients that had frequented the Healing Hall over the years, returned from a stint in Aldburg, and in the time he had been gone from the city he had filled out into himself. Avila noted his attention and lingering eyes on Runa, the daughter of Hildred, and a girl she worked with at the Hall. It was a challenge, she mused; indeed, Runa was a man-girl and hardly couth enough to be worthy of the newfound Ceolmund’s affections, and Avila mused that her own looks were merely Runa’s perfected. She could, she was certain, win the man from her.

Such would be sweet for two reasons: one, Ceolmund was indeed a fine specimen of Rohirric men. Two, only fools could not see the way Runa yearned for him in return. If Avila could win him herself, she would not only get what she wanted, but prevent the annoying know-it-all at the Hall from succeeding.

It was the start of a four-year dance.

Ultimately, after a near-death experience for Runa at Avila’s own hand, Avila’s job was finally beyond protection of her father’s name and she was released from service to the King’s Healing Hall.

Her name had been sullied by the affair, and though Avila was certain none of it was her fault and it was in fact the Hall that was corrupted and nepotistic, she became without options. After a few months of Adwine trying to get her placed into another becoming apprenticeship with no success, Olfete decided to step in and give her beloved daughter some coaching.

“You just need to get married, Avila,” the woman had said to her daughter. ”And to do that, you just need give a man a reason.”

And so it was a plan was hatched.

Balder was still enamored, though morally changing for the better. She had been unable to work him quite to her advantage, so Avila had turned instead to Yrik, the son of the local baker and a known chaser of skirt to help in her scheme. The young man was more than happy to oblige, and it was not long until Avila herself was with child. Now that the seed of the plan had been planted, Avila had to work quickly. She devised a night of enjoyment for Balder, ensuring his drink was heavily spiked to help knock him out. She waited a few weeks before telling him of her condition, and assuming Balder had done such wrong to her while he had been too drunk to know better, the man immediately took her for a wife, and Avila set to work trying to cover how far along she was the moment she could no longer hide the growing swell of her belly.

However, as Avila’s body began to change far ahead of the woman’s claimed stage, rumor began to spread that the child was from out of wedlock. Vehemently she denied all of the accusations, merely saying that Balder had gifted her an unusually large baby, and they would see when the child came in April as the babe was intended.

Avila doggedly kept to her story for the length of her pregnancy, and even ignored her own labor until the child came at a tea party she was hosting with her friends. Njall, her new son appeared healthy and large, though the woman lamented from then on that the child had come far too early. Njall, though, was not healthy. Yrik was unclean, and it soon became apparent that the little boy Avila had born carried consequences from choices his true father had made. While Avila attempted to explain such things away with exclamations of, [/i]“It’s because he came too early!”[/i], Balder realized what had happened.

Furious at his wife for the negligence and the sneakiness, Balder stepped into the boy’s life to help him get treatment. Avila was far too busy with her girlfriends to adjust to the role of motherhood, and Balder became Njall’s favorite parent as he grew. While Njall is now relatively healthy and able to enjoy a semblance of a normal life, he has bouts of illness yet.

Avila maintained the child is Balder’s, and began pressuring him to seek a captain’s position so that their names could be higher held. Balder, though, actively refused the promotion, seeking instead to serve under Captain Ceolmund, for he did not wish to give his wife any more stature or coin to spend. This angers Avila, and she continues to seek pleasures outside the home with more frequency. As such, Avila is still discontent, though muses there are more ways to keep herself occupied yet, and with her sister Wynfled at her side, she intends to find them all.