Arafel Ciaran
Arafel Ciaran is a young human woman, about 20 years old. She is a little taller than average, and appears to be very strong. She wears shiny, immaculate plate mail and an open-faced helm. She has short black hair and bright blue eyes. Her armor is decorated by a depiction of the back of a right-handed war gauntlet with the outline of an eye with a blue pupil of the same color as her eyes on the back of the gauntlet. She carries a medium shield bearing the same symbol. She wears a long sword on one hip and a mace on the other. She is an accomplished rider and uses a lance from horseback. Arafel is positively neurotic about keeping her armor and shield clean and polished. Arafel Ciaran is from Rydin, a country to the south, where Helm is still revered. She was a serious, thoughtful girl, and it was assumed by her family that she would enter the priesthood. She was taken to the local Temple of Helm for training by her proud parents, where she met another prospective priest, a young man named Beorc. Despite differences of opinion on some moral issues, Arafel loved Beorc and he was infatuated with her. With the blessing of the church, the two married, and Arafel gave birth to a son, Niall, a year later. Arafel felt she had already given short shrift to her studies by taking off almost a year and a half with a difficult pregnancy and caring for the newborn. She announced to Beorc that, now Niall was a year old, she would return to her studies.Beorc protested vehemently. He felt that Arafel’s place was at home with their child, and he would continue on with his training. He had already been ordained. Arafel pointed out that she had several family members clamoring to care for the child. Besides, she argued, she was not an especially good mother, lacking significantly in patience, but she was an excellent servant of Helm. Beorc forbade her to return to her studies. He never forgave Arafel for laughing and walking directly to the temple.
The elder priests were delighted by her return. They had hoped to see her back, as they had some plans for her. They wished her to become a Knight of Helm. She was, they explained, one of the few people called to Helm who was physically, mentally and emotionally qualified to serve as one of his Knights. She ran home to Beorc, flushed with pride, to tell him of the tremendous honor. Beorc stunned her by issuing an ultimatum, turn the priests down, or he was leaving. Arafel told him to get the hell out. Beorc did, and took Niall with him. She was heartbroken, but she could not and would not leave the church, not even for her husband or her son.
Arafel threw herself into her training with abandon. She requested and was granted an annulment. The last word she had on Niall placed him at a temple several hundred miles to the south. She received word that when he was notified of the annulment, he promptly remarried, to a woman he’d been living with and who was raising Niall has her own. Arafel shrugged off the news and trained even more intensely. It worried the priests to see her seemingly so unaffected, but she insisted she was fine.
Finally, she was deemed ready. Outfitted in gleaming plate, she awaited news of her first assignment. Knights of Helm were in short supply, so the clergy was forced to send her, an inexperienced and untested Knight, to investigate rumors of war brewing at the northern edge of human lands.
Arafel has dealt with the loss of her family by simply refusing to deal with it emotionally. She is generally good-natured, albeit quite intense. When armored up and on duty, Arafel is serious and deliberate. When off duty, she is good-humored and laid back. Arafel secretly loves to dance, but has never had the opportunity to learn to do it well, dancing not being high on the list of entertainments among the sober priests of Helm.
Arafel's horse is Edan. A medium warhorse, rather mature. Edan has a few more good years in him before he's simply too old for the adventuring life. Edan is strong and reliable. He may not be the fastest horse, but he knows how to take a charge.
| Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma | Comliness |
| High | High | High | Average | High/Avg | Very High | Very High |