Name: Elspeth Vandemere
Alias: ‘Captain’
Picture:
Description: Elspeth has long brown hair that sits around her shoulders. It is usually fairly tangled and tingled with sea spray as well as being sun bleached after a great deal of time out on the deck. Her skin is fairly pale and freckles at the slightest hint of sunlight and therefore, has more than her fair share. Her eyebrows are arched quite highly which gives her the impression of being perpetually amused with a scar cutting through the middle of her right eyebrow. Elspeth’s eyes are quite rounded and are decorated with sleepy shadows that have cultivated over the years. Her eyes are a soft blue with highlights of hazel throughout with a coloboma in her left eye, giving the pupil a keyhole appearance. Her lips are plump and coloured slight red. Elspeth’s face is an oval shape and her chin has two slight dents from pox marks located slightly to the left.
Elspeth’s hands are covered in rough calluses, mementos from all the time she has spent maintaining her ship and taking it around the land. Her palms are scarred and burned from mishaps with candles and sharpening working knives although these injuries are less common now. Her nails are raggedy and there is a good amount of dirt and sea salt imbedded underneath them.
Elspeth typically wears a worn red shirt that has shrunk to a glove fit, complete with a few holes and loose threads after being worn so frequently. She also wears a long jacket with a scorch mark (or five) along the bottom that belonged to her older brother before she borrowed it. She also stole a rather fetching looking hat from said brother but doesn’t wear it quite so often as it keeps blowing off in the wind. Elspeth also wears a neck tie made of white cloth that has started to get a little raggedy from the sea spray. She also wears a pair of worn denim trousers with a rip torn in the right knee and a smattering of candle wax marks over her thigh. Her boots are made of sea worn leather and come just below her knees. She is often seen to be wearing black leather gloves, merely for comfort more than anything. Elspeth also keeps a hunting knife in her belt in case of emergencies although she blanches at the idea of using it and a work knife that she uses around the boat and for repairs.
Age:27
Sex:Female
Date of Birth:July 25th, 567
Birthplace:A small fishing village in Triveila that clings to the coast line of the ocean.
Current Location/Residence:Not currently a fixed position as she travels from place to place upon her trading ship.
Ethnicity:Irlean
Height:5’9”
Weight:130lbs
Frame/Build:A curvy hourglass figure
Hair Colour:Brown with highlights of light sun bleached blonde
Hair Length:Shoulder length with a sweeping fringe over the right side of her face
Eye Colour:Delicate light blue eyes which are highlighted with hazel streaks. Elspeth also has a coloboma, a defect of the pupil, in her left eye which makes her pupil eerily reminiscent of a keyhole.
Distinguishable Markings: Her coloboma is fairly distinguishable as well as the array of distinct scars on her hands.
Complexion: Elspeth has light skin with a smattering freckles across her face and arms as well as a large array of scars across her hands. She also has two small pox marks around her chin.
Voice Type: Contralto
Behavioural Quirks Elspeth has an almost obsessive need to check upon her wares and her ship, understandable considering they are her sole source of income. She is also uncomfortable at the idea of being out of her comfort zone. She is used to sailing, selling and buying. Other things tend to make her uncomfortable, especially when they are important and others are relying on her greatly.
Political Affiliation:No Political Affiliation
Social Class:Lower Class
Occupation:Trader
Religious Beliefs:Goddecca
Family:
-Father: Artur Vandemere, fisherman and trader (deceased, natural causes (old age))
--Uncle: Kanduke Vandemere, fisherman and trader (deceased, lost at sea)
Mother: Ridha Vandemere, housewife (nee Gudrun)
--Uncle: Kilno Gudrun, trader, works alongside Elspeth
--Aunt: Skana Gudrun, fisherwoman
Brother: Darni Vandemere, fisherman (older by three years)
--Sister-In-Law: Haida Vandemere, vendor of seafood (nee Nyar)
-Sister: Katina Vandemere, (deceased, natural causes (illness in infancy))
Sister: Taima Vandemere, vendor of seafood(younger by ten years)
Personality:Elspeth is a rather calm and collected young woman with a level head and a great deal of patience. She is used to coming against hardships and working through them. She doesn’t appear very energetic or especially lively, that is all kept inside. She had to appear as the responsible and calm older sibling alongside Darni when their father died. Thus, most of her emotions have been internalised to a great degree but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them. Elspeth is incredibly focussed and puts a great deal of importance in family and work. Leisure time means nothing to her. She has a soft spot for children as they remind her of her younger sisters. It takes quite a lot for Elspeth’s anger to reveal itself but when it does, she can be as wrathful as the sea herself.
Elspeth is not considered the most graceful or ladylike of women. In fact, she would probably shun you if you tried to say so. She loathes the idea of being a sweet little housewife and loving graceful wife. She believes that that is not the way things are meant to be. Elspeth is also not adverse to violence. Although it does take a lot for her anger to show, she will not take being attacked lightly. She may not fight with any weapons but her fists are good enough. She was taught to fight by her brother and his friends and can throw punches like nobody’s business. However, she would have to be exceptionally hard pressed to even think about killing someone. She treats each life as sacred and although violence doesn’t faze her, the idea of taking someone’s life makes her rather uncomfortable.
Elspeth is also rather tactless. Living in a family where it was just easier to speak her mind than to skirt around the issue, she often just says what she sees or thinks without thinking about the consequences. Therefore, it can be rather difficult to warm up to the young woman. Elspeth is also a lot more familiar and comfortable around men as she feels she doesn’t fit in with the soft gentle ladylike women. Therefore, if there is a group of people, she’ll often gravitate towards the males as she feels she fits in there more.
Strengths:Elspeth has garnered quite a good deal of muscle from her work on the boat and is quite strong as a result. She is also well versed in most things to do with the ocean, whether that be fishing, sailing or just reading the sea itself and predicting the weather to some degree. She also possesses skills in repairing and building, skills that she needed for her business and her family. She is also able to fight, particularly in close combat. She was also taught to swim by the time she could toddle and is a powerful swimmer, something very important considering her situation.
Weaknesses:Elspeth has very little tact and often offends people without meaning to. She also is unversed in area of weapons other than her knives, which are almost purely for work. She is also unwilling to kill anyone and finds the idea of murder deplorable.
Equipment:A small folding pocket knife she uses for repairs, carving and work. It is made of steel and its handle is made of a stag’s antler and was bought by her father when he was trading. When he died, the knife was passed down onto her. She also carries a hunting knife for safety. The knife’s blade is also made of steel and the handle is cocobola with a brass butt and guard. This knife is carried purely for emergencies and is rarely used, meaning it is in far better condition than the folding knife. Elspeth also carries a small piece of whetstone in her pocket to sharpen her tools at any time.
Biography:Elspeth was born on the 25th of July to a lower class family in Traveila. Her mother, Ridha, had already had a son, Darni, who was three years old at the time and was very disappointed that the baby turned out to be a girl. Ridha’s husband was out fishing with his brother, Kanduke, and his brother in law, Kilno, at the time of the baby’s birth. However, this was not unusual. In fact, most of the women in the village had gone through the same thing and rallied round to support the young mother. The baby was named Elspeth Nootka Vandemere, named after her father’s mother and her family’s ship name respectively. Her father did not see the baby until her second month and was overjoyed at the sight of the tiny infant with the bright shock of brown hair upon her head. However, this just meant there was another mouth to feed and that Artur would have to work harder. The family didn’t see it this way and found the new child to be a blessing.
As Elspeth started to grow, she followed her older brother around as all children tend to do. She learned how to walk fairly quickly after becoming irritated at the fact she couldn’t keep up with Darni. Despite this advancement in walking, her speech was much slower, she didn’t properly learn to speak until well into her third year, although her family could understand what her various shrieks and wails meant. It became a common sight around the village to see the young Vandemere boy holding the hand of a babbling toddler with tangled unruly brown hair and the big blue eyes. Her older brother started to show off his younger sister, making sure everyone in the village knew that this was his sister. Darni brought it upon himself to teach his little sister a great deal of important thing such as, how to swim. Of course, he taught her in the rock pools and it wasn’t so much swimming as splashing but before too long, she was bobbing around the shallows under the watchful eyes of her mother, aunt and older brother. Darni also taught her how to fight as he worried that the older children would walk all over his baby sister. He needn’t have worried; she took to protecting herself as easily as a duck to water. Darni could help but be even more proud of his sister and started showing her off to his friends and showing them how strong the little girl was.
Elspeth was seven when her mother was pregnant for the third time and, just as Darni had been before, she was immensely excited. She couldn’t wait for another sibling and to be friends with. After all, all her friends were Darni’s friends first and they weren’t quite as friendly with her yet. Sure, they appreciated the fact that she could swim rather deep and had small hands that could fit in the cracks on the underwater rocks and the fact that she could fight back if anyone went after her but she was still ‘Darni’s little sister’ and not ‘Elspeth’. When the baby was born, she was given the name Katina and the whole family doted upon her. The baby was happy and healthy for a few months before the illness struck. The infant was infected with a horrible disease that left her unable to feed or be lifted. She couldn’t keep her food down and her skin was too sensitive to touch without causing pain. There was no treatment or cure. The family were unable to do anything but watch as the baby wasted away and eventually died. She was five months old and her father had never seen her. The family went into mourning and were hurt deeply by their loss. Elspeth refused to accept that Katina had died and spent most of her time searching round the house for the baby. This lasted a few weeks before Darni grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the house before explaining that the baby wasn’t coming back. Elspeth didn’t speak for the rest of the week.
After the family had tried to get over their loss, another tragedy struck. When Artur and his brother, Kanduke, were fishing, a huge storm front had come in and battered the boat against a rocky outcrop. The ship, the Nootka V, was ripped apart by the howling raging winds and the harsh seas until only the frame remained. Artur managed to get into the lifeboat and waited for his brother who he had assumed was right behind him. Kanduke never appeared. With heavy hearts and a great deal of weeping, the family accepted that the sea had taken Kanduke, the sea that had been his life had caused his death. Artur returned to his family, wracked with grief and pain for his lost brother. Elspeth and Darni were heartbroken over their lost uncle and were scared that the sea would claim their father next time. Their father put these fears to rest, to a degree, as he said he was not going back to fishing, instead he would be a trader. This was a large decision as despite being safer, trading meant he would be away for longer. Ridha was unsure but accepted that it had to be done. Thus, Elspeth’s father, her other uncle, Kilno, Darni and Elspeth herself got to work on building the Nootka VI. The ship’s name had been passed on for generations, the name Nootka belonging to her great, great grandmother. However, this was the first time the name had been given to a trading vessel rather than a fishing boat. The Nootka VI was much larger than her previous namesakes and had a much bigger hold. The ship had two main masts which had the names Katina and Kanduke carved on the top as well as a great deal of other sails. The Nootka VI felt a little like closure for the family and Elspeth felt that as construction was completed, their grief was finally allowed to ebb a little.
Life carried on as normal for the Vandemere’s from that point on. The years passed and the children grew into teenagers and adults. Darni had reached his 21st birthday and was out fishing on his own vessel, a small ship by the name of Ridha. Elspeth had reached the age of seventeen and was determined that she was to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a trader. She wanted to see the world and return with stories like her father did. She wanted to have the same kind of adventures, see different things, meet new people. She daydreamed about this kind of life as she worked at home and on the odd boat. Their father was gone for weeks, often months at a time but when he came back, the joy was indescribable. Although as Artur worked, his family were growing. Ridha was pregnant once more and Elspeth was doing everything within her power to make sure that the pregnancy went as smoothly as possible. Darni was in a relationship with a young village woman named Haida Nyar and was completely sure that this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. It seemed Haida felt the same way, as she was often seen waiting on the docks for the Ridha to come in each day. In fact, Darni was so sure, he was going to ask her to marry him. He had told Elspeth in a fit of worry and after laughing at his panic, she tried to soothe his fears and reassured him that, yes, Haida was as devoted to him as he was to her.
Then, that same year, deep in winter during a truly vicious storm, Ridha went into labour. For once, all the family were there to help her through it. Artur had returned a few days beforehand and Darni had thought against going out on the boat as the sea looked so horrendous, the large swells and crashing breakers. Thus, the family helped bring the smallest addition of the Vandemere family into the world. They named her Taima which means ‘crash of thunder’, a name they felt was apt considering the circumstances. A name especially apt once she opened her mouth and began to shriek the house down. Taima, thankfully, was as healthy as could be and managed to avoid most illnesses. Elspeth spent a great deal of time caring for the baby as Darni and Artur went away to work and Ridha tried to regain her strength. Elspeth was seventeen and told Taima all of their father’s stories and told her about the places she was going to see and the things she’d bring back as gifts.
When Elspeth was 25, her brother 28 and Taima was just about to turn seven, Artur became ill. He lost all of his strength and was bed bound. They all knew he had very little time left and endeavoured to make each minute count. After a few perfect days with his family, in the place he loved, Artur Vandemere died quietly in his sleep. His family were at a loss. Darni spent even more time with his new wife, Haida, and ignored his family. Taima was angry and hurt and began taking it out on their mother. Ridha was heartbroken. Elspeth felt she needed to keep everything together and get the family back into a stable position. She asked her sister in law to take Taima under her wing as Ridha grieved and Haida kindly took care of the child. Darni was earning for his own family and couldn’t keep both his household and theirs afloat. Thus, Elspeth took control of the Nootka VI, much to the annoyance of Darni and Kilno. However, as Elspeth had said, Darni had his own boat already and Kilno had no claim to the Vandemere vessel. The men argued that the boat should belong to them and that Elspeth didn’t understand what she was getting into but she tore their arguments to shreds. She made it clear that something needed to be done. Darni gave in, as he always did with his sisters, and Kilno demanded to work alongside Elspeth to keep an eye on her. Elspeth was unsure until her mother expressed her worry and then the young woman gave in. She was the captain of the Nootka VI, her family’s legacy and she would provide for her family, no matter the cost.
