Full Name: Ritania “Rita” Lavoie-Hastings

Age: 48 (Aurelium 27, 2508)

Gender: Female

Rank: Commander of the Blackpond Army

City: Blackpond

Ability (if Enlightened): Rita's enlightenment allows her to have out of body experiences. She casts her “soul” out and can experience all the senses from a different perspective as long as it is within a reasonable range from her. Over the years, it has developed to a point where she is able to send herself above a large battlefield to get a unique perspective of the situation.
As a result, when she uses her enlightenment, she has no control over her body and becomes limp. If one were to look at her eyes when she did this, they would see that the colour change from her regular green to a royal purple.

Description: Rita is roughly five feet, six inches with a strong build and while she does look shapely while wearing a nice dress, most would describe her as brawny. What assists her most in creating this appearance would definitely be the clothing she wears. Often she'll be seen in battle-ready attire. This is a trait he picked up from the Blackpond army which inspires its troops to be ready to march to war at a moments notice. She has gotten used to performing her daily routines in these clothes.

The armour she usually wears is a thick brown leather body, strapped at the side with three overlapping layers down her abdomen. Her chest is protected on either side of the chest with a third, smaller patch covering the seem. Around her shoulders, the sectioned leathers overlap with the top part of the chest plate. Copper studs hold them in place at the bottom. The last three sections of the shoulders diminish in size to allow a greater range of motion with her arms.

On top of the armour is a cream silken tailcoat. The cloth is breasted over, covering most of her leather armour and is tied together with a large leather waistband. The band loops around, connecting with two leather straps that are affixed on either side of the belt with a small buckle. The tail of the coat wraps around slightly, draping across the side of her legs down to about the knee where it tapers off. The lapel of the coat is peaked, flamboyantly large, and coloured a midnight blue, the colour of Blackpond. To match the sash, she wears a pair of midnight blue pants, covered from the knee down by a pair of leather boots with the top five inches folded over to look like a cuff.

When she knows she is going into battle, she'll omit the leather waistband for a metal one that is similar in style. She will also add a leather band which covers her neck, attached with leather straps to the breast plates of her leather armour. She will also add chain mail over the armour but under the silk tailcoat.

She has a messy golden-brown bob with hair that won't stay quite as straight as she'd like. Wavey and hard to maintain, she does her best. Usually, it isn't that bad, but it can become a knotted mess that becomes a nightmare to brush. Her eyes a grassy green. Crows feet line the sides of her eyes, which helps to hide her reducing lashes. Besides around the eyes, her face is rather round and prevents a considerable amount of the wrinkling. Without any wrinkles, there aren't many lines that define her face. A trait that may have been considered cute in her youth, now it only works to undermine her authority.

Personality: Two great words to describe Rita would be reactive and defensive. It's something that she's picked up from her years in the military as a general where her enlightenment has allowed her to see things from a different perspective. She will try to look at the big picture before losing herself over the details. As is often her goal, she wants to understand and to have people understand what is most important to her. The biggest flaw that presents itself is when Rita can't see the whole picture. She will more often choose not to act at the risk of being blindsided by the blind spot.
She is capable and astute. Both traits that would work well towards her role as a leader, but she's never been one who wants to lead alone. Despite many times being given the option to be a leader in some sense of the word, she will often turn down the position or find a way to make the position a cooperative function.

Equipment: (weapons and other personal items)

Background: Rita was born in a town near the centre of Valcrest known as Raider's Post. Being such a centralised location, it found itself passed between rulership of the two warring cities. The town prospers through supporting the armies with housing and training grounds and in return they receive a booming economy and relative safety from the fighting.

When Rita was born, Raider's Post had already been seeing its longest period without a change in leadership in 200 years. It wouldn't be until her fourth birthday that she would see the first change in her lifetime from Newhaven to Blackpond. After that, she would see the changes occur in far quicker succession. Usually multiple times a year.

Seeing as the town's economy focused on the armies that would often occupy it, Rita was constantly surrounded and exposed to the military, their commanders, and their training. In fact, Rita's parents were some of the largest land owners in the area, which they used to create a training ground for the armies. When she wasn't helping with the family business, she'd often be found standing by the fencing at the outer limits of the training grounds and watch the soldiers train. When Rita was around eight years old, the White Knight who would often be stationed there during Newhaven's occupation of the town took an interest in her. He let the girl onto the training grounds and allowed her to get a closer look at the activities the soldiers would take part in. But then the surrounding territory would be taken back by Blackpond and she would go back to watching from the side.

As was often the case, she wouldn't have to wait long until Newhaven had taken back control.

Slowly, the knight and the soldiers training with her allowed her to pick up some weapons. When the soldiers had off time, some would come to visit and help improve her skills. Over time, she became rather competent and could be found beating some of the less capable fighters. Within a couple of years, she was able to hold her own against even some of the tougher fighters.

Things changed suddenly when one time, the White Knight who had been teaching her didn't show up upon Newhaven's recapture of the territory. Not a single White Knight was there anymore. Instead, one of the White Knight's closest assistants was now in charge of the forces