Name: Flora
National Allegiance: Vernalia/Arcadian Knights
Flora never sought adventure, or fame, or a hero’s life. She was comfortable living a quiet, simple existence, unnoticed, without stress or responsibility. Being the middle child of 17 made this rather easy. Reading fables and tales about the adventures of others was always enough for her.
Poetry, drawing, and painting served as outlets for her creativity, and frustration, and as a catharsis, letting her escape the routine mundanity of her family’s fishing business and life in peasantry. For Flora, it was a life she was content live for the rest of her days… but it was not to be her destiny. When the Vernalian Royal Arts Festival arrived in her town, she just had to go.
Pleased to see their most subdued and introverted daughter excited and motivated, Flora’s parents took the entire family to the festival. Flora brought her entire portfolio with her, eagerly awaiting the most anticipated event of the festival—the Queen’s Grand Exhibition, where aspiring artists presented their works to Queen Bryony for recognition and merit. It was here, as Flora eagerly awaited her turn, that fate intervened. A cadre of mercenaries attacked the festival, targeting the Queen, cutting down anyone in their path.
Flora, having lived as a wallflower to this point, shrank back, hiding from the conflict. But as the Queen’s Guard blocked the mercenaries and police swarmed the festival, the mercenaries made the decision to take hostages, grabbing several of Flora’s siblings in the process. From her hiding spot, new emotions welled up inside Flora. Anger, devotion, and fear for her loved ones overroad her timid nature. Bursting forth with a shocking fury and drawing from a well of power that no one imagined she had, Flora tore through the mercenaries, astonishing everyone, including Queen Bryony. In the end, Flora got to present her art to the Queen. Not as a young peasant or fisherman, but as a hero, and the newest member of the Queen’s Guard.