Sagas of Aether - Ash Pyrrhus

Ash is one of the main characters from my fantasy series. She is the older half sister of Ares (you can read more about him in my blogs Hero or Villain, and The evolution of Ares). They share the same father. The evil bandit lord Lonan. Though he is ofter just called the Knight of Chaos since its taboo to say his name. Ash takes over Bandit Forest (tentative name) and becomes known as the bandit queen.

Bandit Forest is a vast forest that is wedged between the north eastern edge of Adon's territory and one of the many vast mountain ranges of the continent of Xen. It is one of the few completely lawless regions of Xen. Though at one point it was the heart of an ancient and powerful kingdom that controled most of Xen. The region that is now Bandit Forest, was where its capital and two of its largest cities. Though all that's left is a few ruins that have long since been looted of everything valuable. The ruins are nothing more than hideouts for bandit tribes. Due to the thick forest, its easy to fall prey to ambushes and traps set by the bandits wanting to make a quick buck.

Due to its lawless nature, many people try to escape to Bandit Forest. There are serial killers, thiefs and prostitutes that go there to escape the law. There are also philosophers, scientist, and escaped slaves that go there to escape oppresion.

Appearance and physical attributes:

Ash is five foot, ten inches tall. Her body has an athletic build, with lean muscle. She has short black hair. Like her brother, she has inherited the Pyrrhus trait of having dark red eyes that have a slit pupil (like a cat's eyes). She wears leather armor over her chest that stops at the top of her stomach, a short loose leather skirt with metal plates, and leather boots.

Like her little brother, she highly values speed in battle. She has trained her body to move very quickly. She is also amazing at reading her opponents moves. She is more than willing to attack someone from behind. She fights using two swords. Ash is probably the most skilled fighter in my story.

Personality:

There is a duality to Ash's personality. Usually she's pretty laid back. She rarely takes things seriously. She's a hedonist, in other words she loves sex, drugs and rock and roll (though rock doesn't exist yet in this story). However, she completely changes during battle. A large blood lust rises in her, and she loves to kill opponents.

Biography:

Ash was created by the union of Lonan and a protitute. Her mom simply dumped her off at her grandparents house (on the mother's side) and leaves. She never even tries to see her again. Her grandparents are very poor, but try to provide for her as best as possible. They even go hungry at times so that she has enough food. She lives in the slums of one of the largest cities in the kingdom of Adon. None of the other children would play with her. Due to her eyes, every knew that she was Lonan's daughter, so the parents told their children to never play with her or talk to her. Some of the older kids would beat her up, because of who her father was. This has lead to her having a strong hatred towards her father.

When she turned thirteen, she started to look for a job to help her grandparents. She say a poster saying that the local coliseum is looking for fighters, and that it pays the winners well. The lowest age allowed is sixteen, so she just lied about her age. She won her, but only by luck. She swore to become stronger and began to start training. One of the older gladiators willingly took her under her wing and gave her intense training. She told her grandparents that she got a job working for a rich noble. By the time she turned sixteen, she had become one of the top champion of the female division of the region. The promoter got the idea to pit her against the top male champion of the area, in a death match. She won the fight, and found out that she really enjoyed killing. However, a very rich noble betted against her, and wasn't happey about losing. He sent mercenaries to her home to kill her. She killed them, and killed the noble who was there to see her die. By this point, she couldn't hide that she's a gladiator from her grandparents. She decided to leave home, and travel around.

She would get paid by small villages for killing some of the local criminals. She during these travels, she discovered that she really loves sex and drugs. She eventually made her way to Bandit Forest. She wanted to test her fighting ability against the bandit tribes that lived there. She eventually gained a following there, and gained more followers with every battle. Her and her followers launched a bloody war against the major tribes in the forest. They made money by having the Adonian villages nearby pay them for protection against the other tribes.

While in one of these villages, she met a beautiful slave girl named Amelia. She bought her from her owner and also gave her a house in the village. The two of them fell in love, but Amelia was scared of Ash's dark nature, and didn't like the stories that she heard about Ash. She tried to convince Ash to give up battle and run away with her, but Ash refuse. On one day, one of the bandit tribes launched an attack against that village. Ash and a small group of her followers tried to defend the village. During the battle Amelia watched Ash fight for the first time. Ash seem to be in ecstasy as she slaughtered a some of the bandits around her. One of them dropped to his knees and begged Ash to spare his life. Ash just smiled at him, and stared with her malice filled eyes. Amelia ran infront of the man to try to stop Ash. However, Ash was already moving to kill him, so her sword slashed through Amelia. Ash instantly snapped back to normal. Amelia said that she was happy to see the real Ash one more time before dying.

Ash simply took Amelia's body and left the village. She dig a grave with her hands and buried Amelia. For the next week, she was in a state of deep sadness, that she killed someone that she loved. She swore to never let her bloodlust consume her ever again. After about a week, a femal voice entered her head and told her a location that she needed to go to. She followed the instructions and found an ancient ruin of one of the cities from the ancient kingdom. While inside she found a couple of odd symbols. There was an eye painted on the wall, but it was the same type of eye that ran in the Pyrrhus family. There was a painting of two swords next to the eye. The blades of the swords were black, with a flame painted on them. The voice in her head took shape inside of the ruins. It was the goddess Raze. She told Ash that the Pyrrhus family was the royal family of that ancient kingdom, and those swords were used by its ruler. Raze told Ash that the swords are inside of her temple. She also told Ash about a clan of night elves that lived in the mountains, that had sworn to be loyal to ruler of the ancient kingdom. Ash retrieved the swords and got the night elf clan to join her. With the night elves and the followers she had, she managed to conquer all of Bandit Forest. Raze then told Ash that she had a little brother that was trying to create a revolution. She told Ash about how Ares wanted to end the old ways, and create an empire safe for people like Amelia.

Ash found Ares and challenged him to a duel. She defeated Ares but was impressed by his determination, so she willingly join Ares's army, as did her followers. She became very close to Ares's partner, Si. The two of them fell in love and started to date. Her and Ares also eventually got a very strong bond, and Ash became very protective of her little brother. She also loves to tease him. Including pointing out that he looks a lot like a girl and would often call him her little sister or sis (much to his chagrin).