Alethia Pallas

"Everything passes away — suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the world. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"

- Alethia Alethia Pallas (A-leth-ia Pal-as) is an errant warrior-nun travelling the world of Gielinor. As a newborn, she was left at the mouth of St. Arion's Abbey, an underground monastery-cavern allegedly hewed in the Second Age by St. Arion the Archaic. Alethia led the peaceful life of a nun for almost twenty-five years until religious fanatics sacked the monastery and slew the inhabitant nuns. One of three survivors of the assault, Alethia has decided to take up the blade in the spirit of St. Arion and Saradominism, intending to protect all sentient life on Gielinor. She is played by Kalitu III.

Physical
Alethia formerly wore flowing white robes, trimmed in the colors of blue and gold, which ended at at her ankles. Her habit also consisted of a light blue wimple and coif, which covered her hair and exposed only face. This gave her a rather feminine appearance overall - a typically docile and soothing look which worked well for her profession as a nun.

Her current appearance is a reversion of the millennia long domestication of women. She has gone back to the roots of her order, wearing an outfit that is as close as she could get to the original habit. Alethia has shed her ankle-length, humble robes for this more revealing outfit, which is heavily Second Age inspired and now show-cases her body much more. Her torso is covered with studded leather, trimmed with white for aesthetic purposes and is used for her armor. Alethia's legs are now shown, as she wears a short above-the-knee ending skirt, trimmed with grey and protected with pteruges. Simple boots have been exchanged for knee-length gladiator sandals, the leather strips curling and over-lapping each other in a intricate design. Alethia's hands are now covered up to the knuckles with white bracers, a design also originating from the Second Age.

Weapons/Wielded Objects
Alethia's weapon of choice is a curved metal hatchet - a light and easily moveable weapon. On her left arm, she usually has a steel buckler shield, covered with hardleather and studded for addtional defense. Other weapons she has obtained and might be used in the future are: a simple spear, topped with a metal head and cloth grip, a halberd with curved head, metal butt, and cloth grip, and finally a simple dagger, the length of a hunting knife.

Facial
Alethia's face is a soft, rather feminine appearing one. Her milky-complextion was once framed by a coif and wimple, which has been since shed in favor of more protective headwear. She now wears a leather coif-helm, useful very much so for her new life. It is a mixture of grey and brown, matching the rest of her outfit. Alethia might also wear a leather cowl-hood or a simple, grey, metal medium helmet with white band depending on the situation. Other noticeable traits of Alethia include her bright, icy blue eyes and blonde yellow hair - a certainly stereotypical attribute of Saradominists.

Personality
Alethia has found that she must be a very pensive person. As one of the last few survivors of her holy order, she is more than aware that should she perish, the order and all its traditions, writings, beliefs, and history would be lost forever. As a last link, Alethia must be grave and dour in all matters. This makes Alethia a sincere woman, one resolute and determined to continue on even when there is great difficulty ahead. But Alethia is not just an introspective woman - she is very motherly and caring toward others, a trait earned from her life as a nun. She can be very warm and compassionate, which comes to her more naturally than the forced solemnness.

History
Alethia Pallas was born to unknown parents in Misthalin. As a newborn, she was left at the mouth of St. Arion's Abbey, an semi-underground cavern-monastery allegedly cleared in the Second Age by St. Arion the Archaic. Here Alethia was raised as an orphan by the nuns, but was warmly welcomed and accepted into the group. She was baptized and took part in the mass, becoming initiated as a nun once she was of age.

Alethia's life was a quiet, peaceful, one - one she was fully content with. The nuns were all friends with one another and they lived happily singing, cooking, and gardening. She knew of St. Arion but the significance of her sacrifice meant little to her.

Eventually trouble came - the day of Moevyng 12th started as any other day. Alethia tended to her daily chores and chatted with the nuns. While she was down sweeping the catacombs with two of her friends, they heard sudden shouts and a great clamor. Having never heard such panic before, the nuns hurriedly raced to the source of the sound and saw armored, tribal-esque, men. They were barely able to hold back screams as they witnessed the men destroying the ancient holy place and looting the relics. What came next would forever change their lives; the men started slaying the defenseless nuns, cutting them down easily like a wounded dog. The ones who were killed first had a merciful fate - the remaining nuns were then forcibly raped and then executed as the others. Alethia hid during the assault, paniced and lost in herself as she was able to do nothing. In a few short hours, the order was almost extinct.

When the men left, gratified and full of loot, Alethia and her comrades were able to come back out. They looked at the devastation with a great depression as their lives and the meaning of their lives was utterly erased. They set to work, toiling in complete and shocked silence as they gathered their friends and set them upon funeral pyres. They burned bodies for four days during this time almost went into dilirium as they hardly ate or drank. The nuns then did the gruelling task of cleaning up the dried blood and nearly collapsed trying to accomplish this. The time came where they were forced to drink and eat and contemplate what next to do.

It was eventually decided they could not let what had happened to them, happen to others. They searched for new meaning and drew inspiration from St. Arion, deciding to become defenders to all - even those not of the same faith.

TBA

History is subject to change.

The Hallowed Order of St. Arion the Archaic
The Hallowed Order of St. Arion the Archaic is a religious order devoted to the Second Age saint Arion.

The Story of St. Arion
St. Arion served as a spy to Saradomin and was born in the city of Hallowvale. Her hagiography maintains she served in Saradomin's army for a time, rising through the ranks to become a scout. Because of her unmatched agility and talent for stealth, she became a well-trusted favorite of the High Command. St. Arion was eventually tasked to gather plans for annexation of more out-lying lands from the Zarosian empire in modern day Misthalin. The scout was able to steal these plans, but at seeing the plight of humans in the Zarosian empire, took a handful of refugees with her to camp and planned to take them back with her to the Hallowlands.

The group stayed in the caverns as St. Arion waited for the heated search to die down. Unfortunately however, the Zarosians were able to discover St. Arion and her camp by tracking down her refugees. St. Arion ordered them to hide deeper in the caves and escape with the plans as she tried to keep the Zarosians at bay.

St. Arion was able to hold the mouth of the cave for two days, rolling rocks down the mountain-side, crushing Zarosians and knocking them down to face death below. Eventually however, they were able to scale the mountain and get to the mouth of the cave, where she continuously tried to hold them off and fled into the dark caverns. She fought a guerilla war for nearly a day, picking off opponents in the dark and completing quick amushes. But the Zarosians were soon able to capture St. Arion and she was swiftly executed via lightning magic. She was originally christened St. Arion the Martyr, but as the ages passed, she was eventually known as St. Arion the Archaic.

The Founding and History of the Order
The Zarosian humans who survived stayed behind in the caves for months, foraging from the berries outside and the mushrooms that grew within. A number of natural springs supplied water. The strongest of the refugees was able to sneak out of the Zarosian empire and into the Hallowlands with the plans, converting to Saradominism in the process. This refugee returned to the cave and found the survivors still living harmoniously there and converted them to Saradominism. They then set to work carving the caves out to make them more liveable and the outer-areas into tranquil gardens, allowing them to escape the thoughts of going back to working for the industrious Zarosian empire.

Soon it became a secret location for other refugees and those with Saradominist-sympathies to hide. With a more widespread population, the inhabitants of St. Arion's cave established themselves as a religious order and took St. Arion as their patron saint as she had made the existence of their sanctuary possible.

During the Third Age, paladins lived in the cave where the mountain now served as an outpost and watchtower. It did not see much action given its hard to reach location and thus survived mostly unscathed. By the Fourth Age, with the gods gone, the Sarothic church set to work making the world orderly again. The warrior-women who lived there were forced to shed their garb for new robes and act as more of keepers of the cave than dutiful guardians.

By the Fifth Age, the women were only a shadow of the fierce defenders they prided themselves on being. They were reduced to producing manuscripts and tending to the gardens and relics. Competiton among other abbeys, ones easier to arrive at and far newer, made new initiates difficult to find; slowly the order began dying out.

A raid by religious zealot-barbarians left the order all but instinct. The areas outside the cave were demolished and reduced to rubble, as well as the deeper catacombs.

The Abbey
The abbey was mostly underground, illuminated by an elaborate system of shafts which allowed light to pour in from above. The caves inside were decorated with a number of mosaics and reliefs, as well as the natural springs turned into pouring fountains and grottos. The exterior of the caves was carved entirely from the rock, forming intricately carved bridges which connected mountainside to mountainside. Plants and waterfalls dwelled next to the bridges and sometimes on them, adding to the sceneic appearance. Unforunately, most of the exterior was destroyed when the monastery was sacked.

Trivia

 * Her first name, Alethia, comes from the Greek word aletheia (ἀλήθεια) meaning truth. Her surname, Pallas, comes from Pallas Athena, the Greek Goddess of wisdom.
 * The opening quote said by her was in actuality said by Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian playwright.
 * Although she is a Saradominist and warrior-nun, Alethia's Saradominism plays more of a backseat role. She is more concerned with protecting and helping others than holy wars or conversions.
 * This means that the role-play is not the usual "zealot-crusader" type. It is intended to be a more emotionally investing role-play, with the great accomplishments and humiliating failures of the human race being a central theme. The idea is to explore the human condition and the way a domesticated and docile character can be developed into an out-spoken, direct, and fearless person.