Meredith Rentonward

“You can’t do anything if you don’t try!” - Dame Meredith Rentonward

Noble Deeds
Stopped a plot to overthrow House Okoye, Saved a town from a mana crystal that was making its inhabitants feral, Defeated Amhearst the Dull in single combat, Fought with the Raven Knights at the Battle of Hearld’s Keep; Defeating a Dragonborn in single combat, On no less than thirteen jousts, including the Grand Tourney at Babel Horn

 

Appearance
Meredith is an reasonably attractive young canine with a five-foot eight athletic frame, crystal blue eyes and dark purple hair. She is mostly white with patches of reddish fur all about her body. Most notably her ears, lower legs and forearms, as well as a patch over her right eye. She wears her hair short and sporty and is considered by most to be a cute in a tomboyish sort of way. In truth, nothing about her figure or face is considered to be incredibly special. She is often told she looks rather pretty for a plain mutt. A backhanded compliment that she takes in good spirits. Her exact breed is unknown as she is in fact a mongrel, as her mother was before her. Though she is fairly certain that her father was a hound.

 

Meredith wears armor of silver that is heavily accented with clothes of green and gold, the colors of House Renton. She is often seen in attire not fit for a lady of the court, preferring to wear clothes that are comfortable and boyish. In addition she tends to be rather fickle about her attire, preferring not to wear expensive or wasteful clothes when she doesn’t have to. Her upbringing as a street pup owing a lot to her distaste for gaudy attire. Though she has a love for fashionable underwear.

 

Personality
Meredith’s personality can be best described energetic and outgoing. An extrovert with a bright and upbeat attitude, she is well known to be a friendly woman who is often seen joking about and being cheerful. She is rather confident in her abilities as a fighter, having survived the streets of the lower quarter of Bryce as a child and the grueling training of a pikeman and lancer within the Renton House Guard. She cares a lot about her fellow Raven Knights and has very strong feelings for two of her comrades in particular, her Captain Riyo and the former Commander of the Pike; Edelbert Renton, whom she often followed like a child. A compliment or commendation from Sir Riyo is enough to send her into a swoon and she is not shy about talking about her infatuation with the outlander.

 

Despite her protest to the contrary, Meredith does have great concern for her looks. Just not in the normal way of a woman. She wishes to remain attractive, but doesn’t like to seem girly; feeling that those types of women have many, many problems. Being particularly pretty on the streets and alleys of Bryce were hazardous to a young girls health and Meredith had a habit of cutting her hair and dirtying her face to appear as a boy. Though she can no longer hides her femininity, she doesn’t do much to encourage it. Her natural beauty shines without much effort, so she is loathed to dress up or pretty herself. This however is not the case when trying to impress a certain someone.

 

Though considered clever and talented, a master of several skills like her polearm mastery, harper riding and forte with string instruments; Meredith is actually consider to be a bit scatterbrained. Outside of serious situations she is prone to flights of fancy, lack of attention, simple misunderstandings and clumsiness. She is also often obliviousness to some of the more intricate concepts of social finesse, having been raised on the streets for most her childhood. Though years as a ward of House Renton has refined her a bit, she still seen as an uncouth woman. She also lacks a real good sense of direction on her feet and often gets lost without help or aid. Lucky for her she has had an affinity with ferals her entire life and her Raven; Merigold, keeps her from getting lost most of the time.

 

Having spent most of her childhood in the streets, Meredith despises being on her own and often works with others. She is one of the few officers within the Order who doesn’t mind bunking in the barracks. She has a defined fear of losing others and often takes it very hard when any of the Knights under her command are lost in battle. She knows all forty men and women under her command by name and make it her mission to get to know them all personally, so she never forgets they are not just weapons to be used against the blights of the world.

'''

Childhood
Meredith was born in the cold winter of 232 AC, to a wandering minstrel and a a member of one of the travelling mercenary bands. She never knew her father, just that he was a drunken mistake her mother made for coin. He had never come back around. Perhaps he had died out on a job, she couldn’t say. Her mother, Charlotte was a gittern player of exceptional talent and modest beauty. This beauty would be the woman's downfall as she had gotten the attention of a minor bannerman to Ho thuse Okoye and started a relationship. A relationship that when found out by the nobles wife, didn’t end well. In order to teach her husband a lesson she publicly accused Charlotte of stealing. A street performer and peasant, the minstrel was not able to defend herself from the accusations of even a lowborn noble. With no one willing to defend her, she was made to suffer the crown’s justice. The noblewoman demanded Charlotte’s thieving hand be removed, a harsh and unpopular penalty that was rarely ever invoked. Despite the city watch’s insistence that the mongrel need only be lashed, the angry wife forced the issue, costing Charlotte her hand. Unable to play the gittern anymore, Charlotte was forced into work at a brothel to take care of young Meredith. Her career as a prostitute would not last however as she and half the girls in the brothel contracted the pox from mercenaries who had been raiding the lost Duchies. Half the lower quarter was burned out and thousands were killed trying to contain the sickness. Meredith barely made it out alive. She was six years old.

 

Meredith survived the purging of the lower end by running with a group of street urchins lead by a young girl named Harper. Harper was named such as before she had died, her mother had worked the stables and taught her how to ride the birds. Harper was twelve when she met Merry and was the daughter of a thief from somewhere down in southern Nemea. She’d lost her father years before when he was killed for cheating at a game of studs, her mother the stable hand, was taken as compensation. Harper had survived alone in the streets since she was eight and had lead her group of misfits through poverty, hunger and the pox. She took Meredith in under her wing and showed her how to survive. Meredith would learn how to beg, perform, steal and lie. Anything to make a little coin to survive. Meredith was a good student and saw Harper as a big sister. Having gittern playing skills like her mother and a beautiful child’s singing voice helped. She would serenade passers by while her friends pilfered the coin purses of nobles. Together with her new family, she eked out a meager living on the streets.

 

Despite the poverty, Meredith was happy for a time. She was a well known beggar which the locals called the ‘gittern boy’. No one knew that either her or Harper were girls. Both cut their hair and dirtied themselves up to hide their femininity. Though it isn’t safe for unattended children in general, it is doubly unsafe for young girls in the lower quarter. Meredith was the ‘face’ of the crew. Bright eyed, cute and honest. She could go places and get things that the others could not. As a known quantity, the locals trusted Meredith. She was often given bread, candy and scraps; which she would share with the crew. However as Harper grew older, she began to dream of more than just surviving. Harper wanted the crew to live well. No longer content to just steal and beg, she began to associate herself with the shadier individuals in the quarter. At first, Meredith did not notice, happy to play her gittern and live as she always had. But soon Harper began to take the kids one by one to meet with the men she’d been associating with. They would come back bruised and tired, but didn’t want to talk of their experiences. Meredith began to suspect the worst. One day when she worked up enough nerve, she followed Harper on one of her secret meetings.

 

Her chase led Meredith to the manor of a minor noble. After sneaking into Keep Haelson; Meredith found that her friend had come under the employ of the House’s spymaster, a man named Edlebron Dugar. Dugar was using his men to train select members of Harper’s crew, teaching them to climb better, run on ramparts and read. Harper had sold out the crew to spy for House Haelson. Unsure of what to do, Meredith confronted Harper who did not deny her actions. Justifying her actions by pointing out that each child being trained was a volunteer and that they all wanted better lives. Meredith was told they needed her to remain a face for the group, someone who could move about freely and be welcomed by regular folks; but Meredith insisted on being trained as well. After a long debate, Harper agreed to allow it.

 

Dugar would take special interest in Meredith’s training. Teaching her how to pretend to be a noble and proper speech and etiquette. He sought to use Meredith as one of his infiltrators one day and Merry’s natural manners and charm made her uniquely qualified for the job. By the age of twelve Meredith was able to mingle with nobles and set up marks as a Courtesan, pretending to be the daughter of some minor noble associated with the southern house of Renton. Since nobles of house Renton never intended parties and no one would know all their members, the deception worked very well for House Haelson.

 

Meredith's work for the Dugar had gained the small House great leverage over other Houses in Howling Rock. Haelson’s rising profile garnered the House invite to the Ascension Day Ball held at Ishai Castle. House Haelson had fallen out of favor with House Okoye many years ago and the invite was a sign of a changing in the times. Dugar took full credit for this change as the secrets he and his spies had attained were key to the rising influence of the House. Meredith was to accompany the nobles of House Haelson as a handmaiden for Lady Prina, but was to slip away and change into her guise and work the room. All was going well until Meredith managed to catch the attention of handsome young guard named Mosi Okafor. Meredith had seen the painted wolf before, he had been a city guardsmen in the lower quarter. The wolf had often come to listen to her mother play the gittern before her death and had listened to her play a few times. She knew him to be clever and observant, perhaps the only person who had ever guessed that she was a little girl and not a boy. Though Meredith doubted he remembered her from listening to her mother play the gittern. What Mosi did remember is that whenever Meredith played her gittern, people got robbed for coin. The watchmen had kept a close eye on her for a long time trying to discover her connection with the pickpockets. He had once almost caught them, but Harper had made a show of robbing Meredith of her earned coin for performing. Meredith was older now, dressed as a nobleman's child, oneoften unseen by most of the court. But something about her had caught Mosi’s attention and he began to keep a close eye on her.

 

Eventually i had begun to watch Meredith as she moved about the party

 

Adult Life
By the age of Sixteen he was an experienced Borderman. His Academy friends, Cress, Aritrea and surprisingly even Jo had become Border Knights as well, each taking apprenticeship under a Knight within the Legion. Though most Knight’s tended to keep their apprentices close by, Adolyn in his friends were given an autonomy that even seasoned Knights would envy. With Jo as the de facto leader of the group, they had many adventures in the Borderlands and proved to be an invaluable asset to the Legion. This was no more apparent as when Prince Eriol’s daughter was kidnapped by Eternian Cultist.

 

Out late one spring night bird hunting, the eagle eyed Cress noticed a large creature flying from the lands toward the Moorlands to the North. When the princess’ bracelet fell to the ground from the creature, he alerted his fellows and they gave chase. Adolyn and his fellow Knight Apprentices braved the ruins of the Kingdom of Garman in the Moorlands to the heart of the former nation. There they found cultist who worshipped the Eternian Gods of old, these cultist wished to use the blood the princess, in a ritual that would break the seal on a Eternian creature known as the Baldimorg. With serious help from his friends, Adolyn defeated the cultist leader and slayed the Shade of the Baldimorg, preventing it’s true form from being unsealed. This earned him and his fellows many accolades and the permanent adoration of the young princess Megan.

 

The world at large took notices after that, Adolyn and his friends were named full fledge Knights by King Legault himself. Despite the honor for one so young, his knighthood was bittersweet. His friends and he would be separated. Jo was sought after by the Home Guard in Assyria and Nemea. Cress and Aritrea had been given an opportunity to train as a forward scouts, with serious considerations of being trained as Rangers, though Aritrea would have moved the heavens to follow him back to the Border Legion had he asked.

 

Adolyn, however did not stay in the Borderlands for long after his knighthood. In the fall on 249 AC as a favor to his father, he was sent along with other Bordermen to Forest Kingdom of Faeorie. The Faeorie were experiencing an unnatural drought and strange forest fires had become common.Their Rangers were taxed keeping the people safe from the Wilderings, forest hare’s whom were outcasted from Faeorie society. In the course of his adventure, Adolyn discovered the troubles were caused by a sect of Faeorie Witches who plotted to reanimate the bones of the great dragon Garvos and use his power to conquer the Kingdom. Eventually with the help of Faeorie Rangers, the surviving bordermen of his Legion and the support of his childhood friend and rival, Dame Jo; he was able to brave the Meandering Woods and defeat the feral beasts within and claim the sword Durendal. With it’s power Garvos was slain and the Faeorie, and perhaps all of Theria were saved.

 

Though Adolyn would complete many noble charges, as well as survive many dangerous adventures; he is most well known for his actions at the ‘Battle of Herald’s Keep’. What was to be an armistice in order to discuss peace, became a plot by the Saurian King to murder the Lioncourt Royal Family. Poisoned by ancient and black magics, the King was weakened and struck with a mortal blow by the Saurian King Mizer. Though King Legault was able to plunge his sword, ‘The Raven’s Wing’ deep in the heart of the Saurian King, it was not enough to stay the Saurian attack.

 

The Border Legion was called on to face the Saurian’s Wyvern Riders and their fierce and powerful Dragon Knights. Adolyn however was not at the Keep with his legion, but as a guest of Princess Megan de Lioncourt, along with his Academy fellows who previous helped save her life. It was during this battle that Adolyn again saved the lives of the Princess Megan and her brother Prince Vandell, stowing them away with the Raven Riders to return to Bast. With Jo, Aritrea and Cress by his side, he fought his way deep into the Keep to find their father, Prince Eriol de Lioncourt.

 

The prince and his Raven Knight’s were found on the Keep’s walls, trying to make their way to the more fortified eastern tower. Adolyn had known if the King were alive, the Royal Knight’s would have surely took him there. Lead by their Primus Corvinus; Sir Garret Jesstane the weapons master, the Raven Knight’s ferociously fought back the Saurian onslaught. Though few in number, the Raven Knight’s were warriors of incredibly ability, each wielding an Eldeidan. Their archers peppered the skies with explosive and magic arrows, keeping wyvern riders at bay. Their lancers fought back Saurian dragoons as they pressed the lines of the enemy. At every edge they were assaulted, the Raven Knight’s held the line, but the overwhelming might brought to bear against them seemed to be too great. Many of their number were lost in the battle.

 

Adolyn arrived on the battlefield with Durendal in hand, the blades power and legend were enough to give his enemies pause. With it in hand, he did not fear revealing his druid taught skills. Most would credit the feats to the Eldeidan he carried. Though only four, he and his fellows were enough to push back the assault of the Saurian soldiers. All seemed to turn until the a High Wyvern attacked. Massive and breathing fire, the feral beast began to lay waste to the defenders. Sir Garret and his Knight Commanders took on the beast, stabbing their weapons into it and disappearing into the night, leaving Adolyn to command the remaining forces and defending Prince Eriol until the Captain of the Royal Guard, Sir Harlem Eridanus and a few of his men arrived.

 

Though Adolyn acquitted himself in command and protection of the Prince, he was not nearly in time to save the life of King Legault. He and his men were slaughtered to the last, having held out in a hall beneath the east tower, their intended escape route destroyed and covered in debris. The Prince had seen his father's final moments, too weak from magic poison to defend against the onslaught any longer, he and his final Royal Guard, the wife of Sir Harlem Eridanus and mother of Aritrea were killed. Adolyn could only watch as sorrow and fury overtook those around him and the king’s killers were butchered to the last. His life, his kingdom, would never be the same.

 

With the Saurian attack beaten back, the Kingdom of Lioncourt mourned the death of her King. Eriol de Lioncourt was named King of the Pridelands in the wake of the disaster. The King’s first order was to dismiss the Royal Knight’s whom left his father's side during his darkest hour, especially The Captain of the Guard, Harlem Eridanus who was banished from ever stepping foot in Castle Ravenclaw. This dishonor was seen as both harsh and unnecessary, carrying with it not only significant damage to the Eridanus family as a whole, but leading to Adolyn’s friend Aritrea resigning her post. When Adolyn and the King requested her to reconsider, she spat in the King’s face. Though many wanted to see her hung for this insult, King Eriol forgave it and allowed her to leave without incident, with the offer to return to Knighthood if she so chose.

With Sir Garret Jesstane seriously injured and his Raven Knight’s devastated by the battle, Adolyn was offered apprenticeship under the great warrior and the role of Primus Corvinus of the Raven Knights. Dame Jo and Sir Cress were also offered places within the great order. Though Adolyn refused, wishing to return to the Border Legion, the King denied this and named him the future Primus anyway. From that day forth Sir Adolyn’s life would never be the same. No longer just a Knight or a Hero, he was now Champion of Lioncourt and the most recognized name of their order at only twenty one years of age.