Eleanor Fay Garside

"Base and poisoned fool; indeed you think me a simple girl for you have not yet seen the way I kill men." -Eleanor Fay Garside

Core Statistics
Name: Eleanor Fay Garside

Title: Knight-Landowner of the Kingdom of Valikorlia

Relatives: Baron Jack Garside, Sir Quentin Garside

'''Race: Human

'''Ethnicity: Alberean

'''Eye: Blue

'''Hair: Blonde

Skin-Tone: Fair and rosy.

'''Height: 5'7"

'''Weight: 140 lbs.

'''Alignment: Lawful Good.

Personality
Eleanor Fay is on the surface a very rough girl. She doesn't like to be categorized with most other women of her era, and tests herself against high warrior standards. While it could be said that Eleanor Fay is indeed a good person, she is also extremely bright, and she knows how to get what she wants by bending rules every once in awhile. Eleanor Fay holds her family honor above all else in her life, and sees it as her task in life to bring more glory and power to the Garside name.

Eleanor Fay is a very pretty girl, thanks to her breed, but her body is hard and muscular, and her will matches it. She is an able knight that uses her physical prowess and her intense martial training during her squirehood to take down foes which would be beyond most men. As a worshiper of Wol, Eleanor Fay has a strong sentiment against magic in any form, and think of it as unholy and dishonest. Instead she holds mastery of ones' own body and strength as the ultimate form of honor.

Equipment

 * Weapons
 * A Ten-Foot Halberd with a white oak pole, and a steel head.
 * A viking one-handed broadsword, with leather wrapped handle.
 * A Short Warbow made of yew.
 * A rough-leather quiver with 48 red-feathered arrows.
 * Armor
 * A thirty-inch diameter wooden viking targe(shield) with steel rim and cap in the center. (Rarely carries)
 * A full hauberk of riveted chain mail.
 * A full suit of gothic plate high carbon steel armor.
 * A houndskull bascinet.
 * Leather gloves, leather boots, with hardened soles.


 * Misc.
 * A blue dress with gold trim, with a white cloak & hood.
 * A surcoat with the colors of the house of Oakburn, dark green with gold embattled trim.

Childhood
Eleanor Fay was born to her parents, Baron Jack Garside, and his wife Lady Jeanne Garside, at their castle in Hawkswarren. They named her such as it means "shining light", and she was the joy of her mother's heart to have their first child be a daughter. As a child, Eleanor was well-mannered and gracious, and she was loved by all who lived at Hawkswarren. By the time she was nine years old, however, she had made it clear that she was far more fascinated with the lives of the adventuring knights, than the life of a court-lady like her mother. She begged her father to allow her to become a paige as her uncle Quentin had at that age, and eventually the Baron agreed. She was made a paige for Baron Jack, and thus began her path toward knighthood. She remained a paige in House Hawkswarren, doing errands and running messages for her father, until she was twelve years old. Then she was entitled a Squire by her father, and sent away to the faraway land of Northlark, near Bridgeton, to a poor knight named Sir Rolphius.

Squirehood
Eleanor Fay took the trip into the south with her father, and her overbearing love of duty protected her from homesickness or loneliness or any manner of things that would have afflicted a lesser girl. Sir Rolphius taught Eleanor Fay the ways of martial training at his small manor in the woods of Northlark. The two of them took regular trips to Bridgeton, in order to serve missions given to them by the Lord there, to whom Rolphius swore allegiance. As part of her field training, Eleanor Fay ran regularly every morning in full mail gear, and practiced ardently with sword techniques. When she was fifteen, Rolphius introduced her to the heavier and more dangerous polearms that would eventually become her preference. From then on she took a halberd as her weapon of choice, and practiced with the nuances of the weapon's handling.

Eleanor Fay stayed with Rolphius until she was seventeen, and two weeks before her eighteenth birthday she was sent back into the north, following the new King Cedric Alber's coronation, to serve her Alberean people once again. At first she resisted the mixture with the Celdinite peoples that had taken place, but eventually she too accepted the greater Valikorlian honor for righteousness. After moving north she was sent to the lonely woodland manor of Oakburn, to serve her remaining years of squirehood under the wise knight Sir Ahdrid Sydel-Dragonis. He took her in, and the two became fast friends. Ahdrid's teachings were different from Rolphius' in that he taught her matters of the mind, rather than of the fist and arm. Eleanor Fay was already learned in the ways of fighting and war, and she still practiced her field exercises every day, but Ahdrid offered for her a glimpse into the world of wisdom, understanding, and patience. She began to trust Ahdrid more than she had even Rolphius, a man she'd spent most of her life with, and would go with him on missions of every kind, serving him in battle and in formal visits to Greendale.

The time came then that Sir Ahdrid's service earned him an elevation of rank, and he began to be sent on journeys and trips-of-state regularly, in the name of His Majesty King Cedric. Eleanor Fay was left at Oakburn during each of these trips, to hold the manor in his stead. It eventually came to pass that Ahdrid was sent on one of the many crusades to Meridiem that the Templar went on, and Eleanor Fay was called suddenly to Castle Staghorn by the king. The King decreed that in Ahdrid's absense, Eleanor Fay would instead become the Knight of Oakburn. She was knighted that very day, and given the lands of Oakburn to her title.

Knighthood
Now only eighteen years old, and a knight-landowner, Eleanor Fay was forced to grow up very fast. She rose to the occasion and became a fine knight, gaining favor over older and longer-serving knights in some cases. Eventually Ahdrid returned from his crusade, and it was decided that Eleanor would serve under her former master again, though as a knight now, and that the two of them would continue to live at Oakburn. Oakburn's lands were increased and additions to the manor were built to accompany the soldiers needed for both knights. As Ahdrid continued to go on regular long trips away from Valikorlia, on missions from the throne, Eleanor Fay remained with the title of landowner of Oakburn, despite her lower rank.

Near the end of the Last Dalmarite War, Eleanor Fay attempted to kill her fellow knight, Sir Leonidas Brovell, and failed. She made the attempt both in defense of General Conner's life, which Brovell was threatening, and because Eleanor had developed for the man a foul hatred after watching him perform cruel acts in the name of Setengar and justice.

As punishment for her attack on Brovell, Eleanor Fay was challenged to a joust by Sir Leonidas, and sentenced with five public lashings. Their joust ended in a draw, with three points to three points, but on the last lance, Eleanor Fay's helmet was torn off her head, resulting in a terrible gash across her left cheek, and an unsightly scar remains. After surviving the joust, she endured the public lashings, and as a result has five more terrible scars across her back.

Currently, Eleanor Fay resides in Oakburn with Sir Ahdrid, attempting to excavate mines into the hills of Staghorn Weald, to extract the plenteous iron ore deposits that lie beneath the earth there.