Fathia

[Fathia Asim Mahiri]

Player Name: Meesh

Character Name: Fathia Asim(Father's name) Mahiri(grandfather's name)

Age: 10

Race: Human

Height: 4'10"

Weight: 85lbs

Physical Description: Having come from a family who immigrated to Marn from just North of The Great Scar, Fathia possesses skin much darker than most other Marnians. Though she may not be quite as dark as her older brothers or her grandmother, Fathia stands out when compared with some of her pale friends and classmates. She has always been of an average height and weight when compared to other girls of her age. She has long black hair has never been cut, and so her grandmother braids it to keep it out of her face. She has yet to lose all of the roundness to her face that she had as a baby, but at the same time she is just starting to develop into the beautiful young woman that she will one day be.

Her family holds onto this ideal of being humble. They don't live above their means and they don't believe it is practical to go about their daily lives wearing expensive clothing that could easily be ruined. Fathia often wears a very plain undyed linen ankle-length dress, a matching shawl or hijab, a pair of wool stockings her grandmother knitted for her and some simple shoes that she can easily slip on and off without needing any help.


Possessions: Fathia usually carries with her a small wicker basket filled with some fresh bread, a small jar of fruit(if in season) and maybe some soft cheese and dry meat. She carries very little bishani on her, often times none at all unless of course her family has sent her out for some shopping or she has been collecting donations for the temple. Like with bishani, Fathia isn't likely to carry a weapon on herself. She believes the Guards and Teodinus will protect her from harm.

Often times this young girl can be seen picking up small rocks, a feather, maybe a broken ceramic piece, a torn page from a book or some other non-valuable object and hiding it away inside the pockets of her apron. She likes to collect things with different textures to them so that she can touch them and learn from these things. Her collection would most likely not make much sense to the average person but it is her way of experiencing all the strange wonders of the world.

Powers or Strengths:
-Good memorization skills. Unlike other children, Fathia couldn't be taught how to read. Her parents couldn't give her a shopping list and tell her to pick up the needed goods from the market, her teachers couldn't ask her to recite what was written in the Tomes of the First Settlers. Fathia had to learn how to memorize what it was she needed to know so that when called upon she could do what she needed to do.

-Keen sense of smell. Smell can be a powerful thing, it can trigger thoughts and memories and in Fathia's case it can help her identify her current surrounding and find her way around the city. Her father's shop smells of sour yeast, sugar and fresh baked goods. The Drunken Rat, where her mother and older sister work, smells of fermented fruit, ale and sweaty men. To get to school, Fathia must pass an outdoor market, make her way around the field of fresh grass and head towards the buildings that smell of firewood and people.

-Optimistic. Fathia can't help but to see the good in everything. No matter what seems to come her way, things could always be worse. She can't make use of her eyes, but she can still hear beautiful music, she can still smell sweet flowers, she can taste fresh fruit, she can still walk the city without fear that something bad will happen and for that she is grateful.

-Takes joy in simple things. This goes right along with her optimistic point of view but Fathia takes joy out of the simplest things. She is fascinated by all the different smells of things, how so many rocks can feel so different from one another, how no two birds sound exactly the same. She collects things like rocks, feathers and other discarded objects to remind her of this.

-Well known with many locals. In addition to attending school in Marn, Fathia does a lot of volunteer work at the temple when she isn't helping various family members around town. Her father is a local baker, her mother brews alcohol for a local tavern(The Drunken Rat), her older sister is a barmaid at the tavern and her two older brothers work at a local farm. She can also been seen running errands around town such as buying ingredients from other locals at the outdoor markets in town.

-Volunteers around the temple. Fathia comes from a family that decided long before she was born to leave behind what remained of their homeland and travel to a place where they could escape the constant reminders of war and what magic had done to their people. She was taught from the very beginning of the evil and destruction that magic can cause and as such she has become extremely devoted to her Puradyne beliefs. She volunteers at the temple whenever she can. She collects donations of bishani to go towards maintaining the building, she sweeps the floors, she donates melted wax and broken candles to be made into new ones, she tries to encourage friends to attend services and she makes sure that her family members are never late.

-Tries to always be helpful. Along with strict anti-magic views, Fathia was taught the importance of hard work. She was taught to always try her hardest and to offer a helping hand whenever she could. Not only does this assistance take place around the house but she often helps her parents or siblings at work, she helps around the temple, she tries to help her classmates when she can and if given the opportunity she will try her hardest to help a stranger in need.

-Kindhearted and loving individual. Fathia is a strong believer that kindness and love make the world go round. If you show nothing but good intent for another living being than they will show you the same. It is this motto that gets her through each day with a smile on her face.


Weaknesses:
-blind Fathia was born blind. At most all she has been able to see is intense light when looking straight up at the sun or leaning in to stare a lit candle. Her parents aren't sure as to the cause of her blindness but it was fairly common in their homeland. They thought they they had escaped it by moving but that wasn't the case.

-Young. Being as young as she is, Fathia is not fully mentally or emotionally mature as somebody older may be. She doesn't always think the most rationally and she isn't likely to foresee all the possible outcomes of her doing. She isn't one to get in trouble, but she can't always judge properly what kind of trouble she might be looking at.

-Overly eager to please. At times she can be overly eager to please. She will try to help where help isn't needed and can end up causing a bigger problem than there was to start with. Often times this can come in the form of mixing the wrong ingredients in her father's kitchen or tripping over a box she couldn't see and spilling drinks her sister was supposed to bring to a customer. It's the little things that usually end up with her parents asking her to go 'help' her grandmother at home or to go spend time at the temple.

-Stubborn and narrow-minded. It could be her age but Fathia is rather narrow-minded. She believes that what she believes is right and there is no other way it can be done. She is correct. Her ideals are unquestionable and that is that. She is likely to change the subject rather than argue because she knows she isn't about to change her mind.

-Limited formal education. Fathia only attends school part-time. When she isn't in school is is usually helping her parents with work. When she is in school, she spends much of her time memorizing important parts of the Tomes. She hasn't been taught to read, mathematics has been limited to the use of bishani in buying things and she knows almost nothing of geography or science as she isn't thought to understand much of the subjects without seeing what it is they are trying to teach her.

-Doesn't like harsh smells or loud noises. Relying on sounds and smells to help her get around the city, Fathia can't stand overwhelmingly harsh smells and loud noises. Such things can leave her feeling dizzy, confused and disoriented.

-Doesn't like to travel far from home/unknown places. Other than the occasional trip to Shim, Fathia has never left Marn. She wouldn't know how to get around in an unknown place and would likely find herself lost in a bunch of unusual sounds and smells. She likes the comfort of knowing where she is and how to get home.

-Relies on others for direction/orders. It isn't something she particularly likes, but Fathia relies on others for directions and orders. She often times will find herself not knowing how to be helpful or what she should do next, so she needs to ask others. Her Grandmother insists that she needs to learn how to help herself or at least take more initiative, but she is still unsure when it is the right time to do such and when it isn't.



History: Twenty-seven years ago, A middle-aged man by the name of Asim decided to pack up his parents (Ina and Mahiri) and his child-bride(Dihya) and leave his homeland in search of a better life. Setkhantos was a land that had been ravaged by the Changer's War and left to rot in the aftermath. All around him, Asim was faced with reminders of what magic and war had done to his people and yet they had not done enough to change their ways. He wanted better for his family, he wanted a place where he could raise his children without the fear of magic or what and away from the destruction.

They headed North, up through Semerkhet, where they stopped for a while. At first the city seemed like a good place to settle down. There was a diverse population, there were employment opportunities, there was a rich cultural history to the place but it was also a birthplace of a Changer and Asim just couldn't let that go.

Before leaving Semerkhet, Ina had taken up some of the local brewing methods. She learned from the local women how they would gather maize and ferment it in clay jars. When they left the city, Ina took the needed supplies and recipes with her.

They traveled next by sea until they reached the southeastern tip of Eyropa and again they stopped for some time. Mahiri had taken ill at sea and they feared he would not make it if they pressed on, so they made their home for the next year in this place.

Again, Ina made friends with the local women only this time she learned of barley and its many uses. Ina began to brew mixtures of barley and maize while Dihya and Asim took to making barley cakes and loaves.

After Mahiri finally fell to his illness, the family decided to once again pack up and move on. Ina just couldn't live in the same house that her dear husband died in. They followed the Southern trade route West until they reached Keltaris.

In Keltaris Ina learned of of herbal mixtures known as gruit and started to incorporate it into her her ales. She learned of the Eyropan preference for using honey to and fruit to sweeten their drinks and feed the wild yeast and by this time she had young Dihya working under her improve her recipes.

Eventually they left Keltaris, upset with the amount of magic they saw openly preformed in the streets and they headed east up the northern trade route. They hoped that the farther they got away from civilization the better life would be.

They finally settled in Marn. Asim liked the simple, rural atmosphere the place had to offer and they couldn't help but be overjoyed with the anti-magic laws. Soon after Dihya began to produce children and the family has only grown since.

The first two born were strong, healthy sons (Naeem and Omar) who loved working with their hands and grew up to work on a farm that would later be owned by their brother-in-law. Their two sons were followed by two daughter, the first being Abebi who grew to be very sweet and attractive and was married off to a farmer in Shim when she was fifteen. Their second daughter, Fathia though also sweet and attractive was blind.

While her sister and brothers were regularly put to work helping out their parents in either their father's bakery or with their mother in the kitchen of The Drunken Rat, Fathia was often sent off to attend to her aging grandmother or to offer her services at the Temple. It wasn't that her parents loved her any less than her siblings, as they told her this everyday, but with her lack of sight it often made it quite difficult for her to be of much help.

Fathia became quite attached to her grandmother as the older woman taught her how to work around her disability. She learned through practice how to memorize lists of items, how to rely on what natural abilities she did have to get around and she learned to be thankful of all the great things she had in life.

Meanwhile, her parents had two more daughters and another son. Fathia occasionally helps to take care of these younger siblings but with the exception of her little brother, they are now old enough that they too are helping their parents around town.



NPCs:
Grandmother: Ina is 75, she looks somewhat older than she is and doesn't leave the house much more these days as she has began to suffer from joint pain. On dryer, warm days she likes to take the younger children out to the memorial so that they can run in the grass and enjoy themselves.

Father: Asim is 61, He looks good for his age. He's always known the importance of good health and exercise and makes it a point to get in an early morning walk around the city before opening his shop and another in the evening before heading home. He seems to always have a smile on his face and loves to ask after the health and well-being of anyone who enters his shop and their family members.

Mother: Dihya is 35, she could be considered a little weathered for her age but the woman has had seven children and it shows. She isn't the tiny little girl she once was but she keeps up with her family and meets the demands of her job.

Older brother 1: Naeem is 20, growing up in Marn he has learned to act much like any other boy his age. he works hard but he also enjoys his freetime and the occasional woman (though he doesn't share that fact with his father). His parents keep on him about finding a good wife and settling down but for now he doesn't want to be tied down.

Older brother 2: Omar is 18, He looks up to his older brother Naeem but he isn't so much a ladies man as Naeem. Omar works on his brother-in-law's farm both because it helps provide his parents with the cheap grains needed to produce baked goods and beer and because he is working to put himself through the university so that he can eventually take up medicine and really help people.

Older sister: Abebi is 16, last year she married a young farmer in Shim and is currently carrying her first child. She works part-time as a waitress at The Drunken Rat to both help out her mother and to bring in some extra money for her own family.

Younger sister 1: Nayo is 7, she's a bit of the troublemaker in the family. She doesn't go out intentionally causing trouble but she is the one who likes to slack in her chores, sleep in on a school day and run off to play with her friends when there is work to be done.

Younger sister 2: Binah is 6, she's usually the one that tattles on Nayo when she isn't doing what she is supposed to be doing. The girl is often seen carrying around a homemade doll and telling stories of made up lands and the people who live in them.

Younger brother 1: Shakir is 3, he's shy and clings to his grandmother when his mother is away at work. He likes to play with his sisters when they will let him join in and he can often times be seen mimicking them as he tries to understand what it is they are doing.


Additional info: Asim, Ina, and Dihya come from a group of people who call themselves the Hunafa. The group consists of a mixture of people from the region around The Great Scar(the middle of Africa) and what would be the Middle East before they were destroyed in the Changer's War. During the conflict many people fled west(out of Saudi Arabia) and took their culture with them into this new land. Prior to these new people arriving, much of the population consisted of nomadic people living in small groups; so with a large boom in human population the new ideas, languages, religious beliefs and concepts of small villages began to spread.

The Hunafa carry strong religious beliefs that preach of love, peace, kindness towards their fellow man, hard working attitudes and a dislike of magic, war and destruction of life.