Niamh Gubbins

[Niamh Gubbins]

Name: Niamh Gubbins
Age: 34
Race: Half-elf
Physical Description:
Once affectionately described as a hammer with tits, Niamh is a tall woman, just over six feet in height, with blue eyes, auburn hair and an impressive, muscled figure only slightly tempered by her elven heritage. Slender and long limbed, much to the oft expressed amusement of her colleagues, she has noticeably dextrous hands and feet, though her ears she hides behind her hairline. When not garbed in the armour of the Marn Guard, she tends to wear nondescript but serviceable breeches, shirts and tunics over a light mail vest. When on duty, and not on parade, she eschews the traditional guard helmet for a lighter, visored model because, in her own words, she'd be damned if she was going into battle with an upturned soup pot on her head.

Possessions: A full set of Marn Guard armour, though the breast plate has been hammered out well in two places. Standard issue Guard sword and lever-action crossbow, non standard issue truncheon and daggers, and very non standard issue brass knuckles, lockpicks and a leather blackjack. Guard issue light warhorse for patrols and stabled at Fort Omnebryn. Has a bunk in Fort Omnebryn but rents a room above a brothel off the main thoroughfare.

Strengths:
Woman of the Guard - Niamh is a Constable of the Marn Guard with all of the respect and benefits that entails and she isn't afraid to use that.

Trained Fighter - Already reasonably skilled with a blade when she came to Marn, Niamh's skills have only improved with her training and constant brawling with criminal elements. A passable shot with a crossbow, she is much better suited to close quarters fighting, whether with blade or fist.

Elf Blood - due to her elven heritage, Niamh retains some minor sensitivity to magic, though she is not a mage herself.

Street Monster - In addition to her training, Niamh's long experience has given her a number of skills not strictly taught at Fort Omnebryn. As such, she knows the streets and alleys of the city like the back of her hand, knows where to hit people where it hurts but won't leave a mark, how to scare civvies shitless and when to stick unprotected jewellery or silverware down your trousers.

Weaknesses and Flaws:
Foreign born - Niamh is not a titre and as such is socially maligned. While her position in the Guard mitigates this somewhat, she may never rise above constable and is often given the shit patrols to spite her.

Purebred Mongrel - a half elf from a long line of half elves (with a few other interesting denominations thrown in for good measure), Niamh is a permanent outsider to both groups and mocked as such.

Past - what's done is done and you'll leave it alone if you fancy keeping all your teeth, mate.

I will SLIT you! - Being a woman in a traditionally male dominated profession has left Niamh with a very practical, no nonsense approach to insults and insubordination, which, while undeniably effective, doesn't earn her many friends.

If it ain't nailed down - Niamh is a pathological liar and thief. You can trust her with your life, but you'd be a fool to trust her with your money.

History:
Born to a horse trader near Zackonspierre, Niamh never really cared for the outdoors, but tolerated it the same way she would people. Her parents, Marnian expats, tried in vain to instil in her the social virtues expected of a girl, but she didn't care for them. A tomboy, she was often teased by both the girls and boys of the village, the one because she had no interest in being girly and the others because they claimed that she was too weak to compete with them. Not being in possession of a particularly scathing wit at that age, she responded to the taunting with physical violence, which, her detractors quickly learned, she was quite good at. Of course, this got her into no end of trouble with her parents and the parents of the other children, but she reasoned that unless they were going to stop bothering her, she wasn’t going to stop hitting them.

A dutiful child, she did her best to help her family until she came of age, learning her sums and her letters in between getting kicked by horses. Tired of the constant aggro and her mother's tireless efforts to marry her off to someone local that her father liked she moved to Zackonspierre proper, looking for work hitting things instead of feeding animals. Her parents, though disappointed, let her go in the hopes that she would eventually calm down and come home. Any notion she had that the city would be different were shortly removed, though, as work was scarce and work for women was not something she saw herself as suited for. But stubborn perseverance can cover a multitude of sins, and eventually she found work as a bouncer for local brothels. She learned a lot there about fighting and what people were willing to do for a few bishan, saving and buying a few personal protective items as she went. She was still mocked, but being paid to kick the tar out of people who thought they were better than her helped her cope. Still, she needed more security than bouncing and bodyguard work provided, so when the call went out, she signed on with the city guard.

It was a good racket, really, running after thieves and cutpurses was more interesting than herding handsy drunks out the nearest door, and more physically demanding. Three square meals, free board and the odd bishan extra if you kept a weather eye open wasn't bad by any means, and she was suddenly very popular with her former employers who felt that having a body on the Guard was a definite plus. It all looked good on paper, but however far she'd come, she was still the touchy tomboy that left home, and so she responded to mouthy criminals brutally, earning a fearsome reputation for merciless pursuit and enforcement. Though largely maligned by the Higher ups, she was something of an oddity to the people, and she was flexible enough to take advantage of this when she could. Her downfall, as it were, came during a murder investigation when she beat the only living son of Lord Walfuss Geralt to death, not for kidnapping and torturing peasants within the city limits, but for giving her too much lip when she hauled him out of his carriage. Or at least that was how it was reported, in reality, he fell during the arrest and hit his head off a stone step, but the other guardsmen didn't like her and didn't feel like taking a fall when they could hang her instead. Not waiting to find out if his lordship was feeling charitable, she fled south to Marn, hoping that her pursuers wouldn't follow her to her parents' native city.

Initially intending to lay over for a short time before moving on to Eyropa, she changed her mind when she saw how the Guard in Marn operated. Reasonably certain that she could make a career of that, she applied for training but was denied for being a smelly foreigner. Never a woman to take no at face value, she bided her time, working again as a tough for hire, and earning points with the guardsmen when and where she could. It wasn't easy, as they were a suspicious lot, but everyone needed help sooner or later, and Marn was full of ambitious social climbers with big dreams and weak stomachs. So she started doing favours for people, intimidating rivals, tracking people down, speeding up investigations by ensuring that the guardsmen found the right evidence and making problems disappear. Eventually she had enough capital to lever a position in the militia. It was a small victory, but it was a foothold, and it allowed her to catch the eye of proper Guardsmen when they trained or marched. Just as patiently, she gathered favours from her trainers, helping them out with some friendly street wisdom or doing things that they couldn't be seen to do. It was difficult in the extreme, but she leapt at every rare opportunity, and by the end, her training and admission into the Marn Guard was the most satisfying of all of her achievements.

That was eight years ago, and in the time since, she has continued to secure her position through a combination of hard work, flexibility and cutthroat opportunism. Her promotion to Constable a year ago didn't provide as much joy as when she was accepted, but she has proven herself worthy of the rank, and has managed to stay that far ahead of her detractors throughout.

[Saruna]

Once affectionately described as a hammer with tits

- bahaha, nice one.

Just so the group of new players know, this character is played by a longtime member of the site.

Approved.