Editing FiretopMountain: Kashi (section)

=Character Summary=
[[File:Kashi.jpg|200px|thumb|Large Version: http://wiki.rpg.net/images/a/aa/Kashi.jpg]]

'''Name:'''  Kashi, the Black Wolf of Winterbole<br>
'''Age:'''  20<br>
'''Sex:'''  Female<br>
'''Race:'''  Human (Werewolf)<br>
'''Class:'''  Barbarian<br>
'''Position:'''  Protector of Winterhaven and Winterbole

'''Description:'''  Kashi is a modestly tall woman, with a wiry and athletic build.  Though naturally of fair complexion, her skin is usually slightly tanned from time spent outdoors, and bears the scars of many past fights and scrapes.  Her hair is a long, raven-dark mane, with a handful of white streaks running through it where scars on her scalp have cost it its normal color, usually kept tied back by a simple leather cord.  She has an expressive face, with a prominent nose, a wide mouth, and large eyes the color of amber; by the standards of her own people, she would be a great beauty.

Even when attending to her less martial duties at her keep or in Winterhaven, Kashi is rarely seen out of her bear-hide armor, or without her blades close at hands.  She carries herself with a sort of predatory grace, and an almost guileless confidence; she has a broad smile when happy, a smoldering glare when angered, and a wary expression most of the time.  Though mostly adapted to life in civilization, occasionally her feral habits arise; she's prone to scenting things, and tends to eschew courtesies in favor of straightforward honesty.

In her animal form, Kash is a large black wolf, with scattered streaks of white around her head.

'''Bio:'''  Kashi was born to the Tundra Wolf barbarian tribe, well to the north of the Nentir Vale.  Like much of her tribe, she was born with "the wolf-spirit's blessing;" she is a werewolf by birth.  But her birth was not cause for celebration; unlike most of her tribe, she bore the wolf's yellow eyes even in her human form, which was considered an ill-omen by her kin, and she was small by the standards of her people.  Thus, from nearly the time of her birth she was all but an outcast, forced to survive on scraps and leftovers.  When her trial of adulthood came, the elders rigged it against her, giving her the largest, canniest quarry of any to be hunted.  That when she returned in shame at failure, the sky was split by a violent thunderstorm was just more evidence to the tribe of her inauspicious status, and so she was exiled, to die out on plains alone with no pack to support her.

But her years as a scavenger had left Kashi wily and with a knack for surviving in even the worst circumstances, and rather than perish, she survived, drifting slowly southward towards the more civilized lands.  When finally she arrived in Winterbole forest, she was into her teen years; still a child, but with nearly her adult frame.  There, she found abundant prey and a cautious reception by the humans and elves of the Nentir Vale.  But she proved herself an asset to the forest, and, after learning a more appropriate blade-style from the elves, she became one of the forest's defenders, gaining her epithet from the savagery with which she fought rather than any actual knowledge of her nature, which she kept a careful secret.

When last great danger threatened the Vale, Kashi was among the heroes who drove it back, and as a result of her efforts she became the guardian of Winterhaven as well as the forest to its north, taking residence in a keep not far from its walls which she had rebuilt for the purpose after the goblins and cultists in the depths of the ruins had been dispatched and its ghosts laid to rest.  Her choice of the  site has gained her a certain amount of respect for her boldness, although most people think she's tempting fate by living in the infamous ruins.

Kashi's true nature is a secret from all but her most trusted friends and advisers; she knows full well what most people would think of a lycanthrope as their warden.  Only her personal attendants and her friends from old battles know the truth.

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