Kestrel Nankeen
The Basics
Aliases: Kes, Feathers
Gender: Female- cisgender, she/her
Ancestry: Bird-Kin
Age: 21
Profession: Adventurer, Camp Counselor at GLoG
Sexuality: Bisexual, but with a strong romantic preference towards women.
Height: 5’2” (157cm)
Description
Kestrel is a girl with a short, slender frame, her unassuming build hiding a surprising bit of strength built up from her years of labour and archery. She has tanned skin, and golden eyes that peer out from under her very messy shoulder-length brown hair. Most striking are the reddish-brown feathers that grow from her skin, tipped on the very end in black. These emerge from the back of her ears, very small feathers that grow to a point not unlike elf ears. Larger feathers grow from the underside of her forearms, and yet larger tailfeathers emerge from her lower back. These feathers sometimes flatten or puff out depending on her mood.
Kestrel’s outfit isn’t too complicated, as she prefers the practical and comfortable over the stylish. She wears grey shorts, a brown t-shirt, and comfortable brown boots. Over the top of her shirt is an old, thin, leaf-green jacket, with seams that seem barely stitched together. She wears a pair of fingerless gloves, once again brown. Her two concessions to fashion are a yellow bandana hanging low, and a small leather choker with a golden arrow charm decorating her neck.
Personality
Curious, adventurous, and ever-cheerful, Kestrel is a girl who’s always eager to go out into the world and try new things. While the realities of the world don’t often match her storybook heroic dreams, she’s excitable and optimistic enough that such things rarely weigh her down. She’s quite impatient easily distractible though, often getting lost in thoughts and daydreams should something fail to hold her interest.
Not having many when she grew up, Kestrel is always on the lookout for new friends. Thus, she always tries to be friendly when meeting people, and is more than willing to offer a helping hand at a moment's notice to those she does befriend. She’s naive and pretty inexperienced, and so prone to quickly trusting most people she meets. This also makes her quite susceptible to peer pressure, her desire to look cool and impress those around her overriding the more rational part of her brain.
Kestrel acts quite reckless and overconfident, and while some of this is a genuine over-estimation of her own skills, a lot of it is a facade. Her youth and inexperience shows, and she’s developed more than a few little insecurities in her need to be taken seriously. Cracks in this facade will reveal she’s a lot more shy, nervous and uncertain when it comes to some things than she tries to let on.
History
Kestrel grew up in a relatively small, unremarkable village, and spent most of her life as a farmgirl there. While she loved her parents, she always longed to leave for adventure, and was known for exploring the woods and getting into trouble. Her uncle tried to teach her the skills of a ranger, and while she struggled to pick up skills such as magic and navigation, she learned enough and quickly became attached to learning archery. When she turned 18, she left home to take up adventuring, and managed to eventually after a few years find herself thrown into the Nexus. She still has desires to keep adventuring and one day become a hero, but is less purely dedicated to it as she was before.
Further Information
Equipment
Family Shortbow: Really, the only significant piece of equipment Kestrel carries with her, as she’s quite broke. Even then, the bow is only special for sentimental value, previously belonging to her uncle thus making it one of the few reminders of home she has with her in the Nexus. For all intents and purposes, just a well-made wooden shortbow.
Hunting Knife and Pan: Her backup weapons should enemies ever get too close. Both are what they say on the tin, and used as weapons only as emergencies. Her hunting knife is a very simple blade mostly meant for skinning animals, and her pan obviously meant for cooking. On more than one occasion though, she’s had to rely on one or the other, and they are surprisingly trusty last-lines of defence.
Abilities
Archer: Kestrel is no keen sharpshooter, but she’s good enough with a bow to at least usually hold her own while adventuring. Kind of. She prefers a mobile, skirmishing style, and while that keeps her out of harm's way it doesn’t exactly help her aim. Still, it’s good enough to be a valuable skill in her arsenal.
Basic Ranger Training: While much of it did not stick, Kestrel at least understands the basics of herbalism, hunting and cooking, stealthy movement, and animal communication/care. She’s even managed to pick up a way to “speak” very simply with wolves!
Birdkin Body: Her ancestry provides Kestrel a few little useful quirks. She’s surprisingly light, which makes her hobby of climbing easier and safer. Her eyesight is sharper than that of a regular human. In addition, she bounces back from wounds and injuries a little quicker than most.
Were-Harpy: After the magic from a failed wish and an accidental bite from a werewolf mixed with her bird-like ancestry, Kestrel unwittingly found herself becoming a wereharpy. Her appearance in were-harpy form includes increased feather growth, slight changes in colour as some of her feathers take on a pinkish hue, while her legs become that of a bird and her arms transform into wings without proper hands. She has no real control over the transformation, and has yet to figure out the trigger. While the lack of hands makes everyday life difficult in this form, it does at least grant her the ability to fly. Kestrel is mostly herself while transformed, but notably is a touch more instinctual, and much more physically expressive.
Mild Misfortune: While not really an ability per-se, Kestrel is notoriously unlucky. Yet, paradoxically, she’s similarly blessed with a strange luck. While things always go wrong and she always finds herself in trouble, she rarely ever seems to find herself in so much danger that she can’t escape with more than a few scrapes and a bruised ego.
Misc Info
Kestrel is not alone in her travels, for while she does not take him on dangerous adventures she’s almost always otherwise accompanied by a young wolf cub named Silver. He had gotten loose from some goblin pens after his mother died, and injured himself. Kestrel rescued the poor cub, and he bonded to her in the absence of his mother. She negotiated being able to adopt and look after him from the goblins after helping them out, and now the two are basically inseparable. One day she hopes Silver will grow to be a wolf companion able to fight by her side, but for now she’s happy to spoil the curious and mischievous cub.
Kestrel has picked up a MERC Licence to help herself find adventuring jobs, but while she’s not adventuring she instead works at GLoG, happy to help out in any way she can.