"There's courage In being terrified, but still going forward."
BASICS
NAME: Full name Karlachus, usually goes by Karlach
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Pansexual
BIRTHDATE: Summer 2751
AGE: 24 as of 2775
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wherhandler
WING: Weyr Guard
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Brown, shoulder-length, often worn in a braid
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 6'5, burly and muscular
PLAY-BY: Samantha Béart
EXPY SOURCE: Karlach (Baldur's Gate 3)
FULL APPEARANCE:
Karlach is a towering, heavily muscled woman, who is every bit as strong as she looks. She can throw a punch with best of them and is athletic (if a bit lumbering) even by the standards of wherhandlers. She has brown hair that she keeps cut slightly above her shoulders and often styles in a braid. Her features are sweet and gentle. She has a perpetual smattering of freckles across her nose. Karlach's favors casual, comfortable clothes and has no problem dressing on the skimpier side.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: Karlach is someone who tries to look on the bright side of life, most of the time. No matter how grim things may look, the sun is shining, she is free, Ussk is her wher and she loves her job protecting Semaca weyr. She's cheerful, kind and easily excited by the little things of life. Karlach deeply yearns for a place where she can belong and truly call home and hopes that Semaca can become that place. Karlach has a good heart and wants to do the right thing and help people. She's an expressive person who doesn't keep her feelings to herself. She builds strong bonds and is physically affectionate with her friends and lovers- with a fondness for a good hug. That said, she holds her principles first and she won't stay loyal to anyone who goes against her strong convictions on what she thinks is right.
Karlach has an extremely foul mouth and swears freely and liberally. She has a fearsome temper when roused and has destroyed her share of furniture and breakable objects. Karlach considers herself a soldier, first and foremost, and isn't easily put off by violence. She doesn't use her strength indiscriminately, and will try her best to talk through problems before throwing a punch, but has no problem throwing the first punch, when the situation warrants.
Karlach is a fundamentally straightforward person, who expects the same from everyone else. She isn't much of one for subtlety and the nuances of situations tend to elude her. She isn't the cleverest of handlers and can make some pretty poor, impulsive decisions. She can be black and white in her thinking and doesn't always think ahead to if there's a better way to resolve her problems or how she'll feel if she succeeds.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother: Avernus
Father: Aelach
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Minor hold beholden to High Reaches
HISTORY: Karlach was born in a small hold of no particular distinction, on the outskirts of High Reaches. Her parents, like most of their neighbors, were simple farmers. She led a happy, ordinary childhood, attending Harper lessons, helping with chores and playing with the other children of her hold. One of her closest friends was a boy named Wyll, son of their hold's steward and harper. They spent many a happy day adventuring together around their hold and the surrounding woodlands.
When Karlach was 17, one of their guards' whers laid a clutch. Both Wyll and Karlach presented themselves to the mother wher, seeking to become wherhandlers and guards, but only Wyll was chosen that day. Karlach was a bit disappointed, but decided there was nothing stopping her from becoming a guard anyway. She was still big and strong and she still wanted to protect her hold, her people and her lord. When Wyll finished his wherhandler training and his wher was grown, he too signed up to be a guard and all was well with the world. Sure, Wyll's wher was a bit of a dick, but she was Wyll's dick and so long as she made Wyll happy, she was alright by Karlach.
In 2770, the hold's elderly Lord Holder passed away and his son rose to power as the new lord. There were some whispers that the new Lord had murdered his own father, but Karlach mostly ignored them. She saw no great mystery or conspiracy in an old man dying in bed, at the end of a long life. His son was her lord now and she'd protect him, the same as she had his father, as was her duty. Wyll gave the rumors more credence than Karlach did and did not find the new Lord fit to rule. The friends found themselves deeply at odds, as Karlach remained loyal and Wyll watched their new leader with suspicion. Not long after, Wyll left the hold. Their friendship seemed ruined beyond repair.
Karlach missed Wyll deeply. She had few other friends among the guards and her family were far removed from the world of lord holders and their mechanizations. Feeling lonely and yearning for someone to confide in, Karlach purchased a wher egg from a passing trader caravan. The wher struggled a bit to hatch, but Karlach was able to pry the egg open, freeing a small garnet wher who named themself Ussk. They weren't exactly what Karlach had expected in a wher, but just like Wysk was Wyll's, Ussk was Karlach's and the two became fast friends, in their own way.
While Karlach never believed their Lord had murdered his father, she slowly realized that he was corrupt and incompetent, as he hoarded food during the famine while the rest of their people went hungry and turned away refugees whose fields were even more barren than theirs. Disillusioned with the regime, and unwilling to fight for someone who went against all her principles, Karlach resigned her post and returned home. When the spring came, High Reaches weyr delivered a cure for the famine, from a strange land, beyond the sea, called Semaca.
Karlach spent the next turn with her family, working the fields and tending their home. But she was a wherhandler and a trained fighter and wanted to do more. As the summer of 2775 drew to an end, Karlach decided to go to Semaca, the land that had been their salvation, and see if she could be of any use.
