Ashild Skyltbraenawyn

Ashild Skyltbraenawyn (née Kesteyha Skyltbraenawyn) was born in the deserts of Southern Thanalan and raised partly in Little Ala Mhigo. When she matured enough to venture out on her own, she took up the name Ashild for her late adopted aunt, Ashildr, and kept her surname Skyltbraenawyn for her surviving mother, Shield Breaker (née Skyltbraena).

The bulk of her adolescence and adulthood was spent practicing a migrant lifestyle, but now and then she stays in a place longer than her usual. The latest winds brought her to Vermillion Outriders.

Shield Breaker
Shield Breaker was pregnant while on a job to escort a passenger caravan south to Forgotten Springs. Being in the third trimester, Shield Breaker decided to wait out the remaining weeks to give birth to her daughter Kesteyha before heading back north. Along the way, however, postpartum complications forced Shield Breaker to seek rest and recovery in Little Ala Mhigo, where an elderly hyur couple, Hugel and Ashildr, offered to take them in. They became something like Kesteyha's adopted grandparents.

Kesteyha
The first several years of Kesteyha's childhood were spent in Little Ala Mhigo, where the mother and daughter pair helped Hugel and Ashildr make a living and took part in the refugee community. Eventually, Shield Breaker and Kesteyha packed up to rejoin Vulcan Rocs, Shield Breaker's old mercenary company. From its members Kesteyha picked up various skills and adapted to a nomadic lifestyle.

Teenage restlessness and wanderlust began to set in, but word of Ashildr's death helped drive Kesteyha's decision to part ways with the Vulcan Rocs to find her own path. She started with a name change.

Ashild
(WIP)
 * First "stable" job was in the kitchens of the Quicksand, washing dishes, maintenance, and general labor. Pretty dead end.
 * Liked to watch the pugilist fights and got into them herself, to work out frustration over her path not going anywhere.
 * One of the pugilist trainers helped focus her discipline and teach her some emotional intelligence.
 * Ash manages to get into cooking duties.
 * She saves up enough to move to Limsa Lominsa, but it takes her a few tries to get into the culinary guild academy.
 * Once she graduates she's able to get work at a more prestigious restaurant, but after a few years she burns out from stagnation and constant stress.
 * Ash starts traveling the continent to learn about cultures and cooking techniques from different parts of the world. Sometimes she would find hospitality in family or tribal units, in which case she would help them make their living.

Vermillion Outriders
Ashild now lends her blade to the Vermillion Outriders, whether out in the field or in the kitchen with Nonori Nori.

Personality
Regardless of what path she walks, Ashild is inclined to live passionately and true to herself.

Likes

 * Food.
 * Training, combat.
 * Animals.
 * Fashion.
 * Blues and purples.

Dislikes

 * Aetheryte teleportation; it makes her dizzy.
 * Betrayal.
 * That one guy.
 * Mockery of her dyslexic condition.

Fears

 * Powerlessness.

Trivia

 * There was a period of time Ashild had an elezen nemesis named Kellmont who often outranked her by a hair in nearly every fishing competition she had joined then. She does not like this person.
 * She obtained her first deck of arcana from a desperate astrologian with a gambling problem.
 * Every now and then Ashild collects and mails a small trinket from her travels to Hugel.
 * Despite knowing her letters and words, Ashild often has some difficulty reading. She also has very bad handwriting and sometimes mixes up letters.
 * Ashild dyes her hair a different color every year. Or on a whim.
 * Ashild picked up her love of food from her late aunt Ashildr and warrior techniques from her mother Shield Breaker.
 * Shield Breaker is the fourth of seven siblings-- four sons and three daughters born to a thaumaturge and a warrior.
 * The firstborn is the eldest sister, who took up the warrior path.
 * The two second eldest are twin brothers, who both specialize in thaumaturgy.
 * Shield Breaker is the first of her siblings to leave home.