Kharza

Name
Kharza gra-Rogash

Race
Orsimer

Gender
Female

Titles
Apostate; ‘the Craven’

Stories
The Walking Dead

Approximate Age; Birthsign
Young adult; the Atronach

’At first glimpse…’
A wretched, ugly woman with protruding tusks and hair the exact color and texture of dying straw, she cuts an unimpressive sight. Even the way she holds herself – her stubborn refusal to make eye contact, the visible lack of self-esteem – Kharza is unappealing and easy to ignore.

Appearance and Physique

Features
Muddy orange eyes peer out beneath a strong browline; her nose juts out like a poorly mended arrow, having been broken more than once, and ends in an unfortunate point, nostrils pulled higher than beauty would allow. Her lips are thin and wide, and a set of hooked tusks curl up, perpetually parting them in a way that suggests she’s not quite paying attention. Her cheeks are hollow, in an underfed sort of way, yet loose skin pools at her jaws to form jowls- as though she’d lost a lot of weight rather too quickly.

Kharza’s hair is kept long and feminine, though it is the texture and color of anemic straw that hasn’t seen enough sunlight to grow properly. She keeps it in a long braid that sways halfway down her back.

Wardrobe
Kharza wears cloth.

Though the pride of her people might dictate the traditional orcish armaments, Kharza seems to spurn that ideal, opting instead for a beggar’s garments spun of wool and cotton. Though worn and patched and faded, her robes are well maintained and cleaner than one would expect a wanderer’s to be.

In addition to robes, Kharza is weighed down by a number of belts and bags full of bits and bobs and oddments; most of it seems to be junk.

Build
Small for an orc, and rather less muscled than she ought to be, Kharza is soft and pliable of body, if a bit underfed. She’s thick-waisted, with skin the color of mud and an assortment of scars obtained Gods only know how.

Character Traits

Personality
A quiet, soft-spoken sort, Kharza is the opposite of what an Orc should be; a pacifist at heart, she would much rather fix a thing than destroy it, and is unflinchingly compassionate toward others.

Her kindness is often to her own detriment, and largely in spite of the various prejudices and cruelties displayed to her by those she is kind to. She has long practiced the art of turning the other cheek. There is something to be said for her resilience of spirit – she doesn’t seem to hold anything against anyone, though on rare occasion, some might observe a spark of bitterness.

In general, she is mild and seems to hold herself in poor regard, without any pride or spine. She’s hopelessly passive, and seems willing to accept things as they are, without making any effort to change them.

Combat Style
Pacifist; she carries a staff, but only to help her navigate more treacherous landscapes.

Talents and Strengths
Genuinely Nice – Kharza possesses a rare, unselfish kindness that is a breath of fresh air in a world brutalized by wartime attitudes. She will go out of her way to help people, without asking anything in return.

Adept Healer – In spite of all the things she cannot do, Kharza has picked up the talent of healing with both magic and herb, and uses this ability as often as she can, relying on methods taught to her by one of her father’s more superstitious wives.

Resilient – Hey, for all the lumps she’s taken because of her refusal to fight and to be a Proper orc, Kharza gra-Rogash has somehow managed to always find her way back to her feet, against all the odds.

Weaknesses and Detriments
No Self Preservation Instinct – She takes her kindness to an extreme, and will give up the very clothes from her back if she thinks it’s the Right Thing To Do; though some might consider this an admirable trait, it’s clearly a disadvantage when it comes to the practical matter of day-to-day life.

Spineless – She refuses to stand up for herself, and refuses to fight. It can be said she is a coward, and will sooner flee from a fight than participate in it.

Homeless – Kharza has very few resources at her disposal due to her spinelessness and lack of self preservation instinct; she’s a hobo and she lives in the streets. This keeps her from obtaining any of the greater things in life, and prevents her from helping people as much as she’d like.

Background

Factions and Loyalties; Politics and Prejudice
Kharza’s affiliation with the Daggerfall Covenant is loose, and mostly has to do with proximity and acceptance; she’s not so important a person as that it would actually matter what she believes, but her desires in life have little to do with politics or factions.

There has, in the past, been opportunity for her to join the priestesses of Mara – the Aedra of compassion might have been a good place for a pariah of the pariah-folk. But Kharza declined this opportunity, and continued on her with her travels.

It can be noted she is not terribly interested in religion. It might also be noticed that she is reluctant around other Orsimer, and will even forgo her typical selfless kindness when it comes to others of her kind. This is extremely out of character, but seldom comes up, seeing as she goes out of her way to avoid orcs.

History
Kharza is a stronghold runaway, a daughter of one of her father’s lesser wives. Raised in the rigidity of Orsimer culture, under the protection of an aging Chieftan, she is a poor example of what it means to be Orc; weak, smaller than her siblings, and tender-hearted, the girl was an outcast among her already outcasted people, and of little use to her family. She was the frequent target of increasingly cruel bullying from her siblings, who sought to toughen her up and help her become closer to the Orcish ideal- or, failing that, to dispose of her.

Still, she did her best to find a way to become useful, and studied at the knee of one of her father’s more elderly wives, learning all she could about herblore and healing. She had frequent practice on herself up until the strongest of her half brothers finally rose up to cut down their father and take his place as chieftan. He looked to his father’s daughters to trade them away for new wives of his own, and it was then that Kharza’s sense of duty fell short. She slipped away to the city, looking for a better way of life than the one she had known.

Out of Character

Roleplay Themes/Styles
Depending on how much playtime this character does or doesn’t get, I’ve a potential story arc for her that will completely turn her on her ear… but she is an alt, and as such, her use will be minor.

I intend to keep her around to facilitate random roleplay, and to have a healing adept character on Daggerfall Covenant. She is meant to explore themes of bullying and belittlement, and is an exercise in creating a character who just might be annoying enough to foster even ‘good’ characters to treat her the way she’s traditionally been treated.

I may use her in other contexts as well – she’s likely to become my plot punching bag. We’ll just see how it goes.