So, I admit. This one goes a lot deeper on the card side of things and is a little bit leaner on the actual backstory. Still, it’s juicy! Lots of gossiping! I’ll leave you all to enjoy the read.
Name: Haloisi Grenmar (26 yo)
TAROTS
Mind: Ace of cups (reversed)
I was pretty shocked when I got this card, I gotta be honest. For some reason while I was shuffling the deck I pictured Haloisi as a very bright and friendly person. And this card points out more of a closure towards meeting new people. But at the same time I understood why she would be like that. I mean I knew she had to have been raised as a proper member of high society since she’s nobility of some kind. It doesn’t come as a shock then for her to be well versed in faking being polite even towards those who are mean to her. And while the card might also suggest she’s repressing the hurt that those mean comments inflict her, I’m pretty sure at the end of the day she just has this deep desire of getting out of that very fake environment. (TL;DR: not an “I don’t wanna make friends” situation but more of an “I’m tired of fake friends” kinda vibe.)
Body: Eight of pentacles (reversed)
This one more in line with what I had in mind for her personality. That Haloisi was gonna be all over the place and lacking both in focus and confidence at this point was pretty much obvious to me. She lived all her life to the motto “fake it till you make it”, but she never really had a clue of what that “make it” was referred to. At the end of the day, we have this pretty materialistic girl, very insecure about what she’s capable of doing and how she looks like, but still plays the diva. She literally pretends to be the kind of girl that has the confidence to act like she owns the world, while questioning every single thing she says or does. The only things she’s sure of? Her family and her faith.
Spirit: Page of swords (upright)
And there you go, just to close the circle. At heart Haloisi is a very protective person: she deeply hates injustice, but she also tries to avoid unnecessary arguments. She actually enjoys harmless gossip and she can for sure chat up someone like she used to do around the people that hurt her. But she tries never to be mean herself. Because she knows that words can do just as much damage as a good sword, and if she can avoid it she does just that. And sometimes people can perceive her as an insensitive spoiled brat when she’s a bit direct, but she much prefers to tell it how it is than to lie (because sometimes the truth hurts too, but she knows people around her are lying and it’s frustrating that she has to deal with people’s gossip and the people that love her can’t be honest). She also kinda hate that people treat her like a bimbo.
Past: Ten of pentacles (upright)
I had a huge laugh at this draw. Not only is it a card that talks about old money in the family (which, you don’t say, she’s nobility, DUH!), but it also suggests to look back at your family tree so that you can discover a long lost family member, or something of the like. And Haloisi being a tiefling is pretty much it, since she has infernal heritage and I had yet to determine if there was any other member of the family that shared that with her or not (spoiler there was not, so… where did it came from?). It speaks of domestic harmony too, so I knew she would at least grow in a loving family, which was a relief.
Present: Two of swords (upright)
Well, this one is pretty much related to what I was talking about before and pretty much cleared off my doubts related to her father since it’s a card about being torn about something. And family is the most important thing for her, it just made sense that it was probably the affection towards the father the grew her and the desire to leave behind the long years of denial of the existence of a father with which she share flesh and blood. And she’s the also struggling with the idea of leaving the safety of her home to try and find out what happened to said biological father, despite considering the man that raised her the only father worth mentioning. A very big struggle there for this poor insecure girl that has her family and her god as the true pillars she lives for.
Future: Seven of pentacles (reversed)
I usually leave the “future” card for a general suggestion on how to play more or less what I wrote in the mess that were the five card before this one in actual gameplay. Like somewhat of a closure kind of thing. Yet, this card that has as one of the core meaning a change of plans, made me opt for another alternative too. I decided it was too good of a card not to build a bit more on her backstory with those hints of having setbacks on the more work related side of things. It usually points towards finding out that you managed things in a bad way in the past. And I had to pick just one card for her father, just to be sure that my gut feeling was guiding me in the right direction, to that that I hit the jackpot. Cause for Haloisi’s dad the deck gave me the Five of pentacles (upright), another card related to business failure, one that does a possible way out, with a little help from the right person. That’s it, anything else I’m gonna go more into detail on her actual backstory. As far as how to play Haloisi, I think I gave enough of an explanation of how I think her personality is with her mind and spirit card, anyway…
FULL BACKSTORY
A surprise from the moment she was born, Haloisi is the daughter of Baron Ferdumin Grenmar and his wife Baroness Riren Thulai Grenmar. While the local nobility immediately considered scandalous Haloisi’s birth because of her infernal heritage, her family didn’t seem to really care about what other people thought of it all.
Haloisi was loved as much as her older brother Moru, and the twins Thioh and Lieh, just a couple of years younger than her (yet, none of infernal heritage). They all received an education worthy of nobility, but were always loved and cared for by their parents. They never felt neglected despite the many business related trips Ferdumin had to make and that Riren usually accompanied to.
Despite the happy familial life, Haloisi was surrounded by the malicious gossips of the local nobility. She was aware that people thought she wasn’t related to Ferdumin and her siblings, and said that she was instead the child of an affair between the Baroness some wandering bard that apparently had charmed Riren at a party when Ferdumin had been gone for month for one of his trips.
Haloisi had quickly learned how to ignore the whispers and found ways to deflect people’s attention from those kinds of gossips with her own mostly innocuous hearsays, directed towards the people that tried to hurt her.
One thing she always found refuge in were her studies on magic and her prayers. For a while her father tried to convince her to enroll in a school to become a practitioner, but she never really found that idea attractive.
She was happy that she never enrolled into that school when a business competitor falsely blamed Ferdumin for fraud. The Baron ended up being framed for the crime and her father spent a couple of years in prison, despite the family attempts to prove his innocence and clean up their reputation so that they wouldn’t go bankrupt. They failed to prove Ferdumin’s innocence before the end of his sentence, and even once he got released from jail the family name was still disgraced and the family business was failing.
Since her sibling were the ones that were taking care of the business, Haloisi turned more and more to her prayers. With the guidance of her deity and the abilities she received from them, she decided to try to restore her family names and wealth in a different way, finally leaving the nest for the first time. (And maybe, on her journey, she would even finally have the chance to meet that long lost father that she’s been so long in denial of wanting to actually get the chance to know.)
SUGGESTION CORNER
Suggested features
Ability scores: High Wisdom and Charisma (pretty decent Intelligence), Low Strength (I do suggest dumping Dexterity too, if you are comfortable with that; just to really embrace the “noble girl that lived a very sheltered life” stereotype. Cause why not!).
Skill proficiencies: Insight and Religion
Gaming set proficiencies: Chess
Other: I obviously did not pick a specific god cause that really depends on the setting. But just to give a general idea with Forgotten Realms: more of a Mystra vibe than Azuth.
Suggested Characteristics
Trait: I take great pains to always look my best and follow the latest fashion.
Ideal: It is my duty to protect and care for the people beneath me.
Bond: Nothing is more important than the other members of my family.
Flaw: I often reference how my mother would feel about a topic in a conversation.
