so willow clearly seems to take on some sorta martial role in a historical setting, what kinda circumstances led to that?
so in willow and elizabeth's world, the land is ravaged by beasts they call "angels" but really they look more like demon bats. theyre controlled by The Queen, who is a goddess banished from the heavens. in her revenge on the gods who had banished her from her home, she created the angels to feed off of the blood of living things. the angels also capture humans to bring to the queen herself so she can feed off of their essence.
so, this happened in elizabeth's great grandfather's time. so for years the kingdom was fighting the angels, their hand and livestock being ruined and killed off by the angels. the people themselves being killed off by the angels and the queen. the kingdom is left in ruin and villages and cities are few and far between. the most populated place in the entire kingdom is the capitol, where the king himself resides.
so now that that context is out of the way, willow grew up in a very poor village. her father was recruited to the military when she was a baby, leaving her mother to take raise her on her own. willow was very close to her mother, and they lived alone together on a little farm.
however one day when willow was 12 she was separated from her mother and taken to the capitol. she was always a big and stocky girl, she had big arms and legs that were very strong. she was a farm girl of course. but anyway, she ends up being recruited into the kings army at 13 and actually ranks her way up from a simple soldier sent on suicide missions to the Captain of the Guard at 21, which is her rank in the story.