Heresy Smith has an unfortunate name. This is because she is the illegitimate daughter of Clarissa Smith, a priestess of Morvana in Grantabrugge, who broke her vow of chastity for True Love. True love turned out not to be quite up to the challenge of coping with a depressed, suicidal, pregnant, spirit-wracked ex-priest, however, and Heresy's father departed before she was even born. Born in Mercia, as a child she was moved around a lot as her mother moved from town to town, working as a tutor. Heresy was a bright child, but loud-mouthed and fearless, and as a result was always in a fight, and her mother frequently despaired of her ever doing anything useful with her life.
At the age of nineteen, she left her mother to join the army, where she stayed until she was badly injured, nearly losing her thumb and her right leg. Discharged, well-educated and at a loss for what to do, Heresy spent the next seven years working as a governess for rich spoilt children, and hated it intensely until she was suddenly and publicly spiritually awakened at the age of thirty. She has only been transferred to Grantabrugge in the last couple of years, having been told that there was *plenty* of trouble for someone like her there...
Heresy is in her late forties - and apart from a few scars and greying hair, looks younger than she really is. Surprisingly prudish. Spinster. Has a cat. Is rude to people on a frequent basis. Enjoys riding roughshod over Procedures and Regulations more than she ought to. Appears to get a kick out of sailing dangerously close to Spirit Wrack Shore. Has a very mixed relationship with her god, mostly involving crippling guilt, resentment, and an awful lot of self-inflicted scars. Prefers mallets to gavels. May be causing her high priest some premature grey hairs. Of late, drunk more than sober. 1294 was an eventful year, involving seriously pissing off the local nobility by executing Hanforth Mason for the mass sacrifice of peasants, by cutting her to pieces in the Wessex Arms. Not long after being suspended for this impolitic failure to observe due procedure, she killed Lady Desderata, the then Lady Protector, in the middle of the St John's Ball. Heresy was tried for murder, and sentenced to a flogging, and banned from ever presiding over a formal trial again, her response to which was less "chastened" than "demob happy". The next few weeks saw her discover things she had not previously known about Desderata, and spiral rapidly into an advanced state of religious guilt, which ended in Evelyn forcibly Cleansing her of self-induced septicaemia.
Having had her head forcibly cleared, and having struggled a little with a couple of things called "perspective" and "rationality", Heresy has regained some of her mental balance, and has wandered off up north. Any suggestion that she's attached to Evelyn Brightworthy and is going to make his life more "interesting" will be greeted with a scowl.
Current theme tune: "Brave Companion of the Road" by Nanci Griffith. The rest of the time, much of Flogging Molly.
It seems to me that you are lonelier than I've ever seen you be / It's plain to see that you've gone crazier than you ever thought you'd be...
Heresy's final stats:
SA: Justice 20 20 Devotion I 10 30 S blessing I 10 40 Spiritspeech 1 41 Branding 1 42 HALT (SS1) 1 43 S Power I 15 58
Level 2 Devotion II 10 68
Question Spirit 2 70 Separation 2 72 Humble (SS2) 2 74 S Blessing II 10 84 S Power II 15 99 First Aid I 8 107 Purity I 1 108 Purity II 2 110
Level 3 Devotion III 10 120
BS: Army 1 121 Knowledge 3 3 124 Protection 3 127 Stasis (SS3) 3 130 S Blessing III 10 140 S/R Teutonian 2 142 Purity III 3 145 Health I 6 151 Health II 6 157 Health III 6 163 FA II 8 171
Level 4 Devotion IV 10 181
Knowledge IV 4 185 Health IV 6 191 Warrior I 15 206 Melee I 6 212 SS IV Freeze 10 4 216 Brawling 2 218 Cursing IV 4 222 Purity IV 4 226 Thrown Comp 5 231 BS: Horses 1 232 BS: Librarian 1 233 BS: Governess 1 234 BS: Arson 1 235 BS: Exceptionally heavy sleeper 1 236 BS: Alcohol tolerance 1 237 BS: Spinning 1 238
Level 5 BS: City law 1 239
S/R Tengwar 2 241 Devotion V 10 251 Compel Truth 5 256 Mass Strikedown 30 5 261 S Blessing IV 10 271 Devotion 6 20 291
6/3 hits, 20 spirit, singles by sword, Devotion 6.