The daughter of Bailymena has a voice (among other things) like an angel, a heart of gold, divine miracles, and the quick fingers of a scoundrel. She's no slouch with a sword but relies largely on magic when she's not strengthening her allies.
Delilah is not a tall woman, though you wouldn't know it to look at her. She positively shines, light suffusing her brown skin and sapphire eyes. Loose black curls tumble down her back. She usually wears leather, putting her bombastic curves on display; she wears a dagger and a rapier on her left hip and a whip on her right. She favors black, jewel-deep blue and crimson, and when she's working, the browns and greys of city streets.
Delilah may be the only person left who remembers the last good cops in the city -- she'd have to, as one of them was her father. She grew up poor and humble, as the families of truly good-hearted public servants often do, but with the run of the streets of her mother Bailymena. Her mother's depth and deception and her father's kindness wove together into a woman of mysterious priorities, fierce protectiveness, and unplumbed depths of skill.
- Age
- 31... ish?
- Date of Birth
- Sometime close to Deadwinter, but not Deadwinter, because people aren't born then.
- Gender
- Female
- Eyes
- Blue
- Hair
- Black, loose curls
- Skin Tone/Pigmentation
- Brown
- Height
- 5' 2"
- Weight
- 185 lbs
Appearance
Physical Description
Delilah's bombastic curves hide grace and speed that may be surprising. She certainly doesn't appear that athletic...
Body Features
...but acrobatic she certainly is. Her fingers are almost as quick as her tongue, and she keeps her nails short. She usually dresses to emphasize an hourglass figure, with a nipped waist and attention on the bust and hips.
Facial Features
She looks a little bit familiar to almost everyone -- high cheekbones, deep blue eyes, lashes for days, full lips, a regal nose. When she's wearing noticeable makeup, it's usually winged eyeliner and burgundy lips.
Identifying Characteristics
Delilah is a chameleon. Though her appearance stays more or less static, she looks familiar enough that a change of clothes and posture makes her almost unrecognizable.
Physical quirks
Lilah is very surefooted -- in Bailymena, there are very few places she feels like her footsteps aren't welcome. When she fights, she looks like she's dancing.
Apparel & Accessories
Delilah is a mistress of disguise and has the right outfit for almost any situation -- but in the role closest to her real heart, Delilah of the Bramble, she wears flat knee-high boots, sturdy grey canvas trousers cut to hug her frame, a chemise hidden under black leather body armor that looks for all the world like a corset, and a long grey coat. She'll shed the coat when it's too warm, or add a heavy blanket shawl when it's particularly cold. There's a key at her neck. When her hair is up she usually has intricate dangling earrings spiraling up her ears, catching light to throw it on her face. She wears a heavy ring with a shattered gem on one thumb.
Mentality
Personal history
Delilah doesn't know her family of physical origin, and to be frank, at this point she prefers it that way. The first tales of her youth were of a basket on a doorstep, but to her mind, she has all the family she needs. She was raised by a father who doted on her and a mother of a city who told her secrets in her dreams -- and thanks to one of those parents, it will be very hard to make Delilah an orphan. Her only regret is that the world has tried, and half-succeeded. The single stint she's spent any real time away from Bailymena, a saint killed her father and came for her beloved tutor and godsfather Leandro as well. Her return home was rocky, but she was fortunate to have her mother and adopted sister Ursula Delours to bolster her spirits.
Education
Delilah learned her trades from a series of masters -- the most famous of these is actress of stage and holoscreen, Lucille de Mon. She attended Lucie's school of acting in Beruge after some time studying swordplay under Master Leandro Ferreiro. Upon her return to Bailymena, she apprenticed into the thieves' guild under Herminda Tharn, more commonly known as Mad Mindy.
Employment
Delilah is still a journeyman in good standing with the thieves' guild of Bailymena. The Ironfire Bramble is her acre, registered and taxes paid.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Delilah has pulled arguably the biggest con in the city -- she's convinced the entire thieves' guild that she's nothing more than an adequate journeyman and doesn't have the ability to back up her ambition. She's also managed to conceal her presence and ancestry from an empire that would like nothing more than to acquire and use her.
Failures & Embarrassments
While very little embarrasses Delilah, the litany of people she couldn't help or failed to save -- be it due to danger or to maintain the ruse of her relative incompetence -- keeps her up all hours.
Mental Trauma
Delilah's beloved, doting father was killed by the saint he spent his life and vows serving. Her mother is a city, which has its benefits but does strange things to the soul. And we probably shouldn't get into the nightmares of being possessed and subsumed...
Intellectual Characteristics
Delilah is blessed with a bucketload of good sense, but doesn't have a lot of formal schooling to call on. She is, at least, cognizant of her shortcomings in this field and willing to rely on those with sharper deductive skills and a stronger background in academic knowledge.
Morality & Philosophy
Delilah has a heart the size of the city. She's spent her life among underdogs in a predatory home and wants little more than to make their world safe and kind for them. She thinks there is enough in the world -- and the city! -- for everyone to live well, as long as no one lives extravagantly.
person.sexuality
Delilah is omnisexual, though she has only had one serious relationship with a cis man. (Please ignore any alleged current feelings in that count.)
person.gender_identity
Delilah is a cisgender woman.
Taboos
Delilah finds very little actually taboo. She's a bit of a libertine. However, she doesn't have a cruel bone in her body, so any cruelty she puts on is an act at best.
Known Languages
Delilah speaks Cathrican of the Skodian dialect, with a Bailymena accent when she's not modulating it away. Her Maravillan is also lovely.
She also understands the language of the gods... but who listens to dead gods anyway... right?
Personality
Motivation
Delilah wants to throw the yoke of the Imperatori and the chains of corruption off her home in Bailymena, and rebuild the Heartjewel of Hyperborea as a free city and a safe haven for the downtrodden. She has no great love for the Emperor and Empress of the Cathrican Empire, seeing them as predatory and unjust.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Delilah can read a room like no one's business, and after one quick conversation might know you better than you know yourself. She is generous almost to a fault.
She doesn't have a strong background in academic knowledge or formal education, outside of elocution and performance. She has learned too well to mistrust those who would withhold knowledge.
Likes & Dislikes
Outside of her broad sense of adventure, Delilah is a homebody. She likes a lazy morning in a warm bed. She enjoys being underestimated.
She dislikes cruelty, especially capricious cruelty; injustice; the letter rather than the spirit of the law.
Hygiene
Though she doesn't fear dirty work, Delilah finds cleanliness preferable and loves a good hot bath.
Social
Birthplace
Bailymena
Current Residence
The Ironfire Bramble, Bailymena
Contacts & Relations
There aren't many places in Bailymena -- outside the towers, maybe -- that Delilah can't find a familiar face ready to work with her. She's worked almost everywhere on one grift or another, and leaves a trail of friends. Fortunately she's got the memory to juggle all of them (and to remember which name they know her under). It's of particular delight to her that she has contacts in every branch of the thieves' guild who think Delilah is just a little smarter than everyone gives her credit for -- and also think that's their little secret to use as they will.
Honorary & Occupational Titles
- Queen of Blades
- Rose of the Bramble
- Our Lilah
- Dee
Wealth & Financial state
For a skilled grifter and thief, Delilah really ought to have more gathered wealth than she does -- but her little secret is that she pours money back into the Ironfire Bramble. There's a free hospital in her home acre. No one starves there. The corpse collectors don't bother with the twisted alleys, even after the coldest nights. Anyone who hangs around for a few weeks can find a job and a roof, if they're of a Brambly sort. And the Bramble has the lowest rents in the city -- they're wholly voluntary, in fact. Delilah lets the citizens know what she pays the guild, and every extra cent makes the life of the citizens of the Bramble better.
And all that and a few coins will buy you a rat on a stick.
Social
Birthplace
Bailymena
Current Residence
The Ironfire Bramble, Bailymena
Contacts & Relations
There aren't many places in Bailymena -- outside the towers, maybe -- that Delilah can't find a familiar face ready to work with her. She's worked almost everywhere on one grift or another, and leaves a trail of friends. Fortunately she's got the memory to juggle all of them (and to remember which name they know her under). It's of particular delight to her that she has contacts in every branch of the thieves' guild who think Delilah is just a little smarter than everyone gives her credit for -- and also think that's their little secret to use as they will.
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Wealth & Financial state
For a skilled grifter and thief, Delilah really ought to have more gathered wealth than she does -- but her little secret is that she pours money back into the Ironfire Bramble. There's a free hospital in her home acre. No one starves there. The corpse collectors don't bother with the twisted alleys, even after the coldest nights. Anyone who hangs around for a few weeks can find a job and a roof, if they're of a Brambly sort. And the Bramble has the lowest rents in the city -- they're wholly voluntary, in fact. Delilah lets the citizens know what she pays the guild, and every extra cent makes the life of the citizens of the Bramble better.
And all that and a few coins will buy you a rat on a stick.