Omella The Shadowrender

Omella is a gnome who grew up in the mostly-gnomish village of Tillwell in the north of Senna. She was reserved, intelligent, but had little interest in investing herself in any particular skill, and harboured no grand ambitions. Nor was she interested in marriage. The great love of her life was platonic in nature, and reserved for her friend, Ixora Greendell who she met in the village school at the age of five, and they were immediately attached at the hip. They worked on the village common together, and spent their free time taking long walks in the beautiful surrounding countryside, or sometimes riding their beloved horses. Their lives weren't always easy, but they were together and that made them content.
Then at the age of sixty-three, one winter, Ixora fell ill with a fever. At first it seemed like no big deal, but after a few days, she became seriously ill. The village was poor, and had no cleric, and the nearest one was several days ride away. Once it became clear that this illness was beyond the skill of their local herbsfolk, Omella sent a messenger for them anyway, desperate to save her friend, but it was no good. Ixora died less than a day later. The cleric who eventually arrived said that any attempt at ressuerection (it would have required Raise Dead) at this point, were both beyond his skill, and would cost more in resources than the entire village and those surrounding it were worth. More than any inhabitant there could hope to make in a lifetime. They counselled acceptance.
Omella attended the funeral, but found no comfort in the traditional rites. She wanted her friend back, not platitudes and ritual. For weeks afterwards, she was in a deep depression, refusing to work the commons, or leave the home she had shared with Ixora. Her family and friends bought her food and tried to offer comfort and solace, but Omella would accept neither.
Finally, after two months, Omella saddled her horse, and left her home and Tillwell. She spent the next three years combing through the cities of Senna, looking for a cleric who could (and would) ressuerrect Ixora. But after so long, the cost of the ritual was so expensive that she learned it was accessible to none but the most wealthy, and the kind of clerics able to perform it would not even admit a country-born gnome of no wealth or circumstance into their presence to make her case.
At last, Omella decided that if those with the power would not help her due to her lack of wealth and influence, she would have to gain both. She tried for a while to earn coin honestly, but quickly found that such work as was available to her would never earn her enough to pay for a ritual.
One particularly disasterous night, as Omella walked back to the run-down townhouse she shared with many others in the city of Galvon, contemplating her situation, she was robbed of the little gold she'd gathered by two humans and a half elf. They held her at knifepoint and demanded her coin, which, terrified, she handed over.
As awful as this experience was however, it suggested a way forward to Omella. And she determined that if she could not through honest means gain the coin she needed, she would get it in other ways. Her cause was just, and it was not her fault that the world is corrupt and favoured those who preferred to take rather than earn. She began to get to know those she lived with, and eventually, through discussion, was introduced to several minor thieves' guild members, who offered her the chance to take part in some of their robberies of local businessfolk.
For the next five years, she learned the art of thievery and stealth, and dedicated herself to these new arts as she'd never dedicated herself to learning anything before. Eventually a lucky find during a heist on a privately owned museum brought her to the attention of Madame Aletris, the then-mistress of the guild. She managed to impress Aletris with her committment and obseiance (though Omella never revealed her true goal to anyone), and Aletris took her on as something of a protege.
This lasted eight months, before Omella, a now-master of stealth, stabbed her mistress in the heart one night as she slept.
Omella had not been idle during her years in the guild. She had built a substantial following of admirers due to her ruthless dedication to each job, and a tendency to do her best to make sure everyone survived each mission. And she did not kill Aletris until she was sure that she had amassed sufficient point to take over the guild.
Omella now sits as the head of the guild, and each year she insists on taking a little more of a cut from her members' exploits, increasingly afraid that she'll never amass the ten thousand gold pieces needed to resseurect Ixora. Deep inside, she's also terrified that Ixora would hate her if they met now, which leads her to sometimes self-sabotage her own efforts. This has led to a growing tendency of her guild to see her as erratic, and impatience in the ranks, as some wonder if they'd be better off getting rid of Omella, and if they can.