Maressja Eclipse

Maressja Kosva (a.k.a. Maressja Eclipse)

Maressja Kosva is wanted for unlawful dereliction, banditry, multiple counts of assault, multiple counts of murder of a Guardian, theft, destruction of Empire property, and apostasy. Any Kalriv who captures or kills her will receive a favour from the Basileus. Any slave who captures or kills her will be granted their freedom.
-Proclamation distributed throughout the city of Kela

Maressja Eclipse is an escaped Kalriv slave and bandit leader operating in the Sapphire Coast regions held by the Kalriv Empire. She is the leader of the criminal syndicate/rebel group Liberty's Eclipse, and has led a twenty year campaign of terror against the Kalriv Empire, raiding estates and settlements across the southern Empire, including killing slavers and Guardians and freeing slaves. This has rendered her one of the most wanted criminals in the Kalriv Empire.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Maressja is said to be in excellent physical condition due to a life as a bandit on the run requiring her to be as fit as possible. She is said to be tall, and even into her mid-fifties is whip-lean and toned.

Apparel & Accessories

Maressja opts to wear the simple wool tunics that most slaves and labourers wear rather than armour or more ostentatious garb.

Specialized Equipment

Maressja wields a double-bladed sword.

Maressja Eclipse in her Liberty's Eclipse attire

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Eclipse was born Maressja Kosva in the city of Kela, in the Kalriv Empire-held portion of the central Sapphire Coast. As a member of a relatively recently-conquered populace, her family were made slaves when Kela fell to the Empire, and Maressja was no exception, working first as a scullery maid and then as a general labourer for a wealthy Guardian noble on his estate.
Shortly after her family were sold by the noble, partially to settle his debts and partially to punish Maressja for defying him numberous times in the past, Maressja was able to successfully escape from the noble's estate, but was eventually tracked down by one of the noble's enforcers. In the ensuing melee, Maressja killed the enforcer in self-defence  using a knife she had stolen and fled Kela, escaping the local garrison and escaping into the wilderness. 
It was then that she fell in with the criminal underworld of one of the neighbouring cities, who took her in and sheltered her in exchange for her working for them. She also briefly made contact with the True Venderans, where she got into the business of freeing slaves. However, her methods became much more violent, raiding estates, robbing nobles and fighting enforcers, often to the death, and the Venderans parted ways with her. From there, she used her own criminal experience to recruit a band of other former slaves to her cause, undertaking raids on estates across the countryside, assaulting slave caravans, robbing merchants and generally wreaking havoc against the Empire.
For the last twenty years, Maressja and her band, Liberty's Eclipse, have sown chaos throughout the central Sapphire Coast, somehow always remaining one step ahead of the Kalriv legionaries and foreign mercenaries hired to apprehend them. Slave traders find themselves looking over their shoulder in the region, and the mere sight of her is enough to send most slave traders into a panic.

Sexuality

Asexual

Education

As a former slave, Eclipse has no real formal education. However during her time on the run and falling in with the True Venderans, she was taught to read and write.

Employment

Asides from slavery, most of Maressja's life has been related to criminal endeavours. Before developing enough of a following to form Liberty's Eclipse, she worked for a number of criminal underlings in various towns across the Sapphire Coast, beginning as a burglar and runner before demonstrating enough leadership aptitude to begin running her own small crews. During her brief time with the True Venderans, she was officially a lookout before taking her role too far.
Once she formed Liberty's Eclipse, she took on the role as the group's leader and organiser, although she still partakes in raids and breakouts.

Mental Trauma

Typical of many Kalriv slaves, Maressja bears some degree of trauma, having received a few beatings in her time and having witnessed cruel treatment of some other slaves. She is particularly scarred by the loss of her family, who were sold by her owner out of spite. This trauma fuels her hatred and drives her banditry to a certain extent.

Intellectual Characteristics

Despite her lack of formal education, Maressja is shrewd and tactically skilled, something sharpened by her time working with the criminal syndicates of the cities before striking out on her own.

Morality & Philosophy

Lawful way? I tried your 'lawful way', and it saw me subjugated to some Guardian pig, and chained, whipped and beaten if I wasn't a good little piece of property. So forgive me if I say to the void with your idea of lawful, Solar.
-Maressja Eclipse laying out her philosophy

Maressja's morality and philosophy are complex; while not a psychopathic murderer or amoral raider, she is also pragmatic and understands that to survive and continue the fight against the Empire, she must continue to commit banditry. While unfriendly to most of the Empire, she considered slaves to be worthy of her compassion, and will often go out of her way to improve their lives or liberate them if possible.
Maressja does not consider robbery of other Kalriv classes such as Solars or crafters to be immoral - from her perspective, they are holding up an unjust regime and living off the lives of slaves, and as a result taking their goods is seen as fair restitution. She does however try not to kill or injure such Kalriv except when necessary. Guardians, as the largest group of slaveholders, the most privileged of the Kalriv and the enforcers of the Empire, do not qualify for such grace, and she has shown little remorse for killing any. Likewise, slavers will receive little to no mercy from her, with assassination or execution a likely fate for any she comes across.
Maressja does have a grudging respect for the True Venderans, who she believes to be ineffectual but good-intentioned. Even Guardians among them can expect to be treated fairly by her.
Maressja has no tolerance for members of Liberty's Eclipse perpetuating atrocities. Using the cause as a pretext for murder or atrocities is seen as a grievious transgression to her, and she has executed people who engage in this behaviour.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Maressja's motivation is twofold; to wreak revenge against the Empire for her suffering during her time as a slave, and to pay the way towards tearing down the established order in the Kalriv Empire. She is under no illusions that she will live to see the end of slavery, but she intends to leave the world knowing that future generations will. On a more base level, as a slave and outcast, crime is her only real way to survive.

Social

Family Ties

Although Maressja has tried to track down her family, she has not been able to find them, and after thirty years of searching, it seems unlikely she will find them if they are alive.
Maressja does not appear to have any significant other nor romantic desire, seemingly married to her work.

Religious Views

Whilst originally a follower of Solarity, Maressja has since abandoned the faith, believing it to propagate the system she despises. She is now an agnostic.

Alignment

True Neutral

Current Location

Sapphire Coast

Ethnicity

Kalriv

Age

54

Date of Birth

Fireleaf 21, 414 TE

Birthplace

Kela, Kalriv Empire

Gender

Female

Eyes

Pale blue

Hair

Golden blonde, greying

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Fair

Height

5'8"

Weight

70 kgs

Aligned Organization

Liberty's Eclipse