Mary_Malowe

7. BIO

Mary's handsome husband joined the Guild at the height of the Age of Adventure, one of thousands taken by promises of coin for his growing family – and of impressing his pretty young wife. Mary was never as taken by his bravado as the recruiter implied she would be, but though she begged him to lay down his sword, they were just too poor to afford the luxury of peace. Food had to get on the table somehow. Unfortunately, that he was their sole breadwinner meant nothing to the monster that eventually ate him.

Medieval life would have been hard for a widowed woman; it was almost impossible for a single mother, not least one with four children. Without a consistent source of income, Mary was reduced to begging, pawning off her few belongings to cover days when her looks couldn't earn enough for her kids to eat. It was enough for a few months of bread and water, but she soon had nothing left to sell except her husband's sword, the only tangible reminder she had of him; the ratty clothes she wore; and her body. None was acceptable (though the latter would have likely kept her and her kids fed for a good while).

So, Mary found herself with no choice but to turn to the Guild that had stolen her husband from her. There were few other options for a widowed woman to make a living (without stooping to prostitution). At first, visions of her children growing up as orphans made her afraid to even leave her village, and she refused to party up with any other Guild members, whom she blamed unfairly for her husband's death. But as she got to know her fellow adventurers, she found that they made for a valuable support network. And as she ventured further afield, she too began to fall for the incredible beauty of the wild world outside the village, just like her husband – though she always returned to tuck her children into bed.

Mary could have fought for vengeance. Instead, she wielded her husband's sword with the power of love: love for him, for her children, for her fellow adventurers, and for the wonderful world they lived in. Guild work never did make her rich like her husband had dreamed, but the long-sought happiness it brought – that she'd found so elusive since his death – was a greater prize than any dragon's hoard.