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Marina Winsome
Human
18 years old
Marina was the youngest of 7 children and grew up in a small fishing village to the North of Baldur’s Gate. There, she lived a miserable life, working long hours along side her 4 sisters and 2 brothers for a meager living that never satisfied her. She longed for a better lot in life, but nothing ever seemed to come her way except a dirty, drunken backhand across the face or father’s unwelcome touch during the night.
Marina shut down her emotions as best she could in order to survive, but sometimes at night, her feelings rose and she’d steal outside to cry into the wind and sob violently on the grass. She was a torrent of blood trapped inside a rose petal made of crystal. Sometimes, when she’d watch her oldest brother’s child, she’d think about suffocating her to spare her the life that lay before her- an endless cycle of decay and destruction filled with suffering at every turn. Yes, she’d dream that she was this child and that she could save herself by snuffing it out.
Still, she resisted this urge and the many others that danced in her mind like so many deranged marionettes jeering and squirming through her consciousness. She hated life. She hated hate. She existed mechanically. She dreamed of love sometimes… A man would come out of the north on a great ship. He’d approach on a black horse and wear a cape of silk. His voice was smooth and calming and he’d comfort her as he killed her father and brother Jert for the evils they had done, slicing their heads off with a single stroke. Then, he’d look down at her with his deep brown eyes and tell her he loved her and reach out and sweep her away. They’d live across the sea in a castle and have servants and laugh and love forever. This was her dream, sometimes.
Mostly, she dreamt of death. She could feel her father’s blood run down her hand and over her pale face and in her dark hair as she pulled a knife from under her pillow as a surprise during one of her father’s nocturnal visits. Other times, she dreamt of her own death, at the bottom of the sea, floating there forever. She imagined the silence and the deep blue and heavy, water-filled chest and smiled a sort of twisted smile that spoke of madness and fever and fire.
Marina’s family was largely uneducated and worked at sea and on the shores, but during the slow fishing periods, she was allowed to visit an elderly neighbor that had befriended her. Nora Grinsin was a very scholarly woman and had settled there in the village when Marina was about 3. For some reason, she’d taken Marina under her wing and taught her to read and told her many stories about the world outside the village. If there was one person in the world that Marina loved, it was Nora. Marina lost herself in books when she was allowed the time. Some of the books had references to magic in them, but mostly, it was just stories of love and sadness. Nora had been a very accomplished spell caster, but, for some reason, she hesitated to show Marina any of those secrets.
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Now, it happened that on the eve of Marina’s 18th birthday, her father’s brother, Nurick returned to town. Marina’s uncle had long ago left the village under some sort of terrible circumstances that no one would ever talk about. If his name came up, the conversation drifted into silence and, in drunken cases, anger. Still, the details were few. What Marina could piece together is that Nurick had become unstable and dangerous. He loved a young woman in the village, but she hated him. He asked her to marry him one summer day, and she embarrassed him in front of everyone, calling him filthy and uncouth, saying he was “beneath her.” In the fall of that same year, the young lady had been found dead. Her body was far beyond resurrection- her tongue had been cut from her mouth and placed in her hand, and her heart had been taken and her body split length-wise. It was a nightmarish scene. Her mother fell into a stupor at the shock of finding her in her room like that and never regained her self.
Everyone in the village suspected Nurick of the deed, but he had an alibi that could not be disputed. The following winter went without incident, but in the spring, more girls turned up missing or dead, bodies mutilated in the same manner as before, each becoming more brutal. Nurick always had an alibi, but the talk grew to shouts and the shouts to threats and the threats drove him from town on a stormy summer’s eve. People were glad to have him gone and cursed his name.
During his near 20 year absence, he had traveled far and wide. No one was glad of his return, but he had the demeanor of a man who will not be denied and seemed to have an unhealthy aura of power or authority about him. In any case, he was not turned away. He stayed there, doing what he pleased, never raising a finger to help, but rather tossed gold, of which he seemed to have much, here and there as he saw fit. No one dared tell him to leave. With gold in hand, they told themselves that “he is family, after all, and there was never any proof that he was behind the murders.” The fact that the murders had ceased after his forced departure was not mentioned out loud.
Nurick took a liking to Marina right away. He seemed to have a keen interest in what she thought and how she felt. He wanted to know about her dreams and passions. To Marina, he was the caring, doting father she’d never had. All through the fall, he favored her, dismissing her from his chores so that she could “keep poor old uncle Nurick company.”
He spoke to her, finally, of magic and power, showing her the many artifacts he possessed himself and scrolls that contained great magics. Marina was very much in awe of Nurick and he was able to take her and twist her to a shape of his liking. He treated her like she was important, and, for the first time in her life, she believed that she was important.
Nurick whispered in her ear all through the winter and into the spring. His hold on her was absolute. She held her parents and siblings in open contempt now, confident from behind Nurick’s shadow. Nurick himself kept a more even temper and always smoothed things out with a little coin.
Marina had her first taste of real power in life and loved it. She felt liberated from the harshness of her reality. Her friend, Nora, sought her out during the spring and tried to dissuade her from spending so much time with Nurick. She felt betrayed- why couldn’t Nora see how good it was for her to be with Nurick? Her uncle loved her. Did Nora not want her to have love? She must be jealous, she thought. She told Nurick of Nora’s harsh words for him, explaining how badly she felt for yelling at Nora. Nurick just smiled and kissed her on the forehead and held her close and echoed her feelings back to her, repeating her sentiments and adding a few of his own. He slyly coaxed her down a path that seemed of her own making that ended with the idea that Nora had not only betrayed Marina, but that she had never cared about her. Cleverly, Nurick brought Marina to the next step- revenge. It was a simple, obvious answer. No one could use Marina Winsome like that and yet go unpunished. She was powerful now! She had learned a spell all on her own and Nurick was going to teach her everything. Certainly, Nora had this coming to her for trying to stop Marina from being happy, or so Marina concluded with a little help.
The plan set, Marina confronted Nora and they began to argue. She was supposed to read from the spell Nurick had given her and teach Nora a lesson. He said the spell was perfect for her, but didn’t really describe exactly what it did. The time came and Marina faltered. Nora, who was a powerful mage, saw the spell scroll Marina had in her hand and tried to grab it from her. At that moment, Nurick stepped out from behind her and lunged at Nora with a knife. The moments that followed blurred into each other for Marina. The only clear thing she remembers is the look of sorrow in Nora’s eyes as she died.
Nurick gathered up several things and bid Marina go home and wash up- to pretend that nothing had happened. When she returned home, she found Nurick at the hearth drinking a mug of ale. She had run all the way home, stopping only briefly outside to wash off the blood that had gotten on her hands from when she touched Nora’s dead cheek, and was surprised to find him back already. That night, Nurick made love to her and told her that he was the only one in the world who loved her: that, without him, she was alone. He said that she was like him. He said that they were one.
When she awoke, Nurick was gone. She arose to find him and instead, found a house full of dead- her mother, her father, her brother, Jert, her sister that hadn’t married- all dead. She herself was covered in blood: her hands, her face, her hair, but she could not remember anything. The bodies were hung from the walls, or lain out across a bed, or put in some other grotesque position. Each was mutilated in some unspeakably personal way. Her father’s body was barely recognizable, it was so badly butchered. A distinct gash ran from one ear to the other, though, just as in her daydreams.
Marina broke down and cried. The horrors before her were too much. How had it happened? In between heaving sobs, she had flashes of the previous night. She saw Nurick with her in bed; saw him above her, speaking softly, kindly. She saw him as he motioned her out of bed; saw him as he led her to her father and placed the knife in her hand. “Freedom!” she could her herself screaming. Oh god, she had done it. They had done it together.
Her sobs grew louder as she lay on the floor, lost and alone. In her heart were a thousand, thousand pains, ripping at her soul. Sorrow, fear, regret: they all hunted her, but there was something else too. Running through her heart, barely there, yet very near, there was joy. She grasped for this feeling like a blind child grabbing for a toy in the dark, but somehow she reached it. She pulled it close to her, nourishing it at her breast as a young mother with her first born. The feeling basked in the warmth of her love like a kitten in the sun until it filled all her thought.
Marina began to laugh. At first, it was not much more than a crackling moan, but it grew into a howl, then a shriek until it filled her being. She was free. She was happy. She wanted to feel this way always.
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She knew she’d be unable to hide her family’s death for long, so she grabbed what little she could gather and left home. She was able to buy a ride aboard a ship that left that afternoon. She had no idea where it was going, but anywhere was better than here. Nurick had freed her. She owed him something for that. Still, she wished he was with her. She loved him, though he betrayed her and used her. She hates him. She loves him.
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Morality: love and violence and death are all intertwined.
Goals: to find love and happiness. She still dreams of that brown eyed man on his dark horse coming to sweep her off her feet. She dreams of blood.
Demeanor: quiet, shy, gentle. Will suppress anger until it boils over. As she becomes more ‘empowered,’ she will express herself more and more. Confidence in one such as her comes with time.
Appearance:
Black hair
Green eyes
Slender build, not very strong
Favors dark clothing
The people of her village had considered her to be rather pretty
