Dissolvegirl/DarkHope
History
Dark Hope grew up on a small farm outside of Great Forks, working hard alongside her three younger brothers-- Dark Owl, Dark Flame, and Dark Rain. Her family was completely devoid of disfunction, for the most part; Hope was a bit of a tomboy, and despite good-natured wrestling in the hayloft, she and her brothers were as close as four people could be.
When Hope was about 17, an unruly "lesser god" who had been kicked out of Great Forks for behavioral reasons came to the Dark family farm looking for a place to stay. With such a large family, there was not a lot of room for a guest, but Hope's father offered use of the hay loft-- it was clean and dry, no animals or vermin, and fairly pleasant-- as far as haylofts go. The god revealed himself to be something more than he seemed as he slew Dark Rain out of hand and started towards Hope's father. It was then that the Exaltation rushed upon her. Time seemed to stop, and she heard a voice: "My child, for years you have protected the weak with your strength of body and of compassion. I now give you my strength to protect the frail of body and of heart. I am the Unconquered Sun, and you are my priest. I shall be with you always." She lept the god with unnatural prowess and landed a serious blow before he dematerialized to flee.
Hope was heartbroken by the death of her youngest brother, and confused by her Exaltation. She pledged to use her savings to bring her brother to Sijan for proper burial; though she never told her parents outright, it was understood that she would not be returning. Despite the fairly regular occurance of spiritual interaction that happened simply from living near Great Forks, the realization that Hope was a solar Exalt had left her family unnerved. Her oldest brother, Dark Owl, asked to go with her, but Hope refused and told him it was now his job to watch over their parents and their hotheaded brother, Flame.
That night, Hope continually awoke from nightmares about the death of her brother and-- other dreams, darker and stranger thoughts that seemed to not belong to her. To clear her head, she decided to go for a walk in the forest near her house. She weaved and wandered through the trees, hoping to somehow lose her way and forget the occurances of the day, to only have to concentrate on finding her way home instead of thinking about her dead brother and her new god; however, something inside of her knew where she was going. She stopped at a familiar looking tree; she had never seen it before, and yet, it seemed as if she knew it well. Hesitating for a moment, she placed her hand on a fist-sized knot on the tree's thick trunk. Her caste mark started to glow slightly, bathing the knot in faint, dancing rays of sunlight, and it mysteriously opened to reveal a winding walkway down.
When she got to the bottom, she found that the tree covered a large, dark pool of clear water, a small spring bubbling softly in the middle. The only illumination was provided by her caste mark, and the golden rays bounced off of the crystal water to make lovely patterns on the cave walls-- assuming it was, indeed, a cave. She swam to where the spring bubbled, and suspended atop the spring seemingly by magic was a beautiful stone that shimmered with the depths of the ocean itself. She turned her head and saw a bit of dry land on the other side of the cave, and went to it. There was a small altar of sorts, with words written in a language she recognized as Old Realm but could not read, and above it hung an orichalcum Serpent-Sting staff. She took it, examining it carefully; something about it spoke to her, told her it was hers. She placed the stone in the empty setting she found and returned home. Her parents never asked why she was soaked to the bone; she never offered the information. And the next day, she left for Sijan with the body of Dark Rain.
Despite her gruff and (to first appearances) standoffish nature, Hope possesses a deep capacity for caring. She cannot stand to see innocents hurt or the weak being bullied-- if she sees such a thing happening, the transgressor has a good chance of ending up nose-to-nose with her staff, True Friend. She is utterly no-nonsense, logical and plain-spoken, although she possesses a great mind. She's 19 years old now, lean and athletic, with sandy blond hair and emerald green eyes. She has a sort of homespun beauty she's not aware of, having never bothered with the girly arts of primping and preening. She considers how you act to be more important than how you look. She believes the Unconquered Sun is directly responsible for saving the lives of the rest of her family, and though closed-lipped about it to those she does not trust, has a deep love and unswerving devotion to her patron god.
click here for a sketch of Hope.
