JAKINDA RHE ALON

Overview

Jakinda Rhe Alon, a spirited sixteen-year-old girl of the eslar race, has always been surrounded by the beauty of Isia, the capital city of Panthora. The city’s dazzling spires, intricate carvings, and vibrant markets belied the sense of foreboding that had loomed over her life since tragedy struck her family.

Jakinda was born into a family of modest means but considerable aspirations. Her father, Ensel Rhe Alon, was an ambitious businessman who valued integrity and hard work. Her mother, Awen Ren Alon, a graceful and astute ambassador, often spoke of the importance of diplomacy and honor. Together, they instilled in Jakinda and her younger brother, Hannu, a deep-seated belief in justice and the worth of individual effort.

For the first nine years of her life, Jakinda flourished in an environment filled with love and laughter. Ensel filled their home with tales of his business shrewdness while Awen educated the children about the world beyond Isia’s walls. However, everything changed one stormy night seven years ago when Ensel vanished without a trace. Rumors of his involvement in shady trade deals and whispered threats against him spread quickly, although the family had always prided itself on staying away from such danger.

The following weeks were shrouded in despair. The family’s search for Ensel yielded no results, while the weight of unanswered questions grew heavier. It was shortly after his disappearance that tragedy struck once more. Jakinda returned home one day to find her brother’s lifeless body lying in the alley behind their house, marked by the cruel hand of murder. Paralyzed by grief and guilt, she felt entirely responsible for their family’s misfortunes. “If only I had been there,” she often muttered, trapped in a cycle of self-blame.

Feeling abandoned by the universe, Jakinda’s personality shifted under the shadows of her sorrow. Her once-bright laughter faded into anger and defiance. Relationships within her circle of friends strained, as they could not understand the depths of her pain. Her mother, struggling to maintain their household, often struggled to connect with Jakinda, who was spiraling out of control.

Realizing her daughter needed guidance, Awen sought help. This led Jakinda to Gerwyn, a seasoned krill weapons master, who took her under his wing. Gerwyn’s gruff demeanor and no-nonsense approach forced Jakinda to channel her fury into discipline. As she trained, she found empowerment in mastering self-defense; each strike of her weapon chipped away at her inner turmoil.

At the same time, Awen introduced Jakinda to Ingrid Kane, a savvy mentor in business and politics. Ingrid recognized Jakinda’s potential and fueled her ambition by teaching her the strategic intricacies of their world. These lessons slowly transformed Jakinda from a girl consumed by grief into a young woman with direction and focus.

However, even as Jakinda began to heal her wounds, the memories of her father’s disappearance and Hannu’s murder lingered like ghosts, haunting her thoughts. She vowed to uncover the truth behind their fates, driven by a fierce need to prevent further tragedies. With every swing of her weapon and lesson in the boardroom, Jakinda developed a duality: the fierce protector and the shrewd strategist.

Despite her progress, Jakinda struggles with her perceived failure to save her brother and father. Each decision she makes, each skill she masters, is tinged with an urgency to make amends for her past. As she navigates the complex social and economic landscape of Panthora, her journey of self-discovery continues, intertwined with the bittersweet memories of her lost family.

Appearance

Jakinda is an eslar, sixteen years old, and striking by any measure. Her skin is the blue-black of her people, her hair a dark rust-red, and her eyes the stark, pupilless white that gives an eslar stare its particular weight. On her, that stare tends toward the defiant. She has not yet learned to hide what she is feeling, and her face gives her away—widening eyes, a jaw set hard, the wounded look she catches and wipes away a half second too late for anyone watching closely to have missed it.

She favors dark leathers that suit her coloring, worn with darkened metal bracers, a maroon undertunic beneath, and a woodland cloak in a deep shade for travel. It is a practical wardrobe rather than a fashionable one, chosen by someone who expects to fight in it.

Abilities

Under Gerwyn’s instruction, Jakinda has become a capable and improving fighter. She fights with sword and shield, and carries a knife she isn't shy about using when a blade alone will not answer. Her technique is drilled rather than instinctive—she falls into practiced maneuvers under pressure, sliding an opponent’s blade along her own to force an overextension, then punishing it. When she is thinking clearly, the training holds. When she is not, she reverts to fury, and Gerwyn is quick to correct her for it.

Her second education is the one Ingrid Kane gave her, and it shows in rooms where no weapon is drawn. Jakinda negotiates well. She recognizes value at a glance, counters an opening price without hesitation, and knows enough to keep her enthusiasm off her face when she has found something she badly wants—though the discipline is newer than her swordwork and slips more often.

Personality & Demeanor

Jakinda runs hot. Anger is her nearest emotion and her most available one, a habit formed in the years when it was the only thing standing between her and despair. She is defiant by reflex, quick to take offense on behalf of her family, and disinclined to let a slight pass unanswered when answering it would feel better than swallowing it.

Underneath the temper is a girl who has never stopped blaming herself. The conviction that she should have been there—for Hannu, for her father—governs more of her behavior than she would admit, and it makes any failure on her part intolerable rather than merely disappointing. She holds herself to a standard no sixteen-year-old could meet and treats falling short of it as further proof of what she already believes about herself.

What redeems the whole difficult mixture is that she keeps getting up. Knocked down in training, she rises and squares off again. Corrected, she crosses her arms and refuses to look at her master, and then does what he told her. The stubbornness that makes her hard to teach is the same stubbornness that has carried her this far.

Notable Relationships

Jakinda’s feelings toward her father, Ensel Rhe Alon, have curdled over seven years of unanswered questions into something closer to resentment than grief. In her telling, he did not vanish—he abandoned his family, and the distinction is one she states plainly and without softening.

Her brother, Hannu, remains the wound at the center of everything. Her mother, Awen Ren Alon, has struggled to reach her since, though Awen recognized her daughter needed more than a grieving household could provide and arranged both apprenticeships that saved her.

Gerwyn, the krill weapons master, is the steadying presence in her life. Their relationship runs on friction—he corrects, she bristles, he corrects again—but she keeps returning to the training circle, and beneath the resistance is a respect she has not put into words.

Ingrid Kane rounds out her education from the other direction, teaching her the strategy and politics of Panthora’s commercial world and giving her ambition somewhere to go.

Role & Affiliations

Jakinda belongs to House Rhe Alon of Isia, a family of modest means and considerable aspirations whose standing has been shadowed by her father’s disappearance. She holds no office and claims no title. What she has is a pair of apprenticeships pulling her in different directions—the training circle under Gerwyn and the boardroom under Ingrid Kane—and a private commitment to learn what became of her father and who killed her brother. Everything else she does is subordinate to that.