Judith is only child from a merchant family from a far-away land who accidentally landed up in a story much bigger than her humble beginnings, oh, the sort with politics and princes and poisonings. Having spent the better part of several years dealing with petty court politics, griping, and the only man on the planet with a vestigial spine, she snuck away at the crack of dawn, boarded a boat, and well, she's here now. Far, far away. Thank goodness, there's at least one sea between them and her. She's warm and kind, but blunt and surprisingly sharp-tongued,and by god she will brain you with the shaft of her axe if you waste her time being a pretentious ass. Usually the straight-man.

Elowen was raised in a wild forest, by a gruff father who showed love through harsh discipline. Once she got out on her own, this discipline helped her immensely, and she's proven to be a savant of forging, hunting, and survival. This has, in turn, made her weird. She joined up with the guild in a effort to normalize herself, but also to explore the last true frontier.

In personality, Elowen is quiet around most people, but she's very observant, and more sensitive to others than she'd care to admit. However, in the field, she's VERY in tuned with her survivalist instincts, to the point of tuning out others entirely. She does make a effort to be more sociable though, but she really has no idea how 'being a person' and 'holding a conversation' work.

You might ask Vince why he acts as a protector when he's buff enough under the armor to pin a wild elephant. He'd tell you about his dark history spanning decades, a tale of his time as an enforcer in the Midgard underworld as Vicious Vinny. Protection fees, illegal drugs and weaponry, they ran the works. After killing a family who 'forgot' to pay their protection fees, the surviving daughter was quickly forgotten about. Years later, after a raid on a rival gang in the town of Gotham, a crazed girl attacked the thugs. She never stood a chance and was slain on the spot.

In the aftermath of cleaning up their retreat, Vinny discovered she was the surviving daughter of the family he had burned alive. Disheveled by drugs and equipped with a blade no child should ever dreamed of holding, Vince realized that the gang turned an innocent girl into the crazed corpse on that day long past. He tried to convince the boss of changing their ways but was laughed away for the sudden growth of a conscience. His heart knew he had to take charge on his own to fix this growing nightmare. He set the hideout ablaze and escaped in the ensuing chaos, only to be caught in a duel with his former boss at the front door. In the end, he was only able to escape after a lucky blade strike got the boss in the face.

Sometime after that escape, his former men tracked him down at an inn he tried to lay low in. The staff knew nothing of Vince's past but were killed anyway just for being around the wrong time when the violence broke out. Vince escaped again and knew things had to change. His hands would slay men no longer, they would become a wall. His knife was traded for a shield to defend the innocent from his gang's wrath. His slick suit became armor to ensure he can keep bystanders safe even a minute longer.

It's all utter bullshit. He just got bored of the farming life and wanted some adventurous spice in his life.

Raised as a boy by her eccentric yet wealthy parents, Sigrid learned the art of swordplay from a young age. After striking out on her own, she made a name for herself as a brash yet compassionate explorer, guiding other young and fledgling heroes who were equally confused about their own identities. She's a big sister type at heart, looking out for her friends and thinking of her guilds as found families.

"Anyone can be a hero, no matter how or what they were born as."

A quick smile, a playful charm, an attentive bedside manner and a deft hand at mixing the most potent medicines outside the Midgard Library itself. Thierry Hannighan seems like the perfect doctor, quick to act and discreet when he needs to be. Why he even had a husband... once. He's just never had the most luck getting himself his own practice or even signing on with a clinic of like-minded physicians. He still got plenty of work though, because he doesn't like to charge for his services. What could be so repellent about such a kind young man? Thierry is an honest sort though and he's more than willing to admit a couple of minor faults in the course of his work.

First of all, his medical license is less than legal. Thierry's skills are self-taught mostly through a lot of trial and error on himself. Medical training is expensive and he didn't have the most generous of backgrounds. Borrowing things is okay as long as you return them and those medical books ended up back on their shelves with only a few chemical stains on them. Who can afford to worry about legality when there are lives on the line? Sure sometimes his medicine took longer to work than he wanted and he lost a lot of blood, collected a lot of scars, but the coat covers those up. It's fine, in the name of progress, in the name of altruism. Secondly, while Thierry isn't outwardly arrogant or forceful there's a quiet surety, an absolute faith that he knows what is best for people's health. Sometimes their ethics too. Sometimes he has to do what's necessary to make people do the right thing for themselves. It isn't always pleasant but the best medicine is bitter medicine.

So maybe those fancy city doctors kicked him out and maybe he got a little desperate and headed out to join up with people who were desperate as well, who needed someone who could get the job done despite all the odds and who didn't care about stupid hurdles like medical licenses and and a little bit of pain now and then. And hey, adventurers like that probably need a little nudge in the right direction. Daredevils don't watch their health often enough! Good food, fresh air and plenty of liquids are a necessity, an absolute necessity! If they're not the types to eat their vegetables that's okay. Thierry knows a little recipe or two of his own that will numb the body enough to get them to sit still and TAKE THEIR FUCKING VITAMINS ONCE IN A FUCKING WHILE.

Goodness, not that he'd ever use such harsh language. Of course.

The youngest of her 6 siblings, and the only daughter among them, Katya grew up being the lone girl in a boy's world. Not that it mattered much, her parents were loggers in the far north and really only dealt with other folk on supply runs. With short hair, a slight build (so what if she was a bit of a late bloomer?), and that bulky parka, Katya was often mistaken for one of her brothers until she bothered to speak up. Of course, she also had her nose in any book she could find in town, so that wasn't very often.

As she grew older, Katya started tinkering and experimenting with various parts she scrounged or bought on these infrequent trips, often disappearing into her room when the daily chores were done and not coming out until far after supper had gone cold. Being the only girl in the family (Mother not included, since she shared the master bedroom) did have it's perks, a room to herself fairly high among them, and so no one really knew what was going on until the latest scrap the boys were getting into with each other. It's as if it were yesterday...

***

Anatoli and Sergey, the two oldest, were trying to divide up some venison from the latest hunt, and neither could (or would) give up the choicest cuts without a scrap. Viktor and Aleksi, the twins always raring for a fight, jumped on in, dragging Gregory in as well, though the young boy wasn't really terribly interested in fighting (over food, at least).

Then Katya stepped outside, hands behind her back, a sinister, sly grin on her face.

Always one to pick on his sister whenever she tried to throw down, Viktor leapt at Katya, only to be flung backwards past the brothers' scrum. Immediately the fighting stopped, and the boys looked in awe at their twitching brother, their sister's gauntlets, and the laughing young girl.

***

After soundly thrashing the boys (really just to say she could at this point), Katya wore her "gauntlets of power" with her wherever she went. It was during a trip into town that Mother was approached by a spectacled gentleman, one who talked about the gauntlets her daughter had constructed on her own. It was this gentleman that mentioned the city of Etria to the south, a place where Katya's skills, intelligence and scrappiness would be of value. After considerable deliberation with the family, Katya decided to head south to Etria, see the sights of the big city, find her own way in life (and maybe send some ental back, while she's at it).

"Ah, have you not yet heard the tale? I'd be more than willing to oblige. For you see, legend tells of a hero, oft' mistaken as a mere myth, who roamed these lands e'er in search of a mysterious treasure, one long believed to be naught more than a fairy tale. That treasure was the source of all melodies, the very font of power from which Troubadours across the many lands of this world draw their strength from. What, thought ye that a mere ballad had the ability to embolden one's allies? But alas, as the months turned to years, nary a trace of this treasure had appeared. However, that is where our hero comes in. He was a mere Troubadour, much like I am, in search of this mythical treasure. He also had a glorious voice, mastered every instrument known to man, and an ental stash that could make kings weep, but that's neither here nor there. He scoured the globe in a relentless quest to bask in the glory of this treasure, but as the years turned to decades, his dedication bore no results. His hair turned gray, his voice became weaker, and his skills in combat waned. Nevertheless, his will was indomitable, until one faithful day, he chanced upon a fortuitous clue. Perhaps he ought not look upwards for answers, but seek the ground below him instead. Of course! The Yggdrasil labyrinth! So full of mysteries and wonders, it must contain the secrets that he pursues! And so, onward he marched, slowed not by age, exhaustion, or injury, into the depths of the Yggdrasil. Lo and behold, he reached the end of the labyrinth! Bruised, beaten, and tired, he regaled himself in his efforts as he was beholden to a sight no mortal had yet faced, living or otherwise. As he basked in its glory, he was granted the immense power to--"

"I'm going to stop you there, because I'm fairly certain that not only are you trying to boast about yourself, but a majority of that story was made up."

"...There's a non-zero chance that it wasn't."

Momoe isn't exactly shy about it. She's not in for exploring the labyrinth to help Etria, or save the world, or whatever. It's all about the romance. And even then, "romance" is too elegant a word. She wants the fame; she figures, kill some nasty monsters, or help Etria improve, or whatever, become a hero, and the girls are bound to flock to her, right? Everyone's gonna want a smooch at that point. Maybe she can pick up some nasty scars that'll drive them wild, too. Of course, trying to develop a little more tact should help with that, too... Hm. One thing at a time, she figures.

That's not to say Momoe is gonna take the exploration lightly. On the contrary, you have to work hard to survive in the labyrinth, even when your goal is as selfish as hers. She trained herself diligently with the blade, all towards this goal. Not exactly a noble one, really, but with the wealthy family she's come from, such resources as tutors and practice katanas are easy to come by for that. (That may also be where her naive perception of romance comes from.) She's determined to survive and push through as far as the Guild is willing to go; that said, being as sheltered as she's been makes things hard sometimes, so trying new things is kind of exciting to her, though she hates to admit it.

"Gather, friends, for have you ever heard the tragedy of Hexer Quixote? I thought not; it's not a tale that most adventurers would tell you. It's an Etrian Odyssey Untold.

"There was once a man named Sir Carter of the House Bentley, a man of old money and wealth. He had a respectable, old life, living his time in High Lagaard, marrying a distant cousin of the House of Dubois and adding into his wealth. He had only one son, a bit of an inspired man that never quite made a splash in the world. After dabbling in the restaurant business for his life, Sir Carter retired to Etria with his wife and son in tow. For a time, it was peaceful family. Unfortunately, disaster struck with the discovery of the Etrian Labyrinth. Much like all the rush of adventurers seeking fame and glory, the man's son ran in, the blasted fool. Like many others, the son of House Bentley found an early grave in that forest. It wasn't soon after that the Mrs. Bentley took ill from the shock, and died shortly after.

"You all must understand the grief that a widower would feel. For a time Sir Carter would not leave his mansion, taking to the drink and mourning. Word of mouth says that there were much howling even in the middle of the night. Wasn't too long until the old man finally came out, wearing not his refined coattail but a rather shabby robe and chained up! Ran everywhere in Etria yelling about conquering the Labyrinth himself, even, called himself 'The Hexer, Quixote!' Poor fool didn't even know a thing about Hexes, let alone fear! Say he tried to strike in someone a fear of heights? He'd pull up a ruler and measure their height! Or a fear of loss'd just be him giving someone money and then taking it right back after. Fear of close space'd just be him invading their personal space, stuff like that. The whole town didn't know what to do with him, but they let him be. Poor fool must've went mad, but he still had the ental to do as he pleased.

"Well, that was about the time he went off to the Labyrinth himself, yelling about his romantic dreams, and that... well, that's another Untold tragedy of the Etrian Odyssey for you lot another time."

Born with hearing that was 'spotty' at the best of times and rapidly degraded into near uselessness, Afon was abandoned by her parents - whoever they were - and picked up by a bandit/explorer by the name of Rick. Rick taught her everything he knew - and several things he didn't, considering he hunted down a book on sign language - and the result was a rambunctious, confident young woman who was eager to join her adoptive father on his misadventures. Unfortunately, her father, for all his positive qualities, was a pretty reckless man - he took himself and a few of his best men into the labyrinth to hunt down a beast, and never came back out.

Afon's quest isn't one for revenge - she knows full well that dozens of people have died to monsters in the labyrinth - but a quest to overcome her own fear, to prove that her father raised a strong fighter. She's rough around the edges (her favorite bit of sign language is a raised middle finger), loves drinking, and pretends to lipread better than she actually does, but she's also eager to please, brave in the face of danger, and loves drinking. The positive outweighs the negative, even for a bandit's daughter, right?

Any reasonably-sized Labyrinthine city has a seedy underbelly, and in Etria, if you're in the black market, you're in some way buying from the Monterey family. No bones about it. Old Monterey Jack, the founder of the family, is a tough old dog, and everyone who's anyone in Etria knows you don't double-cross a Monterey and live to tell the tale. These days, though, he's getting on in years, and a huge pile of tinier families are looking to get a piece of the pie once he kicks the bucket, thinking that whoever takes over the family after him will be an easy mark.

Ladette's known her whole life that that was what she was going to get into when she came of age, and by now, she's 22 and does twice as much work as an enforcer for the family as anyone else. Plenty of the old guard laugh her off, saying that staring down the barrel of a gun isn't the way a real mobster lives, that it's all about money, but if someone needs to pay up on a shipment of Highmore Caviar they haven't coughed up, Ladette knows the barrel of her trusty revolver Leandros is a better motivating factor than any pile of ental. Of course, when you're the boss's baby-faced daughter, people are going to cry nepotism no matter how many of them you could kill with a single bullet (even Billy from the Mauriat family and the stump for an arm you gave him.) So what's an enterprising young lady soon to inherit Etria's largest crime family to do? Enter the Labyrinth her own damn self, of course, and show those old bastards just how many things she can kill with a single bullet. (Plus, she might be more in favor of shooting, but nobody's gonna complain with a bit more ental on the side.)