Ajai

Unlike many members of her illustrious family, Ajai is no glory-seeker. She lives by the teachings of her patron deity Mataros: respecting the dignity of all life, and protecting all living things against pain, injustice and untimely death. She protects the downtrodden and elevates the defenceless.

Ajai sees every last soul as worth protecting, even those she doesn't agree with. While always eager to volunteer her help and services, she will not charge blindly to someone's defence. She prioritises whatever solution will help as many people as possible (including herself). There are many hard decisions to be made in her line of work and she accepts that there are battles she can't win.

Ajai takes responsibilities, obligations and promises very seriously. Her word is her bond. She also respects others' customs, commitments and obligations, unless they entail doing wrong (by her definition). She keeps up with her obligations to Mataros, praying twice daily, once at sunrise and once at sunset. Her rituals typically involve water of some sort. Principled and polite, she doesn't speak out of turn and only makes her opinion known if she deems it necessary.

Partly because of pragmatism and partly because she hates seeing people cause or endure unnecessary harm, Ajai doesn't approve of recklessness, foolhardy plans, looting, theft, callousness to strangers etc.

Party

Acquaintances

Family

The Alnilam clan has long lived in Hajar, a village in the desert near Zagrazat. Though they chose the location for being low-key, they have become known across the shard as a lineage of heroes who have saved many lives through the centuries. "It's like it runs in the blood," many say. If anyone knows rumours about their ancestry, they tend to be divorced from the truth. Ajai doesn't know how she feels about this reputation; sometimes she would much rather others not know of it.

They live and work among lizanfolk, some of whom don’t particularly like deferring to the help of humans, though others love them, especially those who have directly benefited from their aid. They get all their weapons fashioned by lizan smiths and have positive business ties with them, at least.

Ajai's mother Matar was the previous Paladin in the family; named after the patron deity himself, she fought with a longsword and her holy symbol was embedded in its hilt. Every year during her travels, Matar would return to update the family logbook. Her travels were part of a systematic intergenerational search for the ancestral land they were separated from centuries ago, of mapping and eliminating possible shards.

When Ajai was 14, her mother missed her yearly rendezvous; a year later the family presumed her dead. Before she left the last time, she left her daughter an artifact but never explained how to use. At 18, Ajai was deemed ready to succeed her, taking her oath. She was handed a shield emblem that signifies the family's bond to the Goddess. She made an abridged copy of the family logbook for personal reference, then I was sent out into the world to uphold the oath and resume the search.

Meanwhile, Ajai studied the oath and familial history with Sahaba, her maternal uncle. Being the younger brother of her mother, the duties of teaching fell to him. There was not much theory involved, and learning was largely verbal, with training trips where they scouted the shard to familiarise themselves with life and nature, aiding those they met.

Ajai's father Riad came from a family owning a camel ranch. He turned the ranch into a business, which he runs with the extended family. They sell camels to travellers (the Bayir is a popular stopover on the way to Zagrazat), and take “trade-ins” at a reduced fee. Ajai grew up tending the camels and knows a thing or two about caring for and riding them. Her father also taught her to cook the local cuisine.

Liyane, Ajai's cousin on her mother's side had a sort of rivalry with her growing up. He is envious of her, not least because his father spent more time teaching her than attending to his daily life. His father, though, respected her mother.

Ajai's younger brother Nilai is fourteen years old. He helps out at home and on the ranch, between Sahaba teaching him about the oath, so that he may train the next Paladin whenever they come, or potentially take up the role in Ajai's stead, if she were to die.

• [Meta] Ajai is my character in a D&D campaign I joined in April 2020. I bought some dice to match her armour:
  
• Though Ajai's family have long been residents in the Zagrazat area, they still maintain many of the customs of their ancestral culture; Ajai and her brother Nilai were named in keeping with those ancient naming customs.
• The gold colour is sacred to her religion, hence her wearing so much of it. Red is simply emblematic of her family.
• The scar on Ajai's face came from an unfortunate encounter while rescuing a lost kobold in the woods. She tells people she got it when she was hit by a tree branch.
• Ajai does not handle cold weather very well and always layers on lots of clothes in addition to the armour.
• Every year on the same date, she returns home to her family and to update the family logbook with her travel notes. She has been travelling for six years, since she was 18.
• [Meta] Ajai's family ancestry is inspired by the Majapahit Empire, and many of the names and iconography are drawn from its culture and languages, Sanskrit and Javanese. However, the family is living in a region inspired by medieval Arab culture and I've incorporated elements of that in her and her family's development.