Rosemary Maina

Rosemary was born to her father's mistress, a beautiful but sickly musician that worked for the local opera house. She passed in the process of giving birth to her daughter, and Rosemary's father took her in, much to the indignation of his wife.

Her family was a very wealthy trading family from the capital of a desert country. Her father always treated her with lavish gifts and whatever she could dream of eating, but his wife, her new mother, hated her with every fiber of her being. She forbade Rosemary from leaving the property, so Rosemary was brought up mostly by maidservants, becoming a withdrawn and quiet young woman.

From a young age, her father hired a tutor to teach her music. She was a prodigy right from the start, and her favorite instrument to play became the violin. At age ten, her tutor realized she also had a talent for magic, and often, she channeled it into her playing. This enraged her father's wife, who forbade her from using her magic. Rosemary's mother had been a powerful mage just as Rosemary was, and any resemblance of the woman made her father's wife angrier and angrier.

Not allowing herself to be dissuaded, Rosemary snuck off into private corners of the estate, practicing channeling her magicks through her playing, learning to coalesce them into forms. As she grew into her teen years, she kept up this sneaky behavior, going out at night to perform, her magic creating illusions that danced along to her music, drawing crowds in the streets.

One night, she drew a rather large crowd, and after her performance, she heard a voice screaming her name. Her father's wife was amongst the crowd, and she was infuriated with Rosemary. Before Rosemary could get away, the woman grabbed her, slapping her across the face before dragging her back home and giving her a beating, breaking her violin into pieces.

Rosemary's passion for playing died that night. Her mana had bonded with that violin, and it was her main method of using her magic. Her father came to her room that night, and they discussed her behavior, before he beat her once again and locked her in the room. His wife had twisted his beliefs on his daughter, and Rosemary felt as though she had no one. However, as she cried into her pillow, the maidservant that had raised her since she was a newborn babe came to her, sneaking a gorgeous violin case into her room. The violin inside was beautiful, encrusted with crystals rich in mana. The maidservant revealed that it was Rosemary's mother's, one she used during her performances at the opera house.

Rosemary would only play this new violin when her family was out, being careful to not be caught with it. She attuned with the new one even closer than the old, feeling as though her mother was guiding her as she played. Her resentment toward her father and his wife grew with the days, and she rarely spoke to them after the way she was treated that day.

When Rosemary was eighteen, she was practicing in a far room of the house when a chill ran through her body. She felt a strange feeling seep into her, and violin in hand, ran throughout the corridors, looking out to the courtyard. A beast more horrible than she could have imagined was ravaging the gardens, and the mere sight of it struck fear into her heart. That was when she noticed that the beast was chasing her father and his wife. She bolted outside, just in time to watch as her father grabbed the very maidservant that had raised her, and threw her in front of the beast's path. She was killed almost immediately, in a scene that Rosemary couldn't describe.

Rosemary's father and his wife went to hide inside the house, thinking they would be safe from the beasts ravaging the world outside. Rosemary was horrified, but fled inside, only to find them, cowering. Her father's hands were stained with her caretaker's blood. Without a thought, she raised her bow to her violin, beginning to play. The melody tore her father and his wife to ribbons, eviserating them, blood spraying across the decor of the mansion.

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After the events of the Apokalypsis, Rosemary became a travelling bard, selling her family's estate. She only kept what she wanted, mostly her mother's things, and left the desert, never to return. The city had been destroyed either way, and she had no desire to watch as the place that reminded her of her past was rebuilt. She travelled for many years with bodyguards paid for by her family's money, and eventually ended up in a town called Aelmere. She decided to stick around, buying a small house near the center of the town. She performs for the townsfolk regularly, maintaining a steady flow of income despite her riches. She does put the old money to good use though, often anonymously funding restoration around the town.

• Maina is a name that Rosemary took after her deceased caretaker. Her real surname is unknown.
• Rosemary is also an alias.