Teddie

Teddie Saint-Exupery
Status	Active
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Guild	Paladin
Instance	undisclosed

Young Teddie grew up in the sprawling capital city of Therenborough, where the banners of Theren Keep fluttered like the ribbons in her hair and the clang of steel was as familiar as morning birdsong. Teddie had her father's dark, earnest eyes but her hair was a wild tangle of blonde cowlicks and curls, and her spirit wilder still.

Teddie loved dancing barefoot around the pond near the center of town, chasing its tumbling butterflies through the pavilion, laying in the grass with the frogs and singing songs to the moons as the evening settled around her. At the sound of her mother's sharp call cutting through the dusk, she would leap to her feet and scurry home, leaving a trail of grass and flower petals behind her.

When Teddie was only eight years old, her father, Sir Theodore Saint-Exupery, a soldier with the Royal Infantry of Therengia, fell in battle. Her mother, Danica, prim and reticent, wrapped herself in tradition and mourning without shedding a tear. A woman of noble blood and stern eyes, she declared that Teddie would, too, become a Paladin, to restore the family's honor, to bear her father's legacy like a shield.

But Teddie had dreamed of becoming a Bardess, or a Ranger. She wanted to sing with the chubby sparrows and dance with the squirrels beneath the green canopies of Leth Deriel, and hear the Sana'ati Dyaus whisper its ancient secrets into her waiting ears as she leaned close against its bark. She wanted to be untamable, roaming and free... not armored and bound by solemn oath. Her father had understood. Her father had been proud of her. How she missed her brave and loving Papa!

Yet, at age ten, her mother brought her to the Temple of Chadatru. They cut off her curls, dressed her in gleaming plate too heavy for her frame, and handed her a sword too heavy for her arms. The oath tasted like iron on her tongue. She didn’t cry; her noble blood ran too strong for that. But she felt the wildflower inside her heart curl up and fall deathly still.

Years passed and Teddie trained, learning the Code of Honor, studying the histories of the Immortals, the laws of duty and justice, the intricacies of shield combat and holy magic. She grew strong, and though her eyes hadn't fully lost their distant shine, her mind dreamed less and less often of dancing with the wind. The hands that had once cradled frogs and chipmunks and handfuls of flowers now grasped only cold steel.

Teddie was changing. She was forgetting. And it was in the grassy fields outside Crossing's North Gate where the wind that had been her childhood companion would shift forever.

Goblins of all shapes and sizes are marching down from Dirge by the hundreds, headed straight for Crossing's northernmost gate! read the harried script upon the sweat-smudged parchment of a panting courier. The Order dispatched its warriors in immediate aid. Teddie stood in the frontlines, only seventeen, her well-fitting armor polished to a high shine, her heart strangely calm.

In the chaotic clash of the ensuing battle, a young boy ran barefoot into the fray, chasing a terrified, runaway puppy. It appeared that no one but Teddie had taken notice of him. She broke formation and sprinted after him, shield raised and sword aloft. Her blade sang as her prayers scorched the air with holy fire, and when the dust had settled, the boy and his dog were both safe, a ring of dead goblins scattered in a macabre wreath around them.

The little boy hugged her and handed her a tiny toy bear from inside his pocket. She smiled as she watched him run away with his puppy in tow, saw the dandelion tucked behind his ear, saw how he would skip every few steps, and how, despite the terror he'd just endured, he still stopped to look at a frog off to the side of the path. Something buried deep inside her stirred painfully and then fell silent again.

They're alive because of me. I couldn't save my father, but now that little boy and his puppy will go home to their family. They'll be whole, becauase of me. Because I am what I am. A Paladin...

That night, under the twin moons of Katamba and Yavash, Teddie knelt in the chapel alone and prayed... not for all of her old hopes and dreams, but for guidance and strength. In the soft silence that followed, she found the truth of her path: yes, she was a Paladin now. Not because her family demanded it. Not because the Order had finally chained her. She gazed down at the tiny bear in her hand. No, she was a Paladin because she chose to be. Because Elanthia needed her.

She would follow honor. She would defend the weak and uphold the law. She would stand as a beacon of strength and protection against the evil that would threaten the innocence that she once had. And although the little girl inside her, dancing among the moonlit daisies, had wilted and gone dormant, she would be there to protect every child who still had a chance to be the free-spirited youth she would have been.

Now, at age 24, Teddie can be found atop her beloved battle mare, Saffron, patrolling the whole of Elanthia, upholding the laws of safety, goodness and virtue. She has a soft-spot for protecting children and still wears the tiny bear given to her by the little boy on the battlefield years prior. Teddie has a somewhat-contentious relationship with the mischievous Moon Mage, Elore, finding her reckless behavior to be an ongoing threat to public safety while also feeling the tiniest twinge of jealous longing in a place deep inside her heart that she can no longer reach.

Although Teddie has been kissed on the cheek, she has never had a romantic partner or a real kiss. Her duty keeps her too distracted to date.