A Kestrel is a male hawk. They tend to be smaller, but also more aggressive and ornery than falcons. Perhaps my parents wished to encourage those traits by giving me that name. They may have succeeded to some extent, but I intend to be my own person, with a character unconstrained by my parents' decisions.
Like a kestrel, I am of middling stature, but wiry, muscular, and active. Close cropped brown hair frames an olive-skinned face with intense brown eyes and serious expression. While some might find this off-putting, I can be quite welcoming and kind to people who prove friendly.
I have taken the title "Swordsman", for it is by the sword that I intend to make my reputation and fortune in Medieval, and with it that I plan to lead warriors into battle.
A Sentimental Value: Metal
Before setting out for Town, I took one last look at my old house. This time tomorrow, I realized, nothing in it would be mine, nor even available for me to use. Indeed, I would most likely not even see those things again. And so it was that I searched the rooms for keepsakes, for some scrap of my old life to carry into my new one. For a while I considered taking something sentimental, but in the end, I decided that practical was best; I found and took a steel shield that bore the battered and barely-recognizable device of a bear. Was this even my family's crest? I did not know. But that device would hopefully bear (So to speak) the brunt of many blows meant for my body.
Advisor Description
As I was finishing my feast in the common room of the tavern, something caused a bit of a stir. I looked up from my table to see a large, martial-looking Easterner just entering the tavern, looking around, then immediately spotting and heading straight towards me. The prospect might have been concerning had the man not been an old family acquaintance.
The scarred veteran of many campaigns, Bertin the Captain was not a handsome, nor even particularly pleasant-looking man. Tavern patrons scuttled warily aside as he stalked towards me across the busy floor. I nodded to acknowledge him, then, when he was close enough, asked: "What brings you here?"
"Your majority, and the career it inaugurates," Bertin answered curtly. He had never been a man to waste time nor words. "I advised your father on several of his adventures, and your mother asked me to do the same for you."
I raised a mildly skeptical eyebrow at that. "My career?" I asked. "That has yet to be determined. Or is my choice of career one of things you figure to advise me on?"
The Easterner gave me a scar-crooked grin. "Not at all. But given what I know of your character, pedigree, and your decision to take the title 'Swordsman', I can guess what career you likely have in mind, and it is one I know a thing or two about. Heed my advice for now, and then many years from now when you're Ruler of Kings, you can complain to me about how awful it was."
Reflections On Your Mother
Most of the men close to me were military men. War was their home. My mother was the one woman in my life. She taught me to cook, how to talk, how to treat people. In short, everything I know that doesn't involve killing or dying, I know thanks to her. Even though my plan is to make my way mainly by the sword, I hope she is proud of me for my accomplishments, and that my life will show her that her lessons were not lost on me.
Deity of Kestrel
Saetha embodies the virtues of justice tempered by mercy, gentle strength, and protection. She expects her followers to protect the weak and to oppose those who would exploit them. She is reported to appear in the world as either a young woman with dark hair and pale skin bearing a shield and a torch, or as an elderly widow, in which latter form she has reported tested her followers' kindness to the vulnerable.
Skeletons. They are what make us what we are. Without skeletons, we would be unable to stand, run, or go shopping. But skeletons unbalanced by flesh are hazardous. Skeletons alone and in excess can kill. To stay healthy, a well-balanced body including a regular variety of tissues is important.
I did not follow this advice and as I result I got...well, boned.