Perdita Westcott
Race: Human
Date of Birth: 20th Ymiden 701
Marks: None
Factions Joined: None
Languages Spoken: Fluent = Common. Broken = Leni
Appearance
Standing at 5ft 6, Perdita is of average height. She tends to take no time with her appearance and so often has ink stains on her hands or, sometimes, her face. She can seem quite distracted, although she is not, she is simply usually not paying attention to the people around her. This is especially true if there are books nearby.
Personality
Things Perdita likes
Books
Libraries
Knowledge
History
Being well-organized
Neatness
Things Perdita dislikes
Noisy people.
Crowds of people.
Wasting time.
Wilful ignorance.
Being disorganized
Untidiness.
History
Place of Birth: Rharne
Parents: Leontes and Hermione Westcott.
Siblings: None.
Background
Born to a couple who were more or less convinced that they could not conceive, Perdita was a miracle to her parents from the moment they realised that Hermoine was expecting a child. The pregnancy progressed smoothly and Perdita was born healthy. Her parents, middle class Rharnian business-people, agreed that Hermoine would stay at home and look after the baby and Leontes would continue to work. This was what happened, her father running a successful tea-house and bakery business, while Perdita grew up. Hermoine, a talented basket-weaver, spent as much time as she could weaving in order to bring extra money into the home. They lived a comfortable, well-appointed life.By the time that Perdita was two, her parents were growing increasingly aware that Perdita was an intense and focused child; as much as she charged ahead on every intellectual milestone, so she lagged behind in all physical ones. She spoke early, walked late. Could count to ten before she seemed interested in crawling, and even then she moved only in order to take herself to the next interesting thing. However, for all that her physical development was in the slower end of the spectrum, her intellectual skills were obvious. Quickly, she picked up speech and went from single-word utterances to putting words together and, of course, to sentences. Reading quickly followed and Hermoine was very aware that her daughter would, if given the chance, spend all the day simply reading or looking at picture-books.
So, she began to make sure that Perdita helped her with the basket-weaving. It was a skill which required manual dexterity and, by chatting with Perdita as they worked, it became something which was part of their routine. They would sit together and talk, Perdita constantly asking questions and wondering why about more or less everything, and Hermoine trying to both teach her the skill of basket-weaving and also to keep up with Perdita's constant chattering.
It set the scene for the next ten years. Perdita devoured all sorts of books, learning many things. She found that she had a love of words which was beyond description and she went happily to school every day. Even when she was ill, she insisted on not missing a lesson, because she loved it there so much. Her parents worried that Perdita had no friends and they were right. However, she loved adult company and would spend many hours sitting in the library, or with her teacher, given the chance. Always, after school, she would go home and sit with her mother, where they would weave baskets and talk. Then when her father arrived, they would eat together and he would share stories of his day. It was from him that she developed her fascination with history.
Leontes was something of a hobby-historian and throughout Perdita's childhood he told her tales of the Immortal Illaren, her enemy Faldrun, of Rharnian history and Sirothelle. When she brought books home, it was with Leontes that she would always sit and read. As she grew in skill, he encouraged her to learn the cursive calligraphy which meant that she could write her own stories, taught her the beginnings of drawing and bookbinding. One day, she promised him, she would make wonderful drawings which were the frontpieces for books she had written and bound herself.
Now approaching her eighteenth birthday, Perdita has decided that she would set out on her own, and become a bookbinder's apprentice. Her plan is to become the Keeper of the Annals of the Rharne, perhaps recording the history of the city and all its factions. Her parents bought her a small house and so, her adventure began.
