Sarah Claire Riverbrook

Appearance: Sarah is extremely dark-skinned with shoulder-length black hair that is well kept although not necessarily well organised, as a result of her not being able to see it in a mirror. She has extremely noticeable light blue cataracts in both eyes, completely obscuring her pupil from view surrounded by dark brown irises; which could look quite odd if not disturbing to those not expecting it. She is a human of plain and unremarkable figure, blessed with no particular beauty nor ugliness; she has however kept herself from degenerating into complete feebleness even though she is no athlete or strongwoman.

Alignment: Lawful Neutral, Good tendencies. Her solid code of conduct is dictated by the Light and she puts it before her own moral compass. Fortunately the two rarely conflict. On the rare occasion, she may act beyond the Light’s ‘law’ if it benefits another. Again, the two rarely conflict anyway.

Psychology: Kind and compassionate, within reason, if a little unapproachable at times. Regardless of her manner in informal conversation, she is uncompromising in nearly all cases even though she speaks to none as if they were below her. She, as much as she regrets it, agrees to address those of a higher rank by their title if they are not brothers or sisters of Light.

Background:

Sarah was the younger of two children that her parents birthed, and yet the only one in the family to be born with cataracts in both eyes. Originally her vision was impaired, but they quickly deteriorated until she could no longer see. Sarah's parents – her mother a magistrate and her father a guardsman – despaired of her progressing anywhere without her sight. To make matters worse, her ten-year-old brother Nathan found his new sister’s eyes to be quite unnerving. Despite these given obstacles, she found her sense of hearing developing incredibly well to compensate.

Although frequently the subject of hilarity for her brother (in that she often crawled and walked into things in her early years) she nonetheless grew to be an intelligent young girl; her linguistic skills were as good as anyone who could read, although she obviously could not write either. This is mostly due to her mother, obviously well acquainted with the finery of language. Despite being as educated as much as was possible, her overall end occupation was still unclear. Being unable to read declined her from many areas of study (as someone couldn’t very well read everything to her all the time) and by the time she was ten, and her brother had left to join the military, she was no closer to a solution.

The suggestion to turn to the Light came at the suggestion of one of her few childhood friends; and she was open to the idea. After all; it was a good life, and one where she could do her own bit of virtuous work regardless of whether she could see or not. She religiously (pun intended) attended the masses and choirs at Alonsus Chapel, often seeking the counsel of resident priest(esse)s before and after. After several months of this, she was inducted into training to join the ranks of the sisters within. Although she proved tenacious and dedicated, she took a very long time to fully master the act of manifesting Light. Sarah was prodigious in learning the academics and meanings where the Light was concerned, she is still not fully able to convert her spoken prayers into healing and blessings.

Almost as soon as her progress looked promising in this manner, she would find herself on the run. The Plague of Undeath had started to creep through the lands, and unbeknownst to her had reached Stratholme. She was attending a service in Light’s Hope Chapel when the news of Arthas’ culling reached her ears. In terror, she fled to safer climes, taking refuge in the town of Southshore, hoping to avoid any blowback from the slaughter. She was shaken and far from courageous enough to return. Also unknown to her, her brother was one of the soldiers following the Crown Prince into the massacre.

Lost in this newly turned-upside-down world, she turned to the Light for her guidance and has looked to it ever since. A loathing of all things unholy was a result, and after years of this approach she found herself seeing little but the Light’s way; the virtues became her idea of the law and she followed them to the letter. With a loathing for all things undead and demonic, she is a dedicated priestess with strong convictions, even if her ability to put her belief into physical action is weak at present. She 'tolerates' Forsaken to a certain extent due to some of them being within the Argent Crusade, but heavily mistrusts them.

Coping with Blindness

Initially, that is during childhood, she didn't. Although her hearing progressed incredibly, she frequently bumped into everything and was unable to learn the fine art of flailing her hands to find a safe route. Her parents tended to guide her. However, as she grew up she began to find her own way. Tapping around with a stick or thoroughly with her hands to find things as to not bump into them and even listening intently as the stick struck a surface. She couldn't tell what they were made of, or their shape, but she could "see" where objects were from the sound of a cane striking close by.

More importantly, although her ability to heal, smite and similar was severely slow to progress she proved adept at being able to sense things; although initially only strongly unholy or holy presences registered, in the present day she can "feel" most people's location, although any given wall between her and that person will have to be found by walking into it, whacking it or listening near it.