Kadri

An unwanted child entrusted to a monk, Kadri's earliest memories were of the stately but spartan halls.  Her monastery was situated upon a mountain populated by a lush forest of blossoming trees.  That same natural beauty kept Kadri's youth busy, for one of her chores involved sweeping fallen leaves from the walkways of meticulously-kept gardens and the smooth floors of training halls.

She was a trainee since infancy, her lessons delivered as parables, mantras, and stories to meditate upon.  Her foundational training was utterly practical; Kadri's physical growth was measured in the number of water buckets she could simultaneously haul up from a spring situated in the foothills.

When she was of age, she was inducted into the more esoteric arts.  Her monastery had honed, over generations of masters, a method of connecting to and infusing a weapon with one's own ki.  Kadri's abilities were assessed and, at the end of a grueling trial, the weapon that chose her was a bow.

But although the venerable monastery began her training, she was not destined to finish it there.  The secluded fortress was swept up in the concerns of the outside world.  An ambitious lord, seeking to rein in the political influence of the ancient temple-orders of his land, laid siege to the mountain.

Kadri's elderly teacher, rather than drag her beloved disciples into the inevitable battle, gathered them in a courtyard and revealed a hidden path of escape.  She commanded them to scatter like petals into the wind, to complete their education by journey.  Only when they believed themselves to be masters were they permitted to return.

Kadri took her mentor's directive to heart, and set out into a world she had only read about.  When the young monk stumbled upon a guild dedicated to exploring a mysterious land beyond a portal, she joined readily.  Perhaps, the challenges of a new world would hone an art she had only begun to learn.