Milady

Milady is a hero in Arcanium.

"When King Auric suggested she hone her skills in the Arcanium for the strength and glory of Everia, she happily agreed. After all, she always did love a good duel."

Description
From the official site: Milady never knew her parents. She grew up as a stray kitten in the streets of Everia’s capital city, Vangaard, surviving solely on her feline speed and agility.

She spent her kittenhood nameless until the day she stumbled into the leg of a huge lion clad in steel armor. He was an Ironmayne paladin, part of the ruling clan of Everia, yet he immediately apologized to her with a fervent, “Excuse me, my lady.”

No one had treated her with such grace and respect before in her life. It had been her fault for running into him, but he didn’t strike her or get angry. Ironmaynes were very different from the ferocious strays she grew up with.

Pouncing across rooftops and spying from alleyways, she paid close attention to the mannerisms and natural movements of every noble she could find—especially the Ironmaynes. She learned to move like them, speak like them, and even fight like them. Nobles often participated in sporting duels with rapiers, which was far from from the street fighting Milady knew.

She saved up for a rapier of her own and began dueling other strays, sometimes for fun and sometimes for real, quickly learning how to use her weapon to its full potential. Yet she was still a stray. She could never be an Ironmayne, but perhaps she could be a Dawnbringer paladin if she could only prove her skill.

Finally she saw her chance. The Ironmaynes put on an annual dueling tournament, and while the reward was enough to make Milady as wealthy as many nobles, she was more interested in proving herself to the Ironmaynes. After all, King Auric Ironmayne himself would be overseeing the tournament.

By using her skills at mimicking noble behavior, Milady masqueraded as a noble from a lesser-known house and signed up for the tournament. She watched as many duels as she could throughout the tourney in order to learn her opponents’ movement patterns. Then, when it came her turn to fight, she handily won every duel.

Everyone was shocked to see this unknown cat dodge and parry every attack the nobles sent her way. Her speed and ferocity was unrivaled, even among animals much larger and fiercer than her. But one duelist didn’t believe this scrappy young cat was a noble at all.

A fox named Cranberry observed Milady as she climbed the ranks of the tournament. He knew she would soon face him for the final duel, and so sent his subordinates to learn who she really was. They soon found the noble family Milady claimed to be from, but this family had no daughter to speak of.

Right before the final duel, Cranberry presented his findings to King Auric. He argued that since Milady lied about her identity and faked her nobility, she should be disqualified. But Auric, impressed with Milady’s skill, said that if she was such a worthless stray then she ought to be easy to beat. The final duel would go on.

Cranberry used every dirty trick he knew, but Milady had been fighting against dirty street fighters her whole life. At long last, she dodged all of Cranberry’s tricks and struck him three times with her dueling rapier, winning the tournament.

King Auric had never seen such skill before—not even among the Order of the Dawnbringers. Though Milady requested she be allowed to join the paladins of Everia, King Auric had a better idea. He would have Milady join the Royal Guard, where she would be defending the most famous Ironmaynes of all: the Everian royal family.

Milady has since learned to enjoy the luxuries of nobility, all while maintaining her discipline and skill in combat. She treats the royal children like the younger siblings she never had, and would lay down her life for them if it came to it.

When King Auric suggested she hone her skills in the Arcanium for the strength and glory of Everia, she happily agreed. After all, she always did love a good duel.