Table of contents for Tales from Ten Taverns
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Oana
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Reca
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Corina
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Elena
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Maria
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Laura
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Diana
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Oana
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Roua
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Valeria
- Tales from Ten Taverns: Rodica
- Outtake: Author’s Notes on Characters
Character Sketches (based on Monday’s Child nursery rhyme) :
Eldest: Laura (Wooden Corner Tavern, Portland)
Age: 28
Personality:
- Saturday’s child (Works hard for a living)
- Ambitious and strong-willed. Wants to get rich, and likes the hustle and bustle of business. Very energetic and busy all the time.
- Strong feminist. Believes that anything a man can do, a woman can do better. Despises men who try to buy sexual favours, and sees no need to be dependent on anyone for her living. Fiercely independent.
- Likes to talk with Rodica, who also shares her views about the roles of men and women, and her affinity for business.
Second eldest: Maria (Happy Spirits Inn & Tavern, White Stone City)
Age: 27
Personality:
- Monday’s child (fair of face)
- Charming socialite. Wants to rise in the social hierarchy and marry a peer of the realm. Trying to upgrade her tavern into a high-class bar for social activities among the elites of White Stone.
- Bright, bubbly and likes to gossip. Makes friends easily, and knows how to use her charm and wit to get what she wants.
- Not given to deep thought about philosophical matters – focused on things she can see and hear right now.
- Likes refined tastes, dislikes common things. However, she has fond memories of growing up with her sisters, so will tolerate anything unrefined about her family for old times’ sake.
Third eldest: Roua (Merry Soul Tavern, Corren Town)
Age: 27
Personality:
- Tuesday’s child (full of grace)
- Quiet and spiritual. Religiously-inclined, devoted to Elandria and Jayden (in that order). Is concerned about the spirituality of her sisters, often wishes they would seek to learn more about the goddesses.
- Believes she has a mission to provide for the needs of the people of Corren Town. Trying to create a safe, comfortable family-friendly environment in her tavern.
- Dislikes conflict and quarrels among people she cares for. Often seen as the wise sister to go to for comfort and advice. Plays mediator and healer of family wounds a lot. Quietly watches over Valeria for Mother Oana.
- Often at odds with Rodica, but feels it’s her duty to love her sister and try to temper her violent nature.
Fourth eldest: Rodica (Morcraven Marshes Tavern)
Age: 26
Personality:
- Thursday’s child (has far to go)
- Wild tomboy when she was young. Grew up with dreams of going on high adventures and being just like the boys, but also came to accept her feminine qualities and use them.
- An earthy, passionate personality, who likes to play rough and have fun without really caring about principles or consequences. Slightly bloodthirsty, and despises cowardice.
- Often at odds with Roua, but feels affectionate towards her anyway. Takes all her sister’s religious philosophising with a laugh and lets it go in one ear and out the other. Fairly sensible at business as well, so often serves as a sounding board for Laura to test her business schemes with.
Middle child: Corina (Grahm’s Village Tavern & Inn)
Age: 26
Personality:
- Wednesday’s child (full of woe)
- Romantic dreamer. Wants someone to sweep her off her feet, wants to get married, wants to have children and be deliriously happy, but finds life to be not as she expected it, and very dull instead.
- Unsure of her place in the world, and suffers from low self-esteem in social situations. Feels like she doesn’t really belong anywhere. Doesn’t realise she’s got a talent for art yet, not having been exposed to it while growing up in Nordcarn.
- Can be envious of other people’s good fortune, and turns bitter when that happens, using cutting sarcasm to bring the person down. She usually apologises afterwards, though.
Fourth youngest: Elena (White Stone Inn and Tavern)
Age: 25
Personality:
- Friday’s child (Loving and giving)
- Humble and quiet. Wants a simple, safe and secure life. Doesn’t have many ambitions, but just goes with the flow and uses the skills she has been taught to earn an adequate living for herself.
- Likes to cater to the common folk of White Stone, unlike Maria. Serves all the tradespeople and the working class of the city, treating everyone equally.
- Self-sacrificial and people-pleasing by nature, so always tends to put others above herself and deny her own needs. Her innocence often leads her into traps and gets her taken advantage of.
- Very close to Corina, who used to play and dream quietly together with her when she was young.
Third youngest: Diana (Lakeside Tavern and Inn)
Age: 24
Personality:
- Sunday’s child (bonny and blithe, good and gay)
- Well-balanced in terms of personality, and has a sweet girlish face with a hint of spice. The “perfect girl-next-door”, so to speak.
- Likes to hear about great adventures and dream of heroes, but not brave enough to pursue them like Rodica did. Instead, she settled for being in a port close to the entryway to the new continent and listening to sailors.
- Friendly and open, feminine and wise. Gets along well with nearly all of her other sisters, especially Maria and Reca. Is sensitive to other people’s feelings, so tries to keep from triggering Corina’s envy.
Second youngest: Reca (Pula’s Tavern, Isla Prima)
Age: 23
Personality:
- Thursday’s child (has far to go)
- Endlessly-fascinated with learning new things and seeking after knowledge. She was a bookworm when she was young, but wanted to find out more about the real world as soon as possible, so tagged along with her elder sisters as they left.
- Is probably the most scientifically and academically-inclined of all the sisters, liking to experiment with new things and concoctions (which occasionally blow up in her face).
Youngest: Valeria (Moonshadow Tavern, Mynadar)
Age: 21
Personality:
- Wednesday’s child (full of woe)
- Rebellious and stubborn by nature. Likes to argue at lot with authority, and often had fights with Mother Oana when growing up. Loves fiercely, but also hates fiercely, and bears grudges with a vengeance.
- Gets along very well with dwarves, being similar in nature to them. Is interested in dwarven mythology and culture, but refused to stay in Nordcarn with Mother Oana after everyone left, so ran away to Mynadar instead. (Under the discreet watchful eyes of Roua, of course).
- Loves and listens to Roua a lot, as she helps soothe Valeria’s turbulent nature, and shares a common interest in mythology.
Parental Guardian: Oana (Nordcarn Tavern)
Age: 152
Personality:
- Friday’s child (loving and giving)
- Old-fashioned spinster dwarf. Lives by the dwarfish principles of good hard work, discipline, respect for traditional authority and duty to help those in need.
- Adopted the 9 girls to raise by herself for close to 15 years after the orphanage they were in burned down and killed their Matron. Taught them all how to earn a living through tavern-keeping.
- Tends to feel emotions strongly, but is embarrassed to talk about it, so will bury her feelings and suffer in silence until someone else brings it up.
