Diesa Bearsbane

Diesa Berasbane was a notable warrior, thief, hunter and accountant, and one of the founding members of The Church of the Lady. She was the only female Lord of the Lady and one of the most loyal to Marth.

Early Life
Born into slavery, Diesa was bought shortly after birth by one of the trainers for the gladitorial arena. Quite large for her age (for a dwarf) she excelled in combat, winning her first fight at age 11. She did not lead a bad life for a slave, and the wife of her owner even taught her to read. She had enough skill and popularity that she could probably gain sufficient popularity to earn her freedom and she was content with her life. However, when she was 18, she met an old slave-woman who cleaned the training area for the fighters. She befriended the woman, who regaled her with tales of the outside world, of its size and variety and peace. For months she told DIeasa of her time before she was a slave and eventually Diesa decided to escape. The old woman told her of a rarely enforced law where a fighter could choose to fight to the death, with freedom as the ultimate prize. No fighters knew of the rule, so it never came up. Diesa told her master of her intentions, who was shicked, but forced to comply as it was technically the law. However, deciding it would set a bad precident if any fighter could win thier freedom, the overseers arranged that she would fight unarmed against a fully grown Dire Bear. Miraculously she was able to slay the beast and so win her freedom and earn her namesake. Following her release she wandered aimlessly, knowing very little about the outside world. By chance she wandered north into the drgonborn lands. Those were times of constant warfare between the dragonborn tribes, and seeing that the violence and brutality of the gladiator bouts was as prevalent in the outside world, she became dissolusioned. Eventually she found herself in the city of Soddah, where she would have her fateful meeting with Marth Herenyonnen.

Life in Soddah and Meeting with Marth
While in Soddah Diesa mostly found work as a bouncer and mob enforcer. It was here that she met the young Marth. They quickly became friends and she taught him many of the card games she had learnt in her years as a slave (cards being one of the few luxuries given to gladiators) starting his lifelong gambling obsession. After the destruction of Soddah she joined Marth's group heading out of the city, protecting it from Goblin raids on the perilous journey to Ashkelon. She was the first to see Marth after he emerged from the Lady's temple and it is said that the Lady spoke to her directly to protect Marth. Deciding that she had found a noble use for her talents she vowed to serve Marth from that day forward.

The Church of the Lady
She was one of the main enforcers of the Church in its early days after it became established in Ashkelon. She handled much of the Church's early dirty buisness and introduced both Guumbar Frent and Retyn Perlufo to Marth, both of whom would become invaluable to the church's early survival.While she had little personal affection for Percaya Huseg, Marth's right hand man, they shared a mutual respect and shared control of the church following Marth's dissapearence. However, following their expullsion from Ashkelon she became dissilusioned and turned away from the church. Along with Guumbar and Meric the Tall, an old comrade of Marth's, they took control of the church's substantial criminal network and grew it even further. It was during this time that the church first had dealings with Guile Schmidt, though they were smart enough to keep him at an arms distance. Following Marth's return the criminal aspect was integrated back into the church and Diesa and Meric were welcomed back (Guumbar having died in a bar fight over the rules to a card game). Diesa continued to serve Marth and the church's criminal intrests, though after Marth's return she left most of the really dirty buisness to Meric.