Moira's Backstory v1.0

[First, the mechanical 18 questions, plus 3 connections to NPCs, since I used to do the 10-Minute background a lot and did it reflexively. Also, this is subject to minor tweaks before we start.]

Connections
+ Arden Lerod. Moira had broken into his home to burgle, but due to piss-poor planning (hide under his wagon, wait until night, grab anything not nailed down, then run), he was awake at the time. They bumped into each other in his study, with Moira's arms full of rare reagents and materials. After a tense minute of silence with each of them looking at each other, broken only by Moira's stomach rumbling, he offered her a meal and that she could leave safely, though she wouldn't be allowed to take anything she'd stolen. She agreed, and a week later came back, offering a small pile of 'magic-y looking things' that 'fell off the back of a cart' for another meal. He refused to take them, but opened up his door to the occasional visit from her.

- Annabelle Greenfield, her mother. After Moira ran away, Annabelle was publicly shamed for A. having hidden that the child was inhuman in nature and B. having let her run off. She did her best to spin it though, blaming Moira for 'corrupting her pure mind' and 'harboring impure spirits' in her home. While she's still an outcast for the first point, she's managed to vindicate herself on the second. The town as a whole has been turned against beastfolk, with a particular hatred for Moira and, to a lesser extent, other tieflings, all led by Annabelle. Needless to say, Moira isn't welcome back, not that she had plans to go back anyway.

+ Father Anderson, local leader of the Church of the Shining Dawn. While Moira still doesn't like to interact with people if she can avoid it, Father Anderson has made it a point of order that it is his job to interact with her and make sure she's alright. While he doesn't exactly approve of her thievery, he appreciates that she at least keeps it to necessities and puts any funds to use, rather than simply hoarding everything. He's offered her a room at the church (makeshift, using an empty storage room) that she uses mostly for storage, not wanting to feel indebted to him. He makes it a point to ambush her for a long conversation about how things are going at least once a week though.

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What's their name? Do they have any nicknames?
Moira Greenfield, and she never uses her last name if she can help it.

How old are they chronologically, and how old do they appear?
She's just under 20 years old, and looks it, most guesses putting her age at late teens to early 20s

Physical characteristics, standard clothing and equipment
Moira is slim, has swept-back horns and a tail, reddish skin with tattoos on the right side, and amber eyes. She usually wears loose clothing with lots of pockets, her tail usually grabbing things for her while she talks with someone and tucking them somewhere. She recently started carrying a few daggers, for both throwing and shanking, after an attempted mugging on her

Secondary characteristics - accent, tone of voice, mannerisms, ticks etc
Moira prays before eating, regardless of the meal. It does need to be a proper meal though, not just a snack. She has a very slight accent that puts her as not-quite-cityfolk, but it's hard to notice, and she works to hide it. "The Southern slips out", so to speak. Her tail is almost constantly in motion, waving slowly in the air or grabbing at nearby items. She's also left handed, though she's yet to receive trouble for such.

Emotional characteristics - are they prone to getting angry/laid back/investigative/despondent etc, personal prejudices?
She keeps her head down, preferring to avoid confrontation, especially given how she was raised. She tends to want to know what's going on with a situation before she'll cooperate, though she feels this is perfectly reasonable. She'll ask why she's being arrested before submitting, for instance, though she'll just as likely run if she knows she's guilty.

How do their emotional characteristics affect how they interact with people/groups?
If possible, she doesn't. Though in the five years she's been on her own, she's learned that sometimes it's a good idea to work with others, or at the very least keep good relations with them.

Alignment, motivation and character flaws/needs
True Neutral. She just wants to be left alone while she figures out what the hell to do with herself. She understands the purpose of the law, but had trouble with how some parts can be easily misinterpreted. Similarly, she wants to be a good person, but recognizes that you can't help others if you're dead.

What were the defining moments/events from their history?
The first time she tried to sneak out, her mother beat her nearly unconscious and tied her to her bed. She still has a scar at the base of her tail from the rope. Beyond that, there's her leaving her home, and the

What do they most fear?
Moira jumps a little at the sound of hollow iron clanging together (90% of the time, she'll be fine in a fight, unless the Barrel Armored Kingdom starts chestbumping), as it reminds her of her mother digging through the kitchen for something to hit her with. Her deepest fear is her mother though, and she still has the occasional nightmare.

Do they have any secrets? Who have they told, if anyone?
Moira keeps her family secret from everyone she can, avoiding any questioning about it either by flat out refusing to answer or changing the subject.

Where are they from? Do they have relevant cultural associations/quirks? How patriotic & nationalistic are they?
She's from a no-name farm community a day from Macclesfield, and has no desire to return. She's even a bit upset that she even carries the accent with her. She's dropped every quick she can manage though, wanting as little to do with it as possible.

What was their childhood like?
Shit.

Who are their parents & siblings, and husband/wife/significant other?
Her mother is a farmgirl, and her father is an adventurer. There's a chance she has half-siblings via her dad's sexcapades

Status of immediate family (including any children) and friends - alive/dead/missing
She and her mother are on lynching terms at best. There's a 50/50 chance her father is alive, the alternative being that his corpse is sitting in some dungeon or cave somewhere. Half siblings, if any, she doesn't really care about if they're from her dad's side. If her mom had a second child, she'd likely want to get them out of there.

What's their profession and hobbies?
Officially, Moira's unemployed, and gets along well enough by 're-acquisition' that she sees no need to be. She'll occasionally help out at the church, and when she first arrived in Macclesfield she did a bit of work for an inn/tavern. She has a hobby of people watching, usually from a rooftop while eating, and she's taken to doing her own tattoos. The first few (later covered up by others) were more for appearance than anything else, though she's recently started a pattern of adding another piece to the long pattern on her body every time she finds out something she 'isn't'. Failed jobs, being shunned from doing something, whatever the reason, whenever she can safely say something isn't part of her identity, she adds another piece. The only tattoos not part of this pattern are on her wrist. One functions as a cutoff, keeping the other separate from the rest of her markings. The other tattoo itself is the symbol of the Church of the Shining Dawn on the underside of her right wrist.

Do they have a religious affiliation, and if so what is it and how strong?
Moira is deeply religious, following the Church of the Shining Dawn, though due to social anxiety, she doesn't attend services formally. Rather, she eavesdrops and follows along. She says prayers before meals, and keeps a holy symbol of the church on her at all times.

What are their major personal beliefs/ideologies?
Her beliefs are a mixture of the spiritualism she was raised on and the teachings of the Church of the Shining Dawn. She's incredibly forgiving, especially knowing that people can simply not know the world works any other way. She has a soft spot for kids, usually slipping them some spare fruit if no one's looking.

Do they have favourite foods/drinks?
She's a big fan of apples, with other fruit coming in second, meat in third, grains in fourth, and vegetables in a distant last. Drinkwise, she tends to avoid alcohol, though she will drink it without issue.

Why are they here, specifically? What are they looking to get out of the adventure?
She's hoping to get a sense of identity for herself. According to her mother and that community, she's a monster. According to the guards, she's a nuisance and a criminal. According to Arden Lerod, she's a good friend and has useful skills. According to Father Anderson, she's confused, and she'll actually agree with that one. She still wants a definition for herself though.

[And now, the backstory]

Annabelle Greenfield was the perfect model of the perfect daughter in a small no-name farm community about a day away from Macclesfield. She never spoke back, went to their weekly worships (spirits, both local and ancestral), and even led the choir and volunteered to help the pastor. So naturally, when she became pregnant (shortly after an adventuring party passed through town), everyone presumed it to be a miracle. Certainly, no good little girl like Annabelle would have had extramarital relations. Everyone was expecting the child to be some great messiah, or at least divine in origin given the 'virgin' birth that would happen. But Annabelle knew what had really happened, and that guilt twisted just enough influence around her child that Moira came out not looking like a savior. Over the next 14 years, Annabelle kept Moira as tightly hidden as she could, keeping her wrapped up to hide her less-than-human features, and keeping her indoors unless she went to worship, and even then it was body covering clothing regardless of the weather. And for the most part, it worked. No one suspected Moira was anything but a frail little girl who couldn't go outside for long.

Moira herself, however, hated the whole arrangement. She could see other kids outside playing, people wearing clothes that left more than just their faces exposed. She'd tried sneaking out several times, only to be met with her mother staring her down and ready to beat her with a pan, spoon, or some other wide, heavy object. For 10 years, ever since she was old enough to be aware of her differences, she wanted out. Then, when she was 14, she'd finally had it. She grabbed what little she had, tied it up on her back, and let her tail out as she made her way downstairs. Her mother, naturally, was furious, demanding the young woman march back to her room and put some proper clothing on. Moira ignored her, kept walking, and her mother's screaming kept rising, drawing more and more attention to the house. Eventually, one of the farm workers broke the door down. The whole town of about 50 people was able to see Moira standing opposite her mother, Moira with her tail and horns showing for the first time, both women stunned into silence. Moira was the first to move, grabbing her bag and heading out the front door, horns and tail on full display as she passed by, quickly making her way out of town while everyone was busy with her mother.

She made her way along the road, not much caring where she ended up, only that it was away. Eventually, after a day and a half on foot, she made it to Macclesfield, and promptly ran into some of the problems of being a teenager from a small community that only rarely interacted with the outside world. For one, she had effectively no money. Two, she was starving. The diet she'd been fed back home was barely enough to keep her going, and most certainly not enough to healthily fuel a 36 hour journey. She stumbled her way to the nearest smell of food, a bakery, and bought what she could before messily devouring it on the spot. With her hunger problem solved, she had to find a solution to her next issue, which was that she was completely broke, and 14 year old tieflings raised in insular communities weren't exactly in demand. To her credit, she did try to find honest work at first, asking around and eventually finding a job as a barmaid for a dingy tavern. That lasted maybe 8 months before she quit due to constantly having to fend off rowdy patrons and being fed up with not quite enough pay to enjoy life.

After the inn, she tried a few other jobs, each one not working out for one reason or another. Sometimes it was that she wasn't able to do what was needed, others she simply realized it wasn't for her. After a year and a half of poking around, she finally accepted that the only reliable source of income she'd had was thieving and the occasional gift from the church. She'd met Father Anderson in one of her many long nights, and he'd taken pity on the girl. Or just believed in his church that much. Either one, really. He gave Moira a semi-permanent home (read: cot in the attic), and she agreed to leave the church alone from her activities. With time, she eventually started eavesdropping in on sermons, and slowly worked her way up to a full conversion, tattooing the symbol of the Church of the Shining Dawn on her wrist as one of the few things she knew she got right.

It's been five years since Moira left that no-name farming community, and not once has she looked back. She's even starting to enjoy her high-risk lifestyle, though the few friends she's made are a bit worried about that. It's been a good year since her last tattoo, and she's finally starting to smile with some regularity.